Tal let his horse splash into the stream, ignoring the water that splattered over his simple black tunic; the clothing of a Battlemage Initiate. He turned to the twins who’d followed him in and grinned. “You two are slow, again.”
Jan’tar shook his head. He and his brother shared the same blue-eyed and golden-haired features, which already had the girls from the nearby villages swooning over the fourteen-year-old pair. “I think you cheat. I’m sure there’s some magic you’re using to make Blazer run that fast.”
Tal laughed at his friend. A year and a bit older than the twins, he’d matured into a leanly built young man, with raven-black hair and golden eyes like those of a wolf, or the Hawk he was in his other form.
“While there’s probably something I could do with Air to make Blazer run faster,” he admitted “I’d need to be a Life Mage to really cheat. Which I’m not, and I wouldn’t need to cheat anyway.” He sniffed in disdain at the thought.
Liv’tar, Jan’s brother, made a mock grab for the bow hanging off his saddle. “Of course, the fact that you have the fastest horse has nothing to do with it,” he observed dryly, grinning at Tal. “I’ll believe you’re the better rider the day you ride a horse other than Blazer and still win.”
Tal waved a hand. “Details, details, details.” He laid his hand on the bow on his own saddle, while shifting to settle his plain steel longsword more comfortably. “Well, gentlemen. Are we going to hunt or not?”
“Mom said she wanted something from us for supper,” Liv’atar laughed, “or she’d make us all wash dishes!”
“And she wouldn’t let you use magic to do it either!” added Jan.
“Well, since none of us would dare disobey your mother…” Tal replied, shuddering artistically before he continued, “let’s hunt!”
The dark of an early autumn night was beginning to fall as the trio rode back towards the house. Each of them had several rabbits and grouse hanging off their saddles and a travois, improvised from a sack and some tree branches, carried the neatly butchered and arranged carcass of a medium-sized buck behind Liv’s horse.
They were quieter than they had been earlier; luxuriating in the silence of the woods they called home. They knew the sights and sounds of these woods like their own, and when an unexpected sound cut through that silence, all three of them turned in their saddles towards it.
Tal gestured the other two to silence before they could speak, then concentrated, enhancing his hearing to catch the sound again. “Horse hooves,” he said quietly. “One horse, with a rider.” He glanced around to the other two. “Shall we go meet him?”
The twins shrugged. “We probably should,” Jan replied. “Even if they’re just passing through, the sun’s setting and the manor is the only place nearby to stay.”
Tal nodded, still slightly abstracted as he located the sound. “This way,” he said suddenly, turning his horse down the path, towards the main road. The brothers followed him, Liv more slowly, as he had to take care with the travois.
The road wasn’t far away and the three boys knew all the shortcuts and little paths near the manor. They came out onto it just as the rider was passing by.
“Ho, traveler,” Tal called out. “What brings you to these parts?”
The rider started, turning to face the boys. Tal inhaled sharply as the man’s cloak flared open in the wind, revealing the blue and gold uniform of a Kingsman. He was silent for a moment and Tal took advantage of the opportunity to study him.
The gold trimmed and braided blue tunic was definitely that of a Kingsman, one of the oath-sworn soldiers and servants of the High King. Tal’s eyes caught a flash of silver on the man’s breast and he focused on it, to recognize the winged horse that was the symbol of the High King’s Couriers, men who bore the King’s orders and spoke for the King in disputes. A pair of medium length swords, shorter if less plain, than Tal’s own longsword, marked the man as a practitioner of the Kor’len School of swordsmanship.
The Kingsman seemed to study the boys in return and Tal caught his eyes widening as he recognized the meaning of the black tunic Tal wore. When he finally spoke, his voice bore the accent of the Deoran Highlands, the hills in which the High King of Vishni made his capital.
“Well met, Mage,” he said respectfully. “I seek the local lord, for I bear a message for him.”
“I am merely an Initiate, Kingsman.” Tal shrugged. “As for the other, if you seek the Lord Car’raen, Hawk and Battlemage, his manor is just a short ride from here. We can show you the way if you wish.”
The courier inclined his head in thanks. “I thank you for the offer. I am Sir Gav’rel, Courier for the High King and it is indeed the Hawk Car’raen that I seek.”
“Well now, then you should come with us.” Tal gestured to his companions. “These are Ranger-trainees Jan’tar and Liv’tar; and I am Initiate Tal’raen. Come, the manor is less than half an hour away.”
Gav’rel nodded to the brothers then turned his attention back to Tal. “You are related to the Hawk then, Initiate?”
“Yes and no,” Tal told the man with a slight smile. “I am Lord Car’raen’s apprentice, and I am also his adopted son. But that is unimportant,” he continued with a shrug. “Come, it isn’t far, but night falls both quickly and coldly in these mountains.”
Pushing aside the topic of his relation to Car’raen, Tal led the way into the rapidly darkening night.
Air swept under Car’s wings as he headed home. As much as he enjoyed being a hawk, he didn’t manage to do it for pure relaxation very often anymore. Most of the times he’d been Shifted lately, he’d been teaching Tal how do it.
The black and white banded hawk winged his way up to his manor, following the line of the road. As if conjured up by his thoughts, he saw Tal and the twins on the road, riding with a stranger.
No, not a stranger, he realized as he dipped closer. It was one of the King’s Couriers and the Hawk Car’raen had met most of them in the past.
Bad news, almost certainly, if Kelt’ahrn is sending a Courier here, he thought.
It seems our holiday is over, Jor’nial responded.
Car shrieked a greeting to the boys and saw Tal look up and wave. Car looped to return the wave, then set off for home.
He suspected he would want to enjoy every remaining minute he had there.
Car met them in the courtyard in front of the manor, dressed casually in a plain black tunic. His eyes were sharp as he watched the four riders approach. Without even thinking about it, he was sure, the three youths had dropped into a neat escort formation around the courier. Nothing was going to touch the man without going through two Ranger-trained youths and a Hawk Mage Initiate, and not much could manage that.
Tal was first of the four to dismount, crossing the courtyard to Car. “Good evening, master,” the boy greeted him, then nodded back towards the Courier. “Kingsman Gav’rel says he bears a message for you.”
Car inclined his head to his son. “Thank you for bringing him here, Tal,” he said quietly. As Gav’rel dismounted, Car crossed the cobblestones to him. “Welcome Gav’rel, to the manor Raen.”
“Hawk Car’raen,” Gav greeted him with a bow. “I bear news, greetings and a request from the High King.”
“I expected as much,” Car replied with a slow nod. “Come, we will speak inside.” He turned to Tal and the twins. “You three put the horses away and attend to your chores.”
With that, Car turned on his heel and led the way into the house. The Courier followed, obviously watching everything around him.
As they headed up the spiraling staircase to Car’s study, at the top of the main tower, he spoke. “This isn’t what I expected of the home of the Hawk,” he told Car. “It’s not like the residence in the High City at all.” The city of Deoran was the capital of the Kingdom, but to most it was merely the High City, seat of the High King of Vishni.
“The residence in the High City is the best part of a thousand years old,” Car snorted in reply, “and
has had a lot of money thrown at over that time. It is meant to be magnificent, to underscore the power of the heirs of the Hawk Lord.” He shrugged. “This is my home. It is far more my home that the home of the Hawk. I lived here before I was Hawk and others who are not the Hawk will live here after me.”
They reached the top of the staircase. The stairs simply came to a stop at a functional wooden door, with only the barest of landings. Car barely slowed down, opening the door without breaking stride.
He took a moment to glance around the room before stepping aside to let Gav’rell in. Like the rest of the house, the room was rather plain. Unlike the house, it was far from simple. The room was huge, combining library with lounge with everything else Car needed to do in solitude, taking up the entire top floor of the four-story central keep. The door was the only break in the bookshelves on the eastern wall and each of the other walls had three slit windows apiece as the only breaks in the shelves on them. Other than the door and windows, bookshelves covered every single inch of the walls. Even so, the room would be well-lit in the day, with a central fireplace and lamps evenly spaced around the room looking to provide light at night.
On seeing the fireplace, Car made a small gesture with his hand. The wood seemed to glow for a moment, then burst into flame, shedding light across the room. A desk stood near the fireplace, guarded from sparks by a metal screen but still positioned to get the best light at any time of day or night. Several heavy, down-stuffed chairs placed around a small table and a larger table with some wooden chairs made up the rest of the furniture.
“Take a seat, Courier Gav’rel,” Car told the man, gesturing towards the stuffed chairs and then took one himself. “Now, give me your messages.”
“Firstly, High King Kelt’ahrn and his lady Tris’dael send their greetings and their hopes that you have achieved the goals you returned home for,” Gav’rell began as he took a seat. “The lady Tris’dael also asked me to tell you she wishes to meet your adopted son and that you have been missed in the High City.”
“It’s good to hear from them,” Car admitted with a slow smile. “How is their daughter?”
“Lady Initiate Brea’ahrn is well -” Gav began.
“Hold on a moment, Lady Initiate?” Car interrupted before he could continue. “Brea is a Mage? Since when?”
Gav looked nonplussed for a moment. “Since…” he paused before continuing. “Since shortly after you left, I believe. She had begun showing signs before then, but we didn’t realize until later. I don’t think anyone realized you hadn’t been informed. She’s a Life Mage, one of some power, or so I am told.”
Car nodded slowly, considering. Life Magi came to their powers later than Death Magi, which would have Brea beginning to come into hers right about when he’d left, looking for Tal. “Well, that’s an interesting tidbit of information, but you said you had a request from Kelt’arhn for me?”
“Well, I think I may to have to give you some news first,” the Courier said slowly. “How well have you kept up with events in the Kingdom?”
“I live with a bunch of Rangers and a Seer, Sir Gav’rell.” Car said dryly. “I don’t think it would be possible for me to not keep up with events.”
“What do you know of what Earl Jyd’har has been up to?” the Kingsman asked.
“Not much,” Car admitted with a shrug. “He’s the most southeastern Earl, with two sides of his Earldom bounded by the ocean. I’ve heard something about discontent in his Earldom, but not much.”
“Well, it’s coming to more than discontent,” Gav said quietly, then stopped for a moment, his gaze drawn to the western window.
Car followed his eyes, to find a black hawk had flown in and settled onto the perch just inside. He nodded gravely to the bird. Well, I guess Tal is curious.
Should he be listening in on this? Jor’nial asked.
Car glanced back at Gav, who had pulled his eyes away from the hawk, obviously realizing that Car seemed to think it belonged. I think that I’ll be taking him with me and he’ll need to know what it’s all about.
“Define ‘more than discontent’, Gav’rell,” Car requested.
“Jyd’har has been rattling his saber and making noises about secession,” the man clarified quietly. “He seems to want to return to the days when the Earldoms were kingdoms in their own right.”
“What is he using for reasons?” Car asked, putting asides the concerns of the father for the duties of the Hawk.
Gav’rell looked uncomfortable. “He does have some true complaints,” he admitted. “However, Kelt’ahrn has been doing his best to address those complaints. Jyd’har seems to be using them more as an excuse and his lords are far more uniformly behind him than we’d expect.”
“You think something’s up,” the Hawk Car’raen stated flatly.
The Kingsman shrugged helplessly. “They have to know that the Magi will move against them if they attempt to secede, yet they seem to be quite confident. We think that Jyd’har is being put up to this and that there have to be Magi behind it.”
“Have you sent agents?” the Hawk asked.
“Four Battlemagi, two Life Magi and nearly a dozen Kingsmen,” Gav’rell told him with a nod. “None of them have reported back. There’s something going on under the surface and neither the King nor the Councils seems able to ferret it out.”
“So you want me to try?” Car replied, allowing his mouth to twitch. It was their right to request his assistance and if it was as bad as Gav’rell said, they needed it.
“It’s been seven years, Car’raen,” the Kingsman said softly. “We’ve gotten by without you, but we need you this time. We’re looking at a full-scale civil war, with Magi on both sides if some of our suspicions are correct. We can’t afford that now. You of all people should know Swarm incursions have increased in the last few years.”
Car nodded slowly at the last. The Rangers were the first line of defense against incursions, dealing with small groups of Swarmbeasts or Beastmen, and calling in Battlemagi when the Chaos Magi came through. They stood upon the front line of the Long War against Chaos.
“If it isn’t stopped, we’re looking at all-out civil war,” Gav’rell said bluntly, “and the Kingdom cannot afford that. Kelt’ahrn begs you to help.”
Car glanced over at Tal, still in the form of a black hawk, sitting on the perch. His lips thinned. “I think… that it’s time my apprentice acquired some experience in the world,” he said softly, then turned back to Gav’rell. “Tal and I will leave tomorrow. We’ll see what we can do.”
“Thank you, Hawk Car’raen.”
“It is my duty, Gav’rell, no less,” Car replied firmly. “Now, you should get some rest. I’m sure my cook can fix you up something to eat, but you have to leave in the morning.”
After Gav’rell had left, Car turned to face the hawk resting on the perch. “All right, Tal,” he said calmly. “Shift back now.”
Tal flew down to the floor and concentrated. He Shifted back into himself and stood up. “From what he was saying, it sounds like something major is going on in Kahir,” he said quietly.
Car nodded. “And it doesn’t sound good,” the old Hawk admitted. “We’re going to be leaving in morning, flying south.”
“Flying?”
“Yes,” Car said flatly. “Only pack what you can carry on you. However,” Car raised a finger, “be certain you bring your sword and your formal robes.”
Tal felt his eyes widen. “You think it’s going to get messy?” he asked. Formal robes were worn to special occasions, Judgments and combat.
“At the very least, we’re going to Judging some poor bastard. Bring the robes,” he ordered.
Tal bowed. “Yes, Father.”
Tal stood in darkness. He looked around, but could find nothing. Unlike some of his other dreams, he seemed to have a body, but he wasn’t sure it was his. He stood on something, but there was only nothing around him.
“Where am I?” he demanded.
As if in a
nswer, a light appeared in front of him and he found himself dragged into it.
He was on the street of a city. Behind him, he heard a crashing noise and turned to watch an immense tower crumple to the ground, lit with flame. As he stared in horror, the streets suddenly filled. The people didn’t come from anywhere, they’d been there before – and yet not been there.
Those people were screaming and running, as creatures came boiling down the street, ripping apart those they reached. In gaps in the Swarm walked men in robes of a constantly shifting purple. When a group of children tried to hide in an alley, one of them gestured with a staff and a group of Swarmbeasts charged in after them.
Tal felt himself stride towards the swarm, which split before him. The Swarmmasters sank to their knees when they saw him. “Lord, the battle goes well,” one of them reported.
“I know,” Tal said harshly, the voice coming from his lips as cold and as pitiless as steel. “These mean nothing.” A wave of his arm took in the running innocents. “Come with me.”
He turned away and the Swarmmasters and their ‘beasts followed him, leaving their prey at his command. As they traveled, more Swarm gathered around them, until they reached another street, this one seemingly empty.
It wasn’t empty for long. Even as the Swarm moved onto the street, a formation of silver-armored Kingsmen appeared on it, marched around a corner and down the street, guarding a small group of robed figures.
Tal’s body bowed mockingly to the lead figure. “Greetings, Wolf Lady,” he told her. “I’m afraid your Black Lord can no longer save you.”
The woman stepped forward and drew back the hood of her robes. Long red curls framed a face that made every other girl Tal had ever seen seem like a crone.
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