Magesong by James R. Sanford Read Free Book Online Page A

whole, and
it was sublime in its simplicity, its cheerful austerity, the verse echoing the
silence between the words as an eye opening in the darkness of a deep cave sees
colors.
    The fire, having been built of kindling only, flared up tall
and bright for a time and burned out quickly.  Deepest dusk had fallen.  A
gentle breeze drifted down from the upper valley with the night, and people
began leaving in small groups amid the goodnights of their neighbors.  A few of
the oldest boys had brought buckets of water to quench the flickering coals,
and they stood near the fire pit, chatting, in no hurry to douse the embers and
be gone.
    When Aksel and Syliva stepped aside to speak to Kestrin and
the older man that seemed to be her father, Reyin slipped away from the ring of
light, finding the stump he had sat on earlier.  The cold hard wood felt
comforting somehow, like it was the right place to sit.  The silhouette of a
man, Farlo, came at him in long strides from out of the dying light, holding
out his hand in greeting, not quite the same man he had been that day.  But
Reyin could not see his face in the darkness.  And he wanted to look into those
eyes.
    "Thank you," Farlo said, shaking his hand as if
they were old friends, "thank you for coming.  I thought you might like
the song more if you knew what it meant."
    Reyin thought it was not possible to love the song better
than he did right then.  He said, "Of course I would like to know what the
words mean."
    "Well, if I say it word for word in Avic, it'll sound
sort of backward in some places, and some of the words I only have the gist of,
but in short it says that the returning time of the spirit of spring is here,
and we are waiting.  You see, everyone here thinks that it's a magic song.  It
calls the springtime spirit down from heaven to renew the land."
    Reyin looked at him without blinking.  "A magic song?"
    "A rune, as they say."  Farlo looked out into the
night.  "I suppose you don't believe in such things."
    "To tell you the truth, I do."
    "That's unusual."
    Reyin shrugged.  "So why isn't the magic working?  You
sing the song every night and still nothing is growing."
    "That's why everyone is afraid.  Winter here is very
harsh.  The snow gets so deep that you can't even hunt or trap.  The seasons
here are very different from each other, not like back in Syrolia.  In one
year, we pass through four worlds."
    Reyin looked past Farlo to where Kestrin stood.  Wood smoke
clung to her as the last flames from the fire died.  She was laughing, touching
Syliva lightly on the arm.
    "Did you grow up in the country, Farlo?"
    "No, spent my younger days in Port Rascina."
    "Do you like it here?"
    "It's the best place I've ever been.  I'd have to be
mad to leave it."
    "If nothing grows here, might it not be that everyone
will have to leave?"
    "There's really nowhere to go."
    "What about another town, another valley?"
    Farlo sat down on his haunches.  "To the north there's
nothing but barren mountains and ice fields.  A strong man travelling light and
moving fast can make it across, but it's dangerous.  To the east there's the
highland forest, but the hunting is sparse these days, and no grass is growing
in the summer pastures.  And if you go past that you'll run into the mountain
nomads."
    "Could you ask them for help?"
    "They're not truly savage, but they are barbarians and
they don't tolerate outsiders — just going into their territory would be a
mistake.  No, no help from them.  There's no civilized place until you get
close to Noraggen.  And besides, there isn't a single pack animal in this whole
valley."
    Reyin didn’t know what to say.  Farlo rose to his feet. 
"Well I'm off to find my wife, and then my home.  I'll see you tomorrow."
    Reyin watched him go.  He sat alone on the old dead stump. 
The night veiled him from the others.  Then the breeze changed in a way Reyin,
over the years, had come to recognize.  He listened to the shifting of