Mercedes Lackey - Owlsight

It was a “thickening” of the glow around her, as thin as a piece of paper. Keisha nodded.

“Now take your own energy, and put it there. Make it into armor - make it tough, flexible, and strong. Concentrate! Make it tough enough to keep me out of you. I will begin pushing on it, and you must keep me out.”

Impossible to describe in words, except the ones that Nightwind had just used - but very real and very palpable - Keisha “felt” the barrier she was creating. As she made it stronger, she “felt” something outside of it, pushing on it; in response, she poured more of her energy into it. She sensed it trying to tear a hole in the barrier, she responded by doing something she couldn’t even have described, making the outside slippery, too slippery to catch hold of. The presence outside changed tactics, hammering blows on barrier; rather than hardening it, she responded by making it elastic, giving under the blows and absorbing the force.

Nightwind laughed, and the force vanished. Keisha waited.

“That was very good for a beginner,” Nightwind said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “In fact, I suspect that you have been doing something all along, learning how to partially shield just under the pressure of the people around you. That would also be typical for a partly trained Healer. Leave the barrier in place, Keisha. You need it.”

Keisha had been about to try to make the barrier go away, and obediently left it alone.

“Now drop your Oversight; just look at the world again.”

Keisha had to close her eyes to do that, but after a moment of effort, when she opened them again, the world went back to looking normal. Nightwind smiled cheerfully.

“This will be much easier than either of us thought,” she assured Keisha. “So - pack up enough for a trip of a few days. You will be coming back to k’Valdemar Vale with us.” She actually grinned as Keisha’s mouth dropped. “Oh, you are about to receive some very intense training! And do not worry about your village; we will make certain that if you are needed, we will have you here in time to help. And this is a better compromise, I think, than sending you far away to the great Collegium. Yes?”

Keisha could only nod dumbly. After all, hadn’t this been what she wanted? Now she would actually get the training she needed without having to leave the area.

But going to live with Hawkbrothers - She could hardly imagine it. And what would the villagers say?

Mum is going to have a litter of kittens.

“I am going to rejoin the rest of our group,” Nightwind told her. “I will inform your Mayor and so forth that you will be coming with us when we leave.”

Well, at least I won’t have to!

“I will tell him that this is also at the orders of Healer Gil and Lord Breon,” Nightwind added, and her eyes twinkled with suppressed laughter. “I suspect that will put an end to any objections before they start. Pack carefully. Take only what you think you most will need and will not find in our Vale. We will take care of most everything, even clothing, if you like. I will come get you when we are ready to leave.”

With that, Nightwind rose and left, leaving Keisha feeling as if a real wind had blown in, turned everything upside down, and left again.

But, oh - it felt so good!

Keisha decided that the most important things to pack were her books - the ones that had baffled and frustrated her for so long. Hopefully Nightwind would be able to explain them as well as she had explained shielding She wrapped them carefully, then packed up enough of her clothing for a few days, and as an afterthought, added her workbasket. She doubted that she’d have any time to do any fancy work, but if she found herself with time on her hands and nothing to do, she’d be angry at herself for not bringing it.

That didn’t take very long, and she looked around for anything else to take with her. Plants? Seeds? Presumably the Hawkbrothers had plenty of medicinal plants of their own -

The Herbal. We can compare notes, and if they don’t have some of my plants, we can get young plants out of the garden when they bring me back.

So into the bag of books went the Herbal, and she considered bringing a gift with her. After all, that was the only polite thing for a guest to do, bring a guesting-gift. But what could she bring that they didn’t already have and plenty of it? “

The scarlet dye! After all, everyone liked a good, strong scarlet, and she had a brand-new cake, bought at a very generous discount, besides the ample portion left from her experiments. She wrapped the cake carefully in paper then in a scrap of cloth, and tucked that in with the rest.

With nothing more that she could think of, she went out to set up the garden to take care of itself for a few days. She and the potter had an arrangement. All of the big storage jars that came out of the kiln with hairline cracks became hers, and she tested them to ensure that the leaks were very slow indeed. Then she moved them into the garden and placed them at intervals along the rows of plants. Normally she kept them covered and empty, but if she knew she was going to be busy for several days running, she filled them with water and left them. The slow leaks would drip water into the ground, keeping the plants watered without her needing to ask someone to tend them.

Tedious as the job was - well, it was time to fill the jars, then transplant all the seedlings she had in the cottage into the garden. At least it would fill the time and keep her from chewing her nails, waiting.

The jars were full, and she was mindlessly arranging and rearranging her shelves when Nightwind finally tapped on the door again.

“Are you ready?” the woman asked as Keisha turned to face her. Keisha licked dry lips and nodded.

“It’s almost sunset. Are you really going to travel in the dark?” she asked, not quite certain of the journey ahead of her.

“Darkness doesn’t make much difference to the dyheli,” Nightwind replied, as Keisha took up her bundled belongings and hurried outside.

“Are we going to follow dyheli?” Keisha asked, right on Nightwind’s heels.

“No, dear, we’re going to ride them,” the woman said, managing somehow not to sound patronizing. Keisha halted abruptly when she realized that the entire group was right at her doorstep, patiently waiting for her. Her usual hesitation around strangers came back redoubled. She felt too frozen to move with all those eyes on her, but Darian came to her rescue, taking the bundles from her hands before she could drop them, smiling encouragingly at her. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to your dyheli,” he said, taking her hand and giving it a little tug to get her moving. As soon as she took the first step, he dropped her hand again, as casually as he had taken it. She followed him to one of the horned animals, who looked at her with interest from intelligent brown eyes. “Keisha, this is Meree,” he said, exactly as if he was introducing two people. “She’ll be taking you to k’Valdemar Vale.”

:You have a quiet mind,: said a clear voice in her head. :I shall enjoy bearing you.:

Keisha felt her eyes widening. “She talks!” Keisha blurted without meaning to.

Darian, bless him, did not laugh at her. “Just like a Companion,” he said cheerfully, “though dyheli talk to anyone that they choose to, and Companions normally only talk to their Heralds. You’ll like Meree, she’s very interested in herb-Healing. You might know some things growing around here that she doesn’t, and vice versa. You’ll have plenty to talk about as you travel, at least.”