The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [81]
Loddlaen’s smile turned genuine with relief.
Javanateriel brought his gifts for Valandario and Aderyn into camp the next afternoon. Nevyn and Aderyn were sitting in front of Aderyn’s tent when they heard a shout from the general direction of the horse-herd. Aderyn stood up and shaded his eyes as he peered into the distance.
‘Someone’s arrived.’ Aderyn sat back down.
Not long after, Valandario came running. ‘It is a gem!’ she called out. ‘I’ve not seen it yet, but Jav told me that much. My dream was a true one.’
Eventually Javanateriel and his friend, Albaral, joined them at Aderyn’s tent. They were both typical Westfolk men, blond and impossibly handsome, but Albaral carried a long scar down one cheek. Aderyn ushered them inside, along with Nevyn, and of course, Valandario. They all sat down in a rough circle around the patch of sunlight coming through the smokehole.
‘What about Loddlaen?’ Nevyn said.
The two young men exchanged a quick glance.
‘I don’t know where he is,’ Aderyn said with a rueful smile. ‘I looked around the camp, but no one seems to know where he went.’
‘I saw him walking over to the merchant’s camp,’ Nevyn continued. ‘But that was some while ago.’
‘What a pity.’ Valandario sounded profoundly relieved. ‘He will doubtless be gone for a long while.
‘Ah, too bad,’ Aderyn said. ‘Now then, Jav. Where did you find these mysterious treasures?’
‘First of all,’ Jav said, ‘Albaral came with me. We rode west on a dare, you see. Just along the coast, though I was half-minded to see if we could get all the way to Rinbaladelan.’
‘Half a mind is about right,’ Albaral muttered.
Jav ignored him and went on. ‘We’d ridden for eight days along the cliffs, following the line of the beach. It’s desolate out there—ye gods, at night you can hear the ghosts, drifting back and forth, mourning the lost cities.’
‘The sound of the sea on the rocks,’ Albaral interrupted again.
‘Some of us have more imagination than others.’ Jav glared at him. ‘Will you hold your tongue and let me finish?’ He turned to Valandario. ‘It was the thought of you that gave me the courage to go on.’
Albaral pressed one hand to his stomach and the other to his mouth as if he were going to vomit.
‘But we found a marvel long before we reached the ruined city,’ Jav continued, ‘a toppled watchtower.’
‘A what?’ Aderyn leaned forward, all attention.
‘A tower, Wise One, built of fine pale stone. It must have been as tall as a Deverry broch when it was new, but they’d built it right on the edge of the cliff. Those big storms we had this winter past? A big chunk of cliff had eroded and fallen, taking the tower with it. It was spread out along the beach, pointing towards the water.’ Jav gestured with his right hand as if he were strewing a line of dice. ‘We poked around the stones a bit.’
‘He nearly toppled one big stone onto his own foot,’ Albaral put in. ‘It was balanced on another, you see, and—’
‘It’s a cursed good thing I did, wasn’t it?’ Jav turned and scowled at him. ‘That’s where we found first box.’
‘Ah,’ Aderyn said, ‘the point of this story at last.’
‘Just that, Wise One,’ Jav said. ‘I brought the whole box with me, because oddly enough, it looks new, when you’d think it would have rotted away by now. There must be some sort of dweomer upon it.’ With a flourish Jav pulled a wooden box out of a saddlebag and handed it to Aderyn. ‘Your gift is inside.’ He glanced Valandario’s way and smiled. ‘Rank before beauty, I thought, even beauty as great as yours.’
Her only answer was a blush. Albaral made a gagging noise.
The narrow box, about a foot and a half long, bore a design of spirals and bands of interlace on its top. From where Nevyn sat, it looked like a nice bit of oak.
‘This is an Eldidd-made box,’ Aderyn pronounced. ‘It’s not a question of dweomer in the least. It’s quite new, actually. A couple of years old at most.’
Javanateriel’s triumphant smile disappeared into a slack mouthed disappointment. Albaral snickered.
‘Wise One,’ Jav said, ‘we