Storm Breaking

'Mornelithe Falconsbane was a challenge, but no more than that,' he replied stiffly. 'It's not as if I was alone in facing him.'

'It's not as if you had any real reason to,' An'desha pointed out inexorably. 'Valdemar wasn't your home. Falconsbane didn't threaten the Vales. You'd done your duty in training Heralds to be mages, and then some. You could have gone home once you'd done that much.'

'Leaving whom to face Falconsbane?' Firesong demanded, his face flushing. 'One of those half-trained Heralds? Elspeth? Darkwind, perhaps? None of them could have freed you. I'm not certain even Need could have freed you and dealt with Falconsbane.'

An'desha simply nodded quietly. 'But when it was over—you could have gone home then. You could even have taken me with you, and things might have turned out differently. You've long since gone past anything anyone could call your duty, Firesong. No one would fault you if you were too tired of all this to go on.'

'And how am I going to compare to someone like Karal if I do that?' he demanded, flushing still further. 'Too tired? How would I look, quitting now, next to someone who literally put his life in jeopardy over this?'

'You make him sound like a would-be martyr,' An'desha chided. 'Karal is quite a few things, including stubborn, occasionally bigoted, and now and then incredibly naive, but he's no martyr. And neither are you, nor any of us.'

'So?' Aya must have felt his distress; the firebird sailed in the chamber door, adroitly avoided the snare of wires and junk, and landed on his shoulder. He petted the bondbird reflexively in a blind search for comfort. 'If he's not a martyr, then—' He stopped, aware that his voice was getting high and strained.

He took two or three deep breaths. 'An'desha, I don't know why you're baiting me this way.'

Then, in a moment of blinding insight, he did know.

He's forcing me to think things through, so that I come to a real decision, instead of letting some unfinished business and an entire bundle of emotions sway me back and forth.

An'desha nodded, as if he saw all that written on Firesong's face.

I can't make a decision because I'm trying to demonstrate that I'm somehow better than Karal. And I can't make it out of guilt either.

So why am I staying?

'What Karal does is up to Karal, but—well, I'm not too old to take a youngster like him as a good example.' He smiled weakly. 'You all need me, just as you need Sejanes or Master Levy, or Altra. I'm staying because even though I'm tired and I hate living here, it would be wrong of me to go off and leave you without my skills. I don't want to die in the cold and filth, but if I must, I will. It would be wrong to abandon all those people who are hoping we'll find a solution to the final Storm. It would be wrong to break my word to the people I promised I would help. Are those reasons good enough for you?'

An'desha laughed at that. 'Don't think to bait me, Firesong; I was coached by an expert to steer you through your own thoughts and motives.'

He scowled at that. 'Are you happy with the result?' he growled.

'The question is not whether I'm satisfied, it's whether you are,' An'desha countered. 'And if you are, it is not for me to object. If your decision will interfere with other concerns, then that must be dealt with then.'

He stood up and moved over to another section of floor. Firesong felt an imp of perversity rise inside him, and he knew he had to have the last word.

'And I didn't mention the best reason of all yet,' he said silkily. Surprised, An'desha turned back to face him.

'What reason is that?' he asked, as if the words had been pulled from him unwillingly.

Firesong smiled. 'Silverfox wants me to stay,' he replied. 'Can you think of a better reason?'

Two

Elspeth sighed, her breath streaming out in a fog of ice-crystals, and pulled the ends of the scarf wrapped around her neck a little tighter. Once again she sent a little thought of gratitude back over her shoulder toward Valdemar and the tireless k'Leshya hertasi who had fashioned her current costume. The little lizard-folk who had arrived with the bargeload of envoys from Clan k'Leshya had taken one look at her winter wardrobe and taken it upon themselves to refashion it, as if they didn't already have enough to do. The hertasi of k'Sheyna had already made her Herald's Whites in the style of the Tayledras, but those had all been of summer-weight fabrics. These new hertasi had remade her