The Born Queen Part 66

Neil watched the stars appear and listened as the hum and whirr of night sounds rose around him. He sat beneath an arbor, half an arrow shot from the composwer's cottage.

Muriele was there, too, still wrapped in the linens from Berimund's hideaway. She'd made most of the trip unceremoniously tied to the back of a horse, but once in Newland, they'd found a small wain for her to lie in state on.

She needed to be buried soon. They hadn't had any salt to pack her in, and the scent of rot was starting to remark itself.

He noticed a slim shadow approaching.

"May I?" Alis' voice inquired from the darkness.

He gestured toward a second bench.

"I've not much idea what they're talking about in there," she said. "But I got us this." She held up a bottle of something. "Shall we have the wake?"

He searched for something to say, but there was too much in him to let anything come out right. He saw her tilt the bottle up, then down. She dabbed her lips and reached it toward him. He took it and pressed the gla.s.s lip against his own, held his breath, and took a mouthful. He almost didn't manage to swallow it; his mouth told him it was poison and wanted it out.

When he swallowed it, however, his body began to thank him almost immediately.

He took another swallow-it was easier this time-and pa.s.sed it back to her.

"Do you think it's true?" he asked. "About Anne?"

"Which? That she slew forty thousand men with s.h.i.+necraft or that she's dead?"

"That she's dead."

"From what I can tell," she said, "the news came from Eslen, not from Hansa. I don't see what anyone there would have to gain from letting such a rumor circulate."

"Well, that's a full s.h.i.+p, then," he said, taking the again proffered bottle and drinking more of the horrible stuff.

"Don't start that," Alis chided.

"I was guard to both of them."

"And you did an amazing job. Without you they would have both been dead months ago."

"Months ago, now. What's the difference?"

"I don't know. Does it make a difference if you live one year or eighty? Most people seem to think so." She took the bottle and tugged at it hard. "Anyway, if anyone is to blame for Muriele's death, it's me. You weren't her only bodyguard, you know."

He nodded, starting to feel the tide come up.

"So the question," Alis said, "is what do you and I do now? I don't think we'll be much help to the princess and the composer and Mery in whatever it is they're doing."

"I reckon we find Robert," Neil said.

"And that is excellent excellent thinking," Alis agreed. "How do we do that?" thinking," Alis agreed. "How do we do that?"

"Brinna might be able to tell us where he is."

"Ah, Brinna." Alis' voice became more sultry. "Now there's an interesting subject. You have acquaintances in very interesting places. How is it you two grew so fond of each other so quickly?"

"Fond?"

"Oh, stop it. You don't seem the woman conqueror on the face of it, but first Fastia, now the princess of Hansa who is also, ne'er you mind, one of the Faiths. That is quite a record."

"I met her-we had met before," Neil tried to explain.

"You said you had never been to Kaithbaurg before."

"And I hadn't. We met on a s.h.i.+p, in Vitellio. This isn't the first time she's run away from Hansa."

"I don't blame her," Alis said. "Why did she go back?"

"She said she had a vision of Anne bringing ruin to the whole world."

"Well, she was wrong about that, at least."

"I suppose."

"Well, if Anne is dead..." She sighed and handed him the bottle. "She was supposed to save save us, or so I thought before I quit caring. The Faiths told us that." us, or so I thought before I quit caring. The Faiths told us that."

"Your order?"

"Yes. The Order of Saint Dare. There's no point in keeping it secret now."

"Brinna said that she and the other Faiths had been wrong. That's all I know."

He took two drinks.

"Did you know Anne well?" Alis asked.

He took another pull. "I knew her. I wouldn't say we were friends, exactly."

"I barely knew her. I hardly knew Muriele until last year."

"I don't suppose mistresses and wives socialize that much."

"No. But-" She closed her eyes. "Strong stuff."

"Yes."

"She helped me, Sir Neil. She took me in despite what I had been. I try not to love, because there's nothing but heartbreak in it. But I loved her. I did."

Her voice only barely quavered, but her face was wet in the moonlight.

"I know," he said.

She sat that way a moment, staring at the bottle. Then she raised it. "To Robert," she said. "He killed my king and lover, he killed my queen and friend. So to him, and his legs severed at the hip, and his arms cut from his shoulders, and all buried in different places-" She choked off into a sob.

He took the bottle. "To Robert," he said, and drank.

The White Lady-Brinna, her name was-looked up from Leoff's music. "Will this do it?" she asked.

Leoff regarded the strange woman for a moment. He was tired, his head hurt, and what he mostly wanted was to go to bed.

"I don't know," he finally said.

"Yes, he does," Mery said.

He shot the girl a warning glance, but she just smiled at him.

"You don't trust me?" Brinna asked.

"Milady, I don't know you. I've been deceived before-often. It's been a very long day, and I'm finding it hard to understand why you're here. We had another visitor, you know, pretending to be a relative of Mery's, and you remind me a lot of her."

"That was one of my sisters," Brinna said. "She might have dissembled about who she was, but everything else she told you is true. Like me, she was a seer. Like me, she knew that if anyone can mend the law of death, it's you two. I've come to help."

"How can you help?"

"I don't know, but I felt called here."

"That's not too useful," Leoff said.

Brinna leaned forward a bit. "I broke the law of death," she said quietly. "I am responsible. Do you understand?"

Leoff exhaled and pushed his hand through his hair, wincing as he touched the sore spot. "No," he said. "I don't really understand any of it."

"It will work," Mery insisted.

Leoff nodded. "I compose more with my heart than with my head, and my heart says it would work if it could be performed, which it can't. That's the problem, you see."

"I don't understand," she said.

"You read music, yes?"

"Yes," she said. "I can play the harp and lute. I can sing."

"Then you notice that there are three voices, yes? The low, the middle, and the high."

"Not unusual," she said.

"No. Quite the norm. Except that if you look closely, you'll see that there are two distinct lines in each voice."

"I noticed that, too. But I've seen that before, too, in the Armaio Armaio of Roger Hlaivensen, for instance." of Roger Hlaivensen, for instance."

"Very good," Leoff said. "But here's the difference. The second lines-the one with the strokes turned down-those have to be sung by...ah, well-by the dead."

When she didn't even blink at that, he went on. "The upturned lines are to be sung by the living, and for the piece to be done properly, all the singers must be able to hear hear one another. I can't imagine any way for that to happen." one another. I can't imagine any way for that to happen."

But Mery and Brinna were looking at each other, both with the same odd smile on their faces.

"That's no problem, is it, Mery?" Brinna said.

"No," the girl replied.

"How soon can we perform it?" Brinna asked.

"Wait," Leoff said. "What are you two talking about?"

"The dead can hear us through Mery," Brinna explained. "You can hear the dead through me. You see? I am the last piece of your puzzle. Now I know why I'm here."

"Mery?" Leoff turned his gaze on the girl, who merely nodded.

"Fine," he said, trying to resist the sudden dizzying hope. "If you say so."

"How soon?"

"I can sing the middle part," he said. "Areana can sing the upper. We need someone for the low."

"Edwyn Mylton," Areana said.

"Of course," Leoff said cautiously. "He could do it. If he's still in Haundwarpen and if we could get to him."

"Haundwarpen is under siege," Areana explained.

"No," Brinna said. "Haundwarpen is fallen. But that's actually good for us."

"How so?"

"My brother is a prince of Hansa. They won't stop him entering or leaving the city, and they won't ask him questions. Not yet."

"A pri-" He stopped. "Then you're a princess of Hansa?"

She nodded.

"Then I really don't understand," he said.

"My brother and I are here at our peril," she said. "Understand, it doesn't matter who wins the war. If the barrier between life and death deteriorates further, all of our empires will be dust."

"What do you mean," Areana asked, "at your peril?"

"My brother tried to help your queen, and I am run away," she said. "If we're caught, we may well both be executed. That's why we need to move quickly. At the moment, the army here recognizes my brother as their prince. But word from my father will reach here very soon, and we will be found, so all must go quickly."

We'll do the piece, his thoughts rushed. his thoughts rushed. We'll cure Mery. We'll cure Mery.