The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [67]
“Are you all right, Lilli?” Elyssa said.
“My apologies. I was just thinking of my foster-mother. She died just a fortnight past, you see.”
“Oh! That saddens my heart,” Bellyra said. “No doubt it will take you some while to put your grief aside.”
“Her Highness is so kind.”
“I have my better moments, or so I’ve been told.” Bellyra smiled briefly, then turned to Degwa. “I have a message for you. From your own true love.”
“Oh don’t, Your Highness!” Degwa blushed furiously. “He’s such a bore!”
“One of my husband’s councillors,” Bellyra explained. “He thinks to better himself by marrying a noble-born widow.”
“Not Nevyn?” Lilli said.
“Alas, Degwa’s not had the luck. Oggyn’s his name. Nevyn would make an interesting husband, I should think.” The princess turned to Degwa. “But Oggyn most urgently requested you spare him a moment for some news he’s had.”
Degwa raised her eyes heavenward. The maidservants giggled, watching her.
“Do go,” Elyssa said, grinning. “Now I’m curious. Sacrifice yourself in our cause.”
“He said he’d be waiting near the door to the great hall,” Bellyra put in.
“Oh, very well.” Degwa rose with a dramatic sigh. “I shall do my duty to Her Highness, then. No doubt he’ll insist I walk with him a ways to earn my bit of news.”
A long walk, apparently—the women talked for some while before she returned. Bellyra and Elyssa took it upon themselves to tell Lilli the gossip of the dun: who might befriend her, who to keep at a safe distance. At first she merely listened, but a few words at a time she risked joining in to find her comments welcome. She had just begun to feel at ease when Degwa returned, striding into the chamber. With a furious glance Lilli’s way, she stood at the princess’s chair.
“And what did Oggyn have to say?” Bellyra said. “It must have been utterly dishonorable, from the look of you.”
“Not in the least, Your Highness. He told me that our guest was born a daughter of the Boar clan.”
Lilli felt herself turn cold all over. She laid a shaking hand on her throat.
“A Boar!” Degwa was near snarling. “How can you treat her so well?”
“Oh, for the love of the Holy Moon!” Bellyra snapped back. “She had the good sense to desert them, hasn’t she?”
“I don’t care, Your Highness! She could be a spy and a traitor.” Degwa began pacing back and forth. “All my life I’ve heard naught but ill about the Boar clan. Why should we trust this little stranger?”
“Hold your tongue, Decci!” Elyssa snapped. “You’re being wretchedly rude, and you know it.”
Degwa crossed her arms over her chest. The princess sighed.
“Lillorigga of the Boar,” Bellyra said. “Are you a traitor?”
“I’m not, Your Highness! Oh, please believe me! How could I be a spy anyway? When the prince leads his army out, the regent and his men can count them easier than I can, can’t they?”
“Just so. And I can’t see you murdering my husband by moonlight one night, either. He’s quite a bit bigger than you.”
At this joke Degwa practically snarled.
“Please don’t,” Lilli said to Degwa. “I’m not a Boar anymore, anyway. I’ve no kin or clan except for Peddyc and Anasyn and the Rams of Hendyr.”
“I rather thought so.” Bellyra stood by pushing herself up on the chair arms, then heaving herself and the latest heir to her feet. “Ye gods, I am pregnant, aren’t I? Degwa, Lilli is no longer a Boar, and thus what you heard about them doesn’t really apply, does it?”
“Whatever my princess commands me to believe,” Degwa said. “I shall believe it.”
“It’s not a question of believing in me like a goddess or suchlike. Nevyn’s vouched for Lilli, you know.”
“Oh.” Degwa turned scarlet again. “Forgive me.”
The three women looked at Lilli, who sat fumbling for words. Nevyn again, and he’d vouched for her. Why? She could ask him, she knew. If she dared. Elyssa caught her arm.
“You’ve gone pale. Are you going to faint?”
“I’m not,” Lilli said. “Everything’s just so difficult.”
Degwa stared at the floor.
“It aches my heart,” Lilli said to