Sarya's Song by Kyra Halland

Author:Kyra Halland [Halland, Kyra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romantic high epic fantasy
Publisher: Kyra Halland
Published: 2014-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

SARYA FINISHED THE second of the Sirduccean books, and then the third, without finding the missing bass line, the natural tropes she had heard, or anything resembling the chained man’s song. His promises and his question, What is he to you?, lingered in her mind. His jealousy of Adan, as well as Adan’s willingness to go through Penance for her sake, had stirred up a jumble of feelings inside her that she would rather not try to deal with, so she had taken to avoiding Adan again.

Still, unable to resist the chance to hear him sing, she had taken time away from her work to go to the Mordovan-Tescas wedding. In spite of having served two nights’ Penance immediately before the wedding, everyone including Sarya agreed that Adan was in his best voice ever that day.

The long, cold storm was followed by another heat wave. With it came an epidemic of bowel afflictions which swept through the city, killing large numbers of the poor and sickly. The physicians and healers sang chants to heal the sick, and the choirs sang all the known chants that would prevent or control illness, but none of it did any good.

Debate over the cause of the plague raged through the city. Some said the illness was caused by the sudden changes in temperature, which upset the body’s delicate balance of elements and fluids; others said that the wild swings from hot to cold to hot again had spoiled the food and water supplies. Whatever the cause was, Sarya knew the trouble went deeper than that; ever since the epidemic began, she had been hearing in her mind the unidentified trope she had come to associate with plagues .

The Skola was placed under quarantine, to try to keep the plague at bay. Sarya suffered only an evening of mild stomach cramps, but two elderly kitchen workers died, and so did the poor half-witted stable boy, who had always had a smile for everyone, even Sarya. She was used to hearing about widespread death by now, but the stable boy’s death hit her as close to her heart as Babiri Naita’s had. Mourning and spurred on by an ever-greater sense of urgency, for there was no way of knowing what other calamities lay ahead, she pushed forward with her research.

The fourth of the Sirduccean books didn’t contain anything helpful. Sarya replaced it in the cabinet and took out the fifth book. Right away, the book fell open to a place in the middle. Something was tucked between the pages; some loose sheets, folded in quarters. Finally, after days of fruitless searching, here was something that might be interesting.

Sarya took the book to her worktable and carefully removed the folded sheets. After being hidden for centuries, the papers cracked and split along the fold lines as she opened them. Keeping the torn quarter-sheets together, she arranged the two pages flat on the table.

They weren’t Neumatory pages, but a voice part from an Arrangement. Sarya looked twice, to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing.

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