Dark Song

Elisabeta turned her head to look at her brother. “You never need an excuse to come to see me, Traian.”

“Or perhaps Elisabeta and I will escort Josef back to the Carpathian Mountains,” Ferro said. “We can bring him to you. That would give her a chance to see these places you speak of, Traian.”

I think it would be a good thing to go there, Ferro, Elisabeta said. I would love to see the Carpathian Mountains again, and perhaps even the monastery, but that is where the Malinov piece for the council is hidden. Cornel is aware of it, although he does not know exactly where it is located. He will try to recover it. I am uncertain exactly where it is, either, only that it is not here in the United States.

When did you remember this bit of information? Ferro tried to keep the challenge out of his voice. Knowing where the Malinov membership piece was was huge. She should have told him immediately.

Just now. When Traian talked about going home. I caught a flicker of it in Ruslan’s mind. I could not catch the exact place, but if I am there, it is possible I would be able to find it.

“I would very much like to show Elisabeta the place she was born,” Traian said. “It would be a fair exchange to lend you Josef for a short while and then you bring him back to us. I can get word to Mikhail and ask him if this is permissible.”

“I think that would be more than fair,” Ferro agreed, resting his chin on the top of Elisabeta’s head. “It will also give me a chance to meet the prince. Perhaps some of the brethren will travel with me as well so they can meet him, too.” He could make up his mind about swearing his allegiance. It seemed that many ancients believed in the prince.

The Dark Troubadours began to play another song, this one slow and haunting, a love song, and Elisabeta turned her head up quickly to look at Ferro.

That is our song. Yours and mine.

He smiled at her. “Yes, it is our song. I gave them the music and lyrics. Come dance with me.” He took her hand. “If you’ll excuse us, I would very much like to dance with my lifemate.”

Ferro took Elisabeta into his arms. Her soft, feminine body molded to his. Fit perfectly. Joy was present. Alive in him. Love surrounded him. Lived in him. All because of her . . . Elisabeta.

APPENDIX 1 Carpathian Healing Chants

To rightly understand Carpathian healing chants, background is required in several areas:

1. The Carpathian view on healing

2. The Lesser Healing Chant of the Carpathians

3. The Great Healing Chant of the Carpathians

4. Carpathian musical aesthetics

5. Lullaby

6. Song to Heal the Earth

7. Carpathian chanting technique

1. THE CARPATHIAN VIEW ON HEALING

The Carpathians are a nomadic people whose geographic origins can be traced at least as far as the Southern Ural Mountains (near the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan), on the border between Europe and Asia. (For this reason, modern?day linguists call their language “proto-Uralic,” without knowing that this is the language of the Carpathians.) Unlike most nomadic peoples, the Carpathians did not wander due to the need to find new grazing lands as the seasons and climate shifted, or to search for better trade. Instead, the Carpathians’ movements were driven by a great purpose: to find a land that would have the right earth, a soil with the kind of richness that would greatly enhance their rejuvenative powers.

Over the centuries, they migrated westward (some six thousand years ago), until they at last found their perfect homeland—their susu—in the Carpathian Mountains, whose long arc cradled the lush plains of the kingdom of Hungary. (The kingdom of Hungary flourished for over a millennium—making Hungarian the dominant language of the Carpathian Basin—until the kingdom’s lands were split among several countries after World War I: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia and modern Hungary.)