'So you wonder why is she insisting that you work with minimal energy?' he replied, trying very hard to see things through her eyes.
Elspeth nodded, and nibbled a chasem fruit tentatively.
He licked the juice of another chasem from his fingers, and tried to answer as he thought Hydona would. 'Firstly, there are some sources of power that are much too dangerous even for a single Adept to handle.
Yes, even here, in our own territory. I mean besides the Heartstone.' He nodded at her look of surprise. 'There are pools of tainted magic, like thin-roofed caves, left by the Mage Wars. Difficult to see from the surface, and deadly to fall into. That is what a Healing Adept must deal with, and at the moment, we have none. There are even perfectly natural sources too strong for one Adept to handle by himself-any node with more than seven ley- lines leading into it, for instance, or rogue lines, which fluctuate in power levels unpredictably. Add in the tendency of lines to move, and you find the only way to use these sources is with a group of Adepts, each one supporting the others, each doing a relatively small amount of work so they have a reserve to deal with emergencies.'
'I can see why she doesn't want me to just tap into whatever powerful source I See,' Elspeth replied impatiently, 'but why is she insisting that I only work with a bare trickle of power when energy is everywhere?'
' Ah, but it ' isn't,' he replied, happy to at last discover the misconception that was the source of her impatience. 'There is a limit on all Gifts, no matter how powerful. There is a limit on how far you, personally, can Farsee, yes?' She nodded, slowly, and focused on him intently, paying very close attention to his words.
'And when you Mindspeak, you can only do so within a given distance, true?' he continued. 'Well, power is not everywhere-or rather, great power is not everywhere. There are places where there are not even weak ley-lines for a day's ride in any direction. There are places where even the nodes are weaker than the line you worked with today. We are Tayledras, Elspeth, and we are enjoined by the Goddess to cleanse these lands of magic. To that end, we concentrate it here. The energy level is unnaturally high in and around a Vale, even one as damaged as this one, and unnaturally high in and about the lands you call the Pelagir Hills, which we call the Uncleansed Lands.' She swallowed the bite she had begun with a bit of difficulty. 'So you're saying that when I get home, I might find that there's no magic energy to work with?' She looked horrified, and he hastened to assure her.
'No. I am saying that when you return, you may find you have lower levels of energy available than you have here. Or the power may be there, but buried deeply.' He ate the last of his fruit. 'That is why there are schools of mages, who build up reservoirs of power that are available to the Masters and Adepts of those schools. And that is why blood-mages build power for themselves by exploiting the pain and death of others.
So, you must know how to work subtly. You must learn that raining down blows with pure power is not always the correct response. It was not with some of Falconsbane's creatures; that you witnessed.' She shook her head; whether stubbornly or for some other reason, he couldn't tell. 'Listen,' he said, 'Hydona believes you are doing well.
Once you have mastered the fainter sources of power, and in using the energy you yourself have stored within you, she and Treyvan wish us all to take our places on the border.' She perked up at that, and he smiled to see her interest. 'Really?' she exclaimed. 'I've felt so useless. I know you have to learn theory before you practice anything, but-'
'But you came here to become a weapon against the enemy of your land, I know,' he replied. 'Now please-I know that you are impatient, but believe me. It is better to use little power rather than too much.
Using a poleaxe to kill small game destroys the game thoroughly, rendering it useless. So it is with magic. Too much can attract things you do not wish to have to deal with, as a dead creature can attract things more dangerous than it was to scavenge upon it. Master the subtlety Hydona tries to teach you. There will be time and more than time for the greater magics.' He watched her face; she seemed thoughtful, and he hoped she believed him, because whether she knew it or not, her life depended on believing him-and sooner than she might think.
For Hydona had not meant that suggestion in jest, that both of them take up a scout's position on the border of k'sheyna. When they did that, there were no longer any shields, any protections, or any rules. It would be only themselves and the gryphons, and it might well be that there were things out there that were more powerful and deadly than Mornelithe Falconsbane.
*Chapter Eight
So now I'm a scout on the border of the Tayledras territories. In the Pelagirs.
Me, who never even rode circuit. Mother would have a cat. Elspeth's heart raced every time a bird called an alarm or a stray twig broke, even though she knew very well that potential danger was likely to be upon them long before there were any such warnings. Gwena was jumpy too, and that didn't help her nerves any. She had all her shields down toward Gwena, and whatever her Companion felt, she felt, and vice versa.
Or was it that Gwena was jumpy after all? The Companion was ill at ease, but it didn't quite have the feeling of nerves.
All right,' she said, suddenly suspicious. 'what are you hiding this time?'
'I wasn't hiding it-at least, not from you,' the Companion temporized.
'I've been keeping something from the others. Well, maybe I have and maybe I haven't-I mean, I don't know how much they've guessed about Cymry and me. So I wasn't really hiding it from you, but-: Elspeth choked and coughed to cover it 'Gwena, dear, you can stop babbling, all right? I'd say the Tayledras know plenty about you two, from the way Darkwind dances around you, and they aren't telling me about what they know, either. So you might as well let this great secret out, whatever it is, because even if I don't know about it, they probably do.' She couldn't hide her resentment at that, and didn't try. It was obviouswould have been plain even to a child-that the Hawkbrothers considered the Companions something quite special, according them more reverence than they even got at home in Valdemar. But the Tayledras wouldn't discuss the Companions at all without one of them being present, as if they were determined not to offend the Companions or reveal something they shouldn't.
And even if there was nothing to this dancing about the bushes, it drove Elspeth to distraction.
'Well,' Gwena said slowly, 'I would have to tell you soon, anyway. It IS not really all that complicated.
Now that you know how to channel mageenergies, and you know how to feed someone else and be fed in turnwellcan feed you.' Elspeth was past being surprised. She simply nodded. 'And of course it would have been no use telling me this before I had the skill, I know.' She closed her eyes and counted to ten, very, very carefully. 'You aren't keeping anything else back, are you?'
'No,' Gwena replied in a subdued voice. 'No, not really. I can feed you if you need it, but I' subject to the
