The Black Raven - Katharine Kerr [112]
Tired or no, in the morning Maddyn woke long before the rest of the silver daggers. He dressed without waking anyone, then took his harp in its big leather bag and crept out of the barracks. In the center of Dun Cerrmor stood a royal garden, where an ancient willow tree grew next to a stream and roses bloomed. When the silver daggers had first come to Cerrmor, Princess Bellyra had given Maddyn leave to visit it as he wished, and it was his favorite place to sit and practice his music. Among the echoing stones the harp sounded so sweetly that he could almost convince himself that he was a decent harper.
When he played, the Wildfolk gathered to listen, sylphs and gnomes, while in the stream undines rose up and clustered at the grassy bank. This particular morning the music drew another listener as well. Maddyn had just finished a difficult set of runs when he heard the little door in the wall open behind him. He glanced back and saw the princess.
“Don’t get up or suchlike,” Bellyra said. “I’ll just join you if I may.”
“I’d be honored, Your Highness.”
Bellyra walked over and sat down facing him. She was wearing a pair of linen dresses, worn soft and shiny. She wiggled her bare feet in the grass like a child.
“It’s nice out here, in the cool of the morning,” she remarked.
“It is, indeed. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Oh, hardly! Degwa and Elyssa have been up since dawn, packing up things and running here and there to make sure they’ve not forgotten anything. We’ll need two barges if they keep this up. Is the royal dun truly awful?”
“Truly. Black grim stone, and ye gods, it’s crammed with towers and broken walls and suchlike. I think half the furnishings must have gone as firewood during the sieges. I remember how Cerrmor was, when we first brought the prince here. Well, Dun Deverry’s far worse.”
Bellyra made a sour face.
“Then Decci’s right,” she said. “We do need to take lots of tapestries and carpets. And the silverwork, of course. That will help brighten things up.”
“Which reminds me. Otho sends his best to you, Your Highness.”
“Dear Otho! It gladdens my heart to hear that he’s well. I rather worried about him.”
“You can rest assured that he went nowhere near the fighting. Now, the looting was another matter entirely. He asked me to tell you that he’s picked up some old silver here and there, for the melting down, and so he’ll have a surprise for you when you reach Dun Deverry.”
“Ah, lovely! What is it?”
“I can’t tell you, Your Highness. Otho would skin me alive.”
She laughed, wrinkling her nose at him, then wrapped her arms around her knees and leaned back, looking up at the patch of sky above the pale stone walls.
“Play something, Maddo,” she said. “Songs or airs, it doesn’t matter. I do love the sound of that old harp of yours. You do know that the other bards would all love to get it away from you, don’t you?”
“I do. Several of them have offered me gold, over the years, but I always turned it down.”
“What makes it so sweet? It’s all nicked and suchlike.”
“The Wildfolk enchanted it for me.”
She laughed again, and he smiled, but he’d told her naught but the simple truth. When he played, the gnomes swarmed closer, lying on the grass to listen with their little heads pillowed on their warty hands. One bold sprite even stroked the princess’s hair as if admiring its color. He had no idea of how long they sat together while he played through the pieces he’d learned from the court bards.
“Princess!” The voice took them both by surprise. “My dear princess! Your Highness!”
Bellyra jumped up like a guilty child. The owner of the voice, Lady Degwa of the Wolf, came trotting out of the door in the wall. All at once Maddyn realized that the woman meant to be queen of all Deverry had been unwise to sit around half-dressed with one of her husband’s retainers. All round eyes and fluttering hands, Degwa kept trying to be properly servile, but she was having trouble finding words.
“Oh do stop it, Decci!” Bellyra said at last. “I know I’ve been scandalous