Mardic cleared his throat, and she jumped. 'I'm sorry, lad, I'm woolgathering. Must be getting old. Come on in.'
He edged into the room, crabwise. 'Savil, Donni and I want to ask you something,' he faltered, hands behind his back, rubbing his left foot against his right ankle. 'We - Savil, you're the best there is, but - Vanyel needs you more than we do.'
'Gods,' she sighed, rubbing her right temple. 'I have been shorting you two - I am sorry - '
'No, really, we don't mind,' Donni interrupted, poking her curly head past the edge of the door just behind Mardic's shoulder.
'I was wondering when you'd put in your silver-worth,' Savil replied.
'We do come as a set,' she pointed out. 'No, Savil, you haven't been shorting us. It's more that we're afraid you're going to split yourself in half, trying to do too many things. Vanyel needs you; we've finally got what we needed from you - there wasn't anybody else likely to be able to teach us to work in concert, but look - '
Mardic moved farther into the room; Donni stayed by the door. They reached out to one another, arms extended, and hands not quite touching, and -
Where there had been two auras there was now one; a golden-green flow over and around them that was seamless - and considerably more than either aura had been alone. Savil blinked in surprise. 'Just when did you two start to do that?' she asked.
'The night - when we had to get the Temple open,' Mardic supplied. 'When we had to get the arrow up, and then even more when we meshed in the Healing-meld. That's when what you'd been showing us sort of fell into place. So, well, now any Herald-Mage could teach us, and really, given what we do together, it probably ought to be Jaysen, or Lancir. But Jaysen hasn't got anyone right now.''
'Piffle. You'd make a three-hour tale of a limerick,' Donni sniffed. 'Savil, we asked Jaysen; he said he'd take us if you allow it.''
Savil put down her pen, and closed her gaping mouth. 'I think I may kiss you both,' she replied, as Donni gave Mardic an 'I told you so' grin. 'I was trying to think of a way to get you another mentor and coming up blank because I 'm the only one who knows how to teach concert work. Bless you, loves.'
She rose and took both of them in her arms; they returned the embrace; their support as much mental as physical.
'Savil,' Donni said quietly, as she released them with real reluctance. 'What are you going to do with Vanyel? He's - he's still so broken - and everything here has just got to keep reminding him of 'Lendel. It's too bad you can't take him somewhere really different.'
'Gods, that's only too true,' she replied.
- really different - gods - oh, gods, thank you for bright little proteges!
'Donni,' she said slowly, 'I think you may just have found my answer for me. Now I'm even more grateful to you for finding yourselves a new teacher.''
'You've got an idea?'
Savil nodded. 'And kill two birds with one stone. Those things the Leshara had brought in - they had to be from the Pelagirs, just like what 'Lendel conjured in retribution. I'd have had to go out there anyway, to find out who's been tampering. So - what I'm going to do is take Vanyel there to some friends of mine, the Hawkbrothers. They're self-appointed guardians of the Pelagirs, so they should be told if there's been a mage tampering with their creatures. And they follow a different discipline; maybe they can help Van. And if they can't, I know they can at least contain him.'
'But you really think they can help him?' Donni asked hopefully.
'Well,
'He could wreck the Palace.' Mardic nodded solemnly. 'When are you taking him?'
'When - within the next few days, I think. The sooner the better.' She looked over his head, to the Wingsister talisman on her wall. 'The only problem is that to find Starwind k'Treva and Moondance k'Treva I'll have to go to them - because they don't ever come out of the Pelagirs. That means two things. I'll have to build a Gate, and I'll have to hope that I still know how to find them.'
Eleven
“Gods, I hate Gating,' Savil muttered to Andrel, squinting against the glare of sun on snow as she scanned the sky for even a hint of cloud.
'Why? Other than the recent rotten associations - '
'It's damned dangerous at the best of times. It plays fast and loose with local weather systems, for one thing; it's a spell that sets up a local energy field, a kind that disrupts any kind of high-energy weather pattern that's around it. Usually for the worse.' She closed her eyes, centered and grounded, and extended her Mage-Gift sense up and out, looking farther afield for anything that might move in while she had the Gate up. To her vast relief there didn't seem to be anything of consequence anywhere nearby; the only energy-patterns she could read were a few rising air currents over warm spots, too small to be any hazard.
She sighed. 'Well, the weather's not going to cause any problems. How was the lad?'
'Drugged to his teeth, and I would stake my arm that he won't be able to count to one before some time tonight. And I am damned glad you told me that you were planning on Gating out of here.' Andrel tucked his long,
