Chapter Three
Breathing deeply, Emily blew air noisily out through her nose as she snuggled her face into the soft pillow her head was resting on. She was under warm, thick blankets, and she stretched slow and long, luxuriating in a feeling of content. She felt the thorough rest of one who has been asleep a long time after something strenuous.
Mmmm… she thought sleepily. Guess we got back to the house… She still hadn't opened her eyes, but she felt a hand – Tom's on her arm – and that spelled safety to her. Not moving her arm, lest she dislodge Tom's hand, she rolled further onto her stomach and sighed. This was nice. We should come up to Mich—
The air she was breathing finally registered in Emily's brain, and she froze, every muscle tense. The Michigan house had a distinct scent. Musty, and a little bit sharp. The air that tickled her nostrils was also distinct, to be sure, but there was nothing Michigan about it. It was heavy with the scent of plant life, green growing things, and damp earth. And there was a hint of something… just plain different. Something completely unfamiliar to her.
She opened her eyes only a slit, enough to see out of, but not enough to catch the attention of anyone who might be in the room. Tom's sleeping face was directly in her line of sight. Well, that tells me a lot. Closing her eyes again, she pretended to roll over in her sleep. Now facing out from the bed, she again slitted her eyes. From her position, the room seemed sparse and rustic. The far wall she faced held a doorway, from which a thin drape of some gauzy material hung. The walls were wooden and rounded. There were no corners, that she could see. Emily frowned. A round room… that was slightly odd. Near the door in the far wall, a simple, wooden chair sat. That was all she could see. Holding her breath, Emily listened hard for any sounds of movement. She was met with silence. Shifting slightly, she pulled her arm from under Tom's hand, meaning to push off the blankets and see the rest of the room.
The second she moved, her head exploded in a cacophony of sounds, images, and sensations that she couldn't even begin to understand. Random flashes of strange people and creatures, scents and sights that were utterly alien, emotions so strong she felt them like a physical blow – they all slammed into her mind. Taken completely unaware, Emily screamed in pain. She clapped her hands over her ears as her body convulsed, tossing her back against the bed, where she landed on a now awake, and very alarmed, Tom. He grabbed her arm, and as suddenly as it had come, the jumble in her mind vanished, leaving a deafening silence in its wake.
"What happened? Are you ok?" Tom shook Emily slightly. She was curled up, huddled against him, her hands clenched. Tears leaked from her tightly closed eyes, and she was whimpering. He shook her again, a little harder. "Emily! What's wrong?"
"I… there was… I heard things… or felt them… or… God, I don't know…" she ended in a moan.
Before he had a chance to respond, there was the sound of running feet, and two people rushed into the room, coming up short just inside the doorway. Tom swore and Emily let out a small shriek of surprise. Both of them clutched each other convulsively as they stared, frozen, at the newcomers.
They were a young man and an older woman. The man was dressed in close-fitting leather breeches and a belted leather tunic, all in shades of grey, brown and green. His shoulder length hair – an odd, mottled brown in color - was pulled back and tied in a tail. He had fallen instinctively into a defensive position, marking him as a fighter, and by the look of the tight muscles visible under his clothes, a capable one at that. He hadn't drawn any weapons, but his right hand hovered near his hip, suggesting that there was a hidden weapon somewhere in that vicinity.
The woman was similarly dressed, though her garments were not quite as utilitarian as the man's. The leather looked newer and had less wear, and there was more linen in the make. Her hair was much longer than the man's, falling to the backs of her knees, though it was tightly braided. It was pure ice-white in color, and matched the silver-white of her eyes. She was willowy thin, and though her body was obviously not the honed weapon that the man's was, she exuded a complete strength of body and mind that was almost tangible.
Tom and Emily were frozen in shock. The man and women glanced at each other for a moment, then the woman started towards the bed. Emily cringed. Snapping out of his stupor, Tom scrambled from the bed to block the woman from Emily.
At his movement, Emily's body was again wracked with fire and pain. She screamed again, a tortured sound. Tom whipped his head around in panic and saw her shaking like a leaf on the bed. She was locked inside herself, the pain and confusion washing over her in neverending waves of molten fire. His heart in his throat, Tom whirled back to face the woman, his heart torn in two directions. His instincts screamed at him to not let the stranger out of his sight, but his soul cried out to his best friend. Eyeing the woman, who had stopped moving towards him, he heard Emily's screams fade to moans and gasps as her energy sapped. Sweat dripped down his temple and he stood frozen in agony, not knowing what to do.
The woman held out her hands, palms up, in the universal gesture of peace. She slid cautiously closer to the confused young man.
"Please," she said in his language. "We mean you no harm. I can help her."
Tom started at the sound of her voice. She spoke English, but with an accent so strange it took him a moment to realize that it was, in fact, English at all. His eyes flickered back and forth between the woman and the young man, who still stood just inside the doorway, watching everything with a wary expression on his face. Emily let out a weak moan, which drew his attention back to the woman.
"Who are you? What makes you think I'll let you near her?" He backed up, never taking his eyes from the woman, and reached blindly for Emily. His hand found her shoulder, and he immediately felt her tense muscles relax. She let out a sob of relief and slumped down on the bed, utterly spent.
A look of surprise, fleeting before she hid it, appeared on the woman's face as she watched them. She advanced a bit more, stealthily, as she spoke soothingly. "My name is Earthlight, and this is Waternight." She gestured at the young man behind her. "I promise you, we only want to help you. Now, I can help her, or you can allow her to stay in pain."
Tom cringed at her words. He paused, considering her words, then reluctantly nodded and moved away from Emily. As he withdrew, she started to tremble again, and weak moans emerged from her abused throat.
Earthlight sighed a mental sigh of relief when the boy nodded, clearly unhappy with the choices he was presented with. She went quickly to the girl's side, and grabbed the young man's hand as he tried to withdraw to give her room.
"No, I need you," she explained as he recoiled instinctively from her touch. She placed his hand on the girl's shoulder once again, and lay her free hand on the girl's back. The shivers stopped, but the girl seemed completely drained. With a mental twist, the mage shifted to Magesight, and inhaled sharply when what she saw confirmed what she had expected.
The young man had a shield around him, tighter and stronger than most she'd seen in her day. It was flawless – and seemingly, created and maintained completely by reflex on the boy's part. He seemed utterly unaware that he had such a shield. The girl, in contrast, had not the merest hint of one. She was raw and open, her channels completely exposed. Earthlight bit back an exclamation when she examined those channels more closely. There were several, but the two largest and strongest were for Magegift and Empathy. No wonder she reacted as she did – with no shields and channels of this strength, she must have been picking up energy and emotions and thoughts all the way from Valdemar!
But the strangest thing – when the boy touched the girl, his shield expanded and flowed to encase the girl, cutting her off from the multitude of intrusions. Earthlight was baffled. She'd never heard of anything like this, much less seen it firsthand. Mages placing separate shields over another person was common, but she's never heard of a mage actually sharing his own… She itched to examine it more closely, not to mention explore the identity of that very alien channel that the boy had, shaped and colored like nothing she'd ever heard of…
But for right now, getting a shield around the girl was her primary concern. She dropped into the outer-most layers of the girl's mind.
:I'm here to help you.: she Mindspoke soothingly. :See this barrier around you? Feel it. You must recreate one of your own.: She Felt the girl fumble in confusion, then slowly See the shield that the mage showed her. :Yes. Here is your center, going down into the earth. And this is how you connect the barrier to the ground, so it does not move or go away.: She patiently showed the girl how to build her own shield, observing in amazement that the girl didn't even seem to be aware of what she was doing, as if a purely instinctual and self-preserving, unconscious part of her were creating the shield. As the girl got her own shield up, Earthlight removed the boy's hand from her shoulder. The girl cringed, but the shield held. Pulling slowly out of rapport with the girl, Earthlight saw her unconsciously shunt energy into the shield, strengthening and maintaining it. Incredible…
The mage pulled back and the girl slumped forward. The boy quickly stepped into the space that Earthlight had vacated and put his arm under the girl's shoulders, supporting her. He turned to Earthlight, his eyes a frightening meld of fear, awe, and barely suppressed desperate panic.
"What did you do?" he demanded.
"Well, I showed her how to –.."
But the young man ran on as if the mage hadn't spoken. "And who are you? And where the fuck are we? How did we get here?"
Waternight, sensing that the young man was on the verge of hysterics, stepped forward from his place by the door and held out a calming hand. The boy jumped at his motion, as if he'd forgotten about the scout's presence.
"Calm down," he said gently. "We can't answer your questions if we think you're going to have a meltdown at any second. I promise you, like Earthlight said, we're here to help you."
He held the boy's gaze as he spoke, and tried to project how sincere he was, layering the words with a soothing calm.
Surprisingly, it was the girl who stood and smiled – albeit hesitantly – at Waternight, the pinched look gone from her face. She seemed more relaxed. She stood next to the boy and placed a hand on his lower back. The act appeared to have an even further calming effect on them both. The boy sighed deeply.
"We're ok. Now, please, tell us what's going on here." It was the girl who spoke, her voice low and warm.
Waternight smiled. "Well, we've introduced ourselves. It seems only fair that you return the favor." His tone was light and casual.
:Do you mind of I take over from here?: he Sent to Earthlight. :I'm closer to their age, so they may feel more comfortable relating to me.:
:Not at all. Actually, I was going to suggest it.:
He turned his attention back to the foreigners. "So. What can we call you?"
This time it was the boy who spoke. "My name's Tom, and this is Emily."
Odd names… I suppose they could be Valdemaran, though the dress is all wrong.
"Well, Tom, Emily, I am Waternight, a scout for k'Sheyna Vale, and my lovely companion here is Earthlight – elder, council-member, Adept mage, and all around wonderful person…" He trailed off when he saw the looks on Tom and Emily's faces. They were both staring at him, expressions of utter disbelief and awe gracing their features.
"WHAT???" They both cried the word at the same time. Startled, they looked at each other, seeming to forget about the presence of the mage and scout.
"He's lying. He has to be. There's no way in hell we're in a Vale," Tom told Emily firmly. He was shaking his head in denial.
Emily just nodded. She started to laugh, weakly at first, then increasingly stronger and louder until she was holding her sides and tears were streaming down her face. It was the laughter of a hysterical person. The scout regarded the two with growing alarm.
:Do you think something… happened? To their minds?: Waternight asked the mage worriedly.
:No,: she Sent back, immediately and reassuringly. :It's the stress of their ordeal.: She sounded confident, but the mage was concerned about their reaction as well. It was strange – they acted as if they had heard of Tayledras before, yet found the idea of being among them impossible. Earthlight dropped that train of thinking as the girl – Emily – addressed them again.
"That's good, that's a good one. Really, very clever. I mean, how much effort did it take to do the costumes and get us to this… wherever we are? But seriously, why bother? I mean -.." she paused to laugh again, and Waternight took the opportunity to inject,
"Actually, we're not IN the Vale itself. Not too many people even know of your existence, and we'd rather keep it that way for a while." His tone was vague and evasive.
Tom gave him an impatient look. "Come on, seriously. Are you connected with the school? This is pretty extreme just for ditching. Did our parents put you up to this? And what is that accent? And I swear to God, if you had anything to do with what happened to Emily, whatever the fuck that was, I will kick the shit out of you," he ended with a dark glare. His tone was grim, and the scout shivered, not doubting for a second the truth behind the words.
Waternight and Earthlight exchanged a Look. Earthlight sighed.
"Why don't you tell us where you're from. That may help us figure this out."
"Chicago." The Tayledras shared a glance, and both shrugged. Emily gaped in disbelief. "You know, Chicago, the third biggest city in the U.S.?" The blank looks didn't change. "Ok, Illinois." No change. "Do not tell me you've never heard of Illinois. You know, the United States of America?"
"Is that… south? Near Acabarrin?" Earthlight was grasping at straws, and named one of the southern countries that no one knew much about, that she had only heard of.
"Near where?" Emily was getting impatient now as well. "Look, this is all very cute, but drop the act, ok? Do you think we're stupid? We love the books, but they're fiction. Not real. Tayledras, Vales, Valdemar, Companions… they don't exist. Did you really think we'd fall for that? Aside from whatever you did to me, which you will explain," she looked pointedly at Earthlight. "There's just no way you could be telling the truth. Now tell us where we are." Emily's eyes flashed with impatience and anger, her fear and confusion forgotten for the moment. She didn't get truly angry easily or often, but she was tired, confused, and irritated, and was quickly becoming very mad.
She felt Tom place a hand on her arm. She looked at him questioningly. He bent his head and spoke softly into her ear, never taking his eyes from the mage and the scout.
"Em… look at them. They're really confused. They have no idea what we're talking about."
She gritted her teeth and looked at the "Hawkbrothers" – really looked at them. The two stood patiently under her scrutiny, perhaps sensing it was important.
The scout's hair, mottled in different shades of brown, had white roots. Emily blinked. White roots? She frowned, and shifted her gaze from that rather disturbing detail. His leather tunic and breeches showed signs of regular wear and frequent exposure to weather. He wore some sort of leather gauntlet on his right arm that covered it up to the shoulder. It looked like a falconer's glove. A falconer's glove? Ok, you are not starting to consider this… She looked at the woman. Her white hair, though bound in a braid, was still obviously long enough to reach the backs of her knees. It was devoid of decoration. She too wore a gauntlet, though hers was more detailed and finely tooled. Emily looked at her face and was startled to find that her eyes where almost as white as her hair. They were a pure, crystal-silver grey, and they held more wisdom than Emily had ever seen in a human before.
Speechless, she turned back to Tom, who nodded once in confirmation of what he'd already noticed. Keeping his hand on her arm, Tom once again eyed the strangers.
"Alright. Let's say you're telling the truth, that you two really are Tayledras, and me and Emily really are somewhere near a Vale. How the fuck did we get here?"
:You take this one, elder. You're the mage – I don't even pretend to understand it.:
Earthlight opened her mouth to speak, then noticed Emily sway a bit, her eyes hazy. The mage gestured towards the bed.
"Why don't you sit? You've been through quite an ordeal." The young adults took her suggestion and sat. "Well. At least you picked the question that we are best prepared to answer, though we don't fully understand it ourselves." She shook her head. "I'm confusing you. I apologize. Based on what I saw in the residual energies from your minds when we found you, the best I can say is that you came through something we call a Gate. It's a -.."
"We know what it is," Tom interrupted. "What about it?"
Surprised, Earthlight had to gather her thoughts for a moment before continuing. "Well, it opened in the Void, which in and of itself is… not supposed to be possible…"
* * *
Emily dropped her head into her hands and ran her fingers through her closely cropped hair. She sighed deeply through her nose, then rubbed her eyes before lifting her head again to look at the two unreadable faces before her.
"So, you think some random Gate with no caster – which isn't supposed to be possible – just appeared in Michigan, which, theoretically, would be in an alternate universe, and me and Tom just happened to conveniently stumble through it, where it dropped us in the Void – which, again, isn't supposed to be possible – and then something opened the Void and got us here."
Earthlight quirked an eyebrow. "Well, it's highly doubtful that you and Tom "conveniently stumbled through." But yes, that is the most likely explanation that we have right now."
"What do you mean, it's highly doubtful?" Tom demanded.
"As Emily stated, the problem with this theory is that several things that must have taken place aren't supposed to be possible. The probability of all of this happening randomly is astronomically small. If this is what really happened – and we can't be positive that it is – then it certainly didn't happen by chance. It was done for a reason, though for what reason and by whom, I don't know."
"Oh, do not tell me that this was 'fate,' or that this was 'meant to happen.' That's bullshit! The last thing we need right now is to play hero to some destined path or whatever." Tom threw his hands up in the air and made a wordless sound of irritation as he turned to Emily. "And I can't believe we're even considering that this is real! I'm still not convinced that this is anything other than some fucking joke." He turned back to Earthlight and Waternight. "You're good actors, I'll give you that. Very convincing. But the only way we're gonna believe this bullshit is if you prove it."
Waternight stood abruptly, a look of impatience on his face. Emily tensed, feeling a change in the air. It had a thick feel that was almost a taste, and it was sharp and hot and made her nose itch. She cringed and tensed even more, confused by what she seemed to be the only one to notice. She gritted her teeth and tried to stay calm, but panic was slowly creeping up her spine. The more frightened she got, the heavier the feeling became. More tastes and feelings began to join the first, until she couldn't distinguish one from another. The press of confusion built and built, becoming almost unbearable.
Tom touched her shoulder and she blinked, the pressure gone. She touched her forehead hesitantly, wondering if she weren't going mad. A voice pierced her thoughts and she realized that the scout was speaking.
"…we're just as confused as you two are, but you don't see us insisting that you're not even real! We're breaking centuries of tradition by not having killed you on sight, and you won't even give us the benefit of the doubt! You want proof? Fine. Follow me." He turned on his heel and walked briskly out of the room. The teens glanced at Earthlight, who gestured for them to follow him, an amused look on her face. They hastened to catch up with Waternight.
Emerging from the room, Tom and Emily cleared the doorway just in time to see the scout's head disappear through a trap-door in the floor of another similar room. In fact, it seemed almost identical, save one detail.
There was a massively thick tree trunk in the middle of the room. Indeed, the room seemed to be built around it. It rose from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling. The teens glanced at each other, eyes wide, then peered over the edge of the hole that Waternight had descended into.
His face looked up at them from the ground a good twenty feet below them. He stood on grass and dirt, and Tom thought he glimpsed more foliage around the scout. A rope ladder was attached to the trap-door and swayed gently in the breeze, dropping to the ground below.
Emily moved to go down the ladder, but Tom caught her arm. She looked at him in surprise.
"Let me go first. That way if anything happens…" he trailed off.
"Oh, nice, so that you get killed and leave me here?"
Tom just gave Emily a Look, and the rest of her argument died in her throat.
"Fine. Go."
Tom swung his legs over the side of the opening, found the ladder with his feet, and was on the ground in seconds. Emily watched as he looked around, then slid her body through the hole when he looked up expectantly.
Earthlight joined the other three on the ground and gave Waternight a sharp look.
:Just how exactly do you plan on "proving" the reality of their situation to them?: Her mindvoice was sharp, with faint undertones of disapproval. :You know you can't bring them to the Vale.:
:I know. Don't worry, what I have in mind in no way compromises the Vale. Striihl and Wingfire were due for guard duty in a bit, so they should be unoccupied right now, and Sunsong and Hylera won't be doing anything they can't set aside for a moment. I mainly want the gryphons, but it couldn't hurt to have the other two here as well. Anyway, I want to bring in the bondbirds first. Call in Syrcin, if you would.:
* * *
"So what do you think of the birds?" Tom murmured.
Emily looked up from the aimless designs she'd been scratching in the ground with a stick and glanced across the small clearing underneath the building they'd descended from. The "Hawkbrothers" were on that side – Earthlight sitting serenely on a tree root, Waternight leaning against the same tree in a deceptively casual pose. "The birds" that Tom referred to were present as well. They were both massive; larger than any raptor Emily had ever seen or heard of. The larger of the two – Emily thought it was a Goshawk – was perched on the same root as Earthlight, and she was feeding it bits of meat that she produced from a pouch hanging from her belt. The smaller bird, which was undoubtedly a Peregrine, stood on Waternight's shoulder and periodically nibbled his ear or preened a beakfull of the scout's hair.
A fact that made Emily very, very nervous.
"You mean besides the fact that they're fully twice the size of any normal Peregrine and Goshawk?"
"In the books –.."
"I know," she cut him off. "Bondbirds are described that way. That's not the only way those birds match the description. Look – look at the way the Gos is taking the meat from Earthlight. It's taking it delicately. Raptors normally gulp their food. And the Peregrine. Under no circumstances does a falconer – or even anyone who knew anything about birds of prey – let his bird anywhere near that close to his face. It's just asking to lose an eye. Birds of prey are just too unpredictable. I mean, the best a falconer can ever expect from his birds is toleration, but these birds… they're being friendly, Tom." She ended her tirade with a helpless wave of her hands, then sighed.
"What are we waiting for, anyway?"
Before Tom could respond, two shrill, piercing bird cries rang out, at the same time as a brief shadow passed over the clearing. At these, Waternight pushed himself from the tree trunk and grinned triumphantly at the teens.
"Your proof is here," was all he said.
Tom and Emily looked upwards through the trees and were forced to shield their eyes with a hand as a slight breeze steadily grew into a whipping wind. Through squinted eyes, Tom noticed two more people enter the clearing and stand near Earthlight and Waternight.
All of Emily's attention was focused above her, and her mouth grew slack with denial as her mind put the clues together to form an idea of what was coming. When the makers of the wind finally came into view, the teen covered her eyes with her hand for a moment, shook her head, and then removed the hand to take another look. Her eyes hadn't lied.
Four huge, powerful wings backwinged, elegantly cupping the air as they supported the muscular bodies that resembled a fluid mesh of raptor and feline. They were both huge – the size of large draft horses at least, if not bigger. One was slightly larger than the other. They both stretched one hind paw out to touch down on the ground, seemed to hover for a moment, then dropped to the ground, folding their wings and settling on their haunches with the flawlessness of mercury.
Waternight applauded the landing briefly before turning to Tom and Emily. He allowed himself a mental pat on the back in triumph. The teenagers were staring at the gryphons in complete shock. They both looked like they were about to have trouble breathing.
"You should feel privileged. Hylera and Striihl don't treat just anyone to such an artistic landing." He shot a mischievous glance in the gryphons' direction. "They're getting so old, it's a wonder they perform that bit of fancy flying at all anymore. Truly, consider yourselves lucky."
As Tom and Emily watched, the smaller, darker of the creatures clacked its beak. The sound was surprisingly loud. To their further amazement, it spoke in a deep, rumbling, masculine voice.
"If we are old, then you are an Adept mage." It – no, he – turned to the two friends and addressed them, and they found themselves staring into liquid amber eyes the size of tennis balls. "Merely an exercise. We have not had reason to exact that specific maneuver in some time." He ended with a wink.
In a daze, Emily approached the male gryphon and slowly reached out a hand towards him. Only when she was mere feet away from him and his sweet, musky scent reached her nostrils did she stop abruptly and blink. It seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she'd been in and she gasped, pulling her hand quickly back.
The gryphon rumbled a chuckle and gaped his beak in what seemed to be the gryphon equivalent of a grin. His eyes sparkled cheerily.
"Never fear, I won't bite your hand off. You can touch me if you wish. In fact, rubbing a gryphon's crest is supposed to bring you great luck. It's –.."
"A time honored tradition…" Emily interrupted. "Kelvren said that to Keisha," she muttered, seemingly to herself.
The gryphon's nares flushed red and his companion let out a chuckle.
"Your plot has been foiled," she said with amusement. She then turned to a wide-eyed Emily. "So you know of our wingbrother in k'Valdemar, hmm? And of Keisha? How is it that you know of them? Waternight has told us some of the circumstances concerning you two and your presence here, so I doubt that you know of Kelvren and Keisha through personal experience."
Emily's vocal chords seemed to have failed her. She stared at the female gryphon, unable to form an answer to the question. Muffled footsteps told her that Tom now stood next to her.
"Tom," she breathed shakily. "Pinch me."
Ignoring the request, but taking his friend's hand firmly, Tom faced Hylera.
"We… there are books about you – them – uh.. about all of this. We read them, all of them. But they're fantasy, they're not real. They were created by someone else, a human. They're not real."
Striihl addressed Hylera. "He keeps saying that," he chuckled.
She acknowledged him with a nod, then turned her attention back to Tom and Emily. She cocked her head and contemplated them for a few moments, then reached over to Striihl and deftly plucked a loose feather from his chest with her beak. He squawked in protest, but settled down when she gave him a Look. Opening her beak, Hylera let the feather drift silently to the ground.
"Pick it up," she ordered.
Glancing at Emily, Tom quickly retrieved the feather. It was longer than his hand.
"Now look at that," Hylera said. "Look at the end there. There is blood and tissue on it. Surely that tells you that we are real. We would not bleed if we were not real."
The teens looked at each other. After a few minutes of silence, Emily glanced at the gryphons, then at Earthlight and Waternight, then back at her friend.
"I… something tells me that they're telling the truth, Tom," she whispered. She looked at the ground and worried her bottom lip for a moment before again meeting his eyes. They pleaded silently with him. "I think this is real."
Tom sighed heavily. "I don't know how the hell it could be, but that sure seems to be the case." He ran his hands through his hair, then turned and faced Waternight. The scout met his gaze, the frustrated challenge still lingering in his eyes.
"Alright," Tom said, loud enough for everyone present to hear, though his eyes were still locked with Waternight's. "I guess we have no choice but to believe that all this is real. The real question is, what the hell happens now?"