"Gentlemen," Marchioness Nalda greeted them coolly as she rose and extended a limp hand to them. "How very welcome you are in my home."
Tal took her hand and bent low to kiss it, Falcon doing the same after him. "How very welcome you've made us feel, m'lady," Tal said with a small smile.
The marchioness supplied her own smile, every bit as cutting as his, as she gestured for them to sit. "I understand you wish to see my daughter, Teline."
Not one to dance around the fire. "Yes, we do."
"About her… incident the other day."
"The very one."
Marchioness Nalda's gaze slid over to Falcon. "As I understand it, you were there that day."
Tal glanced at his companion and found confirmation in his eyes. So why didn't he tell me before we came here? he wondered.
The Court Bard bowed his head to the marchioness. "Indeed I was, m'lady. So you must understand why I am concerned and wish to visit Teline and ensure her health is well."
The noblewoman considered him for a long moment, then gestured to her butler. "Show them to Teline's room. They will require but half an hour to conclude their business, I'm sure. Perhaps it will lay to rest some of the rumors haunting this house."
If this is the mother, I cannot wait to meet the daughter, he thought as they rose and followed the butler out of the room.
A short walk down the hall and a turn into a room later, they entered Teline's room, the butler remaining at the door as a not-so-subtle guard. Tal glanced around the room but found nothing remarkable in the opulence. His gaze came to rest on the girl tucked under the canopied bed, her dark eyes wide, her brown hair loose about her pillow and slightly disheveled.
"Hello there," she said, her eyes briefly catching on them, then wandering past.
Tal exchanged a glance with Falcon and found the bard unsurprised. He knew her state, or at least suspected. Plastering on a smile, Tal turned his gaze back to Teline and, kneeling, took her hand from the covers, brushing his lips against the cold, clammy skin. "Mistress Teline, what an honor it is to meet you. I am Tal Harrenfel."
The girl, no more than sixteen, smiled back uncertainly, his name seeming to mean nothing to her.
Falcon knelt next to him and took her hand in kind. "An honor for me as well, mistress. Perhaps you don't remember me, but I am Falcon Sunstring, Court Bard to His Majesty."
"The Court Bard." Teline smiled vaguely. "Such pretty songs you played for us at the last ball."
Falcon bowed his head with a smile. "You flatter me, m'lady."
Both of them rising, Tal studied her, his smile planted firmly on his lips. Some memory loss, he noted, but not complete. Absent-minded, as if distracted by something else.
"Pardon us for the intrusion and impertinence, m'lady," he said aloud, "but we had a few questions for you. Regarding the day you… fell."
The smile fled from Teline's face. "W-why?"
Tal's smile turned apologetic. "I am sorry if the question pains you. We merely wish to understand what happened, for your sake and for others."
The girl's eyes flickered between the two of them, then to the butler standing by the door. "Alright," she murmured.
Tal glanced at Falcon, who looked to the girl. "Lady Teline," the Court Bard said gently, "might you tell us what happened in the corridor that day?"
Teline slowly sat up, hair falling about her shoulders, eyes wide and staring at her covers. "I was near the east tower — why, I can't remember. Everything's so blurry since…" She shivered before continuing. "I was walking down the corridor — to where, I don't recall — when I heard it…"
"Heard what?" Falcon prompted when she trailed off.
"The Song," she breathed.
Tal felt a vague prickling at the nape of his neck.
"A song?" Falcon repeated. "Was it a particular song?"
Teline nodded. "Oh, yes. But it wasn't like any song I'd heard before." Her gaze slid away from them to the wall, but Tal had the feeling she didn't see the stones any more than she saw them standing next to the bed.
"It had no melody, no chords, no rhythm. No instruments played, and no minstrels sang. But all the same, I knew it was a song."
"What did you hear?" Falcon asked softly.
"Birds. The rustling of leaves. The grinding of stone against stone. Water pattering on rooftops. Footfalls in sand." A small smile curved her lips, and her gaze grew yet more distant.
"And what else?" the bard whispered.
Teline's smile turned to a frown. "Screams. The hiss of blades. The thud of falling bodies. The crackle of burning wood and… and…" Her breath was coming quick now, her eyes wide with horror.
Tal knelt before her, taking her hand in both of his. "It's alright," he murmured. "You don't hear it now, right?"
Slowly, her eyes found his, and she seemed to return to the present. She shook her head doubtfully. "I suppose not."
"What happened after that?" Falcon prompted. "After this song?"
Teline startled as if having forgotten the Court Bard was there and looked up shyly. "Then I fell. Mother told me the warlock was the first to kneel by me and care for me, but he said I wasn't injured."
"That warlock? In the east tower?" An uneasy suspicion rose in Tal.
The girl nodded. "Kaleras the Impervious," she murmured.
"My apologies, sirs, but I am afraid I must ask you to leave."
Tal blinked and turned to the butler, who had taken a step into the room. "Now?" he croaked.
The butler nodded curtly. "Lady Nalda's orders were explicit. If you would follow me…"
Teline barely seemed to notice as they bade her farewell and followed the butler from the small manor house. Only once the manservant had closed the door behind them did they exchange a look.
"Do you have any idea what that was about?" Tal muttered.
"Not the slightest."
"Isn't music supposed to be your expertise?"
Falcon's smile was curiously wide as he adjusted the dark metal bracelet on his wrist, which had slipped from his sleeve into sight. "Not when it involves sorcery. Then it should be yours."
The Song, he mused as they walked back toward the Coral Castle, rising from the hill above them. A damned dangerous ballad. He wondered if Falcon was right; if it was sorcery or some other sudden malady. Or if it is the Song in my book of fables.
But most of all, he wondered what it meant that the incident occurred so close to the tower where the Warlock of Canturith was presently lodging.
"Why's the World spinning? Silence, Serenity, and Solemnity, won't it stop spinning?"
The words were spilling from his mouth, spewing around his feeble self-control like a cracked ewer patched with parchment. A warmth spread through his limbs, right down to his toes and the tips of his fingers, and a humming filled his head. Almost, he thought he heard whispers of something, vague hints of familiar sounds, but too faint to detect.
Wren giggled in the darkness near him. A giggle — when had he ever thought he'd hear that coming from her?