Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [90]
Remorse flooded the pirate's face. "Ah, lass, i'm sorry. I hadn't heard."
"There is no reason you should have. We celebrate the Elfmaid's return. The time to speak of the dead will come later," she said softly.
Something in her tone brought new concern to Hrolrs eyes. "You speak as if Thorfinn's death was but one of many. There has been battle?"
"Would that there had been battle!" the girl said bitterly. "The warriors of Ruathen should die with honor against a worthy foe, not as pawns of the gods!"
"Tell me," Hrolf insisted gently.
Dagmar took a long, steadying breath. "There have been accidents, strange happenings. Men have drownedfisherfolk who could swim before ever they took a step: Grimhild, Brand, Drott, Fafnir. Some of our mightiest hunters have been found torn to ribbons by the claws of unknown beasts; our finest trackers go missing. Fishing boats return to shore as driftwood. Children at play simply disappear."
"Strange indeed," he muttered, appalled by these revelations.
"There is more. Ancient spirits have returned to the wells and springs; fearful creatures haunt the ruins. Only the most daring youths and maids dare go near the old sites now. There are dark forces at work," Dagmar concluded somberly, turning her eyes to the drow and her companion. Then, unexpectedly, her grim face broke into a smile. "it is good that you have come, Fyodor of Rashemen. Dark times make for great deeds, and we of Ruathym gladly welcome such a warrior to our midst. Be at home for as long as you choose to tarry."
Her words had the ring of ritual; formal, too, was the demure kiss she bestowed on Fyodor's cheek. The young warrior accepted her tribute with a nod, and returned her clear, candid gaze-so like his own-as he placed one hand on the hilt of his dark sword.
"i am pledged to protect my homeland. Your troubles are now mine; for as long as i walk this land, Ruathym will be as home to me," he promised.
"is it just my imagination, or have we fallen into a large vat of honey?" Liriel inquired icily. "For cloying sweetness, this moment lacks only tremulous viols and a shower of flower petals!"
Dagmar stared at the drow with amazement, much as a child might regard some curious, mythical beast who had inexplicably broken into song. "The dock-alfar talks!" she blurted out with artless delight.
"Aye, that she does," Hrolf said with a chuckle. "And i've a fair idea what she might say next! Come along, lass," he said, wrapping an arm around the astounded drow and steering her firmly away from incipient mayhem.
Dagmar watched them go, her blue eyes frank and curious. "i never thought to see a dock-alfar-a dark elfon this island. Indeed, i had thought them to be only legends. How strange she is, and how very small! Yet she speaks the Common tongue nearly as well as a real person. She is your thrall?"
"No," Fyodor said, a wry smile lifting his lips at the very idea. "Liriel is slave to no one. She is as free as a wild mountain cat and not nearly so tame!"
"Your concubine then," the young woman concluded in a matter-of-fact tone. "Well, that is the way of men. But a warrior must also have sons. Have you a proper wife in Rashemen?"
Fyodor merely shook his head, for he was speechless in the face of the Ruathen girl's blunt inquisition. And yet, he realized suddenly, Dagmar was not so very different from the maids ofRashemen. He'd merely become accustomed to the contradictions and complexities ofhis drow companion. Dagmar's direct manner was as bracingly familiar as a drink from a cold mountain stream.
"No wife. Well, perhaps you will take a woman of the north back to Rashemen," Dagmar continued, smiling artlessly. "And if not, at least you will enjoy your stay while it lasts! There are many youths and maidens in the village, and much merriment and adventure even in these troubled days. Some of us," she added, dropping her voice to a whisper, "leave for inthar with tomorrow's dawn,