jaw. 'What, you did not know sssuch a thing wasss posssible? Becaussse it isss not posssible in mind-magic? Ah, but it isss possible in Healing, isss it not? Asss there are ssssimilaritiesss, there are diferencesss asss well, and those differencesss might kill you. Trrrussst yourrr intuition, but neverrr asssume anything.' What Hydona did not say-because she didn't need to-was that Elspeth needn't think she knew everything just because she was well- versed in the magic of her own people.
All right, so I'm a bonehead. She reached a tentative 'hand' to Hydona, and was relieved to find the gryphon's shields down, and Hydona waiting for her 'touch.' She had no idea how to proceed with someone who was uncooperative, or worse, unable to cooperate. It took several false starts before she was able to create a channel to Hydona without losing the first one to the ley-line, but once she had it set up, she was able to redirect the power without too much difficulty.
She was tempted to set up a channel from Hydona to the line, directly, but she had a notion that Hydona would be able to tell the difference, and that the gryphon would not be amused.
Hydona broke the contact, and Elspeth maintained the channel without drawing any more energy from it while she waited for the gryphon's next instructions.
'Ssso, you can ssseek, sssample, channel, and sssend. Now we sssshall practice all of thossse,' Hydona said genially. 'We sssshall prrractice, and prrractice, until you can ssseek, sssample, channel and sssend underrr any circumssstancesss.' Elspeth smothered a groan, and broke her contact with the ley-line neatly, letting its newly- freed power wisp away harmlessly. This was starting to get frustrating. Hydona sounded more and more like Kero with every passing moment. If she starts being any more like Kero, the next thing she's going to do is quote a Shin'a'in proverb at me.
'It isss sssaid that'whatever isss prreparred forr neverrr occurrrssss,'
' Hydona quoted. 'That isss an ancient Kaled'a'in sssaying.
Ssso, let usss prrepare you for finding yourrrssself alone, sssick, wounded, exhaussted, ssssurrounded by enemiessss and needing powerrr, and it will neverrr occurrr. Yesss?'
Elspeth could only sigh.
Later, after the gryphons were gone, Darkwind rubbed eyes that ached and burned with the strain of Doublesight, and was mildly surprised to find Elspeth still there. She sat quietly on a stone bench, leaning against the curved marble wall of their corner of the Practice Ground with her eyes closed. He wondered if she was waiting for him to show her the way out-or just waiting for him.
He walked up to her, and she stared up at him with eyes as tired as his own. 'We should leave, Elspeth,' he said carefully, uncertain of her temper, as weary as she looked. 'The others will be here soon to work on the Heartstone, and we shall be in the way.'
'We'll be more than in the way, if what Hydona said is any indication ' she replied, getting slowly to her feet. 'We'd be in danger-and a danger to them. Well, I would be, anyway. Like having a toddling baby underfoot on a tourney field. Nobody would ever hit it on purpose, but...well.'
He nodded, relieved. 'There you have it, truly. Would you care to come with me, to find something to eat?' She hesitated a moment, then shrugged. 'I'm not hungry, though.'
'All the more reason that you should eat,' he told her warningly.
'Until you are used to it, the manipulating of mage-energies dulls the
appetite. You must take care that you do not starve yourself.' She looked at him in surprise, and must have seen by his expression that he wasn't joking. 'Well, that's not such a bad thing if you're on the plump side, but-'
'Hmm. There are no fat mages,' he pointed out as he walked, 'except those who habitually and grossly overindulge themselves; those for whom overeating is either a self-indulged vice or a disease. Manipulating mage- energies also costs one in terms of one's own energies, which means that you have just done work, Wingsib. Very hard, physical work, that deceives your own body.' He led her to the peculiar Gatelike construction called a 'passthrough' that led to the Practice Ground. It was yet another way to ensure that the unwary and unready did not intrude on students at practice, or the Adepts at their work. Because of the wall about it, the grounds could not be seen from outside, nor the Vale from within. They were a place and a time unto themselves. And in fact, he sometimes wondered if time moved a bit differently there.
She shook her head as she recovered from the jolt of disorientation that accompanied the transition across the pass-through. 'How do you ever get used to that?' she asked. 'That kind of dizzy feeling, I mean.' He raised an eyebrow at her. 'We never do,' he said simply. 'There is a great deal that we never get used to. We simply cease to show our discomfort.' She said nothing, but he caught her giving him a speculative look out of the corner of his eye. For his part, he was more concerned with finding one of the hertasi-run 'kitchens' before his temper deteriorated.
Hunger did that to him, and he couldn't always predict what would set him off when his temper wore thin.
He didn't want to alienate her; the opposite was more like it, but he often felt as if he was dancing on eggs around her. He wondered if she felt the same around him. There was no cultural ground that they could both meet on, and yet they had a great deal in common.
The 'kitchen' was not a kitchen as such; just a common area, a room in one of the few ground-level structures, that the hertasi kept stocked' with fresh fruits, bread, smoked meat, and other things that did not spoil readily. Those Hawkbrothers who either did not have the skill or the inclination to prepare their own meals came here to put together what they pleased. The fare was not terribly varied, but it was good.
And at the moment, Darkwind had no inclination to make the trek to his own ekele for food. Not while his stomach was throttling his backbone and complaining bitterly.
He indicated to Elspeth that she should help herself, and chose some fruit and bread, a bit of smoked meat, and a handful of dosent roots that had a cheesy taste and texture when raw. They found a comfortable spot to sit, in an out-of-the-way clearing, and fell to without exchanging much more than nods.
'So, what was it that Hydona tutored you in?' he asked, when the edge was off his hunger.
' Baby-steps.' She made a face. 'This is childish of me, I know, but she had me tapping into a very low-power ley-line, over and over, until she was certain that I could handle it in my sleep. But I was working the node under the lair with Need, and she knows that!'
