Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [100]
The amulet in her hand tingled with fey power, and Liriel knew she had piqued the interest of the proud and capricious goddess. Quickly she chanted the words to the clerical prayer, steeling herself as dark magic coursed through her and into the still, pale form of the Ruathen chieftain. There was a searing hiss, and she felt the torn flesh beneath her hand knit together. Aumark's body contorted briefly from the brutal healing, and then lay still.
Drained and dizzy, Liriel opened her eyes and slowly tapered off the stream of healing power. She noticed with relief that the chieftain's breathing was deeper now, and the ruddy color was beginning to return to his weathered face.
"For what you have done, all of Ruathym is grateful," the shaman said slowly. "i say truly that never have i seen such powerful healing magic. But still, i will not teach you."
For a moment the drow merely stared at the man, utterly baffled by his stubborn refusal. Then with a quick, angry movement she rocked back onto her feet, rose, and stalked out of the hut. The villagers, some of whom had witnessed her feat of healing magic, fell back in awe as she passed. Fyodor was also there, waiting for her. Belatedly the drow remembered that he, too, had been on the deadly hunt, and she tugged the silver ring from her hand. Taking one of his hands in hers, she slipped the ring onto his smallest finger. "Do not take this o~" she admonished him in a low voice. "Your life may well depend upon wearing it." He responded with a wry smile. "it seems that you, too, have been busy. Come, little raven-we must talk."
The two friends left the village and made their way westward along the shore, wrapped in their cloaks against the chill of the coming night. Fyodor was clearly troubled, but he did not speak until the sunset colors had faded nearly to silver. Then, abruptly, he asked the drow if she had told anyone of that mornings attack.
Liriel blinked. "Just Hrolf~ if he has spoken of it to another, i know not. Why?"
"The boar that gored Aumark," Fyodor began. "it might have been a natural beast, but i doubt this. I have hunted wild boar in Rashemen. Always they are dangerous, but this one was canny beyond belieЈ i would swear that it lay in wait for us, as if it knew the path the hunters would take. And i saw something," he added, giving the word the emphasis that indicated he spoke of the fey Sight of his Rashemi heritage. "There was something familiar about the boar. It was-it was as if the beast cast a shadow other than its own, one whose shape i could not quite make out. I felt much tlhe same thing when we faced the hawk."
"So?"
"Hamfariggen," he said grimly. "i fear the hawk and the boar were two forms taken by the same man."
"Wedigar," Liriel breathed, nodding as she added this piece to the puzzle taking shape in her mind. "Yes, that would explain many things! The attacks on the hunters, even the missing children."
"But why?" Fyodor demanded. "Why would such a man attack his own?"
The drow cast a sidelong glance at the young berserker. He was not going to like what he was about to hear. "Like you, he does not choose," she said bluntly, and then she told him what she'd learned about the nereid, and her suspicion that such a creature might have cast a charm over the Ruathen shapeshifter.
Fyodor stared at her, appalled by the possibilities. "You are certain?"
"No," Liriel admitted, leveling a challenging gaze up at her friend. "But i think i know of a way we could fmd out."
Moonlight touched the sea with silver fingers and cast a pale, luminous glow over the rock-strewn shore. It was the sort of night that Sune, goddess of love,