Kel flexed his foot, and looked at it with a mixture of pride and chagrin, his huge golden eyes blinking slowly as he admired the shining metal now covering each talon. “Harrrd to walk in, thessse, becaussse of all the damage. You don’t want me anywherrre nearrr a tent, forrr insssstancsse. Sssstill. They prrrotect my rrreal talonsss; metal won’t brrreak the way a talon can. And obviousssly, - a weapon can’t chop one off.”
Darian nodded soberly, and set to work on the left-side set. I’d hate to see how awful it would be if a talon did get chopped off. He could bleed to death! Much better to have the sheaths, even if they were a bit awkward to wear. When he finished, Kelvren reared up on his hindquarters and made a few experimental slashes in the air. “Perrrfect!” he said with a gleeful sparkle in his eyes. “You may ‘be my trrrondi’irrrn any time!”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Darian replied, blushing with awkward pleasure. “I don’t know a fraction of what Nightwind knows, and anyway, any of the hertasi could have helped you just as well. Let’s get this chest thing on you, all right?”
“Sssurrrely,” Kel agreed, dropping back down to all fours. “It goesss onto the harnessss - ssssee the bucklesss? Then the neckpiecssse wrrrapsss arrrround the thrrroat.”
The protective armor would never withstand the blows of a sword or ax, but it would protect against arrows; it was made of overlapping articulated plates of a light, strong metal totally unfamiliar to Darian, backed with a thin leather that was the toughest such substance Darian had ever seen. Unlike the talons, which were a satin finished, highly-polished silver, the chest protector was a matte black and would not betray Kel by reflecting light. The whole thing didn’t even weigh as much as a single ordinary breastplate for a smallish human - but then, it would have to be light if Kel was going to fly while wearing it.
When Darian finished buckling it onto the harness, Kel gave himself a tremendous shake to settle it, and had him tighten two or three straps, then shook himself again.
“Urrrr,” he said, clicking his beak meditatively. “Not the mossst comforrrtable thing to wearrr. But then, I have hearrrd the human Sssilverrrsss sssay the sssame of theirrr arrrmorrr.”
“It could be worse, you could have a helmet and a stomach plate and things,” Darian pointed out. Kel shook his head comically.
“I think not!” the gryphon exclaimed. “I would not be able to walk, much lessss fly! Thisss isss bad enough, and I would not wearrr it had Nightwind not insssisssted. I fearrr it looksss rrridiculousss.”
“Well! You look tremendously warlike to me,” Darian told him, stepping back to admire him from a little distance. “Very impressive. Terrifying, in fact.”
“Oh, do I?” Kel exclaimed, ingenuously pleased. “Terrri-fying? Trrruly?”
“Truly,” Darian told him. “If I were the enemy, I’d take one look at you and run, I wouldn’t stick around to find out what you could do to me.”
And the gryphon did make a daunting sight, with the metal breastplate and neck guard forming what appeared to be a seamless black shell over his chest and neck, one claw upraised, and the metal talons gleaming wickedly in the sun. It was no exaggeration to say that Kel would probably have frightened any of the Errold’s Grove militia members into scuttling back to the village, metaphorical tail between his legs.
But would he have the same effect on the barbarians? The plain truth was, virtually anything the militia thought of as a “monster” had sent them scuttling back to the safety of the village. What did he know about fighting? Only what he’d heard and read in books.
I just hope we never find out, Darian thought, keeping his doubts to himself. I’d rather not know than have those barbarians turn up here.
“I think if I was Starfall, I would feel completely secure with you on watch,” he said aloud. “I wouldn’t need anybody else.”
“Rrreally?” Kel arched his neck, and his eyes pinned with excitement. “You arrre too kind. I am only a verrry juniorrr Sssilverrr.”
“I agree with him,” Nightwind said, emerging from the shadows of the path. “You look quite formidable, Kel. Starfall will feel quite secure with you on guard, and rightly so. You’re going to do a fine job.”
Kel’s neck arched a little more, and he practically purred. “Thank you,” he said. “I hope yourrr confidencssse is jussstified.”
Nightwind smiled. “I’m a trondi’im, remember? I’ve served quite a few gryphons in the past. I have no doubt of it.”
In Darian’s opinion, Nightwind herself looked just as formidable as the gryphon; she had a breastplate made much like his, with gauntlets to match, a light helm, and a bow that Darian would never dream of being able to string, much less draw. He couldn’t see the business-end of the arrows she carried in a quiver at her belt, but he had no doubt that they were more of the nasty, man-killing type that the Tayledras were using tonight.
Her hair had been braided back tightly into a no-nonsense knot at the nape of her neck, and there wasn’t a single extraneous bead or feather on her spare, uniformlike costume. Like Kel, her breastplate had a badge embossed on it, and he peered at it curiously.
She noted where his eyes went, and smiled. “This is the badge of the Silver Gryphons,” she told him, the fingers of one hand lightly caressing the edge of the emblem. “Kel and I are both Silvers, the only ones in the group. I don’t think they quite realize yet what that means.”
“Why isn’t anyone else?” he asked.
She chuckled. “Because we are the only two Kaled’a’in here,” she told him. “We aren’t Tayledras at all - or rather, the Tayledras used to be Kaled’a’in, but - “
The gryphon waved a claw, interrupting her. “You arrre confusssing him,” Kel chided. “Darrr’ian, it isss sssimple. Long ago therrre wasss one people, the Kaled’a’in. When the Cataclyssssm wasss overrr, that people wasss sssunderrred. The Kaled’a’in Clan k’Lessshya wasss farrr separrrated frrrom the otherrrsss, and thossse within it did not even know if the rrresst had ssssurrrvived, sssso they went to sssaferrr landsss, wessst and sssouth, and became the allliesss of the Black Kingsss. Forrr the otherrrr Clansss it was differrrent. Theirrr homelandsss werrre dessstrrroyed, ssso they found when they went to look. The otherrrsss quarrrelled overrr the ussse of magic - thossse who wanted to continue the ussse of it became the Tayledrrrasss, and thossse who wissshed to ssshun it became the Sssshin’a’in.”
“But - because your people weren’t fighting over whether or not to use magic, you stayed Kaled’a’in?” Darian asked, scratching his head. “But if your people went so far away, why are you here?”
“Because we decided that the moment was right to come back north and see what time had made of the lands we left,” Nightwind told him, and smiled ruefully. “Little did we guess that we’d end up being here at the beginning of another Cataclysm! At least some of us managed to prevent this one, anyway. Kel’s version is a very abbreviated one, and at some point, you’ll have to hear the whole story.”