Azure bonds - Kate Novak [81]
"No," Alias admitted.
"Then what's your problem?"
Alias shrugged. "Nothing. I was just hoping it would shed some light on how I got these things." She held up her arm to indicate the sigils.
"Ye could always go to the Living City and catch the opera."
"No, thanks."
"Do ye wish to hear the story about Moander?" the old man asked.
Alias looked up, startled. He did know a lot. He wasn't simply some old goatherd. To recognize most of the sigils on her arm he had to be some sort of wise man or mage. Probably an ex-adventurer himself. "I thought the elves banished him from the Realms," she said.
"They wish," the old man snickered. "No. The best the elves could do was use powerful enchantments to lock Moander up deep beneath the ruins of his temple in Yulash. They wiped out his priests and priestesses, hoping the god's power in this world would shrink to nothing if he was starved of worship."
"Did he?"
The old man shrugged. "Probably not. A lot of Moander's worshipers survived and fled south, where they resurrected the priesthood. Every now and then Zhentil Keep or Hillsfar forces-whichever one happens to be squatting in the ruins of Yulash at the time-come across a party of Moander worshipers trying to release their god. They're usually executed as looters, but they keep trying. There was this prophesy, see, about a non-born child freeing the Darkbringer-that's what they call Moander. The priests of Moander have tried to force the event, no need to go into the gory details about how they try and get non-born children, but so far they've all failed. Non-born child-mean anything to ye?"
Alias shook her head. "No. I remember being born."
The old man laughed as though she had said something funny.
Alias asked, "You know anything about this last one?" She pointed to the blue-on-blue-on-hlue bull's eye between Meander's symbol and the blank space at her wrist.
"Its a new one on me."
"That's just great," Alias muttered. She shoved the shavings of the twig into the fire, wiped her dagger clean, and sheathed it. "I knew the other ones already. This is the one I have to find out about."
"Why?"
"Because I don't know anything about it," Alias said, exasperated.
"Ye think it will make a big difference in thy life?"
"It might," she insisted.
"If I were ye, I'd work on the assumption that it is big and evil."
"Kind of broad assumptions."
"No broader than the one ye've obviously made about the sixth space by your wrist," the old man said.
"It's empty," Alias objected.
"There's nothing worse than nothing."
Reminded of her missing memories, Alias could not disagree. "You've been some help. Can I pay you something?" she asked, uncertain whether she would offend his pride.
"All ye have to show for thy adventuring life are thy memories," he reminded her. "Were ye planning to pay me in those?"
Alias smiled. "I have some gold."
"1 don't need gold. Suppose I asked ye to never sing again. Ever. Would ye do that?"
"That bad, am I?" she joked.
"I'm serious."
Alias looked into the old man's eyes. He held her gaze without blinking.
"This is about those songs, isn't it? You didn't tell me-Who did you hear them from?"
"Probably from the same person ye did."
"A Harper?" Alias asked.
The old man nodded.
"What was his name?"
The old man did not answer.
"Tell me his name." Alias lunged forward and shook the man by the shoulders. "Say his name."
A slow grin crept over the old man's mouth. "Why don't ye say it?" he asked.
"Because I don't remember it!" she shouted, shaking him with every word.
The old man put his hand up to her cheek and stroked it gently. "I'm sorry," he said.
Alias took a deep breath and released the old man. She slid out of his reach. "It's not your fault," she answered. "I just forget things sometimes. I'm sorry I shook you. I don't know what came over me."
"Not remembering makes ye angry?"
Alias hesitated. It didn't make her angry. She looked into the old man's eyes. "It makes me frightened, and that makes me angry."
"A terrible