"If you aren'tcareful," Skan said savagely, through a clenched beak, "what this enemy of ours does to you will be nothingcompared to what I' lldo to you if you get hurt!"
"Fair enough." Amberdrake ran a hand through his long, tangled hair, and smiled wanly up at Skan, who glowered down at him. "As long as I'm awake, why don't you tell me everything you said to the people back home, and what they said to you. The less Winterhart knows, the better, and I don't want to worry Zhaneel, but Ineed to know what you've ordered. If I'm going make a target out of myself, the least you can do is keep me completely informed."
Of all the nerve!Skan folded his wings tightly, and gave Amberdrake a nasty look. "That's not fair, Drake," he growled. "That's blackmail."
"So it is." Amberdrake nodded agreeably, then pulled his robe more tightly around himself, folded his arms, and leaned against the wall. It constantly amazed Skan how the man could look so attractive even when he was disheveled. "You might as well talk because I'll continue to make you feel guilty until you tell me what I want to know. I'm very good at it—as you very well know."
Damn him. He is good at it. All he has to do is put on a certain expression—or drop the right word or two. He could have been my mother.
Skan growled wordlessly and gave in. "Mostly, I told themwhat was going to happen. If they're going to insist that I'm their leader, then in a situation like this one, damn if I'm not going to get arbitrary."
Amberdrake nodded as if he had expected something of the sort. "And who were 'they'? You mentioned Judeth; who else was in on the conversation?"
"Judeth, Snowstar, Vikteren, Aubri. That was the most Kechara could handle over the distance, and she simply repeated to me what Judeth and Vikteren were saying rather than relaying their mind-voices." He tilted his head to one side. "I put Snowstar in charge of White Gryphon, taking my place indefinitely. He didn't like it, but he agreed. Vikteren is staying, too. Judeth and Aubri are coming here themselves."
Ithink Snowstar guesses I plan to put him in charge permanently. I'm no leader— and I think once people get used to deferring to Snowstar in this emergency, they won't have any more trouble deferring to him ever again. I suspect he'd have been made the Kaled'a'in k'Leshya Clan Leader if Lionwind hadn't been so charismaticand capable.
"Your idea or theirs?" Amberdrake asked, raising an eyebrow in inquiry.
"Theirs mostly, but—hell, Drake, we've worked together before, and I'd rather have them than some green gryphlet who thinks I'm only a legend." He turned away from Amberdrake for a moment and gazed back north, in the direction of the settlement. All that was visible past the buildings of the city and Palace were trees, but his heart knew where home was, and he wished he could be back there now.
And yet—no, he wouldn't have missed this for the world. He felt his blood stirring again, felt effectivefor the first time in years. "I told them to bring black featherdye with them. I'm going to be the Black Gryphon again."
He expected Amberdrake to protest, but there was only silence from the kestra'chern. He turned back to see his friend nodding.
"Oddly enough, this is not a surprise," Amberdrake said, startling him a little. The kestra'chern smiled at Skan's reaction. "You are remembering who you are, after being made into someone else by the needs of others. Others may not see it, but a close friend or a kestra'chern can. I ama kestra'chern. Accurate perception is part of the job."
"So it is." Skan bowed slightly in his direction. "Well, I told them what the situation was here—that we had an enemy who was more interested in taking us out than confronting us. I told them that there was no point in arguing about whether or not we were going to do something about him, because we couldn't afford not to."
"True enough. We discussed that to death last night." Amberdrake sighed, and leaned his head back against the stone of the wall. "Who's coming, then?"
"No mages," Skan said quickly. "Judeth wanted Vikteren there; he didn't want to go because we're still getting mage-storms and you never know what they're going to kick up. I thought about it, and agreed with him—more because these people don't want mages around than because I think he's right about being indispensable."
"There isSnowstar, after all," Amberdrake pointed out with a smile. "Vikteren would be very useful, if we could just keep the fact that he's a mage a secret."
"Oh, yes, we all know Snowstar is more powerful than he is, and there are half a dozen others as good as he is. Still." Skan clicked his beak a little. "On more reflection, I would still want him in place in White Gryphon. He doeshave a knack for handling situations no one else has ever seen or heard of before. So he stays. The main thing I told them, though, was that I had to get to the heart of this mess, or I might not have a settlement to come back to—" he snapped his beak, "—or else, the Black Gryphon Skandranon might come back to a blackened city. That would be bad. So all I wanted on this job were experienced Silvers with good sense and good judgment—which ought to let out Aubri, but I'm sentimental," he added with a gape-grin.
"I hope you haven't emptied White Gryphon of every competent Silver there," Amberdrake protested. "We can't bring an army in here, either!"
Skan shook his head. "Only asked for a couple of them who are as long in talon or tooth as we are—even if I haven't gotany teeth—and a couple of youngsters who never saw fighting against Ma'ar but proved themselves since. Judeth's entire contingent won't number more than ten. Enough to be useful, not so many as to be a burden or get in the way. If we haveto cut our way out and run, we'd better not have too many people to keep track of."
Amberdrake nodded agreement. "I suppose that's all I needed to hear, then, if that's allyou said and did." He squinted tiredly against the sunlight.
Skan chuckled. No point in telling Amberdrake about the "no questioning allowed, this is orders," attitude he'd taken with the folks back home. What would the point be, after all? Amberdrake would only worry about his "image," and he frankly didn't care about his "image" at the moment.
And no point in telling him about Kechara, either,he thought with a pang.
The little misborn had been unhappy that her "Papa Skan" had been away so long, and even more unhappy when she sensed the worry in the others as Skan issued his orders. He had spent quite a bit of time Mindspeaking only to her before he went to sleep.
Itried to tell her that everything was fine. I tried to reassure her.He thought he'd been very convincing, but then again, it wasn't too hard to convince Kechara of much of anything. She believed him because she was Kechara, and she believed in everyone and everything.
He'd told her how proud he was of her, praised her for her hard work in watching all of them from such a great distance. Judeth had told him about that—how Kechara had decided all on her own to keep a watchful eye on all of them, touching their surface thoughts several times a day without them ever being aware of it. He was only grateful that purest chance had caused her to pick times when none of them had been worried about their situation.