The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [145]
“You’ve got to eat more, lass,” Branoic said. “You don’t weigh much more than a hundredweight. That’s not good.”
Held in his arms she felt warm again and suddenly realized that she’d been shivering cold. But why? What had happened to make her so ill? Something had—she could remember that she’d woken up ill, and that perhaps she’d had a bad dream, but all the details were slipping away. Was she even remembering correctly; had there been a dream? More likely she’d merely woken to find herself ill.
“Here we are, down on the nice safe ground,” Branoic said. “Now let’s find the old man and give him a look at you.”
Lilli lifted her head from his shoulder and looked around. Someone was coming toward them, but she couldn’t recognize him until he spoke.
“What’s all this?” It was Maddyn the bard. “Is the lady ill?”
“Very much so,” Branoic said. “I’m taking her to see Nevyn.”
“Nah nah nah, take her back to her chamber and then find Nevyn. If she’s ill, she shouldn’t be out in the air.”
Terror slid cold hands over Lilli’s back.
“Not my chamber,” she whispered.
“Why not?” Maddyn said. “Come now, lass! You’re ill and not thinking right.”
“Not my chamber. Branoic, please, don’t.”
Puzzled and insistent, Maddyn’s face loomed over her. She wanted to scream at him to go away, but her voice failed her.
“What the lady wants,” Branoic said, “is what I’ll do. She doesn’t want to go back, so make yourself useful, Maddo. Go on ahead of us and round up Nevyn.”
Lilli laid her face against his shoulder in a luxury of relief. With Maddyn hurrying ahead of them, Branoic walked outside to the sun and air of the ward, where, she somehow knew, she’d be safe. When he bent his head and smiled at her, she smiled back and wondered how she could have misjudged him so harshly, how she had missed seeing that indeed, he was the kind of man she could love.
After his long night’s sleep, Nevyn took his time dressing. He was thinking about going up to the dun and scrounging some breakfast when he heard voices directly outside his tent.
“My lord? Are you in there?”
“I am, Maddo. What is it?”
“The lady Lillorigga’s fallen ill. It’s like she’s had all the life sucked out of her or somewhat.”
Nevyn grabbed the tent-flap and held it up. Maddyn was standing just outside, and Branoic came right behind, carrying Lilli.
“Bring her in, lad,” Nevyn said to Branoic. “And my thanks. Set her down on my cot.”
Even with the dim light in the tent Nevyn could see the fiery blister on her lips. Under her eyes dark marks like bruises smeared her skin.
“Maddo, Branoic, leave us,” Nevyn snapped. “Stand guard outside or suchlike.”
Lilli watched them go, then crumpled against the pillow as if her head had become too heavy to hold up. Nevyn pulled the blankets off and bundled them up.
“Let me get these under your head, too. There, that’s a good lass. Now, what’s happened?”
“I don’t know.” Lilli was frowning down at her hands. “I’ve been trying to remember. It was some kind of dream, and I woke, and I was ill.”
Nevyn sat down on the floor cloth. When he opened his dweomer-sight, he could see that her aura, shrunken and pale, clung close to her body. Instead of a smooth ovoid, it formed a ragged cloud, as if something had torn great chunks of it away. Had the dead lad’s aura looked like this? He’d died too soon for Nevyn to get a look at it. Certainly his lips bore the same mark. He brought his sight back to normal.
“A dream, was it?” Nevyn said. “Try to think, lass. Let’s start with when you woke up and try to work backwards.”
“Woke up! That’s right, I woke in the night.”
“Good, good. So you woke and it was still dark in your chamber. What woke you, a noise?”
“It was. One of the hides over the windows, that’s right. It slid down and rustled. And there was light in the room.…” Lilli let her voice trail away for a long moment. “I woke up on the floor in the morning.”
“Aha! So. Somewhat happened betwixt those two wakings. Try to cast your mind back.”
Her mouth slack, Lilli stared off into memory.