in the creation of a Gate, the filaments that sought for and found the terminus at the other end and drew the two 'together.' They found the line-and slid along the surface of the shield protecting the severed end.
Before they could seek further, perhaps touch past the sides of the shield, Treyvan hauled the He shivered, watching the red fingers weaving and groping after the i I II of his training,
tbe,_tales he had ever heard, there had been nothing like this Heartstone. les were neither as powerful nor as persistent
There was something very wrong about th s. n a into the seething chaos of the Stone of reach. But he certainly re the stone might have more sur the ctv~ t:~ toaew exactly what he had done, and that his',other Chb-I 'and Treyvan put their strength into lands R n cl ent, the pathway it would take in the severed lint a' at deal ae pulling one end of a very heavy, very long rope-a rope that was, perhaps, as thick as his waist.
The line resisted being moved from its accustomed course, just by pure
inertia. By the time he got the severed end within easy distance of the new node, he felt as if he had run a long uphill race.
Treyvan's mind was focused on his and Hydona's home. He manipulated the node beneath the lair; that was appropriate, since he was the most familiar with it. He created a kind of 'sticky,' or 'rough-surfaced' place on it, at least that was the analogy Darkwind used for himself. Whatever he did, it made the raw end of the line seek it as soon as Darkwind removed the shield; they joined, jumping together as a thread will jump to a silk-rubbed amber bead, or a bit of iron to a magnet. Then he ran magical pressure along the line, to straighten and broaden it slightly, so it would seat in place easier.
Darkwind studied the join for a moment, and mentally shook his head.
'I don't want to take any chances, this time,' he said to Treyvan, feeling Elspeth in the back of his mind, watching with interest. 'I didn't like what the Stone did back there, and I don't want it to recapture these lines.
Let's armor and shield the joining.' A good plan,' Treyvan agreed.
It was probably not necessary. They were probably doing far more work than they needed to. But Darkwind could not get those seeking tentacles of power out of his mindand the more I weaken the Stone, the less chance it has of turning the tables on us when we finally drain it. Or whatever we do when we finally take it down.
He was aware that he was thinking of the Stone as if it was a living, sentient creature. A discomforting fact of magic, also, was that often thinking about something made it happen, especially with skilled Adepts.
Magery was not a matter of spell components and rituals at Adept level, it involved a high measure of subconscious skill and influencing of the Physical world.
He had no doubt that there were others among the Hawkbrothers who thought of the Stone as having a mind-a half-mad, malicious one, to be sure. Personifying a problem was also not unheard of among People of all ages and races, much less mages. It might, by now, have a kind of mind. That might even be the root cause of its behavior back there. If it did, the last thing he wanted to do was underestimate it.
So he and Treyvan spent some time in ensuring that the Stone would not be able to get that particular ley- line back. And the next. And the next.
Four lines later, and he was quite ready to call an end to the exercise.
So, he surmised, was Treyvan. When he disengaged his attention from Othersight and glanced over at the gryphon, poor Treyvan's crest drooped, and his neck-ruff had a decidedly wilted look about it.
'that's enough,' he said. 'We know this will hold. And even weakened, my father could do this alone. In fact, if I can do this, any pair of the Adepts should be able to. I think I'll advise that they work in pairs, though. I don't think anyone should ever turn an unguarded back on that Stone from now on.' Treyvan acknowledged his decision with a weary nod, and broke the link. As Darkwind brought all of his attention and concentration back to his physical body, the gryphon slumped over his foreclaws and sighed.
'That Sstone isss mossst ssstubborn, Darrkwind,' the gryphon complained, his crest-feathers slowly rising. 'I have neverrr ssseen anything like it.'
'Let's get out of here,' Darkwind urged. 'I'm too tired to really trust my shields.'
'I agrreee,' Hydona rumbled, and turned to lead the way across the pass-through. On the other side of the barrier, Treyvan resumed his interrupted observation.
'I have neverrr ssseen anything like the way the Ssstone behaved,' he repeated, his voice troubled, and his crest rising and falling -a little with his agitation.
'You mean the way it tried to reach after the line once we severed it?' Darkwind asked. 'By the way,' he added in an aside to Elspeth,
'Treyvan is right in that what you Saw wasn't normal behavior for a Heartstone. It's not supposed to reach out after things like that on its own.' The gryphon shuddered. 'It acted asss if it werre alive and thinking.
It issss jussst a node. Nodesss arrre not sssupposssed to be alive!'
'Yes and no,' Darkwind replied, 'Although this is sheer speculation on my part, I must remind you. But I have seen another kind of magic-imbued object act like that; when you build a Gate, the energy integrated into the portal does the same thing.'
'Yesss, but not on itsss own,' Treyvan corrected. 'You make it do sssso!'
'Initially, perhaps,' Darkwind argued, 'but eventually, a mage can work parts of the spell without consciously thinking on it. After a while the process proceeds without direction-' A flash of white in the branches up above should have warned him,
but he was too tired to think of more than one thing at a time, and his mind was already occupied with the problem of the Heartstone. So it wasn't until Vree had made three-fourths of his dive at Treyvan's crest that he realized what was about to happen. And by then it was too late.
'NO!
This time, Treyvan was tired, irritablevree reached out claws to snatch and encountered something he had
