Gift of Griffins

by V. M. Escalada

  “The Griffin Girl knew about this?” Tonia’s eyes were pressed closed. “Never mind, not important. When all this is over, we’ll have to talk about how information gets shared in the new Polity.”

  “The point is that the Poppy Shekayrin, Pollik Kvar, is bringing them here, to the Serpents Teeth.” Jerek cleared his throat. What he wouldn’t give for a cup of kaff. “Bakura because he thinks he can use her to control the army, and Ker and Tel to keep Baku happy. Also, he’s calling every other Shekayrin, everyone who can get here quickly. Once they’re here, they plan to locate our entrances as swiftly as possible and overwhelm us.” He looked from one Faro to the other, but they were waiting for him to continue. “Now that they understand exactly what they’re up against, they’re coming in force. And I wouldn’t be too sure that the Valley of Simcot won’t hold them all. Enough Shekayrin working together can alter the landscape. If they want a large field to use as a firm base they can attack from, they’ll just make one.”

  “This reworking can be done by Feelers, as well,” Juria Sweetwater said. “They have been blocking entrances and moving tunnels around for years.”

  “There’s a limit to how many people we can spare to block entrances,” Tonia pointed out. “We can’t pull all the Lifters out of their units, not with the Halians pouring into the area in these numbers.”

  “We could close what entrances we can while there is still time.” Juria meant this as a statement, and it was taken that way.

  “Ennick?” Jerek turned to the big man. “If I wanted to make sure no one could reach us here, where we all live, do you know where I would have to block the tunnels? And which tunnels to block?”

  “Sure, Jerek, I know that. Tunnel seventeen where it meets tunnel four—”

  “That’s good, Ennick. I don’t need you to tell me right now, I just wanted to know if you could tell me.” He turned back to the Faros. “I think it means closing off tunnels, or whole sections of the mines, rather than each actual entrance. We’d lose a lot of area, and we’d be effectively letting them into the mines and tunnels.”

  “Where our people would have less trouble killing them.” Tonia was nodding her satisfaction.

  Jerek stayed quiet for a moment. “We can’t kill everyone, not and fulfill the Prophecy.”

  “I find I’m caring less about that than I am the lives of my people.”

  “Some of them are our people,” he said finally. “At least half of the soldiers we’ve seen used to be Eagles.”

  “Or Bears,” Juria added. She shrugged her bearskin cloak up closer to her face, as though she was suddenly cold.

  * * *

  Ker sat cross-legged facing Tel, with Baku between them on the only chair in the room. It was clearly designed to be folded for easy packing and transport, and at any other time Ker would have liked to examine it. Tel looked paler than she’d ever seen him, his skin less a contrast to his almost white hair. The tan that came from days and weeks on the march was beginning to fade. She wondered what she looked like herself. At least now she was clean.

  “Don’t Flash unless you have to,” Tel told her. Pollik Kvar had finally fulfilled his side of the agreement he’d made with Baku and let them visit her. “Remember, they think you’re still netted.”

  Ker rolled her eyes. “There’s a guard on each wall of this room.” The fact that they were in a tent made some things easier and some harder. “They’re close enough to hear us, if they want to, so we should be careful.”

  “We will arrive tomorrow, they tell me.” Baku’s murmur was so quiet Ker almost couldn’t hear her. “Kvar has me practicing what he wishes me to say to the Horsemen and the other soldiers.”

  Baku wasn’t looking all that well either, Ker thought—though, come to think of it, she’d never seen what the girl looked like well-rested and happy. Her aura looked healthy enough, but dark smudges under the girl’s eyes suggested she hadn’t been sleeping.

  “I don’t know what they think they’re going to do with all these people in the Valley of Simcot,” she said. “We’ve been there, and it’s not large enough to hold even the soldiers with us, let alone any others.”

  “It’s been a while since I studied the geography of the Peninsula,” Tel said. “But I don’t think there’s any other valley nearby.”

  Baku frowned. “Are you certain? The Serpents Teeth is not that large a range of mountains, but . . .”

  “No valley,” Ker whispered. “Tel’s right.” She wasn’t going to take offense at Baku’s dismissal of the Serpents Teeth as less than imposing. Once she’d seen the mountains around Griffinhome, nothing else was ever going to impress her.

  “There, you see?” Tel grimaced when Ker waved her hand at him. Those words had come out at normal volume. “No valley,” he murmured.

  “But there’s a valley now,” she said.

  Baku sucked in her breath.

  The girl hadn’t been pale before, Ker thought, but she was now. “What is it?”

  The princess probably wasn’t aware that her head shook. “There is a desert,” she said. “Very old. Before the horsemen came to Halia, it was already there. Legend says the Shekayrin had done it. That they simply removed the water from the land and left it dry. If they wish for a valley, a valley they shall have.”

  Now Tel was shaking his head. “What I can’t understand, is how the Horsemen ever conquered Halia in the first place. Why didn’t the Shekayrin defeat them?”

  “Blades of grass,” she said, and it took Ker a minute to remember where she’d heard that phrase before. That’s what the Emperor’s army was called. To show people how many of them there were.

  “Still, you’re saying that numbers alone could overcome the magic of people who could create a desert?”

  “No.” Ker cleared her throat. “I’ll bet by the time the Horsemen came, there were fewer Shekayrin, and fewer jewels. That’s why they’re here. Remember what Svann told us. The numbers of Shekayrin dwindled as the supplies of the soul stone ran low.”

  “And the Halians of those days were not a warlike people,” Baku added. “Their ruling classes were much given to philosophy, land management, and other such scholarly pursuits. Sunflower Shekayrin had great status then, and Poppies were considered merely useful.”

  “But there’s enough of them here right now to make this valley?”

  Ker nodded just as Baku said, “Yes.”

  “And when we get there? What’s your role in all this?”

  “Kvar will call upon me to use the Emperor’s Voice. To rouse the troops. To take the mines.” Baku pushed her veils back off her head. “They believe there are enough Shekayrin here now to counteract the Feelers.”

  “Are they right?”

  “Jerek tells me no. He tells me that many of the entrances have been shut, and that the Shekayrin cannot be everywhere at once, whereas his people can be.” She lifted her shoulders and let them drop again as if she’d only just learned how to shrug. “The problem, as I see it, is that neither side has accurate information about the other.”

  “There are seventeen of them,” Ker said. “We’ll have to tell Jerek.”

  Tel nodded his satisfaction. “We should be able to manage that number—” He frowned. “But counteracting one Shekayrin needs at least three Feelers. That’s . . .”

  “Fifty-one,” Baku said immediately.

  Tel whistled. “Close, very close. And not everyone has the same level of ability. What about you, Princess? Is there anything you can do?”

  “If I am there, present at the right time, I believe so, but I must be present. However, I have been a mage for five days only, it may be that I know only enough to increase our danger.”

  Ker crossed her arms, not wanting to agree out loud. She thought back on the drills Svann had put her through. There was no one here to train the princess, and anything Baku tried on her own could be
more hindrance than help.

  “But I believe, with the mask, I can do something more to the purpose.” There was excitement in the girl’s voice.

  “What did you have in mind?” Ker put her index finger to her lips as Baku was about to speak. “Someone’s coming.” She held the finger up until she was sure the person wasn’t stopping at their tent. “Make it quick.”

  “If the Horsemen obey me—as even Peklin Kvar believes they will—instead of rousing them to fight your people in the mines, I will call upon them to turn on the Shekayrin.” Lips parted, Baku looked back and forth between them.

  “It’s not much of a plan—” Tel began.

  “Will it work?” Ker interrupted, willing at least to listen.

  “Will they succeed against the mages? I cannot know. But we will at least create sufficient confusion that your people, strategically placed, can take advantage of it, and perhaps we will win.”

  Perhaps. There was a lot riding on that word. “Weimerk says he’s coming.”

  “With respect,” Tel said. “He’s not here. If we wait for him, we may be too late.”

  Ker whistled through her teeth. There wasn’t any point in asking Weimerk how long he’d be. Griffins didn’t measure space or time the way people did. “All right, Baku, you tell Jerek—”

  “No. I know nothing of military strategy. If we are to accomplish our goal, we must act quickly, and therefore it must be you who communicates the plan to him and coordinates the others. Once the plan is made, you may tell me what part I will play, and when.”

  Ker uncrossed her legs and rested her arms on her knees. Baku was right. They had to do this themselves. No griffins. Just Feelers, and Talents, and soldiers—and Baku. It would have to be enough.

  “Too bad I don’t have my jewel.” Ker’s aura shone bright and healthy, but her red ribbon wouldn’t hold any pattern for long without her jewel.

  Baku got a faraway look in her eye. “I think I can manage something.”

  <> He might not get to them quickly, but at least he could help Ker talk to Jerek.

  * * *

  Jerek: The Faros aren’t going to like this. Jerek Brightwing signaled to Ennick and waited until the big man was by the door before continuing. People didn’t usually walk in unannounced, but Jerek had learned to be cautious back in his father’s house. Old habits were hard to break. They think we’ve got an advantage in being in the mines, and they want to let the Halians come to us. They won’t want to give up what they see as the stronger position.

  Kerida: But with our plan, they’ve got me and Baku as well. Otherwise, you’ll be dealing with the Shekayrin by yourselves.

  Jerek: Two thirds of the soldiers and all the Feelers to be sent outside? I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything.

  Kerida: That’s just it. Jerek. You have to promise. Otherwise, there’s no plan at all, and we’ll have to think of something else.

  Jerek wondered if Ker could tell he was sighing. Ennick raised his eyebrows, his face beginning to cloud over, but it cleared when Jerek smiled at him.

  Jerek: All right, give me the details.

  Kerida: Do you have something to write with? Start at the Valley of Simcot. These are the changes you can expect. . . .

  * * *

  Ranks of soldiers at least eight-deep were lined up in the space facing the dais that held Pollik Kvar and two other Shekayrin Ker didn’t know. She and Tel had been brought out first, even before the soldiers, when the sun had barely risen over the crags to the east, and their breath could still be seen in the cold air. Their hands and feet were bound, comfortably but securely. If she’d had her jewel, she’d have been able to loosen the bonds enough that they could run—if it wasn’t for the Daisy Shekayrin standing behind them, quietly cursing the cold and his luck in assignments.

  Baku mounted the dais from the far end, accompanied by six officers. Five of these were dressed in loose trousers tucked into boots, leather or sheepskin coats over high-necked shirts. Horsemen. Ker hoped that was a good omen. As the princess passed in front of Kvar, she stumbled and caught him by the sleeve. The mage looked as though he wanted to push her off but stopped when the officers nearest her reached out to help. Baku held them off with a graceful movement of her hand and resumed her walk to the center of the dais.

  “Eleven mages,” Ker said to Tel out of the corner of her mouth. “Counting Kvar.”

  From the look on his face, Tel was doing mental calculations. “And the others?”

  “I’d say either too far away to get here in time or being distracted by Bears and Panthers.”

  “We won’t get another chance to try this.”

  “Silence.”

  Ker winced at the blow to the back of her head, slumping as though she didn’t have the strength to sit up straight. In fact, she’d managed five hours’ sleep the night before, and felt more rested than she had in weeks. From here, Ker couldn’t Flash if Baku had been able to find her jewel. Though she had no idea what she could do about it even if the girl had been successful. She could move things when she had the jewel in hand, and she could move the jewel itself without having, well, the jewel itself, but she’d never tried it.

  “The Talent’s all very well, but it’s a passive Gift,” she murmured.

  “Luca Pa’narion says that’s why Talents turned on Feelers and mages in the first place, back before anyone remembers. Afraid because the other Gifts are so active.”

  Ker looked at Tel sideways. “Since when do you study with the High Inquisitor?”

  He shrugged. “A man can’t be on patrol all the time. And sometimes you’re busy.”

  Movement on the dais silenced them. Ker lifted her eyes and focused on the small figure of the Princess Imperial. Baku lifted something white—the mask—to her face. Ker blinked and sat back so quickly that Tel put a warning finger on her knee. “Do you see it?” she asked him, though she knew he couldn’t. “She flickers. She looks taller and dressed in green, and then she’s her normal height wearing a rose-red gown.”

  “Do you know what it means?”

  “I’ve seen it with Larin. Sometimes she looks old and bent, just for a second.”

  “Do you think Larin knows how this is going to turn out? Not that she’d tell us, or that we could understand the answer if she did.”

  Ker shushed him before the mage behind them could. Baku’s image settled into the taller, green-dressed one, but Ker still Flashed two people standing where Baku stood. The girl was clearly unaware of it.

  “Greetings, my people.”

  Even though she knew to expect a man’s voice, the hairs rose on the back of her neck. She understood every word perfectly, though it wasn’t speaking Faraman.

  Every Halian in the crowd of soldiers fell silent and shushed the Faramans among them, who didn’t know they were hearing the Voice of the Emperor. There was a ripple of movement as the soldiers all went down on one knee. The Shekayrin, she saw, stayed upright, except for one who began to kneel, only to be pulled up by the mage next to him. So, not everyone, even among the Shekayrin, was following wholeheartedly.

  Baku was still speaking, or rather, her brother the Emperor was. The speech began with a lot of the usual business about what a good job they were doing, and how proud he was of them.

  “I say that you have done well, but only in that you have done what was asked of you.” From where she stood Ker could see that some of the officers in the first row had exchanged looks, without raising their bowed heads.

  “A pity you could not do as I asked of you.” A wave of sound passed over the mass of soldiers, almost too low to hear. “But you are not at fault. Rather, the Shekayrin have led you astray, and have caused you to disobey my wishes.”

  Two of the Halian officers in the front rank of soldiers rose to their feet and headed toward where Tel and Ker were seated.

  “Ke
rida . . .”

  “We’re not their target. It’s the Daisy Shekayrin behind us.” Logical. He was the closest mage to them. Ker lowered her eyes and kept the smile from her face. It looked like their plan was working already—but the soldiers were stopped long before they reached her. It looked as though they were being held back by their own men, but Ker Flashed that the Daisy Shekayrin had done it. Moving wasn’t a Daisy’s strongest Gift, and Ker wondered how long he could keep it up.

  Idiots, she thought. Didn’t the mages realize that by turning their magic on their own soldiers, they gave weight to what Baku had said?

  Movement drew her eye to the right. Pollik Kvar was striding from his position at the far end of the platform, reaching out for Baku as if he meant to grab her by the arm. While he was still a pace or two away, she turned her head toward him. And he stopped. Baku’s timing made it look to those watching as though the power of the mask itself had stopped the mage. Ker knew that it was Baku. A ribbon of pink, a Lifter’s color, flowed from the princess’ aura and held the mage where he stood. Unfortunately, it was all Baku could do; she didn’t have the knowledge or the skill to do more. Hope she practices more than I ever did. Ker had learned a lot from Svann and Weimerk, and some by trial and error, but she couldn’t count the number of times she wished she’d practiced more when she had the chance.

  Part of Baku’s pink color snapped back to her, but the greater part still kept Kvar at bay.

  The murmuring among the soldiers grew to a growl, as more and more of them got to their feet. Most—but not all—of these men wore the leather and rounded helms of the Halian Horsemen.

  “We are Horsemen,” the Voice of the Emperor said, “and we conquered in Halia as we conquer everywhere. Even the mages could not stop us. The mages would have you believe that we came here to Farama to bring new lands into the care of the Lord of Horses, to stamp out a nest of women rulers, but that is not a thing of horsemen. Before we came to Halia, our mothers and our sisters rode and fought together with their sons and brothers. It is true that in more recent times we have lived as the Halians do, with our women locked away, but I say to you again, this is no practice of ours. I know that away from the cities, and the offended eyes of Halians, horsemen live as we have always lived. Ah! I see that you believed the Sky Emperor did not know this, but I assure you, I am still the Lord of Horses. I did nothing to stop this practice, even though I knew it would be offensive to so many of what are now, also, my people.”