"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 02 - Darkspell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

Otho snorted in profound disbelief.

‘It’s true,’ Jill broke in. ‘Da even pledged him to the silver dagger.’
 ‘Indeed?’ The smith still looked suspicious, but he let the matter drop. ‘What brings you to me, lad?
Have some battle-loot to sell?’

‘I don’t. I’ve come about my silver dagger.’

‘What have you done, nicked it or suchlike? I don’t see how any man could bruise that metal.’

‘He wants the dweomer taken off it,’ Jill said. ‘Can you do that, Otho? Remove the spell on the
blade?’

The smith turned, openmouthed in surprise.

‘I know cursed well it’s got one on it,’ she went on. ‘Rhoddo, take it out and show him.’

Reluctantly Rhodry drew the dagger from its worn sheath. It was a lovely thing, that blade, as silky as
silver, but harder than steel, some alloy that only a few smiths knew how to blend. On it was graved the
device of a striking falcon (Cullyn’s old mark, because the dagger had once belonged to him,) but in
Rhodry’s hand the device was almost invisible in a blaze and flare of dweomer-light, running like water
from the blade.

‘Elven blood in your veins, is there?’ Otho snapped. ‘And a good bit of it, too.’

‘Well, there’s some.’ Rhodry made the admission unwillingly. ‘I hail from the west, you see, and that
old proverb about there being elven blood in Eldidd veins is true enough.’

When Otho grabbed the dagger, the light dimmed to a faint glow.

‘I’m not letting you in my workshop,’ he announced. ‘You people all steal. Can’t even help it, I
suppose; it’s probably the way you were raised.’

‘By every god in the Otherlands, I’m not a thief! I was born and raised a Maelwaedd, and it’s not my
cursed fault that there’s wild blood somewhere in my clan’s quarterings.’

‘Hah! I’m still not letting you into my workshop.’ He turned and pointedly spoke only to Jill. ‘It’s a
hard thing you’re asking, lass. I don’t have true dweomer. This spell is the only one I can weave, and I
don’t even understand what I’m doing. It’s just somewhat that we pass down from father to son, those of
us who know it at all, that is.’

‘I was afraid of that,’ she said with a sigh. ‘But we’Ve got to do somewhat about it. He can’t use it at
table when it turns dweomer every time he draws it.’

Otho considered, chewing on his lower lip.

‘Well, if this were an ordinary dagger, I’d just trade you a new one without the spell, but since it was
Cullyn’s and all, I’ll try to unweave the dweomer. Maybe working it all backward will blunt the spell. But
it’s going to cost you dear. There’s a risk in meddling with things like this.’