[Lanen Kaelar 01] - Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner Page B

drinking session it helped clear the head. We’ve been at this
since midmorning and it’s near dusk already.” My point was reinforced by
our host, who came round with candles for the tables to banish the gathering
shadows. More folk were coming into the tavern, their day’s work done, to
quench their thirst.   .
    One corner of Jamie’s mouth twisted up and he
looked at me from under his brows. “And are you feeling the effects of all
this ale, you who never drink more than two pints?”
    It hadn’t occurred to me. I was astounded to find
that I was perfectly sober. Jamie laughed at my expression and clapped me on
the shoulder. “You have just learned one of the great rules of drinking,
my girl. When you are deeply concerned, when your heart is troubled by deep
grief or sorrow, drink makes no difference no matter how much you take. But I
will say , chélan sounds good.”
    “Fine, it’s coming, now would you get on
with it?” I said.
    He sighed. “Lanen, must we finish this
now?”
    “Jamie, I’ve waited twenty-three years to
hear all of this. I think now is as good a time as any.”
    “Very well.” He sighed. “You see,
Lanen, the men of Illsa have odd ideas about women. They are very possessive,
and Lady rest his soul, as dense as Hadron was even he could count. The old
wives in the village simply leered at him, assuming that he and Maran had been
lovers from the day they met, but he well knew they had not. She had denied him
until they were wed, as would any good, quiet Illsan maid. He thought his life
long that you were my daughter, but when Maran left, he made me swear never to
speak of her, and for the sake of his good name I must always refer to you as
his child.”
    “Jamie, why did you stay? You knew the
truth, such as it was. Why did you cleave to Maran when she had denied you not
once but twice?”
    He turned his quiet countenance to me and smiled
gently. “I stayed because I loved her, Lanen. And because as long as there
was every a slim chance that you were mine, I would stay at your side to
protect you.”
    “And Maran?” I asked, my voice tinged
with the bitterness I could not hide. “I have asked you all my life why
she left, and you never answered. Tell me now.”
    “She left because she had to,” answered
Jamie, sitting back in his chair with his mug of chélan hugged to his chest.
“Not for herself, though she was miserable with Hadron. she unbound him
when she left, did you know that? Their joining was dissolved in the eyes of
the Lady. I have since come to believe that she wed him because she needed
somewhere safe for you to grow up, and knew she could not provide it.” He
was staring into the depths of his mug; for all the world like a village wiccan
preparing to read the future in chélan stains. “When you were six months
old, she looked in the Farseer. Berys and Marik had recovered, more’s the pity,
and were preparing to hunt for her. Seems we were lucky in one thing from what
she could gather, the Farseer itself protected her from their sight. But she
was convinced in her bones that they would find her, and she didn’t want them
to find you.” He looked up at me,” Just in case.”
    I had finally heard all that my heart could bear.
I felt dizzy and had to brace myself on the table.
    “She left right then, dissolving her ties
with Hadron but leaving you in the only place she could think of where you
would be safe. I begged her to let me come with her, bringing you, but she
refused to take either of us into danger. She seemed to believe that somehow
Hadronsstead would keep you safe. I was angry with her for years, hurt and
miserable,’ but for whatever reason you are still alive. I have not heard from
her since that day. And that is the end of it.
    “And so, my lass,” he said to me
quietly, “that is why I have never spoken. I had to keep my word to
Hadron, and since his death I have been waiting for the right time. That is who
you are, to the limit of my