Aubri’s eyes widened; his head came up and his beak continued to move, but all he could manage to say was, “Well!” over and over. Since he sounded exactly like a highly-offended old matron, he only managed to cause the entire gathering to break up into laughter. And if the laughter was somewhat nervous, well, there were four nervous parents there who drastically needed the release of laughter.
They laughed long enough to bring tears to the eyes of the humans and make Aubri’s nares flush bright red. Before Aubri managed to have an apoplectic fit, though, Winterhart confessed that she had made it all up. “Not that you didn’t deserve the nickname, after all the times you came back singed,” she added. “But no one ever suggested pinning it on you.”
Aubri growled, his hackles still up. “They wouldn’t have dared,” was all he said, and Judeth led him off to ease his ruffled feelings and ruffled feathers.
“I don’t think he liked being on the receiving end of the teasing,” Amberdrake remarked mildly.
“Then perhaps he will stop treating Skandranon to so much of it after this,” Zhaneel responded, her voice quite tart. “A little is amusing, but he makes a habit of sharpening his tongue on Skandranon, and I am weary of hearing it! Skandranon does not deserve it; and if Aubri continues in this way, there may be trouble with younger gryphons believing in his so-called teasing. They will think that anything Skan says he has done is only wind and empty boast!”
Skan turned to her in surprise; she didn’t often spring to his defense this way. “Aubri doesn’t mean anything by it,” he said on his old friend’s behalf. “He’s getting old and cranky, and he just likes to tease. And I don’t think I’m going to lose any respect from the youngsters just because he tries to raise my ire now and again.”
Zhaneel sniffed and twitched her tail with annoyance. “That might be, and I will not be rude by chiding him in public, but I have had enough of it, and he can expect to get as good as he has given from now on.”
“I agree,” Winterhart put in firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Skan deserves a great deal of respect, after all. Maybe not as much as you’d like, you vain creature, but more than Aubri gives you.”
Skan cast a look at Amberdrake, who only shrugged. “Don’t get me involved in this,” he said. “I don’t think Aubri means anything of what he says, and I don’t think anyone else takes him seriously either—but I think I’m outnumbered here.”
Winterhart made a little face, and put her arm over Zhaneel’s gray-feathered shoulders. “Come along, my dear,” she said to the female gryphon. “I think we should discuss this at length, just the two of us, since the men don’t seem to take this situation with the gravity we think it merits.”
“I concur,” Zhaneel said agreeably, and the two of them sauntered off toward the cliff rim and several pleasant lookouts that had been constructed there.
Skandranon turned a face full of astonishment on Amberdrake—who was gazing after the two females with equal puzzlement.
“What prompted all that?” he asked, trying very hard to get his thoughts back on track. Amberdrake shook his head.
“I haven’t any more idea than you do,” he confessed. “Maybe with their chicks gone from the nest, they both feel they have to defend something. I might be considered something of an authority on human emotions, but I have to admit to you that sometimes my lady Winterhart baffles me.” He nodded with his chin toward the head of the trail. “Care to walk down with me so we can both worry about the youngsters together?”
Skan let out a deep breath; so Drake was just as troubled about Tad and Blade as he was! “Yes, I would,” he admitted mournfully. “Zhaneel made me promise not to go with them, not to follow them, and not to talk about them with her unless she brings the subject up. I wish I had her confidence that everything is going to be all right, but I keep thinking of all the things that can go wrong.”
Amberdrake followed his mate’s example by draping an arm over Skan’s shoulders. It felt very good there; the support of an old and trusted friend, even if the friend was just as much in need of support himself. Tradition spoke of an elegant half-arch being only a fallen pile of stones without its counterpart to make it whole.
“So much can go wrong, even in the most peaceful of times. I fear the worst, too,” Amberdrake told him. “But as Blade very rightfully reminded me, their job is not to confront danger directly. They’re only scouts, of a sort. If something dangerous appears, they are supposed to send a warning by way of the teleson, then keep themselves intact so that they can get home and brief us in detail.”
Skandranon took care not to step on Amberdrake’s feet, and snorted in reply to his statement. “And just how likely do you think that is to happen?” he demanded. “They’re our children! Do you think there’s even half a chance that they wouldn’t see themselves as the front line of the White Gryphon defenses and go confront something dangerous if it appeared?”
He maneuvered Amberdrake into the inside position, between himself and the cliff, as they started back down toward the city. Drake needed to walk on the protected inside, since if one of them was to slip on the trail, it had better be Skan; he could fly and Drake obviously couldn’t.
“I honestly don’t know,” Amberdrake admitted. “My daughter baffles me more often than my mate does. I sometimes wonder if the midwife switched babies with someone else when she was born. She doesn’t seem anything like either of us, and believe me, I have tried to find common ground with her.”
“I know what you mean,” Skan replied with chagrin. “Although Keenath affects me more that way than Tadrith does. Still. Just because we’ve never seen either of them act the way we did at their age, it doesn’t follow that they wouldn’t. If you understand what I’m trying to say.”
“I think so.” Amberdrake picked his way over a rough spot in the trail before continuing. “Children tend to act differently around their parents than when they’re on their own. At least, that’s what I’ve observed, both professionally and nonprofessionally.”
Of course he wouldn’t remember himself being that way; he lost his own parents and all his family when he was hardly fledged. But he’s right; I went out of my way to be the opposite of mine. They never wanted to be anything but followers, and I wanted to be the one others looked to for leadership. Sometimes I wonder if they weren‘t smarter than I was. “I wish we had some other way besides the teleson to keep track of them,” he fretted. “It’s very tempting to wish that Urtho was here to give us another Kechara. . . .”
He couldn’t finish the sentence; the pang of loss he felt even when mentioning the name of the creator of his adoptive “daughter” was enough to still his voice for a moment.
“It’s more than tempting to wish she was the way she used to be,” Amberdrake sighed, “and not just because she’d be useful now. I’d gladly continue all the evasion and diplomatic garbage we had to concoct for the Haighlei if it meant she was still such a powerful Mindspeaker. She is such a cheerful little soul, though; I don’t miss her powers at all if it means we get to see her alive and happy.”
Kechara had been one of Urtho’s rare “mistakes,” although Skan had never discovered what his leader, mentor, and friend had intended when he created her. Had she simply been a first attempt at the “gryfalcon” type, of which Zhaneel was the outstanding example? Was it possible that she had been a deliberate attempt to create a gryphon with tremendous ability at mind-magic? Or had she simply been a “sport,” something Urtho had not intended at all, an accident that Urtho saw and carried through, then hid away for her own protection?