'Is it?' she asked raising one eyebrow, but otherwise keeping her expression sweetly innocent. 'You just heard a description of something that could have destroyed an entire garrison-a weapon Ancar deployed inside our borders, and without having to come within sight of Valdemar.
Protected Valdemar. What's likely to happen if he knows my every movement outside our borders?' She chuckled dryly. 'Kind of negates the benefit of being a moving target, I'd say.' Silence for a moment, while they thought that one over. 'Well,' said Prince Daren. 'What do you want to do?'
'My preference is to go alone,' she admitted. 'Basically, I'm safest if no one else knows where I am.' But the Prince shook his handsome head. 'No,' he said, with a touch of regret. 'If it were anyone else, that wouldn't be a problem-but not you. You may think you're expendable, but you're still the Heir right now. You can't go running off the face of the earth all alone. And there is one argument that applies to Talia that also applies to you. If you were taken, you could be used as a hostage as well.' Elspeth sighed, but nodded in agreement. 'That's true, Stepfather. I admit that I hadn't thought too much of that-but frankly, between Gwena and myself, I don't think we could be taken by anything but a small army.'
'There's always treachery,' Daren said firmly. 'You'll have to take at least one other person with you. And personally, I would suggest a Herald.'
'Someone responsible, capable-' said Father Ricard.
'Crafty and clever,' said Talia.
'Fine,' she agreed-and then, before they could engage in a till-dawn debate on exactly who she could take with her, said, 'But it's going to be Skif, or no one. There is no one in the entire Heraldic Circle who is better suited to watching my back.' She expected an explosion of argument; after all, given the fuss there had been over the rumors started simply by being in Skif's company, the Councilors should, one and all, roundly denounce such a notion.
And after they argued themselves into exhaustion, she just might be able to talk the Council into letting her have her own way and going out alone.
'Fine,' Selenay said, instantly. 'Skif is perfect. He's everything we could ask; responsible, capable, clever, crafty-' Lord Palinor laughed. 'Aye, and tricky, the young devil. Ancar wouldn't catch him napping, I'd wager.' And while Elspeth gawked, caught entirely flat-footed with surprise, every single one of the Councilors agreed to the choice she would have bet money they thought unsuitable. Before she quite realized what was happening, they approved her authority as negotiator for the Crown, approved her escort, and closed the session.
And began filing out, heading straight for their beds, while she stared at them, dumbfounded. Talia even patted her on the shoulder as she left, whispering, 'Good choice, kitten. I think it was the only thing that could have convinced them.' Finally she was alone in the Council Chamber, sitting back in her seat, still wondering what on earth had happened-staring at the guttering candle And wondering just who, exactly, had been outmaneuvered.
*Chapter Six DARKWIND
council meetings. Endless dithering about nothing, while we guardians dance with death out there on the border. And no help for us, either. If I could get anyone else to do this, I'd give up the Council seat in a heartbeat.
Darkwind pushed aside a tangle of vines covered with blue, trumpetshaped flowers and restrained himself from pulling the whole curtain of vegetation down in a fit of anger. It had been days-weeks-since his confrontations with his father and the Council, demanding that they do something about the situation of the Clan, of the scouts, and what had they done?
Nothing. Or rather, they had 'taken it under advisement.' They would 'weigh all the possible options.' They were 'studying the problem.' they're sitting on their backsides, afraid to do anything, that's what's really going on. Father won't let them act because he's afraid of what it will do to the Heartstone. And they still won't go outside k'sheyna for help.
Not that he had really expected anything else after the way Starblade had treated him- Really, when it came to anything important, especially where magic was concerned, the entire Council spoke with Starblade's I'll have to start considering those other plans of Dawnfire's, using the hertasi and some of the others. They've left us no choice; if we're going to guard them effectively, we'll have to use whatever allies we have.
And he didn't particularly care if pulling the hertasi away from their other duties left some of those jobs undone. So what if the Vale got a little more overgrown? It didn't look to him as if it would make much difference. And maybe if some of the Elders had to suffer a little, if their ekele went unrepaired and their gardens untended because the hertasi were out helping keep their Vale safer-well, maybe then they'd notice that there was something wrong with their little world. And maybe they'd decide that it might be a good idea to try and fix what was wrong.
I hope. But I'm not going to count on anything like sense out of them.
He took the shortest possible route to the pass out of the Vale, cutting down long-neglected paths until he reached the boundary and the shieldwall.
As he burst through a stand of wildly overgrown, flowering bushes, he saw Vree waiting for him in a tree growing just outside the mage-barrier.
