[Lanen Kaelar 01] - Song in the Silence (40 page)

She stared at me for a minute, and somehow I was
made more aware than usual of her crooked stance. “Child, I told you, I
have come to this place to make my fortune, and with what I have gathered
already my old age will be spent in ease. I have had a hard enough life thus
far, and I have seen every kind of rogue there is over the years, and there are
more than a few of them on this voyage. You were like a breath of clear air on
that ship. I remember you

asked my name, you brought me soup one night when
I was tired so I needn’t stir. You probably don’t even remember, kindness is
natural to you as breathing, but I do.” She stared into the bowl she
carried and her voice dropped. “Besides, I had a daughter once. She’d have
been about your age.” When she looked back at me her eyes were alight with
a dancing admiration. “And I hope she might have been something like you,
too, brave as brass and tell

‘em all where to go.” She grinned.
“There’s even rumours Marik tried it on with you and you knocked him
silly! He spent a while closeted away with his Healer, but not afore some’d
seen his bruises. That was well done.”

She started feeding me again, but for some reason
simply looking at me seemed to catch her just so and she started laughing.
“Ah, girl, never mind me—but dear Goddess, will I ever forget the sight of
you, half dead and carried here by a Dragon! Or the look on Marik’s face, or
the squeak he made when that Dragon told him to do well by you or he’d know of
it! Marik would’ve killed the two of you for a pin if he could have, but he had
to put a bold face on it.

Ah, dear girl, you’ve made this a voyage to
remember!” I had never heard her laugh before. It sounded a bit rusty, but
it was a good laugh.

“Besides,” she added, calming down,
“you’ll find there’s another interested in your well-being now, even if
his life didn’t depend on it. It’s not your kind soul has got you inside the
only real walls on this forsaken island and a night in a real bed treated by
his own Healer! Nay, there’s a price owing to Marik; and make no mistake,
Merchants collect on then-debts.”

I was instantly sober. In my pain I had forgotten
just what Marik thought he was owed. And now here I was, in his power again,
even in his debt. Why had he healed me, when surely he and his pet Caderan
could have simply offered me to the demons? My heart sank. Of course. I was to
be handed over to the Rakshasa whole. In any practice, sacrifices are better
received if they are perfect before they are killed.

“Rella,” I said, keeping my voice low
as she bustled about, “I need your help. I don’t know if I can get out of
here on my own.”

“Not for a good few hours anyway, until those
hands of yours are healed,” she said lightly.

“Marik’s orders.”

“No, I mean I have to get away. Now, if
possible.” I reached out clumsily with my bandaged arm and blocked her
path, looking her in the eyes. “He’s going to kill me, Rella, or hand me
over living to the Rakshasa. Probably tonight. Please, for pity’s sake, will
you help me?”

“So—you know about that, do you?” she
said very quietly, and in a voice I had never heard from her. I drew back in
horror. Was she privy to Marik’s counsels, was she in league with him? But she
smiled and put her hand oh so gently on my arm. “Come now, my girl, do I
look like one of them?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

She grinned. “Like I said before, better
late than never.” She pulled the chair next to the bed and sat, her face on
a level with mine, and her whole demeanour was changed. Gone were the rough
edges of a practical countrywoman. Her eyes were sharp with intelligence, her
carriage even of that twisted body spoke of hidden strength, and her voice, low
and intense, bore only a trace of a northern accent. “You are not the only
one with secrets. I am a Master of the Silent Service in Sorun. I was sent to
learn what I could of Marik and his doings, for he has gained power in too many
quiet corners of Kolmar far too swiftly to suit us, even before he determined
to come here. That he should set out on such a chancy venture drew our
attention, for he is in all things a cautious man. We suspected he had
foreknowledge of his success from—other sources. Caderan and his demons, for example.”

I lay back and tried to grasp the change in her,
tried to understand what she was so carefully not saying. “Rella, what are
you talking about? I thought he sought only wealth.”

“Child, child, since when has anyone ever
sought wealth alone? Wealth is a means to an end, and mat end is power. There
are more branches of the House of Gundar in the Four Kingdoms than of any other
Merchant House, despite its relative youth.” Her voice was thick with
disgust as she added, ”And each one is well supplied with men and arms, and
each one has its own sorcerer.” She spat.

My head reeled. “Sorcerer? Blessed Shia, do
you mean there is a demon master in each of the local merchant enclaves, even
in the towns?”

“At least one.”

“Mother of us all,” I breathed, a curse
and an invocation. “Rella, do you tell me he is using demons to gain power
throughout all of Kolmar?”

“As fast as he can. And you are the key,
Lanen Kaelar.”

My heart leapt with fear at that name, but her
gentle manner stopped me from trying to get out of bed. She smiled, a smile
full of knowing that somehow suited her far too well. “Never wonder,
child. I told you I am of the Silent Service. We have ears everywhere. I risk
my master’s wrath for speaking openly to you, but you are too vital a piece in
this game to act in ignorance.”

“How did you find me?” I asked softly.

“Pure chance. My partner and I found
ourselves trapped one night in a nameless village in central Ilsa, driven to
the inn there by torrential rains. We rose late the next morning and sat in a
corner in the tavern. The only others there when we sat down were an older man
and a tall young woman with hair like ripe wheat. The older man did a great
deal of talking.”

Blessed Shia. The couple in the corner, sat there
all the time, hearing every word. I had never looked close enough to have seen
her crooked back. Dear Lady, how could I have been so stupid?

“It was a fine tale, Lanen. Are you Marik’s
daughter?”

“I don’t know,” I said miserably.
“I think I must be. If I were not and he knew it, he would surely have let
me die.”

“Mmm. You didn’t hear your Dragon friend
speak to him last night. I think Marik would have tried to keep you alive for
that one’s good will, at least for the moment. But probably best to assume for
now that he is your father. In any case your time is short. The ritual is set
for this very night, as soon as true darkness falls. We have only until then to
get you out.”

“Truth, then,” I said, my eyes locked
on hers. “Why are you helping me?”

One corner of her mouth lifted. “Marik’s as
nasty and vicious a son of the Hells as ever drew breath, or hadn’t you heard?
And I’ve no wish to live under the rule of demons. Besides,” she added,
touching my cheek softly, “I spoke true about your kindness, and my
daughter. Now, quickly, tell me what you can about the Dragons.”

“Rella, I can’t, I promised—”

“Idiot. I don’t want to know their secrets
or yours. Just tell me how to get in touch with them if I need to. Just in
case.”

I was taken aback. ”Very well. There are three
who might help you—us. Akor first, if he is there—that’s the Guardian, the
silver one who brought me back. Or Kédra, or Shikrar. Go to the place of
Summoning, or anywhere on the Boundary, and call out. Someone will come, and if
it isn’t one of those three”—I grinned—“just don’t get them
angry.”

Behind her the door opened and the guard I’d hit
with the sea chest came in. He had a horrible bruise on his forehead and he
didn’t look any too pleased to see me.

“Well, mother,” he said. “Is she
fit to speak with my lord?”

“Aye, soon enough, soon enough,” said
Rella calmly, her accent thick with the north. “Just you tell M’lord Marik
to wait a bit. There’s things unattended to yet. Tell him half an hour.”

“Now, mother.”

She whirled on him in obvious anger. ”If he
fancies watching my lady make water, let him come now. She’s never even been to
the necessary, and it’ll not be swift or simple with her arms as they are and
all she’s been through. Half an hour!”

The guard, looking daggers, nodded. “Half an
hour then. Be certain she is ready.”

“Yes, yes,” she replied absently,
fussing with me as he left. Once he was gone, she caught my gaze. “Very
well, my girl. We have only so long to make all ready.”

We held a swift council of two.

Akhor

I bespoke Lanen quietly when I left the Great
Hall some hours before dawn—she did not answer. I assumed she slept still.
Shikrar had heard nothing from her.

As soon as I reached my chambers I bespoke
Shikrar once more. He stood guard still at the Boundary, waiting to hear my
side of all that had happened. He had heard what I had said in Council and I
filled in the few gaps in his knowledge, asked his pardon for keeping our
twilight meeting secret, and told him all that a friend would want to know
about my perilous love for Lanen, and of our Flight.

”And because of this, this Flight taken in your
fancy, you consider yourself bound to the child? She is a singular creature,
to be sure, but—Akhor, you must know such a thing is not binding.”

“I know that, my friend. But I do not seek
to escape this bond, mad though it seems, impossible though it is. She is my
soul’s other half, Shikrar. I never knew it, but I have sought her all my life.
It is the wisdom or the folly of the Winds that she has taken the form of the
Gedri, not of the Kindred.”
I did not tell him that I had seen
her in our flight as one of us. I suspected even Shikrar would have had trouble
with that.

But I could not forget. I found that I now
understood what Kédra had told me once, about the new song of the Devoted. The
music was always there. I had only to think of her and I heard our voices
joined as on that night, and saw her in her Kantri form. Her soulgem was clear
as water; it had no colour, only light. And her armour was the dark gold of her
hair….

“How fares Mirazhe? And the newborn?”

His tone shifted dramatically, I could hear his
swelling pride.
“Both well, both beautiful. Idai is trying to get rid
of Kédra, but he cannot tear himself away yet. My son’s youngling! The thought
is wondrous.”

I reveled for a moment in his rejoicing. It gave me
new strength, and a measure of hope. Surely he would not take my request in the
wrong spirit.

“Shikrar, I rejoice with you. In our
decline, how bright shines such a birth. Yet I fear I have a request to make of
you, even at this time. Believe me, were there anyone else I could call
upon—but I have little choice. The Council debates now my fate and hers. There
are no Elders there save Rishkaan, and he is shocked to his bones by everything
I have said and done. He cannot separate my actions from Lanen’s.”
I
could not keep even my mind’s voice steady; it wavered like the rawest
youngling’s.
“Please, my friend, I beg you, let Kédra do as Idai asks
that he may relieve you at the Boundary, and let you come to the Council.
Rishkaan is the Eldest present, though he is so much younger than you, and that
gives his words more weight than they deserve. He has already called for
Lanen’s death—you know he can never forgive the Demonlord for destroying his
ancestor Aidrishaan, and the making of Treshak into the first of the Lesser
Kindred. To him the Gedri are makers of death and agony, Shikrar, nothing more,
never capable of more, and he wills to return that evil to my dearling.
Shikrar, soulfriend, I cannot bear it. I would never ask this at so sacred a
time, but I have spoken already and they can hear no more from me; perhaps they
will be able to hear you.”

There was a long silence. When he spoke again his
tone was somber and more kind than I had heard it since this all began.
“Ah,
Akhorishaan. I know now it is true, she is your mate no matter what anyone
says. I know that voice. I heard it last when my dear one, my love Yrais, was
dying, and it came from my soul. I will summon Kédra, Khordeshkhistriakhor. I
will be there by morning.”

”Hadretikantishikrar, I thank you with all my
heart.”

Then he was gone. I reached out to Lanen again,
but she was still asleep.

There was nothing else I could do. I closed my
eyes in meditation, took myself through the Discipline of Calm and waited.

Towards morning I slept for a brief while, and in
that time I dreamed. At first it seemed a dream of our Flight, for I saw Lanen
in her Kantri-form, but it soon became something other. She had become more
real, more fully herself in that form; I watched as we lived our lives together
as one Kindred, brought younglings forth, raised them, taught them all our
joint history and all we knew of the Two Peoples. It was full of joy, that
dream, until the end. We both became Elders, well respected by the Kindred, and
died so, but it was not our deaths that disturbed me. As I rose slowly to
consciousness I saw the soulgems of the Lost flickering through our ashes,
almost in accusation. We had made no difference to them, our lives though rich
and well lived had made no difference.