The Silver Mage - Katharine Kerr [90]
“If living things are crawling on those,” she said, “I want them dead.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Mic said with a shudder. “Hard to believe, though I’d wager Neb knows more about it than I.” He sighed, glancing around him. “I’ll just be seeing what my poor niece is up to, then.”
“You’ll be brooding about your cousin, more like!”
Mic left without answering. With a sigh of her own, though this one expressed exasperation, Branna considered cleaning up the mess around Hound’s bed, then stormed out of the tent. Nearby she saw Neb and Dallandra surrounded by her four apprentices, all of them talking fast as they questioned Neb. Branna strode up to them and nearly shouted out her words, “I beg your pardons!”
Everyone turned to look her. Ranadario, in fact, took a step back.
“I’m not a servant,” Branna said with a toss of her head. “Neb my dearest, if there’s some nasty thing living on those dirty bandages, hadn’t you better clean them up when you’re done with them?”
Neb flinched and looked down at the ground. “So I had,” he said. “My apologies. You’re quite right.”
Branna strode off again, but she was thinking, That’s another reason why I married him—he’s not an honor-bound warrior. He can admit it when he’s wrong.
After a hot dusty afternoon in the gold chamber, Kov was more than ready for a swimming lesson. He stripped off his clothes except for his loin wrap, laid them neatly on his bed, then hurried outside to join Jemjek.
They walked a good ways upstream to the bend in the river that marked the shallows. The sun lay close to the western horizon, casting ripples of gold like coins on the river. A light breeze rustled the long grass along the bank and cleared away the last of the dust and gold-greed from Kov’s mind.
“It’s good to get outside,” Kov said.
“It is,” Jemjek said. “Water be good.”
At the sandy beach, caught in the river’s bend, they paused to watch the water flowing and rippling. About half-a-mile downstream the timbers of the bridge cast a tangle of shadows across the river. Yet despite the peaceful afternoon, all the birds abruptly fell silent. Over the murmur and splash of the water, Kov heard a drumming sound.
“What be that noise?” Jemjek said. “The sky’s clear. Can’t be thunder.”
“It’s not,” Kov snapped. “It’s hooves, horses, and here the bastards come!”
Like a black wave of flies heading for dead meat, distant riders were trotting through the tall grass. They were coming from the north and riding in such good order that he knew they had to be Gel da’Thae, not Deverry men.
“Get down!” Jemjek shrieked. “Into the water!”
The Dwrgi slid out of his tunic, grabbed it in one hand, and dove into the river. In swirls of light and bubbles he transformed. The tunic billowed like foam beside the six-foot-long otter he’d become. Kov dashed after him and slipped over the bank into the thick stand of water reeds. He could only hope to hide since his flesh couldn’t transform. In the shallows he stood with his nose just above water and peered through the reeds. What he saw turned him cold.
Horsekin, all right! Regimental cavalry such as he’d seen at Zakh Gral, a troop of them, no, a regiment formed up four abreast, hundreds of them, trotting down the riverbank, heading for the village. Dust plumed as the steel-shod hooves cut down the grass and pounded it into raw dirt. Kov heard something rustling the reeds behind him, nearly screamed, and turned to see Jemjek beckoning to him with one paw.
“Swim!” His mouth’s new shape turned the whispered word into one long hiss.
“Wait!” Kov hissed back.
Jemjek shook his sleek wet head “no” and turned around to dive back into deep water. Kov had a brief thought of taking this chance to escape. With no clothes but a loin wrap, no food, not even a knife, he squelched the thought as soon as it appeared. In the gathering twilight his hiding place worked well enough. No one even looked his way as the regiment trotted onward down the river.
The last of the cavalrymen passed by just as the sun sank below the horizon. Behind them, traveling at a more dignified walk,