Rainsong's Quest
The Palace touched down gently on the sandy plain outside the huts of Sorrow’s End, and all the Sun Folk rushed out to greet the visitors. Gasps went up from the elves. The Palace had changed since last it landed in Sorrow’s End. Rather than the turrets and doors and windows of the former incarnation, it was now shaped in crystalline glyphs and spires, like the mineral deposits the Sun Folk sometimes mined in the rocks of the World’s Spine.
The facing wall of the Palace shimmered and faded away to reveal a cluster of elves. Out strode Dewshine, bearing her two-year-old son in her arms. Alongside her paced Squirrelbane, her wolf-friend. Tyldak followed, as always a little uncertain in the bright sun of Sorrow’s End. Behind them appeared Rayek, clad in the bright clothes of his native tribe.
“Dewshine – you’re back!” Wing cried as he raced up to the elf. “And you brought Windkin too. Great – that’s great! There’s no one here for me to play with, and Vurdah’s cub won’t be born for another two years!’
“Oomph, hello Wing,” Dewshine laughed. She let Windkin fly on his tether as she enveloped the eleven-year-old in her slender arms. “What’s all this with Vurdah and a cub?”
“Didn’t you hear? Oh, no, you wouldn’t have. You can’t actually send through the Little Palace, just sort of sense feelings and stuff, right? No, Vurdah Recognized Ahnshen the Weaver! Isn’t that great? They’ll have a cub in two more years, and then I’ll have someone else to play with. But I’m glad you brought Windkin back for a visit. Hello, Windkin.” He spun Windkin around on his tether. “Remember me?”
Windkin giggled.
Rainsong slipped behind her son and drew him back gently. “Now, now, Wing. You don’t want to make Windkin sick, do you?”
“Don’t worry, Rainsong,” Tyldak said. “This fledgling’s impervious. I could hang him outside the cave in the middle of a gale and he’d only laugh.”
“A cave? You live in a cave?” Wing grinned.
“Aye, Wing,” Dewshine ruffled his hair. “It reminds Tyldak of Blue Mountain.”
“We have caves. Are you going to stay in caves here?”
Savah now arrived alongside the mob of gathering Sun Folk. “Welcome home, my wanderer.” She touched Rayek’s arm. “I trust all is well in Thorny Mountain?”
“Very well, Mother of Memory. Nightfall and Newstar are both well into their second year of pregnancy, and Skywise’s Savin is adjusting well to live in the forests. Venka is growing like a weed – she’s already a head taller than Suntop, and he’s quite jealous as you can imagine.”
“Well, you can tell your son from me not to fear. He always catches pace with his sister in time. How long have you come to stay this time, dear one?”
“I was planning to linger a few days – but if it is true and there has been a new Recognition, I should probably return to the New Land and tell Swift. I’m sure she will wish to come here herself and congratulate the new lifemates, and Skywise too.”
**Yes, he and Vurdah were lovemates, once, were they not?**
Rayek smiled dryly. **Savin will be pleased, I’m sure. She would liked to see all of Skywise’s former lovemates properly lifemated and out of the way.**
**The way you have always hoped to see Skywise lifemated and properly occupied away from Swift?**
**Savin and I understand each other well, Mother of Memory. We’ve become fast friends already.**
“I hope she will come too. I met her so briefly after her Recognition with Skywise. I hope you do not mind guiding the Palace back and forth across the Vastdeep, but these are such exciting times.”
“Not at all, Savah. It is a pleasure, and an honour to unite all elves through the Palace.” Then he lowered his voice. “Besides, it gets me away from that blasted archer!”
**Still, Rayek?**
**You have no idea! We could be civil in Sorrow’s End and the Frozen Mountains, but now that we live in rich forest, Strongbow seems to believe that his feral birthright overshadows my position as Chief Hunter.**
Savah laughed softly. “Well, I hope you will join me for a drink of cool water before you fly back across the waters. Come, the village is eager to greet its favourite son.”
Vurdah bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly. “Oh, Dewshine, I am glad you are here – I am glad for any new face to hear the news. But I cannot wait to see Skywise and embrace him! Oh, I understand now! Do you know that I was once foolish enough to ask Leetah if she could force Recognition between Skywise and me. I was taken by his new face, his new ways. But I now I see the wisdom is letting Recognition choose you! To think I never really saw Ahnshen as any more than another handsome lad who looked to too many maidens at once. And he – did you know he once was taken with Moonshade?”
“I think everyone knew of that, Vurdah.”
“But now – now! Isn’t Recognition sheer perfection, Dewshine?”
Dewshine thought of Tyldak and smiled. “Truly, it is.”
Vurdah took her hand and laid it on her flat stomach. “Can you feel it? Rainsong said she could – she said any mother can feel a baby in another womb!”
Dewshine obligingly closed her eyes and extended her senses. She could sense nothing, of course. Only a healer could sense a baby so newly created. But she smiled nevertheless and nodded. “You will surely have a fine cub – I mean, kitling – Vurdah.”
“Oh, she is quite unbearable lately, isn’t she?” Rainsong teased when she and Dewshine could finally relax in Rainsong’s hut. “I’m starting to understand what Strongbow meant about ‘brown-skinned ravvits.’ I’m getting quite exhausted, listening to her – and to Ahnshen – rave about how their Recognition excelled all others. Ah, they’ll settle down soon enough. It’s only been a few days since eyes met eyes, after all.”
A cry echoed outside the hut. Rainsong sat up, alert. She recognized her son’s voice.
Wing raced into the hut, clutching his forearm. “Mother! I was playing with the jackwolf puppies Grayling’s wolf had and one of them bit me! She bit me really bad.”
Rainsong took Wing’s arm and inspected the bite marks. Several puncture wounds already speckled with blood stood out in sharp relief against his suntanned skin. “Ohh, it’s not too bad, Wing. Why, back in the old Holt, none of the elders would have looked up at a bite like this. But that’s no reason for you to suffer, hmm? Let me just wipe away the blood, and then we’ll go see Leetah.”
She picked up a moth-fabric cloth and rubbed at the wound. Wing winced. “Shh, shh,” Rainsong soothed as she set the cloth aside and touched his tender skin. Strange, his flesh seemed oddly warm, and a little... prickly to the touch.
“Oho – Mother, that tickles!” Wing giggled.
Rainsong raised her hand. The puncture marks were gone.
“Great Sun,” she whispered.
“Hm, what do you know?” Dewshine leaned forward. “Now that you’ve cleaned the blood off, you can’t even see the wounds. Huh... Rainsong... I’d swear they never even existed.”
Rainsong looked down at the palm of her hand. The tingling sensation remained a moment, then faded.
“Rainsong?” Dewshine asked.
“I’m not sure... I... I have to go. Wing... Wing can you stay with Dewshine until your Father comes home?”
“Uh-huh,” Wing rubbed his arm a little anxiously, wondering why it no longer hurt, why instead he felt a warm glow running all the length up his arm to his shoulder.
Rainsong gently parted the beaded curtain and peered into the healer’s hut. The sun was beginning to set over Sorrow’s End, and the village was alight with red and gold hues. Inside Leetah’s hut all was still and dark.
“Leetah?” Rainsong called. **Leetah, are you here?**
The healer ascended the curving staircase that led down into her underground chambers. Her little desert cat darted between her ankles. “Rainsong,” Leetah smiled. “What brings you here?”
“Could we speak a moment, healer?”
“Of course.”
Rainsong smiled. Even eleven years after the Wolfriders first appeared in Sorrow’s End, Leetah had yet to warm to most of the tribe. But she always had a smile for Rainsong, who in truth was now far more a Sun Villager than a Wolfrider. She could not even remember the last time she had ridden a wolf.
Leetah and Rainsong sat down on the soft bed where Leetah tended often to the injured. The cat settled down across from them, feigning aloofness.
“What is it?” Leetah asked.
“Something very odd just happened. My son was playing with the new jackwolf puppies and one bit him. Oh, that’s to be expected, but not what happened next. I went to wipe away the blood, and about to lead him to see you, when my hand touched his wound... and... I can’t explain it, but the wound sealed itself. It was as though I had healed him. And I was wondering... is it possible there are some healer’s powers inside me that could only now emerge?”
“Which hand did you touch him with?”
Rainsong held out her left hand. Leetah took it and pressed the palm to her cheek. She closed her eyes and concentrated. “No... no I sense nothing. Tell me, what did you feel when you laid your hand on his wound?”
“A heat... and, and then a prickling, tingling sensation.”
Leetah opened her green eyes. “I fear I can feel nothing.”
“But I healed him. The puncture marks were there, and then they were gone.”
Leetah bit her lip. “You were Rain’s first child, were you not?”
“His second. Pike was born first by a few years.”
“But Pike was born outside Recognition?”
“No, not exactly. It was forced Recognition.”
“I’ve never heard of magic suddenly appearing for an instant and then fading. But I tell you, Rainsong, I can sense no healer’s power in you. Perhaps it was a fleeting thing, nothing more. Perhaps it is because of the Palace’s recent arrival.”
“Perhaps. Thank you for your time, Leetah.” Rainsong got up and padded towards the door. “Good night.”
“Good night, Rainsong,” Leetah called. When the Wolfrider disappeared beyond the curtain, Leetah held out her and beckoned her cat to come sit in her lap. Pity, really, that Rainsong seemed to have no gift. The world could always use more healers. But then none of Rain’s children or grandchildren seemed proficient in magic.
“Ah well,” she cooed as she stroked her wildcat.
Darkness was beginning to fall over Sorrow’s End as Rainsong paced around the rocky outskirts of the village. She was nearing the hot springs where once she and her tribe had discovered the marvellous sensation of heated water. She heard splashing behind the rocks with her wolf’s senses and she recognized the laughter of Dewshine and Windkin. Sure enough, when she paused, she could hear Tyldak’s more muted laughter. Rainsong smiled and continued to walk along the rocky path that encircled the village and the smaller vegetable plots. The sky was dark and starlit when Rainsong finally returned to her hut. Wing was already fast asleep on his little pallet, heaped with furs and soft cloths. Rainsong tiptoed into the sleeping chamber where Woodlock was dozing in their bed.
The bronze-haired elf opened his eyes as she approached the bed. **Tihree,** he sent drowsily, and she smiled to hear her soulname echoing in her mind. **Where have you been?**
**Just walking. My head was buzzing.**
**Have you eaten?**
She nodded. She could not send, for then he would know she was lying. She slowly removed her soft woven clothes and set them aside, then fluffed her honey-golden hair and crawled into bed next to her lifemate.
**Wing said you healed him just like Rain might. So what really happened, hmm?**
**I’m not exactly sure. Nothing... at least I think it’s nothing.**
He hugged her. **Pity. I was rather hoping I might have a healer for a lifemate. I’ve heard enough stories about Leetah turning people to nutmash...**
**No... no I went to see Leetah. She said she couldn’t sense any healer’s magic in me. It was all an illusion... or else perhaps a fleeting whim of fate.**
**Ah well...** Woodlock yawned. **All’s well that...** and soon his sending grew soft and indistinct as he drifted off into sleep. Rainsong snuggled under the covers against her lifemate and gently sent a fuller account of what happened, turning her memories into dreams.
The Palace flew back to the New Land, then back again, bringing with it new visitors to Sorrow’s End. Swift and Skywise eagerly congratulated Vurdah and Ahnshen, while Venka and Suntop ran about their childhood rocks and hiding places. Grayling and Scouter and the Jackwolf Riders put on a fine show of their hunting prowess for the village. And Rainsong watched from underneath a shaded awning, smiling at the excitement.
That strange tingling sensation no longer appeared in her hands, not when she touched Wing’s newest scrape, not when she embraced her lifemate. Perhaps it had all been a fluke.
Newstar leaned against Teru’s hand as he helped her sit down next to her mother. “Ahh, I feel like I’ve swallowed an entire baby zwoot,” Newstar moaned as she hugged her swollen belly. “The cub can’t be that big – why does my stomach swell so big almost overnight? I swear one evening I was still slim and nimble in the trees. The next I was fat and plodding and ylech!”
“I think you’re still as beautiful as ever,” Teru kissed her cheek.
“Bah, you’re my lifemate. You have to say that, or else I’ll thump you. Ahhh, I bet Vurdah won’t be chewing all our ears off so much in another year.”
Rainsong glanced over at the red-haired Sun Villager, sitting proudly on the dais near Savah, flanked by her new lifemate Ahnshen and her younger sister Behtia. Vurdah was beaming in the new leaf-green moth-fabric gown Ahnshen had made just for her. “Oh... I think Vurdah will be just as overjoyed even when she is heavy with cub. Recognition seems custom-sewn for an elf like her.”
Newstar leaned back against Teru. “All I know is my Teru better not be Recognizing anyone else while I live to say something against it.”
“While you live? Oh, don’t say that, Newstar. You’ll live forever.”
Rainsong considered it. Yes, it was hard, when mortals and immortal Recognized. She could only imagine how Rayek had felt, the day he had realized that Swift’s wolfblood meant she would one day grow old and die. But now... ever since Winnowill had stolen Swift’s wolfblood, Wolfriders had a choice. They could give up their wolf’s senses and live forever – assuming, of course, they did not die by sickness or violence.
Would Newstar choose to give up her blood? Perhaps. As for Rainsong... she could not be certain. Even Wolfriders lived long lives – longer than she could imagine. Eights upon eights upon eights of years. Perhaps even eight eights times eight eights – a staggering number she could scarcely fathom. Thousands of years. No, Rainsong could not decide yet. Surely she would not decide for years to come.
Healers could remove the wolfblood painlessly... it was easy, not at all unpleasant, Skywise had said.
Healers... No, I’m glad I don’t have the healer’s gift. I don’t want that responsibility, that... that guilt.
She remembered how Rain had struggled, often in vain, to save the lives of injured elves. She saw how the fear of death in Leetah’s mind had become the fear of all unknown, all uncontrollable situations. Leetah... who feared the sun’s eclipse or the wild, heady rush of Recognition. Three Recognitions had been visited on the Sun Folk in eleven years, and each time Rainsong had seen a strange look in Leetah’s eyes – half-longing, but also half-terrified.
I could never be a healer, Rainsong thought. I could never face death like that.
Now the demonstration by the Jackwolf Riders had finished, and everyone was milling under the afternoon sun, laughing and chatting. Now Vurdah’s old companions and lovemates Maleen and Ruffel rushed forward to once again congratulate their friend, and slyly cast glances at the unmated Sun Villagers who also came forward.
“One down, two to go,” Savin drawled.
Skywise laughed. “You know I’ll never look at anyone but you, now.”
She smiled dryly. “I don’t want them looking at you.”
“It is truly a wondrous world,” Savah said to Vurdah. “It is as though, now that we have the Palace once more, Recognition seeks to visit as many elves as possible. The voices of laughing children will surely echo throughout our world.”
What a lovely dream, Rainsong thought.
The Wolfriders who had come to congratulate Vurdah and Ahnshen lingered. The white-cold was gripping the New Land, and they were not eager to forsake sun and warmth for snow and storms. However, the Wolfriders had not the stamina in heat of the Sun Folk and Rainsong’s family, and retired early for afternoon naps while the rest of the village continued to bustle, intent of finishing a few more chores before the sun made the day too hot.
Rainsong adjusted her woven straw hat over her forehead as she followed Vurdah and Maleen through the dried gullies beyond the hot springs. “Ah, it’s getting hot,” she moaned. “Perhaps we should return later.”
“Keep up, wolf-maiden,” Maleen laughed. “We’ll plunder those snap-lizard eggs before the jackals and birds of prey beat us too it. We’re to have a fine feast to celebrate, right? Well, we’ll have to have spice-scrambled eggs to go with our roasts and stews, won’t we?”
Maleen strode confidently through the gully in her tiny cloth body-suit that left her arms and legs bare. Her dark skin gleamed with sweat, but she was unfazed. Rainsong shook her head. Even after so many years, she lacked the inborn ease of the Sun Folk in this sweltering heat.
“Here we are,” Vurdah grinned. “Look!”
Rainsong jogged up to meet them. There, barely concealed under the soft sand and brambles, were several nests filled with perfectly spherical, creamy-white eggs. The three maidens knelt down and began to fill their woven baskets, leaving the nest half-depleted. Then they tucked the sand and crude thistle-thatch back into place to hide the nests. Enough eggs remained to survive the typical plunder of predators and scavengers, and soon enough little lizards would streak across the rocks of the long-dried riverbeds.
“I think we have enough,” Rainsong grinned.
Vurdah caught sight of another nest half-buried under a dried-out prickle-pear cactus. “Hah, here’s more. I’ll save some just to bring home to our hut. Ahnshen loves spice-scrambled eggs.”
Rainsong stretched, then picked her basket. “Enough for now. Let’s head home for a nice drink of water and long nap.”
“Aiiiie!” Vurdah screamed.
“What now–” Maleen groaned as she turned. Vurdah was well-known for her histrionics. But the elder woman let out a shriek as she caught sight of a long brown viper slithering away from the fallen elf. Vurdah had disturbed the snake’s den in her quest for more eggs.
“Did it bite you?” Maleen dropped to Vurdah’s side. The maiden held up her hand to reveal two deep wounds, already inflamed on the back of her hand.
**Leetah!** Rainsong sent. **Leetah!**
No answer. But she knew she was within sending-range. **LEETAH!** she sent again, more angrily. **We need help! Vurdah’s been bitten! She needs a healing now!**
Finally, a distant, sleep-drugged answer. **I’m coming.**
Rainsong crouched on the sand next to Vurdah. Vurdah was already shivering, partly with fear, partly because of the quick-acting venom.
Maleen met Rainsong’s eyes. **That was a fang-dart viper!** she locksent. **Its venom acts instantly. Leetah won’t get here in time.**
**She will! We’re not that far from the village.**
**In this heat? Leetah will be slowed, and this sun only makes the venom move faster in Vurdah’s blood. I saw my own mother die of this, years and years ago. Rainsong – even if Leetah arrives in time to save Vurdah, I fear she won’t be able to save the baby.**
Somehow Vurdah could sense what they sending. “No! My baby! My baby must survive!” She was shivering violently now, and a dark red bruise was spreading around the puncture marks.
Rainsong looked at Vurdah. Maleen was right. Leetah would not arrive in time to cave both mother and child. Even now, the venom was mere seconds away from reaching Vurdah’s heart, and then her womb.
Without thinking, she seized Vurdah’s hand in hers. She closed her eyes and bit down on her lips until the blood flowed down her chin. She extended all of her senses, willing herself to shrink tiny as a drop of blood in Vurdah’s veins. She saw herself floating in a dark red sea that pulsed with warmth and life. And then she saw herself surrounded by a cold, black fog.
**NO!** She fought back against the poison. Somehow, she conjured up a renewed heat that drove away the black fog. She saw it race away from her, race towards Vurdah’s thumping heart, and Rainsong’s consciousness darted after it. **No, you won’t!** she cried as she outran the poison, banishing it with waves of pure energy. As if pierced by sunbeams, the fog shrank, quivered and dissolved into nothingness. But the venom already had a head start, and Rainsong flew even faster, towards the rapid drumbeat of Vurdah’s heart, and beyond, the faint, glowing presence of her unborn child, still no larger than a few cells.
Maleen looked at Rainsong anxiously. She was trembling too now, lost deep in some sort of trance. Maleen knew not what to do – she knew only that perhaps Rainsong could do something she could not. And so she waited, biting her own lip as she sent urgent calls to Leetah.
* * *
Rainsong drifted, lost somewhere in darkness. She was deep inside the black fog now, and the venom seemed to have stopped its race in order to surround her. Now she could no longer hear the pounding of Vurdah’s heart, could no longer see the light that was her cub.
**I’m lost. Help me, Father, I’m lost!**
But Rain was far away in the New Land.
**Leetah – help me!**
But Leetah did not answer.
Alone in the darkness, Rainsong almost swooned. What could she do? She was no warrior. She was hardly even a Wolfrider. Her place was safely inside her hut, not out in the dangerous world of pain and blood and death.
It seemed she was surrounded now by thousands of writhing snakes, like something out of a nightmare. She was drowning under the weight of the venom. Death was everywhere, crushing upon her fragile soul. She could do nothing.
And Vurdah would die.
As would the baby.
The baby. No, she could allow that to happen. She would not sit by helpless and hamstrung while a new life was snuffed out mere days after conception. The elves were not so numerous even now that they could afford to lose any life.
I must fight! Rainsong thought. I must win!
It seemed she was positioned in the air, high above the Bridge of Destiny. Some force kept her floating like Rayek. And then suddenly the invisible hands holding her disappeared, and she fell through the air.
The venom was everywhere, multiplying, turning all to black.
She was hanging off the Bridge by her bloody palms, her legs flailing over the abyss.
**I won’t let you win!** Rainsong screamed.
Something seemed to catch her and lift her up onto the stone Bridge.
Rainsong reached out with more heat, more sunlight. The fog trembled and retreated. Rainsong became a huge wolf chasing down shadowy prey through black tree trunks. She had the poison on the run now. She chased it, harried it, encircled it and drove it into a smaller and smaller ball.
**You can’t have this one! Not today.**
Was she staring into the eclipse now? She wasn’t afraid. The Wolf that she was snapped at the shadow-beast, crippling it, dragging it down to the ground, sinking her teeth into its venomous core and tear it into fading mist. Bright, blinding light shred through the carcass of the beast, and turned all to white.
Rainsong felt hands on her shoulders. She blinked drowsily. She turned, and saw Leetah hovering behind her. And there, behind Leetah, were Woodlock and Ahnshen.
Woodlock caught Rainsong in his arms and drew her into the shade as Leetah knelt beside the stricken Sun Villager. “Sun bless me,” she whispered.
“What is it? Is she all right?” Ahnshen fell to the sand. “Why don’t you heal her? Leetah!”
“She doesn’t need a healing.” Leetah looked at the fading bruises on Vurdah’s hand. “Rainsong has done my work for me. And to think not two days earlier I swore I could find no healer’s blood in her.”
Vurdah blinked now, and groggily beheld her lifemate at her side.
**Tihree?** Woodlock asked. **Are you...**
Rainsong smiled up at him. “Just fine,” she whispered. She turned her head to look at Vurdah, now being lifted up in Ahnshen’s arms. “Never better.”
The twilight feast went on ahead as scheduled, with roasts turning over the fire, and large flats of metal over the flames, upon which the lizard eggs and spices were stirred together. But the feast had a new guest of honour.
Savah bent and delicately tucked the red desert flower behind Rainsong’s left ear. “This day Sorrow’s End is doubly blessed to have two healers within its boundaries. This entire village is endebted to you, Rainsong, for you not only saved one of our own, but the next generation as well.”
Rainsong blushed profusely as the dancers once again started up a new rousing dance, trailing their moth-fabric ribbons and throwing their veils high into the air. Woodlock held out his hand, and Rainsong sat back down at the dais next to her lifemate, relieved that the dancers had taken the focus off her.
**How are you faring, Tihree?**
**I don’t know how I will endure all this attention.**
**Attention well-earned! I hear Rayek and Swift will take the Palace back tonight to tell Rain the rest of your family. They will all want to welcome this world’s newest healer. Think of it. Healer’s blood in you all this time, completely undetected.** He smiled shyly. **Maybe one day little Wing or Newstar will show a healer’s gift.**
**Maybe...** Rainsong leaned against his shoulder. **For now... I’m content. You know... I never thought I had the power in me. And I was glad. I was afraid of facing what my father faces, what Leetah faces. But now...**
**Now you’re a healer.**
“I’m content,” Rainsong whispered. And then a sly smile, so unlike the gentle Wolfrider, crossed her face. “And I’d wager you’re thinking about nutmash again, aren’t you?”
A bronze blush crossed Woodblock’s cheeks. “Well, I am now.”
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.