The smell of roasting beast made his head hurt. The salt breeze off the ocean made his temples throb. The myriad array of colors worn by the crowd in the tap room made his eyes ache. The noise made him want to start killing people. Dell and Thizura chief among those unlucky folk, because they were responsible for a good deal of the noise presently infecting the tavern. They had the room singing chorus to a monumentally long lewd ballad concerning a farmer's unnatural affections for his charges.
Kall-Su was sorry he'd come down. Hunger and boredom had drawn him out of his room. He'd spent all the day there, wallowing in self inflicted pain and the self-pity that came with it. Lily had stayed with him through lunch, the both of them sleeping longer than they were wont, and doing damn little more than sleeping with his head complaining as badly as it was. She'd brought up a bottle of wine with lunch, an anomaly in her habits, and kept his mug full. When he'd asked with an arched brow if she were trying to get him drunk, she'd grinned and shrugged.
"It's for your headache. I don't need to get you drunk to have my way with you, silly."
"Your playing soothes it more." Then he'd hesitated, toying with the crude wooden mug, thinking about how last night, he had forgotten about the hurt for a while when she'd sat crooning meaningless melodies. He'd wanted to ask her about it then, but sleep had washed over him unawares. The second time her singing had such an effect on him.
"Did you wish me asleep last night?"
She'd blinked at him, caught in the midst of tearing bread. She held the two pieces in her slender fingers and met his stare. "I wished for you to be at peace. You were in such discomfort. You were lucky to get any sleep at all."
"No. Not lucky, I think. You did it, with your song. There is a magic to it. It is -- very difficult to even detect. Very subtle."
Her eyes widened a bit in dismay. "I didn't realize I was even doing it. Selephio said --- he said that sometimes what I want with my heart comes through in my music. He says it's merely a matter of weaving a pattern of wants. Oooohh, but I'm not supposed to talk about it -- he made me swear an oath. Crayl says he swore the same when he began learning. But I don't want to keep things from you -- not if you want to know."
"No." He held up a finger, reached out and touched her lips. "No oath breaking for me. I'll figure it out on my own if I decide I wish to badly enough. Right now, it's not that important. Other than it helped chase the damned headache away. Play me another song."
"I'll wish away the hurt with all my heart." She promised, and a while it had fled. But it came back after he'd sent her away, knowing how much she wanted to go and discover more of the fair's delights.
He had no notion where she might be now, with darkness covering the land, and a hundred colored lanterns swinging from the eaves. When Dell and Thizura finally finished their song and paused to wet their throats, he pulled at Thizura's sleeve to get the young minstrel's attention.
"Do you know where Lily is?"
"Some competition with Crayl and the old man out on the beach. It's a master's thing. Don't know why they invited her along." Thizura sniffed disdainfully, casting Kall an appraising look. "They probably won't let you in. You look awful. Do you have a hangover or something?"
"Something." Kall-Su muttered, drifting away. He left the clamor of the tap room and stepped out into the somewhat less crowded street. It was still far from peaceful. A dozen different strains of melody could be heard. He tried to block them all out, none of them bringing the serenity of Lily's music.
He walked towards the beach, following the thrumming rush of the ocean. On the edge of the town, where the land sloped down towards the broad beach, one could see the whole field of tents spread out across the sand. To the north where the harbor was, the lights from docked ships bobbed gently in the current and out to sea a few ships at anchor were dark silhouettes.
"Makes a body feel safer with those warships riding the waves out there." An old man remarked in passing, seeing Kall's attention fixed out to sea.
"Those are warships?" he asked.
"Aye, Alliance vessels out patrolling in case the twice damned corsairs try to pluck this very rich fruit. The fair's an tempting target, to be sure. They been hitting up and down the coast regular as rain these last few months."
"I've heard."
"Those ships just come down from the north, keeping looters and such from all those poor coastal towns what got smothered by the freak winter storm beginning of summer. Heard from one of her crew come for shoreleave that they scuttled a pirate ship up around Kelededra. 'Course the pirates were running for their lives at the time with their ship all ablaze like a Lady's Day fire. Heard there was a crazy mad wizard took up in Kelededra what sent three raidership's packing."
"Really?"
"Captain of the Alliance warship said he was ranting and raving 'bout his house being covered in ice and making folk sorry for the inconvenience. So I figure I'll not be heading up Kelededra way, anytime soon."
"Oh." That was probably a priceless pearl of wisdom. One most certainly would wish to avoid crazy mad wizards out for vengeance over certain ice covered villa's.
He followed the path down to the beach, boots sinking into soft sand. A hundred tents. A hundred venders offering a hundred diversions.
A dancer snaked out from the carpet covered front of a well lit tent, hips swaying, bells clapping between her fingers.
"Hello, beautiful. Come inside?" She wove in front of him, wrapping her arms about his neck. It was not dance they were selling, but flesh. He unwound her hands and slipped past, and she gyrated up to another passerby without missing a beat.
He could not find, upon casual inspection, the gathering of master harpers that Thizura had spoken of. The flickering torch light combined with the noise and the frustration of fruitless search made his head stab with pain. He trudged through sand away from the tents and closer to the line of tide. It was quieter here, where they dared not set their tents and he walked a ways, daring the foaming surf to wet his boots. He sat down on a rock finally, a few yards from the edge of the wet sand the ocean was determined to pull back into itself and stared out at the distant lights of the warships.
Terrible thing, to be stuck out there on the ever tossing sea, patrolling the dark waters for elusive prey. Frustrating job. One almost never heard of pirates being caught. He imagined the reason the ones in Kelededra had been was more due to the surprise of finding an irate wizard in residence than any interference of Alliance warships. He wondered where such pirates came from. Across the ocean, hailing from distant and foreign lands, most said. A world away, as far as he was concerned, having no care to ever venture by ship to such far off places. But he did wonder what the destruction of the ancient world had left of other lands. All that was here, were the ravaged shells of once great cities. Boneyards where scavengers and ghosts dwelled.
A drifting strain of music caught his attention. A reedy chord that was ethereal and fey. There was a fire down the beach, beyond the last rows of tents. He saw the orange flare of it against a shielding wing of rocks. He heard a soft voice travel out over the sea, blending with the gentle rush of surf.
A magical sound almost. Most certainly the music of a master minstrel. He got up and walked towards the niche where the fire was hidden by rocks. Paused outside them, mesmerized by the song. It seemed to make the very air fragrant. Almost it made his head swim. He put a hand to a shoulder high rock jutting out of the sand, and forced the sensation aside. It took more than simple will power. He felt the strain inside his battered channels of forcing something more than mundane out of his consciousness. He was surprised he could do it at all, after yesterday's debacle.
He stepped forward and saw a ring of people sitting in the sand around a small fire. Five men, two of whom he knew. One younger than Crayl, the others almost as old as Selephio. One woman, whom he knew very well, sitting with her back against a rock, a little back from the others, her hands folded in her lap, as if she were only observing, not joining in. The song did not quite falter when he stepped into their private realm, so much as find a convenient halting point. They all stared at him. He could not quite see Lily's expression in the shadows, but he thought her eyes were wide. He was not usually one for making excuses for himself under any circumstances, but with the sudden, stilted silence, he felt the need assaulting him.
He did not quite get the chance. Selephio's annoying voice cut in first.
"Well, look what wondered into our little gathering. Looking for your woman? Or merely indulging in a bit of curiosity?"
Kall lifted his nose, eyes flickering over the old man disdainfully. "The first, obviously. There's nothing of your lot, that would prick my curiosity."
"Liar." The old man's grin was pale in the moonlight.
"Don't push me, old man." Kall said in offense.
"Or what? Your claws have been cut. What can you do but mouth threats?"
Hateful, hateful old man. But one that knew more than he ought about the state of Kall-Su's powers. How? If Lily was a mere apprentice -- not even that really -- and yet she already had the power to soothe his hurts, what ability might a man accomplished at this strange song magic have?
"How do you know, what I can and cannot do? Is that part of your magic?"
They exchanged looks around the circle. Lily had crept forward and knelt in the sand, staring up at him expectantly.
"He's dying to know more about our --- particular talents." Selephio told the others.
"Trade secrets." One of the older ones cackled. One could not imagine a sweet singing voice belonging to that croak, but the ancient man held a beautifully crafted flute across his lap.
"He's a wizard." Crayl offered, as if that explained his prying.
"A wounded one." Selephio said and leaned forward slyly. "Who's just had a thought occur to him. Who's beginning to wonder what we can do for him."
"Don't presume to second guess me." Kall said coolly, though the old man was disturbingly close to the mark.
"Can we? You -- do anything to help him?" Lily's voice was a taught whisper. Her stare had gone to Selephio, then flickered to Crayl and around the circle.
"You can." The old man with the flute sniggered. "Take him to bed and he'll forget all about it."
Kall blushed. Lily's lips tightened and she climbed to her feet, crossing to his side with a look on her face that warned she was about to become ill-tempered with her brethren in short order.
"Never mind, them. It's later than I thought, I'll walk back with you."
He stayed rooted to the spot, even when she tried to urge him away. "Can you?" he asked softly.
"What benefit us?" Selephio asked.
Kall spoke without thinking. "Whatever you wanted. Gold. Lands. Protection. Patronage. Name it."
"You could do all that?" One of the silent one's asked, sounding amused.
"Oh, He probably could." Selephio said. "But if we wanted gold or lands, we could have had them long past. We wouldn't be minstrels if we didn't relish the prospect of travel and living day to day. As for protection. Again, the thrill of life on the road is part and parcel with our profession -- though the notion might hold some merit. Patronage. Ahh, now that's a word an honest harper drools over. Though what allure lies in the frigid north, I know not."
"Ah. I see." Kall inclined his head. "The root of it is, that you're good for nothing but the swaying of emotions and that only while you're making your music. You play at secrets, but in truth what you wield is useless."
"Play at words with me, will you?" Selephio snapped. "True, I've never killed a man or an army of men, or a sleeping city, but there are powers out there other than elemental forces or demons trapped into service that respond to the proper touch. Anyone with the knowledge and the will can trick a elemental spirit into labor."
"Really? That simple is it? Do you practice wizardly as well as minstrelsy, then? I suppose this music magic you're so secretive about takes a great deal more than knowledge and will?"
"The fates decide. You're either born with the talent to attract certain notice or you're not. The best singer in the world might be nothing more than that -- an exemplary singer if he's not born with the spark. There are damn fewer of us than there are of you -- and believe me, if people knew we could sway them, you think we'd be welcome in any household or town?"
"So you hide it? What use is it then, if you don't use it and no one knows you have it?"
"We do use it." Crayl said. "But not for gain or power. Well, mostly not. It's frowned upon to do so."
"How?"
The lot of them exchanged stares. Lily was staring at them with more curiosity than Kall-Su. Her finger's clutched painfully at his arm.
"We can bring luck." Crayl said softly, after getting grudging nods from around the circle. "We can lift spirits. We can cause sallow fields to become rich. We can end feuds. We can soothe the thoughts of the deranged. We can make a barren women fertile again -- or a man."
"Any hedge witch can claim all that."
"Ah, but we can do it and with no spells or potions or pouches to keep under the pillow."
"You can cure the mad?" No healer he knew could do such a thing. Go into the mind of a lunatic and cleanse the delusion. Insanity was not a physical thing, which lent hope, because neither were the channels that allowed magic to flow. They could be repaired. He knew that, Angelo had said as much when he'd burned them out.
"You can help him." Lily whispered, glaring at Crayl accusingly. "You knew you could help him all this time and you never said a thing."
"I don't know." Crayl said. "It's not a precise art. You may wish a thing, but it doesn't always turn out the way you might want. Or when. We can set things in motion, but sometimes it might take months or years for the final goal to be achieved."
"And then you have the moral dilemma." Selephio said. "Who's the say the world isn't better off with one less wizard. Who's to say you're not being punished by the powers that be for all your --- crimes? How many deaths did your magic claim?"
"Too many." Kall said. He was tired of the debate. He was beginning to think the mere possibility of their being able to help him was not worth the bickering. He hated arguing. He wasn't used to people doing it with him.
Lily was more than willing to do it for him. She stabbed a finger at Selephio and hissed. "Who are you to even ask? You'd think you were some high and mighty priest with the weight of all the world's sin on his shoulders. I haven't seen you show a bit of care for anyone but yourself since I met you, so don't dare to preach. And if I have the talent then I'll figure out how to do it - with or without your teaching -- and do it myself."
Crayl stared at her wide eyed. Selephio laughed. A few of the other's smiled, though gods knew what they were amused at.
"Feisty girl, you've picked up there, Crayl." The old man with the flute remarked. "If her bite's as sharp as her bark, she'll be dangerous. Gods of delight know she could kill a man with her dancing alone."
"Shut up, you old reprobate." Lily snapped.
Kall slashed a hand sharply to stop it. "Never mind."
"No." Lily gasped.
"I didn't say we wouldn't consider it." Selephio drawled, content in his power over the situation.
"Consider what you like. I withdraw my offer."
He spun on his heel, marching away through the sand. Lily trailed in his wake, casting dark glares over her shoulder, muttering under her breath.
"Those arrogant bastards." She sniffed, when they were well and away, at the fringe of tents and amongst the crowd.
"I am sorry I alienated you from them." And he did regret that. She had been happy.
"Don't be. Selephio has been a sharp tongued viper since day one. Not surprising to find him so unagreeable. I'll have words with Crayl when next I see him, though."
"Lily, I am well able to defend my own honor."
She walked with her hands stuffed under her arms for a bit. Then let out a little breath of pent up frustration. "I know. It just makes me angry."