by Andre Norton
“The Warlord is blessed with a very keen imagination,” Tarlach said grimly. “If that possibility has occurred to him, I had best ride now. …”
“He is no longer there, Tarlach. That is why we have returned here.
“Varnel issued a Council Call. To our full force, the first since we received word that the Eyrie was to die. Every Falconer free and able to respond has been commanded to join him or to take ship after him.”
“Take ship!”
“He is bound for Linna. The same summons was sent ahead to those operating in High Hallack before he ever set sail, which was some six weeks ago now. We are to join him as soon as the Holdlady is fit to make the journey and we can secure a vessel to carry us.
“Even the villages have been uprooted to accompany him. He is apparently not blind to the fact that they may be empty by the time he returns if he leaves them completely unattended.”
“Varnel is blind to very little,” he replied. “Why in the name of the old Eyrie did you not bring or send me word of this?”
“Because Varnel expressly forbade it and ordered us to remain in his abandoned camp until now to be certain we should not be tempted to forget his order. He said we would probably not be free to move much earlier anyway, and he did not want to set you worrying before you were ready to come to him.”
The Captain's expression grew even darker as his comrade continued speaking. Just how much did the Falconer Warlord know or guess?
“The Lady Una is ready to travel,” he said. “We can take our leave almost immediately.” His mouth tightened. “What must be endured shall be, but I hope by the Horned Lord that we are not the subject of this council. If we are, I have very little hope for our plans.” Or for himself.
Tarlach started purposefully down the now familiar corridor and rapped sharply on Una's door. Her response came almost instantly, not only confirming her expected presence there but the fact that she had been waiting for him.
He went inside and was greeted by the sight of Sunbeam perched on the desk in an attitude of patient endurance while Bravery gave her such a washing as no falcon before her had likely ever received.
“I was wondering how those two would take to one another,” he said to the Holdlady, who was watching the pair affectionately but in open dismay. “It seems I need not have worried.”
“No. They have always liked one another. I am sorry, Tarlach. I did not even imagine anything the like of this could happen, much less court it.”
He smiled. “I know, my Lady. Brennan was quite certain on that point.”
“Will … it cause trouble?”
“That I do not know,” the mercenary answered frankly. “We shall just have to see how events develop.”
“It is permitted, though, that I am bonded with Bravery and Sunbeam both?”
“There has been no precedent as far as I know. As with many other matters, my Lady of Seakeep, we appear to be breaking an utterly virgin trail in this matter.”
The warrior's eyes darkened momentarily. “The danger to all three of you is greater. The loss of one will affect two rather than a single partner, though the survivors might also be able to support and strengthen one another in a manner impossible for the rest of us.” He sighed. “It is a question I hope we do not have to see answered.”
“A hope I most heartily share, Comrade.”
Tarlach gave a greeting to his war bird's mate and rubbed Bravery behind the ears. He faced the Holdruler after that and related the intelligence Brennan had brought.
“I can be ready to go within the hour, within the half hour if need be,” Una assured him, “although I would prefer the longer time to bid farewell to our hosts here.”
She hesitated but decided to speak openly since she had permission to do so. “Pyra will accompany us. She has promised to report back to her sisters in your villages on her reaction to Seakeep and Ravenfield.”
The man stiffened. “A Falconer?”
“Yes. She was naturally reluctant to reveal herself before now.”
Tarlach nodded, but his expression was dark. His anger was against himself for his blindness, and a sense of the enormity of the task before them settled heavily on him. He knew full well the importance of his mission to all his people. He was about to champion the right of choice for their women in the matter and the necessity for changing and softening some of their centuries-old stand with respect to them, yet so little heed had he paid to this one who had helped care for Una in her need that he had completely overlooked the characteristics which should have told him what she was within moments of seeing her. It seemed he had as far to go in schooling himself as he did with the most stubborn man in Commandant Xorock's notoriously harsh column.
“Inform her of these new conditions,” he told his companion gruffly. “She may not want to risk exposing herself with so great a number of us at such close proximity. I will not of my own choice allow her to be taken, but what can five hundred do against that many?”
She frowned. “It will not come to that.”
The mercenary's head lowered. “It should not, but … I know I play the coward, but I felt easier about my plans with the breadth of an ocean lying between us and the better part of the Falconer host. A three-weeks’ march is no defense at all.”
His shoulders squared. “Come what will, we shall not permit Seakeep or Ravenfield to be ravaged in our warring.”
“There will be no warring!” Una of Seakeep snapped. “Listen to me, Tarlach, and give your people and your Warlord more credit. You have seen a very real peril overshadowing all your race, and right or wrong, everything you have done or hope to do is to try to avert that danger. Perhaps despite that, the alliance you have made with me may cause you to be condemned, but would this Varnel wreak unmerited vengeance on two innocent Dales as well, directly or through your own private struggles? Would he be so stupid as to do so, given the fact that your Falconers must have the trust of other peoples if there is to be a market for your swords? A Holdlord would have to be desperate indeed to introduce a known firebrand into his domain.”
“No. No to both your questions. Varnel is a fair and thoughtful man. He could not otherwise have attained his position or have held us together as well as he has these last eight years.”
He smiled then. “You are right, Una of Seakeepdale, as you usually are. I was but adding needless weight to my concrete worries.—I will leave you now to ready yourself. I want to depart for the coast as soon as we can and courtesy permits.”
11
Three-quarters of an hour did not pass before the Falconer party along with the Lady Una and Pyra assembled in the windswept courtyard. The whole community, scholars and laborers alike, gathered there as well to bid them good speed and good fortune.
Tarlach took his final farewell of Ouen and those others who had given him so much help and lay his hand on Lady Gay's neck in preparation to mount.
He stopped and turned at the soft, quizzical calling of the name Una had put on him.
Two children were standing by the gate. The closest, she who had spoken, he knew at once.
“Adeela!”
His voice was all she needed to single him out from the other high-helmeted warriors, and she literally plummeted toward him.
Glancing in dismay, first at Una and then at Brennan, he went to his knee to intercept the racing child.
Adeela cast herself into his arms, hugging him joyfully. “Oh, Mountain Hawk, I am so glad to see you! We were afraid we might not find you here, and we had to warn you about the Sultanites.”
He looked over her shoulder at her companion, another little maid, this one about ten or perhaps eleven years old.
If Adeela did not know with whom she dealt, this one obviously did. She had made a desperate attempt to grab the younger girl and now stood watching him in horror.
“Kathreen?” he asked. It was hardly a remarkable guess under the circumstances and considering the resemblance between the two. She was not as exquisite a
s her sister, but there was a delicate prettiness about her that was most appealing. Had she been permitted to grow into adulthood, she would have been a rare beauty.
“Yes. Pardon craved, Bird Warrior. My sister does not know …”
“No offense taken,” he assured her quickly. “Do not frighten her. She has known enough of that.”
Every eye was fixed on the newcomers. Una was openly enchanted by the lovely child in his arms. Ouen's customary kindness and warm welcome was open for the reading, and so, too, was something else, a curiosity and hunger for knowledge so intense as to be well-nigh physically painful. It was a measure of him that he held his peace despite his longing to question the pair.
Tarlach's own comrades gave no open sign of their feelings whatsoever. Were they merely frozen by surprise like so many around them, or did they but rein their fury until they could draw apart from the others?
The Captain's head raised. The spirits'—for such both patently were—coming was not by his instigation, nor had he sought the little one's overly enthusiastic greeting, but he would show them both courtesy and whatever measure of warmth of which he was capable.
“These are not living children,” he informed his command, then gave his attention to the older girl. “Adeela mentioned a warning,” he prompted.
She nodded with unchildlike gravity. “We, or I, carry news of great importance, but it will only frighten many of these folks around us like my dear Morfew. Could your comrades and Lormt's leaders not talk with us alone somewhere?”
“Of course, Child,” Ouen answered at once. “Come inside where you can give us your message in comfort.”
Brennan matched his pace with Tarlach's. “I thought there was only one ghost and that you had sent her down the long road,” he hissed.
“So did I, Comrade,” his commander muttered in response, “and I am weak enough to wish that I had. Whatever their motive for this return, I fear we are not going to find much comfort in the news they carry.”
They would soon find out. Ouen led the mercenaries and his own close associates to one of the small study halls he himself favored and, after having his younger colleagues scrounge the additional chairs they needed, bade them all be seated.
Adeela started to protest when the Captain set her down, but Una came swiftly over to them, Bravery in her arms.
“Will you help us, Adeela? We must all talk with Kathreen now and be very serious, and my Bravery can be a fierce little pest when everyone ignores her. Do you think you could play with her and keep her happy for a while?”
The child's eyes brightened, and she stroked the cat. “Oh, yes, Lady! I shall be very gentle with her!”
In short order, she was settled in a corner with Bravery and a bow string donated by Pyra to serve as a toy.
When the Holdruler returned to the table, she found the others already in place. She, like all the rest, fixed her attention on the elder ghost child, who was sitting, eyes downcast, as if she were not sure how to begin.
Tarlach broke the silence at last. “Adeela told us what happened to you, but perhaps you would give us a bit more detail if you have the time.”
Kathreen nodded. “We have all the time we need. What would you like to know?”
“Did you live in Lormt or on one of the farms outside it?” Aden asked her.
“No. The mountains had just turned then, too, and many people were moving from place to place. Lormt had not been built long, but it was strong and safe, and travelers would stay here a while to rest and get themselves ready again before finishing their journeys.
“Father had to move our household—some Dark Ones poisoned our old land in revenge because he would not join them and nothing could grow on it any more—and we were stopping here a while.”
She shuddered. “No-el was with us. He was the son of our sire's younger brother and was much older than we. He had been father's heir before my birth and remained heir after Adeela.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I never knew he hated us. No one did. He had played with us and kept us happy during the journey, especially Adeela. …
“When we went to that cave, I thought it was another game, that he had some bright stones hidden away for her to find. He had done that before, to her delight.”
She looked up. Her misery was so open that Una very nearly begged her to forget that past entirely, to go down the last road with a fresh mind and never again think of what had happened before.
“You chose to remain in this realm after he struck you down?” Una asked gently. All, Lormt folk and Falconers alike, listened intently for her answer. That was a journey each one must someday face, one they had until now been forced to accept as an utter unknown. Now they had before them an informant who had known at least the first stage of it, and they were eager for anything she could tell them about it.
With an effort, the spirit mastered herself. It was hers to perform as an adult, and this she was determined to do. “After No-el … after I died, I knew I should go, but I could not bear to leave my sister. She was so little and so frightened shut up there in the dark.”
She fixed her eyes on her hands, which were resting tightly clasped on her lap. “She did not know what was happening or what to do but only ran around and around the cave, not even realizing when she fell or struck herself. When she became too exhausted for that, she lay near the entrance, crying and calling me and our parents and even No-el to help her.
“I tried to stop her, to hold her, but I … I could not make her see me.” She bit into her lip. “I thought it might be because Adeela was too young and too upset, but when I went home, it was the same. I could not make them realize I was there. I could not even touch anyone. My hands went right through them.”
Tarlach glanced at Una, then his eyes closed. The quick death of a warrior in battle was one thing, but this. … and what had followed was as bad, worse. He could scarcely imagine what such an experience must be like for a man, much less for this sensitive, loving child.
The girl was not aware of his reaction. She had begun an unpleasant task and was prepared to see it through to the best of her ability.
“Since there was nothing I could do to help her, I went back to wait with Adeela until she should join me. I suppose I was hoping to reach her somehow, to tell her there was nothing to fear.
“She grew so quiet near the end that I was certain some part of her must feel me close, but when she did break free, it was as if she had been possessed by some maddened wild thing. She was as bonny as she had been before being locked in that cave, but her face was …” Kathreen frowned, reaching for words. “It did not dance or play any more, as if she were not inside there at all.
“I tried to go to her, but she did not seem to notice me. She whirled here and there through the caves without seeing or being aware of anything.”
The girl shuddered again and stopped speaking. This next, she hated, but it was part of their history and had to be told.
“Days passed, and people searched for us. No-el became afraid that our bodies would be found, or, even worse for him, that Adeela would somehow be discovered still living, and he came back to better hide what he had done.
“Adeela … Adeela was there. She felt him in the underground and came to him. He could see her plainly and see her body lying there, too. No one knew what she could do then, but he screamed and ran.
“It did no good. She flew after him. She was fast, faster than any horse you would ever want to see run. Adeela did not look at him, not really, just through him, but she threw her arms around him. Then she seemed to lose all interest in him.” Her eyes fixed on the table before her. “He … he had started dying before he reached Lormt.
“I thought at first that this terrible deed was the end, that she had avenged us and could now put death away, but, of course, she could not. She was not my small sister any more, just some kind of anger or hate who looked like her. Adeela is the sweetest, gentlest little maid in all the world. She would never hurt anyone,
no matter what he did to her.”
“How is it that she could be seen?” Duratan asked, interrupting for the first time. “You remained invisible.”
“Adeela never became a real spirit until the Mountain Hawk released her.”
“It was you who cried after each attack?”
She nodded. “I could not bear it. Most of those poor people did not even deserve to die. …”
“Why did she spare me?” the Falconer commander inquired quickly.
“I think it was finding you asleep there in the dark. At least, she was staring at you with her old curiosity when I caught up with her. All the other people had been afraid, and some of them had tried to kill her.”
“I figured that might have had something to do with it.—You did not try to contact her immediately?”
“I did, but she still could not hear me, so I just waited, hoping.”
Aden's throat felt tight. “You spent all those years, those centuries, imprisoned in the dark?” she asked in a low voice.
“Oh no! I have been on the surface many times, in Lormt and in the cottages around. I loved to hear you all talking and discussing things, even when I could not understand everything you were saying.”
The woman looked at her, stricken. “You were here, in our very halls, and we let you go again without help or comfort?”
“How were you to know?” Kathreen reasoned practically. “I was so happy when I was in Lormt. Poor Adeela was always safely asleep then, when it was not winter.” Her lip trembled momentarily. “She … she did not know to be sad when she was awake.”
“Why could you not stay with us altogether, then, Child?” Ouen inquired. “You were unable to stop your sister—”
“Oh, but I could! I kept her from ever coming out of the caves. She could not pass through me, you see, and I was always able to reach her before she went outside. It was only in the dark itself that I could not control her.”