Page 46 of Gryphon in Light

Jefti blinked, and looked very shy, as if he had not been expecting to be addressed by such a glorious personage. “Well . . . I seed what Whitebird done, and I wished I coulda done that for Kelvren myself. But don’t you got to be a Healer?”

“Well, as with most of life, it helps to be a Healer,” Firesong replied. “But it’s not strictly necessary, as long as you know your gryphons down to the last feather-vane. I’m sure Nightwind would be very happy for an extra set of hands, if you feel you can stand having a lot of learning stuffed into your head. And if it doesn’t work out, you’ll still have some useful knowledge. No learning is ever wasted.”

Jefti raised his chin. “Ain’t never backed down from a hard job yet,” he declared. “Ain’t about to start now.”

Firesong chuckled slightly and clapped Jefti on the shoulder. “Nightwind is going to like you. Genni Stavern, I assume you plan to go on this quest as well? We can certainly use you. A Healer’s Hand is welcome anywhere.”

“Good,” Genni said simply, and left it at that.

“I just want to be useful,” Ammari finally mustered, shyly, as Firesong turned his mask toward her. “But if there’s nothing I can do . . .”

“We’ll see,” Firesong replied, and in one motion, he sat sideways on the creature’s blankets as it rose under him and stood. “But in the meantime, let’s get along to see Kel. I think you’ll be . . . surprised.”

“Surprised” was not quite the right word to use when they walked their horses up the road to find a busy group measuring, building, rolling large swaths of shadecloth, and strange tools casting lines of light, with humans and hertasi laboring side-by-side, and many of the gazelle-like creatures being fitted to harness. The firebird darted to, backwinged, and perched atop a round tent on a platform, as if it was meant to be a crest for a pavilion. “Kel!” Firesong called. “Visitors!”

A glowing—glowing!—beak shoved the door-flap aside, and the glowing head emerged, swiveling toward them. This was no “glow” like light reflected from a bright spot onto a thing; no, Kelvren was the source of the light that gleamed from him, from the inside out, with the exception of his eyes. Hallock had thought that gryphons in general were imposing enough on their own, but to see one alight as if illuminated by the gods was enough to send an atavistic shiver up his spine. If he’s changed that much outwardly . . . Despite having seen Kel’s transmutation, and hearing that the glow had persisted at least all the way back to k’Valdemar Vale, it still came as a shock to see him lit up like a little sun.

But the next moment proved that, inwardly, Kel hadn’t changed at all. “Hallock!” he trumpeted, leaping down to the ground. “And Jefti!” Then he paused and added, “And Ammarrri! And you mussst be Genni!”

Jefti ran, top speed, to collide with his gryphon and embrace the little sun. A taloned hand the size of his entire back held him in return, snug against the gryphon’s warmth.

“I came to make sure you were doing better,” Jefti declared with his hands on Kelvren’s beak.

“Oh, Jefti. I am now,” Kelvren replied.

“You asked, I came,” Hallock said truthfully after a respectful moment. “They gave me a fancy title that means you’re important enough to get an official along, and dangerous enough they want it to be a military one.” He shrugged. “My captain filled me in on the situation.”

Kel snorted at that. “Sssituation! That’sss a nicsse way to put it. My rrreputation rrredussced to ‘dangerrrousss monsssterrr’ and—”

As he spoke, his glow increased; he cut himself off with an effort and shook his head so that his ear-tufts rattled. “Neverrr mind.” And the glow ebbed.

Huh. I need to find out more about this.

“Never mind, exactly, Kel,” Hallock felt moved to tell him. “What we’re going to do is turn all this around. We’ll show everyone that you’re a good leader and a great explorer. When we’re done, they’ll realize that what you did to stop that revolt saved a lot of lives, and it was about the only way the fighting could have been stopped. Mercenaries hired by our supposed leaders to fight our own people! It’s a disgrace!”

Firesong’s nod, from his place atop the dyheli, told him that Firesong approved of what Hallock had just said.

“And I wanna see iffen I can be a whatcha-call, trondi’irn, like that Whitebird,” Jefti said. “Treyvan said I might could do that.”

Kel cocked his head to one side . . . and sighed, though his next words gave no clue as to why he was sighing. “Then you ssshould be ssspeaking to Nightwind, I think. If ssshe wantsss an apprrentissce, then you may ssstudy. But if not, therrre are otherrr trondi’irn herrre that will likely take you.”

“I’ll take them all to our ekele and get them settled,” Firesong said. “We have the room, after all. Once I give them the Tayledras and Kaled’a’in tongues, we can meet with Ayshen and Silverfox and discuss all of this further.”

Kel sighed again. “And I—will rrresssume my ssstudiesss. Even though they arrre drrry asss old bonesss.”

He turned tail and nosed his way back into his tent, and Firesong led the little group past wagons and darting groups of hertasi, grazing dyheli, and a dozen assorted raptors further up the trail until it ended in a . . . shimmer in the air. It was almost like heat-haze. “This is the Veil that keeps the Vale at an even temperature year-round,” Firesong explained. “It is also our first line of magical defenses, and it serves to keep things we don’t want out.”

“How?” Ammari blurted, then blushed.

“Magic,” Firesong said in a teasing voice. “Oh, it’s terribly complicated, and requires the constant attention of mages, but we’ve been doing this since long before your nation was founded.”

That was probably about the most diplomatic way Firesong could have put it, and Ammari didn’t look as if she’d felt slighted by the reply.

“Don’t worry, you probably won’t even notice passing through it,” Firesong continued, and walked right into the shimmer. With a glance at Genni and a shrug, Hallock led his horse and the packhorse across the near-invisible border, and didn’t feel anything worse than a slight tingle.

Inside, it was apparent that they weren’t exactly in Valdemar anymore.

For one thing, the trees were enormous. And there were living spaces built into them, spiraling up their trunks and lodged in their branches. Lush underbrush flourished on either side of the path, there were at least a dozen different flowers in bloom, and colorful birds ranging from tiny to blackbird-sized flitted or perched everywhere.