LE Modesitt Spellsong 3 Darksong Rising

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sorceress and toward the herald and Tybel's armsmen.
Anna began the spell, trying to maintain both her composure and her images
while she projected full concert volume across Tybel's forces.
Turn to fire, turn to flame all those under Tybel's claim, those who hold
women as does he, those who will not honor the Regency.
As she sang, she concentrated on an image of a curtain of fire, white-hot,
descending from the cold, clear sky.
"Charge the bitch!" came the order from below, even before the herald had
finished his words of challenge to the Regent-sorceress.
The drumbeat of hoofs began, as the black-clad lancers charged toward the
knoll.
Anna kept her mind and voice on finishing the spell.
Turn to ashes, turn to dust,
all Tybel's lancers we cannot trust...
The chords of harmony strummed once, heard but by Anna and the few of the more
sensitive players, then a second time. Those twin chords were clear, but
unstrained, unlike other recent efforts by the sorceress.
Whhhhsssttt! Instead of lines of fire, there was an intense sheet of white
flame, brighter than the sun that dropped like lightning.
The hillside was silent, deadly silent.
Anna blinked, her eyes watering profusely. White stars flashed before her
eyes.
the aftermath of the strobelike white fire wall.
"Dissonance..."
"Mother of harmonies..."
"What happened...?"
The sorceress blotted her eyes, trying to clear her vision, hoping that the
spell had been effective, because she wasn't seeing anything. Except for
murmurs from her guards, the silence drew out.
When her eyes stopped tearing and she could finally see, Anna looked downhill.
She shook her head. There were five... maybe six men on their mounts in black
surcoats. There were no other black-clad figures-or mounts. Beginning about
fifty yards below the Defalkan lines, the ground was black, and not a trace of
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vegetation remained-just a swath of charred ashes three hundred yards deep and
almost half a dek wide.
Anna looked at the devastation blankly. Never had one of her spells destroyed
a foe so completely and quickly. Your sense frustration and anger?
The sorceress turned.
Liende looked at her. "...I wanted that... so much... after what the herald
said.... May... the harmonies... forgive me."
Anna touched her arm. "I guess... maybe I did, too."
Himar had turned his mount and rode slowly toward Anna across the browned
grass, with the faint hint of the orange redness of twilight falling across
his face.
Seated in his saddle looking down at her, he appeared to be looking up. His
voice was hoarse as he asked, "What would you have us do?"
"I couldn't do it any other way," Anna said raggedly. "Look down there... how
many are alive? The spell would have spared anyone loyal to the Regency...
anyone who thought women were people... What was I supposed to do? Too many
people have died because I tried to be forgiving and understanding."
Himar swallowed. "There are some few who live."
"I'd... like to see... them."
For a time. Anna leaned against Farinelli, not quite clinging, before she
finally fumbled out the water bottle and drank. She had just about finished
when a squad of lancers escorted a man on foot toward Anna. The man's hands
were loosely bound, and his scabbard was empty.
Rickel and Lejun stepped forward, shields on their arms, blades out, barring
the way to the sorceress. Beside Rickel were Bersan and Fielmir. Blaz flanked
Lejun.
All five focused on the captive.
"This man remained among those still living," Himar said.
The man before Anna wore a silver pin of some sort in his black collar, and he
stared defiantly at her.
"How many were there?" Anna asked.
"A half-score, all older lancers except this one."
Anna studied the man with the slightly frizzy henna-colored hair. She should
have recognized him, but her mind wouldn't come up with a name or from where
she knew him.
"Will you slaughter me as well, lady?" he finally asked.
The voice was familiar as well. Yet she could not place him. "Why should there
be any more killing?"
"So that you can dispose of my uncle's lands as you please."
Zybar... the younger brother at Gatrune's.
"Did he fight?" Anna asked Himar.
"He rode and he had his blade. He was wise enough not to use it after the
others fell."
Anna shook her head at the irony.
Zybar flushed. "You mock me as well!"
"No...I'm not mocking you, Zybar. You didn't think what your uncle and your
father did was right, did you? But you didn't want to cross them? Or you
feared them?"
"I stood with them."
"That is not what I asked."
"Best you answer the Regent," suggested Himar.
Rickel and Lejun raised their bare steel blades slightly.
Zybar shifted his weight, and his eyes finally dropped from Anna's level gaze.
"You had given Lord Hryding's lands to his consort for his heirs. That was
right. I would not, held I lands, have wished it otherwise. Better even a
daughter hold her father's birthright than an outsider or a distant cousin."
Zybar flushed. "I like you not, Regent, but with the lands have you been
fair."
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Anna nodded. "I'm glad you think so, Lord Zybar."
Zybar looked directly at Anna. 'You say you do not mock me, yet you call me
lord, after you have slain even my brothers and my father and uncle with your
sorcery."
"I used a special spell. Zybar-it only killed those who opposed the Regency.
Why do you think you're alive?"
"Yet you have shamed me, for I did not stand in my heart with my father."
Zybar lifted his head, but his eyes avoided Anna's.
"You stood for what you thought was right," Anna pointed out.
"The more fool I. For I will die later as sooner."
Anna shook her head, waiting. "You say that you think lands could go to
daughters as well as sons."
"Aye. What of Lord Hryding's lands?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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