Read Online Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card - Free Book Online

fell mute, but the Flower Princess had heard enough to understand. It was Beauty, it was Asineth who had used his arms to hurl her away.
    â€œLie on the floor, Weasel,” said Beauty. “Lie on the floor, and see what your husband does when he finds a virgin body to despoil. Your body, Weasel. Too bad you won’t be wearing it when your fine new husband takes his pleasure.”
    At first Palicrovol moved jerkily, as Beauty learned to control his body. It cost her more power than anything else she did, to battle the King for control of his flesh and win—it was the rarest of the powerful acts she did. But she was clever, and soon learned to overmaster him. Then his body moved smoothly, and others forgot that Palicrovol did not act of his own free will. But the Flower Princess, now named Weasel, she knew truth as no other knew it, for her lips had never spoken a lie, and she remembered easily that Palicrovol acted with another will. Beauty had power, but not wisdom yet. At that time she was still a child, and thought vengeance would come at the price of a cheap and easy show.
    So Palicrovol’s hands cut the clothing from Beauty’s body, which was the body of the Flower Princess. And Palicrovol, act for act, ravished her as he had ravished Asineth two years before. Only this time he did not disdain her attempt at seductiveness. Now when the body of the Flower Princess moved so subtly for him, he cried out with the pleasure of it. Now when his arms lifted his body from her, he moaned in protest. Let it not be over, cried his flesh. Let it not finish. And as long as he looked at her naked before him, as long as he remembered the pleasure that her body and her power had given him, his body again and again convulsed in pleasure; even after his seed was spent, even after the pleasure had turned to agony, he writhed against the impossibility of having her, the memory of having her, the longing to have her forever.
    â€œKill her!” he cried, but his guards had long since fled.
    â€œHelp me,” he whispered to Urubugala, but the dwarf only said a little rhyme:
    In the morning
    Heed no warning.
    In the night,
    No respite.
    â€œWeasel,” said Queen Beauty, “you know how I was served. Tell me—is my vengeance just?”
    â€œYou were wronged,” said the Flower Princess.
    â€œIs my vengeance just?”
    â€œYou are just to take vengeance.”
    â€œBut is my vengeance just?” Beauty smiled like the blessing of a saint.
    â€œOnly if you avenge yourself on those who harmed you, and only if your vengeance is equal to the wrong done you.”
    â€œCome now, I heard I could count on Weasel Sootmouth to tell the truth. I ask you a fourth time—am I just?”
    â€œNo,” said the Flower Princess.
    â€œGood,” said Beauty. “I was unjustly treated, and unless my vengeance is monstrously unjust I won’t be satisfied.”
    â€œI’m the one who wronged you,” Palicrovol said. “Take your vengeance on me.”
    â€œBut don’t you see, Palicrovol, that it is part of my vengeance on you, that you know your woman and your friends suffer unjustly for your sake?”
    Palicrovol bowed his head in helplessness.
    â€œLook at me, Palicrovol,” said Beauty.
    Against his will he looked up and convulsed again in passion for her.
    â€œHere is my vengeance. I will not kill you, Palicrovol. I despise you even more than you despised me when I was weak. You may keep your army—as many as you want. Fill the world with your armies and bring them against me—I will vanquish them with a thought. You may keep your Antler Crown—I need no crown to rule here. You may govern all of Burland outside this city—I can overrule you any time I please. You will send me tribute, but not so much that it will harm the people—I do not have my father’s greed. I will not undo your laws or your works. This city will still be called