Iceshadow's voice made her jump."The five Clans that were now Tayledras found that the lands beyond the homeland were ravaged by the forces of twisted and tainted magic. No human or bird could survive there for long. Either they must starve, for they could not spare a moment from defense to grow or hunt their food, or they must give up defense and perish at the hands of the monsters that inhabited these lands. They despaired, for there was nowhere else for them to go." The scene fogged for a moment, and re-formed. The band of Tayledras had made a camp on the top of a hill, the earth scorched bare by fire, with a temporary palisade of thorny branches about the camp-but it was obvious it could not last for long against any kind of attack.
"They knew they could go no farther," Iceshadow concluded. "So, as their kindred that would become the Shin'a'in would do, they prayed to their Goddess. And She answered. Here is her answer to their plea." Nothing Elspeth had watched prepared her for what happened as the mist clouded again.
Suddenly there was no ball of glowing mist with pictures in it before her; suddenly there was no clearing, no Hawkbrothers, no Skif no light, no sound, no world.
Only herself, a sky full of stars stretching in every direction including down.
And out of this starry nothingness arose a white-hot flame that was Too bright to see clearly, She changed from moment to moment, and the raw Power emanating somehow also a woman from Her made Elspeth tremble. She'd have fallen to her knees-if she could have figured out how to do so in the midst of all this starry space.
I have heard your prayers, She said, in a voice that filled Elspeth's mind, leaving no room for anything, not even fear. There is a price to be paid for what you ask, and that price is in your lives and your freedom.
She gestured, and in the palm of Her hand was cupped the weirdly twisted landscape of the forest the Clansfolk had entered. Terrible magics have warped this land, and only magic can heal it again. therefore I offer this, that you have asked of me. I shall grant you safety here, long enough to establish each of you a Clan holding. I shall teach you the means of creating a place in the midst of the holding wherein you shall dwell in protection. I shall grant you the knowledge of Adepts, to use and concentrate the magic-and a knowledge even Adepts have not-to create a center of such power that the greatest of the mages who caused these changes would look upon you with envy.
To this you shall swear, in return. You will cleanse these lands-restore them to what they were before the Wars. You shall destroy the creatures of evil intent, cherish and succor the innocent victims of this catastrophe, and find shelter for those that are merely animals, meaning neither good nor ill.
You shall destroy those old weapons you may find, that they may not be misused again. You shall cleanse the land you hold-and then you shall move on, to another place, to begin again. All of your children that are Magegifted shall follow this path. All who are not shall guard and aid the ones who are. You shall be the Healers and Protectors-and you shall never permit the magics you manipulate here to be used for ill, nor shall you permit strangers within your ranks, unless they be sworn to the Clans. This you must do, at whatever cost to yourselves.
Abruptly, the vision was gone. Elspeth shook her head, blinking and still trembling with reaction; more than a little disoriented. There was nothing now in the clearing but what had been there when they entered; even the glowing mist was gone.
She tried to shake off the effect of the vision-if that was what it had been. She had been there for a moment; she didn't at all doubt that she had experienced exactly the same thing as those long-ago Hawkbrothers had. What she couldn't understand was why Skif didn't seem particularly affected, but Tre'valen looked just as dazed and bedazzled as she felt. Long ago, when she was younger, she had first heard the story of King Valdemar and the first appearance of the Companions, and had thought it a very pretty tale. Now she had the glimmering of what King Valdemar just might have experienced when his prayers were answered.
It shook her to the soul. It made her understand why some people became ardent, abject devotees of deities.
Iceshadow was silent for a long moment, while she and Tre'valen gathered their scattered wits. Elspeth thought that he watched her particularly closely, although she couldn't be sure of that. Finally he spoke again.
"This is the last oath YOU must swear-that you will aid your brothers of the Clan in their duty, as your own oaths permit-and that never will you use what is taught you here for the sake of your own power, pride, and status." He held his hand up, to forestall their immediate answers. "I shall not ask you to swear never to use it to harm-for one day you may find yourself facing an enemy who would destroy far more than you if he is given the opportunity to do so. But you must never use your learning for selfish purposes, to increase your own importance, to make your life one of pointless leisure, to merely indulge your fancies. Can you swear to that?
Elspeth heaved a sigh of relief; that was enough like the Oaths a Herald took before the Circle that the wording made very little difference.
She gave her assent with a much lighter heart, grateful that all of the vows she'd been asked to make seemed to take into account the fact that those outside the Clan had other duties and oaths of their own that might take precedence.
Now as long as both sets of promises never come into conflict, I should be all right.
Throughout the entire oathtaking, the blue glow of the Truth Spell remained steady around all three of them. Now Iceshadow banished the spell with another gesture, just as the deepening blue of the sky above them took on the golden-red streaks of the last moments of sunset. Elspeth looked up for a moment, as some movement against the luminous blue above caught her eye, and discovered that what had attracted her attention was the steady circling of a bird over their clearing. A bird of prey, by the shape.
Nothing unusual, not here in the heart of a Tayledras Clan territory but something about the bird made her take a second, closer look.
It was big; much bigger than she had thought, at first. In fact, it was easily the size of the largest eagle she had ever seen. But it had the distinctive tail-striping of a vorcel-hawk; that was one bird she would never again mistake for anything else.
A vorcel-hawk the size of an eagle, or larger-and unless it was a trick of the light, it was glowing.
Dawnfire? The thought was inevitable. She glanced back down at Tre'valen, only to see that he was watching the hawk as well, though no-one else seemed to notice that it was there. The expression on his face was a most peculiar one; he looked both excited and obscurely disturbed, at One and the same time.
The hawk made a final circle above, then spiraled upward, to be lost in the scarlet-and-golden glory of the sunset. Tre'valen licked his lips and looked down again; reluctantly, it seemed to her. He caught her watching him before she could look away, and something in his eyes made her nod, once, slowly; admitting, without actually saying anything, that she had seen the bird as well.
His lips formed the merest ghost of a smile, and he turned his attention back toward Iceshadow.
Less time had passed than she had thought. The Tayledras Adept was only now finishing his words of acceptance, admitting them into the Clan as Wingsiblings, and welcoming them as allies and friends.