Ambition and Alavidha (35 page)

“And is this
not such a time?” demanded Thalia, “if these men aren’t caught they
might use what they carry to destroy maybe the whole
continent!”

“What they
carry is no longer our concern,” insisted the Largan.

Thalia was
confused by his words. She frowned.

“Do not worry
Vadeln Thalia,” the Largan said, “steps have been taken and the
thing the men carry will be in your paws soon. You have done
well.”

“Thank you
Largan,” said Thalia, not quite sure if she was being complimented
or dismissed.

“We shall meet
again,” he said to Thalia and Josei. To Zeb and Vya he repeated
these four words. To Daniel he said one.

“Alavidha,”
Daniel tried to repeat it and trying to get the inflection right as
Thalia had taught. It didn’t sound the same as when the Largan had
said it.

Turning to
Aeolvaldr the Largan said, “take them to the water passage that
marks the way to the man ruler of Hal-lam. Leave them there and
return.”

“Yes My
Largan,” said Aeolvaldr, bowing his head.

* * * * *

-48-

THE WESTERN
EDGE OF THE NADLIANS OF THE LARG

The
life-bonding of Zeb and Vya was not the same mind blowing
experience it was for most who went through the experience and
certainly had been for Thalia and Josei.

The two knew
each other. They understood each other. Each accepted the
personality of the other.

True, Zeb was
only eleven and Vya much older, she refused to reveal her true age
to Josei when he asked, but as Vya said, age should be no barrier
to happiness. Ten years between the ages of vadeln-pairs was usual
and more not uncommon; the human half usually being the
younger.

The two of them
were already sharing thoughts and were talking telepathically. This
had started in earnest during the days they had spent on the Island
of Galliard although there had been short spurts of mind linkage
before then; during the run to Port Lutterell. Now here in the
Nadlians of the Larg it was blossoming.

Thalia and
Josei had realised what was happening but Daniel was only aware
that the relationship between him and Vya was different than that
between her and Zeb. He was conscious too that Zeb was changing,
becoming more grown up; he chattered less and was more
introspective.

As with most
pairings the empathic ability had to be present in the human
psyche. Zeb had this in abundance. Vya had sensed it as soon as the
two of them met.

After the
empathy had been recognised, the human and the Lind had to achieve
the mind-link and that sense of compatibility and prospect of
oneness. The two of them had that too but Zeb was young, a full
three years too young to be able to be regarded as an adult by Vya.
This had been Vya’s dilemma. Still, as Vya had told Josei, now that
she had made her decision she was not going to wait, especially
now.

She had begun
by deliberately implanting images into Zeb’s receptive mind,
wondering how he would react and what he would do with the images,
if anything.

To her delight
Zeb had accepted the images with delight and ‘sent’ her some of his
own memories in return.

That had
clinched it.

Their pairing
had been pretty rapid after that. Now they were sharing their
innermost thoughts and could converse telepathically with ease
despite the languages barrier. Zeb could not yet block his most
private thoughts and feelings as Vya had learned to do when still a
ltscta but she believed that was a very good thing until her vadeln
got a bit older and outgrew his propensity for blurting out what he
thought and getting into mischief.

* * * * *

“Now you’ll be
going to Vada when all this is over to become a cadet,” Thalia told
Zeb when Josei informed her that the pairing was complete.

“Do I have to?”
asked Zeb who had learnt quite a lot about what a Vada cadetship
was and meant in the time he had spent in her and Daniel’s company.
Daniel and Thalia spoke about their respective childhoods and
precious lives of an evening over the campfire. He had learnt
before he had met them that he could find out about a lot of things
he wasn’t supposed to know when adults talked believing he was
asleep.

He had employed
this tactic a lot during the journey until Vya had stopped him
saying that it was dishonest. Ltsctas were taught that it was very
rude to ‘listen in’ to conversations uninvited.

“I don’t think
I’d like it very much,” Zeb added, “wearing uniforms and having to
do as you’re told all the time. Can’t Vya and I just stay together
and not bother?”

“You’ll get
trained to use a sword,” said a persuasive Thalia who hadn’t
forgotten his yearning look not long after they had met.

Zeb’s face
brightened although he was not yet convinced about the advisability
of joining the Vada.

“That part
might be okay,” he acceded in a cautious voice, “but what will we
do until I’m fourteen? The Vada won’t accept me until then, that’s
what you told Daniel.”

To Zeb, the
three years until he attained that great age loomed over him like a
lifetime.

“You can stay
with us,” offered Thalia in an impulsive moment.

Zeb looked
pleased. Vya was pleased. Josei however hadn’t ‘heard’ that one
coming; his look of pained astonishment said it all.

: Why me?
:
he groaned, but he didn’t really mean it, not deep down and
Thalia knew he didn’t really mean it. Anyway, he consoled himself,
it wasn’t going to happen, at least not in the way Thalia
expected.

* * * * *

-49-

THE FAVOURITE
MANOR HOUSE OF THE DUKE OF HALLAM - DUCHY OF HALLAM - KINGDOM OF
MURDOCH

“Father? May I
speak to you?”

Paul Hallam
looked up.

“Of course you
may. Now?”

“Yes please
Father, it’s important.”

“Well come
along in, I’ve got a half-candlemark or so to spare before Mal
comes in. Will that be enough and did you enjoy your ride?”

This last was a
leading question. Paul already knew that his youngest daughter had
gone for a ride and probably enjoyed it. What Jill didn’t know was
that he knew that yet again she had gone out alone. This as Jill
well knew, was absolutely forbidden and she had promised she
wouldn’t. Paul always insisted his daughters took an escort with
them which was a normal rule in the kingdom when a woman of noble
or gentle birth went riding. Jill was always forgetting about the
rule.

Jill
flushed.

“I went alone,”
she confessed, “up as far as the rift valley.”

“I know. Now
come and stand beside me.”

Jill walked
slowly to her father’s side. Paul Hallam wasn’t as strict a parent
as some fathers of daughters of rank but she knew he was not happy;
not angry exactly but disappointed with her.

Paul put his
arm round her waist and drew her to him.

“Rules are not
made to be broken” he began, “they are for your protection and the
rift valley is a large and desolate place. It can also be
dangerous. What would have happened if you had met with an
accident? No-one would have known where you were.”

Jill wriggled
uncomfortably.

“But the
morning was so very beautiful.”

“And you
couldn’t wait?” he teased.

Jill nodded and
hung her head.

“You must
promise me that you’ll never do it again,” said Paul but without
much hope. She should have been a boy. What a boy she would have
made!
She has courage and a thirst for adventure enough for
twenty boys
.

“I promise,”
said Jill, shame-faced. She loved her father, hated to disappoint
him but the morning had been so crisp and bright. It had seemed
such a pity at the time to have to wait until an escort was
found.

“Then we’ll
leave it there,” announced her father, “so, what was it you wanted
to tell me about that was so important?”

Jill lifted
eyes full of sparkling memories.

“It was the
most wonderful morning of my life! I met a Lai!”

“A Lai!”
breathed Paul, only half believing her. No Lai had been seen in the
skies of Hallam since his great great grandfather’s day. “You sure
Jill?” he asked, “you sure it wasn’t just a another large
flyer?”

“Father, I
met
him. He wasn’t flying. He was on the ground. He talked
to me. He told me to tell you he was here and to say,” she screwed
up her face, remembering Maru’s exact words, “he said that the time
of a great event was soon, or was it
the
great event? I’ve
forgotten and that a person would be coming who would tell you all
about it.”

“Was that
all?”

“Oh, and he
also said he knew our ancestor Robain, the First Duke. How is that
possible?”

“Absolutely
feasible and definitely possible,” Paul answered, “the Lai live a
long time. What colour was he?”

“Sort of goldy
with a few coppery flecks along his wings and muzzle. He was just
beautiful Father,” Jill’s whole face was glowing with the
remembered memory, “he was the most beautiful creature I have ever
set eyes on. Oh, I do hope it’s him who comes to tell you about
what he was talking about. I really do. Did he know our
ancestor?”

“He likely did.
Sounds as if he’s been around for a while. He was probably a very
young Lai during the Dglai War.”

“Will I ever
see him again?” pressed Jill, “I really want to Father, really I
do. If he comes during the night will you promise to wake me up?
Promise?”

“I promise,”
smiled Paul, “if you promise not to go out riding alone any
more.”

“I promise,”
said a fervent Jill and she meant it, at least for the moment.

* * * * *

Paul did not
doubt the veracity of what Jill had told him nor that she would
keep the promise just uttered.

His youngest
daughter as far as he was aware had never told a lie in her life.
In this respect she was so unalike her older sister Judith who
would prevaricate and lie if she believed it would keep her from a
scolding. Jill, like Paul as a boy, never did and took the
punishment. She was her father’s child in every respect except for
her sex.

“What was the
name of this Lai?” he asked her, almost as an afterthought.

“Name?” I
forgot to say, didn’t I? It was Maru.”

Maru!

Paul Hallam did
not dare even breathe the name aloud. Maru, Leader of the Lai! In
his duchy! Now what in god’s name was Maru doing here? Paul needed
time to think about this.

“Run along,” he
told Jill, “we’ll talk later and this time I won’t tell your mother
about your solitary ride. You mustn’t tell anyone about meeting
Maru either. This is our secret, you and I.”

Jill rolled her
eyes. Her face said ‘Fathers!’

“You know I’m
not a leaky, drippy cistern Father.”

“And where may
I ask did you hear that expression? It’s not a phrase I like.”

“Overheard
Housekeeper saying it.”

“Don’t use it
again, now you must go. Mal will be here in a candledrip.”

Jill planted a
quick kiss on Paul’s forehead and skipped away. Paul noticed that
the hem of her riding habit was all over mud.

“And change
your dress before your Mother sees you,” he called out to her
retreating back.

* * * * *

Paul Hallam sat
back in his chair and pondered.

Maru the Lai
here in Hallam. Why?

* * * * *

-50-

THE STRONGHOLD
OF THE VADA – VADATH

“Did you mean
what you said to me on our run here, Tara, lis of Thalia, that your
greatest wish was to be as her?”

“How can you
doubt me?” cried Tara passionately, “I know now that it’s all I’ve
ever wanted, deep down. Didn’t I leave home with you to come here,
to Vada? Can’t you sense it?”

“I do sense the
truth behind your words,” Dsya replied, her eyes wistful. She had
never found a human with whom she could bond. A few had come close
but each encounter had lacked that special feeling that would have
induced her to take the final paw-step.

“I may be able
to help you,” she said at last, whilst Tara stood, hanging on a
tenterhook of suspense and hope.

“How?”

“You are aware
that there are not many suns, you humans call them days, left?”

Tara nodded, at
once serious. The inhabitants of the Stronghold, Human and Lind had
been informed about what was happening, had been happening, two
evenings prior to this conversation. The border between Vadath and
Argyll had been closed for all outgoing travellers that morning.
People, of the two and four legged variety, could travel across the
border in to Vadath but only a selected few would be able to go in
the opposite direction into Argyll.

“There is Lind,
a relative of mine, who might suit you nicely. He is on his way
here.”

Tara couldn’t
quite believe what she was hearing. If she could find a Lind with
whom she could life-bond then she would be able to go with the
others who were leaving and Tara wanted this more than she had
wanted anything else in her life.

“Oh, I do hope
he likes me,” she enthused, “I can’t be left behind when you go, I
simply can’t.”

“Alyei has
always been eager to become Vadeln,” continued Dsya, “I ‘sense’ you
strong although I cannot ‘hear’ you as we are of the same gender
you and I. Alyei is of my blood, our mothers are daughters of the
same mother. If I can reach your mind then so will he although
there are no guarantees.”