Valdemar 11 - [Owl Mage 03] - Owlknight

by Mercedes Lackey

  What did they—!

  “Now! Let’s get past!” Shandi shouted, as Karles raced up beside her. She mounted; the dyheli each sought out a rider—no matter which one, they’d sort out the baggage later.

  They raced up the pass at breakneck speed, following Shandi, who was in the lead. Kel kept watch behind, the birds in front. There was no one watching the flanks, but at the speed they were traveling now, they’d be past anyone on their flanks in short order.

  Darian wouldn’t have thought the dyheli could maintain this pace uphill, but evidently fear was spurring them on; as he leaned down over the outstretched neck of his mount, there was no slackening of their speed as they reentered the forest, charged headlong through it, and exited again, higher up the slope. Now there was nothing between them and the pass—

  Then they were up to the pass itself, and over it, and if anything, their pace increased as they charged downhill again. They were out in the sunlight at last; the air was considerably warmer, and the hordes of birds and small creatures that startled and fled before their headlong rush testified that the cold-drake didn’t hunt on this side of the mountain.

  Darian got a brief glimpse of something shining off to the west—it might have been water, but he didn’t get a good enough look to tell for certain. Then they plunged into the forest shadows again.

  The dyheli kept running for a good candlemark, and only when their flanks were soaked with sweat and their sides heaving did they finally slow and stop beside a trickle of a stream.

  Darian was off his mount in a heartbeat, as were the rest. Snatching up handfuls of coarse grass, they began wiping their mounts down. They pulled off the tack and did what they could, then the dyheli themselves walked off to cool down and take occasional sips of water.

  Only then did Darian turn to Keisha. “You got into its mind? What was it that you two used? Fear?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Fear. But I guarantee you, it is not in a way you would have expected.”

  Steelmind commented, somewhat amusedly, “These two’ve certainly scared me before, so I can understand that. I thought it had to be something more. I didn’t think my arrow was that effective.”

  Keisha grinned. “Effective enough. When you hurt it, that was the first time anything had ever touched it since it had left its mother and been on its own in the wilds. Literally it had never felt pain since the last time its mother disciplined it. And do you know how drakes discipline their babies?”

  Darian shook his head dumbly.

  “They bite the baby’s nose!” She laughed breathlessly.

  Steelmind knit his brow, and shook his head slightly. “I still do not understand. You two are just humans, not the cold-drake’s mother.”

  Shandi stepped over, her sweat-scraper and curry-brush still in hand, after tending briefly to Karles. “I’ll try to explain. The warmth Darian summoned was making it delirious and disoriented. It became more and more unfocused mentally, it felt more vulnerable as its armor’s ice layer melted, and its eyesight clouded, too, much like a developing infant’s. It thought about the last time it felt that way—when it was just a pup. So instinctively, even though we were just snacks for it, when that nose wound hurt so sharply, the drake felt as if we were bigger and more powerful than it for just a moment.”

  Keisha picked up the explanation from there. “It’s like with a pony, if you pick it up off the ground as a foal, even when it’s full grown, it will think you can still do that. Lessons learned early in life stay just as big in any creature’s mind, and when someone is in pain they tend to act more childlike—that’s something we Healers know and use. That wound-scream jarred me out of my own fear and my Healing knowledge sort of welled up, and I remembered where I’d sensed that sort of reaction—from other wounded animals, and some badly injured people. The cold-drake didn’t know what was happening to it, and its instincts made it think of dear old mama. We just pushed more fear at it, using what we sensed its own memories of an angry mother were. I don’t know if I could have driven it off by myself, but when Shandi and I joined, there was enough to push it over the edge.”

  Steelmind shook his head. “Empaths,” was all he said, but it was in a mix of bemusement and admiration.

  “Well, how many more doses of that scream could you take?” Shandi retorted, glancing around for Kel. “I thought blood was going to pour out of my ears in a moment. I was in such pain from the scream I was damned well going to do something about it!”

  “I have no arguments with what you did!” Darian assured them, waving his hands in the air for emphasis. “It worked, and that’s all I care about!”

  Kelvren limped up, his left side somewhat scraped up but only slightly bloodied. “It isss good rrreasssoning,” he added, sounding complimentary. “It isss the mind that trrruly winsss orrr losssesss each battle. Talonsss would not accomplish in ten daysss what one well-placsssed bad memorrry of Motherrr did.”

  Keisha frowned at the gryphon, and gestured with one finger pointing downward at her feet, then snapped her fingers. “Come here, hero. Let me look at that.” Kelvren gave her a withering look, but approached obediently and gently mocked, “Jussst do not thrrreaten me with yourrr Fearrrsssome Powerrrsss, and I shall obey,” as he lay down to be tended to.

  Shandi’s face abruptly clouded, and she looked back up the pass, anxiously. “Getting back, though—” she started.

  “We’ll worry about getting back when we have to.” That was Wintersky, who had been dragging their belongings into a rough circle. “I’ve been checking what we have left. Anybody object to staying here for the night?”

  Darian shook his head. “I feel like it was me carrying the dyheli, not the other way around.”

  :I am no frisking filly—my old bones ache after a gallop like that one,: Neta said ruefully. :With any luck the ladies have affrighted that cold-drake into a new hunting ground—it will eat its fill and retire into torpor as it properly should, and we will not need to concern ourselves with it on the return journey.:

  Neta looked terrible—all the dyheli looked terrible, and Karles didn’t look much better. Their coats were drenched and streaked with sweat and dust; they hung their heads, and their legs trembled with fatigue.

  “You lot, go lie down as soon as you think you can without cramping up,” he said in a quick decision. “We’ll mount guard tonight without you.”

  :Thank you,: Neta replied simply for them all. One by one the dyheli folded their legs underneath them and dropped to the moss and grass; following Darian’s example, each of the humans pulled a blanket out of their bedrolls and draped it over the prone bodies so that the wet dyhelis didn’t take a chill.

  Darian squatted down in front of Neta. “About the ... loss of Gacher. I’m sorry. Is there any ceremony for his death that we should do?”

  :It has already been done,: Neta mindspoke. :What you all choose to do regarding Gacher’s death is yours to determine.:

  They made camp, although it was still light; the early stop gave them time to hunt and cook food for a change. Kel settled in beside Darian and Keisha after his own hunt; the gryphon still looked somewhat shaken, and settled down on his bandages as an easy way of keeping pressure on them.

  “I did not know the thing would ssscrrream like that,” Kel said finally.

  “None of us did,” Darian replied. “I don’t know that anyone has ever gotten close enough to a cold-drake to find out.”

  “The only time I’ve ever heard of anyone killing a drake, it’s been three or four Adepts at a distance,” came Steelmind’s dry comment. “No one has even been stupid enough to try to take on one on foot that I know of, and survive.”

  Darian smiled a bit. “We certainly qualify as stupid enough.”

  “Maybe, but according to Kerowyn, the Shin‘a’in say that if it is stupid but works, it isn’t stupid,” Shandi added. It looked to Darian as if she’d forgotten whatever grievance she had with Steelmind.

  Then again, she’s probably storing i
t up to use some other time. When he least expects it.

  “I can only say that I hope never to meet with such a thing again in my lifetime,” Hywel told them all solemnly. “Killing such would make the Manhood trial for a legendary hero, and I am no such hero.”

  At that, Steelmind smiled slightly, got stiffly to his feet, walked over to the young tribesman, and dropped slowly to one knee. While Hywel watched, Steelmind handed the young warrior one of his own valuable watersteel fighting knives.

  Hywel took it gingerly, appearing startled. “What is this?” he asked, perplexed.

  “I have no place in my life for anyone who is sure he can do everything. You just realized—and admitted—that you’re not invulnerable, or unbeatable, or perfect,” Steelmind said solemnly. “By my reckoning, that makes you a real man. Now I completely trust you, and I’ll have you at my back any time.”

  Hywel admired the knife—and what it symbolized—for a long moment, before Kelvren broke the silence with his own comment.

  “If you want rrreal perrrfection, you mussst find a grrryphon.”

  Eighteen

  Fog surrounded the campsite; there had been no rain last night, but it was a damp, cool morning. Kel had gone out to scout out the way as soon as there was any light in the sky at all. Darian looked up at the sound of large wings, his breakfast uneaten in his hands. He couldn’t see anything in the mist, but a moment later, Kel’s wings blew the fog away enough for him to land beside the morning fire. Darian put down the broiled fish, uneaten. He’d been too keyed up for hunger anyway.

  “If you rrride harrrd all day, you will rrreach a village at the edge of the waterrr, and it isss definitely Rrraven,” Kel said, breathing heavily. “I sssaw the totemsss forrr myssself.”

  Darian started to breathe a little heavily himself. Don’t get too excited, he reminded himself. Raven is only the tribe that creates the vests. Mother and Father might not be there.

  Oh, he could tell himself that, but it was impossible not to hope, impossible not to feel his heartbeat quicken, his nerves tingle. “Then let’s get going—” he began, starting to rise, when a hand on his belt jerked him back down again.

  “First, eat,” Keisha ordered, frowning. He knew that look. He ate, though the fish was cold and tasted like wheat paste. He crammed it down as fast as he could, washing it down with water.

  He wished he could use magic to seek out the village and know if his parents were there, but he didn’t dare. Last night he’d felt the sweep of a search over them, someone looking for the scent of magic and mages, and had been very glad that he had not used any magic at all in guarding the camp. A mage, and a powerful one, had picked up the magic he’d used against the cold-drake, and was hunting for the one who had used it. He was under no illusion that the one hunting for them was friendly; there was only one powerful mage hereabouts, and that was the Wolverine Shaman. An Eclipse Shaman. There is no way that he can be a friend to us.

  He’d hoped that the creation of heat was a minor enough usage of magic that it would have gone unnoticed, but in his heart he had known all along it was a vain hope. Maybe if the seeker found nothing, he’d assume the drake had eaten the mage that had tried to kill it. He would certainly find the drake alive and well—wherever it had gone to.

  With the drake standing guard over the pass, it was no wonder that Wolverine hadn’t gotten this far—nor that Raven was so isolated from the other tribes. Surely the pass could only be traveled during the hottest days of summer, and only then at midday, when the sun reached every part of the pass and even a hungry cold-drake would seek a cool cave to sleep.

  Darian was in the saddle before the rest of the group had finished loading their belongings in their saddle panniers. He curbed his own impatience at them; he reminded himself yet again that at this point they only knew that Raven produced vests with motifs that looked like those his mother had used in her embroidery, and that was all they knew.

  But the moment everyone else was ready to go, he was off at a lope, trusting to Kel and the birds for guidance through the mist, and to the abilities of the others to keep up. The way led literally downhill, down the slopes of the mountain to the water; that made it easy for his dyheli. Everything conspired to help him except the mist; there were clear game trails to follow, the trails themselves were easy and not strewn with rocks, even the mossy turf was springy and dulled the sound of the dyheli’s hooves. His mount Jakir positively frisked his way through the trees, enjoying the run. He couldn’t see much through the fog, though—the nearest tree trunks, the lowest branches. He could just as readily have been running over the same piece of ground, except that the paths always led downward.

  The others caught up with him, but he kept the lead; they broke unexpectedly into a meadow just as the sun began to burn off some of the fog and startled a herd of deer into flight ahead of them. As the fog thinned, they saw more and more of their surroundings, and they were nothing short of amazing; as lovely as a Tayledras Vale in a very different and far wilder fashion. There was water everywhere; in tiny rivulets that trickled down the mountainside and made miniature waterfalls, in larger streams they crossed in a single bound, and crystal-clear brooks that laughed through stone-strewn beds, in still pools full of fish, in the cool but humid air itself. Moss covered everything; rocks, tree trunks, branches; it hung in pendulous beards from the branches overhead, and cushioned every step the dyheli took. And everywhere was green, a thousand shades of green, from the black-green of water weeds in the pools through the blue-green and emerald of the underbrush, to the bright green of leaves overhead with sunlight shining through them. Even the light was green; Darian glanced back at Keisha, and saw she was looking about her with enchantment in her eyes in spite of the hard pace they were setting. The cool, damp air was full of wonderful scents; green growing things, the sharp scent of crushed pine needles, the ghosts of flowers, the promise of rain. Unfamiliar birds called in bell-like tones that echoed down through the branches, and from all around came every sort of song that water could possibly make, from the musical laughter of the tiny waterfalls and the gurgle of the brooks, to the steady, soporific dripping of water on leaves. But rather than lulling, the surroundings conspired to make him exhilarated, ready to do anything and everything.

  They were getting dripped on themselves, of course, but today in Darian’s excitement it seemed more refreshing than annoying.

  They stopped long enough for the dyheli and Karles to snatch a few mouthfuls and get a drink; the others dismounted to stretch stiff legs, but Darian begrudged even the time it took for that. He tried not to show his impatience too blatantly, closing his eyes to check with Kel and Kuari.

  :You’re not far now,: Kel replied, :You’re making better time than I’d thought you could.:

  :It’s all downhill,: he replied, greatly cheered by this. :How soon do we reach them at this pace?:

  :Huh-maybe a couple of candlemarks, no more. But do slow down before you get too close-you’ll raise an alarm, galloping in this way, and I’d hate to see you shot full of arrows.:

  Darian grimaced, but Kel had a point. Normal traders would not come riding in as if a cold-drake were on their heels. :Give me an idea where to slow down, and I will.:

  :Darian, I have to say that I have seen no sign of your people. All the folk here look like Northerners.: Kel parted with that information reluctantly. :Of course,: he added, brightening, :I know I haven’t seen all, or even most of them. There are surely some out hunting, and women in the log houses.:

  Once again, Darian clamped down on both hope and disappointment, reminding himself that he was looking only for a direction, not for his mother and father in person. :Stay alert for trouble.: he warned Kel. :I caught the edge of a magic-search last night.:

  He caught Kel’s assent, and turned his attention to Kuari, who flew along just behind them, with Wintersky and Steelmind’s birds, who were much swifter, taking lead. :Anything to our rear, old friend?:

  :Was tree-hare. Very tast
y. No tree-hare, anymore.: Kuari’s mind-voice, overlaid with great satisfaction at an easy kill and the pause to eat it, made him chuckle in spite of his anxiety.

  He heard the others mounting up, and opened his eyes again. “Kel says we’ve made better time than he’d thought we would, and we’re nearly there,” he told them encouragingly. Shandi made a movement that caught his attention, and he looked over at her directly.

  “I want to borrow you and Keisha when we get there, to give Karles a boost for his mind-voice,” she said, in a tone that made it more of a demand than a request. Karles bobbed his head and stamped a hoof to emphasize the “request.” “The information about Wolverine is too important; I have to get it back home, so that it gets there regardless of whether or not we make it back.”

  “That’ll take magic,” he said, with some reluctance, as his mount shifted restlessly under him. “I’m not sure that’s wise, given that—”

  Shandi eyed him with disfavor, and Karles snorted, giving him a similar look. “You picked up a magic-sweep last night, didn’t you? And you didn’t tell us.”

  “So did I, and I didn’t tell you either,” Steelmind put in, mildly. “It doesn’t matter; nobody was using magic, so whoever it was—”

  “—the Wolverine Shaman—” she interjected with annoyance.

  “—won’t have found us. He probably thinks the magic we used was a futile effort against the cold-drake, and it ate us.” Darian finished the sentence for Steelmind. “But using magic again might tell him it didn’t.”

  Shandi looked him square in the eyes, and Karles moved a pace closer. “This is my duty. I’m helping you with yours, it’s only fair that you help me with mine.”

  Great good gods, they’re getting more alike with every day. Are all Heralds and Companions like this, I wonder? Her logic was inescapable, however, and he knew that she was right, even though it seemed to him that she didn’t have to be so forceful about it. He wasn’t all that hard to convince. He shrugged. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help, I was only advising you that we’ll be putting up a big, thick smoke signal for anyone with the right kind of eyes to see it. If you believe it’s worth that risk, then we’ll do it, and try to do what we can to prevent anyone from noticing.”