The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [169]
After Rhodry went up to Nevyn’s chamber, Jill tried waiting in the common room, but the noise and the laughter, the simple sight of Rhodry’s men enjoying themselves over dice games and Salamander’s tall tales, drove her outside to the relative silence of the inn yard. When she wandered up to the front gate, the guards warned her not to go into the streets without an escort, all in the friendliest possible way, but she wanted to scream at them—no doubt she could take care of herself in a strange city better than they could. She went back to the little garden provided for the guests and sat down on a bench in the shade of one of the innkeeper’s ancestors while she wondered what Nevyn was doing to Rhodry or if indeed there was anything he could do. In the silence it seemed she could hear them talking or at least receive the impression of words. Although she went as still as a hunted hare to listen, the meaning escaped her, but she could sense feelings, waves of emotion that quite clearly came from outside herself: pain and bitterness, an overwhelming terror, and more pain, the shadows of an excruciating physical agony. Once it seemed she heard Rhodry sobbing like a child, and it took all her will for her to stay where she was and not go running up to Nevyn’s chamber to interfere, and all to spare herself as much as Rhodry. Finally she remembered her lessons; in her mind she drew the circle of protection and sealed it with pentagrams. Once she had it visualized outside and around her, the whispers and the pain-shadows stopped.
With a sigh of relief she looked up to find Perryn staring at her from some twenty feet away, lurking—or so she thought of it—between a pair of eucalyptus trees.
“What do you want, you sniveling little stoat?”
“Er, ah, well, um …”
Out with it, or I’ll slit your throat.
“Jill, I’m sorry! That’s aU.”
She found that she had risen, and that she was holding her silver dagger. Only the memory of her promise to Nevyn made her sheath it and sit down again.
“I never meant to hurt you,” Perryn wailed. “I loved you.”
“Horseshit! Listen, stoat-face. Do you know why you’re still alive? Nevyn ordered me to leave you alone. Otherwise I’d kill you. Understand me?”
With one last wail like a haunt at dawn, Perryn turned and fled, running—as far as she could see—for the refuge of the stables and his beloved horses. She felt her rage as fire, beating to the sky, lapping at her magic circle and threatening to break through. With a wrench of will she called it back and re-imaged the pentagrams to fence it round. Once the circle held firm again, she could realize that she was no longer afraid of Perryn but of what she would do to him if she let herself go. She saw the change as the most satisfying gift she’d been given in years.
For an hour or so more Jill stayed in the relative privacy of the garden. Although she tried to do her dweomer-exercises, she was quite simply too distracted; every few minutes found her wondering about Rhodry. Finally she went back to the common room, where Salamander was entertaining the crowd, even the sullen innkeep, by telling one of his bawdy stories while he juggled eggs and oranges. Although most people would have thought him heartless, Jill could tell from the very brightness of his chatter that he was worried sick about his brother. She sat down in a corner and watched him without truly listening while her mind wandered to Rhodry and Nevyn. Since she’d broken her circle, she could feel their minds working, but the pain had subsided, leaving a bitter emptiness. As the afternoon dragged on, she would at times pick up other flashes of emotion or hear the ghosts of words, but their intensity subsided until at last, when the sun was low and the innkeep busy trimming wicks for his lamps, they vanished altogether.
After one last jest Salamander left his audience. He fetched a flagon of wine and two cups, then sat down beside her with an exaggerated sigh. Jill poured for both of them.
“Is the Great Krysello weary?”
“Oh, do hold your tongue, beauteous barbarian handmaiden.