Winds of Change (64 page)

Hmm. Interesting. I thought he was unarmed, but the way his right hand is tensing - he has a knife hidden somewhere near it. If he had a choice, he probably wouldn‘t be
looking
daggers at us, he’d be throwing them.

“Yes to both questions,” she replied steadily. “My problem with finding Father’s hold upon your map was that I could not see the things I know as landmarks. I have a perfect memory for trails, it seems. I never had occasion to use it before I escaped my father, but it is very difficult for me to become lost. I can easily find the stronghold.” She licked her lips, showing the tips of her canine teeth, then took a drink before continuing. “I can find it - and having found it, I know many of the odd ways into it. He does not guard all of them, for many are hidden. Some I was taught, but some I found on my own.”

“Yes, but will
he
not know of them as well?” Firesong asked gently. “I would not send you into a trap, dear child. Candidly, that would not serve either of us.”

Her lips curved in a faint smile. “I do not think there will be a trap. Since I am only interested in fleeing from him - he thinks - I suspect that the last thing he would look for me to do is return. The ways that I would take inside will be those that only I know, or those that I think he will not bother to trap.”

:I can hide her some, if that’s your next question,:
Need said.
:I can hold a ‘ ‘reflective’ illusion on her, the kind that makes her look like part of the landscape to Mage-Sight. More importantly,
while
I’m doing that, I can hide myself as well. Watch.:

At that instant, Need ceased to exist, from the point of view of Darkwind’s Mage-Sight. She was nothing more sinister to ordinary sight than an ordinary broadsword, and to Mage-Sight, she and Nyara did not exist, and Skif sat alone on the couch.

Then Nyara was “back,” all in an instant, and the sword with her.

“Good. Very good,” Firesong said, leaning forward a bit, his voice warm with approval. “Well, then, you must know that we have a plan, but the one in greatest danger will be you, Nyara. That is a great burden to be placed upon you, and no one will fault you if you say no.”

She shook her head, but not, Darkwind sensed, in denial. “I have been partially to blame for much harm that has come to you,” she said. “I feel that I owe some recompense.”

:It’s not like she’s going to do this alone,:
Need added dryly.
:I’ve handled what Falconsbane can throw before. Hmph. Maybe if he throws the right stuff at us this time, I can transmute it and take off a little more of what he did to her.:

“I will not count upon that,” Nyara told her blade, and

Darkwind thought he detected a tone of friendly chiding in her voice. “I will not even think of it. It serves little purpose, after all. If you can, I shall be grateful, but do not put yourself into jeopardy by an attempt.”

Need couldn’t shrug, but Darkwind got the impression she had.
:At any rate, as Nyara and Skif can tell you, I took on this form because there are times when one person can do what an army couldn’t. I’m no expert on Falconsbane, but I don’t think the odds are any worse now than they were back when I froze myself into this blade.:

Darkwind looked at Skif, who growled, but shrugged. “She’s her own woman,” he replied unhappily. “If I tried to make her change her mind, I wouldn’t be doing either of us any good. She wants to go through with this - I’ll do what I can to help.”

Darkwind raised an eyebrow skeptically, Skif grimaced.

“I don’t
like
it,” he admitted. “I’m scared to death for her, and if I could take her place I would. I won’t pretend otherwise. But let’s just say I learned how stupid it is to try and stop someone from doing something they have to do. It’s even more stupid if you care about them.”

Darkwind read the
look
Skif gave both of them, however. If Nyara came to any harm at all, Skif would personally collect the damages due.

“More than good!” Firesong applauded. “Well, then, if Nyara is agreed, I think it is time that we took the idea to the rest. We will discover if anyone can knock holes in this plan - or make it safer in any way.”

The gathering in the Council Oak clearing held only part of the usual gathering. Both gryphons, Nyara, Skif, Firesong, Wintermoon, the Companions, Elspeth - and Darkwind himself. No other mages; this would not be a plan that required more mages than they had right here. Starblade and Kethra were back to recovering; Iceshadow and Nightjewel were conserving their strength. And they added no more fighters than Skif and Wintermoon, either. As Need had said, there were times when one - or a handful - could do what an army could not.

Firesong had lost a great deal of his jauntiness in the past few days, and he had put aside his elaborate costumes in favor of simple, flowing clothing like any other mage wore, He could hardly hide the flamboyant bondbird that perched on his shoulder, but other than that, and his incredible beauty, there was nothing that set him apart from the other mages in k’Sheyna.

“Here is the situation as it stands,” Firesong began. Using a handful of stones and a bit of string, he began laying out something that looked rather like a very simple spiderweb. “If I had been looking for this earlier, I might have seen it being built - but it has the feeling of something assembled with haste, and we may be able to take advantage of that.”

“What is it?” Darkwind was baffled. “I assume Falconsbane has something to do with this, whatever it is.”

Firesong flushed, the first time Darkwind had ever seen him truly embarrassed. “Pardon. I forgot that none of you have been working with me upon this. The enemy wants to capture the proto-Gate; to that end he has constructed this web of power-points and interconnecting lines about his stronghold. If you look in the direction of his stronghold with FarSight and Mage-Sight, you will see it.”

Treyvan examined the model, and growled. “Thisss isss anew thing, isss it not?”

Firesong shook his head. “Only new to Falconsbane. I have seen this sort of construction before, and it isn’t half as effective as those who use it think. It has a vulnerability, a severe one. If the connections were weakened all about the edge so that they might snap beneath a good shock, he likely would not note the weakening. And
if they
snapped, the power would backlash against him in some profound ways.”

“What kind of ways?” Wintermoon wanted to know. “Something grievous, I hope.”

Firesong smiled faintly. “If he was not prepared with a way to ground it or to escape, he would likely be cast into the void between the Gates - as if he entered a Gate and both the Gate and the terminus were then destroyed. That is because of the way he has set up the tensions among his power-poles and his center. Great concentrations of power warp the world-space as Gates do.”

Darkwind shuddered; he had once had a glimpse of that void. He would prefer not to see it again. “That’s not a fate I would wish on anyone,” he said.

“Not even Falconsbane?” Elspeth asked. “I can think of one or two others I would like to see contemplating their deeds for all eternity!”

Firesong continued, as if they had not interrupted him. “Any shock to him would snap these threads of power once they were weakened - that would be the best way, in fact. A shock at the center will have more effect than one at an edge. But the weakening - that would have to be done quickly, so that he did not have a chance to notice what was being done.” He looked up into the gryphons’ faces, expectantly.

Treyvan blinked slowly, his eyes distant. “You rrre-quirrre ssswiftly trraveling magesss,” he said. “And at the sssame time, you rrrequirrre sssomeone to infiltrrrate the beassst’sss home.” Firesong nodded, and waited.

“The ssswift onesss mussst be usss, I think,” Treyvan continued. “And the otherrr - Nyarrra.”

“If you are willing, yes,” Darkwind said awkwardly. “I hate to ask you, but if Falconsbane gains control of the proto-Gate, he’ll have an enormous amount of power. It would be the kind of power that normally goes to establish and maintain an entire Vale; protections, Heartstones, Vale-sculpting, and all.”

“He could dessstrroy usss all with a thought,” Hydona replied flatly. “He mussst not have that powerrr.”

“Bring the little ones here,” Darkwind urged. “With the Heartstone gone, there’s no longer a danger to them in staying here.”

Hydona nodded, but Darkwind sensed that she had something else on her mind. She looked to her mate.

After a moment of wordless exchange, Treyvan sighed. “We wisssh sssomething in return,” he said.

“What?” Firesong asked. “If it is in our power - ”

“It isss. We requirrre a pricssse. We want k’Sheyna to not dissolve the Vale when you leave. To give it to ussss, Veil, shieldsss, and all.” Treyvan tucked his wings closer in to his body. “We had planned to take it oncssse you left, but - ”

“But if you leave it asss it isss, it will be betterrr four ourrr new
Ida ‘hessshey ‘messserin,”
Hydona interrupted. “We might asss well brrring it into clearrr sky,
asshkey-ana.”

Darkwind blinked, trying to identify the two words they had just used. They sounded like Tayledras, but weren’t. They weren’t Shin’a’in, either.

“Kaled’a’in?”
exclaimed Firesong, as he brought his head up, eyes wide with startlement.

Treyvan sighed, as Hydona nodded firmly.

Now that Darkwind knew the tongue, he could translate the words. The second was simply an endearment; “beloved.” But the first - it was complicated. The strictest translation would have been “family,” or “clan,” except that it implied a family made of those who not only were not related by blood - but who might not even be of the same species.

Once again, Firesong beat him to identification. “Pledged-clan?” he exclaimed again. “You’re - you can’t be Clan k’Leshya!”

Wintermoon quite fell off his seat. “The Lost Ones? The Lost Clan?” he exclaimed, his eyes going so wide with surprise Darkwind was afraid he was going to sprain something. “The Spirit Clan? I thought - but - they were nothing but legend!”

Treyvan’s beak gaped in a gryphonic smile. “But we arrre legend, arrre we not? Orrr we werrre, to you.”

Elspeth, Skif, and Nyara were looking completely bewildered, as well they might. As Firesong stared and Wintermoon picked himself back up, Darkwind essayed a hasty explanation.

“At the time of the Mage Wars, a group of Kaled’a’in from several clans, a group of outClansmen, and some of the nonhumans all formed a kind of - of - brotherhood, I suppose. They called themselves - ”

“Kena Lessshya’nay,
in the Tongue,” Hydona supplied. “It meansss ‘clan bound by ssspirit.’ Ssssomething like yourrr Heraldsss, but without Companionssss.
Lessshya ‘nay
could not join, they could only be chossssen, then agrrreed upon by thrrree morre. Ourrr leaderrrsss werrre two. The great Black Gryphon Ssskandrrranon, and the
kesss-tra’cherrrn,
Amberrdrrrake.”

Treyvan chuckled. “Though neitherrr everrr
admitted
to being leaderrr of anything!”

“The Spirit Clan supposedly held many of Urtho’s mages, all of the gryphons and
hertasi, kyree, tervardi
and
dyheli,
and a fair number of the Kaled’a’in shamans and Healers,” Firesong said to the three Outlanders, leaning forward so that they could hear him. Then he turned to the gryphons, watching them intently. “But during the evacuation of the stronghold, you disappeared.”

Treyvan shook his massive head. “No. Herrre isss what happened. We did not ussse the Gatesss the lessser magesss crrreated to evacuate. We had been sssent away - sssupposssedly to find a rrrefuge forrr the rrrest of you and a mysssterriousss weapon. Ssso we werrre not
in
Urrtho’sss landsss when the evacuation came. Inssstead of sssouth or easst, we had gone wesssst, we had with usss a Gate made by Urrtho - hisss verry own Grrreat Gate, anchorrred on a wagon. We usssed it while you evacuated to birring the rrrest of
ourr
folk to ourrr rrretrreat in the wild-errrnessss. But therrre wasss not time to take everrryone thrrrough it - only
Lesssshya‘nay.
The ressst of you had to take what Gatesss werrre nearrressst you.”

“And the dessstrrruction of the Ssstrrronghold thrrrew you famtherrr than intended. We thought you had perrrisshed,” Hydona continued. Then she, too, gaped her beak in a grin. “Imagine ourrr surrrprrrissse to find the legendarrry
Kena Trrrevasho, Kena Sheynarsa,
and the rrresst still in exisss-tence. To you, we arrre the Losst Onesss. But to usss, you arrre!”

Firesong shook his head, bemusedly. “Quite amazing. And you still speak the Mother Tongue!”

“Not quite purrrrely, I expect,” Treyvan admitted. “But we have not had the prrresssuresss of the Ssstar-Borrrn to ssshape our language differrrently. Sssshe doess not meddle ssso much with usss asss with you.”

“Thisss all can wait, I think,” Hydona interrupted firmly. “What we need to tell you issss thisss. Sssimply - you knew, Darrrkwind, that we werrre forrre-rrrunnerrrsss. Of ourrr kind, you thought. Well, morrre of ourrr people arrre coming, and not jussst ‘ourrr’ kind.”

Darkwind shook his head, not quite able to figure out what she meant.

“Not just gryphons, you mean?” Firesong said. “Gryphonssss, humanssss, sssome
hertasssi.
And sssoon.” Treyvan turned to look at Darkwind. “When k’Sheyna began itsss trrroubleesss, we called them. You rrrecall the bookssshelvesss you helped hang? They werne not meant forrr us. We knew that thisss place would ssshel-terrr usss well, and knew you needed help and would not asssk for it - asss Ssskandranon oft sssaid, ‘it isss eassier to beg parrrdon than get perrrmisssion.’ Sssince they did not wisssh to ssstir thingsss up by sssetting too many Gatesss, they have been coming acrosss countrrry.”