The Bristling Wood - Katharine Kerr [96]
“Is the wound healing well?” she said.
“It is. You must have brought my uncle with you from all the noise outside. I knew he’d come. If he didn’t have me and Nedd to complain about, his life would be cursed dull.”
At that, Benoic himself strode in, slapping his pair of gauntlets impatiently against his thigh.
“You dolt, Perro! And Nedd’s twice a dolt! But Naddryc’s a whoreson bastard, having the gall to besiege my kin. Well and good, we’ll wipe him off the battlefield for it. Are you riding with us?”
“I am. A wolf can run on three legs.”
“Now wait a moment, my lord,” Jill broke in. “If you ride, that cut could start bleeding again.”
“Let it. I’ve got to go with them. I can lead the army through the forest, you see. We’ll save twenty miles and a night that way.”
“Splendid,” Benoic said. “Glad to see you’re finally showing some spirit, lad. Don’t worry, Jill. We’ll have your man out of that worm-riddled dun as fast as ever we can.”
“Your Grace is most honorable and gracious. If I were a bard, I’d praise your name for this.”
With a small bow she retired and left them alone. Out in the ward a pair of Benoic’s vassals were conferring with their captains while the men unsaddled and tethered their horses outside for want of room in the stables. She went out the gates and walked about halfway down the hill, then sat down where she could be alone and called to the gray gnome, who appeared promptly.
“Is Rhodry still all right?”
It nodded yes, then hunkered down in front of her and began picking its teeth with one fingernail.
“You still haven’t told me why you hate Lord Perryn.”
It paused to screw its face up in irritation, then went on picking until it’d finally gotten its fangs clean enough to suit it.
“Come on now, little brother. You could at least tell me why. Or is it too hard to explain?”
Rather reluctantly, he nodded his agreement to this last.
“Well, let’s see. Did he hurt you or some other Wildfolk?”
No, he hadn’t done that.
“Can he even see you?”
Apparently not, since it nodded a no.
“Is he an evil man?”
Frowning in concentration, the gnome waggled its hands as if to say: not exactly that, either.
“You know, I’m having a hard time thinking up more questions.”
It smiled, pressed its hands to its temples as if it had a headache, then disappeared. Jill supposed that she’d never find out the reason, but as long as the gnome behaved itself and didn’t pinch the lord or tie knots in his hair, it didn’t particularly matter at the moment, not when she had Rhodry’s safety to worry about. She decided that she couldn’t bear to sit here in Nedd’s moldering dun and wait for news.
Since she had a mail shirt and a shield of her own, on the morrow Jill rose and armed when the warband did. Once the army was mustered outside the gates, she led her horse into line at the very rear. Since these men had been hastily assembled from Benoic’s various allies and vassals, everyone who noticed her at all seemed to assume that she was a silver dagger hired by some other lord. All that counted to them, truly, was that she was another sword.
By keeping strictly to herself and speaking to no one, Jill escaped discovery all that day, because Perryn led the army off the road into the forest on a track so narrow that they had to ride single file. All day they wound around hills and through the trees by such confusing paths that she prayed Perryn actually knew what he was doing. She also understood why all the provisions were on pack mules, not in carts; apparently Benoic knew his nephew’s daft ways very well. That night, however, they made camp in a mountain meadow, and there Jill was caught out. Like the excellent commander he was, Benoic made a point of walking through the camp and speaking to his men personally. When he came to Jill, he stared for a moment, then roared with laughter.
“Have all my men gone blind? Mail or no, Jill, you don’t look like a lad to me. What are you doing with the army?”
“Well, Your Grace, my man’s all I have in the world.