'When you do this, speak of the need to speak to one another, Hawkbrothers, Shin'a'in, and Outlanders all,' she said, interrupting him.
'That much I do see. There has been overmuch of sundering, of the keeping of secrets. It is time for some of this to end.'
' Secrets He looked up at her, and he knew that longing and pain were plain upon his face, plain enough that any child would see and know them and the cause.
'I must go,' she said abruptly; she did not 'stand up,' so much as gather her energies about her and rise. Her form began to fluctuate and waver, and he held back frustration that she was so near, and yet untouchable except for a moment or two. Despite all that she had told him, his heart cried out for her-his own pain eclipsing the importance of her words.
She turned toward him; held out her hand.' I-' she said falteringly.
He had not expected to hear her speak again, and the sound of her voice made him start in surprise.
She was in a kind of intermediate form; womanly, with her human face, but a suggestion of great wings. Again, the power in her made her difficult to look at as she wore the glory of the noon sun on her like a garment, but he would not look away, though his eyes streamed tears.
'I have seen your true heart, and I see your pain, Tre'valen,' she said. 'I-I share it. Beloved.' Then she was gone, leaving him with a heart torn in pieces, and a mind and soul gone numb.
Darkwind waited for his brother at the edge of the Vale, packs in his hand, and shivered as he looked out on the snow. He was not hardened to this weather, not as he would have been at this time last winter. Then he had sheltered outside the protection of the Vale, and most time not spent in sleeping had been spent in the snow.
He had not gone back to his old ekele except to gather his things and bring them back to the Vale with the help of several friends. He had been one of the first to do so, but now that the Vale no longer troubled the bondbirds, most of the scouts had followed his example and returned to the shelter and safety of the rocky walls and enclosing shields. Probably even Wintermoon would join them when his search was over. Darkwind's brother was stubborn but not foolish.
Shelter and safety the Vales held indeed-and comfort, which was something only someone who had never been without comfort scorned.
This was going to be a hard winter; it had begun that way, and all signs pointed to the weather worsening before spring. The Vale was warm, with hertasi to take care of everyday tasks... difficult to resist such comforts, when the winter winds howled around one's windows and drafts seeped in at every seam. Especially when the ekeles of those within the Vale needed no protections from the cold; when hot springs waited to soak away aches and bruises, when windows could stand open to the breeze-Well, they could if one lived on a lower level, at any rate. The ekeles near the tops of the trees tended to find themselves whipped by wilder winds than those near the ground. He smiled through his shivers at recalling when Nightsky had left her windows ajar-and came back after a lesson to find belongings strewn about the room. She had learned quickly that it was as well to leave the windows closed.
Few lived in those upper levels, in k'sheyna. With the population so reduced, there was little competition for dwellings nearer the Vale floor.
One or two still preferred heights, but never scouts. After returning from a long day on patrol the very last thing anyone cared to do was to climb a ladder for several stories just to get home to rest.
Darkwind was no different in that respect from any of the rest of the scouts, once the general consensus was reached that a move back to the Vale would be a good thing for all. He had stayed with his father for a brief while, in part to help Kethra at night, then moved into an ekele in the lowest branches. His tree stood near the waterfall end of the Vale, so that both the cool water of the waterfall pools and a nearby hot spring were available. He ran his patrols with Elspeth and her Companion as he had since the coming of autumn, but now he returned with gratitude to the warmth and the comfort of the Vale. And he pitied Wintermoon for his self-chosen exile to the winter-bound forest.
On the other hand, we can't seem to track down Nyara from within the Vale. I've tried Looking for her, but she-or that sword-have shielded themselves too well to spot. I am glad it isn't me out there.
K'Tathi had flown in just before he and Elspeth went out on patrol, carrying a message; a written one, since it was fairly complicated. Wintermoon and Skif had given a good portion of food to a tervardi temporarily disabled by an encounter with Changelions. Rather than lose any great amount of time, Wintermoon was leaving Skif with the bird-man, and coming in to fetch replacements and enough food over to keep the tervardi fed while he healed. So would Darkwind be so good as to put together thus-and-so, and meet him and his dyheli friends at the mouth of the Vale at sunset?
Darkwind not only would, he was glad to. It often seemed to him that there was never a great deal he could do for Wintermoon; he and his brother had very little in common, and Wintermoon's position as elder often led to him being the one to lend aid to the younger brother. Wintermoon seldom asked favors of anyone; he was as much a bachelor falcon as Darkwind, if not more so.
With that in mind, Darkwind went out of his way to root through some of the old storehouses and uncover the last few cold-lights, magecloaks, and a fireless stove left from the days when mages in k'sheyna could lend their powers to making aids to the scouts. It had been a very long time since scouts of k'sheyna made overnight patrols-and a very long time since any of them had been willing to use mage-made things, for fear that the creatures of the Uncleansed Lands might sense them.
He thought that Skif and Wintermoon might well be willing to chance that, since they were between k'sheyna and the Cleansed Outland. The cloaks kept the wearer warm and dry; there were five, enough for both humans and the Companion and dyheli to sleep beneath. The stove should be good for several weeks of use, or so his testing had confirmed-and should heat the tiny tent his brother and the Outlander shared quite cozily.
When he asked for permission to take the things, Iceshadow had queried with a lifted eyebrow whether they needed it-or were keeping warm some other way. He had answered the same way that the notion was wildly unlikely. He still was not certain about Outlander prejudices in that regard, but he knew his brother well enough to be certain that young Skif was not likely to become Wintermoon's bedmate unless they encountered some wild magic on the borders that wrought a complete change of sex in either of them.
The last gray light of afternoon faded and died away, creeping from the forest by imperceptible degrees, and deepening the shadows beneath the trees. He shivered in a breath of cold air that crept across the Veil and hoped that Wintermoon would arrive soon. It had been a very long day, and he was bone weary. He and Elspeth had tracked and driven off a pair of Changelions-perhaps even the same ones that injured that tervardi, in fact-and it had not been an easy task in knee-deep snow.
