Katharine Kerr - Sword of Fire

Cavan sighed and rubbed his neck with one hand.

‘Ah, you understand me,’ Dovina went on. ‘Well?’

‘My thanks, my lady. I’ll take your hire gladly.’

And, he reminded himself, the hire offered compensations. Although he had every intention of treating Alyssa as honorably as he’d treat the queen, even queens were known to take a fancy to a man now and then. No doubt a common-born lass would care less for her delicate honor than a high-born woman. Never would he give Alyssa ‘trouble’, as her ladyship had termed it, but it would hardly be trouble if she were willing. The memory of that kiss in the market square made him smile, until he realized that Dovina was watching him with her lips set tight, as if she knew what he was thinking.

‘I’m going to tell Alyssa that you’re noble-born,’ Dovina said. ‘That way she’ll know better than to believe a honeyed word you say.’

With that she turned and marched off back to the women’s hive. Cavan bowed out of habit, but he would rather have snarled. As he walked back to Wmm’s with Rhys, he noticed Travaberiel standing in the doorway, watching them with a polite little smile. Smile or not, Cavan felt his suspicions catch fire. What was this fellow, a spy? People always said you couldn’t trust the Westfolk if their interests crossed yours. They’re not truly human , he reminded himself. Let’s just stay on guard .

Yet what if Travaberiel had dwimmer? The ancient magic – dweomer, they called it in the old days; so many people said it was only an old wives’ tale, a silly superstition, or maybe at most a debased witchery. Cavan, however, had seen and felt things that had convinced him it was real and true, perhaps the only truth that mattered. Or was it just that he so badly wanted the dwimmer to be real? He could never be sure, but one thing he did know. The wanting was real enough.

The first difficulty in making their escape, Alyssa soon realized, lay in hiding the preparations from Lady Tay. Fortunately, Malyc Penvardd, who was allowed into the women’s great hall because of his advanced age, arrived to dine with Lady Tay and plan Cradoc’s funeral. An average-looking fellow, neither tall nor short, with gray hair that barely covered his head, he had a face as wrinkled as the sea. Yet he strode into the collegium grounds as vigorously as a young man. As Alyssa escorted him across the lawn, he told her in his trained and booming voice that he himself, as the chief bard, would deliver the gwerchan in tribute.

‘That will be splendid, honored one,’ Alyssa said.

‘So I’ll hope. I wanted a private word with you. Let’s pause here a moment.’

They found a little bit of privacy in the shelter of a pair of young trees near the women’s hive.

‘I know Cradoc favored you as if you were his daughter,’ Malyc said. ‘Your heart must be heavy.’

‘It is, sir, heavy and near breaking. At moments I remember that I’ll never see him again.’ She paused to wipe her eyes on her sleeve. ‘I’ll honor his memory always.’

‘As I will, myself. It vexes me, that he died for so little. All we asked of the gwerbret was a fair hearing on this matter of the law courts and the nobility. The bard is the voice of his people under the laws, is he not? That voice has the legal right to be heard.’

‘True spoken. But it’s not a small thing, that right. If the bards are silenced, the people have no voice, and the lords may do as they please with no one to shame them.’

Malyc smiled and nodded. ‘Good answer,’ he said. ‘You do understand. Their precious honor tarnishes more easily than silver for all that they value it higher than gold. At any rate, you may rest assured that I shan’t let this matter end here.’

‘That gladdens my heart.’

‘I thought it would. Huh, it’s getting chilly out here. Let’s not keep Lady Tay waiting.’

They walked on in silence. When they entered the hive, Lady Tay was standing near the door to greet the penvardd and escort him to the head table. Alyssa took her place with the other senior students. A servant brought the head table wine, and another brought the students boiled water with a bit of wine in it for flavor.

Up at the front of the hall, Malyc announced, in his ringing voice that carried through half the hive, that he had ordered Cradoc’s apprentice to abandon the starvation siege at the gwerbretal gates.

‘We’ve lost one of our best men already,’ Malyc said. ‘No use in losing two. Ladoic has made it clear that he won’t give in, for all his talk about respecting custom and law. I am both shocked and heartsick over Cradoc’s death, my lady. I should have stopped this deadly ritual. Had I only known how far the gwerbret would go—’ He paused to make one sharp sob. ‘I never dreamt it would end this way.’

Lady Tay made a reply that Alyssa couldn’t quite hear. She did catch the words ‘dreadful shock’.

‘His note about Cradoc’s body was that last drop of water that ruins the ale,’ Malyc continued. ‘I intend to make him pay for that.’

And how can you? Alyssa thought. Apparently Lady Tay asked something similar, because Malyc said, ‘I have a weapon that will make His Grace tremble, were I to use it, but by the gods, I’ll pray it doesn’t come to that! Too many innocent persons would suffer.’

‘Ye gods!’ In her surprise Lady Tay spoke almost as loudly as the chief bard.

Malyc merely smiled and speared a fragment of pork with his table dagger. After that he spoke somewhat more quietly, and only of the funereal details.

Alyssa left the table as soon as she could. She needed to pack supplies for her journey north. Dovina took charge of wheedling provisions out of the hive’s cook. Mavva gathered bits of spare clothing from those women who could afford to give it. One of the other senior students handed over a pair of fine leather saddlebags.

‘You’d best take as much clothing as you can in the saddlebags,’ Dovina said. ‘You’ll have to make a decent appearance in Cerrmor, you see. I’ve scrounged up what coin I can for the first part of your journey. Once you get to Haen Marn and use the draft, you’ll be able to buy what you need.’

‘We’d best travel as fast as possible, anyway,’ Alyssa said. ‘If we can get over the border into the Bear clan’s demesne, we’ll be out of your father’s reach.’

‘True, but you’ll have to get the book to Cerrmor. I wish you could go by ship, but you won’t dare return to Eldidd. Best go overland to Dun Trebyc and down from there, though ye gods, it’ll take so long!’

‘Better a long journey than one that ends too soon. In your father’s gaol.’

Later that night, before the chaperones locked the doors into the women’s hall, Dovina, Mavva, and Alyssa met Cavan and Rhys out on the lawn. Travaberiel joined them at Rhys’s invitation. By the light of candle lanterns they all walked down to the back wall where they were less likely to be overheard.

‘Be cursed careful once you reach the Bear lands,’ Travaberiel said. ‘If this feud turns into a war, Standyc’s likely to arrest anyone from Eldidd. Lie if you have to. He’s a suspicious man, Standyc, sure that he has hidden enemies somewhere.’

‘Is he right about that?’ Alyssa said.

‘Not to my knowledge. He’s got plenty of enemies right out in the open among my folk. You’d think that would be enough for him.’

‘My thanks.’ Cavan made him a half-bow. ‘I’ll remember that.’

Alyssa felt the night air turn cold around her. Dovina held up her punched-tin lantern and cast spangles of gold light over the silver dagger.

‘Will you keep her safe?’ The cold in her voice made Alyssa shiver again. ‘If I find out you haven’t, I’ll turn you in to my father.’