The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [71]
"Um, he doesn't know I'm back yet. I fell in the Immer Stream and a bear saved me from lacedons, and then this lovely girl kissed me and teleported me here."
Tying a sheet around her body, Cat slid out from under the covers and walked to the doorway, where Giogi stood. She put a hand to his forehead, her brow knit with concern. "You don't have a fever," she said after a moment.
"I'm fine, really. You know, your hand is so nice and warm.'
Cat smiled and said, "Perhaps you ought to lie down, anyway." She took Giogi by the arm and steered him back to his own room.
Giogi, babbling on, let himself be led. "You know, the guardian said that I'd been kissed by Selune. I think she's just done it again, Selune that is, through one of her priestesses. You see, the kiss cured the scratch the lacedons gave me, which was nice, the kiss, not the cut, I mean. It also brought me home, though, which was strange but nice, too."
"Here we go," Cat said, steering him into his own room.
"But still, it's rather disturbing to be kissed by Selune," Giogi said with a sigh, "since it is one of those things the guardian is always making a fuss about. I know I'm going to dream tonight about all those things-death cry of prey, and so on. Aunt Dorath says she just ignored the dreams, but I don't see how she could," Giogi said with annoyed disbelief.
"Lie down, Master Giogioni," Cat ordered, pressing him down on the bed. "You can rest and talk." As he lay back on his bed, Cat fluffed up his pillows and propped them behind him.
"Did you find anyone who knew about the spur?" Cat asked lightly, seating herself at the foot of the bed.
"Well, Aunt Dorath knows something, but she won't tell me what. She's being absurdly stubborn. I get the idea she wants to carry her secret to the grave. I talked with Sudacar. He didn't know about the spur, but he knew a lot about my father." Giogi's eyes shone when he asked the mage, "Did you know my father was a hero? Not just an adventurer, but a real hero? I went on a mission for the crown, but it's not really the same as adventuring. It must be interesting being an adventurer."
"Why don't you try it and find out?" Cat asked with a smile.
"Oh, I couldn't. It's just not done. Aunt Dorath would have kittens," the nobleman explained.
"But your father did it," Cat pointed out.
"He must have been very brave," Giogi said, shaking his head slowly as if to deny he had that much courage.
"To go out into the wilderness or to defy your Aunt Dorath?" Cat asked with a chuckle.
Giogi laughed, too. "Both," he said.
"What could your aunt do?" Cat asked. "Cut off your money?"
"No. I have my own money," Giogi explained. "Aunt Dorath is family, though. I can't just ignore her."
"But if you were off adventuring, she couldn't bother you," Cat said slyly.
"But she would pounce on me whenever I returned to Immersea," Giogi retorted.
"Then don't ever return," Cat suggested.
"Never return?" Giogi said with shock. "Immersea's my home. I couldn't stay away." Giogi's face fell in disappointment as he realized he'd just talked himself out of a dream. He justified his inaction further by saying, "Besides, I wouldn't know how I should go about adventuring. Not the first thing. Do you have to register for it or something?"
Cat laughed. Brushing her hand through her hair, she slid up the bed so that she sat much closer to Giogi. "First thing you should do is try to look the part. Hold still," she ordered.
The mage reached her hand behind Giogi's ear, and Giogi felt a pinch at his earlobe. When Cat took her hand away, Giogi reached up to rub his earlobe. Attached to his ear was one of Cat's small hoop earrings. He tried to pull it off.
"Ow!" he whined.
"You can't just yank it off," Cat warned. "It's pierced through. You have to slide it out."
"You put a hole in my ear!" he said, disbelieving, touching the maimed lobe delicately.
"Don't be such a baby," Cat chided. "If you want, you can take the earring out, and the hole will heal over."
Giogi