Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar

So I lived. Through that night, and through the nights after, to this day when you say you have healed enough to be on your way. I asked how we could repay you, for I know Ari and I could not have killed those raiders alone. You told me what payment you would accept.

Now that payment is delivered, and I need not say more. I walk slowly with this cane, but I can walk, and since I can walk, I can work. I have three geldings ready to sell, and two mares in foal, and the fences still need fixing. There is much to do, and if Nara’s song makes the work go better, that is for the good. It is as the God intended.

A man has many wives—many people—in his care. Nara and I are bound, but not only to each other. The God places many obligations upon us. We are not Heralds. We seek more than simply to be free.

You are not Holderkin. You do not understand.

Nothing has changed.

Everything has changed.

Nara’s Voice

I am bound to Garen, yes. But I also serve the Goddess, and my elder wives. I have not been put in this place by chance; it is the Goddess’ will. It is for a reason, even if I cannot always see that reason for myself.

You say this troubles you. Yet I think maybe Heralds know how to serve, too. I think you know about having your fate decided by powers beyond your understanding.

And I think perhaps the story you asked for ends here.

I can tell you this, though: last night, it was my turn to look after Garen. His wound still troubles him, and will for some time. I gave him medicine to numb that pain, and because it was late, and the day’s work was done, he accepted it. As he grew sleepy he asked me, “Would you ride from this place, if you could?”

His words startled me. I thought he spoke of Heralds. “This is my home,” I said, because it is true, and because it says all else I would have said.

“You wouldn’t ride as Jania rode, then?” Garen’s tone was light, but his gaze was not. If not for the medicine, he wouldn’t have spoken thus.

“Jania rode these ridges,” I said, “and these valleys. She did not ride in some stranger’s land.”

Abruptly, Garen grabbed my hand. “Nara,” he said, “You must not be silent again. I must always hear your voice.”

“Always?” I laughed, trying to make it a joke. “If the God and Goddess grant us years enough together, you might regret that.”

“Always,” he said, and he did not laugh.

Garen will not tell you this. Perhaps I should not tell you either.

But his serious voice made me feel strange, shy as the day we met. “I will not be silent,” I promised. And then, shyer still, I said, “I wish something, too.”

“What do you wish?” Garen asked, even though he need not do anything on account of my wishes.

“I wish to hear your voice. I wish—to hear you sing.” He never had, you see, in all the months I’d been here.

“My voice is no gift from the God,” Garen said.

“I wish to hear it, just the same.”

So he sang the hymn from our wedding day. His voice was rough, and off-key, and perfect. I added my high voice to his low one, and as we sang together, I knew there was in truth a bond between us, and that it was not like other bonds.

You say the gods have put this thing between Garen and me. I do not know your gods. I know only one Goddess, who is lost and seeks a way home; and one God, who has offered her shelter and longs to keep her forever by his side. Yet nothing is forever; one day the Goddess will return home. One day Garen and I will be parted, for a time at least. If Garen leaves first, my only comforts will be my songs and my land, and even they will not be enough. Yet that parting will not be this day, and that matters more than any story can say.

But then, I do not know how to tell a story. I only know how to sing.

Garen does not know how to sing. But he is learning.

FINDING ELVIDA

by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Mickey Zucker Reichert is the author of such masterful DAW fantasy novels as

Beyond Ragnarok, Prince of Demons,

and

The Children of Wrath

(

The Renshai Chronicles

trilogy),

The Last of the Renshai, The Western Wizard,

and

Child of Thunder

(

The Last of the Renshai

trilogy),

The Bifrost Guardians

series,

The Legend of Nightfall, Flightless Falcon,

and

The Unknown Soldier,

her debut science fiction novel for DAW. She is also the coauthor (with

Jennifer Wingert

) of the spellbinding fantasy novel,

Spirit Fox

. Mickey lives in Iowa with her husband and three of their children, and divides her time between her family, her writing, teaching at the local university, and the assorted livestock.