Deverry - A Time Of War Part 39

'Naught. I just wondered why you asked.'

'Now that be a thing I may never answer.'

She threw her arms round his neck and pulled him down, guiding his hand to her breast. He found it easy to forget memories and questions both.

On the morrow morning Enj came home. Rhodry was walking down by the lake when he heard, far away and to the north, the sound of a gong, echoing like a call over the water. In a few minutes he heard the boatmen shouting back and forth up at the manse. He ran round the sh.o.r.e and arrived at the boathouse in time to see them untying the beast-headed boat from the jetty. With a grin, the helmsman gestured him aboard.

'Gong?' he said.

Rhodry laughed and swung himself on board, working his way to the bow and the gong. The anchorman waited there, too, but instead of his flower of hooks, he carried a simple hawser. When they pushed off, rowing in long smooth pulls, Rhodry began striking two-handed in a regular rhythm while the helmsman and anchorman both screamed and yelled and made every unG.o.dly noise they could think of to drive the beasts away. Between strokes he watched the dark hills on the northern sh.o.r.e come closer and the waterfall resolve itself from a silver line into a roar and plunge of river. As the boat veered off from the white water, the mists caught the sun and turned into a veil of rainbows.

With the helmsman barking orders they headed into a tiny cove and a rickety wood jetty. Waiting for them, his pack sitting beside him on the bleached and gaping boards, stood a young man of the Mountain People, though he was tall for one of them at a good five and a half feet.

'Enj?' Rhodry said.

The anchorman nodded yes, judging distance with narrow eyes as the oarsmen manoeuvred the boat nearer and nearer the end of the jetty. They swung her round, backing water frantically, and let the currents and tides bob her closer and closer Enj called something out in Dwarvish, slung his pack on board, and jumped down after it before the anchorman could throw him the rope. When the boat shuddered, the anchorman rolled his eyes Rhodry's way, as if inviting him to share his scorn for such a show. As the oarsmen moved her out again, Enj came forward, speaking to every one in turn in Dwarvish, then stopped cold at the sight of Rhodry.

'Good morrow,' Rhodry said. 'My name's Rori.'

"And I be Enj. A Deverry man, are you? I do apologize for my surprise, but we don't see many guests here. Do let me relieve you of that gong work.'

'My thanks.'

As the boat turned into open water, Rhodry got out of the way on the other side of the bow. Where Avain had taken after her mother, En] must have favoured his father, Rhodry supposed. He had the high dwarven cheekbones and flat nose, and his hair was a brown close to black, as was his close-cropped beard. Even though his eyes were green like his sister's, they were narrow, shadowed under heavy dwarven brows. As they rowed back across, Rhodry was wondering just how the son was going to react to the news that a stranger was bedding his mother. It was a complication that, he supposed, he might have thought of earlier.

On the landing the entire household waited to greet them. Enj waved to them from the boat, but as soon as he was ash.o.r.e he hurried to his mother, threw one arm round her, and kissed her on the forehead.

Talking urgently together they headed off toward the tower, no doubt to let Avain see him home and safe. Garin and Rhodry walked back up to the manse together and some ways behind everyone else.

'So that's Enj, is it?' Rhodry said. 'He doesn't look in the least daft, not to me, anyway.'

Garin seemed to be biting his tongue.

'Imph,' he said at last. 'I'm cursed glad to sec him, I don't mind telling you. I'll spend the day negotiating with him to take up Otho's clan debt and making arrangements for the provisioning and all, and then I've got to be heading back to Lin Scrr. I hope you understand, Rori. If things were different, I'd go with you, just to keep Otho civil if naught else, but as it is, with the siege and all -'

'Of course I understand. And with Mic along, the old man will behave himself somewhat.'

'So we can hope.'

Since it was several hours before Angmar and Knj returned to the great hall, Rhodry had a good long wonder what mother and son might be discussing. Round noon, when they walked into the great hall, servants appeared as well, to lay a meal. For a few moments everyone exchanged strained pleasantries in Dwarvish while Angmar took her usual place at the head of the table and Enj hovered near her chair.

Rhodry waited near the hearth to let him have the family seat at his mother's right hand if he chose. The hall fell silent; everyone, servants and all, turned to watch the pair of them.

Enj glanced round and pointed to another chair that was standing against the wall, half-round and heavily carved. When he snapped out an order to a servant, everyone in the room who knew Dwarvish gasped in surprise. The servant picked it up and put it at the end of the table opposite Angmar. Once it was settled, Enj sat down on the bench by his mother's right hand, leaving only one place for Rhodry to sit, and glanced his way with a brief smile.

'My thanks,' Rhodry said.

As he sat down in the chair that had once belonged to her husband, Angmar looked down the length of the table between them with eyes that showed no feeling at all. She remembers that I'm leaving, he thought. For a moment he nearly howled aloud in rage at the Wyrd that kept tearing his life into pieces and then shredding what few sc.r.a.ps of happiness he redeemed from the ruin. He wanted to jump up and run outside, screaming like a madman. Instead he picked up his tankard and had a long swallow of ale.

At the signal the servants came forward and began serving food.

With the meal Garin broached the job ahead to Enj, and once everyone had finished eating, the negotiations began in earnest. Even though for courtesy's sake Garin kept the talk in Deverrian, Rhodry said little. As long as he was eventually satisfied with the settlement, the details were none of his affair, not under either of their systems of laws. Angmar, however, listened closely, murmuring a word of advice to her son every now and again - shrewd advice, too, from the way it made Otho wince. He needed it, too, since everyone there could see that he'd have gone off tracking a dragon for no repayment at all.

As the afternoon heat dragged on through this mire of haggling, Rhodry muttered a few excuses and fled.

Down by the lake sh.o.r.e the wind growled through the rocks and whined in the trees. Rhodry found himself a spot under a bent and twisted pine where he could sit in the cool. For a long time he stared out across the lake at the silver riband of water falling over the cliffs on the far sh.o.r.e. He was tired, he supposed, merely tired to the bone of all his wandering, tired of fighting in one battle after another, whether he fought with a sword or with dweomcr that he didn't even really understand. Why else would he be hating the idea of leaving Haen Marn?

'Rori?' Angmar's voice, coming toward him. 'Rori, be you there?'

His eyes filled with tears. lie wiped them away on the back of his hand.

'I am,' he called out. 'Do they need me in the great hall?'

'They do. To agree to the settling of the debt.'

When Rhodry picked his way through the rocks and joined her, she smiled at him, but so blandly that he knew she wished nothing of any import said aloud. He caught her hand and squeezed it.

'We'd best go back then, my lady.'

'So we should, my lord.'

Hand in hand openly they returned to the great hall, where a smiling Garin was standing by the hearth while Otho, Mic, and Enj sat drinking at the table. From the way Otho was belting the ale back, Rhodry a.s.sumed that the settlement had turned out high. With one last clasp of his hand, Angmar left him and went to her usual chair.

'Well, envoy,' Rhodry said. 'And does the settlement strike you as fair?'

'It does, though Otho may have other feelings.' Garin paused for a grin. 'There's the quittance fee, of course, for the a.s.sumption of clan debt by the heir of Haeu Marn, and then the indemnity we pay his mother, in case some evil thing befalls him, and the replenishment of Haen Marn's stores for the provisioning of this expedition. All in all, it'll amount to a nice pair of matched gemstones for the lady of Haen Marn to tuck away safe-like. However, since Enj here insists that it's best if you and he go alone, then Otho's free of the indemnity for young Mic, so he'll save a fair bit there.'

When Rhodry glanced at Mic, he found the lad on the edge of tears, 'Ah now, here, Mic, if you go and 'prentice yourself to Garin, there'll be more excitements coming your way.'

'So the envoy and Uncle Otho say,'

'It truly be for the best,' Enj broke in. 'Where we'll be going, Rori, it's too long a road to carry even half of what we'll be needing upon it. Otho did tell me that you've got a good hand with a bow, and I've one with the fishing, but if the game be scant, feeding four or even three -* He shrugged to show the uncertainty of it.

Mic got up and stomped out of the hall.

'Lin Serr owes Gwerbret Cadmar a contingent of axemen,' Garin said and very softly. 'I think me our Mic's going to have more excitement than he'll like, and soon.'

'No doubt we all will.' Rhodry felt suddenly profoundly weary. 'Well, Otho, on the contingency that these fees be paid over promptly to Haen Marn, I hereby release you from your life's debt to me in front of these witnesses.'

'Done then.' With a sigh Otho stood up to shake hands. 'And I agree. When we return with the provisions, and that'll be as fast as we can walk back and walk here again, the lady shall have her pick of the best gems I own.'

'And I'll make sure he brings the best, too,' Garin remarked to Angmar. 'I can't return myself, but a man I trust will.'

'I do have faith in that, envoy, for always have you dealt fairly with me and mine.' She glanced at Enj.

'You've done well.'

After the evening meal, while Angmar tended her daughter and the envoy and his party gathered provisions for their trek home, Rhodry and Enj walked by the lake. The last light, glancing between hills, sent shades of pale gold and faint colour onto the quiet water of the shallows, while across by the farther sh.o.r.e, the mists were rising and gathering in the coves.

'One thing worries me,' Rhodry said. 'Your mother's safety while we're gone. I've got enemies who might track me here, and if they do, they're dangerous. Does Haen Marn have va.s.sals or allies round here that might owe you men?'

Enj laughed.

'There be no other dun or settlement round here for miles and miles. But Haen Marn won't be in any danger.'

'Are you sure? These enemies are utterly ruthless, not human nor dwarven, either.'

'Any enemy has to find a dun before they can be taking it, human or not.'

'Well, true spoken, but they'll have powerful dweomer of their own on their side, powerful beyond anything I've ever seen before, certainly '

Enj considered. Rhodry could just see him frowning down at the sand.

'I'll just be going to say a goodnight to my sister,' he said at last. 'And I'll tell my mam what you've just told me.'

Some time later, Rhodry was sitting drinking with the dwarves when Angmar appeared at the door of the great hall. At her beckon he left them and joined her outside in the flickering spill of candle light. By then the night wind had come up, sighing and snuffling round like some gigantic hound between the crooked trees.

'Rori, I would not have you worry about me and mine.'

'How can I not? I'd rather turn myself over to my enemies and be done with it than bring the slightest harm to you.'

'And would I not do the same for you?'

For a moment they stared at each other on the edge of anger. It was the closest they had ever come to admitting that their mutual comfort had turned to love. All at once she shook her head and smiled with a wry twist of her mouth.

'Haen Marn protects its own,' she said. 'I mayn't say how, because in part I know not how, but have no fear of it.'

'Well, then, that gladdens my heart.'

'I suppose it gladdens mine, but -'

'But what? These are evil times, my lady, and you need a shield over you.'

'No doubt.' Her voice shook. 'But it be a baleful thing, the hefting of this shield. Pray, Rori, pray that never it be needful.'

Angmar turned and strode off, heading back to the tower. Later, when they were together in their bedchamber, neither mentioned his leaving at all.

At the morrow dawn Garin, Mic and Otho carried their gear down to the boathouse. While the boatmen fussed round, preparing for the effort of not so much getting them out as getting back in again themselves, Rhodry stood on the jetty with the three dwarves from Lin Serr. Although a feeble wind blew, the day promised suffocating heat.

'You won't be able to travel far today,' Rhodry remarked.

'Not if it's like this outside.' Garin said drily. 'Who knows if it will be or not?'

'Well, truly. At least most of your way will be downhill.'

'Just so, just so.'

Leaving Mic and Otho to load their gear into the boat, Garin led Rhodry out to the end of the jetty. For a moment they stood watching the waves lapping round the pilings.

'I'll wish you the best luck in the world, Ron',' Garin said at last 'I wish I could believe that you won't need it.'

'My thanks. And I'll wish you a goodly share of the same, my friend. In fact, I've been thinking. I should do more for you than wish luck.'

'If the Horsekin are on the move, we'll all need a fair bit more than luck.' Garin glanced at the sky. 'I wouldn't mind having more faith in those G.o.ds you people are always swearing by.'

'Neither would I.' Rhodry reached into his shirt and pulled Othara's talisman free. Take this, will you?'

'What? And leave you exposed to enemy eyes? We don't even need the thing!'

'You do, at that. Weren't you the one who pa.s.sed an axe through Alshandra's back on the road to Lin Serr?'

Garin whistled sharply under his breath.

'I'd put that out of my mind, like,' Garin said. 'Stupid of me.'

'For Othara's sake alone, I'd have you take this stone.'

Garin hesitated, and it seemed for a moment that he was about to reach for the chunk of blue; then he shook his head no.

'From everything that Jill said back in Cengarn, and the loremasters said in Lin Serr, it's on the important side, for all of us, like, to get this dragon found. There are other envoys, if worse come to worst.'

'But I -'

'n.o.ble gestures are all very well, but it's the winning of this war that's important.' Garin paused for a grin. 'Silver dagger.'

Rhodry smiled, more than a little ruefully, and settled the talisman back inside his shirt again.

'Besides,' Garin went on. 'Without you along, we dwarves can travel fast, and we can travel sneaky, like, too. I've been warned, and for that I thank you, so fear not. This hag of an Alshandra will have a good job of it, finding us, dweomer or no. Even Otho would wager a nice bit of coin on her failing.'

'Well and good, then.'

'Now as for you, will you be leaving today?'

'We won't, though as soon as we can. We need to ask Avain's help, and there's no rushing the la.s.s.'

Behind them the helmsman sang out in Dwarvish. When Garin held out his hand, Rhodry clasped it.

'May we meet again,' Rhodry said. 'But don't wager coin on that.'

Garin merely nodded in a grim sort of way and strode off down the jetty to board. Rhodry waved as the boat pulled away, then turned and walked back to the island rather than watch them go.

Over the next few days Rhodry and Enj spent much time working over their gear, testing ropes, greasing canvas, drying beef and suchlike, and even more sitting with Avain in her tower room. She would fold Rhodry's ring in one hand as she peered into her basin, and judging From her flood of words, she found the dragon easily so long as she was clutching its name. As she talked, Enj would write the occasional word on a waxed tablet - landmarks, he told Rhodry, some he knew, some he didn't.

'You can't expect her to judge the directions things lie, nor the distances between them, but when she speaks of a rock face that looks like grains of wheat, I do know that place. There be others, like this valley she calls the "G.o.ds' soup bowl", that never have I seen in my horn days. But at least I know which way to head, and bit by bit we'll piece out our route in our going.'

'With more than a little luck?'

'Just so.'