The Dragon Revenant by Katharine Kerr Page A

afternoon when the wind changed. All around, the ocean stretched wintry blue and lonely, an endless swell off to a gray-mist horizon. Considering the time of year, it was doubtless the only ship out to sea. Its tattered crew of fifteen sailors grumbled at their captain’s decision to make the trip south, but then they were usually grumbling about one thing or another. A rough lot, they went armed with swords and squabbled like the winds themselves, but they were quite respectful of the ship’s two passengers. Whenever Salamander the gerthddyn and his bodyguard, a young silver dagger with the supposed name of Gilyn, took the sea air or stood at the ship’s railing of a morning, the pirates bowed politely, left the deck to give them privacy, and made the sign of warding against witchcraft as they did so. If they had been able to see the small gray gnome that frisked along with the pair of them, they would have outright run away.
    “Ah, the call of the sea!” Salamander remarked one frosty morning. “The vast and windswept sea, at that, and then, far ahead of us, an exotic land and strange clime.” He leaned against the rail and watched the white water foaming under the prow. “Bracing salt air, the creak of ropes and sails—ah, it’s splendid.”
    “I’m cursed glad you think so,” Jill snarled. “I’d rather have a good horse under me any day.”
    “Spoken like a true silver dagger, Gillo my turtledove, but you’re overlooking a great advantage to shipboard life: spare time. Time to plan, to scheme, to brood revenge for the evils done our Rhodry, but best of all, time for you to learn Bardekian.”
    “Is it hard to learn?”
    “Oh, not at all. I picked it up in a couple of weeks the first time I was there.”
    Salamander was forgetting, however, that he was not only half Elvish, with that race’s natural proclivity for language, but also a man with a highly trained and disciplined mind. Jill found her studies maddening. Although she submitted to Salamander’s endless drills, after hours of sitting in the stuffy cabin her stubbornness began to wear on him. It only took a couple of days before his patience snapped.
    “Now here!” he snarled one morning. “You’ve got to put the adjectives before the nouns, you little dolt! If you say ‘ orno mannoto,’ you’re saying ‘the dogs are ten.’ Ten dogs is mannoto orno”
    “Why can’t these idiots speak properly? If putting those ad-things after a name is good enough for the King, it should be good enough for them.”
    Salamander heaved an unnecessarily loud sigh.
    “Mayhap we need a bit of a rest,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to look over our coin, anyway. How much of Gwerbret Blaen’s bounty do we have left? These pirates are both bestial and of repellent aspect, but they do not come cheap.”
    After Jill barred the door, they pooled their coin and counted it out. His long nose quivering, the gnome hunkered down to stare at the precious gold. When Salamander set aside the second installment on their passage, the pile left looked inadequate indeed.
    “Even if we find Rhodry right away, we’re going to have to stay in Bardek all winter,” Jill said. “Is it an expensive sort of place?”
    “It is, but men like a good tale no matter where they live. I shall ply my humble trade, but it’s going to look truly humble in the sophisticated islands. The rich folk won’t pay much for a storyteller, deemed fit only for farmers and slaves.”
    “Well, as long as we eat regularly, we don’t have to live in luxury.”
    “You may not have to live in luxury.” With a decidedly mournful sigh, Salamander began making the coins disappear into hidden pockets in his clothing. “Besides, if I’m not rich, how can I buy an exotic barbarian slave?”
    “What? Who’s going to be buying any slaves?”
    “We are, my turtledove—Rhodry. What did you think we’d do? Demand him back by force or steal him with the sword? This is a civilized country. You