The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [122]
*****
Olive sat all alone in the dining room of Giogi's townhouse, wolfing down tea and crumpets. Giogi was in the parlor, scribbling in his journal. Cat was still changing into something clean. And Mother Lleddew, who had shaken off her bear shape before they'd arrived home, was still resting in the guest room.
The halfling leaned back and sighed with satisfaction. After helping Mother Lleddew to her room, Olive had managed to present Giogi with a brilliant explanation for having the spur and for giving it to Cat. It was an explanation that not only concealed her own ignorance of the spur's appearance but convinced Giogi that her motives were completely noble. Cat hadn't seemed too pleased with her story, but it had satisfied Giogi completely.
The door to the hallway opened, and Mother Lleddew stood on the threshold. With her massive frame, thick black hair, taut muscles, and shy eyes, her human appearance was still rather bearlike. She wore only her brown shift and leather sandals, but the dirt had been brushed from them, and as a further concession to society she'd tied her mane of hair back with a ribbon.
Few people could make Giogi's house look small the way she does, Olive thought. The priestess walked stiffly into the room, though-not as spry as she'd been when engaged in combat. It was obvious that, despite the power her were-nature granted her, Mother Lleddew was a very old woman. Her face appeared all the more drawn and haggard for the wrinkles in it, and she twitched from aches and twinges in her muscles. She could heal the injuries she'd received in battle, but she would never recover from the ravages of time.
Alerted by the sound of the priestess's tread, Thomas bustled into the dining room from the kitchen. "Master Giogioni asks that you not wait on his account, Your Grace," the servant said as he pulled out a chair for the priestess.
Mother Lleddew sat and held her hands in her lap until Thomas finished pouring the tea. She dolloped honey into her drink and stirred it very carefully, sneaking a look at Olive, then back at her tea without speaking.
Finally, after a fourth furtive glance, she spoke. "I'm pleased to meet you at last, Olive Ruskettle," she said. Her voice was almost too soft to hear. "Sudacar tells me you sing a song about Selune."
"Um, yes," Olive answered with surprise. "The Tears of Selune. A friend of mine wrote it."
"The Shard said it's been too long since it was sung in the Realms."
"It's sung other places than the Realms?" Olive asked.
"Other Shards sing it for Selune."
"Really?" Olive's head swam. The Harpers ban all of Nameless's music for centuries, and the gods listen to it anyway, she thought with amusement. Nameless would be pleased to hear that. Then again, that could be just a little too much for his ego to handle.
"My friend probably wrote that song here in Immersea," the halfiing told the priestess. "He was a Wyvernspur, you see."
Mother Lleddew held her teacup with both hands and sipped slowly, keeping her eyes on the drink. She kept glancing at Olive without speaking.
At first, the halfiing thought Lleddew just couldn't think of anything to say and wondered if she shouldn't try to carry the conversation herself. It dawned on Olive after a few minutes, though, that Lleddew was a little like Dragonbait, the Saurial paladin. He didn't need words to communicate and could judge people by their silences, too. So Olive just smiled and bit into another biscuit the next time she caught the priestess looking at her.
Giogi came in with Cat on his arm. He was decked out in a tabard bearing his family coat of arms, a green wyvern on a field of yellow, and the small platinum headpiece around his forehead. Cat wore a green silk gown. The gown would not lace tight enough to fit her shapely