The Fire Dragon. Katharine Kerr
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red as if Death herself smiled up at them. When he knelt, he threw the blanket over Branoic’s face first. With Owaen’s help he wrapped Branoic up. For a moment they knelt at his side.
‘Remember us in the Otherlands,’ Maddyn whispered. ‘The gods all know we’ll be joining you soon enough.’
Together they rose, then stood together, shoulders touching. Maddyn looked down at the old blue blanket wound round what was left of a man he’d known for more years than he could remember. He felt his grief like a blanket pressed into his face, smothering him. Involuntarily he shuddered, tossing his head as if to throw it off. He heard Owaen step back.
‘Did you see it happen?’ Maddyn said.
When Owaen didn’t answer, Maddyn looked up to find him staring off at the sunset, his head thrown a little back, his jaw set tight.
‘Ah well,’ Maddyn said. ‘See that stone wall over there, across the pasture? On the morrow, when they bury him, I’ll be wanting to haul some stones to set up a cairn. Will you help?’
Owaen nodded.
‘And what about his poor lass?’ Maddyn went on. ‘It aches my heart, thinking of her praying he’ll ride home soon, and here he’s already ridden through the gates of the Otherlands.’
‘Just so.’ Owaen kicked the ground hard with the toe of his boot. ‘Oh horseshit and a warm tub of it!’ He turned and ran, trotting down the long line of their dead.
Despite the warmth of the night, Lilli had her maid build a small fire in the hearth in her chamber. She wanted light, and lanterns would, she felt, cast only shadows. As she sat in her chair and tried to read, her mind kept turning to the war and to Branoic. No matter how hard she concentrated on the book in front of her, the horrors she’d seen earlier kept breaking into her studies. Finally she laid the book aside and stared into the flames. She found herself thinking of Branoic, remembering the blood sheeting from his face. Nevyn will save him – she told herself this repeatedly but didn’t believe it once.
Suddenly in the glowing coals she could see Nevyn, a tiny figure, it seemed, walking among the ashes. She leaned forward in her chair, concentrated on the image, saw the embers turn into the image of another fire as the darkness of a night camp appeared through the flames. The fire faded away, and it seemed to her that she walked beside Nevyn, who was carrying a cloth sack as he threaded his way through the tents. At length he returned to the tent she recognized as his from the past summer’s expedition. In a stone circle a tidy stack of wood waited for him. When Nevyn snapped his fingers, salamanders rushed forward to light it. He tossed the sack into his tent, then sat down on a stool in front of the fire. Lilli saw him lean forward – the view changed. It seemed to her that she sat on the other side of the fire and looked across at him.
‘Lilli!’ Nevyn’s voice sounded in her mind. ‘How did you reach me?’
‘I don’t know, my lord.’
‘Think to me, don’t speak aloud. I can’t hear you when you actually talk.’
‘Well and good, then. I was looking into the fire, and then I saw you. Can you hear me now?’
‘I can. You must be badly troubled, to reach me this way.’
‘It’s Branoic. I saw it – I mean, I had one of my visions, and I saw him take that wound. How does he fare?’
‘Oh my poor child! I’m afraid he died soon after.’
A flood of tears washed the vision away. Lilli covered her face with her hands and sobbed, rocking back and forth on the edge of her chair.
Although Nevyn tried for some while to reach Lilli again, he failed, picking up only her grief like the sound of distant keening. Finally he broke the link and threw a few more sticks onto his sputtering fire. As the flames leapt, he became aware that someone was standing in the shadows beyond the pool of light and watching him.
‘Who is it?’ Nevyn snapped. ‘How long have you been standing there?’
‘Owaen, my lord, and not long at all.’ The silver dagger captain took a few steps forward. ‘I – er, well – I wanted a bit of a talk with you.’
‘Very well. Come sit down.’
Owaen sat down on the ground about an arm’s length away. For a few moments they stared into the fire together. Owaen’s face was as expressionless as a mask.
‘Ah well,’ Owaen said at last. ‘It’s about Branoic’
‘I see. You’re surprised that you’re sorry he’s dead. You thought you’d be glad, but you’re not.’
‘Just that!’ Owaen looked up sharply. ‘Ye gods, you truly can see into a man’s soul, can’t you?’
‘Only when his feelings are obvious.’
Owaen tried to smile but failed. ‘He got that wound saving my worthless life. I got cut off at the head of our countercharge, and he came up to pull me out of a mob. Ye gods! I thought he hated me. Why would he do it?’
‘You’re a silver dagger and the captain,’ Nevyn said. ‘That’s reason enough.’
Abruptly Owaen raised one arm and buried his face in the crook, but in a brief moment he lowered it again. His voice shook. ‘I was thinking about his woman. She’s left with no one to protect her, if our prince tires of her, I mean. Do you think I should offer to marry her?’
Nevyn’s first impulse, quickly stifled, was to laugh.
‘That’s an honourable thought,’ he said instead. ‘But she has me and her studies. The prince would know better than to try to send her away from court or some such thing.’
‘True spoken.’ Owaen smiled, relieved. ‘I wouldn’t have made her much of a husband, anyway. But I felt I should offer.’
It seemed that the prince was worried about Lilli as well. The next morning, when the army was digging trenches to bury its dead, Maryn summoned Nevyn to his side. They escaped the noise and confusion by walking clear of the encampment. Out in the middle of what had once been a field, they could see a pair of men pulling stones off its boundary wall and carrying them out onto the grass.
The prince shaded his eyes with one hand. ‘That’s Maddyn and Owaen. I wonder what they’re doing.’
‘Building Branoic a cairn, most like,’ Nevyn said. ‘I saw Maddo earlier, and he said that he and a couple of the lads had dug him a proper grave.’
‘Oh.’ Maryn lowered his hand and looked at him with bleak eyes. ‘I thought I’d got used to men dying for my sake. I was wrong.’
‘Well, your highness, this particular death –’ Nevyn let his words trail away.
‘Indeed. Do you want me to find Lilli some other husband?’
‘I don’t. I think me the dweomer will give her all the position in court that she’ll need.’
Maryn nodded, staring at the ground. ‘I’m sending messengers back this morning. I tried to write her a letter, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I don’t know why. I felt as if I’d never known how to read and write.’
Nevyn choked back his own words: it’s because this death gladdens your secret heart. ‘Well, you could send a special messenger,’ he said instead.
‘Good thought. I know! Maddyn. He’s still blasted weak from that spoilt pork. We’re sending the wounded back to Dun Deverry, and he can join the escort.’
For a moment Nevyn felt struck dumb. The dweomer cold seemed to freeze his lips and fill his mouth with ice. Maryn glanced his way and considered him with narrow eyes.
‘What’s so wrong?’
‘My apologies, my liege.’ Nevyn had to force out the first few words; then his voice steadied. ‘That escort? Will it be substantial? I have the oddest feeling