Spellsong - Darksong Rising Part 4

"Meryn was feeling ill, but a.s.solan is watching Ruetha and Anadra."

"How are you getting along with Meryn?"

"Very well," answered Jecks. "We're getting some new dishes, I've noticed." He inclined his head toward the ca.s.serole. "Is that one of them?"

"Yes, ser. This is the stew you liked, Regent."

Anna could feel her mouth water. 'That's wonderful." She smiled at Jecks.

"You'll like it."

"I've liked all the new dishes. It was one of the few pleasures left for a time."

Anna looked at Dalila. "Are you sure you're doing all right?"

"Oh, yes. Dythya has me teaching letters to some of the smaller children in the liedburg." The pert brunette offered Anna another smile, then turned and slipped from the dining hall.

"That one... she's another that would lay her life in front of a charger for you."

Anna didn't argue, only nodded. You took refuge in her home, and after you rejected the forceful advances of her consort, he left her penniless and friendless, and his brother took everything because Dalila was a woman unable to hold property. You made her brother your chief player; and he died fighting the Evult. And now, because you pay her for cooking and teaching, she thinks you're wonderful. Defalk needed more feminism than one sorceress and Regent could ever supply.

Anna poured herself some of the maroon wine, then filled Jecks' goblet.

"Thank you, lady. It is unusual to be served by a ruler.""Just remember that." Anna broke off a chunk of bread, then served two huge ladlefuls of the stew. "What was so urgent that you were waiting for me?"

"I would not say it was terribly urgent, and it should wait until you have eaten. You are most pale," Jecks said.

"It has been a while since I ate. Midday, I think."

"What if you had to sing a spell?"

"I'd have been in trouble." Anna took a mouthful of the stew, the spices muting the taste of the strong mutton. The second mouthful she accompanied with a chunk of the dark bread. Dark bread-they had it, and that meant someone was indeed getting mola.s.ses from Dumar-or had recently. Did that mean that Lady Siobion was keeping the agreement? And that all was well with Alvar, the captain Anna had made over-captain and armsmaster of Dumar both to aid Siobion's regency and to ensure Dumar's compliance with the terms of surrender, even if Anna had been careful not to call them precisely that.

"You carry provisions," he said gently, not quite suggesting that she was a fool not to have eaten them. "What happens to those who travel with you if you cannot protect them?"

"I know. I should have eaten more." She continued to eat the stew and bread, also slicing a peach, and thin wedges of white cheese. When she had cleared her plate--twice-she looked up. "Now...what's the problem?"

"It is not a...difficulty...yet, Not all of them." Jecks held the wine goblet but did not take a swallow.

"All of them?" Anna's stomach tightened. "Start with the worst."

"None is pressing, yet..."

"Go on."

"All of the Mansuuran lancers in Neserea will soon be sent to Elioch. Those are the reports."

"How many is that?" You need to get busy with your scrying pool.

"Fiftyscore. And either young Rabyn or Nubara has formed a new force-the Prophet's Lancers. According to Arms Commander Hanfor, the new Prophet can muster at least another two-hundred-score lancers and armsmen."

A trained Neserean army of more than five thousand men- and she had perhaps three hundred pledged to her, plus the levies of the Defalkan lords-if they heeded the call. Still, she'd destroyed more than that in the war with Dumar.

And look what it did to you and Jecks. "There's more."

Jecks shrugged, almost apologetically. "The SouthWomen have sent arms to Elahwa, and Lord Bertmynn is a.s.sembling men and boats on the River Dol, as if he will be using the river to ferry men there."

"The Ranuans wouldn't sell us arms, but they'll send them to Elahwa?"

"To the freewomen there. They revolted."

"That's a good way to get slaughtered." Especially in this world... and you're supposed to support Hadrenn to pull them out? "How did we find that out?""Menares received a message from Wei."

"The last message from Wei led to the problems with Dumar," Anna said slowly.

"I thought you might see it that way."

"We can't afford to do much for Hadrenn."

"If you do not..." Jecks let the silence drag out.

"I know. Then we'll be back to having unfriendly neighbors on both the east and the west borders, with the inscrutable traders of Wei breathing down on us from the north. I suppose the Ranuans will be unhappy if we don't support these...

freewomen."

"That I could not say."

"What else?" Anna asked, knowing there had to be more bad news.

"The Rider of Heinene has asked for aid. The wet spring caused the gra.s.s to grow far higher than in past years, and there was a fire that swept half the gra.s.slands."

"So they have no forage?"

Jecks nodded.

"You bring such cheerful news, my lord. I take ft you've got more of the same?"

"You recall Lord Via.s.sa?"

"He was the Lord of Fussen, the one whose twin sons were fighting over the lands."

"Ustal and Falar have both raised armsmen, and each has sent a scroll requesting that you recognize him. You did say I should read scrolls...."

"I did. Go on."

"Falar is the younger by a fraction of a gla.s.s, and he wrote that, should you not support him, and should he prevail, he will consider seeking support for his 'just' claim elsewhere."

"Let me guess." Anna hazarded. "Ustal has the... traditional right to the lands, and he's some sort of idiot, or wastrel, or something."

"Ah... why do you suggest such?" Jecks raised his eyebrows.

"Because, for a younger son to go to such lengths would mean he's either an idiot or he has a just claim, If he can raise armsmen, that means people are putting themselves on the line for him, against tradition. Most folks won't.

That suggests that Ustal has more than a few faults-of some sort" Anna took a bigger sip of wine than she'd intended before asking, "Can Menares or Dythya or someone find out what Ustal's faults are? In the meantime, you send back a scroll to each saying that I'm returning from Pamr and will look at the claims as soon as I return."

Jecks smiled. "You will gain two weeks by that."

"If that.""Oh... and the weapons smith, the one who was a wheel-wright, he was killed in a tavern brawl."

"And we're back to having no one in Falcor who can forge weapons?" Anna refilled her goblet, knowing she shouldn't be drinking so much so quickly, but she'd taken a little over a week to repair something that needed to be fixed, and the moment she'd left, things had started to get worse. She paused. "Was the brawl an accident?"

Jecks shrugged. "I would say so, but one could not rule out foul play."

"No...not when we need an armorer to hold off enemies on half our borders." Anna forced herself to take a small sip of the wine.

"Hanfor has suggested you create the position of Armorer of Defalk and offer a ten-gold bonus for an experienced smith."

"Twenty' said Anna. "Ten to be paid after the first two weeks and ten after the first year. Send scrolls everywhere."

"Tomorrow, I will talk to Hanfor."

"Well... since we're discussing problems, there's one more."

Jecks waited.

"There was this youth... at the chandlery..." Anna swallowed. The one in the pools in your seeking spells, the one who wants your destruction... "s.h.i.t!"

Jecks' mouth dropped open.

"It's hard to explain. Come with me." She pushed back her chair and started for the door, and Jecks rose, following.

Lejun and Kerhor followed them back up the stairs, first to Anna's chamber, where she grabbed the lutar, and then to the scrying room, the room that had once been a guest chamber and now held only a mirror pool and a writing desk-and candles in wall sconces. The two guards stationed themselves outside the door, while Jecks lit the candles and Anna tuned the lutar.

"You think you will see something now?" Jecks gestured toward the darkness beyond the closed shutter.

"Enough," grunted Anna, struggling with the tuning pegs.

A single vocalise was enough to clear her cords, enough for the simple spell she sang, at least.

Of those with power of the song seek those who'd do me wrong and show them in this silver cast and make that vision well last.

As it had been the last time she had used the spell-there were three images, but one was different. The blonde seer from Nordwei was in one silvered circle. The second contained a dark-haired and thin-faced youth in an ornate cream-and-green tunic, lounging at a table beside a less than fully clothed young woman. His face was familiar, though Anna had never seen it, and so were the cream and green."Neserean colors there..." murmured Jecks.

"That has to be Rabyn," concluded Anna. "He looks more like his mother."

"He's acting like his sire." Jecks' voice was dry.

"It's the other one-the one in brown." Anna gestured toward the young man at the battered-looking writing table. "He was watching me in Pamr, and I knew I'd seen him. I just couldn't place where I'd seen his face."

"A chandler's son?"

"He's the chandler's son. He has to be. You remember? The one who tried to kill me with a bow in Pamr when I was on my way to meet Behlem?"

"That was before you became Regent," Jecks pointed out.

"He uses Darksong. The whole chandlery felt twisted when I looked at it, but I thought it was me." Anna sang the release couplet.

Let this scene of scrying, mirror filled with light, vanish like the darkness when the sun is bright....

Jecks tilted his head sideways. "He uses Darksong, and he's opposing you, but he's only a chandler."

"Until I became a sorceress, I was only a teacher and a singer," she replied.

Jecks shook his head. "You were always a sorceress and a Regent."

Anna frowned. Does that mean what you think it does?

"He is only a chandler who would be a darksinger."

"We-I-still have to do something about him."

"You can't do anything about it tonight," Jecks pointed out reasonably.

"Tomorrow, you can send a messenger to Lady Gatrune and have her people find out the man's name and what they know about him."

That made sense, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. Once again, it was looking like what she could do wouldn't solve the problem. "Tomorrow," she agreed. "And I'll have to look for Bertmynn and see what he's doing... and those Mansuuran lancers..."

Tomorrow... will every tomorrow always be filled with more tasks than you started yesterday with?

8.

As the sunlight poured through the liedburg window, Anna struggled up into a sitting position in the bed. Her eyes were gummy, and her head ached. Too much not very good wine last night. Not a good idea, either, with more problems today.

As she took a slow deep breath and swung her feet to the side of the bed, the black-etched rectangle on the wall-the visual representation of the last time she'd been able to see her daughter through her sorcery-strobed at her. She closed her eyes again and just sat on the edge of the bed. You can kill, andcreate great bridges, and rule a country, but you can't use sorcery to see your daughter.

After a moment, she found herself correcting that thought You weren't able to see her for a while, but it's been more than a season since you tried. Brill said it could be done across the gap between the mist worlds and Erde infrequently-not never.

She padded to the bathchamber, where she washed up and then dressed in her remaining clean green working trousers and shirt. After pulling on the brown- leather boots, she trudged to the door and opened it. Blaz and Rickel were the guards.

"If you would... please... have someone bring me some breakfast."

"Yes, Lady Anna," Rickel answered.