Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [157]
The battle, however, followed her. She heard voices out in the sleeping quarters and saw a light bloom through the crack in the hangings, which suddenly parted to reveal Dallandra, carrying a punched tin candle lantern. Even in that dappled light, Carra could see how grim the dweomermaster’s eyes were, how tight and set her mouth.
“Your Highness, I’ve got a very important thing to ask you. If you truly don’t want to do this, say me nay, and there’ll be no shame in it, because it’s a very dangerous thing. Do you understand?”
“I do.” Carra felt her heart start knocking against her ribs. “But what—”
“Jill has a plan to trap Alshandra and put an end to her scheming. But we need bait. If you draw her attention, then perhaps we can lure her out where Jill can work on her. I want you to come up to the rooftop with me and stand out where Alshandra can see you. I’ll be right there, because Alshandra hates me, too, and Jill will be—well, she’ll be nearby, though you won’t be able to see her.”
Carra’s mouth seemed to have turned to wood, all dry and unmoving. Finally, she forced her tongue and lips to form words.
“Very well. Of course. Let me get a shawl and my clogs.”
“Splendid! And take along those bits of iron Jill gave you as well.”
They hurried up the staircase to the last landing. Among the sacks of stones and arrows, Jill lay on her back, hands crossed over her chest, so still, so pale, that Carra at first thought her dead. Near her head knelt Jahdo, terrified in the candlelight.
“She’s just in a trance,” Dallandra whispered. “Don’t worry.”
Climbing up the ladder to the roof was difficult, but with Dallandra up above to help, Carra managed to scrabble out. For a moment, she stood in the cool night air and looked up at the stars, spread so close and bright above the town and dun. She’d been a virtual prisoner for so long that her fear vanished for a brief moment in this wider view. Dallandra dragged over a wooden stool and had her sit.
“Jahdo brought this up for you.” The dweomermaster set the lantern down nearby. “Now, you sit here in the light, and we’ll see what happens.”
The fear returned like the smack of a heavy hand across her face. She nodded, crossing her arms over her stomach as if her all-too-human flesh could protect the unborn child within.
Up on the etheric, Jill hovered over the dun, riding the billows of the blue light in her simple etheric double as she looked down at Carra and Dalla below, the one’s aura a timid pale ovoid, the other’s a golden flame, both gleaming like gems in the pool of light from the candle flame. Wildfolk swarmed round the pair, as well, all bright shapes and flickering there on their home plane of existence. That night, they seemed far larger than normal, all puffed up and sharp with anger that someone should try to harm their Dallandra and young Carra as well.
Round Carra’s neck gleamed a faint line of purplish light from the Gel da’Thae talismans Jahdo had given her, another protection, as were the lumps of iron set under her chair and tucked into her kirtle. If all went well, they would serve. If Jill failed, nothing on earth would protect the princess.
Jill widened her sight and looked out over the Horse-kin camp, a seething mass of blood-red auras, shot here and there with black to mark the sinking vitality of some dying man. The relieving army looked much the same, an outer ring of boiling red to mark their rage and battle lust. Somewhere out there was Rhodry, and she felt a pang of real regret that she’d never see him again, even if he lived through his battle. She regretted, too, lying to Dallandra about this night’s work, but there had, after all, been no time to argue. She thrust such sentimental thoughts aside and began to rise, circling like the falcon even though she wore a simple human form. She glided through the golden dome of her seals, rose even higher, until she hovered so far above that the glowing dome shone