Finally, FF.Net is up! All rejoice!
This is the sequel to Bright Eyed Herald, so you might want to read it first. I know that B E H isn’t done yet, but the plot pretty much is, so there. Translations of the Tayledras words used are at the bottom. This fic focuses on Treesong, Windance’s sister (if you read B E H you’d know that!), but Windance does show up, just not yet!
Disclaimer: None of the concepts, and about half of the characters, belong to me, they belong to the great Mercedes Lackey. All bow before her!
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Treesong settled down comfortably. If she would have to be here for a while, she wasn’t going to be cramped or cold. Her duty this time was to watch the Hawkbrothers, to see if there was any danger from them. She personally couldn’t believe that the Tayledras were bad, but it was her duty. In all the time that there had been one of her people watching the new Vale, not once did they even give any indication of any knowledge of the whereabouts of her clan.
She watched the changing of
the scouts, some returning, briefing those who were going out. She was only one person, so she could hear
only the conversations from the eastern scouts, but still, there was no
indication that the Tayledras had discovered k’Ren’fa. She watched the bond-birds, listening to
their conversations as well, using her limited and untrained ability at
Mindspeech to do so. Once again,
nothing from the birds. Her own Kyth was
among them, the only bond-bird not belonging to the Hawkbrothers of the k’Valdemar
Vale. And once again, nothing was noted
amiss about an assumed unbonded bird among those of the scouts. Kyth had found her one day as she was
watching the same post she was now, and instead of alerting the Hawkbrother
scouts, she had bonded with her.
She had trained her from where the kestral’s parents’ bond-mates had
begun, specializing in the silent watching of her clan.
Sighing at the uselessness
of it all, it meaning the duty of watching unobservant fools who never looked
right in front of their eyes, Treesong called Kyth back, smoothing her crest
feathers. Her bond-bird relayed much of
the same information the scouts had exchanged below her: there were fewer
change-beasts near the Vale’s borders, and other useless things that had
nothing to do with Treesong’s clan, k’Ren’fa.
Treesong settled back
against the smooth bark of the v’raka she used as her watching
post. She started the meditation that
her Eldest had showed her, slipping into a light trance where she could use the
beginnings of her mage-Gift to See the mage lines nearby. The Eldest had told her to practice, and she
didn’t have anything else to do unless someone approached or left the Vale, and
she would feel the resonance in the Veil to alert her through the trance.
Suddenly, without warning to
her sharp senses, she was caught from behind by a strong arm. “Who are you, intruder?” someone demanded
angrily from behind her. Or below her. Or even above her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t feel her
attacker.
“Why should I tell you, stranger?” she cut back, noting that he spoke much of the same language she did, with slightly different pronunciations and emphasis she used.
“Because, you are
trespassing on Tayledras lands. Explain
yourself.” The male voice, no matter
how arrogant, was light, and musical.
Treesong shook it off. Now was
not the time to lose her focus.
“Ever think that maybe these
aren’t your lands, that someone else may have been here first?” She wrenched away from him, surprising him
with her strength at her sudden move.
“Of course these are
Tayledras lands. Why would they be
contested?” his voice was light, as if he was teasing her, but showed none of
his surprise.
She spun around to face him,
a long dagger suddenly in her hand.
Kyth fanned her wings, regaining her balance with a squawk of
protest. Treesong spotted him on the
branch closest to the one she on, to the side and slightly below hers. He wore clothes similar to hers, a scouts
gear, greens and browns meant to blend into the forest. He had his climbing stick strapped to his
back, and his bow in hand. He looked
young, but he already had pure-white hair, so she assumed that he must be a
mage, which would explain why she couldn’t feel him at all. But when she looked into the pale blue of
his eyes, she almost lost herself.
There was something in them...
She broke free of the odd
feeling just a simple glance into his awoke in her, and examined the rest of
the stranger’s face, avoiding his eyes.
He looked somewhat tired, so she surmised that he had just returned from
his stint of scouting. “I don’t have to
explain myself, to anyone.” She glared at him, angered that she, one of the
best scouts and trackers of clan k’Ren’fa, had been caught by a Tayledras. Of course, convieniently forgetting his so-blue
eyes...
He was indeed tired. He didn’t feel like dealing with a
trespasser, not now that he was no longer on duty, but the rest had already
left, and there would be no scouts this near the Vale. What he wanted to know was how this girl,
well, woman, he corrected himself, for she looked to be around his age,
eighteen to twenty, had gotten past all the scouts and bond-birds without being
caught before this. And he knew the
only reason he had seen her was because he had noticed the lone bond-bird
winging towards this tree. And there
was another thing that bothered him about her, something teasing the back of
his mind. “If you’re not going to tell me
anything, maybe if I take you to one of the Elders, perhaps then you’ll say
something.” He sighed, and motioned her down before him.
He was not expecting her
next move. “Why? I’m not one of your Hawkbrothers to order
around. I will not listen to some
mage-scout order me.” she glared at him, a usual expression he had noticed, at
least when she looked at him. Treesong
launched Kyth off her arm, sending the kestral back towards her own v’raka’kele
that she now shared with Shirl, instead of her sister.
She smirked, still glaring,
somehow managing both expressions at once.
She couldn’t resist the last word before parting. She was incredibly patriotic towards her
clan, and although she knew she would most likely get in trouble from her clan
for it later she said “I’m leaving now.
Zhai’helleva, inzari. I
am Treesong k’Ren’fa. And you trespass
on our land every single day.” She jumped up quickly to the higher branches of
the v’raka, and leapt from tree to tree so quickly she knew that the
tired scout would never be able to follow her.
He wondered at the ritual
good-bye she had spoken, wondered at the clan name, wondered how she knew he
was a mage-scout, and wondered how he was supposed to explain this to the
Elders. But most of all, he wondered at
the feelings this strange Treesong awoke in him. “Zhai’helleva, ashke.
From Firestar k’Vala.”
He started. He had meant to say inzari, not
ashke, and didn’t enjoy the thought of that unconscious farewell.
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So, here ya
go. Please R/R? Pretty Please????
Translations of the
various Tayledras language used in this fic (I got them off of: http://members.tripod.com/deakins.l/
) :
ashke : beloved
Zhai’helleva : Wind to thy wings, greeting
inzari : hated enemy
k’ren’fa : Bright Eyes, a kind of nickname, the name of Treesong and Windance’s
Clan
v’raka : big tree
v’raka’kele : big tree that houses ekeles
ekele : the houses of the Tayledras, in the trees.