NailBiter spread his primaries and landed gently at IceFire's side on the worn stone wall of the perching. Then he bent his head, and Shadow's feet touched down also. Shadow stepped aside, smiling at Karaman, and as fast as he could he made the carefully rehearsed gestures which meant "thank you":Sase SEso noboSObo...Nine of them: "My kill is your kill."
NailBiter's comb flickered almost too quickly to follow, but Shadow caught the meaning: "chick signals." Baby talk--the bird was poking fun at him. Shadow laughed and raised his hand. The huge fierce eye met his, then the great head was lowered and he reached up to stroke the comb. Then he saw what was coming and braced himself.
Darkness and hot, rank breath...Shadow froze as the enormous beak enclosed his face and a black, slobbery tongue ran over his hair--NailBiter was stroking his human friend's comb. The experience, though nauseating, was oddly touching, but he was glad when it stopped.
He rubbed the bird's comb then, wiped his own sticky hair with an arm, and trotted down the steps to join Karaman. He was surprised at the expression on the wrinkled old face.
"What's wrong?"
"It's dangerous," Karaman muttered. "He means well, but you don't taste right. That can trigger a nasty reflex. I've warned him before not to do that--but you can't argue with an eagle."
The sun was gentle, padded by atmosphere, but the wind in their faces was a furnace breath, lip-cracking and harsh, drying sweat before it could even appear. They walked slowly together over to the buildings of Pharmol. The farm was an untidy scattering of unroofed sheds and fenced vegetable patches, clumps of fruit trees and junk piles. Chickens paced stiff-legged, studying the ground, but there was no larger livestock in sight.
Suddenly Shadow realized that he was alone with Karaman, and that was a rarity. "May I ask you a question?"
"Always. But you won't necessarily get an answer."
"About Schagarn," Shadow said. "Why did you agree to such a truce? You had won the battle of Allaban. Why not press on to conquer all of Rantorra?"
"Ah!" Karaman said, strolling head down, studying the ground like a chicken. "Well, you are not the first to ask. Some think that Aurolron outfoxed me."
"I didn't say--"
"No, that's all right. You should know. Quite simply, my young friend, I had no choice. I had no army left."
"No army?" Shadow repeated blankly.
The silver mane nodded. "The eagles had had enough. Fighting is horrible to them--bird against bird. They are not cowards, but war is not part of their thinking--and remember, they have much longer life spans to risk than we do. They drove the monarchy out of Allaban for us, and so freed their captive cousins in the aeries, but the cost was too high for them. They don't count very well, but they could see the bodies. There were many more dead birds than dead men."
Shadow had learned as much as he could about that ancient war, but he had never thought to consider it from the eagles' viewpoint. A skyman with a bow, against birds armed only with their talons--were he a trooper in such a battle, how would he fare? How many eagles would he be able to shoot before they got him? That would depend on how badly outnumbered he was and how well he was able to control his own mount.
And when the man was eventually killed or crippled, then his mount was helpless and died also, falling blind from the sky.
"I hadn't thought of it from their side," he admitted. "How do they feel now?"
"Still the same," Karaman said. "You are a new generation, but they are the same birds. Does your Vindax dream of returning to Ramo at the head of an army of wild eagles? I should have thought you would have known better by this time."
Shadow felt himself blush; though Karaman did not appear to notice. Yes, he had been thinking along those lines, and so was Vindax.
"How about one on one?" he asked. "Man-on-bird against man-and-bird?"
Karaman glanced at him cryptically and then dropped his gaze to the path once more. "The republic has very few troopers, and it has no pigeon-hunting aristocrats any more. Work it out."
Shadow visualized. "I would have an advantage in a sling," he said, "because my bird is more maneuverable, but I couldn't direct him with my hands full, and a sling sways around, so I suppose my archery would be no better. But if he gets me, then my bird escapes."
"If you get him, then you kill his bird also."
"True," Shadow admitted. "And he can shoot my bird, which is an easier target than I am, and I may hit his by accident. It's still no better than even, is it?"
Karaman nodded once more. "And being blind in the air is deepest hell for an eagle. They can imagine no greater torture, nor any worse way to die."
"So if Aurolron had spurned your truce and moved against the republic..."
"The birds would have stayed out. It would have been the skymen against the peasants again--no contest."
It had been Aurolron who had been outfoxed at Schagarn.
With a deep thunder of wings, NailBiter and IceFire passed overhead and settled on the ridge of the house to watch the coming proceedings.
The meeting place was a semicircle of chairs set out on grass in the shade of the house. Toys were scattered about. Vindax was there already, waiting--he did not like people to see him being carried around. He was talking to two small, naked children idling on swings which hung from a frame in the center of the lawn. They jumped down and fled at the sight of the newcomers.
Shadow put on his cheerful face and made the formal nod that Shadow should give his prince. But this was not the prince he had served--and failed? The old Vindax had gone. The new one was a poor fragment of a man, shrunken and crippled, paralyzed from the waist down, a noseless horror. He had lost ail his fingers and thumbs except two stumps, on one of which blazed the gold signet of the crown prince of Rantorra. Gone were the fine clothes of royalty; he wore only the brown homespuns of the peasants who supported him on their charity, and even those looked too big for him. Always Shadow wondered what Elosa would think if she were to see her handiwork--and what thoughts of Elosa burned inside that tragic ruin.
And was Elosa perhaps already floating among the silks and glitter of the court, even now betrothed to the reigning king?
Shadow took the chair on Vindax's right, moving it back slightly as though he were taking his proper place behind, but really so that he need not look too directly into that ravaged face.
"Shadow?" Vindax sighed. "I should not be calling you that now. Sald is your name, but you are the chief and only minister in my government, so you should have a title. Pick a name and I will make you a duke." That was at least an attempt at humor, which was a small improvement.
"I am honored, King," he replied. "But a coronet would not suit me, I think, and I do not feel like Sald Harl anymore. The eagles call me 'The-one-who-came-through-the-dark'--which isn't far off being called a shadow, is it? I think I shall stay with that name until we shed some light on Rantorra."
Karaman, having finished a feeble lecture to an unrepentant Potro, sat on the other side of Vindax. The three of them were looking darkward, across a wide grassy place. The grass that grew in the fixed shade of the house was not the same as the sunlit grass next to it. Beyond the little meadow was the pool, and trees and then fields.