A Time of War. Katharine Kerr

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СКАЧАТЬ and loremaster,’ Meer bellowed. ‘Tell me what this word, gwerbret, means. Such lore is my due.’

      With a shake the jailor recovered himself.

      ‘Oh is it now? Since when do hairy dogs have bards?’

      ‘You better watch your tongue!’ Jahdo snapped.

      ‘Hush!’ Meer waved him away. ‘Old man, first you called me a cow, now a dog. In my homeland you would have been publicly strangled for those insults. Here, as a slave, I have no choice but to forgive you. Yet even a slave-bard is a bard still. You will answer me my question, or I’ll call down the wrath of the gods.’

      ‘Call away. I’ll not be telling you one wretched thing.’

      As the jailor turned to go, Meer sang a high, piercing note whose harsh texture made Jahdo squirm. Louder and louder he sang, and longer and longer, until the jailor shrieked.

      ‘Very well! Hold your ugly tongue, bard! I’ll tell you. I should have known that hairy savages like you would be as ignorant as you are ugly. A gwerbret’s a kind of lord, see, the most powerful lord there is, except for the princes and suchlike of the blood royal. He’s got vassals what owe him service and pay him dues. And he judges criminals and suchlike, and I hope to every god that when it comes to the judging of you, he hangs you good and proper.’

      This time when the old man hurried off, Meer let him go.

      ‘May his heart burst within him,’ Meer remarked. ‘Or better yet, may the gods plug his kidneys so that he dies in a stink of piss. Ah well. At least I’ve got my bit of new lore.’

      Jahdo felt a profound relief. Obviously Meer had truly decided to live if he’d go worrying about some funny name. He got the bard settled, then climbed back to his window perch to watch the twilight fading. After a few minutes he saw a familiar figure come striding out of the main broch.

      ‘Someone’s coming. It be Rhodry, and he’s got Yraen and a couple of men from the squad with him.’

      When he heard Rhodry’s voice in the corridor, and the jailor’s snivelling answers, Jahdo climbed down from his perch and handed the Gel da’Thae his staff. Meer rose to his feet just as they lifted the bar and opened the door. Rhodry made them a formal bow, but he was grinning all the while.

      ‘Feel like a stroll in the evening air?’ Rhodry said. ‘The ward’s nice and quiet at the moment, because most everyone’s still eating. I think we can get you across to the broch safely, if you hurry and if you cause me no trouble. Agreed?’

      ‘We don’t have any choice, do we?’ Jahdo said.

      Rhodry laughed as hard as if the world were one daft jest.

      ‘None,’ Rhodry said. ‘So march.’

      Jahdo caught Meer’s arm, and they hurried out, striding fast across the ward with the men disposed around them – not that they could hide Meer, tall as he was, of course. Jahdo, however, had trouble seeing through them, although he could just make out the many-towered broch complex, looming against the darkening sky and drawing closer and closer. They ducked suddenly into a door, which Rhodry slammed behind them, turning wherever they were as dark as pitch.

      ‘Curse you, Rhodry!’ Yraen snarled. ‘I’m not climbing all those stairs in the dark.’

      ‘Then get yourself into the great hall and grab us a candle lantern. The servants should be lighting them about now. Draudd, Maen – when Yraen returns, you’re dismissed, but say one word about this, and you’ll have me to deal with.’

      ‘I’ve forgotten already,’ Draudd said. ‘Even though I’m still here.’

      Once Yraen came back with a punched tin lantern, they climbed the staircase by its mottled and flickering light, up and up, round and round, until Meer and Jahdo both were panting for breath. At the landing at the top, Rhodry let them pause among the heaped sacks.

      ‘Now mind your manners in here,’ he whispered. ‘We’re going to see Jill, and she holds your fate in her hands.’

      Jahdo immediately pictured some great queen out of the ancient tales. He was not, therefore, prepared for the reality when Jill flung open the door. The chamber behind her glowed with a peculiar silver light that clung to the ceiling and sheeted down the walls as if it were water, and backlit as she was, he honestly thought her a skeleton or corpse. He screamed, making Meer grab his shoulder hard.

      ‘What is it?’ the bard snapped. ‘What is it?’

      Jahdo tried to speak but could only stammer. When Rhodry howled with his usual crazed laughter, the boy burst into tears.

      ‘What are you doing to him?’ Meer bellowed with full bardic voice. ‘He’s done no harm to aught of you.’

      ‘It’s all right,’ Yraen broke in. ‘Jahdo, stop snivelling.’

      ‘Ye gods,’ Jill snarled. ‘Will you all hold your wretched tongues? Do you want half the dun running up here to see what the commotion is?’

      That sensible question silenced everyone.

      ‘Much better,’ Jill said. ‘Come in, come in, and my apologies for frightening you, lad.’

      With new courage Jahdo led Meer straight into the chamber. Now that he could see that she was a perfectly normal woman, though certainly not an ordinary one, he was expecting to find the peculiar glow just some trick of moonlight or torches. Unfortunately, it was nothing of the sort.

      ‘Meer, there be magic at work here,’ he whispered. ‘The light does shine all over everything, like dust or suchlike. I mean, if moonlight were dust it would look like this, and she’s got books, great big books. There must be twenty of them.’

      Jill grinned at that. The Gel da’Thae was turning his huge head this way and that, listening to every sound he could register, and his nostrils flared, too, as if he were sniffing the air like a horse. Since his hand lay on Meer’s arm, Jahdo could feel him trembling. All at once Jahdo remembered hearing Rhodry and Yraen speak of this woman during the long ride back to Cengarn.

      ‘You be the mazrak!’ he burst out. ‘The falcon I did see following us.’

      Meer clutched his staff hard between both hands and growled under his breath.

      ‘I have no idea what a mazrak may be,’ Jill said mildly. ‘So how could I be one?’

      ‘But the falcon. We did see it, and then Rhodry and Yraen did come with the squad, and they knew right where we’d be, didn’t they? They did speak of you and said your name, and I could tell they were following your orders.’

      Jill glanced at Rhodry.

      ‘I agree with you,’ she said. ‘This child’s much too bright to be locked in a stinking dungeon.’

      She was admitting he’d guessed right that indeed he was facing a real sorcerer. Jahdo clutched the talismans at his neck.

      ‘I understand that you’re a bard,’ Jill said to Meer. ‘So you shall have the only chair I’ve got. Rhodry, Yraen, if you’ll just stand by the door? In fact, Yraen, if you wouldn’t mind standing on the other СКАЧАТЬ