The Bristling Wood - Katharine Kerr [100]
“Take them out!” one yelled. “And may the gods bless you!”
With a wave and a yell, Perryn led the herd forward at a calm jog. Circling around the inner earthwork, they swept free of the burning camp just as a rain of sparks and glowing bits of canvas began to fall. Perryn called out wordlessly, and they galloped out of the breach to the safety of the meadow beyond. When he looked back, he could barely see the dun, rising half hidden in the murk. With the horses huddled around him, he waited for a good half hour until the smoke diminished to a few wisps. As he was leading the herd back, Nedd came out on horseback to meet him.
“I was looking for you,” Nedd said. “I figured that you were the only man on earth who could have saved Naddryc’s horses.”
“Oh, er, ah, well, they trust me, you see.”
For a moment they merely stared at one another.
“Er, well,” Perryn said at last. “Did you think me slain in that first scrap?”
“I did, but now I see that I wasn’t so lucky.”
“I’m not rid of you, either.”
Leaning from their saddles, they clasped hands, and they were both grinning as if they could never stop.
Back at the dun, the cousins turned the horses over to the servants, then went into the great hall, where a conference of sorts was in progress at the table of honor. While the lesser lords and allies merely listened, Benoic and Graemyn were arguing, both red-faced and shouting.
“Now listen here!” Benoic bellowed. “You’ve made it cursed hard for Naddryc’s brother to settle this peacefully. What’s he going to say when he gets his brother’s body back in two pieces?”
“Anything he blasted well wants to say! What’s he going to fight me with? Ghost riders from the Otherlands?”
“And what about Naddryc’s allies? Were their mothers all so barren that they only had one son apiece? Don’t they have uncles to ride to their nephew’s vengeance?”
At that, Graemyn paused and began to stroke his mustache.
“If you want this thing over and done with,” Benoic went on in a normal tone, “you’d best send messengers down to Dun Deverry straightaway to plead for the high king’s intervention. If you do, I’ll back you in this war, for my misbegotten nephew’s sake if naught else. If you don’t, I’m pulling my men and Nedd’s out right now.”
Benoic had always had a splendid talent for blackmail.
“Done, then,” Graemyn said. “I’ll get the messengers on the road today.”
With a nod of satisfaction, Benoic rose and gestured for Nedd and Perryn to follow.
“Come along, lads. We’ve got wounded men to look in on and that silver dagger deserves some praise. He’s the one who slew Naddryc, eh? Hah! Just what the bastard deserved—cut down by a wretched silver dagger.”
Although his head was swimming with exhaustion, Perryn went along with them because he was afraid to tell his uncle how weak he felt. They found Rhodry standing by the door and drinking ale down like water while Jill smiled at him as if she were thinking he’d won the battle all by himself. Perryn sighed at the cruel injustice, that she would honestly love her arrogant berserker. He found her appealing, a lovely lass, half wild and wandering, with her golden horse that suited her so well, but she was also attached to the best swordsman he’d ever seen. Although he hated to admit it, Perryn was terrified of Rhodry.
“Well, silver dagger,” Benoic said, “you’ve earned your hire twice over. You always hear about people with the second sight seeing deaths, or shipwrecks, that sort of evil thing, but your