Prologue

"I'm not going to train as a Mage." The ekele went deadly quiet and suddenly, Summersea felt four identical pairs of sky-blue eyes focus on her with unearthly intensity. Well, four pairs of blue eyes and four more pairs of falcon eyes as well as her family's bondbird's reacted to their individual person's state of abrupt agitation. Before she could lose her nerve, she took a shaky breath and blurted out. "I want to go to K'leshya and become a Silver."

Still, no one said anything. But then again, they didn't need to. Even her twin brother stared at her as if she was beginning to molt like a over-stressed tervadi, or as if she had suddenly manifested into a Changechild of Ma'ar's. Unable to keep up her head in the face of the wordless reproach, she dropped her head, her fingers burrowing into her bondbird's breast feathers.

Kirai stroked his head against his person's hand in a soft caress, but Summersea couldn't help but notice that his feathers were slicked back with tension too.  ::They aren't taking this very well::

Kirai shifted restlessly from foot to foot, taking care not to pierce the thin leather of Summersea's glove. ::Not every day a falcon's fledgling decides she is a duck.:: He retorted, and for a moment, Summersea felt a stab of hurt, the courage it had taken to face her family withering in the face of her own bondbird's disapproval.

::You don't want me to be a Silver either?::

The raptor snapped his beaks a few times reflectively, before giving her a falcon's imitation of a shrug. ::Perhaps not duck:: he conceded grudgingly, ::More like falcon deciding to be grass cat. Good, both. Just different.::

::Then why did you say 'duck'?::

A flicker of humor stole into Kirai's eyes, and Summersea could've sworn the bird was laughing at her. ::Duck good too. Tasty.::

A tiny smile lifted the corner of Summersea's mouth, relieving a little of her tension. Kirai did have a point…

The scraping of her father's chair snapped her back to attention and she watched anxiously as Moonwind K'Vala stood up, his mage robes swirling around him like silver-lined storm clouds. For a moment, sire and child's eyes clashed, and what Summersea saw in his eyes, disappointment, anger, refusal, made her heart ache as much as it would have if he had physically hit her.

"Father, I—it's not that—"

He didn't give her a chance to finish. Like the cool, unforgiving wind he had been named for, he walked past her and out the door. He didn't even spare her the time to yell or rail at her. In that moment, Summersea wished he had done both. Better that public humiliation than this silent condemnation. At least in the former, she would be given chance to defend herself, but how could she defend herself if no accusations had been verbally made?

Once her father had left, her mother exploded in a volley of scolding. How could she do this to the family that had loved her? Her family line had born a great deal of Masters and Adepts; they were evenly distantly related to Firesong K'Treva, mentor or Darian Firken K'Vala K'Valdemar, who in turn was one of the founders of this Vale! To become nothing but a dirt-grubbing fighter in Gods-knew-where and with Lady-knew-who?! How could she even think of shaming her family like that??

Her voice raised so shrilly that her bondbird began to creel, setting off the others until their neighbors began poking heads out of the ekeles, muttering in annoyance and no little curiosity. After all, Sera Forest, a Haven-trained Master Mage and Moonwind's wife, was known to be gentle and of mild temperament.

Summersea bowed her head, letting the hurtful words wash over her, convulsing around her heart like a clamp. She sat there long after her mother had spent her voice hoarse screaming. And still after Sera had stormed out the door in the way of her husband. She sat there as her two brothers put in their two bits worth, demanding to know if she was serious and whether or not she had lost her mind. But this time, it was her turn for silence.

She was angry, hurt, and shuttered behind long lashes, tears threatened to slip down her cheeks. Her hands were clasped so tight that the color had drained from her knuckles and she couldn't feel the skin on skin touch of her knotted fingers. But she wouldn't renege on her word.

She was going to K'Leshya.

~*~

As soon as her family had left her to her own devices, Summersea slowly got up from her chair. Kirai winged onto her shoulder, rubbing his down-soft head against her cheek as if trying to absorb some of the wetness that had finally spilled from her eyes.  He preened the tuffs of hair that escaped from the awkward knot at the nape of her neck, then unexpectedly nipped her ear, ringing a choked laugh from the girl.

::They hate me.::

Kirai nipped her again, this time reprovingly. ::Surprised. Not hate. Parents not hate their fledglings for leaving nest.::

Summersea rubbed her swollen eyes, not answering. How could you tell a bird, even an intelligent bondbird like Kirai, that it wasn't just that she was growing up that bothered her parents? It was the fact that she was turning her back on twelve generations of tradition. And it was even more important to her mother, she thought in despair, because her mother wasn't Tayledras. Sera Forest wasn't part of her father's people and she had to counteract that by being even more Tayledras than even her husband was and that meant her children had to be as well.

Summersea had hated her un-Tayledras-like fair skin and long, blonde hair growing up when even her brothers had inherited their father's blue eyes and brown hair. Or they would have been blue and brown if the mage-energies where not slowly bleaching their hair white. But she had been the Halfling in K'Vala growing up; No Tayledras had flaxen hair or green eyes but then, no Valdemarian had those high, curved cheekbones, and almost hawk-like nose.

'Halfling', they had called her, 'No-Where's Child', 'Tainted', that and worse. It didn't matter that her brothers had the same blood as she; they looked Tayledras, bones, skin, sinew. In K'Vala, things were supposed to be different, that people were supposed to be living together in harmony whether or not they were kyree, gryphon, Tayledras, Ghost Cat, or otherwise. But human prejudice was just too much to conquer in such a short time, and what adults said, the children mimicked, chanting over and over until the words flowed through her blood, always a part of her.

No matter how many times they said it, it still hurt. That was why she needed to leave the Vale. That was why she needed to go to K'Leshya, where there was such a melting pot of people that perhaps, just perhaps, one more child of mud-blooded heritage would go unnoticed. That was why…

"I need to get out of here." She whispered aloud, and even to her own ears, her voice sounded broken, suffocated.

Kirai's raptor-eyes narrowed. ::Not leave K'Vala yet.::

She shook her head, "Not yet." Gently disengaging the falcon from her shoulder, Summersea walked to the ekele door, holding him aloft. "Fly. Hunt. Find me later." He bobbed his head in agreement and with one last affectionate nibble, Kirai sprang aloft, his wings rapidly beating skywards until he disappeared amongst the green foliage of the encroaching forest.

Summersea sighed, lifting her head to the sun. She wished she could fly away to, and leave all her troubles behind her as the earth fell away beneath her wings….

Tbc….

AN: my first Mercedes Lackey fic, even though I've loved her stuff since I was ten. I'll say beforehand that I'm really sorry if I got any of the details wrong and I would be grateful if you could point out the errors in my work  (muses scream: there are so many! *wince*)

Please review!