Cap. 4 - Portrait of family -
Garma had accompanied the friend near the room door that had been prepared to the third floor, where there were the rooms for the guests and he had begged him to participate in the rite of the dinner; they were granted therefore, to see later around a couple of hours again, the time to make a bath, to change themselves of suit and to undo the baggages.
Char had closed the door. He removed the jacket and threw him on the bed crossing the arms under the nape.
He thought and considered to that day, a two departed years in the Academy, and to be born of his good friendship with the smaller child of the Zabi's family.
Smiled mischievous when he reflected on Garma: it dealt with a very kind and extremely generous boy, of good nature and sensible… a simpleton. So different from all his relatives: of Degwin preserved a sad and bad memory, of Gihren, not having also had the possibility to see him personally, he knew for thread and for sign of him the thought and the dangerousness, Dozle was principal teacher and his instructor of academy and rough and merciless, but deprived soldier of whatever strategic dowry held him, while Kycilia…
Difficult to express a negative judgment on that girl, thought with disappointment Char.
she had impressed him: her unshakable safety and the absolute shrewdness dissimulated by cold mastery of the expressions, the acute intelligence and the logical rigor. Excellent mind, thought the young one.
Shortly after been surprised to reflect on Kycilia, as woman. It was not able certain to affirm that it was a classical beauty and the princess, tried however, everything to hide her femininity. Her slender figure, her forms well you turn, even if concealed by the long and austere suit, the aristocratic face and the penetrating eyes, could not prevent to judge her to him of an unusual charm.
You lifted of release from the bed and he chased of hit every other type of eccentric speculation on that theme. He had noticed, also in that room, a delicious and comforting piece of furniture cafe and he thought about looking for a fresh drink before making himself a refreshing shower.
Garma, after having accompanied Char, was sheltered in his room. It was this, the only room furnished in predominantly ethnic style, with pieces coming from different parts of the Earth, expensive and very original. The tatami was surmounted by a coloured futon and also the shining black writing desk was in Japanese style. The curtains, to read and transparent, from the rich and warm Arabic cromatures a, vaguely differentiated him from the heavy double Venetian draperies, imposed in the other rooms.
The boy hoped in his heart that the friend was found to his ease in the austere fatherly residence, but he didn't worry him so much about this because he knew the great adaptation ability of Char. They were met only to the beginning of the second year of course to the Zion Academy of and he had not been difficult to tighten friendship.
Char was different from the other companions, all motivated young people and inebriated by the war spirit that pervaded the new generations kind those aristocrats, that sun for class and economic possibility, was acknowledged to attend the academy. The other companions had been too much kind since with him, and it could not be otherwise, treating the smaller child and more loved by Degwin; then, Garma thought that, a lot of the attentions and hurries that he received, derived from pure interest. Char had been the only one to never have shown the least reverential fear in his comparisons, he had always treated him from fellow soldier and often as a smaller brother, giving him suggestions of study and other and without favoring rather the ideas of Garma succeeding in showing in many cases, how much his point of view was more correct. Besides it was a true dragon the military matters and the best student in the trainings. Shortly he had become his idol, it recognized in Char, also without wanting to admit it to himself, of the qualities that he didn't possess and he would have appreciated to have.
It was happy to have invited him and to be able to introduce him to his complicated and dangerous family.
Kycilia was absorbed in her comfortable bathtub, surrounded by iridescent and perfumed beads of soap. In a first moment, she had thrown on the thick mane, to avoid to bathe herself the hair and to lose more than a hour to dry them, had washed only after all them the preceding day they was perfectly cleaned. Only for an instant she tried the instinct to wash them again and to try that product French, with the delicate roses fragrance, that one friend had given her one month before and that her had, actually to then refused to use.
She desisted, considering it foolish and frivolous and lifted, with vigour, the soft and heavy head of hair to avoid whatever temptation.
While lukewarm water gently wound and slender physicist lazily relaxed her among the soft and fluffy foam, Kycilia considered the return to house of Garma and his strange companion.
Enigmatic, she judged him. He had oddly struck certainly his bright intelligence and the elevated cultural level, the definite and sure ways that underlined the education aristocratic receipt and the knowledge of patrician environments however. If she didn't succeed in understanding what it tied that interesting boy to his smaller brother…
It was a curious matter…
And then…
She had to admit that, aesthetically, he was also considerable. Although she was alien from whatever frivolous and childish speculation on the attractiveness of the men and she didn't hold touched by the due adolescent palpitations to senseless infatuations, she could not deny to find indeed scheming and appreciable also the external aspect of Char.
"And' only an objective evaluation" she said among herself to be reassured,"nothing of personnel! ".
It quickly opened the faucet of the cold water, making to flow along the amber skin of her smooth back, to become distracted and, perhaps, to drown that unusual thoughts.
When it finished the bath she wound in a soft cloth sponges cobalt and she left you finally free her magnificent hair. She looked at the mirror without excessively delaying and it entered definite in the bodoire that was found in the back of the bath. Its personal parlor was perhaps the only more female place of its lodgings; that nobody was authorized to enter; only Maria, in the rare cases whose Kycilia had been ill, had entered for helping to dress her.
Kycilia sat on the comfortable blue satin armchair , in front of the mirror in liberty style, edged by the thousand many coloured little flower of porcelain and she began to brush the hair. Before getting up, she allowed to fall the winding cloth that sponges on the floor and, without any suit, she with boldness toward the personal wardrobe She had mentally discarded already to wear the formal suits that usually used for supper: elegant and enough stereotyped pants models in silk fitted tightly and shirt in dark shade. It looked for something alternative.
That was a special occasion, she thought, they had to celebrate the return of the smaller brother at the end of the second year of Academy.
Waiting for to approach near the saloon to dine, Dozle and his consort Zenna, stopped in an ample room of the fourth floor, where the lodgings of the family were found, that acted from bedroom of the general when it was still bachelor and that the consorts used to use during the visits prolonged near the fatherly house.
After the marriage Zenna had asked to the husband to move to a residence of country, more suitable to her demands and distant from the frantic life of the Capital. Some unwillingly Dozle had satisfied her.
The physical contrast among the two was the first thing that impressed, of impact, whoever saw together them. The mastodontic and thick man, from the taurine neck that a threatening and unpleasant face supported, to do threatening and with thundering and rough voice, it aroused maximum respect if not even fear.
The slender and refined, thread-like and delicate woman, with her hair colour wheat, the kind face and the sweet eyes, disappeared behind the massive structure of her husband.
Beyond the enormous differences, it was impossible, knowing them to fund, not to notice the love that tied them. Certainly she was a mild and devoted woman, but Dozle sincerely preserved for the beautiful wife, the whole veneration and the affection of a man in love.
The beginnings of the year were married to, after an enough long engagement to be confirmed the perfect equilibrium and the compensation among the two.
The Dozle room was, in the limits of the respect of the rules and the tastes of Gihren, the most sober.
In the antechamber, Zenna sat on the little couch, in simple brown fabric, before to a table in cherry, on which a teapot was staid.
- Tonight we will have also numerous guests to supper? - said softly the woman pouring the tea in the cups and providing to add the sugar according to the preferences of each.
Dozle nervously walked for the room behind the woman. He wore the inevitable military uniform with the showy degrees sharpened on the breast.
I imagine that we will have some officials of the Greater State with which Gihren wants to discuss and the banker Morris… -
To hear the name of this last Zenna started
- Reynard Morris? -
- Yes - he answered dry to her husband
- But Mr Morris, one esteemed person, has not expressed never likings for your family! And' for this that you feel yourself nervous, dear? - Zenna turned her tender look toward that mountain of man.
- I don't know as Gihren has succeeded in convincing that to be obstinate to come from us to supper. Strange fact is that he has always supported Deykun and he has been his great friend, but unfortunately he detests the Zabis holding them usurpers…; I don't have to like to sit to table with him… -
- However now you will have to like to take a seat here, close to me, to drink your tea that becomes cold! - it said Zenna taking among her own delicate hands the solid and enormous hand of his husband.
Dozle sat him favoring the application of his wife and takings cup of tea without too conviction; the thought of Morris to supper, gnawed him and he was not a good dissembler.
- Some that Gihren is a big manipulator…! – he said among the teeth
- But…. - continued Zenna with a pinch of malice - Mr. Morris has immense wealths! And I believe that this aspect interest your brother, a lot, for the Zion cause … -
Dozle stuck out him thoughtful to kiss on the cheek the beautiful Zenna and seemed lifted
- You are my adorable and intelligent wife dear -
He thought about the great fortune that had had marrying that stupendous woman.
The Building of Government still appeared more stately and appalling to the dusk. Á. the inside an absolute silence: the offices to that time were closed and all the employees had gone away.
Also the room of the throne was empty. The Prince Degwin Zabi had returned to the Family Residence accompanied by his escort and by a pair of officers invited to supper.
Only the room to the last floor, second only in the room of the throne for greatness and ampleness, had the turned on lights hidden to the outside from a heavy drapery of violet velvet.
Sat behind the huge and imposing managerial desk, sat a man from the grizzled and short hair, the ample front and the thin and sharp face.
He wrote, assembled, something on a sheet ivory with small and precise handwriting, using a Mont-blanc in gold elegantly stylized surmounted by a diamond.
Standing, to the side of the long desk, rigid and stiff in her officer uniform, there was a woman with blonde hair with amber reflexes, harvest in a perfect toupette from which didn't escape a hair. The girl could be about 20 years old, she had among the hands a grey container documents. Her model physicist was betrayed only by a rather prosperous breast hidden, with difficulty, in the uniform on which was engraved in red the coat of arms of the Principality. She didn't beat eyelash and it didn't say a word, it attended orders from his excellent superior.
The man leaned him with elegance to the back in dark skin of his armchair and looked at his small pocket clock.
- They are already the 7 of the afternoon Cecilia, it is late, you would have had to warn me! -
The girl blushed and lost some her composure turning toward the man, without daring to look him fixed in the eyes
- Heighness, forgives me, I am been deeply sorry but I didn't want to disturb You while You was working -
- Good girl - exclaimed with a sarcastic and pleased smile Gihren Zabi, the greatest son of Degwin
- There will be tonight an important diner to Building Zabi - he continued with ringing voice putting to knowledge her personal secretary of the nominatives listed on the list of the guests that personally took care of.
- I have to tell her Majesty, Princess Ilaria?-said timid the girl.
Gihren looked at her/it grim
I would prefer to annoy me to death rather than to bring my wife!-said glacial
The girl felt better, she betrayed her emotion with a timid smile
You can also come Cecilia - continued Gihren - after all, everybody know that you are my trusted secretary.
Cecilia seemed to appreciate the reflection of his superior and risked a question to low eyes
I have to wear the uniform for dinner? -
Gihren looked her from head to toe with severity; the girl was very tall but he almost reached the two meters
It'n not the debutantes dance ! -
Cecilia caught fire for the embarrassment and the clear and perfect skin of her cheeks became of a turned on red
- I again apologize Heighness! -
The man stopped him in front of Cecilia preserving an austere and elegant gait in his rich uniform that put in prominence his slander and lanky musculature; a painted sneer on the mouth. With one of his hands with long fingers, visibly not accustomed to jobs of work, he lifted the chin of the girl.
- This is job Cecilia, here we are to the Building of Government and tonight we will be to dinner in the Zabi Residence - he always referred to his family in formal way and used gladly the plural majestatis - to never confuse your private life with the duties! - continued Gihren
- I have learned the lesson Your Majesty - the girl said serious opening her wide aquamarine eyes toward the surly man who observed her, pleased.