by Candy Rae
“What did she say?” asked Daniel who although he could not ‘hear’ her unless she forced the rapport which gave him a headache, he had watched Thalia and Josei ‘talk’ and knew the signs now.
“She agrees with you,” answered Zeb and mystified, he added, “she seems to think it’s a good thing.”
“I can’t fathom out what Thalia’s thinking,” Daniel complained.
It was Zeb’s turn to chuckle.
“Vya says that is how it must be. I don’t see it myself. Girls seem to me to be a lot of trouble; look at Uncle Nonder. His women always seem to be doing and saying things that annoy him and he used to say they costed a lot of coin, always wanting trinkets and baubles to dress themselves up with.”
“Thalia’s not that sort of woman.”
“No she isn’t is she?” Zeb said, “she seems a very sensible person, for a girl person.”
Daniel stopped brushing to think about that. Resting his arms on Vya’s back he stood gazing at the campfire where Thalia was preparing supper.
“I like her sensible,” he murmured.
Vya flicked an ear at Zeb.
: The boy is smitten :
Zeb groaned.
: The boy girl thing? Oh shucks, do they have to? :
: The boy girl thing : she confirmed with a swish of her tail : you’ll understand when you are older :
* * * * *
They were about sixty miles inland when Vya stopped in her tracks.
: Larg ahead : she telepathed to Josei and he stopped too. He seemed uneasy and Thalia sensed it.
Daniel felt it too and Zeb, he went white as a sheet. Both looked at Thalia, Zeb was riding pillion behind Daniel.
“What’s up?” asked Daniel.
“Larg,” she whispered.
Gods, thought Daniel, going hot and cold all over and all at once.
Zeb however, after his initial became quite suddenly relaxed and Thalia shot him a concerned look.
: Don’t interfere : Josei instructed her before she could make a comment.
* * * * *
The Larg Vya had warned them about was on his own, a fact for which Daniel felt inordinately relieved. He can’t do much to us, he decided, there are four of us, five if I count Zeb and surely even a Larg wouldn’t try. Might leave this one to Thalia, she’s in constant contact with Josei’s mind.
But to Daniel’s consternation, it was Vya who stepped forward. He gulped.
“It’s all right,” Zeb hissed in his ear, “Vya won’t let anything happen to us.”
Something, that indefinable thing which Daniel was only peripherally aware of and was the emotive telepathic contact passed between Vya and the Larg. Vya relaxed.
“He is a friend,” she said aloud.
“A friend?” Daniel squeaked, “are you sure?”
“I am,” she said, adding, “stop being so nervous Daniel, I can feel it and to experience is unsettling. There is nothing to fear.”
The five waited.
The Larg when he reached them was as tall as Josei and Vya at the withers but his body mass was larger and his legs not as long. This gave him the appearance of being more powerful than either of the two Lind.
The Larg opened his mouth wide as he began to speak. Daniel noticed that his teeth were large, pointed and very long.
“Greeting Vya,” he said in thickly-accented Lindish. “You look well.”
“The seasons have been kind to me Aeolvaldr,” she replied with a couple of skittish steps.
Gods, thought Daniel, she’s flirting with him!
“Indeed they have.” Aeolvaldr’s look was admiring.
“Well?” Vya prompted.
“The men on the horses that you are hunting are six in number. They passed from here into Murdoch three suns past,” Aeolvaldr informed her and much to Daniel’s surprise. He snuck a look at Thalia but her face was impassive. If she was surprised she was hiding it well. He privately suspected that she and Josei had been keeping secrets from him just so see how he would react.
Thalia looked over to him. It was unapologetic. She shook her head, ever so slightly.
Not surprised but she didn’t know, Daniel deduced, somewhat comforted but Josei had still probably been relaying some information to her. He tried not to feel jealous about the fact that Thalia could ‘hear’ the Lind and he could not.
“They ride south on the other side of the border, “Aeolvaldr continued, “we should catch them without too much pant-time. Largan Laeolvaldr sent me.”
“We can definitely catch up with them?” asked Thalia.
“They ride horses do they not?” he asked by way of answer. His accompanying whine was half way between a derisory snort and a yelp. “They have to rest and often. Is very funny.”
“Let us run together,” ordered Vya.
* * * * *
That night they all rested beside some rocks. Aeolvaldr ran off and returned with meat for the stew Thalia proposed to make. He placed down in front of her two good-sized rudtkas, a southern burrowing animal, related to the vuz in the north.
Thalia prepared the meal with her usual competence and soon an appetising smell was emanating from her cook pot.
Aeolvaldr was very interested in the process of cooking. He sat beside her watching and sniffing. He licked his lips and admitted he had never tasted cooked meat before and so he was looking forward to it, especially if it tasted as good as it smelt. In passing, Daniel noted that the big Larg ate twice as much as Josei and so he must have liked it more than a lot.
As they lay digesting their meal Aeolvaldr told them that Largan Laeolvaldr intended to visit them on the morrow.
“He will meet us as we run,” he informed them. He quirked and eye and his whiskers shivered. Then he placed his large paws over his eyes and went to sleep.
It wasn’t just Thalia and Daniel who stifled giggles this time. Josei almost bit his tongue. Zeb almost did laugh but Vya stopped him with a single word : No! : and he stuck his fist into his mouth to stop himself.
“I thought the Larg were vicious and scary people,” he whispered to Thalia.
She shook her head and pressed a finger to his lips.
Vya answered Zeb, although Thalia didn’t realise it.
: The Larg : she telepathed : are very like us Lind. Now, go to sleep young Zeb. We have a long run ahead of us when the sun comes up :
* * * * *
Tomorrow dawned, bright and dry. Winter arrived later the closer one was to the equator. Zeb remembered this fact from one of the books Thalia had borrowed from Captain Hallam when they had been on the frigate. He had enjoyed that one although there was lots in it he didn’t understand. He thought however that in the future he would like to live the year on alternative continents so that it was always summer where he was.
The Largan was waiting for them beside a small oasis. He was a very large Larg indeed, imposing was how Zeb tried to describe him later, with a very commanding presence. The Larg who were accompanying him were few. Thalia had expected that he would have had more with him.
: Like an entourage : she complained to Josei with disappointment.
: Perhaps the rest are busy elsewhere : Josei answered : I believe the Larg Nadlians are not easy to rule :
: You’re probably right :
: I am right more often than I am not right :
: Stop blowing your own trumpet : she retorted, but giving him an affectionate slap as she slid to the ground and telling Zeb to stay where he was astride Vya, as usual. He almost never wanted to ride behind Thalia on Josei these days.
She led the way towards the Largan and a lindlengh away she stopped and bowed, very low.
“Largan,” she greeted him.
“Vadeln Thalia,” he greeted her. His accent was worse that Aeolvaldr’s.
Thalia spoke a few pleasantries then thanked him for sending Aeolvaldr.
“We Larg know the ground here while you do not. Even Vya. I knew that you would be able to catch those you hunt much faster if he was with you
. They are,” he paused, searching for the words, “about to pass into that place, that part of Mur-doch man call Hal-lam.”
“We’ve almost got them, thank the Lai,” Thalia breathed.
“But you will need help to do this thing,” the Largan continued, nodding his wise, white head. “There are to many for you and your companions to bring down, even if you were to have the help of Aeolvaldr which you will not have. Our treaty with the lady ruler of Murdoch does not let us enter her lands unless there is no other way.”
“And is this not such a time?” demanded Thalia, “if these men aren’t caught they might use what they carry to destroy maybe the whole continent!”
“What they carry is no longer our concern,” insisted the Largan.
Thalia was confused by his words. She frowned.
“Do not worry Vadeln Thalia,” the Largan said, “steps have been taken and the thing the men carry will be in your paws soon. You have done well.”
“Thank you Largan,” said Thalia, not quite sure if she was being complimented or dismissed.
“We shall meet again,” he said to Thalia and Josei. To Zeb and Vya he repeated these four words. To Daniel he said one.
“Alavidha,” Daniel tried to repeat it and trying to get the inflection right as Thalia had taught. It didn’t sound the same as when the Largan had said it.
Turning to Aeolvaldr the Largan said, “take them to the water passage that marks the way to the man ruler of Hal-lam. Leave them there and return.”
“Yes My Largan,” said Aeolvaldr, bowing his head.
* * * * *
-48-
THE WESTERN EDGE OF THE NADLIANS OF THE LARG
The life-bonding of Zeb and Vya was not the same mind blowing experience it was for most who went through the experience and certainly had been for Thalia and Josei.
The two knew each other. They understood each other. Each accepted the personality of the other.
True, Zeb was only eleven and Vya much older, she refused to reveal her true age to Josei when he asked, but as Vya said, age should be no barrier to happiness. Ten years between the ages of vadeln-pairs was usual and more not uncommon; the human half usually being the younger.
The two of them were already sharing thoughts and were talking telepathically. This had started in earnest during the days they had spent on the Island of Galliard although there had been short spurts of mind linkage before then; during the run to Port Lutterell. Now here in the Nadlians of the Larg it was blossoming.
Thalia and Josei had realised what was happening but Daniel was only aware that the relationship between him and Vya was different than that between her and Zeb. He was conscious too that Zeb was changing, becoming more grown up; he chattered less and was more introspective.
As with most pairings the empathic ability had to be present in the human psyche. Zeb had this in abundance. Vya had sensed it as soon as the two of them met.
After the empathy had been recognised, the human and the Lind had to achieve the mind-link and that sense of compatibility and prospect of oneness. The two of them had that too but Zeb was young, a full three years too young to be able to be regarded as an adult by Vya. This had been Vya’s dilemma. Still, as Vya had told Josei, now that she had made her decision she was not going to wait, especially now.
She had begun by deliberately implanting images into Zeb’s receptive mind, wondering how he would react and what he would do with the images, if anything.
To her delight Zeb had accepted the images with delight and ‘sent’ her some of his own memories in return.
That had clinched it.
Their pairing had been pretty rapid after that. Now they were sharing their innermost thoughts and could converse telepathically with ease despite the languages barrier. Zeb could not yet block his most private thoughts and feelings as Vya had learned to do when still a ltscta but she believed that was a very good thing until her vadeln got a bit older and outgrew his propensity for blurting out what he thought and getting into mischief.
* * * * *
“Now you’ll be going to Vada when all this is over to become a cadet,” Thalia told Zeb when Josei informed her that the pairing was complete.
“Do I have to?” asked Zeb who had learnt quite a lot about what a Vada cadetship was and meant in the time he had spent in her and Daniel’s company. Daniel and Thalia spoke about their respective childhoods and precious lives of an evening over the campfire. He had learnt before he had met them that he could find out about a lot of things he wasn’t supposed to know when adults talked believing he was asleep.
He had employed this tactic a lot during the journey until Vya had stopped him saying that it was dishonest. Ltsctas were taught that it was very rude to ‘listen in’ to conversations uninvited.
“I don’t think I’d like it very much,” Zeb added, “wearing uniforms and having to do as you’re told all the time. Can’t Vya and I just stay together and not bother?”
“You’ll get trained to use a sword,” said a persuasive Thalia who hadn’t forgotten his yearning look not long after they had met.
Zeb’s face brightened although he was not yet convinced about the advisability of joining the Vada.
“That part might be okay,” he acceded in a cautious voice, “but what will we do until I’m fourteen? The Vada won’t accept me until then, that’s what you told Daniel.”
To Zeb, the three years until he attained that great age loomed over him like a lifetime.
“You can stay with us,” offered Thalia in an impulsive moment.
Zeb looked pleased. Vya was pleased. Josei however hadn’t ‘heard’ that one coming; his look of pained astonishment said it all.
: Why me? : he groaned, but he didn’t really mean it, not deep down and Thalia knew he didn’t really mean it. Anyway, he consoled himself, it wasn’t going to happen, at least not in the way Thalia expected.
* * * * *
-49-
THE FAVOURITE MANOR HOUSE OF THE DUKE OF HALLAM - DUCHY OF HALLAM - KINGDOM OF MURDOCH
“Father? May I speak to you?”
Paul Hallam looked up.
“Of course you may. Now?”
“Yes please Father, it’s important.”
“Well come along in, I’ve got a half-candlemark or so to spare before Mal comes in. Will that be enough and did you enjoy your ride?”
This last was a leading question. Paul already knew that his youngest daughter had gone for a ride and probably enjoyed it. What Jill didn’t know was that he knew that yet again she had gone out alone. This as Jill well knew, was absolutely forbidden and she had promised she wouldn’t. Paul always insisted his daughters took an escort with them which was a normal rule in the kingdom when a woman of noble or gentle birth went riding. Jill was always forgetting about the rule.
Jill flushed.
“I went alone,” she confessed, “up as far as the rift valley.”
“I know. Now come and stand beside me.”
Jill walked slowly to her father’s side. Paul Hallam wasn’t as strict a parent as some fathers of daughters of rank but she knew he was not happy; not angry exactly but disappointed with her.
Paul put his arm round her waist and drew her to him.
“Rules are not made to be broken” he began, “they are for your protection and the rift valley is a large and desolate place. It can also be dangerous. What would have happened if you had met with an accident? No-one would have known where you were.”
Jill wriggled uncomfortably.
“But the morning was so very beautiful.”
“And you couldn’t wait?” he teased.
Jill nodded and hung her head.
“You must promise me that you’ll never do it again,” said Paul but without much hope. She should have been a boy. What a boy she would have made! She has courage and a thirst for adventure enough for twenty boys.
“I promise,” said Jill, shame-faced. She loved her father, hated to disappoint him but the morning had been
so crisp and bright. It had seemed such a pity at the time to have to wait until an escort was found.
“Then we’ll leave it there,” announced her father, “so, what was it you wanted to tell me about that was so important?”
Jill lifted eyes full of sparkling memories.
“It was the most wonderful morning of my life! I met a Lai!”
“A Lai!” breathed Paul, only half believing her. No Lai had been seen in the skies of Hallam since his great great grandfather’s day. “You sure Jill?” he asked, “you sure it wasn’t just a another large flyer?”
“Father, I met him. He wasn’t flying. He was on the ground. He talked to me. He told me to tell you he was here and to say,” she screwed up her face, remembering Maru’s exact words, “he said that the time of a great event was soon, or was it the great event? I’ve forgotten and that a person would be coming who would tell you all about it.”
“Was that all?”
“Oh, and he also said he knew our ancestor Robain, the First Duke. How is that possible?”
“Absolutely feasible and definitely possible,” Paul answered, “the Lai live a long time. What colour was he?”
“Sort of goldy with a few coppery flecks along his wings and muzzle. He was just beautiful Father,” Jill’s whole face was glowing with the remembered memory, “he was the most beautiful creature I have ever set eyes on. Oh, I do hope it’s him who comes to tell you about what he was talking about. I really do. Did he know our ancestor?”
“He likely did. Sounds as if he’s been around for a while. He was probably a very young Lai during the Dglai War.”
“Will I ever see him again?” pressed Jill, “I really want to Father, really I do. If he comes during the night will you promise to wake me up? Promise?”