Disclaimer: The genius Mercedes Lackey and her husband own all this with the exception to the fact that I made up the names of Zhaneels parents and their story. And Mika. Don't even try suing, you'll just loose money in a court case.
A/N: I apologize for taking so long to update. I'm on an updating splurge at the moment, 'cause I finally got around to copying everything out of my written notebooks and into the computer. I hope the next update comes soon, but I have, like, six tests next week and three multipule-chapter fics, so just know I'm doing my best!
-Shameless Advertising: Go read my other stuff if you have even the remotest intrest in any of the following categories: X-Men, Star Wars, ElfQuest, an original that no one's read, and Harry Potter. My friend also has a great X-Men fic called Nightshade, by Nightshade Darkholme. Go. Read.
Ahh, yes. The actual story!
* * *
Urtho, the Mage of Silence, was tired. He had wanted to spend the rest of his life with his creations, his children, the gryphons. Watching them grow and change and outlive his short existence.
Then a young upstart named Ma'ar spoiled every plan down to the smallest and left only one man capable of defending the ragged remains of a dozen kingdoms: Urtho. His status as a life-Adept hadn't allowed him to step aside, leaving himself a tiny corner of creation as his own and the gryphons, as he often wished he had. Instead, he organized a war.
He threw his wonderful, marvelous masterpieces, only three generations old and altogether too suited for long-distance combat, into the fray against an evil Adept. And his favorite, all he admired in gryphons, perhaps the only son he would ever have, was the famous -- and infamous -- Black Gryphon. Only just mature in body and mage-craft, Skandranon had been there the day Urtho became a warrior-mage. And since then, Skanhad flown directly to the tower more than once, demanding to be allowed on certain missions he felt only he could handle. All his gryphons were like that; many were direct to a fault.
And now he was frantically searching for two who could possibly survive, let alone succeed, on the near-sucide mission he needed to send them on.
Speed. Small. Agility. Intelligence. Journeyman mage at the very highest.
Skan wasn't the smallest gryphon, but what had disqualified him was his status as a Master Mage. The camp was so well-guarded that if anyone with more power than a Journeyman entered they would be victim of more horrible spells than Urtho cared to consciously think about.
His last team had certainly proved that . . .
The Mage of Silence winced as his thoughts drifted back to the pair of gryphons, both Masters, that he had originally sent to spy out the camp. Both broadwings and not incredibly fast, they had been captured, tortured under the watchful eye of Ma'ar (who was, of course, immune to the guard-spells against mages), and given -- alive -- to the creatures they had been sent to spy on. Makaar. Having seen how successful Urthos gryphons were, Ma'ar had decided to counter-attack, and the few gryphons who had stumbled into them had all perished.
Taveon Hidorkae, 11th of the First. Journeyman, fast enough to catch the fastest prey, and too small to qualify for most missions.
"Mage Urtho?"
Urtho beckoned the tervardi in, noting almost absent-mindedly that this was the second time he'd seen this tervardi, usually a shy people. "Gev'gich, if you don't mind, I'm fairly busy at the moment. Is there a better --"
"Pardon this one, Mage, but this one believes that you are making a mistake with a gryphon named Rikashi."
This brought Urthos head up. The solitary tervardi rarely interacted with other species, even within the multi-species thing he had dubbed an 'army'.
"Rikashi? She hasn't been --" Urtho was almost embarrassed. There had been a time when he'd known every gryphon, what they were doing, and their health status. The tervardi shifted from birdlike foot to birdlike foot with nerves. "This one is a mage, little more than a Journeyman, but skilled in judging how much ability other mages possess. This gryphon, one Rikashi Levonkae, was judged by a human to be a Master."
Urtho nodded, hoping Gev'gich had a point.
"Rikashi is no Master, Great One, but a simple Journeyman like this one. The human who judged her did not account for her status as a made and therefore magical creature."
Urtho bolted upright. Of course! That is why so many gryphons have been inaccurately judged ahead of their true gift! And if Rikashi is only a Journeyman . . .
"Thank you, Gev'gich, you have just solved a lot of problems for me," Urtho informed the tervardi.
"This one is humbled by your thanks and honored by the service, Adept."
Gev'gich slid quietly out while Urtho sat quickly compiling everything he knew about Rikashi. She was --
She was his Kecharas only living relative, an older sister who, like all the others, had no idea she existed. But Rikashi would be perfect for this. Built along the same lines for speed, with a smaller, lithe body, and more endurence than Taveon, who was a 'sprinter'.
Rikashi Levonkae and Taveon Hidorkae.
"Mika --" Urtho called, and a lizard like head poked the door his hertasi help used.
"Urtho?"
"Send for two gryphons, Rikashi Levonkae and Taveon Hidorkae."
"Of the First and the Fifth Crimson?" Mika nodded at Urtho. She knew every hertasi who worked with the gryphon wings, and therefore where almost every gryphon was stationed and likely to be at any given moment.
"I believe so."
"Taveon recently returned from a hunting forray and Rikashi is still in her magic lesson," Mika told him. The sensible lizard-woman nodded succinctly and turned out, her tail swishing behind her like a housewifes skirts.
Urtho chuckled. Mika and her nephew Gesten were among his favorite hertasi, and he would have been mad at Amberdrake for hiring Gesten if the kestra'chern wasn't sharing him with Skan.