Spellsong - Darksong Rising Part 36

"There are no Mansuuran lancers there, either," suggested Himar.

Anna wanted to shake her head. Instead, she pursed her lips, then let the image go and tried another spell, one that mentioned the Mansuuran lancers.

The image was similar to the first, except the riders were in maroon.

"So the Mansuurans released to Rabyn chase us, while the Nesereans burn fields and lay siege," offered Jecks. 'That speaks ill of Rabyn's forces."

"Mayhap...." Himar's response was slower. 'The Mansuurans may have refused to burn fields."

"It doesn't matter." Except it does... and there's a reason why. Anna frowned, but she couldn't remember what that might be. Finally, she took a deep breath, released the image, and replaced the lutar in the case. "We need to get moving.

That's what it shows." She glanced at Himar. "If you would have everyone ready to ride in a gla.s.s...."

Himar inclined his head. "We will be ready. By your leave?"

"You may go. We won't be long." As the overcaptain left, Anna walked to the side table. "All of the scrolls can wait, except these. We need to go over them- quickly. Then I need to write what replies are necessary, and then we leave."

Anna picked up the first of those she had culled; the others were packed to be taken back to Falcor and considered when necessary-and if necessary.

"Herstat reports that he thinks Halde can leave Synfal, and would like our permission." She handed the scroll to Jecks.

After reading it, he nodded. "Herstat is cautious, but you need not have asked..."

"Jimbob is your ward, and I'd prefer to ask about things involving him."

"Thank you."

"I also thought if I sent off an answer with a fast messenger, Halde might be able to get to Falcor by the time we're there." Anna picked up the second scroll, then pa.s.sed it to Jocks. "Lady Anientta is suggesting, ever so politely, that I make some sort of proclamation to Lord Tybel about how Lord Hryding's lands will go to his heir Jeron. That sounds to me like she's trying to stop a power grab by Tybel." Anna's smile was wry.

Jecks nodded more slowly after reading Anientta's missive. "Must you act now?"

"That was my thought," Anna admitted. "We already have problems with Lord Dannel, but he hasn't sent me a protest, and that bothers me as much as if he had. Unless I go to Synope or Arien, nothing will change. It might be better if Tybel did try something. . . ." Anna let her words die away."That way you could replace both?" Jecks raised his eyebrows.

"After meeting some of her shirttail relations in Pamr, I don't know that there's anyone in Tybel's whole family that could be trusted with lands."

"Then you should wait until you return from the Western Marches."

Anna lifted another scroll. "Lord Hulber of Silberfels wishes me Well, and would like to remind me that the lands of Loiseau were once of Silberfels until graciously granted to Lord Brill's grandsire. He is most confident that I will manage all that is on and below them well." Anna snorted. "He must have a seer, or be able to do it himself. In short, he'd like a little of the gold as a gesture."

Jocks shook his head.

"I'll write him and thank him and tell him that I appreciate his wishes, and that I'll find some way to repay the graciousness of his family once Defalk is rid of the immediate threat from Neserea."

A wide grin lit Jocks' face.

"Only two more," Anna said. "Your neighbor, Lord Clethner, expresses concern about the deteriorating state of Wendell with Lord Genrica's long illness, since Genrica's offspring are all daughters, and since Lord Fustar of Issi has numerous sons. That's a warning of another land grab that may be coming. Do we wait and beat up on Fustar. . . or try to head it off?"

"When you face a mountain cat, do not go out of your way to trample on a viper."

"Wait. All right." Anna rummaged for the last scroll. "We don't have to do anything on the next one, not until we get to Falcor, but it's the rivermen.

Menares says that they are threatening to lay up their barges unless I reduce their tariffs." Anna offered a falsely bright smile. "Some days, I just love being Regent."

Jecks nodded slowly as Anna packed away the scrolls and then picked up the lutar.

61.

With Farinelli's reins in her left hand, Anna rubbed her forehead and temples with her right, trying to ma.s.sage away the residual headache that had started soon after they had ridden out of Loiseau. Something in the air? Worry about how long it would take to reach western Defalk? Who knows? She tried to concentrate on riding, on the river ahead.

The road from Mencha to Pamr sloped slowly upward to the bluffs on the south side of the Chean River, then swung abruptly northward around the steep-walled, sinkhole lake that was the remnant of Anna's destruction of the Evult's forces.

She glanced to the west, noting the lake's now-blue waters sparkling in the sunshine, sunshine that had come and gone all morning with the scattered clouds.

The low mudflats were now covered with bushes and clumps of gra.s.s, and the crumbling clay walls had become less steep. The lake itself did not appear any smaller to Anna than when they had traveled past it on the way to Loiseau. "It is hard to believe that so many died there," Himar said, turning in his saddle to look at Anna. "Alvar... he... never had he seen anything like it."

"I wish I hadn't." Anna replied."People do not learn," Jecks interjected. "She destroyed the Evult's lancers and armsmen-all of them-and yet he raised more lancers."

Anna shook her head. Were people really like that? Did she have to annihilate any opposition. . . or fight them endlessly? Or just individuals like the Evult or Lord Ehara?

"Some are like that." Himar turned and guided his mount around the wide curve back toward the river. "Some will not believe what they have not seen, and some will not credit their own eyes if what they have seen does not accord with what they wish."

Like about half of the Thirty-three.

At the top of the bluffs, before the road cut down to the ford, Anna slowed Farinelli. She continued to study the rock base of the ford set by her sorcery as the palomino gelding carried her down to the river.

When she reached the edge of the river, she could see the water sheeting evenly across the line of stone, so smoothly that it seemed like flowing gla.s.s. She couldn't help but nod. You did do a good job replacing the ford. After a moment, the qualifymg thought popped into her mind. More than a year later.

Farinelli stepped into the water without hesitation, following Himar's mount along the rock shelf of the ford. The sound of splashing replaced the dull thud of hoofs on clay, and drops of water left small blotches on the lower legs of Anna's dusty riding trousers.

"...one of the holding armsmen at Pamr called it... Sorceress' Ford..." Kinor's voice drifted forward from where the lanky redhead rode beside Jimbob-a smaller redhead.

"...stone like that. . . last forever..."

Forever? Will you be remembered by things like fords and bridges...or by the number of bodies you've left strewn across Liedwahr?

Beyond the ford, the first fifty yards of road were dark and damp from the river water carried there by the mounts, but beyond that the dust resumed-as did the conversations behind Anna. The low fields were brown and cut to stubble, or in the case of those that had held beans, brown-dappled green plants stood in the noon sun ragged and wilting.

"Be late by the time we get to Pamr," Jecks said, glancing at the flat road that stretched through the fields toward the northwest.

"I know... but Gatrune and Firis will take care of us. I worry about Hanfor."

"Best you worry about yourself," Jecks suggested, his hazel eyes twinlding. "My lady."

He said that like he wished it were so. Lord.. . you wish this were all over.

Then maybe there'd be time for you. But then, even on Earth, there had never been, what with job demands, Avery's demands, those of the kids. Now... there were the demands of spoiled lords, the need to fight off invaders, and endless demands for her time to deal with situations that shouldn't have been problems.

Not to mention the worries- from the big ones like whether it had been stupid to go into Ebra to the littler ones like whether she should have pushed Hanfor and Himar into accepting Skent as an untried undercaptain.That's life anywhere. She took a deep breath, looking at the still-long road to Pamr, and beyond.

62.

Once more, Anna found herself ma.s.saging her neck, trying to reduce the growing throbbing in her skull, an ache that had increased with every dek she had ridden from almost the time she had left the gates at Loiseau. Too much sorcery? Or had she used Darksong and not even known it?

But how? She glanced back along the column, past Kinor and Jimbob. She'd left with two hundred lancers-tenscore- and eight players. Now she had eight score, and that included the score of newer lancers half-trained by Jerat at the Sand Pa.s.s fort and the cyan company under Skent. Himar had put two veterans as senior lancers beside Skent and told the young man to heed them.

Anna hoped Skent would. Then... that's what he has to learn if he wants to get Cataryzna as a consort...with your support.

She winced. Are you any better than Dieshr was in using people? The sorceress continued to scan the column until her eyes came to rest on the red-and-white hair of the chief player. Not looking up toward Anna, Liende rode slowly, apparently lost in her own thoughts. She's doing this for her children... not for you, not for Defalk.

On each side of the road, the bare and harvested fields stretched out until they merged with twilight of what had turned into a gray day with dull low clouds.

Ahead, off the right shoulder of the road, was a squat stone column. Anna squinted to make out the numbers chiseled there, finally reading the number and the single letter. Another two deks to Pamr...and perhaps another two beyond that to reach Lady Gatrune's holding.

The Regent and sorceress yawned, then absently ma.s.saged her neck again.

"You are tired," said Jecks, easing his mount closer to her.

"I don't know why. Riding isn't that exhausting."

"Riding and thinking, mayhap?" The bushy white eyebrows lifted. "And fretting about what may come. You have not reckoned what the battles cost you, either."

"It was a gamble to go to Ebra... but I wanted to settle things there without worrying about Rabyn and the Liedfuhr."

"Nothing is ever settled in Liedwabr," suggested Jecks. "Had you not defeated those of Ebra once, and those of Neserea?"

"Not really the Nesereans. I killed their leader and his consort."

"Did you not spell some of them?"

"I did." Anna wanted to shake her head, except she had to stifle a yawn. That could be why some of Rabyn's forces were standing siege duty in western Defalk.

Before she'd fully understood-or been forced to understand-the limits of Clearsong, she'd spelled the Neserean forces remaining in Falcor to be loyal to her. Did Rabyn even know that? Nubara wouldn't. He'd fled Falcor well before that. "But how many of those are in the forces attacking Defalk... I don't know."The sorceress looked through the dim twilight toward the indistinct shapes that had to be the outlying dwellings of Pamr. She blinked. Surely, there should be some light, some torches or lamps in some windows. The clouds made the early evening darker, although it would have been dark enough, since Darksong was the only moon visible at dusk in the weeks after harvest.

A faint clanging or tinkling of a distant bell echoed through the night from somewhere up ahead, going on and on.

She stiffened. What on earth-or Erde-was she thinking? They were entering Pamr, and she was so tired that she was woolgathering. Lord!

"Himar!" Anna turned in the saddle and tried to fumble the lutar free from its straps.

"Yes, lady?"

"It's Pamr, and that chandler! We need arms ready."

"Arms ready!" snapped Jecks, belatedly understanding Anna's concerns, and relaying her order. "Arms ready!"

"Arms ready!" echoed Himar.

As Farinelli carried Anna past the first darkened dwelling, Anna heard a dull rumble and glanced skyward toward the clouds that had been getting lower with every gla.s.s that had pa.s.sed since midday at the Sorprat ford. She glanced up to see if it had started to rain, but she could feel nothing.

She began to try to tune the lutar in the dimness, but her fingers were clumsy.

Her eyes strained to catch sight of the inn and the chandlery near the center of town. Yet all the buildings were dark. Dark?

"That is not thunder," Jecks said abruptly.

Anna swallowed. He was right. The sound was that of drums, and the pounding of those drums rumbled through Anna like the thunder she had first thought the drums had been.

"Now! Men of Pamr! Strike!"

The words floated in Anna's ears for a moment. Then, torches flared up beside the packed-clay road, and arrows whistled past her guards.

A good score of bearded men wielding spears and axes and other odd weapons charged out of the near darkness, directly toward Anna.

s.h.i.t! You're so tired you didn't even think... dumb!

"Blaz! Kerhor! Take them!" bellowed Rickel, as he and Lejun lifted the heavy shields, quickly, despite the deks of travel, while Anna bent, turned in the saddle, and tried to wrestle the lutar free.

Jecks had his blade free, as did Kinor, and a moment later, Jimbob. The three blades joined those of Blaz and Kerhor.

The evening was filled with grunts, and the dull sounds of metal on metal, metal on wood, wood on flesh and bone, but not a single yell or shout issued from the lips or throats of the attackers. The only sound from the attackers and thetown, the one that seemed to shiver both the air and ground alike, was that of the deep triple-toned drums.

Anna's fingers fumbled over the lutar strings, and she sang a few syllables, seeking a pitch. Any pitch! Her voice cracked, and she attempted to clear her throat, trying somehow to force dust and mucus out.

Somewhere in the darkness a horse screamed.

More arrows sleeted past, and there was a dull thunk and a gasp from one of the guards, and Anna glimpsed an empty saddle even while she tried to sort out a spell, any spell.

You need a spell ... The thought pounded at her.

63.