"You are going to be inside the Vale by midmorning," Darkwind told her. "I am going to tell Iceshadow something of your past, and put you in his custody, asking him to keep you always within the shields of the apprentice's working place, where my father is. If your father can break the Vale shields and the working-shields, he is merely toying with us, and anything we do is trivial against him- I am going to ask you to answer all of Iceshadow's questions about my father's captivity, no matter how painful they are to you."
"Why?" she asked, huddling a little smaller.
"Because you will be helping Iceshadow determine what was done to him, and so break the bonds Falconsbane placed upon him," Darkwind told her, letting the tone of his voice inform her that he would grant her no more mercy than he granted himself. "That much, at the least, you owe him." Skif made a little movement, as if he wanted to leap up and challenge Darkwind, but wisely kept himself under control.
"I will then summon the nonhumans that Dawnfire worked with," he continued. "They will help be our diversion; tervardi and dyheli, they will concentrate on a place where you, Heralds, will be. In the neutral area, as if you had passed across Tayledras lands and were going westward.
It will look to Falconsbane as if you have summoned them, and he will assume it is through your sword, Elspeth." Elspeth took up the explanation where he paused. "All he can tell is that it's magic, Skif. That's probably why those things were chasing us across the Plains. He wants it, and he hasn't got a clue that he can't use it.))
"oh, he could try, I suppose," the sword said dryly. "But he doesn't know I'm in here. It's quite likely that it would be impossible for him to make any real use of me without destroying me."
"I suspect he will decide that it is one of the ancient devices used to control the nonhumans in warfare." Darkwind rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I can tell you that if he thinks that, he will be mad to have it.
And he will be equally determined after his last failure that he Will not leave the task in the hands of others."
"So he'll come in person," Skif stated, and he was plainly not pleased with the idea. "Where does that leave us?"
"Standing inside the Vale," Darkwind chuckled, wishing he could see Skif's face. "It will be your images and your auras in the neutral area, and no more. It is a spell that is not often cast, for it is broken as soon as one moves more than five paces in any direction. Need reminded us of it. In fact, Need intends to be the mage casting it." He made a little bow in Elspeth's direction.
Thank you for the confidence, but save your applause for if it works. And it'll be Elspeth casting it; I'll just be showing her how."
"That leaves me outside," he continued, "And I shall be the one making the attempt to free Dawnfire. If I have the time, I shall place the illusion of the proper hawk on some other bird in his mews, and blank the beast's mind. He will assume that Dawnfire's personality has at last faded. Or so I hope." He hated to subject an innocent bird to that, but with luck, it would be one of Falconsbane's own evil creations.
"If I do not have the time," he continue, "I shall simply free her and attempt to escape. I do not think he will return before I am away again." Skif whistled softly. "That's going to take some good timing," he observed. "And you're the one taking the packleader's share of the risks."
"But it could not be done without all of you," he responded. "I cannot ask you to take the kinds of risks that I will-but I cannot make this succeed without you."
"And afterward?" Elspeth asked softly. "When you have Dawnfire free, but still trapped in a hawk's body, her true self fading with every day-what then? You didn't speak of that." He remained silent because he didn't know-and he didn't want to contemplate it, having to watch her struggle against the inevitable, and lose.
A long, unhappy silence descended, which the sword finally broke.
"oh, worry about it when she's free," the blade replied irritably. "For one thing, I know a bit about transfer spells. Maybe I can get her into something with a big enough brain that she can stay herself. Or maybe I can get her into something like a sword."
"Would that not be just as bad?" Nyara asked doubtfully, voicing exactly what Darkwind was thinking. He suppressed a groan.
At least she'd stay herself, girl," the sword retorted with annoyance.
"there're worse fates than being hard to break, heart included." Darkwind decided to end the discussion right there. "Enough; we have a great deal ahead of us" And not much time," Elspeth said firmly. "And best to work on it in the morning." They returned to the lair, and gave Treyvan and Hydona the basics of what they had decided. Treyvan did not ask about the fate of his own young, but Darkwind could tell that he was gravely worried and weary; evidently Falconsbane had tried something while they were talking and had been beaten back, but at a cost. They were all too tired for anything more, and put off further discussion. Nyara bedded down in the same chamber as Skif and Elspeth, with Darkwind across the door and Treyvan blocking the entrance for added security.
But Darkwind could not fall asleep as easily as the rest. He lay staring at the silhouette of the sleeping gryphon, watching the shadow climb up the wall as the moon set. And over and over, the question repeated in his mind.
What do I do once she is free?
She would never again wear the body of the girl he had traded feathers and favors with. At worst case, he would watch her fade, slowly, into the hawk. If Falconsbane had slain the spirit of her bird with Dawnfire's body, she might well hold on longer, but the end would be the same.
And whether she stayed in the hawk, or Need managed to find a way to put her in another form, the result was the same. She would never again be "Dawnfire," she would be something else, something he could no longer touch.
What, in the gods' names, do I do when she is _free?
*Chapter Twenty-four
The alarm cry of a falcon woke him at dawn-and the answering, deeper scream of a hawk.
He started awake, all at once, and knew he was not at home. The rock floor, the lack of movement, and the darkness told him that much before he even opened his eyes. His hand was on his knife-hilt as he blinked the haze of sleep away, running rapidly through all the possibilities of where he was and what had become of his eheletreyvan' s lair- That was all he had a chance to remember as the falcon cried alarm again. He cast about for the door, still disoriented by the strange surroundings. that's Vree-but whose was the hawk?
"Out!. Vree demanded, his mental cry as shrill and penetrating as his physical scream. "Out now! Hurry! Help!" That wasn't the "Help me," version, it was "I need your help." He scrambled over Treyvan's prone body as the gryphon struggled up out of sleep. "Grrrruh?" Treyvan responded, as Darkwind slid down his haunches and into the sunlight. "what?" There were two birds up above, one flapping as clumsily as a just fledged crow, the other ~.unmistakably Vree. The gyre circled in guard-fashion above the first, protecting it as it tried to come in to land.
It was a red-shouldered hawk-It was Dawnfire!" Help me" Help me," came the faint and faltering mental cry' She doesn't know how to land- he realized, just as Treyvan shouldered him aside, leapt into the sky, rose to meet her, , and scooped her from the air with his outstretched talons. he wheeled and dropped her safely in his foreclaws, Coming to rest delicately on his hind feet only, in a thunder of wing-claps, before Darkwind realized what he was doing.