Hoo
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About this ebook
Naya, Slink and Stumpy have all told their stories, and now it’s the turn of Hoo the owl, with her bird’s eye view of things, as the team leaves Naya’s old home town of Harat and heads toward the hills. Syana is excited about visiting the hills, but apart from that, it seems that life is settling down for the team.
But then, the Urzites discover that they’re going to be passing close to the town of Mennon, where Hartan Igellson lives. He and his rat have been number one on their list of people they need to take care of ever since they learned how he destroyed Naya’s life. Princess Arka doesn’t intend to visit Mennon. It would be pointless because the regional Warden Centre is situated in the town, so she assumes that Urzites will already be known there.
However, the Urzites know that they’ll never be able to hold their heads up again if they pass this close to Hartan Igellson and don’t do anything about him. After all, this might be the only chance they ever have to exact vengeance for Naya. So, they dispatch the two owls, Hoo and Hervin, to spy out the land and find out where Hartan Igellson lives, with the intention of paying him a visit one night before they leave the area.
When the two owls visit the town in search of their quarry, however, they uncover an appalling situation at the Mennon Warden Centre. It’s going to be up to the team to not only get even with Hartan Igellson and his rat, but to rescue the Urzites of Mennon from virtual slavery. And Hoo will be right there in the thick of the action.
Ashley Abbiss
Hello there. I’m Ashley Abbiss. I live and write in beautiful New Zealand, where I live with one large dog, who looks nothing like Friend from my Daughters of Destiny books. She is, however, almost as intelligent and definitely as opinionated, and if she can’t quite speak in the way Friend does to Niari, that doesn’t really hold her back much!I write fantasy, mostly of the epic variety. Let me say right up front that if you’re looking for a quick read, you’re in the wrong place. But if you like a substantial, satisfying story that you can really get your teeth into, stick with me. I may have something you’ll enjoy. There’s no graphic sex in my books. If that’s what you want, you’ll have to look elsewhere. There is violence, and there is swearing, though mostly of the ‘s/he swore’ variety, nothing overly graphic or offensive. I also write about strong, independent female characters, so if your taste runs to something more macho, or something more frilly and helpless, this may not be the place for you. I’ve always loved wandering in different worlds, be they fantasy or science fiction, although lately I tend to prefer fantasy. The only proviso is that they have to be believable worlds, worlds that feel real, that have depth and scope – and they must, absolutely must be fun to visit. I read for escape and entertainment, and I don’t really want to escape from this world into one even grimmer. Trouble, tension, and danger I can deal with, what sort of story would there be without them? Where would Pern be without Thread, Frodo without Sauron, Harry Potter without Voldemort? But there has to be hope, and there has to be a light touch. Happy ever after does have a lot going for it, even if initially it’s only a very small light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. My personal favourites include Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series, and the fantasies of David Eddings, and lately, they’ve been joined by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and a few others. Of those, David Eddings was probably my greatest inspiration.I began to wonder if I could create my own world, one just as believable and multi-layered as theirs. Could I create a world with its own history, geography, social structure, deities, and all the rest? One that hung together? That a reader could believe in? It became a challenge, one I really wanted to see if I could meet. So I dusted off my writing skills, learned a few more, cranked up the imagination, and got busy. I’d always been good at creative writing, but though I’d made a few attempts to write after I left school, none of them came to anything. That was until I started writing fantasy. Suddenly, I knew I’d come home. I quickly discovered that I’m not the sort of writer who can plan a book (or a world!) before I start. I just can’t do it. But I can create characters, and suddenly the characters took on a reality of their own and took over the stories, often to the extent that they actually surprised me. And the stories worked. Their world worked. Sometimes I had to go back and fix the odd contradiction, but mostly it worked and was very natural and organic. Even though my first attempts were pitiful, I knew I’d found where I belong. I persevered, I learned, I wrote. I discovered that the characters are key for me. Once I get them right, they tell their own story. I was away. There were dark days during which my stories became my refuge, my characters my friends. And I kept writing. There were happy times when I didn’t need a refuge, but my characters were still my friends, and they drew me inexorably back. I kept writing. And now, I hope my characters may become your friends too, my worlds ones where you also like to walk; perhaps even your refuge from dark days. Come join me in a world where magic is real and the gods are near, where beasts talk and men and women achieve things they never dreamed they could. But most of all, come and have fun! Happy reading.Ash.
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Hoo - Ashley Abbiss
CHAPTER ONE
I have quite a story to tell you, but I’d better introduce myself first. My name is Hoo, and I’m an owl. I’m also an Urzite and the only avian member of the gang known as the Frightful Four. I’m sure you’ve heard all about us from Slink and Stumpy, so I won’t bother with long explanations here.
The others like to call themselves a gang because they think it’s cool, but really, we’re just a group of friends who enjoy each other’s company and look out for each other if there’s trouble. Although, I do have to admit that we are quite well-known around the animal house and Warden Headquarters.
Of course, being the only bird in the Frightful Four also means that I’m the only bird who can claim Naya as my person. I’m rather proud of that, I must admit. Having the only SuperReceptive of our generation, and the only one who’s ever been able to speak to every Urzite, regardless of species, as my person, isn’t something to be sneezed at. I and the others are going to go down in history as the Urzites who Chose the greatest SuperReceptive ever known.
In fact, we’re going to go down in history twice, because we’re also the only group of Urzites to ever Choose the same human. And oh, my, what a riot that caused! You would not believe how upset the humans got about it. And all because it had never been done before. Well, I mean, wasn’t that the whole point?
There’s never been anyone like Naya before, so I would have thought it would be obvious that the normal rules didn’t necessarily apply to her. Not that having only one Urzite actually is a rule. It’s just always been that way because that’s all most humans are capable of. They can only hear the Urzite they bond with. One Urzite, and only one; until Naya, that is.
So, you’d think, since it isn’t actually a rule, that it wouldn’t have been an issue at all. But no, they had to get in an absolute flap about it, to the point where we weren’t even sure they were going to let us have Naya for a while there. And that was in direct contravention of another universally-accepted non-rule. It’s a maxim that the Urzite does the Choosing, and the Urzite is always right.
But that didn’t seem to matter at all when it came to all of us Choosing Naya. We had to get the King’s permission before we were allowed to keep her. At least, that was what the humans thought. I’m not entirely sure what the others meant to do, but there was no way they were going to stop me having the human I’d Chosen. I mean, how were they going to stop me, anyway? Just because humans like to think they run everything doesn’t mean that they do.
And it certainly doesn’t mean that we Urzites have to agree with them and do as they say. It amuses me sometimes to imagine what their reactions would have been had they tried to forbid Naya to have more than one Urzite, and I’d just gone home with her anyway. That’s always assuming that I wasn’t the one she chose, of course. But that’s not much of an assumption because she’d almost certainly have chosen Mewla. She’s the one she thought she was getting when she agreed to become a Warden, you see.
Had you heard about that? Little Miss Mewla, brat cat extraordinaire, had convinced us that it would be all right for all of us to Choose Naya. As you’ve just heard, she didn’t know what she was talking about, as usual. Why we listened to her in the first place is beyond me. But we did. I suppose it was just such an attractive thought, not only being able to Choose the SuperReceptive but also being able to keep the gang together instead of being broken up, that we all wanted to believe her.
But anyway, it was perfectly obvious when we all Chose Naya that it was a big shock to her. It turned out that she hadn’t wanted to be a Warden at all, and when she did agree, she’d only expected to get Mewla. You see, what happened was that Naya was ill and Mewla was assigned as a nurse to look after her.
Cats have a tendency to bond with people before they even know whether that person wants them. Other Urzites do it, too, from time to time, but mostly it’s cats. It’s an idiotic thing to do. They’re actually risking their lives because if the person they’re fixated on doesn’t become a Warden they usually pine away and die. But that’s cats for you; neurotic creatures. Mewla bonded with Naya while she was nursing her, and when Naya didn’t want to become a Warden, Mewla pined away until she almost starved herself to death.
It’s a horrible experience, I have to tell you, watching a friend go through that and not being able to do anything to help. We were all dreadfully upset. I don’t really like to think about that time, even now. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why we were so ready to believe Mewla when she said we could all Choose Naya. We’d almost lost her once and we didn’t want to go through that again.
What happened was that Naya agreed to become a Warden because it was the only way to save Mewla’s life. But no one (read Mewla) had bothered to tell her that we all planned on Choosing her. She thought she was only getting Mewla. It must have been a rather nasty shock when she discovered that all four of us had Chosen her.
Unfortunately, it also had some rather nasty side effects right at first, until people got used to the idea that someone could have more than one Urzite. We found that, even though there were four of us, we had our work cut out to care for our person. Humans tend not to understand the Choosing process, I find. I think it probably has to do with that same feeling of superiority that makes them think they run things. They can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that it is we who do the Choosing, and not them.
Because of that, some people thought Naya was greedy and had stolen us off other people who might have had us. That’s totally ridiculous, of course, but as I say, they don’t understand the process. Some people even went so far as to try to punish Naya for her perceived crimes. We even had to go to her defence at the party after the Choosing. Someone decided to have a go at her right there, in the middle of the party, because his friend hadn’t been Chosen and he thought it was her fault.
Fortunately, Slink had stayed with Naya, and he was able to bite the person concerned and dissuade him from carrying on with his attack. He called us, too, but by the time we got there, the Director was there. I was very disappointed about that, I remember. We were all ready for a fight, ready to do our duty and defend our person; ready to prove to Naya how much we loved her and that we would take good care of her.
That’s a very serious responsibility for an Urzite. We Choose our human, so it’s up to us to take care of them. I mean, it’s only fair, isn’t it? But the Director stepping in spoiled that. He dealt with the miscreant quite adequately, in my opinion, but that wasn’t the point. It was our duty, not his. We might have ignored him, of course, but he is the Director and we didn’t want to embarrass Naya, so we had to leave it. It really was most vexing, though.
We certainly hadn’t got off to the most auspicious start. We’d barely had Naya for an hour, and this was the second piece of trouble already. The third, if you count all that hoo-ha about whether we were actually allowed to have her or not. It was most disconcerting. One’s Choosing is perhaps the greatest event of an Urzite’s life, and ours was turning into something of a disaster. It really wasn’t fair.
You’d think all that fuss about whether we could keep Naya or not would be enough, wouldn’t you? But then, we got to the schoolroom to be registered as an official team, and we hit more trouble. The head teacher, Madame Uritta, decided to take a dislike to Naya. She’s known to do that. There are always one or two in each intake that she dislikes and makes life difficult for. This time, it seemed that Naya was elected. Slink helped get us over the first hurdle by calling the Director to come and sort things out, but it didn’t augur well for our schooling.
We had several weeks of initial training to get through, and Madame Uritta would be down on Naya the whole time. It was going to be a nightmare. And then, we finally made it to the Choosing feast only to have Naya confronted by Helin Arginson and his silly ideas about why his friend hadn’t been Chosen. I hadn’t thought Choosing would be like this. It really did look as though we had our work cut out to take care of our person.
In fact, ashamed though I am to admit it, for the first few weeks I don’t think we’d have managed without the help of the other Urzites at Headquarters. People really did seem to have it in for Naya, and even though we all worked hard at it, we couldn’t manage to protect her adequately without help. We did work out the best use for our various talents, though. That was valuable, and with four of us, we have quite a good mix.
For instance, I’m best at surveillance, so it’s my job to fly above Naya and keep an eye out for trouble. I then warn the others, and they take action. Mewla and Slink are natural hunters, being a cat and fox respectively. They’re quick and savage when they need to be. Stumpy’s a donkey, so he’s best suited to running. It’s his job to get Naya out of there to safety while the rest of us deal with the threat. It works very well, but as I say, for the first week or so, even that wasn’t adequate.
It all quietened down in the end, of course, and life became more settled. We made it through our initial schooling, although poor Naya suffered horribly at the hands of Madame Uritta. There wasn’t much we could do about it at first, for fear of making things even worse for Naya. It was very distressing watching our person suffer and not being able to help. Especially when, if one of us put even the tip of a claw out of line, Madame used it as an excuse to get at Naya even more. But we made sure we paid Madame back for it before we left the school. No one hurts our person and gets away with it.
We almost got into big trouble over that. The idea had been that Madame would know who did it and why, but that there would be nothing she could prove if we just kept denying it. It didn’t quite work out that way, though, because she did something we hadn’t expected. She called Naya up in front of the entire class and was going to punish and humiliate her.
We couldn’t allow that, of course, especially since Naya hadn’t even known what we were doing, so we ended up having to confess. Slink stood up and made a speech to the class, and the entire class supported us and Naya and wouldn’t let Madame bully her. But then, Madame went and complained to the Director, and we were called before him. Not that we would have cared about getting in trouble, except that it might have made things difficult for Naya.
It was Slink again who got us out of it. In fact, he got us out of it and landed Madame in it. Rather than us being punished, she ended up being investigated and censured for the way she’d treated Naya. The fox has a silver tongue when he wants to have. He can be very eloquent. He’s also as passionate as the rest of us about taking care of Naya and seeing that she isn’t hurt in any way, so he was at his very best that day.
Even Stumpy made a speech to the Director about it. He feels things deeply, does Stumpy, and this made him really angry, I think, because he isn’t usually one to push himself forward like that. He told the Director that he was a teacher himself, so he knew what was expected, and he didn’t understand how Madame could get away with behaviour that would get any of the other teachers in big trouble. I was impressed, I must say. Stumpy wasn’t as eloquent as Slink, but he made up for it with pure passion. Between them, the two of them convinced the Director that it was Madame Uritta who was at fault, not us. It was all very stirring.
It was a rather tense time, actually. Our schooling was coming to an end, and we were beginning to think about the future. First, there were the exams to get through, and then we would be given our first assignment. It really was most exciting, although of course, we didn’t know what we might end up doing, so it was a little bit scary, too.
We didn’t get to choose these things, we just went where the Warden Corps decided we could make the best use of our talents. We did get to state a preference, and it was taken into consideration when the board made its decision, but with there being the five of us, including Naya, and all wanting different things, that probably wasn’t going to be much help.
I personally didn’t really mind where we ended up. Being a bird, my best skill is Surveillance, and I could practice that wherever we were. In fact, I practised it all the time anyway, keeping an eye out for Naya. I don’t think Naya had any particular preference, either. But Slink and Mewla wanted to do some real espionage work, and Stumpy wanted to stay at Headquarters and teach. He’d ended up teaching a class because the original teacher was ill, and he’d discovered that he enjoyed teaching very much. So, whatever happened, at least one of us would be disappointed.
That having been said, I think we were all excited the day after graduation when we turned up for the last assembly, when we would be given our new assignments. We were a fully-fledged Wurzite team now, and about to embark on our careers. Wherever we were assigned, we would be together, and that was the most important thing.
So, we were all eager to find out what our first assignment would be. We’d talked about it, of course, and speculated endlessly over the last few weeks. But none of us, even in our wildest imaginings, had thought of what actually happened. I think we were all shocked. But we were delighted, too, even though none of us had got the assignment we’d wanted. Because we and Naya, along with our friends Syana the golden retriever and Thimni the goat and their people Garina and Annana, were being sent on a special mission.
When Naya had told the story of how she’d come to Breith and the Warden Corps, that had included an account of how people where she grew up thought of Wardens, and how she’d been treated with suspicion and distrust just because a Warden had shown an interest in her. Hearing that, the Warden Corps had realised that they had a major public relations problem out there in the rural areas of the country.
For some peculiar reason, people out there believed that Wardens were some sort of evil cult. And a lot of them had never even heard of Urzites! How it got to be that way no one seems quite sure because the Warden Corps isn’t particularly secretive about what it does. But, however it happened, much of the population of Lakoon has lost whatever knowledge they once had of us and what we do. It was going to be our job to go out there and begin to correct that.
Oh, my goodness! It left me all of a flutter. This was a really important job. We were to go out there and introduce ourselves and educate people about who we were and what we did. And, what was more, the itinerary that the Warden Corps had drawn up for us would take us to the very town that Naya came from. We’d get to see where she grew up, maybe meet some of her old friends and see some of the places that had been important to her. We were all so excited.
And also, because most of us had never been far from Breith, it was going to be an opportunity to see some more of the country. This was going to be a real adventure. I’m not entirely sure that Naya was all that thrilled at the prospect of going back to her old home, actually, but we Urzites could hardly contain ourselves. Not only would we be able to satisfy our curiosity, but because of Naya’s peculiar history and the fact that she hadn’t really wanted to be a Warden, we felt an extra burden of responsibility towards her. Understanding more of her history would help us to understand her better.
Also going with us were the three princesses, Princess Arka, Princess Gurza, and Princess Orilin. I was really pleased about that last addition because that meant my friend Hervin would be coming, too. He’s an owl, like me, and Princess Orilin is his person. She’s an official observer for the Warden Corps. Her job is to observe how Naya interacts with us.
Since Naya is so unique, the Warden Corps hopes that observing her will give them some more information about the Warden-Urzite bond, which is poorly understood. Naya gets a bit upset about being watched sometimes, but I don’t mind at all. I’m proud to have the SuperReceptive. If they want to watch me interact with her, they’re welcome. As I said before, we’re making history here. It ought to be properly documented.
The other two princesses were coming ostensibly because they had the most experience of Urzites, since we all lived in their house, and they could, therefore, provide an independent witness to our intelligence and abilities. I suspected that at least part of the reason was that they’d be support for the younger women, Naya in particular. I did notice that she looked a bit brighter once she knew they were going to be with us.
Also, Princess Arka was a cousin to the King, and humans are impressed by that sort of thing. She’s also not a lady to be crossed, even though she’s very small for a human. I thought she’d be a good person to have along if we struck trouble, which seemed likely at some stage, since we were entering into what was essentially hostile territory, if Naya’s stories were to be believed.
Princess Arka wouldn’t stand for any nonsense, and she was very good at throwing her weight around when it became necessary. I rather thought she’d smooth the path for us much better than the other ladies could alone. All things considered, I thought the Warden Corps board had done a pretty good job of providing us with just the right mix of people and Urzites to carry out this task. I thought the trip should be very interesting. And hopefully, we could produce some good results and convince a few people to see Wardens and Urzites in a new light.
We had a two-week holiday, and then we set off. And that’s where we were as I start this tale. We were a couple of weeks into the trip and just leaving Naya’s hometown of Harat. I wasn’t quite certain how to gauge our success so far.
Certainly, the vast majority of those people we’d contacted up to now had seemed almost eager to be converted. We’d left a lot of new friends and a new appreciation for Urzites and the Warden Corps behind us. We’d refined our presentation down into a kind of show that was very effective. So much so, that Princess Arka had declared her intention of proposing it as a standard for other teams that might be sent out to do the same work.
But, we’d encountered initial distrust and hostility so great that before we had a chance to change anyone’s mind we’d been attacked on more than one occasion. In fact, Hervin and I were the only two Urzites out of the seven of us who hadn’t yet been injured. And I’m not just talking about people throwing stones or something. I’m talking about people actually trying to kill us. Slink, Syana and Mewla had got away with a few cuts and grazes, and a sprained paw for Mewla, but Stumpy and Thimni had almost been killed.
The two of them had been attacked in the stall while Hervin and I were off hunting and the rest of them were inside the inn having dinner with the ladies. Princess Arka’s servants had been prevented from reaching them initially, and they’d had to fend for themselves until help could arrive. I understood that Stumpy had been quite the hero and that without his intervention, Thimni would almost certainly have been killed. Even though he’d been badly wounded himself, he’d stayed on his feet and fighting until help arrived. It really was very brave of him.
Stumpy had three deep stab wounds, and Thimni had a broken leg. Fortunately, they were both healing well, but you’ll know how serious the attack was when I tell you that they were lucky to get away with just that. It shocked us all very deeply. We were used to Breith, where Urzites are known and treated with respect and kindness, even if we’re not always properly understood or awarded our full rights.
That there were places in this country where people didn’t even know Urzites existed was strange enough. But, that there were people who thought we were evil abominations or some such absurdity, and that killing us was a good and proper thing to do was something so outside our experience that we struggled to come to terms with it. Or, at least, I did, and I’m fairly sure the others did, too. Back in Breith, we’d thought our biggest problem was getting the humans to give us our full rights. It seemed laughably naive now.
We were very fortunate that Princess Arka had agreed to come with us because she was able to obtain a guard for us from the local army barracks. We’d had to educate the soldiers before we could trust them to guard us, but we now had our very own military escort to make sure nothing like that could happen again. I have to admit, it was a great relief to all of us. Hervin and I are perhaps the best off of all of us in that regard, because we can just fly away from trouble, but I was still relieved to have the soldiers with us, and I’m quite sure the others were even more so.
Also with us now were the two men who had tried to kill Stumpy and Thimni. They’d been caught, and once they understood who and what we really are, and that we have our own treaty with the King, they were very sorry about what they’d done. They were also in deep trouble because Urzites have the same protection in law as a human does and so they were guilty of attempted murder.
The usual punishment for that is a sentence to the mines, whatever they are. But, since they were both very remorseful and Kryun, in particular, is a good animal doctor, the magistrate offered them the choice of going to the mines or serving out their sentences as the indentured servants of their victims. Thimni and Stumpy had now made another piece of history as possibly the only two Urzites ever to have their own indentured servants.
Thimni made good use of hers. I thought she rather enjoyed being waited on. Of course, she also had a broken leg, so she couldn’t get about to do things for herself, either. Kryun seemed to enjoy looking after her. I think he felt that it made up a little for the damage he’d done. Thimni couldn’t talk to him, of course, and they couldn’t really go calling Annana every five minutes, so Kryun had worked out a call board for Thimni. It had a bell on it, and she rang the bell when she needed him and then pointed to the picture of what she wanted. It was very clever and it seemed to work very well.
Stumpy mostly let his servant, Brev, join in with the soldiers in helping to guard us. He said that he didn’t really need the help since he was up and about again and that he felt Brev served him just as well by helping to stand guard and keep us all safe. I could quite see his point. So, Brev kept Stumpy’s manger full and the stall clean, and then helped out with guard duty.
CHAPTER TWO
The two men had become a valuable part of our presentation when we visited a town, too. Since they were from the same area and therefore understood how their audience thought, they had a great deal of impact when they stood up there and told people about what they’d done and how they’d now learned that we were actually quite nice creatures and not abominations at all.
Since starting out, we’d refined our presentation into a very polished performance, a judicious blend of entertainment and education that appeared to be very effective. As far as we were able to judge, we left the majority of people with a very different idea about Urzites and the Warden Corps than they’d started with when we left a place. There was always a crowd of people to see us off when we left town, and some children even cried because Stumpy was leaving. Stumpy loves to give rides, so of course, the children all love him.
Our presentation started out with Princess Arka making a speech to the people, explaining about the Warden Corps and Urzites. She would tell them all about how the Warden Corps was formed, what Urzites are and where we came from, and how we have our very own treaty with the King. Then, she would tell them about the work we do on behalf of them all, helping to keep Lakoon safe from Zerandan invasion.
After that, Brev and Kryun would stand up and tell people about how they attacked Thimni and Stumpy, and how they’d now discovered that they were wrong and that we’re really nice creatures. Then, when they’d said their piece, Stumpy would go off to give rides to the children, and the rest of us would put on our show. First, Hervin and I got to put on a flying demonstration, and then we all gave a demonstration of magic.
We both love to fly, and we had a routine worked out that was fun to do and showed off our skills. The others told us that it looked spectacular from the ground. It certainly seemed to get plenty of reaction from the crowd. We could hear the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and shrieks of fright when we swooped low, and we always got lots of applause. Then, after that, we would join the others for the part where members of the audience asked us to do things. That was to demonstrate that we were intelligent and could understand language, and weren’t just doing things because we’d been trained to do them, the way mundane animals are sometimes.
It all seemed to work very well to convince people that what Princess Arka told them was the truth. From the point of view of the mission, we were a resounding success. I mean, I don’t think anyone expected that Urzites would be injured and almost killed or anything like that, and we could hardly claim that as a success. But, in terms of changing attitudes and educating people, which is what we were sent out there to do, we were doing very well.
Take our latest stop, for instance. That had been in Harat, Naya’s hometown. Our initial reception had been frosty, even bordering on hostile. People had scowled at us, even, in some cases, spat at us as we entered the town. The inn where we stayed hadn’t been keen to take us in until Princess Arka bullied them a bit, and the town council had refused us a licence to perform within the town. Yet, as in so many other places we’d visited, there’d been an underlying curiosity that we were able to use to get people interested.
We’d entered the town, as I say, to hostility. But we left now with a converted populace and each of us with the key to the town. In between had been a few performances, a visit to Naya’s old neighbourhood, where we met some of her friends and saw the house where she grew up, and a bit of drama involving a lost child, which I’m sure Stumpy has already told you about.
I was especially pleased for Naya as Hervin and I flew above the little cavalcade making its way slowly through the streets of Harat towards the gate. Their progress was slow because the streets were choked with people come out to see us off. Naya had been apprehensive about coming back to Harat, and then she’d been both distressed and embarrassed by the reception we received when we entered the town.
She’d left town initially because Hartan Igellson had destroyed her life and her friends and neighbours were suspicious of her. She’d returned in trepidation and uncertainty. Now, she was leaving as one of the town’s heroines, knowing that the people she’d grown up among were proud of her. I thought that, if we achieved nothing else on this trip, it would be worth it just for that.
In fact, I felt so good about it, I couldn’t contain myself. I beat upwards a little before folding my wings and swooping downwards. I spread them again and braked at just the right moment to send myself swooping under Hervin. I swooped up again before turning on a wingtip and diving again. Hervin caught my eye and swooped after me, and we swooped and dove and wove around each other in a wild display that, for me at least, was an expression of pure joy.
Just because I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve the way Slink and Mewla do, they tend to think I’m staid and stuffy. Perhaps they’re right. Or perhaps they just don’t understand anyone who doesn’t act like they do. But then, Slink’s irresponsible and Mewla’s neurotic, so who’d want to act like them? I really don’t see that they have any right to judge. We’re all who we are. As long as we’re happy with that, why should it be an issue for anyone else?
But, for now, I put all that away and just enjoyed the moment as I swooped and dove with Hervin in celebration of Naya’s vindication. I hoped that now, knowing that her people not only accepted her but were proud to own her, she would be able to put the past behind her and stop dragging all those regrets along with her like so much baggage. I’m not even sure she realised she’d been doing it, but she had. Stumpy told me recently that he’d finally managed to leave his baggage about the farm behind. I hoped Naya was now managing the same feat.
Those on the ground finally made it through the streets and out of the town gate, and could pick up the pace a bit. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be stuck on the ground like that and not have the option to take to the air and fly above all that nonsense; to never know the freedom of the sky, never be able to soar and tumble as Hervin and I do. That would be so sad. But then, I suppose they’ve never known it so they don’t miss it. One can hope so, anyway. Me, I’m just glad I’m a bird.
A few people, mostly children, followed us out of the gate and some way along the road, but soon they were left behind and those below had the road to themselves. The pace picked up a little more, and soon Harat was fading into the distance and we were on our way to our next stop. There was no one on the road or even near it for several miles, so Hervin and I were free to relax a bit and enjoy ourselves.
We’d keep an eye out below, of course. That was our job. Since we could see so much further from up there in the sky than those down on the ground could, we were the early warning system for the group. It was our job to spot trouble and let someone know so they could take steps to deal with it before anyone got hurt, and after what happened to Thimni and Stumpy we were very diligent about it. But, now that the crowds had been left behind and the convoy was moving through empty country, we could relax for a while.
I won’t bore you with a long description of the towns we visited. Nothing out of the ordinary happened except at one of them, which I’ll get to in a moment. Mostly, they followed what had become the usual pattern; initial suspicion and tension, but a willingness on the part of most of the populace to be converted, all culminating in a lot of new friends for the Warden Corps and a triumphant exit from the town in question.
We continued working our way through the area around Naya’s hometown in the days after leaving Harat, first of all continuing on our way westward, and then turning north a couple of days out. It all became rather routine after a while, except for the fact that there remained a threat, initially at least. Plus, of course, there were always those who weren’t convinced, or who refused to believe. And, as Kryun and Brev had demonstrated, those people could be dangerous.
There were no more incidents like the one in which Thimni and Stumpy had almost been killed, thanks to the presence of the soldiers and the guard they kept on us. They really did do an exemplary job, along with Brev and Kryun, and we certainly wouldn’t have liked to be without them. However, we all remained very aware of the possibility of trouble and these days even Slink and Mewla exercised due caution about going out.
That was largely due to Princess Gurza and the telling off she’d given Slink. Ever since Urzite rights had come to the fore, we’d become accustomed to thinking of our freedom of movement as an expression of those rights, and so, when we first got the soldiers to guard us, Slink had insisted that we still be allowed to roam at will. Princess Gurza had overheard Naya speaking to him, and she’d completely lost her temper.
She’d mortally offended Slink by telling him, among other things, that insisting on going out when he knew the danger was the act of a child, and that, if that was how he thought, the world would be better off without him anyway. Then, when he snarled at her, she’d threatened to rip his ears off if he bit her.
We’d all been pretty horrified. I don’t think any of us had seen Princess Gurza in a temper before. She didn’t seem to care what she said or who she insulted. But she had made us all see that an insistence on being able to go out without due care for the possible consequences didn’t make us grown up and independent. It just made us foolish.
We’d begun to realise that being grown-up wasn’t just about being able to make our own decisions. It was also about what kind of decisions we made. Since then, there hadn’t been the same enthusiasm for going out. We’d been happier to stay in the stall where we were safe and protected and talk or read or work on our writing practice. Although, I have to admit that some of that was probably due to the uninspiring nature of the area rather than to Princess Gurza.
The towns themselves were so much alike that they began to blur into each other, and the countryside surrounding them didn’t vary much, either. There might have been a few more woods around one, a few more cattle in one place, a few more sheep or goats in another, but overall, they were pretty much of a muchness. Now and then we did make a night excursion, just to have a break from the stall and see what there was to see. We enjoyed those trips, but we didn’t really find anything we hadn’t seen before. We certainly didn’t find anything exciting enough to make it imperative that we went out the next night, too.
It was a good thing, actually. Not only did staying in make us safer, but we tended to get more practice done on our writing. We’d learned to read by magic, of course, but we’d never learned to write, mainly because we lacked the physical equipment, that is, the opposable thumbs that make it possible for humans to hold and use a pen. But then, Thimni had discovered that the levitation spell, if employed with sufficient finesse, could be used to direct a pen.
Those were the magic words, though, ‘sufficient finesse’. It took a great deal of practice to learn how to direct the pen with the necessary precision. That was why we needed to practice. Staying in at night afforded us the opportunity to do that, and we were definitely getting better. Thimni could already do it almost perfectly, of course, and Stumpy was going ahead by leaps and bounds for the simple reason that he needed so much less sleep than the rest of us and therefore had much more time available in which to practice.
For the rest of us, it became a contest to see who could make the most progress in the least possible time. Slink was probably the best of us, but I was quite proud of my own efforts. My letters were getting neater and smaller, and I thought, with just a little more practice, my technique would be pretty well perfect and my writing as good as most humans. Having my desk definitely helped. I really couldn’t thank Stumpy enough for having thought to get that made for me. I suppose he told you about that? Although, knowing him, perhaps he hasn’t. He’s too modest for his own good sometimes.
I used to find it extremely uncomfortable to have to roost on the ground to read. It’s against my instinct and, while we Urzites are much less slaves to instinct than our mundane counterparts, it is still a force to be reckoned with. Having to roost on the ground made me very nervous and was most disruptive to my concentration. Stumpy realised that and talked to Naya about it. The result was my own