He flung himself back down upon his couch, chewed the last pain-spiced flesh from a former servant's thighbone, and began to plan.
Firesong deemed most of the Vale too near the Heartstone to work in, and although Darkwind agreed with him, this tiny clearing at the far end was a damned awkward spot to get to. It had been made as a trystingspot, but had gotten overgrown. To reach it, they had to wind their way through tangles of vines and bushes, only to discover when they got there that most of the clearing itself had been eaten up by encroaching vegetation. 'So, clear it.' Firesong said casually, and sat down on a stone to await the completion of their task. Darkwind seethed with resentment that he held closely, permitting none of it to slip. He had thought that Elspeth tested his temper; he had never thought that one of his own people would bring it so close to the snapping point.
Except, perhaps, his father.
The Adept did not even watch them; he called in his snow-white firebird and fed it flowers and bits of fruit while they worked, clearing the vegetation by hand since using magic would have been fairly stupid for so simple a task. 'Good enough,' Firesong said at last, when the earth of the clearing had been laid bare, and all the seats were free of vines and overhanging bushes. 'Now, we return to basics. Darkwind, you will tap into the ley-line beneath us.' Back to basics? For what? Or doesn't he trust our training?
'Stop,' Firesong said, with calm self-assurance, as Darkwind obeyed him; he grounded himself carefully, centered his personal power, and prepared himself to grasp for the power of the ley-lines. 'What are you doing?
I I am grounding myself,' Darkwind told him, not adding, as any fool could see, for it was obvious that Firesong had some deeper intention in mind. Sunlight trickled through the leaves above them, making patches of brilliance in the Adept's hair. This morning Firesong wore blue, the same blue as his eyes. He looked good enough to have his will of any female in the Vale, and no few of the males.
'Why?' the Healing Adept asked, flicking his hair over his shoulder with one hand. 'Why are you grounding yourself and your shields?'
'Because-because that is the way that I was taught. That-' he groped after long-forgotten lessons '-if I am not grounded when I reach for the lee-line power, it will fling me away by the force of its current.' His resentment continued to seethe at being forced to dredge up those long-ago lessons. What difference did it make? It was something you did.
'All well and good,' Firesong replied, with that same maddening calm, and a smile that said volumes. 'But what if you release your ground after you have the power? What, then? And why must you always sink your ground into the earth below you? Why not elsewhere?' Darkwind only gaped at him, unable to answer questions that ran counter to everything he had ever been taught.
'I will show you.' The young Adept centered and grounded faster than Darkwind could blink; seized upon the ley-line beneath them as if he owned the deed to it. He made the energies his own, feeding them into his shields with an ease that called up raw envy in Darkwind's heart.
Then cast loose the ground. 'Now, strike me. Full force, Darkwind, trust me.' The shields stayed where they were, contrary to everything Darkwind supposed would happen.
Darkwind struck-with more force than he had consciously intended, all of his pent-up frustration going into the blow. All of his fury and bruised pride combined to make the blow one that would have done harm if it had properly connected. It should have completely shattered Firesong's shields, the outer one, at least.
But instead of meeting the blow, the shields, no longer anchored by the ground, slid aside. Darkwind watched in complete shock as his angry blast did no more than to bow the shields slightly. The energy of his strike was neither absorbed, nor reflected; it was deflected, routed around the outside, skittering away in bright eddies of flame. Nothing touched the mage inside.
'This is dangerous, cousin,' Firesong warned, smugly cradled within his untouched shields. 'A clever mage will see at once that without the ground protecting the essential flow of magic energy from the line to myself, that tie is vulnerable. A clever mage could also force the shields toward me, then instead of striking a blow, could lance through them at the nearest, thinnest, weakest point. But until he does that, I sit untouched, allowing all his force to spend itself uselessly. I need not even fear the contamination of his magic, for it never touches me or my shields.' To Darkwind's great chagrin, Elspeth nodded, her face aglow with admiration. 'A clever mage could also create a whirlwind of edged magebolts around you,' she pointed out. 'Those things can shred a shield in next to no time. And although they can't touch you physically, that would leave you open to attack.'
'Ah, but that whirlwind would have no effect, Wingsib,' he said, turning a dazzling smile upon her that caused a shaft of jealousy to stab his 'cousin.' Darkwind chewed his lip and looked away, at the tangle of vines behind one of the empty seats. 'A whirlwind that would erode a grounded shield would only cause this one to spin with it. It would find purchase but spin freely. Since'I' am not connected to the shield, it would have no effect on me.'
'I see.' She prodded the shield with a bit of power, experimentally, and Darkwind saw for himself how the shield simply bent away from it.
'Interesting. So if the enemy doesn't know that this is possible, you can let him wear himself out against you.' Firesong imploded the shield and collapsed it down around himself.
'Aye, and a bit of acting, and he'd continue to do so, as I looked 'worried.' Now-this is the trickier task. Grounding in something other than the earth.' His face sobered for a moment. 'Take heed, cousin. This is something only a powerful Adept can attempt, and never with impunity.
I think that you can do this, but it is very dangerous.' Once again, Firesong centered, grounded, and shielded. all within the blink of an eye. To Darkwind, he looked perfectly 'normal,' insofar as a mage of his power could ever look 'normal.' But then he took a closer look.
'Where is your ground?' he asked, perplexed.
'You'd like to know, wouldn't you?' the young mage taunted, 'Find it! You already know it is not sunk into the earth at my feet. Look elsewhere! Have I somehow grounded into the air? Perhaps I have only created an illusion of being grounded.' Elspeth only shook her head, baffled. Darkwind was not prepared to give up so easily. He studied Firesong carefully, ignoring the mage's mocking smile. Finally he acted on a hunch, and moved his Mage-Sight out of the real world and onto the Planes of Power. There he saw it-and a cold sweat broke out all over him at the Adept's audacity.
He stared at Firesong and could not believe that the mage simply stood there, calm and unmoved. As if he did this sort of thing every day.
Maybe he did. If so, he was the bravest man that Darkwind had ever seen. Or the most foolhardy. Or even
