Mercedes Lackey - Aerie

by Aerie (lit)

  Lord Kiron signaled to the servants, who ceased their tugging, and once the barrel had stopped moving, lowered it back down to the sand,

  "This, Jousters, is why you need to practice before you take your dragons up for the first time," he said, as he unstrapped himself and stood up, breathing heavily. So it hadn't been as easy as it had looked from the ground… "I am not saying that having your dragon in the midst of a thunderstorm is like that—it is different, and thus far we have managed no way to imitate that. For instance—there is the nausea-inducing plummeting spiral, that makes you certain you are going to die. But this, at least, begins to prepare you for the experience."

  "But—" one of the other girls began. "We are only to be couriers—"

  "And as couriers there is no telling when you must deliver an urgent message. But—" Lord Kiron looked them over measuringly, "circumstances are such that the Queen has ordered you to have combat training as well."

  Shocked silence descended.

  "If any of you do not feel that you can accept this, please say so now," Kiron continued. "We know that while baby dragons much prefer their surrogate mothers over anyone else, that affection can be transferred to a new surrogate if—"

  He was interrupted immediately by all of the young women trying to talk at once. He folded his arms and put up with it for a little while, then cut them short with an abrupt gesture for silence.

  "You will be carrying messages of great importance," he pointed out. "Urgent enough to require that a Jouster make all speed with them. Enemies both within and outside the Two Lands may often want to stop you. How our dragons are trained is no secret now so it is entirely possible that some enemy could train a dragon and rider of his own to come after you. A single skilled archer could be sent to shoot you down. And if there is fighting, you may well find yourself carrying messages to those in command of our troops. The Queen is not minded to send you into danger without preparation, and neither am I. But if you do not feel equal to this task, there is no shame in stepping down, and there are a dozen male Jouster candidates waiting for every new dragon that I—"

  This time he was interrupted, though most respectfully, by Kene-maat, who, when the former priestesses were all responding as a group, tended to be their spokesperson.

  "We are equal to anything, Lord Kiron," she said, raising her chin as the others nodded. "Whoever thinks that women have no courage is a fool. But we had thought that there were objections enough to our mere existence, without encouraging further ire against us by giving us combat training."

  "And who but you of the Queen's Wing and I and the Great King and Queen are to know it is combat training?" he countered, giving her a hard look. "Consider this a test of your discretion."

  She blushed, and Peri knew why. Of all of them, bold Kene-maat had the loosest tongue.

  "I am taking you seriously," Lord Kiron said at last. "You should take yourselves seriously. Certainly the enemies of the Two Lands will do so. They cannot afford to do otherwise."

  It had been a strange day. It was about to get very much stranger. Peri was helping Sutema exercise her wings, getting the little dragon to chase her and play "tag," wings flapping with excitement as she did so. Sutema's eyes flashed with delight; this was one of her favorite games, and she would play it until she had to flop down in the sand, panting with exertion. And eventually she did just that, then dozed off suddenly as all young creatures tended to do. Peri took the moment to go looking for something—a bench that could be weighted down with stones, perhaps—that Sutema could jump onto and hold while she flapped her wings, as Peri had seen young birds do on the edge of a nest.

  But she had not gotten very far before she ran into a servant who was evidently looking for her.

  "There is a person in the kitchens, Jouster, looking for you," the servant said, looking at her oddly. "She says that she knows you, and seemed surprised that you were not in the kitchen." The servant sniffed. "We thought at first she was looking for a place herself Her name, she says, is Letis-ha—"

  And at that moment, a harried and slightly overheated looking Letis came hurrying around the corner from the same direction as the servant had come. "Peri!" she exclaimed, catching sight of her younger friend. "I thought that as today was your free day, and mine, too, I would come spend it with you, but these people did not seem to know—and what are you doing out here—"

  And at the exact same moment, rounding another corner, came Lord Kiron. "Jouster Peri!" he called. "I wanted to ask you—"

  They both stopped short, staring, not at Peri, but at each other. Letis turned white, and put her knuckles to her mouth. "Kiron?" she whispered, eyes as large and wide as any gazelle's.

  Meanwhile Kiron had put one hand on the wall beside him to steady himself "Mother?" he gasped. "Mother—is that—"

  Letis shook her head, hard, and rubbed her eyes. "Kiron?" she faltered. "S-son?"

  And in the next moment, oblivious to anyone else, they ran to each other's arms. Both talking at once, laughing and crying, Peri could only catch snatches of what they were saying.

  "… look just like your father…"

  "… Ari's vizier searched, but couldn't find…"

  "… Iris is with me…"

  "… thought you must be…"

  "… knew you would be…"

  Finally, Letis pulled a little away from Kiron and actually looked at him. "What are you doing here? This is where the Jousters are. Are you a dragon boy?"

  Kiron flushed. "I'm a Jouster, Mother. Actually, I'm Lord of the Jousters. At least for—"

  Letis frowned suddenly. "This is no time to be making up—"

  "Lord Kiron!" Yet another servant came pounding up. "Lady Aket-ten wishes you to come to the Palace. You are urgently sought for by the Great Queen."

  Kiron cursed. "Of all the times—Mother, this is Peri-en-westet—"

  "I—" Peri just knew that Letis was going to say "I know who she is, I came looking for her," but Kiron didn't give her the chance.

  "She's one of the Jousters from the new Queen's Wing. She can tell you all about what is going on. I will be back as soon as ever I can. Don't leave until I am back." With that, Kiron set off at a run, the servant that had come to get him trailing along behind.

  Letis turned slowly to look at Peri, clearly still in something of a state of shock.

  Finally she spoke, her eyes narrowing. "What did he mean, you are a Jouster?"

  "You cannot be a Jouster."

  It was about the sixth or seventh time Letis had said this, and Peri was getting rather tired of it.

  "Are you saying that Kiron, Lord of the Jousters of the Two Lands, friend to the Great King and Queen, and your son, is a liar?" she finally snapped.

  Since she had rarely used even a harsh tone with her friend before this, the anger in her voice took Letis aback. She stepped back a pace, and regarded Peri with narrowed eyes and furrowed brow, an expression which made her crow's-feet wrinkles even more prominent.

  And, in fact, which made her look rather like the evil old mother-in-law of storytellers' tales.

  But she isn't, Peri reminded herself. It is hardship and suffering that put those marks on her. Not an evil temper.

  "You never said you were a Jouster. You said you had work at the Dragon Courts," Letis finally said.

  "And so I do. Being a Jouster-in-training. Would you have believed me if I had told you I was to be a Jouster of the Queen's Wing?" Peri countered, reining in her own temper.

  "You cannot be a Jouster," Letis said flatly. "This is some foolish whim of the foreign Queen. Women cannot be Jousters, commoners cannot be Jousters, and no Tian will allow an Altan Jouster to exist for very long. Once the nobles of Tia get wind of this, you will find yourself on the street outside the Dragon Courts, and count yourself fortunate if you have not got stripes on your back to boot." She nodded decisively, convinced by her own arguments.

  "Your own common-born Altan son is Lord of the Jousters of the Two Lands, the Queen's Wing is
approved by the Great King as well as the Great Queen, and there are both Altan and Tian Jousters in Aerie at this moment," Peri countered, with growing irritation. "The wingleader of the Queen's Wing is Lady Aket-ten, also Altan, also a woman."

  "But not a commoner!" Letis pounced on that like a bird on a beetle.

  Peri sighed in exasperation. "Fully half the Jousters of the Two Lands are common-born now," she retorted. "High birth is no great recommendation for getting a dragon."

  "You will never get a dragon," said Letis.

  "I have a dragon, which I am going to now!" Peri snapped, and turned on her heel to stalk off in the direction of Sutema's pen. Letis remained where she was for a moment, then ran after her. Peri did not look back. She had never before seen this side of her friend—angry, bitter, and determined to be right even when she was completely wrong.

  It made Peri wonder belatedly what sort of mother-in-law she would make.

  No matter. Sutema's pen was not that far, and Letis had kept her arguing for so long that the little dragon was awake and looking for her surrogate mother. With a yelp of joy, she lumbered across the sands to Peri as soon as Peri appeared in the door.

  With a yelp of a different sort, Letis leaped backward into the corridor.

  Peri paid her no mind, being far too busy reassuring Sutema that all was well, for the dragon was acutely sensitive to mood and had sensed Peri's irritation. When golden chin was scratched and emerald brow ridges were rubbed, and Sutema was soothed into happy playfulness again and busy with wrestling a bull's leg bone into submission, only then did Peri turn back to the doorway where Letis stood uncertainly.

  "Rather substantial for something that doesn't exist, don't you think?" Peri said.

  Letis eyed the dragon with apprehension. "They'd take it away from you," she said weakly.

  "Sutema is a she, and they can't take her away. She is bonded to me. It is how the new Jousting dragons are raised, from the egg or nearly, tame and bonded to one rider." That was not exactly the truth, but Letis would hardly know that. "She cannot be taken from me."

  Letis eyed the dragon with misgiving. "But women—"

  "Make as good a Jouster as a man, if all one is doing is courier work," Peri said firmly. "This frees men to hunt bandits."

  Letis looked as if she was digesting this. "I cannot like this," she said sourly. "This is too much rising above your place."

  "Your son is Lord of the Jousters of the Two Lands," was all Peri said. "And now it is time for me to feed my dragon."

  Letis beat a hasty retreat, and Peri did not see nor hear from her for the rest of the day, although the servants said she had gone to Kiron's quarters and was waiting there for him.

  That was fine with Peri. This was not at all how she had planned for this to go…

  Kiron's head was swimming by the time he got to the Palace. He could hardly believe it. After all this time—

  And it wasn't as if he hadn't been looking for her…

  Well, admittedly, he hadn't personally been looking for her. One of the scribes in Ari's service was, trying to trace her through the various sales of their land. But hers was not an uncommon name, and the war had complicated matters, and so far the scribe had had no luck.

  But to have her simply turn up like that—

  He was happy—oh yes—but he was as much shocked as he was happy. And she looked old, old and bitter.

  Well… given all that she had suffered, it was no surprise that she looked bitter. Really, he should have been surprised if she had not.

  Still, Jouster Peri-en-westet was Altan, and would take care of her until he got back. He ran on to the Palace, trying to regain a sense of calmness. This was duty, and duty came first. Duty always came first.

  Where did she come from? Where has she been? And how did she come to the Dragon Courts? And as important as how, why?

  She couldn't have been looking for him. She had been as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

  By now, he was a familiar sight in the Palace. Servants parted crowds to let him through. He arrived at Nofret's rooms without any significant delay.

  He half expected Rakaten-te to be there, but it was another, a junior priest of Seft, who waited diffidently for his arrival.

  Nofret gazed at him somberly, as did—Ari! He had not expected the Great King to be here in the middle of the day, but one look at Ari's face told him why. The Priests of Seft had no good news for the Two Lands.

  "This will be ill hearing," Nofret said, as he bowed to her and to Ari, then waited for the latter to wave him into a seat. "The Chosen of Seft had already sent word, so I decided to wait until we were all here to listen to it."

  Kiron nodded and sank into a chair. The young priest cleared his throat with care.

  "Our sort of hunting has found a place where the darkest of magics have been performed," the priest said. "And, as was warned, there are many deaths in that place. It is not far from where your trail from the city ends—

  "So the deaths were probably the children and elderly." Kiron felt ill. The priest nodded.

  "We all will want you to confirm that," Ari said into the awkward silence. "When you go back out there, we'll want you to find the place where the bodies are."

  Kiron nodded; there didn't seem to be any sort of graceful response to that order. Then again, a graceful response really wasn't what was needed. "Has anyone been chosen to go from your temple yet?" he asked with great care and deference.

  "The Chosen of Seft believes it will be himself but the god himself will decide," the priest replied, with a look that warned he should ask no further. Kiron closed his mouth on all the other questions he wanted to ask. "And, as yet, we have been as unable to See past that barrier as the priests in Sanctuary."

  Kiron shivered at that, for it implied that the magic that had hidden the town was either very dark indeed—or very powerful. Or both.

  "There is a flavor about it of the Magi," the priest was continuing. "But also a flavor of another sort. Something very… foreign. And that is all that I can tell you at this time about the magic. As for when you must be ready to leave, Lord Kiron, it will be at the end of three days. By then, the Chosen will have completed his preparations."

  Kiron nodded, as did Nofret and Ari. "By then, Aket-ten will be back," Nofret observed," and Kiron will be free to go. You had better begin making your own preparations, Kiron."

  Taking that as a dismissal, Kiron bowed and backed out of the room.

  Nofret and Ari scarcely noticed, so deep were they in plans with the young priest. This was fine; Kiron had no real head for strategy, and he knew it. The best thing he could do now was to go back to the Dragon Courts and begin writing out his requisitions.

  And, of course… deal with his mother. Who was probably still waiting for him

  He made himself hurry.

  He had expected to find Letis with Peri. Instead he found her waiting in his rooms.

  "By the gods, it is you," she said from out of the shadows of the little palms planted in their jars beside the pool. "Kiron—you look so like your father—"

  And then she began to weep, and he caught her in his arms. He felt helpless and awkward then, and gradually it dawned on him why.

  This might be his mother, but she was also a stranger to him.

  The mother he had loved and cherished was gone into the past. He had no doubt that this was his mother. The trouble was, he had no idea who that person was anymore.

  And he had even less of a notion how to let her know this thing.

  FOURTEEN

  « ^ »

  THE Chosen of Seft might be blind, but there was nothing wrong with the rest of his senses. He sat in a shaded corner of Avatre's pen, wearing the same tunic as Kiron himself and because he was not used to riding, a pair of the leggings that Heklatis called "trews" such as the barbarians wore, to keep his legs from being chafed raw on the inside. "Curious," he said to Kiron, as the latter patiently tested every bit of harness and rigging on an incre
asingly impatient Avatre. "You seem both apprehensive and relieved at the prospect of this journey. I can understand the apprehension, but not the relief" Kiron took his time in answering the implied question, and not just because he was trying to avoid that particular subject. Even if Avatre was getting impatient, Kiron had no intention of taking off without making sure of every piece of equipment, every buckle, every strap. There would only be three people out there this time; himself the Chosen, and—Aket-ten. If anything went wrong, there were only two that really had the skill to fix things. And if one or both of those two were incapacitated, the result could be very ugly. So Kiron was taking every step he could think of to prevent anything from going wrong.

  The Chosen said that the fewer living people there were in the area, the easier it would be for him to "read things." He did not specify what "things" he would be reading, nor how, and Kiron was not entirely sure he wanted to know. The more he learned about magic, the less he wanted anything to do with it himself.

  The surprise had come when the Chosen informed all of them that he wanted Aket-ten to accompany them and assist him. Kiron gave the priest a sideways glance as he tightened another strap, then adjusted it minutely. And not for the first time, he wondered; could they really trust this man?

  The reasons seemed good, sound, logical as he enumerated them for the little conference. Aket-ten was still technically a priestess, was definitely still a Winged One, had been trained to assist at rituals. "She also has been used by the Magi," the Chosen had said bluntly. "That left a mark on her that I can use for many purposes. It is one of the laws of magic, that things that have once been touched still retain the traces of that touching."

  Oh, Kiron could certainly understand it. He didn't like it, but he understood it. And there was no real reason why she shouldn't go, no pressing duties with training her wing, because she had returned from Aerie with two victories. Huras, the patient, had agreed to be the trainer for her new Wing—and word from Haraket that he was, grudgingly, giving living room to the Queen's Wing in Aerie once they were trained and on duty. Aket-ten was thrilled, though she would have been less than thrilled had she heard what Huras had to say privately about it.