Ravenpeak
By Starchild
Author's Note: This is my very first fic. Congrats to me! Looks like it's going to be a long one... and don't fret if it's a while between installments. This stuff's hard work. Go ahead and hit the handy little review button on the bottom left, okay? Because I refuse to publish another WORD until I have some idea what you guys think. So unless you want to be tortured by suspense for the rest of your LIVES, you'd BETTER give me some feedback! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!
This is for all you other D/N shippers out there! *high five* ;)
Thanks: to Jennifer. This project would be a disaster without you! Thank you SO much! *hugs*
Disclaimer: The premise of Tortall, its neighboring countries, and the characters thereof are the creation and property (sort of) of Tamora Pierce, the goddess of feminist fantasy. I am hereby borrowing the abovementioned items with the best of intentions but not a smidgen of permission. Don't sue me. It's not worth it.
Chapter 1
Her eyes slipped open in the gloom of their bedchamber - quickly, as she had learned over the years to respond to a call to duty at any hour of the day. As the Wildmage of Tortall (she had never quite gotten used to what she considered a grand title of legends), her role in the realm's battles against immortals was demanding. Now, her internal clock told her it was several hours past midnight, no proper time to be summoned from her bed. Yet - she adjusted her ears to those of a cat - there was definitely someone knocking at the door, and urgently.
Carefully, she twisted around to peer over her shoulder. Numair was still sleeping soundly. She decided not to disturb him - he was easily as tired as she, these days - and set about going to answer the door. Slowly she eased out of his arms and moved to set her feet on the carpet. As she reached the bedroom door, however, she saw her movement had not gone undetected.
"Daine?"
He was shifting to rest on an elbow, blinking sleepily. She released a brief sigh-like breath. It was indeed rare that her absence would go unnoticed by him - and vice versa. She raised a finger to her lips. "Shh. Go back to sleep. I'll get it." She indicated the front door of their suite, still under siege by the knocker in the hall. Before he could reply, she slipped out the door and shut it gently, hoping the stillness would lull him back to sleep. Grabbing a dressing gown from a nearby chair, she slipped it over her shift and wrapped it around herself, rendering her appearance marginally more presentable to the nighttime visitor. Moving through the main room of their suite, she picked her way around the various cats, dogs, and other wildlife that shared the room. Her friends among the People, or animals, had long sought her company at night, but upon moving in with Numair she had reluctantly banished them from the bedchamber. Now, they slept in the main room instead, still taking comfort in her presence as always.
Approaching the front door, she reached to activate a nearby lamp - like all the lamps in their rooms, it was powered magically, thanks to Numair - and dropped the cat eyes she had used thus far in moving through the darkness. She blinked briefly at the new light, then opened the door, still trying to clear her head of the soft, adhesive drapes of sleep.
Alanna the Lioness, the King's Champion and longtime friend to both Daine and Numair, stood in the dim nocturnal light of the hall's lamps, fully dressed. Daine squinted; the knight was not only attired in her typical work-and-battle-clothes, but armed as well with sword and dagger. This was not unusual: the current war with the northern country of Scanra was keeping Tortallan warriors and mages alike on their toes. It seemed the Tortallan forces were mobilized for a new danger, whatever it was that had now come up. Daine focused tiredly on her friend's face. It seemed that she would again be adding to her sleep-debt bill, already quite steep.
"I'm sorry to wake you up." Alanna spoke quietly so as not to disturb the rest of anyone in earshot. "Jonathan and Thayet called me, and Gary, and Buri" - she named the king's chief advisor and the commander of the Queen's Riders - "and asked me to fetch you. We're meeting in his study. It's important." The Champion looked as weary as Daine, and their friends in the forces against the enemies that were plaguing the kingdom recently, felt. "Otherwise I wouldn't have roused you at this disgusting hour."
Footsteps padded behind Daine; she felt a solid warmth at her back as Numair's arms circled her shoulders. It seemed he hadn't taken her advice after all. She smiled up at him briefly, then returned her attention to Alanna. "Immortals?" she asked, voice thick with sleep. She cleared her throat discreetly as the knight nodded tiredly.
"Where?" Numair questioned. She felt the rumble of his voice in his chest behind her. "What do you know so far?"
"Down at Ravenpeak." Alanna named a fief near the Tyran border, one important to the Crown. "Lord Gregory sent a runner tonight. There's trouble. Says it can't wait." She shook her head grimly, gazing off into the distance for a moment. "Just - come to His Majesty's study as soon as you can, all right? We'll get the story then."
"We'll be there in twenty minutes," Numair promised. Alanna nodded to them and set off in the direction of the conference, pace brisk.
Daine shut the door and then leaned back against it for a moment, trying to clear her senses and mind into full consciousness. She and Numair had been busy in the north for months, fighting the enemy mages and spying - with the help of Daine's animal friends - to get the Tortallan forces as much information as possible on the movements of the Scanrans. Less than a week ago the king had granted them a month's leave, to return home and regain the strength so dearly spent in the war. Now, however, it seemed they were going back to work, leave or no.
"Daine?" Numair kept his hands on her shoulders, looking at her with concern. "Would you rather just stay here while I go to Ravenpeak? I'm sure I could handle it alone, and you still need to get some rest."
"Of course not," she broke in. "I'm not the only one who needs rest. Besides, Alanna said it's immortals. I need to be there to deal with them."
"I've dealt with immortals in my time." The dim lamplight made his dark eyes even deeper.
"You don't even know what they are, down at Ravenpeak. Let's first go to His Majesty's conference, and see what's amiss." She had already made her decision, and he could tell. "Besides -" she smiled, sliding her arms around his neck - "*someone's* got to be there to keep you out of trouble."
He smiled in return and pulled her close. "What would I do without you, magelet," he murmured.
She rested in his arms a moment before pulling away reluctantly. "We'd best get ready."
~~~~~
They walked into the king's study, which often doubled as a conference room for advisors and commanders close to the Crown, fifteen minutes later. Seated at the long table were King Jonathan and Queen Thayet, side by side, as well as the Lioness, Buriram Tourakom of the Queen's Riders, three Rider group leaders under her, and the king's advisor Sir Gareth the Younger of Naxen. It was a typical assembly for planning defenses against the monsters from the Divine Realms that harassed the kingdom - minus Sir Raoul, knight commander of the King's Own, and commanders under him. Lately the Own was engaged in the Scanran war in the north. Despite the absences, Daine couldn't help but swell a little with pride at the dedication and skill assembled, and at being in their number. After eight years of being the Wildmage, she couldn't imagine an occupation other than serving Tortall, even with the carnage and horrors of war, and the danger of her work. On this night, however, at this hour, the assembly looked less than heroic and enthusiastic. Most talked with their neighbors in undertones, or just sat silently to their own thoughts. All looked exhausted, yet grimly gathered their strength to address the task at hand.
Daine and Numair joined the assembly, taking adjacent seats. Automatically she reached for his hand, and they exchanged quick smiles as he squeezed it comfortingly in reply.
The king now cleared his throat and stood. "Thank you all for coming. I apologize profusely for waking you up at this hour -"
"Oh, I'm sure you're very sympathetic, Jon," joked Gary. "Seeing as you're up at this time every night anyway."
This roused a weary chuckle from the gathered members. The king's tireless devotion to his country in time of crisis was famous.
"We have," he continued when the laughter died away, "a - situation with immortals at fief Ravenpeak. A rather urgent one. I've called you all here to address the issue as Ravenpeak is valued by the Crown as a constantly loyal vassal and we will make all efforts to their assistance. Master Gerric Blackstone, Lord Gregory's messenger" - he nodded to a scrawny man in riding clothes sitting next to Sir Gareth - "brings disturbing reports."
The runner addressed the assembly. "For a week or so, there've been hurroks about the fief." He named well-known - and -feared - immortals extremely hostile to humans. Hurroks were a strain of winged horses, infused with a hawk's talons and a predator's forward-facing eyes and fangs. "There were some attacks, injuries but no casualties, and they carried off livestock. There were only ten or so - my lord sent out a company of men to confront them. In the fighting, the beasts backed the forces into a ravine, then up against a cliff - without them hardly realizing it. Then twenty more of the things swooped down on them." His voice dropped; he wouldn't look directly at his audience. "Every man sent out is dead."
Silence lapsed as the implications of what the man had said soaked into the assembly. Hurroks were no more intelligent than animals. Although Daine, as a wildmage, could communicate with them as she could with animals, the immortals could certainly not exchange complex ideas such as battle strategies. They would never have set up an ambush.
"At least," Gary mused aloud, voicing his colleagues' thoughts, "hurroks could never plan like that as *we* know them. So either we've had a very off-target idea of their intelligence all along - or they've just recently made a breakthrough, and a big one."
"You're sure they *were* hurroks, Master Blackstone?" questioned Zara of the Fourth Rider Group. The Riders, who patrolled the country and fought as needed, had experience with the immortals that harassed Tortall. "Not some other, smarter kind of creature?"
The scrappy man shook his head. "Positive, my lord. Our mages got a good look at them. And no one was riding them at all. We searched all around the lands for people, and the mages scanned for cloaking spells. Nothing. The beasts weren't being directed by humans."
"Maybe they *have* become more intelligent somehow," the king mused. "Maybe some mage fiddled with their minds."
"I doubt it, Your Majesty," Numair remarked. "Such a substantial alteration *might* be possible, in half a century or so, but at this point it will be a long time before mages can even approach making minor *physical* changes in the properties of immortals. Unlike mortal creatures, their bodies and minds are extremely resistant to such change. Also, hurroks are not the most likely creatures to - cooperate with humans, especially human mages tinkering with their being."
King Jonathan winced. "In other words, we're looking at the same old monsters we've always known - who have somehow developed battle strategies without the help of humans."
"But how do we know that?" Alanna broke in. "That they didn't have human help?"
"Humans can't communicate with them, Lioness," Daine pointed out. "Except, well" - she shrugged apologetically - "wildmages who've magic with animals. The *only* way humans could be commanding them is if they were right on their backs, steering them around. And Master Blackstone here says they couldn't find any humans, besides their own people" - Blackstone nodded - "about."
The king pondered this for a moment. "We need to find out more about these hurroks, then," he decided. "Numair - Daine? Could you head down to Ravenpeak and look into it?"
They nodded. "Of course, Majesty."
The king addressed Blackstone. "Does your lord need reinforcements to defend the fief, after his losses?"
The man shook his head. "We should be fine, sire - Ravenpeak always has a good force to start with, and if need be we can ask for help from Fief Riak." He named a neighboring fief just north of Ravenpeak.
"Just as well," the queen added. "I doubt the Riders, at least, could spare many right now - we've got our hands full in the north."
"The Own, too," Jonathan admitted, "what with the war. Just the mages, then." He addressed Daine and Numair. "But - you're sure you won't need anyone else? We're not going to spare effort here; Lord Gregory has done the Crown a good deal of favors and his needs are respected in time of crisis -"
"If we can't hold them off magically," Numair reasoned, "we'll just call in Ravenpeak's forces."
"Very well. But don't be careless. Your task, until further notice, is to investigate the hurroks' new abilities - not to fight them. Meanwhile, the Own and the Riders are to continue their current endeavors unless the situation in Ravenpeak becomes more urgent." Buri and her Riders nodded. They and their forces were frantic as it was in the north and along the coast, battling colonies of spidrens preying on villages as well as the pirates and raiders typical for the time of year. "Daine, Numair, please leave for Ravenpeak as soon as possible. I'm sorry to push you so hard, but -"
"Don't mention it, sire." Daine was not about to sit around a moment longer than necessary when monsters were acquiring strange and deadly new talents. "Leave in the morning?" she asked Numair. He nodded, and she conveyed this to the king.
"Excellent." King Jonathan ended the conference. As its delegates were leaving, he called the mages to his side.
"Really - I'm so sorry to break off your leave," he told them. "I know you must be exhausted from the war - I hate to wake you up in the middle of the night, and send you across the realm to fight monsters. You two have done Tortall great services time and again - and I know how hard you've been working -"
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Numair spoke for both of them. "But it seems that everyone is working hard lately - and this is supposed to be our specialty. We couldn't refuse the assignment, or delay our departure, with things as they are."
The king smiled grimly. "I'm glad you feel that way - to say the least. I'm sure you know, it's going to be dangerous work." His smile turned to one of earnest encouragement. "Take care of each other. Watch your backs - these monsters look tricky. Good luck, and gods all bless."
~~~~~
By Starchild
Author's Note: This is my very first fic. Congrats to me! Looks like it's going to be a long one... and don't fret if it's a while between installments. This stuff's hard work. Go ahead and hit the handy little review button on the bottom left, okay? Because I refuse to publish another WORD until I have some idea what you guys think. So unless you want to be tortured by suspense for the rest of your LIVES, you'd BETTER give me some feedback! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!
This is for all you other D/N shippers out there! *high five* ;)
Thanks: to Jennifer. This project would be a disaster without you! Thank you SO much! *hugs*
Disclaimer: The premise of Tortall, its neighboring countries, and the characters thereof are the creation and property (sort of) of Tamora Pierce, the goddess of feminist fantasy. I am hereby borrowing the abovementioned items with the best of intentions but not a smidgen of permission. Don't sue me. It's not worth it.
Chapter 1
Her eyes slipped open in the gloom of their bedchamber - quickly, as she had learned over the years to respond to a call to duty at any hour of the day. As the Wildmage of Tortall (she had never quite gotten used to what she considered a grand title of legends), her role in the realm's battles against immortals was demanding. Now, her internal clock told her it was several hours past midnight, no proper time to be summoned from her bed. Yet - she adjusted her ears to those of a cat - there was definitely someone knocking at the door, and urgently.
Carefully, she twisted around to peer over her shoulder. Numair was still sleeping soundly. She decided not to disturb him - he was easily as tired as she, these days - and set about going to answer the door. Slowly she eased out of his arms and moved to set her feet on the carpet. As she reached the bedroom door, however, she saw her movement had not gone undetected.
"Daine?"
He was shifting to rest on an elbow, blinking sleepily. She released a brief sigh-like breath. It was indeed rare that her absence would go unnoticed by him - and vice versa. She raised a finger to her lips. "Shh. Go back to sleep. I'll get it." She indicated the front door of their suite, still under siege by the knocker in the hall. Before he could reply, she slipped out the door and shut it gently, hoping the stillness would lull him back to sleep. Grabbing a dressing gown from a nearby chair, she slipped it over her shift and wrapped it around herself, rendering her appearance marginally more presentable to the nighttime visitor. Moving through the main room of their suite, she picked her way around the various cats, dogs, and other wildlife that shared the room. Her friends among the People, or animals, had long sought her company at night, but upon moving in with Numair she had reluctantly banished them from the bedchamber. Now, they slept in the main room instead, still taking comfort in her presence as always.
Approaching the front door, she reached to activate a nearby lamp - like all the lamps in their rooms, it was powered magically, thanks to Numair - and dropped the cat eyes she had used thus far in moving through the darkness. She blinked briefly at the new light, then opened the door, still trying to clear her head of the soft, adhesive drapes of sleep.
Alanna the Lioness, the King's Champion and longtime friend to both Daine and Numair, stood in the dim nocturnal light of the hall's lamps, fully dressed. Daine squinted; the knight was not only attired in her typical work-and-battle-clothes, but armed as well with sword and dagger. This was not unusual: the current war with the northern country of Scanra was keeping Tortallan warriors and mages alike on their toes. It seemed the Tortallan forces were mobilized for a new danger, whatever it was that had now come up. Daine focused tiredly on her friend's face. It seemed that she would again be adding to her sleep-debt bill, already quite steep.
"I'm sorry to wake you up." Alanna spoke quietly so as not to disturb the rest of anyone in earshot. "Jonathan and Thayet called me, and Gary, and Buri" - she named the king's chief advisor and the commander of the Queen's Riders - "and asked me to fetch you. We're meeting in his study. It's important." The Champion looked as weary as Daine, and their friends in the forces against the enemies that were plaguing the kingdom recently, felt. "Otherwise I wouldn't have roused you at this disgusting hour."
Footsteps padded behind Daine; she felt a solid warmth at her back as Numair's arms circled her shoulders. It seemed he hadn't taken her advice after all. She smiled up at him briefly, then returned her attention to Alanna. "Immortals?" she asked, voice thick with sleep. She cleared her throat discreetly as the knight nodded tiredly.
"Where?" Numair questioned. She felt the rumble of his voice in his chest behind her. "What do you know so far?"
"Down at Ravenpeak." Alanna named a fief near the Tyran border, one important to the Crown. "Lord Gregory sent a runner tonight. There's trouble. Says it can't wait." She shook her head grimly, gazing off into the distance for a moment. "Just - come to His Majesty's study as soon as you can, all right? We'll get the story then."
"We'll be there in twenty minutes," Numair promised. Alanna nodded to them and set off in the direction of the conference, pace brisk.
Daine shut the door and then leaned back against it for a moment, trying to clear her senses and mind into full consciousness. She and Numair had been busy in the north for months, fighting the enemy mages and spying - with the help of Daine's animal friends - to get the Tortallan forces as much information as possible on the movements of the Scanrans. Less than a week ago the king had granted them a month's leave, to return home and regain the strength so dearly spent in the war. Now, however, it seemed they were going back to work, leave or no.
"Daine?" Numair kept his hands on her shoulders, looking at her with concern. "Would you rather just stay here while I go to Ravenpeak? I'm sure I could handle it alone, and you still need to get some rest."
"Of course not," she broke in. "I'm not the only one who needs rest. Besides, Alanna said it's immortals. I need to be there to deal with them."
"I've dealt with immortals in my time." The dim lamplight made his dark eyes even deeper.
"You don't even know what they are, down at Ravenpeak. Let's first go to His Majesty's conference, and see what's amiss." She had already made her decision, and he could tell. "Besides -" she smiled, sliding her arms around his neck - "*someone's* got to be there to keep you out of trouble."
He smiled in return and pulled her close. "What would I do without you, magelet," he murmured.
She rested in his arms a moment before pulling away reluctantly. "We'd best get ready."
~~~~~
They walked into the king's study, which often doubled as a conference room for advisors and commanders close to the Crown, fifteen minutes later. Seated at the long table were King Jonathan and Queen Thayet, side by side, as well as the Lioness, Buriram Tourakom of the Queen's Riders, three Rider group leaders under her, and the king's advisor Sir Gareth the Younger of Naxen. It was a typical assembly for planning defenses against the monsters from the Divine Realms that harassed the kingdom - minus Sir Raoul, knight commander of the King's Own, and commanders under him. Lately the Own was engaged in the Scanran war in the north. Despite the absences, Daine couldn't help but swell a little with pride at the dedication and skill assembled, and at being in their number. After eight years of being the Wildmage, she couldn't imagine an occupation other than serving Tortall, even with the carnage and horrors of war, and the danger of her work. On this night, however, at this hour, the assembly looked less than heroic and enthusiastic. Most talked with their neighbors in undertones, or just sat silently to their own thoughts. All looked exhausted, yet grimly gathered their strength to address the task at hand.
Daine and Numair joined the assembly, taking adjacent seats. Automatically she reached for his hand, and they exchanged quick smiles as he squeezed it comfortingly in reply.
The king now cleared his throat and stood. "Thank you all for coming. I apologize profusely for waking you up at this hour -"
"Oh, I'm sure you're very sympathetic, Jon," joked Gary. "Seeing as you're up at this time every night anyway."
This roused a weary chuckle from the gathered members. The king's tireless devotion to his country in time of crisis was famous.
"We have," he continued when the laughter died away, "a - situation with immortals at fief Ravenpeak. A rather urgent one. I've called you all here to address the issue as Ravenpeak is valued by the Crown as a constantly loyal vassal and we will make all efforts to their assistance. Master Gerric Blackstone, Lord Gregory's messenger" - he nodded to a scrawny man in riding clothes sitting next to Sir Gareth - "brings disturbing reports."
The runner addressed the assembly. "For a week or so, there've been hurroks about the fief." He named well-known - and -feared - immortals extremely hostile to humans. Hurroks were a strain of winged horses, infused with a hawk's talons and a predator's forward-facing eyes and fangs. "There were some attacks, injuries but no casualties, and they carried off livestock. There were only ten or so - my lord sent out a company of men to confront them. In the fighting, the beasts backed the forces into a ravine, then up against a cliff - without them hardly realizing it. Then twenty more of the things swooped down on them." His voice dropped; he wouldn't look directly at his audience. "Every man sent out is dead."
Silence lapsed as the implications of what the man had said soaked into the assembly. Hurroks were no more intelligent than animals. Although Daine, as a wildmage, could communicate with them as she could with animals, the immortals could certainly not exchange complex ideas such as battle strategies. They would never have set up an ambush.
"At least," Gary mused aloud, voicing his colleagues' thoughts, "hurroks could never plan like that as *we* know them. So either we've had a very off-target idea of their intelligence all along - or they've just recently made a breakthrough, and a big one."
"You're sure they *were* hurroks, Master Blackstone?" questioned Zara of the Fourth Rider Group. The Riders, who patrolled the country and fought as needed, had experience with the immortals that harassed Tortall. "Not some other, smarter kind of creature?"
The scrappy man shook his head. "Positive, my lord. Our mages got a good look at them. And no one was riding them at all. We searched all around the lands for people, and the mages scanned for cloaking spells. Nothing. The beasts weren't being directed by humans."
"Maybe they *have* become more intelligent somehow," the king mused. "Maybe some mage fiddled with their minds."
"I doubt it, Your Majesty," Numair remarked. "Such a substantial alteration *might* be possible, in half a century or so, but at this point it will be a long time before mages can even approach making minor *physical* changes in the properties of immortals. Unlike mortal creatures, their bodies and minds are extremely resistant to such change. Also, hurroks are not the most likely creatures to - cooperate with humans, especially human mages tinkering with their being."
King Jonathan winced. "In other words, we're looking at the same old monsters we've always known - who have somehow developed battle strategies without the help of humans."
"But how do we know that?" Alanna broke in. "That they didn't have human help?"
"Humans can't communicate with them, Lioness," Daine pointed out. "Except, well" - she shrugged apologetically - "wildmages who've magic with animals. The *only* way humans could be commanding them is if they were right on their backs, steering them around. And Master Blackstone here says they couldn't find any humans, besides their own people" - Blackstone nodded - "about."
The king pondered this for a moment. "We need to find out more about these hurroks, then," he decided. "Numair - Daine? Could you head down to Ravenpeak and look into it?"
They nodded. "Of course, Majesty."
The king addressed Blackstone. "Does your lord need reinforcements to defend the fief, after his losses?"
The man shook his head. "We should be fine, sire - Ravenpeak always has a good force to start with, and if need be we can ask for help from Fief Riak." He named a neighboring fief just north of Ravenpeak.
"Just as well," the queen added. "I doubt the Riders, at least, could spare many right now - we've got our hands full in the north."
"The Own, too," Jonathan admitted, "what with the war. Just the mages, then." He addressed Daine and Numair. "But - you're sure you won't need anyone else? We're not going to spare effort here; Lord Gregory has done the Crown a good deal of favors and his needs are respected in time of crisis -"
"If we can't hold them off magically," Numair reasoned, "we'll just call in Ravenpeak's forces."
"Very well. But don't be careless. Your task, until further notice, is to investigate the hurroks' new abilities - not to fight them. Meanwhile, the Own and the Riders are to continue their current endeavors unless the situation in Ravenpeak becomes more urgent." Buri and her Riders nodded. They and their forces were frantic as it was in the north and along the coast, battling colonies of spidrens preying on villages as well as the pirates and raiders typical for the time of year. "Daine, Numair, please leave for Ravenpeak as soon as possible. I'm sorry to push you so hard, but -"
"Don't mention it, sire." Daine was not about to sit around a moment longer than necessary when monsters were acquiring strange and deadly new talents. "Leave in the morning?" she asked Numair. He nodded, and she conveyed this to the king.
"Excellent." King Jonathan ended the conference. As its delegates were leaving, he called the mages to his side.
"Really - I'm so sorry to break off your leave," he told them. "I know you must be exhausted from the war - I hate to wake you up in the middle of the night, and send you across the realm to fight monsters. You two have done Tortall great services time and again - and I know how hard you've been working -"
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Numair spoke for both of them. "But it seems that everyone is working hard lately - and this is supposed to be our specialty. We couldn't refuse the assignment, or delay our departure, with things as they are."
The king smiled grimly. "I'm glad you feel that way - to say the least. I'm sure you know, it's going to be dangerous work." His smile turned to one of earnest encouragement. "Take care of each other. Watch your backs - these monsters look tricky. Good luck, and gods all bless."
~~~~~
