The Bristling Wood - Katharine Kerr [107]
“Ah, you killed the bastard fairly, silver dagger,” Benoic said.
“So I did, but still, it’s a hard thing to look a man’s kin in the face when you’ve brought him his Wyrd.”
As he mounted his horse for the ride back to camp, Rhodry had the feeling that someone was staring at him. He twisted in the saddle to look, but everyone around him was busy mounting up. No one would be staring at me, anyway, he thought, unless Aegwyc can send the evil eye from far away.
Yet the feeling persisted for a moment before it faded. During the long ride back to Graemyn’s dun, he would feel it every now and then, that someone, somehow, and for some strange reason, was spying on him.
“I’m cursed glad to see your arm out of that sling,” Nedd remarked.
“So am I,” Perryn said.
He picked up a leather ball, hard-packed with straw, and began squeezing it repeatedly to exercise his hand. Soon he would have to start working his arm, too, but it ached so much that he wanted to wait a day or so. Nedd paced back and forth across the small bedchamber and watched with a worried frown.
“Will that heal up properly?” he said.
“Don’t know yet. I never was much good with a sword anyway. It’s not like I’ve got fine-honed skills to lose.”
“Well, the war’s over, if you ask me. Aegwyc can’t cause much trouble. His brother bled the demesne white for his war with Graemyn.”
“So is our uncle going to pull out?”
“Not him. He’s having a fine time bullying Graemyn and doing his talking for him. But I know it aches your heart to be shut up inside a dun like this. You could just ride on if you like.”
“My thanks, but I’ll stay. Just in case … oh, ah, er, well, somewhat happens.”
“Even if the fighting did break out again, you wouldn’t be able to join us with your arm so weak.”
“I know. Not the point, you see.”
“And what is the point?”
“Oh, er, ah, Jill.”
“What? You’re daft! Rhodry could cut you into shreds, and I mean no insult, because he could do the same to me—easily.”
“No reason it has to come to an open fight, is there?”
“Oh, none at all. There’s no reason that the sun has to rise every morning, either, but somehow it always does.”
His hands on his hips, Nedd considered Perryn as if he were thinking of drowning him.
“I’ll wager I can get Jill away from him,” Perryn said.
“Of course. That’s why I’m so blasted worried. Ye gods, I’ve never known a man with your luck for the lasses. How do you do it, anyway?”
“Just smile at them a lot and flatter them. It can’t be any different than what most men do.”
“Indeed? It’s never worked that well for me.”
“Oh, you’re probably not smiling the right way. You’ve got to … oh, er, let some warmth flow out with it. Easy, once you get the knack.”
“Then you’ll have to tell me how. But here, if you lay a snare for Jill, you’ll likely catch a wolf in it.”
“The wolf’s going to be following my beloved cousin’s orders and riding with him all over Cerrgonney.”
“I can’t do that. It’s dishonorable.”
“What about all those times I lied to our uncle for your sake? That was dishonorable, too.”
“So it was. Do you want a night in Jill’s bed as badly as all this?”
“I’ve never wanted anything in my life as much as I do her.”
“Ah, curse you, you bastard! Well and good, then. Rhodry and I will find somewhere to ride together.”
“My thanks, cousin. My most humble thanks.”
They had a long wait ahead of them while the speeded courier traveled the two hundred-odd miles to Dun Deverry. Although he could buy a swift passage on one of the many barges that sailed down from the mountain mines on the Camyn Yraen, he would have to ride back. In other parts of the kingdom, of course, there would have been local gwerbrets to hear their appeal, but the various gwerbrets who had once ruled in Cerrgonney