se, feel, through the senses of her bearer, and in times when her bearer wasn't particularly Mindgifted or when she had no bearer at all. she had drifted off into 'sleep.' She'd been asleep for a long time before Elspeth's teacher, Herald Captain Kerowyn, had passed her on to her pupil. But something-very probably something Elspeth herself had done-had finally roused her from that centuries-long sleep. Once she was awake, Need was a hundred times more formidable than she had been asleep.
She had quite a mind of her own, too. She had decided, once Elspeth was safely in the hands of the Hawkbrothers and the immediate troubles were over, that the Changechild Nyara required her far more than Elspeth did. So when Nyara chose to vanish into the wild lands surrounding the Tayledras Vale, Need evidently persuaded the catlike woman to take the sword with her.
That left Elspeth on her own, to follow her original plan; find a teacher for Valdemarans with mage-talent, and get training hersellf. Among the few hundred-odd things she hadn't planned on was being made a member of a Tayledras Clan. How did I get myself into this? she asked herself.
'Willingly and with open eyes,' her Companion Gwena replied, the sarcastic acidity of her Mindspeech not at all diluted by the fact that it was a mere whisper. 'You could have gone looking for Kero's great-uncle, the way you were supposed to. He's an Adept and a teacher. You could have followed Quenten's very clear directions, and he would have taken you as a pupil. If necessary, I would have made certain he took you as a student. But no, you had to follow your own path, you-.Elspeth considered slamming mental barriers closed against her Companion and decided against it. If she did, Gwena would win the argument by default.
'I told you I wasn't going to be herded to some predestined fate like a complacent ewe,' she snapped back, just as acidly, taking Gwena entirely by surprise. The Companion tossed her mane as her head jerked up with the force of the mental reply, her bright blue eyes going blank with surprise.
'I also told you,' Elspeth continued with a little less force and just a touch of satisfaction, 'that I wasn't going to play Questing Hero just to suit You and the rest of your horsey friends. I will do my best by Valdemar, but I'm doing it my own way. Besides, how do you know Kero's uncle would have been the right teacher for me? How do you know that I haven't done something better than what you planned by coming here and making contact with the Shin'a'in and the Hawkbrothers? Vanyel was certainly a welltrained Adept, and the Chronicles say that the Hawkbrothers trained him.' Gwena snorted scornfully, and pawed the ground with a silver hoof 'I don't know whether you've done better or worse,' she replied, 'but you were asking how you got yourself into this-this- brotherhood ceremony. And I told you.' Elspeth stiffened. Gwena had been eavesdropping again. 'That was a purely rhetorical question,' she said coldly. 'Meant for myself. I wasn't broadcasting it to all and sundry. And I'd appreciate it if you'd let me keep a few thoughts private once in a while.' Gwena narrowed her eyes and shook her head. 'MY,' was all she said in reply. 'We are certainly touchy today, aren't we ~.
Elspeth did not dignify the comment with an answer. If anything Gwena was twice as touchy as she was, and both of them knew why. The only way for Elspeth-or Skif-to be able to remain in the lands guarded by the Tayledras was to be made Wingbrothers to the Clan of k'sheyna.
But that required swearing to certain oaths-which none of their informants had yet divulged, saying only that they'd learn what those pledges were when they actually stepped into the circle to make them.
Elspeth had been trained in diplomacy and statecraft from childhood, and undisclosed oaths made her very nervous indeed. It wasn't so bad for Skif-he wasn't the Heir. But for her, well, the things she pledged herself to here could have serious consequences for Valdemar if she wasn't very careful. She carried with her the Crown's authority. The fact that a forgotten oath had made a crucial difference to Valdemar in the recent past only pointed up the necessity of being careful what she swore to here and now.
'Nervous?' Skif asked in a low voice, startling her out of her brooding thoughts.
She grimaced. 'Of course I'm nervous. How could I not be? I'm hundreds of leagues away from home, sitting in a cave with you, you thief-'
'Former thief,' he grinned.
'Excuse me. Former thief and a bloodthirsty barbarian shaman from the Dhorisha Plains-' Tre'valen cleared his throat delicately. 'Pardon,' he interrupted, in the Tayledras tongue, 'But while I am both shaman and bloodthirsty, I am not, I think, a barbarian. We Shin'a'in have recorded history that predates the Mage Wars. Can you say as much, newcomer.
For a moment, Elspeth was afraid she had offended him, then she saw the twinkle in his eye, and the barely perceptible quirk of one corner of his mouth. Tre'valen had proved to have a healthy sense of humor over the past few days, as they waited out the response of the k'sheyna Council of Elders to their petition to remain. She had heard him refer to himself as bloodthirsty and a barbarian more than once. In point of fact, the shaman seemed to enjoy teasing and challenging her...'I stand rebuked, oh Elder of Elders,' she replied formally, bowing as deeply as she could. She was rewarded with his broad grin, which grew broader as she continued, 'Of course, the fact that you don't do anything with all that recorded history has no bearing at all on whether or not you're barbarians.'
'Of course not,' he replied blandly, evidently well-satisfied with her return volley. 'Dwelling overmuch upon the past is the mark of the decadent. We aren't that, either.'
'Point taken.' She conceded defeat, and turned back to Skif. 'So I'm here in a cave waiting for some authority to come along and demand that I swear something unspecified, which may or may not bind me to something I'd really rather not have anything to do with-why should I be nervous?' Skif chuckled, and she restrained herself from snarling. 'Now think a bit,' he told her, fondly, but as if she were thirteen again. 'You've read the Chronicles. Both Vanyel and his aunt swore the Wingbrother Oaths. They had to, or they couldn't have gone in and out of the Vales the way they did. If there was nothing in the oaths to bother them, why should you be worried?'
'Do you want that alphabetically or categorically?' She kept herself from reminding him that she was the Heir. After all, she had tried long and hard to make him forget that very thing. Instead she continued,
'Because that was a long time ago, and a different Clan. We don't know if things have changed since then, or whether the oaths differ from Clan to Clan.'
'They do not differ,' Tre'valen said serenely, 'and they have not changed in all of our recorded history. Many shaman of the Shin'a'in swear to Wingsib; and believe me, the oaths our Goddess requires of us bind us to far more than your own oaths to your Crown and country.
And She can move her hand to chastise us at her will. I think you need not be concerned.' Well, that was some comfort, anyway. Elspeth had seen for herself how the Shin'a'in Goddess-who was, so Darkwind said, also the Goddess of his people-could and did manifest herself in very tangible fashion.
And she had a sure and certain taste of how seriously the Shin'a'in took their oaths to protect their land from interlopers. Well, if Tre'valen knew all about the oaths and felt comfortable with them, she probably didn't have to worry.
