Days of Blood and Fire - Katharine Kerr [32]
In sheer instinct Jahdo stabbed at him, but Rhodry caught his wrist in a huge grasp and half lifted him from his feet. The knife dropped.
“Here, now, you’ve got guts.” Rhodry was smiling at him. “But this is no occasion for heroics, like. Are you going to behave yourself, or are we going to have to tie you up?”
Jahdo tried to think of a really good insult, but at that moment the blond man grabbed Meer’s arm.
“On your feet,” he snapped.
“You leave him alone!” Jahdo snarled. “You treat him with respect, too. He be a bard.”
Although the blond man started to laugh, Rhodry hit him on the shoulder and made him stop. He walked over to Meer and knelt down in front of him on one knee.
“Does the lad speak true?” he said, and politely.
“He does. A bard I am, and a loremaster as well, to the twelfth level of the thirteen levels of the deepening well of knowledge, not that I’ll ever see my homeland and my master again, most like, to complete my studies.”
“And the lad’s your slave?”
“He is not that, but free born, traveling with me at my request.”
“Well and good, then.” Rhodry got up, turning to the blond man. “Yraen, put your saddle on that white horse, because the bard and his lad will be riding in comfort. You’ll have to make do with bareback, unless you want to clamber into that packsaddle yourself and shell your own nuts.”
“What?” The man called Yraen was practically spitting. “Have you gone daft?”
“A bard’s a bard, lad, and due all respect.”
Laughing and calling out jeers, the other men in the squad gathered round to see what Yraen would say to that—nothing, as it turned out, because Rhodry caught his gaze and stared him down.
“Have it your way, then.” Yraen heaved a melodramatic sigh. “You stinking bastard.”
Although Jahdo expected swords to flash, everyone merely laughed. Rhodry’s laugh taught Jahdo the meaning of that old saw, that a sound could make your blood run cold. It was daft and furious, merry and murderous all at the same time, a high-pitched chortle that reminded him of ferrets in a rage. The rest of the men, however, seemed to take it for granted, as if they heard him laugh that way often. With a shake of his head, Yraen strode off to get the squad ready to ride. As Jahdo watched them, he wondered why the view had turned so hazy, wondered why he felt so trembly, all of a sudden. Then he realized that he was crying, the tears running down his face of their own accord. Still kneeling, Meer held out one enormous arm. Jahdo rushed to him and flung himself against the Horsekin’s chest to sob aloud while Meer moaned and whimpered under his breath.
“Forgive me, Jahdo lad, forgive me, and may your mother forgive me, too!”
In a river twist the etheric water puddled Woe a mirror, slick silver, edged with green. Evandar knelt on the bank nearby and stared down at the surface, but his eyes moved, following a vision rather than contemplating himself. All at once he laughed and sat back on his heels.
“They have them,” he announced. “The bard and the boy, I mean. Rhodry and his squad have seized them upon the road. They’re all heading off to Cengarn.”
“I feel sorry for that poor child,” Dailandra said. “He must be terrified.”
Evandar merely shrugged.
“Don’t you feel anything for these people?” Dallandra burst out. “You’re moving them round like pegs in a game of Wooden Wisdom, knocking them off the board and ruining their lives. Don’t you care?”
“I love you, and I love my daughter, and I love the memory of Rinbaladelan, the seacoast city I was telling you about. Beyond that, my darling, no, I don’t care. Not one whit.”
2
AMISSIO
A good omen for the taking of prisoners, but otherwise, evil in all things, though with great hope of mitigation. If it should fall under the presidency of Tin, the ninth land upon our map, it signifies evil without any such hope, for in all matters pertaining to the gods and their worship, this figure works naught but ill and harm.
The Omenbook of Gwarn, Loremaster
APPROACHED FROM THE WEST, Cengarn loomed. The day when Jahdo saw it for the first time was beautifully sunny