The Spirit Stone. Katharine Kerr

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СКАЧАТЬ on,’ Wffyn snapped. ‘Do what the herbman wants.’

      Tirro gulped again and caught his shaking hands between his knees. So! Nevyn thought. He’s got some reason to fear me, has he? Tirro raised his head, glanced at Nevyn, and immediately looked down again.

      ‘Come along, Tirro,’ Nevyn said. ‘I won’t bite.’

      Once again the boy raised his head. This time he did manage to look at Nevyn for a few beats of a heart – enough. Brour! Nevyn thought. That slimy little renegade! Aloud, he said, ‘Ah, splendid! The eye looks fine. I thought I saw a swelling, but it must just have been some trick of the light. You can go now.’

      Tirro jumped up and ran, heading for the herd of mules. Nevyn watched as he disappeared among them.

      ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you.’ Wffyn stepped forward. ‘Will you be travelling on with us a-ways? A man as good with his herbs as you are, Nevyn, is welcome everywhere.’

      ‘That’s very kind of you,’ Nevyn said. ‘I’m thinking of going all the way west to Aberwyn or thereabouts.’

      ‘We’ll certainly be going that far and beyond, since we’re going to trade with the Westfolk.’

      ‘True spoken. Where are you planning on crossing the Delonderiel?’

      ‘A good distance north of Aberwyn, actually, just north of the Pyrdon border. Now, some will tell you that’s the long way round, but I’ve found better horses up in the Peddroloc region than I have at the southern trading grounds nearer to Aberwyn. Is that too far out of your way?’

      ‘It may be. We’ll stay with you till you reach the Gwynaver, though. We can always turn south from there.’

      Not long after, however, an old friend gave Nevyn a reason to travel the entire way with Wffyn. Some hundreds of years before, Nevyn had taken on a young apprentice in the dweomer, Aderyn by name, who had gone to live among the Westfolk. Over the years, Nevyn had kept in touch with his former apprentice, now a master in his own right. At night when both of them were near a fire, they could reach each other’s minds through the flames.

      Since he needed only a few hours of sleep a night, Nevyn generally was the last person awake when the caravan camped. That particular evening he was sitting up by the dying fire, tending the glowing coals and watching the salamanders leaping and playing among the last of the flames, when he felt someone tugging at his mind. The contact strengthened so readily that he knew it had to be Aderyn, and sure enough, his ex-apprentice’s image built up as if his face floated on fire.

      ‘It’s good to see you,’ Nevyn thought to him.

      ‘And the same to you. In fact, I’m hoping to see a fair bit more of you.’ Aderyn’s image smiled at him. ‘I was wondering if you were planning on riding our way this summer.’

      ‘Not planning on visiting you, precisely, but I’m in Eldidd at the moment. There’s no reason I couldn’t ride a little further.’

      ‘Excellent! One of my former students has joined my alar – Valandario her name is. Have you met her?’

      ‘Not that I remember,’ Nevyn said. ‘Which means naught, of course. I may well have.’

      ‘She’d heard about your work with the Great Stone of the West, and so she –’

      ‘Wait a moment. How did she hear about it? It’s not precisely a secret, but I don’t want a lot of talk, either. Did you tell her?’

      ‘You know, I don’t think I did.’ Aderyn’s image frowned in thought. ‘I don’t know where she did learn of it.’

      ‘Ask her if you get a chance, will you?’

      ‘I will. Val’s always had a special affinity for gems. Now just recently, at the summer festival, I happened to meet her. She wanted to know if she could ask your advice about a particular gem.’

      ‘Can she speak through the fire? I’ll be glad to talk with her. I learned a fair bit about gem dweomer in Bardek.’

      ‘She can certainly try.’ Aderyn sounded and looked more than a little doubtful. ‘It’s not one of her stronger gifts, though she’s learning. But we wondered if you might actually come out here, or if we could meet you perhaps in Eldidd. She thinks you’ll need to see this stone for yourself.’

      ‘Well and good, then. I’m travelling with a merchant who’s bound for your trading grounds. I’ll continue on with him.’

      ‘Splendid! I’m truly glad to hear it, and I’m sure Valandario will be, too. Come to think of it, maybe you can also help me with a little problem I’ve run into.’

      ‘I’ll most assuredly try. How’s Loddlaen these days?’

      ‘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 СКАЧАТЬ