The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [48]
‘Doing well.’ Aderyn’s image turned expressionless, but since they’d joined minds through the fire, Nevyn could feel his anger. ‘I don’t know why you’d assume—’
‘My apologies, my apologies. What’s the real trouble, then?’
‘Oh, well, mostly, my grand scheme’s not going as well as it should.’
For a moment Nevyn quite simply couldn’t remember what Aderyn’s grand scheme was. Aderyn felt the lapse and smiled.
‘My compilation of dweomerlore,’ Aderyn said, ‘trying to piece together the ancient elven dweomer by filling the gaps with our own lore.’
Nevyn’s memory creaked into life at last. ‘Of course, the dweomer system the Westfolk lost when the cities were destroyed. We’ve talked about it many a time. Ye gods! I cannot tell you how aggravating it is, not being able to remember things the way I used to. Next I’ll be forgetting my own name.’
‘Well, you have a great deal more to remember than most men. Three hundred years’ worth, isn’t it now?’
‘Somewhat like that. Your own memories stretch a fair way back.’
‘Ah, but life out here is simple. You’ve always managed to complicate matters for yourself.’
‘That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. But about that problem—’
‘I’ve gathered together every shred I can, but there are large stretches of territory still missing from my mental map, as it were.’
‘I like that figure of speech.’
‘My thanks.’
‘Do you have any idea of what was in that missing province?’
‘Some important thing at the very centre.’ Aderyn’s mind radiated frustration. ‘I do know that the masters of the seven cities studied dweomer for very different reasons from ours. Their ultimate goal wasn’t to help their folk, though they did that, too, but to—well, to do somewhat that I can’t fathom, some grand result.’
‘No clues at all?’
‘Only an unusually elaborate schema of Names and Calls. When I first came to the Westlands, there were still a few dweomerworkers alive who had studied with a teacher who’d been taught in the lost cities. Unfortunately, that teacher was young by elven standards, and only a journeyman. The masters among the dweomerfolk stayed to fight till the end.’
‘And so the lore was lost with them?’
‘Just that. But one thing that did survive was a list of names of certain areas of the Inner Lands. These names, or so I was told, were all that survived of a twice-secret lore. Apparently you had to prove yourself worthy before you were allowed to study it.’
‘Secrecy has a bitter price in evil times.’
‘Just so. But I’m looking forward to telling you what little I’ve gathered, once we can talk face to face.’
‘I’m looking forward to it, too. We’ll be there as soon as we can.’
‘We?’
‘I’ve acquired a rather odd apprentice. I’ll tell you more once you’ve met him.’
The Westfolk lands lay a good month’s journey away, out beyond the western border of the kingdom. Wffyn the merchant’s ultimate goal was to trade iron goods for Westfolk horses, but rather than pack the heavy metalwork all the way from Cerrmor, he’d brought Bardek spices and fine silks to trade for it in Eldidd. As they made their slow way north from market square to market square, Nevyn had ample time to sell his herbs and other medicinals as well as collect more in the meadows and along the roads.
Nevyn also made a point of treating Gwairyc as the apprentice he supposedly was. He taught him herblore, trained him in the drying of herbs, and used him as an assistant when he performed the few simple chirurgeries he knew how to do. When it came to procedures, Nevyn found that having a large, strong assistant was very useful indeed, since the various anodynes available in those days lacked the power to render the sufferer unconscious. Over the years Nevyn had learned how to dodge the sudden fists or teeth of a patient driven mad enough by pain to attack the man trying to help him. Gwairyc, however, could hold them down and occasionally administer an anaesthetic of desperation by clipping the patient hard on the jaw. That part of the work he seemed to enjoy.
When they worked together in less trying situations, Nevyn