A Song for Arbonne. Guy Gavriel Kay

      

      Guy Gavriel Kay

      A Song for Arbonne

      Copyright

      HarperVoyager

       An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992

      The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      A SONG FOR ARBONNE. Copyright © Guy Gavriel Kay 1992.

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      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780007342051

      Ebook Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780007352029

      Version 2014-12-18

      This book is dedicated, with love,

       to the memory of my father,

       Dr. Samuel K. Kay,

       whose skill and compassion as a surgeon were

       enhanced all his life by a love for language and

       literature—a love he conveyed to his sons, among

       so many other gifts.

      Contents

       Cover Page

       Title Page

      Copyright

       Dedication

      A Note on Pronunciation

       Map

       Prologue

      On a morning in the springtime of the year, when…

      Part One: Spring

      Chapter I

      There was very little wind, which was a blessing. Pale…

      Chapter II

      Some mornings, as today, she woke feeling amazingly young, happy…

      Chapter III

      Ademar, king of Gorhaut, slowly turns away from the diverting…

      Part Two: Midsummer

      Chapter IV

      Walking briskly through the crowded streets, calling cheerful replies to…

      Chapter V

      It wasn’t, of course. It wasn’t the same man; the…

      Chapter VI

      Lisseut, if asked in the midst of that swirling, suddenly…

      Chapter VII

      Even when he saw the peacocks in the extravagantly lit…

      Chapter VIII

      The crimson-clad guard of Carenzu took Lisseut through the late…

      Part Three: Autumn

      Chapter IX

      On the bright, mild morning in autumn when her life…

      Chapter X

      Roban, the chancellor of Arbonne, had had an intensely trying…

      Chapter XI

      ‘A challenge!’ shouted the trovaritz from Aulensburg. The tavern was…

      Chapter XII

      ‘I hope you realize I do not want her back,’…

      Chapter XIII

      Tournaments in Arbonne and duels performed in the presence of…

      Chapter XIV

      The blue moon is full tonight, Ranald realizes belatedly, lending…

      Part Four: Winter

      Chapter XV

      On the night appointed there was fog at Garsenc Castle.…

      Chapter XVI

      Roche the priest was in disgrace on Rian’s Island in…

      Chapter XVII

      The identical message by a different messenger came to the…

      Chapter XVIII

      The battle that ended Gorhaut and Arbonne as the world…

      Chapter XIX

      Blaise was unaware for the first part of his ride…

       Keep Reading

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Also by Guy Gavriel Kay

      Credits

      About the Publisher

      A Note on Pronunciation

      It will likely be evident to the reader that the French language has provided the basis for most of the proper names herein. There is one caveat to this. Historically, the language of what is now the south of France (Provence or Languedoc or Aquitaine), unlike modern French, normally involved the pronunciation of a final ‘s’. I have followed this, and, accordingly, names such as Aelis or Cauvas ought to have their final consonant sounded.

      From the vidan of the troubadour, Anselme of Cauvas …

      Anselme, who has ever been acknowledged as the first and perhaps the greatest of all the troubadours of Arbonne, was of modest birth, the youngest son of a clerk in the castle of a baron near Cauvas. He was of middling height, dark haired, with a quiet manner in speech that was nonetheless wondrously pleasing to all who heard him. While yet tender in years, he showed great skill and interest in music and was invited to join the celebrated choir of the Cauvas sanctuary of the god. It was not long, however, before he felt the beginnings of a desire to make music very different from that acceptable in the service of the god, or indeed of the goddess Rian in her temples. And so Anselme left the comforts of the chapel and choir