Prophet of Moonshae - Douglas Niles [59]
Indeed, as he thought about it, he was glad that it was Hanrald with the princess and not Gwyeth-Gwyeth, his son who would one day rule as earl!
His mind returned to the present as that same young nobleman rose to his feet and bade his father farewell.
"Aye-good riding, Son," Blackstone said, his voice husky. "And good luck."
* * * * *
"I feel the presence of something up there in the hills." Alicia indicated the high, rock-bound ridges that rose to either side of the steep and winding trail, occasionally visible through the blowing wisps of cloud. The rain varied from drizzle to full downpour, never ceasing entirely, and served to further mask their surroundings.
The cantrev of Blackstone had disappeared several hours before, masked by the enclosing shoulders of mountain and thickening cloud. Now the four riders huddled under their cloaks, yet tried to remain alert.
"You noticed it, too," said Tavish with a frown. "It doesn't seem to be a menace, but I have a sense of eyes watching me."
"There's nothing there!" objected Sir Hanrald, squinting upward and running his eyes across the rocks.
"Always trust a bard when she has a suspicion," warned Keane lightly, and Hanrald laughed.
"True. Indeed, lady, I would apologize for my father's oversight three nights past. Beyond politeness, it would have been a rare delight to hear the music of your harp fill our hall."
"It's nothing," Tavish said with a wave. She looked on the young man with new appraisal, however. "Your father strikes me as a man who has little care for music."
"Aye, or gentleness of any sort, I fear," agreed Hanrald. "Since my mother's passing, at the time of my birth, Caer Blackstone has been a house of manly habits. It could use the brightening of a woman's touch or voice."
"It's hard for me to think of music as a womanly art," objected Alicia. "Have you forgotten the great Keren, who perished during the Darkwalker War yet sent his song to the harp of every bard in the land?"
Hanrald laughed again defensively. "I am corrected, my lady! But, in truth, there is a sound to a woman's voice that can be far more pleasant than any man's, at least in a house that is home to a father and his sons alone."
Alicia, too, laughed, feeling at ease with the good-natured young nobleman. Indeed, she enjoyed a sense of mission and comradeship with these three Ffolk that cast a pleasant shade of adventure over their mission.
"Perhaps I spoke too quickly," the princess replied. "But I rejoice in the fact that we are a people whose women can make themselves warriors, or bards, or farmers, as they will."
"Not like the men of the north," agreed Tavish. "There they place a woman beside the hearth and keep her there lest she cease bearing babes-sons, it is to be hoped!"
"Are there women in Callidyrr-women of the Ffolk?-who practice sorcery?" inquired Hanrald.
Keane answered the question. "There are a few, just as only a few Ffolkmen study the arcane arts."
"How long have you possessed such mastery?" asked Alicia. "Those weren't the spells of an apprentice that you hurled at the iron golem!"
Keane shook his head modestly, and once again the princess sensed that talking about his ability made the mage uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the lanky tutor offered some explanation.
"I began my apprenticeship very young, working for the palace alchemist in Callidyrr. He noted that I seemed to have some aptitude and brought me to your father. That was shortly after you were born," he told Alicia.
"But how did you progress so far?" she wondered. "I didn't think we had masters in the Moonshaes capable of such teaching!"
"We don't," Keane admitted. "But on my journeys to Waterdeep-those periods you and Deirdre refer to as 'days of freedom'-I studied with some of the greatest wizards of the Sword Coast."