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"It didn't get out, exactly," I said. "The bard who was carrying it got
eaten."
Giraud interrupted. "Your father's name was Haral, wasn't it?"
"Haral dar Danria."
Giraud frowned and read. "Have you ever heard the name Tanil?"
"No."
"How about Black Heron?"
I nodded, remembering Birdie and Aymar and Marda talking about how they'd
tricked the Black Heron. I hadn't mentioned the name to Giraud before, but...
"Yes," I said. "I've heard of the Black
Heron. Birdie said she sent word to him that she'd killed me. Evidently he
wanted me dead."
"He wanted a lot more than that." Giraud glanced at Maydellan Ha. "You want to
hear this?"
"Certainly."
Giraud began to read.
Chapter Six
7 Brightsmonth. The Black Heron sent the message to the court of
Salgestis today Giraud read informing the king that the Watchowl Keep bards
uncovered a plot against his life centered in Blackwarren. He told the king
the bardmaster requested the presence of Haral dar Danria in the
investigation. Til accompany Bard Haral when he travels to Blackwarren, where
we have allies. Haral will trust me we were friends in school. Heron's allies
will take him off my hands when we arrive, and Heron will replace Haral as the
king's chief bard.
He should be in place by the time I reach Hearthold Mountain for the second
phase of our work; I'll make sure the news of Haral's tragic death reaches the
king's ears promptly.
18 Brightsmonth. Haral dar Danria arrived at the Keep today, with his young
daughter in tow. Asked why she hadn't been left with her aunt back at the
court. Haral said he'd done a farseeing spell, and the child's presence was
the determining factor in the success or failure of his mission. As if he had
a mission, but he can't know that. We've shielded against farseeing. He cannot
possibly suspect.
Don't relish the idea of killing the girl, but the Heron says when the time
comes, I must.
20 Brightsmonth. Two days of hard riding brought us to Blackwarren.
We're to meet with the local bard, who knows nothing, then with the local
lord.
I've arranged us rooms with a merchant who is willing to help me make Haral
and his daughter disappear, and who says he'll be able to eliminate any
curiosity about their whereabouts. That's the good news. The bad news is that
Haral is far too suspicious, and far too clever. I've taken to hiding this
spellbook. I can't let him discover what it contains.
23 Brightsmonth. Haral has managed to question most of the people in this
sorry excuse for a town. Of course he's found no evidence of a plot of
regicide.
Further, I know he suspects me of something. I catch him watching me, and when
I do, he smiles. No matter. Tonight he dies.
Giraud paused and glanced over at me. "This next entry was written by your
father, just under that last statement."
My apologies, Tanil, for not dying so easily. But I've discovered that there
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truly is a plot to destroy the king. I'm sure he'll find your notes and spells
most interesting. I'll see you at court you and your Black Heron.
Haral dar Danria
"Then it goes back to TaniFs handwriting again."
23 Brightsmonth evening. He's taken my notes and his daughter and fled
Blackwarren. If I cannot catch him before he reaches the king, I have lost
everything. Aymar is loaning me his men, and they'll be ready to leave within
minutes.
24 Brightsmonth. He's dead. The girl wasn't with him, nor the papers. Now the
search begins.
26 Brightsmonth. He stashed his daughter with a poor peat-bogger in
Blackwarren, and gave the child the papers he stole from me, along with a his
notes and several spells of his own, and few personal effects. Don't know what
he thought hiding the girl would accomplish. We have everything now.
The women is an ignorant peasant, and greedy. I've paid her to keep the girl
and lie about where she got her if anyone asks. The Heron wouldn't like this
if he knew, but the child is utterly unremarkable, and I see no need to kill
her. Can do what's best for Terosalle without resorting to murdering children.
Unlike her father, she had no part in this.
Maydellan Ha said, "They're always doing what's best for their country."
He shook his head and studied rne. "How are you taking all of this?"
I wasn't sure, to be honest. I found myself listening to this tale of a plot
to murder my father and to overthrow a king and wondered why the conspirators
thought they needed to do that. What had my father done to them? I wanted to
hurt Tanil but he was already dead and find the mysterious Black Heron, but
how could I ever hope to do that? Still, I wasn't filled with despair, as both
Giraud and Ha might have thought. Instead, I had to wonder. My mother had left
my father when I was quite young. But surely she'd had some connection to him
still. She must have taken some interest in my welfare. Why hadn't she come
looking for me?
Thinking about it further, that seemed plain enough. If she'd heard anything,
she'd probably been told I was dead. Except how could she have been? Did she
know the Black Heron? More importantly, was she still alive?
Could I find her? I'd lost much, but sitting there listening to the dead
Tanil's tale of treachery, I found my reaction to be mostly one of hope.
"Keep reading," I said. "I want to know what else is in there."
Giraud shrugged. "There isn't much. There's another entry that says he's on
his way to the Heart-hold Mountain to 'sing the crystal.' I don't know what
that means."
"I do," Ha interrupted. "But go on."
Giraud flipped the page. "Then there's an entry about being captured by the
nantatsu, and holding it off for a while, and thinking he can bargain his way
out, and about a spell he's prepared just in case his plan doesn't work."
"Which it didn't," I said.
"Right. And a final remark. He who gains the last look into the future cannot
help but win the game. Then there are some loose pages. They look like the
pages that I noticed had been cut out earlier. One is titled 'Black
Heron's Curse.' The other is 'Change-wind Song.' They're palimpsests. I can't
tell what was written underneath either of them, but they're both in a
different hand than the rest of this."
I looked at the book. I felt strangely disappointed. "Is that all?" I asked.
There should have been, my gut told me, something more.
"Yes." Giraud lifted the book by its wooden covers and gave it a good shake.
"See?"
A piece of pale paper slipped out from between two pages and floated to the
cave floor like a leaf in autumn. Giraud frowned and reached for it, but my
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hand got there first.
"That wasn't in there," he said, but of course it had been. He simply hadn't
seen it.
I unfolded the paper and discovered that I still remembered how to read after
all.
My beloved Ceebie, If you are reading this then I am dead and your world's
future is uncertain. I've sought out and studied those omens that I could
find, and know that any hope of salvation it might have lies in your hands.
Dearest daughter, you must travel to Heart-hold Mountain and sing the
Changewind Song at the Pillar of the Sun. When you do this, the Black Heron's [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]