A Time of Omens - Katharine Kerr [149]
“That you killed him for a piece of silver! What do you think? A good man like him, killed for a cursed bit of coin.”
“I didn’t kill him for the coin. I killed him to save my life, because your lord was a good man with his blade.”
“You wouldn’t have been on the field if it weren’t for the coin.” Gwar paused to spit on the ground. “Silver dagger.”
Yraen and Renydd exchanged a glance and rose to a kneel, ready to leap up to Rhodry’s defense if Gwar and his lads charged. Drwmyc’s hand tightened on his sword hilt when he saw them.
“No one move,” the gwerbret said. “The first man to draw in my court will be taken alive and hanged like a dog. Do you hear me?”
Everyone sat back down, even Gwar, and promptly.
“Good,” Drwmyc continued. “Silver dagger, are you appealing to me?”
“I am, Your Grace, under the laws of men and gods alike, and I swear upon my very life to abide by your decision. Either absolve me of guilt or set me some lwdd to pay for Lord Adry’s death.”
“Nicely spoken, and so I shall.” The gwerbret considered for a moment. “But on the morrow. I have one matter before me in malover already, you know.”
“I do, Your Grace, and never would I set my own affairs above those of honorable men.”
When Yraen stole a glance at Gwar and his friends, he found them looking as sour as if they’d bitten into a Bardek citron. Apparently the last thing they’d expected from a road-filthy silver dagger was eloquence.
“Until I hold malover upon this matter of the silver dagger and the death of Lord Adry, his life is sacrosanct under all the laws of Great Bel,” the gwerbret said. “Gwar, do you and your lads understand that?”
“We do, Your Grace, and never would we break those laws.”
“Good.” Drwmyc allowed himself a thin smile. “But just in case temptation strikes, like, I’m putting guards on the silver dagger. Captain?” He turned to one of the men standing behind him. “See to it, will you, when we leave the pavilion?”
With the morning the malover reconvened, and the proceedings over the war droned on. Round noon, the gwerbret ruled in Comerr’s favor, that his clan should rule the new tierynrhyn. Since Tewdyr was dead without an heir, his grace split his lands twixt Erddyr and Nomyr, as a reward for bringing the matter under the rule of law. Since there was a vast sea of details to sail across, however, it was late in the day before everything was settled. Yraen was half expecting that Rhodry’s matter would be postponed yet again, but the gwerbret had forgotten neither it nor his obligation to even the least of the men in his rhan. When the proceedings were finally concluded to the lords’ satisfaction, Drwmyc rose, looking over the assembly.
“There you are, silver dagger. Let’s settle your matter now, and then we’ll have a good dinner to celebrate, like. Maybe I can talk Tieryn Magryn into standing for some mead for all you men. Come forward. We’ll hear what you and that other fellow, the spokesman—Gwar, was it?—have to say.”
The gwerbret’s jovial mood certainly boded well for Rhodry’s case, Yraen decided. In answer to the summons, Rhodry went forward, bowed, then handed his sword to a guard and knelt at the gwerbret’s feet. Gwar, however, seemed to have disappeared, though his three friends were sitting over at the right side of the pavilion. They got up and began bowing and making apologies, while everyone else started grinning and making jokes about privies. After a few brief moments Gwar did indeed appear, hurrying into the big tent and threading his way down to the front. Yraen was suddenly struck by an oddity; after being so bold the day before, Gwar looked toward the ground as he walked as if he were afraid to meet anyone’s gaze.
“Good, good. Hurry up, lad,” the gwerbret said. “The rest of you, hold your tongues now! Let’s get the judgment under way.”
Yraen saw Rhodry studying Gwar as his enemy handed his sword over, and though he couldn’t see the silver dagger too clearly from this