"A Wake of Vultures" is a story in the Animal Mindspeakers Miniseries by Elisabeth Waters.
Overview[]
While traveling along the border, Lena and her friends stumble across the body of a dead man guarded by vultures.
Characters[]
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story.
- Lady Lena - an Animal Mindspeaker
- Herald Samira - an experienced Herald and friend of Lena
- Herald Robin - a new Herald on his first circuit
- Lord Tobias - a friend of Lena's deceased parents
- Agneta - Lord Tobias' daughter
- Photine - a Mage from Rethwellan
- Eskil - a man with little Magic talent, Photine's son, deceased
Minor characters[]
Referenced characters[]
- unnamed King of Valdemar - Lena is his ward
- Lord Kristion
- Vanyel - in the context of a ballad about the "eyes" watching for magic in Valdemar[1]
Places[]
Referenced places[]
- Rethwellan
- Temple of Thenoth, Haven
- Collegium library, Heralds' Collegium
- Palace library, Royal Palace of Valdemar
Terminology[]
Synopsis (Warning! SPOILERS!)[]
Traveling with heralds Samira and Robin, 15-year-old Lena is on her way to visit a friend of her dead father, Lord Tobias. They encounter a group of vultures guarding a dead human body and a dead vulture. The vultures say the man has been dead for five days, after he staggered across the border from Rethwellan to Valdemar. But the body is not corrupt. The vultures will not let anyone approach, saying the human body is "death." Checking with Lord Tobias, the man is not local.
Lena is disturbed, as her mind remains linked to the vultures, seeing through their eyes. Suddenly she sees a woman approach and start shooting levin-bolts at the birds. The heralds quickly capture her, and she turns out to be the dead man's mother, Mage Photine. The mage is nervous, feeling as if people are spying on her. It reminds the heralds of a song about "Vanyel's eyes are watching you."
Discussing the man, Eskil, Photine says he had very little mage ability, and had been trying to draw more magic to himself. They suspect he attempted a spell that he could not control, and crossed the border hoping to halt it because "everyone knows you can't do magic in Valdemar." Apparently, that's not the case, as the woman proved with the levin-bolts.
Suddenly, Lord Tobias' daughter Agneta remembers that in the song, "Vanyel's Eyes"[1] gather when foreign magic is used, making the spellcaster feel increasingly nervous and uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Lena deduces that Eskil's spell is continuing to draw life energy to itself. They decide Photine should try to dissolve the body so that the accumulated magic will not hurt anyone, and Lena helps compose the spell. The woman successfully tests it on the dead vulture, but says that the "Eyes" have increased. She manages to cast it on her son's body, which also safely dissolves. She is glad it is finished, so she can go home and get away from the "Eyes."
See also[]
Chronology[]
The story has no specific date indicators. Lena is a ward of the King. Vanyel's Web-Spell is still active. Surprisingly, nobody in the group has trouble discussing magic, and Lena has read about "foreign" magic in the Collegia Library. This implies that the story occurs before Stefen's death, when Vanyel made Valdemar stop considering magic except historically. See the overall Animal Mindspeakers Miniseries chronology.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Vanyel's Eyes" are the vrondi, which Vanyel enlisted before his death to guard Valdemar against foreign magic. The Shadowstalker album includes a song called Vrondi's Eyes, written by D. F. Sanders.