Part 64 (1/2)
”The first warm-up song!” ordered the chief player.
Anna launched into the third vocalise. ”Muueeee... oooweee...” Her cords and throat were clear for a change, perhaps because the night frosts had reduced the amount of pollen and molds in the air, and perhaps because the winds had been light and carried little dust.
After the vocalise, the sorceress stepped forward to the edge of the knoll and looked eastward again. Rickel and Blaz, s.h.i.+elds out, rode forward to cover her.
The black-surcoated riders slowed almost a dek away and began to re-form from a column into a broader formation, at least several riders deep, from what Anna could tell. Two outriders with black banners bearing some sort of silver device took station before the formation.
At the sound of hoofs, Anna turned to watch as a scout rode up to Himar. Then she turned and walked back toward Liende. The sorceress waited until the players finished the second warm-up tune.”Yes, Regent?”
”Lord Tybel's armsmen are forming up. It won't be long.”
”Stand ready!” Liende ordered.
Both women turned as Himar rode toward them.
”Regent... Chief Player. The scouts say that Lord Tybel has near-on thirtyscore armsmen.” Himar looked eastward for a moment, then back to Anna.
'Thirty? That's more than any lord in Defalk.” Anna looked at the slowly advancing riders and the dark lances with tips that glittered in the cool afternoon light. As she watched, the formation halted once more, and a rider with a blue parley banner rode forward from the lines of black-surcoated riders and up the gradual incline of the road.
”Birtol! Go hear what he has to say!” ordered Himar.
”Stand ready,” Anna said quietly to Liende. ”I think Tybel will make some impossible demand, and when we reject it, he'll have everyone charge us and try to overwhelm us before I can sing anything. So the players have to be ready to go as soon as their herald or messenger or whatever he is turns.” She paused.
”Or if I signal sooner.”
”We are prepared.”
The herald with the parley banner guided his mount to a position a hundred yards below the Defalkan lines. After reining up, Tybel's herald declaimed. 'These words are for the sorceress and for all to hear. Lord Tybel would have naught said in secret. naught hidden.” After a moment, he continued, his voice ringing across the late afternoon. 'The most honorable Lord Tybel of Arien demands that the Regency be turned over to him to preserve the heritage and honor of Defalk.
He further demands that the false sorceress be stripped of her powers and executed...”
Anna turned to Liende. ”Have them play. Now!”
Liende pivoted on one foot, her face grim. ”The flame song-on my mark. MARK!!”
The first introductory bars of the players drifted downhill, past the 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 b.i.t.c.h!” 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 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 gra.s.s, 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 hoa.r.s.e 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, s.h.i.+elds 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.