Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [116]
It was Jill’s turn for the gape.
“He did not,” she said, and grimly. “Our Rhoddo has a rather poor way with a tale at times. He mentioned that a badger-headed thing was hunting the whistle, but he said naught about the gwerbret being right there.”
“Not just the gwerbret. Every lord in that part of Pyrdon, because this feud had drawn a lot of lords in, and it’d killed a fair lot of them, too. They were all there in the pavilion, and the creature appeared practically at Drwmyc’s feet, you see, and tried to kill Rhodry. And Rhodry killed it instead with this bronze knife Dalla had given him. The creature had murdered this other rider, you see—I nearly forgot that bit—and stolen his clothes. That’s how it got into the pavilion and so close to the gwerbret. We found the rider’s body, and ye gods! Was there a panic!”
“I see.” Jill felt profoundly weary. “And now the gwerbret’s faced with Cadmar’s tale of dweomer warriors and dweomer danger, and he’s got to convince his vassals to ride north with him when he doesn’t have much stomach for it himself.”
“I’d wager a good bit of coin that’s the case. And ye gods, they still must be short of men, too, the lords who rode that feud, I mean. It was a cursed bloody affair, because it all got out of hand, somehow, well beyond what the honor of the thing demanded.”
“Feuds always do get out of hand—somehow. Here, Yraen, you have my profound thanks. If you remember anything more like this, do tell me straightaway? It’s not daft at all.”
“I will, then. It just sounds so strange, when you tell it in cold blood, like.”
Later that afternoon, with Yraen’s remembrance still very much on her mind, Jill received a visitor. She was working up in her tower room when Jahdo opened her door.
“My lady?” the lad said. “There’s a dwarven gentleman down in the great hall. He says it’s needful that he see you. What shall I tell him?”
“What’s his name?” Jill said.
“It’s Jorn, my lady, the one you did send me to, about the omens and suchlike.”
“Then bring him up straightaway.”
In some minutes, Jorn came hurrying in, leaving Jahdo puffing on the stairs behind him. The dwarf bowed to her, then shut the door.
“I’ve come to see if there’s more that me and the lads can do to help out,” Jorn said. “There’s six of us caught here in town, you see, not counting our innkeep.”
“Here, sit down. You’ve helped a fair bit already, what with the dweomer stone you laid in behind the east gate.”
“Wasn’t dweomer.” Jorn snorted profoundly. “A secret, it is, but dweomer it is not.”
He sat down in the chair and leaned back, cocking one ankle over the opposite knee, while Jill took her usual perch in the window.
“We’ve been thinking,” Jorn said, “and we’ve come up with two ideas, like. You know the stream that flows through town?”
“Of course. I worry about the wretched thing every day. Or about the place where it goes out through the walls, I mean. A portcullis is all very well, but—”
“It might not be much protection when our ugly friends out there start ramming the walls? Just so, just so. Well, we’ve been thinking about turning that weak point into a weapon. We could do a little digging and building to make a basin and a dam. I won’t bore you with the details, but when it looks like the big attack’s on its way, we could back the stream up for a bit, half a day, say, then let the water flood out all at once.”
“Aha! That would give the attackers somewhat to think about, eh?”
“Especially if they were standing right round that little arch in the wall.” Jorn smiled briefly. “The ground on the other side of the wall would stay muddy, too. It would make for some bad footing.”
“So it would. FU take you to the equerry. He can detail some men to help with the actual digging.”
“Good, good. Now, here’s the second idea. Cengarn’s built on hard stone, a proper foundation, like, but there’s one spot to the north where our lads have been thumping on the dirt and heard what sounds