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Chapter Twenty-four. The World Beyond |
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A few months before I am to leave Wakching, I decide to employ the services of the soothsayer Limnia to learn more of the nature of her prophecies. So that she shall not be upset by an unaccustomed task, I take Shankok with me to help formulate the questions. He tells me I should take, as is the custom, a little rice for Limnia, and on entering the house, I must scatter a few grains, unnoticed, on the floor. |
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Towards evening we climb down through the labyrinth of narrow streets to Limnia's house. She lives with her second husband and five children, the youngest scarcely a year old, and seems just like any other middle-aged Wakching woman. Shankok tells her that I have heard of her fame, and now I have come to (207) her because I want her to prophesy for me. I want to know if fate will grant me a safe and peaceful return journey to my own country, if all my relations are living and in good health, and lastly -- which to Shankok is the most important of all -- whether I shall soon find a wife. Limnia listens calmly and without saying : much. She only remarks that she will have great difficulty in reaching a land so far distant as mine. |
