Finding:
We ride at a trot. Tamick insisted on a canter at least, but trots still scare me, so we ride at a trot. Tamick says we'll never be able to catch up to them this way, but I say that it doesn't matter, we'll all end up at the same place anyway. However, it would have been fun to travel with them. Luckily for me, Tamick has a very small Gift. He is able to light fires and creates not-very-efficient wards. I am glad to be riding with him, but I wish I had never made the speech to Teyka. We're headed towards Corus of course. We'll make it in about five days. The innkeeper told us that there were lots of immortals on this road. I'm nervous and pray to the Goddess that I see none.
We pass some trees and then a stream, seeing no other people. I'm rather bored, but I concentrate on the horse. This makes me bored and scared. We stop for lunch in a thick grove of trees by the stream I saw before. I eat some bread and cold soup from the inn. Tamick joins me.
"Do you really think Daine will be in Corus?"
"I'm not sure, but this Onua person probably will. If Daine's her assistant, we can ask her about Daine. What's that? It looks big for a bird?" Why do things always happen during lunch? I think without looking. When I'm eating? "It's a stormwing!" Tamick yells. "Find cover!" I'm to scared to move. I freeze in place. The stormwing is carrying a rock in its talons. It is female, and actually looks young, for a stormwing. It's not as dirty as some of the others I've seen. But it-she-is aiming her bow at me. I hear Tamick, although faintly.
"Run!" he screams. "Run!" Finally, I do. I follow him to where he is standing deeper in the trees. The stormwing sees me and follows. "Keep going, it's following, it's following!" Tamick is as scared as I am. I follow him as he runs. I get to my horse and fumble for a bow that Lory gave me. I give it to Tamick, I'm too scared to shoot straight, and he aims and misses. We both scream. The stormwing follows us as we run. Finally I get up the courage to ask,
"Why are you chasing us? What did we do to you?"
"Stormwing killer!" she screams. "Your family is a family of stormwing killers. They killed Tazeren and Akknen! Your sister killed Tazeren and Akknen!" She sounds almost scared under her anger.
"Do you mean-Teyka?" I ask. I can't understand why I am talking to her, when I'm too scared to run, but at least it's keeping her distracted.
"So she has a name! She and the other girl, the archer!" Is she thinking of Lanna? "I will kill every last one of you! They killed my parents for no reason! We came and they-attacked! So now I attack you!" She throws the rock, and like Tamick's arrow, it misses, bouncing harmlessly off into the creek. She dives low to grab another, and Tamick shoots, hitting her this time, in the face, right below her eye. It leaves a long scratch, which bleeds a little. "I'll kill you both! Your kind murdered my grandmother, that pig Verilidaine murdered my grandmother."
"Daine?" I ask. How could a stormwing know Daine? I could imagine her doing it though, bravely shooting a stormwing with her bow, and defending herself and her friends.
"Yes, Daine," she snarls. "Do you know her? She's killed so many stormwings it would be hard to count. Are you related to her? Then it will be satisfying killing you."
"We-we know where she is," I say. I don't know if this will help at all, but I have an idea.
"You do? I'll wait to kill you until you show me, and then you'll all be dead."
"We won't show you unless you promise not to kill me. I'd rather die now then tell you if you don't." Tamick has caught on to my plan.
"Very well. I won't kill you until I-I won't kill you." I know what she is thinking. When she finds Daine, she won't need us anymore, and then she'll kill us.
"This is strange," Tamick mutters. "Bargaining with a stormwing. At least we know she'll probably keep her promise. I think."
"My name is Jikkeh, by the way," she says. "I know yours, so I thought you should know mine." How could she know our names, I wonder, and then drop it. I know we can't tell Jikkeh that we are going to Corus, because she'll kill us and go there, we just have to lead her. I whisper to Tamick,
"We can't go directly to Corus, or she'll know. We have to kind of go in circles or something like that."
"One more thing," Jikkeh says "You can't hurt me or get in anyone else to do so." We both nod our heads.
"That's fine," Tamick says. "After we finish eating we'll start." Jikkeh also nods. We eat quickly, nervously, trying to ignore Jikkeh, who is sitting on a branch above us.
"Jikkeh," I say, "Will you fly? Or do you want a perch on one of our saddles.?" Tamick shoves me, obviously not happy with the idea. I however, am not as afraid of the stormwing now that we have gotten her under control. There are people on Corus who can protect us, mages, archers, and people who have knowledge of stormwings. And until Daine is dead, and I swear to myself that she will not die, we are safe from this stormwing.
"I'll fly until I get tired," Jikkeh says. "But you might as well take some of the branches that are here, since you don't know if there will be any later." She smirks. "Dreadfully sorry about the smell." Tamick and I grimace. At least she's calmed down, I think.. After eating, we ride away, Jikkeh flying over head. As I suggested, we don't ride in a straight path to Corus. We zigzag around. Once we go back in a circle. It doesn't really matter if Jikkeh realizes what we're doing, as long as she doesn't realize where Daine is. We've agreed to protect each other, as part of the deal. Jikkeh is smart enough to realize that if some stronger monster or anything of that type attacks her, and we don't help her, than we will be rid of her. It's a bit unfair, since Jikkeh will keep us safe because she needs us, and we don't really need her. I hope we don't see anything that is a threat to Jikkeh, because she scares me enough, and I can't think what something that scares her would do to me.
At night we camp out. Jikkeh perches on a branch at the head of the camp. I dream of the Green Lady again. It is hard to believe that it was only a night ago that I dreamed of her last.
"Trust the stormwing. She is more than she seems and is friendlier than she seems. Take her to Daine. She will help you on your mission. I will give you this to help you." She takes my necklace, which I wear even in my sleep, the green one cut in the shape of the Goddess, and takes it in her hand. Then her palm fills with golden light, which all disappears into my necklace. Then I wake up and it is morning.
I don't think to look at my necklace until the afternoon. When I do, it is glowing with a faint golden light. I realize that the figure is not the Goddess anymore, if it ever was, but the Green Lady. Or is it Daine? For some reason I find it hard to tell. Why shouldn't I? I think. It's not as if the Green Lady looks anything like Daine.or maybe she does. I show the necklace to Tamick and tell him about me dream. However, he can't seem to see the change, and still thinks the necklace resembles the Goddess. He can see the glow around it, however, and says it is the glow of magic. Not necessarily the gift, but a magic of some kind. I should keep it safe, and probably not let Jikkeh see it.
The day goes on with no strange happenings. I sit on my horse. I remember the Green Lady's command. 'Trust the stormwing.' How could we trust Jikkeh? Yet perhaps stormwings are more honorable than I thought. Perhaps Jikkeh will be bound by her word, and not harm us, even after she has found where Daine is. I tell Tamick, who says that's all fine, but we should keep going in zigzags and circles. 'She is more than she seems and friendlier than she seems.' That I can believe. Jikkeh is actually not bad to talk to, and talking her keeps my mind off of riding. I don't know how she is more than she seems, but she is friendly, for now. 'Take her to Daine.' That is what we are doing. Daine is prepared, and has killed stormwings before; if what Jikkeh says is true. The deal we made says nothing about making sure she kills Daine, only making sure she finds her. And 'She will help you on your mission.' Who will help? Daine? Jikkeh? What mission? My mission right now is to find Daine, and I already know where to find her. Perhaps to keep her from being killed by Jikkeh, but how could either Daine or Jikkeh help with that.
I decide to leave the Green Lady's riddle for later. Except for one thing. I still want to know how she knows about Daine. The Green Lady's not even a great god, and I don't think even they can mind read. Perhaps she saw Daine when she was living in the woods, or when she went to Cria, or even in Tortall. She's from Snowsdale after all, so why shouldn't the Green Lady keep an eye on her.
We camp out again, and this time I have no dreams. It's hard to sleep, because my necklace is growing brighter as it gets darker, and making the entire tent light up as if a candle were burning. When I finally do sleep, it's dreamless and peaceful, and I feel very rested when I wake up. Jikkeh has decided to tell us a little bit about herself. She's a young stormwing, not even a century yet. Her parents were Tazeren and Athdekah, and she had a brother named Akknen. When they came upon Teyka and Lanna, all in her family flock were killed, her uncles, her cousins, her grandparents-"except for my grandmother, Zaneh Bitterclaws," she tells us. "She's already dead, killed by Daine, the monster, before the Immortals War." I tell her that this is like what happened to me, when the bandits came. I feel horrible comparing Teyka and Lanna to bandits, but if the killed a flock of stormwings who had done them no wrong for no reason.?
Jikkeh says that when she found us, she was upset and a little crazy about the death of her family. What she did to us was as bad as what they did to her. She will kill Teyka and Lanna, not us. I shudder. I don't know if she's lying or not. Perhaps she really had lost her temper, and wouldn't have tried to kill us otherwise, or perhaps she's lying, trying to get us to go in a straight line to Corus. I remember again what the Green Lady said. Then, before I can even argue with myself, I counter the argument, saying, it couldn't have been only a dream, because look what happened to my necklace. I decide that we can go take a more direct route, but I'm not anywhere close to telling her where we're going. I quietly inform Tamick, and remind him of the dream I had the same way I reminded myself.
"There's one thing I'm wondering about. Why didn't the stormwing use magic? When she was trying to kill us, don't all stormwings have magic?"
"I'll-I'll ask her about it. I don't think it's a very dangerous question, and after all, it's a question, not an answer." Then, to Jikkeh, "When you had-had lost your temper and were trying to kill us, why-why didn't you use magic?" For a moment I see a flash of anger behind her eyes. Then she says,
I-I really don't know. I was so angry I forgot I had it." She seems so much more civilized now. Her speech, her manor, she doesn't even smell at all. I want to ask her about that sometime too, but not now. I have a feeling that when she answered my question, she wasn't telling the truth. But why?
We ride at a trot. Tamick insisted on a canter at least, but trots still scare me, so we ride at a trot. Tamick says we'll never be able to catch up to them this way, but I say that it doesn't matter, we'll all end up at the same place anyway. However, it would have been fun to travel with them. Luckily for me, Tamick has a very small Gift. He is able to light fires and creates not-very-efficient wards. I am glad to be riding with him, but I wish I had never made the speech to Teyka. We're headed towards Corus of course. We'll make it in about five days. The innkeeper told us that there were lots of immortals on this road. I'm nervous and pray to the Goddess that I see none.
We pass some trees and then a stream, seeing no other people. I'm rather bored, but I concentrate on the horse. This makes me bored and scared. We stop for lunch in a thick grove of trees by the stream I saw before. I eat some bread and cold soup from the inn. Tamick joins me.
"Do you really think Daine will be in Corus?"
"I'm not sure, but this Onua person probably will. If Daine's her assistant, we can ask her about Daine. What's that? It looks big for a bird?" Why do things always happen during lunch? I think without looking. When I'm eating? "It's a stormwing!" Tamick yells. "Find cover!" I'm to scared to move. I freeze in place. The stormwing is carrying a rock in its talons. It is female, and actually looks young, for a stormwing. It's not as dirty as some of the others I've seen. But it-she-is aiming her bow at me. I hear Tamick, although faintly.
"Run!" he screams. "Run!" Finally, I do. I follow him to where he is standing deeper in the trees. The stormwing sees me and follows. "Keep going, it's following, it's following!" Tamick is as scared as I am. I follow him as he runs. I get to my horse and fumble for a bow that Lory gave me. I give it to Tamick, I'm too scared to shoot straight, and he aims and misses. We both scream. The stormwing follows us as we run. Finally I get up the courage to ask,
"Why are you chasing us? What did we do to you?"
"Stormwing killer!" she screams. "Your family is a family of stormwing killers. They killed Tazeren and Akknen! Your sister killed Tazeren and Akknen!" She sounds almost scared under her anger.
"Do you mean-Teyka?" I ask. I can't understand why I am talking to her, when I'm too scared to run, but at least it's keeping her distracted.
"So she has a name! She and the other girl, the archer!" Is she thinking of Lanna? "I will kill every last one of you! They killed my parents for no reason! We came and they-attacked! So now I attack you!" She throws the rock, and like Tamick's arrow, it misses, bouncing harmlessly off into the creek. She dives low to grab another, and Tamick shoots, hitting her this time, in the face, right below her eye. It leaves a long scratch, which bleeds a little. "I'll kill you both! Your kind murdered my grandmother, that pig Verilidaine murdered my grandmother."
"Daine?" I ask. How could a stormwing know Daine? I could imagine her doing it though, bravely shooting a stormwing with her bow, and defending herself and her friends.
"Yes, Daine," she snarls. "Do you know her? She's killed so many stormwings it would be hard to count. Are you related to her? Then it will be satisfying killing you."
"We-we know where she is," I say. I don't know if this will help at all, but I have an idea.
"You do? I'll wait to kill you until you show me, and then you'll all be dead."
"We won't show you unless you promise not to kill me. I'd rather die now then tell you if you don't." Tamick has caught on to my plan.
"Very well. I won't kill you until I-I won't kill you." I know what she is thinking. When she finds Daine, she won't need us anymore, and then she'll kill us.
"This is strange," Tamick mutters. "Bargaining with a stormwing. At least we know she'll probably keep her promise. I think."
"My name is Jikkeh, by the way," she says. "I know yours, so I thought you should know mine." How could she know our names, I wonder, and then drop it. I know we can't tell Jikkeh that we are going to Corus, because she'll kill us and go there, we just have to lead her. I whisper to Tamick,
"We can't go directly to Corus, or she'll know. We have to kind of go in circles or something like that."
"One more thing," Jikkeh says "You can't hurt me or get in anyone else to do so." We both nod our heads.
"That's fine," Tamick says. "After we finish eating we'll start." Jikkeh also nods. We eat quickly, nervously, trying to ignore Jikkeh, who is sitting on a branch above us.
"Jikkeh," I say, "Will you fly? Or do you want a perch on one of our saddles.?" Tamick shoves me, obviously not happy with the idea. I however, am not as afraid of the stormwing now that we have gotten her under control. There are people on Corus who can protect us, mages, archers, and people who have knowledge of stormwings. And until Daine is dead, and I swear to myself that she will not die, we are safe from this stormwing.
"I'll fly until I get tired," Jikkeh says. "But you might as well take some of the branches that are here, since you don't know if there will be any later." She smirks. "Dreadfully sorry about the smell." Tamick and I grimace. At least she's calmed down, I think.. After eating, we ride away, Jikkeh flying over head. As I suggested, we don't ride in a straight path to Corus. We zigzag around. Once we go back in a circle. It doesn't really matter if Jikkeh realizes what we're doing, as long as she doesn't realize where Daine is. We've agreed to protect each other, as part of the deal. Jikkeh is smart enough to realize that if some stronger monster or anything of that type attacks her, and we don't help her, than we will be rid of her. It's a bit unfair, since Jikkeh will keep us safe because she needs us, and we don't really need her. I hope we don't see anything that is a threat to Jikkeh, because she scares me enough, and I can't think what something that scares her would do to me.
At night we camp out. Jikkeh perches on a branch at the head of the camp. I dream of the Green Lady again. It is hard to believe that it was only a night ago that I dreamed of her last.
"Trust the stormwing. She is more than she seems and is friendlier than she seems. Take her to Daine. She will help you on your mission. I will give you this to help you." She takes my necklace, which I wear even in my sleep, the green one cut in the shape of the Goddess, and takes it in her hand. Then her palm fills with golden light, which all disappears into my necklace. Then I wake up and it is morning.
I don't think to look at my necklace until the afternoon. When I do, it is glowing with a faint golden light. I realize that the figure is not the Goddess anymore, if it ever was, but the Green Lady. Or is it Daine? For some reason I find it hard to tell. Why shouldn't I? I think. It's not as if the Green Lady looks anything like Daine.or maybe she does. I show the necklace to Tamick and tell him about me dream. However, he can't seem to see the change, and still thinks the necklace resembles the Goddess. He can see the glow around it, however, and says it is the glow of magic. Not necessarily the gift, but a magic of some kind. I should keep it safe, and probably not let Jikkeh see it.
The day goes on with no strange happenings. I sit on my horse. I remember the Green Lady's command. 'Trust the stormwing.' How could we trust Jikkeh? Yet perhaps stormwings are more honorable than I thought. Perhaps Jikkeh will be bound by her word, and not harm us, even after she has found where Daine is. I tell Tamick, who says that's all fine, but we should keep going in zigzags and circles. 'She is more than she seems and friendlier than she seems.' That I can believe. Jikkeh is actually not bad to talk to, and talking her keeps my mind off of riding. I don't know how she is more than she seems, but she is friendly, for now. 'Take her to Daine.' That is what we are doing. Daine is prepared, and has killed stormwings before; if what Jikkeh says is true. The deal we made says nothing about making sure she kills Daine, only making sure she finds her. And 'She will help you on your mission.' Who will help? Daine? Jikkeh? What mission? My mission right now is to find Daine, and I already know where to find her. Perhaps to keep her from being killed by Jikkeh, but how could either Daine or Jikkeh help with that.
I decide to leave the Green Lady's riddle for later. Except for one thing. I still want to know how she knows about Daine. The Green Lady's not even a great god, and I don't think even they can mind read. Perhaps she saw Daine when she was living in the woods, or when she went to Cria, or even in Tortall. She's from Snowsdale after all, so why shouldn't the Green Lady keep an eye on her.
We camp out again, and this time I have no dreams. It's hard to sleep, because my necklace is growing brighter as it gets darker, and making the entire tent light up as if a candle were burning. When I finally do sleep, it's dreamless and peaceful, and I feel very rested when I wake up. Jikkeh has decided to tell us a little bit about herself. She's a young stormwing, not even a century yet. Her parents were Tazeren and Athdekah, and she had a brother named Akknen. When they came upon Teyka and Lanna, all in her family flock were killed, her uncles, her cousins, her grandparents-"except for my grandmother, Zaneh Bitterclaws," she tells us. "She's already dead, killed by Daine, the monster, before the Immortals War." I tell her that this is like what happened to me, when the bandits came. I feel horrible comparing Teyka and Lanna to bandits, but if the killed a flock of stormwings who had done them no wrong for no reason.?
Jikkeh says that when she found us, she was upset and a little crazy about the death of her family. What she did to us was as bad as what they did to her. She will kill Teyka and Lanna, not us. I shudder. I don't know if she's lying or not. Perhaps she really had lost her temper, and wouldn't have tried to kill us otherwise, or perhaps she's lying, trying to get us to go in a straight line to Corus. I remember again what the Green Lady said. Then, before I can even argue with myself, I counter the argument, saying, it couldn't have been only a dream, because look what happened to my necklace. I decide that we can go take a more direct route, but I'm not anywhere close to telling her where we're going. I quietly inform Tamick, and remind him of the dream I had the same way I reminded myself.
"There's one thing I'm wondering about. Why didn't the stormwing use magic? When she was trying to kill us, don't all stormwings have magic?"
"I'll-I'll ask her about it. I don't think it's a very dangerous question, and after all, it's a question, not an answer." Then, to Jikkeh, "When you had-had lost your temper and were trying to kill us, why-why didn't you use magic?" For a moment I see a flash of anger behind her eyes. Then she says,
I-I really don't know. I was so angry I forgot I had it." She seems so much more civilized now. Her speech, her manor, she doesn't even smell at all. I want to ask her about that sometime too, but not now. I have a feeling that when she answered my question, she wasn't telling the truth. But why?