The Quartered Sea Read Online Free PDF

added, looking into the next room along. "A bed, a chair, and a washstand. I can see why the members of the court aren't exactly falling over each other to accompany Her Majesty on this trip. Can you imagine the Due of Vidor's reaction to this?" She peered curiously down the corridor at another half-dozen identical doors. "I wonder if they've ever managed to fill their guest quarters."
     
    "I expect young Benedikt's in one of them."
     
    "Ah."
     
    About to enter his room, Kovar paused. "Was that a professional ah, or a personal ah?" When Magda hesitated, he took a step toward her. "I know you saw him a great deal when he was a fledgling, but I'd thought all that had been dealt with."
     
    Both Magda's brows rose and she folded her arms, suddenly looking much older than her twenty-five years. "All that?"
     
    "The boy's belief that he wasn't worth much because he only Sang water. He's a fine bard, you know, does an excellent recall."
     
    "In spite of his handicap."
     
    Kovar drew himself up to his full height and stared down at the healer, mustache quivering. "I never said that."
     
    "You didn't have to, I can feel your pity."
     
    "Pity?" Only years of voice control kept him from shouting. "Benedikt is a bard of Shkoder, and he Sings a stronger water than anyone I have ever known."
     
    "I'm aware of that." She cocked her head to one side and held Kovar in a steady gaze. "But it's very rare for a bard not to be able to Sing air, isn't it? In fact, when a bard sings only one quarter, it's usually air. I can't think of another bard alive right now that doesn't sing air, can you?"
     
    "You know very well there isn't." He pushed the words out through stiff lips.
     
    "So you don't feel just a little sorry for Benedikt because he can't do the one thing all the other bards can do?"
     
    "Of course, I feel sorry for the boy…"
     
    "He's not a boy, Kovar. His voice broke late, and he'll be twenty before Second Quarter Festival."
     
    "Fine. He's not a boy. And sympathy is not the same as pity. Jazep, your name-father, Sang only earth, the most restricted of all the four quarters, and I never felt pity for him."
     
    "Because he never invited it. Benedikt does. Thanks to the misplaced enthusiasms of his parents, who were rather like ducks raising a songbird, he doesn't see what he has, only what he lacks. Not all the time, of course, or I'd have kept him with me longer—but often enough that he's convinced the rest of you it's a lack as well. He is a bard, after all, and bards can be very convincing."
     
    "Do you think," the Bardic Captain growled, "that I should keep Benedikt from Singing the queen's boat across the strait?"
     
    Magda smiled. "Why, if he Sings a stronger water than anyone you've ever known?"
     
    After a long moment during which he reminded himself that throttling the young healer wasn't an option, Kovar expelled a long breath through his nose and spread his hands. "Thank you for the lesson. In the future I will try to keep in mind those talents Benedikt has, not those he lacks. There is no reason to feel sorry for a bard of Shkoder."
     
    "Hey." Magda spread her own hands in turn. "You don't have to convince me."
     
     
     
    The next morning Her Majesty, Queen Jelena, inspected the troops gathered in the inner bailey, then walked the walls to ensure they remained in good repair. While Benedikt Witnessed and Kovar Sang the air kigh to ensure that everyone in the fort could hear, she stood on an artificial cliff facing the sea and swore that Shkoder would not fall as long as Fort Kazpar stood.
     
    Just after noon, the Troop-Captain handed his queen down onto the small boat that would take her across the Bache ky Lamer—the Mouth of the Sea in the old Riverfolk tongue—to Fort Tunov. Another captain, another troop would meet her on the other side. "Thank you, Majesty," he said as he released her hand.
     
    Jelena nodded, a gracious smile carefully hiding emotional turmoil. As much irritated that Madga had