and it had diverted to him-and through him. He had only been in the way. The second strike was approaching differently; it struck at him, hurt him, but lost little of its power, continuing to its true target.
That target was below him, in the Vale.
Starblade-He Saw the Adept taking the force of the blow and falling to his knees while his bondbird screamed in anger and frustration; Saw him recover.
Even as he folded his wings and dove to add his own small-and probably futile-strength, he Saw Kethra fling herself physically over the Adept, and magically join her power to his. Then he watched in astonishment as Starblade gave up control to Kethra, letting her spread the force of the attack over both of them.
It is Falconsbane!
A third blow came, and then a fourth; the pair sagged beneath the force of the brutal attack, their shields eroding. Kethra cried out, face toward the sky, fists clenched, transmuting the attack-energies into another form. A circle of intense cold spread out from her, covering everything it touched with a thick layer of frost. Furniture split and shattered as it was overcome; drinking vessels and pitchers burst; the very structure of the ekele was warping and cracking as it was engulfed in bitter cold.
Falconsbane Hyllarr shrieked in agitation and abandoned his perch, falling to the floor and backing against the wall of the ekele as the lethal white circle spread. Already, Tre'valen knew the victims were in pain from the deadly cold-which told him that withstanding the effects of the attack must have been worse even than its transmutation.
Even without Foresight, the next few moments were writ clear for anyone to see. Help would not come from the rest of the Vale in time.
Falconsbane had been merely testing their strength. The next blow would rip through their defenses, and surely channel through from Starblade inside the Vale, into the Vale-And pour into the Heartstone, shattering it, and sear the country for leagues. The devastation would kill everyone, and unleash a score of wild ley-lines to tear through the landscape.
I must stop this-He knew he would die.
It did not matter. Too many would be hurt: Here.
He Looked up; Dawnfire was above him in her hawk-form, a blazing creature of glory. She had more than enough power to shield Starblade from the next attack. Whether he would survive the encounter, he could not know, but his brethren must be saved. And here, with him, was Dawnfire...She had the power. He had the knowledge.
'Now! Together!.. he cried, and folded his wings to plummet down.
She fell beside him, both of them rushing just ahead of the blast of power that they Felt hot on their necks...Firesong took up the drum and faced the Heartstone, his fingers pattering a little anticipatory run on the taut skin. Darkwind shook out his muscles. a chill of nervousness running down his spine. This was only to be an exploratory venture, a preliminary, to see what the three of them could do with the rogue Stone.
'Haiee!' It was not so much a call, as a mental shriek of pain. And Darkwind knew immediately whose pain it was.
'Father!' He Reached for power, blindly.
But Firesong reacted first, reaching, clenching fists until his knuckles whitened, flinging the tightest shield Darkwind had ever seen around the Heartstone.
Darkwind had no time for anything other than a gasp of outrage. It was Starblade and Kethra who needed protection, not the damned Stone!
Firesong fell to his knees, hands spread wide, muscles straining as he built shield after shield around the Stone. The Stone flared and a dozen fire-red tendrils stabbed out toward Starblade's ekele, to be stopped short by Firesong's shields. They sought purchase in the inner shields, and half of them penetrated; Firesong built another layer and another, sucking in Power from all around him.
The tendrils were all reaching out to Starblade.
Darkwind's Sight clearly showed him the next huge fire-bolt coming in through the Vale's shields. Streaking down before it were two sunbright vorcel-hawks. They dove wing to wing, turned as one above Starblade and Kethra's ekeleand caught the fire-bolt together. Power flared around his father and his lover, and then all was still, except for the hoarse protests of Hyllarr and a subsiding thrum from the Heartstone. Firesong constricted the shields, his eyes closed tightly in concentration. The tendrils receded Darkwind reached his power to Elspeth, without conscious thought of it-and found her doing the same toward him. They wove a counterattack, Lanced it up into the sky-and let it sputter off into nothing.
The enemy-Mornelithe Falconsbane, he knew-had aborted his remaining attack and dispersed its power into a huge, flickering mantle over the Vale.
There was no path for a counterattack to follow.
Mornelithe Falconsbane had escaped again.
*Chapter Nineteen - Nyara and Skif
'That was Falconsbane!' Elspeth gasped, climbing to her feet and swaying in her tracks with shock at Darkwind's side. 'That was FalconsbaneI know it was! What stopped him?'
'I don't know,' Darkwind replied. 'I can't tell, Elspeth.' His head rang with the echoes of power, and there was no reading anything subtle this close to the Stone. He stepped across the pass-through on the warded threshold that sealed the Stone away from the rest of the Vale, and sent out a fan of questing energy.
The trace was clear and clean, though quickly fading, and it ran back to a center that was not disturbed, but oddly empty.
No-more than empty-When he realized what he felt, he recoiled and snapped up his own shields. Elspeth crossed the threshold, and Gwena appeared at her side.
