Fire Dragon - Katharine Kerr [2]
“So am I. Getting the army fit to march would strip his local holdings bare.”
“Just so. We'll have to wait for provisions from the south, and that's that. I just hope our prince sees reason. I know he's impatient to be on the move.”
“Oh, I'm sure he will. I'm hoping that our enemies are as badly off as we are.”
They climbed in silence to the first landing, where Oggyn paused to catch his breath. He looked out over the great hall below while he mopped his bald head with a rag.
“Somewhat else I wanted to lay before you, my lord,” Oggyn said. “I saw our princess going about her investigations just now. Is that wise?”
“Well, the midwives all swear that the walking will do her naught but good.”
“Splendid, but that's not quite my meaning. That bard. Is he fit company for her?”
“Ah. I see.”
Nevyn considered his answer. During the winter past, Maddyn, the bard in question, had caught Oggyn out in some shameful doings and written a flyting song about them. It was his right as a bard to do so, but in his shame Oggyn wouldn't be caring about rights and duties.
“He is, truly.” Nevyn decided that brevity was best. “I've never met a man more aware of his station in life. If anything, he's perhaps too modest for a bard.”
Oggyn set his lips together hard and stared for a moment more.
“Ah well,” Oggyn said at last. “None of my affair, anyway. Shall we go up?”
“By all means. We should find the prince and his brother there before us.”
“I shan't be able to climb around like this much longer.” Bellyra laid both hands on her swollen belly. “But I couldn't stand not knowing. I wonder if there truly is a secret passage. Tell me, Maddo. Doesn't that mark look like it means a doorway of some kind?”
Maddyn held the fragment of mouldy parchment up to an arrow slit for the sunlight. They were standing in a wedge-shaped chamber partway up one of the half-brochs, which joined the central tower like petals round the center of a daisy. According to the piece of map, this chamber should have had two doors, the one by which they'd entered and another directly across. Yet the inward bulge of the stone wall opposite showed nothing.
“It does,” Maddyn said at last. “Perhaps the door's been walled up.”
The princess's pages, however, gave up less easily. The two boys began poking at the mortar and pushing rather randomly on the stones. All at once the wall groaned, or so it sounded, a long sigh of pain. The boys yelped and jumped back.
“So!” Bellyra said. “I'll wager we have a spy's hole or suchlike here. The royal council chamber, the one on the second floor of the main broch, should be right near here.”
The pages set to again. Dark-haired and hazel-eyed, they were Gwerbret Ammerwdd's sons, and apparently they had inherited that great lord's stubbornness. They pushed, prodded, laid their backs against the wall, and shoved until, all at once, a section of wall swung inward with an alarming collection of squeaks, groans, and rumbles.
“Look, Your Highness!” said Vertyc, the elder of the pair. “Here's the door!”
“Not a very secret one, I must say, with a noise like that.” Bellyra took a few steps forward to peer through the opening. “It wants oiling, most like.”
Maddyn joined her and peered through the opening.
“It's more a passageway than a room inside,” Maddyn said.
“It might lead to the council chamber. I wonder if the kings had this made to eavesdrop on their councillors. There was a hidden chamber like this in Dun Cerrmor. By the end my father didn't trust anyone, and so he had one built.”
“Shall we find out?” Maddyn said.
“By all means!” Bellyra gestured at the pages. “You two stay out here. If that door swings shut, we could be trapped. Don't look so disappointed! You can explore it once we come out again, and we'll watch the door for you.”
The narrow passage smelled heavily of mice. Some twenty feet along they heard voices: Nevyn and Councillor Oggyn. Grinning, Bellyra held a finger to her lips. When they stopped to listen, the sound came clearly.
“The spring's upon us,” Oggyn was saying.