The Gold Falcon - Katharine Kerr [201]
After he chose the horses, Gerran delegated servants to saddle them. There were provisions to be packed and loaded onto a mule, too, since the trip would take two days. During these preparations Lady Adranna sat on an empty barrel turned on its side, with Trenni sitting cross-legged in front of her to lean back between her mother’s knees. The servants knelt on the grass behind them. Gerran wanted to say something comforting to the lady, but he could think of nothing. The army was here to kill her lord and husband, and she knew it as well as anyone.
Once everything was ready for the journey, Cadryc knelt down in front of his daughter. “What about Matto?” he said.
“What do you think?” Adranna said. “Honelg wouldn’t let him go.” Her voice snapped with rage like green wood hissing and sparking on a fire. “No matter how hard I begged.”
“Imph.” Cadryc paused for a long moment. “I see. Well, here, we’ll do what we can to get him out alive for you. Matto, I mean.”
“Da, if you could!” Adranna caught her breath with a gasp and choked back tears. “Mayhap my goddess—”
“Hush!” Cadryc snapped. “I’d have you keep silence about that lying demoness where the men can hear you.”
Adranna crossed her arms over her chest, then set her jaw and stared him in the eye. “And I’d have you not call her that.”
For a moment they glared at each other in silence. Adranna had never looked more like her father than at that moment, Gerran decided. Trenni sat stone-still between them, her pinched little face pale, her eyes wide. Abruptly, Adranna broke the impasse. She stroked her daughter’s hair and bent forward to murmur to her until her stiff little shoulders relaxed.
“Oh, very well, Da,” Adranna said. “I doubt me if I’d get anything but curses if I did say her name.” She paused, drawing a long breath. “Soon enough I’ll be a widow, anyway, and I’m minded to go to the temple of the Moon once I am, but I plan on going with a lying heart, to worship my own goddess under their guise.”
“What? Ye gods, it’s a bit soon to make that decision. This blasted siege could last for months.”
“Nah nah nah! You don’t understand us, and you don’t understand her ways. Although—” Her voice turned hesitant. “Although I don’t truly know what my lord will do. He’s been so strange lately. When he sent us out, he was talking about bearing the last witness, but I don’t know if he can go through with it or not.”
“The what? What in the icy hells is that?”
Adranna shook her head and silently mouthed “not where the child can hear.” Cadryc nodded to show he’d understood. “Ask that snake-tongued betrayer of a gerthddyn what it means,” Adranna said. “He seems to know enough about us, judging from the way he’s brought ruin upon us all.”
When the women rode out, Cadryc rode with them, though he announced that he’d turn back after a mile or so. Gerran walked down to the road to see them off, then went to the Westfolk’s encampment to look for Neb. He found him and Salamander both kneeling on the ground in front of Dallandra’s tent. With a clean doeskin to lay their work upon, they were folding bandages out of linen rags. Gerran hunkered down across from them.
“Tell me somewhat,” Gerran said. “Why did the prince give us those archers?”
“Swear to me you won’t repeat a word of this,” Neb said, “and I’ll tell you.”
“Done, then.”
“Dalla thinks there may be a shape-changer dogging our heels, one who can fly. If she’s right, he’s up to no good.”
Gerran had the distinct sensation that he was going to choke. He managed a cough, took a deep breath, and finally found his voice. “Shape-changer?” he said. “Ah by the black hairy arse of the Lord of Hell! There is such a thing, then?”
“There is.” Neb sounded so grim that Gerran believed him without hesitation. “It’s not just some fancy tale like Salamander tells in the marketplace.”
“Indeed,” Salamander put in. “Gerro, if you see a bird, particularly a raven, who looks far too big to be a normal bird, as it were, then come tell Dalla or me straightaway.”
“I will. You can rest assured about that. Another question. Lady