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A silver lake flashed beneath her, and for a moment she caught a glimpse of a
red-gold hawk with red bands on the tips of its wings. It was only after a
moment that she real-ized it was a reflection of herself.
Rainbow-sided trout leaped in the cold water. She had the urge to swoop down
and snatch one in her outstretched talons. But Gamaliel's snarl caught her
attention. She flew after him.
Her vision amazed her. She could see a mouse cowering under a pile of dead
leaves and the gossamer strands of a spider's web glistening in a tree a
league away. She wheeled gracefully in the azure sky. In moments she saw them.
Four travelers just breaking camp in a forested bowl a few leagues to the
south.
There was Kern, saddling his horse, and Listle and Mil-tiades packing their
gear. There was another with them, an old man Daile did not recognize, but by
the scales of jus-tice engraved on the hilt of his sword, she knew him to be a
venerable paladin.
She cried out, letting Gamaliel know that she had seen them. The cat bounded
back toward camp, and
Daile fol-lowed. Moments later she swooped down and perched on a branch near
Evaine. She began to explain that she had seen Kern.
The sorceress regarded her curiously. "I can't under-stand hawk speech very
well, Daile," Evaine said dryly. "Could you try Common, please?"
Suddenly the branch beneath Daile buckled. She fell to the ground with a
thump.
"It would probably be better if you landed on the ground next time before
transforming back into human form," Gamaliel noted as he shifted into his
barbarian shape and stepped into the clearing.
Daile nodded in agreement as she stood, rubbing her sore backside. Quickly she
relayed to Evaine what she had seen, and they hastily broke camp. If they
marched swiftly, they might intercept their friends by noon.
Once they were on their way, her head reeled. Had it not been for Gamaliel's
strong grip on her arm, Daile might have tripped and fallen as the full
implications of what happened washed over her.
"Gamaliel," she began hesitantly, "how... how did I do that?"
"As I told you," he said gravely, "it is the wild gift, a legacy from Ciela,
your druidess mother. She had the gift, as many druids do, though I do not
think it ran so strongly in her blood as yours." Gamaliel smiled, then his
face grew solemn. "It is a remarkable talent, Daile. But you must take care.
Sometimes ...
sometimes those whose blood sings with the wild gift can become lost in it.
The call of the wilderness becomes so overpowering, it drowns out all other
thoughts and desires."
Daile shivered. She thought she knew what he meant.
"Always remember, Daile, that when you become a hawk, you must lock a part of
yourself away in a corner of your mind, a part that remembers what it is to be
a human."
"What would happen if I didn't?" she asked.
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"Then you would forget you were once a woman, and you would become a hawk
forever."
With that, Gamaliel moved swiftly through the trees after Evaine. Daile
hesitated a moment and followed, thinking of the way her hunt for creatures of
evil had nearly consumed her in the Valley of the
Falls. For those three days after burying Ren, she had thought of nothing but
the hunt, as if she were an
animal. She had almost lost herself, she knew now.
She shivered. "I will never forget that I am human," she whispered fiercely.
"Never again." She hurried to catch up with the sorceress and barbarian.
* * * * *
The crystal resting in Evaine's brazier flared brightly, then flashed into
dust. Her locating spell was complete. The sorceress's eyes flew open.
"I've found it!"
She stood weakly. The sun was fast sinking toward the western mountains, and
the companions had made camp in a grove of ancient fir trees.
"The pool of twilight?" Kern asked, unconsciously grip-ping the haft of the
Hammer of Tyr.
"No, Kern, she means the button she lost from her tunic last tenday," Listle
replied, rolling her eyes.
Despite the elf's usual flippant humor, her delicate face was wan and tight.
Evaine sat on a log near the crackling campfire. She, Gamaliel, and Daile had
found Kern and the others on a windswept pass around midday. The reunion had
been a joyous one. It had been good to see that Kern and Listle were well. And
Miltiades.
There had also been a new introduction, but Evaine found that she was already
enjoying Trooper's company as well as the old paladin's tongue, which was as
sharp as his rune sword and wielded with similar dexterity.
"Yes, Kern, the pool of twilight," Evaine said. She threw a handful of crystal
dust into the campfire. The flames flared higher, an image appearing within. A
pinnacle of dark stone with a distinctive cloven summit was revealed. At its
base was the dark opening of a cave. "Always before, the mountains interfered
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