“Alegria wanted to sit with me, but I refused her. “Are you sure I can’t do something … make you feel a little better? Any way I can?” I shook my head. Eventually dawn came. Alegria tiptoed into the room, started to say something, then went back out. I forced myself to bathe, shave, and put on fresh clothes. I was trying to decide what to do when a messenger arrived from the embassy. There’d been a signal from Nicias. The emperor approved my plan, and told me to proceed at once. His message was ...full of praise for me, which seemed the cruelest sort of sneering. • • • The meeting with King Bairan was very odd. There was the king, Ligaba Sala, Boconnoc, myself, and the secretary. I had my maps and charts on easels and spoke easily, most familiar with my ideas. But it was as if I were standing or, better, floating above myself, just watching. I smiled, made mild clevernesses at the right time, but felt nothing. My idea, laboriously worked out, was to combine the Wild Country and the Border Lands into a single administrative region.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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