There was a breathless hush then, in a piled-up calamity of possible wishes, wise and foolish, thick as the fallen leaves. But Pyetr said, “Sasha,” strolled over, kissed his eldest daughter on the forehead, then set a heavy hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye, thinking, as if he had only chanced upon the thought—You did something, friend. Didn’t you? Like the damn teacup? The jug that won’t empty? Eveshka thinks so.
“Pyetr, forgive me, I’m—”
“—sorry?” Pyetr shook him gently. He heard a laughter in Pyetr’s voice this morning, a youthfulness that could have no patience with slow-moving wizards and their deliberations. “—Does the teacup care? It’s lasted this long: it might last longer. Who knows?—Who ever knows? Dare we even mention my seeing grandchildren?”
By C. J. Cherryh
Published by Ballantine Books:
RUSALKA
CHERNEVOG
YVGENIE
THE GOBLIN MIRROR
Copyright
Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as “unsold or destroyed” and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.
A Del Rey Book
Published by Ballantine Books
Copyright © 1991 by C. J. Cherryh
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copy-right Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-91909
ISBN 0-345-37943-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Hardcover Edition: November 1991
First Mass Market Edition: November 1992