The Mage Wars

by Mercedes Lackey

  The offices were all built into the cliff behind the Council Hall, small and private, and close to the other public buildings. The administrative building for the Silvers was not that far away from Amberdrake’s office, and in that building was the nursery they had made for Kechara when she was still acting as the communication center for the Silvers. She shared it with the youngsters of anyone else in the Silvers or in city administration who needed to have someone tend their little ones while they worked. It was a good arrangement for everyone, and it gave Kechara a never-ending stream of playmates who were all her mental age, even if she was chronologically six or more times older.

  Even though Kechara’s powers were severely limited, she could still “talk” to any gryphon within the city territory. That alone was useful to the Silvers, and a very good reason to keep her right where she always had been.

  As Amberdrake hurried toward the building, every muscle and nerve writhing with anxiety, he couldn’t even begin to imagine how Judeth had thought that Aubri could break something like this gently to Skan. She must have been so upset by the news that her ability to reason had flown right out the door! Aubri hasn’t the tact of a brick. When Skan—“DRAKE!” The bellow of a gryphon enraged could probably be heard all the way up to the farms, and the gryphon that burst out of the door of the Silvers’ headquarters looked perfectly ready to chew up iron and spit out nails. Burst was indeed the correct term; the white-and-black gryphon erupted from the door flying, his head swiveling in all directions, presumably looking for his friend as he gained altitude. “Drake!” Skan bellowed again, from a height of about three lengths above him. “These idiots! They’ve lost—”

  “I know, I know,” Amberdrake shouted back, waving his hands frantically. “That’s why I’m—”

  Skan folded his wings and landed heavily, as if he were pouncing on something, every feather on end. “I want every mage in this city working on a way to find them!” he said wrathfully. “I don’t care what they’re doing! This is an emergency! I want everybody pulled in off of whatever they’re doing, and I want search parties out there now! I want messengers sent to Shalaman! I want every man the Haighlei can spare out there looking, too! I want—”

  We have to work this together, or they’re not going to listen to us. Amberdrake seized his friend’s head in both hands, hooking his fingertips into the gryphon’s nares. He pulled Skan’s beak down so that the gryphon was looking directly into his eyes. “I know,” he said forcefully. “Believe me, I feel the same! We have to call the Council to authorize this, Skan, but I don’t think anybody on it is going to disagree with us, and if they do—”

  Skan growled wordlessly at the very idea. “If they do, we—we both know things they wish we didn’t,” he pointed out.

  “We do. And I’ll use that.” There it was, Skan agreed with him. It wasn’t right, but it was better than arguing with shard-counters until it was too late to do anything.

  “But there’s no point in scattering everybody like a covey of frightened quail,” Drake persisted, trying to convince himself as much as Skandranon. “All right? Let’s get things coordinated. Judeth told the original patrol to look for them; right now that’s all that anyone can do out there. We have to organize, and get people out there, talk people into using Gates again if we have to. We have to get Council backing for all that before anything else can be done, and that isn’t going to happen if we’re both standing here and wasting precious time screaming like outraged parents!”

  “We are outraged parents!” The gryphon kicked clods of dirt in flurries of rage. “I don’t want to have to follow procedure!”

  Amberdrake put his fists on his hips and leaned toward Skandranon. “We will get Council approval, by whatever means necessary.”

  I hate it, but that’s the case. If we want to have more than just “the usual effort” from the Silvers, we have to get Council authorization. And that’s where the threats of blackmail come in.

  Skan growled again, but without as much force behind it. “Damn it, Drake, why do you have to be so right?” he snarled. “All right then, I’ll go back in there and have Kechara call in the Council members so we can authorize all of this.”

  Amberdrake wanted to add don’t frighten her, but he held his tongue. Of all of them, Skan knew best how not to do anything that would make Kechara unhappy. He was her “Papa Skan,” and she loved him with all of her heart—which was as large as her poor brain was small. He would no more do anything to frighten her than he would allow Blade and Tad to languish in the wilderness, unsought-for and unrescued.

  He headed back toward the Council Hall, certain that if Winterhart and Zhaneel were not already on the way there, after Kechara’s call, they would be.

  * * *

  Skan came stalking in shortly after Drake, and within moments after that, the rest of the Council members came hurrying in. Judeth was one of the first, looking very surprised and taken aback, and just a little annoyed; and although Skan leveled an icy glare at her, his tone was civil enough.

  “I’ve called this meeting,” he said. “Since this is an emergency situation.”

  He waited only until there were enough Council members present to constitute a quorum, and until everyone was seated before nodding to Judeth.

  “You’re the commander of the Silvers, so I think it best that you explain the emergency to the rest of the Council,” he said crisply. Judeth looked as if she wanted to say something scathing to him, but held her tongue, which was probably wise.

  Amberdrake had a good idea of what she was thinking, however. She was, first and foremost, a military commander, and under any other circumstances, the fact that two of the most junior members of the Silvers were missing—or overdue—should not have been considered an emergency the Council should be concerned with. Only an hysterical—but powerful—parent could have thought that it was.

  And Amberdrake would have cheerfully throttled her for suggesting any such thing, if she dared.

  Throttled her, then revived her so I could throttle her again. Part of him was appalled at this capacity for violence within himself; the rest of him nodded in gleeful agreement at the idea. Then I’d revive her so that Skan could have a turn.

  But she evidently knew better—or the threat of his influence made her think twice about suggesting any such thing. Judeth explained the situation, coolly and calmly, while the other members of the Council listened without making any comments. Skan kept glaring around the table as if daring any of them to say that this was not the sort of emergency for which the Council should be called.

  No one did, but Snowstar did have something to say that put the entire situation into a perspective that Amberdrake greatly appreciated.

  “Has anyone ever gone missing this way before?” he asked, without looking either at Skan or at Amberdrake. “I know that there have been a handful of accidents among the Silvers, but I don’t ever recall any of our Silvers on Outpost Duty ever disappearing before. Judeth, you haven’t even had any fatalities in the Silvers since we encountered the Haighlei, and all of those were on the trek to find the coast. If this is a new development, I think it is a very serious one.”

  Aubri opened his beak, then looked at Judeth, startled. She was the one who replied.

  “Actually—you’re right,” she said, sounding just as surprised as Aubri looked. “The fatalities among young gryphons since we founded the city have all been among the hunters, not the Silvers, and the accidents causing injuries among the Silvers have all been just that—accidents, usually caused by weather, and not a single death from something like a drunkard or fight. To date we haven’t had a single case of Outpost Patrols going missing. They’ve broken limbs, they’ve gotten sick, we’ve had to send help out to them, and one set of humans even got lost once—but they had a teleson and we knew they were all right, we just couldn’t find them for a while. We’ve never had anyone just vanish before…”

  Her eyes were the only part of her that showed how alarmed this
new observation made her, but Amberdrake was savagely pleased at the way that her eyes went blank and steely. He knew that look. That was General Judeth, suddenly encountering a deadly enemy where she had been told there was open ground with no threats.

  “I kept thinking this was—sort of one of the hazards of duty—but that was under war conditions or while we were making our way here,” Aubri muttered, so shamefaced that his nares flushed a brilliant red. “Snowstar, you’re right! We’ve never lost a Silver since—since we allied with the Haighlei!”

  You two have been making the mistake of thinking that the Silvers were the extension of the old army—but they aren’t and our situation is completely different than it was before the wars. And how could I have been so blind not to have seen your blindness!

  “Then I believe this does qualify as a full-scale emergency,” Snowstar said firmly. “When two highly-trained individuals drop completely out of sight, for no reason and with no warning, it seems to me that the danger is not only to them alone, but possibly to the entire city. What if they were removed so that they could not alert us to some enemy who is moving against us? How can we know that if we don’t mount a rescue, in strength and numbers?”

  Heads nodded all around the table, and Amberdrake exchanged stricken glances with Winterhart, who had come in just in time to hear that. He felt cold all over, and she had paled. He could have done without hearing that. He was perversely glad that Snowstar had thought of it, for it certainly swayed even the veterans on the Council to their cause, but he could have done without hearing it.

  Either Snowstar really believes that, or the self-proclaimed non-diplomat Snowstar just made a shrewd play in our support. Or both.

  A heavy and ominous silence filled the Council Hall, and no one seemed prepared to break it. Skan was as frozen as a statue, and beside him, Zhaneel simply looked to be in too much shock to be able to think. Winterhart stood beside her Council seat, unable to sit, clutching the back of it; her knuckles were as white as her namesake. Amberdrake himself felt unable to move, every limb leaden and inert.

  Judeth cleared her throat, making all of them jump. “Right,” she said briskly, silence broken. “We have the original pair flying a search pattern; we’re putting together more search teams. Does anyone have any further suggestions?”

  Skan opened his beak, but Snowstar beat him to it. “I’ll organize the mages and start distance-scrying,” he said immediately. “We’re probably too far away, but those who can scry for them should at least try. We’ll look for the traces of the magic, on all the items they had with them; even if something made them crash, those traces will still be there. I’ll also pick out mages for the search parties.”

  Once again, Skan opened his beak—then glared around the table, to make certain that he wasn’t interrupted this time. “We should send a message to Shalaman,” he said belligerently. “His people know that forest better than we do. We should make him—I mean, ask him—to send out parties of his hunters.”

  “That’s good,” Judeth approved, making a note of it. “I can put anyone who’s been posted to that area on search parties, but if we can field Haighlei who are trained to hunt the forest in addition to our own people, that will be even better. Anything else?”

  Search parties, magic, the Haighlei… Thoughts flitted through Drake’s head, but he couldn’t make any of them hold still long enough to be examined. Judeth looked around the table to meet shaking heads, and nodded.

  “Good. We’ve got a plan,” she said firmly. “We should assume that whatever has happened to these Silvers could endanger the city, and make finding them a top priority. Let’s get to it.”

  She stood up and was halfway to the door before anyone else was even out of his chair. He didn’t blame her. If the situation was reversed, he wouldn’t want to be in the same room with four frantic parents either.

  And he wouldn’t want to face two people who had just threatened to blackmail him for not taking the loss of their children seriously enough.

  Everyone else deserted the hall as quickly. Only Aubri paused at the door, looking back with uncertainty in his gaze. He opened his beak, then swallowed hard, shook his head, and followed the others.

  * * *

  Skandranon wanted nothing more than to rush off to the rescue of his son. Failing that, he wanted to tear the gizzard out of those who were responsible for his disappearance. Right now, so far as his heart was concerned, the ones responsible were right here in White Gryphon.

  Judeth and Aubri. It was all their fault. If they hadn’t assigned the children to this far-flung outpost, both his beloved son and his dear friend Amberdrake’s daughter would still be here.

  “I knew that this was a mistake all along!” he seethed at Zhaneel as he paced the length and breadth of the Council Hall. “I knew they were too young to be sent off on Outpost Duty! No one that young has ever been sent off alone like that before! They should have been posted here, like everyone else was! Judeth’s getting senile, and Aubri was already there to show her the way—and—”

  “Please!” Zhaneel suddenly exploded. “Stop!”

  He stared at her, his mouth still open, one foot raised.

  “Stop it, Skan,” she said, in a more normal tone. “It is not their fault. It is not the fault of anyone. And if you would stop trying to find someone to blame, we would get something done.” She looked up at him, with fear and anxiety in her eyes. “You are a mage; I am not. You go to work with Snowstar and the others, and I shall go to the messenger-mage and send a message in your name to Shalaman, asking for his help. At least I can do that much. And Skandranon—he is my son as well as yours, and I am able to act without rages and threats.”

  With that, she turned away from him and left him still standing with his foot upraised and his beak open, staring after her in shock.

  Alone, for Amberdrake and Winterhart had already left.

  Stupid, stupid gryphon. She’s right, you know. Blaming Aubri and Judeth won’t get you anywhere, and if you take things out on them, you’re only going to make them mad at you. The Black Gryphon would be remembered as an angry, overprotective, vengeful parent. And what good would that do? None, of course.

  What good would it do?

  All at once, his energy ran out of him. He sat down on the floor of the Council Hall, feeling—old.

  Old, tired, defeated, and utterly helpless, shaking with fear and in the grip of his own weakness. He squinted his eyes tightly closed, ground his beak, and shivered from anything but cold.

  Somewhere out there, his son was lost, possibly hurt, certainly in trouble. And there was nothing, nothing that he could do about it. This was one predicament that the Black Gryphon wasn’t going to be able to swoop in and salvage.

  I couldn’t swoop in on anything these days even if I could salvage it. I’m an anachronism; I’ve outlived my usefulness. It is happening all over again, except this time there can’t be a rebirth of the Black Gryphon from the White Gryphon. The body wears out, the hips grow stiff and the muscles strain. I’m the one that’s useless and senile, not Judeth and Aubri. They were doing the best they could; I was the one flapping my beak and making stupid threats. That is all that is left for a failed warrior to do.

  For a moment, he shook with the need to throw back his head and keen his grief and helplessness to the sky, in the faint hope that perhaps some god somewhere might hear him. His throat constricted terribly. With the weight of intolerable grief and pain on his shoulders, he slowly raised his head.

  As his eyes fell on the door through which Zhaneel had departed, his mind unfroze, gradually coming out of its shock.

  What am I? What am I thinking?

  I may be old now, but I am still a legend to these people. Heroes don’t ever live as long as they want to, and most die young. I’ve lasted. That’s all experience. I’m a mage, and more skilled than when I was younger—and if I’m not the fighter I used to be, I’m also a lot smarter than I used to be! And what I’m feeling—I know wh
at it is. I know. It was what Urtho felt every time I left, every time one of his gryphons wound up missing. I loved him so dearly, and I breathe each breath honoring his memory—but he was a great man because he accepted his entire being, and dealt with it. I am not Urtho—but I am his son in spirit, and what I honor I can also emulate. There’s plenty I can do, starting with seeing to it that Snowstar hasn’t overlooked anything!

  He shook himself all over, as if he was shaking off some dark, cold shadow that was unpleasantly clinging to his back, and strode out of the Council Hall as fast as his legs would carry him.

  What I honor in Urtho’s deeds, others have also honored in me. Urtho could embrace every facet of a situation and handle all of them with all of his intellect, whether it angered him personally or not. That was why he was a leader and not a panicked target. He could act when others would be overwhelmed by emotion. If I think of this disappearance in terms only of how I feel about it, then I will miss details that could be critical while I fill my vision with myself, and that could cost lives. Let the historians argue over whether I was enraged or determined or panicked on this day! I can still be effective to my last breath!

  It was not clear at first where the Adept had run off to, and by the time Skan tracked him down, Snowstar had managed to gather all of the most powerful mages together in his own dwelling and workshop. Skan was impressed in spite of himself at how quickly the Kaled’a’in mage had moved. It was notoriously difficult to organize mages, but Snowstar seemed to have accomplished the task in a very limited amount of time.

  There were seven mages at work including Snowstar. They had been divided into pairs, seated at individual tables so that they didn’t interfere with each other, each pair of them scrying for something in particular. One pair looked for the teleson, one for the tent, one for the basket. Snowstar was working by himself, but the moment that Skan came near him, he looked up and beckoned.

  “I’m looking for Tadrith myself,” he said without preamble, “I was waiting for you to help me; the blood-tie he has with you is going to make it possible to find him, if it’s at all possible. You will both feel similar magically, as you know.”