Daggerspell - Katharine Kerr [148]
The fortguard cheered her. Dannyan turned her way with a quizzical lift of an eyebrow.
“I want to be nearer the war,” Lovyan said. “If Corbyn’s allies have deserted him, then they’ll all have to sue for a separate peace. I want to be at Dun Gwerbyn to receive them. What if Rhys takes it into his mind to be at Dun Gwerbyn in case they want to sue directly to him?”
“He might, at that. I’d forgotten about Rhys.”
“I can’t, not for one wretched minute of one beastly day.”
Once the army had pulled out to chase Corbyn, Nevyn went to his blankets and slept all afternoon, waking just in time to tend the wounded at the dinner hour. As soon as it was dark, he left the camp and walked to the woodland. He’d been telling Rhodry the simple truth when he talked of standing a rear guard, and to do it he had no need of being physically close to Rhodry, any more than the dark master needed to be physically close to attack him. Nevyn was sure that the dark master’s body was very far away, at least far enough to flee in plenty of time should Nevyn send armed men after him.
Safely hidden in the woods, Nevyn went into his trance and up to the etheric plane. Flying fester than any bird, he sped north until he saw the tangled mass of auras that marked Rhodry’s army below him. Like a sentry, he hovered above it and circled this way and that as the hours slipped by, unmarked and untellable until midnight, when the astral tide changed from Water to Earth, and the etheric began to billow and churn. Nevyn fought and held his place, like a swimmer treading water in a choppy sea.
Now, if the dark master was desperate enough, was the perfect time for him to make an attack. Nevyn kept low, close to earth where the billows were less severe. Every now and then, he rose up higher, fighting the waves, to get the distant view before he was forced to sink down again. Slowly the waves grew slower, smoother; slowly the billows and churning died away. Just when the tide had finally turned, he saw someone coming to meet him, but it was Aderyn, floating along in a simple blue body of light much like his own.
“How goes it?” Aderyn thought to him.
“Dull, so far. Not a sign of our enemy.”
“I’ve seen naught, either. I risked going in this form to Corbyn’s camp. Loddlaen never challenged me.” Aderyn’s grief swept out like a wave, almost tangible there on the etheric.
“Think of him as dead, my friend.” Nevyn put as much gentle sympathy into the thought as he could. “Mourn him and let him go.”
“There’s naught else I can do.”
Abruptly Aderyn turned away and, following the silver cord, floated down fast to his body.
Nevyn kept his watch all that night, until the Aethyr tide began rolling in a little before dawn. Since no dark master could work magic under the tides of Aethyr or Air, Nevyn returned to his body. As he walked back to camp, he was mulling over his long, boring night. It was possible that the dark master was merely holding his hand, waiting until Nevyn dropped his guard, possible, but highly unlikely. Nevyn dwelt on the dark master, thought of every grim thing he might do, but no dweomer-warning came to him, not the slightest twinge. From its lack, he knew that the master had left the field entirely.
“I should have done that last night and saved myself the boredom,” he remarked aloud. “But truly, I never thought he’d give up so easily.”
All at once, he had to laugh at himself. He took his powers so much for granted that he’d forgotten how terrifying they would be to someone with good cause to fear him.
The night before, Rhodry’s army had camped in a common pasture about half a mile from a farming village. Although Rhodry woke everyone before dawn and yelled orders to hurry and get ready to ride, they had to linger for at least an hour, simply to allow the horses to graze. Jill supposed that Corbyn was already on the