#25 Storm Breaking by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey
Language: eng
Format: epub

Storm Breaking

Only one somewhat bewildered man, who had only visited the...

could be found to tell the gryphons about the lay of the land in that

area. He found himself overwhelmed by the gryphons' relentless

questioning over details of the region' s wind currents.

On the fourth day after the messenger had arrived, the gryphon wing flew

off to confront the enemy, and Darkwind and everyone else watched them

fly off with mingled hope and dread. The gryphons seemed full of

confidence and good humor; they might have been going off on a pleasure

jaunt.

Except that their behavior showed Darkwind very clearly that their

hunting and killing instincts were roused. When they were not moving,

they were intensely alert, heads up, eyes taking in everything, bodies

poised. When they moved, it was with bewildering swiftness and utter

sureness, as deadly and beautiful as the dance of warrior and sword.

They took no notice of the snow beneath their claws, of the cold breeze;

their eyes were on the blinding blue sky, and they could not wait to be

up and out. When they took to the air, they leaped up, catching the

shivering wind in their talons and conquering it.

“You're sure they will have a chance?” Tremane asked, as the wing

vanished into the blue distance. "I keep feeling as if I'm sending them

to their doom."

“Gryphons were originally created as fighters,” Darkwind replied slowly.

"Very versatile ones. It's in their blood, and a millennium or two isn't

going to change that."

“They may have been created as fighters, but are they trained?” Tremane

said, his voice sounding strained. "I know what my men can do-but these

creatures? Granted, their opponents aren't as well-equipped or skilled

as my men, yet it only takes a single well-aimed arrow to kill someone.

And you tell me that Iftel has kept war away from her borders for as

long as the Valdemarans have known them. How can they be ready for this?

Surely-"

"'Forgive me for interrupting you, but has Tashiketh told you how his

twenty wingmen were chosen?" Darkwind replied, before Tremane could

voice much more in the way of anxiety.

The King shook his head.

“'I thought not. Let's go inside where it's warm,” Darkwind told him, as

the sharp wind cut through the seams of his coat and chilled him. He

shivered involuntarily and stamped his numbing feet to warm them. "I

believe I'm about to surprise you.// The group retired to Tremane's

study; several of his other staff members, who had overheard the

exchange, had managed to tag along. The gryphons had excited a great

deal of interest among the Imperials and Hardornens alike, and Darkwind

didn't at all mind assuaging some of their curiosity. It was a close fit

for all of them, but Tremane gave no hint that he wanted any of them to

leave.

"I've managed to learn a bit about the way things are done in Iftel, at

least as far as the gryphons are concerned," Darkwind told the group,

once they were all settled in a circle of chairs, Tremane's only a

little larger and more elaborate than the rest. "It's not the peaceful

paradise you and I might have imagined.pp “Oh?” Elspeth said. "But they

won't even let the Mercenary' s Guild establish a Guildhall there!"

Darkwind could only shake his head.

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