[Lanen Kaelar 01] - Song in the Silence (45 page)

“Dragon? Are you still here?”

“I am, Lady Rella. I stand Guardian, and
Lord Akhor has given you into my keeping.”

She moved so that she could at least partially
face me. “How kind. Am I your prisoner?”

“Forgive me, lady, I am not so fluent in
your language as Akhor. I do not know that word.
What does it mean?”

“Will you hold me here against my
will?”

I was shocked. ”Lady, what do you think of us?
My Lord Akhor thought you would be in
danger if you returned to your own people, so he has
asked me to watch over you here. We
await only the word of the Council to bring you where
the Lady Lanen waits now.”

“So I am free to go.”

”Wherever you wish, though we cannot cross the
Boundary to protect you.”

“Why not? Akhor did. Three times.”

“All three were to save the life of—of Lady
Lanen.”

“I see,” said the Gedri. “And I am
not as worthy of protection as she is.”

“It is a different case, Lady Rella. Lady
Lanen is—”

“Oh, spare me the ‘Lady’! Just use our
names, Dragon. And I don’t see why her case should be
different.” She put her hand to
her face. ”I have two black eyes thanks to that girl— though I
did ask for
one.” She made a noise which I guessed was a kind of laugh.

“And thanks to Lady Lanen, I have a living
mate and a son, where all was death before,” I
answered a little sternly.

“What?” She stood and came up to the
Boundary. “Do you tell me that she saved your wife
and child?”

In as few words as possible, I told her our half
of the tale. She told me the rest, then fell silent
for some time. “Wretched
child,” she said, shaking her head. “Idiot. Burn your arms off for—oh,
dear Lady.” She put her hands before her mouth for a moment, then looked
up at me.

“Dragon, did you see her before Akhor
brought her here? Did you see her wounds?”

I bowed my head. ”I did not. I never thought she
might be in such pain, she made never a
sound, all her heart was in the
saving of my child—”

“I am—my work has taken me many places, and
I have seen death in forms more terrible than
most have to know, but in all my life
I was never so sickened by anything as by the sight of
her burns. Her arms were naught but
shreds of muscle stretched over—oh, I can’t.” She turned
away for an
instant, then looked straight at me. “If your Akor had taken a single
moment
longer
to get her to the Healer, she would have died in agony. You owe her two lives,
Dragon,
you
know that.”

I bowed to her. “I know it full well. And my
name is Kédra, Lady Rella.”

“I told you, it’s just Rella.”

“No, lady,” I replied. “By your
actions this night you have
preserved the life of the Lady Lanen, and that for no
hope of
gain
that I can see, simply of your kindness. ‘Lady’ is among my people a term of
respect, and
for
that kindness I am afraid that you shall always be Lady Rella to me.” She
smiled at me
then,
a crooked grin that suited her well. “Oh, well. I suppose I’ll just have
to put up with it.”

Marik

I finally stopped running about a quarter mile
from the place. I was heading south from some
instinct of finding safety on the
ship, but my true fear was that there was no safety anywhere.

Call me coward, but what is the point of bravery
in the face of certain deaths Perhaps Berys
could stand up to an angry Dragon,
but I couldn’t. When I realised it did not pursue me, I
began to walk cautiously back along
the dark, rough path to the cabins.

I met Caderan running in my direction. He slowed
when he saw me. He was badly out of
breath. ”The Raksha—held off the Dragon—long enough
for me to get away. But the cabin is
gone—and so is the girl.”

My hands were around his throat without my
thinking of it “And what good are you to me
now, sorcerer?” I asked, finding
satisfaction in the feel of his throat beneath my fingers as I
tightened my
grip. “Now I must live with this pain forever, and in the matter of the
Dragons
all
dissembling is useless. I never thought to live this long when that beast came
through the
wall
. Now that
the Dragons will kill me on sight, what good are you to me?”

I shook him once more and pushed him away. He
fell to the ground.

“I am your only hope, Marik,” he said,
coughing as he lay in the dust. “How else will you
survive if it comes to an attack?
Remember, Merchant, only I can provide a shield against
dragonfire.”

The worst of it was that he was right. I would
have to suffer him a little longer, at least until
tomorrow, the last night of the
Harvest. Then I could—no.

Tonight.

It would be the last thing they’d expect, to do
so bold a thing after so great a defeat. And who
in his right mind would leave a
Harvest early?

Only one who intended to be long gone by the time
the Dragons noticed anything was amiss. I
hauled Caderan to his feet and drew
him swiftly after me. We slowed when we drew
near the smoking remains of the
guards’ cabin, but as the beast was nowhere in evidence, we
slipped into
my own cabin unobserved.

I closed tight the door and threw wood on the
fire. ”Now, demon caller, you will learn for me
if this night is a good time to go
into the dragonlands.”

He looked surprised, but only for a moment.
“I have ascertained it already, my lord. You
asked me to consult them when first
you purposed to go there. I learned at that time that
tonight and tomorrow night are
equally auspicious.”

“You never said anything about tonight
before,” I growled at him.

“It did not seem important. I knew you
planned to wait until the last night.” He must have
seen my
displeasure and doubt, for he went on, ”My lord, the creatures hold some kind
of
assembly
among themselves for these two nights. They are well distracted. There is still
a
Guardian,
but its thoughts will be far from you.”

It was then that my vague thoughts became a plan
of action. I mastered my anger and spoke
softly. ”Very well. Good master
Caderan, I pray you send for my guards. Let word be spread
that the
Harvest is over, for fear the Dragons will attack again. Send out to the
farthest reaches
where
the Harvesters have gone and tell them they must return, for we leave at dawn.
Let the
Master
of the ship be notified that as soon as may be, we shall decamp and take all on
board.”

I turned to him, my anger now become
determination. ‘ i shall keep to the timing we arranged,
that I may
come straight from that place and onto the ship by morning. Go now. I would be
alone.”

He left, and I heard him shouting for my guards.
Good.

A vision of the gems rose before my eyes, bright
and enticing. By night’s end the creatures
would pay for robbing me of my only
hope of pain’s ending. I shuddered again as the vision
of that silver beast pulling down the
wall rose in my memory. By the powers, I would have
mastery over it yet.

I ran my fingers over the ring on my hand, its
circles warm now with my heat, and I felt a
slow smile spread over my face.

Let it come.

Lanen

As I sat recovering in Akor’s chambers I heard a
curious voice.
“May I bespeak you,
Lady
Lanen?
Kédra speaks.”

“Of
course,”
I replied, bemused. For an instant I feared for
Mirazhe, but his mindvoice was
calm, even pleased.

“I stand
Guardian and so may not come to you, hut I have not yet given you my own thanks
for saving my
dear one and our youngling.”

“Is
Mirazhe well?”
I asked.

I could hear the smile in his voice, even in
truespeech.
”She and the babe are
wondrous well.
They send you their greetings.”

I grinned.
”Surely
the little—uh, the littling is a bit young
to speak yet!”

“I see
now why Akor is so drawn to your people,”
said Kédra
in a curious tone
. “There is
great
pleasure in teaching. When we are first born, Lady, we have little control over
our
bodies,
but our minds are well awake. My littling cannot send thoughts, not in words,
but his
mother
can see the pictures he makes and get a sense of his feelings. She sent him a
picture of
you
this morning, and he remembered with pleasure.”

He remembered.

Newborn, and he remembered me.

I would never have forgotten that face, those
eyes gazing into mine, but I never dreamed that
he would remember.

“
Oh,
Kédra, what a gift you have given me,”
I whispered.
“I had no idea. We don’t start
remembering
until we’re three or four years old, and then only in patches.”
I
hugged the
thought
to me. It was a kind of immortality, to be remembered by a creature who would
live
so
far into the future I could not imagine it.
“Has
he a name yet?”

”His use
name is Hjerrok,”
said Kédra proudly.

I almost laughed aloud. Why couldn’t they come up
with something a human could actually
pronounce for a change? I tried it a few times out loud
and replied in truespeech,
“Well,
the
best
I can do with that is Sherok. Bless Sherok and his mother, and you Kédra, for
all you
have
given me. Your friendship and your kind regard are gifts beyond measure.”

“They
are yours and your family’s for all time, Lanen Maran’s daughter. You have
saved the
two
lives I value most in the world, and though I can never repay such a gift I
will do what I
may.”

”Akor has
told me that Rella is with you. Your greatest gift to me now is to guard her
well,
” I
replied.
”Akor
has been speaking with your father, and he comes now to tell me how the
Council is
drifting. I must go.”

“Then
fare you well, Lady Lanen. I am at your service as long as I live.”

”Farewell,
Kédra. The blessing of the Lady on you and your family.”

Akor entered his chambers slowly, his soulgem
dull even in the bright firelight. I wished yet
again that he had an expression I
could read—but no, he had told me, with them it was the
stance and the way they held their
wings, what had Akor called it—oh, yes. Try to read his
Attitude. “What news then, dear
heart? Has the Council come to a decision?”

“Not yet, but they approach it.” I
heard the weary note in his voice, like a sigh. “It does not
bode well for
us, dear one. That was the last word Shikrar gave me. He has been most
eloquent in
our defence, but the tide of the debate goes badly against him.”

I was almost afraid to ask, but my choices were
rapidly disappearing. “And what exactly can
the Council do to us?”

His voice was right at the edge, I could hear his
control slipping. The glorious rescuer, the
tender beloved who had left not an
hour since was gone, and in his place stood a defeated
soul. That frightened me as much as
his words. ”They might find against us both, or against
either one of
us. They might demand that we part, that we be exiled, that I give up the
kingship,
that you be kept here forever apart from your own Kindred, or—”

He did not finish, but I did not need to hear him
speak the words. If the Council was against
us, I must of necessity ask Akor to
decide between me and his people, the one thing I
had sworn to myself not to do. I felt
my heart plummet into my boots. This last defeat, from
so unexpected a quarter, was the one
too many. My legs gave way and I fell to my knees.

“Are we lost, then, after all we have
done?” I asked, my voice deep with despair and barely
above a
whisper. ”Will they call for our deaths, Akor?”