Page 74 of Skysong

‘I took her to the woods.’

‘Did she not try to fly away? Escape?’

‘No.’ Andala could hear the concern in Kitt’s voice. ‘No, she didn’t do anything at all. That’s why the mechanical bird was successful, I suppose. It was easy to imitate her movements when she hardly moved at all anymore.’

The king heaved a deep sigh. Regret emanated from him like heat from a flame. Andala could feel it, and it burned. ‘What have I done to her?’ he asked quietly. ‘Am I to be the death of the skylark, and all the rest of us in turn?’

‘No,’ Andala snapped before she could stop herself. ‘She’s not going to die. She’s just – she’s stuck inside herself. She’s … forgetting who she is, what she can do.’

‘How do you know?’ Kitt asked.

Andala hesitated – but what good would it do for her to talk around it all now? Both Kitt and the king would learn the truth eventually anyway. ‘Remember when I said I was going to see somebody who knew about the skylark? Well, I did. She said it’s dangerous for Oriane to be suppressing herself like this. She thinks that the longer Oriane withholds her song, the less chance there is that she’ll be able to get it back – that each day that goes by will mean a bigger effort for her to sing again, if she chooses to do so.’

King Tomas huffed a laugh again. ‘Perhaps I should speak to this person, too. It sounds as if she’s a damn sight more informed than I was when I first had the ill-fated idea to do all this.’

Andala stayed silent.

‘Why did you seek her out in the first place, Tomas?’ Kitt murmured. ‘I know the reasons you told me and everybody else. But why really?’264

Eventually Tomas spoke, and there was no laughter in his voice now as he dropped its volume even further. ‘I have not talked about this with anyone else. No one except Hana. And Terault.’ The name sounded as if it would choke him.

‘Where is Hana?’ Kitt asked.

‘She was in her rooms when all this happened. I assume she is still there, under guard. But I fear …’

He did not need to say more. Hana’s health was delicate at the best of times. Andala feared for her safety, too.

After a strangled silence, the king continued. ‘It is because of Hana that I sought the skylark. And the nightingale, originally. From what I had been told, either one would have sufficed.’

Toldbywhom?Sufficedforwhat?Andala wanted to ask, but long-ingrained habit would not allow her to do so. Luckily, Kitt seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

‘Who told you?’

Another sound from Tomas, between a laugh and a growl. This one had nothing else in it but anger.

‘Terault, of course.’

Terault?Andala’s head gave an unpleasant throb. What had he purported to know about Andala and Oriane?

‘I trusted him. Looking back now, I feel so … Naive. Immature. Stupid. But he’s been my seneschal the whole time I’ve been king. He was my mother’s before that. I looked to him for guidance about everything. He was like family to me.’

Kitt made a sympathetic sound. ‘What did he tell you?’

Andala heard the king shift his position. He was sitting closer to her than she had realised. ‘He told me that the birds’ songs had healing powers. Not only did they have control over the skies – they could affect people as well.’265

Notonlychangetheirformandcallthesunandmoonwiththeirsong,butraisestructuresfromtheearthitself…travelgreatdistancesintheblinkofaneye,orhealhumanillness…

‘Is that why you needed to find them?’ she asked. ‘Because Hana’s ill?’

‘Hana isn’t ill,’ Tomas said, very quietly.

‘What do you mean?’ Kitt sounded puzzled. ‘It’s not a secret that she’s unwell, Tomas. Everyone understands that’s why …’

‘Why I became king, when she should have been queen. Don’t deny it,’ the king said, cutting Kitt off as he began to protest. ‘It’s not a matter I need my feelings preserved about. I’m well aware that Hana would have been the better ruler. I’m well aware that everybody else knows it too. I’m not embarrassed by it. But everybody thinks the reason Hana isn’t queen is because of her health, because she has some strange, incurable illness that would leave her too weak to carry out her duties.’ Tomas paused for so long that Andala wondered whether he was still there. ‘I suppose she does have an illness. It helps, sometimes, to think about it that way. Illnesses usually have cures. I had hoped the song of a goddess would be hers.’

‘What is her affliction, my lord?’ Andala asked, though she thought she might already know.

Another long pause. And when Tomas spoke again, there was a break in his voice – an awful, wrenching sound. ‘She’s … sad. Just deeply, unchangingly sad. And I don’t know how to help her.’

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