The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [38]
“The waiting’s just so awful,” she said aloud.
“Just so, dear, just so.”
Bevyan sighed and bent her head back to her work, but all at once she seemed old, and to Lilli’s sight the streaks of grey in her pale hair suddenly spread and turned dead-white while her skin turned a cold dead grey to match it. Lilli nearly cried out. She’s just weary! she told herself sharply. You’re just seeing things again.
As soon as the evening meal was finished, Merodda and Bevyan went to wait upon the queen, and Lilli could slip unnoticed from the great hall. In the abandoned tower she found Brour waiting for her. As she climbed the stairs, she saw a broom leaning against the wall on the landing, and the wooden floor inside had been swept clean. Brour himself was sitting in the middle of the circular room, while all around him huge shadows danced on the rough stone walls. He’d lit four lanterns and set them equidistant from one another.
“They sit at the four directions, as far as I can reckon them anyway.” Brour rose to greet her. “East west, north south. It’s in the pillar of light above each lantern that you’re to imagine the great lords of the elements when the time comes.”
“Very well,” Lilli said. “We’re going to practice this a lot, aren’t we?”
“Many times over, truly. It has to be done just precisely right. Tonight I’m merely going to tell you the different parts and what they mean. Oh, and I want to give you a lesson on hardening your aura.”
“My what?”
“It’s like an egg of invisible light that surrounds every living person. It’s the effect of the etheric plane interpenetrating the physical. When you throw a stone into a pond, the ripples spread. And what are the ripples? A pattern in the same water as fills the pond. Think of the aura as being somewhat like that.”
Lilli stared at the floor and tried to think.
“I don’t understand,” she said at last.
“It’s not an easy thing to understand.” Brour sounded amused. “But spend some time thinking on it, and see what comes to your mind. But the point is, once you learn to control yours, your mother won’t be able to pry into your mind again.”
“Splendid!” Lilli looked up and found him smiling. “There’s nothing I’d like more!”
“No doubt. Let’s begin.”
“Braemys rode in this afternoon,” Burcan said. “He’s brought the news I’ve been waiting for.”
“Indeed?” Merodda said. “Good or ill?”
“Good. The northern lords have agreed to strip their fort guards. We’ll have a full army when we march.”
Merodda allowed herself a brief smile, which he returned. Late in the evening, they were sitting alone in her chamber by the light of a smoky fire. Outside, rain hammered against the walls, and every now and then the south wind lifted the leather hides hung at the windows.
“Have there been any omens?” Burcan said.
“I’ve not had Lilli scry this past few days. I was waiting to hear your news. You need to have some knowledge of how things are before you can interpret an omen, you see.”
“Very well, then. Huh, I’ll have to remind Brae to have a word with her. About their betrothal, I mean.”
“If he’s not too busy for a courtly gesture, of course.”
Her sarcasm earned her a sour smile. Burcan hesitated, studying her face. She knew what he wanted to know, what they all wanted to know, Bevva and that beastly little herald, too, and her women servants—they’d all suspected for years, after all, who her lover might be. She could see it in their narrowed eyes, hear it in the hesitations of their speech. In the hearth a log burned through and dropped in a gush of flame and a scatter of coals on stone.
“Rhodi?” His voice hesitated, stumbled. “Do you really think this marriage is an um, er, well, allowable thing?”
She smiled into the fire. On the hearthstone the coals were winking out, one at a time. She heard him move uneasily in his chair, then sigh.
“I’d best get on my way,” Burcan said. “Daeryc and the other gwerbretion are waiting for me.”
“So late?”
“I promised I’d tell them when we’ll march as soon as I’d spoken to the king. He was asleep when I stopped in there,