"You might say so. Yes, you just might." Hasso nodded emphatically. "We need to talk — right now."
Her mouth tightened. "Are you sure? Or will it only cause more trouble and pain than it eases?"
"It will cause trouble and pain, all right — for the Lenelli," Hasso answered.
"Then I will listen," Drepteaza said at once. "Can we talk here, or do you need to go someplace where no one else can listen?"
He looked around. A couple of other Bucovinan priests, of rank lower than hers, were puttering around in there. "It doesn't matter. They can hear. I think I know why magic doesn't work so well around Falticeni. I think I can make it so Lenello magic doesn't bite on Grenye most of the time. Not always, I suspect, but most of the time."
Her eyes widened. The way she looked at him… It might almost have been the way a lover eyed her beloved. Almost, but not quite. Hasso made himself not think about that. It didn't matter, not for this. "Well, you've got me interested," Drepteaza said. "Tell me more."
"I do that," Hasso said. "In this palace, you have the tooth of a dragon."
"Yes. It is a treasure. And so?"
"Under the walls here, you have more bones of this dragon, right?"
"Of course we do. We are proud that we managed to kill it. We are lucky that we killed it, too. If we hadn't, it could have wrecked Falticeni worse than the Lenelli might."
"Ja." All Hasso had seen of the late, unlamented dragon was that one fang, but it was plenty to convince him. "You know that magic does not bite on Scanno the renegade?"
"I have heard it, yes," Drepteaza said. "I don't know for myself that it's true, but I have no reason to doubt it."
"It's true. I see — I saw — it for myself. It drove Aderno crazy, trying to figure out why his spell wouldn't work." Hasso remembered how the wizard had experimented on a Grenye woman to find out, too. He didn't say anything about that to Drepteaza. Instead, he went on, "Scanno wears a little piece of dragon bone on a thong around his neck for an amulet."
He wondered if she would make the connection. It seemed obvious to him. But lots of things that seemed obvious to him didn't to the locals, Lenelli and Grenye alike. Sometimes, in this world, they weren't. Sometimes he just had a different way of looking at them. They didn't think as logically as he did. Barring a few clerics, the folk in medieval Germany wouldn't have, either.
By the standards of this world, Drepteaza was an educated woman. By the standards of any world, she was a bright woman. All the same, the frown that crossed her face said she didn't get it right away. And then, all at once, she did.
It was like watching the sun come out from behind clouds. "You think dragon bones block spells," she whispered.
"That's right," Hasso said. "That's just what I think. If all of Lord Zgomot's soldiers have amulets, if their horses have them, if my pots of gunpowder have them, too… If that happens, the Lenelli have to fight fair."
"Fight fair." Drepteaza went on whispering while she echoed him. "That's all we ever dreamt of, since they first came across the ocean and landed on our shores. It would be so wonderful."
"Would be?" Now Hasso echoed her.
As she nodded, the sunshine that blazed from her face faded once more. "We are missing only one thing: dragon bones enough to make the amulets we need. There aren't many dragons, and the ones there are live far to the north. They're hard to find, and even harder to kill. Men don't just hunt dragons. Dragons hunt men, too, and they win more often than we do."
"Somewhere in Bottero's realm lies skeleton of a dead dragon," Hasso said. "Scanno knows where."
Drepteaza stared at him. He watched the sun come out on her face again. "If you are right," she said, "you know what this will do to the Lenelli?"
"I hope I do," Hasso answered. "I want dragon-bone amulet, too." So far, his own little spell was holding its own against Aderno and Velona. Here in Falticeni — which also had dragon-bone amulets of a sort — he could believe it would go on holding. If he headed west again? He wasn't sure what would happen then. He wasn't anxious to find out, either.
"Does Scanno know why the dragon bone is so important?" Drepteaza asked.
"He… may." Hasso explained how he'd brawled with the renegade, and the thoughts the brawl called to mind.
"Riskier to send him back into Bottero's kingdom, then," she said. "If he can tell us where the skeleton lies, we can have people who don't know why they're doing it collect the bones and bring them back to Bucovin."
"You should be a marshal," Hasso said. If the people getting the bones didn't know what they were good for, the Lenelli could torture them or cast spells at them till everything turned blue without finding out. The Wehrmacht officer did hold up a warning hand. "Not sure skeleton is still there. Scanno says he's had his amulet for years now."
"Well, if it's gone, we'll think of something else, that's all," Drepteaza said with a shrug. "This is the best chance we have, and we need to grab it." She dropped Hasso a curtsy. "Bucovin is in you debt. I'm sure Lord Zgomot will reward you as you deserve."
"What about you?" Hasso asked.
"It is not my place," Drepteaza said primly. "He is the Lord of Bucovin."
"Too bad. He is not too young and not too pretty," Hasso said.
He wondered if he would make her angry, but she smiled. "And I am too young and too pretty?" she asked.
"You are not too young. You are just right. And there is no such thing as too pretty," Hasso answered.
"You don't think so? You might be surprised," Drepteaza said. Sure as hell, Velona came up in Hasso's mind. Was it the goddess dwelling within her that sometimes made her beauty like a blow in the face? Or was it just that she was what she was?
What she was… was gone. Hasso didn't know how many times she had to try to kill him to get the message across. However many times it was, she'd finally crossed the threshold. He truly believed she didn't want him back. He didn't like it, but he believed it.
Drepteaza wasn't in that class — but who was? She was more than pretty enough. Hasso bowed, returning the curtsy. "I would like you to surprise me," he said.
"I bet you would." She wagged a finger at him. "You cooked up this whole scheme against the Lenelli for no better reason than to get me into bed with you."
"How could there be a better reason?" Hasso asked, as innocently as if he didn't mean every word of it.
"Go pour a bucket of cold water on yourself," Drepteaza said. "Then go talk to Lord Zgomot. He is the one who has to set things moving."
"And after that?"
"After that, go pour another bucket of cold water on yourself," Drepteaza answered. But she was still smiling. Hasso clung to that, as a drowning man would cling to… to an anvil, if he's dumb enough, and odds are you qualify, the German thought. He went off to see Lord Zgomot.
Zgomot was none too young and none too pretty. But he was plenty smart. "If this works," he told Hasso, "it will be the most important weapon we've ever found against the Lenelli."
"Not perfect," Hasso said. "If your army is in a pass and they magic up a landslide, amulets don't stop falling rocks. I am sure of it."
"So am I." The Lord of Bucovin's voice was dry. "We have tried all sorts of things to block their magic. I am not surprised no one thought of dragon bones till now, though. Dragons are just too hard to come by." He spoke to one of his attendants: "Fetch the blond named Scanno here."
"Yes, Lord." The man bobbed his head and hurried away.
When Scanno came in, he had his right arm in a makeshift sling. He took one look at Hasso and stopped dead. "Is this miserable bastard complaining about me, Lord? I ought to complain about him, the — " What followed was a colorful mix of Bucovinan and Lenello.