Gift of Griffins

by V. M. Escalada

  Tel crossed his arms and shook his head. “That’s just it. Jerek was acclaimed as Luqs by the Bear Wing. He’s more likely to do what Faro Sweetwater wants than what you want.”

  “Look, I need this.” She curled her fingers into the front of his tunic, shifted as he opened his arms and put his hands on her waist. “We’re the ones who got them Jerek, and with a proper Luqs to rally behind, the Battle Wings haven’t fallen out among themselves. But what’s happened since then? Talents are still murdered; the Halls of Law are still destroyed—Halians are still in control of the Peninsula for that matter.” Ker fell silent, suddenly aware that she’d almost been shouting.

  “We have a safe place here.” Tel loosened her fingers from his tunic, raised them to his lips. “We’ve found Feelers and griffins—well, one griffin anyway. We’re together. That’s a lot.”

  “I know it is. It’s everything. I’m sorry.”

  “Believe me, I understand. We don’t seem any closer to pushing the Halians into the sea and freeing the Peninsula.”

  All of which might be easier, Ker thought a few hours later, than reaching Jerek today. Even with Tel beside her, Ker was stopped twice by duty guards at several turns and junctions in the tunnels leading to Jerek’s new quarters.

  “An appointment,” she said when they finally reached the orderly of the day.

  “Unless you’re sent for, Talent Nast, yes.” The woman who had the duty today was a Bear unknown to Kerida. If it had been Nate Primo, or one of the other Bears she knew well, she might have had a chance. As it was, she let Tel lead her away.

  “Quarantine’s only a month,” he reminded her.

  “I don’t know if I’ve got another month in me,” she said. “I’m exhausted. There’s too much work for only two Talents.”

  “Can’t Luca do more?”

  Ker moved her shoulders, trying to relax the muscles in her neck. “He can’t see the auras,” she said. “And even if he could, he’s preparing to go to the other Feeler strongholds. They know him; they don’t know me. We need them, Tel, just as much as we need Talents. When he goes, my work doubles, and I’ll have no time do my own researches.”

  “Like you were doing this morning?”

  “I have a jewel now, Tel. Don’t you see what that means?”

  “No, I don’t, since you ask me.”

  She stopped and took a firm grip on the front of his harness. She tugged, and he leaned down and kissed her. “You’re not afraid I’ll use it on you?” she said as soon as her lips were free for speech.

  “No, I’m not,” he said, and she knew he told the truth. “But I know you, I trust you.”

  “With a jewel of my own, I can restore more people,” she said. “People who would have stayed loyal, if they hadn’t been jeweled. I’ll start here, with the people we know, like Jak Gulder, and then out there”—she waved one arm in the air—“out in the Peninsula.”

  “You’d be able to do that?”

  “I won’t know if I don’t get a chance to experiment.”

  “Shhh.” Tel turned away, his hand on his short sword.

  “It’s just me, O tall one.” Wynn Martan followed her voice out of the dimness, her bright red hair, once again braided, looking subdued, here where there was so little light. “Heard you were turned away at the Luqs’ anteroom,” she added more quietly when she reached them, holding up a finger when Ker opened her mouth to reply. She exchanged a soldier’s wrist grip with each of them. “Come along with me.”

  “Technically, I’m on duty at the next watch,” Tel said.

  Wynn made a brushing-away motion with her hands. “Then, technically, you should be on your way to your post.”

  Ker squeezed his forearm and gave him a little push. He hadn’t gone far before the light changed, and she knew he’d taken out the glow stone.

  “I can’t help thinking life was a bit easier before we completed our assignment and returned to the Wings.” Wynn stuck her thumbs in the belt of her own military harness. Though officially an archer with the Eagle Wing, she was under the day-to-day orders of the Faro of Bears, until enough Eagles were found to recreate the Wing.

  “It does stick a bit in my throat to be told I can’t see Jerek when they wouldn’t even have a Luqs if it hadn’t been for us.”

  “Well, thanks to you, there’s a lot more to ‘us’ than the Faro of Bears and all her little cubs.” Wynn tilted her head in the direction from which she’d come, and Ker fell into step beside her.

  “You’re going to invoke your right to speak to your own Faro?” The Luqs of Farama herself, or in this case, himself, was the official Faro of Eagles.

  “Not a bad idea, but I’ve got a better one. Ennick?”

  It was amazing that the big man could move so quietly in what was nothing but a small, dark space.

  “Hello, Griffin Girl.” Ker could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Hello, Ennick. I haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “I’ve been showing the Bears where they can eat, and sleep and—”

  “We know what else they need to do, Ennick, thank you. That’s very good of you, to help them like that.”

  “Jerek the Luqs wants me to help them,” the large man pointed out. “Like he wants me to help you now.”

  “You know a back way into his chambers, is that it?”

  “’Course I do. Tunnel four, secret track twelve, thirteen turns, and a tight squeeze. I know all the ways.”

  Ker didn’t know exactly what had happened to Ennick to make him simple. His aura was clean and clear. It hadn’t been dampened, though it lacked the extra colors that would make him a Gifted Feeler. Still, his uncanny memory for all the twists and turns of the mines and tunnels certainly felt like a gift to her.

  “Thank you, Ennick,” she said now. “I don’t know what we’d do without your help.”

  “Welcome.” He nodded at her. “Jerek the Luqs wants it, so it’s easy for me.”

  “You’d do anything Jerek asked you to do?” Wynn asked as they set off following him.

  “First Jerek the Luqs, then Ker Griffin Girl, then Weimerk the griffin. After that, no one unless I like them.”

  “I see, and who gave you those instructions?”

  The big man furrowed up his brow until Ker was sorry she’d asked. She hadn’t meant to worry or confuse him. He spoke, however, just as she was about to change the subject.

  “The griffin, I think. And then Jerek. He’s the Luqs, you know. People have to do what he says. And I like him.” He smiled around at Ker. “I like you, too, Griffin Girl, and you, little Wynn Martan.”

  “I’m not little!” Wynn said in mock outrage.

  “Maybe.” Surely there was a chuckle hiding in Ennick’s tone. “Maybe everyone looks little to me.” He looked around again and blinked both his eyes, the only way he knew how to wink.

  “Be so very careful in this part, please,” he said, sounding like Ganni. “There’s no lights, see.”

  Ker could tell from the way the sound of their footsteps had changed that they’d entered a much larger space. But Ennick was right. The soft glow of their wristlets and headbands wasn’t enough to show them just how big the cavern was. Single file, she and Wynn followed Ennick along a track only he could see. Finally, he stopped them in front of an unremarkable section of rock wall, indistinguishable from any other part of any common tunnel.

  “Tight squeeze,” he said, and disappeared.

  “Crap.” Ker stepped forward, reaching out into the spot she’d seen Ennick disappear. Paraste, she murmured, and at once she could see Ennick’s aura radiating out of a cleft in the rock face, hidden by its own narrowness as well as the lack of light.

  “That’s cheating.” Now Ennick was definitely chuckling.

  “How do you know I’m Flashing,” she said as she stepped through, tugging Wynn after
her.

  “It itches,” Ennick said. “It’s all right, though, Griffin Girl. The lights don’t hurt my eyes.”

  “Does he mean what I think he means?”

  “If I ever find out, I’ll let you know.” Was it possible? Could Ennick see the auras, despite being UnGifted? He started to look worried, so Ker smiled at him and patted him on his immense forearm. He grinned again and, beckoning with his fingers, led them around several more turns, past a jakes, and finally into a small space furnished as a dressing room. Here, the big man patted the air in front of them with his hands, just as if he was signaling to a dog. Wynn waved Ker to the only chair, taking a small stool for herself.

  When he saw them seated, Ennick touched where his crest would be if he were a soldier and disappeared without a sound, back the way they’d come.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Wynn said.

  “No idea,” Ker admitted. “I suppose I could manage it, but I don’t like the idea of crossing that big cavern in the dark without Ennick, even Flashing.”

  As she spoke, the curtains on the far side of the room moved, and Jerek slipped into the chamber just as quietly as Ennick had left it.

  The Luqs of the Faraman Polity was much changed from the boy with dirt on his face and straw in his hair whom they’d delivered to the Feelers and the Bear Wing at the end of Icemonth. He wasn’t wearing the velvets, silks, and soft leathers he’d have been expected to wear at court in Farama the Capital, but something approximating court dress had been found or made for him—surprising, really, when there couldn’t have been many people here who had ever seen court dress.

  “The Inquisitor,” Jerek said, as though she’d voiced her thoughts aloud. She kept forgetting he could do that. “Luca’s been at court lots of times and spoken with the Luqs herself.”

  There might have been a time that Jerek Brightwing would have said that last bit with awe in his voice, even more so, perhaps, after finding out the late Luqs was his very own cousin. But Jerek himself was Luqs now, and the last month had worn some of the gloss off the whole adventure.

  “Not all honey and cakes, is it?” Ker said, answering Jerek’s tone rather than his words.

  “You had to sneak in to see me, didn’t you?” the boy pointed out, sitting with a thud on the edge of his bed. “And I only managed that much because I’m supposed to be having a nap. There are probably others who’d like to speak to me who don’t know anyone to sneak them in.” There were signs of weariness on the boy’s face. “Every time I question something or want to do something, they either tell me that it’s not the way things are done, or that I’m the Luqs and too valuable to risk.”

  The brave boy who’d risked everything, including his own life, to come with them, to help the Battle Wings and the Feelers, seemed far away.

  “Jerek, look at me.” Ker waited until he’d raised his head and met her eyes. Then she waited again, until his face relaxed, and his shoulders lowered, and he was really listening.

  “You are the Luqs of Farama,” she said. She spoke in an ordinary voice, stating the simple facts. “Nothing is as it was six months ago. Nothing. This isn’t the Griffin Palace, or even Farama the Capital. Six months ago, none of us even knew that Feelers existed. Now you’ve given them citizenship. Nothing about our lives is the same as it was.” Her hand went down to the jewel in her pocket. “Nothing has to be the way it was before if you want to change it. Do you hear me?”

  He nodded, and the corners of his mouth began to twitch.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “I do,” he said. “You mean, ‘don’t be stupid, but don’t let them push me around.’”

  “Right. Think about things, take counsel, and make your own decision. You don’t have to do something just because Luca Pa’narion or the Council of Mines and Tunnels or even the Faro of Bears thinks you should.”

  “Or even you.” Jerek smiled, but his eyes were serious.

  “Or even me,” she agreed, half laughing. I should have seen that coming.

  “You didn’t come to give me a show of support,” Jerek said, exhaustion returning to his voice.

  “No.” Ker wasn’t going to beat around the bush. “One of the people Tel’s company brought in this morning is a Talent, someone I knew at the training Hall. Barid Poniara. I’d like him to skip the quarantine.”

  “You want me to intervene.” Jerek nodded, his brow furrowed. The nod didn’t mean that he agreed with her, only that he understood. “The quarantine exists for the protection of the Feelers,” he said. “They welcomed us here. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have this stronghold—it’s better than a fortress. It’s only right that we do whatever we can to keep the Feelers happy with their decision.”

  “But Barid’s a Talent,” Ker said. And how many times had she said this already? “We need more Talents, as many as we can get. Luca and I are being run off our feet examining the captured and the refugees. We don’t have time or energy to do anything else—” She subsided when Jerek raised his hand.

  “With the exception of Luca Pa’narion, the Feelers are actually more comfortable with the UnGifted newcomers than they are with Talents. It’s Talents they regard as their traditional enemy, more than . . .”

  “More than normal people. Yes, I know.” Ker took a deep breath. “But Barid is one of the Talents Luca chose to be a Guardian, people who knew about and helped the Feelers. I was going to be one of those, too, remember.”

  Jerek nodded again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s a good rule, and I can’t—I won’t—rescind it because you’re tired. Have him checked by Luca, who knows him best. Let Ganni meet him, and Hitterol as well. If they support your request, then I can reconsider.” As he finished speaking, his face crumpled, and for a moment he looked as though he might cry.

  Ker went to her knees and took his hand. “I’m sorry, I know you’re tired, too,” she said. “But I had to try.”

  “No, that’s not it.” He sat back and scrubbed at his eyes with his sleeve. “Or not all of it anyway. Ker, I’m afraid.” In that moment he seemed younger than his thirteen years.

  Ker sat next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. “What frightens you?”

  “Something is coming. It’ll be in the Peninsula soon.”

  A sudden chill made the hairs on Ker’s arms stand up. “Did Larin tell you this?” Larin, though only six years old, was one of the rare Time-seers. Among the things she’d seen already was Ker’s own arrival in the Mines and Tunnels months before.

  “No,” Jerek said. “I don’t know how I know, I just do.” He grabbed her hand. “Ker, I’m only thirteen. I’m due to be examined again in Grassmonth. What if . . .” His voice died away, too fearful to express the disaster aloud.

  “What if you’re a Talent?” Ker said. Though seeing something coming was the Time-seeing Gift, not the Talent.

  “Mother, Daughter, and Son, save and protect us,” Wynn said, even more quietly.

  “‘Talents do not live in the world,’” Jerek quoted, voicing their fears.

  Ker nodded. No one knew better than she did what this meant. The Talent normally appeared between the ages of ten and fifteen. If it did, the person went immediately to the Halls of Law to be trained. Left family and the world behind, to become an impartial tool of the Law. No one was accepted in any profession, or any official apprenticeship, until after they were fifteen, and the Talent would no longer manifest. Jerek was Luqs by right of blood and acclamation, but only the extraordinary circumstances allowed him to rule.

  That and the fact that the Feelers would not support a Regent.

  “If I can’t be Luqs anymore . . .”

  It was Ker’s turn to nod her understanding. “Who’s going to lead us against the enemy?”

  THE horrified expression gradually left Wynn’s face, replaced by narrowed eyes and lips
twisted to one side. “Wait a minute,” she said to Ker. “Why aren’t you more worried?”

  Kerida looked from one white face to the other. “Jerek’s not a Talent.” She drummed her fingers on her knee. “But I’m not sure what he is.”

  “Explain.”

  “You’re not UnGifted. Your aura has the purple and orange of a Gifted person, as well as the blue, green, and yellow everyone has, but–”

  “How long have you known this?” Wynn asked.

  “Since I first Flashed him.” Ker kept her eyes on Jerek’s face. “I could see right away you were Gifted, but I’m still not certain what your colors mean. You don’t have the turquoise that Talents have, so at least that’s one less worry.”

  “Is everyone else going to see it that way?” From the look on Wynn’s face, she already knew the answer. “Don’t tell them,” she added before Ker could speak. “No one can see the auras but you, so if we keep our mouths shut—”

  “It’s not that.” Ker held up a hand. “His Gift will manifest eventually, and what do we do then?”

  “They will make my father Luqs.” Jerek’s voice was rough. It had been weeks now, Ker realized, since she’d heard the boy’s voice break.

  “It’s very unlikely the Wings would accept a man who went over to the enemy at the first opportunity, no matter what his bloodline.” Ker kept her voice as tactful as she could. “It’s far more likely they’ll waste time choosing someone from among themselves, ‘for the good of the Polity.’ Either that or they move the capital permanently to Juristand and abandon the Peninsula entirely. The very things our finding you prevented in the first place.”

  “It’s more than the Battle Wings.” Jerek spoke so quietly Ker had to lean in to hear him. “The Feelers have given me their support, and I’ve given them my promise. They’re citizens now.” He waved at the walls around them. “We live here on their sufferance. They tolerate the presence of the Bear Wing in their tunnels because I’m accepted as Luqs. Me, not someone else.”