The Shadow Isle - Katharine Kerr [187]
Faharn began talking fast in their language, but Laz slipped his arm through Berwynna’s and marched her off across the barrow with Faharn trailing miserably after them. The dragon lay where Berwynna left him, waiting for them. When they climbed down from the barrow, Rori raised his head and growled, but only faintly.
“So,” the dragon said. “You’re the mazrak, are you? Laz Moj, is it?”
“That’s my name, truly,” Laz said. “May I ask why you’ve always hated me? I honestly cannot remember ever doing you harm.”
The dragon considered him for a long cold moment. “Mayhap you don’t,” he said at last. “But I do. Listen to me, Laz Moj. I made my daughter a promise, and I’ll keep it as long as you treat me and mine as well and faithfully as you’d treat your kin and clan. But if you ever do me or mine the least bit of harm, then the promise ends. I’ll crush you without a moment’s thought.” He lifted one clawed paw from the ground. “Do you understand me?”
“I do, most decidedly.” Laz took a step back. “I promise you I have no intention of doing them any harm.” He held up his maimed hands. “Do you see these? Berwynna’s twin healed them. Your woman Angmar gave me the shelter of her hall. I owe them and, through them, you a great deal of gratitude. Doing them harm is the farthest thing from my mind.”
Rori slapped the ground with his tail, then switched it back and forth like an angry cat. “Good, but you don’t know who else I consider mine. Prince Dar and his royal alar, indeed, the Westfolk, all of them—not one small bit of harm, Laz Moj, not by dweomer, not by the sword, not at all, naught, nothing.” Rori thrust his huge head forward. “Do you understand that?” His upper lip curled to show fang.
“Ye gods, I’ve never even met these people! Why would I harm them?”
Their gazes met and locked. The dragon’s tail slapped the ground again as if it had a life of its own. Berwynna felt afraid to so much as breathe as they stared at one another. He was terrifying, her father, when he wanted to be. Somehow she’d not expected this when she’d longed to find him, that in an instant he could turn so frightening, so wild. With a toss of his head and a half-turn of his body, Laz looked away at last.
“Good,” Rori said softly. “I think me you do understand.”
“I do,” Laz said. “I understand in the marrow of my soul, albeit that marrow’s more than a little frozen at the moment. In terror, that is.”
Rori laughed, his deep good-humored rumble. Laz took a deep breath and managed to smile, then turned to Berwynna.
“Wynni,” Laz said, “you have my undying thanks for this.”
“You owe her your life,” Rori said, “just as she owed you hers. The debt’s been repaid. Remember that.”
“Oh, fear not! I shall.”
“Good.” The dragon lurched to his feet. “Now that we understand each other, Laz, you’d best get your men and what’s left of that caravan on the road. Richt knows where we’re heading. We can talk more later. I’m going to go look for those Horsekin now, so both of you, get back on the barrow. These wings can knock a man over when I take flight.”
Berwynna opened her mouth to ask about the book, but Laz caught her eye.
“Come along,” Laz said. “We’ll talk more tonight, just like your father wants. I agree that we need to get on the road. We’re giving you a horse to ride, Wynni. It wears a thing called a bridle, and you should be able to control it.”
“I be glad to hear that,” Berwynna said. “Not that I know how to ride.”
“You’ll learn,” Rori put in. “You have to. Now go, both of you!”
Rori waited until Laz and Berwynna had gone a safe distance away before he took to the air. He soared high over the barrow and the camp, then turned and headed back east. He saw no sign of the Horsekin raiders on the road except for tracks leading into the forest. When he flew over the trees, he used the road as a guide, still saw nothing, then began to swing back and forth at angles to the road. In the thickest part of the forest, hiding among the old-growth trees, he could just make out a few large shapes that might have been