Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [107]
“I don’t suppose you saw or heard any ravens flying over last night,” Rhodry said.
“What? Of course not. Ravens don’t fly at night.” She yawned again, then caught herself. “Oh. You mean that raven. I did not, and truly, I would have, because it was chilly and damp up there, Dragonmaster, and I did not sleep well at all.”
“If you didn’t sleep all day, you’d sleep better at night.”
She flounced her wings and curled her upper lip to expose one long fang. Rhodry held the ring up with a gleam of sunlight.
“We’re going to go flying,” he said. “I want a look round. If she was working dweomer last night, she has to be round here somewhere.”
“What? She did what?”
While he tied on her rope harness, Rhodry told the dragon about his “dream.” She immediately agreed with his interpretation.
“No ordinary dream at all! She drew your soul out of your body, all right, and I’ll just wager she was trying to trap it, there in that world where sorcerers work their magic. I’ve never seen anything like that peculiar stuff the vial was made of, but I’m sure it was dweomer. Ych! This is awful! If she manages to trap you, then she’ll get the ring, and serving her would be loathsome. I’d hate it.” She stamped her front feet. “Hate it, hate it, hate it!”
“Then you’d best help me track her down, hadn’t you?”
They flew for a long time that morning, until the sun was halfway twixt horizon and zenith. They swooped up high over Lin Serr’s plateau and saw tiny figures below them, the dwarven burial party working at one of the burnt farms, then circled back, drifting on the air currents over the hills and currents to the south and east of the dwarvehold. They never saw the raven, though it was possible that in her woman’s form she lay hidden in the cover of the deep forest. Finally, when the sun was sending long shadows from the west, Rhodry gave it up as a bad job and went back to Lin Serr. They landed by the river, where he untied her harness.
“What are you going to do?” she said. “You’ve got to sleep some time.”
“True spoken. I don’t know, actually. I might go find Garin and ask him to see what dwarvehold’s womenfolk have to say about this.”
“Good idea. May I go hunt, Master? I spied some nice fat deer down in the hills.”
“Very well. Just come straight back here to eat them.”
“And if I find the raven, I’ll eat her. I think she knows it, too.”
After she flew off, Rhodry coiled the harness and carried it back to the gatehouse. He’d grown so used to thinking of iron as a protection that he was paying little attention to much of anything as he climbed the stairs, but of course, it was only Alshandra’s and Evandar’s people who couldn’t abide the presence of that metal. When he walked into his chamber, the raven woman was waiting for him. Stark naked, her long black hair draped over one shoulder, she was standing in the curve of the wall twixt two windows. From the disarray of his blankets and gear, he could guess that she’d been rummaging through everything he owned.
“You’re bold as brass, aren’t you?” he snapped.
She laughed, then looked full into his face, caught his gaze with hers, and held it with dweomer. Her stare seemed to pierce his eyes and impale his very soul, so that for a moment he couldn’t frame a single thought. He felt the slap of her mind as a physical blow, making him stagger. With a wrench of will, he looked away and tossed the bundle of ropes he carried straight at her. Although they fell short, she yelped and jumped back—all the time he needed. He drew the bronze knife in a smooth motion and charged. Shrieking, she dodged to one side. He barely missed, would have stabbed her with his next lunge, but his own ruse tripped him. He caught a foot in the ropes and stumbled just enough to let her duck past.
“You bastard of a silver dagger!” She leapt up to the window ledge. “You’ve not seen the end of this.”
She flung herself out the window. Spitting