Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [164]
“Do you think so?”
Tren rubbed his bruised arm, considered tact, then cursed that to the hells along with their false goddess and her priestess both.
“I think, Rakzan Hir-li, that whether the priestess is gone or no, there’s not much left for us but death in battle.”
Hir-li nodded, making the charms jingle and chime.
“I think the same, Lord Tren, but I see no reason to tell the other officers this. Instead, I will tell them that the priestess told you she’d return by dawn.”
“Very well. But why lie?”
“Because, Lord Tren, I do not wish to die alone.”
The Deverry army stood on alert, watching the Horsekin camp burn, until the unnatural rain burst from the sky. Soaked and grumbling about dweomer, noble-born and riders alike milled round the camp. When the rain stopped, someone managed to get enough fire going to light a couple of torches that had been in his tent and thus were still dry. By their flickering light, Drwmyc addressed the men, or as many as could hear him, anyway, as he stood on the back of a supply cart.
“Men, we have dweomer on our side, too. You’ve seen it fly over you, haven’t you? None of us thought there was such a thing as a dragon, much less one who could talk, but here she is, on our side and fighting for Deverry and the High King. What in the name of all that’s holy is one puny rainstorm compared to that?”
The men closest cheered him; the ones in the middle distance repeated what he’d said to the ones at the rear, who cheered in turn. With a double guard set round the camp, the army went off to sleep as best they could before the fighting on the morrow.
Rhodry, however, walked behind their lines and found Arzosah, lying as if on guard in front of the tent he’d been issued. He should have been sharing it with Yraen. They should have been standing there together, wondering what Jill was going to say on the morrow when they gained the victory.
“What’s wrong?” Arzosah rumbled. “You stink of sadness.”
“What do you mean, what’s wrong? Yraen’s dead, Jill’s dead. What more needs to be wrong?”
“You could be dead yourself. Or worse yet, so could I.”
Rhodry managed a brief twitch of a smile and came over, reaching up to scratch the ridges above her eyes. She rumbled, letting her head droop low.
“My heart aches for you, losing your friends,” she said at last. “It truly does.”
“My thanks, then. I’ll not be able to mourn them properly till they’re avenged, though. This is no time for tears. I want blood.”
She rumbled a little louder in approval. He walked round her head and scratched the other ridge. All at once, she swung her head up so fast that she nearly knocked him over. She sniffed the wind, peering through the darkness, then hissed. Trailing a faint silver light, Evandar came strolling up to them.
“I owe you thanks,” Rhodry said, “for saving my life and Arzosah’s as well.”
“Most welcome.” Evandar glanced at the dragon. “You’ve done well, you know. You’ve been a good if somewhat scaly little lass.”
She growled, trembling with rage. In the light that hung round him, her eyes glittered more steel than copper.
“Peace, peace,” Rhodry broke in fast. “How do you fare, Evandar? Alshandra’s gone. Do you mourn her?”
“Why should I? She infuriated me.”
“Well, true, but didn’t you love her once?”
“Oh.” Evandar considered for a long moment. “I hadn’t thought of that. Since I don’t feel particularly mournful, I couldn’t have loved her much,”
“Hah!” Arzosah snarled. “I doubt me if you’ve ever loved anyone but yourself.”
“Indeed? And I suppose you did?”
“Have I not mourned my mate, all these long years? Isn’t it love that makes me drive these stinking Horsekin to their deaths like cattle to the slaughterer’s pen? That’s true love, not milksop sniveling.”
Evandar growled like a dragon himself.
“Enough!” Rhodry said. “We have a thing or two to talk about. That whistle. I carried it once, so I remember it well. What did you mean, they made it from his bones?”
“That sound! We dragons know, we dragons hear. It cries in his voice still.”
“It looked like a finger bone,” Rhodry said. “But it was too long