Darksong Rising

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  "Indeed," added Je'elasia.

  "I apologize for delaying supper." Anna felt herself flushing as she inclined her head to Gatrune. "There was a pressing matter... involving..." She shook her head. "I'll explain after everyone gets a chance to eat."

  "Then let us eat." Lady Gatrune nodded toward Anna. Anna led the way into the dining hall, and, once more, Anna found herself at the head of the table, with Gatrune on her right, and Jecks on her left. Jimbob sat beside Gatrune, and Je'elasia beside Jecks. Zybar sat beside Jimbob, and Dvoyal beside his consort. Then came Kyrun, Liende, Himar, Firis, and Kinor. Anna almost felt sorry for the redheaded student at the bottom of the table, except that he was across from Firis, who was always animated.

  The dinner was simple-a heavy lamb stew laden with potatoes and vegetables, accompanied by dark rye bread. Anna took her normal huge helping, ignoring the glances from Dvoyal and Zybar.

  Gatrune poured an amber wine into Anna's goblet, and then Jecks', before passing the pitcher down the table. Once the wine had reached Kinor, the Lady of Pamr lifted her goblet, "To the Regent, and a good dinner."

  "To the Regent."

  Anna, feeling slightly light-headed, ate several mouthfuls of stew before stopping and looking at Gatrune, and speaking to the lady, directly and softly, under the louder voices from the lower end of the table. "I mentioned... sorcerous work. You remember the chandler? He and his brother fled the town after we rode through. He's been working Darksong, and one of the reasons why we came to Pamr was to look into what he was doing... except he's disappeared."

  "You cannot scry him with your sorcery?" murmured Gatrune.

  "I can, but all the mirror shows is a simple house like dozens of others. I'll try more later...." Anna shrugged apologetically. "He is working Darksong. I'd have Firis strengthen your walls and gates."

  Gatrune nodded. "I will talk to him."

  Anna lifted her voice toward the three from Arien. "Perhaps you could tell me something about Arien. I haven't had the chance to visit there."

  Dvoyal and Zybar exchanged glances before Dvoyal. who appeared to be the older sibling, replied, "Arien lies in the most fertile valley to the west and north of where the Ostfels turn west toward Synope. Lord Tybel has worked long and hard to ensure that peace and prosperity are the lot of the people of Arien."

  "Are you related to Lord Tybel?" asked Anna with what she hoped was apparent ingenuousness. "Forgive my ignorance, but, as you must know, I do not come from Liedwahr."

  "Lord Tybel is our uncle."

  "Oh... so your mother or father is related to Lady Anientta of Flossbend."

  "Anientta is our father's younger sister."

  Anna nodded politely. "And your father is?"

  "Beltyr," replied Zybar.

  "It sounds as though your father and Lord Tybel are close."

  "Indeed they are, as brothers should be," emphasized Dvoyal. Tybel's requests to consolidate his holdings with those of Anientta made a great deal more sense. "Brothers should be close and respect each other. They do not, always, unfortuuately, even in Defalk."

  Dvoyal frowned, almost quizzically, while Zybar looked as though he were about to nod before catching himself.

  Interesting difference between the brothers. "You two are brothers, but do you always agree?" asked Anna.

  "Family must always agree," answered Dvoyal smoothly, but quickly. "If we do not, there will always be others who would put us at each other."

  Zybar gave a slightly ironic smile that vanished quickly.

  "I don't know that outsiders are always the problem. I've already been requested to deal with problems involving brothers and their inheritances." Anna smiled faintly. "So it's good to hear that your father and Lord Tybel get along well. Who might be Lord Tybel's heirs? You might know that if they're younger, I'd be pleased to invite them to Falcor."

  "He has two sons," answered Dvoyal. "Altyr is near-on thirty, but Reralt is but fourteen."

  "Well... there are a number of fosterlings at Falcor, and your uncle might well consider the possibility." Anna smiled, then pitched her voice toward young Kyrun, who was trying to squelch a yawn. "Kyrun...would you like to come to Falcor when you're older? If your mother approves, of course."

  Kyrun offered a wide-eyed look, as if to say that he'd never considered the matter.

  Anna laughed gently. "You have a few years to think about it."

  "You are headed. . . if I might inquire?" asked Lady Gatrune. "To Loiseauu... my holding at Mencha," Anna replied. "I haven't been able to get there in more than a year, and I'm afraid there's more to be done than I'll have time to accomplish."

  "Your holding?" asked Zybar.

  "Mine." Anna smiled, feeling her face would drop off from all the semifalse smiles she had already offered. "I received it from Lord Brill... in a manner of speaking, after his death...." Anna went on to recount how she had gained the lands and the keep of Loiseau, careful to keep eating between fragments of the story, knowing she would need the food and the energy in the days to come.

  31

  As the sun cleared the eastern horizon, Anna stood on the portico steps and turned a last time to Lady Gatrune. "Please keep an eye out for the chandler."

  "You have warned us, and Captain Firis will ensure we are well kept, lady. You must take care of your own lands." The rangy white-and-blonde-haired lady smiled. "And whatever else is needful for Defalk and the Regency." Her eyebrows lifted. "I will not pry, but knowing you, you would not have come all this way with so many lancers merely to set your lands in order. Few others would know, and I will not speak of it, but be there anything we can offer..."

  "The provisions and the food and shelter and company were all very welcome." Anna returned Gatrune's smile warmly. "What means the most to me is your friendship from the beginning, when no one knew who I was."

  "That you have continued to accord us that friendship, after many more glorious in Defalk have sought you... that, Lady Anna, is why you are Regent, and why we always look to your visits." Gatrune inclined her head. "May your journey prove fruitful."

  "Thank you. Thank you very much." Anna leaned forward and lifted the cased Lutar, then turned and walked down the paved way toward the stables. Jimbob, Kinor, and Jecks had already said their farewells and were down readying their mounts.

  Firis stood by Farinelli's stall as Anna entered the stable, followed as always by her guards, this time Rickel and Blaz. "Good day, Lady Regent."

  "Good day." Anna replied, despite feeling slightly queasy. Early rising had always done that to her, and being on Erde hadn't changed that. She slipped into the stall and patted the gelding, then slipped the blanket in place, followed by the saddle.

  Farinelli whuffed.

  "There are rumors, Lady Anna... that you might stray east of Mencha." Firis looked at Anna as she stood beside Farinelli. "I would that some of our armsmen-and I-might serve you again."

  "Rumors are only rumors, Captain Firis." Anna smiled, looking straight at the dark-haired Firis. "I would like to take some of your armsmen, and you, Firis, but they might be needed here."

  "Here?"

  Anna nodded. "I have told Lady Gatrune. The chandler Farsenn has been trying Darksong, and I do not think he will be friendly to any lord or lady. My sorcery cannot locate him, and the needs of Defalk mean that I cannot remain here. Farsenn has been using Darksong to convert men to follow him. If you weakened your force to strengthen mine..."

  "A chandler?" Fins laughed.

  Anna smiled gently. "Once, Firis, I was only a teacher."

  The dark-haired captain's face sobered. "From any but you, Lady Anna, I would still laugh. When you say such, my soul chills...."

  "You have a task, Firis. It may not be glorious, but it remains solid and important." She bent to fasten the girths.

  Fins laughed. "You would protect me from my own nature, yet again."

  "I just want you to protect Lady Gatrune." Anna took the saddlebags from Blaz and eased them up in place behind the sa
ddle, tying the leather thongs quickly, but firmly. Then came the mirror and lutar, heavier by far than the few garments she carried.

  "I hear, and I will do so. Even with my life." After a moment, Firis added, "Not that I do not worry about your adventures."

  "You can worry. Just keep Gatrune and the hold safe." Anna checked the bridle.

  After leading Farinelli out to join Jecks and the others- already horsed-Anna mounted and offered a wave that she hoped would do for a salute and farewell before guiding Farinelli to the head of the column.

  "I worry about leaving them without dealing with the chandler," she finally murmured to Jecks as they approached the gate.

  "You worry too much, my lady," offered Jecks. "You have frightened off the chandler, and you have warned the lady and her captain. As you said, you cannot be everywhere, and you have determined that the eastern borders must be secured."

  "I brood. You know that, my lord Jecks." And you know that jobs left undone are always worse when they have to be done later or redone. Yet a relatively new Regent cannot kill even a chandler-if you could locate him-merely for suspicion of Darksong-not without creating even more unrest among the lords of the Thirty-three.

  Anna squinted into the sun, wondering what she would find at Loiseau, hoping the mess would not be too great, and that the staff had managed to keep things in some semblance of order. As they passed beyond the gate, she inclined her head to Meris, the armsman who had first eased her way into seeing Lady Gatrune and whom she'd failed to recognize a year later. "Take care, Meris."

  "You, too, Lady Anna." The older man smiled.

  Anna glanced back at the house on the rise, hoping that she wasn't making too much of a mistake in leaving Pamr. Yet what can you do? You don't know Defalk well enough to find the chandler, and you can't be away from Falcor too long, or Rabyn will have armsmen running from the West Pass all the way to Falcor. You're standing before two doors, and they both say "damned."

  With a sigh, she pulled her floppy hat forward on her head to try to shield her eyes from the morning sun.

  32

  OUTSIDE OF PAMR, DEFALK

  Outside the small cot, the road is empty, and the dust of the riders has settled, long settled, before the dark-bearded man goes to the window and opens the shutters just enough to peer between them. "She has departed ... and left no armsmen behind to bother us."

  "They did not bother us. They did not seek us or leave lancers," says Giersan. "Why would they?"

  "The sorceress has sought me in her glass. I have sensed that. Lady Gatrune's lackeys have inquired after us, but they did not find us." The dark-haired Farsenn nods, almost to himself as he steps back. "We have much to do... now."

  Giersan stares at Farsenn, almost disgustedly. "Why did we run this time? What excuse will you offer?"

  "I was not prepared. Nor were you."

  "When will you be prepared, 0 great master of Darksong?" Giersan snorts, rudely. "You have promised and promised. I had thought I was the cautious one. She would have seen nothing. One would think you were a mouse and not a sorcerer."

  "She had the lutar in her hand, and it was broad daylight," counters Farsenn.

  "She could come in daylight next time, or the time after."

  "She rides eastward. She must ride back through Pamr to Falcor. My brother, we will ensure that it matters not whether she comes in darkness or in full light. I have a plan. When she returns, then we will be prepared... more than prepared."

  Giersan raises his eyebrows, but says nothing.

  33

  After three long days of travel from Pamr, dust coated the lower legs of both riders and mounts, and Anna had gone through three of her four daily water bottles by the time the bluish-tinged, off-white walls of Loiseau appeared on the eastern horizon above the low houses of Mencha. Even as Anna watched, the low sun at her back began to turn the stone parapets the sorcerer Brill had once raised with his skills from blue-white to a rosy twilit color that spread above the late-afternoon shadows.

  Although almost a year had passed since Anna had returned the rains to Defalk, the road into Mencha remained as dusty as Anna had recalled it when she had first ridden Farinelli around Loiseau.

  "Break out the banner!" Himar ordered. "Even up the column! Undercaptain Skent... bring up your laggards!"

  "Smerda, Bius... move it up!"

  Anna smiled at the tone of firmness in Skent's voice. Perhaps she had kept him as a page too long. For his sake, probably... but he s young. Then... everyone does things young here. She straightened herself in her saddle, recalling that she was the Lady of Mencha.

  Small as Mencha was, more than a score of people watched, most smiling, some even waving, as Anna rode through the dusty streets toward Loiseau. Their words were open, not at all hushed.

  "See... did come back.. . and there's the banner, sure as you can see..."

  "Just a visit, Armal..."

  "When... ever have a ruler of Defalk from Mencha...I ask you?"

  "Rightly... is she ours?"

  "Whose else? First place she came... almost like being born... stop asking foolish questions, Vernot..."

  "Regent-sorceress?"

  Anna turned toward the girl who called, a stocky brunette not even as old as Secca, and smiled.

  "Thank you for the rains."

  "You're welcome. Take care of yourself," Anna called back, not quite sure what to say, but not wanting to appear too aloof.

  "You are truly theirs," murmured Jecks.

  "I don't know why," she replied in a low voice.

  "Because you changed little, perhaps," he speculated. "Perhaps because few return who have gained fame and position, and you have..."

  Whatever the reasons, the sorceress enjoyed the short ride through the center of Mencha, perhaps more than any ride since she'd come to Liedwahr, especially after the experience in Pamr. Just past the store that was half-chandlery, half-dry goods, in the center of the small town, Anna turned Farinelli south toward the hill on which Loiseau rested.

  A dek out of town, they neared the apple orchard where she had been ambushed by the Dark Monks. The trees had more leaves than in previous years, and apples filled the branches, most of the fruit already turned red. Large patches of grass dotted the space beneath the trees, and the hum of insects filled the air.

  "The orchard looks better. It was close to dying," she told Jecks. So were you, on that day, then, even if you didn't know it. She patted the gelding on the neck, recalling how he had carried her back to Loiseau with a war arrow through her upper chest and shoulder.

  As Farinelli started up the sloping road toward the walled hold, Anna's eyes turned toward the low-domed building on the lower ridge where she had learned how to turn earthly singing into Erdean sorcery-and first struggled through Brill's books on sorcery. Not a single hoofprint stood out in the dust of the lane from the main road to the silent dome.

  The road was steep enough that even the big gelding was breathing more heavily by the time his hoofs rang on the paving stones that led to the open gates of Loiseau.

  "...don't understand... they waved to her. . . I'm the heir..." Jimbob's plaintive comment to Kinor was barely audible.

  "It may be because she is their lady. Or it might be that you haven't risked your life for them." suggested Kinor dryly, with a wit that Anna hadn't suspected of the lanky redhead. "People do remember little things like that, once in a while."

  "You were born here..."

  "So I was told," answered Kinor. "I don't remember." He laughed gently.

  Jecks glanced at Anna and caught her eye. "Mayhap we should keep young Kinor around Lord Jimbob," he murmured as he leaned toward her.

  "Only until Jimbob is of age," Anna replied wryly. "Besides, Kinor might make a good captain-or consort for a hold without sons... or both."

  Jecks laughed.

  Blaz and Kerhor rode into the courtyard first, and Anna could hear voices before she passed the gates.

  "The Regent's here!"

/>   'There's the banner!"

  "Where is she?"

  "There's Liende, and her boy Kinor."

  The figures by the doors were few, but Anna recognized all seven-all those she'd actually met when she'd first come to Loiseau: Serna-the white-haired cook and head of household-and her diminutive dark-haired daughter Florenda; Albero, the armorer, who had taught Anna the little she knew about using a knife-and that had saved her life in Falcor; and his father Quies, the stablemaster; Gero, Brill's young aide; and Wiltur, the grizzled armsman, and his younger companion Frideric.

  The Regent reined up short of the steps and the mounting block, turning Farinelli gently so she could address the immediate staff. "I'll talk to you all later, but I wanted to thank you for everything you've done here at Loiseau when I couldn't be here. You've seen the lancers and the players, but I've also brought Lord Jecks, the Lord High Counselor of the Regency, and Lord Jimbob, the heir to Defalk" Anna gestured toward the redheaded Jimbob. "You all may recall Liende. She is chief of the Regent's players, and some of you know Kinor, her son. And the officer there is Overcaptain Himar." Anna cleared her throat, then smiled. "It's good to be back."

  Serna stepped forward, looking up at the sorceress. "We are glad to have you back, Lady Anna."

  "I hope you can manage, Serna. With Liende and my players and tenscore armsmen... there are a lot of mouths to feed."

  "We are ready, and we will feed them all." Serna offered a wide grin. "Welcome home, Lady Anna."

  "Thank you." Anna was afraid she would choke up if she said much more. "Thank you all." Slowly, she eased Farinelli around the north wall of the main hall and toward the stables. Quies left the group that had greeted her and walked beside Anna and Farinelli until they reached the stable doors.

  Anna dismounted, holding on to her saddle for a moment until she was sure her legs wouldn't buckle or cramp. Then she led Farinelli toward his stall.

  As he followed, Quies glanced from Anna to Farinelli. "You been taking good care of each other, you and the beast."