Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress - Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress Part 2
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Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress Part 2

That helped a lot, reflected Anna, before answering. "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of Mencha, or Defalk, and I don't know the name of your world."

"It is the world, the earth," answered the brunette. "Some of the sorcerers call it Erde."

"Erde," mused Anna. Germanic, but the two didn't look especially Teutonic.

"Except for the worlds of the mist," added Daffyd, "it be the only world."

The only world? Anna felt flushed. "Might I have something to drink? It's been a long trip."

Again, the two exchanged glances, as if Anna had said something profoundly stupid, and she wanted to scream. That would have made matters worse; it always did. Then Jenny bowed slightly, turned, and walked through the opening in. the wall to what might have been a kitchen, although all Anna saw was what seemed to be a brick stove and a table with a bench on one side.

Her legs felt stiff, and Anna looked for a place to sit. There were two short benches and a higher stool.

Daffyd kept looking at her as if she were not quite real, the way her new students did after she'd done a recital, as if they couldn't believe that she could sing, really sing.

Bother it! Anna stepped away from the unused hearth toward the stool. She set her purse on the dusty plank floor and quickly folded the raincoat over the rough wooden stool, hoping that the trench coat would shield the gown from any splinters. As she sat, her nose twitched from the dust in the hot room, and she rubbed it gently, almost afraid to sneeze.

Jenny returned across the dusty plank floors, a brown earthenware mug in her hands. She extended the handleless mug to Anna. "Here, lady."

"Thank you." Anna stared at the water in the mug. It looked clean.

"I spell my water clean," offered Jenny. "Most folks can't, you know, and they won't pay to get it done."

Spelling water clean? What sort of place was this Erde- like a medieval pigsty? "Thank you." Anna sipped the lukewarm water, then drank the mug down to the bottom. She'd been thirstier than she'd realized.

The two continued to study her intently, as if looking for some sort of sign.

"Why did you bring me here?" Anna reached down and lifted the green leather purse into her lap, rummaging through it for a handkerchief. She used the rumpled cloth to blot her damp forehead gently. The room was hot, hotter than the Colonial, and she had the feeling that it was even hotter outside. She looked down at the purse. The leather around the metal clasps was browned, as if it had been scorched or burned. She didn't recall that, but she'd grabbed the purse in a hurry.

Daffyd looked down at the dusty planks.

"Daffyd needs a sorceress from out of the mists," Jenny finally volunteered.

"A sorceress? You can't be serious." A sorceress? They thought Anna was a sorceress? What sort of nuthouse was this?

"You have to be a sorceress. Jenny couldn't have brought you if you weren't," stammered the youth with the short and ragged black hair.

"Why do you need a sorceress?" Anna had trouble believing she was behaving so rationally.

Or was it irrational to talk sensibly in a lunat ic situation?

Daffyd and Jenny exchanged glances.

"Well?"

"Lord Brill.. . he turned my da into red dust because he hummed during a wall-raising. He said Da ruined the spell, and that was why the gate was crooked, but Da never hummed in tunes. It was just an excuse."

Anna moistened her lips. The more she heard, the worse it got. "What sort of wall?" Another rational-sounding question that made no sense.

"It was a whole fort-stone and brick. They'll finish the roof later. You can't handle wooden roof beams with sorcery, not unless you go to strong darksong, and that's dangerous, even for a sorcerer like Brill."

"They say he does a lot of darksong when no one's around," Jenny added. "Liende plays for him then."

Daffyd looked at Jenny. "That can't be."

"I know what I know."

Anna's eyes flicked from one to the other. Both felt they were telling the truth-that was her feeling, and that meant something was wrong, very wrong. "Why is that a problem, Daffyd?"

Her voice was as calm as if she were teaching her musical-theatre class, and that was wrong, too, because the more questions she asked, the fewer got answered.

"Liende wouldn't do that. She wouldn't."

"I know what I know," affirmed Jenny.

"Stop it!" snapped Anna. "Daffyd, you still haven't told me why you wanted a sorceress. You haven't said why it's important enough to summon one from far away. You haven't told me exactly how far this world is from mine. You seem to be why I'm here. I'd like some answers."

She licked her dry lips. "Try to make them clear."

"Go ahead, Daffyd. It be your idea."

The young man looked at the plank floor, then at Jenny, then back to the floor. His eyes did not rise to meet Anna's.

"I wanted you to turn Lord Brill into red dust, like he turned Da into dust."

Keep to the point, Anna told herself, whatever the point is. ''How?''

"With sorcery, acourse."

"You say I have to be a sorceress," ventured Anna, pausing. The room was small and hot.

"Why?"

"The spell called for a sorceress, and you're here. Spells work, or they don't. It worked. That means you're a sorceress."

Confused as she felt, even Anna could follow that logic, and she held in a shiver. Wonderful!

She was either dead, dying, hallucinating, or truly in another world or time where they thought she was a sorceress. Anna pursed her lips. She didn't like any of the choices. And she'd thought Ames after Irenia' s death had been bad. I can handle this, she told herself silently. I can handle this.

"Daffyd spelled for .a strong sorceress," Jenny added. "You must be very strong."

"Could I have another cup of water?" Anna asked, wondering what she was supposed to do next. A strong sorceress who didn't even know what sorcery was? She didn't know whether to cry or laugh, or just break down and sob.

I can handle this, she repeated, whatever this is.

5.

MENCHA, DEFALK.

A single chord ending in a discordant minor reverberates from the silver harp that stands on the pedestal in the middle of the marble basin.

"What now?" The resonant baritone voice is far more impressive than the slender and balding man who speaks. Circles ring his brown-flecked green eyes as he walks to the harp. His eyes drop to the ripples that disrupt the image in the silvered surface-that of a blonde woman in a brown cloak.

"I did not do it, Lord Brill, sir. Not me." The youth in the short blue tunic backs toward the narrow door through which he has just hurried.

"You could not have done this, Gero." Brill's eyes study the vanishing image, taking in the green gown that shows from under the blonde woman's cloak, the rough-walled cottage-and the brown-haired songstress.

"Jenny. . . oh, Jenny..." His eyes flick to the fading black-haired figure in the corner.

"Daffyd... well, we'll just have to do something about this. Yes, we will."

Gero backs up until he shivers silently in the arch of the doorway.

"The cloak," Brill murmurs, then reaches for the harp and strums it gently.

"Hold this image in my sight.

Keep it fresh; keep it bright"

He replaces the harp and watches for a time as the image in the mirrored water sharpens and as the woman removes the strange cloak with arms to display the magnificent green gown she wears. She also carries a large leather wallet that looks to be of green leather that matches the gown.

Brill frowns once more as the blonde woman sits on the stool and apparently begins to question Daffyd and Jenny.

After a time, he speaks. "Gero. Have my carriage made ready. I will need two guards."

"Yes, ser."

"You doubt that two will be enough?" Amusement etches the resonant tones.

"No, ser. But. .. is it not. . . not. .

"Dangerous to try to cross the mist barriers? Very-she could have been burned. She should have been burned. Those two innocent idiots have not the faintest image of what they have done.

But she is here, and we will see."

"Yes, ser."

Brill's eyes drop back to the images in the mirror pond.

6.

Anna tried not to sigh after she took another swallow from the earthenware mug. "Let's get back to the point. Why couldn't you have found a sorceress here on... Erde, is it?''

Daffyd looked down at the planks again, just like a student who hadn't learned his music. Instead of answering her, he glanced at Jenny. "A mirror peek at Brill's hall?" His voice was almost plaintive.

Jenny glared at Daffyd, but he just looked back dumbly, his big dark eyes wide and imploring.

After what seemed an interminable silence, Jenny cleared her throat. "If you would not mind...

lady..

"Anna. No, I would not mind." Maybe, just maybe, whatever Jenny did would shed some light on what these people called sorcery.

"Daffyd? The looking song?"

Daffyd turned slowly and lifted the viola out from its case. Then came the bow, and he lifted the instrument to his shoulder and tucked it under his chin. Then he stroked the bow across the strings.

Jenny turned toward the mirror and cleared her throat, then lifted her hand, and gave a rough tempo, then dropped the hand.

Daffyd began to play, and Jenny to sing.

"Mirror, mirror on my wall, Show now me the Lord Brill's hall. Show it bright, and show it fast, and make that strong view well last."

The mirror shimmered, then filled with colors.

Anna swallowed and looked at the scene in the wall mirror. A blue carriage rolled through a gate in a tall stone wall, pulled by four black horses. The gates looked to be of heavy timbers, and there were turrets or guard towers on each side of the wall above the gate.

Sorcery-was it just the combination of words, song, and accompaniment? Just? Anna almost laughed. Jenny's words, simple as they had sounded, had been perfectly pitched and matched to Daffyd's equally simple melody. She doubted that many undergraduate students could have done that well, and that didn't take into account the words.

"There be Lord Brill's carriage on its way here, no doubt," Jenny said dryly.

"Here?" Anna asked.

"He has a magic pool that tells him everything," Daffyd said glumly, closing the viola and bow up in the canvas case. "We had best leave. You can go to my sister Dalila's in Synope. Lord Brill can't leave Mencha until Lord Barjim's fort is done," Daffyd said hurriedly.

"Why would I want to go to Synope?" Anna glanced from Daffyd to Jenny. "By the way, where is Synope?"

''You have to "I'd like to know why," Anna persisted. Once again, it felt like all the people around her were making the decisions.

"You just have to."

"Why?"

Daffyd looked to Jenny.

"You asked for a strong sorceress," Jenny said.