Winds Of Change

'He used to say, 'You know how fierce the fighting was by how long after it takes to clean up.' If you two want to come inside, I can start a mage-fire for you to lie beside, and tell you a story.' The kyree's head vanished into the lair again.

Jerven beat Lytha inside by less than half a length.

'I take it that was Rris?' Elspeth said, trying not to laugh.

'Yesss,' sighed Hydona. She looked at Treyvan, and the two of them said, in chorus, 'That wasss Rrisss Let-me-tell-you-of-my-famoussscousssinWarrl of Hyrrrull Pack.'

'The childrrren love him,' Treyvan added. 'I think I can bearrr with hisss famousss cousssin sstorriess sssince he doesss not repeat them.'

'Only the proverbsss and advice.' Hydona shrugged. 'It isss no worssse than living with a Ssshin'a'in.

'Surely, but what could be?' Darkwind agreed, and squinted at the sky. 'We have all of the afternoon and some of the morning left. Do you want to start now.

'I thought it might be wisssse,' Treyvan replied. 'The lair isss not dirrrectly above the node. When I found the place that wasss, I built it into a ssshelter asss well. Would you follow?' Darkwind waved him ahead; he and Hydona took up the lead, with the two humans following, Gwena between them. Elspeth laid a hand on her shoulder.

Did you enjoy yourself?' she asked :You looked like you were having a wonderful time.:

'Very much,' Gwena replied, her breath steaming from her nostrils, her eyes still bright and merry : that was fun! I'd nearly forgotten how much fun it is to be a child. Or to be with a child. No matter how serious things are, they can always play.:

A good thing, too,' Elspeth chuckled, patting her on the neck. 'They can remind us grownups that there's a time to forget how serious things are.

I miss the twins.'

'So do I: Gwena sighed gustily. 'I miss a lot of things.' Elspeth realized Gwena must feel rather alone. She at least had other humans around, however alien they were. With Skif out on the hunt for Nyara, Gwena didn't even have Cymry to talk to.

Gwena must have guessed the direction her thoughts were taking.

'oh, don't feel too sorry for me,' she said, poking Elspeth in the shoulder with her nose. 'I can do that well enough on my own!.

Elspeth made a face at her, relieved. 'I'm sure you can,' she teased.

'And I wouldn't even have to encourage you.'

'Too true.' Gwena's ears pricked forward and she brought her head up. 'I do believe we have arrived.' Before them loomed another rough building-shape, much like the lair, but cruder. Where the lair was clearly a dwelling, this was no more than a simple shelter; the most basic of walls and a roof. But it was fully large enough for the gryphons and their guests, with room to spare.

It was clear that Treyvan and his mate had constructed this place before the first snow fell. Elspeth wondered why they had built it. Had they always intended to work magic here in their ruins? Or had they some other purpose in mind?

They entered, to find that Treyvan had already started a mage-fire inside; the glowing ball gave them both heat and light. The interior of the crude building was appreciably warmer than the outside, although an occasional draft whipped by at ankle height. Elspeth decided to leave her coat on; it wasn't that warm inside.

'What, exactly, arrre we doing?' Treyvan asked, settling down on his haunches. 'I know of one kind of messssage-ssspell, but I do not know that it isss like the one you ussse.'

'Ours requires a carrier,' Darkwind explained carefully. He looked around and found a block of stone to sit on. 'We generally use a bird of some kind. There are a lot of advantages to that. The spell itself weighs nothing, and it can't be detected unless a mage is quite close to the bird. The bird doesn't need to remember anything, so it doesn't have to be a bondbird. The spell is in two parts; one is the message, and the other will identify the target. That part will tell the bird when it has found either the specific person that the message is for, or in our case, the kind of person the spell is for.'

'Interesssting.' Hydona nodded. 'Better than oursss; lesss inclined to be detected. What bird arrre you usssing.

'This one.' He pointed to the hood of his coat; a tiny head peeked out from beneath his hair. Very tiny; mostly bright black eyes, and a long, sharp beak. Elspeth blinked, and looked again.

'A hummingbird?' she said incredulously. 'Where did that come from?

'The Vale,' Darkwind grinned. 'He was in my cloak hood until just before the children ran at us. He went up to shelter with Vree while we played; Vree knows better than to molest a hummingbird, since we use them for message-spells all the time. He ducked back inside my hood when I told him it was safe, and that was how I brought him here.'

'But a hummingbird?' She frowned; it was not the choice she would have made. The tiny birds were pretty enough, and certainly they did very well in the artificial world of the Vale, but it seemed to be a poor choice for carrying a message for what might well be hundreds of leagues.

'Isn't he going to freeze to death in this weather? What's he going to

eat? And how is he going to defend himself?' Darkwind held his hand up to his hood; the bird flew out and hovered for a moment before settling on his finger. It was no larger than the first joint of his thumb. 'As long as he keeps moving, he'll be fine; he won't have any trouble with the cold. He won't have to stop to eat, because I will have given him a tiny store of mage-energy that will carry him as far as k'treva. And look at him.' Elspeth kept her reservations to herself and took the time to examine the tiny bird closely. It was not one of the little flying jewels she was used to seeing; the bird was black, with only a hint of dull purple at his throat.