…were able to remove the crews from six vessels and make the ships available to the Matriarch in recompense for the losses suffered by Ranuak, both in supporting us and otherwise…
She shook her head. “Writing this is hard.”
“Writing anything might be a little harder than usual,” pointed out Richina. “After all, you did so much sorcery you almost died, and that was less than a week ago.”
Although Secca knew better—she had died, or had come so close as to make little difference—she did not correct the sandy-haired young woman.
At the thrap on the door to the guest quarters, Secca sat up straighter in the armchair pulled up before the conference table. She laid aside the quill with which she had been writing to Lord Robero.
“Overcaptain Alcaren, ladies,” called Rukor. “If the Lady Secca can receive callers.”
Secca swallowed, her eyes going to the door.
Richina looked to Secca.
“I’ll…I’ll see him,” Secca finally said.
“Have him enter,” Richina said quickly, standing and striding toward the door, as if to make sure that Secca did not change her mind.
Secca turned her head at the sound of hoofs on the long drive outside the windows of the guest quarters, although she could not see the drive from where she sat at the table. As the door opened, she looked back toward the broad-shouldered figure who stepped inside.
“Come in,” said Richina belatedly, holding the door wide. “She is much better.”
Secca felt as though a bolt of Clearsong had shivered through her heart and thoughts, freezing her where she sat for a long moment.
Richina closed the door, her eyes on Secca.
Secca felt all eyes were on her, from everywhere, even though there were but three of them in the chamber.
Alcaren stepped toward the armchair, and Secca could see that the red welts on his cheeks had begun to fade. The overcaptain swallowed, his eyes full on Secca. “I did not want to intrude until you were well enough…I brought this for you…something to take with you,” he offered, stopping just short of where Secca sat and extending a rose, the perfect white bronze rose with an iron stem, so delicate-appearing it seemed the slightest breeze would rip off the petals.
“It is beautiful.” Secca hesitated, glancing down at the uncompleted scroll, then turning her eyes back to Alcaren.
“Like you, it is far stronger than it appears,” said the sorcerer/overcaptain gently.
Secca did not speak for a moment, a moment she knew was as fragile as appeared the rose Alcaren held. What words could she offer? How could she say what she felt?
“Though it is not so beautiful,” Alcaren murmured, his voice so low she could barely hear the words.
Secca wanted to reach out, to draw him to her. Instead, she looked into Alcaren’s gray-blue eyes. “Thank you…for the rose…for my life…for everything.” But thanks were not enough. Could she say more? How could she not? And yet…what? How?
Alcaren looked down for a moment, then raised his eyes to Secca’s amber ones. The faintest of smiles showed at the corners of his lips.
The silence drew out, as eyes met eyes.
“You…no one…” Secca felt as though each word tripped over the one previous. “I wish I had…seen…sooner.”
“I saw you had,” he answered slowly. “I was unsure if I should come…after that. I was not well…either…at first, and then…”
Secca ignored Richina’s puzzlement, concentrating on Alcaren, trying to find the words, trying to step from behind the years of walls so carefully built. “I’m…glad…you did. I do not know…if I would have had your courage.”
“My lady…I could do no other.”
Secca laughed, softly, warmly. “I did not mean your saving me…although that was a sacrifice no one could expect…and most courageous.” Her eyes dropped to the rose for a moment before meeting his gray-blue eyes again. “I meant coming here.”
“That…was harder. I thought of coming yesterday.”
“I thought of seeking you,” Secca said slowly. “I was not brave enough.”
“You nearly died,” he offered with the smile that warmed her. “Few would question that bravery.”
“You couldn’t say…could you?”
“I feared you saw,” he replied. “I thought you might guess every time I looked at you.”
“I did guess,” Secca admitted. “I was afraid to believe it.” She looked up at Alcaren.
“As was I,” he replied.
At the click of the door opening, both turned their heads, as did Richina.
Another figure stepped into the room, just ahead of the announcement by Rukor. “The Matriarch of Ranuak.”
Alcaren turned. “Matriarch?”
Alya laughed, gently, as she approached the pair by the table. “I had not thought to find you together, but that is as it should be.”
Secca could not help but smile at the slightly puzzled expression and knit brows displayed by Richina.
“The sorceress understands, Alcaren, and so does your heart, if not your mind,” said the Matriarch.
“It never ends, does it?” said Secca, fighting for a way to say what she needed to without the Matriarch saying it for her. “No matter how mighty the battle and how great the victory?”
Alcaren’s eyes flicked to Secca, then back to the Matriarch.
“No.” Alya shook her head. “The rebellion burns hotter yet in Neserea, and the Sturinnese still hold Dumar, and they will send more fleets. And if you destroy those, as did your predecessor, you will still have to fight battles in sunshine and shadow.”
“More battles? The lady…” Alcaren began.
“The lady needs you,” Secca managed to blurt out, her mouth dry, before anyone, anything, could stop her, before someone else spoke for her.
Alcaren turned to Secca, the gray-blue eyes wide, his lips parted slightly.
“You’re the first in years to give without asking, without expecting,” Secca said. “And no one has ever risked so much for me.”
“I had not…” Alcaren turned to the Matriarch. “If the lady will let me serve her, I would ask your leave to be released from your service.”
Alya laughed. “Separating you two would be worse than your mixing Clearsong and Darksong. Far worse, and there is no way you can remain in Ranuak, not now that the world knows you are indeed a sorcerer. Though I will keep the Ladies of the Shadows in the towers until you are both departed.”
“But…you said I could never be a sorcerer,” Alcaren replied.
“Not in Ranuak,” Secca said gently. As Alcaren turned to her, she felt the moment freeze, everything becoming as still as it had upon the Silberwelle just before the waterspouts had destroyed every Sturinnese ship, before the recoil had killed her, and before Alcaren had offered his spellsong and life to save hers. She had to make it clear to everyone, but especially to herself. “Liedwahr and Defalk need you.” She swallowed and repeated, “So do I.” She felt even more defenseless than she had on the Silberwelle as dissonance had swooped down on her. But she waited, hoping. Hoping she had not waited too long already.
“I had hoped…” he began, bending toward her, his eyes bright.
Secca lifted a hand, reaching out and touching his cheek. “I had not even dared to hope…not for so long.”
“Nor I.” Alcaren’s right hand took her left, his fingers entwining with hers, as he set the perfect rose on the table and lifted her from the chair into his arms.
Her arms went around him, as the sunlight fell across them, and, outside, the first sounds of spring murmured in the midmorning air.
Tor Books by L. E Modesitt, Jr.
The Spellsong Cycle
The Soprano Sorceress
The Spellsong War
Darksong Rising
The Shadow Sorceress
The Saga of Recluce
The Magic of Recluce
The Towers of the Sunset
The Magic Engineer
/> The Order War
The Death of Chaos
Fall of Angels
The Chaos Balance
The White Order
Colors of Chaos
Magi’i of Cyador
Scion of Cyador
The Ecolitan Matter
The Ecologic Envoy
The Ecolitan Operation
The Ecologic Secession
The Ecolitan Enigma
The Forever Hero (comprising Dawn for a Distant Earth, The Silent Warrior, and In Endless Twilight)
Of Tangible Ghosts
The Ghost of the Revelator
Timegods’ World
(comprising The Timegod and Timediver’s Dawn)
The Green Progression
The Parafaith War
The Hammer of Darkness
Adiamante
Gravity Dreams
The Octagonal Raven
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE SHADOW SORCERESS
Copyright © 2001 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by David G. Hartwell
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Modesitt, L. E.
The shadow sorceress / L.E. Modesitt, Jr.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The spellsong cycle; bk. 4)
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN: 978-0-312-87877-1
1. Women singers—Fiction. 2. Magicians—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563.O264 S53 2001
813′.54—dc21
2001027048
The Shadow Sorceress: The Fourth Book of the Spellsong Cycle Page 51