Winds of Change Read online

  Darkwind himself had come to fetch them, as their sponsor into the Clan; Kethra was Tre’valen’s. With him had come at least a dozen more Tayledras - and Elspeth had done her best not to stare, but it had been very difficult. She had thought that Darkwind was a typical Hawkbrother, and she had been just a little disappointed, given the hints in the Chronicles of how strange the Hawkbrothers were, at his shoulder-length, mottled-brown hair and his drab clothing. The Chronicles had talked about Moondance and Starwind being as “brightly plumaged as firebirds” and she’d cherished images of brilliant colors and weird clothing, maybe things that didn’t look like clothing at all.

  She wasn’t disappointed any longer. The dozen Tayledras with Darkwind had been garbed as wildly and beautifully as she could have wished. Every one of them had hair that was waist-length or longer, white as ice, and twined with feathers, crystals, bells, slender chains, or strands of silk matching their - costumes. That was the only word she could arrive at. “Clothing” certainly wasn’t adequate - not for robes with layered sleeves that trailed on the ground, hugged the arm like silken skin, were scalloped, bejeweled, embroidered, and tapestried. “Garb” didn’t describe tunics and gowns that mimicked feathers, leaves, flower petals, frozen waterfalls. Every one of the dozen was unique; every one was incredible and complex. And yet, the costumes weren’t any less functional than, say, Valdemaran Court gear; although she wouldn’t have known how to move in those outfits without tripping over something.

  She felt for the first time as if she had truly left the world she knew and had stepped into the pages of a tale.

  Even Darkwind - drab, disappointing Darkwind - had been transformed. Although his hair was still shoulder-length, he had somehow managed to get patterns dyed into it. She assumed it was dye; it might not have been. How would she know? It might have been magic. Birds flickered whitely against a dark gold background every time he moved his head, as if his hair was a forest in autumn with doves flying through it. And his costume was as fanciful as the rest - although a little more practical. He had eschewed trailing sleeves and hemlines for embroidery and something that stayed fairly close to his body. But he was just as eye-dazzling in his way as the others were in theirs.

  He smiled shyly when he saw the surprise and approval in her expression, but said nothing, simply gesturing for her and Skif to follow him into the depths of the Vale. Kethra led Tre’valen in a similar fashion; the rest of the Tayledras came behind, with mage-lights bobbing above their heads, and the Companions bringing up the rear. Above the walls of the valley and the tops of the towering trees, the sky still glowed blue, with the west a warm gold - in the shelter of the massive branches, dense blue shadows obscured all but the trail they walked.

  They had emerged in a clearing, ringed and paved with stone. In the very center of the circular area stood a cracked and half-broken stone with a brazier at its foot, all of it lit by more mage-lights. This strange monolith, she assumed, was the Heartstone - damaged, its wild energies barely restrained by multiple layers of shielding. Darkwind had warned her to keep tight personal shields about her when she was near it; she saw no reason to argue with him. Even through her protections she felt something vaguely wrong with the stone, a kind of sickness about it. It wasn’t something she could put a finger on, or point to, but the uneasy feeling was definitely there.

  Iceshadow - wearing an elaborate costume that made him look as if he was half a man and half a delicate, frozen fountain - took his place before the stone. In the transparent, unwavering illumination of the mage-lights, he could have been a dream, an illusion - an ice sculpture brought to life. Then he moved, gracefully, holding up his hands - and with no more preparation than that, Elspeth found herself surrounded by a blue glow that was quite familiar.

  Truth Spell? Bright Havens, did we get it from them, or did they get it from Vanyel?

  The other question that occurred to her, with a touch of envy, was how Iceshadow had managed to call the spell up with no preparation and in no more than a heartbeat. It took her a good bit of time to call up a Truth Spell, and she was one of the best in her class at that particular exercise. Iceshadow hadn’t even needed to think about it, so far as she had been able to tell. He just gestured, and there it was. That was as impressive as all the lightnings and thunders she’d seen - and cast - fighting Falconsbane and his creatures. Iceshadow had not only cast the spell as easily as breathing, he had made it look effortless.

  Iceshadow lowered his arms, and a white hom-tufted owl drifted down out of the trees to land on his shoulder. He watched the three of them serenely for a moment, and then folded his hands in his sleeves. “Do you bring any ill-intent into this Vale?” he asked, conversationally.

  Was this the beginning of the oathtaking? It must be. She shook her head, and Skif mouthed the word “No.”

  Iceshadow smiled slightly, and continued; still calm, still casual. “Is it your wish to be made a brother of this Clan?”

  They both answered with nods.

  Now Iceshadow sobered; the owl settled itself and turned unblinking eyes upon them, as if it, too, was weighing the truth of their intent. Elspeth was suddenly hyperaware of everything about her; the faint, cool breeze on her back, the way it stirred Iceshadow’s clothing, Skif’s hair, the fringe on Tre’valen’s sash. The way the blue light from the spell reflected in the onlookers’ eyes. The call of a bird, somewhere out in the Vale. Iceshadow took a deep breath, and spoke, in a soft voice that still carried incredible intensity. “Hear, then, the privileges of brotherhood: to come and go freely within all lands held by Tayledras k’Sheyna; to call upon your brothers in times of need; to ask of us teaching; to make your home among us. Hear also the responsibilities of brotherhood: to keep the secrets of the Clan; to neither bring nor lead strangers among us; to keep our lands and guard them as we do; to answer to our need if no other oath prevents; to teach when it is asked of you, aid when it is asked of you, give shelter and succor to your brothers of the Clan, of Tayledras, and of Shin’a’in. Can you be bound to these conditions?”

  “Yes,” Elspeth breathed. It would not have been unreasonable to swear them to absolute secrecy, or to require that they pledge a formal and complicated alliance to the Clan. Skif seemed just as surprised as he answered in the affirmative.

  The breeze gusted past again, and the owl roused its feathers, shaking himself vigorously before settling down to resume his stare at them. Iceshadow watched them as un-blinkingly as his owl. “Then there is another vow you must make,” Iceshadow continued. “But it is one that you must not make in ignorance. So listen - watch - and heed - ”

  He gestured again, and as Elspeth caught her breath in startlement, a globe of glowing white mist rose up from the pavement between them, obscuring everything on the other side of the circle. As Elspeth turned her attention from the Hawkbrother to the globe of starlight, she saw that there was a picture forming in it. She bit her lip when the picture cleared, this time with a feeling of incredulity and horror; she had seen her own land ravaged by warfare, but this was beyond anything she had ever dreamed in her worst nightmares. Encased in the glowing globe was the image of a devastated land; the viewpoint was from the edge of a blasted crater so wide she literally could not see the other side. She blinked and swallowed, finding it hard to comprehend destruction on so vast a scale, and nauseated by the very idea that such a thing could have happened. To see a place that must once have been green, been full of people, animals, trees and plants - to see it not only ravaged, but utterly annihilated - the shock of it drove any real thoughts from her head for a moment. Beside her, Tre’valen started in surprise, as if this was something he knew about but had not expected to see here.

  “This was the homeland, long and long ago.” Iceshadow’s voice drifted across the silence, a voice filled with such sadness and loss that it seemed as if what Elspeth saw might have happened a day ago, rather than centuries ago. “This was the homeplace of the people called Kaled’a’in. This was all that remained,
at the end of the First and Last conflict, the Mage Wars.”

  The scene shifted, to a group of armed, subdued people, all with the long black hair and golden skin of the Shin’a’in, gathered on the edge of the crater. There was some confusion as they and their animals - horses, huge dogs, hunting cats, and birds of prey - milled about, and then it was apparent that about half of them were packing up and moving off, away from the crater, while the rest stayed.

  “We fled from the destruction, and returned when we could. This was what we found, and there was mourning and confusion. Then came anger, at what had happened, at what had caused it. There was dissent over what the people should do. Some wished to renounce all magic; some, to make further use of magic to keep the Clans alive in this new and alien world. There was no compromise possible between those positions - dissent became argument, and argument became hate. That was when, rather than turn dissent to feud, the two sides agreed to divide, and with this decision came the Sundering of the Clans. Those who renounced magic became the Shin’a’in, while those who sought magery removed themselves from the rest, calling themselves Tayledras, after the birds that they had helped to bring into being. These, our Fathers and Mothers, went north.”

  Again the scene shifted, to something that had probably been a forest.

  Once.

  Now it was another kind of nightmare; instead of lifelessness, twisted and contorted wildlife ran riot. The vegetation grew so thick it formed a solid green wall on either side of the road, except that it was hard to tell some of the flora from some of the fauna. There were plants that groped after the passing Clansfolk, and animals that were rooted to the spot like plants, some watching them with indifferent eyes, others that screamed unendingly. There were creatures she half-glimpsed through the veils of vines hanging from every branch that made Elspeth shudder. As she tried to make sense of confusion of color and motion, the group shown was attacked by things that were horribly worse than the creatures Falconsbane had sent against them - things that seemed to be nothing but teeth and claws, with armored plates covering everything but their joints.

  Iceshadow’s voice made her jump. “The five Clans that were now Tayledras found that the lands beyond the homeland were ravaged by the forces of twisted and tainted magic. No human or bird could survive there for long. Either they must starve, for they could not spare a moment from defense to grow or hunt their food, or they must give up defense and perish at the hands of the monsters that inhabited these lands. They despaired, for there was nowhere else for them to go.”

  The scene fogged for a moment, and re-formed. The band of Tayledras had made a camp on the top of a hill, the earth scorched bare by fire, with a temporary palisade of thorny branches about the camp - but it was obvious it could not last for long against any kind of attack.

  “They knew they could go no farther,” Iceshadow concluded. “So, as their kindred that would become the Shin’a’in would do, they prayed to their Goddess. And She answered. Here is her answer to their plea.”

  Nothing Elspeth had watched prepared her for what happened as the mist clouded again.

  Suddenly there was no ball of glowing mist with pictures in it before her; suddenly there was no clearing, no Hawkbrothers, no Skif -

  - no light, no sound, no world.

  Only herself, a sky full of stars stretching in every direction -

  - including down -

  And out of this starry nothingness arose a white-hot flame that was somehow also a woman. Too bright to see clearly, She changed from moment to moment, and the raw Power emanating from Her made Elspeth tremble. She’d have fallen to her knees - if she could have figured out how to do so in the midst of all this starry space.

  I have heard your prayers, She said, in a voice that filled Elspeth’s mind, leaving no room for anything, not even fear. There is a price to be paid for what you ask, and that price is in your lives, and your freedom.

  She gestured, and in the palm of Her hand was cupped the weirdly twisted landscape of the forest the Clansfolk had entered. Terrible magics have warped this land, and only magic can heal it again. Therefore I offer this, that you have asked of me. I shall grant you safety here, long enough to establish each of you a Clan holding. I shall teach you the means of creating a place in the midst of the holding wherein you shall dwell in protection. I shall grant you the knowledge of Adepts, to use and concentrate the magic - and a knowledge even Adepts have not - to create a center of such power that the greatest of the mages who caused these changes would look upon you with envy.

  To this you shall swear, in return. You will cleanse these lands - restore them to what they were before the Wars. You shall destroy the creatures of evil intent, cherish and succor the innocent victims of this catastrophe, and find shelter for those that are merely animals, meaning neither good nor ill. You shall destroy those old weapons you may find, that they may not be misused again. You shall cleanse the land you hold - and then you shall move on, to another place, to begin again. All of your children that are Mage-Gifted shall follow this path. All who are not shall guard and aid the ones who are. You shall be the Healers and Protectors - and you shall never permit the magics you manipulate here to be used for ill, nor shall you permit strangers within your ranks, unless they be sworn to the Clans. This you must do, at whatever cost to yourselves.

  Abruptly, the vision was gone. Elspeth shook her head, blinking and still trembling with reaction; more than a little disoriented. There was nothing now in die clearing but what had been there when they entered; even the glowing mist was gone.

  She tried to shake off the effect of the vision - if that was what it had been. She had been there for a moment; she didn’t at all doubt that she had experienced exactly the same , thing as those long-ago Hawkbrothers had. What she I couldn’t understand was why Skif didn’t seem particularly affected, but Tre’valen looked just as dazed and bedazzled as she felt. Long ago, when she was younger, she had first heard the story of King Valdemar and the first appearance of the Companions, and had thought it a very pretty tale. Now she had the glimmering of what King Valdemar just might have experienced when his prayers were answered. It shook her to the soul. It made her understand why some people became ardent, abject devotees of deities.

  Iceshadow was silent for a long moment, while she and Tre’valen gathered their scattered wits. Elspeth thought that he watched her particularly closely, although she couldn’t be sure of that. Finally, he spoke again.

  “This is the last oath you must swear - that you will aid your brothers of the Clan in their duty, as your own oaths permit - and that never will you use what is taught you here for the sake of your own power, pride, and status.”

  He held his hand up, to forestall their immediate answers. “I shall not ask you to swear never to use it to harm - for one day you may find yourself facing an enemy who would destroy far more than you if he is given the opportunity to do so. But you must never use your learning for selfish purposes, to increase your own importance, to make your life one of pointless leisure, to merely indulge your fancies. Can you swear to that?”

  Elspeth heaved a sigh of relief; that was enough like the Oaths a Herald took before the Circle that the wording made very little difference. She gave her assent with a much lighter heart, grateful that all of the vows she’d been asked to make seemed to take into account the fact that those outside the Clan had other duties and oaths of their own that might take precedence.

  Now as long as both sets of promises never come into conflict, I should be all right.

  Throughout the entire oathtaking, the blue glow of the Truth Spell remained steady around all three of them. Now Iceshadow banished the spell with another gesture, just as the deepening blue of the sky above them took on the golden-red streaks of the last moments of sunset. Elspeth looked up for a moment, as some movement against the luminous blue above caught her eye, and discovered that what had attracted her attention was the steady circling of a bird over their clearing. A bird of prey, by t
he shape.

  Nothing unusual, not here in the heart of a Tayledras Clan territory, but something about the bird made her take a second, closer look.

  It was big; much bigger than she had thought, at first. In fact, it was easily the size of the largest eagle she had ever seen. But it had the distinctive tail-striping of a vorcel-hawk; that was one bird she would never again mistake for anything else.

  A vorcel-hawk the size of an eagle, or larger - and unless it was a trick of the light, it was glowing.

  Dawnfire? The thought was inevitable. She glanced back down at Tre’valen, only to see that he was watching the hawk as well, though no one else seemed to notice that it was there. The expression on his face was a most peculiar one; he looked both excited and obscurely disturbed, at one and the same time.

  The hawk made a final circle above, then spiraled upward, to be lost in the scarlet-and-golden glory of the sunset. Tre’valen licked his lips and looked down again; reluctantly, it seemed to her. He caught her watching him before she could look away, and something in his eyes made her nod, once, slowly; admitting, without actually saying anything, that she had seen the bird as well.

  His lips formed the merest ghost of a smile, and he turned his attention back toward Iceshadow.

  Less time had passed than she had thought. The Tayledras Adept was only now finishing his words of acceptance, admitting them into the Clan as Wingsiblings, and welcoming them as allies and friends.

  She shook her head again, feeling another shiver of disorientation. Time was doing strange things around her, today. And Skif didn’t seem to be affected by any of it. Was it because she was a mage, or was -it something else entirely?

  Or was it just nerves?

  Not that it really mattered at the moment. The ceremony wasn’t quite over yet, although the formal pledging of vows was. Darkwind had explained this afternoon as he brought them to the cave to wait, that Iceshadow wanted to talk to her, Skif, and their Companions before he unleashed the rest of the Clan on them.