Storm Breaking

and his group had not been trained from their youth to be explorers and navigators of the unknown, and their experiences here were probably wearing them down. Between the cold and their strange surroundings, they felt much more comfortable taking to their own, warm quarters after dark, and not stirring out until daylight. So when the messenger pounded in on an exhausted horse last night, reporting that one of Tremane's newly-sworn liegemen was under attack by one of his neighbors, the gryphons were blissfully asleep. In the excitement, no one had bothered to wake them or even send them a message, and by the time anyone thought of doing so, it was already daylight and Darkwind was on his way to the gates to escort Tashiketh inside.

There was nothing in the simple attack of one set of humans upon another that would have alerted Tremane through the earth-sense, so the attack came as a complete surprise. A substantial amount of last night had been devoted to planning a defense, and with dawn the men in the chosen barracks were roused, briefed, and moving by the time Tashiketh appeared at the gates.

Darkwind, who met the gryphons here every morning, explained the situation to him. Tashiketh stopped, just out of the way of traffic, and stared at him in perplexity.

'But it will be very difficult to fight in this season, will it not?' he asked, very slowly. 'And with the possibility of the mage-storms resuming soon, that could make it more difficult yet.'

Darkwind nodded. 'How could it not be?' he replied. 'But if King Tremane does not come to the aid of this liegeman, then every other bandit who thinks to make himself King in place of Tremane will think himself free to do what he wills.'

'But why did Tremane not call upon us?' Tashiketh asked, with a surprised and even injured expression. 'Did we not offer to be of all assistance to him? And would his enemies not find the sight of a gryphon wing descending upon them enough to terrify them into submission? Why, look you how frightened his own people were when they knew that we were coming—how much more so must his enemies be?'

Now it was Darkwind's turn to stop in his tracks and stare at Tashiketh with shock and incredulity. 'But you are ambassadors!'

'We are allies,' Tashiketh replied firmly. 'Even as you, Brother-to-Hawks. I am not only the Ambassador, I am the leader of this force, which members have drilled and trained together. Is it not preferable to quell disturbance with the application of a small force, rather than to wait and meet war with a greater one?' He clicked his beak and then gryph-grinned, in the way that Darkwind was so familiar with in Treyvan. 'Besides, we are bored. It will be good to show our fighting prowess. It is what we are born, bred, and trained for.'

'I thought that there was no fighting in Iftel,' Darkwind blurted, as activity swirled all around them. 'I thought that your Border prevented any such thing!'

Now Tashiketh sobered. 'Simply because we do not make war on other nations, nor permit those nations to make war upon us, that does not mean that we do not prepare ourselves for war or for the day when the Barrier might fail us. I cannot tell you how long we have trained....' He shook his head 'All my life, all the life of my father, and his, and his, and so far back I cannot begin to count the years. We have always trained and contested, and will always train and contest. And when the need is there, we fight.'

Then he roused up his feathers, and moved so quickly that Darkwind was left behind completely unprepared. 'Come!' he shouted. 'We go to this King, and we tell him in a way that will make him believe!'

As Darkwind knew, even when on the ground, gryphons could move very quickly when they chose. He was left behind as Tashiketh and his escort charged into the manor, bent on offering themselves as potential victims on Tremane's altar. And he was afraid, terribly afraid, that Tremane would accept them.

But when he reached the council chamber, he found that although Tremane had accepted their offer, it was with conditions—and reservations.

'Tell the men to stand down,' he was ordering as Darkwind entered. 'I'll try Tashiketh's way, but— but—' he said, turning to the exultant gryphon and raising his voice. 'You, sir, will obey the orders of your commander, that is, me, and you will make the preparations that I tell you to and adhere to the conditions that I set.'

Darkwind could hardly believe the transformation that a few moments had made in the dignified gryphon. Tashiketh and his two escorts were wildly excited, hackles and eartufts up, eyes flashing as their pupils expanded and contracted rapidly, their talons flexing against the wooden floor and leaving gouges that would be the despair of Tremane's housekeepers. These were no longer the strange ambassadors of an even stranger culture, these were warriors, and he wondered how they had kept their nature hidden beneath those serene exteriors.

'We have the time, if you and your wing are determined to fly a warning against these people, to take the precaution that is needed to prepare you,' Tremane said sternly, every inch the commander. And now Darkwind wondered at the transformation in the King as well. Here and now, there was no uncertainty, no hesitation. This was the Imperial Commander, a man who knew both planned warfare and scrimmage fighting, the man who had been entrusted with the conquest of Hardorn. 'There is time enough for you to see what maps we have of the area and speak with those of Shonar who have relatives in the contested area. I would have you see my armorer, so that he can make you breast- and side-plates to protect you from arrows, and helmets to defend you from slung shot, if there were time enough.' Tashiketh opened his beak to protest, and Tremane swiftly overruled him. 'Not a word, sir! I am your commander, I have been fighting these people, as you have not, I know what they can and cannot do, and I will decree the terms under which you will fight. I will not dictate your tactics, sir, for that is your purview, but I can and will decree what I need for your safety!'

He looked so black and angry that Darkwind thought for a moment that Tashiketh would take offense. But one of the two escorting gryphons muttered something under his breath, and Tashiketh burst into laughter.