In The East. Maria Pia Oelker

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СКАЧАТЬ a courtier, absolutely not contemplated by any court protocol and, therefore, no one could prevent the boy from placing two kisses on the bearded cheeks of the king, who did not know what to do for a moment before masking his embarrassment with a strong laugh.

      " You are a born conqueror " he joked with his son " but a little too wild to be a prince. I will have to take care of your education more.”

      At that moment, he noticed the hostile glances the teacher had been throwing for quite a while and thought it fitting to correct his wording a little:

      " You have a good tutor, boy, and I hope he's strict with you; but once I am at the castle, I want to be the only one to provide for your education as a future king.”

      The teacher nodded in reassurance.

      " Father – the child intruded – Are you forgetting that I was not born to reign? I know that I have two older brothers.”

      "This issue does not concern you at the moment," the king replied dryly.

      " Don't get mad, father, but becoming king is not what I care about. It is enough for me to stay with my mother and the others in this castle and be free to go to the sea or to ride up to the mountains or see the city.”

      " And your father? What would you think if I took you to live with me at the court?”

      The prince paled visibly and did not know what to answer in order not to offend him, but at the same time wishing to defend his freedom.

      " So?”

      " I'd be happy, but ...”

      " When the king expresses a wish, it is not up to you to reply, but " the teacher rebuked him severely, reassured in his authority and ready to resume his job, according to his irreplaceable judgment, in the life of the boy, who still needed guidance and character molding.

      The king silenced him with a gentle but firm gesture of the head.

      "I'm waiting for your answer, but if you'd rather think about it, I can have it later," he said with unusual patience.

      " Father, I am happy when you are here and now that you have allowed me to stay longer with you, but ... " again he broke off, turning even more pale.

      " They are already two buts" the king observed, mocking him " I better not hear a third one.”

      " I don't want to leave my mother to come to your court. I want to have my kingdom here" he concluded then in one breath, without looking at the sovereign.

      "Anything you want " the king consented softly " but I hope that in a few years you will reconsider. And with your mother's consent, if she told you she was happy about it, would you only go to the city court for a few days?”

      " If it pleases you, just because it pleases you, yes.”

      " Very well. We will come back to this subject again. Now have your mother give you those books.”

      The queen took the child by the hand and led him to a corner of the library and spoke to him at length, softly, before handing him two or three large volumes. The king saw the prince shake his head a couple of times as a sign of denial and then he thought he saw in his eyes traces of tears pushed back by force, but he never knew what his mother had said to his son, although he could try to imagine it ... ..

      The prince still remembered those evenings spent in his father's rooms like an infinite spell. The king read to him for hours those incredible stories of ancient travelers who had explored the world, meeting mysterious people, sometimes amusing but more often disturbing, and strange fables that Antonia had never told him and that confused him a little with all those unusual characters and unknown cities with fascinating names, and adventures of famous heroes and knights…. His mother had been right to say that there were so many amazing books in the library ...

      Not only, however, did father and son read and looked at astonishing figures, but they also talked for a long time and the father showed the child the treasures hidden in his rooms and taught him the game of chess and explained to him the mysteries of the stars, which they looked it from the windows together .

      And during the day he would reveal the secrets of the wild animals and the birds that populated the forest and ...

      The prince's memories were so many that when they began to flow into his mind, pouring out of the unconscious where they usually were buried, they were like a flood. They overwhelmed everything and he was no longer able to stop them nor the emotions that came with them and that were even stronger now than when he had felt them for the first time, because they are invariably accompanied by the regret of not having the possibility to repeat those unforgettable experiences.

      When he was very young he saw his father as an all-powerful and overbearing being, who could not be disobeyed and was capable of punishing in a terrible way those who dared to contradict him; but now, he also remembered a very different father, the father he got to know in that and in many other memorable hunting seasons ...

      The king then began to discover, every day and every night more and more, that his son contained within him at the same time the poetic spirit of his mother and his own restlessness, curiosity, and strong independence

      Once, to say the truth, he had thought that this last characteristic was only his and alien instead to the queen, so submissive and ready to fulfill every wish of his even before it was expressed; now he realized, and precisely through the child, that she was indeed much stronger and more determined than he had ever believed.

      The thing was a bit disturbing, to tell the truth, for someone like him who had been accustomed to consider himself superior and almost infallible, but also pleasant if for a moment he stopped to reflect that, if the queen's choices had always been free, so was the submission to her lord! This filled him with proud satisfaction and made him feel like a god.

      One evening the prince had brought to his father a small book, covered with a simple red leather cover, very smooth and without those complicated ornaments that adorned the other volumes of the library and when he had confessed to him that he had never seen it, the boy had whispered , with a knowing air: "I had noticed it a few days ago and asked my mother what it was, because there was no title and she had blushed a little and had taken it from me a little too quickly, saying that it was nothing important and not suitable for me. But then he forgot it again on the table today and I took it secretly. Tell me, father, do you think it's an adventure book?”

      The king had begun to leaf through it with growing interest and for a few minutes he had seemed absent, caught up in his thoughts, forgetting the presence of his son.

      "So, father? Will you read it for me?”

      "No," he said dryly.

      "Why not?”

      "It belongs to your mother: you have to ask her.”

      "I thought the library was just yours.”

      "I thought so too, but it wasn't. Your mother has taken care of the books in all these years when I left it closed and neglected and take care of it, and now it belongs more to her than to me. And this particular book is especially hers; I can't read it without your consent.”

      "I see; I'll ask her tomorrow and she won't say no.”

      "Don't be sure," his father СКАЧАТЬ