"How long?" she asked.
"That won't be until the ninth glass."
"I'm not used to your timekeeping. How many glasses in a day?"
"At the beginning of spring or fall, the day is ten glasses long, and, of course, so is the night."
Anna thought for a moment. So a glass was somewhat longer than an hour, say, maybe ten minutes or so, and it was near noontime. "It's what, about the fifth glass of the day now?"
"Actually, midday in summer is the sixth glass."
"I should be fine by the ninth glass, especially after I eat." She paused. "If we ride in this heat anymore, I'll need a water bottle of some sort. That should do it."
"You are different, Lady Anna." Brill shook his head slightly. "Very practical."
Anna wondered. Avery and even Mario had thought her often very impractical. Or was a problem-solving attitude just considered unfeminine on Erde? Or was Brill flattering her?
He rang the bellpull, and the white-haired server appeared.
"Serna... we will eat... and the lady Anna will need a pair of water bottles for our afternoon ride-around the eighth glass."
"Yes, ser." The dark eyes looked from Brill to Anna and then at the floor.
Anna supposed she looked bedraggled, but, for the moment, she didn't care. She probably would later, but her stomach was empty, and she still felt dehydrated. She refilled the goblet and took another sip of the cool water. The last of the light-headedness was beginning to disappear.
In less than two sips, Serna returned, with two platters and an array of food-more of the dark bread, two more half melons, some cold slices of meat, yellow cheese wedges, and dried apple slices.
Anna tried a small nibble of the yellow cheese-hard, but without the moldiness that the softer and whiter cheese possessed.
The melons were the same as always, but welcome nonetheless, as was the tasty bread. Again, Anna found that she ate more, far more, than she should have.
"I'd like to rest for a while," she said, after glancing again at the empty platter before her.
"Of course." Brill ' s smile was understanding, but not cryptic, and she made her way up to the bedchamber, accompanied by Florenda.
11.
NORTH OF THE WHISPERING $ANDS, EBRA.
Ten rows of dark-hooded figures stand silently as the drums begin to roll. Then come the horns, the low falk horns and muted brazen trumpets.
The Songmaster raises his left hand, then drops it into a slow rhythm, while the drums and horns meld into a sound like the incoming tide rushing across the Shoals of Elahwa. The black baton in the Songmaster' s right hand falls, and the massed voices take up the spell.
" Blessed be the land mat receives the damp, Strike the watered clouds with heaven's lamp.
Blessed be the land that receives the damp, Strike the watered clouds with heaven's lamp."
Shortly, a bolt of lightning flashes through the black clouds that roll southward and pile up in the skies over the newly uncovered soil just north of the Sand Hills.
"Blessed be the land that receives the damp, Strike the watered clouds with heaven's lamp.
Blessed be the land that receives the damp, Strike the watered clouds with heaven's lamp."
More lightning bolts cleave the clouds that have turned nearly night-black.
The Songmaster' s left hand gestures once more, and the timbre of the accompaniment deepens.
The baton flicks, and the chant shifts.
"Blessed be the land that receives the rain.
Open the clouds onto the thirsty plain.
Blessed be the land that receives the rain.
Open the clouds onto the thirsty plain."
Droplets begin to fall on the newly uncovered soil, on the fragments of dried wood that had once been shaped, and upon the sand-polished, white fragments that had, centuries earlier, belonged to some living creature.
12.
The ninth glass found Anna in the dome building, standing beside Brill as she watched the players tune their instruments. Gero sat on a stool in the corner, his eyes on Brill. While she hadn't been able to sleep, with all too many questions swirling inside her head, the combination of the midday meal, lots of water, washing up, and several hours' rest had left her feeling surprisingly good, surprising for someone thrown from one world to another. She just hoped Elizabetta would be all right. Mario was on his own, anyway, except that she still worried.
"After they practice," Brill suggested, "you might have a word with young Daffyd."
"About what?" Anna asked innocently.
"Whatever you choose," the sorcerer answered. "He's like a skittish colt, and if he bolts, he's going to get in trouble."
Anna held in a frown. In trouble with whom?-Brill? Lord Barjim? the dark ones?
"The dark ones would see him as your summoner, and. . ." Brill shrugged.
Lovely, reflected the singer. If I don't keep the young man here, and anything happens to him, it's my fault! It was so convenient for Brill to forget about what he did to Daffyd's father, but not unexpected. That sort of rationalization was typical for tenors, conductors, and directors- and, apparently, for sorcerers. Her eyes went back to the group assembling around the stools in the dome building's practice room.
There were twelve players, and eight were strings-four violinists, with instruments like the early Italian violinos, two violas, and two cellos. Then there were the horns-two instruments resembling clarinets, one wooden flute, except it was played from the end like an American Indian flute, a last woodwind that resembled a cross between a bass clarmet and an English horn, and one brass horn halfway between a French horn and a tuba, except the brass tubing seemed thicker and shorter.
Daffyd, carrying his viola, looked sideways at Brill, then at Anna. Anna offered a smile to the young man, but he looked away quickly, and took his seat on a stool.
"Are they ready, Kaseth?"
"We are almost ready, lord."
"We will begin with the building song," Brill announced. After a minimal number of tunings, the sorcerer raised his hands, and with tight but fluid gestures, directed the group through the very short song.
Anna listened. Although she was no musicologist and she couldn't have provided an explanation of Schenkerian analysis, let alone provided such an analysis-the music seemed similar to early Western music, mostly polyphonic and modal in nature. Then, did they have either the mathematics? or the instrumentation to develop equal-tempered tuning? There was so much she didn't know, didn't even know how to ask without creating more problems.
Each instrument seemed to carry its own melody, although the predominant melody seemed to rest mostly on the high strings, the violinos. Occasionally, the predominant theme was carried by both the woodwinds and the strings. The cello seemed totally used for a simplified bass version of the melody, rather than for true harmony, as was the deep sound of the bass clarinet/English horn. The brass horn-Brill had called it a falk horn-followed the violas, or so it seemed to Anna.
the section where the falk horn and the bass wind join-you're not together there...."
The two hornists exchanged glances, and the woman clarinet player with the white-streaked red hair followed the interchange. Daffyd looked stolidly at Brill.
"Again," the sorcerer ordered.
"Now the paving song...
"... the forging song..
Through the rehearsal, if that were what it was, Anna wasn't impressed, but she kept her face impassive, or she hoped she did.
"That will be all for this afternoon, Kaseth." The sorcerer nodded to the man with the wispy white hair, the concertmaster, of sorts, then at Anna.
Anna slipped from the side of the practice room to the stool where Daffyd was easing his viola into the brown case. Brill followed Kaseth out into the small entry hall. Gero followed the sorcerer.
"I'm sorry about your father," Anna said.
"You are with Lord Brill, most high sorceress," Daffyd said stiffly, closing the instrument case.
"Yes, I am staying in his hall. That's all. I'm a stranger here. I have no clothes, no money, and very little knowledge of Erde. What would you suggest?"
"You are a sorceress. Lord Brill says so."
"That may be." Anna took a deep breath. "But I don't know who to trust, and how much. I don't know the politics or even much about the geography. Don't you understand, Daffyd? Even if my language is much like yours, I'm a total stranger here. I'm not a composer. I'm not even an arranger. I'm a singer, and the songs I know won't do much here."
Daffyd looked over his shoulder. Only the woodwind player with the white-streaked red hair remained in the practice room, and she looked directly at them. Anna caught her eyes, and the woman turned quickly and hurried out into the entry foyer.
Daffyd still did not reply.
"What is it? Is 'singer' a dirty word here?" The look on the youth's face gave her the answer.
"Some people act as though it's a dirty word where I come from, too. Especially when it's time to pay you. They want it for free, or cut-rate."
"They don't pay sorceresses?''
"If you mean singers. . . no, not very much."
Daffyd looked bewildered, and his eyes flicked toward the empty doorway. "But you are a sorceress," he protested.
"Right now, I'm a sorceress with a few spells, just enough to keep Lord Brill off balance."
Daffyd paled slightly. "They must be powerful."
"Enough," Anna temporized. "But not enough to go wandering all through Defalk, not without getting into even more trouble." She could tell that Brill remained outside the practice room, and that bothered her. What was he expecting from her?'
"But you were powerful in your world ..."
"Song magic isn't as strong as technology magic on my world." Anna thought -of her stopped watch. "Here, it seems like some forms of technology don't work at all, and song magic is stronger, much stronger. It takes some getting used to."
"Why are you talking to me," Daffyd asked, "if Lord Brill has all the answers?"
"Because no one has all the answers, and because I trust you," she answered bluntly, but quietly enough that her words would not carry. "I couldn't explain why, but I do."
Daffyd opened his mouth, then shut it. Finally, he asked in a whisper. "And what about Lord Brill? Do you trust him?"
"About some things."
Daffyd gave a small nod. "I have to think."
"Do that." Anna watched the young string player as he left the practice room.
Brill returned shortly, even before Anna reached the door. "He seems more settled. What did you tell him?"
"I told him that I had to learn more about your world, and that I trusted him."
"That was dangerous."
"His heart is good," Anna said.
"But not his judgment."
"He's young," Anna said, reflecting to herself that some judgment could be learned, but not trustworthiness. "We've all had to learn."
"You're more charitable than I," Brill continued as he closed the doors to the building.
"That may be because you are more experienced in the ways of your world," Anna answered, hating herself momentarily for trying to placate the sorcerer.
Despite the sun's low position over the western plains, the air was still and penetrating as though Anna stood in a massive oven. She patted Farmnelli and took several deep swallows from the water bottle before mounting.
As they rode back to the sorcerer's hall, Brill edged his mare closer to Farinelli. "What do you think of our music?"
"It's more... functional, I think. Ours is designed more for..." Anna paused. How could she say it? What was earth's music designed for, anyway? After a time, not long before they slipped into the shadows of the hall's gates, she finally answered. "I need to think more."
As they rode past the main entry to the hall toward the stable, from somewhere in the back of the hail grounds came the single crow of a rooster, following by clucking and brawwking.
"You are very thoughtful, lady," Brill said as he dismounted outside the stable. "Best you get the thinking done while you can. Events may not always allow for lengthy contemplation."