Katherine Kerr - Deverry 11 - The Fire Dragon

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THE FIRE DRAGON
BOOK THREE OF THE DRAGON MAGE
KATHARINE KERR
A NOTE ON THE DEVERRY SEQUENCE
It occurs to me that readers might find it helpful to know something
about the overall structure of the Deverry series. From the beginning of
this rather large enterprise, I have had an actual ending in mind, a set of
events that should wrap up all the books in a dramatic conclusion. It’s
merely taken me much longer to get there than I ever thought it would.
If you think of Deverry as a stage play, the sets of books make up its
acts. Act One consists of the Deverry. books proper, that is, Daggerspell,
Darkspell, Dawnspell, and Dragonspell. The ‘Westlands’ books, A Time
of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, and A Time of Justice, make up
Act Two, while Act Three will unfold in the current quartet, The Dragon
Mage,’ that is, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, and its ‘sister’, The
Fire Dragon. The Gold Falcon will bring the sequence to its end at last.
As for the way that the series alternates between past and present lives,
think of the structure of a line of Celtic interlace, some examples of which
have decorated the various books in this set. Although each knot appears
to be a separate figure, when you look closely you can see that they are
actually formed from one continuous line. Similarly, this line weaves over
and under itself to form the figures. A small section of line seems to run
over or under another line to form a knot.
The past incarnations of the characters in this book and their present
tense story really are one continuous line, but this line interweaves to form
the individual volumes. Eventually - soon, I hope - the pattern will
complete itself, and you will be able to see that the set of books forms a
circle of knots.
Katharine Kerr
PART ONE
Deverry Spring, 850
The year 850. The gods saw fit to give our prince the
victory, but never had we dreamt how high a price they
would set for it.
The Holy Chronicles of Lughcarn
Sunlight streamed into the tower room and pooled on the wooden floor.
Grey gnomes with spindle legs and warty faces materialized in the warmth
and lolled like cats. Despite his great age, Nevyn felt tempted to join them.
He sat in the chamber’s only chair and considered his apprentice, who was
sitting cross-legged among the gnomes. She turned her face up to the sun
and ran one hand through her blond hair, which fell to her shoulders in a
ragged wave.
‘Spring’s truly here,’ Lilli said. ‘I’m so glad of it, and yet I dread
summer. You must, too.’
‘I do,’ Nevyn said. ‘It won’t be long now before the army rides out, and
the gods only know what the battles will bring.’
‘Just so. All I can do is pray that Branoic rides home safely.’
‘You’ve grown truly fond of Branoic, haven’t you?’
‘I have. The prince doesn’t like it much.’ Lilli opened her eyes and
turned to look up at him. You don’t think he’d do anything dishonourable,
would you?’
‘Prince Maryn, you mean? What sort of dishonour -
‘Letting Branno be killed in battle. Putting him in harm’s way
somehow. It sounds so horrid when I say it aloud. I can’t imagine Maryn
doing such a thing, truly. I’m just frightened, I suppose, and it’s colouring
my fancies.’
‘No doubt.’ Nevyn hesitated, wondering if her fear were only fancy or
some half-seen omen. As apprentices so often did, she picked up his
thought,
‘I’ve been meaning to ask you somewhat,’ Lilli went on. ‘You know
how the omens used to come to me? I’d be sewing or thinking of some
ordinary thing, and then all of a sudden the words would come bursting
out of my mouth?’
‘I remember it well.’
‘It doesn’t happen any more.’
‘Good.’ Nevyn smiled at her. ‘It’s a common thing, that a person
marked for the dweomer will have some wild gift, but when she starts a
proper course of study, she loses the knack. Later, once you truly
understand what you’re doing, the gift •will return to you.’
‘I see. To tell you the truth, I’m just as glad. I’d be terrified if I could
see - well, you know - someone’s death.’
‘Just so.’ Nevyn hesitated, thinking. It was likely that if grave harm
befell either the prince or her betrothed, she would know, no matter how
far away she was. He decided that worrying her the more would serve no
purpose and changed the subject. ‘I need to be on my way. The prince is
holding a council - at noon, he said, so I suppose I’d better get myself
there. He stood up, stretching his arms above his head. ‘You may finish
the lesson I set you from the dweomer book.
‘Those awful lists?’
‘I realize that the memory work is tedious.’ Nevyn arranged a mock-
fierce expression. ‘But those calls and invocations will come in handy
some fine day. Learn that first page for today.’
‘I do understand. I’ve got part of them off by heart already.
‘Splendid. Keep at it. But if you finish before I get back, there’s no
need for you to stay shut up inside. The more sun you get, the better.’
Nevyn hurried down the stone stairs, which still exuded a wintry chill,
and walked out to the sunlight and the main ward of Dun Deverry and the
looming towers of the dun itself. Not even the bright spring day could turn
the smoke-blackened stone cheerful. The fortress spread out over the top
of a hill, bound by six high stone walls, lying at intervals down the hill
like chains upon the earth. Tall towers, squat brochs, wooden sheds, long
barracks and stables - they sprawled in a plan turned random by hundreds
of years of decay, the fires of war, and the disasters of siege, followed by
what new building and fortifying the kings had been able to afford. In
among the buildings lay cobbled wards and plain dirt yards, cut up by
stone walls, some isolated, all confusing.
In the centre of this tangle, however, lay a proper ward, and in its centre
rose the tidy cluster of brochs and towers that housed the prince, his
family, his personal guards, and the many officials and servants that made
up his court. Against the black stone bright banners displayed a red
wyvern on a cream ground, lifting and trembling in the breeze. As Nevyn
was crossing this ward, he saw Princess Bellyra just leaving the main
broch tower. With two pages and one of her husband s bards in
attendance, she was heading for the door of one of the side buildings.
Dressed in blue linen, she walked slowly, her hands resting on her belly,
heavy with her third child. Her honey-coloured hair was bound up in a
scarf stiff with embroidery, as. befitted a married woman of her rank.
‘Nevyn! she called out. ‘Are you off to the high council?’
‘I am, your highness. Why are you going inside in this lovely weather?
‘It’s that bit of old map you found for me. I simply have to go see the
room it refers to.’
‘Ah, indeed. I’m curious about it myself, actually. If you could let me
know what you find?’
‘I will. But you’d best hurry. Maryn’s been looking for you.’
Nevyn bowed, then hurried through the double doors of the central
broch. The great hall covered the entire ground floor, a huge round room
scattered with wooden tables, benches, and a small collection of chairs at
the table reserved for the prince himself. At either side stood enormous
stone hearths, one for the prince’s riders and the servants, the other, far
grander, for the noble-born. Despite the spring warmth outside, fires
smouldered in each to drive off the damp.
Nevyn wove his way through the tables and the dogs scattered on the
straw-strewn floor. About halfway between doors and hearths a stone
staircase spiralled up the wall. Hed climbed only a few steps when
someone hailed him from below. He turned to see Councillor Oggyn just
mounting the stairs himself. He was a stout man, Oggyn, and egg-bald,
though he sported a bristling black beard. He was carrying an armful of
rolled parchments.
‘Good day, Nevyn said. ‘Are those the ledgers?’
‘They are, my lord,’ Oggyn said. ‘I’ve recorded all the dues and taxes
owed our prince by the royal demesne I’m cursed glad he can count on the
Cerrmor taxes for a while longer.’
‘So am I. Getting the army fit to march would strip his local holdings
bare.’
‘Just so. We’ll have to wait for provisions from the south, and that s
that. I just hope our prince sees reason. I know he’s impatient to be on the
move ‘
‘Oh, I’m sure he will. I’m hoping that our enemies are as badly off as
we are.’
They climbed in silence to the first landing, where Oggyn paused to
catch his breath. He looked out over the great hall below while he mopped
his bald head with a rag.
‘Somewhat else I wanted to lay before you, my lord,’ Oggyn said. ‘I
saw our princess going about her investigations just now. Is that wise?’
‘Well, the midwives all swear that the walking will do her naught but
good.’
‘Splendid, but that’s not quite my meaning. That bard. Is he fit
company for her?’
‘Ah. I see.’
Nevyn considered his answer. During the winter past, Maddyn, the bard
in question, had caught Oggyn out in some shameful doings and written a
flyting song about them It was his right as a bard to do so, but in his shame
Oggyn wouldn t be caring about rights and duties.
‘He is, truly.’ Nevyn decided that brevity was best. ‘I’ve never met a
man more aware of his station in life. If anything, he’s perhaps too modest
for a bard.
Oggyn set his lips together hard and stared for a moment more.
‘Ah well, Oggyn said at last. ‘None of my affair, anyway. Shall we go
up?’
‘By all means. We should find the prince and his brother there before
us.’
‘I shan’t be able to climb around like this much longer.’ Bellyra laid
both hands on her swollen belly. ‘But I couldn’t stand not knowing. I
wonder if there truly is a secret passage. Tell me, Maddo. Doesn’t that
mark look like it means a doorway of some kind?’
Maddyn held the fragment of mouldy parchment up to an arrow slit for
the sunlight. They we’re standing in a wedge-shaped chamber part way up
one of the half-brochs, which joined the central tower like petals round the
centre of a daisy. According to the piece of map, this chamber should have
had two doors, the one by which they’d entered and another directly
across. Yet the inward bulge of the stone wall opposite showed nothing.
‘It does,’ Maddyn said at last. ‘Perhaps the door’s been walled up.’
The princess’s pages, however, gave up less easily. The two boys
began poking at the mortar and pushing rather randomly on the stones. All
at once the wall groaned, or so it sounded, a long sigh of pain. The boys
yelped and jumped back.
‘So!’ Bellyra said. ‘I’ll wager we have a spy’s holaor suchlike here.
The royal council chamber, the one on the second floor of the main broch,
should be right near here.’
The pages set to again. Dark-haired and hazel-eyed, they were
Gwerbret Ammerwdd’s sons, and apparently they had inherited that great
lord’s stubbornness. They pushed, prodded, laid their backs against the
wall and shoved until, all at once, a section of wall swung inward with an
alarming collection of squeaks, groans, and rumbles.
‘Look, Your Highness!’ said Vertyc, the elder of the pair. ‘Here’s the
door!’
‘Not a very secret one, I must say, with a noise like that. Bellyra took a
few steps forward to peer through the opening. ‘It wants oiling, most like.’
Maddyn joined her and peered through the opening. ‘It’s more a
passageway than a room inside,’ Maddyn said. ‘It might lead to the
council chamber. I wonder if the kings had this made to eavesdrop on their
councillors. There was a hidden chamber like this in Dun Cerrmor. By the
end my father didn t trust anyone, and so he had one built ‘ ‘Shall we find
out?’ Maddyn said
‘By all means’ Bellyra gestured at the pages. ‘You two stay out here. If
that door swings shut, we could be trapped. Don’t look so disappointed!
You can explore it once we come out again, and we’ll watch the door for
you.’
The narrow passage smelled heavily of mice. Some twenty feet along
they heard voices: Nevyn and Councillor Oggyn. Grinning, Bellyra held a
finger to her lips. When they stopped to listen, the sound came clearly.
‘The spring’s upon us,’ Oggyn was saying. ‘We need to requisition
mules and suchlike.’
‘I’ve no idea how many we’ll need,’ Nevyn said. ‘It depends upon the
muster.’
Bellyra could just make out Maryn’s voice. Apparently he was sitting
at some distance from the wall. As the two councillors continued talking
about provisions and transport, Bellyra felt on the edge of tears. The army
would ride out soon, leaving her and the other women behind with only
the familiar summer terrors for company.
When she glanced at Maddyn, she found him leaning against the wall
with his eyes closed. It never ceased to amaze her how fighting men would
sleep whenever they could, no matter how precarious their balance. Grey
streaked Maddyn’s dark curly hair, and he was weather-beaten and gaunt
from his soldiers life, but it was his kindness that had snared her. This
summer she would worry doubly, she realized, both for her husband and
for the man upon whose devotion she had come to rely when dark moods
overtook her. For a moment she found herself tempted to kiss him awake.
The feeling brought a cold panic with it. As the queen of all Deverry, she
would have to keep her honour as pure as a priest of Bel. She took a sharp
step back, kicked a rattling stone, and woke him.
‘It’s stuffy in here,’ she whispered. ‘Let’s leave.’
Out in the cleaner air of the chamber Maddyn took a few deep breaths
and rubbed his eyes. Bellyra sent the boys in for their look around, then
watched him while he studied the fragment of map.
‘Truly interesting,’ Maddyn said at last. ‘So kings eavesdrop like
commoners, do they?’
‘It looks as if the ones here did. The next time Maryn holds a full
council I’ll remember this. I always wonder what he’s like when there are
no women around. He must be quite different.’
‘One would hope.’
Bellyra laughed, and not very decorously, either. There was a time
when that jest would have wounded her to the heart, she realized. Maddyn
grinned at her.
‘Now the real question,’ she went on, ‘is when this passage was built.
I’ve not found a thing about it in the records, which makes sense, of
course. They could hardly keep it secret if they talked about it. But then, I
wonder who did the building?’
‘Perhaps the king had them slain afterwards.’
‘Ych! I hope not. Although-’ Bellyra paused, thinking. ‘Nevyn has an
ancient book called TALES OF THE DAWN-TIME. According to that,
the earliest brochs in Deverry weren’t built with proper floors and
chambers and suchlike. They had double walls, with a good-sized space
between them, you see, and they were empty like a chimney in the centre,
because there would only be one big fire at the bottom to keep everyone
warm. And in those double walls were little rooms and some sort of
corridor called galleries.’
‘I see. This passage could be a remnant of a gallery, then. The heart of
Dun Deverry’s very old, after all.’
‘Just so, and then the only thing the later king would have had to add
would have been this door. And he might have been able to have that
made secretly, if he paid the mason enough.’
‘True-spoken. And especially if the mason were as close-mouthed as
Otho, say.’
‘Quite so. I wonder if our pages have had enough exploring in there? I
hate to admit this, Maddo, but I’m tired and I want to sit down.
Maddyn called to the boys, and in a few moments they hurried out.
Cobwebs glistened in their hair.
‘There’s a little staircase at the end, your highness,’ Vertyc said. ‘But it
doesn t go up to anything.’
‘Unless it’s a false floor,’ his brother, Tanno, joined in, ‘but it would
make ever so much noise to find out.
‘We d best wait till the prince s council isn’t in session, then,’ Bellyra
said. ‘But don’t worry, we’ll come back to look at it.’
They all hurried down the staircase and outside to find the sunlight
leaving them. From the south, white clouds were gliding in, billowing up
into the sky with the promise of a storm. Servants trotted back and forth,
fetching firewood for the great hall while they kept an eye out for the rain.
摘要：

THEFIREDRAGONBOOKTHREEOFTHEDRAGONMAGEKATHARINEKERRANOTEONTHEDEVERRYSEQUENCEItoccurstomethatreadersmightfindithelpfultoknowsomethingabouttheoverallstructureoftheDeverryseries.Fromthebeginningofthisratherlargeenterprise,Ihavehadanactualendinginmind,asetofeventsthatshouldwrapupallthebooksinadramaticcon...

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