Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [216]
Raegar gazed at her intently, and he said solemnly, “Death was my punishment, Treia.”
“Punishment for what? I don’t understand.” Treia’s voice hardened. She drew back from him, wary and suspicious. “What do you mean?”
Raegar took hold of her hands and held them in reassurance. “Vindrash did not save me.” He cast a meaningful glance at what was left of the statue. “Vindrash has lost the power to save herself, let alone anyone else. You know that, Treia. You know in your heart I am right.”
Treia eyed him skeptically, her face cold, expressionless.
Raegar opened her palms, kissed them. “I am being punished for keeping Skylan’s guilty secret. For not revealing what I know to be the truth. We were going to wait, but I must purge my soul.”
Treia smiled and relaxed in his arms. She nestled close to Raegar, twining her legs around his, and felt him grow hard against her.
“Tell me the truth,” Treia said with fierce joy. “Tell me all you know about Skylan.”
Raegar clasped her to him as they lay tangled at the feet of Vindrash, and making love to her again, he told Treia exactly what she wanted to hear.
Raegar didn’t know it, but he was also telling Wulfe.
Frightened half out of his wits by the sudden appearance of the dragon and the giants, Wulfe had dropped to all fours and run as fast as he could. He felt bad about leaving Skylan to face his foes alone, but he had not felt bad enough to stay.
“The gods hate the fae,” Wulfe’s mother had always told him. “The gods are always looking for ways to harm us. Gods are never to be trusted.”
Faced with an angry goddess, Wulfe ran.
Unfortunately, his next encounter proved even more terrifying. Fleeing the Dragon Goddess, he ran headlong into menacing Ugly Ones. Never mind that he knew these Ugly Ones, who were Skylan’s friends. Garn spoke gently to Wulfe, trying to calm him down. The horrible stench of iron—always equated in Wulfe’s nostrils with the smell of death—was sickening. Caught between gods and iron, he ran from both.
He eventually grew tired. His run slowed to a lope. His hands were cut and blistered; his feet hurt. He panted for breath, his flanks heaving, and his tongue lolling. He was thirsty and lonely and utterly lost and now the ground was shaking. He had no idea how to find his way back to Skylan. He was in despair, and he came upon Treia.
Wulfe did not trust Treia, but at least she was not a vengeful goddess. She carried no iron, and she would be able to lead him back to Skylan. Wulfe did not make himself known to Treia, because she was acting strangely—talking to herself, wringing her hands, moaning, and clutching at her head. He followed her at a safe distance, trotting along silently behind.
She led him to an immense building, very beautiful in Wulfe’s eyes. He watched Treia enter. Wulfe settled down to wait for her to return. Hearing her give a startled cry, and wondering what had happened, Wulfe went in after her. He slipped inside the door, which she had left ajar, and there he saw Treia and, to his astonishment, he saw Raegar.
Wulfe was alarmed at first, fearing he’d come upon yet another draugr, but then he reflected that even Treia wouldn’t be likely to rut with a corpse. The more Wulfe watched the two, the more he was convinced that Raegar was very much alive.
Wulfe did not like Raegar any more than he liked Treia. Having spied on both of them, Wulfe knew that they both hated Skylan, and Wulfe hated the two of them for that reason.
The boy settled himself behind one of the many wooden posts that supported the vaulted ceiling and watched without much interest the man and woman in the throes of their passion. Growing bored, he glanced about the Hall. He saw bloodstains. He shivered, wondering what terrible thing had happened here, and then he saw what Treia had failed to see: tracks of wet boots clearly visible on the dust-covered floor of the Hall.
The tracks were recent. Wulfe touched a print with his fingers and could still feel the dampness. The water on the boots had turned the dust to mud, leaving a clear imprint behind. The foot