The Shadow Isle - Katharine Kerr [145]
Clae nodded his agreement. Gerran muttered something foul under his breath.
“The cursed bandages itch,” Gerran said, more loudly. “And I don’t need my meat cut up like a child’s.”
“You’ll have to endure it,” Neb said with a snap in his voice. “Do you want to be able to parry with a shield again?”
Gerran made a sour face and nodded a yes.
“If that wound doesn’t heal quickly and cleanly,” Neb went on, “it’ll leave a huge scar, and that scar will pull every time you lift somewhat heavy on the arm, like a shield.”
“Oh, well and good, then.”
“Clae will have help soon,” Salamander joined in. “His grace has sent a message off to your wife, Gerran, inviting her here to take care of you.”
“Oh, ye gods!” Gerran snapped. “I don’t want her riding—”
“Gerro,” Neb interrupted, “she’s a tough northern lass, and she’s not even that far gone with child.”
Gerran’s expression turned even more sour.
“The perfect wife for a tough northern lord,” Salamander said. “She can always borrow that mother’s saddle Dalla was using. Dalla and the rest will be coming with her, and then, alas, my Falcon, we’ll be leaving you and heading west.” He glanced Neb’s way. “With Govvin butchered on his own altar, Voran’s lawsuit has become rather more than superfluous, as the justiciar himself remarked this very morn.”
“They won’t be needing me as a witness, then,” Neb said. “I’ll teach Solla how to deal with this injury when she gets here, and then I’ll return to the prince’s camp.”
As another consequence of the end of the lawsuit, Daralanteriel decided to remove all his people from the gwerbret’s dun with the exception of Gerran and his pack of dependents. Since he wanted Gerran to save his wife’s recovered inheritance for the building of the Falcon dun, Dar gave Lord Blethry a horse—a silver-gray gelding—in fee to feed his vassal and his vassal’s people for as long as necessary. He also handed Nicedd some coins for his part in the battle. The silver dagger professed such fulsome gratitude that Salamander could assume Dar had given him far too much.
“What did you just hand over?” Salamander said in Elvish.
“Just some coins I had from the trading last autumn,” Dar said. “A couple of silver ones and a bunch of coppers.”
“Dar, you’re going to have to learn about money and the handling of money.”
“Ai! I suppose you’re right. Another blasted thing to worry about!”
Before they left the dun, Salamander had one last detail to attend to. He wanted their Gel da’Thae allies to question Sharak, but as Gerran’s prisoner, the lad would stay with him. Salamander had some coin of his own. He told Gerran what he had in mind, then made a great show of buying Sharak from him. Neb had already reset the boy’s wrist and hand with proper wooden splints.
“I’ll teach you some marketplace tricks,” Salamander told Sharak in a mix of Deverrian and Horsekin, “once that all heals.”
Sharak nodded and stared at the floor without speaking. Salamander doubted if the lad had really understood much, but since Sharak followed him out to the ward readily enough, he must have recognized Salamander as his new owner. When the pages and grooms brought out their horses, Salamander had Sharak mount up behind him. In a disorganized procession Dar led his men through Cengarn to the camp in the meadow below the town. Dar waved Salamander up to ride beside him.
“Pir came with us,” Dar said. “Shall we have him talk to the prisoner?”
“I’d rather not put any more strain on Pir’s loyalty to you,” Salamander said. “It’s been hard on him, this business of helping us in our war on his fellow Gel da’Thae. Besides, when Grallezar gets here, she’ll know all the right questions. She understands the way they structure their armies and the like.”
“Very well, then. We’ll wait.”
Besides Pir, of course, there were other Gel da’Thae men with the alar. When Salamander asked them, they took charge of Sharak, who was just about the same age as Vek, but he noticed, as the day wore on, that