Fire Dragon - Katharine Kerr [164]
Verrarc started to speak, then merely stared at her, his mouth slack.
“Do you understand me?” She softened her voice. “Truly, my heart aches for you, but ye gods, man! Think of your fellow citizens!”
“I swear to you, Mazrak, that my fellow citizens be never far from my heart. But ye gods! You must think me no true man, that I could swallow this bitter ale she poured me and smile when I were done?”
“Naught of the sort!”
Verrarc turned, one hand on the hilt of the long knife at his belt. He was staring at the town wall, where lantern light bloomed on the catwalks as the town watch took up their posts.
“Sergeant Gart be on duty this night.” Verrarc spoke so softly that she wondered if he realized he were speaking aloud. “He'll open the gates if I command.”
“Don't! What will you do, rush into the camp and try to stab her? The Horsekin would cut you down so fast you'd never even get a strike on her.”
That gave him pause. With a long sigh that sounded near a sob he laid his hands over his face. Dallandra wondered if he wanted her to talk him out of his revenge, and if she could, but she had an ally close at hand. From the elven camp Rhodry came striding over, calling out in Elvish.
“Dalla! Are you all right? Who's this?”
“Councilman Verrarc,” she called back in the same. “Come talk with him, will you?”
When Rhodry joined them, Verrarc made some effort to pull himself together, but he could not stop shaking, nor could he bring the color back to his face.
“What's so wrong?” Rhodry snapped.
“Raena,” Dallandra said. “She's deserted to the enemy.”
“Ah horseshit!” Rhodry turned to Verrarc. “My apologies, Councilman, but your woman's a danger to you and the town both.”
“I do know that better than you.” Verrarc's voice was more a growl. “Tell me somewhat. She did charge you to me with wanting her death, all over the murder of some friend of yours.”
“She spoke true for a change, though she didn't kill him with her own hands.”
“I did wonder. She did show me a knife such as the one in your belt there and claim that it were your friend's. It did have a wyvern graved upon the blade.”
“True again.”
Verrarc considered this for a long moment while he went on shaking.
“Do you blame me for hunting her down?” Rhodry said.
“Not anymore,” Verrarc snapped. “I think me there be more than one man's death that might be charged against her.”
“True spoken indeed. And if she escapes with the Horsekin, she'll work more harm.”
“But you can't go charging into their camp!” Dallandra put as much force as she could muster in her words. “I'll not have you start a new war over their wretched priestess.”
“Wise counsel as always, my love.” Rhodry grinned at her. “But I doubt that we can lure her out of their cursed camp. If she came back inside the walls, she'd be subject to your laws, Councilman, not theirs. And she knows that as well as I do.”
“True enough,” Verrarc said. “And she knows another thing as well, that I do command the town watch. We could arrest her easily enough.”
“We?” Rhodry said. “Are you in this hunt with me, then?”
“I am.” Verrarc took a long deep breath. “And what has she done, but betray me and my town to the Horsekin?”
When Rhodry held out his hand, Verrarc took it. Dallandra allowed herself a quick look at his aura: strong and blazing red.
“Well and good, then,” Rhodry said. “Dalla, don't you see? If we're going to bring Raena to heel, we have to do it now, and if it takes force, well, I don't see the harm of that. The Horsekin will doubtless attack anyway, sooner or later.”
“Better later,” Dallandra snapped. “Think! If they thought they could just march down and take Cerr Cawnen, why would they be bothering to ask for an alliance?”
“True spoken,” Verrarc said. “There be some sort of constraint upon them. I know not what it may be, but why would they come talking peace and not war?”
“The horses,” Rhodry put in. “We killed a fair number