Catherine Asaro - The Night Bird

Frantic, with a force driven by desperation, she sought the only person who had ever spoken to her of mages working together, perhaps the only person alive who could manage such a feat.

Jarid, help me! The plea burst out of her, and she reached with a strength that in normal times, she could never have done.

Nothing.

Please. She whispered the word in her mind. Then, frantic, she shouted the thought. Please! Jarid, help me.

Suddenly the song flooded her mindand she understood. In his fourteen years of blindness, Jarid had achieved what no other mage had ever donehe could make spells simply by envisioning the shape rather than touching it. In his fourteen years of deafness, he had learned to hear in his mind as clearly as if he spoke aloud. He took her song and filled her with it. For one spectacular moment, her song and his power swelled together.

With a groan, Allegra released her spell. She thought she would explode into fragments, burn to ashes, blaze in a million fireworks. She could barely contain the immensity of the power he lent her. And in that instant of union, she thought, Sleep.

The world burst apart. Then the backlash of the spell hit Allegra and oblivion claimed her.

Allegra lifted her head. The world was a blur. Gradually she realized she was lying against someone. Colonel Bladebreak. He had fallen to the side and lay sleeping, one of his legs under her and the other thrown across her body.

It took an effort to push him away and sit up. Drummer lay on his stomach, the blanket covering his hips and legs. Her stomach lurched at the blood that stained the bandage on his foot. But he was breathing more easily than before. Ardoz was sprawled on the carpet, fast asleep, his fingers tangled in the cloth he had used to clean his hand.

Allegra felt slowed and thick. She climbed to her feet, then swayed while nausea swept over her. How long had she slept? The tent was light as if the sun had risen. Werent the armies supposed to be in battle? It had been close to dawn when Bladebreak and Ardoz found her. Surely by now someone had noticed them missing.

She limped to the entrance. Dimly, in the back of her mind, a thought surfaced. She should hide. But she couldnt hold on to the thought. The spell had scorched her mind, seared away her mage gifts and left her dull.

It was quiet outside. Nothing stirred. She saw no people or animals. From the position of the sun, dawn must have been at least an hour ago. She went down a row of tents and passed a sentry snoring on the ground. She kept going through a silent camp, past sleeping soldiers and still tents.

Eventually the tents thinned out, until she was limping across the desert. She had been walking in a haze, aware of only what lay in her path. Now she stared around. Behind her, crags and low hills sheltered the Jazid camp; in front of her, a barren plain stretched out. In the distance, the towers of glorious Quaaz gleamed like an enchanted city out of a mythological tale.

She kept going.

She reached companies of the Jazid army that had been forming up at the edge of the plain in the predawn hours. They were in armor, their swords readyand they all lay on the ground, row after row of warriors. Asleep. Their horses stood by them. Asleep.

She kept going.

Her world narrowed to the pain in her feet and the relentless sun as it rose in the sky. Quaaz was located on the only large lake in Taka Mal, but she saw no sign here of the rivers that fed that vital body of water. The ground was packed hard by fighting that had already taken place. The armies had claimed their dead and injured, but she passed a crushed helmet here, a torn leather strap there, an empty water bag half buried under a rock.

She kept going.

And when she reached the Taka Mal army sprawled at the far edge of the basin, she limped among the sleeping men. All of them, rank upon rank upon rank. Sleeping.

She saw movement.

A man was walking among the Taka Mal warriors. Allegra stopped, uncertain what to do. She knew when he sighted her, for he called to another man and pointed toward her. She thought of running, but she had no idea where to go. She was on a plain. It had no place to hide. She couldnt run anyway. She could barely walk.

The two figures approached her.

It soaked into her mind that these men wore armor with the Harsdown jaguar on their breastplates. One stopped a short distance away and the other came closer, a burly fellow in his forties, with a wide face that gave him a stoic appearance. A shock of golden-brown hair fell down his neck. His expression was odd. It took a moment before she realized it seemed strange because of his concern. Nothing covetous. No submerged desire to inflict violence. No anger or hatred or lust or cruelty. Just concern.

“Its all right, he said gently. “I wont harm you.

Allegra backed up a step.

The man raised his hands as if to show her he had no weapons. He had a sword strapped across his back, however. Dully, she realized the warriors sleeping around them had curved swords. Curves and shapes

“Im Arkandy, the man said. “Sphere-Colonel Arkandy Ravensford, Harsdown Seventh Regiment.

She had no answer for that.

The other man joined Ravensford. With his dark hair and eyes, he could have been from anywhere: Misted Cliffs, Aronsdale, Shazire, Taka Mal, Jazid. He had the jaguar on his breastplate, though. He spoke to the colonel. “I called over the medical cart.

Medical cart. That stirred Allegras memory. “Yes, she said. “For Drummer.

Both Ravensford and the other man stiffened. Ravensford said, “You know where we can find Drummer Headwind?

“I can show you. She turned and stared across the basin at the distant bluffs where the Jazid army was camped. Had she truly walked all that way? Too farnever make it back

Someone caught her as she fell.

“No. Allegra twisted away from his hands and crumpled to her knees. “Dont touch me.

Ravensford crouched down without touching her. He motioned to his right. “Can you climb in there?

Numbly she looked up. A cart with a canvas roof and open sides waited a few paces away, with two oxen to pull it. Several Harsdown soldiers stood there, including one who wore a uniform instead of armor and mail. A patch on his shoulder showed the candle insignia that symbolized the medical corps.

Allegra tried to get up, but it hurt too much. Her vision blurred. Ravensford was watching her with a strange expression, as if he simultaneously wanted to comfort her and kill someone. He spoke kindly. “I wont touch you without your consent. No one will. I dont know who left those welts and bruises all over you, but believe me, no one here will do anything like that. We can help. If you cant get into the medical cart, I can carry you. But only if its all right with you.

She trusted no one. But she didnt miss the contrast; Colonel Bladebreaks first response upon finding her was to embrace and fondle her, despite her protests and injuries. This colonels first response was to express concern and ask her consent to help.

“Yes, she whispered. “Carry

Ravensford picked her up with one arm under her legs and the other around her back. He rose to his feet and carried her to the cart. As he laid her inside, under the shade of its roof, the doctor said, “Shes the only conscious person weve found in the entire army.

“Maybe the Jazid army wasnt affected, Ravensford said. “I think this is Allegra Onyx. She and the atajazid were taken last night by Yargazons men.

Allegra Onyx? That wasnt her name. She was Allegra Linseed. Or maybe Jazid men renamed their wives for themselves.

The doctor climbed into the cart and sat near Allegra while he opened a battered satchel. One of the soldiers climbed onto a plank seat at the front and prodded the oxen into motion. They didnt go very fast; Ravensford and the other soldier were able to walk alongside the cart.