Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card Page B

marble and obsidian were the walls and floor and ceiling of the Chamber of Answers, and there the Flower Princess chose to wear her ring on the middle finger of the left hand, but high on the finger, to promise fecundity and faithfulness; and lo, of all miracles, Palicrovol also wore his ring on the middle finger of his right hand, high on the finger, to promise worship and unwavering loyalty. The watching hundreds cheered.
    And then an imperious woman walked out onto the floor, leading a grotesque black dwarf on a golden chain, and Enziquelvinisensee Evelvenin turned to face the woman, and the wedding was broken at that moment.
    T HE U SER U SED
    â€œI see,” said the strange woman.
    The dwarf piped up in a strange little song.
    Ugly Bugly, Mercy Me,
    You are not as fair as she.
    Palicrovol spoke from behind the Flower Princess. “Who are you? How did you get into the palace?”
    â€œWho am I, Urubugala?” asked the strange woman.
    â€œThis lady is Beauty, the greatest of all the gods,” said the dwarf. “First she chained the Hart at the root of the world. Then she captured the Sweet Sisters and trapped them into such comical bodies. Then she bent God and imprisoned him. And at last she came home to poor Sleeve, and undid him, undid him, undid him.”
    â€œSleeve,” said Palicrovol. “Came home to Sleeve.”
    â€œDo you know me, Palicrovol?” asked the strange woman.
    â€œAsineth,” he whispered.
    â€œIf you call me by that name, you do not know me yet,” she said. Then she turned to the Flower Princess. “So you are what he loves best in all the world. I can see that you are beautiful.”
    Again the dwarf chanted in his strange voice.
    Beauty is fair, Beauty is fair,
    But Beauty chose the wrong body to wear.
    â€œI can see that you are beautiful,” said the stranger, “and so it is only fitting that Beauty should have that face and form.”
    Enziquelvinisensee saw the woman change before her eyes, into a face that she knew and did not know. Knew because it was her own face. Did not know because it was not mirrored, as the Flower Princess had always seen it, but exactly as others had seen it. “This is what others have seen in me,” she whispered.
    â€œDo you worship?” asked Beauty. “Am I not perfect, Flower Princess?”
    But Enziquelvinisensee Evelvinin had taken a vow to tell only the truth, and she had none of her women beside her to lie for her, and so she destroyed herself by saying, “No, Lady. For you have filled my eyes with hate and triumph, and I have never felt such things in all my life.”
    Beauty’s perfect nostrils flared a bit with rage, and then she smiled and said, “That is because you have lacked the proper teachers. So let me teach you, Flower Princess, as I was taught.”
    The Flower Princess did not feel a change, but she saw the watching people look at her and gasp and turn away. She was afraid of what had been done to her, and spun on her toes to face her husband, gracious Palicrovol, who loved her. But Palicrovol, too, was revolted at what he saw, and stepped back from her. It was only a moment, and then he came to her again, and held her close to him, but in that moment Enziquelvinisensee Evelvinin knew the truth: Palicrovol thought of her beauty as part of herself, just as everyone else did; he did not know her without her face. Yet she was comforted that he still embraced her, and that he spoke with courage against Beauty.
    â€œDid you think I could be so easily deceived, Asineth?” he asked. “You may startle me, but my heart belongs to another heart, not to a face.”
    Beauty only smiled again. Suddenly the Flower Princess felt Palicrovol take her brutally by the waist and throw her from him onto the floor. She looked up at him in horror, and saw the anguish of his face as he cried out to her, “It wasn’t I!” Then, though he tried to speak, he