Windhaven

"Jirel didn't disgrace you," Maris said to Garth that night, as she sat with him by his fire. He was up and about again, looking better, and drinking ale once more. "She was an admirable proxy, flew five gates, as good as I'd done. But five isn't seven, of course, and it wasn't enough. Even the Landsman couldn't call it a tie."

"Good," Garth said. "S'Rella deserves the wings. I like S'Rella. Make her promise to come visit me too."

Maris smiled. "I will," she said. "She's sorry she couldn't come tonight, but she wanted to go straight down to Val. I'm to join her after I leave here. I don't relish it, but…" She sighed.

Garth took a healthy swig of ale and stared into the fire for a long moment. "I feel sorry for Corm," he said. "Never liked him, but he knew how to fly."

"Don't fret," Maris said. "He's bitter but he'll recover. Shalli's pregnancy will soon be too advanced for her to fly, so Corm will have the use of her wings for a few months, and if I know him he'll bully her into sharing even after the baby comes. Next year he can challenge. It won't be Val, either. Corm is cleverer than that. I'll wager he names someone like Jon of Culhall."

"Ah," Garth said, "if the damned healers ever cure me, I may name Jon myself."

"He'll be a popular choice next year," Maris agreed. "Even Kerr wants another chance at him, though I doubt Sena will sponsor him again until he's a lot more seasoned. She'll have better prospects to choose from next year. With the double victory by S'Rella and Val, Woodwings is suddenly thriving again. She'll soon have more students than she knows what to do with." Maris chuckled. "You and Corm weren't the only flyers grounded, either. Bari of Poweet lost her wings in an out-of-family challenge, and Big Hara went down to her own daughter."

"A flock of ex-flyers," Garth grumbled.

"And a lot of one-wings," Maris added, smiling. "The world is changing, Garth. Once we had only flyers and land-bound."

"Yes," Garth said, gulping down some more ale. "Then you confused everything. Flying land-bounds and grounded flyers. Where will it end?"

"I don't know," Maris said. She stood up. "I'd stay longer, but I must go talk to Val, and I'm long overdue on Amberly. With Shalli pregnant and Corm wingless, the Landsman will no doubt work me to death. But I'll find time to visit, I promise."

"Good." He grinned up at her. "Fly well, now."

When she left, he was shouting to Riesa for another ale.

Val was propped up awkwardly in bed; his head raised just enough so that he could eat, he was spooning soup into his mouth with his left hand. S'Rella sat by his side, holding the bowl. They both looked up when Maris entered, and Val's hand trembled, spilling hot soup on his bare chest. He cursed and S'Rella helped him mop it up.

"Val," Maris said evenly, nodding. On the floor by the door she set the wings she had carried, once belonging to Corm of Lesser Amberly. "Your wings."

The swelling in his face had subsided enough so that Val was beginning to look like himself again, although his puffed lip gave him an atypical sneer. "S'Rella told me what you did," he said with difficulty.

"Now I suppose you want me to thank you."

Maris folded her arms and waited.

"Your friends the flyers did this to me, you know," he said. "If the bones mend crooked, I'll never use those damn wings you got me. Even if they heal properly, I'll never be as good as I was."

"I know that," Maris said, "and I'm sorry. But it wasn't my friends who did this, Val. Not all flyers are my friends. And they aren't all your enemies."

"You were at the party," Val said.

Maris nodded. "It won't be easy, and most of the burden is on you. Reject them if you like, hate all of them. Or find the ones worth knowing. It's up to you."

"I'll tell you who I'm going to find," Val said. "I'm going to find the ones who did this to me, and then I'm going to find whoever sent them."

"Yes," Maris said. "And then?"

"S'Rella found my knife," Val said simply. "I dropped it in the bushes last night. But I cut one of them, well enough so I'll know her by the scar."

"Where are you going, when you heal?" Maris said.

Val seemed thrown off-stride by the sudden change of subject. "I had thought Seatooth. I've heard the stories, about how much the Landsman there wants a flyer. But S'Rella tells me that the Landsman of Skulny is anxious as well. I'll talk to them both, see what they offer."

"Val of Seatooth," Maris said. "It has a nice sound to it."

"It will always be One-Wing," he said. "Maybe for you too."