Darksong Rising

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  "Fussen's roads are much better." Anna grinned. "I'm not so sure about its bridges, though."

  "My sire always said that bridges should be strong enough for wagons and weak enough to be removed in case you wanted to deny an enemy a crossing."

  "That didn't stop the Prophet," the sorceress pointed out.

  "He didn't think about sorcery. There haven't been many sorcerers or sorceresses in the west since the lady Peuletar, and that was many, many years ago." Falar added, almost conversationally. 'They say that she was beautiful, too."

  "You're very gallant," Anna replied, half-pleased at the indirect compliment, but wanting that to go nowhere. "Rut you're my son's age, Falar."

  "My eyes do not see that, lady."

  "I said you were gallant, you rascal." Anna watched as one of the scouts rode down from the long hill that they approached, then stopped to talk to Himar, who had ridden ahead of the main column with several lancers, if behind the vanguard. "The scouts have seen something."

  "Let us hope we are nearing our destination."

  Anna wasn't certain about that.

  Himar rode back from the head of the column, where he had been talking to one of the scouts. "Lady... once we reach the hills ahead, Arien lies in the valley beyond. How would you wish to proceed?"

  "We'll try the mirror again, once we get to the hilltop and can check what it shows us against what we can see and the maps." She paused. "They didn't see any armsmen, did they?"

  "No, Regent."

  "Good."

  Once they had reached the hillcrest, Himar led the column about a third of the way down the steeper hillside before he brought them to a halt by a browning meadow, where a small stream crossed the road at an angle, leaving a muddy ford of sorts.

  'They can water their mounts while you scry, if you would not mind."

  'That's fine."

  Followed by Falar, Liende, and Himar-and Rickel and Blaz-Anna took the glass to the top side of the sloping meadow, setting it on a rock that was halfway flat. Then she lifted the lutar and began the scrying spell.

  Show us now and show us clear, how the ways to Arien do appear...

  Anna studied the mirror, then out eastward, and then back to the mirror. Just as Dvoyal, who had approximated a brother-in-law to Gatrune, Anna thought, had told her, Arien indeed lay in a valley, but unlike Stromwer there was no real barrier to approaching the keep, which lay just east of the small town. Rolling hills surrounded the gentle valley on all sides, hills partly forested and partly in brown-grassed meadows. There were few fields showing cultivation, and far larger grassy areas with dark shapes that appeared to be cows. A dairying region? Cheeses? Cheese kept, unlike milk, at least if you had cool cellars.

  "Is Arien known for its cheeses?" she asked Falar, standing behind Himar.

  "I could not say." The redhead shrugged, apologetically.

  "The best hard white cheeses come from Arien," Liende finally said. "Some prefer the light yellow. Lord Brill bought the white."

  Anna forced her thoughts back to the most unpleasant prospects of the action soon to be required of her and concentrated on the mirror-like map. There was a knoll to the south of the keep-or a rise. Anna pointed, as Himar sketched, and asked, "Could we hold that hilltop for a little while if Lord Tybel sent lancers after us?"

  "With your arrow spells... and if he has fewer than tenscore armsmen."

  "What if we circle to the south from here?"

  "Word will reach him." Himar observed. "There is little real cover."

  "He's not expecting us."

  "And that will alarm him greatly." Himar paused. "He may know already. The scouts saw riders hastening toward the keep."

  Anna suspected her arms commander was totally right about that.

  When she finally released the spell, she took a deep breath, then picked up the lutar again.

  Show us now and show us clear

  Where Lord Tybel does appear....

  The mirror obligingly displayed a keep's courtyard where armsmen and lancers in armor and with shields milled into a rough formation. In the center of the armsmen was a squarebearded and broad-shouldered man wearing what Anna would have called glittering half armor.

  'This one will not wait behind walls," Falar said. "Would that his brains equaled his courage."

  Anna wasn't sure she agreed with that wish, either. She sang the release couplet and looked at Himar. "We'll have a glass or so before he arrives?"

  "Almost two."

  Neither doubted Tybel's destination.

  "Where would be the best place to spellcast on him?"

  "The ridge ahead, just above the bottom of the hill," Himar said flatly.

  Anna turned. "Chief Player, I'll need the long flame spell and then, if necessary, the arrow spell."

  Liende looked at Anna. "As the Regent commands." Anna glanced at Falar, then Himar. "I need to talk to the chief player."

  Both men stepped back.

  "I will stand ready," Himar said with a bow.

  "I also." Falar bowed.

  Anna reached into her wallet and extracted the folded scroll from Tybel. She extended it to Liende. "If you would read this, Liende. Then I'd like to hear what you think."

  The chief player's face looked like it had been chiseled from stone when she handed the scroll back.

  "Now..." Anna said softly, "do you see why I don't have any choice? If I let Tybel dictate how Defalk is run... nothing will change."

  Liende shook her head. "You would have taken nothing from him. He has sons. Even his grandsons would have held Flossbend... is that not so?"

  "I wasn't happy with them, but I wouldn't have changed that," Anna admitted. "Just like I didn't unseat Ustal." As big a chauvinist as he is.

  "Because you would allow a few women to hold lands... he would torch all Defalk?"

  Anna gestured eastward toward the distant keep. "He's certainly acting that way."

  Liende fixed Anna with intent eyes. "How will you use the spell?"

  "To kill anyone who supports Tybel and who also believes that women should be slaves."

  "Not to kill them all?"

  "Not unless they keep attacking. Then I'll have to use the full flame spell."

  Liende exhaled slowly. "You are as fair as the harmonies allow. I will have the players make ready once we reach the ridge."

  "I'm sorry."

  "They will be sorrier still, the hapless fools." Liende's eyes were bright with unshed tears.

  Anna and her guards followed the player back toward their mounts, Blaz carrying the scrying mirror.

  107

  The area overlooking the road that Anna had picked was more like a bench protruding from the gentle eastern side of the hill than a true ridge. The lancers, each beside his mount, were arrayed in an arc that flanked Anna and the players. Anna's guards remained mounted.

  The sorceress watched as the dust rose from the road leading from the keep beyond the town toward their position. She had picked a slight knoll in the benchlike meadow, one not quite in the center of the open space overlooking the road from Arien. Standing behind her were Liende and the players.

  The sound of tuning overrode the intermittent whispers of wind in the dry grass of the hillside field.

  "The first warm-up song!" ordered the chief player.

  Anna launched into the third vocalise. "Muueeee... oooweee..." Her cords and throat were clear for a change, perhaps because the night frosts had reduced the amount of pollen and molds in the air, and perhaps because the winds had been light and carried little dust.

  After the vocalise, the sorceress stepped forward to the edge of the knoll and looked eastward again. Rickel and Blaz, shields out, rode forward to cover her.

  The black-surcoated riders slowed almost a dek away and began to re-form from a column into a broader formation, at least several riders deep, from what Anna could tell. Two outriders with black banners bearing some sort of silver device took station before the formation.

  At t
he sound of hoofs, Anna turned to watch as a scout rode up to Himar. Then she turned and walked back toward Liende. The sorceress waited until the players finished the second warm-up tune.

  "Yes, Regent?"

  "Lord Tybel's armsmen are forming up. It won't be long."

  "Stand ready!" Liende ordered.

  Both women turned as Himar rode toward them.

  "Regent... Chief Player. The scouts say that Lord Tybel has near-on thirtyscore armsmen." Himar looked eastward for a moment, then back to Anna.

  'Thirty? That's more than any lord in Defalk." Anna looked at the slowly advancing riders and the dark lances with tips that glittered in the cool afternoon light. As she watched, the formation halted once more, and a rider with a blue parley banner rode forward from the lines of black-surcoated riders and up the gradual incline of the road.

  "Birtol! Go hear what he has to say!" ordered Himar.

  "Stand ready," Anna said quietly to Liende. "I think Tybel will make some impossible demand, and when we reject it, he'll have everyone charge us and try to overwhelm us before I can sing anything. So the players have to be ready to go as soon as their herald or messenger or whatever he is turns." She paused. "Or if I signal sooner."

  "We are prepared."

  The herald with the parley banner guided his mount to a position a hundred yards below the Defalkan lines. After reining up, Tybel's herald declaimed. 'These words are for the sorceress and for all to hear. Lord Tybel would have naught said in secret. naught hidden." After a moment, he continued, his voice ringing across the late afternoon. 'The most honorable Lord Tybel of Arien demands that the Regency be turned over to him to preserve the heritage and honor of Defalk. He further demands that the false sorceress be stripped of her powers and executed..."

  Anna turned to Liende. "Have them play. Now!"

  Liende pivoted on one foot, her face grim. "The flame song-on my mark. MARK!!"

  The first introductory bars of the players drifted downhill, past the sorceress and toward the herald and Tybel's armsmen.

  Anna began the spell, trying to maintain both her composure and her images while she projected full concert volume across Tybel's forces.

  Turn to fire, turn to flame all those under Tybel's claim, those who hold women as does he, those who will not honor the Regency.

  As she sang, she concentrated on an image of a curtain of fire, white-hot, descending from the cold, clear sky.

  "Charge the bitch!" came the order from below, even before the herald had finished his words of challenge to the Regent-sorceress.

  The drumbeat of hoofs began, as the black-clad lancers charged toward the knoll. Anna kept her mind and voice on finishing the spell.

  Turn to ashes, turn to dust, all Tybel's lancers we cannot trust...

  The chords of harmony strummed once, heard but by Anna and the few of the more sensitive players, then a second time. Those twin chords were clear, but unstrained, unlike other recent efforts by the sorceress.

  Whhhhsssttt! Instead of lines of fire, there was an intense sheet of white flame, brighter than the sun that dropped like lightning.

  The hillside was silent, deadly silent.

  Anna blinked, her eyes watering profusely. White stars flashed before her eyes. the aftermath of the strobelike white fire wall.

  "Dissonance..."

  "Mother of harmonies..."

  "What happened...?"

  The sorceress blotted her eyes, trying to clear her vision, hoping that the spell had been effective, because she wasn't seeing anything. Except for murmurs from her guards, the silence drew out.

  When her eyes stopped tearing and she could finally see, Anna looked downhill. She shook her head. There were five... maybe six men on their mounts in black surcoats. There were no other black-clad figures-or mounts. Beginning about fifty yards below the Defalkan lines, the ground was black, and not a trace of vegetation remained-just a swath of charred ashes three hundred yards deep and almost half a dek wide.

  Anna looked at the devastation blankly. Never had one of her spells destroyed a foe so completely and quickly. Your sense frustration and anger?

  The sorceress turned.

  Liende looked at her. "...I wanted that... so much... after what the herald said.... May... the harmonies... forgive me."

  Anna touched her arm. "I guess... maybe I did, too."

  Himar had turned his mount and rode slowly toward Anna across the browned grass, with the faint hint of the orange redness of twilight falling across his face. Seated in his saddle looking down at her, he appeared to be looking up. His voice was hoarse as he asked, "What would you have us do?"

  "I couldn't do it any other way," Anna said raggedly. "Look down there... how many are alive? The spell would have spared anyone loyal to the Regency... anyone who thought women were people... What was I supposed to do? Too many people have died because I tried to be forgiving and understanding."

  Himar swallowed. "There are some few who live."

  "I'd... like to see... them."

  For a time. Anna leaned against Farinelli, not quite clinging, before she finally fumbled out the water bottle and drank. She had just about finished when a squad of lancers escorted a man on foot toward Anna. The man's hands were loosely bound, and his scabbard was empty.

  Rickel and Lejun stepped forward, shields on their arms, blades out, barring the way to the sorceress. Beside Rickel were Bersan and Fielmir. Blaz flanked Lejun. All five focused on the captive.

  "This man remained among those still living," Himar said.

  The man before Anna wore a silver pin of some sort in his black collar, and he stared defiantly at her.

  "How many were there?" Anna asked.

  "A half-score, all older lancers except this one."

  Anna studied the man with the slightly frizzy henna-colored hair. She should have recognized him, but her mind wouldn't come up with a name or from where she knew him.

  "Will you slaughter me as well, lady?" he finally asked.

  The voice was familiar as well. Yet she could not place him. "Why should there be any more killing?"

  "So that you can dispose of my uncle's lands as you please."

  Zybar... the younger brother at Gatrune's.

  "Did he fight?" Anna asked Himar.

  "He rode and he had his blade. He was wise enough not to use it after the others fell."

  Anna shook her head at the irony.

  Zybar flushed. "You mock me as well!"

  "No...I'm not mocking you, Zybar. You didn't think what your uncle and your father did was right, did you? But you didn't want to cross them? Or you feared them?"

  "I stood with them."

  "That is not what I asked."

  "Best you answer the Regent," suggested Himar.

  Rickel and Lejun raised their bare steel blades slightly.

  Zybar shifted his weight, and his eyes finally dropped from Anna's level gaze. "You had given Lord Hryding's lands to his consort for his heirs. That was right. I would not, held I lands, have wished it otherwise. Better even a daughter hold her father's birthright than an outsider or a distant cousin." Zybar flushed. "I like you not, Regent, but with the lands have you been fair."

  Anna nodded. "I'm glad you think so, Lord Zybar."

  Zybar looked directly at Anna. 'You say you do not mock me, yet you call me lord, after you have slain even my brothers and my father and uncle with your sorcery."

  "I used a special spell. Zybar-it only killed those who opposed the Regency. Why do you think you're alive?"

  "Yet you have shamed me, for I did not stand in my heart with my father." Zybar lifted his head, but his eyes avoided Anna's.

  "You stood for what you thought was right," Anna pointed out.

  "The more fool I. For I will die later as sooner."

  Anna shook her head, waiting. "You say that you think lands could go to daughters as well as sons."

  "Aye. What of Lord Hryding's lands?"

  "His daughter still lives," Anna said. "Lord Dann
el attacked the liedburg in Falcor. His men tried to kill several daughters of lords who were their father's only heirs. They failed. Lord Dannel is dead. I did seize his lands for that, and that attack was partly why I came to Arien. The other reason was the strange death of Anientta and her sons."

  Zybar's face paled. "My uncle... he..."

  "The 'illness' that killed Anientta and her sons was a little too convenient, wouldn't you say?"

  "You have shamed my family... yet... I feared such." Zybar lowered his eyes once more.

  "Look at me," Anna said quietly.

  Zybar raised his eyes.

  Anna's eyes were like ice as she addressed him. "You can worry about shame, or you can get on with redeeming your family's honor by supporting the Regency and what you know to be right. What will it be, Lord Zybar? Will you be Lord of Arien, and support the Regency and the rights of daughters?"

  "Altyr has two boys living, and they are in the hold at Arien," Zybar said slowly. "The oldest is but five. Altyr's older son died of the flux two years ago."

  "Tybel's older son may have children, Zybar, but two generations of treachery is enough for me. If you wish to be their guardian, you may do so, but only with the condition that they will never be lords in Defalk. Nor will their children, and you must ensure that. Nor the children of any others except for you."

  "If I cannot undertake such?" questioned the henna-haired man.

  "I'll have them fostered somewhere in the far south or north, as far from Arien as possible."

  "I will foster them myself, save that you allow it." Zybar's voice was hoarse.

  "I will allow it." Anna continued to study the young man. "Will you swear fealty to the Regency?"

  Zybar lowered his head for a moment, then raised his pale green eyes to Anna's. "In honor, I have no choice. You have acted with greater honor than my own kin." He laughed hoarsely. "Yet, so far removed was I that I have no consort, for none..." he shook his head.

  "I doubt you will have trouble with that now," Anna said dryly. After a moment, she added, "You and your remaining armsmen may return to Arien. You can tell your brother's consort and your cousin's consort and anyone else that, if anything happens to you, I will exile every living relation of Tybel's and will use sorcery to destroy whoever lifts a hand against you.