“Do you know,” he said slowly, absently tracing the pattern of the markings, “there has been debate here among the college of astronomers about Ptolomaia’s use of the equant point. Of course many claim that if planets move with varying speeds, then the heavens do not move in a uniform motion, as we know they must. But without the equant point, then truly we cannot account for all the movements of the planets in the heavens.”
“Unless Ptolomaia is wrong, and the Earth isn’t stationary.”
Stunned, he stared at her while the lamp flame hissed and a breeze off the parapet rustled through the papers scattered over the table.
She went on, made rash by the dreamlike quality of their meeting, by his surprise, by a fierce recklessness overtaking her, here where she could speak freely the forbidden words known to the mathematici. “What if the heavens are at rest and it is Earth which revolves from west to east?”
He leaned down, both hands on the table, shutting his eyes as he considered. “West to east,” he murmured. “That would create the same effect. Or if both the heavens and the Earth moved, one from east to west and the other from west to east.” He trailed off, too caught up in the puzzle to finish, gripped by the same passion for knowledge that had always held her in thrall.
Had she misjudged him? Had his humiliation at Anne’s hands caused him to look into his heart, deep waters indeed, and transform what he found there? How could she have felt that silken touch winding through her body as a chain and fetter, when it was what had brought her here in time to see, and to aid, the change that would make Hugh over into a new person, her heart’s desire?
A door thumped gently against the wall as the breeze caught it. The lamp flame flared up boldly, illuminating him. Wind kissed her face. He was so inadvertently close to her, eyes closed, expression almost innocent, if the desire for knowledge can ever be innocent. He smelled faintly of the scent of vineflower and cypress. This close, she felt the heat of his body, no less potent than the yearning in her heart. Was that her heart pounding? Was this what she had been looking for all along? Someone with the same passion, the same questioning, unquiet mind?
Was it her hand lifting to touch his chest, where his heart beat most strongly? Was it she who leaned closer, into him, and brushed his cheek with her lips?
He opened his lips in a soundless sigh. Turning to her, seeking, he kissed her even as she kissed him. In a moment they stood together, so close that like the aetherical daimones who mingle sometimes in ecstasy they seemed to melt one into the other, as if their bodies could actually interpenetrate and become one in truth, a union so complete that no earthly intimacy could rival the depth of their sharing.
“Ai, Liath.” He murmured her name as a caress as the lamp blazed behind him, making him shine.