A Time of Omens - Katharine Kerr [161]
“It’s a nice bit of jewelry, isn’t it?” Rhodry said.
“It is, but forgive me if I was rude. I just happen to have some jewelry with roses on it myself. I mean, they’re very differently done, and the metal’s different, too, but it just seemed odd…” She felt suddenly tongue-tied and let her voice trail away.
Rhodry passed Nedd the bread. For a few minutes they all ate in an awkward silence until Carra felt she simply had to say something.
“Where are you two going, if you don’t mind me asking, anyway?”
“Up north, Cengarn way,” Yraen said. “We’ve got a hire, you see, though he’s barricaded himself in a woodshed for the night. Doesn’t trust the innkeep, doesn’t trust us, for all that he’s hired us as guards. Calls himself a merchant, but I’ve got my doubts, I have. However he earns his keep, he’s a rotten-tempered little bastard, and I’m sick to my heart of his ways.”
“Your own temper at the moment lacks a certain sunny sweetness itself.” Rhodry was grinning. “Our Otho’s carrying gems, and a lot of them, and it’s making him wary and even nastier than he usually is, which is saying a great deal. But we took his hire because it may lead to better things. I was thinking that maybe Gwerbret Cadmar up on the border might have need of us. He’s got a rough sort of rhan to rule.”
“Is that Cadmar of Cengarn?”
“It is. I take it you’ve heard of him?”
“My… well, a friend of mine’s mentioned Cengarn once or twice. It’s to the west of here, isn’t it?”
“More to the north, maybe, but somewhat west. Think your kin might have ridden that way?”
“They might have.” She busied herself with brushing imaginary crumbs off her shirt.
“What did this man of yours do?” Rhodry’s voice hovered between sympathy and a certain abstract anger. “Get you with child and then leave you?”
“How did you know?” She looked up, blushing hard, feeling tears gathering.
“It’s not exactly a new story, lass.”
“But he said he’d come back.”
“They all do,” Yraen murmured to his tankard.
“But he gave me—” She hesitated, her hand half-consciously clutching at her shirt, where the pendant hung hidden. “Well, he gave me a token.”
When Rhodry held out his hand, she debated for a long moment.
“We’re not thieves, lass,” Rhodry said, and so gently that she believedhim.
She reached round her neck to unclasp the chain and take the token out. It was an enormous sapphire as blue as the winter sea, set in a pendant of reddish-gold, some three inches across and ornamented with golden roses in bas relief. When they saw it, Rhodry whistled under his breath and Yraen swore aloud. Nedd scooted a little closer to look.
“Ye gods!” Yraen said. “It’s a good thing you keep this hidden. It’s worth a fortune.”
“A king’s ransom, and I mean that literally.” Rhodry was studying it as closely as he could in the uncertain light, and he muttered a few words in the language of the Westfolk before he went on. “Once this belonged to Ranadar of the High Mountain, the last true king the Westfolk ever had, and it’s been passed down through his descendants for over a thousand years. When your Dar’s kin find out he’s given it to you, lass, they’re going to beat him black and blue.”
“You know him? You must know him!”
“I do.” Rhodry handed the jewel back. “Any man who knows the Westfolk knows Daralanteriel. Did he tell you who he is?”
Busy with clasping the pendant, she shook her head no.
“As much of a Marked Prince as the Westfolk will ever have. The heir to what throne there is, which isn’t much, being as his kingdom lies in ruins in the far, far west.”
She started to laugh, a nervous giggle of sheer disbelief.
“Kingdom?” Yraen broke in. “I never heard of the Westfolk having any kingdom.”
“Of course you haven’t.” Rhodry suddenly grinned. “And that’s because you’ve never gotten