“Sir?”
“Be off with you!” Shaw’s voice cracked like a hissing whip.
Benji took one last look at Gavin, eyes filled with regret, then turned and scurried out the door. Shaw watched the boy leave with open disapproval, then turned and leveled his disapproving eyes on Gavin.
“Brisson is unavailable to speak with you today,” Shaw said in a voice that made his prior coldness seem warm. “Come back for tomorrow’s duty assignments and perhaps he’ll have time to discuss matters with you then.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” Gavin said, keeping his smile pasted across his face, even though irritation swelled within him. “I’ll talk to him when he leaves for the day.”
“He’s no longer here,” Shaw snapped. “He left through the rear entrance to attend to other duties for the day. He will not be returning until tomorrow.”
Gavin got to his feet in a rush, his irritation finally getting the better of him.
“My people will not perform any duties, assigned or otherwise, until Brisson makes the time to speak to me. We are not his to command, nor will I be treated with such blatant disrespect.” Gavin felt his irritation building within himself, crawling like ants along his skin. “I will be back tomorrow and as many days as are necessary until this matter is resolved.”
“You forget yourself,” Shaw said. “You live here on our charity. Do not forget that.”
Gavin felt the sparks of energy welling up within him a moment before they appeared in his hands. Part of him knew that wasn’t the right move, that such a blatant show of power, strength, and brute intimidation was wrong, but that part of him was quelled by the temper that swelled up around it.
“No,” Gavin said softly, “I think it is you who forget who I am.”
Without waiting for a response, Gavin turned and walked out of the room.
***
Benji found him when Gavin was only a few streets away from the administration building. He came scurrying out of the alley just as Gavin managed to get his anger and irritation under control and start to regret his rash, hot-blooded reaction.
“I knew you had magic,” Benji said with a mixture of triumph and accusation in his voice. He raised a hand and pointed a finger at Gavin. “I heard you fight with Master Shaw. I never heard no one speak to him like that since we got here from the Plantation.” Gavin raised a hand to still the torrent of words coming from the young boy’s lips, but Benji either didn’t see it or chose to ignore it. “He’s been here longer than most anyone else. He and Master Nikanor started this way back before I was even born, so they say. That was back before Brisson.”
Benji paused to take a breath and Gavin seized the moment to speak.
“Don’t you have somewhere else you should be?” Gavin said in his best gruff voice. “Like playing with your little friends or telling them about the big, bad Rahuli you met today?”
Benji shrugged and Gavin pulled to a stop, ignoring the putrid smells that wafted by in the air and the din of distant metal clashing against itself.
“Master Shaw gave me the day off. My friends all got to do their work for today, so I got nothing to do,” Benji said, then a grin split his young face and his eyes shone with a mischievous, dark gleam. “Maybe you can show me some more magic, yes?”
Gavin ran a hand through his beard and scratched his chin, blowing out a long, low sigh of exasperation. First he’d made a mess of his initial impression with Brisson and now he had a new, talkative shadow that wouldn’t go away. He supposed he deserved it, after encouraging the boy earlier.
“Fine,” Gavin said at a few brief moments of thought. “I’ll show you something you can tell your friends later, but you have to do something for me first.”
The boy grimaced, but eventually shrugged, curiosity proving a far more persuasive emotion than irritation. “What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to go and find two other Rahuli, an older man named Cobb and a man about Shaw’s age named Evrouin. They should be in the Rahuli huts near the mouth of the valley. If not, look in the dining hall. Tell them Gavin will meet them in the new eyrie when the sun reaches its zenith in the sky.”
Benji’s face showed his confusion in almost comical honesty. Gavin tried hard not to smile, his dark mood lightening despite himself.
“What?” Gavin asked.
“What’s an air-ee?” Benji asked, his nose wrinkling.
“Eyrie,” Gavin corrected, gently. “It’s where the aevians live. I’ll show it to you when you bring Cobb and Evrouin to meet me there, alright?”
The boy nodded.
“Repeat the message back to me.”
Benji did, managing to get most of it right. Gavin repeated the message to him a few more times until Benji had the whole thing memorized word for word. The boy looked irritated at the constant repetition, but his eyes twinkled. He’d certainly have interesting stories to tell his friends when they met next.
“Off with you then,” Gavin said when he was satisfied Benji had it in its entirety.
Benji nodded and took off at a quick jog in the direction of the Rahuli section of the valley. Gavin gave a small sigh of relief tinged with lingering exasperation. It would take the boy at least an hour to find them both and get them to the eyrie. Now, Gavin simply had to decide what he was going to tell them when they got there.
“Understanding of how the Progressions work has evolved over the centuries. In truth, a part of this belief was stolen from the peoples who inhabited this land prior to the arrival of the Empire.”
—From the Discourses on Knowledge, Volume 19, Year 1175
The cave the aevians had claimed as their new home lay inside a large cavern at the far end of the valley where the cavern nestled up against a string of monolithic mountain peaks. It took nearly an hour to walk there from the section of the valley where most of the buildings lay. In all actuality it wasn’t much of a cave. It was more of a crevasse of sorts that just happened to be enclosed. The sounds of soft chirping and the click of talons on rock wafted from the cavern’s mouth as Gavin approached.
Formed from a slight overhang, the cave was actually just a shallow valley between two mountain peaks that had been covered over in a landslide sometime in the distant past. Over time, the rock and earth had worn away at the front, but remained above, forming a narrow enclosed space that stretched back into the mountains for several hundred paces. Gavin picked his way carefully through the upward-sloping and rock-strewn path, setting each foot purposefully so as not to slip in the loose snow.
“Gavin?” a soft voice asked.
Gavin looked up to see Farah standing in the mouth of the cave a dozen or so paces above him. He smiled and her perfect, angular face brightened as she returned the smile. Despite the foreshortened perspective, Farah looked small and deceptively petite, even childlike depending on how her hair was done. Her white blonde hair was pulled back in a tail at the moment, tucked into the back of her cloak, and her cheeks were rosy and flushed from the cold.
“How are you this morning?” he asked, climbing up the rest of the distance to join her.
Aevians cried soft greetings to him from within the dark expanse of the cave.
“Well enough despite the cold. I can’t stand being wet, but being wet
and
cold is three times as horrible.” Farah scrunched up her face indignantly and stamped her booted feet, which made a squishing noise that left little doubt as to her meaning.
Gavin personally agreed with her. His own feet were sodden lumps of ice, but he grinned at the woman. “Better than being eaten by a genesauri, at least.”
Farah snorted and rolled her eyes in his general direction, though her relaxed posture belied the expression. “I thought you were supposed to be meeting with Brisson.”
It was Gavin’s turn to snort. He blew out a long breath, which puffed to mist before his eyes. The first time he’d seen that happen, it had terrified him. Now, it was simply one more thing that had become commonplace.
“That went about as well as spitting into a sandstorm,” Gavin said shortly. He briefly told her what had happened, ending with his sending off Benji to get Cobb and Evrouin.
“What do they need here?” Farah asked.
Gavin shook his head. “Sorry, I forgot to mention that part. I have a plan to start patrols with the aevians and on foot. Brisson’s people aren’t warriors. We are.”
Farah frowned. “Were you going to ask me first, or is this supposed to be you asking?”
“Ask you what?”
“If you could use the aevians.”
Gavin frowned. Why was she being so defensive? “I’m talking to you now. We only have three things in our favor—the aevians, the mystics, and our ability to fight. I’m going to need all three of them to maintain our independence.”
“And you thought Evrouin was the best choice for the task,” Farah asked, voice hard, eyes flashing dangerously. “Of all the people you could have picked.”
“I thought you’d want to oversee the eyrie itself. If you’d rather be part of the patrols, that won’t be a problem.”
“Of course I’ll be the Matron of the eyrie,” Farah snapped, voice rising in volume.
Gavin felt the energy building around Farah and pulled at it himself, dispelling it.
Farah narrowed her eyes at him and continued. “But I will not let Evrouin ride one of my aevians. He can be part of the foot patrols.”
“Keep your voice down,” Gavin said, eyeing the walls of the cavern, which still carried the lingering echo of Farah’s last words. “I didn’t realize you still had such deep feelings against him. We can all discuss it together, when they come. I’d just have Cobb do it, but I don’t think he’s very comfortable with the creatures.”
Farah made a disgusted face. “He’s about as skilled on the back of an aevian as Evrouin is with tact.”
“I’ll ask Cobb to do it, but if he’s not willing Evrouin is all I have left. He’s got the support within the people that I’ll need. There’s no way around it. The Orinai armies are still out there somewhere. When they find us, who would you rather have defending you? These here, or someone you know can actually fight? If you’ve got someone else in mind, though, I’ll welcome any suggestions with open arms.”
Farah sniffed, but nodded, turning away. Gavin rolled his eyes once her back was turned, knowing this wasn’t over. He idly wondered if the leaders from the stories ever dealt with things like this. Probably, but they weren’t parts that ever made it into the story itself. It wouldn’t do to show a leader being bullied by someone half his size.
“How are the aevians doing?” Gavin asked, trying to ease the palpable tension.
“They’re fine, for the most part,” Farah said, not turning around. “Nabil and the other grye seem to love the snow and cold, like I said before. They’re acting like hatchlings again.”
Gavin smiled at the thought. Nabil had been the aevian bonded to the previous Warlord of the Roterralar, a man Gavin had never met, but of whom only praise was spoken. From what Gavin knew, he was a hard, calculating man, slow to act until all possible options had been considered, weighed, and measured. Nabil shared that same nature, in his own animal way.
“And they’re getting enough food?”
“You already asked me that.”
Gavin scratched at his beard, feeling a little foolish as he tried to collect his scattered thoughts. He was supposed to be easing the tension, not making it worse. How did Farah always get him so turned around?
“You’re right. I just wanted to make sure.”
Farah shrugged, which was an odd expression to watch from the rear. “They go out hunting. None of them seem to be hungry. I’m not entirely sure what it is they eat, but they are eating.”
“Good. Is there anything we’ll need before we start sending out patrols? Leather for new saddles and harnesses, perhaps?”
Farah sighed and finally turned to look at him. Her expression was softer now and her blue eyes shone with at least marginal warmth. “I know what you’re trying to do, Gavin, and I support that. I just wish you had chosen someone
other
than Evrouin to do it.”
Gavin hesitated, buying time to switch his train of thought. How did Farah manage to avoid questions so well?
“He’s still the only one here who has real leadership experience. He was a Warlord before the Oasis even. Yes, I know he sided with Kaiden and did unspeakable things, but he leads the largest single faction of survivors. If Khari were still here, maybe things would be different. For now, though, we need him.”
Farah’s eyes narrowed and her lips formed a thin line. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, but Gavin didn’t sense her pulling at her powers.
Her back straightened and she nodded sharply once. “So be it then. If Cobb declines, Evrouin can lead the aevian patrols. The first time one of them dies because of something Evrouin does, I’ll kill him myself.”
“I can live with that.” What else could he say?
Gavin reached out and took one of Farah’s hands with his, and then smiled a soft smile at her. After a moment, Farah returned it.
“So will we need anything before we start sending out patrols?” Gavin repeated after a moment.
“You mean besides you talking to Brisson?”
Gavin glared at her, though he was glad to see the streak of sarcasm again. It meant she was close to forgiving him again. At least, he hoped that’s what it meant. He was never entirely sure where Farah was concerned.
“Alright, alright. You win. We should be fine for now,” Farah said, “but we’ll run out of harnesses and saddles soon. A lot of the ones we brought with us didn’t handle the cold very well. The leather is splitting or cracking.”
“How soon?”
“A couple of months. Depends on how many men you send out at one time.”
“I’ll start figuring out where to get the leather. We’ve got time though, so that’s good,” Gavin said, running a hand through his beard. With a half-contained sigh, he stretched and then suppressed a yawn. Farah concealed a smiled.
“Evrouin and Cobb should be here soon,” Gavin said. “I’m going to go find Nabil and take a look around.”
“I’ll send them your direction if I see them before you do.”
Farah gave him one last small smile and walked off toward the other side of the narrow cavern opening where, Gavin was surprised to see, a group of women were busy working—on what he really couldn’t tell. Gavin smiled after Farah, enjoying the view for a long moment before shaking his head and hiking deeper into the narrow cavern.
Sparse light filtered into the narrow expanse of dark grey stone, a denser level of shadow than Gavin was altogether comfortable with. Yet the aevians themselves didn’t seem to mind the darkness that much. Their dark eyes regarded him from crags in the rock or from the floor of the sloping cavern. Far fewer of them than Gavin remembered now rested here, but that wasn’t altogether unexpected. They’d lost some when the volcano erupted. Others had been missing since before that and fewer were born than before, according to Farah. It was a sad, sobering thought, one Gavin hoped to change in the future, but for now he had other tasks at hand.
The rush of wings and a sudden gust of air signaled Nabil’s arrival a moment before Gavin noticed the massive white bird descending upon him. Gavin smiled as the aevian landed, talons scraping on the rock, and bent down slightly to allow Gavin to scratch him beneath the beak. Nabil’s eyes shut in obvious pleasure as Gavin scratched him beneath the feathers.
“How are you, Nabil?” Gavin whispered. “Still the lord of this cavern, eh?”
Nabil gave a small noise as if in agreement and Gavin’s smile deepened. Gavin had formed a strong, solid bond with the creature in the weeks they’d been together. Gavin hadn’t experienced that level of companionship and friendship before. It was a refreshing relationship. He looked toward Farah at the entrance to the cavern, still running his hands over Nabil’s head and neck feathers. He and Farah had a relationship forming between them as well, though Gavin wasn’t sure what exactly it was. He was attracted to her, but she was also the most frustrating and confusing person he’d ever met.
Nabil chirped, a small, bouncing noise that echoed oddly in the narrow space. Gavin drew his attention away from his own inner thoughts and looked up at the aevian. Nabil’s head was turned in the direction of a pair of younger aevians, kistriels by the look, fighting not far away. Nabil hissed at them and hopped in their direction, wings outstretched and flapping just enough to give his jumping the needed force to travel the distance in only a few leaps. The pair of kistriels broke apart and launched into the air, each flying in separate directions before Nabil even got close. Gavin chuckled as Nabil ruffled his feathers and waddled back to Gavin, looking far more awkward just using his feet than with the aid of his wings.
“You really do rule the eyrie,” Gavin said with a chuckle.
Nabil chirped softly, and looked over Gavin’s shoulder, dark, beady eyes expressionless. Gavin followed his gaze.
“This sure is a dark and gloomy place, isn’t it?” Benji said, carefully climbing up the side of one boulder. The boy caught sight of Nabil towering over Gavin’s head and his eyes went wide, showing the whites. Behind the boy, Evrouin grinned and Cobb grunted.
Gavin suppressed his own smile and, ignoring Benji, looked to the two men. They were about as different from each other as they could be. Cobb was short, well-muscled—despite his age—and had a grizzled toughness to him which defied the lingering limp from when he’d been wounded rescuing Gavin and Lhaurel. Evrouin, on the other hand, was tall, lean, and had a stringy toughness to him that reminded Gavin of the whipcord strength of a bow. Both were warriors, if warriors of differing natures.
“Welcome,” Gavin said formally. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Cobb grunted. “The boy is right, you know. This
is
a dark and gloomy place.”
Behind Gavin, Nabil hissed and clacked his beak. Benji’s eyes widened even further and he took a small step backward. Evrouin chuckled and shook his head at Cobb.
“I’d be careful what you say around these creatures, old man,” Evrouin said. “They’re as fierce as a sandtiger caught in a genesauri’s nest.”
Cobb ignored him. “What did you want with us then, Gavin? Did Brisson give you leave?”
Instead of answering, Gavin turned to Benji. The boy was still standing, staring open mouthed at Nabil, though his gaze occasionally strayed to the other aevians flitting about above him as well.