Valdemar Books

by Lackey, Mercedes

  Skandranon only snorted his contempt as equally contemptuous laughter erupted around the circle. "That's not the way you do things, maybe," the Black Gryphon replied. "It seems to me that the main problem we have is that there are too many officers thinking that books and noble birth give you all the answers you need—and too many order-takers who believe them without question." He took a step or two closer to her, looming over her, and staring down his beak at her. "Amuse me. Bring me up on charges. You didn't even think for yourself when Garber handed you that scoop of manure to deliver here. Didn't it ever occur to you that the real reason you were told to lecture this young lady was not that she was doing anything wrong, but because she was doing something Garber and Shaiknam didn't think of—or steal—first? It must gall them both that what they would call a 'mere beast' has been more clever than they were. Without asking for permission. Without being told, Trondi'irn."

  Winterhart opened her mouth to say something—and could not think of anything to say. Certainly, she could not refute what the gryphon had just said. Hadn't she been thinking it herself? And she could not bring herself to defend Garber, not when his aide had been condescending to the point of insulting when he had delivered those orders. All she could do was to stand there with her mouth hanging open, looking stupid and shamed.

  It was Zhaneel who salvaged what little was left of the situation. "Trrrondi'irrn," she said crisply, "I will have worrrdsss with you. In prrivate. Now."

  Winterhart took the escape, narrow as it was, and nodded.

  After all, there was nothing else she could do but follow.

  But then, wasn't she used to that by now?

  Eight

  Amberdrake managed to get Skan out of earshot of most of the camp before the Black Gryphon exploded, pulling him deeply into the heart of the obstacle course and into a little sheltered area with a tree or two for shade and a rock to sit on. He counted himself lucky, at that; this obstacle course of Zhaneel's was large enough for privacy even at the level of shouting Skan was capable of. Large gryphons had large lungs.

  The course should be safe enough with all the traps sprung, and now that the "show" was over, anyone who might happen to overhear Skan's outburst was likely to be sympathetic anyway. Up until today there hadn't been anyone unfriendly among the spectators.

  Zhaneel's first "show" had been utterly eclipsed by her second; standing up for her rights to that officious Trondi'irn, Winterhart. It was nothing anyone had expected, given Zhaneel's diffident manner up until this moment.

  She must just have been pushed too far. Not surprising. That woman would have pushed me over the edge.

  Even the Sixth Wing trainer had been disgusted with the woman, and even more disgusted with Garber. If everyone who said they would actually did lodge a protest with Urtho—bypassing Shaiknam altogether—Garber would go down on record as the commander most disliked, ever. Even the humans had been appalled by the precedent that would be set if this action was not met with immediate protest, a precedent that permitted a commanding officer to decree what could and could not be done during off-duty hours.

  Well, the woman had at least enough conscience left that she was embarrassed by those orders she was supposed to deliver. That's about all I can say in her behalf. If first impressions are important, I can't say she's made a very good one on me. A Trondi'irn should have enough fortitude to stand up for her charges, not roll over and show her belly every time the commander issues some stupid order. And wasn't she the one Gesten told me about, that ordered the hertasi to be reassigned? Can't she do anything but parrot whatever Garber wants?

  Amberdrake took a seat on the sun-warmed rock, and let Skan wear himself out, venting his anger. He was annoyed with the woman, and very put out with her commander. But Skandranon was enraged enough to have chewed up swords and then spit out tacks. It was better for him to show that anger to Amberdrake than sweep into camp and get himself in trouble. It wouldn't have been the first time that his beak had dug him a hole big enough to fall into.

  "This is what I mean!" Skan fumed, striding back and forth, wings flipping impatiently. His talons tore up the ground with every step he took, leaving long furrows in the crumbling earth. "This is exactly what I've been trying to tell you! Now you see it for yourself—this whole sorry business! We gryphons are constantly being ordered about by humans who know and care nothing about us! We get chewed up trying to keep them alive, and they won't let us figure out ways to keep ourselves alive! Damned idiots can't tell their helms from the privy, and they're trying to tell us what to do! And now they're ordering us around when we're off-duty, and the dungheads think it's their right and privilege!"

  There was more, much more, in the same vein. Amberdrake simply remained where he was on his rock, nodded, looked somber, and made appropriately soothing noises from time to time. He wished there was something else he could do, but right now, all he could provide Skan with was a sympathetic ear. He was, himself, too angry to do Skan any good. If he tried to calm the gryphon through logic games, he'd only let his own anger out. Besides, Skan didn't want to be calmed; he wanted a target.

  The trouble was, Skan was right on all counts; Amberdrake had seen it time and time again. And it wasn't as if the gryphons had any choice. They couldn't simply pack up and leave their creator, no matter now onerous conditions got. They were, in a sense, enslaved to their creator, for only Urtho held the secret of their fertility. Without that, they could not reproduce. Without that, if they left, they would be the last of their kind.

  Skan knew that, better than anyone else, since every time he returned from a mission, intact or otherwise, someone asked him when he was going to pick a mate and father a brood. It was a constant irritant to him; he never forgot it, no matter how cavalier he might seem about it. And yet, he had never once brought it up to Urtho directly.

  Why? I don't know. Maybe he's afraid to, for all his boasting that he speaks to Urtho as an equal. Maybe he keeps thinking that Urtho will realize on his own what an injustice has been done.

  Amberdrake wished there was some legitimate way that he could calm his friend down; by now Skan had worked himself up into a full gryphonic rage-display—crest up, hackles up, wings mantling, tearing the thin sod to shreds with his talons. He agreed with the Black Gryphon more with every moment. How could he calm Skan down when he himself wanted to carefully and clinically take Garber and Shaiknam apart on Skan and Zhaneel's behalf?

  Not just their behalf, either. How long before they try that sketi on the other troops? Or before they try to command the exclusive services of one or more Healers, or even kestra'chern? If they're willing to break the rules once, how many more times will they break them? And then, when they make the rules, who can oppose them?

  He'd thought that Skan's display had cleared the area. No one really wanted to get too near a gryphon in that state, especially not when the gryphon was Skandranon. He'd never actually hurt anyone, but when he was this angry, he got malicious enjoyment out of coming within a feather's width of doing so. But after listening to Skan for a quarter candlemark, Amberdrake spotted someone else storming up over the rough ground toward them, short Journeyman's robes marking him as a mage, and carrot-colored hair identifying him as Vikteren.

  He's heading straight for us. Good gods, what now? Another disaster?

  "Gods!" the young mage shouted as Skan paused for breath. "I would have the hide off that fatuous, fat-brained idiot, if only I knew how to make it hurt enough!"

  "Garber?" Amberdrake asked mildly.

  "Gods! And Shaiknam!" Vikteren said bitterly, dropping his voice below a shout. The young mage snatched up a fallen branch as he reached them, and began methodically breaking it into smaller and smaller pieces. "Anthills and honey spring to mind—and harp-strings, delicate organs, and rocks! I thought this bigoted business with poor Zhaneel was bad enough—but now—!"

  He struggled with the press of his emotions; clearly his rage was hot enough to choke him, and even Skan lowered his hack
les and cocked his head to one side, distracted from his own state of rage by seeing Vikteren's. The youngster was one of the coolest heads in the mage-corps; he prided himself on his control under all circumstances. Whatever had happened to break that control must have been dreadful indeed.

  "What happened?" Amberdrake asked anxiously, projecting calm now, as he had not with Skan. Not much, but enough to keep the young mage from exploding with temper.

  Vikteren took several long, calculated breaths, closing his eyes, as his flush faded to something less apoplectic. "I heard Skan just now, and I have to tell you both that it isn't just his nonhuman troops that Shaiknam's been using up. He's been decimating everyone with the same abandon. I just talked to the mages from Sixth Command. We almost lost all of Sixth Crimson this morning, the mage included, because Shaiknam led them into an ambush that he'd been told was an ambush by his scouts. Ividian covered their retreat; he died covering that retreat, and it was all that saved them. Ividian died! And Shaiknam reprimanded the entire company for 'unauthorized maneuvers'! And I'm not just livid because Ividian was my friend. Shaiknam killed three more mages today—and he has the brass to claim it was by accident."

  Amberdrake let out his breath in a hiss, his gut clenched and his skin suddenly became cold. The loss of any portion of Sixth Crimson was terrible—and the loss of their mage dreadful. And all through prideful stupidity, like all of Shaiknam's losses.

  But what Vikteren had just implied was more than stupidity, he had very nearly said that Shaiknam had murdered the other three mages. "How," he asked carefully, "do you kill a mage by accident?"

  Vikteren's face flushed crimson again. "He forced them—ordered them—to exhaust themselves to unconsciousness. Then he left them there, where they fell. Ignored them. Got them no aid at all, not even a blanket to cover them. They died of power-drain shock where they lay. He said that there was so much going on at the time that he 'just forgot' they were there, but I heard someone say that he ordered them to be left alone, said if they were such powerful and mighty mages they could fix themselves. Called them weaklings. Said they needed to be taught a lesson."

  Amberdrake and Skan both growled. That was more like murder-by-neglect. A mage worked to unconsciousness needed to be treated immediately, or he would die. Every commander knew that. Even Shaiknam.

  There was no excuse. None.

  "Shaiknam's a petty man, a stupid man—the trouble is he gives petty orders that do a lot of damage," Vikteren finished, his scarlet flush of anger slowly fading. "He has no compassion, no sense of anything outside of his own importance, no perspective at all. He used those three up just so he could recoup the losses he took on the retreat—just so that he wouldn't look bad! That was the only reason he ordered them to attack; they fought there against ordinary troops, there was no need for mage-weaponry!"

  Vikteren took another deep breath and dropped the splinters still clenched in his hands. "I came to tell you two that there's going to be a meeting of all the mages tonight. We're going to tell Urtho that none of us are going to serve under Shaiknam or any other abusive commander, ever again. We're tired of being treated like arbalests and catapults. I'm going to have a few things to say at that meeting, and before I'm done, you'd better believe they're going to follow my vote!"

  "But you won't have a vote," Amberdrake protested. "You're just an apprentice—well, a Journeyman, but—"

  But Vikteren snorted. "Hah! I'm not a Journeyman, I'm a full Master mage at the least, but my master never passed me up. He saw who was in charge and snarled the status on purpose so I'd work back here, and not get sent out on the lines to get killed by a fool. He saved my life today, that's how I feel. I could be a Master if I wanted to get slaughtered, and every mage in the army knows it."

  Amberdrake glanced over at Skan, who nodded slightly. One Master mage could always pick out another. Well, that was certainly interesting, but not particularly relevant to their situation.

  But Vikteren wasn't finished. "Dammit, Skandranon! We're not makaar, we're not slaves, and we're not replaced with a snap of the fingers! We're going to demand autonomy, and a say in how we're deployed, and I came to tell you that all the mages I've talked to think you gryphons ought to do the same! Maybe if both parties gang up on Urtho at once, he'll be more inclined to take us seriously!"

  Skan's hackles went up again, and his claws contracted in the turf with a tearing noise. "We are not going to gang up on Urtho! He is my friend. Still—we might as well be stinking makaar," he rumbled. "While Urtho is the only one who can make our matings fertile, he holds all of us bound to him." Then in a hiss, "Much as I care for him, I could hate him for that."

  Vikteren started. "What are you talking about?" he asked, obviously taken aback. "I've never heard of anything of the sort."

  "Let me—" Amberdrake said hastily, before Skan could rouse back to his full rage. "Vikteren, it's because they're constructs. Urtho alone knows the controls, what triggers fertility, and what doesn't. Gryphons that survive a certain number of missions are the only ones permitted to raise a brood. There're some things only Urtho knows that trigger fertility, and they are different for male and female gryphons; both have to have something secret and specific done to them before their mating results in offspring—plus they have to make an aerial courtship display. Only if all three of those things happen do you have a fertile coupling."

  "We can go through the motions of breeding as much as we like," Skan said tonelessly. "But without that knowledge, or that component that Urtho keeps to himself, it's strictly recreational." He shook his massive head. "Not only is it slavery, or worse than slavery, it's dangerous. There are never more than a tenth of us fertile at any one time. All it would take is one spell from Ma'ar—or for Urtho to die—and our race would die! You can't have a viable breeding population with only a tenth of the adults fertile! Even the breeders of hounds know that."

  "But why?" Vikteren said, bewildered. "Why does he hold that over you?"

  Skan sighed gustily. "I have no idea. None. We don't need to be controlled. Do you know how much we revere him? We'd continue to serve him the way the kyree do. We'd do it because he is right, and because we respect and care for him, not because he controls our destiny. We'd probably serve him better if he didn't control us like that. Damn! If he doesn't give it to us, maybe we ought to steal it."

  "So—steal it? The spell, or whatever it is?" Vikteren said slowly. "That's not a bad idea." Amberdrake stared at him, not believing the mage had said anything so audacious even though the words had come out of his mouth.

  "What good would that do?" Amberdrake asked. "If you need a mage to make it work—"

  Skan closed his eyes for a moment, as if Vikteren's words had caused a series of thoughts to cascade. "About half of the gryphons are apprentice-level mages or better," he rumbled. "We are magical by nature. We wouldn't need a mage to cooperate with us. I'm a full Master, for instance."

  "Even if you lacked for mages among yourselves, you'd find plenty of volunteers with the human mages," Vikteren insisted. "Do it, Skan! You're right! If he won't give it to you, steal the damn spell! And if you're a Master, then make the change permanent! Don't put up with being manipulated like this!"

  Much to his own surprise, Amberdrake found himself agreeing.

  Think of the families sundered by Ma'ar. They, who did not deserve such horrors, and now these gryphons you know and love cannot have families at all unless their lord wills it.

  "Take your freedom, Skan," Amberdrake whispered. "Steal the spell, and teach it to everyone you trust."

  Skandranon backwinged in place, then pulled himself up to his full, magnificent height.

  The brisk wind from the Black Gryphon's wings sent Vikteren's hair into his face and kicked up a bit of dust that made Amberdrake squint for a moment.

  "Stealing a spell from Urtho, though..." Vikteren's eyes lit up with a manic glee. "You know, that'd be nearly impossible? Not working the spell itself, that would be pretty simple, ferti
lity spells nearly always are. No, it's the stealing part that would be hard. Getting into Urtho's Tower, getting past all the protections..."

  From the look on Vikteren's face, he relished that very challenge and impossibility.

  "It would not be impossible for me," Skan replied, his crest-feathers rising arrogantly.

  But Amberdrake shook his head. "Be realistic, Skan. You've always flown directly to Urtho's balcony when you went to see him. You have no idea what safeguards are in that Tower, many of them built only for human hands. It would be impossible for you. But not for us."

  "Us?" Skan asked, eyeing them both. Vikteren nodded gleefully, seconding Amberdrake.

  "Exactly," the kestra'chern said with immense satisfaction, feeling as if the weight of a hundred gryphons was lifted off him. "Us."

  In the end, the "us" also included Tamsin and Cinnabar. After a brief discussion, the means of bypassing all those special protections turned out to be absurdly easy.

  Cinnabar crafted a message to be sent to Urtho just before Urtho was to meet with the leader of the mages' delegation. She claimed that there were some problems she and Tamsin were encountering with gryphon anatomy—not even a lie!—and that she and he needed to consult the records on the gryphons' development so that they could tell what Urtho used for a "model."

  She did not specify who she would have with her, only that she needed some "help."

  "Urtho keeps records on everything he's ever done," she said, as they waited in her tent for the reply. She sat as calmly and quietly as if they were all her guests for an evening of quiet social chat and not gathered to perform what could, by some standards, be considered a major theft. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she leaned into Tarnsin's shoulder, wearing an enigmatic little smile. Her pale green robes were as smooth and cool as tinted porcelain; beside her lover, she looked like an expensive doll propped next to a peasant-child's rag-toy. "I know he has extensive records on how he put your race together, and what he modeled you on. I specified 'internal problems,' which could be anything in the gut, and that's difficult stuff to muck about with when you don't know what you're doing. It isn't enough to be a Healer familiar with raptors in order to be successful with gryphons, even though that is how I became a default Healer to your people, Skan. You aren't all, or even mostly, raptoral. I'm counting on his being preoccupied with this mages' meeting; he should simply give us access to the Tower rather than taking the time to explain things to us in person."