Andre Norton - The Duke's Ballad

Wind Dancer sat outside in the courtyard by the gate, his human with him. Aisling would wed in the fall. She would go to live in Aranskeep, and he would go with her. Aisling was smiling to herself. She and Hadrann had snatched half a candlemark alone in the midst of the bustle. His kisses had burned. This was no arranged marriage. She went eagerly to the man she loved.

After some time alone she returned inside to add further details to her brother’s tale. After that she fell into the bustle of homecoming, riding about the garths of Aiskeep, talking to its people, and telling them all over again, at their demand, of the events of the siege and the deaths of Shastro and Kirion. In Kars life in the city settled down through spring and early summer. Traffic began again on the roads until in late summer a minstrel came riding. Ciara greeted him kindly.

“Welcome are you, man. Stay the night and sing for us.”

“Old songs and new as it please you, my Lady.” Old songs he did sing while all sang with him. But at the last he stood. “One last song, good folk. A new song lately sung in the court of Kars before none less than my Lord Duke, an’ it please you?”

Ciara looked at Trovagh. Both nodded. The minstrel smiled, stepped back, and broke into a quiet tune, gentle and unfamiliar. Then he sang.

Aisling glanced across at Hadrann. In some way whoever had penned the song had found a portion of truth. She believed, would always believe, that had the duke’s love and his love’s brother survived, Shastro might have been a different man.

Keelan hid a smile. Precious little Light around Shastro, and none at all around Kirion—that part was true. He remembered his own years of bowing to his brother and being bullied. He’d been tricked often enough by Kirion too. Maybe the duke hadn’t been quite as much to blame as Keelan had once thought.

Hadrann listened. It wasn’t the way it had been, yet did one ever know for sure. Kirion had tempted and, with none to hold him back, Shastro had fallen. Who was so strong that offered all his desires he could not fall if there were none to aid? The song wound on before the final verses, where the tune took on a triumphant note.

The people of Aiskeep applauded the song. Hadrann added his own approval. Maybe much of the song wasn’t quite how it had happened, but Shastro had slain Kirion, that was the truth. Keelan too was clapping. Kirion was dead; he and Aiskeep were free. That was good enough for him. Aisling smiled at the minstrel, her eyes glittering with sudden tears. It had been the death of Shastro’s kin that had begun the evil. If they had not died he’d have been content.

Well, let him lie content now. The minstrel was singing the song again at the demand of those who had not heard it properly before. Once Shastro had wondered if the people would sing ballads about him after he was dead. She hoped that wherever his soul might wander now, it was with his love and his best friend, and that wherever they all were, they could somehow hear the song Kars sang. Only she of all who’d known Shastro might also know his motives, and she would say nothing, ever. Let him have his tomb and his song. In the end he’d earned them both.