Part 19 (2/2)

Alvar gestured toward the street by the coppersmith's, and Anna flicked Farinelli's reins, trying not to frown. The truthspell-was it Darksong? Was that why she'd gotten the double image?

Even before she pa.s.sed the coppersmith's, riding behind a vanguard clearly more alert, the square had emptied. The echo of hoofs was the only sound as they rode northward and away from ffie center of the town.

Was it her imagination, or were most of the shutters of Cheor closed as they rode northward through the town? Anna glanced this way, and that, but the street was empty. Even the dogs and cats seemed to have vanished. ”Guilty, they are,” said Alvar. ”Not a good omen.”

”Not at all.” agreed Jecks.

”This didn't happen when we rode through Elhi,” Anna said.

”1 had nothing to fear or hide,” pointed out Jecks, with a smile.

”That's true.” Anna smiled back momentarily. Jecks' directness remained appealing, as did his smile.

A dek or so north of the square the houses spread more widely, with patches of ground, and gardens around each. The majority of the outlying houses were of unstuccoed yellow brick, and many had thatch or split-reed roofs.

Anna pushed back her felt hat, already getting battered. and wiped her forehead. The sun had burned away the earlier mist and ground fog, and the day, early as it was, was getting warm. She eased off her jacket and thrust it through the saddle loops, then took a deep swallow from her water bottle.

Still wearing his leather jacket, Jimbob glanced from the water bottle to Anna, clad in a pale green linen s.h.i.+rt and a green sleeveless tunic, and then to his grandsire.

”She is from the mist worlds, Jimbob.” Jecks said quietly.

”They must be chill indeed.” The redhead turned to Anna. ”Are you really warm now?”

”I would be if kept the jacket on,” Jimbob s.h.i.+vered, Anna almost smiled. Another thing that was hard to believe. On earth, it had seemed that; except in the summer in Iowa, she had been cold more often than not. In Liedwafir it was usually just the opposite.

Outside a small hut, a dark-haired woman, barefooted, hoed at the dark soil of a garden row, as if to prepare it for planting. With almost every stoke of the hoe, she struggled with a toddler tied to a rope wound around her waist. Several gray geese pecked along the crumbling yellow bricks of the wall of the old house. The woman scarcely looked up at the column of riders.

Anna understood. Mario bad been a handful at that age, and there had been times when she wouldn't have cared if a row of tanks had rumbled past the little house outside Williamsburg, if only her son had given her a moment's peace.

She shook her head. Now what wouldn't you give to have that time back? Her eyes burned for a moment Careful... . just get. it together You're the sorceress. You can do this.

As they continued northward and Cheor receded behind them, Anna studied the fields-all rich dark bottomland formed in the area between the two rivers. Had it once been, a swamp? It was flat enough.

What Papaw wouldn't have given for land like this, rather than the rocky patch around the holler.

There were low hedgerows around many of the fields, but no stands of trees, except in the distance to the east. A single horse pulled a plow guided by a stocky figure in the fields off to, the right. The farmer was nearly a mile away-more than a dek and a half, Anna corrected mentally, trying again to keep her references in Liedwahran terms.

To the left were several other figures, carrying baskets and pointed sticks. Planting? Anna wondered.

Ahead, a low yellow-brick wall stretched across the fields, forming the southern side of a rough square that looked to be almost two deks on a side. In the center of the square was a low hill whose base was encircled by a second and higher yellow-brick wall. On the crest of the hill was a sprawling, high-walled complex-also of yellow bricks.

”That's Synfal,” Jecks announced. ”It's been home to the lords of Cheor since before there was a Defalk.”

A skeptical look crossed Jimbob's face, and Anna wanted to say something, but she bit her lip. Now wasn't the time, not in public, especially.

”Big place,” offered Alvar, from where he rode slightly ahead of Anna, Jecks, and Jimbob.

”Aye. Only a rich holding could support that.” As they continued toward the nearer wall, Anna looked more closely. The first wall, almost waist-high, was rough-formed, and covered in places with vines, showing a few new leaves. By full summer, it would vanish into the green of the surrounding fields, Anna suspected. There was no gate where the road met the wall, nor any sign of one. The wall just ended in a tumbled pile of bricks on each side of the road.

”Wall from the old days,” explained Jecks. ”From when this was part of Suhlnorra.”

Anna raised her eyebrows-another part of Liedwahr's history no one had bothered to mention. ”How long ago was that?”

Even Jimbob turned in the saddle as Jecks answered. ”So long ago even the poets don't count the years.

Synfal” -Jecks gestured toward the keep on the hill a good two deks ahead- ”was the northern march and the place where the Corian lords and the Morran lords usually met in battle.” He ginned. ”The Corians usually won.”

”I take it your ancestors were Corian.” Anna said dryly.

”How did you guess7”

”And that they were proud folks, too.”

Jecks flushed.

Anna grinned.

Jecks shook his head.

Beside his grandsire, Jimbob merely looked puzzled, and Anna and Jecks let him remain that way.

As the column neared the second wall, a barrier Anna could see was at least four yards high, she reclaimed the lutar from the left saddlebag. As she tuned the instrument. her eyes went to the walled edifice ahead, a structure nearly twice the size of the keep at Falcor, if with brick walls, rather than more solid stone.

Could they just demand admittance? Jecks had said that was the right of the Lord of Defalk-and thus Anna's, especially with Jimbob beside her. But would Arkad accept that right? Or would she have to use one of her destructive spells to enforce that right?

She really didn't like the idea of tearing up the keeps and holds of lords disloyal to the Regency-or killing their armsmen-not until all the other lords perceived that such action was a necessity. The missing liedgeld was less than two seasons in arrears-not enough to create such a perception on earth.

Here, everyone a.s.sured her, it was an obligation of honor, and two seasons' default was more than dishonorable enough for Anna to act.

Even for a woman regent. She wanted to snort. Instead, she adjusted a tuning peg and turned in the saddle, leaning toward Jecks, and saying in a low voice, ”You know I've hesitated to put Jimbob into trouble, and here I'm putting him forward.”

The white-haired and clean-shaven Lord of Elhi shook his head, leaned back toward her. ”Best he learn under your protection.”

Anna still wasn't sure how much Jimbob was really learning, and how much the redheaded heir was pretending to learn. Mario had been like that, too, playing the game until he was out from under her control-or Avery's.

Her eyes went to the road ahead, and the second wall. The taller wall ended at each side of the road in a set of pillars. On each pillar were rusted iron brackets, four of them, that had once held gates. Of the gates there was no sign.

”No guards here.” Alvar cleared his throat and looked toward Anna ”Should we... the banner?”

''Yes.” She should have thought of it herself, but she still wasn't fully accustomed to Defalk. Less than a year wasn't time enough to learn all that was necessary, whether she was a sorceress or not.

”The banner! Forward!” ordered the swarthy and wiry captain. ”Forward.”

Anna watched as the purple banner with the golden crossed spears and the crown, with the R beneath, bil- lowed for a moment in the light breeze, then drooped, even as the young armsman she didn't know rode to the head of the column bearing the standard.

”We should stop before we get within bow range, Lady Anna,” Alvar offered.

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