Days of Blood and Fire - Katharine Kerr [36]
“Straight ahead,” Rhodry barked. “Quick like, before I find myself defending you. See that long straight building there past the pigsty, lad? That’s where we’re heading.”
Fear made Jahdo cooperative. He hurried Meer along while Rhodry kept a nervous watch behind them, and the various servants all shrieked at the very sight of them and rushed to goggle. When the armed men started jeering, Jahdo was more than glad to duck into the long stone structure, even if it did reek of the nearby hogs and something worse, too, an undertone of human filth. Inside he found a narrow passageway, lined with doors, each with a small opening near the top and a heavy oak bar across to lock them.
“The dungeon keep,” Rhodry remarked, confirming Jahdo’s worst guess. “With luck you won’t be here long.”
An elderly man, dressed in brown tatters that had once been clothes, came hobbling out of a room at the far end of the corridor.
“Prisoners of war,” Rhodry said to him.
“Put them here, silver dagger.” With arthritic hands he lifted a bar and swung a door back. “Shove them right along.”
Jahdo helped Meer cross the high threshold, then stepped in after, his heart pounding as badly as it had on the underground stairs. He was profoundly relieved to find a small window, barred, on the opposite wall, and thick straw, reasonably clean, on the floor. In one corner stood a leather bucket, crawling with flies—otherwise, nothing, not so much as a blanket.
“I want them decently treated,” Rhodry was saying to the old man. “Plenty of food, mind you, and clean water, and none of that moldy bread, either. I’ll be stopping by now and again to see that you’ve made it so.”
“It’ll be done, it’ll be done.”
The door eased shut, and the bar fell down with a thump. Jahdo could hear Rhodry and the old man squabbling down the corridor for a moment; then the old man returned.
“Lad, lad! I’m handing you water in through the window.”
A clay pitcher appeared in the slit in the door. Jahdo could just pull it through. A clay cup with a broken handle followed, and after that a loaf of brown bread, reasonably fresh.
“There,” the old man snapped. “Cursed arrogant bastard of a silver dagger, giving an honest man orders like that.”
“Bain’t Rhodry a lord, then?”
“What did you say, lad?”
“Bain’t Rhodry a lord?”
After a moment the old man laughed, and hard.
“Not half, lad, not half. A stinking mercenary and naught more, fighting for coin, not honor like a decent man. Little better than thieves, all of that lot. Got into trouble young, they did, or they wouldn’t be riding the long road at all, would they now?” There was the sound of him spitting onto the floor. “The gall, a silver dagger giving me orders.”
Muttering under his breath, the fellow stumped away, and this time he never returned. Jahdo poured Meer a cup of water—it was indeed clean, even cool—and helped him drink.
“I can break this bread up with my fingers,” he said. “You know what I really hate, Meer? They did take my grandfather’s knife, and it were the only thing of his I ever did have that were just mine.”
Meer moaned as he passed the cup back.
“If only I’d never brought you on this fool’s errand!”
“It’s what the gods did decide for us. I guess.” Jahdo heard his voice break as he wished from the bottom of his heart that he’d never come, either. “You couldn’t know Thavrae was going to be killed.” He swallowed hard, concentrating on pouring himself water. “Oh. You know what? I do have somewhat to give you, and I never did remember it till this moment.” He gulped the water, set the cup down, and began fishing in his pocket. “Here they are. It’s the stuff Thavrae wore, the amulets and things. I did cut them off for you.”
When Jahdo laid them in Meer’s palm, the bard tightened his fingers over them for a moment, then muttered a curse and flung them hard against the wall.
“I have done what our mother asked. I will do no more. If it weren’t for him and his foul demons, his false gods, his blasphemy, and his heresy, then our clan would still have the hope of life, and neither you nor I would be caged