The fire burned on and on.
Those outside had gathered around the destroyed city of Torrian, trying to comprehend what had happened. They had seen the bolts of lightning in the air, and then the white bar, clear indications that something had gone terribly wrong. That was confirmed when they found Ariana not long after the fire had erupted, laying half-conscious in a field not far from the treeline with a crossbow quarrel in her back. Sathon managed to get her conscious, and it was from her that they began to piece together at least the first of it. That Wyverns bearing riders attacked her, that Tarrin had somehow gotten free of his basket, and what was more surprising to her was that he could somehow hover in the air, and he had killed the Wyverns with magic. Knowing this, they could reason that Tarrin was also responsible for the bar of light and the subsequent fire and explosion that erupted from somewhere inside the city. But after that, it was anyone's guess as to what happened, what had caused the titanic magical calamity that had destroyed Torrian. All they could do was gather as near the raging inferno as they dared and watch Torrian burn.
And they did. Centaurs and Were-kin joined Rangers as they crossed the fields and got as close to the burning walls of Torrian as they dared, trying to see something, notice something, that would solve this most dreadful mystery. Some wept at the loss of life; the fire had whipped up so incredibly fast that there was no chance anyone escaped it. Not with the gates closed. Some stared in confusion. Some refused to believe what they had witnessed with their own eyes, angrily arguing that what had happened had to have had some natural, logical explanation.
About an hour after the fire, Jesmind, Kimmie, and Jasana had rejoined the host. Jesmind looked pale, Kimmie looked almost hysterical, but what caught everyone's eye was how sad and depressed Jasana looked. They all knew that Tarrin had fallen into the city, and they all believed him dead. But nobody knew how they had known that, since Tarrin had all but forced them to stay well away from the city. They were surrounded by the other Were-cats immediately, who formed a buffer of protection from prying eyes and demanding questions. None of them spoke from the moment they arrived, but it seemed obvious to everyone that they must know something. It was the only way to explain why they had arrived in such a state.
About two hours after the fire, the first Centaur spotted a hazy, indisctinct form that appeared within the flames. He pointed to it and noted it to his companion, and by the time he looked in that direction, the form was obvious and apparent. More and more people and Woodkin looked as an excited buzz sprang up around the host, and many of them were there to see Tarrin Kael literally step out of the fire, a fire that could not touch him. He had black ash and soot on his face, on his burned clothing, but his flesh and hair were untouched by the intense heat of the flames. It wasn't just this that caught everyone's attention, however. It was the look on his face.
He looked like the walking dead. There was no life within his eyes, and his expression was one of empty emotionlessness. He stepped from the flames and stopped just beyond them, still too far away for anyone to approach and live, due to the intense heat the flames radiated. The Were-cat stopped and stared at the Rangers and Woodkin with those empty eyes, and then he did the most curious thing.
He turned around and stepped back into the fire.
Jesmind had to be restrained by Rahnee and Thean as she tried to run into the inferno after him, and Jasana burst into tears. Kimmie hugged herself with a horrible look on her face.
Arren, who had arrived on the scene just after Tarrin returned to the fire, noticed them and their behavior immediately. He marched over to them and gave Jeri and Singer a look so flat that even they would not stand in his way, and then he stood before the Were-cat females with a desperate look in his eye. "What happened?" he demanded loudly. "I can tell you know something, Mistress Jesmind! I demand to know what happened to my city!"
Kimmie looked away from him, turning her back on him and wrapping her tail around her waist. Jesmind picked up her daughter and let her bury her little face in her mother's shoulder, weeping uncontrollably. Jesmind's face was haunted, almost frightening in its own way, and she stared back into the fire with eyes that burned as brightly as the flames did.
"Not now," Jesmind said in a growling tone at the smaller human.
"What other time is there than now?" Arren screamed at her. "Look! My city is gone! Thousands of good, decent Torrians are dead! Everything I've built and watched over and loved for the last thirty years stands burning before you! Dammit, woman, I'd say now is as good a time as any for an explanation!" he finished with a thunderous roar.
Jesmind looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes.
Arren looked about to explode. "Answer me, woman!" he raged.
She looked away from him pointedly.
"There's no need for that, Arren," Sathon said in a weary tone as he arrived on the scene with Mikos. "Jesmind won't tell you, no matter what you do."
"Why is that, Sathon? What's going on here? What happened to my city?" Arren demanded, turning to him.
It was obvious that Sathon was suffering as well. His face was gray and pallid, and his eyes looked very, very tired. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I have a pretty good idea."
"What?" Arren said in a shrill tone.
"Torrian was burned by magic," Sathon said grimly. "And I only know one person with the kind of magical talent capable of something like this."
"By Karas' hammer!" Arren gasped. " Tarrin!"
Jasana cried even harder, and Jesmind tried to comfort her. But she was beyond comforting.
The fire did not scour away the pain.
Tarrin walked in the middle of the raging inferno that had once been Torrian, walking through the hellish scene as if on a morning stroll. His feet often came down in puddles of liquid lead, or piles of glowing embers, or upon red-hot steel armor, twisted and smoldering, still encasing the blackened bones of the man who wore it. He was oblivious to his surroundings, walking only until something rose up to block his progress, then he would turn in a random direction and continue onward.
So many… so many. And he had killed them all. Soldiers, Goblinoids, and all the men, women, and children of Torrian, who had been hiding in their homes. It was the nightmare reborn, legions of new eyeless faces that would haunt his dreams for all time. Enemies and friends, guilty and innocent, all of them wiped out in a single moment. And what made it so terrible was that this time, there was no rage, no fury blanketing the awful truth. There was no excuse. He had done it consciously, had made a deliberate choice, a choice that ended the lives of thousands of people in a hellish firestorm.
It was the last thing he wanted to do… but there seemed to be no other choice. The enemy army was all over Torrian, and they outnumbered the Rangers and the Were-kin by at least ten to one. It would have been an absolute slaughter, and Suld itself would have been jeopardized. But those reasons seemed pitiful compared to the awful reality of what stood before him, the fruits of his handiwork. He didn't mourn much for the destruction of the Dals or the ki'zadun, what hurt him most was the thought that he had destroyed innocent people along with them.
Tarrin fell to his knees as absolute exhaustion overwhelmed him. The strain of creating such a powerful weave had been almost more than he could stand, and then he had wandered the burning city in a daze for hours afterward. His body simply had nothing left. He put his paws down on the blasted ground, panting from exertion, feeling the ash shift beneath his paws. He grabbed a pawful of it and trembled as he rose up, watching it sift down through his fingers. It was all that was left, all there was to serve as a memorial to the thousands that had died here. He opened his paw and watched it blow away on the fire-whipped wind. He couldn't face the rest of them. Not now, not after this. Sathon probably knew, and that meant that Fae-da'Nar would declare him Rogue. Jesmind was gone to him now, as were Triana and Kimmie and Mist and the son he never met, and all his Were-cat friends and acquantances. They would never speak to him again; they would try to kill him now. The only one he could even think to face was Jasana, and only because he had no choice but to take her with him. But he could never look at his little girl again and feel the same joy he had felt before. The day she found out what he had done here, he would lose her. And because of what he was, it would probably be Jasana that they sent after him, the only one capable of defeating her father with Sorcery. Allia would never speak to him again after she found out about this, and neither would his parents or Jenna. Keritanima would be the only one that could come close to understanding, but he wasn't sure if she could rationalize something like this.
His life was over. All the hopes and dreams that had been kindled by his reunion with Jesmind and meeting his daughter crumbled to dust inside him. There was nothing now, nothing to live for, nothing to look forward to. There was nothing but the Goddess, and the terrible mission he was committed to accompish. And that did not seem to be enough anymore.
Sinking down, putting his forehead against the tortured, ash-covered ground, Tarrin began weeping. He couldn't live with himself now. Not after losing everything that mattered to him. The exhaustion and the shock and the horror and the fear and the guilt all washed over him at once, and finally, mercifully, he spun down into the black depths of nothingness.
There was fire everywhere. The scene was one of firelit devastation, where ash blanketed the ground and blackened, charred posts and logs rose up from the mound of black ash and split rock like the fingers of some giant reaching up from where it was buried under the ruins. Fires still burned all over, slowly dying as the last of the fuel was consumed, but they were still enough to kill anything wandering the blasted landscape with the heat they generated. It looked as if nothing could survive in that hellish place.
But there was one thing. The body of a Were-cat lay sprawled in the ash by a large, blazing pyre that had once been an inn, his face and body covered with streaked black ash, clothes singed and burned. He should not have been able to survive where he was, but regardless, he was there. He was bathed in the reddish light of the burning city around him, casting his haunted face with shadow.
Those shadows vanished as spots of light began to glow over him. There were four of them, each nothing more than a mote of dancing light, but the light they generated bathed the entire area in blinding white radiance. Each carried its own unique color, its own flavor, as if each one represented something or someone different.
Can you see what we have done? one of them declared in a voice without sound, a voice filled with anguish. We have broken him! There is nothing left for him, and he cannot go on any longer!
Calmly, daughter, another answered, a deep voice of authority. What was done was what had to be done.
We had to know, a third affirmed, a voice of endless energy and vibrance. We had to know if he was capable of what may be asked of him.
But at what cost? the fourth demanded, a voice of regimented order. The cost is mine! My people, my worshippers, my own power, they are the victims of this!
It is as it needs be, my child, the voice of vibrance said sadly. It always saddens me to see any life end, but it is but the cycle coming to its rightful end, only to begin again.
But what of him? the first cried out. What of my sweet child? Must we continue to destroy him? Must we take everything that he is before you are satisfied, and leave him nothing but an empty shell?
Calmy, my daughter, the voice of vibrance said, mirroring the first to rebuke her.
But it is too much! she protested vehemently. Mother, this has destroyed his soul! What we made him do here, it is more than he can bear!
What was done can be undone, the first to speak to her said gently. But consider the cost to the world to protect just one. The test here will become tainted by our hand, and it may change our champion's ability to make such hard decisions later. The echo of this will always remain in him, and it may alter his behavior later on. As all of you know, he stands beyond mortal restrictions. He will know without knowing what happened here today, and we cannot change that. Faced with another such decision as this, he may not choose as must be chosen.
It must be undone! the fourth cried out. It is my land that has sufferered for this! My people! To take so many, it is a crime! Mother, father, I beg of you, undo this!
Such a thing comes at a price, my son, the voice said gently. A terrible price.
Perhaps, the first said hesitantly. Perhaps, a compromise can be reached?
What do you propose, my daughter? the voice of vibrance asked.
Perhaps if only a portion of it is undone, the first offered. It is not the destruction of the land that weighs on my sweet child, it is the knowledge that he has destroyed the innocent. If the children of Karas are not destroyed in this test, it would give my child the will to go on. All of you understand his nature. For the guilty, he cares nothing, but for the innocent he cares almost too much. Perhaps, if we asked our Twin siblings to return the souls of only the Sulasians, a compromise could be reached to satisfy all sides. Karas would not lose his faithful. Our champion would have cause to continue his quest, and the test and the knowlege it has provided shall stand and bolster us, for we would know without tampering that my child has the fortitude necessary to make decisions that must be made.
Would this be acceptable to you, my son? the voice of authority asked.
It would be most acceptable to me, Father, he answered immediately. Cities can be rebuilt, but the life that makes it so can never be replaced. If I could have my children returned to me, I would be most grateful, even if the power I lost by their destruction cannot be returned to me.
I find your devotion to your children most admirable, my son, the voice said, which made the point of light which represented Karas suddenly shine brighter, as if he were beaming in pride. Would you find this acceptable, my wife?
I find it to be a sensible alternative, my husband, the voice of vibrancy agreed. The path of things shall not be greatly changed by such a compromise. All things will continue as they need to continue, and it will assuade great turmoil and grief that could put the quest in jeopardy by forces within Sulasia. Such things already exist in great abundance. The Balance would be better served to show mercy in this.
Then we are in agreement, the voice of authority declared. With your leave, my wife, it shall be so. Do we consent?
We consent, the voice of vibrancy agreed.
Then it shall be so, the voice of authority repeated. My wife, summon our daughter Sheniia. Only the goddess of mercy and life can demand of the Twins of Death what all others, even ourselves, must plead. Only Sheniia can assure that the bargain is fulfilled.
It shall be so, my husband, the voice of vibrancy answered.
Then let it be so, he declared in a voice of finality.
The four points of light then flared into incandescence, and were gone.
All over the blasted, burning city of Torrian, points of light appeared within destroyed buildings. Charred bones and ash suddenly began to glow with a soft, gentle radiance. And then, in a simultaneous blinding flash, brighter than the fire, the glow flared up and then faded away, leaving behind it whole, living, breathing people, eyes closed and minds asleep, bodies unclad and exactly as they had been before the fire that destroyed them, protected by gentle cocoons of magical power, shielded by the hellish firestorm raging beyond. They were the townsfolk of Torrian, restored to life by a bargain between the gods, a bargain struck in compassion and sealed in duty.
The fires suddenly began to die out, unnaturally so, and the air cooled to where it would no longer burn the skin from the bodies of those left behind. When it reached that point, when the air was scrubbed of the toxic gases that would kill those remaining within it, the coccoons of protection wavered and vanished.
And the thousands of Torrian citizens opened their eyes, staring at the blasted devastation with confusion and uncertainty. Many of them were too confused to understand what had happened. Many of them cried out in embarassment when they realized that they were laying in ash-choked rubble with no clothes on. But most of them realized that something of titanic proportions had occurred, and they got up and started wandering about, looking for family or friends, trying to make sense of it all.
"Did you just see that?" Mikos asked suddenly as they all watched the flames. "Did you see that light?"
"I saw nothing," Arren said, but Sathon had an ashy pall, and his eyes were about to pop out of his head. And then the Druid laughed.
"What is it, Sathon?" Arren asked in irritation, watching his precious city burn.
He was about to respond, but the flames burning what had once been the walls simply stopped, like closing a tap on a cask of ale. Smoke rose up from the charred remains of the wall, and for the first time, they could see well into the city itself. It was a scene of total devastation, all black, charred ash and twisted fingers of debris rising from the black ground. But then they all saw something moving out in it. It approached them uncertainly, and when the haze began to clear, they saw that it was a young woman, no more than twenty, wandering the devastation with ash smearing her totally nude, yet totally unmarked, body. It was apparent to them all that she was Sulasian, and she swooned about in disoriented stumbles. One of the Rangers jumped forward, rushing over the burned logs that had once been the wall, and he reached the woman quickly. He threw his cloak over her and swept her up from the ground, then began carrying her out towards the others.
"She's alive!" someone called in an Ultern accent, which caused a short roar of happiness to rise up from the Rangers. "Look! There's another one!"
"I think Timon shows the way, men!" Arren said in sudden excitement as another figure appeared, rising up from the ashes of Torrian. Then another, then another, and then another. "Let's go see what miracles this fire left behind! Go find anyone alive, and bring them out to the field behind us!"
The Rangers rushed forward into the smoking ruins of Torrian, and they weren't alone. The Centaurs and the Were-kin rolled forward with them, just as surprised and intrigued by this seeming miracle as the humans were. Jesmind rushed forward with them with Jasana in her arms, but her mission was not to find the humans or help them. The only thing she cared about was that Tarrin was still somewhere in the city, and she had to find him. And she wasn't alone. She heard Thean call out to the other Were-cats, who still stayed protectively near Kimmie, "Alright, everyone, Tarrin is out here somewhere. Let's find him!"
Consciousness returned slowly, because he did not want to be awake. He did not want to remember. He did not want to feel. But consciousness was a dogged, determined opponent, forcing his mind back to coherence, forcing him to open his eyes, forcing him to sit up from where he lay.
He looked around and blinked. The fires were all out. Puffs of smoke still wafted up from some remaining embers, but the fires were gone. Had he been out for so long? He looked up into the night sky, and saw that the moons had barely moved since the last time he saw them. Had he been out for an entire day? His body was still dreadfully weak; it was all he could do to rise up and look around. It certainly didn't feel like he'd been asleep an entire day, not as worn as he was.
Movement. He saw movement to his right, and he turned to look. That look confused him. Over there were two adult humans, male and female, trying to pull a third human, which looked to be a child, out from under a charred piece of something. Both adults were nude, and the female looked torn between covering herself with her hands and helping to pull the child free. What were naked humans doing wandering out in this wasteland? He heard the male call out to the female, and it made his ears pick up.
"Come on, Elenor!" he growled at her, in perfect Sulasian, with that twangy Torrian accent. "It's too heavy for me to get Trish out by myself!"
"But I'm naked, Dory!"
"We all are, you goose!" he shouted at her.
Torrians! What were Torrians doing wandering the ruins of the city with no clothes on? It was ludicrous! It was ridiculous! It was impossible! The Torrians were all dead, he had killed them!
The rumors of their demise is greatly exaggerated, the voice of the Goddess rang within him, and from the sound of her, she was almost exultant.
"Mother!" he gasped. "I, I don't understand! What's going on?"
Kitten, you didn't kill the Torrians, she said immediately. They were granted… protection, from the power of your spell. As you can see, it did little for their wardrobes, but they are all well and whole. And after all, that is all that matters, isn't it?
That news hit him like a hammer, making him flinch and blink. The Torrians weren't dead? None of them? How did that happen? He saw the devastation. He had wandered the streets in a daze, and he was certain he saw nobody milling around out in the firestorm.
No, you saw no one before, because they were still being protected, the Goddess said delicately. The fire had to be extinguished before they could be released.
The relief that suddenly flowed through him was too unbelievably overwhelming for mere words to describe. A sigh that summed up his entire feeling about the matter escaped him, and he flopped back down onto the ash, putting the back of his paw over his eyes. "How did it happen?" he managed to ask.
That is not your concern, kitten, the Goddess told him primly. And I'm not going to tell you. But I do want to tell you that this kind of intervention does not come easily, nor will it happen again. Remember that the next time you decide to burn down a city.
Her tone made it sound like she was terribly displeased with him, and it made his entire being shiver. Ways to make it up to her, redeem himself in her eyes, the only eyes that mattered to him, began to fly through him like dust in a tornado.
Calmly, my kitten, she soothed. I'm not angry with you at all. In fact, I'm quite proud of you for what you did here tonight.
" Proud?" he gasped, sitting straight up in an instant.
Of course I'm proud, she replied easily. You were forced to make a terrible decision. To weigh your own feelings and needs against the cruel burden of necessity. But despite knowing what it would cost you, you chose to protect me rather than succumb to your desperate desire not to carry through with it. You were willing to sacrifice everything for me, kitten. You were willing to do something that every fiber of your being cried for you not to do. Don't you understand how that makes me feel? How proud I am of you, how much it makes you special to me?
He couldn't say anything. He only closed his eyes and bowed his head. "The Dals?"
All who called you enemy are dead, she told him fiercely. They were not protected from your wrath. I know even that will weigh on you, but remember who they were and what they were trying to do. And remember how the Cat feels about enemies.
"Dead enemies are the best enemies," he said immediately. She was right, the deaths of so many did concern him, make him feel somewhat guilty, but they had all been enemies. Enemies meant nothing to him after they were dead. He felt unsure as to how killing so many would affect him, but he knew right then and there that he had no moral compunction to punish himself for killing Dals and ki'zadun. They were trying to kill him, kill his daughter, kill his Goddess, and that made them not worth a moment's concern.
And then again, there was the destruction of Torrian. If all the citizens were indeed alive, then they had less than nothing. Not even clothes. Tarrin's spell had utterly devastated the entire city, leaving nothing but ash in its wake. He looked over to the three humans, where the female had finally gotten over her bout of modesty to help the male pull the child out from under the blackened post. They had nothing. No home, no possessions, no food, not even clothes. He had deprived them of everything but their lives.
Tarrin somehow struggled to his feet and stumbled over towards them in a discordant gait. They gasped and shrank back from him when they realized he was there, saw him as they leaned over their backs to look at the child. It looked like a female child, about ten or so, with her legs pinned under a short, blocky stone post that was blackened from the fire. He reached down without a word and grabbed that stone, then struggled as he picked it up enough for the little girl to squirm her way free. Once she was out, he dropped the stone immediately and dropped to one knee, panting from the exertion of it. Had he been whole, he could have picked up that stone with one paw and thrown it a good ten spans. The little girl, a cute little female with blond hair and blue eyes and adorable cheeks that reminded him of his own daughter, stared up at him in innocent wonder.
"Th-Thank you, your honor," the man said in an uncertain voice. "I couldn't lift it."
"I almost couldn't," he said with a wheeze. "How did you come to be here, goodman?" Tarrin asked the male, looking up at him.
"Well, your honor, I can't rightly remember," he admitted. "The last thing I recall before waking up naked in this was hiding in our bedroom as the men quartered in our house ran out. Can you tell us what in the blazes happened?"
"The short of it is that the Dals were destroyed," Tarrin said. "Unfortunately, they took the city with them."
"It was worth it to get those damned stoneheads off our land," the man spat.
Tarrin glanced at the male, seeing his nudity. Were he rested, he could have Conjured the man some clothes, but to even try in the state he was in would be fatal, and he knew it. If he couldn't find the strength to stand, then there was no way he could handle using Druidic magic. But somehow, he did manage to get back to his feet, though his knees trembled and threatened to unlock at any moment.
"Something like that," he told her, standing fully erect despite the fact that he didn't have the energy to remain so very long, and looking out over the blasted wasteland. "The Rangers should be in the city by now," he surmised. "If the fires have stopped all over, and they've seen the survivors, they should be in the city finding them. We need to get you to them."
" Papa!" he heard from behind. Tarrin whirled in time to see Jasana break free from her mother and run towards him. Jesmind rushed up behind her. The turn had unlocked his knees, and he found himself dropping to them on the ground, just in time for Jasana to jump into him and hug him fiercely about the neck. He nuzzled his daughter lovingly, smelling the ash and soot on her, marring her usually wonderful scent, smelling her worry and fear all over her. Jesmind reached him an instant later, putting her paws on his shoulder, on his back, hugging him, then going over him with her paws to make sure he was whole. It was almost amusing, watching her try to inspect, hug, kiss, and glare at him all at the same time. Were he not so tired, he would have laughed.
"What's the matter, papa?" Jasana asked immediately.
"It's alright, cub," he said soothingly. "I'm alright."
"Tarrin, I was so worried," Jesmind said breahtlessly, kissing him repeatedly as she pushed Jasana to one side, leaning against him. "We saw you go back into the fire, and I almost died when I saw the look on your face."
"It's alright now," he said, glancing towards the three humans, who were watching on in surprise. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, that's all."
"How did they manage to live through that?" Jesmind demanded. "They could probably see the flames in Aldreth!"
"The-the townsfolk were immune to the spell," he said weakly, uncertain how Jesmind or the Torrians who no doubt were listening would take it if he started talking about how a god talked to him. "It didn't hurt them."
"Why did you do it?" Jesmind asked quickly. "Why? There was a plan!"
"They knew the plan," he said grimly. "And they had many more men here than Arren thought. If I'd have allowed the army to attack the city, they would have been slaughtered. It was the only thing I could do to save the men outside," he sighed forlornly. He looked back to the humans. "We need to-"
"You need to do nothing!" Jesmind shouted at him. "You've done enough tonight, Tarrin Kael! Look at you! You look half dead! Right now, you're coming back with me, and I'm going to give you something to eat, and then you're going to get some rest. And never scare me like this again!" she screamed at him. Then she hugged him fiercely.
That was Jesmind. Didn't give a flip for the men he'd killed or the destruction he'd wrought. Her only concern was him.
"Jesmind-"
"Jesmind nothing!" she snapped, cutting him off. "You're going to obey me, or I'm going to drag your sorry butt back to the camp by your tail!"
"You may have to," he said, drooping against her. "I, I don't think I can walk right now."
She looked at him in surprise, her eyes softening immediately. "What's the matter?" she asked in concern, putting a paw on his face gently.
"I'm tired, Jesmind," he sighed. "It took everything I had to do what I did. I just don't have any more strength. Not even to walk."
"Then I'll carry you," she said firmly.
"I'm too big for you to carry."
"The day I can't lift something as light as you is the day I call myself a human," she snorted, standing up. "Watch out, cub, I need to pick him up," she told Jasana, who was still clinging to his neck. She let go silently, staring up at him with teary-eyed concern, and then Jesmind scooped him up with one paw under his legs and the other under his back. He sagged in her grasp, nothing but dead weight to her. Even his tail dangled limply under him. "Jasana, grab your father's tail and throw it over his legs. I don't want to trip over it," she ordered crisply.
"Yes, mama," Jasana complied, grabbing his tail and tucking it up around his leg carefully.
"Well, come on," Jesmind said, looking at the surprised humans. "I'll take you three to the Sulasian Rangers. They're gathering all the survivors so they can get some food and clothes for you."
"I appreciate that, madam," the man, Dory, said sincerely. "I think if my wife turns any more red, she's going to start bleeding out of her cheeks."
" Dory!" the woman gasped.
"Sorry, dove, but I can't help but find it funny," he grinned at her. "About right now, finding something to laugh about is about the only thing we can do."
"Humans," Jesmind snorted. "Come on, then. We're going this way."
Tarrin had never been carried quite like that before, and he found it to be strangely secure. To be carried in his mate's arms like that, to have her scent wash over him, it filled him with a strange sense of peace. Jesmind's scent had always stirred feelings of safety and security in him, a residual effect from the time when she was his bond-mother, and it could still invoke those feelings, even after all that time apart. He let his head rest against her shoulder, letting her be the one to protect him, carry him somewhere safe, where he could rest.
It wasn't very comfortable in her arms, but he was tired. Her scent made him feel secure, and his weariness was a force that could not be challenged inside him. Tarrin succumbed to the combination of those things, and felt himself slide down into sleep.
It was the sound of rain that awoke him. It pattered steadily against canvas, the canvas roof of the tent, the tent in which he was placed. He climbed back into coherence easily, his nose making out the scents of Kimmie and Jasana, and he felt Jasana laying against him. He took a mental stock of himself in those first moments. He still felt tired, but it was nothing compared to the utter exhaustion he had felt, an exhaustion so severe that it caused him to fall asleep in Jesmind's arms. He was absolutely starving, too. Judging by how he felt, it was the day after that eventful night. It had to be day, by the amount of light present inside the tent. When he stirred, he heard instant activity. The sound of flapping canvas, then Kimmie's voice. "He's waking up!" she called hastily.
"Papa? Are you awake, papa?" Jasana called urgently, pushing at his shoulder with her paws.
"I am now, cub," he grunted, opening his eyes and struggling to sit up. Jasana climbed up into his lap and put her arms around his neck, hugging herself to him. Why was she being so… affectionate? From what he remembered, from the moment she'd found him, she'd had her paws around him. It wasn't that he didn't like it, it was just that it wasn't normal. Not for her. She was a very tactile child, always liking to touch people, but this was a bit extreme, even for her. "I'm alright, Jasana," he told her directly, putting an arm around her, then pulling her loose of her grip. "See?"
She smiled at him, a gloriously happy smile, then went right back to hugging him about the neck, putting her head against his shoulder.
"Don't fight her, Tarrin," Kimmie told him with a chuckle. She was sitting by the tent flap, with a book in her lap, a strange book that was bound with some kind of leather that Tarrin had never scented before. "She's not going to let go of you for a while."
"I see that," he replied, sitting up fully and pulling is legs in. "Where are we?"
"A tent not far from the camp of the Rangers," she answered. "We thought it was best to give us some distance from the humans." She closed the book and set it aside. "You've been asleep all day."
"What time of day is it?"
"Coming on to sunset," she answered. "Things have been happening, Tarrin. Fae-da'Nar left at noon. Sathon wanted to wait for us, but when it became apparent that you needed days to recover, he gave up on it and started out with the others. Thean and me stayed behind," she smiled. "To help Jesmind watch over you and the cub."
"They left?"
"They had to," she nodded. "You know how tight the timing's going to be. They couldn't afford to wait. Not even for you."
"I guess. Actually, that makes things a bit easier." He bounced Jasana a bit, putting a paw on her back and moving her so her knee was digging in to his more sensitive areas. "The only thing I'm going to have to explain to them now is how we got to Suld first."
"I told Sathon that we were moving on to Suld. I told him we'd be there to greet him when he arrived, but I didn't say how," she grinned. "I think he suspects you know a way to use magic to get there fast, but I wouldn't tell him. He got pretty annoyed with me about it."
"You know something, Kimmie? You're actually a mean little girl, do you know that?"
"Of course. I am a Were-cat, after all," she said with a wicked little smile.
Tarrin looked at her, then laughed.
Jesmind blew through the tent flap right about then, kneeling by him so fast her knees skidded on the floor of the tent, putting a paw on his shoulder and inspecting him with her eyes. "Are you alright, my mate?" she asked intensely.
"I'm fine," he said, yawning widely, showing his formidable canines. "Just a little tired yet, but that'll be gone by tomorrow. Why all this worry over me? If you've talked to mother, then you know that this is a normal side-effect of magical exhaustion."
"Well, excuse me for caring," Jesmind said icily.
"It's not just you. It's this, and her, and everything," Tarrin said, bouncing Jasana meaningfully. "What happened?" he asked. "Something had to happen to make you all act like this."
Jesmind looked at Kimmie, who nodded. "Well, when you were using your magic in Torrian, it, well, it affected Jasana."
"Really? What happened to her?" he asked curiously. He sat patiently as all three of them started babbling at once, then he calmed them down and had them tell him their impression of the events one at a time. Jesmind first, then Kimmie, then he heard what Jasana had to say.
"And I felt you wrap yourself all up with magic," she was saying, getting into the core of the story after about ten minutes of talking about stones and books and where they were staying. "When I felt that, I felt it reach out and grab me. I did what you did when I did that to you, pushed myself away from it, but when that happened something else reached out and grabbed me, like the magic without anyone moving it. It scared me, but when it got me, I could feel you, so I didn't push it away right at first. I could feel what you were doing, and it scared me, cause I could feel how hard it was for you to do it. I was afraid it was going to hurt you. I wanted to try to make it stop, but I couldn't do it," she said in a small voice, lowering her eyes. "The magic inside me was fighting with me. It didn't want to do what I was telling it to do, the way you tell it to do things. I never knew it misbehaved like that," she fretted. "It always does whatever you tell it to do, every time you tell it to do it. Why wouldn't it listen to me?"
Tarrin looked at her, a bit perplexed by the way she described it. But hers was the mind of a child, and her manner of comprehending things was fundamentally different from an adult. The magic misbehaved? Oh, of course! She had pushed the magic away, then tried to use it. Since it reached out and grabbed her, that meant that she had been in touch with High Sorcery. And when she tried to use the power against him, since she had pushed it away, it meant that she didn't have the magic built up to do anything with it. Odds were, the weaves she tried to weave simply evaporated, being nothing but empty shells with no substance.
Two things became clear to him. Firstly, that since Jasana was so much stronger than him, it gave her the actual ability to control High Sorcery, much better than he could when he had first struggled with it. Her power was so great that she could exact at least a modicum of control without being angry. He'd been very wrong about her. High Sorcery was still a danger, but it wasn't as great a danger for her as it had been for him. Her raw power allowed her to control it, so long as she didn't allow it to build up past her ability to control it. And second, since she had actually tried to weave a spell, that it would probably be best if he taught her what to do, before she accidentally burned down the forest. A Wildstrike coming from a Sorcerer of her caliber could be devastating to everything around her.
"I think I understand, kitten," he assured her, scruffing her hair with his paw, flattening her ears in the process. "Why did it make you so upset, though?"
"Because I felt how much it hurt you, inside," she said in a small voice. "You told me that you don't like doing things like that. I saw what it did to you to do it, papa. I really understand what you meant now."
He looked down into those luminous eyes, then hugged her with exquisite tenderness. She had shared his pain. It hurt him to know that she had seen what it had cost him to make that decision, to actually carry through with it. But it, too, could be a good thing. Now that she understood what it could cost to kill so indiscriminately, perhaps it would teach her to be as responsible with her magic as he tried to be with his.
Jasana nuzzled him, patting him on the back of the neck. "Papa, who's the glowing lady in the magic?" she asked curiously.
"What?" he asked, pushing her out.
"There's a glowing lady living inside the magic. Didn't you know she was there?" He stared at her, completely in shock. That must have urged her to continue. "She was a really nice lady, too. She told me not to worry about you, that you'd be just fine, and she'd take care of you. She was really pretty, and she even knew my name! She was so nice to me! She told me that she was really happy that I was here, that you were with me, and she said she wanted to get to know me better. She said she would be waiting for us when we got to Suld. I know mama tells me not to be nice to strangers, but she knew my name and was very pretty and really nice and I could feel it through the magic that she loved me, so I thought it was alright to talk to her. Who was she?"
Tarrin felt his mind turn over. The Goddess! He couldn't help but laugh. "That, my little cub, is someone that's going to be very involved with the rest of your life," he told her with a smile. He saw Jesmind's dangerous look, and thought it best to elaborate. But that could be dangerous, given Jasana's age and her openness. "Think of the glowing lady as the spirit of the Weave, kitten. She's a friend to all of us who can touch it," he said delicately, compromising Jasana's need to know with the need not to tell her too much.
"Does she talk to you too?"
"She's never done it quite like that before, but yes, I've talked to her," he replied. "Every Sorcerer has, in one way or another, even if they don't realize it." His stomach growled demandingly. "I'm really hungry, Jesmind. Is there anything around here to eat?"
"I've got some rabbit stew simmering for you, my mate," she said with a smile. "I'll go fix you a bowl."
"I'll go get it," Kimmie offered, standing up. "I think I can get a loaf of bread from the Rangers, too. Rabbit stew isn't the same without bread."
"Make it two," he told her. "Make that three!" he called as she stepped out of the tent.
"I'm sure she'll just bring in the kettle," Jesmind chuckled.
"What's happened while I was asleep?" he asked her.
"Well, the Rangers rounded up about three thousand naked humans out of Torrian," she said. "You should have seen them. It was almost funny, the way they were all red and trying to make clothes out of tree branches and leaves. The Rangers fanned out to all their bases and the outlying farms and homsteads and started finding clothes for them, and they've had a hard time finding food for them too. So they're breaking them up into groups, and they're going to take them to the other villages and towns, where they can get more help. They're all pretty intent on coming back and rebuilding, though, just as soon as they get some basic necessities. I can't blame them for that. This is their home, after all."
"Well, it's good to know that they're going to be cared for," he sighed in relief. "Has anyone figured out what happened yet?"
"Sathon knew, but he didn't tell anyone," Jesmind replied. "The humans think it's some kind of miracle from their god. They've been running around singing hymns and chanting all day."
"That's as good an excuse as any," he agreed, his stomach growling again. "Where is that female?" he asked irritably.
"Keep your pants on, my mate, she's coming," Jesmind chuckled. "Arren managed to pin me down and drag an explanation out of me. I told Arren what you said, that the Dals knew we were coming and knew our plan. I told him exactly what you said, that there were ten times as many troops here as Arren thought, and that you burned down the city to protect his men. He argued with me about it, until they went out into the ruins and saw all the bones. That was too much evidence for him to deny it, so he's not quite so mad at you now as he was this morning."
"I'll make it up to him," Tarrin promised. "Arren is a good man, and he was very kind to me. And here I've gone and burned down his city."
"What are you going to do?"
"Well, I don't have time to build things back the way they were, so I'll just give him enough gold to rebuild the entire city, and leave plenty left over to get it started again."
"You can do that?"
"I'm a Sorcerer, Jesmind," he smiled. "Druids can Conjure gold, but a Sorcerer can Transmute any metal into gold. Didn't you know that?"
"No, I didn't," she said frostily. "I thought Sorcerers could just make fire and air and other elemental things."
"That's just one application," he said. "They don't do it often, because if you make too much gold, then it becomes less valuable. They also don't make it common knowledge, because people would be kidnapping Sorcerers to make gold for them. Few Sorcerers even know how it's done, to protect them from their own greed. But in an emergency, a Sorcerer can transmute enough metal to make him rich, if he knows how."
"Is that how the Tower pays for everything?" she asked insightfully. "I mean, they don't really do anything. How do they pay for all the food and clothes and furniture?"
"I really don't know how they do it, but they must have some kind of system," he admitted. "I never paid much attention to those kinds of things while I was there."
"The kingdom of Sulasia pays for the Tower," Kimmie announced as she ducked back into the tent, carrying a large bowl of simmering, sweet-smelling stew and a large loaf of warm bread. "Sorry it took so long. I had to steal the bread from the Rangers," she grinned. "I'll go get the kettle. I figure you'll have that bowl empty by the time I get it back in here."
"Where did you learn about that?" Tarrin asked, reaching for the bowl of stew insistently.
"You read enough, you can learn all sorts of things, Tarrin," Kimmie replied, handing him the bowl. He nearly bit the spoon off trying to shovel the stew into his mouth, then threw it aside and starting eating the stew right from the bowl. "My, he is hungry, Jesmind," Kimmie giggled.
"I'd say so," Jesmind agreed. "You'd better go get that kettle before he starts gnawing on one of us next. Cub, get down before he accidentally eats your hair," she ordered of Jasana, who giggled as she got down from his lap.
Tarrin systematically emptied the entire kettle that was brought in, which had had enough in it to feed four humans, and he did it faster than a human could have eaten the first bowl of stew. The energy that food flushed into him made him tremendously better, better than another day of sleep could have given him. He stretched languidly after setting down the empty bowl, extending his claws and then letting them relax back into his fingers. "You have no idea how much better I feel," he sighed dreamily, patting Jasana on the back as she returned to his lap.
"Well, now we'll have to figure out what to do for dinner," Kimmie grunted, looking at the empty kettle.
"I can take care of that," Tarrin assured her. "I feel much stronger now, and I've got the energy to Conjure. I can Conjure whatever we need."
"It's cheating, but I would like to eat tonight," Jesmind growled.
"I'll make a big meal. We're leaving for Suld tomorrow."
"So soon?"
"There's nothing holding me here now, Jesmind," he replied. "I only stayed with the army to take Torrian. Since that's sorta not an issue anymore, I need to get to Suld. My original mission hasn't changed."
"What mission is that?" Kimmie asked curiously.
"I have the Book of Ages," he told her bluntly.
Kimmie gasped, and literally jumped towards him. She knelt by him and took his paw between both of hers. "Oh, please let me go with you!" she asked in a wheedling tone. "That book is supposed to hold the history of the world in it! I have to read it, Tarrin! I just have to!"
"You'll have to get in line," Tarrin told her. "We need it first. I'll bet that Thean's going to want to look at it, as well as just about every Sorcerer in the Tower. But they're not going to know about it."
"Why is that?"
"There's information in it that will lead us to the Firestaff. That's not information that I want to leave laying around for anyone to find."
"Oh," she said, a bit crestfallen. "I guess you're right."
"Don't get all pouty on me, Kimmie. I said I need it first. After I'm done with it, you and Thean can fight over it. I'll let you two read it, because I trust you. There are going to be some restrictions on it, but I'm sure it's nothing that you two can't handle."
"What kind of restrictions?"
"You'll see when we get there. I may be hurrying back because of the danger to Suld, but that's the important part." He flexed a paw, feeling his strength returning to him. "But the first thing I need to do is talk to Arren."
"Why?"
"There's a spy in his army," he replied with a steady stare. "Those Dals knew exactly what the plan was. They even set a fire to make the Were-kin outside think that I'd done my part of the plan. They had to have five thousand men at the very least garrisoned in the city. We would have been slaughtered if Arren's army attacked them."
"A spy, you say?" Kimmie mused. "If that's so, how did he get the information to them? We moved faster than any messenger's horse."
"Magic," he grunted. "There were Sorcerers working with the Dals in Torrian. There were men in ki'zadun uniforms too. I'll bet that our spy either is a magician or has a magical trinket that allows him to send messages." Thinking back to the battle made his eyes rise. "Ariana!" he gasped, remembering that she was wounded. "Is she alright?"
Kimmie nodded as Jasana answered. "The winged lady? Sathon did magic on her and made her better. She's been coming over every once in a while to see if you were awake."
"That's a relief," he sighed. "What time is it now?"
"Just about sunset," Jesmind replied.
"Alright then. Let me go talk to Arren, then we'll get some rest. I'd better go find Thean and reign him in. We'll be leaving before dawn."
"Oh no you don't!" Jesmind said fiercely. "It's raining out there! There's no way I'm letting you out until I'm sure you're completely well. You may get sick!"
"Jesmind, I'm fine. Really."
"That's what they all say," she snapped.
"If I'm strong enough to Conjure, then I'll be just fine taking a walk in the rain, my mate," he said in a reasonable tone.
"Then you have a choice. You can either go see Arren and watch us all starve, or you can Conjure us something to eat and someone can make Arren come here. Those are your choices."
He gave her a steady look. "And what's to stop me from doing both?" he asked in an ominous tone.
"Me," she snarled, showing him her claws. "I'll put you right back on that bedroll if you don't obey me, my mate. The hard way."
"I think she's serious, Tarrin," Kimmie chuckled.
"You'll find out how serious I am if you try to walk out of here," she growled.
"What happened to this choice I was supposed to have?"
"I just made it," she told him flatly. "Now stop starving your daughter and make us something to eat. Kimmie can go find someone to go get Arren and bring him here. She should be back before she gets too wet."
"This mating is getting more and more one-sided," Tarrin grunted, looking at his vehement mate. She certainly looked serious, and Tarrin wasn't in the mood to fight with Jesmind at the moment. That was something that took most of his energy and all of his attention, and his mind was on other things. He figured that it was the fact that he'd been so weak that made her so protective. Jesmind was anything if not predictable about certain things.
"Think about how I feel," Kimmie chuckled. "I'm suddenly Jesmind's errand girl."
"Would you rather me send Jasana?" Jesmind asked harshly.
"I'll go, I'll go, don't get your tail in a knot," Kimmie said, holding up her paws. "Can I borrow a blanket or something? I hate getting wet."
Reaching within, through the Cat, Tarrin came into contact with the All, and then Created for Kimmie a light woolen blue cloak, that happened to have been created to be completely waterproof. It appeared on the ground in front of her, and she reached down and picked it up, admiring it. "Very nice," she nodded, throwing it over her shoulders and locking the clasp. "Anything else you want me to do while I'm out?" she asked as she lifted the hood over her ears.
"Bring Thean in so he can eat, I guess," Tarrin told her.
"He shouldn't be too hard to find," Kimmie smiled. "I'll be back in a bit, then." She turned and ducked out of the tent, and Tarrin could see that it was raining pretty steadily out there, making the view a gray pall hanging before a stand of trees across an open field. Jesmind secured the tent flap after Kimmie left, then came over and sat beside him on the bedroll.
"I'm, sorry, if I sounded too demanding," she said in a voice that was hardly contrite. "But I'm worried about you, that's all."
"It's alright, Jesmind," he chuckled. "I'm still getting used to the idea that someone actually cares about how I feel and how I'm doing. I'm not used to that, not in the way you do it. I'm also not used to being bossed around," he smiled.
"I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did," he cut her off. "You're a bull-headed bossy little witch, and I happen to like that. Just not too much," he said with a wink.
She seemed to realize that he was joking, and laughed. She put her paw on his shoulder, then leaned in and gave him a very delicate kiss. "If you're going to cheat, you may as well go for broke," she whispered in his ear. "I'm dying for some lobster, and some cherries, and some of those little fried pastries they make in Shace."
"Hypocrit," Tarrin teased. "I can do the lobster and the cherries, but I've never seen those pastries before, so I can't conjure them. But I can conjure up some uta, which is a pretty tasty Arakite pastry. I think you'll like it. They smother it in honey."
"I'll give it a try. I've been dying for sweets for days."
"You should have said something."
"Sweets? Papa, you're going to make us sweets?" Jasana asked with bright eyes.
"Not too much for you, cub. I don't want you bouncing all over the tent," he told her. "Sweets do that to a cub, you know. I'd like to sleep sometime tonight."
"As if she wasn't energetic enough," Jesmind laughed.
"I'll take what I can get," Jasana said with a huge smile, bouncing up and down on Tarrin's lap.
"And what you can con out of us," Jesmind added with a grin, flicking the tip of Jasana's nose with a finger.
"That's part of what I can get," Jasana told her mother easily, which made Tarrin laugh.
Tarrin did in fact go for broke. He first Conjured a very large tent, more like a portable canvas gazebo than an actual tent, something large enough under which to place a table without enclosing it. Then he Conjured a large enough table for eight, benches, and then he went about getting the food. He filled the table with all sorts of foods, from Sulasian standards like mutton and beef to exotic dishes, like the lobsters Jesmind wanted, curried rice that was popular in Yar Arak, and a spicy soup called chinga that would burn the mouth that was also rather popular there. He also made a dish called anthari, something that Dolanna had made once, a dish native to her home of Sharadar, which consisted of strings of a strange bread-like substance she called pasta smothered in a rich sauce made from tomatos, which also had in it meat and various vegetables that accented the flavor. Tarrin had thought it to be rather grand, and he'd been thinking about making some of it for a while. It had become all the rage in Shace, with their famous chefs actually travelling to Sharadar to learn the secrets of its making from the master chefs of that southern kingdom. He conjured such a great amount with two things in mind; to please his mate and his child and also to test to see how strong he was, to see how much he had recovered. He did get a little tired after conjuring the food, but it was a good measure of how much he had recovered. He could still whip up the dessert, and after a night of rest, he'd be just fine in the morning.
Kimmie returned with Thean, Arren, and Sathon not long after he and his family started digging into his created feast. They all looked wildly at the gazebo-like tent, and the huge table loaded with foods of every description. Sathon chuckled when he saw the meal. "I see Tarrin's recovered," he remarked, shaking the water off his cloak as they came under the roof. "He went and conjured up enough for fifteen men. Or eight Were-cats."
"We can't help it if we eat so much, Sathon," Kimmie said mildly. "Blame it on our metabolisms."
"I still can't figure out how you eat so much, but never so much as put on an ounce of fat," Sathon complained. "You're almost as bad as Faeries."
"Not quite that bad," Thean laughed. "I take it we can help ourselves, Tarrin?"
"Be my guest," he motioned at the food. "Hang your cloaks up over on that post and join in. Sathon, I thought you went with the others. Why are you still here?"
"I started out with them, but only to get them going," he replied. "I needed to come back and help the Torrians. I just back a while ago."
"Kimmie said you had something serious to tell me, Tarrin," Arren said, looking at the food as Thean and Kimmie hung up their cloaks, then sat down and started loading their plates. "What is that?"
"Lobster," Jesmind replied, cracking its shell with her fingers, then using her claws to dig out the meat. "Go to Shace sometime, and you'll see it. Kind of silly of them to love them so much, since they have to import them from Tykarthia and southern Ungardt. The lobsters only live in cold water."
"I say, Tarrin, would a human be welcome at your table?" Arren asked speculatively. "Some of that smells wonderful. You'll have to explain what it is, though."
"You're as welcome at my table as any of my friends, Duke Arren," he invited.
Arren and Sathon hung up their cloaks and then joined in. Tarrin didn't notice that Arren went for the chinga soup first, and the man about looked ready to have a heart attack when he tasted it. He scrambled immediately for the water, draining the tankard set at his place on the table, then fanned his mouth with his hand. "By Karas' hammer, I've never tasted anything so hot!" he exclaimed.
" Chinga soup. It's an Arakite specialty," Tarrin told him. "Sorry, I should have warned you about it."
"Now I'm curious," Thean said, filling a bowl. "I had some chinga soup in Arkis once. About burned the fur off my ears, but I have to admit, it was pretty tasty after you got past that." He sipped at a spoonful, then breathed out heavily and laughed. "It's even hotter!" he laughed. "Tasty, though."
"Thean, you are weird," Kimmie teased him.
"Get as old as me, and you'll try new things just because they're new," he told her, taking another sip of the soup.
"Anything else on this table that can kill me, Tarrin?" Arren asked plaintively.
Tarrin laughed. "No, the soup is about it, Duke Arren. Everything else is safe."
"Just Arren, if you don't mind," he grunted. "I think we can dispense with titles. You're about the only one that uses it anyway," he added with a grin.
"Were-cats aren't much impressed by human titles," Jesmind shrugged. "You'll get more respect from us by your actions than who your parents were."
"I've noticed," he said, trying the anthari. "My, now this is good," he said with a smile.
"A personal favorite of mine," Tarrin told him. "Dolanna made it for me once. It's a dish native to Sharadar."
"I'll have to ask her for the recipe," Arren said. "As soon as I get Torrian rebuilt and get things back to normal, anyway. Right now, my chefs can only cook basic things to feed all the refugees."
"I wish there was something I could do to help you with that, Arren," Tarrin sighed. "But unfortunately, about the only thing I can do is give you some gold to help cover the costs of rebuilding."
"I'll take that with gratitude," Arren nodded eloquently. "Anything you can do to help would be appreciated."
"I'm going to help with that, Duke," Sathon told him. "I have a group of Druids on their way here. They'll use their magic to help you feed and clothe your people, and help to rebuild the city as quickly as you can. They should be here about the same time the refugees go to the villages and get some clothes, and then come back. You'll need their help to rebuild the city, but Fae-da'Nar will help in the recovery any way we can."
"That's very nice of you, Sathon," Arren smiled.
"We can't help but feel responsible for it, Arren," Sathon sighed. "Tarrin is one of us. What he has done here reflects on us all, so we must act to correct it."
"I didn't have any choice, Sathon," Tarrin said grimly. "I already feel guilty enough about it."
"I understand that, Tarrin, and believe me, I believe you didn't have any choice. I went around and saw all the bones. There had to be at least four or five thousand soldiers in the city. I just can't believe that they managed to hide so many men from us, right under our noses!"
"They probably had a plan for it," Thean speculated. "Made most of their army stay inside, had a system of rotating them in and out so it looked like it was the same men entering or leaving a building, when it was actually different men. The question is, why would they do it?"
"Simple, Thean. They were hiding their numbers from the Rangers, in case they ever tried a direct assault on the city," Sathon told him.
"That brings it up," Tarrin grunted. "Arren, you have a spy in your ranks."
"A spy? How do you know?"
"The Dals and the ki'zadun knew every element of the plan," he replied. "They knew when and where to look for Ariana. They set fire to a building to make it look like I did it, and they had archers, siege engines, just about everything all loaded up and waiting for us. They knew we were coming, and they knew what we were going to do. Every part of it. It was like one of them was sitting around that table when we made the plan."
"That, is serious," Arren said grimly, leaning back and setting his fork down. "Do you have any idea who it is?"
"No idea, but it has to be someone that heard the entire plan. An officer or other high-ranking official in your army."
"It would have had to have been one of my senior officers," Arren fretted. "They're the only ones that knew the plan outside those of us who were at the table."
"Or someone on one of those officers' staffs," Thean added. "If that's who it is, odds are he heard the plan from the officer he works for. I know how humans love to gossip."
"Sorry to ruin your dinner this way, but I felt you should know," Tarrin told him.
"Well, I can enjoy the dinner now, and then worry later," he said with a faint smile. "I'll find him, Tarrin. Don't you worry about that."
"Good."
"Now then, what is that over there? It looks delicious."
Very little was discussed after that. They all enjoyed the banquet of foods that Tarrin had conjured from many different cultures. After they finished off the main meal, Tarrin Conjured uta for all of them, and was pleased that they all thought that it was one of the most delicious things they had ever tasted. Jesmind especially seemed to go crazy over it, swiping half the uta off Tarrin's plate and wolfing it down. When she eyed the honey-smothered pasty on her daughter's plate, Jasana growled at her and pulled her plate away from her mother defensively.
"Ahh," Arren said in contentment. "What I wouldn't give right now for some of your father's apple wine," he told Tarrin.
"There's still some of it left," he told him. "They didn't find all of it we had stored at the farm."
"Really? You'll have to send me some."
Without much thought, Tarrin Conjured one of the casks of apple wine, making it appear on the ground just beside the table. "There it is," he said.
Arren laughed. "That's a handy little ability there, Tarrin," he said as he and Thean picked up the cask and set it on a stand that Sathon Conjured for them. Sathon produced a tap, and the cask was tapped and wine was poured for them. Jasana sniffed suspiciously at the wine that was set before her, then sipped at it.
"It's good. It tastes fruity," Jasana announced, then she drained the glass. "Can I have more?"
"Of course, cub," Jesmind told her, pouring her another cup.
"Isn't that a bit much for such a youngling?" Arren asked delicately.
"Alcohol doesn't affect us, Arren," Kimmie smiled. "Our metablism burns it out long before it can make us drunk. It's perfectly safe for her to drink it."
"Ah," Arren sounded. "I didn't know that."
"I'm surprised you didn't say something about a child drinking wine. Where I come from, it's considered taboo."
"You must be from Tor, then," he smiled. "It's perfectly acceptable here, so long as the parent doesn't let the child get drunk. That's bad form."
"Torians are a bit high-collared," Kimmie said with a chuckle. "I had any number of moral apoplexies after I was turned. Were-cat ways are about as different from Torian ways as you can get."
"You aren't a natural Were-cat?" Arren asked.
She shook her head, taking a sip of wine. "Me and Tarrin are the only two of us who were turned. Were-cats are usually extremely careful about biting people."
"One of their few disciplines," Sathon teased with a smile, looking at Thean.
"I learn more and more every day," Arren said, sipping his wine.
"Well, I should get some rest. I have to rejoin the others on the way to Suld. It'll take some serious effort to catch up with them now. Now that they aren't forced to wait for horses, they're moving at a fair clip."
"How are you going to do that?" Arren asked curiously.
"He's going to enchant a horse," Tarrin replied, "so that it can run faster than any other horse, and hold the pace for days on end. He should catch up with the others in a few days."
"Very good, Tarrin. I see you were paying attention when I taught you," Sathon smiled.
"I'm not a total bonehead, Sathon," Tarrin told him mildly.
"Could have fooled me," Jesmind jibed, elbowing him in the ribs. He looked at her, then saw her mischevious smile. Jesmind was feeling a bit frisky. All the sweets in that uta was probably getting to her. "I think it's time to put Tarrin to bed. He isn't fully recovered yet, and he needs to rest." She looked around. "That means that all of you take what you want off the table and go," she declared. "I won't have your talking disturbing him."
"She's the soul of courtesy, isn't she?" Kimmie remarked to Thean.
"The absolute soul of it, cub," Thean said with a straight face. "Let's clear the table of anything snackish and remove ourselves before she starts losing her graceful veneer."
They all stood up. Tarrin took Arren's hand in his paw and shook it. "I won't see you again for a while, Arren," he announced. "I'll be leaving tomorrow with the other Were-cats for Suld. I hope things go well for you."
"With all the help we're going to get, I think things will be just fine," Arren smiled. "Torrian will be rebuilt, better than ever before. Just wait and see."
"I will see it," he told him. "When all this is over, I'm coming home. Aldreth is where I belong. I'll have to pass through Torrian to get home, you know."
"I'll be happy for that. We can visit each other and keep up on things."
"We will at that. Good luck, Arren."
"May Karas grant you fair skies and good roads for your journey," he replied.
"Tomorrow at sunrise, come back over here and pick up what I'm going to leave for you," he told him.
"What is it?"
"You'll see," Tarrin smiled. "Just make sure you bring some strong men you can trust. That's all I'm going to say."
"Well, alright," Arren said. "But don't go out of your way on my account."
"I won't," Tarrin told him. He noticed Jesmind's expectant glare. "It looks like my taskmistress over there is getting impatient that I'm not laying down," he grinned, jerking a thumb at his mate. "I'd better go before she drags me off by the ear."
"Good luck to you," Arren said, shaking his paw one more time, then turning to pick up the cask of apple wine.
"Good journey, Tarrin. I'll see you in Suld," Sathon nodded.
"You too," Tarrin replied, then turned to where Thean and Kimmie were putting on their cloaks. "Remember, you two, be back here before dawn," Tarrin called. "I'll leave you behind if you're late!"
"We'll be here, Tarrin," Thean assured him as he took the cask of wine from Arren to let him put on his cloak. "We have tents behind yours. So we'll be in shouting distance."
They all padded out into the rain, leaving Tarrin and Jesmind standing at the table while Jasana drank the rest of the apple wine they'd given her. "This stuff makes my ears feel funny," she told them.
"It'll pass in a moment, cub," Jesmind said calmly.
"It's a good kind of funny, though," she added quickly.
"I know. Well, my mate, let's put you to bed. Finish that up and come to bed, Jasana."
"Umm," she sounded, taking another drink.
"I forgot about the leftovers," Jesmind growled as an afterthought. "We can't leave that laying around. It'll attract scavengers."
"I'll take care of them," Tarrin said, absently banishing the contents of the table, leaving it clear of everything except Jasana's mug of wine.
"Now I know you ahve to be tired," Jesmind told him, taking his paw and dragging him towards their tent. "You know, it's too bad Jasana isn't staying with Kimmie tonight," she purred in his ear as he started following her as she backed towards the tent, stepping out into the rain.
"Like that's going to stop you," Tarrin teased. "You'll just wait for her to go to sleep, like last time."
"It's the challenge of not waking her up that makes it exciting," Jesmind grinned.
"Aren't I supposed to be needing rest?"
"I won't wear you out too much. After all, if you're strong enough to do magic, you're strong enough to bed me, aren't you?"
"My, you're just a little hypocrit today," he teased as she pulled him into the tent and immediately reached for his shirt tail.
She laughed. "I think that dessert is making me all hot and bothered," she told him.
"You certainly ate enough of it," he told her as Jasana came into the tent. "I thought Jasana was going to bite you there for a moment."
"I'm the one that was supposed to take it off her plate," Jasana complained as she started to undress.
"You're just too slow, cub," Jesmind teased her. "Now off with your clothes and into bed."
"Yes, mama," she said obediently. Or about as obediently as Jasana ever got.
"You too, my mate," Jesmind ordered, pulling her shirt off. "I'm ready for bed, and you need your rest. And you know how I hate it when I don't have you to cuddle with when I'm sleepy."
That was true enough, he'd come to discover. Jesmind loved cuddling, even when she wasn't feeling frisky. She also woke up any time he left the bed, for any reason, no matter how carefully he tried to get out of bed without waking her. Almost as if him not being there disturbed her enough to wake her up. As soon as his scent began to get distant from her, it woke her up.
He laid down in the soft bedroll as Jesmind tucked in Jasana, then said his goodnights to his daughter as Jesmind cuddled up to him in their bedroll. They would leave tomorrow, and it would be something that the others would probably never forget. He looked forward to the idea of flying again; it was such a wonderful thing. But there would be no dawdling this time. They had to get to Suld, and that meant a straight line to the city. Two days or so, he figured. He'd be sleeping in the Tower in two nights. He'd be back with his sisters, back with his natural parents and sister, back with the rest of his family in two days. That was something that made him feel very content. He wasn't expectant or anxious at all, now that the end of his long journey away from Allia and Keritanima was nearly over. He'd see them in two days, along with everyone else he considered family. They were all there, waiting for him, and he couldn't wait to see them. His old family would meet his new family, and together, they would all share the bonds that cemented them together. He just hoped that Jesmind and Jasana would fit in with the rest of his rather unusual family. But things would work out. He had a good feeling about it.
Jesmind started nibbling at his neck, deciding to start playing with him before Jasana was completely asleep. She certainly was affectionate tonight. He reminded himself not to feed her so much uta the next time. Or at least only feed her lots of it when he wanted her to be very bouncy.
To: Title EoF