Lightnings Daughter (16 page)

She was quite right. Escorted by Lord Caurus and the warriors of the clan, Gabria and her party were led through the treld to the stone huts at the edge of the camp that were used to house guests.

The huts were cold, damp, and sparsely furnished with a few cots and a fireplace. As soon as the party reached the huts, the Reidhar left them for the rest of the afternoon. No one came to talk, offer wine, or bring food or firewood, and no one brought blankets or the barest necessities due to a guest. The Reidhar blatantly ignored them all.

After a while, Piers found the clan healer and talked him into giving them enough firewood to light a fire in one of the huts. Two warriors, Secen and Keth, filled the water skins at the stream, and Gabria and Sayyed unpacked the bedrol s. After a great deal of trouble and effort, Athlone and Bregan found a trader willing to deal for several horses.

The trader was from Calah and spent his time traveling the plains and dealing in horseflesh. He had stopped at Reidhar Treld for a few days and had been disappointed with the trade so far. He was pleased to barter with the Khulinin for their pure-blooded Harachan.

Several hours later, Athlone and Bregan returned to the guest huts with three new horses. Lord Athlone was pleased with the deal, for the trader had taken the three Khulinin pack horses in an even exchange for three Calah horses. Athlone knew the trader had gotten the best deal, because the clan horses had better breeding and training and only needed a little rest and food to be back in shape. Stil , the Calah horses were sturdy, strong, healthy, and available. Even Bregan had not been displeased. He had chosen a black gelding with long legs for his mount.

It was dusk by the time Athlone and Bregan had settled and fed the horses and made their way to the huts. Both of them were hungry and looking forward .to the evening meal. By the unwritten clan code of hospitality, it was the chieftain's duty to feed his guests. If the guest was a visiting lord, then he and his escort were always invited to share the host chief’s meals. Thus Athlone ful y expected an invitation to Caurus's evening meal awaiting him when he returned. But when he inquired about it, Piers shook his head.

"My lord," the healer replied, "there is neither food nor a message from Caurus. We are as good as forgotten."

"This insult shal not be ignored," Athlone snarled. He slammed his sword and scabbard on a cot beside him. "Remove your weapons," he told his men. "We are going to the hall to eat with Lord Caurus.

All of us." He waited impatiently while Sayyed and the warriors left their swords, bows, and daggers on the cots. Slowly the chief brought his temper under control. It would not help their problems if his fury got the best of him.

When everyone was ready, he nodded once to his men and turned to Gabria. She was standing by the fire dressed in her long skirt and over-tunic. He was surprised to see she was wearing the armband he had given her and carrying her jeweled dagger in a scabbard under the sash of her skirt.

"Caurus may not feed you if I come,” she said. Her words were spoken half in jest, but her eyes were shadowed with worry.

"Caurus wil have no choice," Athlone retorted. He crossed his arms, and his lips curved upward in a harsh smile. "I'm sure he has done this deliberately to show his anger at me for bringing you to his treld.

The clans will never learn to accept magic-wielders if we let chieftains like Caurus get away with these insults."

Gabria looked at his face, and for a moment she saw something there she had never noticed before. That cold, calculating smile was exactly like his father's. Lord Savaric had been a deliberate, control ed, cunning man who had often harnessed his anger to fire his actions. He had always sought for ways to turn difficulties to his advantage.

Gabria sighed to herself. Athlone was going to need every scrap of his father's wiles and self-control tonight.

The treld was peaceful as the travelers left their hut and walked down the path toward the hall. The sun had dropped below the hil s, leaving the plains to the approaching night. The smells of cooking food and wood smoke mingled in the treld with the usual smells of animals and people.

As the party approached the chieftain's hal , Bregan took the lead and the other hearthguard warriors gathered around their lord. Piers, Khan'di, and Sayyed drew close to Gabria. Without asking to enter, they walked past the startled guards and strode under the flapping yel ow banner above the doors into the large stone hall.

Lord Caurus, his wer-tain, a few hearthguard, and several bachelors were grouped around a long, wooden table near the center of the hal . Caurus's wife, Lady Maril, and two girls were busy serving the men from a platter of roast meats and a kettle of stewed vegetables.

The entire group fell silent as the Khulinin chief and his companions entered the hal . Lord Caurus, for once, went very pale.

"Forgive me, Caurus," Athlone said, his voice amiable. "We seem to be late."

There was nothing for the Reidhar to do, short of openly insulting the Khulinin, so he accepted the party's presence. With an ill-tempered look and a grudging gesture, Lord Caurus ordered the bachelors to another table and had places cleared for Athlone and his party. Lady Maril hastily set eating knives and plates for the guests and poured wine. The Reidhar warriors did not utter a word.

The serving girls brought more meat and vegetables and laid out baskets with thick slabs of bread.

Gabria thought the meal would have been quite good if the silence and tension had not been so palpable. As it was, she found it very difficult to ignore the hostile looks of her hosts. Even Lady Maril, who sat beside her lord to eat her meal, remained grimly quiet.

Finally, the silence became too much for Lord Caurus. He pushed away his platter and said to Athlone, "I heard you found some spare horses."

Athlone continued to eat for a few minutes before he answered. "Ah, yes. A trader from Calah had a few strong horses he was willing to part with. Unfortunately, he only had three. The rest of the stock we saw was quite poor." He took a bite of bread and did not bother to look at Lord Caurus.

Caurus colored slightly and leaned back in his carved chair. "Your horses seem weary. You have been traveling fast?"

Athlone nodded. "As fast as we could." He was not going to give this ill-mannered boor the satisfaction of an easy answer. He gestured to a girl for another helping of meat.

"Your business must be urgent."

"Yes,” the Khulinin chief replied casually.

"Where are you going?" Caurus pressed.

"Hunting."

At the other end of the table, Sayyed choked back a laugh, and Caurus turned fiercely on him. "And you, Turic, what are you doing with clansmen?"

The young tribesman stood up and bowed. "I am Sayyed Raid-Ja, son of Dultar of Sharja. I am traveling the Ramtharin Plains to compare the hospitality of the clans."

"And you, Pra Deshian,” Caurus rapped at Khan'di.

"Where are you going?"

The stocky nobleman raised and lowered his eyebrows as if he had just been asked a stupid question. "With them," he said, waving his hand at the table in general.

"I see." Caurus twisted his mustache in anger. His expression was thunderous, and white showed around the edges of his mouth. He felt it was bad enough that the Khulinin had come without warning, stampeding through his camp with their sorceress in tow, and now they wouldn't even tel him about their journey.

"By the way,” Athlone broke in pleasantly, "we still need a few supplies. Trail food. A new water bag. Grain. Some leather to repair our tack."

"To go hunting,” Caurus said sarcastically.

Wer-tain Gringold suddenly slammed his eating knife on the table. "Lord, I wouldn't give them a used horseshoe."

"We don't need horseshoes,” said Bregan as reasonably as he could manage.

The wer-tain turned to the Khulinin beside him and studied Bregan for a moment until a flicker of recognition lit in his narrow eyes. He curled his lip. "It's a good thing your chief is only going hunting.

With you as a guard, he's going to need better luck than his father."

"Bregan!" Athlone's voice cut like a whip across the silence and stopped the warrior in mid-lunge.

The wer-tain chuckled as Bregan forced himself to sit down again.

"Now," Lord Athlone said to Caurus, "about those supplies."

Caurus scowled. "We have little to spare. This has been a bad winter."

Khan'di looked amazed. "A bad winter? We didn't know. I'd heard you had a
prosperous
summer last year, since you weren't involved in that unpleasantness with Lord Medb. Besides, the weather has been quite mild this season."

Athlone raised his hand to forestall the Reidhar chief’s angry retort. "Caurus, look. We need those supplies badly. I cannot tell you exactly why or where we're going because your treld is too close to the caravan road. Word can spread fast, and we need the element of surprise. Just know our mission is very important. If we had not needed new horses so badly, I wouldn't have bothered you."

Caurus's anger subsided a little, and he shifted his heavy frame in the chair. For the first time he looked directly at Gabria and asked, "And what of the sorceress? Is she a part of your important mission?"

Gabria had been quiet during the meal, trying to stay out of the conversation and not exacerbate the raw emotions in the room. At Caurus's question, she looked up and met his stare with a cool expression of her own. "I am only a part of this troupe, Lord Caurus, and I can promise you that I have control ed my sorcery and kept my vow to the chiefs."

"Huh!" Gringold said harshly. "What is a vow to a magic-wielder? They twist and turn their promises like nests of snakes until no one knows where the words begin or end. Remember Lord Medb and his silky promises? You are just like him, treacherous and evil."

"She saved your clan, you miserable slug,” Secen, the Khulinin warrior, snapped.

Gabria, amazed by the warrior's quick defense, smiled at him with gratitude.

"Since none of you had the guts to fight,” Bregan added.

This time it was Gringold who leaped to his feet. His golden wer-tain's belt glittered in the firelight as he reached for his eating knife.

"Gringold!" Caurus shouted as the other warriors jumped up. "Sit down."

The big wer-tain was too angry to obey. He snatched a heavy platter from the table and brought it down hard on Bregan's head. The older warrior slumped sideways on the table, dazed and bleeding from his reopened head wound. Without a pause, Gringold slashed at Secen with a knife and caught a third Khulinin warrior in the stomach with the platter. Then, before anyone could stop him, he lunged across the table and grabbed Gabria's wrist. "Viper!" he shouted at her. "You saved nothing but your worthless neck."

Athlone, at the end of the table, snarled a curse and leaped toward the wer-tain. Before the chief could get there, Sayyed desperately grabbed for Gringold's knife arm, and Bregan tried to block the wer-tain's body on the table. To their dismay, Gringold was a powerful fighter. He swept them off and tried to wrench Gabria over the edge of the table.

However, he had forgotten Gabria's past and her own training as a warrior. Instead of being the screaming, struggling female he had expected, the woman fought back. She snatched a heavy goblet from the table, smashed it into his face, and twisted her wrist out of his grasp.

Swearing, Gringold covered his bleeding nose and looked up to see the sorceress poised in front of him, her dagger drawn and her green eyes blazing. At that moment, Athlone reached him, and a furious blow to the jaw sent the wer-tain reeling. Even that did not stop the man. He staggered upright and went after the chieftain.

Lady Maril abruptly jabbed her husband in the ribs, jolting him out of his shocked inactivity.

"Gringold, that's enough!" Caurus shouted belatedly. "You men hold him."

The Reidhar warriors, who had not moved during their wer-tain's attack, now scrambled after Gringold and pinned his arms to his sides.

"My apologies, Lord Athlone,” Caurus said with some sincerity.

"No!" Gringold yel ed. "No apologies. I demand the right to defend my honor by battle."

"A duel?" Caurus exploded. "Whom would you chal enge?"

The wer-tain glanced at Bregan and the other Khulinin warriors, then he shook off his men and pointed at Lord Athlone.

"I chal enge you, Chieftain. To the death,”

Caurus looked aghast. "Don't be a fool, man,” he gasped, rising from his seat.

Gringold disregarded him. "What do you say, Khulinin?"

For a moment, Athlone did not answer. If he accepted and was badly wounded or kil ed, his loss could jeopardize their mission. On the other hand, if he did not accept, his refusal to duel with a man of lower status would seriously harm his influence in the clans and cloud his own honor. He looked about him---at Bregan leaning against the table while Piers tried to staunch the blood on his forehead; at the other warriors, one nursing a cut on his arm and one bent double over his bruised abdomen. Athlone glanced at Sayyed and Khan'di, and finally he looked at Gabria. The woman had sheathed her dagger and was standing quietly nearby.

The sight of her ignited a powerful mix of feelings within Athlone. He knew he stil loved the sorceress in spite of their arguments, and he was furious with Gringold for assaulting her. If that was not enough to fire his temper, his anger, jealousy, and hurt pride from the past days still hammered at his patience and self-control. He felt ready to explode.

Lord Athlone grinned wickedly to himself. He would never admit it aloud, but what he real y wanted was someone to vent his rage upon. Gringold had just volunteered. "Your chal enge is accepted,” he murmured. "You have been rude and insolent. You have insulted and attacked my men.

Worst of all, you assaulted a woman of our clan. For the sake of our honor, I will meet you in the morning. May Surgart bless my sword." Lord Caurus groaned and sank back in his seat. Without another word, Athlone gathered his people and left the hall.

*****