He pulled the rather battered charcoal portrait out of his sleeve and looked at it.
Seldis’ face looked back at him.
He rolled the picture up and stuffed it back in his sleeve. Then he looked around.
Illuré and Seldis had been down to the stream, and were returning with buckets of water. Wuller thought about running over to them and snatching Seldis away, heading back south with her, away from the village — but he didn’t move. He stood and watched as she and Illuré brought their pails to the cistern and dumped them in.
Seldis was not stupid enough to have come all this way just to die, he told himself. She surely knew what she was doing. She would have some way to kill the dragon, some magical trade secret her father had taught her.
At least, he hoped so.
16
As the villagers gathered in Wulran’s main room, that worthy pulled his son aside and whispered, “We’ll listen to what the girl has to say, but then we may need to get her out of here for awhile. You understand. If that happens, you take her out and make sure she can’t overhear anything. Later on we’ll let you know where to bring her.”
Wuller nodded unhappily, then took a seat in the corner.
He understood perfectly. He was to be the traitor ram who would lead Seldis to the slaughter, if it came to that.
A few minutes later Wulran closed the door and announced, “I think everybody’s here.”
A sudden expectant silence fell as the quiet chatter died away.
“I think you all know what’s happened,” Wulran said. “My son Wuller went south to find the girl the oracle showed us, and damn me if he didn’t find her and bring her back, all in less than a month. The gods must like us, to make it as easy as that!”
He smiled broadly, and several polite smiles appeared in response.
“She’s here now,” he continued, “so let’s bring her on out and get down to business!” He waved to Illuré, who led Seldis to the center of the room.
A murmur ran through the gathering at the sight of her.
“I am Seldis of Aldagmor,” the girl announced. Several people looked startled, as if, Wuller thought, they hadn’t expected her to talk. They had been thinking of her as a thing, rather than a person, he guessed — the easier to sacrifice her to the dragon.
Wuller suppressed a growl at the thought. What good would sacrificing anybody do?
“My family has fought and killed dragons since the days of the Great War,” Seldis continued, “and I think I ought to be able to rid you of this one. First, though, I need to know everything about it, and what you’ve already tried. Wuller Wulran’s son told me a little on the journey up here from Sardiron, but I need to know everything.”
Several voices spoke up in reply, but after a moment’s confusion matters straightened themselves out. Kirna told the tale of the dragon’s arrival and the death of Adar the Smith, and of the ancient sorcerous oracle and the image it had shown them. Her sister Alasha corrected her on various details, and Wulran interjected commentary as he thought appropriate.
Seldis listened, and asked a question every so often — did the dragon seem to favor one side over the other when it ripped the smith apart, or did it use both foreclaws equally? Was its flight steady, like a hawk’s, or did it bob slightly, like a crow?
“...so we all agreed that Wuller should go, and the next morning he did,” Kirna concluded, “while we all waited here. From there on, lady, you know better than we.”
Seldis nodded. “And what did you do while you waited?” she asked.
The villagers looked at her and at one another in surprise.
“Nothing,” Alasha said. “We just waited.”
Seldis blinked. “You didn’t try anything else?” she asked.
Several people shook their heads.
“And you hadn’t tried anything else before you talked to this oracle?”
“No,” Kirna said. “What could we try? We saw what it did to Adar!”
Seldis stared around at the gathered villagers, and Wuller knew that she was trying hard to conceal genuine astonishment.
What had she expected them to try, he wondered.
Seldis closed her lips into a thin line, and then said, “Well, you haven’t been very much help, not having tried anything, but I certainly know what I’m going to try first. I can’t believe none of you ever thought to try it. You feed the beast a sheep every day, don’t you?”
Heads nodded, and Wulran said, “Yes.”
“Then I’ll need about two dozen little pouches,” Seldis said. “Pigs’ bladders would be perfect. I didn’t see many pigs around, though, so sheep bladders would do. Sausage casing should work, or even leather purses, if they’re sewn very tightly. They need to be small enough to stuff down a sheep’s throat — but not too small, and it doesn’t matter if it hurts the sheep.”
A confused murmur ran through the room.
Wuller blinked, puzzled. He glanced at his father in time to see Wulran giving him a meaningful stare and making a wiggling gesture with one finger.
His father thought Seldis was mad, he realized.
He rebelled mentally at that. He had spent a sixnight with her, and he knew she was not mad. Whatever she intended to do had to be a dragonhunter’s trick, not a madwoman’s folly.
And whatever it was, he would help her with it.
17
The meeting broke up quickly after that. Seldis refused to explain what she had in mind. Most of the people didn’t seem to think she really had anything in mind, but everyone agreed to let her have a day to make her attempt.
Wulran managed another surreptitious chat with his son, and made it quite clear to Wuller that it was his duty to keep an eye on Seldis and make sure she didn’t slip away.
Wuller agreed, unhappily, not to let her out of his sight.
After breakfast the next morning Seldis rose from the table, stretched, and said, “I’m going for a walk to gather some herbs. Could someone lend me a basket? A big one?”
Illuré produced one that Seldis found suitable, and the three of them, Seldis, Illuré, and Wuller, strolled out into the woods beyond the village.
They walked for several minutes in companionable silence, enjoying the warm spring weather. Wuller glanced at Illuré, and then at Seldis, and then back at his aunt.
He had no desire to play traitor ram. If he could get Seldis away from Illuré he would warn her what the elders had in mind, and give her a chance to slip away.
Just then Seldis said, “I don’t see what I’m looking for anywhere. Illuré, where can I find wolfsbane or nightshade around here?”
“Find what?” Illuré said, startled. “I never heard of those; what are they?”
Seldis looked at Illuré, equally startled. “Why, they’re plants, fairly common ones. Wolfsbane has little flowers with hoods on them; on the sort that would be blooming at this time of year the blossoms are yellow and very small, but the other kinds can have blue or purple or white flowers.”
“I never heard of it,” Illuré said, “and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Are you sure it grows around here?”