One more time ...

I agree that Caldane is too direct, and he's showing his hand too soon. Here's a possible revision:

Kirien became aware of a coldness beside her, and Ashe’s yellow, knobby hand touched her arm.
“Caldane’s men … have sealed off the college,” the haunt singer muttered in her hoarse, halting voice. “Not that the fog … hadn’t already.”
“But why would Caldane do such a thing?”
“I don’t know … but I suspect.”
“Have we no way to signal Valantir?”
“Not … that I can see.”
“Well, we still have this.” Kirien extracted a tablet from her jacket and began to write on it in her spiky script.
“Gothregor and your aunt … the Matriarch Trishien … are a hundred miles away.”
“I know Tori. He’ll find some way to answer, although it may take time.”
“Then there’s another song of special interest to me,” Caldane was saying, leaning forward again. “’Gerridon Highlord, Master of Knorth, a proud man was he. The Three People held he in his hand—-Arrin-ken, Highborn, and Kendar—-by right of birth and might.’ D’you remember it?”
“Everyone does,” said the Director. “So?”
“I’ve been talking to my own scrollsmen. They tell me that it was composed on this world after the Fall and subsequently written down. Only one copy exists. Now, that I would like to see.”
“Why?”
“Oh,” Caldane said, with the airy wave of a fat hand. “Intellectual curiosity.” He looked around the library. “Is it here?”
“Possibly. Most Kencyr know that song by heart, though, passed on as it has been from mouth to mouth. No one has had to refer to the manuscript in years. Who even knows where it is?”
“One man, I’m told,” said Caldane. “A scholar named Index.”