The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [202]
“They would have to find me! I was just starting to have fun.”
The calls came closer, sharp with worry and fear.
“Caetha! Caetha, answer us! Caetha, where are you?”
She sighed again, then stood up, tossing her arms over her head and stretching her back, shaking her head to tumble her long hair down in the firelight.
“Over here, Da! Here I am!”
In a few minutes three men and a black-and-tan hound came clumping and slipping down the dell. Two of the men, both about twenty, seemed to be a noble lord and one of his riders, because they both wore shirts embroidered with rowan leaves, but one had a pair of much-mended plaid brigga. The third, a slender man with coppery hair going heavily gray about the temples and a silvery red beard to match, was dressed in a long smock like Caetha’s, but his was clean, neatly hemmed, and worn over a pair of gray trousers. About his waist was a belt clasped with a buckle in the shape of a golden stag, and from a leather loop hung a small golden sickle. As they came into the firelight Caetha lazed over to him and smiled winsomely while he hugged her and the hound danced round in drooling joy.
“You wretched little creature! You’ve done it again, and here you promised! Look at this—you’ve dragged Lord Norryc and poor Badger away from their fire again, and curse it all, Caetha, you promised you’d stop wandering off like this!”
“Did I?” She frowned in concentration. “Oh, well, I suppose I did, truly. I’m sorry, Da. I’m sorry, Lord Norryc. But Badger looks glad of the run to me.”
The hound wagged frantically, as if agreeing.
“That’s not the point!” the father snarled.
“I know, Da. Er, well, you see, I had to come out. There’s someone here I wanted to meet, and you should meet him, too.”
Her father gave her a little shake, then let her go, turning and staring at Perryn as if he’d just noticed him standing there.
“Er, ah, she was hungry. So I gave her some dinner. I was going to take her home, but she wouldn’t tell me who you were.”
“No doubt, good sir. She’s a wild thing, truly, and more than a bit simple, as no doubt you’ve noticed.”
“I hadn’t at that. Wild, truly, but er, well, she doesn’t seem simple to me.”
All three men stared, no doubt bestowing the title on him as well.
“Well, my name is Middyr, and as you’ve doubtless guessed, this is my daughter.” He turned to Caetha. “What do you mean, someone I should meet?”
She looked down and began drawing a line in the dirt with one big toe.
“I just knew it,” she said at last. “I felt he was here.”
Middyr glanced Perryn’s way, found him equally bewildered, then shrugged the problem away. Apparently he was used to ignoring much of what his daughter told him.
“You have my thanks, young man, and my blessing, too, for that matter. You see, I’m the priest of Kerun hereabouts.”
Perryn made a little yelp of pure joy, like the chirp made by a hungry child when it sees honeycake coming out of an oven. He felt his eyes fill with tears.
“Of Kerun, good sir? Truly, I thought his priesthood dead and gone. Er, no insult, but it’s gone where I come from.”
“And in most of the kingdom, no doubt. I’m most likely the last of my kind, much as it aches my heart to say so. You seem much moved, good sir.”
“I am, truly. I worship him, you see. I mean, he’s my god. The other ones aren’t. I don’t know why.”
Middyr cocked his head to one side and considered him for a long moment with a certain strange hope dawning in his eyes. Lord Norryc coughed in a deferential sort of way.
“Uh, Your Holiness? It’s getting a bit cold out here to stand around discussing theology.”
“Well, so it is, and my apologies. We can all get on home now. You have my profound thanks, your lordship, for bringing your dog out.”
“Oh, Badger always finds her quick enough.” He gave Perryn a smile. “She may be simple, but she has an amazing touch with animals. Why, I swear they understand what she says to them! Horses, too, not just