love my family, don't get me wrong, but I never, ever, want to take a commission from them again. My Uncle Vashi had a simple proposition - put the closing on a deal that he had worked out with a Thell chief up here in the mountains of Thellingerstan. The negotiations are all but concluded, he said. Just make sure he signs. Only Thells don't do things quite the way that we Nirhamsans do. That's why I ended up here, sat on the back of an oversized flesh-eating chicken ready to jump off a cliff into oblivion.
Let's go back to the beginning:
According to Teshnuvar, the universe experiences cosmic cycles where Concordance and Chaos strive for dominance (yes, we're going right back to the beginning here). When Chaos reigns supreme, the substance of the world is formed from the void. When Concordance rules, that substance is given form and design, and the Great Glacier that lies at the centre of the world expands.
Long, long ago, before mankind existed even, during one of the great cycles of Concordance, the Great Glacier sent icy fingers forth through the Throne of Heaven Mountains. Countless tons of ice gouged their way through the mountain rock. Then, when Concordance waned and Chaos waxed, the ice retreated leaving behind the valleys that now form Thellingerstan. Sometime later the Thells appeared in the area, tamed the valley floor with farmland and covered the slopes with livestock.
The Thells also discovered a large species of eagle, which they found could be partially tamed and ridden. At some point in the development of their culture they also came up with the idea of making the taming of one of these eagles a
part of forming treaties. I suspect this part was invented five minutes after I arrived.
Vun, the tall yellow-haired chieftan that I was supposed to deal with, told me gleefully that in order to prove that I was worthy of trading with him I should fly the length of the valley on the back of his prize bird, a cold-eyed creature he called Guldin. I tried to convince him to allow Dhalooth to do it as my champion, but apparently he was exempt on the grounds of not being human (and took, if you ask me, entirely too much pleasure in this fact). Dhalooth assured me that I would be fine, and gave me some tips from matoo riding. These were, I pointed out, all well and good if you have thumbs on your feet but wouldn't be much help to me.
As if this wasn't bad enough, I had also managed to annoy one of the tribesman, a giant of a man called Gered (or something like that) who got the idea into his head that I had been making improper suggestions to Viga, a similarly muscular woman whom Gered had a fondness for. Honestly, I did no such thing. I'd be willing to swear to all of the Ten Thousand Immortals (but since that would take forever I'll settle for a few big ones - Guide of Heaven, Lady East and I ought to include Temu-Jimu, the Scribe of the Celestial Court who keeps a record of all oaths taken by mortals). Besides, I make it a rule never to flirt when in a strange culture until I've been there at least a month. You never know when a gesture that would be perfectly innocent (-ish) in Llaza means something totally different in the provinces and you end up fighting a death duel, or worse, married.
Luckily for me, Vun denied Gered and his hulking twin brother the right of tearing me apart since I was an honoured trade guest, and custom wouldn't allow it. He added, with an unpleasant grin, that after the deal was concluded was a different matter entirely. And now we're back to where we came in. Your friend Rishta Vallans about to leap off a cliff on the back of a giant eagle, awaiting a pummeling when...if he gets down. As I was trying to get comfortable on the bird's back, staring straight ahead so as not to see the valley floor below, someone pushed forwards from the crowd of smirking Thells and handed me a little bundle of feathers and dried flowers, twisted together and tied to a leather thong. It was Viga. This wouldn't help my plea of innocence. She gestured that I should put the endearingly rustic object around my neck, which I did with a brief cold smile that I hoped would convey thanks but not encouragement, and that the gift wasn't some gesture that required more than just thanks in repayment.
To my surprise, a voice I didn't recognise then asked me if we were intending to sit there all day. "We"? I saw the eagle looking at me with a beady black eye. "Well?" it asked. Somewhat astonished, I looked down at Viga's gift. How handy. Checking the crowd I saw her smiling at me. Gered and his brother were nowhere to be found. This worried me, perhaps moreso now than the flight.
Feeling not a little foolish I bent forward and whispered, "Alright, Honoured Guldin, I suppose we'd better do this. Don't drop me please." I swear the bird chuckled to itself.
The air was knocked from me and my head pushed down on my shoulders as, with one terrific downbeat of its wings the eagle leapt from the ledge. It was surprisingly silent up here in the air. I expected roaring winds but all the only sounds were a gentle whistling of the passing air, and the creak of the eagle's tendons. After a while my insides stopped feeling like they were full of small crawling things and I risked a look down. The patchy strip fields of the Thell were so far below that it didn't seem real, and I began to stop feeling scared. I even began to enjoy it. However, the Immortals didn't want an easy life for Rishta Vallans.
"There's someone down there with a bow," the eagle announced. I couldn't see anyone but told him to be careful. I had seen some of the Thell bows on the wall in Vun's hut. I had assumedat first that they were purely decorative since, at pretty much the same height as me, no-one ought to be able to draw one. But these Thells were taller and more muscular than your typical Nirhamsan. An arrow from one of those things could go through both the eagle and me, and pin us to the moon.
Suddenly my mount jinked and I grabbed violently at a handful of feathers. An arrow the size of a javelin soared past us.
"Can you see where that came from?" I asked urgently.
"Prey is spotted," replied the eagle coldly.
"Take us down there!" I ordered the bird, then wished that I hadn't. He tucked his wings in and dropped into a dive. Rushing air tore tears from my eyes, and my heart was somewhere around the crown of my head. My stomach had taken a holiday to Tas-Nabrenor. The ground, and our would-be killer sped up to meet us. At the last minute the eagle opened his wings and pulled up into a braking stall. His vast taloned feet uncurled before him and I saw Gered frozen in sheer terror, bow dropping loosely from his hands.
"I want him alive!" I cried, perhaps too late. At the last second the eagle splayed its talons, thumping Gered with the flat of its feet. He flew several feet and winded himself on landing, but at least he hadn't been torn into pieces. "Land!" I was off the bird's back and had Gered pinned and disarmed before two heartbeats had passed. Wary of his brother I looked about me, starting at a nearby noise. It was Dhalooth, hopping down from an outcropping and keeping a wary distance from the eagle. The little guy's timing was impeccable as usual. He pointed at Gered.
"There's another one of those sleeping peacefully just round this rock." I nodded. Dhalooth was well-trained in the salsham'ai art of nerve strikes that they call the Skill of Raindrops. The brother would be unconscious for some time. Now to deal with Gered.
"Listen pal, I'm not interested in your women. I'm here to trade, and I'll be gone by tomorrow before you people do anything else to try and kill me. I don't think your chief will be too happy that you tried to skewer his prize eagle either". I glanced at Guldin who was preening his flight feathers. "I don't think the bird is too happy about it either." Guldin obliged me by turning a steely glare at Gered, eyeing him like so much rabbit meat. It isn't often you meet an eagle well-versed in interrogation techniques. "Now, I'm prepared to forget all this and not turn you over to my feathered friend here, provided I don't see you or your brother again during my time here. Deal?"
Gered agreed. I'd like to think that I scared him more than the eagle, but that's probably not true. After conferring one last time with Guldin, I took off the magic charm and tossed it to the prone Thell, telling him to give it back to Viga with my thanks, and to maybe show her more attention in future so that her eye didn't wander to handsome strangers.
I picked up Gered's bow and remounted the eagle. "Coming?" I offered my hand to Dhalooth and hopped aboard eagerly.
What I most wanted now was a relaxing session at the baths, followed by a game of dragon scales in civilised company. As it turned out, that was not to be.
