No Quarter by Tanya Huff

dead."
    "I don't know."
    "What are you going to do when you catch up to it?"
    Jazep shook his head, one hand lightly stroking the bellows of his pipes. "Stop it."
    When all the loose dirt had been dug out, Filip, wrapped again in a linen winding cloth, was lowered back into the earth. Standing at the head of the grave, Celestin traced the Circle on her breast with a fistful of dirt. "We give back to the earth as we have taken from it," she said as she scattered the dirt on the body.
    "The Circle encloses us all," Jazep answered with the villagers. In the prayers that followed, he could hear an undertone of uncertainty; hardly surprising as this was the second time the prayers had been said. When they were finished, he stepped into the priest's place, settled the drones on his shoulder, and began to play.
    He played grief that a young man was dead, anger at the disinterment, comfort to Dymek, to the rest of Filip's family and friends, and then he called the kigh. They came this time with an enthusiasm that suggested they were as interested in making this right as he was. The pile of dirt slid down into the hole, spread itself, and enfolded Filip back into the earth's embrace.
    That should've been enough, but when Jazep tried to leave the graveside, he found he couldn't move. The kigh held him in place.

    Tucking the pipes back under his arm, he Sang. Reluctantly, the kigh moved away.
    "What is it?" Celestin asked, hurrying to his side.
    "I don't know."
    Dymek jerked forward, eyes wide, his hand stretched out toward the bard. "Is it about Filip?"
    "No, not about Filip," Jazep told him gently, catching hold of the younger man's fingers for a brief moment of reassurance. "They want me to help a lost kigh."
    "I can feel him, you know. It's like I can reach out and he's there."
    Celestin moved to put an arm around his shoulder. "He'll always be in your heart."
    Dymek shook his head, tears spilling down his cheeks. "No. It's like he's still here!"
    As Dymek's parents led their son from the graveyard, their own faces twisted with grieving, bard and priest exchanged a helpless glance. Time would have to heal what they could not.
    "Will you stay for a while?" Celestin asked when they were alone beside the grave.
    "No. I have to catch up to whatever's causing this before it can reach another village."
    "And do the same thing."
    Jazep nodded grimly. "Or worse." He stepped toward his pack and found the kigh had anchored his feet once again. When he asked them why, he got the same answer he had before. They wanted him to Sing home a lost kigh.
    "How can a kigh be lost?" Celestin wondered when he told her.
    "They can't. At least, I never knew they could." Brow furrowed, he Sang a different question. He changed the phrasing. He changed the pitch of the Song.
    Finally he gave up. "I don't know what they're talking about," he admitted, pulling at his beard in bewildered frustration. "They just keep repeating the same thing, over and over." It almost tore him in two, but he couldn't take the time to learn what they wanted—not when past experience said it could take days.

    They made him Sing his feet free every step across the graveyard. When he had to Sing the kigh away from his pack, Celestin lightly touched his shoulder.
    "Perhaps you should stay."
    "I can't." The words ripped great holes in his heart.
    "Have you told them why?" She gestured at the ground.
    "They don't understand ." The final word became a plea for understanding from the priest. When she nodded, he swung the pack up onto his shoulders. "Look, Brencis is still out there trying to contact a bard. Sooner or later, he'll come home with one. If they can Sing air, have them send your recall to the Bardic Hall—
    everyone should know about this. If they can Sing earth…" For a moment he was unable to go on. "If they can Sing earth, ask them to help the kigh."
    The earth tugged at his shoes as Jazep hurried away from the village. Voice tight in his throat, he sang to the breezes