Because it had not taken as long as Tarrin had expected to unlock the mystery surrounding the location of the Firestaff, he found himself with plenty of spare time on his paws. That wasn't to say that he did nothing, or got lazy, though. Because he did know where to go to find the Firestaff now, he became exceptionally paranoid after that revelation, keeping his distance from anyone who wasn't included in his personal circle. He would avoid people in the halls of the Tower, he wouldn't leave the grounds, and definitely absolutely would not come within a longspan of Shiika or the Cambisi. Tarrin knew they were telepathic, that they could hear the thoughts of those around them, and despite the help they had rendered, Tarrin didn't completely trust them. Then again, it was foolishness to trust a Demon; even Shiika would admit to that. Their inhuman scents made it extremely easy for him to avoid them, for he could smell them coming at least two minutes before they arrived. That ghastly scent, to which he doubted he would ever grow accustomed, broadcast their location to anyone with a sense of smell. He was sure that Shiika and her daughters were probably getting a little annoyed with him avoiding them, but he wasn't about to let them know their secret.
Since his days weren't taken up by reading, he found plenty of time to take Jenna out into the courtyard and practice, just as Spyder commanded them. He found himself just a tad rusty at what Spyder taught them the last time, and he had to reinforce the idea of both giving and taking when using the Weave. When he again found it to be second nature, the two of them went about their homework, and that was learning how to whisper through the Weave. Tarrin had an understanding of what had to be done to accomplish the task; it required a partial touch on the Weave, a connection to it something like joining with it, but not so complete that he entered it. A partial joining, as Jenna reasoned it, a deeper connection without having it pull their consciousnesses into it. They spent a good afternoon after a noontime shower in the courtyard working on that idea, and it was Jenna who figured out how to do it first. She taught Tarrin, and her description of it was fairly accurate. It was a strange feeling, because when he was reaching into the Weave in that manner, its strands became the dominant part of his vision, and the choral pitches of the sound they made came to his ears. It was the real world that became ghostly and immaterial to him when he was reaching into the Weave in that manner, as if his consciousness had shifted planes of reality without leaving the real one. Jenna called it bridging, spanning the gap between the real world and the interior world of the Weave, which was almost like another world unto itself, and Tarrin had to agree that her word was fairly descriptive.
Spyder was correct; it was indeed easy. When bridged between the world and the Weave, everything they did, even in a physical sense, was translated into the Weave as well as the real world. When they spoke, the sound went into the Weave as well as the real world. When they moved, it was in the real world, but the strands of the Weave became actual physical objects to them, capable of hindering their progress. It was the strangest feeling to grab hold of a strand and feel its solidity in his paw, but it was more than possible. Jenna had even climbed about ten spans into the air on a rather low-angled strand that came out of the ground, and when he looked at her through the eyes of reality, it looked like she was climbing up an invisible rope. Whispering at its most basic form was as simple as speaking into the Weave. Since the Weave was another reality, abiding by its own laws, the sound went around a longspan before it became inaudible to any who could hear it. Since Spyder had called to him for about twenty longspans away, he realized that there had to be another trick to it, a way to make himself audible from great distances.
It took him about two hours to figure it out. Just like the amulets, all it took was knowing just who he was trying to contact. Jenna went out to the other side of Suld, and they tested Tarrin's theory. It turned out to be correct. He found out that he could speak to her at any distance, by focusing his words on her. The Weave picked up the words and carried them to the person he wanted to hear them, but Tarrin realized that it was a method of communication that would only work with someone with an enhanced ability to touch the Weave. In other words, it only worked with Weavespinners, for they were the only ones that could sense the Weave in the manner necessary to hear the message.
That was how Spyder knew he was ready, he realized. She had been whispering into the Weave, probably for a long time, calling out to him. When he had reached that state just before crossing over, that point where he was bursting at the seams with it, he had become sensitive enough to hear her whispers. Even though he wasn't a true Weavespinner, it seemed that when a sui'kun reached the pinnacle of their powers before crossing over, they had enough of a connection to the Weave to be able to hear the whispers.
The question still remained as to whether da'shar could hear it. Spyder said that there were fundamental differences between sui'kun and da'shar. They'd have to wait for one of the Sorcerers to cross over before they could find out where those differences lay, however. That, or convince Spyder to tell them. That didn't seem to be very likely. The Urzani wasn't inclined to talk about history. He had the feeling that the next time she called them to a lesson, it would be all business. Something told him that da'shar probably couldn't hear whispering… mainly because the amulet weave that allowed them to talk through amulets seemed to be so popular back in the days of power. If da'shar could whisper, why did they need the weave on the amulets?
Then again… Jegojah had asked him if he had learned the secret of distant communication. He didn't say it in a way that identified whispering or amulets; those words could apply to either whispering or amulets, or even communing through the Weave. Maybe da'shar could whisper. But then why use the amulets? Were they a crutch for Sorcerers until they crossed over, and were never taken out of the amulets when that happened?
Any way he looked at it, he realized he wasn't going to get an answer until either Spyder told him, the Goddess told him, or someone crossed over and became da'shar. From the looks of it, that person was probably going to be Keritanima. Her powers were formidable, and she never stopped looking for new things to learn, new ways to expand her ability. He knew that she'd secretly been trying to figure out how he could project an Illusion over a thousand leagues, despite his warning her not to try. But that was Keritanima. Always doing what she wanted, rather than what she should be doing. Or should not be doing.
At the end of their practice session, after both of them had both mastered the technique of touching the Weave enough to bridge and getting the concepts of whispering down to memory, he remembered something. The Goddess had told him that he wouldn't be responsible for finding the information that would unlock the path to the Firestaff, yet he had been the one to find the poem. Had she been wrong? Never one to shy away from asking things that were best left unasked, he put his query to the Goddess' icon, knowing that she could hear him.
"I lied, kitten," came the audible reply, as blunt and bald as the sun was bright. "I wanted to put you at ease, and lying to you was the easiest way to do it. Aren't I an evil little Goddess?" she asked with a sudden winsome smile.
Tarrin was shocked that she lied, and that she admitted that she lied… but it had been a harmless lie. Tarrin had to laugh ruefully when he got over his sudden Cat-induced affront to being deceived. After all, he knew that the Goddess would never lie to him when it was important. She had been brutally honest with him in the past, even when they were things that he didn't want to know. Her lying over something as paltry as this was hardly a reason for him to get offended. After all, if he wouldn't have found the poem, one of the others certainly would have.
He and Jenna went to the kitchens after their lesson, as the sun sank behind a nasty bank of dark clouds on the western horizon and a rumble of thunder shivered over the city. Late spring and early summer was the rainy season in Suld, as storm after storm rolled in off the Sea of Storms, a name aptly given, and soaked the West. That rainy season was why the West grew so much food, as the plentiful water during the critical early rides aided a plant's growth. The rain wasn't continual, but it was daily, and the cycle of sunshine and rain was perfect for growing crops. As the rainy season ended around midsummer and the rain came less frequently, it also made it perfect for the maturing crops to bask in the sunshine and grow large and tall for harvest. The Free Duchies had the best climatic variation of that cycle, and also had some of the richest soil in the world. That was why they were the bread basket of the West, growing enough food to feed the whole of the West by themselves. The excess food they produced was sold to kingdoms and nations not so fortunate, like Yar Arak, Daltochan, Ungardt, and even more distant kingdoms like Godan and Nyr.
While Tarrin was piling some roasted beef onto his plate, an old, old friend came in from the Novices' entrance. It was Tiella. She was a little taller now, about as tall as Dolanna, but her pretty face had not changed at all since the last time he saw her. Her blond hair was even longer now, tied in a tail that drooped all the way to her backside, and her blue eyes were bright and clear. To his suprise, Tiella was wearing the Violet, meaning she was only one grade away from graduating from the Initiate and either becoming katzh-dashi or returning home if she didn't want to join the order. Initiates began in the Red, which was the lessons in Fire. Fire was a relatively easy grade in theory, but actually was one of the hardest. It was mainly an introduction to the Weave and the beginnings of the course, where an Initiate learned the basics of spellcasting. So most of the weaves learned in Fire were one-flow spells, or very simple two-flow spells. The more practical combining of flows came in the higher grades. Then they went though Blue, which was Mind; then through Yellow, which was Air; then through Indigo, which was Earth; then through Orange, which was Divine power; then through Violet, which was Water. And then they finally went through the Green, which was Confluence, but since no Sorcerer could work in that Sphere alone, the Green was actually learning how to Circle, as well as learning about very complex multi-flow spells that could only be taught to those with much more experience than other Initiates. Green was also where Initiates learned some of the tools of the trade, like weaving loose and then snapping down, and other little advanced tricks that made Sorcery more efficient, easier to use, or more effective. Red was hard in that it was the beginning, and Green was also hard in the sheer volume of things they had to learn. Tiella only had to finish the Violet and then go through the Green, and she would be done. She had progressed almost completely through the Initiate in only a little over a year and a half, a great feat. Most Initiates took four or five years to complete the training. It was a testament to how smart Tiella was. She recognized him immediately and rushed over to him, and he gave her a warm hug, having to pick her up off the floor to do so. "Tarrin!" she squealed in delight. "They said you were back, but I hadn't seen you!"
"You're looking well, Tiella," he smiled. "And you're in the Violet! I'm amazed!"
"Well," she said with a shy smile, "It's not all that big a deal, you know. Dar wasn't even really in the Initiate."
"Dar was trained by a katzh-dashi," Tarrin chuckled. "How have you been? And where's Walten?"
"I've been doing fine," she replied. "I've been studying about every waking moment, because I'm sick of school. I want to get it overwith as fast as I can."
"I can see that. Have you decided what you want to do when you're done?"
She nodded. "I think I'm going to stay here. Aldreth doesn't seem all that exciting to me anymore. Not after everything I've seen here." She grinned. "Walten's been a real problem," she laughed. "He's still in the Blue. He's become a real troublemaker. Some of the things he's pulled around here are going to be legendary."
"Like what?"
"Well, there was the time he made a cake explode on the table where the Council eats during formal meals," she said, ticking off her fingers. "Then there was the time he used a weave to summon about a thousand rats, who ran amok in the kitchen. Then there was the time that he turned about five stories of the outside of the South Tower green with red stripes, and then there was the time that-"
Tarrin cut her off with a laugh. "I never dreamed Walten would get like that!" he told her.
"He gets bored easily, Tarrin, you know that," she smiled at him. She looked at Jenna. "What, you're not going to say hello to me, Jenna?"
"I was giving my big brother a chance," she grinned. "We're still on for breakfast tomorrow?"
"Sure," she replied. Tarrin realized that Jenna and Tiella, two girls from the same village, would only naturally gravitate towards one another. Tiella was two years older then Jenna, but the half-Ungardt young lady stood about a head taller than her. Jenna was very tall for her age. For that matter, she was tall for a girl.
"I should have guessed that you two would be together," he chuckled.
"It's too bad we didn't see much of each other in the village. We missed alot of time to gossip," Jenna grinned.
"Well, we're old enough to appreciate it now," Tiella added. "I hate to cut this short, but I have to be in the Northeast Tower in about ten minutes," she apologized. "I just ran in for a quick bite to eat."
"What are you studying?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"I just started the Violet, so it's basic weaves," she fretted. "Water weaves. Right now, I'm learning how to manifest water, but my teacher promised she'd teach me weaves to freeze liquids today. I think that one would be handy, to cool my drinks if anything else."
"As long as you don't overdo it. Then you'd need a knife to eat your water," Tarrin told her.
Tiella laughed. "I'm still trying to figure out why Fire heats things, but Water freezes them. I thought it would be Divine that would freeze."
"There are plenty of things about the Weave we don't really understand," Tarrin told her. "For instance, why are Water weaves harder than Divine weaves? You'd think that the Orange would be a harder grade than the Violet, you know. Or for that matter, why are lessons in Mind before lessons in Earth?"
"They don't teach any real Mind weaves in Blue," Tiella told him. "They teach you how to recognize them and weaves and techniques to defend against them. You only learn Mind weaves if you stay as a katzh-dashi. I guess they don't want any freelancers out there that know Mind weaves."
Tarrin had to admit, that was a good policy. It also explained why the Blue was the second grade through which an Initiate progressed, when it should have been the last. Tarrin honestly couldn't recall how far into the Initiate he progressed, or what he had learned. What little he remembered of the Initiate was mainly what he learned from Dolanna. It seemed a lifetime ago.
It was then that he realized that he really had very little understanding of what really went on in the Tower. He had been so against the place that he had refused to learn about much of anything, even when he was here before. But then again, he still had no real desire to learn, for he wouldn't be there much longer anyway.
He was starting to get like Jesmind, only wanting to learn things that seemed to have practical use.
Tarrin said his goodbyes to Tiella, and as she hurried over to the long table where the prepared food was kept warm for those drifting through the kitchens, it reminded him about Dar. Dar had shown some interest in Tiella, and he knew that Tiella had a crush on Dar. He wondered if they'd managed to get anywhere yet. He hoped so. Dar was rather cosmipolitan, being an Arkisian, but Tiella was probably still a moralistic, straight-laced village girl. She probably still wouldn't bathe when it was crowded. He'd have to work that out of her. Sometimes human morality was, if not inconvenient, highly illogical.
Snorting, lashing his tail a few times, Tarrin started off with his plate towards one of the dining rooms.
The mood on the Tower grounds began to get tense as the days passed. The ki'zadun was coming, and now even the Tower was openly preparing for it. The Vendari and the Knights had erected a vast breastwork and palisade that encircled the entire Tower grounds, running about the inside perimiter of the fence, and they interrogated with extreme prejudice anyone entering or leaving the grounds. More and more Aeradalla had begun to appear in the sky over Suld, ferrying scouting reports and messages from ground-based scouting patrols to and from the command structure, which had set up shop in the Tower. Shiika's Arakite Legions had joined with the Sulasians and the Wikuni on the walls of Suld, serving as the first line of defense. The Wikuni with their gunpowder and muskets, and the cannons they'd mounted on the walls to shoot down on attackers, would prove to be devastating. The Legions were some of the finest warriors in the world, just as extensively trained to defend a walled city as they were in attacking one. The elements of the Sulasian army and militia that were there probably felt a little overwhelmed by the caliber of soldiers they found sharing the walls with them, but it was not doubted that they welcomed them with open arms. Rumor and fact had filtered into every tavern and inn in the city, so everyone knew the size of the force marching on the city. It was going to be a very large battle, they thought.
Of course, there was also good news. The Ungardt had realized that they were just getting people killed, and had broken off any more attempts to slow down the advancing army. The Aeradalla scouts had reported that the Ungardt were about a day ahead of the ki'zadun, on a forced march to Suld. That meant that there would be even more Ungardt there to defend the city, joining their brothers and sisters who were getting drunk in the city's pubs every night and causing almost as much chaos as the impending army might if they were within the walls themselves. Another bit of good news was that the Selani had finally made their presence known, absolutely annihilating the Dal army that had been pinning down the Sulasian forces just outside of Ultern. True to form, they attacked in the middle of the night, while the Dals were camped, killing their sentries and striking while most of their enemies were asleep. The Selani had great honor, but they saw nothing wrong with attacking an enemy by surprise; indeed, it was even more honor to them for taking their enemies so totally off guard. The reports Keritanima had shown him from the Aeradalla said that it had gone beyond being a victory, or even a rout. It had been an absolute slaughter. The Selani did not take prisoners. That was a well known fact. And they proved that to be a true statement. Selani did not surrender, and they would not accept surrender from an enemy. In battle against Selani, one either defeated them, or managed to flee the field. They had wiped out the entire Dal army, right down to the last man. It may have seemed brutal to some, but they didn't understand the Selani or the environment in which they lived. War was not something the Selani took lightly. The Selani were fully of the mind that an enemy that attacked once would attack again, so it was best to kill them the first time. That was why the Arkisian Emperor was so adamant about preventing gold hunters from invading Selani lands, because he knew that the Selani would come across the Sandshield like a black wave of death and raze the entire kingdom to the ground.
Tarrin had taken a moment after reading that, as he and Keritanima and Allia sat comfortably around a table in his room, and realized that the Selani and the Sulasian army they would join would be in Suld within a few days. Counting off the days, he realized that the Fae-da'Nar were only one or two days away themselves, and that the ki'zadun were only five or six days away. Things were getting closer and closer, and though he knew it was coming, Keritanima's confidence and the dismissal of it by the Goddess had put him in an optomistic mood about it.
Tarrin himself had been busy during those days. He and Jenna had been practicing every day, for a good portion of it, until the techniques that the Urzani taught them went beyond being second nature and became absolutely automatic. They had also labored more with Bridging, and had become quite proficient in that as well. They both were just waiting for Spyder to call them again, and they were both very much looking forward to it. Days were spent with Jenna. Afternoons and evenings were spent with any number of his friends, from quiet meals with his bond-daughter Jula-with Kimmie tagging along-to walks in the gardens with Dolanna, to walks around the Tower grounds with Dar as they told stories and remembered their time together in the Novitiate, to evenings spent in quiet domesticity with his parents and Jenna in their apartment, to shouting matches with Camara Tal, to a rather heated exchange with Phandebrass when the fuddled Wizard tried to cut off the end of his tail for magical research. Few men could walk up behind Tarrin with a drawn knife and survive to see the next sunrise. It had never occured to the Wizard to ask. Probably because he would already know the answer.
What amazed him was that Kimmie had gladly sacrificed a good chunk of her tail to Phandebrass. That was most likely because she was still desperately trying to get him to tutor her in the magical arts.
Late evenings and nights were spent in his apartments, with his mate and daughter. He did his best to teach his little girl about magic safely during those balmy early summer nights, often with rain pattering against the windows, but it wasn't easy. Jasana's raw power made it hard for him to show her how to use magic without allowing her to touch it, and she couldn't touch it because he wasn't sure if she could control it or he could contain it. But when it came down to it, he realized that he had little choice in the matter, and then strarted the process of teaching his daughter how to actively touch the Weave. She had yet to do it successfully, probably because Tarrin was trying to see if she could touch regular Sorcery before High Sorcery, but he knew it was just a matter of time. Probably just as soon as she stopped listening to him and did things her way.
In all the hustle and bustle, Tarrin had realized that there were two people he had yet to see, and both of them were rather important. The first of them was Sevren. He had yet to see the spectacled Sorcerer since coming back, and he hadn't thought to ask anyone where he'd gone, if he had gone anywhere at all. Sevren was one of the few Sorcerers in the Tower that Tarrin trusted, and Tarrin considered him something almost like a friend. The second person he had yet to see was Janette, and that made him feel a little guilty. Here he was, in Suld, with an army coming at them, and he hadn't even bothered to go look in on his little mother and make sure that she and her parents were doing alright. When the war started, he absolute was not about to leave them out in the city. Janette, Tomas, and Janine, and their house staff, were going to be in the Tower, right where Tarrin would know that they were going to be safe. They were good friends with Tarrin's parents, so it wouldn't be like they'd feel that they were being imprisoned.
It was sunset. Tarrin was sitting on one of the couches surrounding the fireplace, turned around on it so he was leaning against its back and looking out the windows of the balcony door. It was raining again, a kind of heavy, oppressive rain that tried to drown everything, the kind of rain that rarely lasted more than an hour or two. But this rain had been going on for almost three hours now, and he'd heard from Jula when she came up to visit that some of the sewers in Suld were starting to clog up and flood some of the lower streets. Jasana was sitting on the floor near the crackling fire, playing with a small doll that Dolanna had bought in the city and given to her the day before. It seemed odd to see a Were-cat child playing with a human doll, but Jasana did have human instincts. Then again, one of her favorite games with the doll was to make up ever more graphic and horrific ways for it to meet its end. That was the other side of her that most people didn't see, since they were so taken with how adorable she was. Jasana looked like a cute little girl, but they couldn't forget that she was a cute little Were-cat girl. She already had that killer instinct, and her gory games with the unfortunate toy were merely an extension of the instinct to perfect hunting skills that would be needed in adulthood. Jasana's duplicitous nature would have offended his sensibilities two years ago, but now that he had fully embraced what he was, they seemed perfectly natural to him now.
Jasana was describing in lurid detail how the doll was being mauled by a pack of rampaging bears when Jesmind came into the apartment, carrying a tray of meats and a pitcher of chilled milk. The scent of his mate never failed to brighten his mood, but his mind was a bit preoccupied to turn around and greet her properly. She had been very tolerant of him during his long hours away from her, but when they were alone in their apartment at night, when they were being the family that they were, Jesmind demanded his undivided attention. But there was no sharp demand this time, as she set the tray down on a tea table between the three couches and sat down next to him. She turned around with him and leaned up against him, using her tail to rub up and down his back. "What's got your mind wandering, beloved?" she asked curiously.
"Just thinking about Janette," he replied. "I haven't even gone to see her yet. I feel neglectful, but with everything that's been going on…" He snorted lightly.
"You can't be everywhere at once, my mate," she chided him gently. Jesmind knew all about Janette; he kept no secrets from her, and had long ago divulged the entirety of his life when she wasn't with him. "Go see her tomorrow."
"I think I will," he nodded.
"I want to go see her," Jasana piped in. "I remember what you said about her, papa."
Tarrin reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a torn-up, thoroughly destroyed little figure, a small wooden doll that looked like it had been mauled by a panther. It had been Tarrin's favorite toy when he had been with Janette, pretending to be her cat, and he had managed to keep it with him during all of his journeys. He rarely took it out, it was so precious to him. It had been waterlogged, burned, dropped from great heights, blasted by magic, been soaked in blood, and had been hit by weapons more than once, but the nearly unidentifiable little piece of once-colorful wood had managed to endure. It certainly looked like it had been halfway across the world and back, but it wasn't its appearance that mattered to him. It was what it represented. It was something of a good luck charm, and also a link back to the little girl who had saved his life, a little girl he loved as dearly as his parents, or mate, or sisters, or even his own daughter. Janette had saved his life by taking him in and showing him kindness and love, and it was for her that he had started this mad quest. Not to save the world, not to protect humanity, but to protect one little girl, and the world she would grow up to inherit. That had been about his only motivation for such a very long time, outside of his love of his family and sisters, until he had found Jesmind and Jasana. Now he was doing it for them, doing it for the promise of the life he may have with them when it was all said and done.
He sighed. She had to be about ten now, and a little taller. Those dark eyes were probably a little bigger, more energetic, and she was probably alot more vocal about her objections to how her mother kept trying to plan out her life. Janine's only real fault in Tarrin's eyes was that she was smothering Janette in her attempts to teach her to be a proper young lady, when all she wanted to be was the child that she was. Tomas was probably a bit balder, Janine a little leaner and more hawkish in appearance… and he wanted to see them again.
"What is that? Oh, is that the doll?" Jesmind asked, pointing at his paw. He nodded and handed it to her, if not a little reluctantly, and Jesmind took it and looked at it, then raised it to her nose and sniffed at it gingerly. Janette's scent was long scoured away from it, but it was an impulse in Were-cats to smell things. Unlike other beings, Were-cats had keen senses of smell, and an identification of an object or person wasn't complete without its scent. Tarrin often thought of his friends or acquaintances not by name or face or appearance, but by their scents. It was the most effective way to separate people in his mind, for no two scents were alike.
"Good grief, my mate, what has this little thing been through?" she asked. "It has fire smells on it, and blood, and the trees only know what some of those things are I can't identify."
"As much as I have, Jesmind," he told her absently, looking out the window again.
"Can I see it, mama?" Jasana asked, dropping the doll and coming over to them.
"Alright, but you be careful, and remember it's not yours," Jesmind cautioned her as she handed the doll over to the little girl. "And don't play with it!" Jesmind warned as an afterthought. "If you break it or lose it, I'll skin you!"
Jesmind did not make idle threats, and Jasana knew it, so she handled the little doll with extreme care, sniffing at it exactly the way Jesmind did before her. "You used to play with this, papa?" she asked.
"Janette would drag it through the house on a string," he chuckled. "I wouldn't play with her any other way, because I wasn't going to take the chance of biting her by accident."
"I've never seen you as a cat, papa," Jasana told him. "Can you show me?"
"I guess so," he shrugged. He turned around on the couch and shapeshifted for his daughter's benefit, settling into the form and instincts of a cat. It had been quite a while since he'd been in cat form, and for a short moment, it felt a bit… strange. But that wore off immediately as the old sense of it returned to him, and he sat down on the couch on his haunches and looked up at his daughter calmly.
"Wow, you're big, papa, even as a cat," she giggled, fearlessly reaching down and picking him up. Her grip was a bit firm, painfully so-Jasana didn't realize her own strength yet-but she took the pressure off of him when she put him back on the couch and put the doll down in front of him. "I didn't break it, see?" she announced proudly.
"Be glad you didn't," Jesmind said flintily. Jesmind usually seemed harsh with Jasana, but he understood her need for it. Jasana was a cunning little girl, devious enough to do Keritanima proud, so Jesmind had to keep her on a short leash. That devious nature had yet to flare up in her since leaving Aldreth, but that was mainly because Jasana had yet to see something that she wanted. As soon as she wanted something that she couldn't have, she would go to absolutely any lengths to attain it, even doing things that would utterly shock her parents. She had once used Sorcery for the express reason of keeping Tarrin with them in Aldreth, because she had heard him say that if she used her powers, he couldn't leave her. What she didn't count on was him dragging her along with him. But then again, with as much fun as she'd had so far on their trip, she wasn't too unhappy with the results.
"When can I turn into a cat?" she asked her mother impatiently.
"Not for a while yet, cub," she replied. "The ability comes around puberty. That's a few years away."
Tarrin sat down on the couch patiently, then decided that laying down would be better. "Papa, why are you staying like that?" Jasana asked.
"Because it suits me," he replied in the manner of the Cat.
"She can't understand you yet, beloved," Jesmind told him. "The ability to talk to cats doesn't come until we can shapeshift."
"I didn't know that," he told her, looking up at his mate.
"Now you do," she said evenly.
Tarrin had forgotten how much easier it was to think in cat form, where his instincts drowned out most of the thoughts that would distract him from the current center of his attention. He laid down and put his paws over the little doll possessively, his mind drifting back to the problems at hand. The ki'zadun was more or less at the top of that list. They couldn't be much more than ten days away. They should be receving reports that they had reached Darsa any time now. Things were getting closer and closer, and the terrible reality that there was going to be a pitched battle in Suld rode high in his mind. They were running out of time, but from what he'd seen, they were going to be ready. Almost all of the defenses had been constructed, erected, or planned out, and men and Wikuni and Vendari had already begun to practice the duties of the positions they had been assigned by Darvon's general staff. From what he'd heard, one of those generals was the Arakite commander, one was the Wikuni commander, and one was the Vendari commander. Keritanima had gone back to sitting in on the planning sessions, helping out where she could. Things were going to be ready, and both Keritnaima and the Goddess seemed confident that they would win. Tarrin had been as well, at least until he shifted into cat form. Now, he wasn't so sure. Something, he wasn't quite sure what, but soemthing was nagging at him.
"Tarrin, I thought you were hungry," Jesmind called, breaking him from his worried reverie.
He looked up at her and realized that he was hungry. And that tray of food and milk was just sitting there, waiting for them. Tarrin stood up and jumped down onto the floor, and then shifted back into his normal form, eyes locked on the tray. "Well, since you reminded me," he said, reaching for some thick slices of ham.
Tarrin and his family tore into the tray, finishing it off relatively quickly, and they were enjoying the chilled milk in contented silence, at least until a soundless voice drifted in from the Weave towards him. Come, it called, the voice of Spyder cast into the Weave. It is again time.
Tarrin raised his consciousness until he was bridged between the Weave and reality, then focused his will on Spyder and spoke in reply. "Same place?" he asked.
I see you did what I bade of you, came a slightly impressed response. I am in the courtyard this time. Come to me, and be quick. We have much to do this night, and we may not have time to finish.
"What are you about, mate?" Jesmind asked suspiciously. "Who are you talking to?"
"Someone I can't ignore, Jesmind," he sighed.
"He's talking to that dark lady again," Jasana informed her mother. "The one that never comes near us, always watches us from far away."
Tarrin was a bit startled. He hadn't seen Spyder skulking around. Then again, he'd been busy. It was possible that the Urzani had been keeping an eye on his daughter, given how powerful she was.
"Who is this dark woman?" Jesmind asked immediately, staring at him deliberately.
"Another Sorcerer," he told her. "The mentor I told you about. I can't ignore her when she calls me, or I'll make her mad and she'll refuse to help me. She's as touchy as you are."
I heard that, came a dangerous call.
Tarrin snorted, forgetting that Spyder could seem to eavesdrop on him. "Alright, I stand corrected. Now she's mad," he told Jesmind. "I'll be back as soon as I can, alright?"
"Well, alright," she huffed. "But get back at a decent hour, or I'm coming after you!"
"I'll try, but no guarantees, love," he said, scooping up the doll and putting it back in the belt pouch, then and sending the belt pouch into the elsewhere for extra safety. "From the sound of it, she has something big to teach me tonight. Now then, you behave yourself, cub," he told Jasana, picking her up and giving her a kiss. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"What, no kiss for me?" Jesmind protested.
"You have legs, woman," he teased her, pointing to the floor in front of him. "Come here."
"Well, if you're going to order me around, how can I refuse?" she said with a sly wink, coming over and giving him a long, passionate, toe-curling kiss goodbye. That kiss nearly convinced him that Spyder's lessons may not be as important as he thought, but luckily sanity returned to him before he went too far down that path of thought.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," he repeated.
"You'd better. I think I just made a mistake, kissing you that way," she said uncertainly.
"Live with the anticipation," he grinned, then backed away and scooted out the door before she could reply.
As quick and quiet as a ghost, Tarrin slipped through the Tower, down the stairs, along the passageways, seen by no one and little more than a moving shadow or slight brush of wind on the back of the neck as he slipped past sentry after sentry. He didn't want anyone to see him, track him, try to find out where he was going. And when a Were-cat didn't want to be seen, very few humans would even be capable of seeing him. Tarrin managed to get out of the Tower without being seen or heard by so much as a mouse, then padded quickly and quietly through the maze, hurrying to get to the courtyard. Tarrin realized that Spyder had moved in there because they were done using the place for now. It still held the books and scrolls they'd swiped from the Cathedral of Karas-minus the Book of Ages and the book and scroll with the information pointing to the Firestaff, naturally-and was now only visited infrequently. But at least one of them went to the courtyard at least once a day, to bask in the sense of safety and peace, or look on the statue-the icon-of the Goddess.
When he arrived, Jenna was already there. She had a large book in her lap, and was using Sorcery to directly make words appear in flawless, dry-inked script. Jenna had started writing down what Spyder had shared with her, as Spyder had instructed. She was cheating, but then again, given how much information Spyder had probably shared with her, cheating was going to be the only way to finish the book any time this century.
"Good, you're here, brother," Jenna smiled at him, closing the book and setting it aside. "I guess we can get started now."
"What took you so long?" Spyder snapped at him from where she was standing on the lip of the fountain.
"You try to extricate yourself from a curious child and an exuberant mate, run all the way down the Tower without being seen, then run the maze and see how long it takes you," he replied.
She sighed dramatically. "Have you learned nothing?" she accused. "Why did you not simply go off the balcony? You could have brought yourself here within three minutes!"
Tarrin flushed slightly. "Well, I didn't exactly think of using Sorcery," he admitted. "I tend to not use it unless I have to."
"Well, that is a healthy attitude," she agreed. "But we are pressed for time. You should have come as quickly as you could."
"Sorry," he snorted. "What's got you so peevish tonight, Spyder?"
She glared at him, then suddenly laughed. "I guess I'm too old for such things," she said with a warm, beautiful smile. "I'm worried about what's to come. I know what is coming, probably better than anyone else here."
"Do you know where they are right now?" Jenna asked impulsively.
"Darsa," she replied. "They have just reached Darsa. They spent an entire day setting up to attack the city, only to find that the torches on the walls and the movement they saw were nothing but a diversion. The host commander is raging that she wasted an entire day of marching to prepare for an assault on an abandoned city. They are burning Darsa to the ground as we speak."
"How do you know that when you're here?"
You can do more than speak through the Weave, young pupil," she told him with a knowing smile. "With enough practice, you can look through the Weave to any place you can find. Finding physical locations through the Weave is a technique that develops over time, as you come to learn the pathways of the strands and how they relate to the physical world." She glanced behind her, at the icon of the Goddess. "I have been observing the approach of the ki'zadun very carefully. They will be here in nine days."
"Do, do you know where the Selani and Fae-da'Nar are?" Tarrin asked.
"The Selani will be here with the humans tomorrow," she answered immediately. "The Were-kin and Centaurs will be here in three days."
"Well, that's a relief," he sighed. "They'll actually get here faster than they thought," he chuckled.
"They have been running eighteen to twenty hours a day," she smiled. "But we digress. Take a seat by your sister, Were-cat. Tonight I have much to teach you."
"What are we going to learn?" he asked, sitting down by Jenna, who looked quite eager.
"Spells," she replied calmly. "As many as I can teach you. Spells of all kinds. Attack, defense, utility, protection, Wards, manipulation, entertainment, even spells with no real purpose other than to irritate the victim. You both have learned the secret of Weavespinner power. Now you will learn Weavespinner magic. Spells not even imagined by those uneducated simpletons in the Tower. Tonight, my pupils, you learn the true power and versatility of Sorcery."
Tarrin's heart did a little dance in his chest. Finally, he was going to learn! This was what he'd been waiting for!
"We have little time. Let us begin," she said, stepping down from the fountain. "Let's see," she said, shifting into informal Sha'Kar. "Let's start with some attacking spells. Given what's coming towards us, I think both of you should be thoroughly educated in the various ways a sui'kun can kill. Then we'll go through defensive spells, then Wards. Then I'll teach you some spells that control weather, since it can be very useful in a battle. After that, some advanced Illusions, even a form of Illusion that can kill the victim. Some Phantasmic spells too, spells of Illusion that have physical effects on the real world. Some Transmutation, some advanced elemental magic, and some useful spells for a variety of situtations. Oh, and of course, a wide range of spells that Weavespinners that can use on themselves," she said with a smile. "Since only Weavespinners can use Sorcery on themselves, we have a wide variety of spells that take advantage of that fact. Most of them are defensive in nature, but some are very useful."
"Like what?" Jenna asked immediately.
"Oh, a spell that makes your skin impervious, for one," she replied. "So long as the spell is operating, your skin can't be cut. Weapons like clubs can still hurt you, but a sword can't slash you, and arrows can't punch into you."
Tarrin remembered a spell that Phandebrass had used long ago, a spell that made his body transform into steel. Tarrin wondered if there was a way to do that with Sorcery. He asked as much to Spyder, who shook her head. "That is Transmutation," she said. "Even sui'kun can't use Transmutation on themselves. Or should not, I should say."
"Why not?" Tarrin asked.
"When you change the body, you change your power of Sorcery. Remember, Sorcery is as much an aspect of the body as it is the mind. When your body changed after you crossed over, you lost your powers until your mind adjusted to the change in the body. Transmutation has the same effect. Never Transmute yourself, or you'll lose your powers. And that loss of power may be permanent. You may be stuck forever in the form you Transmuted into."
Tarrin shivered, imaging spending his entire life as a mobile metal statue. "I'll make a special point of it," he said as images of that metal body rusting away came rushing up at him. "That explains why using Sorcery feels so much different in my cat form," he added.
"That's what happened!" Jenna gasped suddenly. "When we crossed over, the Goddess Transmuted us!"
"Very good, young one," Spyder said with an appreciative nod. "But the Goddess didn't do it. You did. The Goddess shows you how to do it, and you do it as she shows you. A part of surviving the crossing over is Transmuting your body so it is invulnerable to heat. It is that change that renders you powerless until you regain your touch on the Weave. As I said, it is why you should never Transmute yourself. The effects are very unpredictable, and the chance you lose your powers is very great."
"I'll make sure that doesn't happen," Jenna said fervently.
"Do Da'shar gain the immunity to heat?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"Yes, but it doesn't aid them as much as it aids us," Spyder replied. "Since Da'shar can't access High Sorcery, it doesn't benefit them the same way it benefits us. It does increase their powers, however, just as it did for us," she added. "It increases the amount of magical power they can contain, allowing them to exceed the body's old limit and achieve the limits of their own powers, and it also vastly increases the contribution they can make to a circle."
"I didn't realize there was a distinction in limits," Jenna said.
"There is. There is the limit the body can tolerate, and there is also the limit your power will allow. All Sorcerers have a magical limit higher than the tolerance of their body. That is why there is a danger of being Consumed. Crossing over eliminates the body's limit and allows the da'shar to achieve the limit dictated by his or her magical powers."
That explained a great deal. If the body couldn't handle what the Sorcerer's power was capable of drawing, it fully explained why Sorcery could be dangerous to the user. And it explained why da'shar crossed over, to eliminate that physical limitation and allow them to achieve their maximum power. It also eliminated the danger of being Consumed, since the body could handle any amount of power that the Sorcerer was capable of drawing. "If they can't access High Sorcery, how do they face crossing over?" he asked curiously.
"There is more than one way to lose control of your powers, Were-cat," Spyder told him. " Da'shar cross over when they lose control of a spell, or draw in more power than their bodies can tolerate, usually at the prodding of the Goddess. When it is time, the Goddess ensures that it will happen."
"There'd be no avoiding, it," Jenna chuckled. "She'd know the instant the candidate touched the Weave."
Spyder nodded, then her expression became quite business-like. "Alright then, enough chattering. We're wasting time. So, on to the lessons. Let us begin with a weave Tarrin is so fond of using. The Sunbolt."
"I never realized it had a name," Tarrin chuckled, realizing that that was the name of the chaotic weave he was so fond of using to rearrange the local geography.
"It does. Some call it the Goddess' Wrath. It is a very powerful, very destructive weave. That may be why you're so fond of using it," she smiled at him.
"It works," he shrugged.
And so it began. Spyder showed them weave after weave, showing them and then forcing them to duplicate her weave. Then she would explain how to manipulate the flows to gain different effects from the weave, make them practice, and then move on to the next spell. They were there for hours and hours, as evening passed to night, and night to midnight, and midnight to morning, endlessly weaving spells for Spyder as she taught them. Tarrin didn't notice the time fly by, even as the sun began to rise the next morning, for he was utterly engrossed in what the Urzani was teaching them. Jenna too showed no signs of even being drowsy as the sun rose the next day. They had learned a veritable onslaught of attacking weaves, from weaves to stun a single man to weaves to lay waste to entire city blocks. They had learned just as many defensive weaves, spells that stopped weapons, nullified sound, protected one from harm, caused enemies to not be able to see them so long as they were hostile (Spyder called that one the Selective Invisibility weave, easy to weave and not too demanding to sustain, much preferable to a real spell of invisibility), and many, many more. She didn't dwell long on Wards, only explaining that they could be created in nearly as many forms as one could make up, and they could range from making the target victim itch and sneeze to killing them instantly if they crossed it. Then she taught them utility weaves, things from as simple as mending shirts to powerful spells of Healing. After that, she went on to Illusions, showing them how to make Illusions so large they were almost unbelievable, and then she taught them the new realm of Phantasms, spells of Illusion that could affect the physical world. The main one she taught them was a Phantasm that could actually kill onlookers, if they believed the Phantasm was real. "The mind can kill itself and the body along with it if it truly believes that it has been struck a mortal wound," she explained, calling the spell a Phantasmal Killer. "That is why the power of the mind is one of the greatest powers in the world." Tarrin didn't doubt it after that, and what was lucky for him, there was no race restriction as there was with Mind Weaves where Phantasms were concerned. The weaver of the spell merely formed the parameters, and the mind of the victim filled in the blanks with images from its own deepest fears and caused the victim to see what it feared most. That was the way the Phantasmal Killer worked, and Tarrin could tell that it would be devestatingly effective. Few had the moral fiber or raw willpower to face his greatest fear.
After that, Tarrin Conjured a good meal for them as Spyder trained Jenna in Mind weaves, from simple ones to make people forget what they just saw, all the way up to the most powerful, which could utterly control a subject. There were Mind weaves for experiencing the sensory input of a subject, literally seeing through his or her eyes, and weaves for sensing the mental energy left behind in an object, just enough of it to make out the appearance of the object's owner, or know where the item had been or how it had been used. Spyder called that Psychometry, and she said it was an exceptionally useful weave. It was also a weave that Tarrin could perform, for it didn't rely on affecting a living mind, only merely read the impressions left behind by that mind. There were even Mind weaves for affecting emotion, digging out submerged memories, editing a victim's memory on a large scale, and making people see and hear things that weren't really there. Spyder explained that it was commonly how people with little aptitude for Illusion made up for that lack of ability. Mental images worked much like Illusions did. Some of the Mind weaves, Tarrin could use against any person, or against objects; in reality, he could use all of it, and did indeed memorize those weaves, but some part of him considered it to be unfair to wield such an advantage over the other Were-cats. Certain Mind weaves, he had to admit, would come in very handy, like the ability to see through the eyes of another.
After that lesson, Spyder moved on to advanced Elemental magic, and that included spells to control the weather. She showed them how they would look but did not release them, unravelling them so they wouldn't take effect. "Listen to me closely, pupils," she said in a stern voice. "Absolutely, under no circumstances, do you ever attempt to affect weather on a scale more than a few square longspans. The power of weather is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, and when you begin to tamper with the weather on a large scale, you are meddling with forces you cannot begin to understand. But it will never get that far. If you try, the Goddess of the weather and the air, T'Kya, will strike at you for interfering with her work. And believe me, if you manage to survive that retaliation, you will know to never try such a thing again. Do I make myself clear on this?"
"Very clear," Jenna nodded. "Only local effects of weather."
"Very good," she nodded. "Now, let's move on to some advanced uses of elemental magic. Such as summoning Elementals."
Tarrin drifted off as she taught Jenna how to summon her own Elementals, and Jenna proved she could do it by summoning her very first, a Fire Elemental. For some reason, all Weavespinners summoned a Fire Elemental first, Spyder confided to them. He came back when she started showing them spells for manipulating Elemental material he'd never seen before, such as making stone melt into lava, or air actually become a liquid, turning so incredibly cold in the process that its merest touch was universally lethal. After those spells, she moved onto Transmutation, and it was here where Tarrin learned a great deal more than in other subjects. Spyder taught them spells for turning anything into just about anything, living or dead or in between. She taught them a group of weaves she called polymorphing, the changing of one living thing into another. There was another group of weaves for changing inamimate things into other inanimate things, spells to animate objects so they moved by themselves and obeyed the Sorcerer, and even spells for changing inamiate objects into living creatures. Those were the hardest, for it intruded somewhat on the power of creation, a realm exclusively granted to Ayise, the Elder God of creation and the creator of the world. Ayise permitted some delving into her realm, but she drew the line in some regards. "You can't make what's already dead and extinct, it violates the balance of nature," she warned. "You can't change an object into a sentient being, like a human, and you can't make it exist outside the normal boundaries for its species. That means no changing stones into fifty-span tall mice," she told them. "Whatever you make has to be possible in the bounds of nature, and when you make it, it can not be unmade. When you change that rope into a lethal Sand-backed viper, you can't turn it back into a rope. Once life is granted to the object, it can't be taken away. If you want to get rid of the creature you create, you have to kill it the old-fashioned way."
"That's why there's no weave for changing living things into inanimate objects," Tarrin reasoned.
"Precisely why. We can cause Ayise to breathe life into the animal we create, but she will not allow us to take that life back."
"I never realized that other gods had so much say in our magic," Jenna mused.
"They have much more say than in any other order," Spyder nodded in agreement. "In truth, Sorcery is the most powerful and most versatile of all the orders of magic, even Druidic magic. Because of that, the gods have a very great hand in where our powers are concerned."
"I always thought Druidic magic was stronger, but with what I've learned tonight, now I'm not so sure," Tarrin admitted. "I never dreamed you could do so much with Sorcery."
"What these untrained wretches you call katzh-dashi know is less than what we taught our Initiates before graduating them," Spyder said scornfully. "They embarass me, truth be told. To think that our order has degenerated so far." She actually bristled. "But that won't be much longer. We digress again, and it is getting very late. We've been out here for nearly fourteen hours now, and I find myself tiring. Let's try to finish the lesson, because I will have more to teach you later."
And so they listened intently as Spyder went over a few more things, such as defeating the powers of Wizards and Priests. Tarrin knew it could be done, but had never gotten around to learning it. He was glad he waited for her. Spyder taught the process in moments, showing them how their powerful influence over the Weave was so strong that they could actually manipulate it directly. One of the forms in which it could be so influenced was causing it to stop transferring magical power that was not Sorcery. By a mere thought, Tarrin or Jenna could rob any Wizard or Priest of his connection to his magic, rendering him powerless. Spyder had been serious when she said that no Wizard or Priest should ever manage to blindside them with a spell, because they'd feel it forming in the Weave. All they had to do was will the Weave to block the power, and it would be so.
"By muffling the Weave, you can interfere with Sorcery as well," Spyder told them. "But that depends on the relative power of the Sorcerer you're attempting to cut off. Just to warn you," she said with a slight smile. "Only that Wikuni would give either of you even the slightest bit of resistance. And that resistance would last all of about two seconds. Even da'shar can't resist the power of a sui'kun for very long." Spyder tapped her finger to her chin. "You are sister to the Wikuni, yes?" she asked Tarrin.
"Yes," he replied.
"Keep a careful watch on her, then," she warned. "She is primed, Were-cat. Just as you were. She has reached the pinnacle of her power, and the Goddess will be testing her very soon. It will be better for her if you are there to help show her the way." She looked around. "She's very close, Were-cat. Very close. If you whispered to her, I would not at all be surprised if she could hear it."
"I'll watch her," he promised. Spyder's revelation wasn't that surprising to Tarrin, who had made the same conclusion himself just a couple of days ago. Keritanima's powers of Sorcery were far beyond the other katzh-dashi now, and were growing stronger. He could tell, he could sense, that her powers had nearly reached their peak. And because she was so strong, she was so learned despite her age, it meant that she would most likely face her power and attempt to cross over, to become da'shar. The Goddess had told him that the time to cross over was when the Sorcerer had reached the limits of their power, when it would most greatly benefit the Weave. He realized that that included da'shar as well as sui'kun. When Keritanima did achieve her maximum potential, she would lose control of that power and face being Consumed. And in that struggle, she could either find the Heart, find the Goddess, or she would die.
"I'll help," Jenna said. "I like Kerri. She's funny. I'd hate to lose her."
"Amen," Tarrin agreed.
"I think that's enough for one day," she announced, suddenly pulling her black-black cloak around herself. "I will call you again soon. Very soon. We don't have much more time left. Remember what I taught you this evening. Especially you, Jenna. What I taught you today is what you will teach the katzh-dashi when the time comes. Be ready."
"I will," Jenna said soberly, reaching down and picking up her book. "I've figured out a way to write down how the weaves are formed so they make sense. If someone read them and had a little help from a tutor, they could learn the spell."
"Excellent," Spyder told her with a nod. "You were surely the perfect person for the task, then." She looked up into the sky. "I will see you again soon. Fare well."
She pulled up her hood, and then, just like last time, she just vanished.
Tarrin blinked, then Jenna chuckled. "I really hate it when she does that. I had about a thousand more questions."
"That's probably why she did it," he said, suddenly feeling quite tired. He yawned, showing his wickedly long fangs-both upper and lower sets of them-and then looked down at his sister. "I'm suddenly tired, Jenna. I think going to bed would be a good idea."
"I think you're right," she agreed. "I want to take a bath first, though, and get a bit to eat."
"I'll tag along," he grunted as they started to make their way out of the courtyard. "Goddess only knows, Jesmind is going to have a cow when I come back. I'd like to put that off as long as possible."
Jenna giggled. "That bad, eh?"
"You have no idea," he shuddered. "I'd more than willingly fight a whole army of Demons before facing my mate when she's ticked off."
"You're not fighting her the right way, brother," she giggled. "I've learned a bit about Were-cats from Triana. If she starts shouting, kiss her."
"That's not a bad idea," he said approvingly after a moment of thought, as they disappeared through the choked entrance of the courtyard.
The impending explosion he had been expecting didn't come when he got back, mainly because Jesmind wasn't there. She had taken Jasana somewhere, probably to visit with Triana, and that suited Tarrin just fine. It had been a very long time since he'd worked the way he did the night before, and it didn't hit him how totally exhausted he was until he got back to his apartment and sat down a moment on the couch. Then it just rolled him under like a gardener planting a new flower. He felt buried in weariness, and his entire body began to ache. Sorcery was as much physical exertion as it was mental control, so whenever one practiced with Sorcery it inevitably left one both physically and mentally exhausted. After sitting down on the couch, he struggled to get back to his feet, and then dragged himself straight to bed. Never had a bed looked so inviting to him as it did at that moment, as he struggled out of his clothes and gratefully sank down into the soft feather mattress, letting its comfort drown him in delightful sleep.
But Tarrin was surrounded by those who made the day their time of activity. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep when sounds in the common room disturbed him, but even that wasn't really enough to wake him up until the scents of Keritanima, that massive Vendari Szath, and Allia invaded his dreams. Those scents were a part of his deepest memories, and their presence was enough to rouse him from slumber. He managed to open his eyes just as his two sisters filed into his room, and he paused a moment to take stock before moving. He couldn't smell Jesmind or Jasana, but he did smell Jula. He hoped they realized that if Jesmind caught them sneaking into their apartment without anyone's permission, she'd get very cross with them. To a Were-cat, entering a home uninvited was the same as challenging the owner's claim on that territory. He told himself to make that point clear to them before they left. It would be very unpleasant for him to have to break up a fight between his mate and one of his sisters.
But then again, Jula seemed to understand that, and she was objecting about every three seconds as they came into the room. "Do you realize what Jesmind's going to do to us if she finds out we came into their apartment without knocking?" she declared. "You don't just use magic to get past a locked door when you're dealing with Were-cats!"
"Well, I knew he was in here, and he wouldn't answer the door," came Keritanima's defensive reply. "Besides, it's just Tarrin. I can come into Tarrin's rooms any time I want."
"It's not just Tarrin anymore!" Jula snapped at her. "Jesmind would rip off your tail if she knew you came in without being invited!"
"Who's going to tell her?" Kereitanima said pugnaciously, and the sound of her voice told him that she had her hands on her hips, and was probably glaring at the Were-cat female. "Jesmind is the sort that kills the messenger, Jula. You brave enough to go up to her and say 'oh, by the way, we just snuck into your apartment without being invited in'?" She huffed. "Besides, this is important."
"It better be," Tarrin said wearily, rolling over and sitting up in the bed. "Listen to my daughter next time, Kerri. If I don't answer the door, odds are I have a good reason not to. And when you invade a Were-cat's home, you're issuing a very personal challenge to them. I suggest playing by the rules from now on."
Jula gave Keritanima a victorious look, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and assuming an erect posture, her tail lashing behind her. Allia ignored them, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting her hand on the side of Tarrin's face. "You look tired, deshida," she said to him. "Are you well?"
"Well enough," he said dismissively. "Me and Jenna have been practicing Sorcery. I think we just overdid it a bit last night, that's all." He looked towards the window, which was covered by drapes. "What time is it?"
"About noon," Keritanima replied. "We needed to talk to you, brother."
"I can see that," he said, swinging his legs over the bed and scrubbing his face. He hadn't felt this tired after waking up since the last time he'd been injured.
"You want to put on a robe or something?"
"Why? It's not like any of you haven't seen me naked before," he shrugged.
"It's not like you mind flaunting yourself, either," Keritanima said with a sly wink.
"Well, if you have something to tell me, tell me. I'd really like to go back to bed."
"Well, if you want to be curt, then fine," she snorted. "I just got in some reports from the Aeradalla. They've reached Darsa, and they're about eight or nine days out."
"I know," he said absently. "Have the Selani arrived yet? They should be here any time now."
That made Keritanima stare at him. "How did you know about that? They only just reached the city wall!"
"I'll explain some other time," he said woodenly.
"You certainly will," Keritanima bristled. "There are a few people who've been screaming to see you, brother. Sarraya, for one. And uh, Var and Denai. I wanted to say 'Dar'," she chuckled.
"You woke me up to tell me about that?" he asked, his expression a bit tart. "They could have waited until I got some sleep."
"I didn't know you were asleep," Keritanima said defensively. "Besides, that's only half the reason we're here."
"What's the other reason?"
"Well, we've been talking about what you said, about Were-cats and Sorcery, and also about what the Goddess told you to do. We thought that you and Jula should try to see if you can circle. If you can, then you and her can stay here in the Tower and act as a second line of defense in case anything gets past us at the walls."
"I know we can circle," he said dismissively, waving a paw at her. "I've circled with Jasana."
"You didn't mention that before."
"As a matter of fact, I did," he told her shortly. "You just weren't paying attention."
"I do not remember you saying that, deshida," Allia agreed.
"Then you weren't paying attention either," he accused.
"Or you think you told us when you didn't," Keritanima said smoothly. "That's always a possibility."
"Maybe," he acceded.
"Is it any different than before?" Jula asked professionally.
"Not that I can tell," he replied. "Then again, I never circled as a human. I have no idea if it's different or not."
"Good point," Jula said mildly.
"We've already worked out a plan for when they get here," Keritanima told him. "Me and Allia are going to go to the walls with Jenna, the Council, and thirteen of the most powerful Sorcerers in the Tower. Jenna's a Weavespinner, just like you, so we think the circle we can build with her leading it would be something to even make the Demons hesitate."
"Probably. Just make sure you have about ten Vendari with you. Mother will fight that idea to her last breath, so you'll need a wall of Vendari to assure her that Jenna won't get hurt."
The three of them looked at each other, then laughed. "You know your mother very well," Allia told him. "That was exactly what it took to convince her that we could keep her daughter safe."
"I'm surprised she agreed to it at all," Keritanima admitted.
"Mother may be protective, but she's also pragmatic," Tarrin shrugged. "She knows that Jenna's magic is a foundation of the defensive plans you've made. We need her. Mother can understand it, but her heart won't allow her to let Jenna go out and fight without extreme measures taken to make sure she's safe. Remember, Jenna is only fifteen."
"That's easy to forget sometimes," Keritanima said. "Here lately, she's been acting, well, mature. Your mother thinks it's the stress of all this. Says she's proud of her."
Tarrin knew that it was more than just the situation that had changed Jenna's outward personality. The information that Spyder had given her had had a dramatic effect on his little sister. He suspected that that knowledge had been what made Jenna seem more mature. Wisdom, either earned or imparted, couldn't help but have an effect on the recipient.
"Was there anything else?" Tarrin asked impatiently.
"My, I never realized he was so cranky in the morning," Keritanima said to Allia with a roguish grin.
"Only when he is awakened from sleep he needs," Allia replied easily. "Usually, he sleeps for sleeping's sake."
"I noticed that we don't really need much sleep," Jula told him. "Not half as much as I needed as a human."
"Cats like to sleep," he told her.
"I noticed that too," she chuckled. "Any time I feel bored or indecisive, I want to take a nap."
"I still have not gotten used to these," Allia told him, picking up his arm and grabbing a handful of fetlock. "But at least the manacles are gone."
"Looks like he traded one decoration for another," Keritanima chuckled.
"I think they make him look distinguished," Jula said appreciatively.
"If he stands up, he'll be distinguishable enough," Keritanima laughed.
"If you're done making fun of my appearance, you can let me go back to sleep," he told them. "Unless you have something important to tell me?" he said in a challenging tone.
"Well, not really, no," Keritanima said. "We kind of summed everything up already. But if I think of something, I'll just run on down here and be sure to tell you, even if I need to wake you up again," she teased.
"Wake me up again for no reason, and you'll find out how cranky I can get, sister," Tarrin threatened her, pulling his legs back into bed and laying down. "Be sure to lock the door on your way out," he told them, pulling the covers back up and snuggling in.
"I think we've been dismissed," Keritanima laughed.
"That's alright. I want to go find Kimmie," Jula announced, her voice changing, telling him that she turned away from him.
"No respect, I tell you," Keritanima sniggered after Allia kissed him goodnight, and they left him. "It's like I don't have a crown at all, I tell you, sister. Nobody around here treats me with the respect I deserve."
"Act like a queen, and we may treat you like one," Allia said as she closed the door to his room.
"And miss out on all the fun? Never!" Keritanima announced in reply, but he dropped off into sleep before hearing anything else.
He slept peacefully for some indeterminate amount of time before being shocked awake by something hitting him on the face, something that got to him so quickly that it had no scent. He sat upright so quickly the covers flew, his heart racing and adrenalin surging through him to prepare to fight off this surprise attacker. But then the scent reached him, at the same time as a high-pitched, tinny little voice that squealed in delight.
"Tarrin!"
It was Sarraya. She had gripped him firmly about the neck, hugging him in her own fashion, and it took him a moment to make out where she was and what she was doing. His adrenalin eased at that realization, and it was replaced by a kind of relieved happiness, so relieved that he didn't even get mad at her for waking him up. He pulled her off his neck and held her in his paw, smiling down at her. "It's about time, bug," he told her gently. "What took you so long?"
"What took me so long? Have you ever tried to herd a pack of Selani through hostile territory? It was a nightmare!" she told him, sitting down on his palm. "They kept wanting to wander off and kill things!"
Tarrin chuckled, warm memories of the time they spent together fleeing Dala Yar Arak returning to him. "They're not that bad."
"Oh yes they are. The entire clan wanted to chase down every Dal scout! They even wanted to kill all the mosquitos that fed off Dal blood! I spent half my time showing them which way to go, and the other half rounding them all up so we could keep moving in the right direction!"
"Well, you got them here, and in plenty of time," he told her, scooting back so he could lean against the headboard. "Anything exciting happen?"
"Not really," she said, a bit of disappointment in her voice. "I'll give them one thing, they can fight. It was never even close to a real battle, even when they were outnumbered two to one. I think they killed twenty men for every one they lost. Out of some five thousand Selani, I think they only lost about a hundred, total. I've never seen such a tough breed outside Fae-da'Nar. They're almost unkillable."
"The desert breeds them tough, Sarraya," he chuckled, feeling the brands on his shoulders twinge in agreement. "Besides, most humans can't fight a Selani. They're just too fast."
"I noticed that," Sarraya agreed. "The Dals looked like they were standing still."
"Did they pick up the Sulasian army?"
"Yeah, but they're about a day behind us," Sarraya replied. "The Seleni didn't want to slow down and wait for them. How much time do we have?"
"Eight, maybe ten days, depending on the weather," he replied. "The ki'zadun just sacked Darsa."
"Did they put up a fight?"
"They evacuated the city before they got there."
"Oh, well, that was the humane thing to do, but if they'd have had a city full of civilians to play with, it may have slowed them down a few more days."
"That's cruel, Sarraya."
"Sometimes you have to be cruel, Tarrin," she sighed. "Given the penalty if we fail, when it comes down to it, in this case the end definitely justifies the means."
Hard choices. He remembered feeling that way when he heard about the Ungardt attacking the enemy army in Tykarthia, how they would be slaughtered, but it would buy them precious time. He hated having to think in those terms, but she was right. In this game, there was absolutely no rules. They had to do whatever it took, anything, in order to win. The stakes were just too high. They may have to face a decision of sacrificing some to save the rest.
"Maybe, but I don't like it."
"I don't like it either," she assured him. Then she laughed. "Such a change from the old Tarrin I knew," she smiled. "That Tarrin wouldn't have batted an eye at the thought of civilians."
"Yes, well maybe," he said with an uncomfortable shrug.
"You're a rare case, my friend," she smiled. "I've never seen a Were-cat get so feral, and then come back so far from it."
"I'm still feral, Sarraya," he sighed. "But not as much as I used to be. I'm just in familiar surroundings, where I generally control everything, and I'm surrounded by friends and family."
"I know," she nodded. "As soon as we leave here again, we'll see the old Tarrin start to peek out again."
"Just wait til I come within spitting distance of the Keeper," he chuckled. "She brings that out in me so fast even I don't realize it."
"So, the Tower wasn't what you expected it to be?"
"Not at all," he agreed. "I was expecting a hostile atmosphere. But the people I don't like stay away from me, and I have lots of friends and family around to keep me happy. So, so far, it's been pretty good."
"I heard you made up with Jesmind, and you met your daughter."
"You knew about her?" he asked dangerously.
"Not until after Triana told me a few days ago," she said quickly. "It bowled me over."
"It did me too," he chuckled. "I'll have to introduce you to Jasana," he told her. "She looks like Jesmind but acts like Kerri."
"Triana told me that she was a dangerous little girl," Sarraya laughed. "Almost good enough to be a Faerie."
"There's no way she could ever be that bad," Tarrin teased.
"Yes, few can live up to our towering standards," Sarraya said with a mocking sigh, tossing her hair. "It's so hard to be the best, you know."
Tarrin yawned. "I hate to cut it short, but I need to get back to sleep. I had a long night last night."
"If you're mates with Jesmind, I'm not surprised," Sarraya teased. "Rahnee may have the reputation, but Jesmind is almost as bad as she is. Every male I've ever known that was mates with Jesmind says the same thing."
"I'm not going to argue there," he agreed. "She is affectionate."
"Well, we can catch up later," Sarraya said. "Now that I'm really looking at you, I can see that you really are that tired. And that wasn't Jesmind. You've been practicing magic again, haven't you?"
He nodded. "With Jenna."
"Ah, that explains it," she said with a nod. "Is she any good?"
"As strong as I am," he said proudly. "She's a fast learner, too. She'll be ready when the time comes that they need her magic."
"That's reassuring. I won't mind at all going into battle if there's a Weavespinner on my side," Sarraya agreed. "Let alone two of them." She stood up and flitted into the air, the buzzing sound of her wings reminding him of her, and making the time they spent apart melt away. He would always identify Sarraya in his mind with that sound as much as he did with her appearance and scent. "I'll see you later, alright?"
"How did you get in, anyway?" he asked curiously.
"You left the balcony door unlocked," she winked. "I'll go back out that way."
"I have to go see someone in town when I get up again," he yawned. "You can come with me. You can meet Janette."
"The little human girl you like so much? I'd like that," she said with a happy smile.
"I'll come find you when I get up," he promised.
"Don't bother. I want to go meet your daughter. I'll be with her."
"Fine then," he yawned again. "See you in a while."
"See you later," she said as he laid back down and promptly went back to sleep.
To: Title EoF