Part 6 (2/2)
She drank what tasted like vinegar, and the gray walls turned black again.
The next time she woke, Cataryzna was still waiting.
”Can you drink, lady?”
Anna nodded and sipped from the cup. Her eyes still burned, and her head continued to throb, if less violently. She took a small swallow, then another.
The door opened, and a white-haired figure slipped into the chamber, and settled onto the chair beside the bed.
Anna wondered if she looked as terrible as she felt. She could tell she was dehydrated and started to reach for the cup. Cataryzna lifted it to her lips.
From the light, Anna thought it was morning.
”Morning?” she finally asked.
”It is morning, lady,” answered Cataryzna. ”We were not sure you would see it.”
Anna tried to struggle into more 'of a sitting position, and her blonde fosterling-Lord Geansor's daughter- adjusted the pillows behind her.
”More. .. wine.” Anna drank again, and could almost feel the worst of the headache subsiding. Lord, was she that dehydrated? She probably had no blood-sugar level at all, either.
”Some bread might help.”
”I will get it.” Cataryzna slipped toward the door and out into the second floor corridor, her shoulder- length hair flying out behind her.
”Lady Anna,” Jecks said slowly, from the chair beside her bed. ”You cannot rebuild Defalk by destroying yourself with sorcery.”
For a moment, Anna just took in his words, then sipped more of the vinegary wine. She wished it were water, but in her condition she couldn't orderspell water, and trying to drink unspelled water would invite disaster of another type.
”If you destroy yourself, everything you have preserved will vanish.” Jecks swallowed.
”Lord Jecks.” She wanted her voice to be hard, but it just sounded tired. ”Everyone counsels me to patience. Everyone tells me that we cannot do this. We cannot find players. We cannot find weapons smiths. We cannot travel or whatever because the roads are too muddy.”
”You cannot rebuild Defalk in a season.” He forced a smile. ”You cannot do that in even two seasons or a year.”
”We may not have a year,” Anna said. ”If you want your grandson even to have a land to rule, we have to.
find ways to do all those things everyone tells me we can't do. Now.. . do we have a solid bridge over the Faiche?”
”Yes, Lady Anna. Hanfor thinks it will outlast Falcor.” Jecks smiled. ”The channel beneath is also rather deeper. It is almost a gorge.”
So that was where the stone had come from. Anna nodded. It would have been easier with players-much easier-but Delvor alone wouldn't be much help. A name popped into her head-Liende, the woodwind player injured in the Sand Pa.s.s battle.
”Liende, the player? Isn't she still at Elhi?”
”I believe so.”
”Would you have her summoned to Falcor?”
”You may summon anyone you wish.”
”Stop humoring me!” Anna hated any hint of condescension, even from Jecks, even if he did resemble her favorite movie star, even if he had actually shown some real concern for her as a person, not as a regent.
”I'm not being whimsical. I need players. She knows who many of them are, and if I can't do anything else, I'll build roads. To the west first.”
”You cannot-”
”Why not? The first threat will be from the west, won't it?”
”That will not come for years, and you must recover.” Anna doubted she'd have that much time, but she couldn't argue everything. ”Good. Then we can build lots of roads and weapons and train an army.” Anna took another swallow of the vinegary wine. Her stomach growled. She needed to eat. Another problem- the demands of sorcery drove her metabolism so high that anything that left her unable to eat for very long was practically life-threatening. She wasn't sure she wanted to see how thin her face had become.
The door opened, and Cataryzna scurried back in at almost a run, carrying a platter. Skent followed with a second. The dark-haired page's eyes took in Anna, and she could see the shock there. She'd wondered how bad she looked, and now she knew.
”Can you eat?” asked the blonde.
Anna reached for the bread, and slowly began to chew. She wanted to smile as she saw Skent and Cataryzna standing side by side. Perhaps her weakness-how she hated to be weak!-had had some positive effect.
She tried the white cheese that Skent had brought. She'd need protein and fat. Lord, she needed everything.
In between bites, she turned to Jecks, noting absently that he continued to worry one hand against the other. ”I'll be fine. At least with rest and more food, I will be.”
”You cannot... You must not.. .” Jecks stammered. ”Lord Jecks... we have no choice. We must rebuild Defalk as quickly as possible.” She swallowed more of the wine.
”I will have Liende sent for,” Jecks said. ”And I will tell her to bring any players she knows.”
”Good.” Anna could feel tiredness creeping over her. Not the draining exhaustion that had felled her at the bridge, but a fuller feeling.
”Why are roads so important, lady?” Cataryzna said quietly. ”You murmured of roads and of doctors.”
Anna sighed, even as she could feel the la.s.situde creeping back over her. She shouldn't have gotten upset.
Anger always tired her, and she was already exhausted-and what she'd done had been Clearsong. ”I'm tired. So tired.” She forced out the remaining words. ”So all the dissonant lords of Defalk don't go on thinking they're independent little countries. So that we or Jimbob can put an army at their gate in two days instead of two weeks. So that. . .” So many things....
She shut her eyes.
7.
<script>