find a place for them on the Plains, if they could not find one here, or chose not to dwell here. We did not expect them to come so soon, or we would have told you long before they arrived.' He turned to fix one of the Kaled'a'in spokesmen with an acidic glare. 'You were not supposed to arrive until midsummer!' The Kaled'a'in shrugged. 'So it goes.'
'She told you?' one of the most ardent opponents said to Kra'heera, feebly.
'We are here to stand as proof of Her word,' one of the veiled ones said, in a strange voice that sounded as if it was coming from the bottom of a well. 'Although we are not wont to appear to any save our own.
She sent us to prove to you doubters that She approves. Unless you choose to doubt us as well.' The Tayledras in question paled, and shook his head. Kra'heera snorted, and turned back to the Council. 'We have been doing what we can, within the limits of Her decree and our own resources, to give you help with your troubles,' he told them, sharply. 'So, I think it little enough to grant our brothers their request, given that they will help us all deal with this Great Beast, our enemy! And so, too, does She think!' Skif, who was standing near Starblade with Nyara at his hand, blinked, as if he had suddenly realized something. 'Now I know where I saw you!' he said to one of the black-clad Shin'a'in. 'Not just at the ruins-you were out in the forest, when we were hunting for Nyara!' The Shin'a'in shrugged. 'Some of us,' she said. 'Two or three.
Keeping an eye on our younger sister, as She asked us to, so that we could vouch for her to you as well. The rest-' she chuckled. 'The rest of us have been sending the Falconsbane little trinkets, and harassing his borders, to keep his mind puzzling over things with no meaning, and to distract him from your doings as much as we could.'
'It is no coincidence that we are black riders upon black horses, little sister,' said the voice in her head again 'the Falconsbane knows of your enemy to the north and east-knows that you and yours are white riders. We simply counterfeited something he would expect if that enemy of yours were courting or challenging him; gave him something to think upon, a dangling carrot, as it were, with as many misdirections as we could manage.' Elspeth stuffed her hand in her mouth to keep from giggling with a kind of giddy relief. The Shin'a'in had been teasing and tormenting Falconsbane. No wonder they'd been able to do as much as they had been! No wonder it seemed as if Falconsbane's attention was divided!
She wondered why they'd been doing this, but whys didn't really matter at the moment, only that they had.
She turned her attention back to the Council meeting, but after that, there was very little debate-and a great deal of constructive planning.
The plan was set; they were about to put it into motion. While most of the gryphons frolicked in the Vale, and barbarically beautiful Kaled'a'in occupied the attentions of most of k'sheyna, the Council of Elders had already listened to and given consent to what the little 'war council' had put together. Surely Selenay would have had a fit if she'd known what her daughter's part in this was to be. Thank all the gods that Gwena had decided to keep discreetly silent on the subject, telling Rolan only that Elspeth's studies 'continued.' Well-they did. Sort o The gryphons-those dozen or so of the wing of thirty that were full mages, at any rate-were going to solve one problem for them. With seven pairs making the rounds of Falconsbane's web of power, the work of weakening his power- threads should be done between sunset and sunrise, easily. Under the cover of darkness, they were less likely to be spotted from below.
Nyara was going to be the arrow striking for Falconsbane's heart.
That was a task Elspeth did not envy her, and she could not imagine how the Changechild managed to be so calm about it. Perhaps it was Need's steadying effect. Perhaps it was because she knew that if she betrayed any nervousness, Skif would probably fall to pieces.
Meanwhile, as Nyara crept closer and closer to her father's stronghold, she and Darkwind got to play target to distract him, if they could.
The Shin'a'in could no longer play that role; he had started to look for them, and had laid traps for them that would catch them. They had no magic to disarm those traps, not as Darkwind and Elspeth had. The leshya'e Kal'enedral would be occupied in another way; helping Kra'heera and Kethra, confusing Falconsbane's Farsight and Farvision spells with their shamanic magic, so that he would not See the newcomers to the Vale, and the special energies of all the new mages there. That was vital to their purposes; if Falconsbane had any idea who and what had arrived to augment the powers of k'sheyna, he would not hesitate, he would throw everything at them that he had, knowing their massed power could take him. Even with the help of the Kaled'a'in, there was no one in all of the new Council who thought the Vale and the three peoples there would survive that unscathed.
So Darkwind and Elspeth were on their own in supplying a needed distraction. Without distractions, Falconsbane might well notice the gryphons, Nyara, or both. If he noticed them-She shuddered. Better not to think about it.
With Need's help, she had fashioned a blade that would counterfeit Need at a distance. It had no real power whatsoever-like the sword meant to select the rulers of Rethwellan, all it did was burn mage-energy in a spectacular fashion, radiating power to anyone with Mage-Sight.
Gwena would supply the energy for that blade. Elspeth would go imperfectly shielded, at least on the surface, looking as ill-trained as possible.
Darkwind would simply be himself. That alone should bring Falconsbane down on them.
They would ride north and west, skirting the edge of what was probably Falconsbane's territory, as if they were heading in search of something.
Any time they met with one of the enemy's traps, they would destroy it. Any time they found one of his power~sinks, they would drain it. Meanwhile Firesong and the Kaled'a'in mages would be moving the proto-Gate, but with none of the speed they were capable of.
Darkwind hoped that Falconsbane would assume the obvious-that tthheeryefworeerchetrwyionugldtootdil stract him from diverting the proto-Gate-an ov iur something else they were distracting him from.
'I really ought to be used to playing target by now,' she said, as sh tightened Gwena's girth and prepared to ride out into the snow and cold with Darkwind. They looked like a pair of fancy-dress Heralds, the two of them; he wore winter scout gear, which was just as white as any Herald's uniform, and she had finally pried her Whites out of the grip of the disapproving hertasi. Gwena was champing at her nonexistent bit, ready to go-and Darkwind was going to be riding Firesong's very dear friend, the dyheli-mage, Brytha.
What was even more amazing than a dyheli mage, was the fact that Brytha had instantly volunteered for this, before Darkwind could ask any of the other stags to carry him.
'I am not much of mage,' Brytha had said, in the stilted thought-forms of his kind. 'I channel power, like
