He picked his way across the paddies, taking time to be courteous to the farmers who bent so earnestly over their plants. One of them even stopped him to ask a few questions about one of his kin who lived in the Vale-and he could sense Nera's impatient glare even from the distant tunnel mouth.
He looked up, and sure enough, there was a shadow, just within the round entrance to the tunnel. He smiled sweetly at it and bent to answer the hertasi's questions, in detail and with extreme politeness. After all, he was the only Tayledras any of them saw regularly, and he did make a point to keep track of those Vale hertasi with relatives out here. They were so shy that they seldom asked him about their Vale kin, and it was only fair to give them a firm answer when they did inquire.
And if Nera says anything, that's exactly what I'll tell him.
When he reached the hill and set foot on the carefully graveled trail leading up the side, he debated on going first to Nera's tunnel, but Treyvan's Mindspoken hail decided him in favor of the gryphons instead.
It seemed that his charge was not only awake, but moving.
'Featherless son, your prize waits up here. She can walk, slowly, and there is more room for us up here. She did not ask what we were and does not seem Particularly frightened.' Well, that was a little disappointing. 'She must have known about you-or else she's seen gryphons before. So much for you playing monster. I'm on MY way up.' When he reached the top of the sun-gilded bluff, he found his charge reclining on another of the stuffed grass mats, neatly bracketed between the two gryphons. They were also reclining in the cool, short grass, wings half- open to catch the breeze coming over the top of the hill.
His eyes went back to the Changechild as if pulled there. She seemed even more attractive awake, with sense in those slit-pupiled eyes and life in the supple muscles. He was only too aware of how fascinating she was; her very differences from humankind were somehow more alluring than if she'd been wholly human.
She nodded a greeting to him, then shifted her position a little, so that she could watch him and the gryphons at the same time. He noticed that she moved stiffly, as if more than her muscles were hurt.
'Sssso, your charrge iss awake,' Treyvan said genially. 'We have been having interessssting conversssation. Nyarrra, thisss iss Darrkwind. ' She fixed him with an odd, unblinking gaze. 'I remember you. You saved me,' she said, finally, in a low, husky voice that had many of the qualities of a purr. 'From the mist. You helped me get out when I fell.
'After you saved the dyheli herd,' he pointed out.'It seemed appropriatethough I could not imagine why you aided them.' He lifted an eyebrow. 'I assume you had a reason.'
'I was fleeing my own troubles when I saw them.' She shrugged, gracefully. 'I am what I am,' she replied. 'A Changechild, and not welcome among the Birdkin. When I saw the dyheli trapped, it came to me that it would be good to free them, and also that your folk value them. If I freed them, perhaps the door might be open for one such as I. And also,' she added, looking thoughtful, 'I have no love for he who trapped them.'
'And who might that be?' Darkwind asked, without inflection. He could see what Treyvan had set up, even without a Mindspoken prompting; since the girl was not afraid of the gryphons, their planned positions would be reversed. they would be friendly, and he would be menacing.
A little harder to pull off, with her lounging on the ground like an adolescent male dream come to languid life, but certainly a good plan.
It seemed that she was perfectly willing to believe that he would be hostile to her, even with her sexual allure turned up to full force.
'My master,' she said, pouting a little at his coldness. 'Mornelithe Falconsbane.'
'Not a frrrriendly name,' Hydona said, with a little growl.
'Not a friendly man,' replied Nyara, with a toss of her head and a wince. 'Not a man at all, anymore, for all that he is male-or at least, very little human. He has worked more changes upon his own flesh than he has upon mine.'
'An Adept, then,' Treyvan said with cheerful interest. 'And one You did not carrre for, I take it? From yourrr hurtss, I would sssay he wasss even lesss kind than he wasss frriendly.' Nyara nodded, her supple lips tightened into a bitter line. 'oh, yes. was the creature upon which he attempted his changes, and if they Proved to his liking, he used them also. And he made his mistakes upon me, and often did not bother to correct them. Other things he did, too-beatings, and-' Her eyes filled with tears and she averted her head. 'I-he hurt me, once too often. That is all I would say.'
'So, you ran away from him, is that it?' Darkwind interrupted the attempt to play for sympathy rudely. 'How did you get away from someone as powerful as that? I don't imagine he let you simply walk away. And when you saw the dyheli, then what did you do?' She blinked away the tears, and rubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand, without raising her head. 'I have stolen little bits of magic-learning from time to time. I have a small power, you see. When Mornelithe was careless, I watched, I learned. I learned enough to bend the spells of lock and ward and slip free of his hold. Then I went north, where I have heard from Mornelithe's servants that there were Birdkin, that he hated.' She watched him out of the corner of her eyes. 'Do you think less of me, that I thought to use you? You are many, I am one. You have been the cause of some of my hurts, when he was angered with you and could not reach you. I thought-with Birdkin between me and him, he would ignore my flight and harry the Birdkin. He might even think I was with the Birdkin, and turn his anger on them. Then I saw the horned ones, and felt his magic
