Winds of Fury (32 page)

“Simple enough; I'm not from around here.” That was in Shin'a'in, not Valdemaran; Firesong's eyes widened a trifle and he gave her a look full of respect. Kero looked around for somewhere to sit, and finally chose the side of the gryphons' “nest” by default. “I was born and grew up in the south of Rethwellan. I was the granddaughter of a sorceress, trained by a Shin'a'in Swordsworn who was her partner, adopted as a Clan Friend to Tale'sedrin, then took a place in a mere company. Eventually I got the Captain slot, and circumstances brought us up here.” She shrugged. “We hired on because I knew Prince Daren, we both trained with the same Shin'a'in, and the Rethwellans owed the Valdemarans a debt that hadn't been discharged. The Skybolts were part-payment on that debt. Never guessed when we came riding over those mountains down south, I'd lose all my mages and pick up a stubborn white talking horse.”

Every Mindspeaker in the room looked startled at that, with the sole exception of Kerowyn. She only sighed. “That was my Companion Sayvil,” she said, apologetically. “She can Mindspeak with anyone she pleases, and she won't pretend otherwise like the rest of 'em. Next thing is I expect her to start Mindspeaking people without the Gift. She's gotten worse about it lately.”

“I suppose the damn sword decided you didn't deserve it or something?” Kero asked. “Or did you get fed up with it and drop it down a well like I threatened to do?”

“She's with Skif's lady, Nyara,” Elspeth began, hesitantly addressing the air over Kero's head. “That's a long story and—”

:
You!:
came another, and far more excited voice. From the other room bounded a startled
kyree
, trailed by the gryphlets.:
You had Need! You! You must be the youngling trained by my famous cousin Warrl! Lady Tarma's pupil! The one Lady Kethry gave Need to!:

He bounded over and prostrated himself at her feet for a moment, in the
kyree
imitation of a courtly bow.
:I have heard so much about you! My famous cousin Warrl said you were destined for greatness! You must tell me all of your life so that I may make it into stories!:

All the time that Rris was chattering in open Mindspeech, Kero's face had taken on an expression that Elspeth had never, ever expected to see.

Completely blank, and slack-jawed. She was, quite clearly, taken utterly by surprise.

She recovered fairly quickly, however. “I don't believe this,” she said under her breath, as Rris finished and waited eagerly for her answer. “I mean—what are the odds? Who ever sees
one kyree
in a lifetime, much less two, and for the two to be
related?
I just don't by-the-gods believe this!”

Rris took on an air of extreme dignity, and fixed Kero with an admonishing gaze.
My famous cousin Warrl used to say that there is no such thing as coincidence, only mortals who have not fought the winds of fate.:

“Your famous cousin Warrl stole that particular proverb from the Shin'a'in he ran with,” Kero countered. “It happens to be about five hundred years older than your ‘famous cousin Warrl.' And believe me, I fought so-called ‘fate' plenty. I don't believe in fate.” She shook her head again. “All right,
kyree
—what is your name?”

:
Rris
,: he said proudly.
:Tale-spinner, History-keeper, and Lesson-teacher of the Hyrrrull Pack.:

“All right, Rris, I'll tell you everything you'd like to know,
but
—” she interjected, holding up a hand to stave off the eager creature, “—
not now.
We have a lot to do, and I have the depressing feeling we have a very short time to do it in. It's only a matter of time before Ancar hits us, and right now we can only pray he follows his old patterns, and makes several feints and tests before he decides to
truly
come after us. Now, unless I miss my guess, what you lot want is intelligence, right?” She looked around at the others. “Not only what dear Ancar has been up to, but all the things that have happened since Elspeth left.”

Firesong nodded for all of them. “And let me get the last two of our group,” he said. “Skif and his lady, the current bearer of your mage-sword. I think you will be surprised at what has become of the blade. It has changed, warrior, greatly changed. We wish this kept reasonably secret—but not from you. You, I think, need to know what kind of an ally Need has become.”

He turned before anyone could stop him and went off at a brisk walk, robes flowing behind him. He returned quickly with Skif and Nyara. Skif also wore the
hertasi
-designed Whites—Whites with a number of surprises built into them—and Nyara wore a
hertasi
-made surcoat and light armor—though it would have been very difficult for anyone who was not aware that it was armor to recognize it as such. As always, Nyara carried Need sheathed at her side, but before anyone could say anything to either of them, the sword spoke up, and Need's mind-voice was sharp with shock.

Kero jumped this time, she was so startled. She stared at the blade, and then swore, fervently and creatively, using several languages that Elspeth didn't even recognize and describing several acts that Elspeth thought were anatomically impossible.

“—bloody
hell!”
she finished with a wail, throwing up her hands in despair, as if in petition to the unseen gods. “Isn't it bad enough that I get a lover who takes over my dreams, a talking horse, and a uniform like a target? Isn't it enough that I go from being an honest mercenary to some kind of do-gooder? Does
everything
in my life have to come back to haunt me and
talk in my head?”

 

It took all morning to fill Kero in on everything that had happened to Elspeth, Need, and Skif since they left, but the Herald-Captain refused to impart so much as a rumor before she heard Elspeth's story. Occasionally, Kero fixed the sheathed blade with a sharp glance, and Elspeth suspected that Need was gifting her former bearer with choice comments of her own. They were, in many ways, two of a kind. Evidently Kero began to figure that out for herself, for after a while those pointed glances took on a hint of amusement.

Elspeth was just grateful that
she
wasn't “blessed” with the sword's presence anymore. And she had the feeling that Kero felt the same.

Finally, after a break for a noontime meal, Kero made good on her bargain.

Elspeth had pillows brought in so that they could all sit comfortably, while the gryphons lounged with their forequarters draped over the side of their nest. They sat in a ragged circle, with Kero at one end and the gryphons anchoring the other.

“First of all,” she said, playing with the end of her braid as she looked at Elspeth, “I want you all to know that not only do I approve of the way Elspeth handled herself yesterday, but the entire Council still approves of the abdication. It's going to confuse Ancar so much he won't know what to make of it. He'll have to wait to see what his spies have to say about it all before he even begins to plan. He's going to be certain that the abdication was a ruse, until he gets reports that Elspeth really
did
give up all of her power. He's going to be hearing all kinds of rumors, and it's going to drive him crazy. He couldn't imagine anyone ever giving up a high position.”

“I thought as much,” Elspeth said with satisfaction.

“Now I've got a little advice for you and your handsome friend,” Kero continued, looking directly and only at Elspeth. “I know you're not the Heir anymore, and who you couple with makes no difference. But there are people who are watching you. Don't make any announcements about pairing up for at least a couple of months; that way no one will think to accuse you of being a soft-headed female who lets her heart overrule her head, all right?”

Elspeth raised one eyebrow. “Does it matter if people think I'm a soft-headed female? As you just said, who I pair with has no real meaning anymore.”

Kero gave her
the look
, a scornful expression that had withered sterner hearts than Elspeth's. “It might not to
you,
but you're an example for others, whether or not you realize it. It might seem very romantic to give up throne and duty for the one you love. I'm sure the younger Bards would be thrilled with such a rich topic for balladeering. No one is going to pay any attention to the fact that you're taking on
more
responsibility as the first Herald-Mage in an age. You fell in love, and told your duty to take a long walk, that's how starry-eyed young fluffheads are going to think of it. And while you're at it, think about the hundreds of young people out there who will use that as an excuse to abandon responsibilities of their own because they think they are lifebonded! Some chowderheaded young fool who doesn't know the meaning of the word ‘duty' is encouraging them to run off to a life of endless love, that's how it would look. Right now, that's the last thing we need.”

Elspeth gnawed her lip for a moment, then nodded, slowly. “I can see your point. I'm still someone that people my age look to for an example, and that's not going to change any time soon, if at all. Well, I'm not going to avoid Darkwind, but we can keep from being blatant about things. . . .”

“That's all I ask.
Think
before you do something. Always. You may not be the Heir, but you're going to be just as much in the public eye and mind as before, if not more so. You thought being the Heir was bad, I don't think you've thought about how people are going to react to the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel.” Kero smirked with satisfaction. “Well, now to the business of catching up. We have agents in Hardorn, Ancar has agents here, but I'm pretty sure I know who most of his are, and I'm equally sure he
hasn't
caught most of ours. so we're able to feed him inaccurate and incomplete information without getting caught in the same trap. His pattern hasn't changed; whenever he thinks he's found a weak spot in our defenses, he generally pokes at it for a while before he actually mounts an attack. He's given up on assassins for a while, or they've given up on him. Hard to hire people who know the last half-dozen wound up very dead.” She smiled grimly.

“That's good,” Elspeth said fervently. “That's very good! What kind of troop strength has he got?”

Kero grimaced. “That's the bad news. It's formidable, and he outnumbers us about three to two. He has a lot of regular troops as well as a lot of mages. You managed to relay that the barrier at the Border was coming down, so we've been acting as if it wasn't there for about a week or so, though he hasn't tried anything yet. I take it that it is down?”

“Probably,” Firesong said, tossing his hair back over his shoulder. “Since one of the signs of that barrier was an inability to work unhindered magic, and both Elspeth and I have been able to do so almost from the moment we arrived, I think we can assume Van—the old spells have been banished.”

Kero licked her lips thoughtfully. “Right. Well, those mages run test attacks against our Border outposts on a fairly regular basis, so if he doesn't know the barrier is gone now, he will soon. I think we can probably take it as read that he knows
now
. He's learned more caution after getting thrown back twice; he won't rush into an attack right away, I don't think, even after his usual feints and pokes. The abdication and the appearance of Elspeth as a mage, as well as tales that she brought more mages with her, might give him a little more pause. Every day we make him hesitate, is one more day we have to prepare for his next try at us, and if there's one thing I
know
will happen, it's that he's going to make a try for us.”

All of them nodded as Kero finished. “So whatever we can do to confuse him at the moment is going to be of use,” Darkwind replied. “Are we waiting for something, ourselves?”

“We are,” Kero told him. “When you said you were coming home, I assumed you were going to find some way to get rid of whatever it was that drove Quenten and my other mages off when the Skybolts came north. So I sent some urgent messages asking him to send me as many mages as he could. There are Heralds down in Rethwellan right now, bringing up as many of his White Winds Journeymen and teachers as care to come.”

“White Winds is a good, solid school,” Firesong spoke up. “It was founded by a
hertasi
mage. We can work with White Winds mages, and I am relieved to learn we will not be the only teachers of Mage-Gifted Heralds.”

“Not by a long shot,” Kero assured him. “Quenten's White Winds mages will be right up in the front lines, too. They know we're going to have a fight on our hands, and we won't take anyone who isn't willing to work combat-magic. I've got more mages coming, though—and these, I am afraid, are not going to be as easy to work with. Alberich isn't here because he's down south, too. He's bringing back a load of mage-trained Sun-priestesses from Karse.”

“He's
what?
” Elspeth gasped. She stared at Kero, wondering for a single wild moment if her teacher had snapped under the strain and had gone quite mad. She had heard about the alliance, of course, but she had assumed all that meant was that Karse was going to present a united front against Hardorn. She had never dreamed that Karse would provide more than that!

“He's bringing back a group of mage-trained Priestesses of Vkandis from Karse,” Kero repeated patiently. “I know it sounds crazy, but in case you didn't get all of it from Rolan, this is what happened. There's been a kind of religious upheaval down there, and the Son of the Sun is now a woman, Solaris. Hellfires, that's been going on since before I became the Skybolts' Captain, but it seems that just after you left, this lady organized every priestess and a lot of the Sunsguard, and made her revolt stick.
She
has been watching the situation between us and Hardorn for some time, ever since she was a junior priestess. By my reckoning, that would have been about the time that Ancar usurped the throne. Evidently Solaris decided that Ancar's a snake, old feuds are not worth dying over, and that if the two female rulers of the lands facing his don't drop their differences and decide we're all girls together, Ancar is eventually going to have
both
for lunch.” Kero shrugged. “Sounds like the kind of lady I can get along with. So, that's contingent one and two, both on the way. Contingent three is just now getting organized; Daren got in touch with his brother, and the King of Rethwellan is deciding how many of his court mages he can spare, and how many can be trusted to be of real help. He asked us if we wanted him to recruit, but Daren turned that idea down, since there'd be too good a chance a lot of them would be plants from Ancar.”