Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's from Tamora Pierce.
Bitterosemary: You liked all my favorite parts. Thanks
Rauros Falls: Thanks!
Narms Briton 44: Thanks!
Alanna Cooper: Thanks for pointing out the errors. I fixed them this morning. This really helps me a lot. I'm glad you like the story.
Nativewildmage: Thanks!
Purple Eyed Cat: I'm glad you liked it. I didn't know who the birth of the gold-streak would be taken.
Goldeneyedwildmage: The chess game is very boring and I'm still not sure how to make it better. It is very important because it explains why Uusoae went after Daine after she killed Ozorne. It also explains why Numair thought he'd never see her again and why he exclaimed so loudly when he realized she was the one who had come for him while he drained from his battle with Hedensra. Luckily, Numair grasps concepts faster, so the chess game doesn't have to be as long for him as it was for her.
Sarramaks: Thanks so much. That was something I was striving for. I wanted it to be clearer because when I first read the book, I had to read that part repeatedly to understand. Likewise, the chessgame lost me repeatedly. And usually, I pick up that kind of thing fairly quickly.
WhyshouldItellyou: I just realized I never answered your question about my name. Sonnet (a type of poem that I'm quite fond of) is a name I used before online when I ran a poetry forum on a small Bulletin Board. Lacewing is both a dragon name and a granny shawl and I thought it was clever. My imagination is sometimes a bit outlandish.
Chapter 19 – Double Agents
In his dream, Numair and Salam returned to the circle of gods. The circle had grown as the various great gods had obviously needed to step back. Uusoae had grown enormously. She now towered over the other great gods. She was currently in the shape of a brontosaurus, though her tail appeared to be a serpent with its own will, attached to, but acting separately from, the dinosaur. Multicolored leaves sprouted from the heads of the great gods and the dinosaur snapped at them. Automatically, Numair threw black fire at the dinosaur, though it had no effect whatsoever and the great gods never noticed.
"You always want to help, don't you?" Salam said.
Irritated that his real father never saw this, he snapped, "Yes, father, I never set out to embarrass you or ruin your good name. I only wanted you to be proud of me or even except me a little."
Salam turned smoothly into his own father and Numair's grandfather. This was the man he had been named for, and who had died when he was just eight years old. The elderly man also had a gray beard and the hereditary long nose. But he was not as tall as Salam and had to tilt his head back to look at Numair properly. "He wanted you to be a true namesake for me. Neither of us could see that you might actually be greater than the sum of us."
Numair blushed. "I am not," he answered automatically. The term "black-robe" mage had proven to Numair to be misleading. He had actually learned a lot of everday spells well after his university days, when he discovered that fantastic fireworks did not make an effective fighter. Many of the spells he used daily now had been taught him by King Jonathan. "I am neither greater nor less. I am only me and I am different from you."
The old man chuckled. "However, I would not have attempted to protect the great gods. Have you forgotten their power is greater than yours?"
Numair chuckled too. "You see how much good my actions did." He motioned as if displaying a fine piece of artwork.
"You must fight the right fight," the elder Arram said.
"And what fight is that?" Numair asked.
"There will come a time when you must fight a foe that only you can beat."
"Ozorne?" Numair guessed.
"No. This is the only other man Ozorne still fears."
"How am I supposed to fight a man when I'm trapped in another realm?" he asked. It was strange that he was completely aware of where he was and that he was dreaming. "And while we're at it, why are the guides that appear in these dreams, all family members who recommended I be banished to some far away country where I could do no damage?"
The elder Arram stood there for a moment that seemed to last for days. "To understand what you have to lose, you must see what you have gained," he said eventually. It was a cryptic answer, but one that Numair understood, nonetheless.
"I know what I have to lose. I have dear friends and a family I hardly know. And you do not have to convince me to help. It has been automatic since I was a small child. Did my father even know that I saved 25 people in my first eight months at the university? If you are who you appear to be, you know that was not my first rescue. I save four children from burning to death when I was six. I have an ingrained hero complex, though where it comes from, I could not say." The elder Arram looked shocked at his candor. Numair stared the old man down (something he would never have done while the man was alive). I doubt if you are my grandfather. His response to my efforts to rescue others was to try to find a new home for me. If you come back tomorrow, just tell me where you need me. I will help, and you needn't masquerade again."
Arram looked surprised and a little pleased. When he turned to walk away, he melted into a man in a robe with wild black hair. Numair didn't know for certain, but he thought it might be Gainel.
Just before he awoke he heard a herald giving a report to Jon. The seventh rider group had lost three riders when they tried to take a secret exit out of Legann. Daine's friend, Evin Larse, was the leader of that group, and there were at least two other good friends among them. He would have to find a moment to tell her, but it would be painful.
He had awakened before the sun was up again. He looked to where Daine had been sleeping, but she was not there. Clearly she had gone to the pond to clean up. He wanted to do the same and would have to wait until she finished. He didn't bother putting a shirt on. He had slept in breeches because the air was getting warmer. He took a moment to pull out Weiryn's map to see how far they were from the sea of sand. It was still quite a distance. They had yet to reach Mauler's swamp or the maze. They needed to make some real progress and since he had to wait to bathe, he could at least speed things up by packing and getting breakfast going.
He got water from the canteen and got a fire started. The badger and Broad Foot were still standing at the end of the camp with their heads together, speaking mind to mind. This was the pose he had seen them in before he went to sleep and he wondered if they had conferred all night that way.
He could hear the darkings keening in Daine's pack. But when he tried to open it, they wouldn't let him. They wanted to be alone. He thought he heard Ozorne's voice and it set his nerves on edge.
Numair began to think again of the sheer number of darkings that Ozorne had created. And then his mind put it together. Spies had known exactly where to find the rider group. Spies had seemed to know every plan they had used to fight since spring. And despite their best efforts, a spy had never been located.
He waited until he heard Daine start to come up from the pond and he went to the rise near their camp and called to her. "The darkings were spying on more than us."
She didn't respond. So he stepped a little closer and ran a hand through his loose and unruly hair. "Did you hear me? It's how our enemies seemed to know every move!"
Daine rubbed her face with her hands. The sun was just beginning to creep over the horizon, leaving the sky touched with pink. In the strange, rose-colored light, her hair seemed to glow and gave her a haloed effect. He looked down so that he wouldn't stare. "I didn't hear," she said. She still sounded sleepy.
"It's the darkings. They're the answer."
Daine looked up at him and she looked irritated. He couldn't imagine what he had done, but he stepped back and poked the fire, while Daine pulled the darkings from her pack and cuddled each, cooing to them. He wished at that moment that he could be a darking. He was definitely losing his mind.
The badger and Broad Foot broke their conference. The duckmole headed for the pool and the badger waddled toward Daine and asked, "Did you dream?"
Daine glared. "I dreamed, alright. Amazingly clear dreams, like all the ones I've been having here. Amazing and long, since I don't remember sleeping much." Numair realized that she was just cranky because she was tired. So he thought he'd try again.
He walked closer and scooped up the darkings. "It's these little fellows," he said. "Or ladies." He scrutinized them for a moment. "It's impossible to tell if you have a sex," he told them.
Broad Foot returned from the pool with a small fish in his bill. "What about the darkings?" he asked.
"They don't just spy on us," Numair responded. "I thought Ozorne had created a number far in excess of his needs, if they were solely to keep an eye on Daine or me. Your kinfolk are with our leaders, aren't they? The king, the queen –"
"In the north," Daine continued the thought. "I heard in a dream that the Scanrans got away clean. Somehow they knew the Yamani fleet was coming."
Numair looked at her and added softly, "As I woke, I heard that yesterday the seventh riders tried to use a secret exit from Legann. The enemy was waiting. Three of the riders are dead." Daine looked at him, her jaw clenched, clearly asking what he knew she would. "I don't know who they were," he soothed, smoothing a wet curl off her forehead. "No one mentioned names."
She nodded solemnly. It was a moment before she spoke again. "The darking spies tell Ozorne. And other darkings with his commanders pass it on," she whispered. "That --dung fouled, mold-eating –" She broke off and turned toward the badger. "You could put an end to it!"
"The Great Gods don't like the People's Gods to intervene in human affairs," the badger replied. "We are to keep to the affairs of our own children."
"You've always said I mean as much to you as your own kits." She knelt beside him. "Badger, please! I can't help them at home whilst I'm here -- but you can! Please!"
The badger fluffed out his fur, snorted and stamped. Numair wanted to help her convince him, but knew this was not the time to interfere.
"What good is knowing that your friends have eavesdroppers?" asked Broad Foot. "The darkings are very good at hiding."
Numair knew he had to speak up. Cautiously he said, "There are general spells to make an area secure. I would hope that the darkings aren't immune to their effects. Of course, chances are that our friends are using such spells now, to hamper the enemy's spy-mages."
Colors rippled over Gold-streak's skin. The other two blots flowed into it to form a single, quivering mass. They seemed to be conferring.
Daine motioned to Numair and he saw an image in the steam from the kettle. Yellow fog was drifting through the air over Kit's and Tkaa's heads. The wyverns were again attacking. He clenched a fist reflexively, before a log snapped, throwing sparks and dissolving the image. He turned to Daine and saw that she had pulled the silver claw necklace from around her neck and held it out to the badger. "I'm asking you now, by this symbol of the bond that's between us: Please help my friends."
The badger whuffled, wet nose quivering. He was clearly not happy about her request.
"If it helps, I will take them as far as I can," the duckmole told his fellow god. Numair smiled to himself and then realized that the darkings were surging up and down beside Daine, like eager children trying to get their mother's attention. "What is it Gold-streak?" he asked.
Gold-streak stretched until he stood taller than Leaf and Jelly. A mouth formed in the knob that served as its head. Daine bent toward the blots. And then straightened, shocked.
"What's the matter?" Numair asked, touching her shoulder. Then he chastised himself. Like the day before, he was exceeding his allowance of touches.
Daine looked up into his eyes. "It's Gold-streak, it –it talked."
"But they don't talk, do they?" he asked. "My impression was that they only communicate what is said to them, or near them." He squatted to examine the darkings on the ground.
Gold-streak stretched a bit more and said in a high squeaky voice, "Now talk. I go. Talk to darkings. Teach them—" It had been loud enough for everyone to hear. Gold-streak returned to its huddle with Leaf and Jelly. They vibrated together until Gold-streak's head rose out of the mass. "Freedom," it said. "Choosing."
"Do you know where your brethren are – who they spy on?" asked the badger.
All three blots nodded.
"And I can transport a darking from place to place, here or in the mortal realms," the badger commented. He sighed and pointed out, "It will take us a while, even going from spy to spy by magical means. Transporting all over the mortal realms. I will need to rest. Numair Salmalin, look after my kit." Numair nodded immediately. The badger turned to Daine and ordered, "Put that back on your neck."
Daine replaced her necklace while Gold-streak ended a last conference with Leaf and Jelly. Then the darking rolled up the badger's leg to his back. The god looked at it. "Ready?" he asked. Gold-streak nodded and they disappeared in a flash of silver light.
Numair smiled to Daine and whispered, "This will turn the tide, Magelet." He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed lightly. She smiled up at him, a fierce look of determination in her eyes. "Let's get back to our Kit," he said pulling himself away from her.