The Shamer's Signet - Hardcover

Kaaberbol, Lene

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805075429 ISBN 13: 9780805075427

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2005

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Mama turned in the saddle to look straight at Ivain, and her eyes were dark with fury.
"What kind of a man are you-" she began in that voice, the Shamer's voice, which cuts right to the soul.
"Shoot, damn it!" yelled someone from the shrubbery, and suddenly something long and dark was in the air, and there was a whirring sound and then a sickening thud. Mama collapsed across Falk's neck, and the long dark thing was stuck in her shoulder.
They had shot my mother.

When there are only four people in the world willing to look you in the face, losing one of them really hurts

One look into the Shamer's eyes and a person's darkest secrets are revealed. Dina has recently inherited this uncomfortable gift, and now even her brother, Davin, no longer dares to meet her gaze.

Yet in these dangerous times there are far worse things in store for the young Shamer. She is kidnapped by the corrupt Valdracu, cousin to the evil Dragon Lord who once tried to kill her mother. Then she's forced to use her gift as a weapon against innocent people. Dina must get free. Can her brother help her escape . . . before it's too late?

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About the Author:

Lene Kaaberbol is the author of many popular books that have been published in Denmark. She does her own translations, and her English version of The Shamer's Daughter was short-listed for the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation in Britain. Ms. Kaaberbol lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Visit Lene Kaaberbol at her website: www.kaaberboel.dk

Chapter One: The Child Peddler

Among heather-grown slopes nested three low stone houses. A narrow cart track, not much more than a path, swerved to pass quite near, but there was little reason to halt here, unless one was very fond of heather, open sky, yew trees, and grazing sheep.

Nevertheless, a peddler's cart stood on the patch of packed dirt between the houses, and in the stonewalled fields the sheep had company - two mules and four horses rested, heads low and tails swishing, dozing in the early evening sun. And now we were making our way down the hill, my mother and I, and Callan Kensie. Most of the sheep stood stock still, watching us suspiciously, and I could almost feel their puzzlement. Probably they had never seen so many strangers at Harral's Place before.

The sun hung huge and orange just above the ridge. The day had been warm and almost summery, and the air was still pleasant. Next to the peddler's wagon, three men were playing cards, using a beer barrel for a table. A pile of round flatbreads, three mugs of beer, and a fat, darkly gleaming sausage competed for space on the barrel-top. It looked like something one might see outside any village inn on a breezy spring evening, until one noticed the leg iron that kept the peddler's ankle chained to his own wagon wheel.

The peddler carved himself a fat slice of sausage and slid the rest of it across the barrel-top towards the two men who were supposed to be guarding him.

"Here," he said. "Eat. A good game of cards can make a hole in a man's belly."

"Never mind the belly," grumbled one of the guards. "Losing four copper Marks and a perfectly good knife makes a sizeable hole in a man's pocket!" But his complaint was good-natured, and he accepted the sausage.

At that moment, one of the mules brayed earsplittingly, and the guards looked up and caught sight of us. They leaped to their feet, and one of them hastily swept the cards off the barrel, as if we had caught them doing something disgraceful. But I knew how they felt. It was hard to act harsh and commanding towards a man, once you started drinking his beer. And it was difficult to believe that there was any truth to the accusations that had been made against the cheerful little peddler. We knew him. He had come by our village often enough, and everyone enjoyed his visits. He was never without a joke or a good story, and he had a chuckling laugh and so many crow's feet that one could hardly see his eyes when he smiled. His eyebrows looked like two fat black slugs, except that they moved more quickly-one of them would shoot up questioningly at every other word. No, I thought, he was hardly guilty of anything more serious than cheating a bit on his measures. The boys must have run away, just like he said they had.

"Medama," said one guard, bowing in my mother's direction. He eyed me dubiously-just how polite did one have to be to an eleven-year-old girl? He settled for another bow, slightly less deep. "Medamina." After all, I was the Shamer's daughter. The third person in our party, Callan Kensie, received not a bow, but a measured nod, of the kind men give one another when there is respect between them, but not necessarily friendship. "Kensie. I thought you were guarding caravans down in the Lowlands?"

Callan returned the man's nod, in exactly the same manner. "Well met, Laclan. But no. I have other duties now."

"So. The Kensie clan take good care of their Shamer, I see." The guard's eyes rested for a moment on Callan's shoulders, very wide and knotted with the muscles a man gets from yielding a sword every day. Like most people, he avoided looking too hard at my mother. If one did not already know, the Shamer's Signet resting on her breast, in clear view, provided ample warning: a heavy round pewter circle, enamelled in white and black to look like an eye. I had one almost exactly like it, but blue instead of black, because I was still only my mother's apprentice. Anyone who saw the Signet would look away-or pay the price.

The peddler had also risen. "Well met," he said, grinning. "And none too soon. The company has been pleasant, but I had hoped to reach Baur Laclan before dark."

There was no trace of anxiety in his manner, and I grew even more convinced of his innocence. Not many people await the Shamer's call with such steadiness. He bowed briefly, to my mother and then to me. "Well met," he repeated, "But what a pity to send two ladies on such a long journey, and for no reason."

My mother raised her head an glanced briefly at the peddler.

"Let us hope there is no reason," she said, not loudly, nor in any threatening tone of voice. Yet for the first time the grin on the little man's face started slipping, and he raised his hand to his mouth involuntarily, as if to prevent more words from escaping. But he recovered quite quickly.

"May I offer some refreshment after your long ride? Good beer? A bite to eat?"

"Thank you, no," said my mother politely. "I have a duty. That must come first."

She dismounted, graceful still despite the long ride. Falk, our black gelding, nosed her hopefully, wanting to be rid of his bridle, but she handed the reins to Callan. I got down off of the small tough Highlander pony I had borrowed-less gracefully, I'm afraid. I get less practise. Callan loosened the girths to allow the horses to breathe freely, but he made no move to unsaddle them. He clearly did not expect a long stay.

"What is your name, Peddler?" my mother asked, quietly still, with no hint of anger or threat.

"Hanibal Laclan Castor, at the lady's service," he said, delivering an unexpectedly graceful bow.

My mother pushed back the hood of her cloak and looked at him. "My name is Melussina Tonerre, and I have been tasked to look at you with a Shamer's eyes, and speak to you with a Shamer's voice. Hanibal Laclan Castor, look at me!"

The peddler started, as if someone had turned his own long skinner's whip on him. The tendons in his neck stood out tightly, like the strings on a lute. Much against his will, he raised his head to meet my mother's gaze. For a while, the two of them stood locked in complete silence. Sweat beaded the peddler's forehead, but my mother's face remained as expressionless as a mask of stone. All at once, the peddler's legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees in front of her. Still she held his gaze. He knotted his fists so tightly that his nails bit into the palms, and n0 a few drops of blood appeared between the clenched fingers on one hand. But however much he wanted to, he could not look away.

"Release me, Medama," he finally begged, choking. "Be merciful. Let me go!"

"Tell them what you have done," she said. "Tell them, and let them witness it. Then I shall release you."

"Medama ... I have merely done a bit of business ..."

"Tell them. Tell them exactly what you mean by 'doing a bit of business,' Hanibal Laclan Castor!" For the first time, emotion crept into my mother's voice: a seething contempt which made the little peddler shrink and become visibly smaller.

"Two boys," the peddler breathed, his voice hardly more than a whisper. "I took two boys into my service. It was an act of human kindness, they were both orphans ... No one in the village wanted them ... I treated them well, fed them properly and saw to it that they were decently clothed. They had never been better off in their lives!" The last words came loudly and defiantly, a final defence. But they did not impress my mother.

"Tell us what happened later. How kindly you then acted."

"The winter was a hard one. I lost an entire load of seed corn when we were snowlocked at Sagisloc. It sprouted and fermented, corn worth sixty silver Marks, completely useless! And the boys ... one of them was all right, a soft and biddable lad. Not very strong, though. But the other! Trouble, he was, always trouble, from the very day I laid eyes on him. One time he pinched seven needles from my stock and sold them on his own. And spent the profits on cake and hot cider! Gave him a beating for that. Of course I did. But it was useless. He only got worse. Always contrary, always disobedient. If I asked him to unhitch the mules, he would scowl and tell me to do it myself. Send him for firewood? He would be gone for hours, and I would see neither hair nor hide of him until the fire had been long lit and the soup cooked. What was I to do? Sooner or later he'd have scarpered, and there I'd be, with nothing to show for all the money I'd spent on food and clothing for that lout. No doubt he would have taken the other one with him, they were such little pals, the two of them."

dn0
The peddler's flow of words came to a halt.

"And then?" My mother's voice prodded him onwards. "What did you do then?"

"Then ... I found them other employment."

"Where?"

"With a real gentleman-cousin to Drakan himself, the Dragon Lord at Dunark. Not such a bad fate, I'd say-serving a Lord. If they play their cards right, they may end up with a knighthood! The Dragon Lord looks not on birth and reputation, they say, but on whether a man serves him well and true."

"And the price, Peddler ... Tell us your reward."

"There were my expenses ..." the peddler moaned. "Had to get a bit of my own back, didn't I? What's so bad about that? "

"How much, Peddler?" The question came like a lash, and the peddler opened his mouth to answer, unable to stop himself.

"Fifteen silver Marks for the runt, and twenty-three for the lout. He was tall and strong for his age."

The guards who had drunk his beer and eaten his food now looked as if they regretted it. One of them spat, to clear the taste from his mouth. But my mother had not finished with the man.

"And it was then that you discovered that this was a profitable line of business, wasn't it? Tell us, so that the witnesses may hear. How many more? How many more children did you sell to Drakan?"

It seemed that for the first time the peddler looked beyond defences and excuses. His wrinkled fa...

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