Alys Clare - Music of the Distant Stars

‘So. . your father used you to pay his debt?’

‘He tried to,’ Zarina said with spirit. ‘I would not have it. In a barbarous, lawless region, my father’s friend was famous for his cruelty. He liked to arrange spectacles in which men he’d had arrested on imaginary charges were given the chance of fighting for their freedom. He’d have them let out into animal cages, two prisoners to a cage, then they’d be armed with swords, knives, clubs, anything, and at the end the one on his feet over the dead body of the other would be set free. Only, one of Haglar’s men would be sent to fetch him back and he’d be quietly beheaded. Haglar liked beheading people,’ she added. ‘They say he beheaded his first wife because she bore him two daughters.’

I realized I was sitting there with my mouth open, and quickly shut it. ‘And this Haglar hoped you would bear him a son?’

Zarina made an impatient sound. ‘There was little chance of that, for his other two wives had no more luck. Mind you, Haglar had an illegitimate son by one of the hundreds of women he’d seduced or raped, and this son did not want his father to have a son born in wedlock, so it’s very likely the baby born to the third wife was suffocated. It wasn’t even a boy,’ she said in a whisper. ‘He didn’t stop to make sure.’

In her dreadful tale, that seemed the worst atrocity of all. ‘So you ran away,’ I said.

She nodded. ‘I did. I’d seen the entertainers in the town square, and I knew they never stayed anywhere very long. I thought that if I could hide in one of their wagons until we were far away, then I might be able to convince them I could be useful to them and they’d let me stay. They seemed like friendly people, and I’d always been a good dancer.’

‘And there was Derman,’ I said.

‘Derman?’

‘Yes! They must have seen the potential in your brother. Being so big and strong, he’d have been very useful to them, and I bet they quickly realized it.’

‘Yes, yes,’ she said. ‘They did.’

‘Did he understand that you could never go back?’ I asked. ‘Did he appreciate why you had to leave?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she said slowly. ‘All I can tell you is that from the time I joined the troupe, Derman looked after me. We had hard times, and we faced danger. Not just things like fierce storms, flooding, desperate hunger and extremes of heat and cold, all of which you learn to take in your stride when you’re on the road.’

‘What other danger do you mean?’ I had an idea I already knew.

‘Haglar sent men after me,’ she said tonelessly. ‘He had one of my maids tortured till she told him what I’d been planning. Fortunately for me, although not for her, I didn’t tell her the truth. But they burst into my father’s house and searched my rooms, and when they found I’d taken only my jewels and none of my rich and costly garments, one of the men guessed where I was. He came alone. I guess he thought I’d be no trouble and he could claim all the glory from having brought me back. Haglar would have been very generous, I’m sure. But he never got the chance to discover how generous because Derman killed him and hid his body where it would never be found.’ She was staring at me, eyes wide with the drama of her tale. ‘He put it in a-’

She stopped. Just like that, in the middle of a sentence.

My mind was reeling. She had escaped from a ghastly future, and her brother had gone with her. He had protected her, to the extent of killing for her. He had hidden the body in a. . In a grave? Was that what Zarina had been about to say? And, having come up with such an unexpectedly good idea — for who would think to look for a body in someone else’s grave? — had Derman then employed it again when he had killed Ida?

It sounded horribly likely.

In the same moment that I accepted Derman might very well be guilty, I understood why his sister could not abandon him. He had give up so much for her, even if he did not realize it. Whether or not she loved him — and I still wasn’t sure — she owed him so much. She owed him her life.

I no longer cared if she would shy away from me. I reached out and took both her hands in mine, moving so close to her that our hips touched. ‘Zarina, we must find Derman and bring him back,’ I said urgently. ‘He must stand trial, but if he is innocent — ’ oh, I hoped I was wrong and that he wasn’t a killer — ‘he’ll be freed, and then when you marry Haward — ’ she made as if to speak, but I wouldn’t let her — ‘you and Derman will both go to live in my parents’ house till Haward builds you one of your own.’

She snatched her hands away and turned on me, all the soft gold gone from her eyes, leaving them glittering green and hard as emeralds. ‘I cannot marry Haward!’ she cried.

‘But he loves you! You love him!’

She emitted a great sound of fierce anger and frustration. ‘ Love! ’ she echoed. ‘You think it is all that matters!’

I didn’t understand. ‘I know you are bound to Derman and cannot forsake him, but my mother and my father will not try to make you! It won’t be easy, naturally, especially at first while everyone’s getting used to-’

Zarina had had enough. She leapt up from her cot and began flinging her few possessions into an old leather bag. ‘I cannot marry Haward,’ she repeated.

I, too, had reached the end of my rope. ‘I want to see my brother happy!’ I shouted. ‘ You can make him happy, Zarina, I know you can because I-’ I almost said because I’ve seen it in the runes , but I remembered just in time that such things were secret. ‘I appreciate that you care for Derman,’ I went on more calmly, ‘but he’s not the only person to consider. I care for Haward, and I refuse to see his chance of happiness with you taken away from him because you are-’

‘ I am? ’ She rounded on me. ‘I am what?’ She screamed at the top of her voice, a great aaaaagh that tore out of her. ‘You do not know what I am!’ she cried. Then, pausing to draw breath: ‘ You know nothing about me! ’

It was very late.

The man lurking on the edge of the village watched as the last lights were extinguished. He waited a little longer and then, keeping to the shadows, crept along the track and up the path that sloped up to the church. The melody of his song ran through his head as he walked. He would sing it soon.

He went straight to the new grave. He knew exactly where it was. He had not dared go too close earlier, while they were burying her, instead keeping to the back of the crowd, his hood drawn up around his face.

He had heard the prayers. He had listened to the villagers as they muttered together. They spoke of him , that shambling, drooling simpleton. There were search parties out hunting for him, and many of the villagers believed they should take matters into their own hands. The singer agreed with them, although he would be the one meting out the richly-deserved punishment. You killed her , he thought. You put her body in the grave on the island. I know you did, for I saw you do it. I saw you there, although I did not know until later what you were doing. You left her there, my beautiful Ida, then you ran away and sobbed because you knew you had done wrong and would be made to pay the price.

Now, standing over her as she lay dead in the ground, his love, his loss and his grief welled up uncontrollably. He closed his eyes, opened his mouth and softly, sweetly, heartbreakingly, he began to sing.

In the morning Edild said as she stirred the breakfast porridge that I ought to go up to Lakehall and see how my patients were faring.