The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [146]
“Was Rhodry aware of that?”
“He was. He taunted them—ye gods, my lord! He had the guts to lie there and jest with them, telling them to wager high, because he was going to make them rich by outlasting anything Baruma could do to him. I think that’s when I fell—when I realized I—well, that I couldn’t stand what they were doing to him.” Gwin’s face turned bleak. “Baruma never did much torturing at once, an hour here and there throughout the day. He wanted Rhodry to think about what was going to happen to him, and he wanted his fun to last, too. But then I realized that the little pig-bugger was afraid of me. So I’d sit where he could see me and just stare at him, and he’d get so nervous that he’d make the sessions even shorter. Once we got on board ship and away from Slaith, he really began to sweat. After he’d broken Rhodry down, he wanted to go on entertaining himself, but I told him I’d kill him if he didn’t leave Rhodry alone. I wanted to kill him anyway, but the ship was crawling with pirates, and he was the one who was paying them. I want you to know that, my lord. I really would have killed him if I could have.”
“I believe you.”
“My thanks. If they’d killed me, they would have killed Rhodry, too, and so we wouldn’t have gained anything.” He looked away again. “Do you think I’m mad? Jill does.”
“I think you’ve lived a life that would have driven most men mad, but that you’ve come to sanity’s gates.”
“Fair enough. And it’s up to me whether or not I open them and go in?”
“Just that. You learn fast, Gwin.”
“It’s being around Rhodry, most like. Well, and all the dweomer round me, too.” This time when he smiled his eyes came alive, too. “If I can speak frankly, my lord? Hearing Jill and Salamander talk about you chilled my heart, because I’ve never seen power like theirs, but here they kept saying you were the real master.”
“Flattering of them. So, you could see that Jill has power of her own?”
“Who couldn’t, my lord? I mean, anyone who has a little knowledge would have to be blind to miss it. Like the way she ensouled that dweomer image of the wolf and sent it after Baruma—or did she tell you about that? It was a fair lovely trick, I thought, but Salamander didn’t seem all that pleased with her for doing it.”
When he understood what Gwin meant, for a moment Nevyn couldn’t speak out of sheer hurt feelings. Here Jill was studying dweomer at last, and she’d never even told him! Gwin winced, taking his silence wrong.
“I never meant to tell you somewhat Jill didn’t want known, my lord, truly I didn’t.”
“It’s not that.” Nevyn grabbed his hurt with mental hands and shook it into submission. “It’s just that she did a truly dangerous thing. Salamander’s not much of a teacher, I’d say. What’s wrong, lad? You look distressed.”
“I don’t understand how you run things, that’s all. Do you want me to inform on them?”
“What? I don’t indeed! My apologies! I forgot how an idle question would sound to someone who used to be a Hawk. Here, I’ll take the matter up with Jill herself, but I’m not angry with her or with Salamander, and truly, what they may do or not is no affair of yours.”
“My thanks. It ached my heart, wondering what I was supposed to say.”
“No doubt. Here, you’d best get off to bed. I’ve kept you up late enough, haven’t I? If you remember anything else about your old lodge, you can always tell me in the morning.”
In truth, of course, Nevyn wanted to be left alone with his hurt, which, though subdued, was alive and snarling in its chains. He was surprised and more than a little disappointed in himself, that he would feel like a jilted lover. It seemed to him that he’d spent hundreds of years preparing a splendid gift, some intricately carved and polished gem, say, only to have Salamander nip in and hand her a duplicate he’d picked up in a marketplace without even realizing its worth. Don’t be a fool! he told himself. What counts is the Light, not the servant who brings her to the Light. Yet he went to the window, threw open the shutters to the night, and stood looking out