7 Lessons in "Borrowing"

Birds - the beautiful vagabonds, endowed with

every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds."- John Burroughs

Julie, wake up. Soon would be good.

Julie let her eyelids flutter open. Icarus's distinctive mind-voice was prodding her gently. What? she asked sleepily. She didn't feel like getting up just yet.

Your adopted foundling is irritating Luke again. He is trying not to become angry, but it is best you intervene soon. You know how males get.

Julie pushed herself upright with an annoyed sigh. Why are you putting down males? she asked the gyrfalcon. You're one yourself.

I meant human males, obviously, Icarus replied smugly. Birds are above such things.

Julie pulled her thick tunic on, then strapped on her bond pads. Icarus lighted down on her shoulder immediately. Feeling ready, if not happy, Julie strode into the main clearing where they had camped.

Seth and Luke were facing one another over the burned out ashes of last night's fire. They had their respective birds on their shoulders, and Seth had a lumpy burlap sack at his feet.

It was striking, Julie realized, seeing them together. Their differences were more pronounced, but so were their similarities. Both were lean, tall, and had the tough look of people who knew how to fight and survive. But ruffled black hair clashed against straight wheat blond, and Seth's green eyes were very different from Luke's bright hazel.

"What is it now?" Julie asked as she folded her arms, unable to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

Luke's head snapped up. He looked half-annoyed and half-embarrassed to be found like this. "Julie, he came back this morning, and look…" He reached out to grab at the sack at Seth's feet.

"Hey!" Seth's movement looked almost reflexive; his hand shot out and grabbed Luke's wrist, twisting it sideways and back. Luke yelped, but just as quickly he turned his wrist the other way, freeing it in a classic warrior's trick. He massaged his wrist, looking furiously at the thief.

"Sorry. Really." There was something fairly close to guilt in Seth's eyes. "I've never done that to anyone I didn't want to hurt before."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Luke hissed, struggling to keep his voice from rising.

"Well, I usually have a pretty good reason not to let people touch stuff I've sto-" He stopped abruptly, looking at Julie out of the corner of his eye. "Borrowed," he finished firmly.

Luke looked furious. "Don't lie to her!" he shouted, and now he did let go of his temper. "Why don't you finish what you were saying? Or is that a bad word among thieves? Stolen?"

Seth flinched slightly. "The people I took from were extremely well off. They had three wagons loaded to their roofs with food. Wagons drawn by horses." He enunciated this, because horses were hard to find and owned by only the rich.

"I don't care what your profession is, but we don't steal! And you don't do it while you're with us!"

"Oh, don't tell me," Seth groaned, putting on a mock horrified expression. His green eyes glinted. "You two are those kind of people with morals!" He tilted his head ever so slightly to look at Julie as she said it. She knew Luke well enough to recognize that teasing look. Seth was deliberately annoying Luke, probably because he thought it was fun, but also because it came more naturally to him than taking things too seriously. She shook her head just a fraction from side to side, warning the thief.

"You want me to go return it?" Seth stooped to scoop up the bag and swing it over his shoulder in one fluid motion. He opened the neck of the sack and took an exaggerated sniff. "There's fresh bread in here," he said casually. "And a lot of other stuff. Pretty tempting if you ask me. But if you want, I'll go take it back to those rich, overfed people who couldn't even be bothered to guard their wagons…C'mon Corax." He started off in the other direction. Luke stared after him.

Julie spared a moment to appreciate Seth's deviousness, though she didn't exactly approve of stealing either. Seth had hit the perfect spot with Luke. Luke did not hate food by a long shot; in fact, Julie had often teased him that the only reason he came over to Mother Acko's was to eat her cooking. She quickly pushed Mother Acko from her mind; thinking about the old woman still made her eyes prickle.

Seth had hit the mark.

"Why you little…all right, bring it back!" Luke yelled. He looked peeved. Seth turned, his dark arched eyebrows raised.

Luke stuck out his hand for the sack. Seth, with an air of suppressed triumph, tossed it into his waiting palm.

"Glad you changed your mind." Seth grinned. "You wait, pretty soon I'll have both of you 'borrowing' like born thieves."

"Not likely," growled Luke under his breath, already rooting in the sack.

You see? Julie told Icarus with satisfaction. They didn't need my help. They handled it fine.

But they needed you to watch, the falcon insisted. Sometimes a pair of eyes and a listening pair of ears can be a very good mediator. Besides, they wouldn't dare start anything with a girl present.

What does my being a girl have to do with starting fights? demanded Julie indignantly.

Icarus just swung his head from side to side, churring softly.

Julie had to admit, the food was good. She and Luke had only eaten dry trail food, and the fresh goods were a blessing after the tasteless meat strips and nuts. Seth tried hard to conceal his smug triumph; Julie gave him that. If she hadn't been studying him closely, she wouldn't have noticed the sly gleam in his deep green eyes as he watched Luke tear hungrily at the bread. But he knew he had won.

After that, Luke began his daily training exercise. To keep himself strong, Luke had a morning routine of sword stances and stretches. Julie settled down to watch him. She would do her own routine later, but she always liked to study the moves Luke used.

But after a few minutes of Luke doing the simplest stretches, Julie became aware that Seth was doing something too.

First he called Corax to his shoulder with that low croak, and then he clambered up a tree trunk and onto a thick branch, moving slowly and stealthily. He stopped about halfway along it, and then drew something from an inside pocket of his cloak. It was a small glittery object that looked like a piece of fire stone, the same substance attached to Maeron's whip. Seth held the scrap up for Corax's inspection, turning it this way and that. Then he tossed it into a clump of bushes across the clearing.

Corax hopped purposefully off Seth's shoulder, inching along the branch, tilting his head this way and that the same way he had when he had been trying to steal Julie's bracelet. Then he cocked his head and launched himself off the branch.

Julie had never heard a raven fly so silently. She had thought only owls and large raptors could glide without making a sound. But Corax hardly stirred the air as he landed next to the bushes, still tilting his head.

Then he began appraising the bushes. He hopped in a circle around them, peering in this way and that, finding openings in the leaves. Finally, he paused and bobbed his head around one opening near the bottom of the bush. And then he seemed to vanish.

Julie blinked, and then realized that Corax had gone inside the bush. Moments later he reappeared with the fire stone bit clamped in his beak. Julie had not heard a single sound the entire time. But just as the raven spread his wings for takeoff, the primaries on the tips brushed the bush, producing a soft rustle.

The raven fluttered back up to Seth and dropped the stone into his waiting palm. Then he bowed his head as if waiting to be scolded.

The thief ruffled Corax's feathers gently, the affectionate gesture of a friend. "That was almost perfect, buddy. If you hadn't been so eager on the takeoff, it would have been a clean score. And bushes are hard." Seth looked down to see that Julie, as well as Luke, who had stopped his training exercises to watch too, were staring at him. He grinned at them both. "I'm trying to train him to take stuff without any noise. Useful skill for a thief's bird."

Luke scowled. He still did not approve of Seth's "occupation." Still, Julie had seen appreciation on his face as he had watched the performance.

Now it was Julie's turn to do some exercise. She chose a slim stick from the undergrowth and held it parallel to her face in the warrior's salute stance Luke had shown her. Then she began moving in careful swings and twists, jabbing and swirling in slow, deliberate stances. Seth was watching her; she could see him out of the corner of her eye, but couldn't read the expression on his face at this distance. When she finished, Seth moved to the center of the clearing, casting off his cloak as he went.

Julie watched him curiously. "I thought you already did your training."

Seth rolled his shoulders in a limbering movement, stretching his arms. "That was Corax's training, not mine. Thieves don't usually get in fights…we prefer to use more subtle methods. But everyone has to know how to defend themselves if they get in a tight corner."

So saying, he flipped something long and shining out of his belt with a deft hand motion. He caught it by the hilt and Julie got a good look at it.

Its handle was roughly carved wood, nothing like the gleaming metal of the swords that the trained warriors used. There was a crudely rendered raven spreading its wings as the sole ornament on the hilt. The wood flared out to a broad point on one side of the crosstree. A length of metal about two feet long was bound with strips of half-rusted wire to the wooden hilt. The blade looked as though it had been salvaged from a snapped carving knife or other sharp kitchen tool.

Luke raised his eyebrows dubiously.

Seth was obviously used to that sort of reaction, because he just smiled. "You can look like that all you want, but Sheridan has been with me since I could fight, and it's nothing to be laughed at."

Taking the hilt between his middle and index fingers, he spun it in a blurring circle. He spoke over the thrumming of the blade. "I made Sheridan according to what I read in a weapons book I

sto-…borrowed from a soldier. The book said that the most versatile weapon a fighter can possess is a dirk…half knife, half sword. You can throw it, fight close range with it, do tricks with it…the possibilities are endless."

Without warning he made a graceful leap, half-turned in midair, and with a flick of his wrist, sent the weapon slicing across the clearing to bury itself in the trunk of a tree.

Luke's mouth hung slightly open as Seth retrieved the dagger and wiped splinters and sap from its blade.

"Sheridan," the thief said conversationally. "Means 'wild'. Pretty appropriate, eh?"

Julie, who was interested in names, asked, "So what does Corax mean?" She expected Seth to say, "thief", or "bold", or "tricky". It was well known that most bird bonds seemed to choose names that had connections or meanings. Whether they did this purposely or unconsciously no one knew. One day, usually when it was about four months old, a bird would simply speak its name to its human, and that was that. But it was also something of a ritual for children to go dashing to their parents or guardians, asking for the possible meaning of their bond's new name.

Seth grinned. "Corax is like me; he likes to keep things short and simple. Corax means 'raven', which is what he is."

Julie laughed with surprise. Corax croaked indignantly and said in his hoarse voice, "Corax likes name. What is wrong with naming who you are?"

Julie subsided, but she thought about what the bird had said. Apparently Corax could get out thoughts fairly well in speech; his last words had sounded like the kind of mysterious thing Icarus sometimes said.

By noon, they were traveling again.

They had been walking for several hours before Luke said, "We really do need to get a plan. Just walking aimlessly in one direction isn't going to work."

"You know what we could do…" Seth said thoughtfully. "We need to get a good look around."

"Uh-huh." Luke was regarding Seth warily. He did that often, Julie noticed. If she had known it would be this hard to travel with two similarly aged guys, she would have thought twice about asking Seth along.

"Well…what if we called a forest Watcher?"

Luke and Julie looked at him nervously. Forest Watchers were people who lived in the forest to guide travelers who passed through. They were usually hermits, and usually eccentric. There was almost always bound to be one in every major forest, and the eastern wood certainly was a large one. The thing was, forest Watchers were sometimes dangerous. They could be in the service of certain powerful people; sometimes they were spies. Sometimes one of them would just go rogue, or they could unpredictably decide they didn't like you and attack.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't you think the three of us are a match for a forest Watcher. If they're an especially good one, they might even be able to Skyjoin."

Corax made a sudden croaking of fear, and Icarus shrilled and Athena hooted. Corax rasped, "Seth speaks too lightly of the greatest bond. Seth must not speak the name of the power of the bird bonds."

Seth shrugged, apparently uncaring, but he was biting his lower lip in guilt at Corax's rebuff. Julie knew why. The thing Seth had said was a legend, but a tangible one. It really existed, but it was extraordinarily rare. When a person reached a certain point, when they gained true knowledge and became truly one with their bond, a very powerful thing happened. It was a profound and intensely painful process, something known reverently as Skyjoining. No one knew exactly what it was like, because once it had happened to you, you couldn't speak of it. It was too intimate. But one thing that was known was that you could actually see through your bond's eyes, no matter how far they traveled from you. It was rumored that some of the older Watchers had undergone this process.

Julie looked at Luke. She valued his opinion greatly; she had ever since she had known him. "What do you think we should do?"

Luke twirled his bangs with his finger, thinking hard. Athena hooted softly from a branch above. Finally, he said, "I think it'll do more good than harm. We should try at least. A Watcher could tell us where we are and what direction we could safely head."

Seth nodded in approval, and Julie could see the logic in his words. So she called Icarus down and the three of them lined up.

"We just call, right? Here goes…" Seth raised Corax on his fist and said, "Tell it to that Watcher, buddy."

Three separate bird calls pierced the trees, echoing back from the stands of majestic pines. They filled the branches to the canopy, loud and long, Corax's rhythmic cawing, Icarus's unending shriek, and Athena's booming hoots. They rose and fell, twining until the discord of the noise settled into an almost melodic and recognizable sound. Finally, Seth held up a hand and the three birds fell silent together. Then they waited. If a Watcher was anywhere in the near vicinity, they would surely have heard the racket and known they were being called.

There was nothing. There were about ten minutes of complete silence, during which all three of them stood still as statues. Then Luke abruptly let out a gusty sigh of frustration.

"Stupid Watcher. They're probably too lazy to bother, or else they just think it's fun to watch us stand here like idiots and wait—"

"You watch who you're calling stupid, boy."

Luke yelped and whirled around at the same second Julie did. Seth spun gracefully on the balls of his feet like a dancer. Sheridan cleared its sheath so fast Julie never even saw him draw the dirk. Seth threw the weapon with the same lightning wrist flick he'd used in the clearing. It whined across the clearing and thudded hard into a tree trunk.

There was a man standing there, a man with a neat salt and pepper beard and close trimmed gray hair. He was wearing a simple cloak of dark green fabric, and a serviceable tunic and boots. There was a dove on his shoulder, a dove with a plump, creamy brown body and a black band around its neck. It had a delicate beak and feet and tiny intelligent eyes.

Seth's dirk had impaled itself in the tree trunk barely a foot above the man's head, but he had not even blinked. The dove rustled its wings and gave a strange, haunting croon that rose and fell. Then the man reached up and pulled Sheridan out of the trunk and turned it over in his broad hands. He looked up at the three of them and said gruffly, "The name's Silas. This is Zena. Who are you?"