Daggerspell - Katharine Kerr [196]
“If Rhys finds out, he’ll kill you for it.”
“He won’t find out. I’ve bested him once already, haven’t I now?”
Rhodry tried to smile, a ghost of his old good humor that was painful to see.
“Try to think, lad. We don’t have much time. What are you going to do? Ride to one of Rhys’s rivals and beg for shelter?”
“I’d rather starve.”
“So I thought. Then I’ll give you my silver dagger. If anyone asks you why you have my device, just tell them I pledged you to the band.”
Rhodry stared at him, tried to speak, then shook his head in a no, back and forth, over and over, wider and wider swings, as if he were desperately trying to deny everything that was happening to him. Cullyn grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him to make him stop.
“If you won’t take a rival’s shelter, what choice do you have? Or are you going to do what I was too proud to do—beg for work in a tavern or stables?”
“I couldn’t do that either, but—”
“Ah, by the hells, don’t you think I know how hard it is to take the cursed dagger? Don’t you think I wept when I saw that it was all that was left to me, to sell my sword and have decent men spit when I walked into a room? But it’s a way for a man to fight and gain a little glory while he survives, and you’ll survive like I did. You’re the first man I’ve ever met who’s my match with a sword.”
“Do you really think I’m your match?”
“I do. Now, do you want this dagger or not?”
Rhodry hesitated, then grinned and tossed his head with some of his old spirit kindling in his eyes.
“I do, and I’ll wear it as proudly as I can.”
“Good. We’ll all be here working for your recall. Remember that when the long road turns harsh.”
Since Jill’s first duty lay with Lovyan, she helped Dannyan get their lady up to her chambers, then worked her way free of the crowd of cursing lords. By the time she got down to the ward, there was no one by the gates but the pair of guards. When she approached them, they looked at her with a certain pity.
“Has Rhodry already ridden out?”
“He has. You’d best get back to your people, my lady, and forget him as best you can.”
As Jill walked back through the gardens, she stopped at the dragon fountain. She watched the endless rise and fall of the water and wondered what was so wrong with her, that she couldn’t weep, even though Rhodry had ridden out without giving her one last kiss. There Cullyn found her, but even when he pulled her into his arms, her eyes stayed stubbornly dry.
“He refused to wait because he didn’t want you to see him shamed. But he begged me to tell you that he’ll love you forever.”
“He’s not shamed in my eyes, and he never will be.”
Together they went back to the broch. In the great hall, servants and noble-born officials alike gossiped furiously; the men of Rhys’s warband stood round and cursed Rhodry for daring to draw on their lord. Yet in all the bluster, there was a doubtful undertone, a wondering, hastily denied the moment it appeared, if maybe, just maybe, Rhodry had been right when he claimed that Rhys was greedy for the coin that the tierynrhyn would bring him. In time, Jill realized, that little doubt would grow until men all over Eldidd accepted it as the solemn truth. Thinking that, she smiled. Rhodry had won a victory that Rhys would never be able to forget.
The reception chamber of Lovyan’s suite was empty. Jill could hear Nevyn and Dannyan talking with Lovyan in the bedchamber. Rhodry’s noble allies, Cullyn told her, were packing up in a fury and planning on leaving court as fast as they could. Somewhat to Jill’s surprise, Cullyn stayed with her. While she slouched in a chair, he paced back and forth, stopping often to listen at the door that led to the corridor. Finally he smiled and opened it. His arms full of gear, Amyr slipped in like a thief.
“I got it all, even his sword. You were right enough about silver making men see reason. I got his lordships clothes and suchlike from the servants for only a few coppers,