And from that time onward, the newly shaped ritual of the Ring Dive was enshrined for use in time of Chiara's need
Thirty years later, near the end of Saronte's long reign, in one of the recurring squabbles for precedence among the Triad's clergy, a newly anointed High Priest of Eanna revealed that Letizia had been near kin to Mellidar, the priest of Morian who had drawn her from the water and bound her to the DukeEanna's priest invited the people of the Island to draw their own conclusions about the schemes of Morian's clergy and their endless striving for preeminence and power
A number of events, none of them pleasant, had unfolded among the Triad's servants in the months following that revelation, but none of these disturbances had come near to touching the bright new sanctity of the ritual itselfThe ceremony had taken hold on the imagination of the peopleIt seemed to speak to something deep within them, whether of sacrifice or homage, of love or danger, or, in the end, of some dark, true binding to the waters of the sea
So the Ring Dive of the Grand Dukes remained, long after all those feuding clergy of the Triad had been lowered to their rest, their names only half-remembered, and only because of their part http://www.snluxury.com/categorys_82_Speedmaster_1.html" target="_blank in the story of the Dive
What had finally brought an end to the ceremony, in much more recent times, was the death of Onestra, wife to Grand Duke Cazal, two hundred and fifty years ago
It was not, by any means, the first such death: the women who volunteered to dive for the Grand Dukes always had it made absolutely clear to them that their lives were worth infinitely less than the ring they sought to reclaim from the seaTo come back without the ring left one an exile from the Island for life, known and mocked throughout the whole peninsulaThe ceremony was repeated with another woman, another ring, until one of the thrown rings was found and claimed
By contrast, the woman who carried a sea-ring back to the pier was acclaimed as the luck of Chiara and her fortune was made for lifeWealth and honor, an arranged marriage into nobilityMore than one had borne a child to her Grand DukeTwo had followed Letizia to the consort's throneGirls from families of little prospect were not chary about risking their lives for such a glittering, hallucinatory future
Onestra di Chiara had been different, and because of her and after her everything had changed
Beautiful as a legend and as proud, Grand Duke Cazal's young bride had insisted http://www.snluxury.com/categorys_11_Necklace-Pendants_1.html" target="_blank on doing the Ring Dive herself, scorning to allocate such a glittering ceremony to some ill-bred creature from the distrada on the eve of a dangerous warShe had been, all the chroniclers of the day agreed, the most beautiful vision any of them had ever seen as she walked down to the sea in the dark-green of ritual
When she floated, lifeless, to the surface of the water some distance from the shore, in full sight of the watching throng, Duke Cazal had screamed like a girl and fainted dead away
After which there had been rioting and a terrified pandemonium unmatched before or since on the IslandIn one isolated temple of Adaon on the north shore, all the priestesses had killed themselves when one of their number brought back the newsIt was the wrath of the god that was coming, so the portents were read, and Chiara almost strangled on its fear
Duke Cazal, foolhardy and broken, was slain in battle that summer against the joined armies of Corte and Ferraut, after which Chiara endured two generations of eclipse, rising to power again only after the bitter, destructive war fought between the erstwhile allies who had beaten itSuch a process, of course, was hardly noteworthyIt had been the way of things in the Palm as far http://www.ooluxury.com/scategory_2_Chanel.html" target="_blank back as the records went
But no woman had done the Ring Dive since Onestra died
All the symbols had changed with her, the stakes had risen too highIf another woman were to die in the Dive, with that legacy of chaos and defeat
It was far too dangerous, successive Grand Dukes declared, the one after the other, and they found ways to keep the Island safe in its sea-girt power without the sanction of that most potent ceremony
When the Ygrathen fleet had been sighted nineteen years ago the last Grand Duke of Chiara had killed himself on the steps of Eanna's temple, and so there had been no one to cast a ring into the sea that year, even had there been a woman willing to dive for it, in search of Morian's intercession and the god's
It was eerily silent in the saishan when she and Scelto left her roomsNormally at this hour the corridors would be loud with the stir and bustle of the castrates, fragrant and colorful with the scented presence of women moving languorously to the baths or to their morning mealThe hallways were empty and still save for their own footstepsDianora suppressed a shiver, so strange did the deserted, echoing saishan seem
They passed the doorway to the baths and then the entrance to the dining http://www.culuxury.com/scategory_7_Gucci.html" target="_blank roomsBoth were empty and silentThey turned a corner toward the stairway that led down and out of the women's wing, and there Dianora saw that one person at least had remained, and was waiting for them
"Let me look at you," Vencel said, the usual words"I must approve you before you go down
The saishan head was sprawled as always among the many-colored pillows of his rolling platformDianora almost smiled to see his vast bulk, and to hear the familiar words spoken
"Of course," she said, and slowly turned full circle before his scrutiny
"Acceptable," he said at lengthThe customary judgment, though his high distinctive voice sounded more subdued than she had ever heard itperhaps you would like to wear that vairstone from Khardhun about your throat? For luck? I brought it with me for you, from the saishan treasures
Almost diffidently Vencel extended a large soft hand and she saw that he was holding the red jewel she had worn the day Isolla of Ygrath had tried to kill the King
She was about to demur when she remembered that Scelto had brought this back for her as something special for that day, just before she had dressed to go downRemembering that, and moved by Vence's gesture, she said, "Thank youI would be pleased to wear http://www.enluxury.com/categorys_102_Gucci-Lastet-Collection_1.html" target="_blank it