The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [70]
Nevyn made an odd sound—a grunt of pain.
“My mother must have had him caught and killed,” Lilli went on. “He was trying to escape Dun Deverry.”
“Poor little Brour,” Nevyn said. “Poor little talented dolt! It aches my heart to hear it, for all that he stole from me and ran.”
“That was your book? I mean—”
“I’ll wager it was, if he had a book of dweomer secrets. A big thing, bound in leather, and full of Greggyn lore?”
“That’s the one, truly. Just from things he said, I figured he’d done somewhat shameful here.”
“I’ve never known a man who lusted after a lass as badly as Brour lusted after that book. So one night he took it, for all the good it did him.” Nevyn shook his head. “Ah well, at least I know the end of his tale.”
Lilli wiped her eyes on her sleeve. I should be getting used to losing people, she thought.
“How much did Brour teach you?” Nevyn said.
“Not much. We were just starting. I have this—this knack for seeing omens. Not scrying things out, just seeing omens. I never knew what they meant, because my mother would interpret them, you see, but never in front of me.”
Nevyn blinked several times, rapidly.
“Try telling me a bit more about this,” he said. “How do you see omens?”
“Well, sometimes they just come to me as words, and I’d blurt them out just like now, when I knew Brour was dead. So I’d blurt out somewhat about the war, and my mother would notice, and she’d ask me for details and suchlike. And then she and Brour made up a basin of black ink. I’d look in it and see things. It felt like I was dreaming, but I could hear my mother’s voice when she asked me questions.”
“So, they were using you like a line of hooks to troll for fish, eh? Very dangerous, that, very very dangerous.”
“I sometimes feared it would drive me mad.”
“That, too, but I was wondering: do you ever have trouble catching your breath?”
“Often, my lord.” Lilli paused, utterly startled. “What does that have to do with seeing omens?”
“Rather a lot, actually, but it would take far more time than we have now to explain. Curse this war! It’s always getting in the way.” Nevyn paused, thinking. “In a few days I’ll be riding north with the prince. Until then I’ll try to spare you what moments I can, but they won’t be many. Lilli, when the summer’s fighting is over, I’ll want to talk about these matters with you. You’ve got a strange gift, all right, and you’ve got to learn to control it. If you don’t, it could kill you.”
Lilli tried to speak, but she felt herself gaping like a halfwit.
“There, there,” Nevyn said. “You’re not in danger at the moment. You do look exhausted, though. I suggest you lie down and rest before dinner.”
“I will, my lord.” She found her voice at last. “You’ve given me much to think on.”
For courtesy’s sake she walked him to the door. When Nevyn opened it, Degwa nearly fell into the room. She started to speak, then blushed, running a nervous hand through her hair.
“My apologies,” Degwa stammered. “I was just reaching for the door, and then it opened, and I’m afraid I was ever so startled.”
“The apologies are mine, then,” Nevyn said.
Degwa ran across the women’s hall and hurried through the doorway that led to the sleeping quarters for the serving women and servants. Nevyn raised one bushy eyebrow at her retreat, then bowed to Lilli.
“We’ll talk more,” he said. “When it’s private.”
After he left, Lilli stood in the doorway and listened to her heart pound. How much had Degwa heard of their strange talk, she wondered, and would she be running to Oggyn with it?
As Nevyn clattered down the staircase from the women’s hall, he was thinking about Brour. Here he’d tried to train the lad right, and what did he do? Not just steal from his master, but endanger the very life of an innocent like Lilli! It’s just as well he’s dead, Nevyn thought. For his sake. If I’d gotten hold of him …
The long shadows of late afternoon were falling across the ward. Servants hurried back and forth, carrying firewood and water to the cookhouse. At the gates guards shouted a greeting, and in a clatter