Darksong Rising (63 page)

the gelding’s other side.

“No, Lady Anna. I asked, but the young fellow said that his sire would deliver his message in

person.”

“Those are the worst kinds,” Jecks said, stepping up beside Menares. “Did he say when this

might be?”

“No, Lord Jecks. That was yesterday, and no one saw him today.”

“I’ll have to tell him no. I can’t back down just because he’s upset. Then, I’d have to back down

for every lord in Defalk, I suppose.”

“Some have,” Jecks said. “They lasted but a season or so."

“I haven’t been Regent for much more than a year.” Anna set the brush aside and gave Farinelli a

last pat on the neck. “Tirsik will feed you, fellow.”

“Aye, and I will.” The stablemaster appeared with a wooden bucket containing grain.

Anna picked up the lutar, leaving the saddlebags and the mirror case to the guards. After she left

the stable, Jecks at her side, she crossed the courtyard and stepped into the lower corridor that led

toward the receiving room.

“I must check on Jimbob and Kinor,” Jecks said.

“When you’re done, would you meet me in the receiving room to review the damage... all the

scrolls piled there?”

“I will be there after I settle the young scamps.” With a smile, Jecks turned.

As she started toward the receiving room, she stopped, cocking her head, wondering if she heard

rain on the roof—or horses coming across the open ground to the liedburg. You imagine too

much. She shook her head and kept walking, carrying just the lutar. Much as she wanted a hot

bath and clean clothes, she had the feeling that she’d better see just what had piled up in the way

of scrolls and messages before she even thought about bathing.

Rickel handed the saddlebags to Giellum, who bowed and started for the stairs.

“Thank you, Giellum,” Anna said.

“My pleasure, Lady Anna. We are all glad to see you back safe." With a smile, the youngest

guard started up the side staircase to the second level.

Rickel and Blaz stationed themselves outside the receiving room, and Anna slipped through the

door, and stopped--looking at the stack of scrolls that seemed to cover the worktable. “Lord...”

After a moment, she set the lutar against the wall, then slowly picked up the first scroll—

something from the rivermen. Not again... She glanced at the first lines.

Regent and sorceress, Savior of Liedwahr, Restorer of Defalk, Protectoress of Harmony, and

Lady of Mencha,

The Guild of Rivermen has approached your ministers, and has requested, time upon time ... We

cannot plead too strongly that the tariff levied upon us will force all of us from the waters of the

rivers that have nourished us and fed our families since from before the days of the Corian

lords....

The receiving-room door burst open, and Menares panted into the room, shouting, “Lady Anna!

Your lutar! Your spells! Lord Dannel has attacked the liedburg with scores of armsmen and

lancers! They are everywhere, killing everyone!”

Anna dropped the scroll and scrambled for the lutar case, flicking the leather straps away as

quickly as she could. Shouts came through the half-open door, and the sound of metal against

metal, followed by grunts.

“She’s in there! Get to the bitch!” Clunk. ...

A dull thud followed as some armsman fell against a wooden door.

Anna shook herself, and pulled the lutar from the case. She fumbled with the tuning pegs and the

strings, but moved toward the open door to the hallway as she began to sing, managing to get out

words to the spell she knew all too well.

Turn to fire, turn to flame ...

all those to strike—

She found herself coughing, choking on mucus that had come from somewhere. She managed to

clear her throat and spit out the garbage that had come from her lungs. Would happen now...

With a deep breath, she stood just back of the open side of the doorway and began the chording

and singing a second time.

Turn to fire, turn to flame...

all those to strike against my name.

Turn to ash, turn to dust,

 
these enemies as I must.

The hissing of fire whips mixed with screams that died quickly. Anna found herself coughing

once more and reached out to steady herself on the doorframe, then stepped out into the corridor

where Rickel and Blaz stood with bloodied blades. Lejun and Kinor. came hurrying down the

corridor, stepping over blackened corpses, their blades also bare and stained.

The muffled sound of arms and yells elsewhere was not ending, but continuing, and Rickel and

Kinor glanced toward Anna, their eyebrows rising in puzzlement.

Why? Anna wanted to bang her head against the wall. Because they can’t hear your voice

through all the walls.

“Lady Anna?” asked Kinor.

“We need to get to the north tower. So I can sing out over the whole liedburg,” she added after a

pause. “Quickly." Before too many people die.

“To the north tower!” ordered Rickel, raising his blade. “Blaz, follow the lady so none slip

behind us."

Holding the lutar, Anna followed Kinor and her guards, past a half dozen charred corpses. She

tried not to gag on the smell that was all too similar to burned meat, coughing her throat clear.

When they turned at the end of the corridor, moving toward the stairs to the upper levels, Kinor,

and Rickel stopped, finding a half-score of armsmen lurching toward them. Another group was

attacking four armsmen in purple who held the base of the stairs, able to keep off the invaders

only because of the comparative narrowness of the staircase.

Anna began the chording and the spell, again.

Turn to fire, turn to flame...

The all-too-familiar whips of fire cleared both the corridor and the lower steps, leaving more

blackened figures, and the sickening odor of burned meat. Anna coughed more secretions out of

her throat, but kept moving, holding tightly to the lutar.

“The north tower! The sorceress needs to spell the liedburg,” Kinor yelled through the smoky air.

“Hold the stairs,” he added to the four regular armsmen as Rickel and Anna raced past, followed

by Lejun and Blaz. Kinor then sprinted up the steps after the others.

The second-floor corridor was empty, but Kinor and Anna’s guards hurried northward toward the

steps to the tower, quickly checking each corner, but finding no invaders.

At the sound of boots on the stone, corning from behind them and from the direction of her

chambers, Anna lifted the lutar, but the two figures were those of Jecks and Jimbob.

“The north tower,” Kinor explained as the white-haired lord glanced toward the Regent.

“Good. She can spell from there,” Jecks said.

The sound of fighting continued to rise from the liedburg courtyard, sounding louder by the time

Anna reached the north tower steps.

Anna winced as Kinor sprinted up the steps without waiting for any of the others.

“Blaz.... follow him ... you as well, Lejun,” Rickel ordered.

“We will hold here," Jecks said to Rickel, “Jimbob, you follow the sorceress and guard her rear."

Then Jecks raised his voice to Anna, “Lady, sing your worst upon them!”

Anna glanced up the narrow stone steps, but could hear nothing but the sound of boots on stone.

She hurried after Blaz, lutar in her left hand, using her right for balance as she hurried upward,

trying to breathe deeply, knowing she would need every bit of oxygen she could muster once she

reached the open parapets of the tower. The tower steps were empty, and each door on every

level had been flung open—none of the apartments, including the small one in which she had

once lived, and the larger quarters that had briefly imprisoned Lady Essan, held anyone.

Lejun stood on the landing nearest the top. “They have cleared the tower, lady.”

“Thank you,” she gasped out. Riding had been good for her legs, but it clearly hadn’t helped her

breathing. She took two deep breaths, then started up the last dozen or so of the stone steps. She

was still panting by the time she reached the open space of the tower’s uppermost level. Kinor

and Blaz—blades bare—waited for her.

“Do what you must, lady,” Kinor said. “We will guard the steps."

Without speaking, Jimbob stepped up beside Kinor and Blaz. “Jecks and Rickel are guarding the

bottom.” Anna forced herself to take several more deep breaths, breaths which led to another

round of coughing. Shit! You wouldn’t think you’d need vocalises coming back to your own

liedburg. She coughed her throat clear and began to check the lutar’s tuning before she walked to

the chest-high parapet overlooking the courtyard and the liedburg building itself. Then she tried

for full concert voice with the spell.

Turn to fire, turn to flame...

The liedburg shuddered, each stone seeming to glow in the twilight. Then, a long and low rumble

of thunder, nearly subsonic, shook the air, and the liedburg towers shivered. Streaks of flame

streamed from somewhere below the gray clouds that darkened as Anna watched.

For long moments, the entire liedburg was ringed with fire— or so it seemed. Then screams

echoed from the open courtyards and from the space to the north of the open gates.

Another shudder of the ground was followed by silence.

Anna leaned against the stones of the parapet, half-stunned, exhausted, doubting that she could

sing another spell. She could barely hang on to the lutar and her breath rasped hoarsely through

her throat.

After a time, she peered into the twilit gloom and the courtyard below where figures still moved.