Darksong Rising (100 page)

“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 Dannel 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.

You are your family’s sole hope, Zybar. You’d better make good on it.”

Zybar’s eyes met Anna’s. “Dare I do otherwise?”

“No.” Anna glanced toward Himar. “Escort him back to his mount and his men. Then untie him,

and let him go.”

She watched the young man walk slowly downhill in the twilight, his steps uneven.

“You are hard, lady,” offered Falar, who had slipped up beside Anna’s guards.

“Hard? Not as hard as Tybel would have been.”

“He must atone for two generations of wrongs, and know that you could destroy him in a

moment” Falar shook his head. “He must change everything his sire and his uncle believed in.

He knew they were wrong, and he was not strong enough to stand up to them, and you did, and

you are a woman.”

“That’s because I have some power, and he didn’t.”

“From what I hear, you had little enough power when you came to Defalk. Yet you would not

turn from what you saw to be true. You have shamed him.” Falar laughed, almost lightly, “Not

that we all could not use shaming at times.”

Including you... but what else could you have done—except let people keep getting slaughtered.

What you’ve started is like an avalanche... you either stay ahead of it or get swallowed in it.

Her eyes burned as she turned and walked out to the end of the knoll, looking eastward at the

distant keep of Arien. Zybar and his ten lancers had already vanished into the twilight.

108

Under the morning sun, Anna turned in the saddle and looked back over her shoulder at Arien.

While some had wondered at her refusal to enter Arien, and her insistence on making a camp

above the battlefield, after what she had done, she could no more have stayed in the town or the

keep than... physically touched Elizabetta across the gap between worlds. Or worked sorcery on

Earth.

Her face turned to the road that would lead to Synope, and the keep of Flossbend, but she saw

nothing. After a restless night’s sleep, her eyes watered and burned with the questions that ran

through her mind. What have you become? All you wanted...was a few more rights for women…

a little more justice... and it’s as though you were. . . some sort of monster. Even Himar looks

sideways at you.

She twisted in the saddle, then reached for the water bottle, not sure she was thirsty, but knowing

she couldn’t afford to get dehydrated, either. The water was cool, tasteless, and she swallowed,

then replaced the bottle in its holder. The wind was cool, but not cold, on her face, and the air

carried the mold of autumn. She found herself coughing, leaning forward in the saddle for a time

before she straightened. Stress always had made the asthma worse.

Liende rode up beside Anna. “You are troubled, Lady Anna.” Her voice was soft, sympathetic in

a way Anna had not heard from the older-looking woman in weeks, if not seasons.

“Does it show that much?” Stupid question. “I’m sorry. Yes... I’m troubled.” More than

troubled... very troubled.

“You did not wish to destroy Lord Tybel that way?” Liende glanced ahead toward Himar and the

vanguard. Except for Liende and her guards, Anna rode very much alone, with wide spaces

between her and the lancers.

“It’s not that. I mean, it is, but it isn’t. All I started out to do was to survive and then to make

sure Lord Jimbob would have a country left to inherit, and then I tried to make sure that women

weren’t treated as slaves. But I kept having to use sorcery against other countries to keep them

from invading mostly, except for Ebra the second time, but Bertmynn was killing all the women

in Elahwa because they didn’t want to be slaves anymore.” Anna swallowed. “And somehow,

almost half the lords in Defalk are or were against me. And most of Defalk’s neighbors. It’s like

a holy war, and all the old lords want to kill me and stop what I’m trying to do. Some of the old

crafters like the chandler in Pamr, too. So I either give up, and that doesn’t seem right, or I kill a

lot of people, and that’s not right, either. When I tried to talk, no one listened, and when I used

force they all thought I was terrible.”

Liende nodded. After a time, she spoke. “Lord Brill treated women well, but he would do

nothing beyond his own lands. He died, and nothing changed.”

“If I died tomorrow,” Anna said, “nothing would change.”

“It has already changed, lady, and if you can but survive a handful of years, it will never change

back.” The chief player continued more softly. “Never would I have paid as you pay,” Liende

said. “You have given my son lands, and my daughter hope and dignity... and others as well, but

few will thank you. You have begun to change this land so that it will survive and prosper, but

few will thank you for that.”

“I guess I just got tired of being the good little girl.”

"Ah..."

Another expression that doesn’t quite translate. “Women are supposed to listen to men and take

their advice. They’re not supposed to he too assertive, even if they’re regents. They’re not

supposed to use sorcery to wipe out brave strong armsmen. It’s all right for that brave strong

armsman to use his blade or lance, or to take an unwilling woman with his strength, but good

girls don’t point those embarrassing things out. Good girls don’t say, ‘You’re not going to keep

doing this, and back it up with superior force.’ Good girls don’t..." ‘ Anna broke off the

monologue. “I guess I’m just not a good girl. Maybe I never was. . . Now I’ll have to hold the

Thirty-three—or many of them—under an iron fist.” The sorceress shook her head. “I never

wanted that.”

“Perhaps not..." There was another long silence, before Liende continued. “Were there another

sorceress to follow you...”

“Another sorceress?” Anna laughed harshly. “I’m not sure that one isn’t too much for Defalk."

“Power must he balanced by power, and women cannot lift blades as heavy as do men.”