The gold rays of the setting sun seem molten in the marsh mists and burn on the canals. Groves and plantations are blue-green or shadowed. Crags and cliffs are colored. The sky is royal blue.
Cold wind whitters. A waterfall roars. Hoofs clop. Harnesses creak and jingle. Hugh McCormac rides with his sons before waging war against the Empire.
I have tried to summarize Poul Anderson's sensory descriptions. That misty marsh is a salt marsh but I don't suppose that the wind carries the taste of salt?
When Virgil sets, stars become visible, including "...the frosty bridge of the Milky Way." (p. 424) And see here. The outer moon, Lavinia, silvers the dead sea bottom. A tadmouse pipes.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Except Hugh McCormac was not quite waging war against the Empire as such--he was starting a civil war, to unlawfully attempt taking it over.
Sean
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