Only to serve it." "Have you no wish to see your brother?" Not Lachlan at all, for Torry. I would have spoken earlier, but I knew it would do no. It was so distinct a change. Finn smiled. The tales are true. "An admission few men would make to a woman who will not have them." The ageless Ihlini was smiling. "Does he?" I saw shadows within, and silhouettes; I tore the throng apart and thrust myself inside, not caring whom I hurt. "There is a way," Duncan told him. And did Electra give me an ^heir this time, I would be happy enough to see Solinde go ^ to my second son. I thought of her in the other room, kneading away, knowing she had Duncan close at hand. I heard the hiss of fabric as he moved, scraping one hand across the woven material. "Tynstar," was all he said, and again: "Tynstar. I put both hands on his slender shoulders. iLthrew ice into my face again, but I made no move to rid myself of it. I hung. I shouted over the clattering hooves. But it was not the greeting I missed. "I carry Tynstar's child!" he asked. I will do what I can do." "Give me The Song of Homana." "The gods saw another way for me. "Ku'reshtin!" "Alix—" But she placed one hand across my mouth and bid -me to be silent. He glanced sharply at me. Donal, have you?" I touched my shoulder then, recalling the healing wound. I wonder what might have happened had it been otherwise." "There is only you, my lord, and what do I know of you?" Perhaps. Meredyth nodded his appreciation. He turned, smiling a wry, familiar smile—Finn's smile—and I realized there was much of Duncan I did not know. I looked at him blindly, thinking only of Alix and Duncan, and then I saw the expression of realization in his eyes. The war with Thome had not impoverished me, but I had little to spare. It was soldiers I needed first, and then what other men I could find. I will come back later. "My brother, Lord Osric of Atvia, sends me to say Atvia does not come to Homana. "Just—go in? But then who am I to know the minds of tangs?' "Cai has stood it all these years; so will Taj." I smiled at her. Though the gods know I tried—" He grinned, forgoing the complaint. I rasped. One thousand if he brought me home to Homana-Mujhar. Finn stood up abruptly. Birds. But there are -things I have to discuss with Duncan." I laughed at him, stripping my brow of the golden circlet. He shifted slightly on the stool, leaning forward to pour himself more wine. And then I caught her fingers in mine and raised them to my mouth. . I twisted. I turned my head against the pillow. cooperate? I moved silently. Come with me, and 1 will give you a throne better suited, perhaps, than another. $ I ate until I could hardly move upon my stool, and ^ordered a second jug of wine. I saw how the calluses had begun to soften, shedding the toughness I needed against the use of a sword. His yelp of pain pierced through the din of battle like a scythe. The Song Of Homana book. My hair and beard I .^had had freshly trimmed, smoothed with scented oil; I felt ^.,Bearly a king for the first time in my life. I tired to loosen the knots in jaw and belly. I knew what he feared at last. "I understand that well enough, Carillon, having tasted it myself—but I think it is more than that." I put up a hand to block the stunning brilliance. I understood why it 224 I JennlfT Robttrxon existed. For that alone, I’m on team Electra. . A scowl pulled his face into grim lines. I could not see them all, so perfectly were they hidden, even though I knew how to look. I "doubt they will trouble us again." She stood on the far side of the firecairn and the light played on her face. But you are made of layers. "You will not take Electra to wife.' How utterly insignificant was Carillon of Homana. All the words I had thought to say were flown. He was Cheysuli. by Jennifer Roberson. Her arm was still slack in my hand. I drew up my legs so I could see my knees, to see if I was whole. Tiny lights, little more than the luminance shed by the flame moths. And 1 knew. The fond half-smile remained a moment, as if he still conversed with the wolf. I knew the void for what it was. When the coneys were nothing but gristle and bone— and Storr demolished the remains quickly enough—Lachlan brought out a skin of harsh wine from his saddlepacks and passed it to me. "There is talk she is Tynstar's light woman." Home again, for good, after too long a time spent in exile. I felt the bum of anger in my belly. "You have said it is my tahlmorra to take back the Lion Throne. I frowned at him, sitting upright again on my rock. He frowned. 1 knelt rigidly at his side, too stiff and frightened to move away. "The cows were not always willing to be milked." "In this storm?" Two 292 Jennifer Roberson sons, I have heard! wrapped around the double-up knees, fingers clawed. "When I shut up the wall, you must jump." you must have a little magic." In fifteen years, Donal will be—twenty-three? . Did I take her out of Joyenne, Bellam would know instantly I had come back, and where. "I do not rape what I will have in marriage." And put madness in its place. ^ "Aye, my lord." Who else would undertake to win my mother free? I tried to swallow the cramp in my throat. 2: The Song of Homana) (Part of the Chronicles of the Cheysuli Series) by Jennifer Roberson. Storr, with Finn was gone. 274 Jennifer Roberson Come, lady, and hear of my soul, for a harper's poor magic does little to hold a fine lady's heart when she keeps it her own. "Go, then," I said angrily. "Come, then. Anger, I knew, and defiance. The heirship is so—binding." I doubt he ever will." I had seen Alix, once, when she had shapechanged too often, and Finn as well, after too long a time spent in wotf-shape. On the ledge of my draperied bed. "Ku'reshtin!" Then I stole her from you, intending to make her my meijha. Or even twenty thousand?" I trembled as if with illness, knowing only a great sorrow and rage and consuming grief. I brushed the damp hair from her brow, looked again on the, sleeping baby, then went from Ae room to give out the news. THE SONG OF HOMANA 123 "Many men have been chained." She sat back upon her heels, placing herself close to Duncan. "You say these—shapes— are what the Ihlini have made?" I stood up, dripping, and reached for the blanket he tossed me from Ton-in's pallet. i|» "There has been no word of Ihlini presence within the ||Atvian army." I laughed shortly. Lachlan frowned intently. The blade had struck flesh, and yet he did not bleed. Had Duncan said this? Duncan stood j'ust inside the open doorway, framed by the silver leaves. "Nothing is done so easily when it bears the weight of the gods." With her other hand she set her fingers beneath my chin and turned up my face, so she could look upon me fully. My ^hand was so large and hard and callused, touching the 294 Jennifer Roberson fragile flesh. "Electra." I caught the reins from the ground and brought the horse closer. At last. My body protested against the dampness of the chamber. pears it is Tynstar's doing." I looked at him and tried to smile. . Finn was welcome to his ftr-bond and the magic of his race, I longed only for Homana. It was a stricken expression, as if he had suddenly realized the import of the child, or of the woman who bore it, and what it was to sire a child. I interrupted. As he had, no doubt, met my uncle's unwavering stare. I thought of her with him, at night. He grinned. I will not get her another way." His greeting was—similar." He shut his eyes a moment. I nearly shivered with the chill ifaat ran down my spine, raising the hairs on my flesh, for '. It would show his power if he humbled this woman so. Even as the ruby, now black and perverted, touched my head, a knife flew home in Tynstar's shoulder. Are you blind? Finn's horse tried to wander, searching for grass in the snow, and I pulled him back. I stared at him, almost gaping. To her as well as him. It was Finn at the doorflap, but when I called to him to enter, he merely pulled the flap aside. He did not sing, letting the harp do it for him, but I knew what magic he sought. "Come. . They gripped one another as if they could not bear to be apart. My own, once, the royal blade with its golden Homanan crest. It is time this wedding was accomplished." At first they gave my jehana honor. Carillon." Still he held the sword, and the ruby gleamed dull and black. What do you know of this?" But still I held Finn. This one was no light woman or crofter's daughter seeking a soldier in her bed. Even without a Mujhar to follow—a Homanan Mujhar—I will fight to defend my land. And then, without a word, he stripped the gold from his arms and set it into her lap. He was transfixed. 1 know what he means to do." "That is not for me to do. all I send to bring them in?" The gold hilt gleamed softly in the light from the firecaim: rampant Homanan lion and a blade of purest steel. I saw the frustrated, impotent anger on Rowan's young face as he put his hand to his sword; he did not draw it because he saw no reason to. . "The Queen was—in some disarray. It was growing. "Do not fret, alvi. I wondered if he counted the pieces for himself. He knows only your substantial weight." "How do you fare. "Use her, but do not wed her. There were strangers among us, though I knew their names, and we could not say precisely what we wished. Tynstar smiled. Take Homana back rom Bellam? A woman. Hot. The final note, dying out, was met with absolute silence. to him?" "Give me over to ^,the gods." I had only to look at his face as he looked for hers, and at last I had my answer. "If I thought it was \ my sister you meant to slay, your entrails would be r burning." "Pointless, are they? I rode up slowly. My blinded eyes could only see shape. "There are hundreds of people assembled in the Great (all," I said irritably. In five years I had had time to think of AJix, and regret what had not happened between us, and I could not hide my feelings. But I could not afford to alarm him. "I have come to take you to Bellam." "Finn I did not require; not yet. "I have not the skill to "ep you safe, my lord." He carried 'i instead a knife taken from a Steppes plainsman, and it ',• served its purpose. I glanced at him sharply. Rowan sighed. Carillon. Storr leaped into the room, threading s way through the women. I was grateful for that much, even though I grew cold upon my horse. Sabbat Worlds. Briefly there was withdrawal in her eyes. "No," I agreed, "but have I spoken of slaying men?" ,, I swore beneath my breath. ^ I burst through the women and into the room. Finn demanded. I reached out my hand to drop the knife into the pit. In his place, I might be like him- But in my place, what would he do? This is not the place- I am not the Mujhar quite yet." And then we rounded the tower, looking for the door, and I stopped dead. I could not move. "Send for Zared, at once." The horse leaped aside, nearly shedding us both, 1 heard Alix's gasp of surprise. "What are those words?" ^yhite leathers, so that his skin looked darker still. I did not mind. It was Rowan who denied it. "What use is a girl but to wed? It looked like all the others: gray and dingy and dim. Into blackness; into a ^ perfect emptiness. "I cannot. In more than six hundred years, only two men have survived the ceremony." It broke over our heads, showering us with a violet glare, and I knew it would blast the shadows into the white-hot glare of the sun. I touched the border between Caledon and the Steppes. The memory altered. "Who would serve a mercenary, harper? I admit I was wrong—I admit it!—but there is no more need to remind me. I could not hide the Desperation in my voice. "And with great difficulty." After five years and no threat from without, they lived lazily within. I thought of what kind of man I had been five years before, and what I was now. You are yourself. Hard and cold and strong." I still held my sword in my right hand. The Homanan nodded. After ten months, too long a time, we shared company again. I scowled at him. "My son is a warrior now." The resistance at Homana-Mujhar broke quickly enough. Finn shrugged. ;, • "Do it" He rubbed at the flesh beneath the silver circlet on his ^ brow. Donal sighed and his attention turned. I scraped at stripping it again of enough for any man to prince. "There are times Donal is more like his su'fali than his jehan. You will end, my lord." I thought you had resolved all that when you decided it was time for us to turn our backs on exile." "What Tynstar did is done. THE SONG OF HOMANA 213 I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck. He was still a boy, and still quite young. And yet I could not say who was truly the beast. I found him at last perched upon the ruin of a felled beech, huge and satin-trunked. Lachlan slipped through the entrance. "Perhaps even more. And why?" He rose and paced across the floor, but I saw how his footsteps hesitated. My teeth were good and I still boasted all of them. Is that -»faat you meant?" his character development is a bit shallow, for all that he's the narrator. asked the soldier with the knife. He made no indication my comment bothered him. I think Tynstar will meet his match in er." An odd farewell from an Ihlini to a Homanan. Spies I can deal with; often they are useful. "It may not." It was then I was conscious of the harpsong and Lachlan's nimble fingers. Finn did not oblige. "How long did the battle take?" This had to remain your battle." What the wolf said I cannot guess, but I saw Finn's face darken in the firelight with heavy color, then go pale and grim. "Sixteen." There was still Alix between us. I care little enough for gold. 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