tenseness. 'Look, after all that, I need a soak. Come with me?' He smiled, and reached for her hand. She met him halfway. 'A good notion,' he replied clasping his warm hand around her cold one.
Moments later, they were side by side in the hot pool below her ekele.
She sighed as the heat and her own deliberate attempt to relax her muscles took effect, easing the stiffness and some of the pain.
It was very dark under the tree, and neither of them put up a magelight to illuminate the shadows. He was a silent presence in the water beside her; not touching her, but there nevertheless. Above them the ever-present breezes of the Vale stirred the leaves of the tree; somewhere in the distance, a bird sang for a moment, then fell silent. Or perhaps it was someone playing a flute.
Darkwind lifted a hand out of the water, and the sound of drops falling from it to the pool seemed very loud. Elspeth emptied her mind and let it drift, full of nothing but the sounds around her.
'Do you think he meant that?' Darkwind said, finally.
'Do I think who meant what?' she asked, lazily.
'Firesong. Do you think he meant what he said about-' Darkwind hesitated. '-about me?'
'Why?' she asked, fiercely. 'Because if you plan on taking him up on it,She sought desperately for the most absurd thing she could say. 'I'll scratch his big blue eyes out!' Darkwind laughed, and she let relief wash over her again. 'No, I do not plan on taking him up on it.'
'Good,' she replied. 'Because in a cat-fight, I'd win.'
'I believe you would,' he said lazily.
'That's because I'd cheat,' she continued.
'I know you would,' he chuckled.
Then she reached toward him and found his hand catching hers, pulling her toward him. She decided not to fight and let her body drift to his.
'You would do that for me?' he asked. 'Fight, cheat-'
'Well, fight, anyway. I'd only cheat if it was Firesong because he'd already be cheating.' He put his arm around her, and suddenly it was good just to rest her head on his chest and listen to the night.
'He probably would.' He took one or two deep breaths. 'I do not think that you need to worry about Firesong, however.' Another breath.
'Or shall I show you that, so that you truly believe me?'
'Please,' she said, surprising herself.
Then he surprised her.
Darkwind held Elspeth's hand, facing Iceshadow and Nightjewel across the circle, the Stone standing ominously in the middle, halfobscuring the other couple. To the right, Treyvan and Hydona faced the crazed surface of the Stone with no sign of trepidation; to the left, Starblade and Kethra stood, hand in hand, in a peculiar echo of Darkwind and Elspeth's own pose. In the middle of their carefully constructed circle was the Stone.
It showed its damage now, and not just to the inner eye. Trails of sullen red light crawled over its surface, strange little paths of lightning in miniature. Every line that could be severed from it, had been, and had been reattached to the node beneath the gryphons' lair. That had taken a full day, with a working team of the gryphons, Elspeth, and himself-and Firesong and Need.
He had been surprised when Firesong appeared with the blade in hand, he was amazed when the Adept actually used Need's powers. The two couples had held a warding about the circle, as the Adept and the blade together severed all but two of the remaining ley-lines and relocated them to the node beneath the lair. Firesong was not inclined to explain how he could use magics so openly feminine, and Need held her peace when Darkwind questioned the Adept. Elspeth was just as astonished.
It was Nyara herself who had provided the answer, with an odd shyness, when he asked her.
'He is balanced,' she had told Darkwind. 'He is completely balanced between his masculine and feminine sides. So even as he can use man's magic, he can also use woman's magic, magic keyed only to females.'
' Such as what Need holds?' he had asked.
She had nodded. 'And since she is willing to do so, she can feed her power through his feminine side. She would not be able to do that, were he not so balanced.' So although Nyara did not have the mage-strength to enter the circle and wield the blade effectively in this case, Need was there anyway, and lending her power to the isolating of the Stone.
Falconsbane, thank the gods, remained quiet during that day, and
during the day that it took for Firesong-alone, completely unaided-to create the proto-Gate from the Stone's remaining power. He would permit no one else within the shielded area. It was too dangerous, he said, and something about his unusual grimness made Darkwind believe him completely. Darkwind and Elspeth took a patrol on the edge of the Vale, encountering nothing more dangerous than a lone wyrsa, and returned to linger outside the shielded area, waiting for Firesong to emerge.
That was when he finally realized just what it meant to be a mage as powerful as Firesong. What it meant to be a Healing Adept, in terms of personal cost.
As the sun set, Firesong staggered across the invisible pass-through at the boundary and fell into their arms. No longer the arrogant, selfassured young peacock; he was drained, shaking, drenched with sweat.
His very hair hung lank.and limp with exhaustion. He was hardly able to stand, much less walk.
They held him up, Darkwind's heart in his throat, until he told them in a hoarse voice that he was all right. 'Just-tired,' he had croaked.
'Very-tired. I have-called help.' The white dyheli that had brought him to the Vale appeared at that moment
