Darkspell Read online

  “What makes you think you can swing a sword?” he said.

  “Ask my men. I never boast about myself.”

  “I already spoke with Ricyn. He had the gall to tell me that you go berserk.”

  “I do. Are you going to call me a liar?”

  “It’s not my place to call you anything. The king ordered me to take you and your men into his guard, and I do what he says.”

  “And so do I.”

  “From now on you do what I say. Understand me, lass?”

  With a flick of her wrist, Gweniver dumped the contents of her tankard full into his face. As the lords at table gasped and swore, she swung herself free and rose, staring at Dannyn, who looked up, as cold as winter ice, and let the ale run down his face unnoticed.

  “Listen, you,” she said. “You’re a son of a bitch, sure enough, but I’m the daughter of a Wolf. If you want to test my skill so badly, then come outside.”

  “Listen to you. Feisty little wench, aren’t you?”

  She slapped him across the face so hard that he reeled back.

  “No man calls me a wench.”

  The great hall turned dead silent as everyone in it, from page to noble lord, turned to watch.

  “You forget to whom you speak,” she went on. “Or are you blind and unable to see the tattoo on my face?”

  Slowly Dannyn raised his hand to his cheek and rubbed the slap, but his eyes never left hers. They were cold, deep, and frightening in their intensity.

  “Will my lady accept my apology?”

  When he knelt at her feet, the entire hall gasped with a sound like sea waves.

  “I’m most truly sorry I insulted you, Your Holiness. Truly, a madness must have taken my heart. If any man dares call you a wench again, then they’ll have to answer to my sword.”

  “My thanks. Then I forgive you.”

  With a small smile Dannyn rose and wiped his alesopped face on his shirtsleeve, but still he looked at her. For the briefest of moments she was sorry that she’d sworn the vow of chastity. His fluid way of moving, his easy stance, his very arrogance struck her as beautiful, as strong and clean as the cut of a sword blade in the sun. When she remembered the dark eyes of the Goddess, the regret passed.

  “Tell me somewhat,” he said. “Do you ride at the head of your warband?”

  “I do. I’d rather die than have it said of me that I lead my men from the rear.”

  “I expected no less.”

  Dannyn bowed, then walked slowly and arrogantly through the lords to the door. Once it shut behind him, the hall burst into a rustle of whispers.

  “Ye gods!” Gwetmar wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I truly thought your last hour had come. You’re the only person in the kingdom who’s crossed Dannyn and lived five beats of a heart longer.”

  “Oh, nonsense,” Gweniver said. “He’s got more sense than to injure a sworn priestess of the Moon.”

  “Hah!” Maemyc snorted. “Dannyn does his killing first and his thinking afterward.”

  It was some time later that a page came to Gweniver and told her that the king wished to speak with her privately. Mindful of the enormous honor being paid her, she followed him up to the second floor of the main broch, where Glyn had a suite of apartments furnished with carved chairs and tables, hung with tapestries, and carpeted with fine Bardek weaving. The king was standing at a hearth of pale sandstone, carved with ships and interlacements. When she knelt before him, he bade her rise.

  “I was thinking of all your kin who’ve died serving me,” Glyn said. “This matter of the Wolves lies heavily upon me, Your Holiness. Do you wish to petition me to hand the lands and name down in the female line?”

  “I do, my liege. Now that I’ve sworn my vows, I can own naught but what I can carry in one large sack, but my sister will soon be betrothed to a man who’s willing to take on our feud with our name.”

  “I see. Well, let me be honest. I may not be able to move as quickly as I like in this matter of your lands, but I’m quite willing to grant that the name pass down to your sister’s sons. As much as I’d like to remove the Boars from your demesne, much depends on the progress of the summer’s fighting.”

  “My liege is most honorable and generous. I understand that my clan’s woes are only one thing among many to him.”

  “Unfortunately, Your Holiness, you speak true. I only wish it were otherwise.”

  As she was leaving the king’s presence, Gweniver met Dannyn, opening that most private of doors with no announcement or ceremony. He gave her a thin twitch of a smile.

  “Your Holiness,” he said. “My heart aches for the death of your kin. I’ll do my best to avenge them.”

  “Lord Dannyn is most kind, and he has my thanks.”

  Gweniver hurried down the corridor, but at the staircase she glanced back to see him still watching her, his hand on the door. All at once she shuddered with cold and felt danger like a clammy hand along her back. She could only assume that the Goddess was sending her a warning.

  On the morrow Gweniver was walking around the outer ward with Ricyn when she saw a shabby old man leading two pack mules through the gate. Although he was dressed in dirty brown brigga and a much-mended shirt with Glyn’s blazons upon it, he stood as straight and walked as vigorously as a young prince. Several pages came running to help him with the mules, and she noticed that they treated the old man deferentially.

  “Who’s that, Ricco?”

  “Old Nevyn, my lady, and that’s truly his name. He says his da named him ‘no one’ in a fit of spite.” Ricyn looked oddly in awe of the old man as he spoke. “He’s an herbman, you see. He finds wild herbs and brings them in for the chirurgeons, and then he grows some here in the dun, too.”

  The pages were taking the mules away. An underchamberlain who was passing by stopped to bow to the herbman.

  “Now, here,” Gweniver said, “obviously our Nevyn is a useful sort of servitor to have, but why do people treat him like a lord?”

  “Uh, well.” Ricyn looked oddly embarrassed. “There’s just somewhat about the old man that makes you respect him.”

  “Indeed? Out with it! I can tell you’re hiding somewhat.”

  “Well, my lady, everyone says he’s dweomer, and I half believe it myself.”

  “Oh, nonsense!”

  “It’s not, my lady. Here, the king’s been known to go down to old Nevyn’s garden and talk with him for hours.”

  “And does that mean he’s dweomer? No doubt the king needs to lay aside affairs of state from time and time, and the old man probably just amuses him or suchlike.”

  “If my lady says so.” But it was plain that he didn’t believe a word of what she said.

  At this point, Nevyn himself walked over with a friendly greeting for Ricyn, who promptly bowed to him. When the old man looked at Gweniver, his eyes turned as ice-cold as the north wind and seemed to pierce into her very soul. Suddenly she was sure that she knew him, that in some strange way she’d been waiting to find him, that her entire life had led her here to this shabby herbman. Then the feeling faded, and he gave her a pleasant smile.

  “Good morrow, my lady,” he said. “Your fame has spread through the whole dun.”

  “Has it, now?” Gweniver still felt shaken. “Well, I suppose that gladdens my heart.”

  “Well, a Moon-sworn warrior’s a rare thing, but truly, the times are dark enough for Her of the Sword-Struck Heart.”

  Gweniver frankly stared. How did a man know that secret name? Nevyn bowed gravely to her.

  “You’ll excuse me, Your Holiness. I have to make sure those pages unpack the herbs carefully. No doubt we’ll meet again.”

  When he strolled away, Gweniver stared after him for a long time. Finally she turned to Ricyn.

  “Oh, well and good, then, Captain,” she snapped. “He’s dweomer, sure enough.”

  At about the same time, the king was holding conclave in the narrow council chamber, which stood bare except for a long table and a parchment
map of Deverry on the stone wall. At the head of the table Glyn sat in a high-backed chair draped with the ceremonial plaid of the kingship. Dannyn sat at his right, and the councillors in their black robes perched on stools like crows round spilled grain. This particular morning the king had invited Amain, high priest of Bel in Cerrmor, to attend. While the councillors rose one at a time to give solemn advice on matters of war, Dannyn stared out the window and thought of other things, because the real decisions would be hammered out later between the king and his warrior-vassals. Toward the end of the meeting, though, the discussion hit upon a matter that caught Dannyn’s attention. Saddar, an old man with white side whiskers and trembling chin, rose and bowed to the King.

  “My most humble apologies, my liege, for questioning you,” he said. “But I was wondering why you took the Lady Gweniver into your warband.”

  “After all her clan’s done for me, I didn’t feel I could deny her the boon she begged for. I’m sure Dannyn here can keep her from coming to any real harm, and soon enough she’ll tire of riding to war.”

  “Ah.” The old man paused, glancing at the other councillors for support. “We were thinking that perhaps she could be spared the rigors more simply, you see, by simply coercing her back to her temple, then telling her men later.”

  Dannyn pulled his jeweled dagger and threw, hitting the table directly in front of Saddar. With a shriek the councillor leaped back as the dagger stuck, quivering in the wood.

  “Tell me somewhat,” Dannyn remarked. “How can a coward like you judge a warrior like her?”

  When the king laughed, all the councillors forced out laughs, too, even Saddar.

  “Dannyn thinks highly of her spirit, good sirs,” Glyn said. “I trust his judgment in such matters.”

  “Never would I question Lord Dannyn in matters of war, my liege. I was merely thinking of the propriety of the thing.”

  “You can shove that up your behind,” Dannyn snapped.

  “Hold your tongue!” the king intervened sharply. “Good councillor, I assure you that I respect your wisdom far more than my arrogant brother here does, but I’ve already given the lady my sworn word of honor. Besides, I’ve invited his holiness here to the council to explain this matter for us.”

  Everyone turned to the priest, who rose with a nod of recognition all round. Like all of Bel’s vassals, his head was shaved clean, and he wore a gold torque around his neck and a simple linen tunic, belted at the waist with a bit of plain rope. From the belt hung a small golden sickle.

  “The king wished to know of the status of Lady Gweniver’s worship,” Amain said in his soft, dark voice. “It’s a most legitimate one, going back to the Dawntime, when, as the chronicles record, women were forced to become warriors by the cruel press of circumstance. The worship of the Moon in Her Darktime is by no means to be confused with the rites of either Epona or Aranrhodda.” At the mention of the second name, he paused to cross his fingers in the sign of warding against witchcraft. Many of the councillors did the same. “Now, truly, I was surprised to find that the knowledge of the warrior rites remains alive, but I gather the holy ladies of the temple have kept the lore of such things intact.”

  As Amain sat back down, the men looked uneasily among themselves.

  “So you see, good Saddar,” Glyn said, “that I can’t cross the will of the Holy Goddess in this.”

  “Of course not, my liege, and may She forgive me for ever questioning the lady’s purpose.”

  The council broke up in conciliatory nods and bows all round. As Glyn strode out of the room, Dannyn lingered just long enough to retrieve his dagger from the table. While he sheathed it, Saddar watched with poisonous eyes. Dannyn hurried after the king and followed him up to his private apartments. Glyn had a page bring them each a tankard of ale, then sat down in a chair by the hearth. Although Dannyn took the chair his brother offered him, he would have gladly sat by his feet like a dog.

  “Now, here, Danno,” the king said, “that pack of blowhards wearies me as much as they weary you, but I’ve got to have their loyalty. Who else is going to run this piss-poor excuse for a kingdom when we’re gone on campaign?”

  “True spoken, my liege, and you have my apologies.”

  With a sigh Glyn sipped his ale and stared into the empty hearth. Lately he’d been slipping into these dark moods; they troubled his brother deeply.

  “What aches your heart, my liege?” Dannyn said.

  “Lord Avoic’s death, and the deaths of all his brothers, too. Ah, by the gaping hells themselves, there are times when I wonder if I can be king, when I think of all the death that my claim’s brought to the kingdom.”

  “What? Here, only a true king would have such doubts. I’ll wager Cantrae doesn’t give a pig’s fart who dies in his cause.”

  “You believe in me, don’t you, Danno?”

  “I’d die for you.”

  Glyn looked up, his eyes cloudy with something suspiciously like tears. “You know,” he said after a long moment, “there are times when I think I’d go mad without you.”

  Dannyn was too shocked to speak. With a toss of his head, Glyn rose.

  “Leave me,” he snapped. “We would be alone.”

  Without bothering to bow, Dannyn hurried out. His heart heavy, he wandered out to the ward. His one consolation was that Glyn’s dark mood would probably break once they rode to the war, but it was a shallow one. It was quite likely that there would be little direct fighting this summer. He himself would probably lead what raids there were while the king stayed in his dun and brooded, because he was too important to risk to a chance wound in some insignificant action.

  His aimless walking eventually brought him to the barracks area. Out in front of their stable, the Wolf’s war-band were grooming their horses. Lady Gweniver herself perched on the tongue of a wooden cart and watched them. For all her cropped hair and men’s clothing, Dannyn could only think of her as a woman, and an attractive one at that. Her large, luminous eyes dominated her face and sparkled like beacons that drew him toward her. The way she moved attracted him, too: every gesture definite yet fluid, as if she drew upon a hidden source of energy. When she saw him, she slid off the wagon tongue and came over to meet him.

  “Lord Dannyn, my men need blankets and clothes.”

  “Then they’ll have them today. You’re part of the king’s household now, so remember that what you and your men need is part of maintenance.”

  “My thanks, then. Our liege is truly most generous.”

  “He is. I’ve got more reason than most to praise his generosity. How many bastard sons have ever been given a title and a place at court?”

  When she winced, he smiled. He liked getting the delicate subject of his birth out in the open and shoving it into the faces of the noble-born before they could use it against him. For a moment he considered, remembering Amain’s lecture on her worship, but something seemed to drive him to speak.

  “That moon on your cheek, does it mark a true vow?”

  “And what else would it be?”

  “Well, a ruse, I thought, a way to travel safely, and never would I blame you. A woman on the road with a warband had better have the Goddess’s protection—or make men think she does.”

  “That’s true enough, but this crescent embraces my whole life now. I swore to Her, and I stay faithful to Her.”

  The quiet coldness in her voice left no doubts.

  “I see,” he said hurriedly. “Well, far be it from me to question how a priestess has her visions. There’s somewhat else I wanted to ask you. Does your sister have a suitor that you favor for her? I’ll speak to the king on his behalf.”

  “Would you? That’s an enormous favor you’re offering me.”

  “What? What makes you say that?”

  “Oh, come now, my lord, don’t you see what a treasure you’ve got in the eyes of the court? You’ve got more influence with the king than any man alive. If you don’t value it, it could turn into a curse.”

 
Dannyn merely smiled, puzzled by the urgency in her voice. He never knew what to say when women carried on about unimportant details. After a moment she shrugged.

  “The suitor I favor is Lord Gwetmar of the Alder clan.”

  “I’ve fought beside him, and he’s a good man. I’ll mention him to the king.”

  “My thanks.”

  With a little curtsy Gweniver walked away, leaving him filled with dark hiraedd for a woman he could never have.

  Lord Dannyn kept his promise about speaking to the king much sooner than Gweniver had expected. That very afternoon Saddar the councillor came to her chamber with important news. As a deference to his age, she sat him down in a chair by the hearth and poured him a small serving of mead, then took the chair opposite.

  “My thanks, Your Holiness,” he said in his thin, dry voice. “I wanted to tell you personally that it gladdens my heart that the Wolf clan will live.”

  “And my thanks to you, good sir.”

  He smiled and had a dainty sip of mead.

  “Now, the king himself asked me to come speak to you,” he went on, stressing the words “the king himself.” “He has made an important decision, that Lord Gwetmar shall lay aside his allegiance to the Alder clan and marry your sister.”

  “Splendid!” Gweniver pledge him with her goblet. “Now all we’ve got to do is get Macla out of the temple safely.”

  “Ah, I have further news on that. The king wishes you to fetch her soon. He’ll be lending you and Gwetmar two hundred men from his personal guard to add to your warbands.”

  “By the gods! Our liege is most generous.”

  “So he is. Lord Dannyn will accompany you at their head.”

  Saddar paused, as if expecting some momentous reaction. Gweniver cocked her head to one side and considered him.

  “Ah, well,” the councillor said at last. “And what does her holiness think of Lord Dannyn, if I may ask?”

  “My men tell me that he’s splendid in battle, and truly, good sir, that’s all that matters to me.”

  “Indeed?”

  Something about the old man’s smile made her remember the odd warning she’d received from the Goddess, but still she said nothing.