Valdemar 11 - [Owl Mage 03] - Owlknight

by Mercedes Lackey

  “Yes, and here’s the best part. They make the vests as trade goods, usually to order, with someone’s own totems on them. But sometimes they make the ones like I got—and what’s more, they only started making them a few years ago.” He looked at her in triumph, and she felt her eyes widen.

  “So we’re going?” she asked, feeling breathless all at once. If he goes, I go. I have to. Is this one of those compromises? Maybe—if so, it’s one I know I have to make.

  “We? You want to go?” He looked at her with doubt and hope mingled in his glance. “I thought—”

  “I can turn Errold’s Grove over to the oldest of the Sanctuary Trainees; they’re about to make him a full Healer anyway,” she said resolutely, a thrill of pleasure running through her at his reaction. Yes. This is a compromise I have to make. “You don’t think I’d let you go traipsing off into the howling wilderness on your own, do you? You might get hurt, and then how would we both feel?”

  Armed with this new information, Darian asked for an informal meeting of all of those who might be at all concerned with his proposed expedition. Shandi and Anda invited themselves to the meeting; he was pleased, but not surprised, given their earlier positive reactions.

  He asked Tyrsell, because he would have to have dyheli if he expected to get from here to who-knew-how-far north in any reasonable length of time. The Elders of the Council were obviously concerned, given that he was supposed to become an Elder himself eventually. Shaman Celin and Hywel both arrived when he sent a polite invitation by dyheli. Hashi came because he wanted to, and Kel came because Kel wanted to know everything that was going on. Ayshen was there because he would have to see that the expedition was properly provisioned. Wintersky because his friend already knew what was planned, and had no intention of being left out.

  There was an addition who was entirely unexpected : Steelmind. Why the plant expert would care where he went and what he did, he wasn’t certain, but Steelmind and his buzzard were both in attendance.

  He finished his summation of everything he had learned, and looked around the table. “I want to go north to find them,” he said. “I know that’s obvious; it should also be obvious that I can’t do this alone. Shaman Celin and Hywel both think that Hywel should go as my guide, and I agree. Also, Keisha wants to go. I want to leave now; I want to get there and back before winter, and winter probably comes earlier there than here. So—” He spread his hands. “Are you going to let me go—and have you any ideas of your own?”

  Firesong burst into laughter, as Snowfire grinned and Nightwind cast her eyes upward. “Do you really think we could stop you?” Nightwind demanded. “Whether we like it or not, this is something that’s too important to you. You’d claw your way through a mountain if it stood between you and your parents, now that you know at least one may be alive.”

  “You might have some really pressing reason why I shouldn’t go, and I am supposed to be the Valdemaran representative here,” Darian pointed out mildly. “I wouldn’t like it—”

  “Be truthful, you’d be miserable and angry,” Nightwind interrupted. “So the best thing we can do is not only agree, but give you everything you need to get you there and back safely. Which is—what?”

  “Me,” Kel interjected eagerly. “I am a forrrmidable foe. I am an outssstanding ssscout. You need me. I am fierrrce. I will frrrighten enemiesss jussst by being therrre!”

  Kel seemed to take a great delight in being fierce. He was doing his best to look the part, too; head up, eyes bright with a predatory gleam, beak slightly agape, talons slightly flexed.

  “Agreed,” Starfall said immediately, to the delight of both Darian and Kel. “Since Keisha is going along, she can serve as Kel’s trondi’irn. Keisha, Nightwind can show you how, enough anyway to handle most problems. You’ll all be immensely safer with Kel along. What next?”

  :I believe I should accompany him,: Hashi offered diffidently. :You know that what Kel cannot see or scent on the ground, I can. I can work well with Kuari after dark. I am eager to have this saga at first hand. I am not vital to this Vale; there are others who can serve as the kyree representative as well as I. The fact that I have remained so is mostly habit on our part.:

  “Any objections?” Starfall looked around the table, and saw none. “So far we have Darian, Kel, Keisha, Hashi, and Hywel. Tyrsell, I take it that you can supply as many restless young stags as need be?”

  :Hah. I would have difficulty holding them back. This will be a high-status expedition for our eager young stags. The young does will be greatly impressed.: Tyrsell’s dry amusement at the expense of his younger counterparts had them all chuckling.

  But Tyrsell hasn’t had to exert himself to impress does in a very long time, Darian reminded himself, with rising sympathy for those “eager young stags.” The only way a young stag became a father and potential harem leader was to do something impressive.

  “Do you have to ask?” Wintersky said. “I’m going, of course. It’s too dull around here. If I spend another summer shooing those Northern pilgrims onto the right trail, I’ll go mad. I swear I will.”

  Starfall laughed at him. “All right, all right. I think you can be spared! That’s Darian, Keisha, Kel, Hashi, Wintersky, and a herd. Who else should we ask to volunteer?”

  “No hertasi,” Ayshen said reluctantly. “It is very cold in the north, even in the summer.”

  “Not that cold!” the Shaman protested. “You speak as if there is snow upon the ground everywhere at midsummer!”

  But Starfall shook his head. “No, I agree. This is not like our foray into Valdemar, where the hertasi were protected and we were in no great hurry to cover ground. This expedition will move too quickly, and have too many risks for any hertasi to go along safely. Ayshen, your people are fine fighters, but only in large numbers, and what’s the point of asking for fifty hertasi to go and be chilled solid up North, when they’re needed more in the warm Vale?”

  “No argument here,” Darian agreed, nodding. “Ayshen, I agree with you completely, even if it does mean I have to eat my own cooking.”

  That brought a laugh as he had hoped, and the talk turned to provisioning for a little while, until Shandi cleared her throat. That brought silence, and all eyes turned toward her.

  She flushed a little but said into the quiet, “Karles and I want to go along. Actually, Karles and I think we need to go along.”

  Now that was a surprise! Of all of them, only Steelmind nodded, as if he had guessed as much.

  “Anda and I talked this over very seriously before Darian went to the village, and spoke to the Snow Fox people,” she continued. “Anda would like us to see what conditions are like up there. It is not intended as a slight to any of you, of any species, but depending upon what was encountered it could be very advantageous to have an official Valdemaran presence there. No offense meant, Shaman Celin, but we need to know if there are any more—” She paused to pick out the least offensive words. “Any more aggressive peoples, like the Blood Bear tribe.”

  “You need to know? You are not the only ones!” the Shaman replied. “We stand between you and any armies, recollect! And we have pledged to guard this place, have we not?”

  “Well, there you have it.” Shandi shrugged. “Karles and I put our necks into this, too, then.”

  Anda traded a look with her, then spoke to the rest. “This is something that is very important to us. I would have hesitated to send her and Karles alone, but this is going to be a group that is large enough—not to protect her, but that she can work with.”

  This was not the first time that Darian had gotten the feeling there was a great deal going on between the two Heralds that was not spoken aloud. There was an entire conversation taking place—probably in personal Mindspeech—that no one else was privy to.

  “My Gift of Empathy can be pretty useful in figuring out if someone is telling the truth without having to use a vrondi—based Truth Spell, you know,” Shandi pointed out. “And I probably know as much about rou
gh camping as any of you. And I can do one thing that none of you can. Through Karles, I can keep in touch with Anda and the Vale.”

  Darian raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing; he could read between the lines easily enough. Valdemar and the Hawkbrothers were friends and allies, but ... it was always better to have a pair of your own eyes along.

  He couldn’t find it in his heart to feel resentful either; he’d have felt the same if the shoe had been on the other foot.

  In fact, I don’t think any of us here at the Vale would want a set of Heraldic spies going up there without one of us along. After all, we’re the ones who’d be getting the arrows and spears in our teeth first.

  But the greatest surprise of all was that Steelmind then said, “And I would go, too, if you will have me.”

  From the startled look that Shandi threw at him, this was a complete surprise to her as well as everybody else—except possibly Silverfox. “Why?” was the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue, Darian suspected, but no one asked it, in part because it was, frankly, no one’s business but Steelmind’s. “We can certainly use you,” Darian said gratefully, and left it at that.

  We-ell! There must be a great deal more going on there than I had thought! And Steelmind’s decision to come took Shandi by surprise, too! I wonder why—unless it’s that she’s closing off that Empathy of hers when it comes to Steelmind ... maybe because she didn’t want to know what he was feeling?

  Hywel and Celin had gotten their heads together and now Celin said, “We two believe that it would be well if you went as traders. Traders have some protection among our people, more than any other outsiders; they tend to be left alone by all except wolf-heads and outlaws, for if the traders were molested, who would bring new goods in the coming year, or pretty things for our women?” He chuckled. “I tell you, our women would take our scalps for that, if the traders were frightened off!”

  Darian didn’t much like the idea of posing as traders. He didn’t want to end up weighed down by a lot of clattering goods, and he certainly didn’t want to be a target for outlaws because of those same clattering goods!

  “Could we trade in dyes?” Keisha asked instantly. “I know your women really like the ones I have.”

  Oh, good thought, ke’chara! Dyes are light, and a little goes a long way! We’d have a reason for not carrying much baggage! He had not liked the idea of being loaded down with pure mass to maintain the ruse, or perhaps even being forced to bring a wagon for trade goods.

  “Dyes would be good,” the Shaman ruminated. “I tell you what you may ask for. Earth-amber, gold, and carved ivory. Dyes are valuable; we weigh them out, weight for weight, with such treasure. Those things will not weigh you down; you will look like proper traders, but wise ones, who are willing to move quickly and venture much for much gain.”

  Darian privately had decided that if anything threatened to weigh them down, he would discard it without a moment of hesitation. This was not a real trading expedition, and he had no intention of looking for a profit.

  With that decided, the planning began in earnest.

  When they finally returned to the ekele, very late that night, Keisha looked around with a sigh. “If I’d had any idea what this expedition was going to be like—” she began.

  “You’d have volunteered to come along anyway,” Darian replied confidently. He was already selecting clothing for the journey—and curiously, the first thing he picked was his Ghost Cat outfit.

  Perhaps I’d better take mine, too.

  “I don’t know about that,” Keisha muttered, but mostly to herself. It hadn’t occurred to her that she was going to be camping rough when she volunteered. She’d scarcely been camping at all, and when she did go, it was with full amenities; tents, cook-stoves, plenty of food, and lots of hertasi to help out.

  But there weren’t going to be any comforts on this trip; no tents, no cook-stoves, and they’d eat mostly what they killed or found for themselves.

  Thank goodness for Steelmind. He’ll be able to tell what’s good and what’s not without our having to experiment with it. An all-meat diet would be very bad—though I doubt Kelvren would agree.

  They’d be cooking over the fire, without pots for the most part. They’d be sleeping in hammocks, sometimes strung high in the trees for safety. If it rained, they’d each have a rain cape to drape over themselves and their hammock—or they might put up a lean-to, if they had time.

  It could be worse. We could be sleeping on the ground, I suppose.

  True, there wasn’t much danger of anyone becoming sick, not with her along, and one thing was certain, she wasn’t going to scrimp on her medicines. Darian could always use magic to keep them warm, if he had to, and maybe even sheltered from the weather.

  Still.

  “Heyla, you’ll enjoy it,” Darian said, putting his arms around her, as if he had been reading her thoughts. He probably didn’t have to; her thoughts were written clearly enough on her face. “I know it’s not what you’re used to, but camping this way can be a lot of fun. You miss sleeping out under the stars when you’re in a tent, and you miss waking up to the dawn.”

  “Insect repellent,” she muttered absently, thinking about the black flies and nocturnal mosquitoes that Hywel had described. “I’d better come up with an insect repellent we can wear. There’s a camphor balm I can mix up.”

  “Exactly. It’s not as if we aren’t clever enough to improvise, or as if we haven’t done this before. You’re the only one of us who’s never camped this way.” He turned her around and gave her a winning smile; a little reluctantly, she responded.

  “I’ll try not to be a burden on the rest of you,” she told him, looking up into his eyes. “That’s the part I’m really afraid of—that after a week you’ll wish I’d never come along, and after two, you’d wish you’d never met me.”

  There it was, out in the open. The confession had slipped out before she could stop herself. She pushed away from him, as he considered her words.

  “You might say the same thing about me,” he finally answered. “When it’s cold and raining, and we haven’t had any luck hunting, or when we’re trying to sleep knowing that there’s something prowling around at the foot of our tree, just waiting for a rope to snap or a limb to break. Or when I order you around—you might wish me on the other side of the world.”

  “I might,” she agreed. She’d meant it to sound teasing; it came out as a bit waspish.

  “So we’re even.” He didn’t pay any attention to her sharp tone; he just grinned and shrugged. “We’ll deal with it when it happens. In the meantime, we’ve other things to think about. What is going on with Steelmind?”

  That’s certainly changing the subject! “Why are you asking me? I don’t have any more clues than you do,” she replied, making no effort to conceal her own confusion. “I suppose it might have something to do with Shandi, but you know that he’s far too steady to be doing this on a whim, or halfheartedly. Does it matter why he’s coming?”

  “Actually—no.” He looked down into her eyes. “As long as I know why you are.”

  Once again, words came from her mouth that she hadn’t intended to say. “For you,” she whispered. “Just—for you.”

  It seemed to be the right thing to say.

  Thirteen

  Keisha fingered the talisman at her throat and stared at the mountains before her in disbelief, drawing comfort from the little clay owl figure on her necklace. Since Owl Knight Darian’s induction into the clan, the Elder Women had been making the talismans along with their dyheli figurines. Each of them in the traveling group had one of the clan’s talismans—given to them by Shaman Celin before they left, strung on sliding thongs in the Northern fashion. Hywel’s featured cat claws, understandably enough; both Keisha and Darian had little handmade owl figurines and semiprecious stone beads on theirs. Hers featured the color green in its beads as a reminder of her status as a Healer. Shandi’s had an odd sort of charm—a Tayledras-made chiming b
all, enameled with a white horse. Steelmind’s was a silver hawk on a crystal arrowhead shape. Wintersky’s was a pair of hawk talons in stone, with a stone knot between them.

  These talisman necklaces were meant to identify them to other northerners as friends to at least one of the tribes. Celin and Vordon had advised them not to wear their Ghost Cat costumes, at least not at first; the relationships among the tribes were complicated, and it was better to be thought of as traders and healers first, and allies of a particular clan second.

  They were now altogether out of familiar territory; for the past several days they had been taking a barely discernible track through hills that had been plenty tall enough for Keisha, but today they had come up over a particularly lofty range to see the real mountains.

  Keisha could only sit slackly in her saddle and stare. Between the top of the hill where they were and the beginning of the mountain range was a wide river valley, a meandering river running through it that they would have to ford.

  “Is there snow on the tops of those?” she asked Hywel incredulously, pointing to the white-dusted peaks looming against the blue sky.

  “Probably,” he replied, shrugging his indifference. “It doesn’t matter; we won’t be going up that high.” The young tribesman was in his element now. So far as he was concerned, this trip was the height of pure pleasure. Not that he disliked living on the border of Valdemar, but here he was, ranging and hunting rather than staying in one place and herding, and doing it all by dyheli instead of his own two feet. This was a much superior form of travel, and Hywel very much enjoyed the experience.

  Keisha had mixed feelings; she was finding more pleasure in this form of travel than she had expected, but that was leavened by the fact that she seemed so much clumsier at rough-camping than anyone else. Steelmind, Darian, and Wintersky were already part of a functioning “team.” They had worked and traveled together for four years before Keisha had ever met them. That left Keisha, Shandi, and Hywel to fit themselves into the pattern somehow.