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be tied down with cloth strips around Brian's chest. When it was all done he
put the covers back over Brian's naked chest.
"Now, we'll bundle all the boiled strips up in these other pieces of cloth
I've spread out, then tie them up tightly, you and I," Jim said to Liseth.
"Then we'll put the bundles at the back of the table here, if we can make
space for it no, we can't make space. Well, we'll put it at the foot of the
bed. Be careful, Brian, not to kick it off onto the floor."
"Of course I won't," said Brian.
"It's of utmost importance that those cloths inside there are not touched by
anyone else but me or Liseth and thatthey eventually touch no one else but
you," said Jim.
"I understand," said Liseth. She turned to the servants. "Do all of you
understand?"
There was a chorus of voices assuring her that they did.
"Now, m'Lady, we must be getting back downstairs," said Jim.
"Could you not stay a while and talk?" asked Brian, so wistfully that Jim
almost gave in.
"I'd like to, Brian," he said, "and if there's time before I leave, we'll
have some long talks. But for the present it's important that I gather Dafydd
and all the men of the de Mer household here with me in the Great Hall for a
discussion of sorts."
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He put one hand apologetically on Brian's good shoulder, and Brian covered it
for a moment with his own hand.
"I will be patient, James," said Brian, "I promise you."
This meek and trusting assurance threatened for a second to break Jim's
composure; but he kept his face as stern as he could and simply nodded.
"I know you will," he said. He took his hand away and turned to Liseth.
"Shall we go then, m'Lady?"
"If m'Lord wishes," said Liseth.
They went out. On the way down the stairs, Liseth bubbled over with
questions, that Jim did his best to either satisfy or parry. The first and
most important was whether she was to be included in the conference down in
the Great Hall.
Jim had no real reason to keep her away from it, although he found himself
worrying about what kind of suggestions and intrusions she might make into the
conversation. Perhaps, he thought, he could slip a hint to her father to keep
her quiet during the important parts. If her brothers could be called curious,
it had to be admitted that Liseth outdid all of them together two times over,
in curiosity. She wanted to know the why and wherefore of everything.
To get her mind off that, Jim went into the business of the care of Brian
while he was gone. He explained that cloths should be boiled fresh every day
and be ready in case anything had happened to those left over from the day
before. In fact, to be completely safe, freshly boiled and dried cloths should
be used every day, provided it was she herself who carried them upstairs. He
managed to convey, without exactly saying so, that her carrying them upstairs
somehow helped to infuse the cloths with the healing magic. Liseth took this
as a compliment.
In all things, Liseth expressed herself as being not only able, but willing
to take care of everything exactly as he said. Then she brought the
conversation back to the business of the gathering.
"My father and my brothers, withLachlan , are out around our own land, right
now," she said. "I don't believe any of them have left the vicinity of the
castle, however. Shall I send servants to call them in?"
"If you'd be so kind," said Jim. "Tell them I consider it most urgent that we
talk together as soon as possible; and that right away would not be too soon.
Particularly this should be impressed on your father."
"That is easily answered," said Liseth. "I will ride after my father myself.
I know where he will be found. As for your friend the bowman, he is actually
in the castle, or just outside somewhere, working away with those special
arrows that he's been making against the Hollow Men; like those that had such
success against them yesterday, when we were with the Little Men."
"That reminds me," said Jim. "I have to talk to the Little Men, too, as soon
as possible after I've talked to your father and brothers, of course."
"Say you so?" said Liseth. "Then we will need Snorrl again. I can send
Greywings after him, but he will be out of humor if he has to travel a long
distance to get back here, after just being with you."
"I will apologize to him when I see him, then," said Jim.
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"I would advise you do not," said Liseth seriously. "Snorrl is not like we
people. An apology means nothing to him. He does not apologize himself or
understand it from others, except as a sign of weakness."
"Thanks for telling me," said Jim.
He should have known that, he told himself. He should have learned it from
Aargh. In what other, possibly important ways might he be misjudging Snorrl?
Chapter Sixteen
"I believe," Jim was saying three hours later, when they were finally all
assembled about the high table, and the afternoon was drawing to its close,
"I've got a plan to deal with the envoy fromScotland with the gold and the
Hollow Men both.Particularly, a way to perhaps get rid of the Hollow Men
forever."
He paused and licked his lips. He had sat at that table waiting for these
others as they trickled in one by one, beginning with Dafydd, and ending with
Herrac himself, who surprisingly enough took longer to arrive than his sons.
As a result, Jim had been killing time, faced with continual servings of food
and wine. He had managed to avoid most of the food but had drunk more wine
than he would have liked at a time when he wished to be clear-voiced and
persuasive.
However, it now appeared that his initial statement to the rest of them had
been bombshell enough in its own right to make up for any blurring in his
voice while he uttered it.
"Did I understand you to say, m'Lord," said Sir Herrac, his voice overriding
and instantly silencing the clamor that had been set up by his sons all
suddenly speaking at once, "that you thought you had a way to rid us forever
of the Hollow Men?"
"I believe we have that chance," said Jim. "It'll require a force of fighting
men from the Border area; and the assistance of some others whom I plan to go
find tomorrow with the wolf Snorrl, if he also can be found by that time to
lead me to them."
"Then let us hear it, in God's name!" said Sir Herrac, with more emotion in
his voice than Jim had heard there since his mention of his dead wife.
"Yes, m'Lord!" echoed Liseth, her eyes shining. She had been accepted as one
of the party at the table, along with Dafydd and Lachlan MacGreggor, whom Jim
had also needed there, and whom he had forgotten to mention to her in his
first talk of the conference he wished to have.
"That will do, daughter!" said Sir Herrac to her. "Remember you are here on
the condition that you listen but do not speak, at least without asking my
permission first."
"Yes, Father," Liseth dutifully repeated the litany that seemed to come
almost immediately to the lips of all the de Mer children in their father's
presence.
"Now, m'Lord James," said Sir Herrac, turning once more to Jim, "I believe
you may have been about to answer me."
"Yes, indeed," said Jim. "The plan is essentially simple. With Snorrl I've
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been able to find a place from which the Hollow Men, once all gathered
together, can't easily escape if attacked in a certain fashion. I'm going to
try to make each one of them pick up his gold personally to make sure they'll
all be there."
"It will take a large force," said Herrac, "to kill them all, though. I know
not how many friends I can bring to our help." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]