other, unspoken thoughts. And with more luck, your Darkwind will be willing to come along when we leave. He smiled, but only to himself Elspeth wasn't the only one good at reading body language.
Elspeth shifted her position a little. 'Well, we've also got the possibility of some new allies. According to Gwena, there's some indication that Talia, Dirk, and Alberich are getting somewhere in negotiating with the Karsites.'
'The-what?' He felt his eyebrows flying up into his hairline with astonishment. Last thing he had heard, people were simply grateful that the Karsites were too embroiled with Ancar and their own internal politics to harass the Border they shared with Valdemar. 'When did all this start?'
'Early fall-about when we reached here,' she said. 'Sorry; I forgot that I didn't hear about it until after you left.' She looked up and frowned a little. 'Let me see if I can tell you this all straight; I've been getting it in bits and pieces. Alberich got some tentative contacts with Someone supposedly official in the Karsite army through a really roundabout path. It was supposed to be someone he knew and tentatively trusted.'
'From Karse?' He could hardly believe it. 'How did anything get Out of Karse?'
'Convolutedly, of course; Gwena said the pathway involved traders and the renegade faction of the Sunlord that keeps allegiance with Valdemar.' She raised an eyebrow. 'Not the most secure line of communication, and the message was pretty vague. Sort of-'we might be willing to talk to you people if you happened to show up at this place and time'; he wasn't sure he trusted it at all , but it was the first Positive gesture we've had from those people in hundreds of years, so he didn't want to dismiss it out of hand'but it could have been a trap, counting on the idea that he might be homesick.'
'He wouldn't, and he'd be right,' Skif agreed.
She snickered. 'Surely. Anybody who'd think that doesn't know Alberich.
Anyway, that was about a month ago; he and Eldan and Kero checked the stories out, and they seemed to be genuine. Two weeks ago, they were actually approached officially. Then a week ago Mother arranged for Talia and Dirk to go down to the Border, the Holderkin lands, and meet an envoy from the Karsite government.
'Which means the Sun-priests.' He tried the thought out in his mind.
'Any idea what started all this?' Elspeth started to chuckle. He gave her a quizzical glance.
'If Gwena is relaying What Rolan told her correctly-it's as convoluted as the Karsites are. The infighting settled this fall-and the Priestking suddenly seems to be a Queen now. The envoys are half women, and Talia had picked up a kind of grim 'we're all women together' kind of feeling from them, though whether that's their feeling about her, or the Priest-Queen's feeling about Selenay, I don't know.'
'Interesting,' Skif said absently. In either case, the chances of coming to an agreement were much better.
'That's only the first factor. Ancar has been harassing them much more than he has us, probably because they don't have that anti-magic defense we do. That, it seems, was bad enough, but now he's stealing the Sun- priests' pet demons, and that was absolutely the last straw.' She grinned like a horse trader who's just sold an ill- tempered Plainspony as a Shin'a'in stud. 'That must have doubly stuck in their throatsnot only to have to come to us. the unholy users-of-magic, but to hav to admit that they were using magic themselves!'
'Ah, if I know Talia, she was very careful about not rubbing their noses in the fact.' He shook his head and chuckled. 'That's something I would have had a hard time doing.'
'You and me both,' she admitted. 'Anyway, that's where things stand at home. With luck, we can at least get them to promise not to harry our borders until Ancar is dealt with once and for all.' Skif rubbed the back of his neck, and stared off into the distance.
North and east. 'I'd like to be there,' he said, more than half to himself.' I really would. Peace with our old enemy... Havens, wouldn't that be something!'
'I'll believe it when it happens,' she replied. 'For now, it's enough to know we aren't the only ones that Ancar's been hurting. That at least opens up the possibility of uniting against a common enemy.' He shook off his reverie. 'Amazing. But I have my own job to take care of. Standing here and biting my nails over something happening hundreds of leagues away is not going to accomplish much of anything.'
'I have patrol with Darkwind,' she told him. 'We're taking an evening shift, with one of the scouts that flies an owl. He's got some beasties hanging about at night that he wants a mage to have a look at.'
'Gryphons, too?' he asked with interest. He liked Treyvan and Hydona a great deal, and his sole regret in going out with Wintermoon was that he was unable to learn more about them.
'No, they're going to stay with the little ones; we monopolize enough of their time as it is.' She started to chuckle.
'What's so funny?' Skif wanted to know.
'oh, just their kyree-friend, Rris. The kyree are usually so dignified; Torrl is, anyway. But Rris is like-like a big puppy. All bounce and friendliness. But what's funniest is that he's just full of stories about 'my famous cousin, Warrl. ' ' That sounded familiar, somehow. 'Warrl. That-that can't be the same kyree that was Kero's teacher's bondmate, is it?' She nodded vigorously. 'The same. And hearing the same stories Kero used to tell us told from the kyree point of view is an absolute stitch!' He sighed. Another thing he was missing. Well, he couldn't be here and out there at the same time, and on the whole, he was doing better and more productive work out there. There had been an encounter with another pack of wyrsa-this time on their terms, and he and Wintermoon had destroyed them. There'd been more of those gandels that they'd had to lure into a pit-trap-and some smaller, but still nasty, encounters.
All of which meant hazards no k'sheyna scout would have to face, something that Winterlight, the new scout-leader, had been quick to Point out to the Council. Permission to return to the search had been readily given.
Though several of Wintermoon's friends told him he was crazy, staying out in the winter-bound forest when he could be warm and comfortable in the Vale, in his off-duty hours, anyway.
Skif still wasn't quite certain of Wintermoon's motivation, but the scout had told him repeatedly that even if he had been running patrols, he would have continued to live in his ekele outside the Vale. That to him, winter camping was no great hardship. if that was the way he felt, Skif would take his words at face value.
'We'd better get going, then,' he said. 'Wintermoon should have gotten the cold-weather gear together by
