It was well after noon when Tarrin finally got up, and it was right then that Jesmind decided to let him have it for staying out all night. Jesmind was a shockingly direct woman, and unlike a human female, she had no qualms about making her displeasure known upon his body. He was awakened to a pitcher of cold water being thrown in his face, and as he snapped up from a rather pleasant dream, sputtering and hissing in anger, Jesmind dropped the pitcher on his head and then stalked out of the room.
But that was that. Her displeasure voiced, the argument was generally over. After he dried out the bed and put on some clothes, she was almost affectionately pleasant to him when he came out to see his daughter on Triana's lap, a book in her paws, learning more about reading from her grandmother. Sarraya was sitting on Triana's shoulder, listening in relative silence as Triana corrected her granddaughter on pronouncing the words in the book. "Good morning," Jesmind said archly, then she rose up on her toes and kissed him lingeringly. "Don't stay out all night again," she warned.
"If I have to, I will. But next time, I'll let you know, so you won't worry," he promised. "I didn't realize I was there all night until the sun came up."
"Next time, I'll throw something worse on you, beloved," she threatened.
"Next time, you'll know I'll have to stay out," he assured her.
"Alright then. Did it go well?"
"Pretty well," he nodded as Triana nodded to him and handed him a tankard of water. He accepted it with a grateful smile and took a long drink. "I learned so much so fast, it's all kind of jumbled up in my head. And I can't remember half of what I was taught right off the top of my head. But I'll sort it out with a little practice."
"That's the way of it when you learn too quickly," Triana snorted. "You should slow down."
"I don't have time to slow down, mother," he said bluntly. "I have to be ready before that army gets here."
"There's still no excuse for slapdash work," she pressed.
"It won't be slapdash after me and Jenna go and practice what we learned. My teacher is actually a very good one. It's not her fault that we have so little time."
"Well, I guess not," Triana admitted finally. "Given who she is, anyway."
Tarrin gave his bond-mother a surprised look. "You know who she is?" he asked.
She gave him an impatient glare. "Tarrin, do you think I don't feel every single thing that goes on around here? Do you even use a crumb of the Druidic gift inside you? I can feel it every time she shows up, and I've been observing you and your sister learning magic." She snorted. "Sarraya, what did you teach him, anyway?"
"Don't blame me," the Faerie said quickly. "I taught him only what he needed to know, because I didn't want to take any risks."
"I'll have to take care of that," Triana said crisply, looking at him. "I'll not have any son of mine running around with so much talent and so little training."
Jesmind gave him a knowing look and then grinned. She warned him that Triana would be eager to train him in Druidic magic. It certainly didn't take his bond-mother very long to put it on the table.
"I'm afraid that you'll have to get in line, mother," he told her smoothly. "I'm kind of taken at the moment. When I'm done there, I'd be happy to learn about Druidic magic from you."
"There's plenty of time," she said with a negligent wave of her paw, though he could sense the near-truth behind the words. She wanted to start now, but she knew that he just didn't have the time. "We'll get to it when we have a chance."
"Fair enough," Tarrin told her. "Are you busy today, love?" he asked Jesmind. "I'd like to take you out into the city and meet someone."
"Who?"
"Tomas, Janine, and Janette," he replied. "The family that took me in after I ran away from the Tower."
"I'd like to meet them," Jesmind said with a smile. "Especially the little girl."
"I want to go!" Jasana said quickly, closing the book and scrambling out of her grandmother's lap. She grabbed Tarrin's tail and looked up into his eyes, her expression pleading and simpering. "Oh please, please, can I go?"
"Of course you can go," he told her, reaching down and picking her up. "Sarraya wants to go too. Don't you, Sarraya?"
"I think I can find the time for it," Sarraya grinned.
"Did you meet Kerri yet?" he asked curiously.
"The Wikuni? Oh, yes," Sarraya laughed. "She's exactly as you described her. Cunning, sneaky, underhanded, willful, and thoroughly dangerous. I liked her immediately."
"I figured you would," Tarrin chuckled. "Well, I'm a bit hungry. Let's go get something to eat, then we can go visiting."
"I've already met them, so I'll pass," Triana told him directly, standing up and picking up the book.
"When was that?"
"When I first started looking for you," she replied. "I came here first, to get an idea of you. You were there for a while, so I went to see them."
"How did you find them?" he asked in surprise.
"Tarrin, how often are you going to assume that I'm stupid?" she asked in a cross manner.
"It's not that, mother. It's that I never even told you about them, and Jesmind didn't know about them. Nobody did but a few people, and none of them would have said anything. How did you find out about them?"
She gave him a flat look. "Cub, I'm a Druid," she said, a bit scathingly. "I walked down every path, every street, every passageway that you did when you were here. Those tracks led me to them, and then I talked to them." She closed the book with a loud snap. "I think I'd better go before I get insulted by my cub's lack of faith," she told him.
"She's been away from Thean too long," Jesmind whispered to him with a knowing smile.
"Watch yourself, cub," Triana said in an ugly tone. "If I remember right, a certain daughter of mine was crossing her legs and complaining to me about every five minutes about how she accidentally got herself all hot and bothered before her mate left, and then found herself left out in the cold."
Jesmind looked away from her mother, the slightest of flushes appearing on her cheeks.
Tarrin was amazed. Jesmind was almost blushing! He never thought he'd live to see that! But then again, even among Were-cats, to hear one's own mother say something like that was a trifle embarassing.
"Now then, as my cub so elegantly pointed out, I'm going to go have dinner with Thean," Triana announced, setting the book on the tea table. "I'll leave this here for you, kitten," she told Jasana in a gentle voice, very much unlike the rough way she always addressed her children. "We'll finish it tomorrow, alright?"
"Alright, Gramma," Jasana said with a bright smile. She was handed off to Triana after she reached for her, then was kissed and snuggled in a way that showed the world just how loving and warm Triana really was. But that break in her stony outward demeanor lasted only as long as Jasana was in her paws. It returned when she handed the child back to Tarrin.
"I'll see you later, mother," Jesmind called.
"Behave, all of you," Triana called as she cut short any further farewells by marching out of the room.
"Well, let's go see if my parents want to go," Tarrin offered. "They're good friends with Tomas and Janine. I think they'd really like to go see them."
"That's a good idea. Your mother's been teaching me how to cook things that you like, so it'll give me a chance to ask her a few questions about that recipe for venison stew."
After collecting up his daughter, he foisted her off on Jesmind and they split up. Jesmind went down to the kitchens to get something to eat, and Tarrin went to the apartment his parents had claimed, which was on the same floor as his own. But to his surprise, the only one there was Jenna. She was sitting on a couch in a room that looked almost exactly like the common room of his own apartment, though this one only had one couch and a rather large tea table separating the couch from the elegantly carved mantle and fireplace. She had that book in her lap, which she promptly closed as Tarrin entered the room. "Hullo, Jenna. Where are mother and father?"
"I have no idea," she replied, a bit curtly. "I think they went into the city. Alot of mother's clan is here, she may be visiting with them."
"Is Grandfather here?"
"Of course he's here, silly!" she snorted. "Who do you think brought us to Suld?"
"Why haven't I seen him?"
"He's probably been drunk ever since you got here," she told him bluntly. "You know how grandfather is."
Tarrin chuckled. That was true. It wasn't that their grandfather was a drunkard, it was just that he was like just about any red-blooded Ungardt ship captain. Work hard on the sea, play hard on the land. That was the Ungardt custom. That was why the Ungardt got roaring drunk every afternoon and caused so much trouble down at the dock quarter.
"Mother may have went to go dry him out."
"Probably. If you don't mind, could you leave? I'm at an important part, and I don't want to lose my train of thought."
"Oh, alright. Sorry to bother you."
Tarrin went downstairs and rejoined his mate and daughter, ate a quick meal, and then they were off. He wouldn't even bother trying to find Sarraya, there was no way he would ever find her. As usual, if she wanted to go, she would probably find him. It had been a while since he'd been in Suld, and most of those times were when he was sneaking around. He couldn't remember more than once or twice walking down the streets of Suld in broad daylight in his natural form. But the place certainly looked and felt different. For one, there weren't just Sulasians anymore. There had always been a few Wikuni in Suld, for it was a port city, but now Suld looked like a bizarre menagerie. Sulasian citizens were very nearly outnumbered by the Wikuni and Ungardt, the Arakites and the Vendari, even a few Selani walking the streets. All of the visitors were armed, some armored, and walked in groups of their own. The Arakite Legions especially; they seemed to not move around unless in a group of at least twenty. They all gave Tarrin and Jesmind a very wide berth, no doubt having been warned about the Were-cats. As much as the people on the streets looked different from what he remembered, it was the feel of them that concerned him. All the visiting soldiers were tense, wary, and the civilians looked downright terrified, scurrying about as quickly as they could in order to get off the streets and away from the multitudes of foreign soldiers that had taken up residence in the city. It gave the city the sense of it being occupied, the same way that the villagers in Aldreth felt when the Dals were there. Tarrin realized that they couldn't help it, for he had a good inkling that few of the foreign soldiers could speak much Sulasian. The language barriers presented by the various armies were formidable; the average Arakite only spoke Arakite, and most common Wikuni sailors knew some Sulasian, but he wasn't sure what their soldiers would know. Selani only spoke Selani, and Vendari spoke Wikuni as well as their own sibilant language, but again he doubted that they knew much Sulasian. Tarrin had never gotten around to learning Wikuni. Denai hadn't known that language, and besides, she'd spent all their free time teaching him Sharadi, the accepted common language of the southern continent of Arathorn. Why a Selani would be fluent in a language she would probably never used still mystified him a little bit, but the Selani were like that sometimes. That inability to communicate certainly made things a little tense. And he wondered how it was going to affect the ability of the command staff to pass down orders. From what he'd heard from Keritanima, Darvon, the overall commander, was being advised by an Arakite Field Marshal, a Wikuni admiral, a Wikuni general, the colonel in command of the Sulasian garrison in Suld, the general of the Sulasian army appointed by the sitting regent, and probably the most meddlesome, the Keeper and Keritanima. And they'd be joined by a Selani, probably the clan's chief, who stood as general in times of war. Tarrin didn't doubt that the Arakite and the Wikuni spoke Sulasian, but the Selani may not speak Sulasian, needing an obe to act as his translator. The different languages were going to make sending orders tricky when the fighting started.
"Are you trying to leave me behind?" came an angry demand as the sound of Sarraya's buzzing wings came to his ears.
"Of course not," he said mildly.
"Then why didn't you come get me?" she huffed at him.
"You didn't tell me where you were," he told her in an even tone. "I knew you'd know I was moving around, and you'd come to me."
I-" she started, then she blew out her breath. "I really hate it when you're right," she growled at him, coming into view before, them, flying backwards.
"It's the feery!" Jasana giggled.
"That's fay-ree!" Sarraya snapped at the child.
"I see you met my daughter," Tarrin said mildly.
"The bug showed up a few hours ago," Jesmind told him. "Almost got her wings pulled off."
"I did not!"
"You would have if I hadn't have stopped Jasana," she said sharply. "What are you doing out here, bug?"
"I'm going with you," she announced. "Tarrin invited me along."
"You didn't!" Jesmind accused.
"Of course I did," he said, letting Sarraya land on his shoulder. "Sarraya's a friend of mine, my mate. Sure, she's erratic, and a little strange, but she grows on you after a while."
"Hey!" Sarraya snapped waspishly.
"We went through alot together," he told Jesmind. "I guess that can't help but make two people friends. Even annoying little pests."
"I am here, you know!" Sarraya ranted at him.
"I guess you're right," Jesmind said with a straight face. "It would have to have been alot to go through to make you friends with someone like her."
" Excuse me!" Sarraya shouted.
"Did you hear something, beloved?" Jesmind asked with a slight smile.
"I think so, but I don't know if it was worth noticing," Tarrin replied blandly.
"Alright, that's it! I'm leaving!" Sarraya shouted, flitting into the air and then vanishing from view as she flew away, cursing vociferously and making all kinds of remarks about Were-cats.
"How long do you figure?" Jesmind asked quickly.
"I'd give her five minutes," Tarrin chuckled. "Maybe ten. Sarraya's a bit more touchy than the average Faerie."
"What was that about, mama?" Jasana asked.
"Something you'll learn when you're older, cub," she replied. "The quickest way to keep a Faerie from causing trouble is to offend it. That way it's so busy being mad it forgets to pull pranks and steal things from passers-by."
"You made her mad on purpose?" Jasana asked in surprise.
"Of course, cub. Faeries are flightly little annoyances. Were-cats sometimes don't get along with Faeries, so we've learned how to keep them from making us mad. That's how we do it."
"We keep from getting mad by getting them mad first?" she asked uncertainly.
"That's pretty much well right, cub," Jesmind chuckled. "You'll understand it better when you're a little older, I promise."
"Oh. Alright."
Obviously, they made Sarraya a little more angry than they thought, because she didn't come back. He fretted over that for only a few moments, however. Sarraya was rather flightly, and by tomorrow, she'd probably have forgotten about it. Tarrin remembered the way to Tomas and Janine's house, and it was exactly as he remembered it. The fence, the house, the garden, everything, it was just as it was when he was there last. There was a new addition, however, and that was a pair of armed guards standing at either side of the door. To his surprise, they were Ungardt, two rather large Ungardt in their fur vests and leather breeches and horned helmets, each holding a spear and a shield. Both had their hair in the pattern Ungardt braids, one with red hair and the other with blond hair. Both, he had to admit, were rather handsome men, though they were curiously clean-shaven. That was unusual in Ungardt their age. Most young Ungardt warriors favored the beard. Tarrin approached them with Jesmind holding Jasana, a bit wary of two armed men within striking distance of her daughter, and the two Ungardt seemed to sense the unease of his mate, picking their spears up from where their butts were resting on the ground.
"Hold and stand down," Tarrin said in Ungardt, holding out his paws. "I come with no malice this day."
"You know the words and the phrases, and you have the sound of a countryman, but you look like no Ungardt I've ever seen," the redheaded man said dubiously.
"It's a long story, but my mother is of the blood," he said smoothly. "Why did Tomas hire you to guard his house? No one would want to hurt him!"
"We were sent by Anrak," the blond said.
"Anrak Whiteaxe?" Tarrin said in surprise.
"The very one," the redhead said, in equal surprise. "You know the name?"
Tarrin laughed. "He's my grandfather!" he announced.
"You are Tarrin? Daughter of Elke Whiteaxe?" the blond asked quickly. Then he too laughed. "Anrak said you'd been changed, but I thought it was a wine dream!"
"You are a clansman!" the redhead announced with a sudden bow. "I am Garstad, and this weak woman here is Thale. King Anrak has told many a story of you, Prince Tarrin."
Tarrin hadn't heard that one before, but he remembered that technically, he was a prince. Anrak, his grandfather, was a clan king, and his mother was a princess. An irregularity in translation made Sulasians think of Ungardt clan leaders as chiefs rather than kings. That was why a Sulasian would call an Ungardt leader a clan chief.
"I'll show you who the woman is here, Garstad," Thale said in a good-natured manner, striking the redheaded man with the shaft of his spear.
"Why did grandfather send you here to guard Tomas?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"You'll have to ask the king, my prince," Garstad said apologetically. "He didn't explain why. He just told us to do it."
"Of course. I'll ask him when I see him," Tarrin said. "May I pass?"
"Of course, my prince," Thale said with a bow. "We'd never bar your way. Please, go right ahead."
"Thank you," he said politely, stepping between them and looking back at Jesmind. "It's alright, Jesmind. They're from my mother's clan. They're friends."
" Yez-meen?" Thale said in heavily accented Sulasian, thoroughly destroying the pronunciation of his mate's name. "Ya is Ya-saw-na?" he asked, pointing at their daughter.
"What's he saying?" Jesmind asked quickly.
"Ya, ya is Ya-sahn-nah," Garstad said, then they both bowed to Jesmind and Jasana, which put a confused look all over his mate's face. At least Garstad got a little closer to pronouncing Jasana's name properly.
"Tarrin?" Jesmind asked in confusion.
"They're just showing respect for the mate and daughter of the grandson of their king, Jesmind," he told her with a sly smile. "My grandfather is their clan chief. I guess he told them about you two."
"Oh. Oh, alright," she said, relaxing visibly. "I had no idea what they were about. They don't speak Sulasian, do they?"
"I don't think so. Most Ungardt have alot of trouble with it," he said absently.
"With all those yergs and yuns, I'm not surprised," Jesmind snorted, coming up to them calmly.
Thale boldly reached out and took Jasana's little paw in his large hand and shook it lightly, smiling down at her from her position in Jesmind's arms. " Ya-saw-nah," he greeted her. " Suji Ya-saw-nah."
"Don't break his fingers, cub," Jesmind warned immediately. "It's not nice to hurt the humans when they're being friendly."
"I won't hurt him, mama, I promise," Jasana said, smiling shyly up at the Ungardt as he patted her paw. "He's nice, isn't he?"
"The children of the Family are everyone's children," Tarrin explained as he knocked on the door. "Think of Thale here as an uncle, cub. All my Ungardt relatives are your relatives too."
"Family? What does that mean?" Jesmind asked.
"Ungardt custom," he replied with his back to her. "The family of the clan king is the family of the entire clan. That's why we're just called the Family. Jasana is the niece of every clansman and clanswoman. You're the daughter of all of them, just like I'm their son. Mother is their sister, and my grandfather is their father. It's symbolic, of course, but when it comes to a small child, the clan tends to take it seriously."
"I never knew that about Ungardt," Jesmind admitted.
"Few outside the Ungardt do," he shrugged as the door opened. It was the maid, the same maid he remembered from his time with them. He wasn't sure what her real name was, but everyone called her Nanna. She was a portly, middle-aged woman in a maid's dress, with a gray bun held with a pair of pins behind her head. She looked at Tarrin's chest, but then looked up at his face and blanched. "Master Tarrin!" she gasped. "You're here! What happened to you!"
"Hello, Nanna," he said gently, warm memories of the woman flaring in his mind as her scent touched him. "You're looking well."
"And you're looking tall!" she said in a wondrous voice. "Did you drink some of Deris' miracle fertilizer?"
Tarrin laughed. "Nothing like that, but I'll tell you the story later. Are Tomas and Janine and Janette home?"
"Of course they are, what, with all the soldiers around and all," she said immediately. "Please, come in, come in! Oh, and who is your lady friend?"
"This is my mate, Jesmind, and my daughter Jasana," he introduced as Nanna moved back, to give them room to come in. Tarrin ducked under the door and led his family into the foyer. "Jesmind, Jasana, this is Nanna, the housekeeper. She's a very special friend," he smiled, remembering how she had turned down the opportunity for reward, had known that the Tower was looking for him, but had decided not to turn him in.
"Tarrin's talked about you," Jesmind told her with a nod as Thale politely closed the door behind them.
"I'm sure it was all about how I used to slip him food in the middle of the night," Nanna laughed. "Please, come this way. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you!"
It certainly seemed that way. Janette virtually bolted out of her chair, squealing in delight, when Nanna led them into the parlor, where Janine and Tomas were sitting on their favorite chairs facing the fireplace. The parents stood up and called his name, but he didn't hear them. He knelt down and caught Janette as she flung herself into his arms, taking in her lilac-tinged scent, almost being intoxicated by it. Janette held a very special place in his heart, right there with his family, his sisters, his mate and his daughter. She was one of the most loved people in his life, and seeing her again, scenting her, feeling her close, it made the long months since he'd last seen her dwindle away to nothing.
"What happened to you?" Janette asked when she pushed away enough to look up into his eyes. "You're all grown up!"
Tarrin laughed. That statement held so many truths. She would never fully know how correct it was. "It's a very long story, little mother," he told her gently, picking her up with him as he stood. "If you're good, I'll tell it to you." He looked to Tomas and Janine. Tomas was a bit thinner, had a little more gray hair, but still looked spry. Janine was even more statuesquely beautiful, wearing a very expensive green silk dress that went well with her brown hair. Her hair was tied up in that severe bun, an exterior mark of her polar personality. Janine was a very regimented woman, strict and proper. Tomas was much more laid back than his wife, with a keen sense for business and a charming personality that many found appealing, and also happened to help him get the better of more than a few business dealings. Janette, their daughter, resembled her mother, but had softer features. She had the same dark hair and dark eyes, but Janette's eyes were much more lively than her mother's, a mark of her youth. Janette was about ten now, maybe eleven, and had all the hints in her form and face that she was going to be a real beauty.
"What did happen to you, Tarrin?" Tomas asked curiously as they got up, and he embraced each of them in turn.
"A long story, Tomas," he repeated. "I'll tell you later. But right now, I have some people I want you to meet."
"That has to be Jesmind," Janine said to Tomas. "And the little girl is your daughter?"
"My parents had to have been here lately," Tarrin laughed helplessly.
"Just two days ago," Janine replied.
"This is my mate, Jesmind. And this is my daughter, Jasana."
"It's a pleasure," Jesmind said honestly, letting Tomas take her paw, which was about three times larger than his hand. "Tarrin speaks very highly of all of you."
"He should, he's the family pet," Tomas said with a twinkle in his eye. "I've heard quite a bit about you, Mistress Jesmind. At first, Tarrin's parents hated you. Now they can't stop saying good things about you."
"Well, that's encouraging," Jesmind said with a faint smile and a light flush. "I wasn't sure if they accepted me or not."
"I think we could all do with a spot of tea," Janine said brusquely, assuming the role of hostess. "Nanna, would you be a dear and bring us some tea?"
"Of course, madam," Nanna said with a short bow. "Deris just took some scones out of the oven. You know how good they are when they're warm."
Tarrin set down Janette, and Jesmind put down Jasana, and the two little girls met for the first time. Janette was taller than Jasana, but the little Were-cat looked up at the human girl with steady, slightly shy eyes. "Wanna come up to my room?" Janette asked boldly. "Mother just got me a doll house. Wanna see it?"
"Alright," Jasana said with a sudden smile.
"Can we be excused, mother?" Janette asked.
"Right up and right down," Janine told her sternly. "It's impolite to ignore our guests, and I'm sure you'll want to visit a while with Tarrin."
"Of course I do," she said with a smile.
Jesmind fixed Jasana with an icy stare. "Remember what you were told, young lady," she warned.
"I know, I know," Jasana said glumly. "Don't break anything, and no horseplay. I may hurt someone."
"Good girl. Now go on," Jesmind said with a nudge of her head.
Jasana followed Janette out of the room, and Janine had everyone sit down. Tarrin and Jesmind sat on the sofa beside the fireplace, which was moved from the other side of the parlor since the last time he'd been there. "She's lovely, Tarrin," Janine said appreciatively of Jasana. "How old is she?"
"About two," Tarrin replied, and then he cut off the scoffing remark. "She's not human, Janine. Were-cat children grow much, much faster than human children."
"I guess so, but it seems almost unnatural," Janine bristled.
"For you, it would be," Jesmind said mildly.
"Alright, now spill it, Tarrin. What happened to make you so tall?" Tomas asked impatiently.
Tarrin dutifully repeated the story for Tomas and Janine, and then he caught up with them over a cup of Nanna's excellent tea. The children returned from upstairs after a little while, and Tarrin enjoyed having them both on his lap as he listened to what had been going on in Suld, both or the family and for the people in general, getting a point of view from the common citizen. "Everyone's really nervous," Janine sighed. "Everybody knows there's an army coming, though the regent won't admit it. The Knights told the army, the army told the Watch, and the Watch told everyone else. We've been getting ready for it."
"Yes. I've put all my holdings on my ships and sent them to the Stormhavens," Tomas added. "I'm not sure what to do about the house. I don't want to pack it up, but I don't want to lose what's inside it either."
"I doubt it'll get this far, Tomas," Tarrin told him. "I'm privy to some of the higher-up information. We have enough soldiers on hand to repel an invasion, if it comes down to it. If there is any damage, it's going to be mainly in the areas of the city near the walls. This house should be safe, since it's behind the Tower."
"What do you mean?" Janine asked.
"That's the target of this attack," Tarrin told her. "The army wants to crush the Tower and destroy the katzh-dashi. If they get into the city, they'll go right for the Tower. Since this house is between the Tower and the harbor, it'll be out of the direct path of the attack."
"Well, that's almost a relief," Janine said. "Why are they after the Tower?"
"The Firestaff, Janine," he told her. They knew about it; they'd been in the room when he told the others he'd been charged to seek it out, so long ago. "The katzh-dashi is close to finding the Firestaff. This attack is meant to stop them from getting it by destroying them before they can do anything about it."
"You mean you are close to the Firestaff," Tomas reasoned.
Tarrin gave him a rueful look. "I'm closer than I was when I left Suld, but I'm still a long way from it," he replied. "But I'm closer than my enemies are, and that's good enough for them to do anything to stop me. Even attack Suld."
"What is this Firestaff, Tarrin?" Janette asked him curiously.
"An old artifact that's very, very valuable, little mother," he told her. "It's so valuable that people are willing to fight over it."
"That seems silly, fighting over some old piece of junk," she fretted, taking a scone from the tray and biting into it.
"Some people are like that," Jesmind told her. "Some can't see what they have, they can only yearn for what they don't."
"That's very well said, Mistress Jesmind," Tomas said with an approving nod. "Is that more or less everything, Tarrin?"
"Pretty much," he replied. "I don't really sit in with the high-ups. It's not my style. Besides, I have my mate and daughter, and they require alot of attention."
"Better you spend your time with me than with them," Jesmind said bluntly. "At least you don't leave me in a tizzy like you do when you're around them."
"Mate? Is that a term for a wife?" Janine asked. She would, being so straight-laced.
"Loosely," Jesmind told her. "Me and Tarrin are a couple until we can't stand each other anymore, then we'll part ways. It's a Were-cat peculiarity. We can't settle down with one mate like humans can. We'd wear on each other to the point where we'd be fighting every day." She looked at him. "As long as he's my mate, the other females know to stay away from him. When we part ways, they'll probably start circling him like vultures. Tarrin is very popular among the females."
"Kimmie says he's smart, and he's kind, and he has a nice-"
"That's enough, cub!" Jesmind warned. "No talk like that around the humans!"
Janine looked about ready to have a fit. Jesmind had cut Jasana off, but it was pretty apparent what Jasana was about to say, and it was a word that no two year old child should understand. It was no word that any morally responsible twenty year old human female should understand. There was an uncomfortable silence, and then Janette burst into a fit of giggling that nearly made Janine's eyes pop out of her head. Tarrin realized that Janine was having a tiff in her mind trying frantically to figure out if Janette was giggling because she did understand what that word meant.
"I say, you must have a much different culture," Tomas said to Jesmind with a slight grin, which Janine couldn't see.
"We don't hide things from our children, Tomas," she said evenly. "We're part animal, so that means that we accept all things natural as they are, without assigning the same importances to them that humans do."
"Ah. A very logical explanation," he said. "Would you like more tea?"
"Please," she said, holding up her cup.
Tomas rather artfully steered the conversation to inane, little things, giving his wife the time she needed to regain her composure. Janine managed to engage Jesmind in a talk about music, then she agreed to play her harpsichord for them. Tarrin had heard her play that keyboard instrument before, with its haunting, sharp sounds, and Tarrin used that time to catch up with Janette. He laid on the floor by the fire with her and Jasana, listening to her as she told him all about everything that had happened to her since he'd last seen her, all those things that were important to a child, yet had little meaning to an adult. The time and the talking let him reestablish the strong bond he had with the little human girl, the girl whose love for him had sustained him through many hard times, had caused him to make many of the decisions that had brought him to where he was. The hectic pace of his life didn't often let him lay back and enjoy the simple things in life, or appreciate what he indeed did have. Then again, here lately, he had so many of his friends and family around him that he couldn't seem to find the time to spend as much time with each and every one of them as he should. He always felt like he was neglecting one to pay attention to another.
"And then the kite went wayyyyyyy up," Janette was telling him about her latest excursion to the park, where an older gentleman was flying a kite. "I didn't think anything without feathers could go up so high! He said that it was the wind that held it up there, but I don't see how. Anyway, it went up and up and up, until the old man ran out of string. Then his string broke! And the kite just kept going higher and higher and higher. I think it's still up there."
"It came down," he told her, drawing on his Weave-blessed understanding of how the basic elements operated. "When the string broke, the force causing the wind to lift it higher was taken away. The kite probably went up a little more, then dropped like a stone."
"I don't see how."
"Well, a kite has the string connected to it like so," he said, absently weaving an Illusion of the kites he'd seen before them, but on much smaller scale, that could fit in the palm of his paw. "You see, the string connects right here, and when you're holding the string, it makes the kite lean in such a way that it pushes the wind under it. That makes the wind lift the kite."
"Wow! I knew you could do magic, but nothing like this!" Janette gasped, staring at the Illusion.
"It's a simple trick, little mother," he told her lightly, dissolving the Illusion.
"Do it again!"
"It's unseemly to flaunt magic, little mother," he told her, fully aware that Jasana was right there and listening. "I needed the Illusion to show you how the kite works. I don't do magic for no reason."
"Aww," she said, then she fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Not even for me?"
"I have a little one that does that to me already, Janette," he laughed, jerking a thumb at Jasana. "I'm not as much of a pushover as I used to be."
Janette pouted a short moment, then looked at Jasana. "You ruined him, Jasana," she accused. "He used to do anything I wanted."
"I'm working on him, Janette," Jasana said soberly. "He's harder than mother is."
"I heard that, cub!" Jesmind snapped at her from the harpsichord, where Janine was showing her the inside of it, how it worked. Tarrin remembered that Jesmind had quite a fondness for music.
"Where did you learn about kites, Tarrin?" Janette asked.
"Well, I didn't learn about kites. I just understand how air works," he replied. "I have to know, because of magic."
"I wish I could do magic," she sighed.
"You can't be a Sorcerer, I'm afraid," he said regretfully, "but you could always learn how the Wizards do magic. That kind of magic, anyone can learn."
"Really?" she asked brightly. "I could learn magic?"
"Really," he assured her. "A different kind of magic than mine, but it's still magic."
"Ooh, Mother, can I learn magic?" Janette called loudly.
"Well, it's a bit early yet for you to decide what you want to do, Janette," Janine said artfully from the harpsichord. "You may decide to get married and settle down."
"I could do both," Janette said happily. "I could get married and still learn magic. Or even better, I could get married to a magician!"
"I think we'll have to wait a while to see if that happens," Tarrin told her with a smile. "You've got some growing to do before you start thinking about getting married."
"Do you know any of that Wizard magic?" Janette asked.
"Sorry, cub," he smiled at her. "I've never really thought about learning any."
"Oh. Darn," she said with a pout. "Think we could make a kite, then? We could fly it out in the garden."
"That shouldn't be too hard," he told her.
And so, after inconspicuously Conjuring some of the materials they'd need, Tarrin, Janette, and Jasana built themselves a kite. It wasn't the prettiest kite in the world, made of a pair of old sticks with a cast-off, stained piece of sheet stretched over the frame. They tied it to a long ball of twine, and then rushed out into the garden to see if they could make it fly. Unfortunately, the sea breezes that blew in off the Sea of Storms had died down in the waning afternoon, leaving the air too still to make the attempt. "Oh well," Tarrin shrugged. "You can try tomorrow, Janette. The wind always blows in the morning."
"How did you learn all those things, Tarrin?" Janette asked curiously as they went back into the house. "About magic, and about wind and when the winds blow and stuff."
"Well, I've had alot of people teach me," he replied as they set the kite in the corner of the parlor. "You have to do alot of schooling to learn any kind of magic. Alot of the other things I know I just picked up during my travels."
"Like what?"
"Well, a couple of languages," he told her. "I learned how to speak Sharadi while I was gone. And another language, an ancient language nobody uses anymore."
"Why learn it if nobody speaks it?"
"Because people used to write things in that language, and I needed to read it," he told her. "There's alot of things to learn, and sometimes you have to do things like learn languages nobody uses anymore to find out what ancient people knew."
"That sounds interesting. Alot better than learning how to play the flute," she grumbled, just loud enough for her mother to hear her. Tarrin chuckled inwardly; that battle was still raging between mother and daughter.
"Your mother said you know quite a few languages," Tomas interjected. "I'm surprised you could learn another. It's very hard to learn languages."
"I know, but I seem to have a knack for it," he replied with a shrug. "Sometimes, I get them mixed up when I'm trying to think of what I want to say, though."
"I can imagine," he laughed. "I've been taking lessons in Wikuni, because I deal with so many of them. I decided it was time to find out what they were saying to one another in my presence."
"That's surprising," Tarrin said. "They usually don't teach it to outsiders."
"I had to look quite a while to find someone willing to teach me," he chuckled. "And it cost me a bundle. Finding a tutor is hard enough, but they all want outrageous fees for their time."
"Have you learned it?"
"Yes," he replied. "My losses against Wikuni merchants have declined sharply since I invested in learning the language," he added with a sly smile. "It's all but recouped what I spent to learn."
"Then it was a wise business investment," Tarrin told him. "I guess I should learn Wikuni one of these days."
"That Wikuni that's a friend of yours?"
Tarrin nodded. "She's the only one I can't talk to in her native language. I guess that's something I should fix."
"Good luck," Tomas laughed. "Wikuni is hard."
"It can't be much harder than Selani," he shrugged.
"Will you be staying for dinner?" Janine asked. "Deris wants to know now, before he starts cooking."
Tarrin's eyes brightened at the thought of Deris the cook. He was quite skilled. "Yes, I think we'll stay for dinner," he replied after looking to his mate, who nodded eagerly. "I haven't had a Deris meal in a while."
"At least this time, you'll be eating at the table," Tomas chuckled.
Janine graced them with a few songs from the harpsichord as they waited, and she browbeat Janette into playing the flute for them. Janette had improved vastly since the last time he'd heard her play, to where she had gone beyond competent. She almost made that strange instrument sing of its own accord; she had been playing a wooden flute, but now she had one made of metal, and its acoustics were far superior. Tomas even graced them with a performance, playing the oddest instrument he'd ever seen. It looked vaguely like a lute, with four strings on a high bridge, but he played it tucked under his chin, drawing a stick across the strings with what looked like horsehair drawn from its ends like a little bow. The sound it made was rich and melodious, and Tarrin quickly came to appreciate both the sound of the instrument and the skill of the man playing it.
"What manner of instrument is that?" Jesmind asked him. "I've never seen its like."
"It's called a violin," he replied. "They make them in Telluria. I happened across it some five years ago when I heard one of my ship captains, Bascone, playing it in his cabin. I thought I'd never heard a prettier instrument. I was totally taken with it, so he taught me."
"You never played it while I was here," Tarrin told him.
"That's because a certain daughter of mine broke my violin a few days before you came, Tarrin," Tomas told him, glaring at a flushing Janette. "I had to send off to Telluria to get a replacement. It took almost five months to get a new one, and it was dreadfully expensive."
"The lengths we'll go to to get what we want," Jesmind mused, looking at Tarrin meaningfully. "I learned how to play the lute some time ago, but it's been a long time."
"I can see how it would be hard to learn," Tomas said, looking at her paws. "I've seen Tarrin use his hands. They're not very agile, despite how agile he is."
"That's not a big deal, Tomas," she said, taking on her human hands and showing them to him. "I can change these. I guess I just lost interest in it after a while," she explained, returning her arms to their natural state.
"I could never lose interest in music," Tomas chuckled. "Outside of my family and my business, it's my one true passion."
"Of course, it's been more of a passion lately," Janine added.
"I guess I didn't appreciate it as much before as I do now," he replied to his wife.
Deris, the rotund, red-faced cook, appeared in the doorway to the parlor. "Beggin' your pardon, my Lady, but dinner is set," he announced. "You can seat yourselves whenever you feel ready." Karl
"Thank you, Deris," Janine said with a nod. "We'll be in directly."
"Yes, ma'am," he acknowledged, then waddled off towards the dining room.
The meal was as good as Tarrin remembered. Deris had made roasted pheasant, ham-flavored stringed beans, spiced potatos, a rich soup that tasted like cream and mushrooms, some dish he called salad which was nothing but a variety of vegetables cut up and mixed together, and topped it off with a cake covered in sweet icing. Tarrin enjoyed the meal tremendously, and from the looks of it, so did Jesmind and Jasana.
"I really need to get the recipe for this cake," Jesmind said, taking her third piece. Jesmind had a fondness for sweet things.
"You cook, Jesmind?" Janine asked curiously.
"I'm not the best in the world, but I do like to cook," she replied.
"I've started to take an interest in it, but Deris says I'm hopeless, and chases me out of the kitchen," Janine laughed. "I think he just says that to protect his job."
Tarrin happened to be glancing at Tomas, and the look Tomas gave him told him that Deris was not trying to protect his job. That made Tarrin smile a bit. The idea that Janine was not good at something was alien to him, because she was so good at so many things. But Janine was an intelligent, determined woman. If she wanted to learn, she would.
"Mama is a good cook," Jasana protested. "I like everything she makes."
"That's because you hadn't eaten a single thing I didn't make before we came here," Jesmind snorted.
"I still think you cook good."
"Well, I appreciate that, cub."
They finished the meal, and returned to the parlor to enjoy glasses of fine wine. It was then that Tarrin decided it was time to broach a few subjects. "Who arranged for the guards?" he asked.
"Your mother," he replied. "With things being so tense, there's been a rash of burglaries and crimes all through the city. Elke wanted to make sure we had some protection, so she arranged to have those two stand guard."
"They're nice enough, but I don't understand a single word they say," Janine chuckled.
"I dare say you're as safe as you can be, Janine," Jesmind said. "Even the Vendari have second thoughts about tangling with an Ungardt. Some of them are as big as Vendari themselves."
"That's no lie," Tomas laughed. "What grows them so big, Tarrin?"
"I have no idea," he shrugged. "Well, I guess I should go ahead and get it out in the open."
"What?"
"I don't like the idea of you being out here when the battle starts," he told them seriously. "When the enemy army gets here, I want you all to come to the Tower. I'll feel alot better if I know you're there."
"Elke and Eron have been asking us that for rides now," Tomas told him. "I just don't want to leave the house, Tarrin. Everything we have is here."
"There's more to it than that," he told him. "You're my friends, and I don't know who knows about you. There is a chance that they may come after you to get to me. I don't want to take that risk, Tomas. I'll guarantee that the house will be protected. I'll protect it myself, if I have to. So please, come to the Tower when the time comes."
That seemed to shake Tomas, and he looked uncertainly at his wife, who only returned a blank look. "If you put it that way, Tarrin, it's very hard to say no," he finally admitted.
"Let's go, Father," Janetted prompted. "It's not going to hurt anything, and we'll be alot safer in there than out here."
Tomas looked torn for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "You're right, of course, my daughter," he agreed. "We will be safer in the Tower, and it will put Tarrin's mind at ease."
"I don't like the idea of leaving the house alone," Janine complained. "Who knows may try to loot it while we're out."
"I'll make sure that people are here to keep that from happening," Tarrin told her. "You're friends of the royal family of the Ungardt clan here, so the clan will form a human wall around the house to keep out thieves, if that's what it takes. Just tell me or my mother what you want, and we'll make it happen."
"Well, that does take a load off my mind," Tomas said with a relieved smile.
The relief went both ways. Tarrin was greatly relieved that his precious human friends would be safe when the fighting started, and that was what was most important to him.
"It's getting late, beloved," Jesmind reminded him. "There's some thunder out there. We should be getting back, or we'll be running home in the rain."
"I guess so," he sighed. "I do have some things to do there."
"Well, at least you can come back and visit," Tomas told him. "Would you like to come back, Jasana?"
"Umm," she nodded, looking at Janette. "I'll bring my doll next time, so you can meet her."
"If there's anything left of it," Jesmind muttered under her breath.
And so they said their goodbyes, promising to visit a little more often, and they were sent off with a bottle of Tellurian wine. It was dark by the time they left, and it was also raining. Tarrin used Sorcery to protect them from the rain, an invisible shield through which the water could not penetrate, and they rushed back towards the Tower between flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.
"So, what did you think?" Tarrin asked of his mate as they sped home.
"I like them," she replied. "Especially Janine. She reminds me of mother."
"She does have that same way about her, doesn't she?" he agreed.
"Did you like Janette, cub?" Tarrin asked.
"Umm. She was really nice."
"Good. Maybe we'll go see them again in a couple of days."
"I'd like that."
"I wonder what happened to Sarraya," Jesmind said.
"Probably back at the Tower, where it's dry," Tarrin growled as he stepped in a deep puddle.
The visit to his little mother and her family did much for his spirits, but it also didn't stop him from getting back to work. That night, Spyder didn't call him out, so he spent the time with Jasana. He gave up trying to teach her how to touch the Weave the way normal Sorcerers did, because she had proved utterly incapable of it. She had touched High Sorcery, and just like it had done to him, it always rushed to her. It made trying to teach her standard Sorcery a complete waste of time. Since he couldn't do that, he started teaching her how to access High Sorcery. He was painstakingly detailed about it, going over it again and again, and never failing to emphasize how hard it was to control, and how dangerous it could be. He made her repeat back what he told her, almost word for word, until she had the entire process memorized. At that point, there was nothing more he could teach her by word. She had to start learning by deed now, and that terrified him. He remembered what it was like for him, how many times he had nearly killed himself with his power. But Jasana was stronger than him, and the two times he'd seen her use her power or heard her talk about using her power, she had demonstrated an ability to control it that he had lacked. Where he was at the mercy of the power unless he was enraged, Jasana seemed to have some modicum of control. He was afraid to take that next step, but he knew that it had to be done. Jasana had to touch the Weave, had to touch High Sorcery, and he had to let her do it.
After the rain stopped, he decided that the best place to do it was the courtyard. With the Goddess right there to give him a hand in case things got out of control. He was confident he could manage Jasana's power in case it got away from her, but with her being so strong, he still didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. He took her out there quietly, without attracting attention, and then sat her down on the bench and explained why they were there, and what she needed to do.
"Remember, cub, as soon as you feel it, you have to push it away," he said again. "But not completely. You need to push just as hard as it pushes at you, until it can't move towards you anymore. If you can do that, you can hold it long enough to use magic. But you can't hold it long," he warned. "High Sorcery gets harder and harder to control the longer you hold onto it, so the trick is to touch the magic, do what you have to do, and then let go before it gets more than you can handle. Do you understand?"
"Yes, papa," she said with a nod of her head. "Can I try now?"
He wished it had been so fun for him. He pushed that thought aside and cleared his mind, then put a few feelers out on the Weave, ready to draw High Sorcery in an instant if it was needed. The Weave shivered a bit when he laid his awareness upon it, and Jasana seemed to sense that subtle alteration in the magic. "Did you just do something, papa?"
"Yes, but don't worry about it," he told her. "Alright, cub. Give it a try, and remember, if you succeed, don't try to do anything with it. Just let it go. Alright?"
"Alright," she said, her expression becoming serene and her eyes closing. He could feel her power rise up within her, build upon itself, and then it pushed out from her in a sudden wave. As soon as that wave struck the Weave, the strands responded instantly, sending their flows out and into her. Jasana's paws suddenly limned over with the ghostly radiance of Magelight, and Tarrin felt the power try to flood into her.
He was about to intervene, but he felt the strangest thing. Jasana pushed back against that torrent, and where he had always failed to stop it, she succeeded. He was so stunned that he forgot to tell her what to do next. She could control High Sorcery! Maybe not control it enough to weave powerful spells, but she could touch High Sorcery and hold it without it getting away from her!
"Am I doing it right, papa? Is this right? Papa?" she asked in sudden concern.
Tarrin blinked, staring down at his little daughter. "I-yes, Jasana, that's perfect! I'm very proud of you! Now let it go, like I showed you. Remember not to try to cut it off too fast, or you're going to suffer a backlash. Those hurt, if you didn't know."
"Alright," she said, closing her eyes again. He felt her constrict the pathways into her, felt her choke off the power flooding her, but she was closing them too fast. Tarin first thought to intervene, for she was about to generate a backlash, but he decided against it at the last moment. It would be better for her to find out what happened when you messed up. The pain would be a good learning experience. The flows rushing into her shuddered, and then they suddenly evaporated. Jasana made a squeaking sound as a sudden rush of air blew away from her, enough to make her shirt billow, and her fur suddenly stood on end as the power built up inside her suddenly drained away, forming its own link back to the Weave to do so. She had been too rough with it, and broke the connections before she had fully closed them. She had suffered a mild backlash.
"Ouch!" she gasped, jumping off the bench and rubbing her bottom, as if she'd been spanked. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow! That hurt!"
"You did it too fast, cub," he told her. "Now that you've had a taste of what can happen when you do it wrong, maybe you'll pay more attention to what you're doing."
"I thought I was doing it right," she protested.
"You were, but you did it too fast," he told her. "You have to do it slowly, so the power you have inside you has a chance to go back into the Weave before you break the connection. If you have power inside you when you break the connection, it causes a backlash, and I just told you that they hurt."
"Boy, do they!" she said. "That was worse than Mama spanking me!"
"And that was a mild backlash," he told her. "That's as weak as they come. If it had been a real backlash, I'd be scraping you off the ground. A backlash can kill if it's strong enough, Jasana. This isn't a game, and magic is not something you take lightly."
"I noticed, Papa. You always take it so seriously."
"That's because I don't want to get killed, cub," he said dryly. "Remember, a backlash can kill you, so you have to be very, very careful when you let go of the Weave."
"Can they hurt worse than that?"
"Oh, yes," he said with a steady look. "Remember, that was a mild backlash. Trust me, cub, you do not want to find out what a strong backlash feels like. Take it from experience."
"I don't want to feel that again!" she said emphatically. "I'll do it slow this time, Papa, I promise!"
"That's a healthy attitude, cub. Alright, let's do it again. Remember, touch it, feel it for a few seconds, then let it go."
"When can I do real magic?"
"When you can touch the Weave without trying, and let it go without hurting yourself, every single time," he said adamantly. "Not a second until then."
She nodded, and her little face took on a very serious expression and they began again. Tarrin put her through her paces, having her touch High Sorcery, hold it for a little bit, then let go, over and over and over again. Just as he had done when he started, at first she had trouble touching the Weave, even for High Sorcery. She failed the first three times she tried, until she composed herself and remembered what she was doing. But just as he had done, she learned the art of touching the Weave quickly. Once she knew where to look for it and how to reach out to it, it began to respond to her much more readily than it had before. He realized that that first time, she had reached out instinctively to the Weave, where the three attempts after that were conscious attempts. But after a little instruction, she learned how to touch the Weave consciously, and it became easy for her. Every time she touched it after that, he had her draw in just a little more power, and then a little more, then a little more, slowly introducing her to the way it felt to hold the power inside her. He knew that they'd not come close to her limit, and he didn't want to get anywhere near that. He just wanted her to get an understanding of how different it felt to hold different amounts of magical power, and how to sense how much she was holding at any one time. When the time came to weave spells, the ability to know how much power one was holding was critical for efficient weaving. Trying to weave a spell when one didn't have enough power to finish it or release it could cause a fizzle, or even worse, a Wildstrike. A Wildstrike generated from someone of Jasana's power would be something he did not want to see. She was still having trouble letting it go, however, and for the first half an hour, she generated a backlash every single time she let go. He observed her both physically and from the Weave, sensing her ability to draw the power, and gauging how it responded to her. She became more and more comfortable with it, and by the time he decided that she was too tired to go on, she was at the point where she could release it without causing a backlash about half the time. Jasana came to dread the part of letting go, but to her credit, she didn't shy away from the exercises. Jasana was one determined little girl, determined to learn how to do magic.
After letting it go for the fourth time in a row without causing a backlash, Tarrin knelt in front of the bench and put his paws on her shoulders. "Alright, cub, I can see that you're getting tired," he told her gently, wiping sweat from her forehead. Sorcery was physical exertion, and it was showing on his little one. That caused his fatherly instincts to rebel against what he was doing to her, but he knew that it had to be done. She had to learn, and it wasn't going to be easy, and it was going to hurt. But having her sting a little now was far preferable to her Consuming herself later. "I think we should stop now."
"Aww, I can do a little more, Papa," she protested.
"You could, but it won't do you any good," he said firmly. "We can practice again tomorrow, alright?"
"Can I do magic tomorrow?" she asked hopefully.
"We'll have to wait and see," he told her. "You definitely need more practice with this, cub. Touching and letting go of the Weave are the most imporant lessons I can teach you. They're even more important than making spells. Because if you can't touch the Weave every single time without fail, and you can't let go of it without hurting yourself, then you'd be better off not trying to use the magic. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Papa," she sighed in disappointment.
"It's always good to stop when you're doing well," he smiled at her. "That way, you have something good to look back on when you're done."
"I guess so," she smiled, a smile that made his heart soar.
"That's my girl," he said with a loving smile, collecting his daughter up in his arms. "Now let's go get something to eat, and then we'll go to bed."
"I am a little sleepy," she admitted.
"Doing magic is alot of work, cub," he chuckled. "It takes it out of you. When I learned, all I wanted to do after I finished my lessons was drag my tail into bed."
"But Mama wasn't there. It must have been lonely."
"Well, not entirely," he told her, walking towards the choked entrance to the courtyard. "At that time, I shared a room with Dar. You remember Dar, don't you?"
"I like Dar. He's nice."
"Well, he was my roommate at that time," he said as they disappeared through the hedge. "We used to stay up half the night and talk, even when we were so tired we wanted to sleep."
Spyder did not call him out the next day, or the next, or the day after that, but they were busy days nonetheless. The mornings and afternoons were spent with Jasana, usually in the courtyard, as he continued to train her in the use of Sorcery. She was a very smart little girl, as he knew, and she proved it by grasping the basics of Sorcery in a very short time. Despite her inability to use regular Sorcery, he taught her its rules and laws anyway, if only because they would form the base of what she would learn when she eventually crossed over and started using Weavespinner magic. He didn't teach her any spells until she mastered the arts of touching and letting go of the Weave, and he was always drilling it into her that she should never draw more than she needed to do what she wanted to do. By teaching her that, he hoped to put off the possibility that she would face being Consumed any time soon. She did master the basics in another two days, so he began teaching her simple spells.
The rest of the day was spent with Jenna. It was a bit of a realignment of his thinking to go from teaching little one and two flow spells to working with the full six and seven flow knots that Spyder had taught them, as they practiced the multitude of spells that the Urzani had taught them in that single night. It was slow going, because even though they had learned how to weave the spells, there were always subtle ways to alter them to make them best suited for a particular situation. That meant that they had to practice weaving them, to understand which flows could be adjusted that would change an aspect of the spell. They also needed to practice for its own sake, to be able to weave the spells quickly and without having to stop to think about what to do. Just because he knew a spell, that didn't mean that he was proficient with a spell. He wanted to be able to use any of the spells that Spyder taught him before the ki'zadun came, because he very well may have to use any one of them in the course of defending the city. Even at his level of power and his formidable ability, he still had to practice, and every once in a while, one of the new spells he had learned fizzled on him as he practiced using them. Jenna had a slightly worse time of it, probably because she didn't have as close a connection to the Weave as he did. Where the Weave would silently and gently urge him in the ways to use his magic, sometimes without him knowing it, Jenna had to rely on her memory. But they methodically went through each and every spell Spyder taught them-Jenna wrote each of their names down, so they didn't forget one-practicing it over and over until the weaving of it was automatic and efficient, and they had puzzled out the ways the spell could be altered on the fly to make it more effective for the given situation.
The days full of using Sorcery left him completely drained by suppertime. He was distant and inattentive to his family and friends as they ate dinner together, a practice that had turned into a daily custom. They would all gather together in one of the larger private dining rooms and eat together, so at least they could all see each other and keep up with the daily events in everyone's days. Keritanima and Dar especially had become very suspicious of his activities after the third day, when he'd put his head on his arms and fell asleep right in the middle of the meal. Jenna too showed signs of weariness, which only reinforced their belief that he was teaching her magic. That in itself wasn't a big deal, but he knew Kerri. If she knew he was teaching magic, she was going to try to figure out a way to eavesdrop on them and learn. Keritanima absolutely couldn't stand it when someone knew something she wanted to know, and wouldn't tell her.
The nights belonged to his family. Even though he was very tired, he didn't neglect his duties as mate and father, even bond-father. He spent his evenings with Jesmind and Jasana, and also had started having Jula over during his quiet family time. She was a part of his family, albeit a reluctant one, and he figured that it was about time for Jesmind and Jula to get to know each other and bury the past. Jasana seemed to have taken a liking to her "big sister," and that helped soften Jesmind's prejudice against Jula. Jesmind knew the history between Tarrin and Jula, and to her credit, she didn't hold it against the fledgeling female Were-cat. They also enjoyed time with his parents and Jenna, and with Triana, when they decided to come over and visit.
The cycle of activity began to wear him down. When he woke up one morning after engaging in this new pattern, he felt tired before getting out of bed. Jesmind wasn't there, and from the sound of it, she was cajoling Jasana about something in the common room. He swung his legs over and scrubbed his face with his paws, trying to wake up, trying to motivate himself to get up and get started. He still had alot of work to do with Jasana, but thankfully, he and Jula had gone through the entire list of spells, and had practiced with each of them enough to where he was proficient in their use. The most wearying part of his daily routine had been completed, and though they would still get together and practice after lunch, at least it wouldn't be as rigorous and exhausting for him. Jenna still needed more practice, and he was going to help her with the ten or so odd spells that she seemed to be having the most trouble weaving.
Jesmind came in, muttering to herself. Whatever had gotten her out of bed had done it abruptly, because she hadn't even bothered to dress before going out. "What's the matter, love?" he ased woodenly.
"I'm going to kill that daughter of yours," Jesmind growled. "I caught her setting fire to the wood in the fireplace!"
"We don't need a fire during the day," he mused.
"She did it with magic!" she snarled. "You told her not to use magic when you weren't around!"
"Oh," he said, his face hardening. "Want me to-"
"No, I already took care of it," she said with a grim finality. "She'll be having trouble sitting down for a while." She looked at him. "I'm surprised you didn't hear it," she said. "Jasana was yowling like a badger with a burr in its tail."
"It must have woke me up," he said, flopping back on the bed, "but I don't remember hearing it. Goddess, I'm tired," he admitted.
"I can tell," she said, leaning down over him, staring into his eyes. "You're pushing yourself too hard, my love. You need to slow down."
"I can't," he groaned. "I don't know how much more time we have, so we have to be ready."
"I can understand that, but look at you. Falling asleep during dinner, dozing in the sofa before bed, and we won't even talk about what it's taking for me to get you hot and bothered," she said with a slightly dangerous look. She reached down and brushed away the bangs from his eyes, the only part of his hair not caught up in his braid. "How much good are you going to be to everyone if you're falling asleep in the middle of the battle, Tarrin?"
Despite his weariness, he laughed. "I doubt that's going to happen."
She grinned impishly. "Me too, but you know what I mean. You're tired. Since you're tired, why don't you rest for today? I'm sure they'll understand." She scooted around and laid down with him, partially atop his chest, her feet crossed in the air and visible over her head to him. "I've missed my mate these days," she admitted. "You don't want me getting cranky now, do you?"
He laughed helplessly. "You win," he told her. "I'll take today off. I don't think I could light a candle with Sorcery right now anyway."
"Good," she smiled victoriously, tousling his bangs. "Now then, my mate, the first thing you're going to do is get right back in this bed and sleep some more." She gave him a quick kiss. "Then you're going to have a good meal to build up your strength." She kissed him again. "Then you're going to spend a nice quiet day here, doing nothing more strenuous than reading a book." She kissed him again, a little more seriously this time. "And tonight, you're mine," she concluded fiercely.
"I should have you plan my days for me more often," he purred, running his paws up and down her back.
"I can do it a damn lot better than you can," she teased.
"You're such a selfish little girl," he told her.
"Damn right," she agreed with a grin, giving him a lingering kiss. "You bring out the worst in me."
"I've noticed."
"Now then, enough stalling!" she announced rising up and grabbing him by the tail. "Back in bed, young man!"
"Alright, alright," he conceded, but she didn't give him the time. She scooted around on her knees, deeper into the bed, then yanked on his tail. He gave out a yelp as she dragged his legs back into the bed, pulling him by the tail, and it wasn't an entirely pain-free experience. "Never drag your feet when someone has you by the tail, beloved," she said with a wicked little smile.
"That hurt," he complained, rolling back over on his back and snatching his tail away from her with a paw.
"It got the job done, didn't it?" she challenged, laying down beside him again, propped up on his chest.
Tarrin wavered his tail gingerly, making sure it wasn't broken, then gave his mate a slightly unpleasant look. "Don't do that again," he warned.
"It worked."
"What?"
"I wanted a reason to kiss and make up," she purred. "It gives me a conscious-free excuse to make out with you when you're so tired."
Tarrin looked at her in surprise, then he laughed helplessly. "You should have tried saying 'Tarrin, want to neck a while?'"
She grinned wolfishly at him. "Then I'd feel guilty for keeping you up," she said, dropping down and giving him a deep kiss. "By the way, sorry for pulling your tail. Forgive me?" she asked, breaking the kiss long enough to aplogize.
He laughed again, but it was smothered by another kiss.
Despite her obvious ardor, she didn't push it beyond making out, and then she did relent to let him go back to sleep for a while. He had to admit, the sleep did him a world of good, and when he did finally decide to get out of bed, around noon, he felt much better. After a rather large meal with his family in the common room, he did exactly as Jesmind ordered, he curled up on the couch with a book. Jesmind took Jasana, who was feeling just a little too energetic for Tarrin to feel like he was relaxing, to visit with Triana. That gave him some quiet time without distractions. The book he chose was the book he'd been carrying around with him for nearly a year, the Book of Ages. Like the others, he'd had a curiosity about it, and since he found himself with an available day, he decided to start reading it.
In the beginning was the way it started, that much he remembered. He closed his eyes a moment to realign his thinking, to let him read the Sha'Kar script effortlessly. Then he opened them and began.
"In the beginning, there was nothingness," the book began. "The universe was empty and without form, without life, and without purpose. In the beginning there was nothing, and there remained nothing, until the Great Creator appeared. The Great Creator, God of Gods, He who brought forth all things, looked upon the emptiness of the universe and found it to be unseemly. 'This doth be against the order which I have ordained,' he intoned in words that echo through our universe to this day. The Great Creator, He who created all, deigned that instead of bending to the task of creation Himself, that he would create ones who would create in His stead, and in His name. And so, from the nothingness of the universe, the Great Creator spun into existence the First Gods. He gave them will and power, gave them purpose and life. He named them Ayise and Shellar, male and female, the great complement upon which all things depend. To Ayise, the female, he granted the power of Creation, as is the power and blessing of the woman. To Shellar, he granted the power of Time, so that Creation would have a beginning, and alas, would also know an end, which is the purpose of all things. 'Knowest thou that thou art My creations, art My servants. This place is thine to create as thy will, with My blessing. I shall return anon and see what thou hast created.'"
Tarrin blinked, and read it again. That was something that he did not know, had never considered. He knew that Ayise and Shellar were the first gods, but he didn't know that they were created by another god. And from the way the book read, this god was the God. All the other gods were like children to this one, who seemed to be responsible for the creation of everything, even things beyond Tarrin's own universe. He took a moment to reset his mind to read Sha'Kar, and continued.
"From the union of Ayise and Shellar, the universe took form," the book continued. "The sea and the land, the trees and the grass, the birds and the fish, the moons and the stars, all were created by the will of the First Gods. They bent upon their task for many days, forming the land and the sky, the stars and the sun, and establising an order of nature that was the core of the purpose of the world. But the First Gods were not the Great Creator, and they found that the Balance which they had created the world to serve was easily threatened by random chance, as well as by the power known as Entropy, which sought to return the universe to the state of nothingness from which it had been formed. Ayise and Shellar found it needful to create others of their kind, to aid them in the orderly running of their universe.
"And so, man joined with woman, and the Elder Gods were brought forth in this holy joining. They numbered eight, and to each one, an aspect of the world was assigned, for him or her to watch over and protect. To Darrian, the eldest of the siblings, was given the task of watching over the land, to ensure it remained firm and strong, and supported the life which depended upon it. To Leia, the next eldest, the task of caring for nature was given, to ensure that the seasons rolled, the land renewed the life upon it, and all things were born, lived, and died in the great circle of life. To Saltemis, the next oldest, the task of caring for the seas was given, to ensure that they flowed with the tides, and that all things that lived within it thrived. To Niami, the next eldest, the task of caring for the power of magic was given, to care for and nurture the delicate balance of natural and unnatural energies that made up the power of magic. To T'Kya, the next eldest, the task of caring for the winds and weather was assigned, to ensure that the weather flowed in time with the seasons, to bring rain or sun or snow where needed, and to also create destruction to serve as a balance to life. To Ahiriya, the next eldest, the task of caring for the power of fire was given, to ensure that it both destroyed and created to renew and enrich the earth, carrying on with the cycle of life which was the Balance. To the youngest of the Elder Gods, who were twins, Dakki and Dakku, the task of death was given, to ensure that the cycle of life came to its proper and timely conclusion. The task of taking the life which Ayise granted was a difficult and somber task, and so it was separated in twain and given to the twins, so that their grim task did not weigh too heavily upon either one of them.
"The Elder Gods took up their tasks, and through their gentle ministration, the world thrived. But in time, the ten came together in displeasure, for caring for a world without direction seemed to go against the purpose for which it was created. After much debate and discussion, it was decided that what the world lacked was will, lacking life that was sentient and conscious. The Purpose of the universe was an aimless one if there did not exist those whose choices would bring about its need.
"And so, raising up as one, the ten Elder Gods decreed that there should be sentient life, and it was so. They were the First Ones, rising up from the progression of life to gain consciousness. They had no name for themselves, instead finding a place within the cycle of life and growing, becoming more intelligent and more learned with each generation, until they achieved true intelligence. But they were content with their progress, happy with their advancement, and stopped seeking to improve themselves. Though they pleased the Elder Gods with their success, the First Ones did not please the Elder Gods enough. They gathered again, and decided that through diversity, there would be greater purpose, and would serve the Balance. So they rose up once again and decreed it to be so, and it was.
"The next peoples to rise up from the non-sentient were energetic and ambitious. They called themselves Man, and quickly reached the same plateau upon which the First Ones had stagnated. But where the First Ones were happy to remain, Man sought to reach higher and higher, until they threatened to swarm under their neighboring peoples. But the creation of Man had had the desired effect upon the First Ones, who were renewed by the energy of their younger siblings, and again began to grow.
"The next peoples to rise up from the non-sentient were the Dwarves, stout, driven beings who began their journey more advanced than their two older siblings, but quickly found their niche in the great Balance which they unwittingly served.
"The last of the peoples to rise up from the non-sentient were the Goblins. They rose up to fulfill a need to retain Balance among the peoples of the world. Where the First Ones were peaceful and gentle, where Man was ambitious and opportunistic, where Dwarves were single-minded and determined, the Goblins were greedy and malicious. They served to balance out the First Races, creating the mixture of personalities that would interact with one another and cause all four to grow.
"The Elder Gods looked down upon their creation, and they were content. With the four races to compete with one another, help one another, and confront one another, the world knew fulfillment, and the Balance was upheld."
Tarrin lowered the book, his mind lost in thought. The Goddess had told him that there had been four races at the beginning, but he didn't realize that they were created for no other reason than to cause the world to grow. That the Elder Gods had created the world, and then found that they needed something else there to make it complete. But then again, wasn't that what life was all about? To grow and become wiser, to expand and thrive? He started reading again.
"The First Races were content with their lot, but the reclusion of the Elder Gods caused them to look elsewhere for spiritual fulfillment. It was from Man that the first of the Younger Gods appeared, a being of divine energy that was formed from the needs of the mortal men who sincerely believed in him. He was given the name Thrak, and bloomed into power, thrived, and then withered away and became nothing as those who believed in his power waxed and then waned. But the appearance of Thrak concerned the Elder Gods, who gathered together and discussed this grave issue. After much debate, it was decided that any new Younger Gods would be permitted to be, so long as they respected the Balance, and sought not to usurp the powers of the gods who had been before them. The Elder Gods decreed a set of laws governing the powers of the Younger Gods, primary among them being that no Younger God would hold power equal to the weakest of the Elder Gods."
Tarrin read that again, and then remembered what the Goddess had told him about the Firestaff. The god created from the Firestaff would be a god without constraint, she had told him. Was that why it was so dangerous? Would the Firestaff make someone a god equal in power to the Elder Gods? If that were so, why was Val, who was created by the power of the Firestaff, not destroyed by the other Elder Gods when he used the Firestaff to become a god?
Because Val was very clever, kitten, the Goddess answered. When he used the Firestaff to become a god, he became what we thought was a Younger God. Since we had nothing against Younger Gods, we permitted him to remain. We all regret that decision, she sighed. Had we destroyed him when we had the chance, the Blood War would not have happened.
"Hindsight is always perfect," he said aloud, a saying that had various versions in about a dozen different cultures. It was one of those strange universal observations. "What do you mean, you thought he was a Younger God?"
As I said, kitten, Val was very clever, she repeated. He was not entirely a Younger God, nor was he an Elder God, and we erred badly when we failed to realize this, because he wisely hid that aspect of his power from us. He wasn't as powerful as we were, but his power was formidable, almost equal to any one of us. But since he was weaker, we discounted him and his unusual state and allowed him to remain. When he got out of control, our mother, Ayise, attempted to destroy him by reclaming the life she had given to him, but she found that she could not. When that happened, we honestly weren't sure what would happen if we tried to destroy him in a direct confrontation, and we came to discover that the godhood granted by the Firestaff cannot be taken away, even by Ayise. Only the One God would have the power to strip the godhood away from Val, and in this, as in all things, he would not interfere. We had caused the circumstances of our own dilemma, so it was set upon us to fix it. About then, the Demons overran the world, and we needed Val's power to help turn them back. But we didn't forget that he was the reason they had come, and so we devised a suitable way to punish him for it. We granted our power to a mortal agent, Spyder, and it was she that turned our power against him, bound him into his icon, and stripped him of what made him on a level with us. We turned him into a true Younger God, whose power depended on the faith of the mortals who worshipped him. In that way, we removed the threat he posed to the Balance without breaking any of the rules we had set for ourselves, and avoiding a direct confrontation that would have put the world, or what was left of it, in great peril. The One God was very pleased with our solution, she said in a dreamy kind of voice that reminded him of the way he sounded or felt when he was in awe of her. Perhaps even a god worshipped a god. Or in this case, the God.
Tarrin digested that, and found that it fit in with what he just read, and what he already knew. The Goddess had talked frankly with him about the Blood War, and some of the things about the gods, before. In that way, he felt privileged that she would tell him things that very few other mortals knew, or understood. Goddess only knew, he barely understood half of what she did explain. He mulled it over a bit more, then came to a rather shocking conclusion. "So, Val tricked you?" he asked in astoundment.
I've told you before, kitten, gods aren't infallible, she said in a winsome voice. Even Elder gods. Intelligence and wisdom aren't job requirements. It just takes being born into it. In that way, we're like a Royal family, whose only requirement is the right set of parents.
He'd heard her say things like that before, but he still couldn't believe it. She was a god. She was-a god! An all-powerful being whose abilities were so great that his mortal mind would be incapable of comprehending them! How could someone with that kind of power be tricked?
By someone with equivelent power, she told him with a silvery laugh. Power is not wisdom, kitten, though wisdom is itself a form of power. We all learned the hard way. We made our mistakes and grew wiser from them. That is how Val managed to use the Firestaff, but if anyone else does manage to succeed, we won't make the same mistake again. Because we've made that mistake once, and the world suffered for it.
He put the book in his lap, feeling his theological foundation shift a little bit to the left. In a way, it was a little shocking to know that his Goddess wasn't perfect, but on the other hand, there was a kind of familiarity to the idea that made him a little more endeared to her. To know that even the Goddess could make a mistake made him feel a little less infinitesimal.
That is a mark of true love, kitten, she told him with a luminous voice. That you would love me even for my mistakes makes your love stronger. You have no idea how happy it makes me.
"The happier, the better, Goddess," he said sincerely. "When you're happy, I'm happy."
Not all the time, but I appreciate the comment, she said winsomely.
"Mother, why hasn't Spyder come back? We're running out of time."
She's been busy with something else, she replied. Don't worry, she's taught you what you need to know. If she doesn't return, you're not going to suffer.
He accepted that without another word, and then went back to reading.
He spent much of the day, quite honestly, trying to stay awake to read. After the story about the creation of the races, the book went into great detail about where each race settled, what they did, and how they interacted with one another. Tarrin found it to be tedious, exhaustive in its attention to meaningless details, and quite boring. He drowsed through stories of the rise and fall of forgotten empires, prominent people in the past, and page after page of diplomatic maneuverings and political machinations. He was about to give it up when the door finally opened, and he looked up to see not Jesmind and Jasana, but Dolanna and Keritanima. Keritanima looked a bit haggard, with her cream-colored dress a bit askew, and Dolanna had a tear in one of the sleeves of her brown silk dress. Dolanna's expression was not very encouraging.
"What happened to you two?" he asked curiously, closing the book and setting it in his lap.
"I almost got mugged by Jinna Brent," Keritanima said sourly, closing the door after barking a short command to Szath in Wikuni, who was outside the door. "Well, brother, the Were-kin and the Centaurs are here. That's the good news."
"And the bad news?"
"The ki-zadun are killing troops on a forced march to end all forced marches. I just got the reports in from the Aeradalla. They'd have got them in yesterday, but they've been sending up flying monsters to attack the Aeradalla before they can report back in. They've got Demons whipping the army forward, and it looks like they don't care about how many they lose before they get here. They're going to be here, at the earliest, tomorrow night. At the lastest, the day after tomorrow."
That made Tarrin's face take on a stony expression. Tomorrow night, or two days. If anything told him that things were about to come to a head, that was it. Now, they knew they were coming. It wasn't guesswork anymore. They knew when they'd get here, and that put a huge urgency on everything. Suddenly, his taking the day off seemed to be a terrible mistake. There was so much to do, so much to prepare for, it seemed outrageous that he had decided to waste the day reading and sleeping.
"The Council is in hysterics," Keritanima went on with a frown. "The regent, I heard, fainted dead away when she got the report. At least Darvon and the general staff is keeping a cool head. They just issued the 'here they come, so get your butts moving' orders. We have most of the preparations completed, but there are a few loose ends yet."
"Will we be ready?"
"Brother, we were ready six days ago," she grinned at him.
"Everything is in place, and everyone knows what to do, dear one," Dolanna told him. "There is naught but to make small adjustments to take the scouting reports we received into account. That is all."
"Well, that's something," Tarrin fretted.
"I know you've been practicing magic with Jenna. Is she ready?"
"As ready as she's going to be," he sighed. "You'd better go talk to her. She should circle with you at least a few times before you have to do it for real, so everyone knows what to expect."
"We have already thought about that," Dolanna assured him. "Jenna is out in the city with her parents. We have sent a runner for her."
"Probably with Grandfather."
"They went to where the Ungardt are staying," Dolanna agreed. Then her eyes settled on the book in his lap. "I did not know you started reading it, dear one. May we join you?"
"Later," he said brusquely. "Besides, to be honest, so far it's been a struggle to stay awake to read it," he admitted. "It's boring where I'm reading it right now."
"How can anything like that be boring?" Keritanima challenged.
"You'll find out when you get your turn," he told her evenly. He sent the book into the elsewhere and stood up. "Well, we don't have much time, so let's get cracking," he told them. "What do you need me to do?"
"You? Nothing," Keritanima told him. "Everyone and her brother have already received abundantly clear orders about you, Tarrin. You are not to leave the Tower grounds, effective right now. The ki'zadun may have sent out some advance assassins to try to get you, so we've closed the Tower off from the city and closed the city gates so no one can come in or out until it's over. When the army gets here, your job is to defend the icon, Tarrin. That's it. You're our last line of defense, and, I dare say, the most dangerous one for our enemies to try to overcome. We'll make damn sure that anything that gets to you will have to run through a gauntlet that will make it easy for you to finish off."
Tarrin grunted, but he knew she was right. The Goddess herself had told him not to leave the Tower after the army got here, and if he had to stay on the grounds, the best place for him would be in the courtyard, serving his Goddess by defending her icon from attack.
"What is important for you now, dear one, is to rest and make yourself ready," Dolanna told him. "We know you have been training your daughter, and also been training Jenna. That cannot have left you feeling very fresh."
He chuckled. "That's why I'm here right now. Jesmind threatened to do some awful things to me if I didn't rest."
"She's a smart woman," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "Just so you know, I had the sashka and Jervis make some arrangements," she told him. "The Ministry of Science is working around the clock to finish the prototype steamship. They're pretty confident that it'll be ready by the time we arrive."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked. "I mean, someone may find out."
"My dear brother, you underestimate the effectiveness of my secret service," she grinned. "Besides, all I said was that I'd like to see that project completed before I returned. I didn't say that I was going to use it. I just remarked that I thought it had tremendous potential, and tripled the operating budget for the project. It's not out of the ordinary, at least for my people."
"Oh. Well, I guess that's alright then. Besides, it's your kingdom."
"At least for now," she grunted. "Jervis sent me some rather disturbing reports. It seems that the noble houses are starting to get sneaky again. Something's being planned, and it bothers me that I'm not there to step on it."
"Doesn't your regent have enough manpower at hand to squash any rebellion?"
"Of course he does, but I don't want to see common soldiers and innocent people getting killed because the noble houses decided that they can take back the power I took from them while I'm gone," she fretted. "I will say this, though. If they do pull anything, I'll dissolve the nobility on the spot."
"That will cause a civil war," he warned.
"True, but if they pull anything, they'll have fired the first shot, brother," she said seriously. "And I warned them I'd do it. You can't make a threat and then not carry it out. It weakens your position."
"Then maybe you'd better go home," he told her. "I don't think one more Sorcerer is going to make much of a difference."
"I'll make a big difference," she objected. "They need me to form the big circle. I'm one of only two non-human Sorcerers. Without me, the power of the circle that will serve Jenna is going to be alot smaller."
Tarrin forgot about that in his haste to try to help. "Oh, right," he sighed. "What are you going to do?"
"I've already done it," she replied. "Jervis is on it. He'll find out what's going on. And when he does, I'll know how to best go about breaking it up without starting a civil war."
"Good luck."
"Jervis doesn't need luck."
"He didn't do too well against you, sister."
"True, but that was me," she said with a toothy grin. "He shouldn't have too much trouble with the noble houses."
"At least you hope so."
"I know so," she said confidently. "I think Jesmind will get nasty if she finds us in here bothering you, brother, so we should go," she grunted. "Besides, I have about a million things to do."
"I figured you did. Go ahead, sister."
Keritanima and Dolanna turned to go, but Tarrin called out. "Hold on, Dolanna," he said. "Stay a minute."
"Very well, dear one," she said with a nod, seating herself on the couch opposite his.
"I'll see you for dinner tonight?" Keritanima asked.
"As long as you show up," he teased.
"We'll be there. See you then," she said in farewell, then scurried out of his apartment.
"What did you wish to talk about, dear one?" she asked.
"Nothing serious," he told her with a smile. "I just need a little correction, that's all."
"In what?"
"Well, I don't think you know, but someone taught me Sharadi while I was away," he told her. "She's Selani, and they have a bad problem with pronouncing other languages the same way they do their own, so I'm not entirely sure how well she taught me."
Dolanna smiled brightly at him. "You learned my native tongue? That pleases me, Tarrin. Very much so."
"You know me, Dolanna. Can't stand not being able to speak a language."
"You would have made a wonderful diplomat," she smiled.
"At least before this happened," he grunted, holding up a paw. "Now, I'd be more inclined to rip off the head of the other ambassador as I would to talk with him rationally."
Dolanna laughed lightly. "True enough. Where would you like to begin?"
It turned out that despite his worries, Denai had indeed taught him well. There were some minor things to adjust in pronunciation and proper word order, but they were indeed minor things, little nuances that would separate him from someone who simply learned the language to sounding like a native. Tarrin strove for that completeness of language in every one he learned, wanting to be so fluent that he sounded like a native, wanting to know those tiny little things that a native would know that a taught pupil may not.
And just like Allia, the stiff formality that was always in her words vanished when she reverted to her native tongue. She still spoke in a measured, stately way, as she did in Sulasian, but the words she used weren't as formal or unbending. That alteration in speech patterns was exactly what he strove to overcome; Dolanna spoke Sulasian as a second language, and it showed in how she spoke it.
"Well, dear one, whoever taught you certainly did a good job," Dolanna praised in Sharadi. "He even managed to teach you some of the more abstract words."
"She," he corrected. "She was being trained to be the obe for her tribe. That's something of a diplomat," he explained. "They have to be able to speak the languages of the foreigners they may encounter and act as a translator for the tribe chief."
"Ah. Well, the Selani are well known for being thorough," she mused. "And I have to admit, it pleases me very much to hear you speaking Sharadi. I sometimes feel, restricted, trying to express my thoughts in your language. At least now, I can communicate the complete sense of what I'm trying to say."
"You always did before," he shrugged. "I think you just thought we couldn't get the true sense of your meaning."
"Perhaps," she smiled.
"All I have to do now is learn Wikuni, and I'll be able to speak everyone's native language," he chuckled.
"Keritanima already started making plans," Dolanna said in a sort of conspiratorial tone. "She's got Miranda working on a tutor for you to help you learn it while you travel to Wikuna. She wants you to be fluent by the time you set foot in her kingdom. I think she's getting a bit too ambitious. I don't think anyone can learn a language in a month."
"I learned Sharadi in about two," he told her. "I have a knack for languages, Dolanna."
"I know that, dear one," she smiled. "But still, two months seems… too short." She tapped her chin in thought. "Maybe, maybe you were getting some help."
"What do you mean?"
"There are any number of spells that can accelerate learning," she reminded him. "I used one to learn Sha'Kar within a month. But I had to use it. If I'd have tried to learn it the long way, I'd still be learning. Did you use one of those spells?"
"No," he told her. "But-well, now that you mention it, maybe I did get some help," he said, pondering.
"How so?"
"I've been told that I'm very sensitive to the Weave," he explained. "Well, Dolanna, there's alot more to the Weave than magic. The memory of everything that every Sorcerer ever knew drifts in the Weave, like cork on the ocean. It's impossible to find exactly what you want, but the Goddess told me that some Sorcerers can draw the information they want to them. Maybe the Weave was slipping me a little help while I was learning Sharadi, probably without me even noticing. I've come to find out that that happened alot, even when I was here. All those spells of High Sorcery you saw me use, the knowledge of them came to me from the Weave."
"I always wondered how you managed to learn it," she said after a moment. "And that sounds like an absolutely fascinating thing. You can find any information you want?"
"Not really. Like I said, it's like trying to find a single cork floating in the ocean, but in reality it's like trying to sort out a single sound in a cacophony of a million reverberating echoes. When it does happen, it's fairly rare, even for me. But sometimes I'll see something or hear something I don't understand, and then the knowledge of it just hits me. That's when the Weave's memories find me. Maybe, when Denai was teaching me, it was making the Weave send the memories of Sharadi to me to help me learn it quickly."
"Possible. If that's so, then your intent has a measurable effect on the Weave."
"I already knew that," he said, absently pointing to a small feeder strand crossing through the room. Dolanna saw nothing, but then seemed to understand and touched the Weave so she could see it. With just the barest intent and exertion, he caused the strand to move about two spans to the left. "What happened to me, Dolanna, it connected me to the Weave in ways even I don't completely understand. It's like an entirely different realm of magic, with its own rules and its own limitations." He moved the strand back to where it belonged, then stared at her. "I've been keeping this to myself, Dolanna," he told her. "The Weave reacts to me like a living thing now, probably because it is a living thing, I've come to discover. Now that it has such a hold on me, it can do things for me it can't do for others, and it does tend to react to my needs, even without my knowledge. I know the others can feel that my power is different, but I haven't told anyone, not even Allia and Keritanima, the full extent of it yet."
"I assume you have a reason?" she asked.
He nodded. "What happened to me can happen to any Sorcerer," he told her. "Weavespinners like me are born, but any Sorcerer can become a Weavespinner too. They're not as strong as me or Jenna or Jasana, but they do gain access to the unique form of magic we can employ. If I told Keritanima, she'd run right out and try to figure out how to gain that power. I know her too well."
Dolanna smiled. "She would," she agreed.
"There's a drawback to it, though," he said. "If you do manage to do it, it changes you physically. That alters the power of Sorcery for you, and you lose your powers until you figure out how to get back in contact with them."
"I remember you telling us about that," she told him, then it dawned on her. "And with the enemy army so close, if Keritanima lost her powers temporarily, it would damage our chances," she realized.
"Exactly. They need Kerri's magic. If she crossed over and became da'shar, she'd lose her powers, and we'd lose a critical part of our defense." He looked at her. "She can try all she wants after the battle. But until it's over, I'm keeping this from her."
"Jenna is the same way, right?"
He nodded. "She's done very well learning what she needed to learn, and doing it quickly. When she takes the field, she's going to be the last thing the ki'zadun wants to see. She's as strong as I am, Dolanna, and unlike me, she can Circle. That's going to make her more powerful than I could ever hope to be."
"How can a group of weaker Sorcerers boost her so much?"
"It's basic Circle rules, Dolanna. A Circle is stronger than the sum of its parts. If there are twenty-three in the Circle, it's going to give Jenna all their power, her own power, and the boost she gets from being in the Circle. When that Circle forms, she's going to have enough power to all but destroy the entire enemy army. If they don't have some fearsome magical defenses, it's going to be a very short battle."
"Thus explains your optomism," Dolanna chuckled. "But our adversaries probably know this, and yet they're still coming. That means that they must be confident they can get around that."
"I know," he grunted. "I don't see how they're going to do it, though. I know that Jenna can't do anything about the Demons, but she can certainly lash out at the native troops in their army. So long as the Demons don't go right after her, Jenna could crush any kind of magical defense they could put in her way."
"Well, dear one, we'll certainly find out," Dolanna said soberly.
"We will at that," he agreed.
The door opened, and Jesmind and Jasana padded into the apartment. Jasana was almost skipping, holding a large tankard, and Jesmind was carrying a very heavy platter. The smell of the food on that platter made his stomach growl immediately, and he realized that he was very hungry.
"I thought I told you to take it easy," Jesmind said flintily, looking at Dolanna.
"I am. Can't I have a chat with an old friend, Jesmind?" he challenged.
"No," she said bluntly, setting the tray down on the tea table. "Those chats always seem to upset you."
"I assure you, we talked of nothing that would upset him, Jesmind," Dolanna said calmly.
"Well, alright. In this whole madhouse, you're about the only Sorcerer I trust, Dolanna," Jesmind grunted.
"I am pleased to hear that," she smiled. "In fact, I was correcting Tarrin in his pronunciation of my language. He has learned it well. I am proud of his accomplishment."
Tarrin couldn't help but beam a little at that. Dolanna's high opinion of him was something that mattered to him very much.
"Oh. That's alright then. Want to stay for lunch, Dolanna?"
"Thank you, but no. I have some matters to attend, and they do not get done when I sit here and while away time with Tarrin."
Jasana climbed into Tarrin's lap, seating herself sedately. He put his arms around her. "Aren't you going to say hello to Dolanna, cub?" he prompted.
"Hullo," she intoned. She was still just a bit shy around his friends.
"Did you have a good time with your grandmother?"
"Umm," she said, opening up. "She read me a story, and Thean took me out in the gardens and showed me all the different flowers, and even picked a pear for me. I like Thean. He's nice."
"So do I," he agreed.
"Well, I should be off," Dolanna said, standing up and smoothing out the skirts of her dress absently. "I will see you at dinner tonight?" she asked.
"We'll be there," Jesmind answered for him.
"Until then," she nodded, and then let herself out.
"I hate to say it, but I like that woman," Jesmind chuckled ruefully after the door closed.
"You have good taste, love," Tarrin told her with a smile. "Now pass me some of that mutton."
The rest of the day, and the next day, passed in an intense flurry of preparation. Tarrin watched as he walked with Jasana through the Tower grounds as soldiers and Sorcerers scrambled to finish their preparations. The Tower grounds became a fortress, with fortifications dug in on the Tower side of the fence, and manned by Vendari and Knights, with Wikuni musketeers reinforcing their lines. The rest of the soldiers went to the walls, Sulasian and Ungardt, Wikuni and Arakite, and Selani and Were-kin, and the Aeradalla took out their crossbows and made them ready. The Centaurs were placed on the streets beyond the walls, an interior line of defense should anything manage to breach the walls and gain entrance to the city. It was only logical to set them so, since their equine bodies were unsuited for manning the walls. Swords were sharpened, muskets cleaned, cannons prepared, catapults tuned, and nerves were steeled for the inevitable arrival of their opposition.
The activity in the Tower was as heavy as outside. Tarrin heard about it from Keritanima as she took a rare break and walked with him in the gardens. The generals were tweaking their strategy constantly as scouting reports came in from the Aeradalla, many of whom were now visible flying over the city in wide, lazy circles. Shiika, whom he was still avoiding, was having almost constant arguments with the Keeper over exactly what should be protected. Shiika wanted to stop them at the walls, so she wanted all the troops there. The Keeper wanted to protect the Tower, so she kept trying to pull men off the walls and put them on the Tower grounds. The generals that were doing the real planning kept having to separate the two of them during their staff meetings.
But he couldn't avoid the Demoness forever. As the sun set on that fateful day, the beginning of the time when the ki'zadun could arrive, she tracked him down in one of the hallways near the kitchen. The unnaturalness of her scent warned him too late that she was approaching, and he found himself trying to avoid breathing in that ghastly smell when she cornered him against a doorway. She looked very unhappy, glaring at him, wearing the form she had used to appear in public back in Dala Yar Arak, the dusky-skinned, beautiful Arakite woman with the unusual reddish hair. "It's about time!" she snorted. "Why have you been avoiding me, Tarrin? Aren't I good enough to talk to you anymore?"
He knew exactly why he'd been avoiding her, but he didn't want to say anything.
"Oh, is that all?" she scoffed. "I learned about that not a day after you did," she told him. "You may have had a good idea, but some of the others aren't quite as clever as you. I've kept it a secret, and I intend to go right on keeping it a secret. You forget, Tarrin, it's in my best interest to not pass that information along. We may not be trustworthy, but when my comfort is at stake, you can always depend on where I'm going to go."
Tarrin felt a bit abashed. He had been avoiding her, and not telling her why. It seemed sort of silly that he'd been stubbornly refusing to get anywhere near her when it was obvious that it was a fruitless exercise. "All right, I'm sorry," he apologized. "But I'm sure you can understand my position."
"Of course I can," she said, raising one of her elegantly shaped, reddish eyebrows.
"Are you ready for them?" he asked pointedly.
"As ready as we're going to get," she replied. "I've found out who's on which side, and already arranged for certain old friends to arrive and engage them before they can cause too much trouble. I've called in about every favor owed to me for this. I hope you appreciate it," she snorted.
"You're doing this for you, Shiika," he said mildly. "Remember?"
She looked at him, then laughed ruefully. "I hate clever mortals," she told him. "That reminds me, I have a bone to pick with you, Tarrin."
"What did I do now?"
"It's what you did a while ago," she told him. "Remember when you got the book from me? Well, you rendered my entire palace non-magical in the process. When all this is over, I fully expect you to go back to Dala Yar Arak and fix that!"
"I did?" he asked in surprise, trying to remember that little adventure. Then he remembered that he did shift the Weave, to rob his opponent of his magical advantage. He didn't realize that it stayed that way.
"Yes, you did!" she accused. "You owe me, Tarrin, so I want that fixed!"
"I can't make any promises, Shiika," he told her. "But if I live through this, I'll try."
"Well… alright," she huffed. "Now that we're friends again, want to take a walk with me? I want to hear about what happened after you left Arak."
"You already know."
"True, but I want to hear it from you," she said with an inviting smile. "Besides, you owe me for avoiding me for so long. I think a little bit of your time won't kill you."
Tarrin found the idea a bit disconcerting-he still didn't absolutely trust Shiika-but in her defense, she had been forthright so far. "Alright," he agreed. "But I don't have long. My mate will come looking for me in a while."
"I'll take what time I can get," she assured him.
They went out into the gardens, and walked the brick pathways as Tarrin related some of the tale of what happened to him after he left Arak. He was frank with her, mainly because her telepathic ability would allow her to tell when he was covering something up. Despite the vile repulsiveness of her scent, Tarrin found that just talking to Shiika was a rather pleasurable experience. The Demoness was intelligent and quite engaging, asking questions that piqued his mind, forced him to expand himself to answer her. He very nearly began enjoying their time together when Shiika suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, her dusky skin sallowing a bit.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
She looked at him, and then she changed her form, taking on her wings, the form in which he always envisioned her when he thought of her. "It's time," she announced in a grim voice. "Zabelle just spotted the advance scouts."
She looked at Tarrin, her eyes dark and foreboding. "They're here, Tarrin. Now, things get ugly."
To: Title EoF