The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [212]
‘They’ll kill us if we try.’
‘No, I don’t think so. They’re Gel da’ Thae, not tribals, in their own way. The dragons obey them, you know. They could call them off.’
‘What do we have to bargain with?’
‘We hate their enemies, and we can tell them what happened to the stone. Besides, I can heal wounded horses.’
Sidro got up and walked over to the window that faced away from the rest of the camp. She leaned on the sill on folded arms and looked out, breathing the night air, the soothing scent of pine and fern, of running streams and a soft wind.
‘I know a few weak little magicks,’ she said. ‘It’s not enough.’
Pir walked up behind her. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘We’re going to need help to find him.’
‘That’s true, but it’s not what I meant. I can’t lead these men. Even though I’m a woman, I just can’t. I don’t know how, and they frighten me. A herd’s not going to follow a weak bell mare.’ She straightened up and turned around. ‘Well, do you think they’ll take my orders?’
Pir looked away, considering his answer for a long moment. ‘They will at first, until you do something they don’t like.’
‘Something like suggesting we surrender?’
‘Um.’ Again he stayed silent, thinking. ‘Something like that, yes.’
‘The only person who can lead this wretched excuse for a herd is you.’
Pir looked down at the floor. Since he was standing with his back to the wizard-light over the table, shadow fell across his face and made it impossible for her to tell what he might be feeling. Finally, just as she was ready to question him, he looked up.
‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Especially if they know you’ve passed the leadership to me.’
‘I’ll tell them, if you think they’ll listen.’
‘They should.’ Yet Pir sounded doubtful.
Sidro wondered at her sudden fear. As a Horsekin woman despite her human blood, even as a Gel da’ Thae slave, she had always been perfectly confident that men would never harm her sexually unless her owner, another woman, allowed them to—not that Borgren would have let them. She remembered Movrae and shuddered. These men were outlaws, fugitives from the Gel da’ Thae world, as lawless as the savage tribes of the far north. She would need more protection than her weak magicks could give her. The ancient customs would have to provide it.
‘You know that Laz will always be my First Man,’ she said.
‘Oh yes.’ Pir’s face showed no expression at all, but she could smell a change in his scent.
‘I don’t see why you couldn’t be the Second. That should make everything perfectly clear.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that.’ He smiled, just briefly. ‘I’m going to build a fire. The men need to know what’s going to happen.’
Sidro stayed inside the cabin until she saw flames leaping from the firepit. The men had already assembled around it by the time she gathered enough courage to leave the cabin. Pir was talking fast, dramatizing his points with a shake of a fist here and a slap of his hands there. Many of the men were listening intently. A few at a time, they strode over to stand behind or next to him until some nine men had gathered on his side of the fire. The holdouts stood, scowling, behind Faharn.
Sidro took a deep breath to steady her nerves and walked over. Pir held out one arm, and she slipped into the comfort of his embrace. At that, four of the holdouts smiled and walked over to Pir’s side of the fire.
‘The rest of you can do what you want,’ Pir finished up. ‘You’ve got till the morning to, um, well, think about things.’
‘Pir, I can’t believe you’d come up with such a mad scheme,’ Faharn said. ‘Huh, Laz thought this woman loved him. Look at how fast she’s deserted him! Or have you been scheming all along to take her away from him?’
‘If I had,’ Pir said levelly, ‘I’d have come to you for help. You would have been happy to give it. You’d have done anything to have Laz all to yourself again.’
Pir’s supporters whooped with laughter, and even the men standing with Faharn broke into broad grins. Faharn started to speak, blushed, scowled, tried again, then flapped his hands in the air and turned away. He strode off as fast as he could and