The Bristling Wood - Katharine Kerr [153]
Toward dawn, when the tide of Aethyr came in, bringing fresh life to astral and etheric plane both, Nevyn fell asleep for a few hours, to be awakened by the servant come to help him bathe Rhys and turn him in the bed.
“Does His Grace still live, good sir?”
“He does.” Nevyn got up and yawned, stretching like a cat. “Fill that kettle at the hearth, will you? I have to brew his various medicines fresh today.”
Once Rhys was tended, Nevyn left him to his wife’s care and went down to the great hall. So late in the morning, it was mostly empty, but a serving lass hurried out to the kitchen hut to fetch Nevyn some breakfast. He was eating porridge and ham at the honor table when Cullyn strode in, glanced around, and came over to join him. The serving lass brought Cullyn a tankard of ale, then retreated to the other side of the hall.
“Have you had any news of Jill?” Cullyn said.
“Not since last night. I heard from Salamander that he was staying with Gwerbret Ladoic, so I assume Jill is, too.”
Cullyn nodded, frowned into his tankard for a moment, then flicked out a bit of straw with one finger and drank.
“I still don’t understand how Jill and Rhodry got separated,” Cullyn said.
“No more do I.” Nevyn was thankful all over again that he’d refrained from swearing never to tell a lie—a vow that pleased the Lords of Wyrd, but which also made life unnecessarily difficult at times. “Although I do have a bit more information. It seems that Rhodry was asking around for me and Jill just before—well, before whatever it is that’s happened to him. I’ll make a guess that someone told him Jill had left him and headed to Cerrmor to find me or suchlike.”
“It’d make sense. Then all they’d have to do was get him into the Bilge. No one there would look twice if they knocked him on the head or suchlike.”
“Just so. Well, I’ll be hearing from Salamander soon, I hope. I’ll tell you the minute there’s any news.”
“My thanks. I’d be cursed grateful.”
While he finished his ale, Cullyn stared idly across the hall, then suddenly smiled, just a quick twitch of his mouth that he hastily stifled. When Nevyn followed the captain’s gaze, he saw Tevylla entering the hall, shepherding Rhodda ahead of her.
“Truly, Captain, the nursemaid’s a good-looking woman.”
Cullyn shot him a murderous glance and devoted himself to his ale until Tevylla had left the hall again.
As they sat together in a comfortable silence, Nevyn began to feel profoundly nervous about having Perryn brought to Aberwyn. If Cullyn ever found out what the young lord had done to his daughter, Perryn would die in a very unpleasant way no matter what Nevyn said about illnesses of the soul or suchlike. Yet lying about such a grave matter was beyond even him. For all that he didn’t mind bending the truth on occasion, he refused to spin himself a web of half-truths that would choke him in the end. Since it would be a long while before Perryn arrived, he dismissed the problem in a fit of irritation. There were too many other troubles weighing on his mind for him to worry over that one.
“So you’ll not be going to Cerrmor, then?” Cullyn said abruptly.
“I won’t. I simply can’t leave. Here’s the gwerbret’s life hanging by a thread and greedy lords circling round the rhan like hounds around a joint of meat on the table.”
“But what of Rhodry?”
“That’s the wound in our hearts, isn’t it? What of Rhodry? I’m afraid we’ll have to trust your daughter to pull him out of this particular trap. I think me she can do it, too, at least with Salamander there to help her. You trained her well, Cullyn.”
“Did I, now? Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?”
“So we will, so we will. I only hope it’s soon.”
There was something else that he could never tell Cullyn. Deep in his mind, he knew that he was meant to stay in Aberwyn, not so much to nurse the gwerbret