"Are you certain you want to do this?" he asked.
Lionwind shrugged. "I'm not certain we want to do anything at the moment," he replied. "We don't want to run, but we don't want to stay here to be slaughtered either. We'd like it best if Urtho could suddenly produce a magic weapon that would eliminate Ma'ar and all his troops without harming anyone or anything else, but short of the Goddess working a miracle, that isn't going to happen. So this is our best choice, and if Urtho will allow it, we'll take it."
"I'm certain he'll allow it," Amberdrake said, and rubbed his eyes again as Lionwind's face blurred and went out of focus. "I'll take care of it."
Lionwind rose and leaned over the table. Amberdrake rubbed his eyes again, but they wouldn't stop blurring.
"Is there anything else I can do?" he asked, blinking rapidly. That didn't help, either.
"Only—get some rest," Lionwind answered, leaning closer. "That's your Clan Chiefs order."
"I can't, there's too much to do," he objected—as Lionwind reached across and touched his forehead. And only then did he remember, belatedly, that Lionwind was also a Mindhealer, fully capable of imposing his will on the most recalcitrant.
"'The best attack is the one no one sees coming,' kestra'chern," Lionwind quoted, and chuckled, as sleep snatched him up in surprisingly gentle talons and carried him away....
The six permanent Gates were enormous, quite large enough to accommodate the biggest of the floating land barges. Urtho had constructed them using fused-stone arches, and tied each of them into its own node to power it. Only Urtho had ever accomplished the construction of a Gate that did not require the internal knowledge and resources of a single mage to target and power the Gate.
Only Urtho had uncovered the secret of keeping such a Gate stable. Of all of his secrets, that was probably the one that Ma'ar wanted the most.
He had, for the first time in many years, left the Tower briefly to journey through one of his own creations and set up a second permanent Gate at that evacuation point. This one he targeted deep in the western wilderness, to a lovely valley he himself had once called home. The gryphon families, all those gryphons that were not fighters, and those who were injured, had all been sent there. Now the Kaled'a'in clan k'Leshya, of all the Clans, the only one not named for a totemic animal, but called simply "the Spirit Clan," slowly filed through the first Gate to follow them.
He could not have said truthfully that he had a "favorite" Clan, but of all of them, k'Leshya held the greatest number of his favorite Kaled'a'in. Lionwind, the Clan Chief, was one of the wisest men he knew, with a wisdom that did not fit with the smooth, youthful face and the night-black hair that hung in two thick braids on either side of his face. Lionwind's father and mother had both been shaman; perhaps that explained it. Or perhaps, as Lionwind himself had once claimed, only half in jest, he was an "old soul." The Clan Chief—not then the Chief, but nearly as wise—had been of great comfort to Amberdrake when the young kestra'chern first joined his ancestral Clan. He continued to be of comfort, on the rare occasions that Amberdrake would permit anyone to help him.
Lionwind had been first through the Gate, riding his tall, rangy warmare. He had not looked in any direction but forward, although he surely knew he would never see the Tower again, and likely would not see many of those he left behind. He had made his farewells, as had all the Kaled'a'in, and it was not the Kaled'a'in way to linger over such things.
"Long farewells give time for the enemy to aim." That was what Lionwind said to Urtho as he clasped his hand, and the words were sure to become a Kaled'a'in proverb. Although there was no enemy here, k'Leshya followed that precept now.
Urtho watched them go, hiding his pain beneath a calm smile. He did not know if he would ever see any of them again. All he could be certain of was that he had sent them into a safer place than this one. And now that the gryphons were in full control of their own destinies, he could at least be certain that no matter what Ma'ar undid of his, there would always be gryphons in the world. If Ma'ar conquered the Tower, they would scatter, using their mobility to take them beyond his reach.
So something of mine will survive, in spite of everything that Ma'ar can do.
Odd that it should be the gryphons, creatures that his contemporaries had considered eccentric toys. He had always had faith in them, though. Of everything he had created, they were his favorites. He had given them the ability to do great good; it only remained to see if they would fulfill that promise as well as they had fulfilled all the rest.
The last k'Leshya herdsman, driving the last of the Clan herds under a great cloud of dust, passed through the Gate. The Gate "sensed" that there was no one else waiting to cross it, and the view of the crowd of Kaled'a'in at the terminus faded, as the Gate shut itself down to conserve power. The space inside the arch went to black—then showed only what was on the other side of the physical arch.
Only then did Urtho realize that he was not alone.
Amberdrake stood behind and to one side of him, staring at the now-blank Gate. The kestra'chern was not wearing any of his elaborate robes or costumes, only a pair of breeches and a sleeved tunic in a soft, faded blue. His hair had been tied up into a tail at the nape of his neck, and he wore a headband of blue that matched his tunic.
Urtho regarded him with a touch of surprise. He had thought that it was understood that Amberdrake would go with his own Clan. The rest of the kestra'chern all had their assignments in the evacuation, and as soon as they had completed those tasks, they would head for their own evacuation sites. He was not needed as their leader anymore, and it was unlikely that anyone would have leisure in the coming days and weeks for the ministrations of a kestra'chern, however expert.
Amberdrake seemed to divine Urtho's thoughts from his expression. He raised one elegant eyebrow in a gesture so graceful it could only have been unconscious. "You're wondering why I'm still here," he said.
Urtho nodded.
"Winterhart is still here. She's the Trondi'irn of the fighting gryphon wings of the Fifth, and I am not going to leave her alone in a camp that still holds her former lover." There was a note of steel in his voice that was new to Urtho—or perhaps it had been there all along, and Amberdrake had simply hidden it better. "Skan is still here, and Zhaneel, and Gesten to serve the two of them. They are all the family I have."
Urtho allowed a bit of steel to creep into his own voice. "I said, 'no exceptions,' and you are not excused from that. You heard it clearly enough, Kestra'chern Amberdrake. You do not belong here."
"I am a Healer, Urtho. You can verify that with Lady Cinnabar if you wish; I volunteered for her group." Pain and fear shadowed Amberdrake's eyes for a moment, and Urtho knew why and marveled at his bravery. He knew all about Amberdrake's past; he knew how much it would cost Amberdrake to work with the Healers, every waking hour—how vulnerable he was to losing control of his Empathic abilities—how he feared that pain, physical and mental, more than anything else.
Yet here he was, facing his worst fear, in order to remain with his odd and tenuous "family." Urtho bowed his head a little in acknowledgment of courage.
"I stand corrected, Healer Amberdrake. You have every right to be here." The lines at the corners of Amberdrake's eyes softened a bit, and Urtho decided that he would ease another of Amberdrake's worries. "There is a single mage still working with Shaiknam and the Sixth, at his own request. I approved his petition for field duty myself. I am told his name is Conn Levas." He let his own eyebrow rise, just a little. "I believe the Sixth is currently away on assignment."
Urtho turned then, not waiting for thanks. Already he had turned his mind to the next task.
And so, probably, had Amberdrake.
Long farewells give the enemy time to aim. And they did not dare give the enemy time for anything.
Seventeen
Aubri's wings ached from shoulder to tip; they burned with exhaustion on the downstroke of each wingbeat. The heavy, damp air in this particular valley always meant
difficult flying, but that was not why he was tired. He had been flying scout for the Fifth since dawn, and it only lacked a few hours until sunset. He had flown a double shift already, and by the time he finished, long after dark, it would be a triple.
At least all the innocents were far beyond the reach of any disaster now. The last of the noncombatants, including the kestra'chern, had passed through the Gates to their new locations several days ago. And as Urtho had expected, there was steady traffic between the Tower and the evacuation points, but not in the opposite direction. The word that any noncombatant caught on the Tower side in an emergency would have to fend for himself kept the evacuees in their new homes. Aubri missed seeing the youngsters, missed the sound of fledglings playing—but he would rather miss these things than have them at the Tower lairs, and at risk. One slaughtered youngster was one too many—and he had seen the pathetic corpses of considerably more than one in the time he had been fighting for Urtho.
His chest muscles complained, growing tight and stiff from built-up fatigue poisons, and he knew that by the time he landed, he'd be one sore gryphon. At least on this second shift, he wasn't fighting makaar. This was all simple coordination scouting, making sure that the Sixth and the First were where they were supposed to be, so that the mages with the Fifth didn't hit their own troops with friendly fire.
Huh. "Friendly fire, isn't." That's what the Kaled'a'in say anyway. Ma'ar's generals hadn't pressed an attack on this point all day, holding a purely defensive line, and Shaiknam hadn't made any offensive moves, a reflection of the inertia here for the past two or three days. Both forces glared at each other from the opposite sides of a wide, shallow ravine, but the only attacking going on was from little presents the mages dropped which were easily deflected by their opposite numbers.
The situation was a stalemate, at least here.
No—wait. He caught a hint of movement through the heavy haze. Something's going on down there!
Aubri circled higher, to get a better perspective on the situation. So far as he had been told, Shaiknam wasn't supposed to order any kind of attack unless an opportunity too ripe to ignore arose, and Aubri hadn't seen any evidence of that. Was this just false movement? A little shuffling in place to make the enemy think that Shaiknam was about to press an attack?
He pumped harder, gaining more height, and looked down half a minute later.
At first he couldn't make out anything at all. Then the haze parted a little, giving him a clearer view of Shaiknam's troops. His wingstrokes faltered with shock, and he sideslipped a little before catching and steadying himself in the air. Demonsblood! What does he—Why—He can't be that stupid! Can he?
Shaiknam's troops had parted right down the middle, and were pulling back, leaving the easiest place to cross the ravine wide open.
This would have been a classic move, giving the enemy a place to penetrate and then closing companies in on either side of him while the troops to the rear cut his forces off from the rest. The only problem was that there were no other companies in place, and no time to get any in place. Shaiknam had not been positioned directly protecting one of the two vital passes, but from here Ma'ar's forces could easily get to one of those vital passes.
He's bluffing. Ma'ar's commanders won't believe this and he knows it. He's just giving them something to occupy them....
He couldn't hover; the best he could do was to glide in a tight circle, panting with weariness and disbelief. Even as Aubri watched, the two groups that had pulled back moved on in a clear retreat, and Ma'ar's army marched across the ravine and into Urtho's territory with all the calm precision of a close-order drill.
What in hell is going on here?
Now he wished he was one of those gryphons with any kind of Mindspeech; if only he could tell someone what was happening! By the time he lumbered through the sky to a message-relay, it would be too late to stop the advance.
Damn, it's already too late.... If I can't stop it, maybe I'd better find out who ordered this. That's what Skan would do. Has Shaiknam lost what little mind he used to have? Or have his troops somehow been sent false orders?
Aubri dropped through the haze, well behind the line of advancement, and landed just outside of Shaiknam's all-but-deserted command post. He got out of sight, just in case someone from the other side was watching, under cover of a grove of trees right behind the command tent. Predictable, he thought savagely. Trust Shaiknam; ignore the fact that someone can sneak up to your tent in favor of the fact that you get to sit in the shade all day. I hope there're red ants in those trees biting on his fat behind. He'd wondered why there seemed to be so little activity going on around the command tent, but he'd figured it was simply because there was no activity along this section of the front lines. Now I know, maybe. Either Shaiknam's been assassinated or replaced or—
—or something worse has been going on. He tried to emulate Skan, blessing Zhaneel for all those hours on the obstacle course, as he slithered on his belly through the underbrush. The lessons were second nature now; shove the branches aside with your beak, close your eyes, and let them slide over your neck and your tight-folded wings. Creep forward with forefeet until you were as stretched-out you could get, then inch the hindfeet up until your back hunched, and start over again. Vary the intervals and your steps. Make no patterns.
And why the hell aren't there guards around the tent, after what happened to Farle? Because Shaiknam isn't there? Or because he knows he doesn't need guards? Or because he has no guards left?
He had concentrated so hard on his stealthy approach that he didn't keep track of how far he'd come. The buff canvas of the tent suddenly loomed up in a wall from out of the underbrush a few talon-lengths in front of his beak, just as he heard voices coming from inside.
Well, there's someone in there, anyway. He closed his eyes and listened. Whoever was in there murmured, rather than speaking in normal conversational tones, as if they wanted to be certain they weren't overheard from outside.
"...going very well, my lord," whispered an unctuous voice. "And Ma'ar is keeping his side of the bargain. By the time Judeth of the Fifth realizes what has happened, Ma'ar's troops will have the Pass."
"Well, good." That was Shaiknam, all right; Aubri had heard his whining tones often enough to be certain of that. "Once he has the Pass, we can close behind him, and no one will know we let him through. His mages can set up Gates to pour troops down onto the plains, and I can 'surrender' with no one the wiser. My command and holdings will remain intact. And without you, Levas, I would not have been able to contact Ma'ar's commander and bring all this to pass."
Levas? Conn Levas? Wasn't that the mage Winterhart used to—
"Thank you, my lord." The unctuous voice was back. "I always make certain to be on the winning side, and I was pleased to find you are a commander as pragmatic as I."
Shaiknam laughed. "I have another task for you, if you think you're up to it. Urtho may yet be able to pull off a miracle; he has a disconcerting habit of doing so. But without Urtho..."
There was a certain archness to the mage's reply that held Aubri frozen. "I am a mercenary, my lord; you knew that when we made our bargain. There will be an additional price for additional services."
Shaiknam laughed very softly. "Name it," he said, as arrogantly as if he had all the resources of all the world to call upon. "Whatever coin you choose."
"Twenty-four thousand silver, and the coin of bodies, my lord." The mage's voice, already cold, grew icy. "Two bodies, to be precise, and both still alive and in a condition to be amusing to me. The Trondi'irn, Winterhart, and the kestra'chern, Amberdrake."
"Done and done," Shaiknam replied instantly. "Neither are combatants; they should be easy to subdue. Cheap at the price. You could have sold your services more dearly, mercenary."
"Their value is peculiar to me—"
Aubri could bear it no longer.
I have to stop them! Now!
He lunged at the tent wall, slashing it open with his sh
arp talons, back agape to bite the spines of one or both of them in half—
And tumbled ignominiously to the ground, unable to move even his eyes. He landed with bone-bruising impact right at the feet of General Shaiknam, skidding a little on the canvas of the tent floor.
If he could have struggled, he would have, but there wasn't a muscle of his body that would obey him. His heart continued to beat, and his lungs to breathe, but that was all the movement he was allowed.
He'd been the recipient of a spell of paralysis, of course. Idiot! Conn Levas is a mage, idiot! How could you have been so incredibly stupid?
General Shaiknam looked down at him with mild interest in his catlike eyes, then searched his pockets for a moment. Then he turned to Conn Levas, and flipped him a coin. The mage caught it deftly, and pocketed it. Shaiknam's serene, round face produced a smile that went no further than his lips. "Payment for additional services," he said, his voice ripe with satisfaction.
"Indeed, my lord," Conn Levas replied. "As I expect payment on completion of your other task."
Shaiknam shrugged, and his eyes reflected his boredom. "They have no interest for me. I will see that they are captured unharmed. It should not be terribly difficult."
"What of—this—my lord?" A new voice, but another one that Aubri recognized. Garber.
Shaiknam's second-in-command spoke from out of Aubri's line-of-sight, but there was no doubt of where he was. A toe prodded him in the ribs, waking pain in his chest muscles.
"I can dispose of him if you like," Conn Levas began, but Shaiknam held up a hand to forestall him.
"No," he said. "There is a use for him. Ma'ar is rather fond of gryphons. I believe we should send him this one, as a gift, in earnest of many more to come." He waved at the unseen Garber. "Package this up for me, would you, and deliver it to General Polden with my compliments to the Emperor."
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