attack, he managed to trap Dawnfire's spirit in the body of her bondbird, and slay her human body along with the spirit of the bird.
On discovering that the young gryphlets had been contaminated by Falconsbane's power, Nyara confessed her hand in the matter, and was confined in a corner of the gryphon's lair.
Elspeth, Skif, and the rest arrived at the borders of the k'sheyna territory, pursued by Falconsbane's creatures. Darkwind and the gryphons came to their rescue, and recognized both the sword and the Companions for what they were. Unsure of what to do with them, Darkwind led them back to the lair. There, Skif met Nyara and fell in love with her-and the fascination was mutual.
Things that Nyara knew and confessed proved to Darkwind that his father was in thrall to the evil Adept. He succeeded in breaking Falconsbane's hold on his father and in destroying the creature through which the control had come, but that alerted Falconsbane to the fact that they now knew who and what he was and, presumably, what he had planned. He permitted Dawnfire to overhear that he was planning to meet with Ancar of Hardorn to discuss an alliance-then allowed her 'accidental' escape.
The name meant nothing to Dawnfire, but a great deal to the Heralds.
This was their worst fear realized; that Ancar should unite with a truly powerful Adept-But Need, who had centuries of experience recognizing trickery, pointed out that Dawnfire's 'escape' was a little too easy-and that they would be leaving both the Gryphlets and possibly even herself unguarded to disrupt a spurious 'meeting.' So the allies planned a reverse ambush; lying in wait for Falconsbane when he came to take the young ones.
Falconsbane was cannier than they thought; he detected the ambush at the last moment, and mounted an effective attempted to take control of the Gryphlets, but Need deflected the magic, and turned it against him, using it to purge the unsuspecting young ones of his taint. He attacked Skif, but before he could kill the Herald, he was attacked by his daughter Nyara, in the first open act of defiance in her life. Nevertheless) Falconsbane's Powerful magics and allies succeeded in taking down both Companions and trapping Hydona.
All would have been lost but for the tenacity of Darkwind and the gryphons-and the intervention of the Shin'a'in Swordsworn, the black clad servants of the Shin'a'in and Tayledras Goddess, who had been secret players in events all along. They surrounded the combatants and forced Falconsbane to a stalemate.
Snarling in rage, the Adept escaped-barely-leaving behind a trail of blood and the survivors' hope that a Shin'a'in arrow had been fatal.
But the intervention of the Shin'a'in was not complete. The Swordsworn and the two shaman took up Dawnfire-who, trapped in a bird's body, was fated to fade and 'die,' leaving nothing of her human self behind. Before the eyes of the Heralds and the rest, the Goddess herself intervened on Dawnfire's behalf, transforming her into a shining. Avatar in the shape of a vorcel hawk the symbol of the shamans' clan, And in the awed confusion afterwards Nyara vanished, taking Need with her-at the blade's parting insistence that Nyara required her more than Elspeth did.
But the Clan was united once more, and Darkwind agreed to take up his long-denied powers again. to teach Elspeth the ways of magic, that she might return home an Adept, So dawns the new day...
*Chapter One - Elspeth and Gwena
Elspeth rubbed her feather-adorned temples, hoping that her fears and tensions would mercifully go, and leave her mind in peace for just once today. this isn't what I expected. I wish this were over.
Herald Elspeth, Heir to the Crown of Valdemar, survivor of a thousand and one ceremonies in her twenty-six years, brushed nervously at a nonexistent spot on her tunic and wished she were anywhere but here.
'Here' was the southern edge of the lands held by the Tayledras, whom Valdemarans spoke of as the fabled Hawkbrothers. 'Here' was a roughwalled cave, presumably hewn by magic, just outside the entrance to k'sheyna Vale. 'Here' was where Elspeth the Heir was stewing in her own juices from anxiety.
Elspeth was still getting used to these people and their magic. As far as she could tell the cave hadn't been there before yesterday.
Then again-the walls didn't have that raw, new look of freshly cut stone, and the sandy, uneven floor seemed ordinary. Even the entrance, a jagged break in the hillside. appeared to be perfectly natural, and healthy plants lined the edges. Greenery grew anywhere roots could find a pocket of soil to hold onto' And the smell was as damp and musty as any cave she'd ever seen during her Herald's training.
Maybe she was wrong. The cave might always have been there, but its entrance may just have been well- hidden, Now that she thought about it, that would be a lot more like the style only Hawkbrother she knew, Darkwind k'sheyna. He wasn't inclined to waste time or energy on anything-much less waste power. He took a dim view of profligate use of magery something he'd made very clear to Elspeth in the first days of their acquaintance. If something could be done without using magic, that was the way he'd do it-hoarding his powers and doling them out In . miserly driblets.
That was something she didn't understand at all, when ou had magic shouldn't You use it?
Darkwind didn't seem to think so.
Neither did the Chronicles she had read, of herald-Mage Vanyel's time and before. incredible things were Possible to an Adept-and that, of course, was why she was here. If she'd dared, she'd have used her powers now to shape a more comfortable seat than the rock she perched on, just inside the cave's entrance.
That at least would have given her something to do, instead of working herself up into a fine froth of nerves over the coming ,, . ceremony.
She glanced resentfully at skif; he looked perfectly callm as if preoccupied. His dark eyes were focused somewhere inwards and if he was at all nervous, none of it showed on his square-jawd face' In fact, the only sign that he wasn't a statue was that he Would run a hand through his curly brown hair once in a while.
Elspeth sighed . It figured. He was probably so busy thinking about Nyara that none of this mattered to him. The only thing that being made a Tayledras Wingbrother Meant to him was that he'd be able to stay 'in Hawkbrother territory for as long as it took to find her.
Assuming the sword Need let him find Nyara.
The blade not Only used magic well, it-she-was a person, a woman who'd long ago traded her aging fleshly body for the steel form of an ensorceled sword. It wasn't a trade Elspeth would have made. Need could only hear,
