Windhaven

'Did you think I loved you as an apprentice, as a healer, Maris? For how much you could help me? As a healer, quite frankly, you tried my patience. I love you as a woman, for yourself, for who you are. And now that you've realized who you are, who you have always been, you think you must leave me?'

'There are things I must do,' she said. 'I don't know what my fate will be. I may fail. It might be dangerous for you to be associated with me. You might share Reni's fate… I don't want to risk you.'

' You can't risk me,' he said firmly. 'I risk myself.' He took her hand and held it tightly. 'There may be things I can do to help — let me do them. I'll share your burden, share the danger, and make it less. I can do more than just make tea for your friends, you know.'

'But you don't have to,' Maris said. 'You shouldn't risk your life for nothing. This isn't your fight.'

'Not my fight?' He sounded mildly indignant. 'Isn't Thayos my home? What the Landsman of Thayos decrees affects me, my friends, my patients. My blood is in these mountains and in this forest. You are the stranger here. Whatever you accomplish for your people, the flyers, will also affect my people. And I know them, as you cannot. They know me, and they trust me here. Many owe me debts, debts that cannot be paid in iron coin. They will help me, and I will help you. I think you need my help.'

Maris felt as if strength was pouring through her, traveling from the firm clasp of his hand up her arm. She smiled, glad that she was not alone, feeling more certain of her way now. 'Yes, Evan, I do need you.'

'You have me. How do we begin?'

Maris leaned back against the wooden headboard, fitting into the curve of Evan's arm. 'We need a hidden place, a landing field; a place safe for flyers to come and go without the Landsman or his spies knowing they are on Thayos.'

She felt his nod as soon as she had finished speaking. 'Done,' he said. 'There is an abandoned farm, not far from here. The farmer died only last winter, so the forest has not reclaimed the place, although it will shelter it from spying eyes.'

'Good. Perhaps we should all move there, for a time, in case the landsguard come looking for us.'

'I must stay here,' Evan said. 'If the landsguard cannot find me, neither can the sick. I must be available to them.'

'It might not be safe for you.'

'I know a family in Thossi, a family with thirteen children. I helped the mother through a difficult birthing, and saved her children from death half a dozen times — they would eagerly do the same for me. Their house is on the main road, and there is always a child to spare. If the landsguard come for us, they must pass by there, and one of the children could run ahead to warn us.'

Maris smiled. 'Perfect.'

'What else?'

'First, we must wake S'Rella.' Maris sat up, moving out of his light embrace, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. 'I need her to be my wings, to fly messages for me, many messages. But one first, the crucial one. To Val One-Wing.'

Val came to her, of course.

She waited for him in the doorway of a cramped two-room plank cabin, badly weathered, its furnishings covered with mold. He circled three times above the weed-choked field, silver wings dark against a threatening sky, before he decided that it was safe to land.

When he came down, she helped him with his wings, although something clutched and trembled within her when her hands touched the soft metal fabric. Val embraced her, and smiled. 'You're looking well, for an old cripple,' he said.

'You're very glib, for an idiot,' Maris said back at him. 'Come inside.'

Coll was within the cabin, tuning his guitar. 'Val,' he said, nodding.

'Sit,' Maris said to Val. 'I have something I want you to hear.'

He glanced at her, puzzled. But he sat.

Coll sang 'Tya's Fall.' At his sister's urging, he had composed two versions. He gave Val the sad one.

Val listened politely, with only a hint of restlessness. 'Very pretty,' he said when Coll was done. 'Very sad.' He looked sharply at Maris. 'Is this why you sent S'Rella to me, and had me fly here at risk of my life, in spite of my pledge never to come to Thayos? For this? To listen to a song?' He frowned. 'How badly did that fall injure your head?'

Coll laughed. ' Give her half a chance,' he said.

'It's all right,' Maris said. 'Val and I are used to each other, aren't we?'

Val smiled thinly. 'You have half a chance,' he said. 'Tell me what this is all about.'

'Tya,' Maris said. 'In a word. And how to mend what was broken in Council.'

Val frowned. 'It's too late. Tya is dead. We responded, and now we wait to see what will happen.'

'If we wait then it will be too late. We can't afford to wait for the flyers to close the academies, or limit challenges to those who promise to ignore your sanction. You've given a weapon to Corm and his kind by walking out, by acting without the support of the Council.'

Val shook his head. 'I did what had to be done. And there are more one-wings every year. The Landsman of Thayos may laugh now, but he will not laugh forever.'

'You don't have forever,' Maris said. She was silent a moment, her thoughts tumbling so fast that she was afraid to speak. She couldn't afford to alienate Val. They did understand each other, as she had told Coll, but Val was still prickly and temperamental, as his actions in Council had proved. And it would be hard for him to admit that he had been wrong.

'I should have come when you sent for me,' she said after a moment. 'But I was afraid, and selfish.

Perhaps I could have kept this split from taking place.'

Val said flatly, 'That's useless. What happened, happened.'

'That doesn't mean it can't be changed. I understand you felt you had to do something—but what you did may turn out to be a lot worse than doing nothing could have been. What if the flyers decide to strip you of your wings, to ground all the one-wings?'

'Let them try.'

'What could you do? Fight them individually, hand to hand? No. If the flyers should decide to take away the wings from all those who participate in your sanction, there would be nothing you could do. Nothing except, perhaps, to kill a few flyers and see a lot more one-wings die like Tya. The Landsmen would support the flyers with all the power of the landsguard.'

'If that happens…' Val stared at Maris, his face dangerously still. 'If that happens, you'll live to see your dream die. Does that mean so much to you? Still? When you know that you can never fly again yourself?'

'This is more important than my dream or my life,' Maris said. 'It's gone beyond that. You know that.

You care too, Val.'

The silence in the little cabin seemed to close around them. Even Coll's fingers were motionless upon the strings of his guitar.

'Yes,' said Val, the word like a sigh. 'But what… what can I do?'

'Revoke this sanction,' Maris said promptly. 'Before your enemies use it against you.'

'Will the Landsman revoke Tya's hanging? No, Maris, this sanction is the only power we have. The other flyers must join us in it, or we must stay split.'

'It's a useless gesture, you know that,' Maris said. 'Thayos will not miss the one-wings. The flyer-born will come and go as always, and the Landsman will have plenty of wings to bear his words. It means nothing.'

'It means we will keep our word; that we do not make idle threats. Besides, the sanction was voted by all of us. I could not revoke it alone if I wanted to. You are wasting your breath.'

Maris smiled scornfully, but inside she felt hopeful. Val was beginning to back down. 'Don't play games with me, Val. You are the one-wings. That's why I called you here. We both know they will do whatever you suggest.'

'Are you really asking me to forget what the Landsman did? To forget Tya?'

'No one will forget Tya.'

A soft chord sounded. 'My song will assure that,' Coll said. 'I'll sing it in Port Thayos in a few days.