The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [147]
With a tap on the door Jill let herself into the chamber. He knew it was her even before he turned to see her, hastily dressed and yawning in the last guttering light from the oil lamps. When he tossed up one hand and made a ball of golden light, she blinked like a sleepy child.
“You’re unhappy,” she said. “I just knew it, somehow. I meant to tell you about studying dweomer earlier, but there was no time.”
When he felt tears stinging in his eyes, he cursed himself for a doddering old lackwit. She hurried over and laid one hand on his arm.
“What’s so wrong?”
“Oh naught, naught.”
“You used to be better at lying.”
“Humph, and that’s a nasty way to put it!” He cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes dry on his sleeve. “Forgive me, child. I know it’s empty vanity, but I always wanted to be the one who taught you about dweomer.”
“Well, don’t you think you were? If I’d never known you, and Salamander came babbling to me about magical ensorcelments and suchlike, I would have laughed in his face—if I didn’t slap it for him. Ever since that first summer we met, you’ve been trying to show me what I could have, if only I had the wit to want it. It took a horrible thing to make me look where you were pointing, but I finally have.”
Hiraedd broke and shattered like a dropped jug. Although he considered the idiotic grin that he felt spreading on his face unworthy of them both, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
“Truly?”
“Truly. All Salamander’s done is give me the practices I needed and tell me a few principles and suchlike. I’m truly grateful to him, too, but you know, he’s a wretchedly scattered sort of teacher. Nevyn, you said once that I could always ask you for help. Did you mean that? Would you teach me more, when all this is over?”
“Of course! Child, nothing would please me more than to teach you everything I’ve learned, to pass it on and keep it safe for the future, if naught else.” Even in his delight at this moment of triumph, so long postponed, he felt his duty pricking at him. “In fact, let’s start right now. What’s all this I hear about a dweomer-wolf?”
Jill winced and looked hastily away to gather her excuses. They talked till dawn, going over every half-aware step she’d taken both in creating the wolf and destroying it until she saw every error she’d made, but although she did her share of squirming under his inquisition, her attention never wandered. Her mind had been forged into a formidable weapon indeed, he realized, to some extent by her natural talent but even more by her father’s harsh training in weapon craft and the dangerous life she’d led.
Much later, in the middle of all the confusion of packing up to leave the city, it occurred to him, almost casually, that he’d finally fulfilled his vow. Soon, he would be free to die. He felt the dweomer-cold grip him like an evil spell as he wondered just how soon it would be.
“By the way, oh younger brother of mine, what are we going to do about the other horses? The ones that used to belong to Gwin’s obnoxious expedition.”
Rhodry stopped packing his saddlebags and sat back on his heels to consider Salamander, who looked sincerely vexed as he squatted down next to him.
“Leave the wretched beasts here for the stable owner to sell,” Rhodry said. “They’ve been naught but a cursed nuisance.”
“What? We can’t just leave twenty-four perfectly good horses behind.”
“We can, and we are.”
“But that’s like throwing gold into gutters!”
All at once Rhodry understood.
“We are not, oh elder brother of mine, out on the grasslands. You don’t need to hoard every spavined nag that comes your way.”
“I don’t care. If we leave them here, can we come back for them at some point later?”
“When, you stupid dolt?” It was Nevyn, striding into the room. “For all I know, we’re riding to our deaths, and you’re worrying about extra horses? Ye gods!”
“But what if some disaster falls upon us, and we need remounts?”
“No doubt we can buy them in some town or other. You and Jill seem to be dripping with coin.