Vess put his head in his hands and curled the tips of his fingers in his hair.
:Are you going to talk now?: Kestric asked.
Vess took a deep breath, inhaling the dusty scent of hay and leather. :This day couldn't have been stranger if the gods themselves had tried.:
:What's wrong?:
:She's not a Healer.: Vess looked up at Kestric, meeting the faintly luminescent blue eyes of his Companion. :I looked at her while she was Healing the boy-and it's not Healing Gift she's using.:
:That doesn't make any sense.:
:Maybe this will help,: Vess said, drawing up the mental image of what he'd seen and tossing it down the bond. Juni-eyes shut, hand out and glowing faintly red to Vess's Mage-Sight. The edges of her patient's lacerations drawing together and sealing up, the trickles of sweat dripping down the sides of her face.
He followed up the wordless report with the "signature" of the power she had been using, exercising his limited Empathy to give Kestric the full experience.
Then he waited.
:That's...: Vess felt Kestric recoil in disgust as the Companion took a step back in the stall.
:That's blood-magic! She's using it to reshape the flesh!: Vess nodded. :I wasn't sure of it, but if you think so, too...:
:But she's not a blood-mage! We would have felt it!:
:She has the Mage-Gift-and it is active,: he said soberly. :She also has Empathy and Mindspeech-gods, she's just like me. Except her other two Gifts are dormant. She doesn't even have Healer potential, Kes. And worse...something happened to the boy after she "Healed" him.
It's like a bloodstain on his soul, and his mother's just the same. I took a look around the village before I came back. Just about everyone here has the same marking.:
:Oh, hellfires.: The Companion flared his nostrils. :We need a Herald-Mage.:
:I know.: Vess rubbed his nose. :It just doesn't seem to make sense, though. I don't pick up the least bit of malevolence from her. Something doesn't fit. How is she doing this? Why is she doing it? Is it possible to do blood-magic without knowing you're doing it? Or does she just have one hell of a shield around her?:
:That,: Kestric said, :is what I'd like to know.:
* * *
Vess opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling.
Something was floating there, hovering above his head-
And then he really woke up, and realized that his mind was once again playing tricks on him.
There was nothing on the ceiling but shadows, and no one in the room but him. He was alone.
And maybe that's my problem, he thought suddenly. Too many goddamn years in the court with an empty bed and fewer friends than a mean drunk. Just working day in and day out, waiting for the next crisis to strike.
And wasn't that the whole point of taking leave in the first place? I could have told Herald Becka to find another person with Mage-Gift to investigate Solmark, but no...I went instead. If it's not trouble finding me, it's me finding trouble. He grimaced. I'm pitiful.
He pulled himself out of bed and into his clothes. A brush to Kestric's mind found him to be sleeping, and Vess didn't see a reason to wake him. In the distance, he could hear the sound of the Solmark gate raising. He waned to walk, and think, and for once really, truly be alone. No people, no Companions-just him and the forest.
It wasn't healthy to go walking in the Pelagirs alone, but the same could be said for parts of Haven, as well. Picking up his sword from the table where it lay, Vess stuck it into his belt, and set off to be by himself.
It took longer to get to Starhaven on foot, and this time he approached it with the caution it deserved. He stood silently at the entrance, peering about once with his regular pair of eyes, then again with Mage-sight. When he was certain things were safe, he walked into the center, pulled the sheathed sword out of his belt, and sat down.
If I'm going to go looking for trouble, he thought, I might as well go all out.
But after a while, when the birds kept singing and the sunlight grew warmer, he found himself relaxing. He lay down in the grass, the sword on his chest, and stared at the one cloud in the sky above him, shaped like a fist.
How long, he thought, since I've just watched clouds?
The answer came easily: Since Nadja got sick. Since I started worrying the Companions might make me the next King's Own. Oh, gods-if there's one thing I don't want...I don't care if I'd be good at it, I don't want that job!
He sighed. But if I had to, I'd do it. And we all know it.
"Herald?"
He hadn't heard her walk up, but he knew the voice, and he recognized that it was close. Sitting up and letting the sword fall into the crook of his left arm, Vess looked over to see Juni walking toward him.
"Good morning," he said with a smile. He had acted as if nothing unusual had happened last night-making the (true) excuse that he needed to think about what he had discovered. He was pretty sure that she didn't suspect anything.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I visit here a lot," she said. "Especially early." She paused, her mouth half open, then took a step forward, saying, "You seem...troubled."
He smiled. "A lot of things on my mind."
"About me?"
He shook his head. "No, not you."
She cocked her head. "What about?"
"The court. The King. My duty."
She widened her eyes. "You know the King?"
He nodded. "Sure. I'm one of his counselors-I know quite a bit about court life." He winked.
"That's my curse."
She smiled. "Is the Palace nice?"
"It can be."
She nodded. "This place must be strange to someone like you."
"It would be, except that I was raised not far from here. My mother is Lady Baireschild."
She widened he eyes again. "My Lord-"
"No." He raised a hand. "Dropped the titles when I got Chosen." He grinned. "Never liked them much, anyway." He felt the smile fade. "You're a very nice young lady, Juni."
She bowed her head, blushing a little. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He stood, stretching, and brushed grass out of his hair and off his shirt. Then, dwelling on that last comment to her, he opened his inner eye and reached out to her-
-Maybe I was wrong
The red-black energy he had witnessed around her just last night was gone. He pressed further, delicately snaking past her natural defenses. Her three Gifts were still there, but now he saw that there was something more-something like the "bloodstain" he had seen on the people of Solmark-only deeper That's odd. Why would she have marked herself with her own stain?
Something slammed into him, an unseen force that lifted him into the air and threw him back down to the ground in a pain-stricken sprawl. He blinked stars out of his eyes and tasted blood in his mouth-before he'd been hit, though, he'd felt a surge of magic coming from nearby.
:Chosen!: he heard Kestric's panicked call.
:I'm not dead-yet,: he thought dazedly. :Get out here, quick. Something's not right.: He rolled over, shaking his head to clear it, and for a moment all he saw was a pale, frightened Juni-And then he saw Sevastan. Sevastan-but not Sevastan. Even when the man had been curt yesterday, he hadn't looked this-malevolent. The set of his mouth, the shape of his eyes, the way he held himself-little pieces that amounted to a startling, sinister change.
A different person was standing before Vess. One look in his eyes revealed that.
"It is unfortunate," Sevastan said, "but necessary. I meant it when I said I can't have you taking her away."
The blow had thrown off Vess' internal balance-he was seeing double, the physical world layered under his Mage-sight. Sinuous red tendrils wrapped Sevastan's arms, gathering in pools in his hands. A cord of red power, like a leash, dripped out of his left hand and connected to Juni, and from Juni spun out hundreds of thin red threads, pulsing in time with a heartbeat of their own.
Everything fell into place with painful clarit
y.
He's the blood-mage, Vess thought in shock. Not her. She has Mage-Gift-he's working through her and disguising it as a "Gift"-good gods!
Sevastan raised his arm and shouted something, and a black levin bolt cracked through the air toward Vess, who threw up his arms in a pitiful mockery of defense.
Inches away from him, it disintegrated in a shower of sparks as it hit invisible shields.
Vess blinked in surprise, then blinked again as a pale white form faded into sight beside him.
:I can't keep this up,: a vaguely familiar female voice said into his mind. :If you have a plan, use it.:
"Well," Sevastan said, his attention shifted off Vess. "This is unexpected. Didn't I kill you?"
Vess heard the female voice answer with flat emotion, :By your own hand we are entangled, mage. I do not die if you do not die.:
Sevastan laughed. "A complication I will swiftly amend," he said, raising his hands again-Vess didn't give him a chance.
Dragging up his mental energies, he split open his shields, threw his mind at Sevastan-And screamed inside his head.
Years of anger, frustration. and disgust broke out of Vess, his Empathy fueling the raw violence of his attack. Months of watching Nadja die by inches in her bed-months of sitting with the King as he quietly went to pieces with the agonized guilt of the latest Herald he'd had to send off to possible death or worse. Years of court deception, petty politics and subterfuge-deceivers and backstabbers with smiling faces and no concept of the pain they caused.
Tragedies. Sorrows. Pain. The struggle to keep from being beaten down by the very people he tried to help.
And past that, the certainty that the thing he was fighting was the same thing that had killed Starhaven, the thief of life.
The mind-blast broadened and changed to incoherent rage. Lost in the blinding power he had given himself over to, Vess's world dissolved into a solid sheet of fury, and evaporated.
* * *
"Herald."
Vess blinked, finding himself elsewhere. Not Starhaven, not Solmark-not the Palace or his mother's manor. He was somewhere where his Whites seemed to glow with their own light, and everything was the gray of twilight.
"Herald," the voice said again, "I want to thank you..."
Vess sat up, and saw a man standing over him, his face in shadows but his hand extended out to him.
"All my life, I've been that wizard's puppet," the man said. "He used me to destroy Starhaven, and when he realized that I wasn't a suitable vessel for his power, he worked through my daughter and grandchild for the same. I'm sorry, Herald. Please know that anything I said to you-the mouth and the voice were mine, but the words were his."
"Sevastan?" Vess said, reaching up to take the man's hand. "What-"
"Take care of my granddaughter, Herald," Sevastan said as his warm, dry fingers closed around Vess' hand. "Please let her know that even with that bastard's hand on my mind, I tried my best to love her."
:Chosen!:
Vess came around to too-bright sunlight. The aura of a reaction headache was building behind his eyes, and he tasted copper in his mouth.
:Chosen! Wake up!:
"I'm alive," Vess said, his voice feeble. "And sweet Kernos, how I wish I weren't."
A sob cut the air and, grimacing, Vess climbed to his knees, fighting nausea and dizziness. His hands were shaking and his skin felt clammy. He had definitely overextended himself.
Juni had thrown herself over her grandfather and was crying hysterically. Vess' mind was still painfully open to thoughts-Juni's grief-stricken regrets and stunned questioning of what had just transpired, and the telling silence coming from the body of Sevastan. I killed him, he thought, reaching out to pull the veils of his shields around his mind.
:No,: said the woman's voice in his mind. :I killed him. You broke his concentration long enough to give me the opportunity to throw the bastard into the node-which, thank the god of my fathers, actually worked this time.: A sad sigh. :Unfortunately-the trauma was too much for Sevastan himself-damnit.:
Vess turned slightly, looking in the direction of the ghostly mage, her arms folded across her chest and one slender eyebrow raised.
"What's a node?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. :Naive outlanders. Never mind. He's gone.: Her face softened. :And you have done me a great service.: She smiled. :I knew, that first time I saw you, that you'd be something speciaL Farewell, Herald I'm off to the place I should have been long, long ago...: She dissolved before his eyes, reforming into a broad-winged white crow that launched itself upward, flying up toward the sun. He tried to watch her go, but the impending headache and his own physical weakness dissuaded the notion.
"Good-bye," he said. "Good rest."
And then there was just the matter of Juni.
Vess heard the muffled bell-tone of Companion hooves behind him. Kestric, no doubt-though Vess wasn't sure how he'd gotten behind him. The Companion came up alongside, and Vess grabbed hold of the saddle to pull himself up
Wait a moment. How did he get his gear on?
Vess really looked at the Companion now, and it gazed back at him with what seemed to be faint amusement
Hellfires, Vess thought, stunned. That's-the Grove stallion!
:Greetings, Herald,: he heard the contrabass voice of Jastev boom in his mind. :I Choose-Bright Havens, certainly not you! You've got a Companion!:
Vess lost his fine grip on upward mobility. He fell over and landed in a sprawl on the grass-bowled over not only by the fact that another Companion had just spoken to him, but had done so in order to tell a joke.
:He's got quite a sense of humor, doesn't he?: Kestric said dryly in Vess' mind. From the overgrown trail that led to Starhaven, the Companion galloped into view, slowing to a trot as he came up to Vess and stood before him.
"He's a bloody sadist," Vess gasped-and then the surprise faded, and he realized what was going unsaid. "Has Nadja-did she finally-?"
:Right after you left. I didn't want to tell you, but-yes. Peacefully, in her sleep.: Vess nodded, tears building up in his eyes and trickling down his cheeks.
:Poor Chosen. You've been through so much. Are you going to be all right?:
"It's a sadness," he said, watching dazedly as Jastev walked with exaggerated dignity over to the dead man and Juni. "I wish I could say it was a relief. It is-and it isn't. It is what it is."
He still wasn't completely all there, because he was still trying to figure out why Jastev was here and not looking for a new King's Own when the Companion bent his head down, touching the girl's forehead with his muzzle.
Juni raised eyes bright red from crying, and Vess felt a momentary shock as her eyes widened and her face brightened with amazement.
"Oh, thank the god!" Vess moaned.
* * *
Much later, when he'd done his best to explain the Sevastan situation to the people of Solmark-when he'd made sure they understood that Juni was neither demon or Healer-when he'd quaffed enough willowbark tea to stop an army-when he'd arranged for a Herald-Mage to visit Solmark and ensure it was free of blood-magic's taint-and when he was sure that Jastev was tending to Juni, newly Chosen but still in mourning-Only then did he find himself lying in bed, listening to the crickets and the crows at sunset-aching but alive.
:Juni will be a compassionate King's Own,: he thought drowsily to Kestric.
:And a good trainee for you to teach,: his Companion responded.
:I do know more about the job than anyone else.:
He subsided into silence then, finding comfort in the crows as they sang their harsh song to the sunset. He thought of the last glimpse of the white crow spiraling up to the sun, and he smiled.
He slept all through the night: dreamless and at peace.
REBIRTH
by Judith Tarr
Judith Tarr is the author of a number of historical and fantasy novels and stories. Her most recent novels include House of War and Queen of the Amazons, as well as the Epona Sequence: L
ady of Horses, White Mare's Daughter, and Daughter of Ur. She was a World Fantasy Award nominee for Lord of the Two Lands. She lives near Tucson, Arizona, where she breeds and trains Lipizzan horses, of whom she says,
"They're white, they're magical, they bond for life to a single human, they don't think or act like horses-when I was asked to write a story about Valdemar, of course I had to write about Companions. That's called 'writing what you know.'"
Lord Dashant's forces had drawn off the battlefield, marching backward in ordered retreat. A ragged cheer ran down the line of what had, only moments ago, been a beleaguered army.
Mathias the Herald-Mage, from his place at the rightful Heir's right hand, found he could not share the army's celebration. Something smelled wrong. In point of fact, something stank.
His Companion raised her head and fleered her upper lip in a strikingly horselike gesture. She smelled it, too, although there was nothing earthly about it. As far as his nose knew, this was a battlefield like any other: reeking of blood and loosed bowels, rank fear-sweat, and the incongruous sweetness of crushed grass.
Beside him, Vera's own Companion shook his heavy neck and snorted. Vera stroked him absently with a gauntleted hand. The visor of her helmet was up; her eyes narrowed, studying the enemy's retreat.
He was the bitterest of all enemies that a royal Heir could have: her own half-brother, who had killed their father the King and claimed the throne of Valdemar. Dashant was a murderer and a traitor, but one thing he had never been, and that was a coward. It was not like him to abandon a battle before he was well and resoundingly defeated.
"It's a feint," she said. "He's laid a trap. But I can't see-"
Neither could Mathias, and that was not reassuring at all. Mathias had the gift of seeing through any wall or veil, and piercing any illusion. His wards were intact. His protection spells were undisturbed.
There was no magical threat anywhere, nothing, except that infernal stink.
He glanced to either side, down along the ranks that were beginning to waver. The commanders were doing nothing to stop them. One or two had had the sense to send parties in pursuit of the enemy, but the rest were acting as if the battle was over. None of them paid any attention to Vera at all. Even her personal guard, her squires who adored her, the messengers and pages who had stayed by her through exile and civil war, had turned away from her. As if they had forgotten her existence. As if-The spell was as strong as it was subtle. Mathias felt it creeping around the edges of his wards, seeking out chinks and weaknesses. It blurred his sight, so that when he looked at Vera, she seemed to shimmer like a reflection in a pool. But in his heart where she had been since the first day he saw her, long ago when he was a callow boy, new-Chosen, and she a curly-headed child, she was as clear and strong a presence as ever. He had never even asked if she loved him as he did her. It made no difference. She was the Heir and would be Queen. He was her servant-her Herald and her Mage.
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