The Black Raven - Katharine Kerr [131]
“I’m cursed glad I’m not riding with this detail,” Branoic said. “Look at Owaen strut! He’s taking the prince’s command as seriously as a wretched priest.”
As if to continue the thought a silver horn blew six urgent notes. Carrying the horn, Owaen was riding up and down the line on his grey gelding, yelling at everyone to get ready to fall in when the troop began to move out of the gates. At last the men seemed to have sorted themselves out well enough to please him. He took his place at the head of the line and shouted the order to march. The mob of men and horses unwound like a spiral, riding two abreast out the gates and down.
“Where will they be meeting our prince’s brother?” Branoic said.
“Half brother,” Maddyn said. “At Hendyr. I’m surprised you didn’t ride with them to ask Tieryn Anasyn for his sister’s hand.”
“He already told Lilli he had no objections. Old Nevyn’s sent him a letter, to make everything right and proper, like.”
“A tieryn’s sister, is it? You’ll be rising high in the world, Lord Branoic.”
“Ah hold your tongue or I’ll shove it down your throat!”
When the last of the troop had ridden out, Branoic and Maddyn returned to the great hall. They fetched themselves ale, then sat down not far from the table of honor, empty at this hour.
“We’re almost up to strength,” Maddyn remarked. “I’ll keep my eye out for good men whilst Owaen’s gone.”
“How many silver daggers did Owaen leave behind?”
“About twenty. It should be enough to guard the prince in the middle of his own fortress.”
Branoic was about to answer when he saw Lilli coming down the staircase. He started to rise and join her when he saw Councillor Oggyn hurrying to meet her. Oggyn took something out of his shirt and handed it to Lilli so furtively that he might as well have shouted aloud that he was trying to keep a secret. Now what’s all this? Branoic thought. Lilli took the mysterious something, slipped it into her kirtle, then turned and went back up the stairs, while Oggyn came back down to the hall.
“I wonder what that was about,” Maddyn said quietly.
“Slimy Oggo, you mean?” Branoic said. “I wonder too. Mayhap it was just a gift from the prince or suchlike.”
“Branno, can you really go through with this wedding?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, aren’t you jealous of him?”
Branoic considered the question seriously while Maddyn watched, his dark eyes full of honest concern.
“I am,” Branoic said at last. “But not enough so that it matters. Now, if it were any man but our prince, we’d have this out with cold steel.”
“Very well, then. If it were me, I’d be cursing him daily, prince or no.”
Maddyn was leaning back in his chair, looking absently away, but something in his voice caught Branoic’s attention, something painful. Since he had no idea of what to say to address it, he said nothing.
Lilli was so eager to read the prince’s note that she climbed the stairs too fast. At the top she had to rest longer than she liked, but she gained her chamber without coughing—a solid victory. She sat on a chair in the sunlight and read Maryn’s letter twice through.
“Forgive me, my lady. I hold you in no less esteem than before, but affairs of state have much distracted me. Stay in your chamber this afternoon, unless Nevyn has need of you, of course.”
Lilli kissed the writing, then got up and hid the letter with his others.
The afternoon dragged itself along. She practiced her reading and embroidered a band of knotwork on Branoic’s shirt. She kept breaking off whatever she was doing to go lean out her window and squint at the sun. When it disappeared behind the dun, she judged its progress by the shadows creeping across the ground below.
That afternoon