Page 47 of Gryphon in Light

This has only been here, what? A handful of years? How did those trees get that big that fast? Gates were one thing: totally incomprehensible. This impressed him.

There was really too much to look at, especially at the brisk pace that Firesong was setting. Hallock did see that there were dwellings—or rather, individual rooms in a row—spiraling up the trunks of many of those trees. There also seemed to be smaller dwellings nestled into the undergrowth at the foot of those trees. A harsh, wordless cry caused him to look up, and he spotted a gryphon landing on a platform in the top of the tree nearest him. The gryphon vanished into yet another sort of dwelling.

Jefti’s head kept turning like it was on a swivel, and his mouth was wide open. Ammari and Genni’s eyes were as wide as Jefti’s mouth. Well, Hallock reckoned he didn’t look any too different from them. This was—literally, evidently—a magical place!

“We don’t have much of anything you don’t already have,” Firesong said, after he glanced back at them. “It just looks different on the outside. The things we do with magic, you all can mostly do with Mind-magic and good old hard work.”

“Gates,” Hallock pointed out. “And these giant trees.”

Firesong laughed, and his shoulder-firebird bent its head and made a snickering sound.

“Them birds!” Jefti exclaimed, in tones that suggested he thought Firesong was telling less than the truth.

“Messengers. You have human messengers, we have birds. Our houses can’t withstand the weather as yours can. And they are somewhat inconvenient if you have difficulty climbing stairs. Not to mention the fact that everything you want either has to be carried up or hauled up the side by ropes. Nothing about an ekele is terribly convenient. Most of us feel that the effort is worth it, but not everyone does, and they live on the ground. This is the ekele I share with Silverfox.”

He stopped at a tree; there was a short, mossy path leading to a large structure built entirely around the trunk, but bulging far out to the right side. It seemed that the Hawkbrothers did not trouble themselves too much with doors; the doorway framed a curtain made of silvery-green beads rather than an actual solid door.

Before they could get close to the door, however, a quartet of hertasi swarmed the horses, stripping every bit of baggage off them before Hallock could say or do anything. Three of them vanished into that curtain laden with luggage; the fourth snatched the reins from Hallock and Genni’s hands and led the horses off—somewhere. Hallock was left standing there with empty hands and a dropped jaw. He’d seen Ayshen, of course, and knew how fast the hertasi could move, but he didn’t know they swarmed you in a pack!

Firesong held the beads aside so they could follow the hertasi. At this point, Jefti had been rendered utterly speechless again, Genni and Ammari didn’t quite know where to look next, and Hallock had to admit he was pretty well dazzled, too.

The room they entered was like nothing he had ever seen before. Curved walls, a wooden floor sanded smooth, and the only furniture in it was a series of chests and tables around the walls. The walls seemed to be woven reed or willow—well, if you lived in a place where the weather was kept under control, there really was no need to hold in heat or keep it out—and were decorated with several masks, each more elaborate than the last, and other pieces of artwork, none of which were paintings. At the heart of it, of course, was the giant living tree trunk. The bulge he had seen from outside proved to be this single large room. Evidently they were supposed to sit on the oversized cushions piled everywhere.

Standing in the middle was another Tayledras, this one in a wrapped tunic and trews woven in shades of brown, and bearing ridiculously long black hair with gray and white streaks the whole length. There was no sign of this man’s bondbird, but perhaps it was elsewhere in the ekele. “Welcome,” the man said, his voice warm and practiced. “Firesong has told me about you, Hallock. I’m pleased you are honoring Kel’s request and coming along. And I am sure Genni, the Healer’s Hand, will be equally welcome.” He paused a moment. “Whether or not Jefti comes will depend on what Nightwind says. He is of an age that causes concern, but our cultures are different.” Come to think of it, Hallock hadn’t heard or seen anything like children since they’d arrived, nor anything resembling toys. “As for Ammari—” He paused again. “What can you do, exactly?”

“Silverfox is the organizational head of this ever-expanding acrobat show,” Firesong put in. “His work mostly seems to consist of telling me no.” Hallock did notice that there was no acrimony and just a touch of ruefulness in Firesong’s voice.

“I don’t rightly know what I could do to be useful on your quest,” Ammari admitted. “But I can garden and I know how to prepare herbs for every sort of purpose, so maybe I can earn my keep here?”

Silverfox started to say something, then stopped before he’d gotten a single sound out. He licked his lips thoughtfully, and started again. “You know, it just occurred to me. You can tell us a great deal about ordinary Valdemarans. That information will be worth more than silver. If we are going to interact with ordinary folk on a regular basis, we need to know what to expect.” Then he chuckled. “And yes, another person preparing herbs and tending the garden will always be welcome.”

Ammari lost some of that tenseness she’d had, as Silverfox smiled at her kindly. There was genuine warmth in that smile; Hallock decided that he liked the man.

But now Hallock wondered, looking at Silverfox, if all the Hawkbrothers looked as if they were from the same enormous family. Firesong was behind his mask, so there was no telling what he looked like, but the—Wardens, were they?—and Silverfox all had generally the same aquiline features. The ones who weren’t white-haired were dark streaked with white, and they all had the same keen look to their eyes, like the eyes of their birds—the raptors anyway. They were all lean, whipcord rather than massively muscled.

Well, probably they are so closely related that they all look similar. I very much doubt they’ve been out raiding for brides and husbands from elsewhere all these centuries, or we would have heard about it! With what I’ve heard told about the Pelagirs, there can’t be very many of them.

“We should get you settled before I start assigning you jobs!” the Hawkbrother continued. “Do any of you have a problem with heights?”

Jefti and Ammari both shrugged. Jefti spoke up first. “Dunno. Highest I ever been was on that Change-Circle hill.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out now.” He beckoned and brought them around the tree trunk to a staircase that wound gently upward, with the rooms stacked one above the next. Silverfox did not stop at the first couple, tossing off that one was his office and the next was something Hallock didn’t quite catch. But the third, which had partitions that screened the staircase from the room itself, he announced was the guest sleeping rooms.

Hallock had been bracing himself for this. He had literally no idea what kind of sleeping arrangements were common for Hawkbrothers. Were they all expected to sleep together in a pile of more cushions on the floor? Would there be cots in a row, like a barracks? Would they be expected to sleep in hammocks?

At least one fear was relieved when he saw that there were three smallish rooms sharing a close-stool. Each of the rooms had two comfortable-looking low beds, each able to hold two. So, no hammocks, and no having to go down sets of stairs in the middle of the night to take care of business.

“If you’d prefer hammocks—” Silverfox began.

“No,” they all said at once.

Silverfox laughed. “They are an acquired taste,” he admitted. “The hertasi decided who was to go in which room, but if you don’t like the room the hertasi took your luggage to, you can sort things out as you prefer.”

“Let’s do that now,” Firesong interjected. “I need to give them languages, and—”

“—and they will definitely want to lie down afterward, yes,” Silverfox agreed.

Genni had already eased over to the rightmost room. “Our things are here,” she called out. “It seems fine to me.”