Storm Breaking

He surveyed the transformed room with some surprise and a great deal of relief. 'Bless you, Herald Elspeth,' he said with feeling. 'I'd have had my carpenters trying to cobble up gigantic cadges or floor perches, or something of the sort—which wouldn't have been a disaster, but it would have delayed things while Tashiketh explained what they really needed. Will this be warm enough, though?' he added, looking at the hangings with a slight frown of uncertainty. 'This place is notoriously drafty.'

'It will do,' she replied. 'Their feathers keep them as warm as our winter cloaks do, and they really only need to stay out of extreme cold and drafts. The hangings will block the drafts well enough, and they can wrap themselves in rugs and blankets to sleep. Add charcoal braziers carefully tended, and they should be fine. They'll need one of your Healers—a good, brave person, who will find them a challenge and not something to be afraid of —and about four servants to run errands, watch the braziers, and fetch things at all times.'

'A Healer?' Tremane asked with surprise, signaling to one of his aides. 'Why a Healer? They look healthy enough to me.'

'Gryphons have peculiar strengths and weaknesses; the ones I know always try to have a specially trained helper around them to keep them healthy,' she explained. 'A Healer is the closest we have to that, and I expect that Tashiketh will be willing to explain their needs.' She coughed, hiding her expression behind her hand. 'The hardest part will be finding a Healer and a handful of servants brave enough to come tend to 'boggles.''

But it was Tremane's turn to smile knowingly. 'Not as hard as you might think, Elspeth of Valdemar,' he said lightly. 'We of the Empire are made of sterner stuff than that.'

And so it proved; Tremane had not one, but two Healers eager to have access to the gryphons, and there was no problem in getting volunteers from the ranks for the light duty of acting as servants to the Ambassador and his entourage. As soon as Tashiketh and his corps had been installed, pronounced themselves 'delighted,' and dined, they had their Healer and their servants waiting for orders.

Tashiketh had displayed surprise when he saw the quarters, if an onlooker knew what to look for; he had shown more surprise and pleasure at the quality of the hospitality. He dismissed the would-be trondi'irn and three of the four servers as soon as he and the others had eaten, with thanks and the information that they all needed to rest after their journey. He asked the fourth server to stay, to watch the braziers, and in case any of them required something after they retired, which the man was not at all loath to do. The other three made themselves comfortable in a niche in the hall close by, and got out the inevitable dice.

'Are they going to sleep, really?' Tremane asked Darkwind as the King and his small entourage left the gryphons to their privacy.

'Probably so,' the Hawkbrother replied. 'Even given that they flew here in order to reach us, that was a tremendous distance they covered in a very short time. Judging by the amount they ate, they're going to sleep the sleep of the sated until well past sunrise tomorrow.'

Tremane ran his hand over the top of his balding head, looking, at the moment, nothing like a King. 'I thought that having earth-sense dropped on me was confusing,' he said, slowly, looking honestly bewildered. 'They're huge and like nothing I've ever been near before. Now what do I do? How do I treat them?'

'You have dinner with Elspeth and me, and you simply accept them as any other foreign ambassadors,' Darkwind advised. 'This is a great honor, yes. It is also the first time Iftel has sent out representatives who were not human. This can't be any easier for them than it is for you. You may not be used to having gryphons as ambassadors, but they aren't used to being ambassadors in the first place.'

Tremane looked at him oddly for a moment, then began to laugh. And if there was a faint edge of hysteria to his laughter, Elspeth couldn't blame him.

Tremane's men trampled their way purposefully through the snow, hauling burdens, readying sledges and animals, shouldering packs and weapons. Darkwind guided Tashiketh and his ever-present gryphon-guards through the gates and toward the worst of the congestion, stopping often to allow someone with a more urgent task get past them.

'What is all this excitement concerning?' Tashiketh asked, watching the activity swirling around them with curiosity brimming over in his large golden eyes.

'I was about to explain it to you,' Darkwind replied, quickly stepping out of the way of a man burdened with an entire bundle of spear shafts. 'We had a very unexpected and unpleasant message last night.'

'Ah! Now I regret vacating our palace quarters so soon!' the gryphon said brightly. Tashiketh and his own entourage had established themselves within two days of their arrival in an old inn very near the manor, cheerfully vacated by the owner at the sight of the odd, octagonal gold coins offered for its purchase by the treasurer for the gryphons. They had chosen the inn because of its large rooms on the second floor, each of which had its own balcony, and several of the staff were quite willing to stay on and serve such relatively undemanding masters. Now Tashiketh and his escort of two moved between the inn and the manor every day, taking part in daily Court and Council sessions, showing extreme interest in everything Tremane did. So far, they had neither interfered in the business of Hardorn nor done anything other than tender an opinion when asked for one. It was Darkwind's thought that they were acting in very similar fashion to the way that Treyvan and Hydona had behaved when they first came to k'Leshya Vale—willing to offer advice, but making no move to push in where they might not be wanted.

But the cause of this particular uproar had occurred very near midnight, long after the gryphons had retired for the night. The gryphons Darkwind knew did not find it necessary to be purely daylight creatures, but Tashiketh