The Gold Falcon

by Katharine Kerr

  “What about those rescued farm women?” Salamander said. “Are any of them still with us?”

  “As far as I know. They were all young women then. Why?”

  “Because I love a good tale. Indeed, my very living depends upon my having a store of good tales. ‘Lasses captured by Horsekin but saved in the nick of time!’ That should extract a few coins from those who lead safe but dull lives.”

  “You could be right about that, indeed. Well, my thanks for listening, gerthddyn, but I’ll ask you not to spread my part of the tale around.”

  “Don’t worry, Your Grace, I’d never presume. I have a son of my own, you see, and I can sympathize.”

  That son was very much on Salamander’s mind when he contacted Dallandra again, late that evening when he could be alone to scry her out. First he told her what he’d gleaned about the situation in the dun, including Branna’s tales.

  “Well,” Dallandra thought to him. “I’d say that she’s ready to remember, and doubtless Neb is, too, with her there in the same dun, but you can’t force such things upon people. If they’re not ready to ask on their own, their minds will shy away like frightened horses, and then they might never come to the point of asking.”

  “Yes, that’s very true. May I drop portentous hints?”

  “Knowing you, you probably won’t be able to stop yourself. Just make them hard to understand, will you?”

  “Fear not. I shall do just that. Mystery, mazelike and mind-fooling, shall be my mode.”

  Dallandra set her lips together and glared at him.

  “One thing I wanted to ask you,” Salamander said hurriedly. “Have you seen my Zan recently?”

  “No. When the winter camps broke up, he went with your father’s alar. They’ll be at the summer festival, though, and I’ll have news for you then.”

  “Good, and thank you. Soon, I hope, I’m going to Cengarn with the tieryn and his men. I’ll take my leave of them there and start traveling around, plying the inhabitants with questions as I go. I have hopes of catching up with Rhodry as well as gleaning information about the Horsekin.”

  “Good. Just be very careful, will you? And stay in contact with me. I’ll talk to Dar, but I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t lead the alar north. At some point we can meet up.”

  “A most excellent plan, Oh princess of powers perilous! And fear not, I shan’t be silent. Being silent goes against my nature.”

  The summer festival took place during the days surrounding the longest day of the year. Prince Dar’s scribe, Meranaldar, told Dallandra that in ancient times, when the great observatory at Rinbaladelan still stood, the festival had begun at noon on the longest day, but out in the grass no one bothered to measure time so precisely. Some alarli rode in early, others late, and no one stayed long before they were forced to ride out to find better pasture for their stock. By custom, however, the prince’s alar always arrived first. By counting days, Meranaldar did his best to keep track of the sun’s position in the sky in order to determine what he called the “real” start of the festival. At times he would thrust a wooden pole into the ground and study its shadow at noon—why, Dallandra didn’t know.

  They held the festival at the Lake of the Leaping Trout, the northernmost of the chain that Deverry folk call Peddroloc, the four lakes, all of which lay in steep valleys. To the north of Leaping Trout the land flattened, but rather than grass, trees grew there, an orchard of pines, pruned and planted in straight rows for fuel.

  The People cremated their dead. Whenever a person died, his kin took the seasoned wood waiting in one of the stone sheds near the lakeshore. After the cremation ritual, a tree was cut to replace the firewood, and a new tree planted in its stead. Thus the summer festival, held in the shadow of the death ground, tended to be a solemn affair, a time to remember those who had died in recent years, an appropriate sentiment since the longest day marked the turning of the year, when summer itself would begin to fade and die.

  “There’s something I’ve been wondering about,” Dallandra said to Meranaldar. “The way the trees are cut and planted. Is that an old custom?”

  “Ancient,” the scribe said. “It goes back to the Seven Cities, most certainly. It sprang from a very odd belief, that every person lives multiple lives. Nothing but superstition, of course, but a persistent one.”

  “Indeed?” Dallandra managed to suppress her sudden urge to laugh. “I suppose then that the planting of the new tree was symbolic.”

  “Yes, of the person’s supposed new life. That’s what the priests of the Star Goddesses taught, at any rate. A number of texts survive. A bad lot, those priests, or so history tells us. Some survived the Great Burning, but they were thrown overboard somewhere in the journey across the Southern Sea.”

  “They were? By the Dark Sun herself! I never knew that.”

  “You didn’t?” Meranaldar frowned in thought. “Oh, yes, of course. It was Princess Carra whom I told, and I don’t remember you being there at the time. The refugees ran dangerously short of water, you see, and the priests claimed a greater share. They based their reasoning, if one can call it that, on doctrine. Since they’d been born into the religious elite, they claimed, then in a previous life they’d done something to accrue great merit, and thus they deserved more of everything in this life.”

  “What a pernicious idea! I’ll wager there was a corollary, too, that the common people deserved whatever ill luck came their way.”

  “Exactly. The reasoning had ceased to be compelling, with Rinbaladelan in ruins behind them and so many people dead. The soldiers on the ship tossed the priests overboard, where they could have all the water they wanted.” Meranaldar paused for a smile. “That very evening it rained, and the barrels they’d brought along for drinking water were filled to overflowing. The soldiers took this as a sign of the gods’ approval. Thus are new doctrines born.”

  They shared a laugh as they walked on. Dallandra had often wondered why the dweomermasters insisted that their belief in multiple lives be kept secret. She was beginning to understand.

  They were walking together in the forest, following one of the cool, shaded lanes between the trees. When he’d first come to the Westlands, Meranaldar had been a thin man, hollow-chested and stoop-shouldered, but forty years of riding with the royal alar had strengthened him. Now, no one would ever have confused him with a warrior, not with his slender arms and soft hands, but he stood straight and moved with the graceful ease of someone who knows his own strength.

  “Tomorrow the first alarli should arrive,” Dallandra said. “I’ll be interested to see how many new babies we have, if any.”

  “There will be some,” Meranaldar said. “At the Day of Remembrance, I noticed that a good many women were pregnant. What we need to do is tally up the number of our changelings.”

  “That’s true. We were up to forty-seven of them this spring. I’m particularly wondering about Carra’s new granddaughter.”

  “Indeed. So far, the changelings seem to have very kindly spread themselves around, one to a family. It’s a good thing, since they can be such a burden.”

  “Yes. The gods must be taking a hand.”

  Meranaldar smiled, a bit too indulgently in her opinion. He could be condescending, the scribe, but she was too grateful for the knowledge he’d brought with him to hold it against him. Besides, she knew better than he did that it wasn’t the gods who were lending their aid, but a once-human man: Aderyn.

  Whenever she attended the birth of a wild child or held a newborn in her arms, she could feel Aderyn’s presence—naught so perceptible as a ghost, but rather a touch of mind on mind, a sense that he was reaching out to her across the planes. To fulfill his wyrd, Aderyn in his last life should have helped her heal the Guardians and the flock of half-formed souls that followed them. He’d shirked that duty. Now, while he still existed in the state that ordinary mortals call death, he was carrying it out as best he could, guiding their souls to birth and physical life.

  The fir
st alar to appear at the festival brought with it the oldest wild child, Zandro, Salamander’s grown son, who lived with Salamander’s father, Devaberiel Silver-hand, the most famous bard in the Westlands. The other men in their alar set up the bard’s tent next to the prince’s, a sign of rank as well as a convenience. Dallandra strolled over to greet them. Devaberiel seemed thinner than the last time she’d seen him, and his moonbeam-pale hair had turned completely white. His eyes, the dark blue of the night sky in moonlight, still snapped with life and good humor, and his face, though finely drawn, showed none of the folds and gouges of old age that signaled, among the People, approaching death.

  His grandson couldn’t have looked more different. Short and stocky, Zandro had pale brown skin and brown hair that he wore in a mop of curls. His eyes had changed color since childhood; they were now a deep sunset orange, not quite as red as blood. When he saw Dalla, he turned his head to look at her sideways and grinned, revealing his mouthful of sharply pointed teeth.

  “Dalla,” he said.

  It was the first time Dalla had ever heard Zandro say anyone’s name, and Devaberiel smiled as proudly as if his grandson had just rattled off “The Burning of the Vale of Roses” or some other equally long and complex poem.

  “Yes,” Dallandra said, “I’m Dalla. You’re Zandro.”

  Zandro flicked his eyes his grandfather’s way, then giggled and trotted off, heading for the pack of children and dogs playing on the lakeshore.

  “He’s got a long way to go yet,” Devaberiel said, “but we make progress.”

  “You certainly do. I’ll admit to being surprised.”

  “Valandario’s been helping me, actually.” Dev glanced around. “I don’t see her. She’s probably setting up her tent.”

  “I’d best go greet her.”

  Dallandra picked her way through the growing encampment. She had so many people to greet that she made slow progress, but at last she reached the edge of the camp. For the festival, she’d had some of the men position her tent away from the crowd, where she could find some quiet for her workings. As she’d expected, Valandario had done the same, picking a spot near but not too near to Dallandra’s own.

  Val’s tent, so plain and gray on the outside, inside gleamed with color—elaborately woven panels and embroidered tent bags, mostly blue and green, touched here and there with gold, hung on the walls, while red, silver, and purple Bardek carpets and cushions lay strewn over the floor cloth. Sunlight from outside glowed through the walls. Entering the tent made Dalla think of walking into a giant jewelry box. Valandario herself sat on a red-and-gold carpet with jewels and gemstones spread out in front of her. She’d strewn them onto a scrying cloth, patched from Bardek silks. Some squares and triangles were plain, others embroidered with symbols, and here and there larger embroideries overlapped two squares. What they all meant only Valandario knew. She had derived this scrying system herself over a hundred years of hard work.

  “Am I disturbing you?” Dallandra said.

  “Not at all,” Val said. “In fact, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve done this reading twice today, and I can’t seem to interpret it.”

  Dallandra sat down on the opposite side of the scrying cloth. Light came in through the smoke hole in the roof, caught Val’s golden hair, and made it gleam like the silks. She held up delicate hands, clasped over a fresh handful of semiprecious stones. She whispered an invocation of the Lords of Aethyr, then scattered the gems over the cloth. Amethysts, citrines, lapis beads, dark jades, and fire opals—they lay glittering on the patches of silk among the rarer jewels. Here and there, as ominous as wolves lurking around a flock of sheep, sat tear-shaped drops of obsidian.

  “I don’t see any pattern at all,” Dallandra said.

  “Neither do I.” Valandario looked up with a brief smile. “That’s the problem.”

  “Which makes me assume that there’s trouble coming our way.”

  “I’m afraid I have to agree. How many gems have fallen on their own colors? Only four out of twenty, and the black have dropped on the gold squares. I don’t like this.” Val shook her head. “I don’t like it at all.” She began gathering up the stones and shoving them into leather pouches. “I’ve spent too much time poring over it, and it still baffles me. The first spread was even more chaotic. Two stones rolled right off the cloth.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “Something is happening—no, something is trying to happen, some large event is struggling to be born, and it doesn’t bode well.” She frowned as she pulled pouch strings tight. “That’s all I can say.”

  “It matches the omen-dreams I’ve been having.”

  “Then there’s nothing we can do but wait.”

  “Wait and be cautious. I was wondering, do you think you could join your alar to the prince’s? I’d feel better knowing that another dweomermaster rode on guard.”

  “I don’t see why not. Dev always enjoys exchanging lore with the prince’s scribe, and I’d be glad of the chance do some more reading in your books.”

  “Good. If we keep traveling fast, there won’t be a problem finding enough food and water for both herds.”

  “And it seems to me that fast is the way we should be traveling, for a lot of reasons.” Val patted the pouch of stones with one hand. “I’ll tell you what. We’ll leave a day before you and then camp where there’s plenty of grass. Once you catch up, we’ll head straight north. I’d best tell Dev now, so he doesn’t plan an extra performance.”

  They went to look for Devaberiel and found him a little ways from camp, where he was standing and practicing his latest declamation with only the grass for an audience.

  “Clinging like lice on the backs of hoofed death—” Dev broke off in midsentence, then grinned at the two women. “Not, of course, that I was speaking of you.”

  “I assumed that,” Valandario said. “I just wanted to tell you that I’ve changed our plans. We’ll be leaving the festival a little early, then joining the prince’s alar.”

  “All right.” Dev shrugged, smiling. “Whatever you two think best.”

  Dallandra left them discussing details and walked back to camp.

  Over the next several days, some of the earlier arrivals rode out, taking their stock to better pasture. New alarli rode in to take their places, and one of them brought a changeling infant with them. The bewildered father, Londrojezry, escorted Dallandra out to the horse herd to see the child before he’d even unpacked his travois. On top of a pile of tied-down blankets, the baby lay in a cradle of leather stretched over a wooden frame, and his purple eyes showed nothing but suspicion.

  “He hates to be touched,” Lon said. “He screams if you try to pick him up.”

  “How has your wife been feeding him?” Dalla said. “He doesn’t look malnourished.”

  “She has to express her milk into a bowl. First she dipped it up with a bit of cloth and gave him that to suck. Now, and my thanks to the Star Goddesses, he’ll take it from a spoon. But it’s still exhausting her, it takes so long.”

  “He was born when?”

  “Six moons ago.”

  “Try feeding him something other than milk. Deverry oats cooked to a fine paste, and broths.”

  “My thanks, Wise One.” For a moment Lon stood looking down at the cradle with tear-filled eyes. “I wanted a son so badly.” Then he stooped, picking up the cradle. “I’ll tell my wife about the food.”

  Dallandra watched him hurry away. She’d seen this type of changeling before, and she knew that nothing but more grief lay ahead for him and his father both. They became utterly withdrawn as they aged, this kind of child. Some wandered away from their alarli and were never seen again; others drifted along at the edge of their parents’ camps, accepting food or the occasional piece of clothing but nothing more, never speaking, never reaching out.

  And yet, as she walked back to camp, she found herself wrestling with a strange feeling: envy. Not envy of having a changeling, certainly, but—of what? Lon’s w
ife loved that child so much she was draining her own life to keep him alive, and he’d never repay her with anything but grief. But would the grief truly matter to her? To love someone that much. Is that what I envy? Dallandra wondered at herself. It seemed a sick sort of thing, that kind of love.

  Later that evening, Dalla stood just beyond a circle of firelight and watched Lon feeding his son a broth of oats boiled with milk. The wife, Allanaseradario, hunkered nearby and watched as the child slurped up the food. Now and then she would wipe its sticky chin with a bit of rag. Dalla felt all her familiar disgust with the mess and raw crudity of caring for infants. I made my choice, she thought. I took the dweomer willingly. Yet the envy came back, squeezing her heart, it seemed, as she stood in the shadows, looking into the circle of firelight. Finally she turned away with a toss of her head only to realize that Calonderiel was standing nearby, watching her in turn. She waited for him to speak, but he merely walked away, shoving his hands into his pockets and striding off.

  The time was wrong to think of grievous things. The festival proceeded with songs and declamations, feasts and dancing, powerful enough to draw most of the changelings into a web of laughter and good music. For an afternoon here, an evening there, Dallandra could even forget the danger gathering in the west. But the threat never quite left her, and others feared as well. Carra in particular began to worry about her younger daughter, Perra, riding with her husband’s alar.

  “They really should have been here by now,” Carra remarked one morning. “Dalla, don’t you think so?”

  “Perhaps, but the festival only began three days ago.”

  “I suppose,” Carra said, “but you never know these days. Things happen. If the Horsekin start raiding . . . ” She let her voice trail away.

  “That’s true enough,” Dallandra said. “I’ll scry.”

  Dalla walked down to the lakeshore and stared at the rippled water while she thought about Perra. The image built up fast: Perra was kneeling in the grass and lashing a blanket-wrapped bundle to a travois while her husband led over the horse chosen to pull it. Thanks be to the Star Goddesses! Dallandra thought. I wonder how I would have told Carra if they’d come to harm? Carra loved her children extravagantly, just like Londrojezry and his wife. And I? The question nagged at Dalla all day.