[Lanen Kaelar 01] - Song in the Silence (46 page)

“I do not know, dear one. It is possible.
Shikrar thinks not.”

“Have you no voice at this Council? Can’t
you argue with them?”

“I have. I did so last night, while you lay
wounded.”

The events of the past days swept over me,
tumbling images of death and life and love. Was it
only last night that I lay dying,
burned beyond belief, for doing a good turn? I lived only
because of
Akor’s lawbreaking. Akor, beloved. I bowed my head. Why should I expect good
from those
who saw only the broken laws, not the healing, not the charity to another soul?

What good could we hope for, who had so
disregarded all in the name of love?

My fists were clenched, my teeth ground against
themselves, and I discovered to my
amazement that in the last extreme my despair had
turned swiftly to something else.

Anger.

“Well, I haven’t had my chance,” I said
in a normal speaking voice. It sounded like shouting.

“I am still trying to understand that not an
hour ago you saved me from my father, who
promised me to demons before I was
born and was trying to make good his vow with my life.
I was in his power because I had
nearly died saving the lives of Kédra’s wife and son, and
these people
are debating about what to do with me.” I faced Akor. “I would address
the
Council.”

“You cannot, Lanen, they would—”

I did my best to yell in the Language of Truth. I
didn’t want anyone to miss it.
“I
have a
request
to make of the Kindred, the Kantrishakrim, the People who chose Order, that
justice
may
be served. It is Lanen Maransdatter of the Gedrishakrim who speaks.”

There was no answer.

“In the
name of the Winds and the Lady, I demand that I be allowed to attend the
Council and
speak
in my own defence. It is only just.”

Silence.

“ANSWER
ME, DAMN IT!”

Silence.

Akhor

“Akor, you have saved my life once this
night. Will you try your arm again?”

I was still shocked at the intensity of her
truespeech, and more amazed yet that there had been
no answer. “Yes, of
course,” I replied without thinking.

“Then come on, you may have some defending
to do.”

And with that, Lanen strode out of my chambers.
When I hurried to join her, she only looked
up at me and asked, “Which way
is the Great Hall?”

I gestured towards it with my chin. “It is
near for me, dear-ling, but some distance for you.”

She started walking as quickly as she could.
“Kédra, it’s Lanen,”
she called
out as she strode
through
the night.
”Akor will not stop me, but
as Guardian you should know that I’m on my
way to the Council. I mean and will
do no harm to any, I swear on my soul to the Lady. But if
your duty
lies in stopping me, I will understand, and I forgive you. But you will have to
kill
me
to do it.”

Kédra replied in the same kind of speech Lanen
was using, scattered and heard by all, and his
truespeech was bright with a strange
joy.
”Success and long life to you,
Maran’s daughter and
Akhor’s Lady!”

I had followed her perforce, walking slowly at
her side. I was dazed still by this madness that
gripped her, but I found my blood
answering hers, felt the Fire building within me. “Come,
dear one, it
is a long way. Will you not allow me to bear you?”

“How?” she asked, still striding as
fast as she could. She managed to be in Anger even as she
walked; there
are some advantages to having such mobile faces.

“Here,” I answered, putting my head
nearly on the ground in front of her. ”I have been
considering this. Sit just behind my
face plate, where my neck is thinnest. I do not know if
they will be within your reach, but
you might try to take hold of my horns to steady yourself.”

She stopped then and grinned. Her anger abated a
little, tinged now with delight. She leapt up
the little distance. I could feel her
pull herself onto my neck, where she seemed to fit nicely.
“Your
horns are well within reach, my dear, they might have been put here just for
that
purpose,”
she said.

And she laughed.

Lanen

I was still angry, but as he lifted his head to
its normal position I felt like a child on the
shoulders of its parents. It was
wonderful. There was none of the terror of flying, and he was
so big I
could see over the trees. He was right, he did move a lot faster than I could;
and I felt
much
safer as well. I had decided that if I was going to be hanged, as the saying
goes, it might
as
well be for horse stealing as for chicken feed. At least this way I might make
it into the
Council
chamber and live long enough to get in a word or two.

I was counting on shock to do a lot for me. I had
begun to realise that, aside from my dear
Akor, these creatures who lived so
impossibly long found it hard to adjust to change. With
any luck the sheer surprise would buy
me some time.

Besides, I had stopped waiting for someone else
to make my life’s choices when I left
Hadronsstead. I had been faced with far worse than
death already, and if I was condemned to
die for doing nothing truly wrong,
and in despite of all we had done mat was right, I was
damn well going to let someone know
about it before I went.

Of course I was crazy. I do not deny it. But it
was a glorious madness, marching with Akor to
beard the Council of the Kindred in
their hall! Like the heros in all the ballads, fighting
against impossible odds. And I
realised then that I would rather die fighting for myself and for
one I loved
than live to old age in the quiet safety of a lie.

I remember.

XV

WIND OF THE UNKNOWN

Akhor

I did not even slow down. There was none but
Kédra to stop me in any case, and his voice
sang with ours as I strode to the
Great Hall. I even heard a snatch of the song of his clan,
Shikrar’s own
melody with elements of Kédra and a lilting theme that could only be Lanen.

That more than anything Sifted my heart high,
that the son of my namefast friend sang us to
victory. Lanen also was singing, a
martial air without words.

At the entrance to the Great Hall we were met by
Shikrar standing solemn in the entryway.

“As Eldest I beg you, Akhor, do not do
this.”

Lanen’s voice came from behind my head.
“Your pardon, Eldest, but he is not the one to talk
to. I
am.” Her voice rang with excitement.

Shikrar stood in Concern. ”My friend, hear me in
this. You must not let her in. She has no
voice here, Akhor, you know that. She
is of the Gedrishakrim!”

“You mean I’m human. That’s what we call
ourselves, Shikrar, human. If I can call you the
Kindred, instead of Dragons, you
might at least return the favor.”

Lanen

“Be silent!” he yelled at me. I was
glad to finally get a direct response, but a yelling dragon is
impressive.
And loud. “You put yourselves in peril even by standing here.”

“Then let’s not stand here. Can we get in,
Akor? Is it physically possible?”

“A moment, Lanen. Shikrar, why such fear?
Has the Council reached a decision?”

He bowed his head in a very human gesture.
“They have. I dissented, and I am glad to say
mine was not the only voice.
I reminded
them at every turrn of what you both have done— but Rishkaan’s faction was
strong. There
is much hatred yet for her people among us.” Still gazing at the ground,
he said
quietly,
“You are to be exiled, Akor. Relieved of the kingship and sent to live out
your life
away
from your people on some rock in the ocean.”

“And Lanen?”

“She may go with you, to survive as best she
can. Or …”

My voice was calm, even reasonable. “Or
they’ll kill me and save me the trouble of having to
survive.”

He bowed to me, a sinuous, graceful Dragon bow,
then did me the courtesy of looking me in
the eye. “Yes, lady. That is
correct.”

I laughed. What more did I have to lose? “To
the Hells
with
that. Come, Akor, let’s go in. Or let me down and I’ll
go in myself.”

He lowered his head to the ground and I slid off.
“Go before, dearling,”
he said,
turning to me
with
a smile in his voice and his soulgem gleaming like emerald fire.
“I shall come behind and
keep all harm
from you. Let us tell the Council ourselves what others have not managed to
say.”

I paused and gingerly took out my boot knife. It
was the only weapon I had about me.

“Shikrar, you who have so gallantly fought
for us, will you do me another kindness? Will
you take this? I would not enter the
Council chamber armed.”

He held out his great clawed hand and I put my
tiny knife in it. Again he bowed. “I shall keep
it with the treasures of my
people,” he said, strangely moved. “So valiant a lady and so
courteous, I
do not wonder Akor feels kinship with you. And despite my anger just now, I do
not forget
that I owe to you the lives of my dear ones. In the teeth of the Council I
stand with
you.”

Despite the reminder of teeth I grinned at him.
“Well, that’s two,” I said gaily, and started
down the corridor. Nothing could stay
me, not the weakness of my so-recent brush with death
(which yet affected me), not my
new-healed hands that still smarted though the bandages had
been removed,
not the Council’s sentence of death, not even walking down a dimly lit
underground
corridor towards the hostile unknown. A kind of wild exultation had gripped me.

I trusted in Akor and in Shikrar’s goodwill, and
in whatever force had brought me to this place
at this time. The Winds and the Lady
were behind me and fear, I thought, was far away.

The corridor seemed endless, twisting and
doubling on itself, but there was always at least a
little light ahead, and after some
time I heard the low hum of deep voices in a large chamber.

The entrance came suddenly, a blazing opening in
the darkness, filled with firelight and
Dragons. I stood at gaze, staring at
an assembly I had seen so many times in my dreams but
never hoped to see in real life. For
a moment I wondered at the firelight and the torches that
lined the
walls, for Akor had told me that his people saw well enough in darkness not to
need
much
light; then I realised that in this formal setting they must be able to see the
Attitudes
assumed
by all who spoke, and that fire was sacred.

Akor had said their numbers were dwindling, but
it was hard to believe that in the face of a
sea
of
Dragons
.
The fear I had hoped to avoid rose up in me then, when I saw them all
assembled.
How dared I hope to stand and defy them? The lightest breath from the least of
them and I
would be a memory. Throughout that vast hall they stood and sat and lay,
conversing,
arguing, a great patchwork of all sizes and all colours of metal, from steel
blue
and
leaden gray through bronze and brass, copper and dull gold. But none like Akor,
none
silver.

I remembered his words.
My birth was seen as an omen, though what it portends none can
say.

This seemed as likely as any. Akor’s voice
whispered in my head,
”Courage, dear
heart. Now
we
are here, let us do what we have come to do.”

It was kind of him not to speak of my fear.

At the far end of the chamber there was a
half-round dais. as it were in the bottom of half of a
large bowl, and on it sat a Dragon
with a skin of copper bright as a new-minted coin. I gritted
my teeth and
aimed straight for the front of the dais, but I was overtaken by Shikrar, who
hurried ahead
of me and started to speak.