Priestess of the White

different forest path each time. She resisted the temptation to read the Speaker’s mind, sensing that Sirri wanted to wait until they joined the other Speakers before revealing the contents of the message that had so disturbed her.

I trust her, she mused. Or perhaps it’s just that I know she is not keeping something from me, and has her reasons for waiting.

They reached the bower. Sirri said nothing as she stepped up to the entrance and pulled the flap aside. Inside, the Speakers of the other fourteen tribes waited. They stood to greet her and she sensed a new caution in the way they regarded her. Sirri ushered her to one of the short stools then took her place. She glanced at the other tribe leaders before she turned her attention back to Auraya.

“Auraya of the White,” she began. “Do you remember me telling you of the large black birds that attacked the Sun Ridge tribe a month ago?”

“Yes. One of the hunters claimed to have glimpsed a landwalker nearby.”

Sirri nodded. “The birds have not been seen since, though some of us have looked for them cautiously, but the woman has been seen again recently.” She glanced at the leader of the Twin Mountain tribe. “By a child. We have no reason to doubt this girl’s story; she is not prone to making up fanciful tales.

“She says she encountered the woman close to her village. The woman asked her to deliver a message. It contained an apology for the attack on the hunters. She claimed it was an accident, that she did not know what her birds were doing until it was too late. Her true intentions were to befriend us.

“Then she saw you fly past,” Sirri met Auraya’s eyes levelly, “and changed her mind. She decided to leave Si, after telling the child to give her tribal leader a different message. She said if the Siyee ally themselves with Circlians they will gain an enemy even stronger.”

Auraya felt a chill. “What did this landwalker look like?”

“Her skin was dark. She looked young and strong.”

“Her clothing?”

“She was dressed in black and wore a silver pendant.”

The chill became a shiver of cold that ran down Auraya’s spine.

“Ah.”

“Have you heard of this woman before?”

Auraya shook her head. “No, but I have encountered people like her. She may be a member of a cult from Southern Ithania. I must tell Juran about this.”

Closing her eyes, she called out Juran’s name.

:Yes? he replied.

:I think a Pentadrian has been snooping around in Si. She told him what she had learned.

:A woman with birds; a man with vorns. The five leaders our spies named include two women.

:Yes. What shall I tell the Siyee?

:Everything. All of Northern Ithania will know of these sorcerers soon enough. This might nudge them into signing an alliance.

Auraya smothered a sigh and opened her eyes. What am I getting these people into? she asked herself, yet again. What would I be abandoning them to, if I didn’t try to persuade them to seek our protection? She looked around at the anxious faces of the Speakers.

“Juran and I believe we know what she is, just as she recognized what I am. She is a Pentadrian sorcerer,” she told the Speakers. “We have encountered two others. The first entered Toren with a hunt of vorns. The creatures were larger and darker in color than their wild relations and appeared to obey mental orders. Their master’s only intention in entering Toren appeared to be to cause terror and death. Rian found and confronted the man, who fled when it was clear he could not win the fight.

“The second sorcerer was not accompanied by vorns,” she continued. A memory of being pinned against a wall by the black sorcerer’s power brought an echo of fear. Auraya drew in a deep breath, pushing aside both the memory and the dread that came with it. “Or any other creature but an ordinary reyer. He did not harm anyone as far as we know. I was sent to help Dyara find him but he, too, escaped us.”

“What do these sorcerers want?” a Speaker asked.

Auraya grimaced. “I don’t know. One thing is sure, they hate Circlians. They call us heretics.”

“What do they worship?”

“Five gods, as we do, but theirs are not real gods.”

“Perhaps this is why they defend their beliefs so ferociously,” Dryss murmured.

“Why did this sorceress enter Si?” another Speaker asked.

“For the same reason Auraya has: to seek an alliance,” someone replied.

“By attacking us?”

“She said it was a mistake. She said she wanted to befriend us.”

“Until she saw Auraya.”

Several of the Speakers glanced at Auraya. She met their eyes, hoping she looked more confident than she felt.

“She threatened us,” Dryss reminded them. He grimaced. “I fear we are being forced to choose between two great powers. No matter what we do, we face changes we can’t avoid.”

“You don’t have to choose either,” Auraya pointed out. “You can choose to remain as you are.”

“And be slowly starved and hunted out of existence by these landwalker settlers?” another replied. “That is no choice.”

“We can fight the invaders now,” a younger Speaker declared. “Using this dart-thrower. We don’t need to ally with anyone!”

Voices joined in argument. Auraya raised her hands and the Speakers quietened again. “If you wish it, I will leave Si. Once I am gone you can invite this sorceress to return. Find out what she wants from you and what she offers in return. But please be cautious. Perhaps she did not mean to harm your hunters, but I do know that one of her fellow Pentadrians is a cruel man, who deals out death and pain for the sheer enjoyment of it. I would hate to see the Siyee suffer at his hands.”

“Maybe he was an outlaw. Maybe he came to Northern Ithania because he had been thrown out of Pentadrian lands,” the young Speaker argued.

“At least these Pentadrians have never taken our land from us,” someone else murmured.

“That may only be because they do not have a border with our lands,” Sirri pointed out.

Auraya winced. “They do now.”

The Speakers turned to frown at her.

“What do you mean?” Dryss asked.

“The Sennon emperor signed a treaty of alliance with the Pentadrians yesterday. Sennon shares a border with you, albeit a small one.”

“On their side there is only desert.”

“Except where the desert ends and the mountains begin.” This came from a Speaker who had not joined the debate so far. “There are several landwalker settlements along the coast.”

The Speakers fell silent. Their gazes dropped to the floor. Auraya felt a pang of sympathy as she sensed them struggling with their fears.

“Good people of Si,” she said quietly. “I wish that you were not facing such hard times and such difficult choices. I cannot make these decisions for you. I cannot tell you who to trust. I would never dream of forcing you to choose one way or another. I believe that when the gods asked me and my fellow White to seek allies throughout Ithania they simply wished to see us all united in peace. Perhaps they foresaw some future conflict. I don’t know. I do know that we would be honored to have the people of Si standing beside us, in times of conflict or peace.”

She rose, nodded once, then left. As she walked from the bower she heard muffled voices. She could not distinguish the words, but her Gifts told her what was said.

“We are caught up in this - whatever it is - whether we like it or not. I say we choose a side, because on our own we are sure to perish.”

There was a pause, then: “If we must choose who to trust, then will it be the one who came in