Spellsong 02 - The Spellsong War

by Modesitt Jr, LE

  "His daughter is the oldest?"

  "Yes. She's the oldest."

  Reylan smiled. "Some lords will not approve."

  "I'm sure they won't, but Defalk can't afford to waste its women." Anna took another sip of wine.

  "You stood before my people. Were you not afraid someone would attack?" asked Gylaron.

  "I worried about it," Anna admitted, squinting and trying to decide which image before her was the real one of Gylaron. Damned double vision…

  "I would not have stood as a stranger before such," offered Reylan.

  "She has stood before the Dark Monks, before assassins, before the Prophet of Music, before Sargol's archers… before many," said Jecks.

  Gylaron shook his head. "You look young, but your words are not. Nor your actions. Sargol was right to fear you." He smiled sadly. "What would you have with me?"

  "I told you. Do your duty to the regency and meet your obligations as a lord of the Thirty-three." Is that so hard to understand?

  "I fear I do not understand." Gylaron pulled at his chin. "Surely… no lord of reason would dispute such a call… and yet many—or some…" Anna felt like exploding. Here we go again … "There must be some mistake, Lady Anna . . . you must have done something wrong… Why, no reasonable man would ever rebel if you had been logical and reasonable. …"

  She slowly unclenched her jaw. "Lord Gylaron, there has never been anything hard about what I asked. I haven't asked anything special of you or other lords. I haven't asked anything that other lords haven't demanded before I ever came to Defalk."

  Gylaron looked down, with that blank male look of incomprehension, combined with fear—fear that she was an unreasonable and illogical woman who would explode on the spot.

  And she felt like exploding, which would do no good whatsoever. She swallowed another sip of wine, then stood. "I am sorry. For some reason, I feel rather… unsettled. I beg your leave." She forced a bright smile, one she scarcely felt. "If you will excuse me… Perhaps Lord Jecks can answer your questions better than I can right now." Fhurgen followed her out.

  "You were kind," the guard said once they were in the corridor.

  "I can't afford to lose my temper at every pigheaded lord in Defalk," Anna said bleakly, taking careful steps to ensure her balance against the inaccuracies of double sight and the distraction of her pounding headache. "There aren't enough people who know anything as it is."

  For a moment, she stood in the dim corridor. Now what? A page bowed. "Lady Anna, regent and sorceress? Would you like to go to the guest quarters?"

  "Yes, thank you." Why not? Maybe Jecks can smooth things over.

  Sitting on a straight-backed chair before the writing table in the guest chamber and leaning forward, Anna massaged her forehead. Her eyes were closed, shutting out the strange double images—hot and cold. The harmonious and disharmonious sides of life? She should have eaten more, and held her temper better. But she was so tired of men who either didn't understand or pretended not to understand. Or, when confronted, immediately suggested that the misunderstanding had to have been her fault. Was she oversensitive? Probably.

  She looked up at the knock on the door to the guest chamber. "Lady Anna," announced Fhurgen, "Lord Gylaron to see you."

  Anna stood warily, trying not to blink as the dark-skinned lord stepped into the room. Fhurgen followed, his blade unsheathed.

  "I offer my apologies, Lady Anna." Gylaron bowed, deeply. "I fear there have been many false tales traveling Defalk."

  "I don't doubt that." Anna paused. Jecks had clearly smoothed things over. What could she say? "Sometimes… truth is harder to swallow than false tales, and my strangeness… the fact that I don't know Defalk as well as you do… that can lead to misunderstandings."

  "Lord Jecks explained. I did not know how many arrows you have taken for Defalk and those you lead." The swarthy lord shook his head. "You are not as you look."

  "Lord Gylaron, I am much older. I didn't look for what happened to me." She paused, gauging his expression. "I have no heirs here on Erde. I never will." :

  "He told me that as well. That clears another fog." His face wrinkled. "Yet… why would you not add my domains to Lord Jimbob's?"

  "Lord Jimbob will need more than Falcor to raise the coins a leader of Defalk must have. He shouldn't ever have more than that, but especaily not as young as he is. Too much power corrupts."

  "You would judge that?"

  "Is there anyone else who can?" Anna asked bluntly. "I can't pass anything on. I have no ties to anyone. I could be wrong, but I saw how Lord Barjim couldn't raise the coins or armsmen necessary to save Defalk. I also saw how Lord Behlem squandered golds. I think a ruler should be somewhere between." She smiled. "What do you think?"

  "I think… Lady Anna, that I am fortunate to retain my head and my lands. I will not trouble you more."

  "Lord Gylaron…" Anna tilted her head slightly, wondering if that would be too flirtatious even as she did. "I will always be here to answer honest questions. I will do my best to preserve Defalk. I make mistakes. Even sorceresses do. If you have a question, if you have a concern, I will answer. I may not always agree, but I will answer."

  "Lord Jecks told me how you spent golds to gain seed corn for the south. I would that I had known."

  That, and Gylaron's opening words, were all the apology as she would! ever get, but they were enough. "When you have pressing needs, let me know."

  "I thank you, lady. And Reylan would thank you as well, were she here." Gylaron smiled. "We would see you at the evening meal."

  "I will be there," Anna promised.

  After Gylaron had left, Anna walked to the window. She didn't wait long before Jecks arrived.

  "How did you manage that?" Anna asked warily.

  "I did what Rickel suggested. I had him put on armsman's greens Rickel took him around. He talked to armsmen. Anyone and anywhere he wanted. Then he came back and we talked some more." Jecks smiled and his eyes twinkled.

  "So he doesn't believe I'm the bitch from dissonance any longer?" Anna walked toward Jecks, seeing the lines around the eyes, the fatigue.

  "He has… a healthy… respect for you," Jecks answered.

  "Like Birfels? He respects me, but can't stand what I'm doing."

  "Gylaron is distressed that his world will be changed. I did persuade him, as did his consort, that his situation is far better than it would have been under anyone else, including Lord Ehara or the Liedfuhr of Mansuur. Or the Evult."

  "I'm so flattered." Anna snorted.

  "Lady Anna… nothing had changed in Defalk for generations. Then came the drought, and the Evult. Everyone expected that, once the rains returned, so would the good days of the past."

  "They weren't that good," muttered Anna.

  "That matters not. For the lords, they think those days were good."

  "So they're upset now?"

  "Not all. Some see beyond their noses and fields." Jecks smiled. "Those like Clethner who live with their backs to Nordwei, or Nelmor, who sees the sun set over Neserea."

  "I don't know. I'm not a very good politician. The older I get, the harder it gets to smile and pretend to be a good little girl. To pretend that it's all my fault that they don't understand. To pretend that I didn't make it perfectly clear when I spelled it out in words a five-year-old should understand." Anna walked back to the window and looked down at the courtyard, where several score of her armsmen stood or sat under the shade of overhanging battlements. "I never was that good."

  "Give them time. Like Gylaron, they will see that all you bode for Defalk is good."

  "Do I? Really? I wonder." She turned again. "You're tired, and what I did didn't help. Can you get some rest before supper, or dinner, or whatever?"

  "Supper, here in the south," Jecks said.

  "Will you get some rest?" she asked again.

  "I will have some food sent to you,". Jecks said. "You did not eat."

  "I couldn't." She met his eyes. "Please take care of yourse
lf and get some rest."

  "As my lady commands."

  "I don't command you," Anna said with a smile. "I doubt anyone's ever commanded you."

  "Not until now, lady." Jecks bowed.

  "You're impossible."

  "Just ancient."

  "You're not that, either. Now go get some rest, and let a poor sorceress think about how she can avoid swallowing her boots again."

  Jecks bowed once more, and Anna shook her head, ruefully, as Jecks departed, graceful, muscular, and far more understanding than most of Ws peers. Most? How about all of them?

  53

  MANSUUS, MANSUUR

  RAIN rattles against the shutters of the large study, and a warm mist seeps in from the darkness outside and around the louvers. Konsstin paces back and forth in front of the wide desk table piled with scrolls, lit with a five-branched candelabra.

  Thrap. The knock on the door is diffident, almost timid.

  "Yes?"

  The door opens, and Bassil peers in. "You sent for me, sire?"

  Konsstin gestures broadly, his arm passing so close to the candelabra that the flames flicker, twisting the vague shadows that fall on the paneled walls and the bookcases.

  The door closes, and Bassil enters, straightens his maroon tunic, and pushes his dark hair back.

  "So I woke you?"

  "No, sire. I was reading over the dispatches…"

  "What reports from Defalk?" asks Konsstin cheerily.

  "Your seers are overworked." Bassil bows, briefly. "The sorceress has subdued all but Stromwer."

  "I suppose she turned them all into abattoirs, or ash heaps." Konsstin forces a laugh.

  "One abattoir, sire. That was Suhl. She did save the heirs and established some arrangement for them to keep the holding."

  "Clever. They can exert no power for years, and by then it won't matter. Darkness, the woman's devious. Worse than Cyndyth or Kandeth."

  "Worse, sire, perhaps. She is not devious. All the seers and all the dispatches report she is most direct. To date, she has always kept her word." Bassil licks his lips in the dimness.

  "Direct? That is even more devious. She keeps her word, but when will she break it? She does what she says, no matter how difficult. That makes it even easier, for who will oppose her, knowing she is a powerful sorceress and will not be turned? Dissonance, Bassil! If that's not devious, I don't know the meaning of the word."

  "Do you wish me to ready those scrolls I prepared for you weeks ago?"

  "Not yet. Not yet. Stromwer is a fortified mountain hold. Let us see how she does against the devious Dencer, with all his aid from Ehara."

  "You hope she wins there?"

  "I must hope that, dissonance take them all." Konsstin waves an arm generally westward, beyond the closed shutters and night-darkened balcony. "I have no love of the Sea-Priests. I'd hope they all go down—or up—in discord."

  "Do you believe this sorceress will defeat them all?"

  "She will take Dencer. None but a fool would gainsay that. Whether she will turn his hold into an ashpit or find some way to preserve it is the sole doubt." His fingers touch the silvering brown beard. "She is clever. Too clever by far, and should she gain another hold—"

  "Gain another hold?" blurts Bassil. "She has gained none. Synfal went to the heir…" He shuts his mouth as Konsstin turns.

  "Bassil. At times you think. Tonight, you are tired. You must be tired. Do you not understand? Lady Gatrune holds her consort's lands; so does Lady Anientta. Administrators or saalmeisters of the sorceress's choosing hold Synfal and Suhl. She has bound Gylaron in some sorcerous fashion, and she will do some-such similar to Dencer. Lord Jecks will do as she wishes, as will Geansor and Birfels, for she holds their heirs, and those heirs of several other holdings as well. The lords Clethner and Vyarl are beholden to Jecks, and Lord Tybel will not cross the sorceress so long as his daughter Anientta administers the lands of Synope. Then, the sorceress holds Loiseau in her own name. Dissonance! Do you not see? How many holds is that?"

  Bassil's brow lifts as he calculates. "Just thirteen or fourteen. Out of thirty-three."

  "Bassil," Konsstin says gently. "Bassil… Lord Barjim could count on five holds, at best. Lord Donjim controlled ten. This… usurper… she has a greater rein on Defalk than any ruler in generations. And she is a sorceress."

  Bassil swallows. "I am tired."

  "Not too tired, I hope, to understand what I have told you?"

  "No, sire. I had not thought of it in quite that fashion."

  "Best we always think of power in that fashion." The Liedfuhr gestures toward the door. "Get some sleep. We will talk tomorrow."

  Bassil bows.

  Outside, the warm rain splats against the shutters. Inside, the candles flicker as the Liedfuhr paces.

  54

  Aware of the sweat beading on her forehead, Anna ignored it and studied the image in the glass again. At her shoulder, Hanfor continued to sketch. Jecks stood to Anna's left, also surveying the view in the hazy silvered glass.

  Dencer's keep—a square assembly of gray stones—stood on a rise at the middle of a narrow valley that resembled a T. Behind and to the south of the keep was a small town. Mountains terminating their lower slopes in high cliffs flanked the keep on the east and west, cliffs less than a dek from the keep's side walls.

  Dencer or some previous Lord of Stromwer had cut away the slope both in front and in back of the keep, replacing it with two polished stone walls that glistened like shining water even through the glass. On top of those stone-tiled earthworks were walls, easily four yards high, so that the total smooth face was easily fifty yards in height from the cut base of the hill on both north and south to the top of the wall that stretched from cliff to keep and then from the far side of the keep to the other cliff.

  A single stone road ran the length of the valley—from the north southward and up an inclined ramp through the hill cut to a fortified gate at the crest of the modified hill and then around the walls of the keep itself on the east side and then through another gate, and down the second stone tiled berm and to the town. The space on the rise on either side of the keep had been kept cleared and in pasture, and the buildings of the town did not begin until almost a half-dek to the south of the keep, well south of the southern stone berm.

  On the southernmost end of the valley was the east-west road, running along a stream that seemed to flow downhill from the west. Anna frowned. She would have thought the keep would have been at the south end of the valley to protect the town.

  "The road to the west winds up into the Sudbergs and travels to Dumar," noted Jecks.

  "And I suppose the one of the west goes to Ranuak?" Anna rubbed her eyes, glad that the double-imaging from her last foray into Darksong had finally disappeared.

  "To the port of Sylwa."

  Farther to the north the valley constricted into a gorge, the same narrow defile that Anna's earlier scrying had revealed as the site of Dencer's other precautions—netted rocks and boiling oil.

  The mirror frame began to smoke, and Anna released the image with one of the release couplets she'd developed.

  "Let this scene of scrying, mirror filled with light,

  vanish like the darkness when the sun is bright…"

  Her eyes flicked away from the burned square on the wall beside the mirror that represented the firing of the first mirror in the chamber when she hadn't released the spell quickly enough.

  After a moment she walked to the narrow window of the guest chamber and let the warm wind blow around her, cooling the perspiration that long scrying efforts seemed to bring.

  "The keep has three layers of defense," observed Hanfor. "None of the others in Defalk have such."

  "Once it was needed," said Jecks. "The Suhlmorrans wanted Stromwer. So did the ancient Matriarchs, and so did Lord Ehara's ancestors."

  "And none of them got it, I assume?" asked Anna.

  "No. Uhlan the elder lost an entire army trying to annex it to Suhlmorra."

/>   "Why?" She turned from the window, her eyes on the rosewood antique high bed that had given her a headache to spell for vermin.

  "Now, with the fast ships, it makes less difference. Still, Stromwer stands on the shortest land routes between Dumaria and Sylwa and Encora, and between all of southern Defalk and Dumar."

  "What about Sudwei?" Anna pursued. "I thought Geansor held the access to the South Pass."

  "He does, and that is an easier route from the east and middle of Defalk, but the easiest way to transport goods to Dumar was to use the Falche down to north of Abenfel, and then take the roads through Stromwer."

  Anna tried to summon up her mental map of Liedwahr, concentrating. Finally, she nodded. Her eyes went to Hanfor. "Any ideas of how we can get close to the keep?"

  "The road is the only entrance to the keep," Hanfor said tiredly. "Unless one travels through Ranuak or Dumar."

  "We cannot approach within deks of the walls," added Jecks. "Not unless we wish to be bathed in oil and buried under boulders."

  Both men looked at Anna, as if she were supposed to find a solution.

  I'm not the military type. I'm a singer, for heaven's sake. Anna stepped past the low chest at the end of the bed, where the lutar rested, and looked down at the table, at the map Hanfor had sketched from session after session with the glass.

  "I don't want to turn Stromwer into another flaming mass." Why not? You did that to Vult, and Suhl wasn't much better. "That's why," she muttered to herself. As she saw the puzzled expressions on the faces of Jecks and Hanfor, she added hurriedly. "Talking to myself…"

  Her throat was dry, and she refilled the goblet with orderspelled water, taking a long swallow. "Would you like some?"

  "No, thank you."

  Jecks shook his head.

  Anna glanced at the map on the table and then away. Two days of scrying, and sketching, and talking, and they still couldn't figure out how to get close enough to the keep to use sorcery to affect those within. She could bring the walls and town down, but she couldn't find a way to take Stromwer without massive force. The way the valley and keep were set up, any force massive enough to destroy Dencer's outer defenses would flatten town and keep. At least, any force she knew how to use.