It took three full soapings before the last of the stench was gone and he felt clean again. By then he was more than ready for a mug and a long, soothing soak.
"I think I took all my skin off," Elspeth complained languidly from her end of the pool as he slipped across the barrier between the pools and into the hotter water of the second. "I scrubbed and scrubbed every time I thought I was clean, I could still smell that thing."
"Worse than skunk or polecat," he agreed. She seemed very relaxed for the first time since he had met her. "Did you see how much Iceshadow liked that idea of yours, moving the basilisk with noise?"
"But it was your idea to use pure-tones in dissonance," she said immediately." I had just thought of using volume, or maybe make it sound like the cave was falling in." He allowed himself to feel pleased about that part of it. "Well, I guess that I'm going to have to admit that you are right about trying new things even in magic. just because they aren't the way we've always done something, that doesn't mean new ideas aren't going to work.
Change comes to the Vales; quite a concept." She laughed heartily. "I thought I'd never hear you say that! But I have to make a confession to you, though. I have been pushing you, just because you were being such a-mud-turtle about things. Not wanting to try anything new. But-well, now I know that there's good reasons why some things aren't done in the Vales and in this one in particular.
Hydona's been explaining things to me..
Her voice trailed off, and he thought she was finished, until she spoke up again. "You know, Hydona reminds me a great deal of Talia." that old friend of hers. The one that's some kind of aide to her mother, and not the one that's the weapons teacher.
"In what way?" he asked.
She waved steam away from her face. "She made me give her a promise back when I was a child-that I would never simply dismiss anything she told me just because I didn't want to hear it, or that I was angry at her or anything else. That I would always go away and think about it for a day. Then if I couldn't agree with any of it, I had the right to be angry, but if I could see that she was right in at least some of what she'd said, I would have to come back to her and we'd talk about it as calmly as we could." Well, if that isn't an opening chance to talk about her attitude" I know we don't know one another as well as you and Talia do," he said tentatively, "but could you grant me that same promise as a wingsib?
"oh, dear," she said, her voice full of ironic chagrin. "Been a bitch, have I?
He wanted to laugh, and decided against it. Still, he smiled. "Not exactly a bitch. But your attitude hasn't been helping me teach you.
That was one reason why, when the gryphons volunteered to help, I agreed." ' Attitude?" she asked; her voice was carefully controlled to the point of being expressionless. Not a good sign.
"Attitude," he repeated, getting ready for an outburst. "You're very self-important, Elspeth. Very aware of your own importance, and making sure everyone else is aware of it, too. Take what you just said, about being a bitch. You laughed about it; deep down, you thought it was funny. You think you are so important it doesn't matter if you're offending those around you. You just make some
perfunctory apology, smile and laugh, and that's that. But nothing has really changed." She was quite silent over there in the steam~ but he wondered if he'd just felt the temperature of the water rise by a bit. That silence was not a good sign, either.
"The truth is, Elspeth, right now you're an enormously talented liability." She wasn't going to like that, one bit. "I never heard of your land, outside of something vague from the old histories. You could be a bondslave from Valdemar, and we would be treating you the same as we are now. Your title doesn't matter, your country doesn't matter, and your people don't matter. Not to us." Little waves lapped against him as she shifted, but she remained silent.
" What does matter is that you did help us; for that, we made you a Wingsib. Because we made you a Wingsister) you became entitled to training. Not because of a crown, and not because of a title. Not even because you asked us. Because you are part of the Clan. And what's more, the only ones willing to train you were myself and the gryphons.
Everyone else has more important matters to attend to."
That wasn't precisely the truth, but it was close enough that it might shake her up a bit.
"So." No doubt about it, she was angry." I don't matter, is that it?"
"No, that's not it. You matter; your title doesn't." He hoped she could see the difference. "So you might as well stop walking around as if there was a crown on your head. Kings don't mean much, out here.
Anyone can call himself a king. Having the power to enforce authority that's something else again. Until you have that, you'd best pay a little closer attention to the way you treat those around you because we are not impressed."
"oh, really?" He sensed an angry retort building.
But then, she said nothing. Nothing at all. He tensed, waiting for an outburst that never came. He wondered what she was thinking.
Finally she yawned and stretched, water dribbling from her arms.
"I'm tired," she said, yawning again. "Too tired to think or react sensibly. I'll sleep on what you just said."
"Please do, and carefully, Elspeth. More could depend on it than amiable learning conditions." He looked down and sighed. "I do like you, and would prefer not to spend my time with you deciphering what you really mean under the royal posturing." She rose, surprising him, and hoisted herself out of the pool, wrapping a towel around her wet hair, then bundling one of the thick, heavy robes around herself. She turned and looked down at him.
"You've said quite a bit," she told him quietly. "And I'm not sure what to think. Except that I'm certain you weren't being malicious. So good night, Darkwind. If there's anything to say, I'll say it tomorrow." She gathered her dignity about her like the robe, and walked off into the darkness, leaving him alone.
*Chapter Ten - The Heart-stone
mm~
Twice Darkwind tried to wake up; twice he turned over to climb out of bed. Twice he closed his eyes again, and fell right back to sleep. And since no one came to fetch him, and there was hardly ever any noise around Starblade's ekele, he slept until well past midmorning unaware of how long he'd been dreaming.
When he finally awakened and stayed awake, he lay quietly for a moment, feeling confused and a bit disoriented. The light shouldn't have been coming in at that angle...Then it finally occurred to him why it was doing so.
I haven't overslept like this in I can't think how long.
Feeling very much as if he'd done something overly self-indulgent, he snatched his newly-cleaned clothing from a shelf and hastily donned it.
There was no one in the ekele except Vree, who was still dozing. He vaulted the stairs to the ground and hurried down to Elspeth's ekele only to find her gone.
He was both embarrassed and annoyed. Annoyed that she had left Without him; embarrassed because she'd needed to. She had at least left a note.
It looked like gibberish, until he realized that she had apparently spelled things the way they sounded to her.
Takt tu Starblaad n Winrlit sins we r not owt. Taa sed tu werk on bordr majik wit grifons. We r al waading fer u wen u waak up.
It took him a moment to puzzle out that she had checked with Starblade and Winterlight about what she and he should do since they weren't on patrol. He surmised that they had both asked her to work on border protections under the gryphons' tutelage. All three of them were expecting Darkwind whenever he got there. She hadn't even told him where they were working. They could be anywhere.
Once again, as with everything Elspeth did, he had mixed feelings.
Pleased that she had taken it upon herself to find something useful to do; miffed that she hadn't consulted him.
He snatched a quick meal, and wondered if he should try to find Winterlight. Presumably the scout leader would know where they were.
Then it occurred to him that he hadn't bothered to ask the most obvio
us "person." Vree. The forestgyre was still back at Starblade's ekele. Undoubtedly, recovering from the way he'd stuffed himself yesterday.
He sent out a mental call, and was rewarded within a few moments by a flash of white through the high branches. He held out his arm, and Vree winged in, diving down to the ground and pulling up with spread wings in a head-high stall. He dropped delicately down onto Darkwind's wrist. U -A ic . C.Iratch "Mes The gyre chirped at him, and inclined his e r sages?" he asked. th the mental emphasis of im: From Horse," Vree replied. Horse-wi importance-could only mean the Compamon.
Vree's intelligence was limited; he had to get messages in pieces. "Who is the message from Horse about?"
"Female and Big Ones." Vree leaned into the scratch, his eyes halfclosed in pleasure.
"What is the message?" He had long ago given up being impatient with this slow method of finding things out. It was simply the way Vree and every other bondbird worked.
"At magic-place," Vree replied.
Well, he wouldn't have to ask Vree to track them down. Good thing, too, since Vree was still drowsy from a long night of digestion. He'd be so fat Darkwind wouldn't be able to find his keelbone if he was fed that way all the time. Interesting, though, that the Companion could talk to Darkwind's bird. He wasn't surprised, but it wasn't something that Gwena had shown she could do-or wanted to do-before this.
And he wasn't going to have to leave the Vale, which was a bit of a relief. His backside was still a little sore and stiff from the ride yesterday.
"Do you need to leave the Vale?" he asked Vree. After all, the poor bird had been in here for more than a day. The gyre turned his head upside down as he considered the question and his bondmate.
"No," Vree decided. "Head not itch." That was how he had described the way that rogue powers of the Heartstone had affected him; that his head had itched. It had taken Darkwind a while before he had figured out that the bird meant inside his head, not outside.
"Go back to Starblade's, then," Darkwind told him. "Or hunt, if you want-just don't go too far from the Vale. I'm going to the magic-place and I don't want you in there. Your head would really itch."
"Yes," Vree agreed, and half-spread his wings, waiting for Darkwind to launch him. The scout gave him a toss, and the gyre gained height rapidly, disappearing into the branches above.
No need to guess what the "magic-place" was: the Practice Ground.
It was entirely possible to direct the border defenses from in there, although it would require great patience and careful shielding to keep the Heartstone from affecting whatever the three of them did in there.
Maybe that was the idea.
It'll certainly test the integrity of my shielding. And if I can shield against the Stone and work at the same time-I just might be ready to help handle the Stone myself. the gods only know that there'll be no peace for k'sheyna until I do.
Well, if they were waiting for him, they were probably wondering if he'd fallen down a well or something. He'd better go prove he was still alive.
He had heard a mutter of conversation before he crossed the passthrough in the barrier that divided the rest of the Vale from the Practice Ground. The sudden silence that descended as he appeared told him that he had been the topic of discussion between Elspeth and the gryphons.
He suppressed a surge of irritation at being talked about.
"Sorry I slept so late," he said, trying not to let his irritation show.
"What are we doing?"
"Conssstructing ward-off ssspellsss," Hydona said mildly, as if she hadn't snapped her beak shut in mid-syllable the moment he came into view. "Elssspeth had one of the hertasssi look in on you, but you were sssleeping ssso deeply we decsssided you mussst need the ressst." His irritation faded a little. At least they had checked on him before doing anything on their own. This particular task was not something he would have expected for the four of them. Ward-offs were simple things, but they had to be constructed and set carefully, another task of patience.
Intended to discourage rather than hurt, ward-offs were the first line of defense on the border; the more intelligent the creature that encountered one, the more likely it was to be affected by it. A basilisk, for instance, would not be deterred by one, but a Changewolf probably would, unless it happened to be very hungry. Humans certainly would be; especially wanderers, peddlers, and the Ue-people who had crossed into Tayledras lands by accident.
Treyvan roused his golden-edged crest and refolded his wings with the characteristic rasp of feathers sliding across feathers. "You and I arrre not to make ward-offsss. Ssstarblade hasss a tasssk forrr usss; to move ley-linessss," he said. "We work while Elsspeth watchesss. We are to diverrrt them to the node beneath the lairrr, sssevering them from the Heartssstone." Darkwind frowned. That came under the heading of "tedious and necessary," as well. But anything to do with the Heartstone had its own share of danger involved. Certainly this was not beneath his abilities. It was along the lines of doing his share to work with the imbalanced Stone.
"Do you have any idea why we're doing this?" he asked.
"Thessse are minorrr linesss," Treyvan told him. "Ssstarrblade wantsss all the minorrr linesss rrremoved, to sssee if they can be, and to sssee if thisss weakensss the Ssstone."
"Hmm. It could well be that once the minors are removed, the majors could be split into minors, and diverted in the same manner to other nodes, perhaps other Heartstones if there were any near." Treyvan gave him one of those enigmatic, purely-gryphonish expressions of his, the one that always looked to Darkwind like "I know something you would dearly like to know." He spoke slowly. "it isss not imposssible." Darkwind nodded, watching Elspeth with his Othersight; taking note of how she built the ward-off layer by layer, with the deft and delicate touch of a jeweler.
Showing no signs of impatience. And no signs of Attitude, either.
And that irritated him all over again. Why couldn't she just have been reasonable in the first place?
Because no one put things to her in a way she understood, he reminded himself. She's as much an alien here as the gryphons, no matter how Comfortable she looks or how well she seems to fit in.
And she did look as if she fit in, wearing the clothing he'd had made for her instead of those glaring white uniforms or the barbarian getup she'd had in her packs. She didn't quite look Tayledras, not with that hair-but until she spoke, no one would know she was not one of the Tayledras allies.
Get your mind on the task, Darkwind, and off the female.
"Hasn't anyone tried this line-diverting with the Stone before?" He couldn't believe that they hadn't. It seemed like the logical sort of thing to do.
"Yesss," the gryphon said, switching his tail restlessly. "But it did not worrk. And not asss we will be worrrking. Parrrtially the Sstone ressissted having the linesss taken; and parrrtially it rrreclaimed them within a day. We will give the linesss a new anchorrr, fixing them in place, rrrather than letting them find theirrr own anchorrr. Beforrre, they werrre allowed to drrrift, and.the Sstone rrreclaimed them." Elspeth put the final lock on the ward-off, and sent it away to settle into its place on the border. In his mind's eye it drifted away like a gossamer scarf blown by a purposeful wind-or a drift of fog with a mind of its own.
"I'm done," she announced, dusting off her hands. "Your turn." She took a seat nearby, her face alight with interest. "I thought these lines were like rivers or something. I didn't know you could change where they went."
"Generally only the little ones," Darkwind told her as he stretched.
"At least, the major lines take all the mages of a Clan to reroute. That's something we do when we- start a Vale; we find a node or make one, then relocate all the nearest big lines to it, so that we can drain the wild magic of an area into the Heartstone."
"It isss much like crrreating a riverrrrbed before therrre isss a rrriver, Hydona said. "When the waterrr comess, it will follow the courssse laid forrr it. Ssso isss the wild magic to the grreaterrr linesss. The grrreaterrr lin
esss have theirrr bankssss widened. The unsssettled magicsss join theirrr flow."
" I can see how that would make sense. And when you leave, you drain the magic from the Stone-along a new-made set of 'riverbeds," I assume," Elspeth said, with a measure of surety in her voice.
"That, or a series of reservoirs are made temporarily."
"Then what?" she asked Darkwind.
"Then we sever the lines and let them drift back into natural patterns, and physically remove the Stone," he told her as he concentrated more of his attention on the complex of shields and probes he would need to handle his task. Shields against the Heartstone, some set to deflect energy away, some to resist, sensory probes to know what it was doing.
Heartstones were not precisely aware, they certainly weren't thinking creatures, yet they were alive in a sense and normally tractable. But this one was no longer normal.
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