Priestess of the White

“Argh! Mischief! Stop that!” she exclaimed. She winced and lifted him down, then held him firmly against her chest with one hand, while scratching his head with the other. The creature gazed up at her adoringly.

“Owaya home.”

“Yes, and hungry,” she told him. She looked up at Danjin. “You?”

“Yes,” Danjin replied.

Her smile widened. “Then let’s see what we can rustle up. You can tell me what Mischief has been up to while I’ve been gone.”

“Plenty,” Danjin told her wryly.

As they walked out of the tent, Lanren felt a familiar nagging feeling. It was a feeling he had when he had just seen something that might prove to be important. Something about the exchange he’d witnessed.

Or was it simply the possibilities inherent in the veez itself that nagged at his thoughts. The creatures could be useful as scouts or couriers.

His stomach grumbled. Shaking his head, Lanren put the thought aside and left in search of dinner.

Long past midnight, Auraya paced her tent. The war discussion had lasted hours. At first the time had flown by, but as the night lengthened, the presence of the new Dreamweaver adviser had reminded Auraya of the questions she wanted to ask Leiard.

She knew from reading Raeli’s mind that the woman had no idea why Leiard had resigned from the position. Auraya could easily guess the answer to that. Any of her fellow White could learn of their affair just by seeing into his mind. He must have resigned to prevent that.

She felt a pang of guilt. If she’d realized the consequences of taking him to bed that night... but one wasn’t meant to think twice in moments of passion. That’s how it was in folktales of love and heroism. Even in those tales there was a cost to forbidden love. Obviously it hadn’t occurred to Leiard how much trouble they would cause, either. Even if they had restrained themselves that night, there would still have been the revelation of their love for each other. The White would have read that from his mind anyway.

Is there a chance they might accept my choice of lover? I doubt they’d be happy about it, but they may come to support us in time. We could become a symbol of unity between Circlians and Dreamweavers.

It was all very fine dreaming of becoming a symbol of unity when she didn’t know where he was or - she felt her stomach twist - if he still felt the same way about her. During dinner she had asked Danjin if he had seen Leiard. He had no idea where Leiard or any of the Dreamweavers were. She knew they preferred not to travel with armies or to show preference for any side in a battle, but they could not be too far away. Their destination was the same as both armies: the battlefield.

She ought to be sleeping, but she knew she would not. Tomorrow Juran would expect her to join the other White leading the army to war. The only time she had free to seek Leiard was these few spare hours of night.

As she reached the tent entrance she heard a small, muffled voice.

“Owaya go?”

She looked back at the basket Mischief had taken to as his bed. A small head and two bright eyes appeared among the blankets.

“Yes,” she said. “Mischief stay.”

“Msstf Owaya go.”

Auraya paused, not sure of the veez’s meaning. The creature jumped out of the basket and bounded past her. He stopped a few strides away and looked back at her.

“Msstf Owaya go,” he repeated.

He wanted to come with her. She smiled, then shook her head.

“Auraya fly,” she told him.

He looked up at her.

“Msstf Owaya fly.”

Did he truly understand what she was saying? She focused on his mind and saw a bright mix of adoration and eagerness. She tried to communicate a sense of rising above the ground. He quivered all over with excitement, then squeaked and rushed up her body to her shoulder.

If he truly understood, she didn’t know. Perhaps if she lifted herself into the air a little he would take fright and jump off. Then he would understand the meaning of the word “fly” and know he couldn’t come with her.

She moved outside and slowly lifted herself upward. The veez’s claws tightened on her shoulder, but she sensed no fear from him. Of course not, she mused. He climbs up walls and across ceilings all the time.

She moved higher, testing his confidence. The only change in his mood was a growing anticipation. When she was looking down at the tops of the tents, she began to move forward. Mischief settled against her back, enjoying the breeze ruffling his fur.

He likes it, she marvelled. Who would have thought? I’ll hope his understanding of heights includes knowing when he’s too high to jump off safely...

She had reached the edge of the camp now. Flying on, she followed the curve of a hill upward. At the top she paused to look around.

Then she began to search for Leiard.

34

Tryss looked down at the hundreds of campfires below, and smiled. From a distance it was easy to feel superior to these landwalkers. He and Drilli had talked about it last night. For a start, these people hardly ever looked up. He supposed they had rarely needed to before now. If the Pentadrians had the same weakness, it would be easy to exploit in the coming battle.

Another landwalker weakness was their slowness. The Siyee could travel in an hour or two the distance the rest of the army walked in a day. It had quickly become clear that the Siyee would not be following the Circlian army to the battlefield. There was no point in flying around in circles while the landwalkers made their slow but tireless way across the plains, so Sirri had offered to take the Siyee ahead to find a good place for the army to camp the next night. Juran had agreed.

There had been no need to hurry, so they had had plenty of time to inspect the territory. The plains were a different kind of terrain than they were familiar with. Flying low, they stirred up flocks of birds or herds of small, fine-boned animals the landwalkers called lyrim. These creatures provided an excellent opportunity for harness and blowpipe practice. Tryss and Drilli had led one of the many teams of hunters. So many of these animals were brought down that by the end of the day they had killed more than enough to feed themselves. The excess meat was cooked and presented to the landwalker army when it arrived that evening.

It made them popular with the army. The landwalkers had lifted their cups and dedicated their ration of drink to the Siyee after the meal. It was another amusing custom of theirs.

However, the hunt made the Siyee unpopular with a small group of landwalkers who appeared early the next morning. It appeared that these herds of lyrim had belonged to them. Juran had given these men bags of the metal coins the landwalkers used for money, and the lyrim herders had left looking grim, but no longer angry.

All feelings of superiority Tryss enjoyed soon disappeared whenever he was among the landwalkers. Their size was enough to intimidate any Siyee, but watching them at weapons training was truly sobering. Many of these fighters were quite arrogant. Once one sneered openly at Tryss and a group of Siyee. Later, Auraya heard of the incident and was angry. She explained that some landwalkers felt that killing a man at a distance, rather than face- to-face, was a dishonorable and cowardly act. They disdained landwalker archers for that reason. It was all right for them, Auraya had said. They were born large and strong. If only large and strong people fought in wars, armies would be small indeed.

“Tryss!”

Startled out of his thoughts, Tryss looked around. Speaker Sirri was riding an updraft toward him. She landed on the hill beside him.