Page 13 of Oracle's Reign
“I’ll do it on one condition.”
“What?” she asked warily.
“I’ll teach you to draw if you call me Peroen. None of thisdyelabusiness.”
Teeth sinking into her lower lip, she considered the possible consequences. “I don’t think that is wise,” she said after a moment. “Not unless you plan to ask all of us to call you by name.”
If Triese heard Yslie call him Peroen, when she hadn’t been extended the same privilege... Yslie didn’t want to learn what the other oracle would do in retaliation.
“Only here then,” he said, conceding her point. “When I am teaching you to draw, you will use my name.”
“I suppose that would be all right.” Yslie smiled. “Peroen.”
???
“Which instrument wereyou playing?” Yslie asked as she settled onto the cushions in Peroen’s studio for her third session with him. He stood near his art supplies, gathering paper and charcoal, but she knew he had been playing something before she entered the room. A whisper of music had carried down the hall, stopping when she was still several feet from the door.
Peroen blushed. “Thexizar.”
“Which one is that? I don’t recognize half your instruments.”
He pointed, which told her nothing, as all the instruments were stored in the same part of the room. Yslie studied him. “Why are you so shy about your music, but not your art?”
“I am proud of my skill with a paintbrush. But, while I love music, I cannot create it as well as I would wish.”
“The little I heard was beautiful. And you are saying you aren’t good enough?”
He shook his head. “You weren’t even in the room. I doubt you could hear it that clearly.”
“Then play for me now. I’ve never heard thexizarbefore.”
Peroen froze.
Yslie couldn’t hide her disappointment, but she immediately tried to set him at ease. “Never mind. You don’t have to play for me. I shouldn’t have asked like that. You did tell me you don’t perform.”
He set down the art supplies. “One song. Because you’ve never heard the instrument before.”
She clasped her hands together, trying not to look too excited in case it made Peroen more nervous.
He walked over to the instruments and picked up an instrument made of dark wood with a bulbous body and long neck. Eight strings stretched down the length of the instrument. Sitting on a stool near where he had picked it up rather than moving to the cushions by Yslie, he settled the body of thexizaron his thigh. One hand held the neck, his fingers loosely curled over the strings. The other hovered over the hole in the body of the instrument. He began to play.
Yslie wasn’t sure what sort of magic Peroen wanted to create with the instrument, that his current skill level left him dissatisfied. She couldn’t imagine the music being any better. He had chosen a well-known ballad that she had heard many times before, but she couldn’t think of a single performance that had felt more moving. His fingers flowed over the strings with apparent effortlessness, with no stumbles or hesitations.
The song ended.
Yslie remained silent.
Peroen slowly looked up, his face losing the serenity that had washed over him as he played, to be replaced with a brittle mask. “Now you understand why I don’t perform.”
“I do not,” Yslie objected, finding her voice once more. “That was extraordinary. I’ve never heard a better rendition ofBeautiful Dreams. Will you play me another song? Thexizarmight be my new favorite instrument. Oh, but I still have never heard some of the others. Are they all that hauntingly lovely?”
Peroen blinked, then he hung thexizarback on its hook. Yslie pressed her lips tight, stifling her objection. But then he lifted another instrument from its spot and played.
He played every instrument in the room before their hour ended. Sometimes the melodies were ones she recognized, other times not. But each was a joy to hear.
It was only after Yslie returned to her room that she realized every song she had recognized had a name that included either the word “hope” or “beautiful.”
???
