Windhaven

"I was at the Landsman's keep," Coll said when his daughter had gone. "He learned that I was your brother, and decided to detain me until the Council was over. S'Rella flew in after the Council. The landsguard took her and brought her to the keep as well. He had other flyers there, too. Jem, Ligar of Thrane, Katinn of Lomarron, some poor child from Western. Besides the flyers and myself, there were four other singers, a couple of storytellers, and of course all the Landsman's own criers and runners. He wants the word to spread, you see. He wants everyone to know what he did. We were his witnesses.

The landsguard marched us out into the courtyard and forced us to watch."

"No," Maris said, pressing S'Rella closer. "No, Coll, he didn't dare! He couldn't."

"Tya of Thayos was hanged yesterday at sunset," Coll said bluntly, "and denying it won't change it. I saw it. She tried to make a speech, but the Landsman would not allow it. The noose wasn't tied properly. Her neck didn't break in the fall, and it was a long time before she strangled to death."

S'Rella pulled away from her embrace. "You were lucky," she said with difficulty. "He might — could have sent for you. Oh, Maris. I couldn't look away — I—it was awful. They wouldn't even let her — have — last words. And the worst—" Her voice caught again.

Evan and Bari were coming, but Maris barely heard their footsteps, or Evan's cry of greeting. A great coldness had settled on her; the same numb sickness she had felt when Russ had died, when Halland had been lost at sea. "How could he dare," she said slowly. "Didn't anyone do anything? Was there no one to stop him?"

"Several landsguard officers cautioned him against it, one high officer in particular — I believe she commands his bodyguard. He would not listen. The landsguard who marched us out were clearly frightened. Several averted their eyes when the trap was opened. In the end, though, they obeyed. They are landsguard, after all, and he is their Landsman."

"But the Council," said Maris. "Why didn't the Council — what about Val, the flyers?"

"The Council," said S'Rella bitterly, "the Council named her outlaw and stripped her wings from her."

Anger had pushed her tears aside. "The Council gave him leave to do it!"

"And so everyone would know that he was hanging a flyer," Coll said wearily, "the Landsman put her wings on her. Folded, of course, but still unmistakable. He joked about it. He told her to use her wings to break this fall, and fly away."

Later, over cups of Evan's special tea and plates of bread and sausage, S'Rella regained her composure and told Maris and Evan the whole story of the disastrous Council while Coll went outside to talk with his daughter.

It was a simple story. Val One-Wing, who had called the fifth flyers' Council in the history of Windhaven, had lost control of it. He had never had control, in fact. His one-wings and allies made up barely a fourth of those assembled, and the three who sat in the positions of honor — the Landsmen of North and South Arren and the retired flyer Kolmi of Thar Kril, who presided — were unsympathetic. No sooner had the meeting begun than angry voices were raised to denounce Tya and her crime, including that of Kolmi himself. "This land-bound girl never understood what it means to be a flyer," S'Rella quoted Kolmi as saying. Others joined the chorus. She should never have been given wings, said one. She had committed a crime not only against her Landsman, but against her fellow flyers as well, said another. She has betrayed her sacred trust, has made all flyers suspect, added a third.

"Katinn of Lomarron tried to speak for her," S'Rella told them, "but he was hooted down. Katinn grew furious and cursed them all. Like Tya, he has seen a lot of war. Some of Tya's friends tried to defend her, at least explain why she did the thing she did, but others refused to listen. When Val himself rose, and tried to put forward his proposal, I thought briefly that we had a chance. He was very good. Calm and reasonable, unlike his usual self. He placated them by admitting that Tya had committed a great crime, but went on to say that the flyers had to defend her nonetheless, that we could not afford to let the Landsman have his way with her, that our fates were linked with Tya's. It was a very good speech. If it had come from anyone else it might have swayed them, but it came from Val, and the arena was full of his enemies. So many of the older flyers still hate him.

"Val suggested that the Council strip Tya of her wings for five years, after which she would have to win them back in competition. He also said that we had to insist that only flyers could judge flyers, which meant freeing her from Thayos by threat of a sanction.