Exodus of the Xandim (GOLLANCZ S.F.) (6 page)

Kea made her obeisance, and the Queen nodded graciously. ‘Come and sit down, child,’ she said. ‘Break your fast with us.’

To be in the presence of the Queen was awe-inspiring. To be sitting here, in the palace, drinking liafa with her, was just unbelievable. Kea, for once lost for words, sat down and took the cup
in unsteady hands, hoping desperately that she wouldn’t slop the hot, dark liquid all over the place and disgrace herself. Ardea and Crombec, sitting one on either side of her, came to the
rescue. Yinze’s mentor tipped a generous spoonful of honey into Kea’s liafa. ‘Take a drink and steady yourself,’ she said. Crombec put one of the little cakes on her plate.
‘Eat,’ he said out loud, his eyes twinkling kindly. ‘If your usual habits are anything to go by, I’ll wager you had no breakfast.’

‘The girl is here for more than breakfast,’ Pandion said briskly, making Kea drop the cake back to her plate, untasted. ‘I don’t have all day to dawdle over this
business. Kea’ – she turned to the winged girl – ‘as you may have heard, I am sending one of our students back to Tyrineld with Yinze, when he goes home. The chosen person
will study the Wizards’ Earth magic, as Cyran’s delegate has done with our magic during his time here. After considerable discussion with Ardea, Crombec, and my advisers in the Royal
Council, I have decided that you will be the one to go.’

‘Oh! Oh, thank you.’ Wild with excitement Kea leapt to her feet, almost sending her liafa flying. Suddenly realising she was about to hug the Queen, an unpardonable breach of
protocol, she sat down quickly and composed herself, but inside her heart was singing. It had really happened! Her secret plan, her dearest wish and hope, had come to pass.

If Pandion had looked intimidating before, she was even more so when she frowned. ‘When you go you will constantly bear in mind that you are representing the Winged Folk –
representing me – in a foreign land. You will comport yourself with dignity and decorum at all times. Is that absolutely clear?’

Kea quailed. ‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ she whispered.

‘You must be aware that there was considerable doubt about choosing you. You have worked very closely with Yinze on his project these past few months, and the two of you have become
friends – very close friends, it seems to me. Dangerously close.’ Pandion’s gaze seemed to be drilling right into Kea’s head, as if she was trying to see what thoughts were
concealed within. ‘For this reason, we came very close to deciding against you, for I was not prepared to risk the intolerable scandal of a coupling between our race and the Wizards. But your
mentors, I gather, have spoken to both you and Yinze very seriously about this matter, and both of you have protested very strongly against the possibility.’

Yinze said that?
Kea felt a stab of sadness at the thought, but there was no time to dwell on it, for the Queen was still speaking.

‘Ironically, the very situation which prompted my uneasiness has weighed in your favour. While helping the Wizard, you have shown that you can work well with his kind. Also you, of all the
Skyfolk, have the greatest experience in integrating Earth magic with our own. Therefore I have set my doubts aside. But bear in mind, Kea, that your friendship with Yinze must go no further than
it already has. I will be in regular communication with the Archwizard, and at the faintest hint of a scandal, you will be recalled to Aerillia.’ Her eyes grew hard as flint. ‘And you
will be punished.’ Then her expression softened. She rose, and held out a hand to Kea. ‘Go with my blessings, child. You have already made the Skyfolk proud. Go now, and make me prouder
still.’

Clearly the interview was over. Once Pandion had left the balcony, Kea could hardly wait to tear herself away from Ardea and Crombec, and their congratulations that she knew would all too soon
turn into more warnings about good behaviour – as if she hadn’t heard enough of that today. She was bursting to tell Yinze her news, and she didn’t want to waste a minute. She
sped across to his quarters, flying recklessly fast, and hurled herself through the door as soon as he opened it. ‘Yinze, Yinze, you’ll never guess . . .’

His delight at her news was all she had imagined, all that she could have wished. ‘Why that’s wonderful, Kea. Congratulations. I couldn’t be more happy.’ He whirled her
round in an embrace, as he had done once before, and as they spun to a halt, their eyes met; held. Kea’s heart beat faster. Yet, when he lowered his head to kiss her, the Queen’s dire
warnings resounded in her mind. She ducked her face away hastily, and the moment turned to dust and ashes.

Inside Yinze’s dwelling was a scene of absolute chaos, as he tried to sort out the essentials and pack. His bearers were standing by to take his baggage outside and load
it into cargo nets, ready for transport in the morning, but he couldn’t see that happening any time soon. Looking at it all, the Wizard felt like tearing his hair out. How the blazes had he
managed to accumulate so much
stuff
during his stay here? He’d thought he had managed to sort out the essentials, but unless he wanted to take a dozen winged bearers with him, it
looked as though he was going to have to think again.

Kereru, moving at her usual rapid pace, whisked in with a tray containing a pot of fragrant liafa, bread, cold slices of roast mutton from the mountain sheep that roamed the lower slopes, cheese
from the same animals, and some dried apricots. With her elbow she swept a pile of Yinze’s clothing off the table and put down her burden.

‘Hey! I just folded those.’

‘Not from where I’m standing.’ Kereru shrugged, her glossy feathers rustling, and began to fold the garments again, making a much better job of it in half the time.

‘I’ll never be ready,’ Yinze said disconsolately. It was very late, he had to get up early in the morning, and it looked as though he wouldn’t make it to bed tonight at
all.

Kereru laid a motherly hand on his shoulder. ‘Sit. Eat. Let me help you.’ As Yinze, his mouth full of bread and meat, looked on in astonishment, the room began to organise itself, as
if by magic, beneath her capable hands.

‘The climate in Tyrineld is very warm, isn’t it? Well, you won’t be wanting all this cold weather gear any longer, will you? Pick out what you’ll need for the journey and
anything else you’re particularly attached to, and I’ll put the rest aside.’ She ran her hands over the furs that had covered his bed, the thick, heavy pelts of bear and the great
cats that roamed the nearby Steelclaw mountain. ‘Do you want to keep any of these?’

Yinze thought of Iriana. ‘No. Definitely not.’

‘Well, you’ll need to take a couple with you for travelling or you’ll freeze in that net, but if you don’t want to keep them the bearers will bring them back. We can
always use them here.’

On she went, sorting, organising, helping him with practical suggestions and, when he had finished eating, directing him in the best ways to pack. Within an hour the chaos had been reduced to
two large bundles, a sack containing gifts for all his friends and family in Tyrineld and a roll of furs for the journey. Everything he was leaving behind was put away neatly or stacked against the
wall.

‘Kereru, I love you.’ Yinze hugged her. Even though he was longing to see his home again, his mother, his friends and Iriana, he was sad to be leaving. His entire day had been spent
in farewells, and he had felt his spirits growing heavier with each one, but this was one too many.

‘I’ll miss you very much, Yinze.’ The winged woman’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. ‘Wherever they send me to work next, I’m sure it won’t be
nearly so entertaining.’

When she had left him, the Wizard looked around at the strangely altered room. The traces of his presence, all the little personal belongings, were gone now, and he felt peculiarly unreal and
displaced, as though he had ceased to exist. Like a compass needle, every thought turned unerringly northward now, towards home. For the last time, he went to his bedchamber, turned out the lamp,
and curled up beneath the tickling furs in his uncomfortable, scoop-shaped bed. By this time tomorrow, he would be at the northern borders of the mountain range, and well on his way home.

Except that he wasn’t.

In the depths of the night, the Wizard was awakened by a screaming gale outside, and the staccato clatter of hail hitting his shutters. He swore, long and inventively. He was used by now to
these violent mountain storms that blew up so fast and unexpectedly. When they were as bad as this one sounded, they could go on for several days. At a fresh blast of wind, he snarled another
curse. This just wasn’t fair. He’d said his farewells, he’d packed, he was
ready
, damn it. A wild thought entered his mind of taking his harp and trying to turn the bad
weather away, but he knew it was impossible. It would take many experienced Air Mages working in concert to disperse such ferocity, and the Winged Folk had learned long ago that it was a pointless
waste of energy to try to tamper with the violent tempests of the mountains. Stoically, they would secure their homes and stay inside, passing the time with study, music, games and conversation,
until the worst was over. With a savage jerk, Yinze pulled the covers over his head and tried to shut out the noise of the howling blasts. Might as well go back to sleep. He wouldn’t be going
anywhere in a hurry.

It took two full days for the storm to blow itself out, and by the time it was over Yinze was almost climbing the walls through boredom and frustration. But the third day dawned with high,
scudding clouds, watery sunlight, and a blustery wind that still gusted, but would at least permit strong, experienced flyers to travel. Though he had half-expected the Queen to err on the side of
caution, and make him wait an extra day, the word came while he was eating breakfast: his bearers and porters were on their way, and he should be ready to leave within the hour.

Kereru, whose brother Parea had brought the message, said, ‘I’ll prepare some food for the journey,’ and vanished in the direction of her kitchen, but not before Yinze had seen
her surreptitiously wipe away a tear. Bolting the last of his breakfast, he leapt from his seat and dragged his bundles outside, ready to be loaded into the cargo net that the two porters would
bring. The thought of Kea, in her home across the city, doing the same thing flashed through his mind, and he wondered how she must be feeling. He remembered how he had reacted on his departure
from Tyrineld: that churning mix of pride, excitement, and fear. What would the new city be like? Would the inhabitants be welcoming to one of a different race, or hostile? Would he succeed in
mastering the skills he had been sent to learn, or would he return home a failure? For an instant, Yinze both envied and pitied his friend. ‘Don’t worry, Kea,’ he murmured under
his breath, ‘I’ll take care of you.’

With that, he left the platform and went back inside to dress in all the layers of cold-weather clothing he could cram on. His Skyfolk companions had their race’s resistance to the cold,
and would be flying besides. The exercise would keep them warm, but he would be an inanimate piece of cargo, swinging ignominiously in his net. He remembered the bitter, bone-piercing chill when
he’d been brought here from Tyrineld, and his blood had still been thin from the temperate climate of home. He’d thought he would die before he reached his destination. Well, he had
adapted since them, and had learned a lot about dressing against the cold. Maybe the journey home would not be quite so bad.

When I get home, he thought, I’m going to see everyone: Mother, Iriana and my friends – and Cyran, of course, he’s bound to want a report – and I’ll made sure that
Kea is settled in. Then I’m going swimming. His head filled with happy thoughts of floating in those warm, silken blue waters, he headed back outside, to find the platform crowded with Kea,
Ardea and Crombec, two strange Skyfolk porters busy loading his bundles into a net, and his own four personal bearers, Kereru’s brother Parea, Dunlin, Tinamou, and Chukar, who were waiting
with another net, its bottom padded thickly with furs, that would be his transport home.

The porters flew off with his belongings, heading for the High Crown Pass, some five miles to the north of the city, where they would be meeting Kea’s two porters, who had gone on ahead
with her baggage. That left a little more space for farewells. As Kereru brought out mugs of liafa to warm them for the journey, Yinze embraced Crombec, and his mentor Ardea, sad that he
wouldn’t be seeing them again.

‘Maybe you will.’ Ardea had always been good at picking up stray thoughts from his mind. ‘You never know, Crombec and I might just come to pay you a visit one of these
days.’

‘I truly hope you will,’ Yinze told her. ‘I would love to see you again, and show you my city. I can’t thank you enough – both of you – for everything
you’ve done for me.’

‘Just take good care of my Kea, if you please,’ Crombec said. ‘She’s as dear as a daughter to me.’

‘I will, I promise. It will be my pleasure.’ Yinze smiled at the winged girl.

‘Ha! I can take care of myself,’ Kea snorted, then her expression softened. ‘All the same, it means a lot to me, knowing that I’ll have one friend in a strange
place.’

‘You’ll soon have lots of friends,’ Yinze promised. ‘They’re going to love you in Tyrineld.’

Finally all the farewells had been said, and Yinze climbed into his net, bundling himself in the furs that Kereru had handed to him. His bearers took the strain and lifted from the ground with a
great beating of wings, heading north towards the pass with Kereru circling around them to keep pace. Yinze watched Aerillia recede behind him, storing memories until it vanished from sight. It
felt like the end of an era. With a gloved hand he touched his precious harp, tucked safely beside him in its fur-lined case. At least he hadn’t come away empty-handed. He would return to
Tyrineld a success.

The Wizard left the past behind him and began to think of home. Of the future. But his past was not ready to let go of him yet.

The great cats of Steelclaw Mountain had proved, as always, to be worthy opponents, intelligent, cunning and fierce, but they stood little chance against a hunter armed with a
crossbow and attacking from the air. Incondor’s hunting party were heading back home with their two porters carrying a net full of pelts, and their belt pouches filled with fangs and claws.
The storm that had lashed Aerillia had not reached into the northern parts of the mountain range, so they had made good time, and hoped to be back within the hour. They had been passing a flask of
contraband brandy between them as they flew, and his companions, Milvus and Torgos, were jubilant at their success, but Incondor’s thoughts were dark. He knew full well that the Queen had
dispatched him off to Steelclaw to keep him away from that worm Yinze. He realised that she planned to send the Wizard away in his absence, cheating him of his revenge. Yinze – or Kea, he
wasn’t sure which, for the pair of them were constantly in each other’s pockets – had told Crombec and Ardea about the liquor, and Pandion had made it clear that there would be
consequences to face on his return.