Chapter 4

*

Icefire was taken to an empty ekele, where she immediately collapsed onto the bed and had slept until the following morning. Although she had studied the theory, she had never actually had to make a Gate before, and the effort had exhausted her far more than would usually be the case.

Icefire woke to find the sunlight filtering through the unshuttered windows, and stretched languorously. It was then that she realized that she had fallen asleep in her scout leathers, and she sat up. She needed a change of clothing and a wash.

She got out of the bed and looked around for the packs she had dropped unceremoniously on the floor the previous night. To her dismay, they were nowhere in sight. She pulled back the curtain that shrouded the clothes rack and peered inside. It was full of clothes. They were beautiful, delicate and exotic, and none of them were hers.

She turned around to find one of the lizard like hertasi waiting patiently by the door.

"Where are my clothes?" she demanded, completely at a loss for the reason of this mystery.

"In the clothes rack," the hertasi replied, seemingly confused by her strange ignorance.

"No, my clothes, my packs!" Icefire explained, looking about the ekele. The few possessions she had brought with her were arrayed about the room, but there was no sign of the plain leather packs or the clothing they contained. "Where were they put?"

"They were very plain, very boring." The hertasi informed her. "Not suitable for you. Hertasi make new clothes, new packs, more beautiful, more suitable. The clothes are too plain for an important visiting mage."

"Oh," said Icefire softly, taking a seat at the end of the bed. She had known that the hertasi were proud of their beautiful craftsmanship, but she had no idea that they would confiscate her packs for the sin of being too plain! Icefire remembered her wistful longing for a hertasi to look after her ekele, and she began to laugh. Rising, she selected a beautiful and elaborate mage robe from the selection of clothing, and turned again to the hertasi. "Is there a hot pool nearby?" she inquired, and when it answered with the affirmative, she selected a towel as well before leaving the ekele.

She followed the hertasi's directions along deceptively twisting arched walkways. Icefire admired the effect of space such a layout gave, but deplored the confusion it would inevitably cause her.

In spite of the maze of paths, she found the bathing pool with relative ease. It was larger than many of the pools in K'Drena, and she surmised that it was used by many, in spite of its emptiness at the moment.

She relaxed in the hot water, and wondered what it was about her situation that was so different from the situation in K'Drena. The two Vales were not so very dissimilar in appearance, but she felt much more comfortable here than she ever had in her previous home.

She dried her silvery hair thoroughly when she left the pool, and pulled the beautiful mage robe on. She thought with a mental chuckle that if the mage robes in K'Drena had been half as appealing or as comfortable, she would have been twice as likely to wear them!

Her hair, now dry, she left loose in a rippling white waterfall. She did not often allow it to assume the natural waves that were so uncommon among the K'Drena; most Tayledras had very straight hair.

"I thought I might find you here." Said a voice, making her start slightly. It was the scout from the previous morning.

"Greetings!" replied Icefire. "I'm sorry, but I never did learn your name."

The scout gave a chuckle. "I'm Nightfall. I came to inform you that there is going to be a party tonight in honor of your arrival."

Icefire was shocked. In her K'Drena, she could count the number of parties the clan had held on one hand! Her arrival was not so big a thing as to cause a celebration, surely!

Her surprise must have shown on her face, for Nightfall laughed again. "We take every opportunity for parties." He told her. "Surely you did in K'Drena, too?"

This startled her even more, as he had left the council after delivering her to it. "Has rumor already circled the Vale about me?" she inquired.

"Since you yourself were deeply asleep, curiosity had to be satisfied about you in some other fashion." He reasoned to her, smiling.

Icefire winced slightly. "I suppose it was terribly rude of me," she admitted. "But I was tired - you see, yesterday was the first time I had ever built a Gate."

"Truly?" he asked her, obviously confused. "But - your bondbird is all white - surely you have been a mage for a while."

"I have - I just didn't make Gates - it was considered too much work for such a young mage as myself." This was said bitterly. "But anyway, Dellan's color has nothing to do with it. He's an ice eagle."

Nightfall's eyes lit with fascination. "An ice eagle? Truly?"

Ice eagles were very rare and very famous. They were much smarter than the normal bondbirds, but rarely bonded. They were called ice eagles for their strange coloring, a startling silver and white, which they got by channeling the power of active nodes to give them their unnatural speed. The node magic bleached their feathers even if they never bonded to a mage.

"Yes, truly." Laughed Icefire. "One of the benefits of living deep in the wildlands was that ice eagles are a little more common there, although they are still rare. I was the only one of my clan to bond to one."

Nightfall looked fascinated, and delighted with having a new peice of gossip to share. He excused himself soon after that, and she resigned herself to being gossiped about until the novelty wore off about her.

*

That evening, she dressed herself in the incredible outfit the hertasi had made for her. It was made of mid blue silk, embroidered liberally with white and silver threads. The bodice was tight, but the skirt must have been made out of almost a full circle of silk cloth, for it swirled in many loose folds around her legs. This delicate construction was covered by a cloak formed out of peices of translucent white silk, formed like feathers to make an amazing wing-like cover.

As well as making this, the hertasi had apparently raided her store of Dellan's feathers, fo she was presented with a set of jewelery. The necklace was made of alternating white and silver feathers strung on a support silver lace. Beads of white and blue crystal were also strung on the necklace, and a long silver tail feather hung as the centerpeice to the elaborate decoration. There was a bracelet, made of a net of silver wires, hung with crystal beads, and more silver feathers were strung onto a clip for her hair.

Her hair she decided to tease into the complex K'Drena design that she privately detested, and by the time she and the hertasi had finished, she looked more amazing than she had beleived possible.

"Adequate." Said one hertasi, surveying her critically. "The best we can do on such short notice."

Adequate! If this wealth was adequate, what would incredible be like? She was moved by the unending generosity of the K'Vala. They had given her so much, that she could hardly begin to repay them.