The Shadow Isle - Katharine Kerr [186]
“That does ache my heart, Da. But truly, there be a boon you could grant them.”
“Indeed? And what might that be?”
“I do fear to ask for it, lest you say me nay. There be danger in the asking, you see.”
The dragon rumbled with laughter. “Wynni,” he said, “I’m as sure as I can be that you’re my daughter. You’re as crafty as a dragon hatchling, aren’t you? You want me to promise this boon before I hear what it is.”
“Well, that be true, Da.” Berwynna heaved what she hoped was a pitiful sigh. “The boon, it would cost you so little.”
“Oh, very well.” Rori paused to rumble again. “I hereby most solemnly grant your boon.”
“Da, you be so wonderful!” Berwynna would have thrown her arms around his neck, but they would have reached a bare quarter of the way. “I always did dream that my father would be so grand.”
“Enough flattery, hatchling! What’s this boon?”
“There be a Gel da’Thae man with us named Laz Moj. He does tell me that you hate him, and he fears you would slay him on the spot. Please, Da, he did save my life and Uncle Mic’s. Please don’t harm him.”
“Laz Moj?” The dragon’s silvery brow furrowed. “I don’t recognize the name.”
“He be a mazrak, a raven mazrak, from here in the Northlands.”
The dragon growled, a huge sound like a hundred dogs. Berwynna stood her ground and laid a gentle hand on his jaw. When she stroked him, he stopped growling.
“Of all the wretched dweomermen in the blasted Northlands,” Rori said, “it would be him. It’s a good thing you wheedled that boon out of me.”
“But, Da, you’ll not kill him, though, will you?”
“He’s safe from me. I gave my word, and I promised you a boon, and you shall have it. Huh! You remind me of another sister of yours, one you’ve not met. Alas, you won’t meet her, either, because she’s gone to the Otherlands. Rhodda, her name was, and she could charm anything out of me when she was a little lass.” He growled again, but it was a wistful sort of sound. “It’s just as well you can’t join forces against your poor old father.”
“Poor old father? And you a dragon?”
“I wasn’t a dragon back when Rhodda was young, and it’s a pity, too. She might have been more tractable.”
Berwynna felt a cold touch of regret, that she’d never be able to meet this sister. She’d just found out that Rhodda existed only to hear that she was dead. Just like Dougie, she thought, and to her horror the memory picture of his broken body rose again in her mind.
“Here!” Rori said. “What’s so wrong?”
“I did just remember how the man I did love so much died.” Berwynna gasped for breath and managed to choke back her tears. She refused to let her father see her weep. “I’ll be going back to camp and telling Laz that he be safe from you.”
When Berwynna climbed the barrow wall, she saw Laz and his men saddling their horses. She ran over to them and caught Laz by the arm.
“It be safe,” she said. “He did promise me that he’d not slay you, Laz, because you did save my life and Uncle Mic’s. So don’t leave.”
Laz stared at her.
“When I did ask,” Berwynna went on, “he did grant me a boon, that he’d not harm you.”
Laz laughed, one good whoop of laughter, and shook his head in amazement. Faharn stepped forward and spoke urgently in their language. Laz shot him a disgusted glance and answered in the same.
“He’s telling me I shouldn’t trust you,” Laz said to her. “By the black hairy arse of the Lord of Hell, I owe Haen Marn too great a debt to go around accusing its daughter of lying to me. Very well, Wynni. Let’s go talk your father. He needs to know that the book’s gotten lost, and since he’s promised not to harm me, I’d best be the one to tell him. Don’t say one word about it until I do.”
“Laz!” Faharn snapped in the Mountain dialect. “Be not a fool!”
“That advice comes too late,” Laz said. “Let’s see, I was born some thirty years ago now, and so it’s thirty years too late.” He laughed again, and his eyes gleamed with excitement. “Let’s go, Wynni.