turned up at Ancar's Court fairly recently, and this one worries me.' She bit her lip, and looked from the Tayledras to the gryphons and back. 'The fellow is so odd that I'm wondering if you lot can't tell me what we can expect out of him. He looks more than half cat, from what my agents tell me, and he keeps pretty much to himself. Only one of them has seen him, and just for a moment. We don't even know his name for certain - just a guess, Falcon's Breath, Falcon's Death, or something like that.'
Falcon's - oh, gods. No.
Elspeth felt as if she had taken a blow to the stomach, and Nyara looked stricken. Firesong bit off an exclamation, and Darkwind a curse. The gryphons both jerked bolt upright. Skif looked quite ready to kill something.
Kero looked around at all of them and raised her eyebrows. 'I take it you know this person?'
Darkwind was the first to recover. 'You could say that,' he replied dryly. 'Will we never be rid of the Beast?'
The last was half-snarled, and Skif's nostrils flared as he nodded in agreement. Firesong shut his gaping mouth with a snap.
'That sincerely annoys me. I can only ask myself what dark demon holds the Beast in high esteem, that he keeps returning,' the Healing Adept said after everyone turned to look at him. He bestowed a look full of irony on Kerowyn. 'Twice already he has escaped from situations that should have finished him,' Firesong continued, 'and the next time I shall not believe he is dead until I burn the body, and sow the ashes with salt!'
'I may assume, then, that this is not good news?' Kero asked mildly.
It was Treyvan who answered that question.
'No, warrriorrrr,' he growled, crest and hackles up. His voice was so full of venom that Elspeth hardly recognized it. 'Thisss isss not good newssss.'
By nightfall, they had a basic plan. Firesong would first find the place where the new Heartstone lay and fully activate it. Then he would roam the Palace with Jeri, looking for the old magic workrooms and any artifacts or books that might still be in existence and stored somewhere other than the Archives. Once the rooms were identified and the artifacts found, he would help Jeri get them properly cleaned and restored to their original functions. He did not expect that to take very long. As soon as the workrooms were ready, Firesong would begin training the strongest of the new mages.
The gryphons would identify any Heralds here at the Collegium that had obvious Mage-Gift and begin their basic training if they were not of such potential that they needed Firesong's attention. If there were any doubts whether or not a Herald had Mage-Gift, Darkwind or Elspeth could pass judgment. Need could as well - but the blade opined that it would be better to keep the fact of her existence as an intelligent personality very quiet. A sentient sword would be certain to attract attention, and all of it the wrong kind.
'This group is strange enough without adding a talking sword,' Kero agreed. 'Good gods, I don't know how I'm going to explain some of you!'
Meanwhile, until the mages from outKingdom arrived, Darkwind and Elspeth would work with Firesong and the new Heartstone, and search the Archives for 'lost' books on magic. She was certain that there were books they needed hidden in there, and that only the prohibition on magic had kept her from finding them in her earlier searches. Now that the prohibition was gone, she should be able to locate them. While books would not replace a real teacher, they could augment what teachers could do. And they might offer spells none of the Tayledras knew, and clues to what Ancar might muster.
Good plans, all of them. Now they would have to see just how long those plans lasted. The worst of their nightmares was now real. Ancar and Mornelithe Falconsbane appeared to be allies. Add in Hulda, and however many mages Ancar had recruited - and Valdemar was racing against time and the most furious of mage winds.
Only Mornelithe and Ancar knew what they were going to do next. Despite what others said about true mages not guarding against mind-magic, Ancar had long ago learned many of the limits of Heraldic abilities. ForeSight or FarSight, neither worked well against him; all they could do was try to outthink him.
She had appeared in the flames of the fireplace itself; if Falconsbane happened to wake, it would be very easy for her to hide herself and her power away. The Avatars often appeared to him in the fireplace now; with Ancar so on edge, he could and did burst into Falconsbane's rooms at any time, waking the Adept, and An'desha did not dare to be away from the body if that happened. An'desha had learned to manipulate Falconsbane's mind and body to make him more aware of his fatigue. The Adept slept most of the time he spent in his rooms, but he was not aware that he was spending a truly inordinate amount of time in slumber. An'desha saw to it that he ate and drank and cared for himself; the rest of that time An'desha spent in rummaging through Falconsbane's memories.
