The very moment their two eyes met in the mirrored bit of out-held
water, Borla's reflected eye flashed in alarm as he realized what she
had done, and he started with an astonished grunt as if he had been
cursed to within an inch of his life, and jerked his head back as if
kicked by a horse.
"Agh!" he cried out. "What vile sorcery?!..."
Si'Wren quickly raised the cupped water to her lips as if she had only
been drinking it, so as to avoid the risk of offending Emperor
Euphrates with the possible idea that she had been casting an evil eye.
Emperor Euphrates seemed to be staring at Borla as if he had suddenly
got a burr in his sandal or something, and Borla, unwilling to stoop so
low as to risk being mocked over some empty accusation, said nothing.
Then, as if thinking better of it, he negligently spat in the dirt at
Si'Wren's feet as if she were not the deliberate but only the
unintentional target, trading water for water and giving reply to her
in such manner as befitted the imagined curse.
Si'Wren stepped back, afraid of political ruin should Borla find the
right words to vent his anger upon her. One might as easily have
glimpsed the reflection of the sun in any common lily pond, or even a
mud puddle. It would only have shown forth all the more clearly, the
beautiful symbolism of an Invisible God who created all things, and was
above all things.
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