The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [94]
‘It was sitting right on top of his blankets,’ Val said. ‘I told you so.’
Loddlaen said something in Elvish that made Jav grab him by the shirt with both hands and shake him, then answer in the same. They began shouting at each other while Aderyn tried to separate them. Nevyn glanced at Morwen and saw tears in her eyes. She swung the kettle off the fire, then grabbed Ebañy and picked him up. For a moment she hesitated at the edge of the raging argument, then turned and marched off back towards the encampment. Nevyn hurried after her.
‘What’s wrong?’ he said.
‘I don’t understand how Loddlaen could do such a thing!’ Morwen said. ‘My heart’s sore troubled, Nevyn. I’ve come to think of him as a friend, but if he’s a thief—’
‘Well, he may not have meant to steal it. He may have just wanted to study it privately.’
‘Do you truly believe that?’
‘Let’s just say I’d like to believe it, and it’s possible. It’s difficult for Loddlaen to—to—’ Nevyn hesitated, thinking. ‘To do things in the most direct manner, I suppose I mean. He might have been afraid to ask Val for a long look.’
‘I’ll try to believe that.’ Morwen paused to set ebañy down. ‘Oof! You’re getting heavy, my love.’
‘Tell me, ebañy,’ Nevyn said. ‘Do you like Loddlaen?’
‘I do,’ the child said. ‘The funny man don’t.’
‘Doesn’t,’ Morri interrupted. ‘What funny man?’
‘The man in the stone.’ ebañy frowned and looked away. ‘I saw him.’
‘When was that?’ Nevyn said.
‘Just now. In the tent.’ He looked at Morri. ‘You see him, too?’
‘I didn’t. You don’t mean Tirro, do you?’
Ebañy wrinkled his nose and shook his head. ‘The funny man,’ he repeated, ‘with the yellow hair.’
‘I think I know what he means,’ Nevyn said. ‘Someone from his Da’s tales, I suspect.’
Morwen nodded, accepting the white lie. Nevyn wanted to question ebañy further, but not in front of Morwen. Unfortunately, by the time he got a moment alone with the child, ebañy had forgotten the incident.
Nevyn would have explained more about Loddlaen if he’d thought that Morwen could understand. He knew that the priestesses had taught her some of the preliminary knowledge that they shared with dweomerworkers, but at the stage of knowledge that he was assuming she possessed she never could have comprehended the truth about that strange breed of incorporeal beings, the Guardians, or as Deverry men called them, the Seelie Host. Besides, as he had to admit to himself, he didn’t completely understand what had happened to Loddlaen’s mother, Dallandra.
Somehow the Guardians could keep a person alive indefinitely on the astral plane. In Dallandra’s case, Evandar—Ebañy’s funny man—had turned her physical body into an amethyst crystal, or perhaps it was only the semblance of a crystal wrought in some substance of which he had no knowledge. At will they could release her from the crystal, sending her back to the physical world, or entrap her again to bring her back to their astral country.
But inside her body, when first she’d gone off with them, had lain the beginnings of another body, and with it, the soul destined to become her son. It was time, Nevyn decided, to ask Aderyn a few questions.
Nevyn had to postpone his talk with Aderyn, however, because that morning Valandario announced that she and Javanateriel were leaving. They’d gathered a new alar and were going to head north to the far grazing for the rest of the summer.
‘I truly did think it was best, Master Aderyn,’ Val said, ‘if I took the black gem away.’
‘Perhaps so,’ Aderyn said. ‘It seems to spread an evil influence. Apparently it makes some people jump to conclusions and make false accusations.’
Startled, Val glanced at Nevyn. He smiled and slipped his arm through hers. ‘I’ll walk you back to your horses,’ Nevyn said. ‘Come along.’
Aderyn made no move to follow as they left. Nevyn waited