Darksong Rising: The Third Book of the Spellsong Cycle

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  34

  After breakfast the next morning, Anna stood on the fourth step of the central stone staircase and glanced out at the hold’s key staff. Quies stood in front, with his redheaded son Albero by his side. Serna and Florenda stood a few paces back, while Frideric and Gero stood to the right of the women.

  Rickel and Lejun stood behind Anna, but a step up and several paces to each side. Wiltur stood to the right of Lejun. Despite the older guard’s grizzled appearance and his silver hair, the steady eyes, the blade in the well-worn scabbard, and the long scar across his cheek marked him as perhaps more to be feared than the two younger men.

  “You all know I have not been able to come home to Loiseau as much as I would have liked,” Anna began. “That isn’t likely to change soon. I cannot maintain the hold with sorcery when I am not here.” She looked around. “But I do want Loiseau maintained. You were all helpful when I knew nothing about Defalk and Liedwahr, and for that I thank you. I will only be making one large change … and one I make reluctantly.” Anna scanned the group, but no one’s face seemed to fall or appear displeased. “Sometime after harvest, I will be bringing in a saalmeister who has run a much larger holding. He will probably have to bring in more people to make sure Loiseau remains well kept, because I cannot use sorcery from a distance, as much as I am gone. But I will make sure that all of you will remain here, if you wish, and that you are rewarded for your loyalty, both to me and to Lord Brill. Also, Serna, Quies, Albero … Wiltur … you will all, if you wish, and I hope you will, continue to do as you have. You will lose no responsibilities. Halde is young, but has much experience, and I have cautioned him to heed your knowledge. He will be here to do some of those things which otherwise I would do, not to do what you all have done so well.” Anna offered a sad smile. “I cannot be here to do them, and I do not wish to see Loiseau ill served.”

  She paused once more, then added, “I’d like to meet with each of you individually in my study upstairs, starting with Quies in just a moment.” With a smile, Anna turned and went up the stairs. While using her personal chamber was not perfect, there were no private rooms—that she knew of—on the main level of the hold.

  As she had suggested, Quies was the first to step into the chamber, looking around, as if he had never been there.

  “Over here,” called Anna, standing by the ancient table-desk, on which rested a leather pouch.

  The stablemaster stepped through the archway.

  Anna took two golds from the pouch and pressed them on the older stablemaster. “Quies, I appreciate all you’ve done to hold things together … and for finding Farinelli for me.”

  The short and wiry Quies bowed his head. “I wasn’t sure … Lady Anna … but Serna, she said you’d be back … and when the scrolls and the coins came … well … she was right.”

  “If I can come back, I will, as often as I can.”

  “We know that, lady.” Quies smiled.

  Next was Gero, the former assistant to Brill.

  Anna offered him a gold. “Just keep the workrooms and pool in shape.” She paused. “Are they prepared now?”

  The youth nodded. “Yes, Lady Anna … when the messenger arrived, I cleaned it and set it up just as Lord Brill always instructed me.” He bowed.

  “I’ll be going there shortly … and thank you.”

  “Thank you, lady.” Gero looked down, then slipped away.

  The white-haired Serna was third in the line, accompanied by her daughter Florenda. Serna bowed twice, once as she entered the chamber, and once as she came through the archway to the study area. “Lady and Regent.”

  “I understand you were the one who really kept people together … .”

  “Lady … I did what any houseminder would do—”

  “Lady … she did all that and more,” interjected the diminutive Florenda. “Mum … she wouldn’t admit anything.”

  Anna couldn’t help grinning. “The loyal daughter.”

  “That she be,” admitted Serna.

  “She’s also right, I’ll bet.” Anna offered three golds to Serna, and two to Florenda. “For keeping the house together, and,” she added to Florenda, “for all the altering and extra food.”

  Serna’s mouth opened as she realized the coins were golds. “My lady … never …”

  “I cannot be here to tell you how much I value you and your work.” Anna shrugged. “Gold’s a poor substitute, but all I can do.”

  The two women bowed deeply.

  Albero was next, and the hold armorer smiled shyly.

  “I owe you more than you realize, Albero, especially for teaching me about knives.” She slipped him two golds. “Thank you.”

  “Lady … I did what …”

  “You did well.” She smiled.

  Frideric and Wiltur came in together, and each of the hold guards received two golds. As had the others, they bowed reverently.

  “Said you don’t forget … good or evil,” offered Wiltur. “Good thing.” He grinned briefly.

  “I try not to,” Anna answered. “We’ll be going to the workroom building in a bit, after I finish.”

  “I’ll be waiting by the stables, lady,” Wiltur confirmed.

  After the two left, Anna retrieved the lutar before heading back down the hallway and then down the stone steps to the main level, followed once more by her guards. At the base of the stairs, she looked through the stone arch to the front entry hall, but the hall remained empty. Where is Jecks? Or did he mention something about blade lessons for Kinor and Jimbob?

  Anna walked to the stables, followed once more by the guards. As she crossed the north courtyard, her glance went to the rear of the courtyard, where Jecks was instructing Kinor and Jimbob in some aspect of using a blade, while several of the younger lancers watched. Anna wondered if Jimbob was really paying attention.

  “Lady Anna?”

  Her head turned back toward the stables. Outside the open doors in the already hot morning sunlight stood Quies.

  “Yes, Quies?”

  “If I might ask, Lady Anna, from where does this Halde hail?” inquired the stablemaster.

  “He’s been the saalmeister at Synfal, Lord Arkad’s hold at Cheor,” Anna answered. “When Lord Jimbob received those lands, he also decided to replace the saalmeister with someone from Lord Jecks’ lands.”

  Quies nodded.

  “I thought Halde had done an excellent job in the weeks after Lord Arkad’s death and the death of the head saalmeister, and I’ve had him working under Herstat. I believe he will do a good job. He’s fair, and he works hard.” Anna looked at Quies. “If he has any fault, it is that he may not praise good work enough, but those who have worked with him for years say he does not bully or cheat, but expects the best out of each person.”

  Quies pursed his lips before speaking. “You won’t be here long, will you, lady? And you won’t be here that much.”

  “No,” Anna admitted. “I can’t be. Not now. I might be here for a week, or less, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

  “Lady … ?”

  “Yes, Quies.” Anna smiled.

  “I’d not be the youngest stablemaster … and the horses are not Albero’s love …”

  “You want to train someone else to help you?”

  “Aye … my sister’s bairn Vyren. A bit young, not twelve, but he loves the horses, and they love him.”

  “Can he learn the rest of running a stable?”

  “That young, I’d not be knowing for sure, but I’d send him home if he could not.” A crooked smile appeared on the stablemaster’s face. “With two … we could build up the stable more.”

  “Then have him come to work for you … you tell Serna and anyone else who needs to know.”

  “Thank you, lady.”

  “Thank you. You do the work, and Farinelli’s shown me that you do it well, Quies.”

  A nervous smile appeared.

  “I meant it.” Anna stepped into the comparative cool of the always-clean stables
and toward the front stall where the big gelding greeted Anna with a whuff, as if to ask why she’d taken so long.

  “Business, fellow, business.” She slipped into the stall and brushed him briefly, not all that necessary since she’d groomed him thoroughly the night before, tired as she’d been.

  The ride out to the workshop buildings was almost too short, except for the heat, and, again, almost a parade, Anna felt, with Wiltur and two of her guards following her.

  Wiltur insisted on checking the building before she entered. Then, as Anna carried the lutar, a water bottle, and a sheaf of her notes into the building, Wiltur stationed himself by the door, joining Rickel and Blaz as guards.

  After closing the door behind her, the sorceress and Regent wandered through the dusty workrooms, then through the larger room where Brill’s players had practiced, and where hers would later.

  After checking the last of the three workshop rooms, she stopped by the pool in the scrying room, pondering. It’s been long enough … do you dare? Besides, when and where else can you try? She nodded and took out the lutar, beginning her vocalises, as she tuned the instrument. When she was ready, she faced the pool, not that she needed it, and sang the simple spell.

  Bring to me the letter I desire,

  from my daughter, safe from fire

  across the void from Earth to here,

  let all words from her appear … .

  A column of flame exploded beside the scrying pool, forcing Anna to lurch backward—then died abruptly, leaving a steaming oblong lump of blackened matter on the stones beside the pool. Her eyes went to the object. She swallowed.

  “Shit …” Then, as she continued to study the object, she smiled, realizing that the black was a heavy black fabric. Once the steaming subsided, she set aside the lutar, laying it on the small worktable behind her, and bent down.

  Her fingers brushed the heavy cloth—almost like a stage curtain.

  Within the crude bag was an envelope of some sort of synthetic material, and within that were two envelopes. The first contained a small pencil sketch of Elizabetta, and the second a thick letter. Anna looked at the sketch for a long time before she opened the letter and began to read.

  Mom—

  Your letter arrived. It just popped into the passenger seat of my car. The outer envelope was pretty charred, and there’s a brown spot on the upholstery now, and it reminds me of you. I’m leaving this under the stairs like you said, but I found pieces of an old stage curtain, lined with asbestos or something, in the back rooms at PSC. One of my friends goes there, and I made a pouch out of it for this. I hope it works.

  The sketch is because I don’t know if a modern picture would get there. The sketch of you got here, so I was pretty sure this would. Cortland was happy to do it, and I didn’t tell him why.

  Anna took a deep breath, looking at the black blot of soot on the stone floor. She turned to the careful script and kept reading.

  I decided not to show Dad the coins. Mr. Asteni paid me by their weight, cause he says there isn’t any speculative market for private mint coins. He thinks they were minted by those creative anachronism folks, and I’ll bet he’s keeping a few for himself. I told Mario you’d left money hidden in the jewelry case I brought back from Ames, and I just found it. I tried to give him half that way, but he wouldn’t take it. He said he had a job, and I’d need the money more.

  I’m headed back to school. Because you’re “missing” —and Dad thinks you’re dead because even he admits you would stay in touch, that means you’re presumed to be dead. The insurance people said it could be years, but the school gave me full tuition and room and board. So don’t worry about that.

  You can’t be dead. Ghosts don’t send messages on real parchment or whatever it is, and funny gold coins. Especially not coins worth that much. I worry about you, and I was really glad to get your last letter. When I come back to the lake house for Christmas, if this one is gone, I’ll leave another letter there, and I hope you can use your sorcery or whatever to pick it up. It sure is weird to write each other this way, but it helps to know you’re all right somewhere. It’d be really hard if you had just vanished into nowhere. I don’t know how people stand that.

  By the way, my grades did go up second semester, and I made the honors list. German was easier than I’d thought it would be, but I barely scraped out a B+ in theory. You said it would be hard, and it was. My voice teacher sounds like you, always talking about keeping the sound free … .

  The police in Iowa haven’t closed the case, but they’re not actively investigating anymore. I think they think you just adopted a new identity. You did, but not the way they think … .

  Anna blotted her eyes, and cleared her throat, then blotted once more. She had trouble swallowing, but she looked back at the letter, reading quickly, almost as if she were afraid it would turn to dust in her hands … or disappear.

  … still hard to think of a world or a place like you describe. Somehow, I can see you running things, though. You never got a chance here, not taking care of us, and always being there and picking up all the messes …

  Anna had to set the letter down … letting the sobs come.

  After another interval, she sniffed, blotted her eyes once more, and continued reading the rest of the long and chatty letter, collapsing into sobs with the closing lines.

  … Wherever you are, even if you can’t ever write again, I love you.

  A good half-glass or more passed before Anna was ready to tackle scrying again. She’d also finished off most of the water in the bottle she’d brought out to the domed building.

  Finally, she stood before the pool, lutar in hand, and began the next spell.

  Silver pool, show me now and as you can

  where near Mencha sorcery by this woman

  will find gold to mine and gold to coin … .

  The pool showed three images. Anna took a deep breath and studied them.

  One depicted a low hill covered with scattered pines with mostly bare ground around each short tree. The second showed a narrow gorge that appeared almost impassable, so steep that only a few straggly junipers sprouted out of the reddish rock. The third site was a river flat under a bluff with evergreens in the background.

  None was familiar, but Anna had expected that. That there were sites was encouraging. Now all you have to do is find them. Her head was throbbing, and every muscle in her body felt tight. After you eat … and try to relax a little.

  35

  Anna turned in the saddle, looking out against the early midmorning sun across the river flat toward the hills that led eastward to the Ostfels, past the lancers and the six heavy wagons that she had optimistically rented from various crafters and farmers around Mencha. She and Jecks had finally decided against driving wagons all the way from Falcor.

  On the south side of the small river whose name she did not know, but which flowed westward toward the Chean, were grasslands and scattered herds of sheep. She suspected that the herders owed her rents, but that was something Halde would have to look into, once he arrived. Once that’s been worked out with Herstat … .

  According to the scrying pool at Loiseau, the site was a good thirty deks northeast of Mencha, a bit less than halfway to Silberfels, and according to the maps in Brill’s study at Loiseau, definitely on Anna’s lands.

  Anna dismounted on a knoll a good thirty yards east of the river, and the players followed her example. Jecks, Himar, and the lancers remained mounted.

  The white-haired lord stood in his stirrups, then settled down. “There is no one else in sight.”

  “Worried?” asked Anna.

  “If you succeed … yes, I will be worried. Gold-bearing wagons far from a hold are scarce little to sneeze at.”

  “There aren’t any armsmen near,” she pointed out as she handed Farinelli’s reins to Kerhor, who had remained mounted. “I checked that before we left Loiseau.”

  “For that I am glad.”

  “So am I.” Anna offer
ed a crooked smile as she turned and began a last series of vocalises as the players tuned.

  When the tuning died away, Liende glanced toward the Regent.

  “The searching song,” Anna nodded to Liende.

  “The searching song. On my mark … Mark!”

  Anna stood on the knoll, thinking, Just a hundred bars or ingots. She concentrated on visualizing those bars, stacked on the open ground to the right of the players, as she began the spell.

  Search, search, search the ground

  deeply all around,

  verily, verily, verily,

  gold will here be found … .

  The ground shivered, noticeably, and several horses whuffed uneasily, even before Anna started into the second stanza of the spell.

  Bring, bring, bring the gold,

  straightly here to mold,

  verily, verily, verily … .

  As she neared the end of the spell, the ground began to heave, and she forced herself to concentrate on finishing while struggling to maintain her balance. A series of strobelike lights flashed overhead and seemed to knife into the ground near the players, lights so bright that the fall sun seemed dim. After the strobes came a hot wind, nearly blistering.

  Then, the unseen harp of harmony strummed the chords of the afternoon with an intricate chording that only Anna sensed and heard—that she’d discovered from experience. In the sky to the east, over the Ostfels, clouds appeared where none had been, quickly expanding and darkening as they rose even higher into the heavens.

  Thurummmm … Thunder rolled across the sky and rumbled over the river flat.