Gail Z. Martin - COTN 02 by The Blood King

Author:The Blood King [King, The Blood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-23T18:50:04+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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AT THE PALACE, preparations continued for the beginning of the assault on Margolan. Tris, Vahanian, and Kiara met more frequently with the mercenaries and Staden’s military advisors. Carina and Carroway found a lull in their own schedules. Tris’s practice at the Sisterhood still consumed part of his time. But as his skills in magic and defense sharpened, Carina’s talents were needed less inten-sively, which gave her an opportunity to recover from the strain. With the end to the Winterstide fes-tivities, Carroway found respite from the holiday parties and the constant demand for entertainment. Carroway and Carina kept each other company in the sitting room near the dining hall, where Carina prepared her potions and powders. Carroway took advantage of the lull to work on new songs, intending to create several haunting bal-lads and stirring tunes that would help to inspire his listeners to action. Royster often joined them, working with Carroway on both song and history. Some evenings Berry dropped in for a game of tarle, but she had turned in early this night, leaving Carina and Carroway alone.

For several candlemarks, Carina worked on her powders, grinding up freshly dried leaves and roots with a mortar and pestle and heating them in the fire.

Carroway’s tunes were lively, and made the candle-marks pass quickly. Later, his songs grew pensive. One, a haunting tune, told of a beautiful musician with her silver flute, who played so perfectly that the spirits took her. Carina found herself drawn into Carroway’s newest ballad, a sad tune about a spirited young girl killed by brigands. Only at the end did she realize that it was an ode to Tris’s sister, Kait.

Ready for a break from her work and stretching to relieve her aching back, Carina drew up a chair and watched Carroway as he tinkered with the fin-gering on the lute. He tried one chord and then another, with different embellishments, until he found the perfect match. Not for the first time, Carina was deeply impressed with the bard’s talents as a musician.

She clapped when he finished, and Carroway grinned sheepishly. “You’re very kind.” Carroway tilted back in his chair. “But the songs are still too rough for a real performance.”

Carina leaned forward against the table and rest-ed her chin on her folded arms.

“You know, I realized as you were playing that you and Ban are still the mysterious ones.”

Carroway chuckled. “Mysterious? My, that sounds quite romantic.”

Carina smiled. “I mean it. I’ve learned a lot about Tris and Jonmarc, but you and Ban have said very little, except about your escape the night of the coup.” She looked from the lute to Carroway’s eyes. “I’m not surprised that a bard of your talent would be at court. And Ban is a good soldier and a loyal captain at arms.

But you’re both closer to Tris than your roles would suggest. So tell me, what’s your story?”

Carroway set his lute aside and took a sip from a glass of port, silent for so long that Carina won-dered if she said something amiss.

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