"But he did deserve to take a rest_" T'fyrr pointed out. "At least, he deserved some rest, if those problems were as weighty to solve as you say."
"Of course he did!" she exclaimed. "I'm not saying that he didn't_but the point wasn't that he didn't deserve to rest, the point is that he couldn't rest." She licked her lips, clearly searching for an explanation. "He is the High King; he could and probably should have reorganized his duties so that he had some time to recuperate, but he could not abandon his duties! Do you see what I'm saying?"
"I think so_" T'fyrr said hesitantly. "There really isn't anyone who can do what he can, who can be the ultimate authority. So when his Advisors started telling him to rest, to delegate important business to someone else_"
"They were telling him what he wanted to hear, but not the truth," she finished for him, when he groped for words. "He could arrange to take more time in solving those problems that won't get worse with time. He can ask for help from any of the Twenty Kings. He can look to his allies for some help. He cannot tell someone else to solve them for him."
T'fyrr shook his head. "It is easy to feel sorry for him," he said, thinking back to Theovere and realizing that he had seen signs of strain that he had not noticed at the time. Perhaps even those temper tantrums were a sign of that strain. "It seems like too much of a burden for one man. No one should be expected to bear that much."
Nightingale spread her hands in a gesture of bafflement. "There's no good answer," she admitted. "There is a reason why the High King has the privileges that he has; why he lives in a place that is second only to the Fortress-City in luxury, why virtually anything he wants is given to him. Since his duties can't be made easier, his life is made easier. But do you see what our answer might be?"
T'fyrr thought it all through before he answered. "Theovere was tired; his Advisors told him what he wanted to hear_that he needed to stop working so hard, he needed to rest, he needed to give over some of his responsibility to others. So he followed their advice and found that he liked the new life_and his Advisors only reinforced his feelings when they told him that he was doing the right thing. It probably began with very little things, but by now_by now it has built up to the point that Theovere is actually doing very little in the way of his duty, and the Advisors are still telling him what a wonderful leader he is."
Nightingale nodded emphatically as she put her hair up into a complicated twist. "Furthermore, since they are not letting anyone in to speak to him who is likely to tell him something that contradicts what they are saying, he believes that everything is exactly as it was when he was in his prime. He wants to believe that, and the sycophants are only too happy to tell him so."
T'fyrr fanned his wings a little in the breath of moving air from the ventilator grille. "It will be difficult to turn that trend around," he offered diffidently. "I have been trying_I have been inserting songs with a particular theme, that great power demands the acceptance of responsibility, into the performances that the King has asked me to give. But as I told you, I have not seen any evidence that he has paid any more attention to them than to the story ballads or the love songs."
Nightingale's hands stopped moving for a moment. Her eyes took on the expression of someone who is looking deep into her own spirit, and T'fyrr wondered what she was thinking.
Then, with an abrupt motion, as if she had suddenly made up her mind about something, she put the last twist into her hair and folded her hands on her lap. "T'fyrr, who told you that some of the Free Bards have_magic?" she asked.
"Harperus," he replied promptly. "Harperus told me that you have it, in fact. Well, not magic, as such_he told me that many of you have some sort of power that he and his people could not weigh or measure, but that observation would prove existed. He said that you could influence peoples minds, among other things. He suspected that you could_well, see into the future. He said that some Deliambrens believe that you can influence events as well as minds, provided that the influence need only be very small. He has real evidence that you can heal people in ways that have nothing to do with medicine as he knows it."
She bit her lower lip and looked away from him for the first time. "I am not really supposed to admit to this," she said finally. "Especially not to someone connected with the Deliambrens." She looked back at him with a wan smile. "Harperus and his kind are driven mad by things they cannot measure, and if they knew we really did have abilities such as you describe, they would be plaguing us constantly to find out what it is we do and how we do it."
T'fyrr nodded but said nothing, only waited quietly for her to continue.
"There is_there is a power in music properly performed," she said after another long moment of silence, broken only by the sound of the air in the ventilators and the distant murmur of all the sounds of Freehold below them. "You might call it 'magic.' Certainly the Gypsies and the Elves do, and so does the Church, although the Churchmen have no idea how great or little that power really is. I'll put it to you briefly: some Bards are mages, and_among other things_we can influence the thoughts of others through our music. Some of us can do the other things you described as well, but it is that one particular power that pertains to our situation now. Sometimes, not often, we are powerful enough to make others act against their will. Most of us confine ourselves to very minor acts of_well, it is manipulation, and as such, it could be considered improper. Most of the time, all we do is to enhance our audiences' ability to appreciate the music."
"But you can do more," T'fyrr stated. He had no doubt that she, personally, could do much more.
She nodded reluctantly. "This might be a case where doing more is justified. Would you care to add me, and my magic, to your performances for the King? All you need do is bring me in as your accompanist, and I can do the rest. Between the two of us, we may be able to reawaken his sleeping conscience and rouse his slumbering sense of duty. But I won't lie to you; this is interference in someone's mind, his thoughts. Before you take me up on this, you need to think about that_and if you would appreciate having something like this done to you, if your situation and his were reversed."
Now that she had put it baldly and offered her services, and now that she had admitted that this "magic" was as much a form of manipulation as the overt form that Theovere's Advisors were doing, the idea wasn't as attractive as it had been. In point of fact, the notion made him feel rather_shaken up inside.
Did he want to do this? If he were the King_if he were in Theovere's place_
If he were thinking clearly, thinking as his old self, he might. But doesn't this preclude his thinking clearly? Wouldn't we be clouding his mind as much as all that bad advice?
"It is a great power," Nightingale said softly. "This is why we so seldom use it. It is far too tempting to misuse it."
He took a deep breath. "It is also too great an issue to decide on impulse," he told her firmly. "I need to think about this at length."
And I wish there was someone, anyone, who I could ask for advice!
He was afraid that Nightingale would be annoyed with him for prevaricating after she had taken the great step of not only admitting she had this power, but offering to help him with it. But she only nodded, as if she had expected him to say something like that.