Homage and Honour (5 page)

Take her, take
this girl.

What happened
next was something he had never envisaged. A large female, yellow
striped, made a direct path towards him! She came to a halt some
ten paces away.

: I am Sarya.
You can hear me? :

Peter Littleman
took a step backwards.

“I am not a
candidate.”

: I know. I
have seen you before, you are a teacher. I did not sense your mind
before but I do now, very strong :

She gazed at
him out of large blue-green eyes.

: We vadeln?
:

I must have
got through to her when I wished so hard for Tana
, thought
Peter Littleman in shocked and unbelieving surprise and not a
little alarm,
it must have augmented my latent abilities or
something.

: Ceja :
Sarya agreed
: now we hear each other :

Peter shook his
head slightly, clearing his thoughts and answered as the full
realisation of what was happening to him hit him, “yes, I would
like the chance very much. I never thought though ...”

: Good, come
with me now :

In front of the
amazed gaze of his fellow instructors and his stunned pupils, he
did so, stumbling over his own booted feet in his haste to get to
her side. He glanced back at Tana with a pang of guilt.

Sarya
interpreted both look and feeling.

: Peter not
worry, that girl has very strong thoughts. Three argue now about
who will be with her :

: Three? :

He had reached
Sarya’s side. The yellow-striped female Lind leant in to him. He
staggered.

: Yes, here
they come, she will bond with one she makes strongest link to, this
is test, all three feel drawn to the youngling, even I can sense
her, not as strong as I can you, my vadeln, no need to shout your
thoughts by the way, I ‘hear’ you perfectly well without :

: It’s new
to me :
Peter replied, trying to moderate the loudness of his
‘voice’
: I’ve never consciously tried to broadcast what I am
thinking before :

Sarya looked
over to where the three Lind males were converging on Tana.

: The girl,
she is of your kin? :

“No,” he
answered, “but I have been teaching her for some months now and I
so wanted her to find a Lind, I was thinking about her so hard, I
assume it gave what latent telepathic abilities I had a boost.”

Peter looked
round the field. Some students had met their match. Like Peter they
were standing beside their Lind life-mates in various attitudes,
other Lind were sniffing round the others, trying to find the right
human. A few disappointed Lind were exiting the field. They would
leave Settlement and extend their search throughout the
countryside.

He noticed that
some students were being passed over with hardly a glance and a
sniff. They stood, some disappointed, others not. He watched as one
of the three who were moving towards Tana veered away and began an
unhurried walk towards another girl who, by the look of her,
couldn’t believe her good fortune as the blue and tan striped male
approached. Her face broke into an incredulous smile as telepathic
contact was made. Fleetingly Peter wondered how the girl would do,
remembering her inept attempts at swordsmanship during the months
past.

Tana stood
still as the males stopped in front of her.

Peter held his
breath, he was sure Sarya was doing the same as the scene unfolded.
Tana appeared to waver before the smaller of the two then her hand
came forward as she reached out with tentative fingers towards the
largest blue-striped male Peter had ever seen, a full seventeen
hands in height if he was any judge. The smaller of the two sighed
and stepped back, accepting the inevitable. Tana took a step
forward and placed one small hand on the muzzle of the one who
remained in front of her. He licked it and Tana smiled, a smile of
such joy that Peter felt he was about to cry. He wiped the wetness
away and looked at Sarya.

“Happy now?”
she asked.

Peter
nodded.

“A fine match,
Tavei come from a most famous line. He can name amongst his
ancestors the famous Kolyei and Radya. Our traditions speak much of
them. They will do well together as shall we but we need no more
worry about them. I am of rtath Ilyei of Vadath, the second rtath
to bond with humans. We go away now and find someplace quiet.”

This was easier
said than done. Peter’s fellow instructors were clustering around
them, offering their congratulations. It was some time before he
and Sarya could escape and by that time Tana and Tavei were long
gone.

Tana and Tavei
spent their first long summer night together in an empty stable
which usually held the Garda’s horse-cavalry mounts, the unit was
off on patrol and the remaining horses temporarily emptied into the
nearby paddocks. The nights were not as warm as they would be later
on and there was no way the Lind could fit into the barracks’ rooms
with their narrow-tiered bunks. There was nothing to be gained by
sending the new paired off to the Stronghold with a plethora of
head colds and chills. The Lind were largely impervious to the
cold, their human partners were not.

It was warm in
the stable block and snuggled into Tavei’s side Tana began to fall
into a joyful sleep. She had been chosen by a Lind! She was going
to Vadath, her dream had come true; she was to become a full-time
soldier!

: A small
soldier :
Tavei teased.

: Good
things come in small bundles :
Tana retorted in the same vein,
nestling into his warmth
. : This is what I’ve always dreamed of
but never thought would happen. I was just one of the temporary
students and the smallest one at that. How many have paired?
:

: Thirty-one
:
Tavei replied
: a fair number :

: What about
those who didn’t? :

: We come here
first, the unattached now go out in search :

: But we go
to Vada :
answered Tana with satisfaction
: tell me about it
:

Tired out, Tana
fell asleep before Tavei could.

A few days
later the new pairs set out for the Vada Stronghold.

No longer for
Peter Littleman the solitary life of the unmarried soldier, he left
the Garda, a soldier still but now with a lifelong partner; only
death would separate them.

The serious
little Tana went with them, perched atop Tavei like a little vuz,
her feet barely reaching round the barrel of his torso and clinging
on to the riding straps like grim death. Horse riding was not
taught until the second term.

* * * * *

The fourth
member of the quartet had never in a million years thought she
would get the chance.

When, as an old
woman, Hannah Knutson looked back on her eventful life she always
thought of her childhood as a happy time. She had had the normal
upbringing of her class on her parent’s large kura farm north of
Loch Stewart, the largest expanse of inland water in the Northern
Continent.

Her first
fourteen years were uneventful; the farm was too far from the coast
to be bothered by the pirate raids that so troubled the inhabitants
of the coasts.

She and her
siblings had run wild in the paddocks and nearby woods. That had
had to stop when the peripatetic teachers came, trying to install
some semblance of an education into their young minds and there
were chores to be done, but in a large family like hers, these were
never very onerous nor time-consuming.

At the time
this story opens Hannah had just celebrated her fourteenth
birthday. She was a tall, rather overweight youngster with a mass
of dark curls that, try as she might, she could never get to lie
straight. Only her next oldest sister remained at home by the
summer of AL156, a lively and determined young lady of fifteen who
led Hannah a fine dance at every opportunity. If there was trouble
at the farm, Lucy was in it up to her armpits and she usually
dragged Hannah into the mess as well.

Their elder
sisters were all married with homes of their own now and did not
often visit. Travelling, unless one was rich and could afford a
comfortably sprung coach, was a lengthy and uncomfortable business.
They had been able to keep Lucy from her greatest excesses but,
with them gone, she went her own way.

All the
mischievous Lucy wanted to do was enjoy herself; all play and no
work was her motto. She wanted adventure and excitement. She wanted
to join the Vada. It had been Lucy who had persuaded their father
to raise the Blue Flag to tell any Lind who were passing that there
was a human here who wished the chance to vadeln-pair.

After the
Battle of the Alliance in AL 2, it had been decided that young
humans would attend a special pairing meeting in the woods beside
the battle plains above Settlement each year but, as time went on,
this had proved impracticable. An alternative was found and now, in
the first months of summer, any Lind wishing to find their human
life-partner had leave to travel throughout Argyll to look. The
Blue Flag was a quick and simple solution to show where they would
be welcome, for not all Argyllian families were happy for their
sons and daughters to soldier with the Vada.

Already five
Lind had seen the flag and entered the farmstead, asking Gunter
Knutson for permission to meet the one who had raised the flag.

Five times Lucy
had presented herself to the visitors and five times she had been
disappointed.

Hannah herself
had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. She didn’t think
she wanted to get married and usually unmarried girls stayed at
home unless they were apprenticed to a trade. In fact it was
traditional that one daughter, usually the least accomplished or
pretty, should stay at home to look after her parents in their
declining years. Shy, quiet Hannah had accepted this
philosophically and thought this her destiny. She showed no
aptitude for a trade and her mother was increasingly dependant on
her and Lucy (when she could be found) to help her with the
multitude of tasks that faced a busy farmwife in a farm as large as
theirs. Adela Knutson wasn’t getting any younger and Lucy did as
little work as she could get away with.

So when the
farmhands shouted out that not one but two Lind were approaching,
Hannah shrugged her shoulders and continued with the washing
up.

Lucy, who was
supposed to be sharing the task, dropped the platter she had been
drying into the greasy water with a messy splash and sped off to
the bedroom they shared to tidy herself.

When Hannah did
emerge into the sunlight, an extremely excited and vocal crowd was
milling around in the farmyard. There was a great deal of noisy
shouting and exclamations of congratulations. Lucy must have found
her partner at last!

To her surprise
it was not Lucy who stood beside the smaller of the two Lind, it
was young Robain, son of Gunter Knutson’s foreman who stood, one
arm holding on to the female Lind’s neck, tears streaming down his
face. Hannah knew that the violet-striped Lind with Robain had to
be a female. Male Lind only bonded with female humans and vice
versa.

Lucy stood, a
thunderous expression on her face and muttering to herself, “it’s
too bad,” forgetting in her disappointment that female Lind did not
bond with female humans.

“This calls for
a celebration,” exclaimed Hannah’s father, “a celebratory
feast!”

Lucy stalked
off, ignoring the larger of the two Lind, who was standing a little
distance away and watching the scene with considerable
amusement.

Hannah wondered
what to do. Should she go and comfort Lucy?

She half-turned
to go after her sister and had taken not two steps when a ‘voice’
stopped her with a question and a command.

: Where are
you going? Wait :

She turned
back.
Who said that?

: Wait :
the ‘voice’ repeated, louder this time. It was very insistent.

That’s
strange
, thought Hannah,
where did that voice come from?
Nobody else was acting as if they had heard anything. Confused, she
stood there.

: Why are you
upset? :

“What do you
mean?” she said aloud.

: I can ‘hear’
what you are thinking and you are very loud :

“Me?” The
question emerged as a squeak.

: Yes. I
‘felt’ you as we arrived at your domta :

“Can I speak
inside your head like you are doing to me?”

: Try it :

Realisation hit
her. She shuffled sideways so that she could see the male Lind
standing at the farmyard gate.

: Open your
mind to me Hannah, accept me :

Hannah’s
thoughts tumbled. It was Lucy who was to pair and embark on a life
of adventure, she was to stay here and help her mother.

: I do not
wish this Lucy. I wish you. Don’t you want me? :
The ‘voice’
was wistful.

: I don’t know
:

: Don’t you
like me? :

“Oh
yes
,” breathed Hannah. Indeed, the Lind was a most handsome
creature. He was fully the size of a horse, perhaps some fifteen
and a half hands in height. Unlike most Lind she had seen, he
wasn’t brown and striped all over. This Lind was black; the pale
lemon stripes were few and only on his back and forelegs.

: Push your
thoughts out and join your mind with mine :

There was a
hint of command there and Hannah obeyed.

Tentatively she
pushed her awareness towards him and found herself enveloped in a
warm glow of belonging, of love and acceptance.

: See how
easy it is? :
The ‘chuckle’ whispered inside her head.

Hannah
nodded.

: Walk towards
me Hannah. We are together at last and we are as one :

Hannah stood
frozen to the spot.