'Seven black flyers now,' a huge fat man told them. He'd come to their door battered and bleeding, a deserter from the landsguard dressed in rags. 'Tried to send me to Thrane,' he said by way of explanation, 'but damned if I'd go there.' When he wasn't speaking, he coughed, and often he coughed up blood.
'Seven?'
'A bad number,' the man said, coughing. 'All dressed in black too, a bad color. They mean us no good.'
His coughing suddenly grew so bad he could not talk.
'Easy,' Evan said, 'easy.' He gave the man wine, mixed with herbs, and he and Maris led him to a bed.
The fat man would not rest, though. As soon as his coughing fit had ended, he began to talk again. 'If I was Landsman, I'd march out my archers, and shoot 'em down when they flew overhead. Yes, I would.
There's some that says the arrows would just pass through 'em, but not me. I think they're flesh just like me.' He slapped his ample gut. 'Can't just let 'em fly. They're bringing bad luck to us all. Weather's been bad lately, and the fish haven't been running, and I heard tell of people taking sick and dying in Port Thayos when the shadow of those wings touched 'em. Something terrible is going to happen on Thrane, I know it, that's why I wouldn't go. Not with seven black flyers in the sky. No, not me. This is an evil thing, I tell you, and it won't bring us good.'
It brought the fat man no good, at any rate, Maris thought. The next morning, when she brought his breakfast in to him, his huge body was stiff and cold. Evan buried him in the forest, among the graves of a dozen other travelers.
'Thenya went to Port Thayos to try to sell her tapestries,' reported another of the horde of children Evan had delivered, a boy this time. 'When she came back to Thossi, she said there are more than a dozen black flyers now, flying in a great circle from the port to the Landsman's keep. And more are arriving every day.'
'Twenty flyers, all in black, silent, grim,' said the young singer. She had golden hair and blue eyes, a sweet voice and an easy manner. 'They'll make a marvelous song! I'd be working on it now, if only I knew how it was all going to end…'
'Why are they here, do you think?' Evan asked.
'For Tya, of course,' the young woman said, startled that anyone would ask. 'She lied to stop the war, and the Landsman killed her for it. They wear black for her, I'd wager. Many people are grieving for her.'
'Ah, yes,' Evan said. 'Tya. Her story might make a song itself. Have you thought of making one?'
The singer grinned. 'There already is one,' she said. 'I heard it in Port Thayos. Here, I'll sing it for you.'
Maris met Katinn of Lomarron in the abandoned field, where slender green ruffians and misshapen dirt- dragons were fast crowding out the wild wheat. The big man with the scylla's-tooth necklace came down gracefully on silvered wings, dressed all in black.
She led him inside and gave him water. 'Well?' He wiped away the moisture from his lips and grinned at her roughly. 'I flew in very high, and saw the circle far beneath me. Ah, you should have seen it! Forty wings by now, I'd guess. The Landsman must be drooling at the mouth. Word has gone out, too. More one-wings are coming from all over Eastern, and Val himself flew the word back to Western, so it won't be too long before others join us, too. By now there are so many that it's easy to break away for a rest or a meal without anyone being the wiser. I don't envy poor Alain starting it all. She's a strong flyer, no doubt of that. I've never known her to tire. They've got her resting in secret on Thrynel now, but she'll be back to rejoin us soon. As for me, I'm on my way to join the circle now.' Maris nodded. 'What about Coll's song?' 'They're singing it on Lomarron, and South Arren, and Kite's Landing. I've heard it myself, several times. And it's gone to Southern and the Outer Islands as well, and to Western of course — to your Amberly, and Culhall, and Poweet. Heard that it's spreading among the singers in Stormtown.'
'Good,' said Maris. 'Good.'
'The Landsman sent Jem up to question the black flyers,' said Evan's friend, repeating the news from Thossi, 'and it's said that he recognized them and called on them by name, but they would not speak to him. You ought to come to the city and see them, Evan. Whenever you look up, the sky is full of flyers.'
'The Landsman has ordered the flyers out of his sky, but they will not go. And why should they? As the singers say, the sky belongs to flyers!'
'I heard that a flyer arrived from Thrane, with a message from their Landsman to ours, but when he met her in the audience chamber to hear it, he turned pale with fear, for the flyer was dressed in black from head to foot. She delivered the message to him as he trembled, but before she could go, the Landsman stopped her and demanded to know why she was dressed all in black. 'I go to join the circle,' she told him calmly, 'and grieve for Tya.' And so she did, so she did.'
'They say the singers in Port Thayos all dress in black these days, and some other people as well. The streets are full of merchants selling black cloth, and the dyers are very busy.'
'Jem has joined the black flyers!'
'The Landsman has ordered the landsguard back from Thrane. He's afraid of what the black flyers might do, I heard, and he wants his best archers around him. The keep is full to overcrowding. It's said that the Landsman will not go outside, lest the shadow of their wings fall upon him as they fly overhead.'
S'Rella arrived with the welcome news that Dorrel was less than a day behind her. Maris kept watch on the cliffs herself all that afternoon, too impatient even to wait at home with S'Rella, and at last she was rewarded by the sight of a dark figure gliding inland. She hurried into the forest to meet him.
It was a hot, still day, bad weather for flying. Maris swiped at attacking insects as she trudged through the tall grass that almost concealed the cabin. Her heart was racing with excitement as she pushed open the heavy wooden door, hanging on its hinges.
She blinked, almost blind in the dark interior after the brilliant sunshine, and then she felt his hand on her shoulder, and heard his familiar voice say her name.
'You… you came,' she said. She was suddenly short of breath. 'Dorrel.'
'Did you doubt I would come?'
She could see now. The familiar smile, his well-remembered way of standing.
'Do you mind if we sit down?' he asked. 'I'm awfully tired. It was a long flight from Western, and it did me no good to try to catch up to S'Rella.'
They sat close together, on two matching chairs that must once have been very fine. But the cushions were impregnated with dust now, greenish and slightly damp with mold.
'How are you, Maris?'
'I'm… living. Ask me again in a month or so and I may have a better answer for you.' She looked into his dark, concerned eyes, and then away again. 'It's been a long time, hasn't it, Dorr?'
He nodded. 'When you weren't at the Council, I understood… I hoped that you were doing what was best for you. I was more pleased than I can say when S'Rella came, bearing your message, your request that I come to you.' He sat a little straighter in his chair. 'But surely you didn't send for me just for the pleasure of seeing an old friend.'
Maris drew a deep breath. 'I need your help. You know about the circle? The black flyers?'
He nodded. 'Rumors have already spread. And I saw them as I flew in. An impressive sight. Your doing?'
'Yes.'
He shook his head. 'And not an end in itself, I'll wager. What's your plan?'
'Will you help me with it? We need you.'
' 'We?' You've sided with the one-wings, I suppose?' His tone was not angry, and did not condemn, but Maris
