Well, he wouldn't have to ask Vree to track them down. Good thing, too, since Vree was still drowsy from a long night of digestion. He'd be so fat Darkwind wouldn't be able to find his keelbone if he was fed that way all the time. Interesting, though, that the Companion could talk to Darkwind's bird. He wasn't surprised, but it wasn't something that Gwena had shown she could do-or wanted to do-before this.
And he wasn't going to have to leave the Vale, which was a bit of a relief. His backside was still a little sore and stiff from the ride yesterday.
'Do you need to leave the Vale?' he asked Vree. After all, the poor bird had been in here for more than a day. The gyre turned his head upside down as he considered the question and his bondmate.
'No,' Vree decided. 'Head not itch.' That was how he had described the way that rogue powers of the Heartstone had affected him; that his head had itched. It had taken Darkwind a while before he had figured out that the bird meant inside his head, not outside.
'Go back to Starblade's, then,' Darkwind told him. 'Or hunt, if you want-just don't go too far from the Vale. I'm going to the magic-place and I don't want you in there. Your head would really itch.'
'Yes,' Vree agreed, and half-spread his wings, waiting for Darkwind to launch him. The scout gave him a toss, and the gyre gained height rapidly, disappearing into the branches above.
No need to guess what the 'magic-place' was: the Practice Ground.
It was entirely possible to direct the border defenses from in there, although it would require great patience and careful shielding to keep the Heartstone from affecting whatever the three of them did in there.
Maybe that was the idea.
It'll certainly test the integrity of my shielding. And if I can shield against the Stone and work at the same time-I just might be ready to help handle the Stone myself. the gods only know that there'll be no peace for k'sheyna until I do.
Well, if they were waiting for him, they were probably wondering if he'd fallen down a well or something. He'd better go prove he was still alive.
He had heard a mutter of conversation before he crossed the passthrough in the barrier that divided the rest of the Vale from the Practice Ground. The sudden silence that descended as he appeared told him that he had been the topic of discussion between Elspeth and the gryphons.
He suppressed a surge of irritation at being talked about.
'Sorry I slept so late,' he said, trying not to let his irritation show.
'What are we doing?'
'Conssstructing ward-off ssspellsss,' Hydona said mildly, as if she hadn't snapped her beak shut in mid- syllable the moment he came into view. 'Elssspeth had one of the hertasssi look in on you, but you were sssleeping ssso deeply we decsssided you mussst need the ressst.' His irritation faded a little. At least they had checked on him before doing anything on their own. This particular task was not something he would have expected for the four of them. Ward-offs were simple things, but they had to be constructed and set carefully, another task of patience.
Intended to discourage rather than hurt, ward-offs were the first line of defense on the border; the more intelligent the creature that encountered one, the more likely it was to be affected by it. A basilisk, for instance, would not be deterred by one, but a Changewolf probably would, unless it happened to be very hungry. Humans certainly would be; especially wanderers, peddlers, and the Ue-people who had crossed into Tayledras lands by accident.
Treyvan roused his golden-edged crest and refolded his wings with the characteristic rasp of feathers sliding across feathers. 'You and I arrre not to make ward-offsss. Ssstarblade hasss a tasssk forrr usss; to move ley- linessss,' he said. 'We work while Elsspeth watchesss. We are to diverrrt them to the node beneath the lairrr, sssevering them from the Heartssstone.' Darkwind frowned. That came under the heading of 'tedious and necessary,' as well. But anything to do with the Heartstone had its own share of danger involved. Certainly this was not beneath his abilities. It was along the lines of doing his share to work with the imbalanced Stone.
'Do you have any idea why we're doing this?' he asked.
'Thessse are minorrr linesss,' Treyvan told him. 'Ssstarrblade wantsss all the minorrr linesss rrremoved, to sssee if they can be, and to sssee if thisss weakensss the Ssstone.'
'Hmm. It could well be that once the minors are removed, the majors could be split into minors, and diverted in the same manner to other nodes, perhaps other Heartstones if there were any near.' Treyvan gave him one of those enigmatic, purely-gryphonish expressions of his, the one that always looked to Darkwind like 'I know something you would dearly like to know.' He spoke slowly. 'it isss not imposssible.' Darkwind nodded, watching Elspeth with his Othersight; taking note of how she built the ward-off layer by layer, with the deft and delicate touch of a jeweler.
Showing no signs of impatience. And no signs of Attitude, either.
And that irritated him all over again. Why couldn't she just have been reasonable in the first place?
Because no one put things to her in a way she understood, he reminded himself. She's as much an alien here as the gryphons, no matter how Comfortable she looks or how well she seems to fit in.
And she did look as if she fit in, wearing the clothing he'd had made for her instead of those glaring white uniforms or the barbarian getup she'd had in her packs. She didn't quite look Tayledras, not with that hair-but until she spoke, no one would know she was not one of the Tayledras allies.
Get your mind on the task, Darkwind, and off the female.
'Hasn't anyone tried this line-diverting with the Stone before?' He couldn't believe that they hadn't. It seemed like the logical sort of thing to do.
'Yesss,' the gryphon said, switching his tail restlessly. 'But it did not worrk. And not asss we will be worrrking. Parrrtially the Sstone ressissted having the linesss taken; and parrrtially it rrreclaimed them within a day. We will give the linesss a new anchorrr, fixing them in place, rrrather than letting them find theirrr own anchorrr. Beforrre, they werrre allowed to drrrift, and.the Sstone rrreclaimed them.' Elspeth put the final lock on the ward-off, and sent it away to settle into its place on the border. In his mind's eye it drifted away like a gossamer scarf blown
