much the worse, Falconsbane continued to work through me, keeping the Clan from reaching for help, keeping the Adepts still remaining from stabilizing the Stone, and keeping those who knew me well at a distance.' Starblade averted his eyes from Darkwind, but the reference was plain enough. 'He hoped, I think, to wear us down until he could penetrate our defenses at his leisure and usurp the Stone and the power it still
held. But he had not reckoned on our clever allies, the gryphons-and he had not reckoned on the courage and good sense of my son.'
'He couldn't have guessed Nyara would turn against him, either,' Skif put in, with a hint of pride.
'No-nor the appearance of you and all that you represented,' Tre'valen told him, his eyes showing a hint of sardonic humor. 'To tell you true, there was an unexpected marshaling of powers from all sides.
Falconsbane certainly did not plan on that, nor the involvement of the Shin'a'in. That was his downfall.'
'If he lives still, he cannot be prospering,' Iceshadow put in.
'Shin'a'in arrows found a mark in him; that much we know. And he has lost much in the way of power and creatures.'
'I wonder at that; Shin'a'in do not often miss in such attacks, their Goddess oft assists the arrow to the mark. But, despite that, I doubt that he lives,' Starblade sighed. 'I think that the arrows of the Shin'a'in found their mark; that he fled only to die. There has been no sign of him or his creatures, and his escape was by blood-magic... with his own blood. That is an act of finality among mages.' Elspeth shrugged. 'I don't know one way or the other about him, but the point, it seems to me, is that he has left the Vale in one snarled mess.' Starblade nodded, and smoothed his braided hair back behind his ears. 'My son has said he will teach you in the use of your Mage-Gift; that is a good thing, I think-but he will need to relearn much as he teaches you. It would be hazardous for you to do much practice of that learning within the Vale itself; though you would be protected from threats that are outside the Vale, the Stone is yet dangerous.' Gwena stamped a hoof and snorted agreement, bobbing her head vigorously.
Elspeth nodded; she felt the same. Starblade bore many years' experience, and knew the magics involved as only a Tayledras Adept could. Better to err on the side of safety.
'I think,' Darkwind said slowly, 'that we may practice outside the Vale for some time in relative safety. It will only be as we approach the greater Adept-magics that we will need the shieldings of the Vale.'
'By then, the Council and I should have come to some decision on the Stone,' Iceshadow told them. 'Either we shall have begun to heal it ourselves, or we shall have found a way to deal with it.' He glanced at Elspeth, with a certain amount of expectation in the look. She sighed, knowing what that look meant. 'If you're wondering if You can count on my help with this Heartstone of yours, I do remember those oaths I just took,' she said, with a little shake of her head. 'I can't say I like the idea of mucking about with that much power gone wrong, but what I can do, I will.' Both Iceshadow and Starblade gave her nods of approval, but she wasn't quite done. 'What I need to know, here, is this-how much more trouble from outside can we expect while we're doing all this? Starblade, I hope you'll forgive my asking this, but You were a point of weakness before. just how vulnerable are you to more meddling?' Starblade wet his lips with the tip of his tongue before replying. 'To meddling-I would say not at all. Even if Falconsbane still lives, and as I said, I do not think that he does, Iceshadow and Kethra have changed all the paths that made me open to him. To have me so his slave again, he would have to have me in his hand. He would break me faster-for I am that much more fragile than I was-but he would have to have me to break me.'
'And?' Elspeth raised an eyebrow.
'And I shall not leave this Vale until I walk through the Gate to a new one,' he told her. 'I have been broken and am mending, but I am still weak to be broken again, and I will not chance it, for tuhe sake of all of us.' Elspeth nodded, satisfied, but Skif frowned. 'What about attack?' he asked. 'Are you weaker to attack than-say-Iceshadow~' Starblade looked mildly surprised by the question. 'I-think not,' he said immediately. 'The weaknesses I have still require someone who knows me to exploit, and to have me, if not within physical touching, certainly within sight.' Skif glanced over at Tre'valen, who shrugged. 'The only magics I know intimately are those of the Goddess,' he said. 'I am of no help nor hindrance in these things. These are good things to know, Starblade.
I thank you for telling them.'
'I can't think of any more questions,' Skif admitted. 'I'm no mage, and I'm no help to you. Frankly, I'll be a lot more help in finding Nyara and that damned sword she carries.'
'Now that I need to know something of,' Starblade said immediately.
And Elspeth found herself the focus of every eye in the little clearing.
She fidgeted a little, uncomfortably. 'I don't know as much about Need as I'd like,' she replied, reluctantly. 'She predates the Mage Wars, I think. At least, I didn't recognize anything she showed us when she let us into her memories. So she's either very old, or from awfully far away.'
'I would say, very old,' Darkwind opined, toying with a feather in a gesture uncannily-and probably unconsciously-like his father. 'I would say, she is as old as the oldest artifact I have ever seen. She gave me the impression of great age, as great as any of the things I have stumbled upon in the ruins.' Elspeth tilted her head back and took a deep breath of the cool, flowerscented air, using the moment to think. 'What I do know is she was a member of some kind of quasi-religious order, with gods I never heard of-male and female twins.' She gave the Hawkbrothers a glance of inquiry; all three of them shrugged as if the reference meant nothing to them either. 'Well, even though at one time she'd been a warrior, she called herself a Magesmith.' Elspeth closed her eyes for a moment, to call up the memories that Need had shared with her and Skif. 'As to how she became a sword in the first place-someone attacked the Order while she was gone-wiped out the older members, enslaved the young girls, stole everything they could carry. The only ones left were Need, who was too old to fight, and a young apprentice. So Need took a special sword that she'd forged spells into, spells of healing and luck-and forged herself into it as well.'
'How~' Iceshadow asked, genuinely interested.
Elspeth shook her head. 'It wasn't something I'd have done. She did some kind of preparation, then she killed her human body with the blade so that she could move her spirit into the sword. Then as long as the girl carried her, Need could give her both the skills of a fighter and of a Mage- Smith.' All three of the Adepts looked startled at that. 'How could that be?' Starblade asked.
'Well, she could operate on her own as a mage, or through her bearer,' Elspeth told him. 'Or she could direct her bearer, if the bearer was Mage-Gifted-that was how she worked with me, after I refused to let her take me over. But for fighting skills, you had to let her completely take control of your body.' She grimaced. 'I'm afraid I wouldn't let her, artifact, mage, or no. She didn't much care for my attitude.' A hint of smile appeared around Starblade's mouth; Darkwind grinned openly. 'Why am I not surprised by that?' the younger mage said, to no one in particular.
