No excuse. Sorry about the wait.
Thanks to Niana Kuonji, Karine Dragon'sheart, Sunfairy, ShadowCar17, Jo, storylistener, and Amber Stag. You guys rock my socks.
Notes: I know that you usually need a structure (usually on sanctified ground) to open a Gate, but around the End of White Gryphon, Shalaman thinks that the mages must have opened a Portal or whatever their version of a gate is to drop Amberdrake on to the middle of the Eclipse Ceremony's stage. There was no previously existing sanctified structure there except for open air.
Shadows in your eyes
Your smile is colored black
You don't need someone who never saw your empty life
I never made you smile
I promise deep inside
I'm gonna be the one who's gonna keep you satisfied
I'll make it up to
I promise to
I really wanna tell you I'm sorry
And I can't let you go
Please forgive me
Sweetbox's Sorry
Chapter 31: Smile Colored Black
"I'm not going to give up the blood-feud. Even if he wasn't responsible for Nadar--even if he didn't order it, all of the other atrocities he's committed, he needs to go. For Castogol, at least, and for everyone else," Rowen finished, swallowing.
"I know," Julian said quietly, shifting on the damp stone.
"Oh, sorry," Rowen said, and used a tiny bit of Firestarting to dry the stone and the grass around them.
The Bard had been keeping a firm hold on Rowen's hand ever since he'd pulled him from the smithy, and now he tightened his grip. "But I won't let you face it alone," he said. "I don't know--why you needed the Warrior's Oath--but this won't be--I'm not going to let this end what we have. I won't let it sever the lifebond. And I won't lose you."
Rowen pulled Julian close to him, nestling the Bard against his chest and on his forelegs instead of on the hard stone of the path. "I know," he said. "And I won't lose you. But I had to take the Oath to--to--"
"I know why you needed to take it," Julian said. "But it's over. And now you need to finish what you've started. The Empire. They need to be stopped, and right now you're the best chance we've got."
"I'm sorry," Rowen said, and Julian twisted in his arms.
"Don't be," the Bard said. "You've made your choice, and now the only choice we have is to live with it." He smiled. "And the only choice I have is to support you."
Slim fingers reached up to trail along Rowen's jaw, leaving gooseflesh in their wake, and Julian seemed like he was just about to follow them with his lips when he froze.
Rowen frowned.
"There's something--coming," Julian said faintly.
Rowen rose, leaving Julian on the stone pathway next to the ekele, and rounded the corner of the structure, wondering if someone was coming from the Palace.
A gaggle of mages was streaming towards Companion's Field from the Herald's Wing of the Palace, and more mages were converging from all directions, running frantically fast. When they started jumping the fence surrounding the Field instead of going through the gates, Rowen knew something was wrong.
He trotted to meet them, passing through a group of startled Companion foals who'd been playing among the rain-wet grass, and was midway between the ekele and the fence when there was an enormous pulling feeling around the entire Field.
Rowen stopped dead, resisting the urge to kick out at the whatever-it-was, and instead felt the air around him heat. The moisture on the grass under and around him vanished into steam, then suddenly there was a crack like lightning that nearly deafened him.
A Gate opened up in the middle of Companion's Field not five feet from the Changechild, and he frantically backpedaled, hooves slipping in the mud before he dug in and stopped. He pulled his twin swords and stared at the Gate tensely, ready to battle whatever came out.
Companions were streaming from all over the Field to encircle Rowen and the Gate, and he soon found himself surrounded by a solid wall of white speckled with blue.
A tall, thin, black-skinned man clad in bright clothing walked out of the Gate, looking confused. He spotted Rowen and began gabbling something in a guttural language, backing away quickly.
Wondering at the man's ebony skin, Rowen stepped back too so he could keep both man and Gate in his field of vision. Another slim black man stepped out of the Gate, then another two, and then a much paler person stepped out.
One glimpse of silver hair, black clothing, and a silver stylized pin in the shape of a gryphon later, and Rowen knew he was looking at a Silver Gryphon and what were presumably Haighlei comrades. Three seconds after the men had stepped out of the way, a bear of a Herald and a slim young woman fell out, narrowly missing knocking the first, still-babbling man over. Then a Companion pushed through the Gate, and the air was filled with whinnying and scuffling hooves.
The Gate closed, and the Haighlei and the Silver Gryphon formed together in a shallow V, with the second Haighlei man at the front, the first Haighlei and the Kaled'a'in just behind him, and the last two Haighlei just behind them. The Herald and the woman that had come out together stayed off to the side with the Companion, and Rowen noted distractedly that the woman had cat eyes like An'desha.
Rowen kept his weapons at the ready even as the mages pressed through the Companions to come up at his back. "Stand down, Rowen," Elspeth said, pushing up next to him. "We can take it from here."
Rowen relaxed slightly and sheathed his swords in one fluid motion. "Would you like me to--" he jerked his head at the Herald, Companion, and woman with the strange eyes.
Elspeth looked regretful, but she smiled in welcome at the trio, and then nodded at Rowen.
"Thanks," she said.
The Changechild sidled off towards the Herald and his companions, and the woman smiled at him. "Welcome back," Rowen said to them, making sure to include the Companion in the greeting. "My name is Rowen shena Tale'sedrin. Can I help you with anything here, or would you like to go to the Palace?"
The Herald smiled too. "I'm Herald Skif," he said in a slightly accented voice. "This is Nyara, my wife, and my Companion Gwena. You're a--"
"Changechild," Rowen said, and the woman's smile got bigger.
"You too?" she said softly, reaching out to touch the barrier between fur and flesh at his waist.
"You're a--" Rowen said, unsure of how to continue, since she looked mostly human except for the eyes.
"I am Nyara," she said. "I was with Karal and the others at Urtho's Tower during the Second Cataclysm. An'desha and I are...more related than most would think."
"But you don't look like a Changechild," Rowen said as the Companion Gwena sauntered off to join a group of Companions heading for the Stables.
She blinked her large, green, slitted eyes at him.
"I was," she said.
Was.
His heart leapt.
§
The Haighlei were now housed in the Ambassadors Wing of the Palace three halls down from the Shin'a'in Envoys.
Skif sat back with a sigh, leaning back into the extensive amount of feather pillows he'd managed to trade for with tales of White Gryphon and the Haighlei. The Trainees and the other Heralds were almost obsessively interested in the southern exotic countries and had been happy to trade feather pillows for the stories Skif had had to share.
They'd come back after deciding that the Haighlei effort to contribute to and join the Alliance would be better off with them, and that Skif had been away from Valdemar long enough. For Cymry it had been even worse; the lack of other Companions meant she was very lonely, and with only Skif and the kyree and dyheli to talk to, she'd gotten very bored. And with the lack of male Companions... well, her temper hadn't improved any while they'd been gone, and as far as Skif knew she was getting rather intimate with Rolan in some obscure corner of the Field.
After making sure that she was well-settled and checking on the Haighlei, he and Nyara had wandered off to the Common Room to get some food in them before unpacking.
Now he was relaxed and content and installed in his room in the Herald's Wing--well, his and Nyara's. As though she knew he was thinking about her, Nyara stepped into the room, fresh out of the bathing room down the hall.
"Heyla," she said, grinning.
"Heyla."
She sat on the bed next to him, cuddling into his side. He smiled and put an arm around her, holding her close. She was still warm from the shower and smelled like sage and soap. He thought he could just drift off to sleep when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," he called, wondering who it was.
The door swung open to reveal a grinning Elspeth and a gently smiling Talia.
Exuberant as always, Elspeth bounded into the room and onto the bed, hugging Skif and Nyara to her chest fiercely while Talia paced into the room a bit more sedately.
Skif sat up through the tangle of Elspeth and Nyara's arms, reaching out to touch Talia's hair tenderly. There were more gray strands among the chestnut now than there had been when he'd left, and he stroked the streaks at her temple, wondering when his yearmate had gotten so old.
"Not so old," Talia said with a smile.
He smiled back, and what tension there had been in the room melted in the face of old friends reunited.
Suddenly the room was full of laughter and smiles, and when Alberich knocked on the doorjamb, the cries of welcome and laughter were that much brighter.
§
Ayize patted down the smooth silk of his Court robes, making sure that it was straight and firm on the wooden hangar that he'd left it hanging on in the closet before closing the door that hid his clothes.
The robes he wore now were elaborate and rich enough to put Dumisai himself to shame, fine as they were.
When Ayize walked out of his assigned suite in what he'd been told was the Ambassador's Wing of the Palace, he didn't simply step out of the room. He stepped into a whole new persona, one who was cool enough and complacent enough to withstand a village burning around him, and the young man who'd been waiting outside his door even looked startled as he realized that Ayize had come out. The gray-clad young man performed a perfect Valdemaran bow and requested that the Envoy follow him to be formally presented to Queen Selenay.
Wondering why they would assign a teenager to such an important visitor, Ayize followed the young man through several corridors and hallways until they reached what looked to be a large receiving-room filled with people. The child led him through the room and carefully around select groups of richly-dressed courtiers who whispered as they passed, to the other end of the room where two small thrones waited.
On one sat a golden-haired older woman with much silver in her hair, who wore a simple circlet of gold around her brow. A dark brunette man sat on the other. He too wore a circlet, and both were clad fully in white.
Queen Selenay and her consort, he assumed.
Ayize watched them carefully as he was presented. "Envoy Ayize Mojembe from the Haighlei Empire," the majordomo announced, bowing.
Ayize bowed deeply until his forehead head nearly touched the floor. When he came back up, the Queen was studying him with eyes as blue as those of the Companions in the field that the Portal had led them to.
"Greetings, Envoy Ayize, and welcome to Valdemar." Her speech was clear and pronounced, and when she said her next words, they rang as clear as a bell, regardless of her age. "I hope you enjoy your stay, however long it may be, and please feel free to ask me or any Herald for anything you may need." Her Consort nodded, smiling pleasantly at the Haighlei.
Ayize bowed again and backed away. He melted into the crowd, followed by what he supposed was now his page, the boy in gray.
He would have to request a private audience with the Monarch later and hint that the man who currently sat on the Lion Throne wanted to know if he could help with the war against the Empire.
Whatever it took.