The dragon said nothing. His experience with prophecies is that they were generally very profitable for the prophets, and only accidentally accurate. But he was withholding judgement on this one.
"But...but it"s dangerous. She"s somewhere in the north. There are bandits, deserters, pieces of armies."
"Did you notice what the spriggan did to your men"s weapons?" she said, tartly. "Do you think it will be safe here? You were telling us we"d have to hide in the marshes or flee north only yesterday."
"I planned to send my bodyguards with you," said the earl.
"And who will guard you while you try to fight the men of Abalach and Cantre"r Gwaelod?" she demanded. "You will need every man."
"Oh, you can send a few along with the boy, if you"re worried about bandits," said Fionn. "I won"t guarantee they won"t come to any harm if they carry axes under trays though. I don"t know about your wife. I find traveling with other people"s wives leads to trouble, and there are the little ones, and I need to move far and fast."
The earl took a deep breath. "Gwalach. Go and prepare my bodyguard to ride. The best of my horses, and spare steeds. The Lady Branwen and my family go north. Sir Spriggan. Do I have your word that you will guarantee their safety?"
"No," said Fionn. "It"s dangerous out there. I will swear that I will do them no harm, and that they"re safe from my lady"s wrath, until you come to make your submission and she decides what is to happen to you. I know her well enough to say she will not punish your family for what you have done. You, I don"t know about. But she is kinder than I am."
The earl bowed his head. Nodded. "I am content with that. I had no idea you spriggans were so strong." He gathered his family around him, holding them. "Sir Spriggan...I have never established your name."
"Spriggans don"t give out their names," said Fionn, truthfully. "You can call me Finn. Some humans do."
"Sir Finn...
"Just Finn. n.o.bility is supposed to come with n.o.blesse oblige and I don"t have much."
"Can we provide you with a horse? You are welcome to the pick of my stables."
"Horses don"t like my kind, unfortunately. But I can run as far and as fast as anyone can ride."
"How soon do you wish to go?" asked Branwen.
"How soon can you get the horses saddled?" said Fionn, helping himself to a piece of cheese.
It was rather more than an hour later that Fionn and Dileas left, complete with an escort of twenty-just enough to get into trouble and not quite enough to get out of it, in Fionn"s opinion. Still, they"d eaten, and at least where Earl Alois"s writ ran, would have no opposition.
Well, mostly. Fionn very soon found out why Earl Alois had been so eager to make his peace with his Sc.r.a.p, besides mere invasion and fear for his family and lands. The country was alive with various fay creatures, and the piskies seemed rather p.r.o.ne to play nasty tricks on the earl and his people. At the first mazing, Fionn strode ahead and found the three piskies doing it. They"d already separated out Alois"s son and were leading him off to a stinking bog.
Dileas ran after the piskies. Rounded them up a lot more effectively than he had done the sheep, perhaps because they were a little brighter than sheep, and perhaps because he"d been studying sheepdog tactics now, with every chance he got. It left the boy on his pony blinking at the bog, at the rest of the party, and at the little, largely naked blue-green piskies, running around in a tight circle in front of Dileas.
"Just what do you think you"re doing?" asked Fionn.
One of the piskies sniffed at him, sulkily. "It"s of Earl Alois"s blood. He nearly killed the lady of Land. She told us."
That was the trouble with piskies. They were all too good at forgetting most of what they were told. But if they fixated on a point, well, they fixated on it. "And I am dealing with that. Do you see me for what I am?" And he let a tongue of fire lick at their underprotected nether quarters. Not enough to burn, but enough to frighten them with the smell of dragon fire. They squealed, and Dileas barked at them. Short snappy barks. Fionn did not have to have a large imagination to hear "shut up" in that bark. The piskies obviously got it. "You tell your friends, and get them to tell their friends, or I"ll send Dileas back to fetch you. And them. He"s a demon dog, see," said Fionn. "Now scram. Leave them and Alois alone until she tells you otherwise."
When he thought about it logically, Fionn could understand why Earl Alois hadn"t told him about it. It was one of the dubious fruits of deception: the earl a.s.sumed he knew, and that all the fay were doing it in an orchestrated fashion, and not that it was merely piskies. It hadn"t seemed to him that the spriggans held this view, or the knockyan. So it was probably just the piskies. They were numerous, and so annoying that most of the others avoided them. But while Fionn knew that, most humans would not.
"Thank you, Finn," said the boy, as the piskies disappeared, leaping into the brambles that trailed over the green duckweed-covered pond.
"Think nothing of it. And thank Dileas," said Fionn. "He"s the one to stay close to the boy. He"s smarter than piskies and he can smell them out. They"re not fond of bathing. Neither is he, but he"ll tell you that"s different."
Fionn noticed the boy glued himself to Dileas and spoiled him where possible, and was soon playing various games with Dileas.
"He"s a very clever dog. You can"t pretend to throw something. And he was throwing sticks," Owain told Fionn the next day.
"Ah. He"s trying to train you to fetch them and give them back," said Fionn. "Some humans can manage that. His mistress juggles. He"s fascinated by that. Watch." And he juggled as Dileas followed the b.a.l.l.s. Fionn was amused to notice the young human and Dileas looking rather like marionettes on the same string. As they traveled, Fionn learned a great deal about Lyonesse, its ruling cla.s.s and just what they"d been up to since he"d been trapped on Tasmarin. This Changer device had to go. It allowed them to leech the magic of other places into Lyonesse, but unbalanced everything-besides the socio-political effects, causing war and destruction.
Their transit across the heart of Lyonesse was relatively uneventful. Fionn was glad. It gave him a chance to think. He had an eye out for the various fay creatures, and the knockyan. A few questions kept him informed of where they"d last heard of his Sc.r.a.p. She was being, as usual, a busy little la.s.s. There were traces of her magic abroad.
She was busy fixing things. Fionn undid a few workings that were fixing things best left broken, or that hadn"t been broken in the first place.
CHAPTER 25.
"Yes," said the spriggan, even before Fionn had to do something like twist his ear. "She and the Lady Neve are up ahead. Half a mile or so. They"re moving across to the east to deal with a mob from Finvarra"s land. They"ve stopped at the stream to water men and beasts."
All morning Dileas had simply wanted to run on, and had been doing little forays of a few hundred yards and then running back to chivvy them on.
Now Fionn came back to the small party of Southerners. "Let me go ahead. We"re just about there, and I"d rather there be no misunderstandings."
Such was the extent that they"d got used to Fionn that no one even questioned this.
So he and Dileas ran. He could run steady as a horse at a trot all day if need be. Dileas had no such systematic method. He ran too fast, panted back, and then kept just ahead.
Fionn saw her in the distance, hair flared as she turned, a face he knew every line of, and his two hearts beat faster.
Dileas must have got the scent at that point, because he deserted Fionn and sprinted.
Dileas ran up to her with little crying whimpering noises. Danced up at Meb on his hind feet, and leapt up at her, making squeaking, yipping noises and literally quivering, his fan tail threatening to beat his head to death.
"Boy, you seem pleased to see me. You look just like my Dileas, only bigger and black."
"Hrf AWHRFFF!" Dileas pawed at his neck.
"What"s wrong, boy? You got something around your neck?" She knelt down on the soft green turf next to the stream and pulled away some of the rolled cloth Fionn had covered the chain with. Looked at it. And with shaking hands she uncovered the bauble on his neck while Dileas attempted to cover her face with adoring doggy kisses. She saw the red glow of it and hugged him fiercely. "Oh, Dileas. It is you. It is! Oh my dog. Oh my baby." Dileas sprawled himself against her, tongue hanging out, panting happiness.
She pushed him away a little bit, to look at him sternly. Still holding him with the other hand, of course. "But, Dileas, I told you to look after him. You didn"t leave him, did you?"
"No," said Fionn. "He brought me along."
She looked up from where she had her arms buried in Dileas"s fur. Looked at Fionn. He"d been nervous about this. Nervous about the pa.s.sage of possibly years. He"d arranged his gleeman cloak-colors out-around himself, as he stood there.
"Finn!" she screamed and ran into his arms while an overexcited sheepdog danced and bounced and barked around them.
And for a long time, that was all, and that was enough. They stood with the dog leaning against their legs, holding each other.
Fionn was aware first of the humming. And then, looking down at Dileas who had just decided he needed to stop for a drink at the stream, the energy flow.
He dived at the dog, grabbing for its throat, s.n.a.t.c.hing the now white-hot piece of crystal there, burning hair. It seared into his hand as he ripped it away, flinging it as hard as he could. It was still not hard or far or fast enough.
It exploded midair, perhaps seventy yards away in a column of violet and incarnadine fire. The explosion shockwave was enough to knock people down and send horses fleeing. Fionn pushed his burning hand into the stream. It steamed and the pain was savage. Dileas, shivering with fright, was in the water too.
"Finn!" screamed his Sc.r.a.p, holding him. "What can I do!? Are you all right? Oh, Finn!"
"Need to keep it cold," said Finn, through gritted teeth.
The stream began to crackle with ice growing in it. "Enough, Sc.r.a.p. Enough." She was a very powerful mage. And she was very frightened. He was lucky not to have the forelimb frozen off. Dileas scrambled out of the ice-sparred water. "Get a piece of ice and put it on the burn on Dil. I think I got it away from him in time, but check his throat and chest, ugh, worse than a hand."
Fionn looked into the clear icy stream water at the damage. He was going to lose part of that limb. At least two talons" worth.
But another two seconds and they would have been dead.
"What happened?" said Meb, shakily fending off the panicky ministration of another round-faced young woman. "I"m fine, Neve. Just frizzled my hair and lashes a bit. Fionn"s burned. And so is Dileas. Just tell everyone I am fine. Just helping the injured."
"The tiny piece of primal fire that should have burned for several millennia was made to give up all its energy at once. Someone made it die in order to try and kill us. But the energy was limited and constrained by the crystal and the magic on it. So that had to grow hot enough to shatter before it could incandesce. Someone wanted to kill us."
"Who?"
Fionn shrugged. It sent a wave of pain up from his hand. "In my case, there is quite a list. But there are very few powerful enough to do it this way. I thought the First had gone. I did not think the creatures of smokeless flame were able to do that, and I thought it would be too holy to them."
"I"ll find them, burn their homes and plow their fields with salt," said his Sc.r.a.p grimly.
He could see her mother in her now. "They"d like that," he said, with as much cheerfulness as he could muster above the pain.
"What...? Oh. Yes. I suppose they would. What would they fear and hate most?"
"Having known them, failure. It hurts worse than anything we could do to them."
"Won"t they just try again?" she asked.
"Possibly. But doing so means admitting they"ve failed. Humans are quite used to failure. You admire people who keep trying. The First do not fail in their endeavors, so, gradually, they did less and less, just in case they did fail."
He could read her expressions by now. That one translated as "It"s not enough." But all she said was: "What about your hand?"
He shrugged again. Regretted it again. "I"m going to have to lose part of it."
"Do you need a chirurgeon?" she asked, worriedly.
Fionn thought of the local bonesetters and what pa.s.sed for medicine in Lyonesse, and how they"d deal with dragon skin and flesh. "No," he said, wincing, pulling the injured hand out. The effects of that kind of heat were grave even on dragon skin and flesh. But dragon tissue did not transmit heat well. That was how they survived brushes with dragon fire. Two fingers and part of his palm to just below the knuckle were largely carbonized. So he bit it off. That was painful. But compared to the pain from the burn damage, not so awful. He squeezed the wound closed.
"You...just bit off half your hand," said his Sc.r.a.p, incredulously.
Fionn nodded. "Less damaging than the burn. My kind of dragon cells are toti-potent. It"ll grow again eventually. Dig into my pouch and give me a piece of gold to put on it."
She did. Fionn noticed how the party with her had rapidly shifted from "with her" to "guarding her." That was good, even if it would not have stopped this. With the gold there, and some mind control exercises, the bleeding slowed, and the pain eased. "That"s a bit better."
Dileas licked him. Someone had shaved away the fur on his neck and upper chest. He had a blistering of the skin there, but it did not appear to be any worse. Fionn was still worried.
"How about we bandage the hand tightly with some pieces of gold against it," said his Sc.r.a.p.
"That sounds better than this," said Fionn.
So they did. "How long have you been here?" asked Fionn as she wrapped torn linen around the hand. "Time can move quite differently in different planes, and I knew that it was possible that you"d be old, or even dead before I found you. You"ve grown. Well, yes the hair, but as a person."
"I think four or five months. I missed you so badly, Finn. I really didn"t keep track too well at first."
"I thought it could have been years."
"Excuse me, m"lady. But there"s a party of Southerners approaching," said the little round-faced girl. "What do you want us to do?"
Meb looked up from her bandaging at Neve. Neve had proved surprisingly good at telling other people what to do, that privies were needed, to fetch water, organize fires...on her mistress"s behalf, without her mistress having a clue what needed doing. But there were times when she felt it was politics, and insisted on leaving it to Meb...who felt that she knew more about privies. The Southerners were led by a st.u.r.dy, worried-looking boy, a girl on a smaller pony, supremely unconcerned about everything, and a woman, quite beautiful, with a young child sitting in front of her. Behind them were what could only be men-at-arms.
"Ah, Branwen and the children. That"s Owain, Elana on the horse, and little Selene with her mother. I brought them along."
Meb knew a moment of terrible jealousy. Tried to stifle it. He"d just explained it could have been years. Probably was for them. And Dileas went running up, and dancing up at the boy. She would understand. She wouldn"t hate them.
"That"s quite tight enough, Sc.r.a.p," said Finn. "It"s Earl Alois"s wife and children. Officially, they"re hostages. Unofficially, I brought them along to teach him a lesson about attempting to kill my favorite human."
"Oh. Um," she colored. "I thought..."
He was always quick on the uptake. He gave a shout of laughter. "No, I haven"t decided to start collecting humans. Mind you, there was a farmer"s wife in Annvn who wanted to collect me. And besides, I think it"s been weeks rather than years, Sc.r.a.p. It just felt like years, while Dileas led me to you."
"He did? He"s so clever. Even though I wanted you to stay away."
"You should see him herd sheep," said Fionn. "We can talk about staying away in a while. Meanwhile, I am afraid I did give my word that they"d be as safe as I could make them."
"I don"t trust Alois."
"I wouldn"t too far. He is ambitious. But the boy is his life. They"re very patrilineal here. That"s what caused all the mess with the queen. Your mother."
"What?"
"I"ll explain. But for now, maybe we need to be nice to Alois"s wife. She"s solid and sensible. If you get her on your side, she"ll keep him there. And Dileas likes the boy."
So Meb graciously met the wife and children of the first man in Lyonesse to try and kill her. "I am sorry. We just had an attempt at a.s.sa.s.sination," said Meb. "Finn saved us, though."
"The spriggan Finn is a great warrior," said Branwen. "Defender. I...I come to ask clemency for my husband, and help for the South. Alois wants to make his submission, but we face two great armies. And the fay seem to have risen against him."
"I think I may have dealt with that," said Finn. "But you may have to tell the piskies to stop hara.s.sing him, and to hara.s.s the invaders instead, Anghared."
Spriggan? Anghared? thought Meb.