Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress - Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress Part 68
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Spellsong - The Soprano Sorceress Part 68

"Lady Anna, I got two buckets." As he stepped into her room, his eyes went to the green gown hanging from the wall pegs. "Oh, that be beautiful!" Skent struggled in with two large buckets of water, which he set on the stone floor beside the wash table. "These be as clean as I could get.

And I have to go because Virkan says all the pages have to get the big dining hall ready."

"Thank you." Anna paused. "Ready for what?"

"There's a big dinner planned for the night after tomorrow night. Virkan said it was a victory dinner." Skent brushed his longish dark hair back off his forehead. "Cens told me that you destroyed the Ebrans all alone." The page lowered his voice. "Is that so?"

"I had some help from Daffyd-and Spirda, and captain Alvar, and overcaptain Hanfor,"

Anna said.

"But you did most of it?"

The sorceress nodded reluctantly.

"I don't understand-" Skent stopped, almost embarrassed.

"Understand what?"

"Oh, nothing, lady. I guess I do." Skent glanced at the floor. "I needs must be going."

"You mean why Lord Behlem gets the victory dinner?" Anna laughed. "Isn't that always the way it goes?"

"Lord Barjim was fairer." Skent's eyes do not meet Anna's.

"He probably was. He seemed straightforward. I liked Lady Alasia, too."

"She kept Jimbob trued to the stone." Skent's eyes drifted toward the door, and he added, "I will be late."

"Go ahead. I won't tell anyone you told me about the dinner. It was supposed to be a secret, wasn't it?"

"You.. . thank you." Skent flashed a grin of relief and edged toward the door.

So she wasn't supposed to know about the dinner. What else wasn't she supposed to know?

After unpacking the saddlebags and stacking them in the corner-the tower room lacked closets, the closest thing being the wall pegs and hangers that were sufficient only for her two gowns-Anna looked at her smudged visage in the wall mirror. Lord, she was a mess.

Thunk!

Now what? Anna resignedly walked to the door and opened it. "Lady Essan..."

"Might an old woman trouble a young sorceress for a moment?"

Anna had trouble not grinning, and stood aside as Essan swept into the room wearing her purple trousers and a light purple shirt. Anna shut the door and turned.

"You have obviously been undertaking items of a less than lady like nature." There was a twinkle in Essan's eyes. "Otherwise, the liedburg-the staff, I mean-for proper people would not stoop to such gossip-would not be buzzing so about the blonde sorceress. To think that your burying all those awful Ebrans in mud deprived the Prophet of a glorious victory, and that you did not fall to your knees and beg forgiveness. Well," mock-huffed Essan, "I am but an old woman, but you mark my words, there will be trouble, not that anyone listens to an old has-been who rattles around the distant north tower and only listens to what the pages and maids say."

Essan settled herself into one of the chairs.

"People will talk," Anna agreed, sitting down across from the older woman.

"And Nelmor, Gatrune must have told you about him, he was kind enough to send his boy Tiersen as a messenger. You know, Nelmor's daughter Ytrude, she is the water's own image of Gatrune. Tiersen, I was talking of him, he said that his father-that's Nelmor, and he has holdings at Dubaria-why Nelmor said that he was a dutiful lord and pledged to the Prophet, seeing as how Lord Behlem held the liedstadt. Tiersen told me his sire hoped someday that Defalk could be proud again, and, imagine this, that he would even rather see a woman or a stranger who had laid his life on the sword's sharp edge for Defalk than one who claimed his power by lineage or by consortship." Essan shook her head. "Imagine that, the widow of Lord Donjim being told such. And a widow who had pledged to Lord Barjim."

"Imagine that," echoed Anna, her mouth dry.

"There be others that feel that way, too. Strange times, Lady Anna, these be most strange times." The older woman's eyes grinned behind the somber facade. "Then, too, they have been inspecting the towers. Some folks, servitors of the Lady Cyndyth, I would imagine, peered through every room, like as not so she can reorganize it all. Changes everywhere. They even took my poor Garreth, not even telling me for what, just that the Lady Cyndyth needed her, and I have not seen her since." Essan's eyes were cold, but she continued. "I would be hoping that they would not turn out an old lady, or worse, but who have I to turn to? I came down the stairs soon as I heard you are returned, and I prattle on, and you have not even had a chance to prepare yourself for all that will come with the victory."

Anna wanted to wince at the slight hardening in Essan's last words, but she only nodded.

Clearly, these walls had ears, or the lady thought they did, as did Skent. "I've enjoyed your company, and your insights from the beginning, Lady Essan, even if I am a stranger and a woman. I do feel for the land, and it was hard for me when I saw the destruction from the river."

She bowed her head momentarily. "I had not thought... about all that has befallen you, the widow of a great lord, and I feel blessed that you have shared your thoughts with me." How could she get across what she was trying to say without giving it totally away?

"I must leave you to. . . whatever.., whatever sorceresses do." Lady Essan rose, her face blank, and Anna knew she had to say more, somehow, even as she stood.

"My children, you know, are far, far away," Anna began, "but I understand, and perhaps I can act as your daughter, as you would have her act now." Anna smiled. "But you'll have to keep acting like a mother. There's too much I don't know, and even adopted daughters need guidance, especially now. I hope I can live up to Nelmor's expectations. I'll certainly try."

The light in Essan' s eyes told Anna that she had been understood, even before Essan stopped by the door. "You be sure that I be no old woman, badgering and bothering you?"

"If you did not talk to me, how would I learn about Defalk? Or the liedburg?"

"Much you have to do, sorceress-girl. Much, but don't you worry. I'll be back, and it is good to see you in health. See that you stay that way. I will tell you that though you were mine." Essan nodded affirmatively and opened the door. "Now get that pretty face clean." Her eyes went to the recital gown. "And wear that gown when you want all eyes on you."

"I hope so," Anna answered ambiguously.

After she watched the older woman climb up the stairs, firmly but slowly, Anna closed the door. She needed to clean up-quickly-and then to develop and cast some sort of protection spell-or something. And that was just the beginning. The Lady Essan had made it clear-very clear. One thing was very clear. She was running out of time. She had to do something-either leave or fight, and she really wasn't a fighter. Anna laughed. She hadn't been a fighter, but something about Erde had changed her from being a survivor to a fighter. Was it that the worst had already been done to her children? That her actions couldn't be used against them?

So be it. She would fight Behlem. But in her own way and on her own terms.

99.

FALCOR, DEFALK.

You could not keep that uniformed fop Nubara. . Behlem breaks off and paces across the corner of the room, brushing away a spider web that has tangled in his reddish-blond beard. He pauses by the window, pushing the shutters wide. "Double moons, to boot."

"How would you have me do that?" asks Menares, ignoring the Prophet's comments about the ominous moons. "You wish to offend the Liedfuhr?"

"You don't consider the doubled moons a problem?"

"The moons are not in our control, Lord Behlem." Menares pauses, then adds deliberately, "I was...surprised to see the sorceress."

"What would you have me do? My own officers, except Zealor, worship the bitch. She put herself out in front of the army, almost got killed by some lancers, and destroyed dissonance- near the entire Ebran force. And you want me to have her executed, if I could? For what? I should have let her have that sorcerer's hall and pensioned her off, but no, I had to listen to your advice about all Defalk rising with her." The Prophet turns from the window and steps toward the table. "What on Erde was I thinking about?"

"Replacing one danger with a greater one," murmurs the white-haired counselor.

"I am supposed to believe that?" Behlem ignores the nearly empty goblet and lifts the bottle to his lips.

"You are the Prophet. You can do as you wish." Menares shrugs. "You will anyway, once you have heard me."

"Go ahead."

"You have noted how respected she is, and how few she knows. Some already love her, except that they do not love her, but her image. Who respects and loves the Evult? Yet none know him, just his image. Eladdrin was the only Ebran respected, and the sorceress has vanquished him. If you left her in Mencha, even if she helped you again, even if she defeated all of Ebra and laid it at your feet, a season, a year, from now who would be respected? You-or her?"

"Why are matters so complex?"

"Because you are a ruler," replies Menares. "You know that. Things are simple for a farmer or a peasant."

"Fine. What do I do now?"

"Let events take their course."

Behiem's eyes flicker to the door at the side of the room. "Already?"

"Cyndyth saw Lady Anna this afternoon, but I believe her mind was made up already."

The Prophet's tongue licks his lips. "And if her schemes fail?"

"How can you lose? You had no part in it, and there never is anything to link them to her."

"She will inform Konsstin that it is once again my fault, and his assistance will halt," Behlem points out.

"Only for a time. He cannot afford to stop aiding you, not when he wishes you to take the brunt of the effort in destroying the Evult and weakening Nordwei."

"You don't have to live with her. I had thought by undertakmg this campaign... perhaps get some peace, some affection without politics and more politics."

"She knows that. Why else would she be here?" Menares toys with his goblet but does not lift it.

"Enough. She is waiting, and she will need her say." Behiem shakes his head. "Enough."

Behlem walks to the side door without looking back.

Menares smiles sadly and looks at his own untouched goblet. Then he stands.

100.

Anna looked out her window, craning her neck. She smiled. Clearsong and Darksong-the twin moons- were close together, one silvered gold, one dark silvered red. Two moons-the idea still fascinated her, even while it reminded her that Erde was far different from earth.

Voices rumbled from the walls, carried in the night stillness.

"dissonant moon near the other... an omen of bad things..."

"Bah... . . happens every year or so..."

"...tell you, that was when they killed Mikell..."

"...died in his sleep...tell you..."

The sorceress yawned. She felt paranoid, as though she were using sorcery for every little thing. She'd even sung a spell over the rather dry and boring beef pie Skent had brought her for dinner. She could have sought out the players and eaten with them, she supposed, but that sent the wrong signal, somehow.

Omens, deaths, what else? She stiffened, turning from the window toward the sole flickering candle in its mantle on the table.

Garreth! What had Essan meant about Garreth? She'd been so absorbed in trying to read through the words and frame the right kind of response, and then to hurry and come up with spells for what lay ahead that her concerns about the girl had been submerged.

For a moment, she thought, then mentally figured the words, before she faced the mirror and lifted the lutar.

She cleared her throat and sang.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall show me Garreth from this hall, where she is or last did lie if she live or if she die."

The mists swirled across the mirror, then revealed a patch of bare earth covered with weeds flattened by the river. Anna thought the space might be the land sloping to the river to the southeast of the hall, but the location really didn't matter.

Her eyes burned, and her jaw clenched for a moment. Why hadn't she paid attention sooner?

Except. . . it wouldn't have mattered.

She turned from the newer mirror, with its painted green frame, laid the lutar on the bed, and walked to the window. The light wind, cooler now than when she had left Falcor, ruffled her hair, hair that had more natural curl than it had ever had before. Another image of Brill's?

She shook her head, thinking again that she had the gift of youth because she had gone to Brill's side when he died-she and not Liende, and from that much else had flowed. And she was here in Falcor because two innocents-Daffyd and Jenny-had tried the impossible. If ever there had been a case of fools rushing in where angels feared to tread... but they had, and Jenny was dead, and Daffyd in the middle of intrigue that made Brill an angel by comparison.

Anna pulled the handkerchief from her belt and blew her nose. She sniffled too much when she was upset. Why had they killed Garreth? Because the poor girl was associated with both Anna and Lady Essan? Because of what she might know?

Garreth had been seated there, and drawn Anna on a stool, even doing the background so that Elizabetta would know something about where Anna was. And now Garreth, who had wanted little except to be safe, was dead.

Anna glanced to the door where the bolt was drawn. It seemed to fade in and out in the flickering light from the candle.

What else did Anna need to worry about? Her eyes went to the door, and she carried the candle as she crossed the floor.

Anna studied the sliding bolt on the door, closely, first inside, then outside. She nodded.

Maybe she was paranoid, but there were two small holes in the wood on the outside, and a thin slit between them, just enough that something slender could open the bolted door from outside silently.

That needed to be remedied, but she needed to redesign the bolt first. Brill had said that inanimate materials were easier.

Before long, she had a drawing of a double drop bolt- strong enough that it would take several men and a battering ram some t ime to break down the door. She hoped that would be all she needed.

Next came the first spell.