Kitha gave a small hawk shriek. :But I feel whole with you. I don’t want to lose that.:
It was the difference in their age speaking now, Hadara understood Kitha’s fear. She soothed the young woman with soft chrrrs. :I feel the same. If we are Lifebonded, that will not change, no matter what Quenten or any shaman does. If we are not Lifebonded, we will not lose the experience or memory of this closeness.:
:He probably can’t do anything anyway.: Kitha couldn’t tell if she hoped this to be true or not.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But, forrr the sssake of trrrrying, we musssst,” Hadara said, then continued mentally, :Otherwise, we might become so interesting that we’ll gain the attention of a kyree. Then where would we be?:
Kitha laughed her bird laughter. :I don’t know. Stuck with a talkative kyree? All right. We’ll deliver the message and then we’ll see.:
Hadara joined her laughter, but she kept her thoughts to herself. People of all species could be as cruel as they could be generous. Only time and experience would tell if they needed to find a way to cure Kitha of her magical affliction—or make her appear more human than she was now.
• • •
Two days later, with backpacks reprovisioned, letters written, and Kitha reintroduced to her Tale’sedrin kin, it was proving harder to leave than was to arrive. Verik put Hadara’s pack on her as Kitha, surrounded by the clan’s children, demanded to hear their names spoken in “the hawk language” before she left.
“I fear you will need to drag her away from her adoring cousins.” Verik cinched the modified backpack until it was firm. “They are enamored.”
Hadara tilted her head and listened to the children’s shrieks of delight and laughter at their own poor mimicry of Kitha’s “hawk names” for them. “I’ve hhhearrrd they hhhave alwaysss been ssso.” She shifted, adjusting the weight of the pack. “Time to go.” She followed this up with a mindcall to Kitha. :I am ready.:
:Coming.: Hadara heard Kitha’s soft whistle of negation to the children, followed by a chorus of disappointed groans.
Verik walked out of the tent with Hadara at his side. They’d come to an accord over the last two days that he walked on her left, with his shoulder grazing her feathers. He’d led her around the camp until she became familiar with it. With that, she did not need to borrow Kitha’s eyes. It was something she would practice with Kitha—out of sight of the Shin’a’in.
Hadara accepted Kitha’s mental touch as the young woman reached her side and sight bloomed once more before her. The children in their colorful clothing milled about. Some of the adults of the camp came to see them off. Jerda was at the head of this group.
The four of them walked together, Jerda and Kitha in front, Verik and Hadara behind, toward the edge of the camp. A small parade of the children and curious followed.
“Verik will deliver the letter to your family and stay long enough in Jkatha to answer their questions.” Jerda gazed ahead, not looking at Kitha as she spoke. “I don’t know if Quenten can help you or Hadara. If he can, all the better. If he cannot, you both know where home is.”
Kitha whistle her thanks, manipulating her voice into the rhythm for the Shin’a’in language.
“Thank you,” Hadara repeated for Kitha and for herself. She also touched Verik’s shoulder in thanks and good-bye. The Sword Sworn put his hand on her neck in wordless reciprocation.
Kitha opened her arms for a hug and received it.
Hadara saw the tears in the older woman’s eyes before darkness descended again. :We will be fine.: She sent to Jerda, :We will care for each other.:
:I know.: The old courier steeled herself. Vision returned. “Go swiftly, and come back to us.”
:Let’s go before someone embarrasses themselves. Like me.: Kitha’s Animal Mindspeech was full of joy.
Hadara ruffled her feathers. “We will returrrn.” She straightened, then, using her borrowed sight, she bowed her head to the Tale’sedrin clan and walked out of the camp with her chin high and Kitha at her side. The children cheered their good-byes.
The two walked side-by-side in the general direction of north without looking back.
:When we are out of sight of the clan, I want to try something.:
Kitha gave her an interrogative whistle.
:Look at my back, at the pack. It’s been modified to allow you to ride.: Hadara kept walking in a straight line, even as the image in her head shifted to look at her back.
:You want to fly more?:
:I am a gryphon. We won’t be able to fly far at one time. But think, a courier pair who can fly as well as walk and find their way. If you need a small thing couriered instead of magic sent . . . :
:And people will, in this age of magic’s drought.:
Hadara lolled her mouth open in a smile. :They can call on us.: She paused. :We can do this whether or not you have been cured of your maladies. I am a strong Mindspeaker, too.:
Kitha’s unconscious anxiety dissipated. :But what of you?:
:I am capable without my sight, though I enjoy the use of yours. The darkness isn’t that dark with you at my side.:
Kitha stopped and hugged Hadara tight. :Thank you.:
:Thank you.: Hadara nuzzled Kitha’s head feathers. :Come now, Quenten of Bolthaven and the world awaits!:
Kitha nodded, and the two of them set off toward Rethwellan and their future.
Blind Leaps
Ron Collins
Startled, Nwah snapped out of a daydream.
Her fur tingled. A delicious knot of pressure seeped from her body as if she breathed it out in a single, long exhale. It was late in the afternoon. The sound of water sliding over rock came low to her ears. The smell of the forest was delicate fronds of fir trees over the coarse aroma of river wort. A spider spun her web overhead, silently, but with ancient movements that made Nwah feel something deep inside her.
She felt embarrassed, though she couldn’t say why.
:What’s wrong?: Kade asked as he ambled up the creek bed, his net dripping water. His pants were wet to the calves.
:You’ve been fishing again,: she replied. He had been doing that a lot.
:We need to eat.:
Nwah whined as if to agree. She stood, shook debris from her coat, then sat back down. She didn’t mind fish, but there were better things to do with her time, and she could get a rabbit pretty much whenever she wanted.
Kade sat beside her and ran his hand over her shoulder. They had been together for nearly six years now. He was growing, nearly a man. He was tall and thin. His dark hair fell over his eyes. The contact of his fingers on her shoulder felt unusually bothersome.
:You were moaning a moment ago,: he said. :Are you all right?:
:I’m fine.:
Kade nodded as if to say he believed her.
But, of course, she wasn’t.
The source of her discomfort—a strong musk: purely kyree, firm, powerful, and gloriously male—was impossible for her to miss, even from all the way across the open hollow. She had known others of her species. She had been birthed in a den with several siblings and grew up in her mother’s pack. She understood life in the pack. But this was different. This thing that was happening to her was a physical need that hurt as good as it felt, like licking at a healing wound.
Three separate odors came to her. Three males.
Their guttural barking was audible to her kyree senses, even if Kade couldn’t pick them up. It was more a chattering stutter than anything else, a sound that reminded her of her brothers bickering in the den, but harsher and more interesting.
Kade stared silently out over the creek as he drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Nwah knew him well enough to see he had something he wanted to say.
:Are you all right?: Nwah asked.
:I . . . I want to leave the forest,: Kade replied.
/> :Why?:
:I don’t know,: Kade said. :It’s just . . . there’s got to be something more to life than the Pelagiris:
:These woods give us food and water and shelter from the storms. What more is there?:
The current floated a leaf downstream.
:The trees and plants,: Nwah said, :they increase your healing, too, right? You learn from them.:
:They did. At least they used to. But if I have to work with another fern, I think I’m going to throw up.:
Nwah chuffed her amusement.
He pushed hair from his forehead and turned to her. :My Pa used to tell me stories when I was a kid. They were about Mages and Heralds, and great fights over things that mattered. I remember one story about two Healers—:
:Tamsin and Cinnabar, right?:
:Yes,: he said, sitting back with a grimace that said he realized he’d told the story too many times. :They changed the world.:
:All Healers change the world.:
:Some more than others.:
Nwah waited. The rut of the males was firm now, equal in strength to the intensity of Kade’s anguish.
The idea of leaving this place made her unhappy.
:The Pelagiris is our home,: she said. :We can’t leave.:
:We can always come back if we don’t like it.:
:I don’t think it works that way.:
:It will be all right,: he said.
She stood up, and the pull of the males grew even stronger. It was as if they had tapped a line of power and cast an invisible force that leaked from the trees and welled up from the ground. It made her body shiver in a beautifully horrible way. She was going insane, she thought. Being out of control like this made her uncomfortable in ways she couldn’t describe. A wave of shame crossed her mind, but she couldn’t say why.
She wanted to talk to Kade about it, but that felt wrong. To tell him about this felt too personal. It would be like rolling onto her back and exposing everything she knew to him. And he was her link-mate. How would he react to the idea that she so strongly desired something beyond him?
On the other hand, the energy it took to hide her desires from their link had been draining.
Now he wanted to cut her ties to their home.
:No,: she said as she backed off. :I don’t like it. I won’t go.: Nwah leaped into the creek bed and ran upstream.
Kade let her go.
:All right,: he said as she raced up the creek bed, running hard, feeling the ground flow under her paws. :We’ll stay here if that’s what you want,: he said as blood pumped through her body and the scents of water and rock and the distant tone of musk made her shiver. :I’ll stay here with you,: he said as she raced around the bend.
For some reason, that just made her more angry.
Like he was better than her.
Like he was a martyr or some kind of a hero, and she was just selfish.
She left the creek bed and ran uphill through the thickest part of the wood.
She liked to run.
She liked dashing through the woods, racing free and letting the moist air dry her eyes as her muscles stretched and her breath came in great gulps. They had been in this part of the woods for long enough that she understood everything about the land. She raced up the hill of hard dirt, bounding past where a slab of granite jutted into the air. A dead tree, struck by lightning in a recent storm, would be just past this swell. She gave a blind leap and came down on it. A deft pirouette later, she twisted in midair to land on an open ledge and charged up a nearly sheer cliff that left her at the top of the ridge that looked down over the valley.
It was high ground, her favorite place.
To the north, tree-clotted hills rolled under the late-afternoon sun. To the south, open glades scattered themselves amid copses of fir and birch. Two pair-mated hawks soared over the creek that cut through the valley below, watching for a meal and diving to the ground in a dance that was as familiar as life itself. Afternoon was drawing to evening, and the forest was preparing for the change. Deer stood beside the creek, drinking. A bobcat stalked quail at the edge of a clearing.
This was her home. It was what she knew.
But Kade’s words rang in her ears now, and she couldn’t ignore the grassy plains stretching out beyond the edge of the woods and over the darkening horizon to places where civilizations loomed.
She remembered earlier days, before Kade, when she had been paired with the warrior named Rayn. Nwah had been so young then, so naïve. Rayn had promised to take her to a distant place called Oris, where she had been born. Nwah remembered being excited by the idea. But then Rayn had died accompanying a childhood friend to Katashin’a’in, a place Nwah knew nothing about except that it was in the grasslands, far away, and that it was arrived at by traveling a path open to the ambushes of Hawkbrothers and many other such dangers.
Rayn and her friend perished, and Nwah had nearly joined them.
Only Kade’s healing touch had saved her.
Rayn had been bold, daring, and good with a sword.
Kade was calmer, a simple boy with a heart that was kind and caring. He had always valued simple things. He had always been interested in safety above all.
What had gotten into him?
Why would Kade want to leave the Pelagiris?
Why would he throw this life away like that?
A grumble came from behind her, and a wall of musk hit her like a branch strike.
She heard their footpads as she turned to them.
It was the males: all three she had sensed earlier and another, a neutral with black streaks running in its pelt. They stood in a clearing in front of a thin line of elm they had arrived from, panting as she was, licking their chops and grinning in their kyree way. They had come around the valley as she ran. Any other direction, and she would have smelled them earlier. Only now that they were upwind did she get the full aroma of their maleness. It almost knocked her over.
The elder was clearly a leader. The others, both younger boys and the neutral, were probably no older than Nwah. One of the younger males took a step forward. The other gave a yipping howl that echoed through the valley.
Nwah barred her teeth and growled from deep in her throat.
:Stay back,: the elder warned the youngers.
:But she’s in season,: the boy whined. :You can smell her from three hills away.:
:Yes, she is. But we are not ruffians.:
The elder stepped closer and stood between Nwah and the boys, forefeet planted and his chest thrust forward so that the lighter fur below his jawline caught the breeze. He was strong despite his age. His eyes were deep. He carried a scar across his jawline that reminded her of her own broken past.
:I am Patock,: he said to her. :Which of us will you choose?:
Nwah backed to the ledge. She could leap down if need be, though it was a long drop, and she would need a perfect landing or risk breaking a bone.
:I don’t understand,: she replied.
He appraised her, and his eyes widened. :You are young,: he said. :This is the first time you’ve come to season, isn’t it?:
Nwah glanced back down the cliff.
:What is your name, young one?: Patock said.
:Nwah,: she replied.
:You will select which of us you wish to pair with.:
:I am paired with Kade.:
:That is the linking,: the elder said in a way that made her feel uncomfortably good. :I am talking about something completely different.:
His demeanor grew darker as he waited.
Or maybe not.
She was confused. She wanted to run, but Patock stood there with power radiating from his mere presence. He was so strong and so real that she thought she might drown in desire. She felt pressure. The need to present for him froze something inside. She wanted. She needed. But s
he didn’t understand what was happening, and it scared her.
The clumsy sound of someone crashing through the woods came from below.
“Nwah!”
It was Kade, speaking aloud and running toward her. His big, clumsy feet ripped through grasses and wildweeds. He held a dagger before him and hacked at branches that got in his way.
He is coming to save me, she thought. He had heard the howling.
:Stop!: she called.
But it was too late. One of the younger males gave a wild hunting yowl and took two bounding steps before flinging himself off the cliff toward Kade.
Nwah leaped, too, twisting, landing deftly and jumping to a flat rock, then across a fallen moss-covered limb to land on the path just as the male gathered himself into a final coil to launch himself at Kade.
Kade raised his dagger, eyes suddenly wide with fear.
She yowled and leaped onto the back of the younger male, knocking him off balance as they flew through the air and fell to the peat-covered forest floor. Nwah rolled to her feet, lowered herself to the ground, and gave a ferocious growl as she faced the male.
The kyree collected himself, then posed despite his defeat.
:Come back, Maral,: the elder male called out. :Come back before I agree to have Tellol punish you.:
The attacker showed Nwah his teeth. Then, despite raising the hair on the scruff of his neck, he backed off and returned to the pathway, where he stood behind the elder.
Patock stayed where he was, waiting calmly until Maral returned.
:Choose,: he said to her once the youth was back in place.
Nwah stared at the elder, then back at Kade.
:No. I will not pair with anyone.:
She turned to Kade. :Come,: she said as she slowly turned away.
Kade walked beside her.
As they slipped through birch and evergreens, Nwah glanced over her shoulder and saw the profiles of the three males staring down from the cliff.
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