Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson [57]
"That looks quite nasty, my dear," Benelaius said. "But I have no doubt that we can soon set you right." We helped her inside and onto a large, comfortable chaise before the fire. Benelaius chattered all the while. "A hydra, you say? A common hydra, I suppose. The cryohydra is unknown here, and the pyrohydra is quite rare. Since you are not singed, I assume it was a common multi-headed variety. Not a lernaean hydra either, I wager."
"The kind that regenerate their heads?" Kendra said. "No, this one's heads didn't come back once I lopped them off, thank the gods."
"Must have been very hungry to come out of the swamp," Benelaius went on. "Stupid beasts, though, and slow. Move well in swamps but awkwardly on land. All the better for both of you, eh?"
"Still fast enough to catch my leg," Kendra said as we eased her down. In spite of the pain that caused beads of sweat to appear on her pale and lovely face, she chuckled at the sight of the cats. "Do with me what you will. I trust a man who likes animals."
"Lindavar, please heat water on the stove while I get the salves and unguents. Jasper, see to it that Jenkus and the lady's horse are cared for, then come back here. Quickly now."
I did as my master said, envying him the task of having such a patient as that magnificent specimen of a woman. I wondered if he was as much in awe of Kendra as I was, and assumed he was not. Benelaius was undoubtedly not a creature of his passions. Kendra would be interesting to him only for what she might tell him about the fighting habits of hydrae. I sighed. What a waste of intimacy.
I fed and rubbed down the horses. By the time I went back in, Kendra was sleeping, her wounded leg covered by a virginally white sheet, and Benelaius and Lindavar had just finished putting away the equipment. Benelaius motioned me into his study, where the three of us sat down.
He filled a pipe with tobacco and lit it, and his words poured forth on the smoke.
"I have sewn up the wound and given her a sleeping draught," my master said. "By morning she will feel much better, but she should rest here a day or two. She has lost some blood and must regain her strength." He smiled admiringly. "A fine woman, and a brave one, though one who, I fear, would not suffer fools gladly."
"Meaning Dovo and Grodoveth," I suggested.
"I believe they would have qualified as fools," Benelaius said. "Now tell me, Jasper, what you've learned in town today. Did the ghost witnesses prove at all valuable?"
I related everything that I had learned, and was pleased to see that some of the information hit home. Benelaius and Lindavar seemed particularly interested in the fact that Barthelm Meadowbrock was with Diccon Piccard when he saw the disguised Dovo, and their eyebrows raised when I told them Lukas Spoondrift's theory about Rolf being the killer. But what really piqued my master's interest was when I related Looney Liz Clawthorn's tale of the glowing hands.
"I know of the woman," Benelaius said thoughtfully. "She has the cataract, the veil over the eye that blurs and softens her sight. If she said she saw two waving hands…"
He left it for me to finish, and finish I did. "Lanterns," I said. "She saw two lanterns. Dovo must have had the one, but the other?"
"Someone Dovo was signaling to," said Lindavar, a catch of excitement in his voice. "That great mere we saw this morning would have been one of the few places in the Vast Swamp where signals could be given over long distances. Still," he said knowingly, "we saw no lantern by Dovo's body."
"But we did see lantern glass," said Benelaius. "And that means-"
But I was not to know Benelaius's conclusion, for at that moment we were all startled by the flutter of wings at the window, which