Days of Blood and Fire - Katharine Kerr [49]
“What’s Alshandra been doing?” Dallandra thought to her. “Working magic in front of the Gel da’Thae?”
“I suppose, but I don’t know for sure. My one witness doesn’t trust me in the least, and I can’t blame him, either, but he’s not going to bare his heart and soul to me. From what he has said, though, I’ve gathered that her worship is considered heresy, fit only for outlaws and suchlike.”
“That’s somewhat to the good, then. Are you still convinced that the Horsekin are those demonic Hordes the old elven lore speaks of? The ones who destroyed our cities?”
“More convinced the more I learn, though they’re most certainly not demons.”
“Well, I never really thought they were. My teacher, Nannanna, always said that they were most likely flesh and blood the same as us, whether they had the manners of demons or not, and she’d heard the tales a good bit closer to the destruction than we have.”
“Just so. Here, Dalla, you’d know this. Wasn’t there an elven king named Ranadar?”
“He was the last of the Council of Seven Kings, as a matter of fact. After the cities were destroyed by the Hordes, and all the other six kings killed, Ranadar gathered a war-band from the survivors and lived in the mountains like a bandit, raiding and harrying the Hordes, taking what revenge he could. He’s the one who witnessed the horrible plagues that very nearly destroyed the Hordes. In fact, until you started talking about Gel da’Thae, I’d always assumed that the invaders had been completely wiped out.”
“Most people did, and I gather, from what I’ve been able to piece together, that the tribes who’d conquered the southern part of the elven homeland did die, down to the last child. But in the north some remain, and now they seem to be coming east.”
The linnet dipped and shuddered.
“But this Ranadar,” Jill went on. “He was a real historical figure, then?”
“Very much so. Eventually he joined the other refugees out in the grasslands, when he realized that he and his men weren’t going to be able to reclaim the dead cities and suchlike all on their own. Why?”
“Meer—that’s the Gel da’Thae bard I’ve got in custody—Meer used his name, but he called him the Hound of Hell with thirteen pairs of jaws. Rhodry told me that he’s heard the bard pray, and that all of his gods have elven names, but odd and distorted ones, mostly fragments of the names of the old cities and palaces.”
Jill felt the linnet’s mind shy briefly away, then return.
“Rhodry’s here?” Dallandra thought to her.
“Very much a part of this, truly. Why so surprised? You mentioned once that you’d met him.”
“Only very briefly and some years ago. But that’s a strange thing, truly, about the elven names. This whole situation’s getting too complex, and I’m beginning to worry that everything’s slipping out of control I doubt very much, I truly do, if Evandar knows what he’s doing with all his meddling. Foresight and understanding consequences are most definitely not talents of his.”
“But other talents he has in good measure. Dalla, how much can I count on his aid?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. He cares about his daughter and her coming birth more than anything else in the three worlds, but there’s trouble in his own lands. I’ve been planning, you know, to come back to the physical plane and stay in the dun with you and Elessario’s mother, but now I’m afraid to.”
In human form Jill would have sighed aloud, but as it was the falcon made a chirruping little sound.
“What kind of trouble?”
“I can’t say for sure. Bad blood between Evandar and his brother, bad blood between the Bright and the Dark Courts. Evil things are brewing, Jill. I can feel them—or no, not evil exactly, but malice and spite and old hatreds.”
“That, my dear friend, sounds evil enough for me. And please, be careful! You’re in constant danger these days.”
“I suppose so. I can’t even blame Alshandra for hating me so bitterly. After all, I did steal her husband away, didn’t I? And I’d best return to Evandar