The full Clan immediately went into session on demand of a minority of Tayledras who were outraged over this violation of their territory.
Wintermoon turned out, surprisingly enough, to be the steadiest voice of reason, reminding the contenders, over and over, that these "Outlanders" were Tayledras-or rather, the Hawkbrothers were Kaled'a'in, and that the coming of those of their own blood could hardly be counted as invasion. Elspeth wished that she could have left him to this thankless task, but she was a member of the Clan, and she had to be there, like every other member of the Clan.
There are several other things my time could be spent more profitably on.
Wintermoon could probably wear them down into consent within a day or two, with sheer persistence, with or without her help. I wish they'd simply give up and let the rest of us deal with them later, after things have been settled. Dear gods, this is like having an argument over precedence on the eve of a battle!
She had been here since sunrise, perched on a shoulder-high tree branch at the back of the mob, and she hadn't heard any variation in the arguments. She stifled a yawn and looked down, catching the amused eyes of Firesong and his new friend, and the shrug of the former.
Firesong was particularly taken by a young man who was supposed to be a kestrachern, whatever that was, and who had offered to teach him some of the craft when there was time. "I think you would have a talent for it," Silverfox had said, with a hint of some kind of innuendo that she couldn't read. "You are a Healing Adept, after all-it would be a useful skill to have." Well, that meant that Firesong was not going to be thinking about Darkwind. Not with the lithe and graceful Silverfox, he of the knowing blue eyes and ankle-length ebony hair, giving silent invitations Firesong seemed to find irresistible. And that was just fine with her.
That left one less thing for both Darkwind and herself to worry about, and they certainly had enough on their hands right now. Even without the contention within the Clan.
A stir of activity near the Elders' seats caught her eye; she was too far away to see what was going on, but there was certainly something happening besides the dreary old arguments.
She sent a silent inquiry to Gwena, who was somewhere on the edge of the clearing, but her Companion sent back a wordless negative. Gwena couldn't see anything either.
She narrowed her eyes and peered carefully through the screening of branches and bodies. There was someone coming into the Council Oak clearing from outside-No, lots of someones!
She craned her neck to see, bracing her hands against the branch, and jumped when someone grabbed her wrist. She looked down to find Darkwind tugging her, indicating she should jump down into his arms.
"They are calling for us," he said. "The Shin'a'in have arrived." The Shin'a'in? What did they have to do with this mess?
But she obeyed; she jumped and he caught her waist, easing her to the ground with that carefully controlled strength that she never noticed until he did something like this. Together they wound their way through the crowd to the front, where the Elders sat.
As they broke through the final group of Tayledras screening her from the Elders' circle, she stifled a start of surprise. There was old Kra'heera-but with him were six other Shin'a'in-Shin'a'in of a kind she had seen only twice before. Shin'a'in of the kind called "Swordsworn."
They crowded in behind Kra'heera, black-clad, some veiled, some not, leading night-black horses. And the veiled ones seemed to shimmer with power, as if they were not quite of this world.
"So we are not," said a voice in her head, and she stifled another start.
One set of ice-blue eyes over a black veil caught her attention; one of those eyes winked, slowly, and deliberately. "Be at peace, little sister-in-power, student of my student."
"Of course we have known of the coming of the Kaleid'a'in," Kra'heera was saying impatiently. The faces of the Elders remained inscrutable, but there was no doubting the surprise and consternation in the expressions of those who had been arguing against permitting the Kaled'a'in to remain. "She told us they were coming, and bid us find a place for them on the Plains, if they could not find one here, or chose not to dwell here. We did not expect them to come so soon, or we would have told you long before they arrived." He turned to fix one of the Kaled'a'in spokesmen with an acidic glare. "You were not supposed to arrive until midsummer!" The Kaled'a'in shrugged. "So it goes."
"She told you?" one of the most ardent opponents said to Kra'heera, feebly.
"We are here to stand as proof of Her word," one of the veiled ones said, in a strange voice that sounded as if it was coming from the bottom of a well. "Although we are not wont to appear to any save our own.
She sent us to prove to you doubters that She approves. Unless you choose to doubt us as well." The Tayledras in question paled, and shook his head. Kra'heera snorted, and turned back to the Council. "We have been doing what we can, within the limits of Her decree and our own resources, to give you help with your troubles," he told them, sharply. "So, I think it little enough to grant our brothers their request, given that they will help us all deal with this Great Beast, our enemy! And so, too, does She think!" Skif, who was standing near Starblade with Nyara at his hand, blinked, as if he had suddenly realized something. "Now I know where I saw you!" he said to one of the black-clad Shin'a'in. "Not just at the ruins-you were out in the forest, when we were hunting for Nyara!" The Shin'a'in shrugged. "Some of us," she said. "Two or three.
Keeping an eye on our younger sister, as She asked us to, so that we could vouch for her to you as well. The rest-" she chuckled. "The rest of us have been sending the Falconsbane little trinkets, and harassing his borders, to keep his mind puzzling over things with no meaning, and to distract him from your doings as much as we could."
"It is no coincidence that we are black riders upon black horses, little sister," said the voice in her head again "the Falconsbane knows of your enemy to the north and east-knows that you and yours are white riders. We simply counterfeited something he would expect if that enemy of yours were courting or challenging him; gave him something to think upon, a dangling carrot, as it were, with as many misdirections as we could manage." Elspeth stuffed her hand in her mouth to keep from giggling with a kind of giddy relief. The Shin'a'in had been teasing and tormenting Falconsbane. No wonder they'd been able to do as much as they had been! No wonder it seemed as if Falconsbane's attention was divided!
She wondered why they'd been doing this, but whys didn't really matter at the moment, only that they had.
She turned her attention back to the Council meeting, but after that, there was very little debate-and a great deal of constructive planning.
The plan was set; they were about to put it into motion. While most of the gryphons frolicked in the Vale, and barbarically beautiful Kaled'a'in occupied the attentions of most of k'sheyna, the Council of Elders had already listened to and given consent to what the little "war council" had put together. Surely Selenay would have had a fit if she'd known what her daughter's part in this was to be. Thank all the gods that Gwena had decided to keep discreetly silent on the subject, telling Rolan only that Elspeth's studies "continued." Well-they did. Sort o The gryphons-those dozen or so of the wing of thirty that were full mages, at any rate-were going to solve one problem for them. With seven pairs making the rounds of Falconsbane's web of power, the work of weakening his power-threads should be done between sunset and sunrise, easily. Under the cover of darkness, they were less likely to be spotted from below.