The Black Raven - Katharine Kerr [136]
“I swear the wretched curse is gathering strength!” Nevyn said. “Look at it, Lilli, but don’t touch it. Do you see anything odd?”
“I do, my lord. It’s almost like it’s glowing, or maybe it’s making the air tremble, but it’s all oily and strange. Oh here, that doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m afraid that it does. It’s drawing power from a very unpleasant part of the Inner Lands.”
On a stormy afternoon they were sitting in Nevyn’s tower chamber. Rain splashed down onto the roof overhead, and the wind moaned, trembling the leather drapes over the windows. Every now and then it would flip up the edge of a hide and come rushing into the room until Nevyn had despaired of keeping candles lit. Huge balls of glowing silver light clung to the walls and lit the chamber with a peculiarly even glow.
“We’d best have a good look at the thing,” Nevyn said. “Shall I take it out of the box?”
With a little cry Lilli laid a hand to her throat. Nevyn’s first thought was that the curse tablet was terrifying her, but then he realized that she was staring at something behind him. He turned around and saw the spirit who aped Lady Merodda, standing just inside the doorway.
“A good evening to you,” Nevyn said. “Have you come to let me help you?”
The spirit laughed. “I’m not so easy to trick, old man. What you have in that box belongs to Lady Merodda. Did you steal it, too?”
“I won’t be answering your questions until you answer some of mine.”
“That I won’t do.”
“Then I’ll tell you naught.” Nevyn leaned over the box and started to open it. “You’d best be gone. I’ll be drawing a dweomer circle in a moment, and it might trap you.”
“Well, I might answer one question.” The spirit took a step closer.
“Very well.” Nevyn let the box lie. “You say this belongs to Lady Merodda. Did she create it, then?”
“She didn’t, but that ugly man who served her.” She glanced at Lilli. “Your uncle slew him.”
Lilli nodded, her face dead-pale. “So I heard.”
“I found a baby with this tablet,” Nevyn said to the spirit. “Was he Merodda’s own?”
“I’ll not answer that till you answer one for me. Where is she now?”
“She’s dead.”
“What does that mean?”
“She’s gone to the Otherlands. She no longer lives on the earth.”
“Where does she live?”
“She doesn’t live at all. Here.” Nevyn glanced around, saw a bit of charcoal lying on the table, and picked it up. “She’s all broken and gone, like this.” He crushed the charcoal in his fingers and let the black dust sift to the floor.
“And just what is that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know how to make you understand.”
“You lie, old man. You must know where she is.”
“I tried to tell you.”
The spirit snarled like an animal. Her careful image of Merodda wavered and swelled like an image reflected in a pool of water when a breeze disturbs it.
“I shall find her, old man. I warn you. I shall find her, and then together we will come get her daughter back.”
“I was not stolen,” Lilli snapped. “I came of my own free will.”
The spirit ignored her.
“You can’t find Merodda,” Nevyn said. “She’s dead and gone.”
The spirit screeched like an angry lynx and slapped at him. Nevyn flung up one hand and sketched a banishing pentagram in the air. With one last snarl she vanished. Nevyn let out his breath in a puff of relief.
“Will she keep troubling us?” Lilli said.
“I have no idea.” Nevyn paused, considering her. “Are you frightened of her?”
“Not truly. When she appears, she always startles me, but then I remind myself that she’s not truly my mother.” Lilli grinned at him. “No spirit could be as bad as that.”
“That speaks volumes, doesn’t it? Very well, then.” Nevyn laid one finger on the wood box. He could feel nothing particularly unusual, but the spirit’s appearance had troubled him, breaking his concentration. “I think I’ll put this back for the nonce. But sooner or later, I’ll have to think of a way to deal with it.”
“Well and good,