Read Recluce 07 - Chaos Balance for Free Online Page A

by a scattered cough or two. The memory of Sybra was still too raw for the survivors, and the grief was too palpable even to the women from Candar.
       “Something cheerier?” suggested Huldran.
       Ayrlyn nodded, murmured to Istril, and began again.
     
       "All day I dragged a boat of stone
       and came home when you weren't alone,
       so I took all those blasted rocks
       and buried all your boyish fancy locks...
       and took you for a ride in my boat of stone...."
     
       Nylan wasn't certain how much cheerier the song was, but the locals especially loved it, perhaps because Ayrlyn had reversed the sexes in the verses.
       In the end, the last song was predictably the same.
       “The guard song ... the guard song!” chanted the newer recruits.
       Ayrlyn looked wryly at Nylan; Istril just looked at the floor. Ayrlyn stood before the hearth, lutar in hand, adjusting the tuning pegs and striking several strong chords before beginning.
     
       "From the skies of long-lost Heaven
       to the heights of Westwind keep
       we will hold our blades in order
       and never let our honor sleep.
     
       "From the skies of light-iced towers
       to the demons' place on earth,
       we will holdfast lightning's powers
       and never count gold's worth.
     
       "As the guards of Westwind keep
       our souls hold winter's sweep;
       we will hold our blades in order,
       and never let our honor sleep...."
     
       Nylan still wasn't sure about honor, since it seemed to him that people who talked a lot about it killed a lot of people and then paid a far higher price than anyone ever intended.
       He managed to stifle a yawn as he rose from the bench and rubbed his stiff backside. The benches were wood, and hard, after sitting for a long time, songs or no songs.
       He glanced around, but Ayrlyn was gone, and so were Istril, Siret, Huldran, and Ryba.
       He shrugged and headed for the jakes before bed. Tomorrow, there would be more smithing-more blades-and he still wasn't quite sure they were a good idea, but he had none better.
       The rough form for Daryn's foot was taking longer, far longer, than he had thought, since he had to squeeze it injust as Relyn's handbook had taken longer and had had to be worked in between the endless weapons creation.
       He stifled another yawn as he turned toward the lower-level jakes, stifled a yawn and tried not to think about children and Ryba and the darkness that was Candar.
     
     

Chaos Balance
    VIII
     
    THE STOCKY GRAY-HAIRED man waited as Zeldyan knelt, patting Nesslek's back until the boy's breathing was regular. Then she eased him from his side to his back and covered him with the blanket.
       After a last look at her son, she rose, crossed the room, and sat opposite Gethen across the low table, where she filled both goblets that rested there. She took a small sip from her own, followed by a nibble from the pastry she had started earlier.
       “You were saying?” he asked quietly.
       “Father,” said Zeldyan slowly. “You remember Hissl, the wizard who tried to claim the Ironwoods by leading an expedition to defeat the dark angels?”
       “I heard about it. I was in Rulyarth at the time, you recall.” Gethen lifted the goblet and sipped the wine. “The angels destroyed them to the last man, despite Hissl's wizardry. The angels had a black mage. I suppose they still do.”
       “He was the one who used the fires of Heaven ...” Zeldyan broke off the sentence, and looked down at the table. “Just like Sillek, he probably didn't have any choice. If he hadn't killed ... he would have died.”
       “You don't hate him?” asked Gethen.
       “Why? You know who I hate.” Zeldyan toyed with her goblet, then set it down without drinking. “Hissl did not lead the first expedition, the one after Relyn's, I mean. The leader was a big man from the Roof of the World.”
       “That seems strange, if true. Why do you mention