Fire Dragon - Katharine Kerr [165]
“That could be,” Dallandra went on. “But if you slay Kral and that filthy mazrak, and you'll doubtless have to do that if you want to seize Raena, then the affair will be a matter of honor and revenge. I don't care what's making them hold back. It won't matter anymore. We need time, Rori. Dar's made this offer of alliance on his own, and if the townspeople take it, he'll have to ride back home and find his father and Calonderiel before he can fulfil his obligations.”
Rhodry sighed in a gloomy sort of way. “You're right,” he said at last. “But ye gods, it would have gladdened my heart to turn Arzosah loose on the bitch.” He turned to Verrarc. “My apologies. I should mind my tongue about her.”
“Not for my sake.” Verrarc turned on his heel and ran, leaving her the lantern.
Dallandra took a few steps after him, but he plunged into the welter of houses and crannogs and disappeared. And what more could I say to him? she thought. Very little. Very little indeed.
“Think he'll hold true?” Rhodry spoke in Elvish. “I can't help but wonder if he's in league with her somehow, laying a trap for us.”
“I doubt it. Just now, when I scryed Raena out, I found her wallowing in the blankets with that mazrak, the dirty one. I didn't realize how much dweomer Verrarc has. He saw it, too.”
Rhodry laughed his high-pitched berserker's chortle.
“Oh, he'll hold true,” Rhodry said, grinning. “I think me we can count on our Verro, truly I do.”
“Well, I feel sorry for the poor man.”
“So do I.” Rhodry suddenly held up a hand for silence. “There she is. Hear that?”
“No. What do you mean? Wait! That drumming sound?”
“That's Arzosah flying.”
Sure enough, in but a few moments the thwack of her wings against the air sounded loud and clear over the town. Dallandra set the candle lantern down and walked a few steps away from the pool of light. When she looked to the west, she could see the dragon-shape against the stars.
“I'd best get back to Citadel,” Rhodry said. “It wouldn't be prudent, somehow, to have her land right here.”
Rhodry trotted off, heading round the lake—to find a coracle, Dallandra supposed. Now if only we could persuade Arzosah to guard the Northlands, Dalla thought. Mayhap for a tax of cows? She giggled aloud, then decided she must be going daft with the strain.
For a long while that night Dallandra sat by the fire and fed it twigs while she scried in the embers. The vision rose of the Horsekin camp and another fire, where Kral, Raena, and the mazrak sat talking quietly among themselves. It seemed that talk was all they did, but Dallandra's blood ran cold with the dweomer warning. They were planning some danger to the town, whether violence or dweomer she could not know. Finally, when they retired to their tents, she let the fire die and went to her own blankets.
“So,” Arzosah said, “the stinking bitch has fled, has she? Why don't we fly over the Horsekin camp and scatter their horses? All the men will have to chase after them, and then I can just swoop down and seize Raena.”
“Naught would please me more,” Rhodry said, “but we can't. There's the small matter of their tribes back at home to consider.”
“The only way I choose to consider them is for meals.”
“I know, but there are far too many of them in the Northlands for you to eat, not all at once at least. If we harm these Horsekin, their kin will send an army after us.”
Arzosah heaved a massive sigh. They were sitting on the roof of the ruined temple, and in the starlight Rhodry could see her examining her claws.
“That beastly stag struggled,” she remarked. “I may have chipped a claw on him. But I ate him for his pains.”
“The entire Horsekin army will struggle a fair bit harder than one stag.”
“Well, true enough. And I won't be able to panic their horses forever. Sooner or later the stupid creatures will recognize my smell and decide their masters can drive me off.” She lowered her massive paw. “Pity. It would have been grand to bring Raena back all bloody and dripping.”
“Grand till Cerr Cawnen had to pay the price,” Rhodry said. “Now