Storm Warning

Silence followed that pronouncement, and Queen Selenay sat back a little in her seat. 'I trust you'll forgive me if I take some pleasure in that news,' she said dryly. 'Base though such a sentiment is—'

'Forgive me, Majesty,' Darkwind said, interrupting her. 'As a mage and an Adept, I cannot help but be more concerned, rather than less. These physical effects—it seems to me that they indicate something very serious. They worry me more than the effects upon magic. How do we know this thing will not come again?'

He turned to Firesong as if for confirmation, and the handsome Hawkbrother nodded in complete agreement. 'If we cannot tell what it is and from whence it came,' Firesong said gravely, 'we cannot hope to judge whether it will fall upon us again, nor when.'

He glanced aside at Karal, who was busy jotting down notes. Karal had caught a couple of strange looks from him, but otherwise, he had said nothing about Karal's acquaintance with An'desha.

'And you don't think this will be an isolated incident.' Selenay's inflection made that a statement rather than a question.

'Absolutely,' Firesong replied. 'And before we can make any guesses as to what it may be, we need to know more about these physical effects—what they are, at what intervals—'

As the other mages chimed in, Elspeth and Treyvan, Hydona and Master Ulrich, and even An'desha venturing a word or two, it became obvious to Karal that for this, the rest of the Council and allies were superfluous. It must have been obvious to the Queen as well, for after regaining order and promising all of the resources needed for whatever the mages required, she ended the Council session and left the chamber to the mages and Prince Daren as her representative.

Karal remained as well, in his usual capacity, but he soon found himself drafted to serve another purpose altogether.

'We need a view frrrom above,' the male gryphon said, flatly. 'If therrre isss a patterrrn, we may only sssee it frrrom above.'

'That's true enough, old friend,' Darkwind agreed. 'But you should have a human with you. You two aren't familiar enough to the average Valdemaran that some poor farmer is going to be able to take the sight of you lightly. I'd hate to have to pick arrows out of your rump. And it should be someone with hands, and at least a mediocre talent at drawing sketches of what you see.'

'Rrr.' The gryphon ground his beak, then glanced around the table. His eye lighted on Karal.

'Him,' the gryphon said. 'He isss light and sssmall enough, and intelligent. He can take notesss. With yourrr perrrmisssion?' he added, nodding graciously at Ulrich.

The Priest looked the gryphon straight in the eye, as Karal shivered with mingled shock and apprehension. The gryphons wanted to fly with him? Fly? Like a bird?

'It is up to my secretary to speak for himself,' Ulrich said, with a nod to Karal. 'I have no objections, but rumors to the contrary, we of Karse do not make slaves of our subordinates. If he chooses not to volunteer, I shall not force him.'

'Well?' the gryphon asked bluntly, turning his huge eyes on Karal.

Karal swallowed hard. 'Ah—yes, sir,' he replied, managing not to stammer. 'If you think I will be of help. I've never done anything like this. I might only get in your way.'

I might die of fright before we go a hundred paces.

'Good. It isss done.' The gryphon turned his attention back to the other mages, leaving Karal feeling rather dazed.

And feeling as if he had somehow been bowled out of his path by a very heavy object. Now what have I gotten myself into?

He had occasion to ask himself that question again, a few marks later, when he saw the object that Treyvan casually referred to as 'the carry-net.' He had envisioned something a little more substantial; this was hardly more than a wicker laundry basket in a cradle of thin lines of rope, with laminated wood spars here and there above it. It didn't look as if it would take the weight of a child.

It sat in the middle of a patch of lawn in the gardens; there were no trees of any size here. He gathered that it would take the gryphons time to haul him above tree level. That did not comfort him much, either.

'It's stronger than it looks,' said Darkwind, who had come to the Karsite suite to fetch him.

Karal held back a grimace. 'I'm sure it is, sir,' he replied instead, politely. He was past having second thoughts about this expedition—now he was into fourth and fifth thoughts!