Storm Warning

the disruption-waves hadn't gone, just because Ulrich was—

His eyes stung.

There was still work to do. He should get changed and do it.

'Altra, you ought to stay here and rest.' The fur under his hand felt harsh and brittle, and Altra looked in poor shape, as if the events of yesterday had completely depleted him. 'I'll be back after I find out what everyone else is doing.'

'Everyone else—the mages and the Prince, that is—is—are?—coming here,' Firesong said from the doorway. Karal's head snapped up and he started; he hadn't heard anything at all to indicate that Firesong was in the hallway. 'With an unknown agent somewhere in the Palace, the others are reluctant to trust that he or she might not be somehow listening. The ekele is safe enough; I supervised every bit of the building myself, and before you arrived I checked for more such little gifts as were distributed yesterday.'

The Hawkbrother entered the room and sank down on his haunches beside the pallet that Karal and Altra shared. He studied Karal for a very long time without saying a word; Karal didn't say anything either. He was too tired, and too grief-laden to play at verbal fencing with the Healing Adept. If Firesong wanted to know something, then he could damned well ask it.

'I think I understand, now,' Firesong said, out of the blue.

'What?' Still less was Karal ready to trade non sequiturs.

'What An'desha sees in you.' Firesong continued to sit on his heels, watching Karal measuringly.

Karal traded him back look for look. Firesong was baiting him, and he was not going to rise to it. Maybe the Hawkbrother meant well, trying to distract him from his sorrow, but he'd chosen a bad tactic to use.

'Talia wanted to talk with you and—' Firesong hesitated, then went gamely on. 'She had already spoken with me. An'desha is in the midst of a crisis, she thinks; he is afraid of setting his feelings free, and he is afraid of losing control of himself if he keeps examining those 'Ma'ar' memories. Evidently they are the most powerful and the most seductive of all. Falconsbane was mad, purely and simply, but Ma'ar was as close to sane as anyone of his ilk is ever likely to be. He had reasons and rationalizations for everything he did, and I suppose that is what makes his memories so seductive.' Firesong shrugged. 'An'desha is afraid of much, and I have lost patience with his timidity. Frankly, I do not think he is going to be of much use to us unless he can face what he has inside him without being afraid of it, and I know he will not be of much use—ah—to us, if he keeps shutting off how he feels.'

'That's what you told Talia?' Karal asked.

'And now you,' Firesong confirmed. 'Now, more than ever, we cannot afford to have anyone handicapped, and at the moment An'desha is like a hooded falcon.'

'Or a racehorse with hobbles and blinders.' Karal nodded. 'Let me think about this.'

'Fair enough.' Firesong stood; today he had chosen to dress all in white, as if to represent the winter that drew nearer with every passing day. 'I—I am not always this insensitive. If I had a choice, I would not have mentioned it until you were feeling better. It is a burden you could do without.'

'But we don't have the time for sensitivity,' Karal acknowledged. 'I understand.'

'You can bathe in the pools below,' the mercurial mage said then, changing the subject completely. 'There is food in the kitchen. The others will be here shortly.'

And with that, he turned in a swirl of long sleeves and crystal-bead fringe, vanishing as silently as he had arrived.

Food. No, he still didn't want to even think about food. Nor about all the times that Ulrich had teased him about how much he ate—

Wait. This is all wrong. I should think about things like that. He should remember as much as he could; there was good advice buried in nearly everything that Ulrich had told him, and now he was going to have to glean as much of it out of his memories as he could.

:He used to offer me cat-mint, you know, as a kind of joke, as if it would affect me as it does a real cat.:

Altra looked up at him from the pallet.

'And what did you do?' Karal asked obediently.

:Asked him to make it into tea, and serve it in a civilized fashion.: Altra sighed. :It was funny at the time.: