[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

colleagues found the song before he could sing it, and hid the book away. They
should have burned it. Should have... and didn't, because they thought it made
a good object lesson... and so, I suppose, it has." His voice weakened.
Giraud ran inside and returned with a tin full of water, which he held to the
old man's lips. Edder sipped until he'd had enough, then hung there gasping a
while longer, and finally nodded again.
"My thanks," he said. "The man the bards know only as the Black Heron hired
another bard to steal the book. Tanil, probably I don't know that anyone knew
for certain which bard who went missing in those dark days did so to betray
us, and not because he'd been betrayed himself. Your father sent word shortly
after he arrived here that he'd found the book, and had stolen the applicable
pages, and was on his way back. But he never arrived. Neither, apparently, did
Tanil, for our spies still tell of search that remains in progress across
Terosalle for the book financed, rumor has it, by the same Black
Heron."
I swallowed. I knew where the original book had ended up. And the stolen
pages. And the fate of the thief who had stolen it. The world would have been
a better place if the book had come to the same end as the bard.
Edder sighed and hung his head. "You'll go. You'll tell the Watchowl bards the
'Song of Belangia' has been sung, won't you? They will know what to do."
"We'll tell them," I said.
The dying bard shook his head. "Something else. I can't forget this. You,
girl... you take the black lute... it's hidden beneath the floorboards under
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
my bed.... I only just had time to hide it before they came for me. The lute
is...
special. Protect it until you get it to Watchowl and give it to... I don't
know who you'll give it to. The lute will know." His head dropped forward
again, and he drew another ragged breath. When he looked up, his eyes focused
for the first time. He stared at Ha. "You. Dwarf. I claim kinbond by deed and
oath to the Clan of Sher, and by kinbond I claim right of grace."
I saw Ha stiffen. "What was your deed," he asked softly, "and what was your
oath, to claim kinbond?"
I was thinking about that cryptic remark, "The lute will know." I only
half-listened to the old man and Ha. Their words had, to me, the sound of
ritual. I didn't know what they meant, but I sensed that what passed between
them signified more than it seemed.
"My deed was the clearing of the Hills of Chirs Chase of the legions of the
walking dead. I stood beside Fikkgund Sher and swore I would not turn back
until the hills were clean. Nor did I. And when we were done, I swore the Oath
of First Brothers."
Ha bowed so deeply his head nearly touched the ground. "Honorable deeds; the
story is known to me. You are brother to the Sher, and so are my brother. Have
you aught to send your kin?"
The words were old words, oddly spoken stiff and high and formal; within those
old words, power moved. Power to command loyalty, to extract promises, to
demand favors. It was not the power of magic, but the power of honor, and I
felt its force moving between Edder and Ha as surely as I'd felt the power
that raised the Changewinds moving through me.
"I do not bind you in that way," Edder whispered. "If you see them, tell them
I died bravely, and that I brought the Clan of Sher no shame. That's all."
"I swear I shall do it. How shall I give you grace?"
The bard hung on the door, only his chest moving as he drew in one labored
breath, and then another, and then another. "I'm ready now. Don't waste time
putting me in my bed or worrying about the proprieties. The proprieties died
with the spell-song. Just do it and get the lute and go."
Maydellan Has back went rigid, his face set into a stiff, thin-lipped mask.
Not even the darkness could hide the struggle raging inside of him. "Go in and
get the lute, Isbetta. Giraud... help her find it. Quickly."
I nodded and pushed the door open. Gently, for the old man hung on it, and I
didn't want to cause him any more pain. I slipped past him and Giraud followed
me in. Neither of us said anything we both knew what would happen when we were
out of sight. We found Edder s narrow bed and moved it, and felt around until
we located a loose floorboard. That and boards to either side lifted; Giraud
pulled them up and held them out of the way while I
reached in and felt around until I discovered a soft, padded leather case. I
lifted it out. It was the right size and shape to hold a lute, but I had no
wish to flee Blackwarren only to discover the bard hadn't put the instrument
back in its case.
I loosened the ties and slipped a hand inside. A lute nestled in there its
wood felt warm to my hand, and it vibrated almost as if it were alive. "I wish
we had some light," I whispered. "I need to be sure it's the right one."
"I'll stir the coals in his hearth with a tinder stick," Giraud said. "Maybe
I'll be able to get enough of a flame that we'll be able to see it."
Outside I heard a thud against the door. No cry, no clank of metal, nothing
but that one soft thud. But I knew it was over. Edder had received his grace.
I
swallowed hard and shivered at die diought of another death on my hands.
A moment later, Giraud, holding a stick with a tiny flame on the tip, knelt by
my side. "Let's see it."
I pulled the flaps on the case back. Black wood gleamed back at us, so finely
fitted and rubbed and so perfectly shaped that it seemed not a creation of the
Page 48
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
hands of a man but the flawless work of a god.
"I've never seen anything like it," Giraud whispered.
"Nor have I. If its sound is the equal of its construction, it will be the
finest instrument I've ever seen."
I quickly covered it up and tied the ties. I slipped the strap of the case
over my shoulder, and Giraud and I hurried back into the night.
Chapter Nine
We stole three horses, but only after we'd checked their teeth and their
hooves to be sure that the Changewinds had not turned them into monsters that
would creep up on us while we slept and devour us. If the madness that
enveloped Blackwarren continued, I thought it likely that whoever had owned
them would never realize they were gone, probably wouldn't survive to realize
they were gone.
According to Ha, who had traveled there once before, Watchowl Keep lay almost
directly south of us, a day's ride away if we dared to ride straight. But the
Watchowl Forest lay between us and our destination, and Ha said its
inhabitants had been terrifying before the Changewinds passed through. None of
us wanted to think of what they might have become afterward.
So we decided we would not chance travel directly through the forest. We would
ride south as far as Straje. From there, we could either go east until we
reached Anatta and the Burrinee River, where we would probably have to steal a
boat, or we could ride west along the Black Rock Reaches, then south on
Forest Road until we got to the path through the forest that led to
Galarialle and, beyond it, to the Watchowl Keep. Neither direction would be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne