Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 20

was vague and half-legendary, like all man's history. Certainly since the
coming of the Shing and the downfall of the League, the scattered
community of man had mistrusted trust and used the spoken word. A free
man can speak freely, but a slave or fugitive must be able to hide truth and
lie. So Falk had learned in Zove's House, and soВ it was that he had had
little practice in the attunement of minds. But he tried now to bespeak
Parth so she would know he was not lying: "Believe me, Parth, I will come
back to you!"
But she wouldn't hear. "No, I won't mindspeak," she said aloud.
"Then you're keeping your thoughts from me."
"Yes, I am. Why should I give you my grief? What's the good of
truth? If you had lied to me yesterday, I'd still believe that you were only
going to Ransifel and would be back home in a tennight. Then I'd still have
ten days and nights. Now I have nothing left, not a day, not an hour. It's all
taken, all over. What good is truth?"
"Faith, will you wait for me one year?"
"No."
"Only a year—"
"A year and a day, and you'll return riding a silver steed to carry me to
your kingdom and make me its queen. No, I won't wait for you, Falk. Why
must I wait for a man who will be lying dead in the forest, or shot by
Wanderers out on the prairie, or brainless in the City of the Shing, or gone
off a hundred years to another star? What should I wait for? You needn't
think I'll take another man. I won't. I'll stay here in my father's house. I'll
dye black thread and weave black cloth to wear, black to wear and black to
die in. But I won't wait for anyone, or anything. Never."
"I had no right to ask you," he said with the humility of pain—and she
cried, "O Falk, I don't reproach you!"
They were sitting together on the slight slope above the Long Field.
Goats and sheep grazed over the mile of fenced pasture between them and
the forest. Yearling colts pranced and tagged around the shaggy mares. A
gray November wind blew.
Their hands lay together. Parth touched the gold ring on his left hand.
"A ring is a thing given," she said. "Sometimes I've thought, have you?
~ 18 ~