Winds of Fury

by Mercedes Lackey

“If I go,” Skif replied, from behind Darkwind, “then Nyara comes as well. Cymry backs her to come along. She is clever and skilled, a trained fighter, she has a score of counts to settle with Falconsbane, and she knows him as no one else does.”

  Kero gave him a long look, transferred it to Nyara, then caught Elpeth’s gaze, and did something she seldom resorted to with anyone but her lover, Herald Eldan. She used Mindspeech.

  :Family resemblance, kitten?: she asked.

  Elspeth nodded, very slightly. There was no point in going into excruciating detail at this point. Let Kero simply assume that Nyara was trying to make up for the perfidy of a relative, and perhaps, to extract revenge for something Falconsbane had done to her. That was something Kero could understand.

  :Ah,: came the reply. :I’d wondered.: And she left it at that. Kero was nothing if not expedient. And she trusted Skif’s judgment as she trusted her own.

  “By the same token, I must go with Elspeth,” Darkwind put in. “We have worked together successfully, I am the more experienced mage of the two of us, and as Nyara knows Falconsbane, so she knows Hulda. That will give us four agents to target them, two of them mages and Adepts.”

  “But you and Elspeth would strike first at Hulda and Ancar,” Firesong pointed out. “There is some urgency for our people in ridding the world of the Beast, and only an Adept is likely to be able to counter his protective magics. That being the case, I should go with you as well. If you divide, two to target the Hardornens, and two to target the Beast, Skif and Nyara should have an Adept with them. There is no point in dividing those who have worked together.”

  Kero nodded. “I have to admit that Falconsbane is not a priority for us—”

  Firesong shrugged. “He should be—believe me, even more so than the Hardornens. So, let us plan a two-bladed attack upon him. That gives you an Adept that Falconsbane does not know to work upon him, and an Adept each for Hulda and Ancar, Adepts who are also well-trained as fighters. I am by no means certain that an Adept can take the Beast; I suspect I will accomplish more by distracting him, making him think I am his only enemy. This means that the physical attack, which he will not anticipate, can come from Skif and Nyara.”

  :And me,: Need said quietly, for Elspeth’s ears alone. :But the boy will be damned useful. I think I’m going to have to be awfully close to Falconsbane to do any good.:

  Elspeth tried not to look surprised at the Healing Adept’s speech, but she had not expected Firesong to volunteer for this. She glanced back at Darkwind, who shrugged.

  :He is unique,: Darkwind said wryly. :With his own will. He does have the mind-set of the Healing Adept, and that means he would not care to see Falconsbane working his twisted will on lands that had been Cleansed. And I suspect that your mutual ancestor may have impressed some kind of sense of responsibility for your continued health upon him. I certainly would not turn his aid away! But for predictability—I would look upon Firesong as a benevolent trickster.:

  “What are we going to do for mages if you’re all leaving?” Lady Kester asked, a little desperately.

  “You have the gryphons,” Darkwind pointed out. “They are both Masters. You have Heralds and trainees with Mage-Gift, currently being schooled in combative magics.”

  “Ah. . . .” Kero leaned back in her chair, and hooded her eyes with her lids. “We won’t be depending entirely on the gryphons. Since this is all under the rose—I have a surprise for you all. There are more mages coming, and I expect them to start arriving any day now.”

  As the Councillors turned as one from watching Elspeth and her group to staring at Kero, she revealed to them the news of the three groups of mages currently being brought at top speed toward Haven, riding pillion behind Heralds and trainees released from the Collegium for the duty. She had virtually denuded the Herald’s Collegium of all but those Mage-Gifted and first-year students.

  “That’s why you sent all those so-called ‘training groups’ off!” exclaimed the Lord Marshal. Kero nodded.

  “So, we will have mages. Will they be Adepts?” She shrugged. “I can’t tell you. I don’t know what they’re sending us. What I can tell you, since I used mages in my Company, is that a mage is only as good as the tacticians he works with, and his willingness to really use his talents to the fullest. Just because someone is an Adept, that does not mean he is going to be effective.”

  “I have, in my time, seen a few completely ineffective Adepts,” Firesong put in. “I have seen a Journeyman defeat one of them in a contest. Kerowyn is correct.”

  “So there you have it. Are we all agreed on the team?” Kero spread her hands to indicate that she was ready to call a vote on it.

  The vote was unanimous, though it was fairly clear that there was some reluctance to place the only Adepts Valdemar had access to, and its former Heir, in such jeopardy.

  “Fine.” Kero nodded. “Then as far as I am concerned, this meeting can close. We all have things we need to do. I have to find a way to insert these folk into Hardorn. You have things you need to tell your people. Ladies and lords, you will be in charge of the physical defenses and the evacuations. You should consult with the Lord Marshal about that, and how to organize them to coordinate with his strike-and-run raids. I’ll join you as soon as we come up with an insertion plan.” She raised an eyebrow at Talia, Elspeth, and Prince Daren. “You three have a task I really don’t envy. The Queen is not going to like this.”

  Talia and Elspeth exchanged a knowing glance and a sigh. Daren shook his head.

  “Perhaps,” he suggested gently, “I should be the one to break the word first to Selenay. I shall remind her of how sad the little ones would be to become half-orphaned; I hope then she will not slay the father of her children out of sheer pique.”

  Elspeth and Talia waited nervously in the rather austere antechamber to Selenay and Daren’s private suite, but it seemed almost no time at all before Daren was back, beckoning to both of them to come with him. They followed him into Selenay’s private office, and Elspeth’s heart ached to see how drawn and worn her mother’s face was. And to add to that burden of grief and worry—

  But Selenay only came straight to her, held out her arms, and embraced her tightly but not possessively. Her body shook with tension but not with the tears that Elspeth had feared.

  Finally she released her daughter, and held her away at arm’s length, searching her face for something although Elspeth could not tell what it was. Her eyes were narrowed with concentration, and Elspeth saw many fine worry lines around her eyes and creasing her forehead that had not been there when she left.

  “Good,” she said finally. “This isn’t something someone talked you into. You know exactly what you’re doing. You thought of this yourself?”

  Elspeth nodded. Her mother had pulled her hair back into a no-nonsense braid like Kero’s, and like Talia, she was wearing breeches and tunic, her only concession to rank being a bit of gold trim on the tunic hem and her coronet about her brow. Her sword and sword-belt were hanging from the chair beside her desk, and knives lay on top of a pile of papers. Although she had seen her mother in armor and on a battlefield, this was not a Selenay that Elspeth had ever seen before, but she rather expected that anyone who had fought with her mother and grandfather in the Tedrel Wars would find this Queen very familiar. Selenay had pared everything from her life that was not relevant to the defense of her land. Valdemar was in peril, and the Queen was ready for personal action.

  “I thought about trying to be a commander, but I’m not a tactician, and not even a particularly good fighter. No one knows me to follow me as a charismatic leader,” Elspeth said slowly. “In the lines, I would be just one more warrior. Yes, I could help with magic defenses—I could even coordinate the mages—but I would be your daughter, and the ones from outKingdom would always expect me to favor Herald-Mages and their safety over those from outside. Such suspicion could be fatal. Kero always taught us that you don’t stand off and fling sand at a fire from a safe distance; you go
in and cut a firebreak right in its path.”

  “Kero taught you well.” Selenay rubbed her eyes with her index finger, and blinked hard against tears. “The Queen agrees with you; the mother—what can I tell you? I hate the idea of sending my child off into this kind of danger, my heart wants to hold you back and keep you safe. But you are a woman grown, Elspeth. You are responsible for your own safety and I can’t protect you anymore. Besides, there is no safety anywhere in Valdemar, not now. Elspeth, I am so proud of you!”

  Elspeth had never expected to hear that last; it caught her by surprise, and her heart swelled and overflowed. She flung herself into her mother’s arms again, and this time they both gave way to weeping. Talia, and then Daren, joined them in a fourfold embrace, offering comfort and support. This was sorrow both bitter and sweet, sweet for the accomplishment—bitter for all that accomplishment meant to all of them. Nothing would ever be the same again, even if they all survived this.

  When both of them got control over themselves again, they separated, slowly and reluctantly, with tremulous smiles.

  “Thank you, Mama,” Elspeth managed. “That is the most wonderful thing you have ever said to me. I’ve always been proud of you, too, but never more than today. . . .”

  “When you were such trouble—before Talia came—there were times that I despaired of ever seeing you act like a responsible adult, much less make me so very proud that you are my daughter,” Selenay said at last, with a grateful glance at Talia who only blushed. “No one could ever ask of you what you have just given to Valdemar.”

  Now it was Elspeth’s turn to blush. “I don’t know if Papa told you about my rather florid speech in there about saving the people rather than the land,” she said. “But being with k’Sheyna and the Hawkbrothers is what showed me that. The way they simply give up their homes and move on when it’s time—but mourn the loss of every hawk and owl, hertasi and human—that showed me where we should be putting our effort. Let Ancar grab land; the people of Valdemar ran and survived before, and they can now. And if we five can pull this off, they’ll have something to return to.”

  Selenay shook her head in wonder. “You’ve grown up. And you’re wiser than I ever will be—”

  Elspeth laughed shakily. “No, just knowledgeable in different things, that’s all. Mama, I have to get back to Kero; the sooner we get out of here, the better for all of us.”

  “If you can spare me for a moment, I’ll go with her,” Talia added. “I think I have a contact that will give them a way to move across Hardorn quickly.”

  Selenay nodded. “I will need you in about a candlemark, to help me calm some hysterical highborns when I tell them they are in the path of an invasion we can’t stop, but not until then.”

  Selenay took Elspeth into a quick embrace. “If I don’t see you before you leave—remember you take my love with you,” she whispered into Elspeth’s ear. “And you take my respect and hope as well. I love you, kitten. Come home safe to me. Come home, so I can celebrate your handfasting to that handsome young man who loves you so.”

  Elspeth returned the embrace fiercely, then fled to resume her duty before Selenay could see that tears threatened to return.

  “So. Name everything in this room that can be used as a weapon,” Kerowyn grinned at Elspeth.

  “Your breath, Firesong’s clothes, and that awful tea,” Elspeth replied to the old joke. Darkwind and Firesong cracked smiles.

  Once again, they all had gathered in Kero’s office. Talia was explaining to Kero her link with the secretive and close-knit “clan” of itinerant traveling peddlers. Elspeth had heard it all before, but it was still fascinating, for Talia seemed the last person in the world to keep up an association with the “wagon-families,” as they were known. Very often they were regarded as tricksters and only a short step above common thieves. It had been one of the wagon-men who had taken word of her imprisonment out of Hardorn when she had been captured and thrown in a shielded cell by Ancar.

  “—so I’ve kept in constant contact with him, and I’ve tried to help him get his people out of trouble, when I could,” she concluded. “Quite frankly, they can go places we can’t, and it occurred to me that it would be very useful to have their cooperation if we needed to get someone into Hardorn, so I’ve been building up a lot of favors that they owe me.”

  Kero nodded thoughtfully, tracing little patterns on the table top with her finger. “The gods know I’ve tried and failed to get an agent in among them. They’re very closemouthed and insular.”

  Tiredly, Talia ran her fingers through her hair. Elspeth wondered if she would get any sleep at all, or if she’d go on until she collapsed. “Ancar hasn’t got any friends among them, I can tell you that. He’s taken whole families; I don’t care to think what he does with them, but once his men take a wagonload, the people are gone without a trace. Since that started happening, only single men and a few women, all without families, have dared to operate over there—and only in groups, so a single wagon can’t just vanish. They’ve taken to putting together wagon-groups of entertainers and peddlers, and putting on movable fairs. But here’s what I think my contact will offer, if I ask him, as the payback for all my favors. I think he’ll set our group up with a bigger carnival, give them genuine wagons and things to sell, and basically see that his people protect ours from discovery by outsiders.”

  Kero made a skeptical face. “Entertainers? Carnival showmen? Gods, I don’t know . . . I’d thought of something a lot more, well, secretive.”

  Elspeth snorted. “And how do you propose to hide Nyara or the bondbirds?” she demanded. “The minute anyone gets sight of her or the birds, we’d be in trouble, if we were trying to pass ourselves off as simple farmers or something! How many farmers own large exotic birds, or even a hawk? And we’d never pass ourselves off as Hardornen nobles.”

  “My point exactly,” Talia said. “You can’t hide them, so make them just one more very visible set of entertainers in a sea of flamboyance. After all, where do you hide a red fish?”

  “In a pond full of other red fish,” Kero supplied the tagline of another Shin’a’in proverb. “All right; contact the man. Don’t tell him anything until you get his consent to the general idea, and Darkwind can slap one of those coercion things on him.”

  Talia nodded, and rose from her seat. “I’ll have him here by dawn,” she said firmly, and left.

  Firesong looked highly amused. “Carnival entertainers?” he repeated, “Entertainers, I understand, but what is a carnival?”

  After Elspeth explained it to him, he looked even more amused. “You mean—we shall cloak the fact that we are working genuine magic, that we have mage-born creatures, by performing entertainer tricks?”

  “And selling snake-oil,” Kero added, and had to explain the concept of that to him as well. By the time she had finished, he was laughing, despite the seriousness of the situation.

  “But this is too perfect!” he chuckled. “Oh, please, you must let me play a role. The Great Mage Pandemonium! I shall never have another opportunity like this one!”

  “I don’t know how we could stop you,” Skif said dryly. “And your bird is the harder to hide of the two.”

  Vree cocked his head to one side. :Tricks, I,: he offered. Then, to everyone’s astonishment, he jumped down onto the table, waddled over to Firesong, and rolled over like a dog, his eyes fixed on the Healing Adept. :Tricks, I, with Aya. Together.:

  “I think he wants you to have a trick bird act with himself and your firebird,” Darkwind said, his eyes still wide with surprise. “I keep thinking he has a limited grasp of abstract concepts, but every once in a while he astonishes me. It would be a very good way of explaining the presence of both birds.”

  “I could assist you, Firesong,” Nyara added shyly. “And dance. Falconsbane made me learn to dance, seduction dances, which would be popular, I think. You could say I was your captive.”

  “And everyone who saw you would be certain her looks were due to costum
e and makeup, and the birds to dye or bleach.” Kero nodded. “I like it. You know, I can even show you some things that will make it look as if Nyara’s—ah—attributes are all makeup and costume. We could shave thin lines of her body-fur to look like seams.”

  “And I shall dress as flamboyantly and tastelessly as Skyseeker k‘Treva!” Firesong crowed. “We call him ‘Eye-burner’ to tease him, for he has no taste! A pity I cannot dye Aya a brilliant pink as well—”

  The look the firebird gave him, of purest disgust, only sent him into another fit of laughter.

  Darkwind shrugged. “For that matter, there’s not a reason in the world why we can’t bring the dyheli along as another one of your ‘captives.’ There isn’t anyone in all of Hardorn except Falconsbane who’d recognize a bondbird, a dyheli, or Nyara, and Falconsbane isn’t likely to be patronizing a carnival.”

  “Also an excellent point.” Kero pondered a bit more. “But there is the problem that you are all going to have magic associated with you . . . hmm. Can any of you lot do what Quenten could—layer illusions?”

  Elspeth nodded quickly. “All of us can, it’s really very simple.”

  Kero smiled slowly. “Good. Then here’s what we’ll have. You—” she pointed at Firesong, “—are a very minor mage, too minor for Ancar to recruit, but able to cast illusions. You put them on the Companions, the dyheli, and possibly yourself. Only you layer the Companions; top is a pair of glossy matched bays, under that is what any other mage will think is the reality, an illusion of a pair of nasty, old, spavined geldings. You layer the dyheli the same way; top is the way it really looks, under that is a donkey. You leave Nyara alone—”

  :I can make certain anyone who casts a true-sight on her will see a misshapen girl in cat makeup,: Need supplied. :And the assumed presence of an illusion will account for the presence of magic around us.:

  “Right, that was exactly what I was going to suggest.” Kero was grinning. “Gods, we are a deceitful bunch! It’s a damn good thing we’re honest, or no one would be safe!”