'Precisely.' He chuckled. 'That is one reason why they enjoy working with us. They have a number of traditional designs they use, but we are quicker at creating new ones than they are. Or perhaps it is simply that we are more uninhibited. That is part of the trade they have with us; when one of them wants a new design for something, he goes to one of us craftsmen, and we create it for him. That, and protection and shelter, and we earn their service.'
'Us craftsmen?' she said, puzzled. 'I didn't know you were a craftsman.'
' I do clothing design, or I did. I am no great artist like Ravenwing, he replied, and she had the impression that he was a little uncomfortable, perhaps embarrassed. 'Odd as it may seem, when they are at leisure, the hertasi of the Vale enjoy having elaborate clothing to wear.' She considered teasing him and decided against it. She recalled the festival clothing that he and Starblade had worn; clothing that seemed to have been created by the same hand. Now she knew it probably had been. His hand. Had that been a kind of silent signal of reconciliation?
What other signals was she missing?
'You know,' she said slowly, 'Back at home there's an entire set of codes in the flowers people wear, that they give to one another. It's even more elaborate at Court. People have carried on entire conversations.) wordlessly, with the flowers they have worn during the course of a day.' Really?' He seemed amused and relieved that she had turned the topic to something else. 'Here there is only one meaning to a gift of a flower.'
'And what is that?' she asked.
'The same as a gift Of a feather-that one wishes intimacy.' She blinked, now understanding a number of exchanges she had seen but hadn't understood.
'If the feather is from any bird, the relationship is casual.' he continued.' If it is from one's bondbird, however, the meaning is that it is to be one of deeper intentions.' A sudden image flashed from memory, of the shaman Kethra, a string of feathers braided into her hair when she had never seen the Shin'a'in wear feathers before.
'Is that why Kethra-' she exclaimed, then stopped, blushing at her own rudeness.
But Darkwind didn't seem to think it was rude. 'Yes,' he said simply.' Those were feathers from the birds he bonded to before that raven-a gray owl, and a falcon called a perlin. When our birds molt, we save the feathers. Those we do not need to use for repair when a bird breaks a feather, we keep for special purposes, and for gifts.'
'He needs another bird,' she said, thinking out loud. 'You know, watching you and the others with your birds- it isn't like a Herald with a Companion, but it's an important relationship. He needs a bird, and I don't think either he or Kethra realize how much, or the good it would do him to have one.' Silence then, as Gwena continued to push her way through the snow beneath the barren, gray branches of the forest, as the light slowly leached from the sky and the shapes of trees far away lost their definition, blurring into charcoal shadows. She wondered if she had broken some unspoken taboo among the Hawkbrothers. Or if, perhaps, she had sounded arrogant, as if she thought that she knew it all.
'Odd,' he said, finally. 'That is precisely what I have been thinking.
Father lost his last bird to Falconsbane, and may hesitate to ask someone to help him find another. Kethra knows nothing of the bond of Tayledras and bird, how important it is to us. All of us have a bird of one sort or another, Elspeth. The mages often bond to a small owl, or to one of the corbies, but all of us have birds, and all of enhanced breeding.'
'It seems to me that the birds you have are more like-well-housecats.
They have that kind of independence of thought, but willingness to be somewhat dependent.' She shook her head, at a loss to explain what she meant. 'They're not like dogs-well, mostly they aren't. But they sure as fire are not like the falcons and Raptors I know! The best you can get from them is tolerance, unless you can Mindspeak with animals.'
'You are very observant. That is very true. They have that capacity for real affection that most of the true raptors lack; they are social, and they are intelligent enough to work together instead of preying on one another. Because of that capacity, the bond between us is as much of friendship as dependence. The only trouble is, this is not breeding season, and all the adult birds within the Vale are already bonded.' Perhaps the waning light had made her other senses sharper; perhaps it was just that she had become accustomed to listening for nuances in the way Darkwind spoke. 'Within the Vale?' she repeated. 'Are there birds of Vale lineage outside the Vale?'
'Many. All those that are not claimed by someone as an eyas are left free to follow their own will.' He was silent for a moment. 'But without the bond, their wild instincts come to the fore, and aside from size, it is difficult to tell them from their wild cousins. We could trap a passage bird, perhaps. But that would be a poor way to begin a relationship that is based in trust.'
'I see your point.' And she did. A wild-bred bird never connected the trap with the human that took him from it. In fact, a wild-bred bird often woke to his surroundings when securely mewed, and the falconer began the careful process of manning him. But a bird as intelligent as one of bondbird stock would make the immediate connection between trap and trapper. And he would not be pleased, however good their intentions. 'Have you asked Vree what he thinks we should do?'
'Actually, no.' She could tell by the tone of his voice that she had surprised him, probably by saying something one of his people wouldn't have thought o But she was used to asking Gwena's advice, and while she wouldn't have considered posing a complicated question to the bondbird, this was something he could realistically handle.
The gyre dropped down ahead of them out of the trees, circled about beneath the branches, and chirped at Darkwind before regaining the height he preferred with a few strong wingbeats.
Darkwind laughed aloud. 'You pleased him, Wingsib,' he said. 'He was very flattered by being asked his opinion. And in his own very direct way, he has the perfect answer. He says that we must wait for one of the birds of the proper lineage to be injured. It is winter; first-year birds are injured all the time, trying for difficult kills. In the normal way of things, they will heal upon their own; sometimes other birds of Tayledras breeding, even their parents, will feed them while they heal. And in the way of things, if they do not heal properly and there is none to feed them, they die. But if the other birds of the Vale know we are looking for an injured bird, they will watch for one such, and we may play rescuer.'
'Giving us a grateful bird instead of an angry one.' She smiled; it was the best kind of solution. 'I take it that he's going to speak to the other birds?'
