The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [146]
“I can’t,” she said at last. “I just can’t. I do remember that I wanted to go find you, but then I felt this horrible feeling, a kind of loathing, at the very thought.”
“That’s important, I’ll wager.” But why? Nevyn couldn’t quite tease the significance out, not yet at least. “But in the morning, you woke on the floor.”
“And I got up and dressed, but it was ever so hard. I felt so exhausted, as if I’d been running for miles and miles.”
“No doubt. Here, let me try a little trick. Perhaps if you feel more lively, your memory will come back.”
Nevyn knelt beside the cot and laid one hand just below her ribs and above her stomach. When he called back the dweomer-sight, he could see the knot in her aura just above his hand, the Sun Knot where so many energies from different parts of the body weave together and exchange their forces. In Lilli’s case it glowed as dim as a cinder flung to lie too far on the hearth from the fire. Nevyn called upon the Light and felt it gather above his head like a crown. Wildfolk came rushing into manifestation all around him to watch with solemn eyes. Nevyn visualized the light, then willed it down, flowing down his spine and out of his fingertips. It poured into Lilli’s aura like a spill from a full bucket into an empty one.
With a thanks to the Great Light itself, Nevyn took his hand away and sat back on his heels to watch. The golden energy wrapped around her deosil, and all at once she laughed, stretching like a sleeper just awakened.
“A trick you call that, my lord?” Lilli sat up and grinned at him. “A wondrous one!”
“You feel better then, do you?”
“I do, a thousand times over.”
“Good. I figured it would work splendidly for you, with your dweomer-gifts.”
“Well, it certainly did.” Lilli looked away, thinking hard. “But I still don’t remember.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, just as so many people do when thinking, and yelped. “Oh, that hurts!”
“No doubt. You’ve got quite an odd mark there, somewhat of a blister, somewhat of a swelling like a bee sting.”
Gingerly Lilli touched the mark with one finger.
“I remember the pain,” she said. “It was cold and hot all at the same time. But I don’t know what caused it.”
“Well, I’m putting together a few things. Somewhat got into your chamber in the middle of the night. It touched you there, on the mouth, and drew off enormous amounts of your life-stuff. You’re lucky you’re young and healthy, lass. It would have killed an old woman.”
“I believe you, my lord. I felt so ghastly in the morning.”
Nevyn felt the insight like a shock of lightning, running down his spine with a crackle.
“Ghastly, indeed,” he said. “Ye gods! Could it be? I always thought it naught but a silly fancy!”
“What, my lord?”
“Let me think on this before I say anything more. Here, we’d best get up to the dun. You need sustenance, and I feel hungry enough to eat a wolf, pelt and all.”
Later that day Nevyn received proof of his peculiar theory. After spending some long hours with the King’s Council, he was walking in the main ward when he saw a gaggle of maidservants gossiping by the well. Something about the urgency of their talk caught his attention. He strolled over, but before he could eavesdrop Clodda saw him and called out.
“My lord Nevyn, oh please, could you spare us a bit of time?”
“By all means,” Nevyn said. “Is somewhat wrong?”
The women all turned to one of their number, much better dressed than they, and began murmuring things like “go on, tell him!” Finally she got up her nerve and curtsied.
“My name’s Pavva, my lord. And I—well, you’ll think I’m daft but I saw Lady Merodda’s spirit walking in the dun.”
Nevyn caught his breath in a low whistle. Pavva misunderstood and blushed.
“Don’t feel shamed,” Nevyn said. “I believe you, actually. Where was this and when?”
“Just now, my lord. I went up to bring Lady Lillorigga fresh water. It’s ever so dim in the halls up there and cool, but when I shut her door behind me, it was just like winter, it was, ever so cold. And all the hair on my arms stood up, like. And I saw Lady Merodda, standing in