The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [145]
‘It will be somewhat to think about,’ Salamander went on. ‘Somewhat other than the silver wyrm.’
Towards sunset, long after the messengers had got on their way, Salamander saw Rori flying over the camp, heading west, so high that for a moment he looked like a white bird, gleaming in the slanting light of late afternoon. Salamander walked back out to meet the returning Dallandra and Calonderiel.
‘He found Zakh Gral,’ Calonderiel said. ‘I’ve got to go call a council of war.’
Calonderiel rushed off, racing down the path of broken grass leading back to camp. Salamander and Dallandra followed, but slowly, and he stayed silent, letting her collect her thoughts. Finally she glanced his way.
‘I may be able to heal that wound,’ she said, ‘but it’s going to take leeches, if indeed leeches will eat dragon flesh and drink dragon blood.’ Her voice rose sharply, but she took a deep breath and resumed in a normal tone of voice. ‘I may be wrong, but I really don’t think it’s a dweomer curse, Ebañy. That would be too simple. He’s done it to himself, licking it and biting at it, over and over for nearly fifty years now. It was starting to heal, he told me, but it itched, so he began licking it, and then of course it got worse again. Now it’s horribly septic. There’s dead flesh all along its edges, too.’
‘Has the rot spread into his blood?’
‘I doubt it, but I don’t know. If he were a man, and the rot had spread that far, he’d be dead. But he’s not, he’s a dragon, and I don’t know the first thing about healing dragons. I do know that I’ll have to clean up what he’s done to it.’
‘Where are we going to find leeches?’
‘Out here? I have no idea. Look for slow-moving water, like you’d see down in the Delonderiel’s estuary.’
‘If we can’t find any nearby, it’s a long way down to the coast.’
‘Yes, it is. It’s all so horrible.’ Her voice trailed off.
Salamander decided that silence was the only appropriate comment. They reached the encampment and made their slow way through to the Red Wolf’s sector. Gerran was sitting on the ground in front of the tent he shared with Salamander and dicing for splinters of kindling with Kov, the dwarven envoy. The envoy’s staff lay on a folded blanket right beside him. Dallandra paused to speak with Gerran, who rose to a kneel and made a half-bow to Dallandra.
‘What news, Wise One?’ Gerran said.
‘Listen to you!’ Dallandra was trying to smile. ‘You’re turning into one of the Westfolk.’
‘It would be an honour, truly, but I was wondering—’
‘Cal will tell you everything later,’ Dallandra interrupted him. ‘I’m not sure if I understood all the details. But Rori told us that it’s impossible for us to mount a surprise attack on Zakh Gral.’
‘Oh, I assumed that, my lady,’ Gerran said. ‘If naught else, they should be able to hear an army this size coming from miles away.’
‘I see. Here I was thinking it was a terrible setback.’
‘Not truly. What counts is when they learn about us. If they’re warned, we’ll end up fighting the first battle at the ford.’
‘The first battle.’ Dallandra repeated the words as if she could think of naught else to say.
‘Well, they’re not going to sit behind their walls and wait for us to invest them.’
‘Truly, I suppose they wouldn’t.’ Dallandra sounded so faint that Salamander caught her elbow to steady her. Dallandra glanced at Salamander and spoke next in Elvish. ‘You’ve gone white in the face.’
‘I feel sick, that’s why.’ Salamander answered in the same.
‘It’s truly ghastly, isn’t it? Everything, I mean.’ She turned back to Gerran and spoke in Deverrian. ‘My apologies, Gerro, and you too, Envoy. I don’t mean to put you both off, but I’m very tired.’
‘Then I should apologize to you,’ Gerran said. ‘I shouldn’t have kept you standing here. No doubt I’ll hear all I need to know later.’
‘And I apologize as well,’ Kov said. ‘Please, my lady. Do go rest.’
When Dallandra turned to walk away, Salamander started to follow, but she swung around and held up one hand to stop him. ‘I can’t talk about Rhodry any more just now,’ she said in Elvish. ‘I don’t want to talk about anything.