The war tried to eat up everything in its path. For Amberdrake and those who supported the warriors, it was the war they fought, not the army, spells, and makaar. This was the way many of the warriors saw it, too—saw war as a natural enemy, to be dealt with firmly and then put behind you. But war's devouring power was why Urtho had tried to avoid it for so long—why he had successfully avoided it until it came to his very doorstep. Folk from northern climes referred to the people of the South as "civilized"; it had little to do with their technologies and powers, but far more with their philosophy—and they were as pragmatic as they might be idealistic. When Ma'ar's army threatened at the border, opposition was there to meet it.
That was why Amberdrake's services, which in peacetime would have been divided between the wealthiest of outsiders and the needs of his own people, had been volunteered to be the reward for heroes....
And as the very expensive indulgence for those whose egos demanded the best.
That thought brought him uncomfortably right back to that merc mage, a man whose cold soul he had been unable to warm. Most of the mages in Urtho's forces were there because they felt Urtho's cause was right, or because they honored Urtho as one of the greatest Adepts ever born and hoped to be able to learn from him as they helped to defend his land. Or simply because they hated Ma'ar, or their own lands or overlords had been destroyed by the rapacious conqueror. Few fought in this army simply for the money.
This man, Conn Levas, was one who seemed to care only about the money. He had few friends and few interests outside his own skill and power. He was, in fact, one of the most monofocused people Amberdrake had ever seen: a narcissist to a high degree. Everything for him was centered around how he could increase his personal wealth and prestige. To him, the war was a convenient way to do that. Urtho was the master to serve because Urtho gave his mages much more autonomy and better rewards than Ma'ar.
Still, it was that kind of focus that made the hunting beasts of the world so successful, so perhaps he shouldn't be faulted for it. But how a Kaled'a'in woman had ever become his lover, Amberdrake could not guess.
Levas had at least admitted that his own coldness was a part of why this Winterhart was disenchanted with him. Amberdrake had the feeling that such an admission that anything was due to personal fault was a major concession.
Disenchanted... now there was a thought. Could this mage have worked a beglamorment on the woman? He couldn't have used a stronger spell, since other mages would have noticed, but a beglamorment, at the right time, would have made him what she most wanted to see. She could have found her way into his bed long before she realized he wasn't what she had thought. To have a Kaled'a'in lover was considered a coup by some mercs in Urtho's forces; to have a Healer as a lover even more so. She might represent just another symbol of success to be acquired. And—
Why was he worrying about her! He didn't even know her, only that her name sounded Kaled'a'in. She might not be Kaled'a'in at all; there were others who took on colorful names or were given them at birth. For that matter, why was he worrying about Conn Levas? The man had gotten good and ample service for his money. He was unlikely to return, given his uneasiness with Amberdrake's probing questions; Amberdrake knew the merc had been disturbed by how much he had revealed. Well. The service he'd rendered was easy enough, even by kestra'chern standards. Still....
If you worry about every man and woman in the army, you'll tie yourself up in knots for no good reason, he told himself. You're making things up out of nothing, then worrying about them. You've never even seen this Healer Winterhart. Why work yourself into a headache?
Oh, he knew why he was worrying about them; it was to keep from worrying about Skan.
As if he didn't have enough to worry about already.
Skandranon was grateful to be alive, even more grateful to have gotten his mission completed successfully, and entirely grateful to have been put back together. He'd been assured—repeatedly—that he would be able to fly again. But he was in constant pain, his head pounded horribly, and on top of all of it, having to be that grateful made him want to bite.
This was very bad of him, and he knew it, which made him want to bite even more. He only liked to be bad on his own terms. If only he could have someone show up to see him who deserved a good, scathing dressing-down—the fool who had assured Urtho that Stelvi Pass had been in no danger, for instance, or the idiot who had issued the orders that grounded the gryphons between specific missions. Even the imbecile cook who had first sent him raw fish for breakfast instead of good, red meat, then had made it worse by sending yesterday's stew instead of fresh, still bleeding meat. But the only people who came near him were those he was supposed to be grateful to—how annoying!—Gesten and Drake, Tamsin and Cinnabar, the members of his wing, and the scouts and mercs who had risked their lives to get him home. After Gesten's lecture, he made doubly sure to convey his proper gratitude to them.
But he still wanted to bite—so he did. The camp could find another pillow somewhere.
Now if only his beak didn't hurt; there was a persistent sting from small scratches around his nares, and an itch across his cere, and his sinuses felt like—
Like you hit something hard after a prolonged plummet, bird.
It didn't help that he was forced to lie in a completely unnatural position, forelegs stretched in front of him, hindlegs stretched straight under him and bound by splints, unable to get comfortable. He knew Healers could fuse the bones of a mage-bred creature like himself in a single session of concentrated Healing. He also knew that there was plenty of pain on the front lines, and people in real danger of dying if they didn't get to a Healer, and that such a session was fairly low on the list of priorities.
That didn't help.
But much to his surprise, late in the afternoon, Tamsin and Cinnabar made an appearance at his tent—and from the implements their hertasi was carrying, this was no social call. Tamsin was in his usual simple green breeches and shirt, his short-cropped blond hair and beard in stark contrast to many of the other Healers, who usually let their hair grow long and went clean shaven. And he could not have made a better foil for the graceful and tall Lady Cinnabar; he was as stocky and muscled as a wrestler. Cinnabar, of course, was as elegant as if she had just come from holding court, her scarlet gown cut to mid-calf, showing scarlet leather boots and slender ankles, her sleeves cut tight, displaying her graceful arms without an unseemly show of flesh. Skandranon had heard that by human standards she was not beautiful, not even handsome, but her strong-nosed face, so like a proud falcon, seemed attractive enough to him. She even had a crest; her hair was cut short on the sides and top so that it stood up, and flowed in a braided tail down her back. Lovely.
Both of them looked relatively rested and full of energy. Skan's hopes rose. Were they—?
"All right, old bird," Tamsin said cheerfully as he held the tent flap open for the laden hertasi. "We need to do something about those legs so you can get a proper rest. Think you're up to it?"
"Do you think I would sssay otherwisse?" Skan countered. "I would do anything!"
"Anything?" Cinnabar replied archly. Then, at Tamsin's eloquently raised eyebrow, she added hastily, "No, don't answer. You are the most insatiable creature I have ever met!"
Skan wanted to leer but couldn't manage it. "Pleasssse," he near-whimpered instead.
By near sunset, after much effort on their part and pain and cooperative effort on his, the fractured bones of his forelegs fused, and the hindlegs healed enough that the splints could come off and he could carefully walk a few steps. He could attend to his personal needs—which was just as well, since so far as he knew, no one had come up with the equivalent of a chamber pot for a gryphon. He would be able to feed himself, and since Cinnabar had blessedly done something about the headache, he was ravenous. Now he could lie back down in a much more comfortable position to listen to his bowels rumble.
Cinnabar looked as serene and composed now as when they had started;
Tamsin was clearly tired, but just as cheerful. "That should do you, old bird," he said, slapping Skan on the flank. "Dinner first, or visitor?"
"Both," Skan replied. "If it isss sssomeone who cannot bearrr to watch a gryphon eat, let him come back laterrr. And if it iss sssomeone I do not want to sssee, he will be the dinner."
He would not be eating little chunks of meat tonight; no, Cinnabar and Tamsin knew gryphons, and unless that idiot cook mistakenly countermanded their orders, there would be a nice fat haunch of something fresh-killed and bloody, something Skan could tear into and take out some of his frustrations on. Maybe even half a deer or ox—he was quite hungry enough to eat either.
A silver-brocaded hertasi signaled from beside the canvas doorway, and the other hertasi disappeared as if they had evaporated. A moment later, the tent flap was pushed aside, to reveal a beloved and unique personage.
"I should think I can bear to watch a gryphon eat," said Urtho, the Mage of Silence.
He swept into the room with a single step; he said nothing more, but projected a soothing presence into the damp, warm room. It was impossible to tell Urtho's real age; he could be sixty or six hundred. For as long as Skan had known him, Urtho had looked the same, an eternal image of genius. Tall and thin, storklike, with a waist-length fall of curly silver-gray hair, huge gray eyes, a nose as prominent as Lady Cinnabar's and a lantern jaw kept scrupulously clean-shaven, he did not look like the finest of Adept-class mages. He did not look like any kind of mage. He looked more like a scribe, or perhaps a silversmith or retired acrobat.
Skan thought there might be Kaled'a'in blood in Urtho's veins. That might well be true, given his nose and the long-standing association he had with them. But if that were true, no one had ever confirmed it in Skan's hearing.
Urtho held the flap open for two hertasi bringing in the forequarters of a deer; both front legs, shoulders, and the chest; hide and all. No head, though, but perhaps that was a bit much to ask. Humans were so queasy when it came to delivering a gryphon's dinner with head intact, never mind that the head was delicious. Well, humans were queasy about a great many silly things. Skan seized the prize in his foreclaws as soon as the hertasi had laid it in front of him, and tore off a mouthful of meat and hide before acknowledging the commander of one of the two largest armies that Velgarth had ever seen.
He tossed his head and swallowed the bite whole. Like the raptors the Kaled'a'in bred, he needed the hair and stringy hide to clean his crop. "Join me for dinner?" he offered.
Urtho laughed. "Is that like a falcon offering to meet a mouse for lunch?" Tamsin and Cinnabar both bowed respectfully and made a somewhat hasty exit. Urtho's power tended to overawe people who didn't know him well. He nodded to them both, took one of the two seats the Healers had left, and settled himself down onto it.
Skandranon tore off another mouthful of meat; it tasted wonderful, rich and salt-sweet. He swallowed, feeling the striations of the blood-slick muscles slither against his throat, down into his crop. He flicked an ear and cocked his head at his leader. Their gazes met, and tales sped between them in the flicker of their eyes.
"Well, old man, I sssurvived afterrr all. I hope you have it."
Urtho nodded casually. "So you did. And you were right, when you insisted you were the one to go. You did very well, Skan, and yes, I have it. Even though you tried to swallow it whole."
"I wasss the only one ssstupid enough to trrry, you mean," Skan replied, trying not to preen with pride. He scissored another bite out of his meal.
"I seem to recall that you not only volunteered, you insisted." Urtho made it a statement and a bit of a challenge. Skan simply grunted.
"Perhapsss," he suggested teasingly after a moment, "your memorrry isss faulty."
Somewhat to his surprise, Urtho sighed. "It is," he said wearily. "I've been forgetting a great deal lately. Kelethen has been most impatient with me."
"You have much to rrrememberrr," Skan pointed out quickly. "Kelethen isss as fusssy as any other herrrtasssi. You ssshould tell him that if he isss upssset, he can jussst keep an appointment calendar, asss if you werrre a kessstra'cherrrn."
"Sometimes I feel like a kestra'chern," Urtho told him ruefully. "Expected to please everyone and generally pleasing—"
"Almossst everrryone." Skan interrupted. "Besssidesss, sssomeone hasss to lead, and I am too busy. What arrre you doing down herrre anyway? Isssn't there a weapon to invessstigate, a Passss to retake? I am only one sssstupid grrryphon, afterrr all."
"True." Urtho sighed again. "But you are a very special stupid gryphon; I was concerned and I wanted to see that you were doing as well as the Healers claimed. The weapon has been dealt with, and a counterattack on the Pass is in the hands of the commanders; there is little I can do from here now that it has been launched."
Urtho's face was a little thinner, and Skan guessed he had not been sleeping or eating much in the past few days. He could sympathize with the mage for wishing to escape from his Tower for a little. Still... "I hope that sssomeone knowsss where you are."
"Kelethen does. I wish that this were over or, better still, had never begun."
Skandranon wiped his beak against the fur and cast his eyes supportively to Urtho. "Urtho. It isss begun and continuesss. We fly thessse windsss together. You did not cause the windsss to become a ssstorm."
"I would say that I had done nothing to cause this, but the simple fact of our existence was enough to trigger this assault from Ma'ar. I've studied him. Even as a young man, he wanted power far more than he wanted anything else, and he enjoyed having power over people." Urtho shook his head, as if he simply could not understand anyone with that kind of mind. "Whatever he had, it was never enough. It was a kind of hunger with him, but one that could not be sated. There could only be one master of the world, and that one must be Ma'ar."
"Insssane," Skan replied.
"Not exactly," Urtho said, surprising the gryphon. "Not insane as we know the meaning of the word. But his sanity holds nothing but himself, if that makes any sense."
"No," Skan said shortly. What he had seen of Ma'ar and Ma'ar's creations did not convince him that the Mage of Black Fire was anything but evil and insane.
"I would help him if I could," Urtho said softly.
"What?" Skan squawked, every feather on end with surprise. He felt very nearly the same as he had when he'd hit the ground; breath knocked out of him and too stunned to even think.
"I would," Urtho insisted. "If he would even stop to think about all the harm he has caused and come to me, I would help him. But he will not. He cannot. Not and still be Ma'ar." He shook his head. "His obsessions are like mine, Skandranon. I understand him far better than he understands me. He thinks I am soft enough that at some point I will surrender because so many have died and more will die. He thinks I don't realize that the killing would not end just because we had surrendered. I don't think he has the barest idea what we will do to stop him." There was no mistaking the grim determination in Urtho's voice.
Skan relaxed; for a moment he had thought that the latest turn of the conflict might have unhinged the mage.
"He isss a mad dog," Skan said brusquely. "You do not try to help a mad dog, you ssslay it."
"Harsh words, my child." Urtho frowned a little, although by now he should have been well aware of the gryphons' raptorial and somewhat bloodthirsty nature.
Skan thought of the tortured gryphons at Stelvi Pass, and hissed. "Not harsssh enough. I did not tell you what they did to the Ssstelvi Wing. Everrrything you have everrr hearrrd of. All of them, down to the nessstlingsss, and worsse than you could imagine."
Urtho turned pale, and Skan instantly regretted what he had blurted out. Urtho had never wedded and had no children. He considered all of his intelligent creations to be his children, but that was especially true of the gryphons.
An awkward silence loomed between them for a moment, and Skan cursed his habit of blurting out the first thing he thought. Stupid bird; you might think before you s
ay something once in a while. It would be a distinct improvement.
During the silence, the camp sounds seemed particularly loud and intrusive; people shouting to one another, and somewhere nearby, the hammering of metal on metal. Skan continued eating, his hunger overcoming his manners, as he thought of a way to apologize.
"I am sorry, Urtho," he said finally. "I am hungry, hurt, and a very irritable and stupid bird. Think of me as being in molt."
"You're right, Skan," Urtho said finally. "You're right. Despite what I just said, I sometimes don't think of what Ma'ar is capable of. It stretches my imagination and willpower to think like Ma'ar, and it isn't something I—enjoy."
Skandranon had no reply for that; perhaps there was no possible reply. He simply swallowed another beakful of meat.
"Well, thanks to you, those new weapons of his will no longer threaten us," the mage continued, changing the subject. "And what I really came here for, my friend, was to discover what you want as your reward. You more than deserve one. Offspring, perhaps? You certainly have a high potential, and any female in the wings would be happy to oblige you. I would like to see the Rashkae line continued."
The offer of the reward did not surprise Skan, but what Urtho had called him—"my friend"—certainly did. And yet, the simple words should not have been such a revelation. Urtho had spent many hours talking to him, not as commander to subordinate, nor as master to servant, nor even as creator to creation—but as equal to equal. Skandranon alone of the gryphons was privileged to come and go at will from Urtho's Tower, and to interrupt the mage at any time of the day or night.
"I will think about it," Skan replied. "At the moment, I ssshould be verrry glad merrrely to be healed and flying again."
Urtho nodded. "As you will. I'm sure you'll think of something. Just please be mindful of our limited resources! And the impossibility of transporting massive libraries wherever you go!"
Skan gryphon-grinned; Urtho had not forgotten his love of books. "I am sssure I ssshall think of something."
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