The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [182]
“You can ride the dweomer-wind back in,” Nevyn said. “Ah good, there’s Elaeno now. Let’s go talk to him.”
When the others hurried off below decks, Jill stayed where she was. She sat down on the coil of rope, picked up her gnome and settled him on her lap, and wondered at herself, that she felt sad to the point of tears that they were reaching land. Sylphs and sprites settled around her, touching her face with little hands like puffs of wind and trying to comfort her, but all she could think was that she would lose them all if she didn’t fight to keep them. If court matters took her over, the Wildfolk would slip away, a few at a time, until she never saw them again.
Before Aderyn left, Nevyn rubbed a rubifacient mixture into his old pupil’s aching arms and shoulders, and a great silver owl reeking of mint and camphor flapped wearily off to Abernaudd. Jill waved farewell until he was out of sight, then turned back to find Nevyn standing behind her. Rhodry and Elaeno had apparently gone below.
“Nevyn, you will be coming back to Aberwyn with us, won’t you? I mean, you’ll live at court, won’t you?”
“If my lady requests it, of course I will. Don’t forget, child, you’re the one in command now. I can’t give you orders or even ask too many outright favors anymore.”
“Oh, by the black hairy ass of the Lord of Hell! Then I most humbly beg you, Lord Galrion, to come be my personal councillor at my husband’s court.”
“My thanks, my lady. I shall be most pleased and honored to serve you.” Nevyn made her a courtly bow, but he was grinning. “And my first piece of official advice is to stop swearing by the Lord of Hell’s nether anatomy, especially in mixed company. Neither you nor Rhodry can afford to have you sounding like a barracks’ brat. Which reminds me. Along with all the other fripperies Tieryn Lovyan packed up for me, she sent some dresses and jewelry for you. I suggest you put them on for our arrival. Blaen and all sorts of notables will be there to greet us, you know.”
“And how, pray tell, am I going to jump off this wretched boat in a pair of dresses?”
“You can’t. Rhodry will have to lift you down.”
“Oh, stuff that!”
“My dear Lady Gilyan!”
“My apologies. But what if he drops me?”
“He won’t. From the time he was a little lad, they trained him to do this sort of thing, you know, like helping a lady dismount from a sidesaddle or feeding her at a formal dinner.”
“I don’t care! He’ll just have to wait to practice on me, that’s all. I’ll dress up when we’re going to Aberwyn proper, but cursed and blasted both if I’ll do it now.”
“Oh come now, do all these trivial little matters truly ache your heart so much? Or is it somewhat else?”
“Well, there’s a lot of things, but …” She hesitated in sudden and profound embarrassment. Oh, come now! she told herself. No matter what else he is, Nevyn’s a physician and a healer. “Well, um, I was thinking, and well …” Suddenly her words came out with a rush. “Nevyn, do you think I’m barren? After all these years, first with Rhodry, and then with that stupid horse thief, too—but neither one of them ever got me with child. What if I’m barren, and then Rhodry has to put me aside someday for Aberwyn’s sake? I’d die rather than be humiliated like that.”
“It won’t ever come to that because I’m sure you’re not barren at all. Consider the life you’ve led, child, riding all over the kingdom, training like a lad in swordcraft, fighting battles, sleeping on the ground, eating catch-as-catch-can and the cheapest tavern food as often as not, and running for your life half the time, too, once you and Rhodry were together—your womanly humors must be utterly disrupted! All the fiery humor’s been engulfed and overwhelmed by the cold and watery ones, just for a start. And as for the time with Perryn, well, my dear Jill, I would have been very surprised if you’d conceived his child. He’s not truly human, you see, and much