The Sorcerer's Oath - Books 1-2

Chapter 4-2

This plan worked well, but he had underestimated the height of the cliff and the difficulty of the climb. When he was only half way up, the eagle had swooped back onto its nest. Tarkyn pressed himself in against the rock face and waited motionlessly while it fed a large rat to its insistent fledgling before taking off again. After a few minutes Tarkyn cautiously resumed his ascent, but by the time he was sitting on a ledge just below and some thirty feet short of the eagle’s nest, he was running out of both time and energy.

Here, he could hear the incessant squawking of the eagle chick. He could see the eagle far above him, circling in a thermal that brought it out over the ravine and then sent it out of sight over the top of the cliff. Each time it disappeared from sight, he scrambled a few feet closer to its nest, and froze each time the eagle’s path brought it back into the open sky above him. At last, he was within ten feet of the nest. Now that he was close to it, Tarkyn could see that the ledge on which it rested was wider and deeper than it had appeared from below and there would be room for him to stand on it while he found a secure place for his leather pouch. The eagles had chosen well. The cliff face was completely smooth in every direction around the ledge, so Tarkyn would have to levitate himself across the last stretch.

He waited until the eagle circled out of sight then made his move. He glided the short distance across the gap, to land in a crouch next to the eagle chick. The chick immediately addressed its complaints to him, at double the volume. Before he could even straighten, the sun was blotted out by huge wings as a second eagle came at him from behind, its fearsome talons spread before it. Tarkyn threw up his shield, instinctively cowering back against the cliff face as the enormous bird swooped in to land straddling its chick defensively, its hooked beak only inches from Tarkyn’s face.

Oh no! Of course there are two of them. I should have known that. Tarkyn lowered his arms and slowly uncurled himself. He leant, still crouching, against the back of the ledge, and raised his own amber his eyes to look directly through the bronze haze of his shield into the hard amber eyes of the eagle. Tarkyn was by no means safe, even within his shield. If the eagle forced him off the edge of the ledge, he doubted whether he could wave away his shield and then incant his levitation spell as he plummeted downwards in time to avoid smashing onto the rocks below. And when the time came to leave the eagle’s ledge, he would have to drop his shield before he could levitate. No, not safe at all.

Slowly, Tarkyn removed the pack from his back and set it down in front of him. Without taking his eyes off the eagle, he felt around inside until his hand closed on the last of his game pie. He brought it out slowly and raised the edge of his shield so that he could push the offering towards the eagle. The eagle tilted her head so that she could see what Tarkyn had laid before it. Then she shrieked her derision at him.

With no conscious effort at all, Tarkyn found himself slammed hard against the cliff face as the sound assaulted him. But despite this, he kept his eyes firmly locked on the eagle’s. At the smell of food, the chick’s cries became even more plaintive as it struggled beneath its parent to reposition itself and stretch out far enough to reach the pie. The eagle gave it an impatient nudge back with her beak but the chick was not to be denied. After several frustrated attempts to quell her chick, the eagle flapped into the small space between Tarkyn and her nest so that she could reach the piece of pie.

Pastry was not the easiest substance for an eagle’s hooked beak to grapple with and it took several attempts before most of the pie had disappeared down the chick’s throat. During the whole procedure, she alternated her baleful stare between the food and Tarkyn. Overall, Tarkyn felt that his gift had probably antagonised the eagle more than pacified her.

Minutes later, the male eagle landed on the nest and, ignoring Tarkyn, used beak and talons to rip apart a large crow and feed it, piece by piece to the squawking chick. At last the chick’s cries subsided and Tarkyn felt his nerves settle slightly as silence descended. But now he had two huge birds glaring at him from inches away and the ledge had become extremely crowded. Slowly he stood up so that he was taking up less space. As he rose to his feet, he saw a deep recess at waist height. With a very slow wave, he changed his shield from a dome to a curved wall in front of him. Then he reached into his pocket, drew out the leather pouch and, keeping his eyes all the time locked with the eagles’, pushed the leather pouch deep into the crevice with his right hand. All was going well until his hand flinched back from a sharp piece of rock.

At the sudden movement, pandemonium broke out. Both eagles spread their wings and battered at the outside of his shield, shrieking and snaking their heads towards him, their beaks and talons hooking onto the bronze hazy barrier. In the background, the chick squawked in alarm. Breathing hard, Tarkyn resisted the urge to back away. Bringing to bear the natural arrogance of his heritage, Tarkyn outfaced everything the eagles threw at him. He would not let them drive him from the ledge. He brought his hand slowly down to his side and forced himself to stand motionless before them, keeping his eyes on theirs.

Gradually, as their aggression had no effect on the intruder, the eagles quietened and after ruffling their feathers into place, reverted to glaring at him. Slowly, more slowly than he had ever done it before, Tarkyn faded his shield away. After a minute, the female jabbed her head forward and used the rounded part of her hooked beak to push Tarkyn in the chest.

Tarkyn kept rigidly still. Then slowly, keeping his eyes trained on theirs, he placed his hand over his heart and gave these lords of the air a small bow, as the acknowledgement of one equal to another. He doubted that they had any idea what he meant by it, but it felt the right thing to do; to pay them homage and to thank them for protecting his valuables. They c****d their heads at him, as though studying the gesture. Suddenly with a parting shriek, the female took off and with a few strong wingbeats, rose swiftly on the air to become a silhouette against the sky. The male stepped into the nest and settled himself on top of the chick, muffling its cries.

Tarkyn could hardly believe his eyes. Returning stare for stare with the remaining eagle, he muttered under his breath, “Ma liefka” and rose gently into the air. The eagle stayed where he was and let Tarkyn go.

When at last Tarkyn had levitated and clambered his way to the top of the cliff, he stretched himself out on the grass and found that he was trembling - whether from exertion or reaction he wasn’t sure. He was still dazed by his escape. He reflected ruefully that even for a man with no future, his venture into the eagle’s domain had been foolhardy.