Somehow, Izulen made it through the rest of the day without collapsing. He was too tired to join in the usual chatter during the midday meal and my the evening meal he was half dead as he automatically shoveled food into his mouth. He was so tired that, without realizing it, he started humming.
He didn't hum especially loudly, nor was the tune an especially noticeable one. Just the same, within five minutes the entire dining hall had gone silent and Shanol stood behind his chair. If a thunderstorm could have taken human form, it would have been identical to Shanol at the moment. Lightning flashed in his eyes and when he spoke his words sounded like thunder.
"Journeyman Izulen, what do you think you are doing?" he thundered. No one else in the hall dared to so much as breathe loudly.
Izulen looked up at him, too tired to comprehend. "I'm er, humming sir."
"I know it's been a hard day's work in the field, but I trust you are still in command of your wits," Shanol said in a dangerously silky voice.
Izulen gave him a puzzled look which changed to one of suprise and then anger as he remembered. "Yes sir," he replied, voice nearly as quietly dangerous as Shanol's.
"Then you know that there is now music of any kind allowed here," Shanol continued in the same tone, "and we do not tolerate those who ignore our law."
Next to him, Nita tensed for what she knew was coming, what she had seen happen before. "Be careful," she whispered to him under her breath.
Izulen nodded stiffly. "I know. But, with all due respect Lord Shanol, forbidding humming is going a little overboard. You're going to make these people crack, Shanol. Can't you see that?"
"Do not tell me how to govern my Hold, Harper!" Shanol barked.
"I'm not telling you how to do anything!" Izulen snapped. "I'm only telling you what you can't seem to see! You're killing them!"
For a moment, it looked as though Shanol would hit Izulen right there in front of the entire dining hall. Nita held her breath, determined that if anything did happen that she'd be on Izulen's side. But nothing happened. Shanol shuddered and, without another word, turned and strode out of the hall.
Izulen watched him go and then turned to his friends. "You all see it, don't you?" he challenged. "You're being suffocated!"
"Help! Help!" Tiron drawled, clutching at his throat. Izulen glared at him and he shrugged.
"Come on, you can't tell me you actually like living like this!" Izulen scoffed.
"We don't," Ranna told him. "But Shanol will never let us forget what happened to Anisol."
"You can't live in that shadow your whole lives!" Izulen insisted.
"What choice do we have?" Aizra asked glumly.
"There's just gotta be a way out of this!" Izulen told them.
"The only way out of this is on a runner," Nita reminded him.
"No! You don't have to live like this!" Izulen insisted. "It's our hold too, we can change the law! And then we can have a real Gather, with dancing and singing and music."
"Are you ready to take on Lord Shanol?" Jheron asked incredulously.
"We can take him any day," Izulen responded. "What's one man against all of us?"
Everyone looked at Nita for her approval. One part of her told her that this was betraying the memory of her brother and going against all her father believed in, but another part screamed that she needed this. "Nothing," Nita breathed.
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