‘Evandar!’ Rhodry hissed.
The dragon slapped her tail upon the ground with a dull boom like an avalanche. He could hear her scuffling to her feet behind him.
‘The very one.’ Evandar made a bow, then raised one hand to point a long and slender finger at the dragon. ‘Arzosah Sothy Lorezohaz! Remember that I know your name.’
She snarled, opening her mouth wide, but she held her place. Enj crouched by the fire and stared at their visitor.
‘What brings you here?’ With a nod Enj’s way to include him, Rhodry spoke in the Deverrian patois.
‘A warning for you,’ Evandar said in the same. ‘Are you heading south?’
‘We are. Cengarn’s under siege. Did you know that?’
‘Of course. I know everything that’s worth knowing about this war, Rhodry Maelwaedd.’
‘Oh, do you now? Then where’s the relieving army? We’ll be looking to join up with it.’
‘Go to Lin Serr first. Garin and his troop of axemen haven’t left yet.’
‘What? I’d have thought them long gone.’
‘There’s an obstacle in their way.’ Evandar flashed him a grin. ‘A small army’s tramping round the countryside. Horsekin.’
Enj winced and swore.
‘The filthy bastards!’ Rhodry said, half-laughing. ‘I want a chance at killing me a few.’
‘You’ll get it,’ Evandar said. ‘But stay on guard while you’re flying south, because there’s some peculiar birds who soar between worlds, and I think me one of them means you harm.’
‘Shapechangers!’
Evandar smiled, briefly.
‘It’s the raven I’d watch out for. A bird of ill omen, always, but particularly ill-omened is the raven I have in mind. You’re wearing some sort of talisman of hiding, aren’t you?’
‘I am.’
‘I thought so. No doubt your enemies are having a fair bit of trouble scrying you out, and so they’ll have to come look for you in the flesh. Be careful, very careful. The raven woman’s as dangerous as they come.’
‘We’ll keep alert, then, and my thanks. Answer me somewhat, will you?’
‘Probably not, but you can ask. I only set riddles. I don’t answer them for naught.’
The dragon swung her head his way and growled. Oho! Rhodry thought.
‘All right, then,’ Rhodry said aloud. ‘Why would you come to warn me? I don’t recall ever doing anything for you, and yet you’ve helped me a good many times now.’
‘I don’t know. It’s a riddle I’ve set for myself, I suppose a riddle as new and shiny as a gold coin, and here I never meant to do such a thing.’ Evandar tilted his head a little to one side, suddenly solemn, and yet it seemed that he was acting the role of a man thinking rather than truly thinking something through. ‘I suppose there’s only one thing the answer could be.’
‘And that is?’
Evandar laid a hand along the side of Rhodry’s face, then kissed him full on the mouth. His hand felt oddly cool, more like silk than flesh, but the kiss was warm enough. Rhodry could neither move nor think till Evandar released him.
‘That could be it, indeed.’ Evandar took one step back and vanished, suddenly and utterly gone, without so much as the flicker of a shadow.
Rhodry raised his hand and touched the dagger to his mouth, stood there narrow-eyed and speechless while Enj goggled and Arzosah made the long rumbling noise that did her for a laugh. Rhodry turned on her with a snarl.
‘Oh stop your cackling, Wyrm! Why didn’t you tell me you could speak the language of men?’
‘You never asked, Dragonmaster.’ She stopped rumbling, but he suspected her of doing whatever it was dragons did when they smirked. ‘So. Evandar isn’t real flesh and blood, is he? I never would have guessed it.’
‘I said hold your tongue!’ Rhodry flung his hand up to make the ring flash. She whined and crouched like a kicked dog. ‘Oh, my apologies. I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.’
‘A harsh man, but a just one.’ She relaxed with a toss of her massive head. ‘I could be enslaved by worse.’
There remained Enj. It took Rhodry a long moment to make himself look his friend in the face.
‘That wretched wyrm,’ Enj said. ‘Pretending she couldn’t understand a word I said, making you babble back and forth like an ambassador!’
Rhodry let out his breath in a sigh. The matter, he knew, would stay closed between them from now on. He sat down again and leaned back against his bedroll.
‘And what or who is this Evandar fellow?’ Enj said.
‘I’m not truly sure. He has the ears and eyes of a full-blooded elf, but I’ve been told by sorcerers that he’s naught of the sort. Riddles, indeed!’ Rhodry spat into the fire. ‘They say he’s some kind of spirit who’s never been born, and that he lives in some kind of magical country that lies beyond the world, not that it’s floating in the air or suchlike – just “beyond”, they say. None of it makes a bit of sense to me, curse them all! But Evandar’s got dweomer, all right, the way other men have blood running in their veins.’
The dragon clacked her fangs in a sound that, he suspected, did duty as a snicker.
‘Indeed?’ Enj considered for a long while. ‘Do you think he’d know where Haen Marn’s gone off to?’
‘I’ve no idea, but I suspect that if anyone does, it’d be him. Maybe I’ll get a chance to ask him.’ Rhodry shot the dragon a murderous glance. ‘And no smart remarks from you.’
Arzosah curled her paw and contemplated her claws, but he could have sworn she was smiling.
After a few hours’ troubled sleep they woke at dawn. Arzosah clambered to her feet and stretched her wings, throwing huge shadows over the entire campsite, then folded them back and waddled down to the river to drink, which took a while because she lapped water like a cat rather than sucking like a cow. The men sat by the ash of their dead fire and shared stale flatbread and a strip of venison jerky.
‘How long till we reach Lin Serr?’ Enj said.
‘On her back? No more than three days, more likely a pair.’
‘There’s some food left, but not much. If we could wait a day, I could catch us more.’
‘Truly, I’ve never seen a man as good as you at foraging in the wild country. But time’s short.’
Enj nodded, glancing away upriver, where once the magical lake and island of Haen Marn had sat upon the countryside like a bowl on a table. By its dweomer it had vanished, taking itself away from marauders and the dangers of war – how or where, they didn’t know. With it, though, had gone Enj’s kin and clan, his home and his entire life, leaving behind only a long stretch of empty grass, green in the bright sun.
‘I was just thinking,’ Enj said in a shaking voice. ‘That it may be that the isle will return, with the danger gone off south.’
‘Think it likely?’
Enj shrugged. His eyes were brimming tears.
‘Tell me somewhat,’ Rhodry went on. ‘Have you ever marched to war?’
Enj shook his head no.
‘I thought as much. Here, why don’t you let me take what food we have, and you stay