[Lyra 04] - Caught in Crystal

by Patricia C. Wrede - (ebook by Undead)

  The so-called Dark Times, followed by the Wars of Binding, are the main reason for the dearth of information regarding times prior to the wars. The Shadow-born, who ruled much of Lyra during the Dark Times, made a concerted effort to destroy both knowledge and magical ability. Kith Alunel was a major target of this effort.

  Fortunately, the inhabitants of Kith Alunel and its environs exhibited considerable creativity in hiding and preserving their heritage. Books and other documents were buried beneath the cornerstones of new buildings, walled into specially-constructed niches, even sealed with pitch and hidden in barrels of wine. The ninth Baroness Kyel-Semrud, to preserve the Kyel-Semrud’s ancestral home of Castle Ravensrest, is supposed to have built an exact duplicate of the castle, complete with copies of family heirlooms, and somehow tricked the Shadow-born into destroying the duplicate instead of their intended target. Though this seems unlikely, Castle Ravensrest is undeniably ancient and extraordinarily well preserved.

  Not all the ruses were as successful as the Baroness’ legendary trick. Some caches of books and magical equipment were discovered and destroyed; some were so well hidden that they were forgotten and lost. Enough survived, however, to make Kith Alunel a major source of knowledge and culture following the end of the Wars of Binding, and this undoubtedly contributed to the city’s preeminence in the centuries that followed.

  Many of the cities and countries along the eastern shore of the Melyranne Sea owe their existence, directly or indirectly, to Kith Alunel. The cities of Toltan and Morsedd were colonies of Kith Alunel, begun in 109 a.w.b. and 274 a.w.b. respectively. Mindaria was settled by dissidents in 248. Later, Kith Alunel was the prime mover in persuading the Senate of the Estarren Alliance to rename the Seaguard Mountains as the Mountains of Morravik and cede them to the Shanhar (an elite military band whose name was later corrupted into “Cilhar”).

  Possibly the most notable achievement of Kith Alunel was the Estarren Alliance, the loose federation of nation-states and independent cities which dominated the lands east of the Melyranne Sea for nearly eight hundred years. Though the Alliance was conceived to facilitate trade, it grew into a power capable of everything from building roads to fighting the wizards of Varna to a standstill. Even the bickering which followed the Wizard’s War of 1003-1026 a.w.b. did not result in open ruptures within the Alliance for nearly two centuries, and the core of the Alliance remained a power to reckon with well into the 1300s.

  With the break-up of the Estarren Alliance, Kith Alunel’s ascendancy began to fade. The center of political power passed on, first to Imach Thyssel, later to Ciaron. Curiously, this change in their supposed position has never appeared to bother the citizens of Kith Alunel in the slightest, and the city shows no sign of losing its vitality. To the contrary, innovations of all kinds continue to have their origins in Kith Alunel.

  —Kith Alunel: Legend and Reality by Najid Sar, Archivist of the Temple of the Third Moon, 2942 A.W.B. (From the library of Duke Dindran of Minathlan.)

  PART II

  Sisterhood of Stars

  CHAPTER

  ELEVEN

  Kith Alunel appeared to have changed very little in the years since Kayl had last been there. The street inside the city gates was wide, and lined with buildings made of sun-baked brick. Brightly painted signs hung above the shop doors, depicting the merchandise for sale within.

  The weather was mild for early winter, and despite the frosting of yesterday’s snow on the roofs the street was crowded. Many of the shops had their shutters open. Tantalizing aromas drifted out of the many little hot-pastry places, tempting tired and hungry travelers to purchase fresh meat-pies and hot, spiced wine. Scattered among the food vendors were potters and glassmakers, leatherworkers and basket weavers, smiths and herbalists, jewelers and winesellers, all with exotic wares to beguile and bewilder the newly arrived.

  Kayl breathed in the familiar aroma and smiled. The first time she had come to Kith Alunel, she’d spent every quarter-copper Mother Dalessi had given her within three blocks of the city gates. If she hadn’t had the hall of the Sisterhood to go to, she’d have spent the night sleeping on the street.

  She was not wearing the sword of the Sisterhood now, and she had made a wool traveling garment to wear instead of her leathers. This garment tied around each of her legs. Sword and leathers formed the bulk of the bundle she had tied to her back; the baskets had fallen apart long ago.

  “Mother! Look at that!” Mark said, pointing at a shop with a tray of weapons on display.

  “Weapon shops aren’t unusual in Kith Alunel, dear,” Kayl said. “If you’re interested, we can look at some of them tomorrow.”

  “Almost nothing is unusual in Kith Alunel,” Glyndon put in. “If you want to buy something, go down to the gates. If you don’t see it, wait awhile; someone will turn up with it before the day is over.”

  “Well, I want to buy dinner,” Dara muttered, pulling her cloak more tightly around her. “That smell makes me hungry.”

  “Me, too,” Mark said more loudly. “Mother, can we get something to eat?” He looked longingly at a small hot-pastry shop.

  Kayl did a quick mental calculation. There was very little of her carefully hoarded money left; still, the children deserved some sort of treat to celebrate their arrival. “I think we can manage it, Mark. Where do you want to stop?”

  “That one,” Dara said, pointing.

  “I would prefer that we continue on to the Star Hall,” Corrana’s cool voice broke in. “There will be time for this later.”

  “Mother, you promised!” Mark said.

  “Hush, Mark,” Kayl said, and turned to face Corrana. “I told the children they could have a treat, and I am going to give it to them,” Kayl said simply. “Coming?”

  Corrana looked at her for a moment, then nodded. Kayl led the way into the pastry shop. She was more than usually thoughtful as she watched Mark and Dara make their choices. Corrana had been relatively quiet during the early weeks of their journey, but the nearer they had come to Kith Alunel, the more she had behaved as though she was in charge of the little party. Kayl did not want to encourage the Sisterhood of Stars to adopt a similar attitude. While Corrana was watching the children with ill-concealed disapproval, Kayl slipped around to Glyndon’s side and said softly, “Glyndon, do you have any money?”

  “Quite a bit, actually,” he replied, though he looked a little surprised that she would ask. “I was lucky in that last dice game.”

  “Would you slip away and get rooms for us at one of the inns before we get to the Star Hall?”

  Glyndon raised an eyebrow. “Before you’ve even had a chance to talk to them?”

  “I want to keep my choices open,” Kayl said. “Will you do it?”

  “Of course.” He swept her a bow. “Until later.”

  He turned and was gone, leaving Kayl glaring after him in irritation. “Slip away,” she’d said, not make a production of his exit!

  “And where is your Varnan friend off to?” Corrana said from behind her.

  Kayl shrugged. “He has business of his own in Kith Alunel. He’ll catch up with us later.”

  “If he must.” Corrana’s voice held the slight edge that it always did when she spoke of Glyndon. “Shall we continue on our way?”

  “Not until Mark has finished his meat-pie. Unless, of course, you want to make apologies to all the people he’ll bump into while he tries to walk and look and eat, all at the same time.”

  Corrana lifted one eyebrow and smiled slightly. “I withdraw my suggestion,” the sorceress said. “Purely out of sympathy for your son’s prospective victims, you understand.”

  Kayl grinned and bit into her meat-pie. Six months on the road seemed to have given Corrana a somewhat better understanding of both Mark and Dara; Kayl could only wish the woman had achieved as much sympathy for Glyndon, or for Kayl herself.

  They finished their meal and went back out into the crowd. Mark and Dara stared wide-eyed at everything and everyone they passed,
from bell-covered jugglers to armor-clad guards and wool-wrapped merchants. As a result their progress was slow. Several times they saw litters pass along the center of the street, draped with fine woolens and silks and borne on the shoulders of muscular men and women with expressionless faces. When the first of the litters went by, Dara studied the bearers, then asked, “Mother, are they slaves? I thought Kith Alunel didn’t let people have slaves!”

  “No, they’re not slaves,” Kayl told her. “They’re paid for their work. Paid very well, as I remember, which is why only the wealthy or nobility ride in litters.”

  “Why do they look so… so…”

  “So grim? It’s part of their training. It’s considered improper for a litter-bearer to express an opinion of his employer’s actions while he’s carrying, and even a smile is deemed an expression of opinion.”

  Mark looked after the retreating litter and wrinkled his nose. “That’s weird,” he said emphatically.

  Kayl laughed. “The people who do it don’t think so.”

  “Well, but—” Mark broke off, staring at something behind Kayl, and his eyes widened.

  Kayl turned. A tall, platinum-haired Shee was passing a few paces away, his green eyes narrowed into slanting slits in contemplation of whatever business drew him on.

  “A Shee!” Mark breathed.

  “Where?” Dara craned her neck in an effort to catch a glimpse for herself. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

  “I said as soon as I saw him!” Mark said defensively.

  “You did not!”

  “That’s enough,” Kayl said. “There’s no reason for you to start quarreling over the first Shee you see. There are plenty of Shee in Kith Alunel; it’s not like Mindaria.”

  Dara brightened and began scanning the crowd, looking for another of the nonhumans. Not to be outdone, Mark joined her. Their efforts were quickly rewarded, this time with the sight of a Shee woman bargaining in the door of an herbalist’s shop. Mark and Dara were immensely pleased with themselves, but the incident left Kayl wondering uneasily just why it was that they had seen only two Shee since entering the city. Surely there should be more, or was her memory playing tricks on her?

  Kayl began her own surreptitious study of the crowd. What she saw did nothing to soothe her; she counted only four Shee in two blocks. Wyrds were more numerous, but there had been a Wyrd settlement near Kith Alunel for centuries. She saw no Neira at all.

  At the top of a hill the street widened into a square. The middle of the square was occupied by a wide, shallow pool, now thinly crusted with ice and a dusting of snow. On Kayl’s right was the colonnaded front of a theater, with a granite dome, probably a school, beside it. To the left, sixteen shallow steps, flanked by carved pillars, led up to the triple-arch doorway of a huge building. Above the door, three warriors in bas-relief held off seven nightmarish-looking creatures, while behind them a man and woman with their arms full of scrolls escaped.

  “What’s that?” Mark asked, awed.

  “The Queen’s Library,” Kayl said. “The carving over the door is from the story of Deardan and her brothers—Deardan and Tylmar saving the Scrolls of Knowledge from the Shadow-born. Queen Irhallen the Fourth built it about three hundred years after the Wars of Binding.”

  “That whole building is full of books?” Mark said incredulously.

  “That’s right,” Kayl said, laughing. “They have scrolls and books about everything, from dancing to Shanhar hand-fighting.”

  Mark’s ears perked up. “They have books about Shanhar in there?” He looked speculatively at the library. “Maybe I should look inside.”

  “I’ll take you there sometime,” Kayl promised.

  “Mother, what’s that?” Dara asked, pointing at the theater on the other side of the square. Kayl took a deep breath, hoping the children wouldn’t ask more than she knew how to answer, and launched into another explanation.

  Eventually, they turned off of the main street. The soaring arches and pillars of the library and theater gave way to sturdy, practical buildings of mortared fieldstone. Behind them, in the shadow of the city wall, Kayl could see the roofs of the flimsy, four-story tenements that housed the less well off. She frowned; there seemed to be more of them than she remembered. Then Mark distracted her with a question, and she forgot her misgivings for the time being.

  They continued on toward the center of the city. Soon houses of carved granite blocks began appearing, some with decorations of mosaic tile around their doors. Beyond lay the pillared homes of even wealthier merchants and the marble halls of the nobility, encircling the great palace of Kith Alunel at the heart of the city.

  They turned again, long before they neared the haunts of the rich, and suddenly they were standing in front of the Star Hall of Kith Alunel. Kayl stopped and looked at it, swallowing hard.

  It was a low, sprawling building. A wide path of pale gray flagstone led from the street through a tiny garden to a porch, roofed in white marble supported by columns of the same material. The floor of the porch was made of mosaic tiles in shades of gray; beyond was the arched opening that led to the outer courtyard of the Star Hall. From where she stood, Kayl could see the tops of the side domes that would flank the long central hall; they, too, were of white marble. The Star Hall shone in the winter sunlight, like a pearl among the gray-brown rock of the surrounding buildings.

  “Is this where we’re going?” Dara asked a little doubtfully as Corrana started up the path toward the doorway.

  “Yes,” Kayl said, surprised. “Something wrong?”

  “No, not exactly,” Dara said. “It’s just so grand, and we’re all…” Her voice trailed off and she waved vaguely at her dusty, travel-stained clothes.

  “Don’t worry,” Kayl reassured her. “The Sisters are used to receiving guests in even worse shape than we are.”

  Dara nodded, but she still looked unhappy. “Go on,” Mark said, giving her a poke. “I don’t want to stand here all day. It’s getting cold.”

  “You stop that!” Dara said furiously. “You never think of anybody but yourself! You—”

  “Dara! Mark! Both of you, stop it right now,” Kayl said firmly.

  “But I didn’t do anything!” Mark said in an injured tone.

  “I don’t care,” Kayl said. “I don’t want to hear a word out of either of you until we’re inside and I’m done talking to the Sisters. Understand?”

  “But—”

  “Not a word!” Kayl said. “Now come on.” She took their hands in hers and went into the Star Hall.

  Two Sisters in medium-gray robes were waiting in the outer courtyard; Corrana had summoned them while Kayl was dealing with Mark and Dara outside. They led Kayl and her children through the front atrium and around the outside of the great hall. Kayl felt as though she were seeing double. She knew the way as well as she knew her kitchen at the inn in Copeham, yet it was somehow strange as well. The hall was narrower than she remembered, and she had forgotten the odd rose tiles that ringed the pool in the atrium. The lighting was too dim, and there were too many doors. Then, suddenly, there was a niche in the wall that fit her memory perfectly, and even that felt strange. Kayl suppressed a shiver of uneasiness and hurried after the Sisters.

  The Sisters led them to a small chamber ringed with wooden benches. One wall was covered with a mosaic depicting a stylized eight-pointed star in shades of blue; the other walls were the same polished white marble as the rest of the building. On the opposite side of the chamber were two wooden doors.

  “Baths have been prepared for you in the next rooms,” one of the Sisters said, indicating doors in the opposite wall of the chamber. “We will bring clean clothing for you while you refresh yourselves.”

  Dara shot Kayl a reproachful look, but was wise enough not to say anything. Kayl thanked the two Sisters and saw them out, then sent Mark and Dara to bathe. As they left the room, she unwrapped her cloak and sank down onto one of the benches. Absently, she undid the cords holding her bundle, a
nd sighed in relief as the weight left her shoulders. She set it on the bench beside her and stared at it.

  Coming back wasn’t supposed to feel like this, she thought, but she didn’t know what she had expected it to feel like. She didn’t even know, really, why she had come. She had insisted, when Corrana pressed her, that she only wanted to return the sword of the Sisterhood to the Elder Mothers. But could she give it up? It had been a part of her for so long; even, she now admitted, when she had hidden it beneath the floor of the inn and denied its presence. And if she hadn’t given up the sword on that last, horrible day when she thought she hated the Sisterhood and everyone in it, how could she imagine that she would return it now?

  Kayl sighed and leaned back, remembering.

  Starlight glimmered on the mirror-smooth surface of the pool in the center of the Court of Stars. Kayl stood alone at one corner of the pool, staring straight ahead of her, trying not to think of the erstwhile companions of her Star Cluster. On the other side of the courtyard, the most senior of the Elder Mothers of the Sisterhood were gathered, their silver robes a dim reflection of the shimmering starlight.

  “And is that all of your story?” a voice said from the midst of the silver mass.

  “The return trip was uneventful, Your Serenity,” Kayl said. Her voice rasped in a throat worn raw with weeping.

  “Then we thank you for your service.” The voice paused. “You have our sympathy as well, for your fallen companions.”

  There was a murmur of agreement from the collected Mothers, and for a moment Kayl was comforted. Then another voice said, “It is hard to speak of this now, and harder for you to hear, yet it must be done. Your choices now are two: find among the unfledged and uncommitted students of our order new companion Sisters to form a new Star Cluster, or take your place among the Sisters who serve the Star Halls and go afield no more.”