"He admitted he killed…" She couldn't recall the name.
"Miel Edellon. Bah." Menduarthis waved his hand as if shooing a fly. "Good riddance to that one. I told you Lendri's no liar. He did us all a favor when he ripped that throat-though I'll admit our beloved queen hasn't been in the best of moods since. But that isn't what he's hiding from you."
"What then?"
"What's he told you of Nendawen? What's he told you exactly?"
"Nothing. Never mentioned it."
"No?" Menduarthis's brow creased. "You said his name in your sleep, Hweilan. More than once. If Lendri has never told you, let me tell you now. The Vil Adanrath call Nendawen the Hunter. He's some sort of demigod or some such to them. Not a greater god, but he is… what you might call a very, very powerful spirit. Something primal."
"A powerful spirit… hunter?" Hweilan snorted. "Sounds like a bard's tale."
"Nendawen is a hunter, girl. But not only of swiftstags or bear. Nendawen's favorite prey walks on two legs."
"He hunts men?"
"Men, elves, dwarves… whomever finds his disfavor, or sometimes whomever just happens to fall in his path. I've heard stories…" Menduarthis shuddered, though to Hweilan it seemed affected.
"You're saying he's evil?"
"Evil? No. I don't know that Nendawen even thinks in those terms. No. Nendawen is… primeval."
Hweilan smirked. "He's old and woodsy?"
"You have to understand, Hweilan, your world… your cities and walls and castles and fires that keep out the night. Your wizards waving their wands and warriors strutting with their swords on their hips… they think they've tamed the world. Made it serve them. And maybe in their little cities and towers they have. They've tamed it by keeping it out. By hiding. But there are powers in the world that were ancient when the greatest grandfathers of men still huddled in caves by their fires and prayed for the gods to keep out the night. These older powers… they don't fear the dark or the things that stalk in it. They revel in the dark. They are the things that stalk it. You speak of good and evil. When a wolf pack takes down a doe, are they evil? When a falcon takes a young rabbit, is it evil? Or are they merely reveling in their nature?"
"You're saying Nendawen is some sort of beast?"
"Nendawen is to beasts what Kunin Gatar is to snowballs."
Hweilan laughed, but Menduarthis did not join in her mirth. He simply sat there, looking at her, as grave and solemn as she had ever seen him.
"How do you know all this?" she said.
He shrugged. "I've been around awhile. A long while. I was here when little Lendri came here like a little lost puppy. I was here before he and Miel Edellon had their falling out, and I used to have to listen to Lendri pine away." Menduarthis rolled his eyes, very much the mischievous little boy again, and did a very impressive imitation of Lendri's accent. "O, I'll never see my people again. I'm so alone. Woe is me!'"
Hweilan scowled. "You shouldn't mock him."
"I know him," said Menduarthis, "better than you, most likely. He's earned a little mockery from me. And I know all about his people. Your people, too, you Vil Adanrath. An impressive lot of savages, I'll grant you. And that's saying something, considering the company I keep. Lendri could be the most impressive savage of the lot when he set his mind to it. But I'll tell you this. In the entire time I knew him, Lendri only mentioned Nendawen a few times. But every time Lendri spoke of Nendawen-every time, Hweilan-he sounded fearful as a scarecrow dancing round a bonfire. I'll say it plain: Lendri is using you."
"Using me?" She looked at Menduarthis. He was an admitted liar, but she could see no sign of it in him now. "Using me how?"
"I'm not sure. But I do know that the lands sacred to Nendawen were less than a tenday's walk from where we found you. If Lendri is taking you to this Nendawen-someone that terrifies him, and gives even Kunin Gatar serious pause-it can't be good."
"I could use powerful friends right now." Hweilan said it barely above a whisper, more to herself than him, but he heard it.
"I'm sure. But are you sure this Nendawen is a friend? Kunin Gatar…"
She watched him, waiting for him to finish, but he simply looked away and took another drink.
"What?"
"You heard her."
"'She isn't mine to kill,' "said Hweilan, and then she and Menduarthis said at the same time, "Someone else has a claim on her.'"
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the fire crackle in the hearth.
"You think…" Hweilan said at last. "You think this Nendawen has a… a claim on me? What does that even mean?"
"I don't know," said Menduarthis. "But I know someone who does."
"The queen?"
"Lendri."
Hweilan's eyes went wide, and she stared at Menduarthis. He wasn't joking, wasn't playing with her mind. At least not that she could see.
"You still haven't answered the one question I most need answered," she said. "What does the queen intend to do to me?"
"At the moment, nothing. She told me to get you out of her sight and left it at that. I think she'd be quite content if I took you back where we found you and left you to freeze or starve. But the more tormenting Lendri riles her up, the more time she has to think about it…" He pursed his lips and stared into his empty glass. "You want my advice? Let me take you out of here. Tonight. Right now. Take you far away from the queen, far away from Lendri."
"To where?"
"Wherever you want."
She sat, watching him, looking for the slightest hint of insincerity or double meaning. She saw none. But that didn't mean it wasn't there.
"Why are you helping me?" she said.
"Truth be told?" He chuckled. "I'm bored."
"You're bored."
"As a river stone. I've been here too long. People like you and me, Hweilan… we're like the wind, never happy unless we're passing on. Put the breeze in a bottle and it's just dead air. I'm starting to feel dead. The queen gives me a long leash, to be sure. But a hound on a long leash is still leashed, and mine has been chafing a long time now."
"Then why haven't you left?"
"I'm sworn to the queen. Her hound, remember."
"The queen would release you from your oath? You, her faithful hound?"
He leaned over the table again, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Well," he said, "I did say far away from the queen. And, I might add, fast. If we're going to go, best we go quickly. Her arm is strong, but her reach isn't infinite. Besides, I know a few tricks." He shrugged. "And the uldra like me. If she ordered the Ujaiyen after me, they'd scamper off. But I don't think they'd look very hard."
"Ujaiyen?"
"Kunin Gatar's scouts and hunters. Mostly uldra and their tiger mounts. A few eladrin besides. Bunch of simpering, high-nosed frill shirts. They'd be glad to be rid of me."
"So why now?" said Hweilan "Why… me? Why break your oath to help me? I can't believe it's just boredom."
"You're the best chance I have," he said.
"What does that mean?"
"I told you. I think our dear queen is just a little bit afraid of you. At least right now. Give her time to get over it… well, as I said, best go soon. And now would be best." He gave her the mischievous boy smile again. "Before I change my mind."
Hweilan put her elbows on the table and stared into the glowing vapor fuming out of the goblet. She made a show of considering it, but in truth her mind was already made up. A fool's plan, perhaps. But that might be the only type of plan that stood a chance of working.
"One thing," said Hweilan.
"Only one? You're easy."
"I'm not leaving without my father's bow."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Kadrigul stopped, his chest heaving, his breath pluming out from him in a spray of frost. Cold as it was, sweat drenched him, and his heart was beating like war drums.