The Stillness of the Sky (18 page)

And spirits below

None can measure the depths I know

For you’ll never find

A lover truer than mine

And a heart freer than the sky.

Dipping in a low, kneeling bow, I strummed the final chord. My pulse raced, and each breath came in deep, ragged gasps. I remained there, motionless as I listened for any sign of movement. Had it been enough?

Lifting my head was a monumental task, but I couldn’t be caught unprepared. Though I didn’t know what more I had left to give, I’d not go down without a fight.

The Piper stood on the stage, her body wavering to and fro, as if a breeze gently nudged her. The flute fell to the stage in a clatter. Half rolled to the left, the other piece tumbling off of the edge.

But the Piper didn’t move.

I knelt there, panting, sweat dripping from the ends of my hair. People stirred around me, but I couldn’t focus on them. Grey sparks danced at the edges of my vision as my strength gave out. A single touch on my shoulder was all it took.

The blackness closed in.

Chapter 14

The feel of something warm in my right hand stirred me from sleep. I shifted, sinking deeper into the softness beneath me.

Softness? Where was I?

My eyes flew open as my last conscious moments returned to me, and I tried to sit up.

“Easy now,” a thick male voice spilled over me as someone pressed down on my left shoulder. “Your body is still recovering. Give it time.”

I turned my head, taking in the dark skin of a man I didn’t recognize. His wide nose and the almond shape of his eyes were unlike any I’d seen before. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“You’re in the palace, Jack,” an all-too-familiar voice said, startling me. “This is Sudam, another Bard. He’s here to help you.”

I stared at Prince Willem, sitting at my other side, unable to fully comprehend his words. “The palace? How did I get here? Where’s Prudence? Is she all right?”

When I struggled to sit up again, Sudam’s strong hand held me firm. “You need to rest,
asita
,” he said. “You’ve been asleep for a day and then some. You mustn’t push yourself.”

Willem held my hand in both of his. “Prudence is fine. Her parents were sent for yesterday after the guards brought her with you. She refused to leave your side for hours. They had quite the time of it.”

I frowned at the cream canopy above the bed, trying to get a hold on my situation. “I was asleep for a day?”

“Yes,
asita
,” Sudam said. “The fever took you for a while, but you’re very strong.”

“I think you might’ve helped a bit with that, Sudam,” Willem said.

The dark man smiled down on me. “Perhaps you were lucky I answered the royal invitation I received, but my songs can only foster that which is already within you.”

“May I please sit?” I asked. “I’m not broken.”

Willem finally released my hand, assisting Sudam in helping me up. I was much weaker than I expected, but not so much that I needed two grown men to assist me. Propped against the headboard, I folded my hands in my lap and stared at them, thinking.

“So, you’re a Bard, too?” I said at last, looking to Sudam.

He nodded. “Indeed. I was born in the kingdom of Moran, though my mother hails from the golden coast of Corumon. But the road is my home,
asita
. I go where the wind bids me.”

Chewing my lip, I filtered through the millions of questions I had about the strange powers I’d been born with. Where to start? I supposed most of them could wait in favor of the immediate situation.

“The people at the festival, are they…” The final part of my question stuck in my throat, and I swallowed past it. “How many did she…”

Willem sighed heavily. “The troupe of musicians were the only casualties, though some still complain of headaches from the Piper’s song. She’s never been more than a bully and nuisance before the incident at the festival. Still, Torell has been cursed with that woman for over a year now, with no one able to stop her.” His fingers slipped over my folded hands, his touch soft and warm. “No one until you came along, that is. She won’t harm anyone ever again thanks to you.”

The blood drained from my face. “What? Surely I didn’t… She’s not… She’s not dead, is she?” That I could be responsible for taking the life of another turned my stomach so much I thought I might be sick.

He shook his head. “No, not dead. She lives… In a manner of speaking.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your Piper,” Sudam said, stretching, “she used to be a Bard. Tallia was her name. I met her years ago on the outskirts of the great wildlands in the far east. She was searching for a sorcerer to help her focus her power. When I knew her then, her talents were small and scattered. She could sing any song beautifully, so long as it was a Bernish jig. She could tell many stories, so long as they were about rabbits or monkeys. Her dancing was second to none, if a circle dance was required. In all aspects of a Bard’s gifts, she was limited. Most of us have a single concentration of strength. For instance, my skill with my native burandi,” he pointed at an exotic-looking instrument in a chair beside us, one half drum, the other half a stringed almost-lyre, “is unparalleled in the world. I sing moderately, but only through practice, not innate talent. Tallia had no such concentration. The man she sought promised to shape her pieces of gifts into a single specialty.”

“The flute,” I said.

He touched my nose, grinning. “Precisely,
asita
. But not any flute. Only a single flute could be used that way. Her ability was tied to it as the tides are tied to the moon.”

I gulped. “And I broke it.”

Sudam nodded, solemn. “And taken her gift with it.”

As the weight of what I’d done settled over me, I slumped, feeling faint. Though I’d not known my gifts long, to have them taken from me would be like losing both arms and legs. How could I live that way, being severed from my reason for existing?

“Spirits help me,” I whispered, closing my eyes as tears spilled over. “What a cruel thing I’ve done.”

“Don’t be harsh with yourself, Jack,” Willem said, squeezing my hands. “Sometimes kindness comes with a price.”

“But who am I to collect such a toll?” I said, my words broken with sob. “I’m—”

“The only person who could,” Sudam said. He lifted my chin to look at me. “I know two others like us who’ve met their end at her hand. She changed after meeting the sorcerer. She was always after more of everything, never satisfied, needing to prove she could best any competitor. Some people cannot be saved, they can only be stopped.”

“Everyone can be saved,” I whispered, thinking of the man I called father, “but sometimes only if they want to be.”

“So much wisdom,
asita
,” Sudam said. “How do you know so much about the world?”

I freed my hands from Willem’s grasp and swiped at my eyes. “It’s been a long month.”

Sudam’s smile faded. “A month?”

I nodded, unsure about his shift in mood. “Well, things were never easy before that, but discovering my talents added a fresh challenge to it.”

Sudam stood and paced beside the bed for a minute or two, his hands clasped behind his back. “You defeated the Piper after a mere month of learning your talent?”

“Talents,” Willem corrected. “She sings, plays, and dances. Her stories are none too terrible either.”

Sudam stopped and stared at me. “You do all of these things?”

I fidgeted with my blankets, worried. “Well enough. Is that so unusual for a Bard?”

“As I’ve said, Bards have skill concentrated in one, perhaps two things at most.” He sank back down on the mattress beside me, scrutinizing every feature of my face. “Who are you,
asita
?”

At a loss of how to answer him, I shrank under his gaze.

Before I could cobble together an explanation, a maid bearing a tray entered the room, two royal guards at her heels. The girl placed her offering on a table on the far side of the sunlit room, the scent of stew and fresh bread setting my stomach to growling before she even lifted the silver dome from the plate.

“Your Highness,” one of the guards said with a bow, “your immediate presence has been requested by your father.”

Willem sighed and stood, casting me a brief look of concern before turning away. “Of course. I’ll be along shortly. One moment, please.”

When all but Sudam had gone, he turned to the Bard, giving him a meaningful look. The unspoken communication seemed to be Sudam’s cue to step outside, and my stomach fluttered nervously as the door clicked closed behind him.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Willem wasted no time. In a heartbeat he was there, pulling me close to his chest.

“Please never frighten me that way again, Jack.”

Again with his odd attachment? Did he intentionally mean to throw me into a spin with these stolen intimate moments? Despite my rational mind, I couldn’t help but relax in his arms.

“I’m fine, Your—”

“Don’t,” he interrupted as his fingers slipped through my hair. “Please don’t call me that.”

I frowned against his crimson doublet. “This is a very poor choice on your part. You shouldn’t dote on me so.”

“You’ll excuse me if I disagree with you.” He eased back, collecting my face in his palms. “It’s hardly by choice I act this way. I’ve thought of little else but you since before we met.”

I sighed, staring up into his green eyes. “Perhaps you’re not trying very hard.”

“After so many years, there’s not much fight left in me.”

As his face slowly dipped toward mine, I giggled, my wits scattered. “You and your brother have such unusual tastes in women. It must be a family trait.”

He paused, his lips hovering over mine as my eyelids drifted closed.

“My brother?”

I sucked in a breath, realizing the utter idiocy that escaped me in a moment of weakness.

His warmth disappeared, and I cringed, wishing with all my being that any magic I possessed render me invisible.

“What brother of mine have you met before?”

I bit down on my lip, unable to look at him.

“Jack.” His tone was no longer soft, an edge of angry bitterness creeping into that single word. “What brother of mine knows you and what game are you playing?”

My mouth dropped open, bewildered by the conclusion he was jumping to. “Game? I’m not playing any—”

Knocking preceded a reminder of the king’s summons, effectively silencing me. Willem stood there, fuming at me with tense, twitching muscles working in his jaw. Without another word, he spun on his heel and marched out of the room. Before he closed the door, I heard his barked orders that none but he and the single handmaiden who’d brought my food should pass in or out of my quarters.

Horrified, I buried my face in my hands.

I wasn’t even left my lute to keep me company. I spent the afternoon sitting on the stone balcony, at first looking for a way to escape, but the impossible height and lack of handholds on the castle wall left me stranded. Even if I used every scrap of fabric in the room, I wouldn’t have had enough to descend to safety. And with my pack missing, I couldn’t call Ro, either.

And so, there I stayed, looking down at the city and out past the walls, as far as my eye could see on the horizon. Far below, people wandered the streets, the festival carrying on despite the events with the Piper. Perhaps they felt safer with her gone. None looked up to the castle, however, their faces all turned away from where I studied them with silent yearning, envious of their freedom to come and go as they chose. The handmaiden checked on me from time to time, her last visit to take away my mostly uneaten supper and to light the lamps.
 

After the sky faded from orange to purple to dark blue, I returned to the room to sit by the empty fireplace. I sunk down into one of two high-backed chairs, watching the flickering flame of the lamp on the table between them. A slight breeze from the balcony made me shiver.

When the door opened and closed, I ignored it. If the maid had a mind to ready me for bed, I had no intention of resting.

Instead, Prince Willem seated himself in the empty chair, his face unreadable as I drew my knees up, curling myself as tightly as I could. He watched me for a long time before saying a single thing.

“I want your word.”

“For what?” I asked quietly.

He leaned forward, staring at me with unwavering intensity. “That you will answer every question I ask with absolute honesty and leave nothing out.”

“Why should I do that?” I said, simmering with irritation that he’d demand so much. “What more will you do to me? Throw me in a dungeon? A prison is a prison no matter how small or large, filthy or clean. What makes you think I’d entrust you with such a thing when you trick me and trap me at any opportunity?”

“Because if you do, I might let you go. But, if you don’t, you’ll be indefinitely detained in a very quiet corner of the castle.”

I set my feet on the floor and glared at him. “You won’t trick me into this one. I’ll hold my tongue forever if I have to. What if all I have to tell you is what you already think of me? Never mind that I’ve tried to discourage your attention from the start. You think I’ve got some sort of plan to get myself a royal wedding? I’m a Bard. I want no such thing. If you needed another reason to stay away from me, think of that.”

Some of the anger drained from his face, but I’d not let him off so easy.

“That being the case, Your Highness,” I said with a note of derision, “keep in mind who it was that sought me out. Remember who cornered who in that alley. Please recall the confessions spoken, as I’d remind you that they weren’t mine. You barely know me, yet you’re so quick to be jealous of some imagined slight that you’ve locked me away without so much as my lute to entertain me, even knowing how such a thing pains me. Strange taste in women certainly runs in your family, Your Majesty. Apparently, so does a desire to see me kept in a cage.”

I pushed out of my chair and paced the room, fuming more with each step I took. “Does it not occur to you that I keep my secrets to protect myself or others? You’re as single-minded as he is, only thinking of yourself.” Stopping near the balcony doors, my hands balled into fists as I stared out into the night. “Not a living soul knows all of my story. You think I’d be so quick to confide what I know in a man who not only suspects me of romantic treachery, but has done nothing to earn the trust he demands?” Swallowing a lump of sadness, I shook my head. “I’d break a thousand oaths before I’d promise you so much.”