Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [117]
“Aha! A sally port?”
“Not too likely. I doubt if we can make it wide enough to get more than one man out a time, you see. But we might be able to dig you a back door for sneaking out a messenger. We’re all wondering what’s happened to Cadmar’s allies.”
“You’re not alone in that.”
“No doubt.” Jorn allowed himself a thin smile. “If a messenger’s going to get out of here, it’s got to be soon. They’re doing a right good job on those ditches round their camp. Once that ring closes, no one’s going to get out without them knowing.”
“True spoken. Unless maybe to the north. They’re never going to be able to enclose those hills.”
“Which is why we were poking round the north wall.”
“Of course. This is a splendid offer, Jorn, but it strikes me as dangerous. Cave-ins and suchlike happen.”
“Well, they do, they do, but it’ll be dangerous for the messenger most of all, if we can get one out.” He paused for a wry smile. “But another danger’s to the north wall. You never know what weakness you’ll find, when you start poking round like this. We don’t want to sap our own walls.”
“Ye gods! If it came down—even if it caused the barest breach—”
“Disaster, truly. That’s why I came to you first. I wanted to ask your opinion, like, before we go talking to the gwerbret.”
“Well, let me think about it. But you do have my thanks for the offer.”
Better yet, he’d given her an idea that might well prove more valuable than a risky mine. There was more than one kind of tunnel in the world. Jill escorted the dwarf downstairs, found the equerry, and left them happily discussing plans for the stream, then went to find Dallandra, who was, it turned out, sitting on the roof of one of the secondary brochs. Jill closed the trapdoor in the middle of the roof behind her, then joined Dalla near the edge among the heaps of stones.
“Was that one of the dwarves I saw come in?” Dallandra said.
“It was, and he started me thinking. Could you open a road through Evandar’s country and get a messenger out to Cadmar’s allies?”
“Easily, but what if Alshandra were waiting for us?”
“Imph, now I hadn’t thought of that. But if I renewed our seals right before you began, it’s not likely that Alshandra and her tame shape-changer would even know.”
“Not likely, but possible.”
“And the messenger and his horse both will have bits of iron all over them.”
“Now that is true.”
“We’d need a man who’s seen dweomer of this sort before.”
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Yraen,” Dallandra said at last.
“Just so. Ye gods, I hate this! For all we know, we’re sending him to his death!”
“Death’s waiting for all of us right here, isn’t it? If we don’t get this siege lifted soon. What were you telling me about the second planting?”
“That’s true. If the farmers don’t get that crop in the ground soon, this entire city’s going to starve, sieged or no.”
They left the roof, and on their way down, Jill found a page and sent him hunting for Yraen. In some minutes, the silver dagger joined them in Jill’s chamber. He stood uneasily in the center of the room and looked back and forth between the two dweomermasters.
“Yraen, I’ve somewhat to ask you,” Jill said. “If you don’t want to do this, by every god in the sky, tell me so, and I’ll find another man. There won’t be the slightest bit of shame on your head for turning a task like this down.”
He merely smiled.
“We’re going to try to get a messenger out of the dun with dweomer.” Jill saw no reason to mince her words. “The kind Evandar uses when he opens roads through another world.”
“I’ve ridden one of those before.”
“So Rhodry said. It occurs to me that you know the land and the lords round Dun Trebyc, too. Do you think Erddyr will remember you?”
“He should. I saved his life in that wretched feud.”
“Did you now? That’s a handy thing. Are you sure you want to do this, though? You could be riding right to your death.”
“There’s worse things than that, for a man like me.”
“Like the duty you have now?”
He shrugged and looked away. It was as much of