The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [177]
When Jill realized whom he must mean, she was profoundly glad that Rhodry had already left the table.
“Um, well, I see your point,” Nevyn said. “If she’s got money to attract lying fools and tricksters, this woman could indeed come to a great deal of harm. Well and good, then, but please, don’t get yourself embroiled in more mischief over here. I shan’t be asking the wind to bring me over just to bail you out of trouble.”
“You have my promise, oh Master of the Aethyr, that I shall be circumspection itself.”
Jill looked up to see one of the archon’s men waving at her from the window.
“I think they’re going to start being drunk on duty now,” she said. “Salamander, you’d best go upstairs and get out a window or suchlike if you’re not coming with us.”
“I shall, my turtledove.” He got up, bowed to the table, then strolled over and kissed her lightly on top of the head. “We shall meet again. You’ll forgive me for not coming to sing at your wedding?”
“I will. But be wary as you ride, won’t you?”
“You have my promise on that.” He hesitated, looking stricken. “Say farewell to my brother for me, will you? I shall vanish while his back is turned and save us both a nasty scene.”
When she started to speak further, Jill found to her surprise that her throat was choked with tears. Salamander waved and trotted over to the staircase, hesitated, turned to wave once more, then hurried up and disappeared.
The rest of them gathered up their gear and slipped out the back way through the kitchen. They passed only one guard, and he was busy drinking down an enormous cup of wine to ensure that Hanno could smell it on his breath later. Even so, Jill found herself hurrying through the dark and twisting streets and chivvying the others along, too. The sooner that there was an ocean between them and the Hawks, the happier she would be. Finally they reached the harbor and found the right pier. Pacing back and forth on deck, Elaeno was waiting for them with a lit lantern.
“Just in time,” he boomed. “The tide’s about to turn, lads. Let’s get aboard and be on our way.”
Even though Rhodry protested, Elaeno insisted on giving his private cabin to the gwerbret. It was tiny, of course, with a narrow bunk on one side, a bench built into the wall on the other, and a sliver of table bolted to the floor in between, but Elaeno was so large that what was a single bunk to him could actually hold two people provided they did love each other very much. That first night, when they were cramped in together, watching the hanging lantern throw wild shadows as it swayed, Jill realized that they had more privacy in this wardrobe of a room than they’d had in weeks. It was time to talk of important things, she supposed; yet she was afraid to voice even her smallest doubt, lest the rest all come rushing out like one of the Bardekian floods.
Rhodry himself was in a melancholy mood, and simply because it was easier to listen to him than to talk about herself, she asked him what he was thinking.
“Oh, just some cursed strange thoughts, my love, about the long road and all. You know, I’m going to miss it—just a bit, mind, but miss it I will.”
“What? I never thought I’d hear you say that, after the way you used to moan and groan about your exile.”
“True spoken, and I owe you an apology for making you listen. But we were free, weren’t we, riding where we liked, and never seeing the same town twice if it didn’t suit us. And we never had to mince and bow and pay court to men we hated and who cordially hated us, or be even so politic and careful to curry favor with men who might support us, and all the rest of it.” All at once he laughed. “Ah, curse Rhys anyway—it’s just like him. He never could do anything right, not even live to a ripe old age!” He paused, smiling, his fingers stroking the embroidered dragon on his shirt. “Oh, the dragon has me in its claws, sure enough, and you along with me, my love. From now on it does all the flying, and we follow in its wake.”
For a moment Jill hated him, just for his wretched elven eloquence that