Days of Blood and Fire - Katharine Kerr [179]
“You can’t expect her to judge the directions things lie, nor the distances between them, but when she speaks of a rock face that looks like grains of wheat, I do know that place. There be others, like this valley she calls the ‘Gods’ Soup Bowl,’ that never have I seen in my born days. But at least I know which way to head, and bit by bit we’ll piece out our route in our going.”
“With more than a little luck?”
“Just so.”
“It’s a cursed useful thing you can read and write.”
“My mam saw to it that I was taught letters, both in Dwarvish and in the language of men. They did send me to Lin Serr, when I were but a lad, to learn where there be priests and books. I lodged with Envoy Garin, you see, which is why I can speak your tongue a fair bit, or better than my mother, at least, for all that she learned what she knows of it from her own mother, down in the women’s quarters.”
During these last few days Rhodry and Angmar both worked hardest at pretending that their time together would last an eternity. When they were together during the day, they spoke mostly of the small doings of the island, as if nothing of more import than a caught fish or a servant’s twisted ankle existed in the world. Yet at night, they made love with a desperate greed, and despite the hot weather, they slept clasped in each other’s arms.
In the end, of course, the last morning came, a hot, dry dawn, good traveling weather and a betrayal. Rhodry woke and slipped out of bed without waking her to sit in the window seat and watch the brightening sky while he cursed his Wyrd. In a few moments, though, she felt him gone and woke, sitting up, yawning and smiling, glancing his way, letting the smile fade when she saw the sun outside. She got up and joined him, sitting down at an angle so they could see each other’s faces.
“Think you that the pair of you will find this beast?”
“Enj swears he will, now that he knows where to look, and I’ll take his word for it. Your son knows more about such things than your man does.”
“It be lairing north, he did tell me.”
“It does, and so if we succeed, we’ll be coming back this way.”
She smiled a little at that, hesitating, speaking again finally in a small voice.
“And after that? I know it be needful for you to leave again, as soon as ever you can.”
“It is, but I don’t want to go.”
“Ah. That were what I did wonder.”
They shared a brief smile that made her look as weary as he felt. The wind sighed through the open window with a damp scent of pine.
“It be not too likely that ever you’ll return that second time,” she said at length.
“It’s not likely that I’ll live to return.”
She swung her head round to stare at him, her lips half-parted.
“Forgive me. I should just hold my tongue,”
“Nah nah nah, Rori, what think you I be, some lass to live on false hope and dreams? This thing you speak of, the dweomer war, belt as bad as all that?”
“It is, and it’s only beginning. Angmar, please, believe me. If I thought there was any sound chance at all that I could return to you and Haen Marn, then I’d promise you I would.”
“It means much, knowing that. I’ll remember you saying this thing, when I think of you.”
“Ah, ye gods, don’t think of me! I’ll beg you: forget me the moment I’m gone. Find yourself another man, and don’t trouble your heart over me for one moment more.”
“In this we be alike, Rori. I will not promise a thing I cannot fulfill.”
When he held out his hand, she took it. He clasped her fingers tight in his, and for a long time they sat together, looking out over the lake without speaking, until they heard Enj calling to them from what seemed like an infinity away.
All through their last meal together her calm held, and seeing her strong he could be so as well. Even when he kissed her farewell,