Valdemar Books

by Lackey, Mercedes

  Or would she be so involved in the immediate enemy that she would forget there were others on this course?

  Like a falcon stooping on her prey, her wings folded tightly along her back, and she held her talons up against her body—but unlike the broad-wings, who held their talons ready to strike and bind, hers were fisted. She had learned how to knock her foes out of the sky once, and now it was second nature to her—was she so caught up in the euphoria of combat that the "kill" was all she saw?

  Skan held his breath as Zhaneel dropped down out of the sky. He was certain she had forgotten the Journeyman mage, but he certainly had not forgotten her—and the best place for him was somewhere near the staked-out "prisoner." She might get her immediate foe, but Vikteren would certainly get her—

  But as the broadwing pumped frantically to evade her, she shot past him completely, ignoring him!

  Instead, she stooped on an insignificant-looking mound of shrubbery, leveled out into a shallow curve, and buffeted it with fists and wings until the illusion of brush dissolved and Vikteren tumbled out of the way, laughing.

  "All right!" he called, scrubbing dust out of his eyes with his fists. "Holy Kreeshta, you've got me already! Give me a moment, will you?"

  "You die twice, Mage!" she cried, as she leapt skyward again. She looked around for the second "makaar," but the broadwing had followed the example of most makaar left to face a gryphon alone, and had fled the scene, his ribbon and his "life" intact. Of course, unlike a real makaar, he would remain unpunished for such desertion.

  Skan rumbled approval deep in his chest, as she landed as close to the staked-out and netted "prisoner" as possible—which in her case, was practically on top of him. There were probably traps all around her, but she avoided setting any of them off, simply by dint of remaining within the narrow margins that humans would have used while restraining the prisoner. A broadwing couldn't have pulled this off; nor could a broadwing have used foreclaws as cleverly as she did, snipping the wire net free with special scissors, then cutting the ropes holding Aubri down with a heavy knife she had already used once to good effect.

  Oh, clever, clever, little gryphon! he applauded mentally. Now, how do you guard the back of the injured one? That will be the real test.

  Zhaneel's gaze darted all over Aubri. "Can you fly?" she asked impatiently.

  "No. Can't move any faster than a broken-legged horse, either. And my wounds are real, hey?"

  Zhaneel spat a curse away from Aubri and looked around for anything she could use. Within a few winglengths there were tree limbs, and she had the lengths of rope she'd just cut, as well as the remains of the wire net. She grasped the lengths of rope readily available, coiled them up and held them to her keel.

  "Two questions," she said. "How far can you jump, and can you hold a pole steady?"

  Aubri narrowed his eyes, obviously trying to second-guess what this odd rescuer had in mind. He also, just as obviously, gave up. "Could leap... maybe twice my length, if I had to. But I wouldn't enjoy it. And I can hold a pole steady. I still feel strong enough to chew makaar."

  "Good. Stay here." She parted her beak in what was meant to be a reassuring smile, then bunched her legs up and concentrated. She leapt high into the air with her burden of cord. At the zenith of her jump, she power-stroked out of Aubri's immediate area toward the tree limbs nearby.

  Conventional gryphon-traps were usually built to fire sideways across a broad area, the kind she had been stung by at the fake-soldiers' camp. Magical ones were often designed to detect a low flyer approaching, shoot high up, blossom, and spread while falling. They could kill or maim at any point after they deployed. Since Vikteren—a mage—was involved, she had every reason to assume she would be facing both types.

  So, the best way to sweep for traps is... to not be near them at all!

  Within a few minutes, she had what she needed. A long branch, snapped off with her beak and trimmed of snags, for Aubri to hold. At its narrowest end, it forked for two clawlengths, and she had carved indentations for the two branches that were now tied across it. They were firmly in place.

  Now to deliver my little nesting-gift.

  A few minutes' more work, and the long pieces of rope were one very long length of rope—inelegant, but effective. Zhaneel used four of her pre-knotted ties to bind up the foliage and small branches she had trimmed scant minutes earlier to one end of the rope. She bobbed her head, measuring the range to Aubri and the "safe" ceiling she had flown at already without triggering traps, then took wing, the loose end of the rope clutched tightly in her hind claws.

  Magical gryphon-traps are triggered by something living flying over their kill range, but not always. Can sometimes be triggered by anything—have to go high!

  Zhaneel circled up, straining only for altitude—and it was work, hard work because the higher she went, the heavier the burden of the rope became. Finally there was a shudder as the bundles of foliage lifted. She angled away from the still-perplexed Aubri, carrying the rope higher and higher until the bundles below were above what she had determined to be safe. Then, she turned her struggle for altitude into an exhausting dive from the far side of the clearing, toward the tied branches. She judged, hoped—and let go.

  The bunches of foliage sailed down, heading directly for the hapless Aubri. Behind them, the rope coiled and twisted wildly, gaining on the clusters of branches that had more wind resistance than the rope. While Zhaneel surged back up into the sky, the green leaves and twigs struck Aubri's wings and back. It was surely uncomfortable, but easily less painful than anything a makaar would have done to a captive gryphon. Amid indignant curses from the "captive," the rope fell in a snaky line across the clearing. As hoped, no traps triggered immediately from the rope's impact.

  Next trick.

  She landed and collected her thoughts, taking deep breaths. Aubri glared at her indignantly, but voiced no ill thoughts toward his "rescuer" for the moment. She waved a reassurance to him, looped the rope around the fork of the branch-affair she'd made earlier, and tied it off.

  Several heartbeats later, she was in the air again, with two stripped branches clipped to the back of her harness. She followed the air path she knew was safe and dropped straight down to land next to Aubri.

  "I assume you have a good reason for pelting me with salad?" he rumbled.

  "I'm sorry. But I have a plan to get you out safely. Hold this..." she muttered while unclipping the branches from her back. "They scratch—! There. Now. Lie sideways and curl up. Hold these sticks up, one in hindclaws, one in foreclaws. So both are that way." She indicated the direction the rope lay. "Be patient."

  Aubri sighed. "Where would I go? My life is yours."

  Zhaneel pulled the wire mesh until it faced as Aubri did, and used two more ties to anchor it to the two sticks. Then understanding dawned in Aubri's eyes as she fastened the foliage bundles to the net.

  "A shield."

  "Yes. Not a big one, but could help us." She smiled and nibbled his crest reassuringly. "Now, let me down there in the hollow of your belly, where the rope goes under the net."

  Aubri complied, fascinated. After settling herself in, Zhaneel reeled the rope in claw-over-claw until the heavy branches tied to the other end ground their way toward the two gryphons.

  "Searching for ground traps," Zhaneel muttered. "If one goes, hold tight to the sticks! Let me protect your belly." Only makes sense—he can't fly, so I am as good as ground-bound. If I can shield him from a fatal injury by taking an injury myself, we will still both be alive to return home.

  A deep thudding sounded, like a massive crossbow cord releasing, and a hail of stones showered much of the clearing. Both gryphons squinted their eyes while pebbles struck the greenery protecting them, then resumed pulling. Two ground panels lurched open and drove stakes into the ground nearby. A few minutes later, Zhaneel could reach out and grasp the quarry herself.

  Last trick.

  She patiently explained to Aubri what she was doing as she
worked and allowed herself a moment of satisfaction when she was done. The crowd watching had approved of the way she'd triggered the ground traps. They waited, enraptured, wondering what she would do next. Zhaneel knew they saw her raise the canopy she had just finished, made of wire net, foliage and branches, above Aubri.

  "You must hold this steady, understand? Must!"

  Aubri nodded. "Y'got me this far, skydancer."

  Zhaneel's nares blushed red and she leapt straight up, gaining altitude madly. When she had reached twice the height she counted as "safe," she rolled over on her back, straightened, and folded her wings in tight, hurtling faster than any crossbow bolt. Her shadow streaked across the ground below as she flattened the dive. She felt the wind cut across her body and saw the landscape become a blur as she shot across the clearing, scant wing-lengths above the ground, following the same path in the air that her sweep earlier had done on the surface.

  Behind her, she could hear fireballs erupting, and saw flashes of yellow light. Moments later, she traded speed for altitude and pulled up, to see sparks raining down on the entire clearing—and Aubri's shield.

  The improvised shield held and protected him from harm.

  With the first victory cry she had ever uttered, she closed on him to lead him from his captivity.

  Winterhart grimaced as the audience began cheering. Someone jostled her, jarring her back and sending a jab of pain down her right leg, further souring her mood.

  Garber had ordered her to come here, orders she hadn't much liked and wasn't sure she agreed with. Right now, though, she wasn't very fond of gryphons; it was a gryphon that had injured her back.

  Be fair. It wasn't her fault. She'd been having backaches and ignoring them—after all, who didn't have a headache or a backache by day's end around here? She had been restraining an hysterical and delirious broadwing with severe lacerations who had lashed out with both hind feet and sent Winterhart twisting and tumbling sideways. She hadn't broken anything, but her back spasmed as soon as she got up, and it had been getting worse, not better, with time.

  She was a Healer; she knew she should be seeing another Healer, or should at least stay in bed, flat, for a while. She was even fairly certain that she knew what was wrong. But there were no Healers and no time to spare, so she simply hadn't mentioned it to anyone. She moved as little as possible, said she had "sprained" her back, and used that as an excuse not to do things that made it hurt worse. But she was in constant pain; there were only two positions she could take that allowed the pain to stop, and neither of them were appropriate for getting any work done. It was embarrassing. A Healer should be able to keep herself in one piece. This was altogether too much like a display of incompetence.

  The pain wasn't doing much for her temper, and getting jostled and making it worse didn't help.

  Damn Garber. He's right, but for all the wrong reasons.

  She'd been watching Zhaneel herself for several days, since she'd gotten wind of this "obstacle course" business, and long before dimwitted Garber had any notion that it was going on. Even before today she'd found herself torn between two violently conflicting opinions.

  On the one hand she had to admire the little gryphon; obviously unsuited for combat, she had found ways to make herself suited to it. She had been pushing herself, finding her absolute limits, turning handicaps into benefits. The number of things she'd had to work out for herself to overcome her own deficiencies was incredible, and the ingenious ways she had done so were amazing. It was difficult to believe that this was the little runt Garber saw no use at all for.

  But on the other hand, Zhaneel was exhausting herself completely with these so-called "training sessions"; no one had ever authorized her to do what she was doing, which made them quasi-legal at best. But that could be ignored. What could not be ignored was the fact that she had led other gryphons into trying her unorthodox tactics, with very mixed results.

  Zhaneel herself had come out of these sessions with pulled muscles; she hadn't come to Winterhart for any help, but that made no difference. The gryphon had been hurt, and she was the one who had invented the course and the training. Winterhart was afraid that one of the others was very likely to be seriously injured trying some of her nonsense.

  Even if the other gryphons didn't manage to hurt themselves on this course, the fact still remained that they burned off energy and resources they might need later, where it counted. Out on the front lines. The war escalated, resources diminished. Although it was not common knowledge, Urtho's forces had lost ground, a little more every day. There was a new breed of makaar in the air now, and they took a toll on the gryphons. If the gryphons wasted their energy or strained themselves on this obstacle course of Zhaneel's, they might not have that little extra they needed to survive an encounter with these new makaar. Garber, of course, only knew that the gryphon cull was doing things he hadn't ordered, not so much flouting his authority as ignoring it. No gryphon in Sixth Wing was allowed to think for itself; the very idea was preposterous. He was already aching with humiliation at the lecture the Lady Cinnabar had delivered—on Urtho's behalf—concerning the reassignment of injured gryphons' hertasi. Winterhart had not been present, but several who had overheard the Lady had indicated she had been less than flattering concerning Garber's intelligence and ability to make a sound decision. Then came news of Zhaneel creating some unorthodox training program, encouraging others to join her in it, completely bypassing Garber's authority. This could not be permitted, so he had sent the gryphon's Trondi'irn—the lowest ranking officer in the wing, she acidly reminded herself—to dress her down for it. Never mind that it was a successful program so far. That was hardly the point.

  Winterhart threaded through the crowd, more uneasy with every passing moment. She did not like confrontations. She particularly disliked them when there was a possible audience involved.

  But she had direct orders. She also had an exact speech, delivered to her by Garber's aide-de-camp, and duly memorized. Presumably the commander did not trust her to deliver a proper dressing-down... or perhaps he was as contemptuous of her intelligence as he was of the gryphons!

  Abruptly, she found herself in a clear space, and practically nose-to-beak with the runt.

  Zhaneel blinked in surprise, and backed up a pace or so. "Winterrrharrt," she said blankly. "What do you herrrre?"

  That was all the opening that Winterhart required. "It is more to the point to ask you what you are doing here, gryphon," she said coldly. "You are here without orders, you have commandeered equipment and personnel that you have no right to, and you have subverted other gryphons inside and outside of your wing into not only aiding you, but following in your ill-conceived plans. Your commander is highly displeased. What have you to say for yourself?"

  She expected Zhaneel to behave as she always had; to cower a little, stammer an apology, and creep off to her aerie, forgetting and abandoning her ridiculous "training program." She had readied a magnanimous acceptance of that apology before she was halfway through her speech. Something that would make her look a little less like Garber's mouthpiece....

  "I?" the cull replied, and every hair and feather on her body bristled. She drew herself up to her full, if substandard, height, and looked down her beak at the Trondi'irn with eyes full of rage. "I?" she repeated, raising her voice. "How isss it that I am to blame becaussse the commanderrr of Sssixth Wing hasss no morrre imagination than a mud-turrrtle? How isss it that it isss my fault that therrre isss only one trrraining progrrram for all, no matter the cirrrcumssstancesss, norrr if they change? What isss it that I am doing wrrrong! What isss it that I am doing that I ssshould be accusssed of doing wrrrong?" Her voice rose to full volume, and the audience, which had begun to disperse, regrouped in anticipation of another sort of spectacle. It was clear in an instant that they would not be siding with Winterhart.

  "I do nothing wrrrong!" Zhaneel shouted. "I do what ssshould have been done, that no one carrred to do! And you, my Trrrondi'irrrn, you ssshould
have ssseen that it needed doing!"

  By now the audience had surrounded the two of them, leaving Winterhart no route of escape. She couldn't help herself, she flushed with profound embarrassment.

  "You had no orders and no permission—" she began.

  "Orrrderrrsss?" the gryphon interrupted with shrill incredulity. "I am on leave time! Thessse who help me arrre off-duty! What need have we of orrderrrsss, of perrrmissssionsss? Arrre we to requessst leave to pisssss now?"

  Growls from behind her, a little laughter on all sides, and nods and angry looks on the faces she could see. Winterhart's face burned painfully.

  "We arrre off-duty," the gryphon repeated. "When hasss Garrrberrr the rright to decrrree what we do off-duty?"

  "He doesn't," Winterhart admitted reluctantly. "But he gave me the orders...."

  Before she could say anything more, a huge, black-dyed gryphon with no regimental marks pushed through the crowd and faced her with challenge in every line of him. "Then why," rumbled the infamous Skandranon, the Black Gryphon, "don't you tell that overbearing half-fledged idiot that his orders are a pile of steaming mutes? You're a Trondi'irn, you have that right and duty for your gryphons."

  She stared at him. She had never heard the Black Gryphon speak before—at least, not more than a word or two. When he had shared a tent on Healer's Hill with her gryphon Aubri, he had not spoken more than a word or two in her presence at most. He was either asleep or ignoring her. She had no idea he was so articulate, with so little gryphonic accent. Hearing that clear, clipped voice coming from that beak—it was such a shock, she addressed him as she would have another human.

  "I couldn't do that!" she exclaimed automatically. "He's my superior!"

  But the Black Gryphon only shrugged. "In what way? I don't see why you shouldn't tell him he's being hopelessly thick," he replied. "I tell my superiors when they're idiots often enough. I generally tell them they couldn't tell their crest from their tailfeathers on a daily basis. And that includes Urtho."

  Urtho? This—this creation, this construct, talked back to Urtho? She was aghast, appalled, and tried to put some of that into words, but all that came out was, "B-but that's n-not the way things are done!" She'd stammered, which made it sound all the stupider.