Darksong Rising (98 page)

Once she had led Farinelli out of the stable, Anna mounted and surveyed the courtyard, her

breath steaming in the cold morning air. Himar was already mounted, and lining up the lancer

companies. Falar, with his men along the east wail, flashed a roguish smile, one that Anna

returned with a nod.

“Lady Anna, the players are ready,” offered Liende.

Anna turned in the saddle. The chief player and the other players were mounted, and waiting,

behind her guards. “Thank you.”

“As are your guards,” added Rickel from behind her right shoulder.

Anna turned and offered another acknowledgment. She’d wished that they’d been able to leave

the day before, but just going through everything that Jecks had sent had taken two full days.

Then, three nights with solid food and dry beds and stalls had probably been worth it to all the

lancers and their mounts. You feel better, too. And…she’d had time to adapt the spells she’d

need at Arien and Flossbend.

Jimbob had crossed the courtyard and stood on the mounting block by the carriage entrance to

the hall, looking toward Anna. Herstat waited on the steps several yards behind the young lord.

Himar rode toward her. “All is ready. The gold company will stay here today, if you approve,

and then leave for Falcor in the morning."

“Playing it safe, I see,” Anna said. At the puzzled expression that crossed the arms commander’s

face, she added, “You want to make sure nothing happens on our way out of Synfal and through

Cheor.”

“Yes, Regent. And I know Finsul will ride hard to Falcor, no matter what order I leave with

him." A crooked smile crossed Himar’s lips.

Anna returned the smile. “That’s fine. Let’s go.”

“Van forward!” Himar slid his mount around beside Anna.

The sorceress had the feeling that Jimbob watched until she was well out of the gate, but she

didn’t look back.

106

As she tried not to bounce in the saddle, Anna unfastened her jacket to avoid sweating under a

clear sky and a midday sun that was almost summerlike. She reached for a water bottle and drank

deeply. After replacing it, she stripped off the jacket, glad of the slight coolness remaining in the

late morning.

“The mist worlds must be chill indeed,” said Falar, riding to her right, still wearing his heavy

leather jacket.

“Compared to Liedwahr, they are... or mine was.” Anna peered eastward, but the road looked the

same, winding around rises too low to be proper hills.

The Synor River Road had gotten more rutted and less traveled after they had passed the south

road to Suhl, but when they had turned south on the trade road that led past Arien to Sudwei, the

way had smoothed out again. But another day later, when they had turned eastward toward

Arien, the road had quickly degenerated into a hole-filled and rutted country lane. Anna had

checked the mirror twice to make sure they were headed to Arien, but the aerial view in the glass

had confirmed it.

So she swayed in the saddle, with their progress slower than she would have hoped.

“Even my brother keeps better roads than these,” offered Falar, “and I thought his efforts poor

indeed.”

“Fussen’s roads are much better." Anna grinned. “I’m not so sure about its bridges, though.”

“My sire always said that bridges should be strong enough for wagons and weak enough to be

removed in case you wanted to deny an enemy a crossing.”

"That didn’t stop the Prophet,” the sorceress pointed out.

“He didn’t think about sorcery. There haven’t been many sorcerers or sorceresses in the west

since the lady Peuletar, and that was many, many years ago.” Falar added, almost conversa-

tionally. ‘They say that she was beautiful, too.”

“You’re very gallant,” Anna replied, half-pleased at the indirect compliment, but wanting that to

go nowhere. “Rut you’re my son’s age, Falar.”

“My eyes do not see that, lady.”

“I said you were gallant, you rascal.” Anna watched as one of the scouts rode down from the

long hill that they approached, then stopped to talk to Himar, who had ridden ahead of the main

column with several lancers, if behind the vanguard. "The scouts have seen something.”

“Let us hope we are nearing our destination.”

Anna wasn’t certain about that.

Himar rode back from the head of the column, where he had been talking to one of the scouts.

“Lady... once we reach the hills ahead, Arien lies in the valley beyond. How would you wish to

proceed?”

“We’ll try the mirror again, once we get to the hilltop and can check what it shows us against

what we can see and the maps.” She paused. “They didn’t see any armsmen, did they?”

“No, Regent.”

“Good.”

Once they had reached the hillcrest, Himar led the column about a third of the way down the

steeper hillside before he brought them to a halt by a browning meadow, where a small stream

crossed the road at an angle, leaving a muddy ford of sorts.

‘They can water their mounts while you scry, if you would not mind.”

‘That’s fine.”

Followed by Falar, Liende, and Himar—and Rickel and Blaz—Anna took the glass to the top

side of the sloping meadow, setting it on a rock that was halfway flat. Then she lifted the lutar

and began the scrying spell.

Show us now and show us clear,

how the ways to Arien do appear...

Anna studied the mirror, then out eastward, and then back to the mirror. Just as Dvoyal, who had

approximated a brother-in-law to Gatrune, Anna thought, had told her, Arien indeed lay in a

valley, but unlike Stromwer there was no real barrier to approaching the keep, which lay just east

of the small town. Rolling hills surrounded the gentle valley on all sides, hills partly forested and

partly in brown-grassed meadows. There were few fields showing cultivation, and far larger

grassy areas with dark shapes that appeared to be cows. A dairying region? Cheeses? Cheese

kept, unlike milk, at least if you had cool cellars.

“Is Arien known for its cheeses?” she asked Falar, standing behind Himar.

“I could not say.” The redhead shrugged, apologetically.

“The best hard white cheeses come from Arien,” Liende finally said. “Some prefer the light

yellow. Lord Brill bought the white.”

Anna forced her thoughts back to the most unpleasant prospects of the action soon to be required

of her and concentrated on the mirror-like map. There was a knoll to the south of the keep—or a

rise. Anna pointed, as Himar sketched, and asked, “Could we hold that hilltop for a little while if

Lord Tybel sent lancers after us?”

“With your arrow spells... and if he has fewer than tenscore armsmen.”

“What if we circle to the south from here?”

“Word will reach him." Himar observed. “There is little real cover.”

“He’s not expecting us.”

“And that will alarm him greatly.” Himar paused. “He may know already. The scouts saw riders

hastening toward the keep.”

Anna suspected her arms commander was totally right about that.

When she finally released the spell, she took a deep breath, then picked up the lutar again.

Show us now and show us clear

Where Lord Tybel does appear....

The mirror obligingly displayed a keep’s courtyard where armsmen and lancers in armor and

with shields milled into a rough formation. In the center of the armsmen was a squarebearded

and broad-shouldered man wearing what Anna would have called glittering half armor.

‘This one will not wait behind walls,” Falar said. “Would that his brains equaled his courage.”

Anna wasn’t sure she agreed with that wish, either. She sang the release couplet and looked at

Himar. “We’ll have a glass or so before he arrives?”

“Almost two.”

Neither doubted Tybel’s destination.

“Where would be the best place to spellcast on him?”

“The ridge ahead, just above the bottom of the hill,” Himar said flatly.

Anna turned. “Chief Player, I’ll need the long flame spell and then, if necessary, the arrow

spell.”

Liende looked at Anna. “As the Regent commands.” Anna glanced at Falar, then Himar. “I need

to talk to the chief player.”

Both men stepped back.

“I will stand ready,” Himar said with a bow.

“I also.” Falar bowed.

Anna reached into her wallet and extracted the folded scroll from Tybel. She extended it to

Liende. “If you would read this, Liende. Then I’d like to hear what you think.”

The chief player’s face looked like it had been chiseled from stone when she handed the scroll

back.

“Now...” Anna said softly, “do you see why I don’t have any choice? If I let Tybel dictate how

Defalk is run... nothing will change."

Liende shook her head. “You would have taken nothing from him. He has sons. Even his

grandsons would have held Flossbend... is that not so?”

“I wasn’t happy with them, but I wouldn’t have changed that,” Anna admitted. “Just like I didn’t

unseat Ustal.” As big a chauvinist as he is.

“Because you would allow a few women to hold lands... he would torch all Defalk?”

Anna gestured eastward toward the distant keep. “He’s certainly acting that way.”