Mercedes Lackey - Winds Of Fate

"You'll be here," Darkwind said to Skif, placing a pinecone on the bits of rock representing the ruins to the left of the lair.

"And I'll be moving around if I can't get a good knife or bow-shot from there," Skif added.

The Hawkbrother nodded. "Exactly so. You are best as mobile as possible. Now, the little ones, Dawnfire, and the sword will be here, in front of the lair." He placed a cluster of weed-stripped seed-heads and a sliver of wood before the large stone representing the lair, and gave Elspeth a penetrating glance. "You are certain you are willing to give up the use of the blade? It seems unfair." Elspeth shrugged. "It was Need's choice, remember," she pointed out. "We've got to protect the bait somehow, and two of the three of them are female."

"Crap, I'll take care of the little male, too," the blade said gruffly. "what do you think I am, some kind of bab ard w ld v-killer? Besides, the bast ou twtst him up as badly as he has Nyara, if he got his claws on the lad."

"You are not such poor bait yourself, blade-lady," Darkwind replied.

"He wants you as well, as I recall." just make sure he doesn't get me."

"No help coming frrrom the Vale?" asked Hydona, leaning over Skifs shoulder to look at the setup.

Darkwind shook his head. "Not since the message I sent them by bondbird-relay. They are rightly fearful that this may be a double ruse-a feint at the little ones, a pretense that draws us into ambush, and a real strike at the Vale. They have been badly shaken by what they have seen done to my father and do not share my confidence in their own shields. They have called in all the scouts but myself, and are bracing for attack."

"Firrrssst ssssmarrrt thing they've decided in agesss," Treyvan growled, "Even if it doesss leave usss to bearrr the burrrden of ourrrr own defenssssessss. I take it we are herrre, and herrrre?" The gryphon pointed a talon at two feathers stuck in the sand on the opposite side of the lair from Skif's initial position, behind a line of rocks representing the wall the lair had been built into.

"Precisely," Darkwind agreed, "And here are Elspeth and myself " He dropped two rough quartz-crystals opposite the gryphons and nearer to the lair than Skif. "Then the Companions, watching for his creatures coming at us from behind." Two large white flowers, one beside Skif's pinecone, one beside Elspeth's crystal. "Treyvan, we will try to bracket him with magic; once that occurs I do not think he will be looking for a physical attack. That is where you come in-" he nodded at Skif.

"And you, because of that, are the pivotal point of the defense. You look for your opening and take it. The man is as mortal as any to a wellplaced knife or arrow. You are our hidden token, our wild piece."

"What about me?" Nyara asked, in a small voice. "Is there nothing I can do?" Elspeth bit her lip to keep from saying what she was thinking; that there was no way they could trust the Changechild enough to give her a part to play. They certainly couldn't make her part of the bait; neither the gryphons nor Darkwind wanted her near enough to be in range for an attack on them if her father regained control of her.

"Falconsbane does not know you are still with us," Darkwind said, after an uncomfortable silence. "The longer this remains so, the better."

"Stick with me," Skif suggested. "I'm staying out of sight."

"Is this wise?" Darkwind asked Elspeth worriedly. She shook her head just enough to make her hair stir imperceptibly.

"He's assassin-trained," she replied wishing there were somewhere safe they could leave Nyara until this was all over. "And Cymry will be with him, watching his back, the way Gwena will be watching ours. She won't be able to catch him with an unexpected attack. I just hope he doesn't find himself in the position of being forced to let Cymry kill her."

"Or killing her himself," Darkwind added.

Anything more he might have intended to say was lost, for at that moment, Vree sounded the alert from overhead.

"He comes!" the bird shrieked, with mind and voice. "He comes now!..

They scattered for their posts.

Falconsbane prowled the woods that the Birdmen thought were theirs with an ease they would have found appalling, noting the increased levels of shielding about the Vale with a mixture of contempt and anger. There was no doubt of it; they had poured more power into their old shields, added new, and every Adept within the Vale was undoubtedly on alert. The tentative plan he'd formed to extract Starblade from his protectors and retrain him for further use was obviously out of the question now.

He paused in the shelter of a wild tangle of briars and searched for a weak point. There was nothing of the sort. Since there was no one to see him, he permitted himself a savage snarl. All that work, all the patience, the careful planning, the investment of power in Starblade's transformation to puppet, and in the construct that controlled him-all wasted!

He wished he had been able to see through the simulacrum's eyes, but the protections about the Vale had made that impossible. He Still ut the prote' n e a d ad no real idea what had happened when he'd lost his contact with the

Uul laaccrum. Starblade had been near the Heartstone; he knew that i Incee it had been near dawn, Falconsbane assumed that he must ducting his usual nonproductive assessment of the state of hen, out of nowhere, a flash of panic from the crow '- of power as the bird was destroyed. Why, or

4.

the uncontrolled power, killing one Daelon, who had the misfortune do you him up k c# 69 aelon had been useless as a mage,

"You and r t cretary. But any loss at all angered lb "He wamf Q el~y, flinging spells intended to resnare 7ust mak 0 ct otect him. It might have been an accident; it might have been the foolish simulacrum venturing into someone's protected area, or even bumbling into something-doing something as stupid as frightening a pet firebird. Any of those things could have killed it.

But as his spells battered against a new and powerful set of shields, it became obvious that it had not been accident that killed the simulacrum.

It had been deliberate; his plots had been discovered.

And later tries against Starblade had proven just as fruitless. The Birdman had been well protected within shields that predated Falconsbane's interference with the Heartstone; strong, unflawed shields that he could find no way past.

Now he passed within easy striking distance of the Vale-" striking" distance, only if he'd had that alliance with Ancar of Hardorn that he had feigned, if he'd had a dedicated corps of mages, Masters and Adepts-and as he saw the shimmer of power above the Vale he could only curse at his own impotence. Somehow, some way, someone within k'sheyna had learned what he had done to Starblade, had surmised how he controlled the handsome fool. Perhaps it had been one of the Adept's former lovers; in retrospect it had been a mistake to force Starblade to retreat into hermit-like isolation. But he had been afraid that the new persona he had laid over the old would not withstand the scrutiny of close examination.

I should have let him keep his lovers; should have had him employ some Of the pleasuring techniques he learned at my hands. that would have kept them quiet enough. Nothing stops questionings like unbridled lust and the exhaustion afterward.

It was too late now; he'd not only lost Starblade, he'd lost the Vale.

The Birdmen were alert now; there would be no subterfuge clever enough to bypass their protections, and though weakened, they were too formidable for him to take alone.

With luck, the two Outlanders and Starblade's son were on their way to the trap he'd laid for them. Camped within the valley even now were a host of human servants, garbed in the livery of Ancar of Hardorn, led by one who was like enough to that monarch to be his twin. And no illusion had been involved; the conscript was already similar in height, build, and coloring-the same spells that sculpted changes into Falconsbane's flesh had been used at a subtler level to reform this human's face.