Hawkmistress! A DARKOVER NOVEL by Marion Zimmer Bradley

So he will be flying them, and he will be one with us, as Maura was . . . she did not know why the thought troubled her.

Maura must be still with the army, Romilly thought, they could not have left her behind, with the country alive with War; but Romilly had not seen her that day. When they rode out ahead with the birds, it was Lord Ranald who came with them, Temperance on his saddle; Romilly had yielded her own favorite, Prudence, to Ruyven, so that she could take Diligence, who was the most difficult of the birds to handle, on her own saddle. Diligence fussed and shrilled restlessly, but quieted when Romilly touched her mind.

Yes, you’re a beauty too, Romilly told the bird, and saw nothing incongruous in so addressing the huge, ugly creature.

But there was no call for their services that day, and Romilly was glad, for it would give Lord Ranald extra time to be completely familiar with the bird, to create close rapport with her. After an hour or so, when Romilly felt sure there would be no trouble and no need for her service, Romilly let her mind drift again into close contact with Sunstar, where he rode with Carolin at the head of the army.

Now it seemed that the countryside was deserted, with great open tracts of deserted lands, and now and again a quiet farmstead lying empty, wells broken, houses burnt or fallen away with time. Romilly, riding with Sunstar, was really not aware that she was eavesdropping on Carolin and Orain, riding together with Lady Maura close to them. Maura was wrapped in her cloak and spoke little, but Carolin said, looking at the deserted country, “When I was a child I rode through here and this was all settled land with farmers and crops. Now it is a wasteland.”

“The war?” Maura asked.

“War in my father’s time, before I was old enough to hold a sword – still I remember how green and fertile was this country. And now the settled lands are nearer to the edge of the hills; in the aftermath of war there are always bandits, men made homeless by war and conscienceless by the horrors they have seen; they ravaged this country, what the war had left of it, until the folk settled nearer to the protection of the forts and soldiers near Neskaya.”

But Romilly, her mind submerged in Sunstar, thought only, how green and fertile were the fields, how lovely the pastures. They camped that night by a watercourse, a narrow brook which rolled and tumbled down a cascade of old piled rocks, then flowed smooth and lovely across a fertile meadow starred with little blue and golden flowers.

“It will be a perfect night in High Summer,” said Carolin lazily, “Before the night is past, three of the moons will appear in the sky, and two of them near the full.”

“What a pity we will not have Midsummer-Festival here,” Maura laughed, and Carolin said, suddenly sober, “I vow to you, Maura – and to you, bredu,” he added, turning to Orain with a smile of deep warmth, “that we shall hold our Midsummer-Festival within the walls of Hali, at home. What say you to that, cousins?”

“Evanda grant it,” Maura said seriously, “I am homesick.”

“What, none of the young men in that faraway tower beyond the mountains-” lightly, Carolin punned on the name of Tramontana – “have shaken your resolve to remain maiden for the Sight, Maura?”

Maura laughed, though the sound was strained.

“On the day when you invite me to be queen at your side, Carolin, I shall not send you away disappointed.”

Sunstar jigged sidewise, restlessly, as Carolin leaned from his saddle to touch Maura’s cheek lightly with his lips. He said, “If the Council will have it so, Maura, so be it. I had feared your heart was dead when Rakhal turned away from you.”

“Only my pride was wounded,” she said quietly. “I loved him, yes, as cousin, as foster-brother; but his cruelty slew my heart. He thought he could come to me over the bodies of my kinfolk, and I would forgive him all when I saw the crown he offered, like a child forgetting a bruise when she is given a sweetnut. I would not have it said that I turned from Rakhal to you because I would have the one who could bring me the crown-” her voice faltered, and Sunstar tossed his head indignantly at the jerk on the reins which brought him to a halt so that Carolin could lean again toward Maura’s saddle; but this time he felt it as his rider lifted the slight from of the leronis bodily from her saddle to his own, and held her there. There were no more words, but Sunstar, and Romilly with him, sensed an outflow, an outpouring of emotion that made him restless, made him prance until Carolin chided him with a tug on the reins, and in Romilly’s mind were flooding images of sleek flanks and satiny bodies, of swift running in moonlight, which made her rub her head as if she were feverish, with unfamiliar sensations flooding her whole body, so that she retreated abruptly into herself, away from the great stallion’s unfamiliar emotions and touch.