Winds of Fury (8 page)

Starblade took Elspeth into his arms, and whispered into her ear, “Watch over my son, dear lady. He is unused to having someone to guard his back, and may not ask for help. Give it anyway, unasked.”

“I will,” she promised fervently, and kissed him, an act that surprised them both and clearly delighted Starblade.

Starblade lifted his walking stick, and Kethra took the other end onto her shoulder as he did the same. Hyllarr glided down from the branch and alighted between them. His talons closed firmly on the walking stick and he folded his wings, accepting a caress from Starblade. Then it was time, and they took their places as the last in the line.

“Clear skies, Father.”

“Wind to thy wings, my son. I love you,”

And then they were gone.

Snowfire seemed to wake from her trance; she glanced around the clearing to make certain that there were no stragglers. She saw that Summerfawn already stood on
this
side. Her eyes took in the smoldering embers of the brazier. Then without a single backward look, she strode across the threshold of the Gate.

With a flare of energy, the Gate collapsed.

And for the first time, Darkwind, Elspeth, and Skif were the only k'Sheyna left in the heart of what had been k'Sheyna Vale.

T
he Kaled'a'in clan k'Leshya had been in possession of the Vale for less than a day, and already the place had taken on an entirely new personality.

The Kaled'a'in had waited politely for the former owners to leave before so much as changing a single bush; now they swung into action, taking plans that had been made weeks ago and turning them into reality. The highest
ekeles
were to be converted for use by gryphons after appropriate strengthening, and gryphons and
hertasi
were checking the hillsides around the Vale, and the cliffs at the rear, for suitable lair locations above, and
hertasi
and
kyree
dens below. There were more birds in the air now; not only raptors of bondbird breeding, who had come to the Vale in answer to some unspoken call, but small, colorful creatures in feathered harlequin coats of red, blue, green, and yellow, with raptorial hooked bills and an uncanny ability to mimic human voices. A trio of Kaled'a'in mages began setting up new defenses and Veils to protect the place from the weather as the old Veil faded; rather than receiving power from the nonexistent Heartstone, these defenses would take their energy from a webwork of ley-lines the Kaled'a'in would arrange around the perimeter, lines which would in turn be fed from the node under the ruins where Treyvan and Hydona had nested.

Tervardi
and
kyree,
creatures Elspeth had seen only rarely, were part of Clan k'Leshya; considered to be full members and not merely allies. So were the
hertasi,
who bustled about, full of energy, rearranging things to the new Clan's liking now that the old owners had gone.

One thing they were doing was trimming back much of the vegetation. While Elspeth had enjoyed the wildly overgrown Vale with its many shroudings of vine curtains and maskings of flowering bushes, she had to admit that it was a bit difficult to get around in. Every time someone had stormed off in a temper, or had to run somewhere in an emergency, he (or she) had usually wound up with minor scrapes and cuts, leaving behind shredded vegetation. The
hertasi
were taming all that, opening up sunny clearings, making it possible to travel down arched paths without risking strangulation. All the while, those places that needed a certain amount of privacy were left with their surrounding bushes and vines relatively intact. But as Elspeth saw, when she poked her head into the work-in-progress around one of her favorite small hot springs, they were trimming away growth inside the area, so that leaves and dead flowers no longer dropped into the pool to foul it.

Nets were being strung for vines to creep through until they could support themselves and provide more privacy in strategic places. Poles were planted by the
hertasi,
for the greenery to grow against. Dust kicked up by the work filtered through the sunlight as dancing motes of light. Nothing would be quite the same when they were done.

They were scrubbing the stones of the edge, and sifting debris out of the sand at the bottom. Already the water ran clearer. She left the area of the spring much impressed.

The little that Elspeth knew of the Shin'a'in she had learned from Kethra, but it seemed to her that these people were very different from both the Shin'a'in and the Tayledras. They were less solitary than the Tayledras, though more so than the Shin'a'in. They were certainly noisier than the Tayledras. Every job was accompanied by the murmur of human voices blended with
hertasi
hisses,
tervardi
trills,
kyree
growls,
dyheli
chuckles, and the bass rumblings of gryphons. The Vale as populated by the k'Sheyna had seemed deserted; the Vale as populated by k'Leshya was as full of activity as the Palace/Collegium complex.

Not all of k'Leshya would live inside the Vale. Some would take over the lair begun by Treyvan and Hydona in the ruins overlooking the Dhorisha Plains. They had brought the books that Darkwind had helped build shelves for so long ago.

Others would take the
ekeles
that had been made by the k'Sheyna scouts, surrounding the Vale. Most of the artisans and craftspeople, scholars, and those families with young children would live in the Vale itself—those who were most vulnerable, and most in need of protection. Silverfox had told Elspeth that they hoped to begin a thriving trade with the Shin'a'in, and even with Outsiders. “We use very little magic in everyday things,” he had told her. “Mostly for self-defense. But we are fine craftsmen, and trade is how we would prefer to make our Clan prosper.”

Even the gryphons?
she had wondered. She couldn't see how the gryphons, with those massive talons, could craft anything. Treyvan had needed Darkwind's help just to install a simple set of shelves. But then again, perhaps there were things those talons were good for. Piercing practically anything that needed a hole in it, for one thing. . . .

And gryphons were strong. She'd already seen a gryphon dragging a man-sized log in its beak. Treyvan and Hydona were mages; a little magic went a long way when it came to crafting things. Maybe all the gryphons were mage-craftsmen.

Maybe I just shouldn't worry about it
. They hardly
need my help or approval!

There seemed to be less activity up near the waterfall, so that was where she went. Everywhere else she got the feeling she was in the way. Perhaps not everything in the Vale would be changed; the k'Leshya had not couched the waterfall and the pool below except to trim back some branches. It was possible to watch several groups hard at work from here without getting underfoot.

She settled down on a sculptured stone, fascinated by the coordinated working party of two gryphons, two humans, a
tervardi
, and three
hertasi
who were opening up an
ekele
for use by gryphons. They were taking out partitions and creating landing platforms on the roof. The gryphons pulled massive coils of twisted cord with their beaks from the corners of the platforms. Steadying themselves with their wings, they increased the tension as a
hertasi
directed them.
Tervardi
scrambled over the construction and reported to the
hertasi,
and holding pins were hammered in by the humans. Elspeth had never taken much notice of construction workers around the Palace, but these workers fascinated her.

Darkwind found her still gazing almost a candlemark later.

He sat down beside her, shaking his head, as his forestgyre Vree winged in and took a perch in a nearby bush. “They confuse me,” he said without prompting. “I like them, indeed, but they confuse me deeply. Here—they make so much noise, and yet when we are outside the Vale even the largest gryphon makes no more sound than a leaf falling. They move like they are dancing. And their customs—”

Again he shook his head; Elspeth took his hand and squeezed it. “It's just because they are really
like
your people, but not quite identical,” she said comfortingly. “That's all. For you, it's kind of the way I felt when I was learning your tongue. I already knew some Shin'a'in, and it was very confusing when you said something that wasn't
quite
what I knew. It was just similar enough that I felt I ought to know it, and different enough that I couldn't understand.”

His puzzled look cleared. “Exactly. That is what I could not put into words. It is very strange to find those who are not human as full Clan members, for instance. I think it a good idea, but I find it strange. They are planning even their homes with that in mind, for instance— rebuilding the stairs to suit not only human feet but
kyree
, and reinforcing the floors and adding landing porches for gryphons. The lower floors even have ramps for
dyheli.
All their thoughts run like that. We built to accommodate our bondbirds, but not to suit anything else other than humans. They consider first how any decision will affect
all
the beings of the Clan.”

Elspeth nodded, understanding now what he meant. As considerate as k'Sheyna had been, they would never have considered modifying their homes to suit other creatures. And they would never have taken the needs of the nonhumans into consideration when making any kind of major decision.

Not only the needs, but the abilities
—she thought, watching two of the gryphons hovering, holding a thin beam aloft so that it could be set into place and pegged there. Darkwind had seen that they had strengths the humans did not—and his former lover Dawnfire had
used
those often-discounted abilities of the nonhumans. But k'Leshya counted on them; the nonhumans were integral to any plan.

Darkwind watched the construction work for a moment, and nodded with admiration, his pale blue eyes candid and open. “It is amazing,” he said at last. “In a few weeks' time, I shall not know this place.” He brushed a strand of silver hair out of his eyes. “In a few years, it will look like nothing that Tayledras built.”

“Do you ever want to come back here?” Elspeth asked hesitantly. “I know Firesong is talking about doing so.”

But Darkwind shook his head. “I do not think so. I think that no matter what the next few moons bring us, we will be too busy to even consider such a thing. Firesong has good reason to come here, for he is a Healing Adept and k'Leshya has many new magics he wishes to learn. But I am not even well-practiced in our own magics.”

“You aren't exactly inept, lover,” she smiled.

“Heh. Thank you, bright feather. I would prefer to wait on the learning of new magics until I am more comfortable with the known.”

She laughed a little ruefully at that. Ovei the past several weeks she had found it much easier to admit her own shortcomings since Darkwind had become so open about his. And her shortcomings were many—not the least of which was that she had come so late into her mage-training. She still felt like a stone skipping across ice when she thought about magery in general. “That sounds like something I would say! I had no idea there was so much to learn—nothing I ever read in any of the histories said
anything
about needing lesser mages to take care of the things unbalanced by Adept spells. The histories just said that a great mage did—
thus
—and said nothing about what went on behind the spell-casting.”

Darkwind leaned back against the sun-warmed rock. “Not all Adept spells require such a thing,” he corrected.

“Only those which cannot be performed from within proper shielding—or which
are
not performed from within proper shielding. And then, only those which manipulate great amounts of energy. There are different ways of accomplishing the same result.”