[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.She could even close her eyes, pretend everything was all right.The other part of her knew that it wouldn’t make a difference; she couldn’t keep her eyes closed forever.“Clary,” Jocelyn said at last, very softly.“I am so sorry.” Clary stared down at her hands.She was, she realized, still holding Patrick Penhallow’s stele.She hoped he didn’t think she’d meant to steal it.“I never thought I’d see this place again,” Jocelyn went on.Clary stole a sideways glance at her mother and saw that she was looking out over the city, at the demon towers castingCreate PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) their pale whitish light over the skyline.“I dreamed about it sometimes.I even wanted to paint it, to paint my memories of it, but I couldn’t do that.I thought if you ever saw the paintings, you might ask questions, might wonder how those images had ever come into my head.I was so frightened you’d find out where I was really from.Who I really was.”“And now I have.”“And now you have.” Jocelyn sounded wistful.“And you have every reason to hate me.”“I don’t hate you, Mom,” Clary said.“I just…”“Don’t trust me,” said Jocelyn.“I can’t blame you.I should have told you the truth.” She touched Clary’s shoulder lightly and seemed encouraged when Clary didn’t move away.“I can tell you I did it to protect you, but I know how that must sound.I was there, just now, in the Hall, watching you—”“You were there?” Clary was startled.“I didn’t see you.”“I was in the very back of the Hall.Luke had told me not to come to the meeting, that my presence would just upset everyone and throw everything off, and he was probably right, but I so badly wanted to be there.I slipped in after the meeting started and hid in the shadows.But I was there.And I just wanted to tell you—”“That I made a fool out of myself?” Clary said bitterly.“I already know that.”“No.I wanted to tell you that I was proud of you.” Clary slewed around to look at her mother.“You were?” Jocelyn nodded.“Of course I was.The way you stood up in front of the Clave like that.The way you showed them what you could do.You made them look at you and see the person they loved most in the world, didn’t you?”“Yeah,” Clary said.“How did you know?”“Because I heard them all calling out different names,” Jocelyn said softly.“But I still saw you.”“Oh.” Clary looked down at her feet.“Well, I’m still not sure they believe me about the runes.I mean, I hope so, but—”“Can I see it?” Jocelyn asked.“See what?”“The rune.The one that you created to bind Shadowhunters and Downworlders.” She hesitated.“If you can’t show me…”“No, it’s all right.” With the stele Clary traced the lines of the rune the angel had showed her across the marble of the Accords Hall step, and they blazed up in hot gold lines as she drew.It was a strong rune, a map of curving lines overlapping a matrix of straight ones.Simple and complex at the same time.Clary knew now why it had seemed somehow unfinished to her when she had visualized it before: It needed a matching rune to make it work.A twin.A partner.“Alliance,” she said, drawing the stele back.“That’s what I’m calling it.”Jocelyn watched silently as the rune flared and faded, leaving faint black lines on the stone.“When I was a young woman,” she said finally, “I fought so hard to bind Downworlders and Shadowhunters together, to protect the Accords.I thought I was chasing a sort of dream—something most Shadowhunters could hardly imagine.And now you’ve made it concrete and literal and real.” She blinked hard.“I realized something, watching you there in the Hall.You know, all these years I’ve tried to protect you by hiding you away.It’s why I hated you going to Pandemonium.I knew it was a place where Downworlders andCreate PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) mundanes mingled—and that that meant there would be Shadowhunters there.I imagined it was something in your blood that drew you to the place, something that recognized the shadow world even without your Sight.I thought you would be safe if only I could keep that world hidden from you.I never thought about trying to protect you by helping you to be strong and to fight.” She sounded sad.“But somehow you got to be strong anyway.Strong enough for me to tell you the truth, if you still want to hear it.”“I don’t know.” Clary thought of the images the angel had showed her, how terrible they had been.“I know I was angry with you for lying.But I’m not sure I want to find out any more horrible things.”“I talked to Luke.He thought you should know what I have to tell you.The whole story.All of it.Things I’ve never told anyone, never told him, even.I can’t promise you that the whole truth is pleasant.But it is the truth.”The Law is hard, but it is the Law.She owed it to Jace to find out the truth as much as she owed it to herself.Clary tightened her grip on the stele in her hand, her knuckles whitening.“I want to know everything.”“Everything…” Jocelyn took a deep breath.“I don’t even know where to start.”“How about starting with how you could marry Valentine? How you could have married a man like that, made him my father—he’s a monster.”“No.He’s a man.He’s not a good man.But if you want to know why I married him, it was because I loved him.”“You can’t have,” Clary said.“Nobody could.”“I was your age when I fell in love with him,” Jocelyn said
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]