There were a great many things to do, and it was starting to feel to Tarrin that they were running out of time.
He was sitting in the small training chamber, nervous and uncertain, waiting for Dolanna to arrive. He had no idea how it was going to go. Perhaps a day of staying away from the Weave had corrected the problem he was having, but he wasn't so sure about that. He had tried to find Tiella before coming to the chamber, but she hadn't appeared in the baths, nor did he see her in the hallways as he wandered about. Novices had set schedules, so it was certain that she was somewhere specific, and that she would be there again tomorrow. Keritanima said she would find out where she was, and that made Tarrin a bit uncertain. How would an Initiate with no direct contact with Tiella be able to find her? True, she was a Princess, and she was good at finding things out, but he wasn't so sure that she could find Tiella in a day, and not leave tracks that she was asking.
He'd been so intent on finding Tiella that he didn't get a chance to talk to Dar. That would be handled after class, because Dar would be easy to track down. Initiates were given much more freedom than Novices but still only had so many places that they were allowed to go, and since Tarrin was Dar's friend, it wouldn't arouse suspicion if he asked around to find him.
Tarrin was still a bit unsure about Keritanima's ideas. He'd never seen spying and intrigue, so he had no idea how she was going to manage all the things she said she would do. He did like her plan, however, so that told him that she must know what she was doing. But he had trouble conceiving of something that he couldn't see or touch. That was an aspect of the Cat growing to hold a position in his mind, and he knew it, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. It was either give the Cat some room, or have it drive him mad. It wasn't altering his imagination, but it did have the effect of, as Dolanna put it, grounding him in his senses. Anything he couldn't see, couldn't smell, couldn't experience, they seemed misty and intangible, and it was a struggle to overcome the Cat and ponder them.
But fortunately, pondering Keritanima's plans wasn't necessary. Not with Keritanima there to carry them out.
The door opened, scattering Tarrin's thoughts, and Dolanna entered. To his surprise, she wasn't the only one. Ahiriya, the Fire Seat, filed in behind the diminutive Sorceress, dressed in a red robe that set off her pale skin and fiery hair. That set Tarrin's mind whirling, and one of his paws began to tremble. To have to perform for Ahiriya was one thing, but it would become very clear very quickly to her and the Council that he was hampered. If he was still injured inside, or whatever it was.
"Good morning, Tarrin," Dolanna said pleasantly. "This is Ahiriya, a member of the Council. Often, they prefer to sit in with an Initiate and his instructor to ensure you are receiving proper instruction."
"Dolanna, this is not a good idea," he said quickly, almost desperately. "I didn't-"
"That's Mistress Dolanna," Ahiriya said in an icy tone, glaring at him.
"Don't push me, woman," Tarrin said to her in a cold voice that promised violence.
"Tarrin, mind your manners!" Dolanna said in shock.
"Save it," Tarrin told her bluntly. "I'm not going to do tricks for the Council, even if I could."
"You go too far, Initiate," Ahiyira said in a tightly controlled voice. "I think a few days of penance is in order."
"I'd like to see you try," Tarrin said in an ominous tone, his eyes lighting from within with their greenish aura.
Dolanna, who knew him so well, understood immediately what that meant. "Mistress Ahiriya, perhaps it would be wise for you to leave for now," she said in a calm voice.
"I'm not letting this impertinent whelp get away with such outrageous disrespect," Ahiriya said in a hot tone.
"Yes, but if you keep going, he will most definitely cause me to Heal one of you," Dolanna told her in a blunt voice.
"You wouldn't dare attack a member of the Council!" Ahiriya said in shock, staring at him.
Tarrin laid back his ears, extended his claws, and growled at her.
"Oh my," Dolanna breathed, backing away from him.
If anything convinced Ahiriya that he was serious, that could. She backed up to the door, keeping her eyes on him, then opened it behind her. "We'll talk about this later, Initiate," she promised in an ugly tone. Then she backed through the door and closed it.
The instant the door was closed, Tarrin's ears rose up to their normal position, and he stood up straight from the crouching stance he assumed. He looked at Dolanna, his face sober, then he gave her a slight smile and winked.
"You staged that?" she asked in a gasping voice. "Tarrin, what on earth are you doing?"
"I don't need an audience today, Dolanna," he told her. "I have, I have a problem. I need your help."
"What is it?"
"The fight with the Doomwalker, it…injured something inside me. I can't control Sorcery. Every time I touch the Weave, the power just floods into me, and I can't stop it."
Dolanna looked at him for a moment. "Floods into you? I taught you how to control it, dear one. It is no different."
"Yes, it is," he replied, sitting down. "The touching still feels the same, but the instant I do, it's like the Weave tries to reach out and grab me. When it does grab me, it tries to flood me with power. I can't resist it, Dolanna. It's way too much for me."
"I was told you caused your mother's hair to grow out," she said. "That is something that even I cannot do, Tarrin. I would not know where to begin. So you can still use your power."
He nodded. "But if I hold onto it for more than two heartbeats, the Weave realizes I'm in contact with it, and then it tries to burn me alive. And there's more."
"What?"
"I can almost see the Weave now, Dolanna," he told her. "Even without touching it, I can sense it around me. And if I concentrate, I can almost see the strands. Ahiriya touched the Weave when I threatened her. I could feel it."
Dolanna nodded. "I knew, because I was in touch with the Weave myself," she told him with a rueful smile. "I really thought you meant to attack her."
"I wanted her out of here," he said bluntly. "The Council will find out in time, but I don't want the pressure of having to explain all of this with her looking over my shoulder. I…I can't talk about things with strangers around. You're the only one in this Tower wearing a shaeram that I trust."
"I appreciate your trust, dear one, but there are many here worthy of it," she told him gently. "I understand that you and Sevren have a friendship. Could you not trust him?"
He chuckled ruefully. "Well, he did save my life, so I guess I could. But I don't know him that well."
"And what of Jula? She stood vigil for you when you were injured, and she has befriended your parents."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I was there also," she said. "Jula likes you, dear one. She told me that she met you before you entered the Novitiate, in the baths, and you impressed her."
Tarrin remembered indeed, how she braided his hair, and how she joked about it. She didn't seem like a Sorceress. "Well, maybe," he said. "But we're getting off the point, Dolanna. Can you help me work around this, this problem? Or at least tell me what's wrong?"
"I will have to understand what the problem is before I can see about finding a solution for it," she told him. "Touch the Weave, dear one, and allow it to respond. I will be here to cut you off if it threatens you."
He nodded, reaching out. Just as he told her before, touching the Weave was simple for him, where most Initiates spent months mastering the techniques of achieving contact with the Weave. As simple as breathing, he touched the Weave, allowed it to charge him with a small amount of the six flows in even measures. He held it thusly for but a second or two, and then the raging torrent of power found him, and assaulted him. In instants he was being saturated with more power than he could control, and almost more than his body could withstand, and then it was severed away from him. That power dissipated quickly and harmlessly back into the Weave.
"The Weave reacted to you!" Dolanna said in an awed voice. "I have never seen it act so before!"
"What do you mean?"
"When we touch the Weave, it tries to fill us with the same energy it holds itself," she told him. "It is not a great amount, for the Weave is vast, and most of its energy is stored in strands. The energy in a strand is not that great, or we would not have to draw from multiple strands at once to build up the magic necessary to weave spells. But the Weave tried to fill you with more than that. It actively tried to build up the power in you over the level of magical energy that the strands themselves carry. To put in other terms, the Weave tries to fill us with the power of a strand, but when you touched it, you somehow opened a pathway directly to a Conduit, and it tried to fill you with its power."
A Conduit. "But that's what happened to me," he said in a quiet voice. "The Doomwalker pushed me into the Conduit running through the Heart. That's what caused all the light, because it was all I could do to keep from getting incinerated."
"Oh, Tarrin," she said in awe. "Tell me what happened. Leave nothing out."
Step by step, Tarrin recanted his memory of the fight, and being knocked into the Conduit. "I don't remember very much after that," he said helplessly. "The power tried to fry me to ash, and I just had to do something with it to keep from exploding. They tell me I burned the Doomwalker to ash, and it lit up the Conduit and the Ward."
"No one could survive direct exposure to the Heart," she said in a quiet voice. "But you did, somehow."
"Why is it called that?"
"Because that is what it is," she replied. "The Conduit running through the Heart is the largest, most concentrated Conduit known to man. The Tower was built around it so the katzh-dashi could be very close to it. The closer we are to the Heart, the stronger our Sorcery becomes. You have never known anything else, but when you leave the city, leave Sulasia, you will understand. Far away, it takes us longer to build up the energy to weave spells, because those areas are not as rich in magical energy as the Tower. The Heart charges the strands around it with much more magical energy than you will find, say, back in Aldreth. The Heart is literally the heart of our power, and when we are close to it, it makes us stronger."
"I didn't know that," he said. "So that's what's happening to me? Do you think I somehow was affected by the Conduit?"
"How could you not?" she said. "I have never heard of anything surviving direct immersion in the Heart. Even mundane objects thrown into the Heart charge with magical power, then explode. But you survived it, and it has affected you. It has opened a link with you, my dear one, a link that fills you with power you cannot hope to control. But there is hope."
"What? How do we fix it?"
"I do not think we can," she said, "but I-they-may be able to teach you how to control the link. You cannot control the power, so you must learn how to control the pathway that feeds it to you. If you can learn to choke off that link, it will give you the time you need to use Sorcery without fear of being Consumed."
"You don't sound to convinced."
"Because that may be impossible," she sighed. "But it is all I can think of. I will have to take this to the Council. They are more skilled and learned than I, perhaps they can find a better solution."
"The Council? Dolanna, I-"
"Hush, dear one," she told him. "This is quite beyond me, and I need guidance. Even if you do not trust the Council, remember that you are a Sorcerer, and that entitles you to their assistance. They will help. They must, it is their duty. Perhaps one of them can help you find a way to control this ability, for I do not think that I can."
Tarrin blew out his breath, but had to concede that she was right. He needed help, and if Dolanna couldn't supply it, he had to find it where he could. The way things were now, a single slip could fry him to ash, and that was just too dangerous, considering how easy it was for him to call on the power of the Weave. What he had done for his mother had been totally without thought. He didn't even remember how he did it. But it was the most shining example of exactly why he had to get this under control, and do it very fast. Another thoughtless touch on the Weave could quite possibly lead to his demise, and that was something that he absolutely could not afford.
"Alright," he sighed. "I've been wondering something for a while, Dolanna."
"What is it, dear one?"
"Why do you speak so formally?"
She laughed. "Because the northern common tongue is not my native one, Tarrin," she said. "I am from Sharadar."
He stared at her. Sharadar? The almost mythical kingdom on the southern continent that took its name from that nation, a nation of magic, learning, and wonders. "You're from Sharadar? Why are you up here?"
"Because I am a Sorcerer, dear one," she replied calmly. "Sharadar has its own order of katzh-dashi, in their own Tower. The Heart comes up from the earth here, but it descends into the earth there. There is a Tower and an order of Sorcerers at both ends of it. There are Sharadite Sorcerers here, just as there are northern Sorcerers in Sharadar. Each order is separate, but both answer to the Council and Keeper. Because of that, there are always communications passing between each order."
Tarrin had never conceived of that. He knew that the world was round, but to imagine something piercing the earth and running all the way through it boggled his mind. "What do the southern Sorcerers do?"
"The same as the northern ones," she replied. "Study, learn, and find others with our gifts."
"I never knew about them."
"There is a bit of, competition, between the two orders, dear one," she said with a smile. "The teachings of the other order of katzh-dashi come later in your Initiate."
"What happened to them during the Breaking?" he asked suddenly. "Sevren's class didn't cover that."
"The same as what happened up here, but the southern katzh-dashi were never driven from their Tower. And yet they too simply vanished."
"But why keep the other order secret?" Tarrin asked. "It doesn't make sense."
"It is not a secret," she told him, "it is merely something not often discussed. The workings of an order half the world away have little bearing or impact on life here."
"But they should say something in the Novitiate," he accused.
"Tarrin, they said nothing about the southern continents, other than references to geography," she reminded him. "And the Tower does like to keep its profile low. Telling Novices there is another Tower spreads information that the katzh-dashi may prefer to keep private. That is why only Initiates learn of the tower in Sharadar."
"It still seems strange," he said after a moment.
"Politics usually are, dear one," she chuckled. "But since I dare not try to instruct you, I think we are done for today. I need guidance, and must take this up with the Council at once." She smiled at him. "And I will be sure to tell Ahiriya that your uncertainty and fear over your condition caused your outburst. After she understands the problem, she will probably forgive you your behavior."
"I really don't care," he snorted. "I'm not here to lick her slippers."
"That kind of attitude will create trouble for you, dear one," Dolanna warned. "It is not demeaning to give to others the respect that they deserve."
"When she proves she deserves it, I'll give it to her," he grunted. "Dolanna, thanks. I do feel alot better now. I was really afraid that something was going to happen."
"We shall see, young one, and you are welcome," she said. "Now, since you cannot practice, I suggest you learn. In the South Tower, there is another library. The real one, which holds the books that the Lorefinders study and the lore of magic and theory that we keep out of the hands of the Novices. Go there, and read. Learn. There is much you can learn by reading, even if you cannot practice."
"Nobody ever told me about that."
"And why do you think that is?" she asked pointedly.
"Oh, because they don't want to contaminate the process of learning how to touch the Weave," he realized.
"Precisely. But since you already have mastered that task, you cannot be contaminated by reading about the experiences of others. Go there and learn, my dear one. It will do you good."
"They'll let me in?"
"Yes. You wear Initiate red, and that is all you will need to gain entrance."
"I'll do it, Dolanna. Thank you."
"No thanks are needed, my dear one," she smiled.
He touched her cheek with his paw, taking in her beauty, realizing again now much the small woman meant to him, then he took his leave of her.
He didn't like the idea of the Tower meddling in his affairs, but Dolanna was right. He needed to learn how to control whatever happened to him before it killed him, and if that meant allowing people he perceived as enemies to do it, then so be it. Better to take the hand of an enemy then refuse it and jump blindly into death. The Cat was a survivor, and it wouldn't let him refuse a chance to live. It was a survivor, and would not allow his human pride or distrust to interfere with the need to survive.
Blinking, Keritanima focused her eyes again, following the intricacies of the Weave that Lula was using. She sat on a bench in the garden, for unlike most instructors, Lula was a plump, matronly woman who had the soul of a Druid. She loved the outdoors and the gardens, and she much preferred to bring her students out into the greenery of the garden than keep them cooped up in the small, cramped rooms used for the initial touch. She told the Princess that she felt she had control of her ability, so they spent their days sitting on benches surrounded by the rainbow of color of the gardens. Keritanima had to admit, being in such a soothing environment helped her to learn as Lula started showing her multiflow weaves. The one she was doing right now was a mixture of fire and air, a small ball of yellow light that hovered over her palm. "Can you see how they go together, dear?" she asked. Lula called everyone "dear" or "sweetheart" or "love", even though she knew Keritanima's name. The Brat Princess had made her name, title, and pedigree very plain to the woman quickly, but she just pushed all that aside like it was dust to sweep under the carpet and treated her like a little girl. Neither Keritanima or the Brat quite knew how to take that. The woman was absolutely fearless, and she treated Keritanima like her daughter's best friend rather than an Initiate. The woman was a mystery that the Brat took to immediately, but Keritanima found almost hopelessly puzzling. "Now, by adjusting the flow of fire, we can make the light change color," she said, tweaking the weave hovering over her hand just a bit, making the ball shift from yellow to blue. "Alright dear, now it's your turn."
Narrowing her eyes, Keritanima touched the Weave and felt the power flow into her. Touching the Weave was something that was easy for her, almost natural, and she was shocked that some Sorcerers took months to master such a simple thing. She drew in fire and air, and them pushed them out into the area over her furred hand. Her amber eyes flickered quickly as they watched the flows begin to intertwine, until a small, dim ball of bluish-green light appeared over her hand. "Not bad dear, but you need a bit more air and less fire," Lula told her. Keritanima's brows lowered as she did as Lula ordered, until the ball grew in size and intensity, and then shifted to a solid sky-blue color. "Very good, dear," she said with a bright smile. "Can you make it change to red?"
Narrowing her eyes down to slits, she considered the request. It was a test, she was sure of it. She had to increase the flow of fire to go from yellow to blue, but what would require going from blue to red? Well, they were all colors of fire. Yellow fire was hot. Blue fire was actually the hottest, the kind of fire she'd seen in the Royal forges and foundries. But red fire…that had to be the coolest. The fringes of a fire were always red. Decreasing the flow of fire entering the weave, she watched as it slowly shifted colors from blue to white to yellow to an orange-rust color, and then finally to red. "Very good, dear," she praised. "Now, how would you make it brighter without changing its color?"
"Increase both flows proportionately?" she asked in reply.
"Why don't you try it and see," she winked.
Keritanima did, increasing the energy in both flows, and the effect was striking. The small ball suddenly became almost painfully bright, and also expanded in size. "Very good dear, but remember that working with flows is always a very precise business," Lula told her. "That was too much. You have to go in small steps, dear, small steps."
Dimming it to a less eye-straining radiance, Keritanima looked at Lula and almost beamed. It was so, wonderful, working with Sorcery. It was hard to stay in character. The Brat would never look to her instructor with such respect and a desire for praise. But then again, Lula had that effect on people. It was probably why they had chosen her to introduce Keritanima to the Weave.
"I must say," a nasal voice called from behind, "that this is not at all what I expected to see."
The little ball suddenly exploded in a blinding flash, as Keritanima lost control of the weave. She whirled around on the seat and found herself staring at a rather ridiculous-looking rabbit Wikuni. His head was dominated by the large ears on top of his head, pink nose, whiskers, and a pair of large front teeth. His fur was a whitish gray all over, and a pair of pink eyes stared out from behind a pair of wire-frame spectacles. He wore a plain blue waistcoat with a leather belt holding up a pair of blue pants. A vest covered a white shirt under the waistcoat, into which was tucked the chain of a pocket watch, a technological marvel of the kingdom of Taiga, on the southwestern continent. The expression on the face was plain, almost dull, as if the mind behind those eyes reflected its rather foppish exterior. That couldn't be any further than the truth. Jervis, head spy for his Majesty, Damon Eram, king of Wikuna, was probably the crown's most experienced and competent gatherer of hidden knowledge. Probably one of the best in the world. Jervis used his rather ridiculous appearance as a weapon, which hid his true ability and also his lethal abilities. Jervis often was tasked to eliminate threats to the crown, and that required an assassin's touch. Jervis had that touch.
"Highness," he said with a fluid bow. "I believe that his Majesty sent you here for an education. This is not the education he expected you to receive."
"That the girl has considerable talent in Sorcery was blind luck, sir," Lula told him. "I take it you know him, dear?"
"He works for my father," Keritanima said in a bored voice. "He's here to make sure I don't get any silly ideas."
"Allow me to introduce myself, madam. I am Jervis, head ambassador to the Tower while our jewel is in your tender care." He bowed to her extravagantly, his whiskers twitching and his eyes dancing with delight.
"Well, pleased to meet you," Lula said with a girlish giggle.
"My ship was delayed, so I'm afraid I couldn't get here sooner," he sighed. "But, at least I see that her Highness is behaving herself."
"I don't see what all the fuss is about," Lula snorted. "Keritanima has been a very attentive and pleasant pupil."
"Really," Jervis said in a calm voice. "How do you like the grounds, your Highness?"
"They'll do," she replied in a distracted voice. "My room is entirely too small, but I can't make them furnish me with one more appropriate for a high Princess."
"Not your rooms, the grounds," he said.
"Oh. They're pretty, I guess," she replied in a vapid tone.
"Do you have any complaints?"
"Where do you want me to start?" she replied.
"Just have someone leave me a list," he said, waving her off with a hand. "Considerable, you say?" he said to Lula, using a rather annoying trick he'd learned a while ago, bouncing around in a conversation to try to catch lies and half-truths. "How considerable?"
"Very promising," Lula said, both of them missing Keritanima's murderous stare. "She's got alot of potential. She could rise very high in the Tower, if she applies herself."
"Unfortunately, her Highness has other pressing plans, I'm afraid," Jervis told her in an almost sincerely sad tone. "Perhaps her, gifts, could help her on the throne."
"I would dare say so," Lula said with a smile.
"Well, I have matters to tend, so I'll take my leave," he said, giving them both a deep bow. "Good morning to you, ladies."
Keritanima had no doubt that reports on her ability and what the Sorcerers were doing with her would be on her father's desk by tomorrow. The Tower wasn't the only magical order; no less than two priests of the Wikuni god were on the grounds. The chaplain for Keritanima's private guards and the Royal Marines garrisoned on the grounds, and also a cleric that served Jervis with his magic. One of the tricks of the clerics was that they could send messages over extreme distances. That information should be in the palace within the hour, she reasoned. Jervis would receive a response to it by tomorrow morning. It was still night in Wikuna, so they wouldn't wake her father up for something that wasn't urgent. Then they'd wait until a window when both the priest there and the priest here would be awake at the same time to send back any response.
She thought that it may be worth her while to get her hands on those reports. No doubt Jervis would uncover some tidbits that may be useful to her as well.
Tarrin caught up with Dar about noon that day, as he moved towards the main Tower to have lunch. He simply fell in step with the young Arkisian on the grounds, surprising him a bit.
"Tarrin!" he said in surprised happiness. "How have you been?"
"I'm doing alright," he replied with a smile. "I see you finally made it."
"I could have been here two rides ago, but they were holding all the Initiates back for some reason," he replied.
"How many?"
"Nine," he replied. "Remember that short blond that always stared at the floor?" Tarrin nodded. "She made it up here. I don't think you know any of the others. I know I don't."
"Well, I'm just glad to have another person to talk to," Tarrin said with a smile. "I miss all our talks."
"It seems strange to be in a room by myself," he said. "My closet-mate is a slack-jawed Torian with about half of his brain somewhere else."
Tarrin chuckled. Arkis and the city-state of Tor didn't exactly get along, but Dar was very much above judging people along socially drawn lines. The Torian probably was a slack-jawed imbecile. Dar was a very social person, and he enjoyed company. Probably a function of his youth and insecurity about his position. After all, what young person wouldn't feel insecure when about to travel down a road of power and danger. "Well, Keritanima tells me that you're next door to her."
"The obnoxious Wikuni? Yes," he replied.
Tarrin laughed. "She can be obnoxious, but for some strange reason, we're friends," he told the young man.
"You seem to attract non-human females, Tarrin."
"I happen to be a non-human, Dar," Tarrin replied with a wink.
"Sure, go and throw that in my face," the young man said, and then they both laughed. "Where are you at? I'd like to swing by and talk from time to time."
"Not far from the Headmaster's office," he replied. "Where he can keep an eye on me and Allia."
"I haven't seen her in a while. Do you know that she was actually nice to me when you disappeared?"
"She told me about that," he replied. "She's my closet-mate, so she's not very far from me."
"You mean they allowed that?"
"Allia didn't give them much choice," Tarrin chuckled. "You know how she is."
"Too well," he replied. "I kind of miss her. Guess I'm turning into a masochist."
Tarrin laughed. "She's not that bad."
"I seem to recall you telling me that once before," Dar said with a sly grin.
"Anyway, I hate to impose, but this isn't entirely a social visit."
"What's up?"
"I'd like you to do me a favor."
"Sure, what do you need?"
"There's a Novice that I'm friends with, the blond that came to the Tower with me," he began.
"Tiella? I know her."
"Good, because I'll need you to talk to her from time to time. It has to be where a Novice and an Initiate can speak without raising attention."
"The baths?"
Tarrin nodded. "She's doing something for me, Dar. She may have some information to give you from time to time, information that could get you in trouble if the katzh-dashi find out about it."
"That's not a problem, Tarrin," he said. "You know I'll help. You and I, we've been through alot together, and you're a friend. Friends help each other."
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, Dar," he said sincerely, putting his huge paw on the young man's shoulder. "You're one of the few humans around here that will even talk to me."
"That's their loss, Tarrin," he replied calmly. "Alot of them are afraid of you, but it's because they don't understand you. Not like I do."
"They never really gave you a choice."
"True, but things worked out anyway, didn't they?"
Tarrin smiled. Dar was young, but Tarrin had often been impressed at how mature and wise the boy was. His parents had raised him very well. He had a generous nature and an almost inhuman ability to accept others for who and what they are. Dar was everybody's friend and nobody's enemy. And that fact would help Tarrin right now.
"I guess they did," Tarrin said. "Anyway, enough chatter about nonsense. Tell me what happened after I left for the Initiate."
"It's only been a ride or two."
"Well, it feels like years," Tarrin told him. "Besides, we never really caught up after I ran away, so we may as well get ourselves current."
Dar laughed. "True enough."
They ran into Allia in the kitchens, and she invited herself to join them as they sat down in the small dining hall used by the Initiates. She listened quietly as Tarrin and Dar caught up on things. "So, was today your first day of instruction?" Tarrin asked.
Dar nodded. "The history they gave seemed incomplete," he said. "They made no mention of the Tower in Sharadar."
"You know about that?"
"I'm the son of a merchant clan, Tarrin," Dar smiled. "It's our business to know."
"I keep forgetting about that," Tarrin chuckled.
"A Tower in Sharadar?" Allia asked. "I have not heard of such a thing."
Tarrin briefly went over what Dolanna told him. "She said that the Tower up here keeps it quiet, because of how people feel about the katzh-dashi."
"I don't see why," Dar shrugged. "Don't they send us to individual teachers tomorrow?"
Tarrin nodded. "When they've taught you a few basics, they're supposed to reassemble a class and teach weaves."
"How have you been doing with that?"
Tarrin shifted uncomfortably. "Well, let's say that I've hit an unforseen snag," he said. "My instructor is talking to the Council to see what they can do to help me work through it."
"You say that like you're about to be executed."
Tarrin snorted. "I think you know how I feel about the Council," he said, and Dar nodded. "Asking them for help feels like cutting off my own tail."
"Well, it should work out," Dar told him. "How about you, Allia?"
Allia gave him an almost shy smile, something that made Tarrin look at her very carefully. She was actually nervous to be around Dar. That was something new. "I finally managed to touch the Weave this morning," she told him.
"You did? That's wonderful, Allia," Dar said, patting her four-fingered hand without thought. "They say that's the hardest part."
"That's the first hardest part," Tarrin said. "Congratulations, deshaida," he told her, putting his paw on her arm. "I know how it was bugging you."
"Now I know how you felt, deshida," she said. "I still seem to have trouble finding it, though. My instructor told me that it is a common occurance."
"Master Sevren told me that it takes some Initiates months," Dar said. "I hope it doesn't take me months. I've already been here over a year. I'd like to move into a less restricting environment."
"Well, Initiates are allowed off the grounds, Dar," Tarrin said. "Why don't you spend this evening walking around the city?"
"Because they've taken that freedom away," Dar grunted. "No Initiate is allowed to leave until further notice."
"Nobody told me about that," Tarrin said, rubbing his chin. Why would they hold all the Initiates on the grounds?
"It just started today," Dar said glumly. "My first day as an Initiate, and they immediately strip one of our liberties."
"Maybe it's just temporary," Tarrin said. "It's starting to get a bit late. You going to be in your room after class?"
"I guess," he said.
"Well, when you're done, instead of going there, why don't you come to the south Tower? They have another library there. I'll be there."
"So we can whisper and get the Loremasters giving us dirty looks? I'll be there right after getting something to eat," he said with a laugh.
"But that will interfere with his learning to touch the Weave," Allia reminded Tarrin.
"Only if he reads the books," Tarrin told her.
"Then why ask me to come?" Dar asked.
"Because I want to talk to you," he replied, "and I'll be too busy to swing by your room."
"Oh. Well, I guess I can do it then," Dar said with a sly smile. "If I'm properly motivated."
"I've got some motivation right here," Tarrin told him, showing him his claws.
"Well, that doesn't really scare me anymore," Dar said with a grin.
"It will when you find out why you won't see them for long."
Dar laughed. "Alright, in order to avoid becoming Arkisian shishkebab, I'll be there. But right now, I gotta get back to class. The others are all leaving." A group of Initiates in similar beginner's red were all getting up.
"Alright. I'll see you tonight."
Dar nodded, then he got up and scurried over to join them. They were all giving him strange looks now, but he seemed oblivious to it. Dar didn't really see him as a Were-cat, Tarrin surmised. Dar saw him as just Tarrin.
If only others here could do that. Tarrin was a loner, and he thought he'd grown used to it, but the constant frightened looks and avoidance others gave him still stung. Only the katzh-dashi seemed to be able to approach him without fear, but he didn't trust any of them.
"Keep your schedule open for tonight, sister," Tarrin told her in Selani. "We're going on a trip."
"Where?"
"I want to go make sure my family settled in with my little mother alright," he replied. "Because mother tells me she's all but adopted you, we may as well make it a family gathering."
Allia laughed. "You mother is quite a woman," she said. "She would've done my clan much honor had she been born to us rather than to the Ungardt."
"Mother would do well no matter where she is," Tarrin shrugged. "I also want to make sure my father's alright. I'm not used to seeing him in a sickbed. I'm worried about him."
"He's a strong man, my brother," Allia assured him. "He should be just fine."
"I'll know when I see him," he said seriously.
"You're a lucky man, my brother," Allia said with a smile. "You have two families now. Yours, and mine. If only my father could meet you. He would be impressed."
"He may get the chance, Allia," Tarrin said seriously. "He may get the chance."
The library in the South Tower was the South Tower.
The entire tower's volume was completely dominated by the massive library. It started on the ground floor and extended more than three quarters up the tower's height. Each floor was huge, more than thirty spans to the ceiling, and there were no separate rooms. Each level extended right out to the inside of the tower's circular walls. The levels also served to separate the subject matter of the rows upon rows of books. They had separate levels for magical theory, magical history of all four orders of magic, history, sociology, and a level dominated by ancient books that were all but falling apart, which housed the oldest lore which the Tower still possessed. They even had a level filled with nothing but the magical spell formulas that the Wizards used to create their magic, even though that information had absolutely no real value to the katzh-dashi. No mortal being could use more than one order of magic, Dolanna had told him during the journey to Suld. That was a law set down by the Gods themselves. Because Tarrin was born with the ability to use Sorcery, that meant that if he ever tried to learn arcane magic, the magic of the Wizards, he would be driven mad as punishment.
He sat down at a table not far from where Lorefinders were taking those ancient tomes, literally falling apart, and using Sorcery to copy the words into new books, so that the lore held on the pages would not be lost should the book finally succumb to its great age. He'd pulled one of those freshly transcribed books from a shelf not far from the Lorefinders, curiosity driving him, and then opened it to find a script that looked like two spiders fighting in a web.
Blinking, he stared at the book. He figured that they would be transposing the information into the written common language, but what they were doing was literally copying from one book to another.
Someone chuckled behind him. He scented Jula, and turned to find that it was indeed her. She sat down opposite him and tapped the book, a smile on her face. "Now if you can read that, then I'm sure the Lorefinders would be overjoyed."
"What is it?"
"It's the written language that the Sha'Kar used," she replied. "You know who they were?"
Tarrin nodded. "They were the Non-human race that used to be in the Tower. When the Ancients left the world, the entire Sha'Kar race went with them."
"Yes, and everyone who knew their writing died two thousand years ago," she said. "Nobody's left to teach it, and the Lorefinders have been trying to decipher it for almost a thousand years. They haven't had any luck so far. Not even priestly or arcane magic can decipher it. Many think that the language is in itself magical."
"Another order?"
"No, that it actively resists magical attempts to decipher it. Unfortunately, it seems that all the important information that the Ancients kept was kept by the Sha'Kar. That leaves the descendants a bit in a pickle."
"You mean that the Ancients wrote all their knowledge down in this language?"
Jula nodded. "That's why we can't unlock the secrets of the Ancients," she told him. "They have it all written down in code. It may as well not be written down at all. Right here in this library is everything the Ancients ever knew, and it may as well be on the greatest moon," she said with a wry chuckle. "You have no idea how much that upsets a great many katzh-dashi. It's right here at our fingertips, but we can't read it."
Tarrin leafed through the book, and found a blurry patch in one corner. "What is this?"
"I guess it was an illustration, or drawing," Jula replied. "The magic the Lorefinders use literally copy the contents of one book into another. They already know what the forms of the letters look like, so they can make those sharp and clear. But the illustrations are another matter. Since they don't know what they are, they can't copy them clearly. So they get copied just as they appear in the old books."
"Why does this happen?"
"Age," Jula shrugged. "Time eats away the ink, the pages wear away, any number of things. That's why we don't even know what the Sha'Kar looked like. There are no surviving drawings, illustrations, or paintings of them."
"Aren't they described in a book?" Jula shook her head. "Why not?"
"Would you describe a pair of pants in a book of history? A flower? A spoon?"
"That's a silly answer."
"No, it's not. Those are common everyday things, things we expect would be around two thousand years from now. Why waste time describing something everyone has already seen?"
Tarrin thought about it. "Oh," he finally realized. "Everyone back then knew what a Sha'Kar looked like, the way everyone today knows about the Wikuni."
"Precisely. So they never really went into depth about them. All the books about the Sha'Kar were written in their language, and we can't read them. All we've managed to find out about the Sha'Kar is that they were a very human-looking race, just a bit taller than humans on the average, and were frail and delicate beings. They also had large eyes, and some in the Tower think that they may have had pointed ears."
The description sounded a little like Allia, up until the "frail and delicate" part. Allia was by no means frail and delicate. She only looked delicate, because she was so beautiful. Maybe the Selani and the Sha'Kar were very, very distantly related.
"When alot of people in the Tower saw Allia, they thought that maybe the Selani and the Sha'Kar shared some kind of common ancestor," Jula told him, mirroring what he was thinking. "I think they've already put Sha'Kar books in front of her to see if she could read them."
"She didn't tell me about that."
"I guess she didn't think it was very important," Jula told him. "And since they're still working to break the language, I guess that means it didn't work."
"I guess not."
"So, why are you in here?" Jula asked. "You should be in class."
"My instructor had to talk to the Council, so I was given the rest of the day off," he replied. "She told me to come up here and read instead. But she didn't tell me what to read."
"I suggest that you start with Studies On Efficiently Spinning Weaves," she told him. "It was written by a Sorcerer named Walina about a thousand years ago, but her techniques on weaving spells are still fundamental principles taught to all our students. She was a real trailblazer."
"Where can I find that book?"
"It's that big book they keep on the pedestal in the entrance hall," she smiled. "But you can get another copy over there. Nobody's allowed to touch the original." She pointed to a shelf across from the Lorefinders, just behind the circular desk that served as the main station for the librarians. "You should just ask the librarians, Tarrin. Tell them what you're interested in, and they'll send you right to it."
"I wasn't sure they'd let me have important books, since I'm just an Initiate."
"Tarrin, this library is for any who can touch the Weave," she told him. "You have as much right to be here as the Keeper herself." She glanced around. "Well, it's about time for me to get back to what I was doing. I'll see you later."
"Later," Tarrin mirrored, standing up with her.
Walina's book was very interesting. She described the raw forces that the Sorcerer was working with when they were touching the Weave, and then went on to discuss techniques of weaving flows that expanded on simple spellcraft. Techniques like knotting a weave so it would sustain itself for a while without having to be maintained, and layering one so that a second weave would activate after the first unravelled. Sorcery was limited in that there was no such thing as permanent spells for them, except when using Ritual Sorcery. All their magic lasted only as long as the Sorcerer concentrating on it. The effects of that magic could be permanent, like healing, but the magic itself was not. Knotting a weave made it draw on its own magic for a while, depending on the complexity of the weave and how well the knot was made. But even a knot only lasted a while before the weaves naturally untied themselves. Layering, Walina wrote, required tremendous skill to use, because placing one weave inside another without them interacting took considerable skill. Tarrin could see why. His own knowledge of Sorcery was somewhat limited, but his own short experience with it told him that flows loved to interact. To weave them in such a way that they wouldn't interact wouldn't be easy.
He was interrupted by someone knocking on the table, and he immediately scented Allia and Dar. He looked up in surprise, and realized that he'd been reading, totally absorbed, for the entire afternoon. "I wondered if you were awake," Dar said with a chuckle. "That must be some book."
"Actually, it is," Tarrin replied. "How did it go for you?"
"Boring," he grunted.
"How was your day, sister?" he asked Allia.
"They have started teaching me weaves," she replied. "I still cannot touch the Weave half the time, but they seem to be rushing me."
He only gave her a terse nod. He already had a good idea why. "Wait here a second," he told them, standing up. He went over to the librarian's station, where two small, older women busily sorted through a large number of books. They were sisters, from their scent, and had similar brownish, leathery skin and graying brown hair. They wore dresses of a pearly gray, made of a good wool by the smell of them, and were both well made and well maintained. "Excuse me, but can I borrow this?" he asked, holding up the book he was reading. The woman looked up at him, and to her credit, didn't so much as flinch when she realized who was talking to her.
"Let me see it," one of them said, holding out her hand. Tarrin gave her the book, and she glanced at the cover and opened it. "Yes, you can take this one with you," she told him. "Just write your name down on this sheet of parchment," she instructed, hastily scribbling the name of the book in a column on the right. There were alot of names and alot of book titles on that sheet of parchment. She turned it around and offerred the quill pen she was using to him.
Tarrin took the small pen between two large fingers, struggling with it a bit. His body was very handy and he felt comfortable in it, but his oversized paws were simply incapable of some things. One was handling the tiny quill pen with enough delicacy to be able to write legibly. He had the agility and dexterity, but to try would probably break the pen. Such a delicate thing put between his fingers would most likely break, no matter how gentle he was trying to be. He solved the problem by taking on his human hands, feeling the ache instantly shoot through his knuckles and fingers as soon as claws were replaced by nails, and he quickly scrawled his name down on the page. It wasn't very pretty, because the shooting pain made it difficult to write with elegance, or even efficiency.
"You need to work on your penmanship, Initiate," she said in distaste, looking at the writing.
"That's the best I can do," he told her bluntly, letting his paws come back. He cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers, working out the pain. "At least until you have a pen that fits in these paws."
"Alright, I can accept that," she said with a straight face. "You have to either bring the book back or check it out again in three days. Don't be late."
"I won't," he said, putting the book under his arm and then going back to his friends.
Lounging in his room, Allia sitting on the bed behind him, playing idly with his tail as she read from a book given to her by her instructor, Tarrin puzzled through the book written by this Walina. Even though he'd had so little practical instruction in Sorcery, alot of what the woman wrote made alot of sense, and it went beyond the tricks she wrote about. The woman seemed to have a fundamental understanding of the Weave that went quite beyond that of the normal Sorcerer. She explained the flows and their power, the act of using Sorcery, even the mysterious seventh sphere in terms that Tarrin could easily understand.
Though Dolanna had already told him, Walina's writing drove home the very significant point that Sorcery was the magic of life. It represented the six basic forces that affected mankind: earth, air, fire, water, the power of the gods, and the human mind's intelligence and drive, and in a more esoteric way, the human will. It also encompassed the seventh sphere, that which held all the others together, and the power of this seventh sphere was limited only by the ability of those who tried to use it. Where the other six spheres represented single forces, the seventh was both its own unique power and a power that comprised the other six, at the same time. It was all six, and none of them. That didn't make much sense to him, and Walina didn't explain it. She wrote that it was a paradox, a living representation of the mysterious ways in which the world worked, ways incomprehensible to mortal minds.
Because it was the magic of the world, it was limited to the world. That meant that Sorcery had no effect on things and creatures that existed outside of Sennadar's natural order. Tarrin already knew what that meant; the creatures conjured up by Wizards. They weren't of this world, they were brought in from somewhere else. Sorcery existed in a balance between the other four orders of magic, where each was checked by another's power, and itself held yet another in balance. Walina explained that there were no physical or magical rules for why this was the case, only that it had to be something set forth by the Elder Gods, the ten gods of creation who represented the primal forces of the universe. Sorcerers could disrupt the magical spells of Wizards and Priests by cutting them off from the Weave, for the magic they utilized had to travel through the Weave to reach them, despite the fact that it originated from a place not of the Weave. Sorcerers could also create Illusions, something which only they could do. Sorcerers, in turn, could be choked off from the Weave by Druids, who had the power to alter nature itself, and the Weave was a natural part of the world. Wizards could Conjure creatures from beyond Sennadar, and had the most versatile type of magic. There were thousands of researched magical spells for use by the Wizards, waiting to be learned and used by them. And since Arcane magic, the magic of the Wizards, was a learned skill and not a natural ability, anyone with sufficient intelligence could learn its secrets. This made the Wizard both the most common form of magic-user, and the most versatile. Priests could perform true healing and cure diseases, something that Sorcerers couldn't even come close to matching, and they could disrupt Druidic magic by using their power to call on their patron God to isolate the Druid from the power of nature which was at his command. A Sorcerer's healing was a very limited and crude form of healing when compared to the granted power of the priest. There was a bit of overlapping. Both Sorcerers and Priests had healing capability, and Wizards could casts spells called phantasms that made people believe that something was real when it was not, which was a shortcut to the power of Illusion. And though only Wizards could conjure beings from outside the world, which were the most powerful of creatures, all four orders of magic had the capability to summon types of beings and creatures particular to their orders. Priests could summon forth spiritual forces called Avatars which were minor physical manifestations of the God's power in the world, and therefore would help the priest, and the priests of the twin gods of death, Dakki and Dakku, could speak to the souls of the dead to gain information. Both Sorcerers and Druids had the power to call forth beings called Elementals, creatures comprised entirely of one of the four elements that existed in nature. They would obey Druids without question, but they did not like Sorcerers, and would resist any orders given to them by a calling Sorcerer. Druids could also directly summon forth beings of nature to act in the defense of the Druid. Tarrin himself fell into that category; if a Druid made such a summons, and he was in range to hear the call, he would be compelled magically to respond. Tarrin was human-born, but Were-cats were Were, and all Were were creatures of the land.
Sorcery was the only order where magic was not permanent for the most part. Only spells woven in Ritual Sorcery, utilizing the seventh sphere, were truly permanent weaves, and they usually tended to be Wards and the enchantment of mundane objects with magical capabilities. But, on the other side of the coin, Walina wrote that Sorcery was the most powerful of all four orders, for three simple reasons. Firstly, that a Sorcerer could stop the magic of Wizards and Priests. That Druids could stop them was generally not an issue, due to the fact that Druids were an even rarer breed than Sorcerers. Secondly, that only Sorcerers could combine their power in linked circles, which magnified their power tenfold. And thirdly, because a linked circle, using High Sorcery, could directly control the weather. Not even Druids could accomplish that feat, because the weather was the most powerful natural force there was, and no one Druid had that much power. Walina wrote that some suspected that the Sorcerer's inability to create permanent weaves was a check placed on their power, but she herself considered it simply a natural function of the Weave itself. Spells woven from the Weave were not natural, and flows pulled from strands always tried to return to them, which made weaves unravel. Tarrin had to agree with that.
It seemed pretty complicated, but Walina wrote that she firmly believed that if a Sorcerer understood how all types of magic worked, it would help him or her in dealing with the magic of the Weave. Tarrin wasn't so sure about that, but everything else he'd read so far seemed to make sense, so he'd take the author at her word.
The door opened, and both of them looked up to see Keritanima almost fly into the room, then slam the door behind her and lean against it. There was a wild look in her eyes, and she had a few crumpled sheets of paper in her furred hand. Tarrin was about to say something to her, but then he realized that her obvious panting was making no sound, and that he hadn't heard her bump up against the door. She also didn't have a scent.
"Ker-" Allia began, but he cut her off with a quickly waved paw.
The door opened again, going through the Princess. Or, Tarrin realized, through her Illusion. The real Keritanima strode in calmly, shutting the door, with a very wide grin on her face.
"That was an illusion?" Allia asked in surprise.
Keritanima nodded, her eyes bright and her grin evil. "Pretty good, isn't it?" she asked brightly in Selani. As always, when she wanted to talk about something imporant, she spoke in Selani. That told Tarrin her visit wasn't entirely a social one.
"It wasn't making any sound, and it doesn't have a scent," Tarrin told her critically.
"Spoilsport," she said with a teasing smile, sitting down on the chair by the small desk. "You and me are the only two with noses that sensitive, and I didn't weave in the spell to create the sounds. I have too much trouble weaving more spells than one at a time." She pulled her hair away from her face. "But it'll do wonders driving Jervis and his men crazy. I've already sent them chasing after an image in the maze, then I just walked away wearing the illusion of a human."
"You're getting good at this," Tarrin said.
"I think I have a knack for it," she said with a shrug. "I think I may need it," she said, holding up the three pages the illusory Keritanima had been holding. "I got these from Jervis' desk."
"What are they?" Allia asked.
"Reports about me," she replied. "It seems that the katzh-dashi never said anything about training me in Sorcery. Jervis almost scared my fur off this morning, and he sent a report off almost immediately. The reply came back about an hour ago."
"That fast?"
"Priests of Kikalli are on every ship the Wikuni puts afloat, and there are two of them on the grounds," she told him. "They've developed magic that lets them talk with each other over any distance. That lets us move our ships around very precisely, and it keeps us in control of the seas. The priest sent to aid Jervis sent off the message, and the priest there at the Royal Palace relayed the response from my father."
"How did you get those?" Tarrin asked curiously. If they had been private reports, then she'd had to do something sneaky to get her paws on them.
Keritanima only grinned at him slyly. "A good magician doesn't reveal her secrets," she winked, then she smoothed out the papers and looked at them. "The first is the message Jervis sent. It tells father that, for one, I have talent for Sorcery, and that the Sorcerers haven't taught me anything other than Sorcery since I got here. My father replied with a suitable consternation," she said with a slight sniff. "My father thinks I have the mental capability of a goldfish, so for them to tell him that I have talent in Sorcery is about the same as telling him that livestock is doing navigational mathematics."
Allia chuckled, but Tarrin only gave her a calm look. "That's what you want him to think, isn't it?"
"Well, yes, but it'd be nice if he at least suspected that I wasn't a total waste of space," she said with a tightness in her voice that set off a bell in Tarrin's head. Keritanima wanted her father to find out that she was more than she appeared, but she'd die before she gave it away. She didn't want to be queen, but she also wanted her father's respect. It was quite a paradox, one he felt that even she couldn't reconcile. Keritanima's act was aimed at her sisters and enemies more than her father. After all, her father wasn't trying to kill her to get the throne. He was probably fighting off his own enemies to keep it.
"He also demanded them to send the message again, to make sure they got it correctly. After they confirmed it, he went into one of his rages. He replied that he didn't send me here to learn Sorcery, and even though he understood the need for me to learn how to control it, that I'd better be getting the education the Tower promised to give me. He told Jervis that if they didn't take me out of the Initiate and put me in normal classes, he'd drag me back home."
"That," Tarrin said after a moment, "could be a problem."
"Slightly," she grunted.
"How long do you think it's going to take for them to make that decision?" Allia asked.
"It's going to depend on how effective the Tower is at stalling," Keritanima replied. "They obviously want me in the Initiate, and they'll play their own game to keep me there. It's going to be a dance between the Crown and the Tower until one of them blinks. After that, things will definitely happen. So this means that we have to act before things get dangerous enough to slow us down."
"We're moving up?" Tarrin asked.
Keritanima nodded. "I want to go visit the cathedral in three days," she told him. "And we can't be delicate about it, either. It's going to be an old fashioned robbery, Tarrin. We're going to steal anything we can carry out of there that'll be useful to us." She put the papers on his desk. "And because that will cause a row, we can't keep it anywhere obvious. So I'd like you to steal a good waterproof tent and several chests, and try to sneak them into the courtyard inside the maze. We'll cover the chests with the tent canvas and camoflage it so anyone looking in from the top of the Tower can't see it."
"They can't see it anyway," Allia told her. "I've been to the top of the Tower, and the courtyard isn't visible from it. You can't even see the statue."
"As tall as it is, I'm surprised," Keritanima said sincerely. "I'd have thought that anyone could just look right down into it. What can you see?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing, just hedgerows," Allia replied. "It's like there isn't a courtyard."
"Allia, the courtyard is too large," Keritanima protested. "You have to be able to see it."
"Maybe not," Tarrin said cautiously.
"What?"
"Maybe they can't see it," he said.
"Tarrin, how could they miss something like that?" the Wikuni demanded.
"Maybe it doesn't want to be seen," he said after a brief hesitation. "There's something magical about that place, Kerri. I think all three of us agree to that." Both of them nodded in agreement. "So maybe the place hides itself. It's obvious that nobody knows that it's there. Or at least nobody bothers to visit it."
"You mean that someone or something went out of its way to create a place that nobody can find?"
"I found it," Tarrin said calmly. "Maybe it's just someplace that a human couldn't find. Maybe a Sorcerer used a weave from the flows of Mind that hides the place, and since I'm not human, it didn't affect me."
Keritanima gave him a very penetrating look, then she snorted. "I don't think I like where this is going, so I think I'll drop it," she told him tersely.
"Why not?"
"Alright, since you want to press it, think a minute. Allia said she couldn't see the place from the top of the Tower."
"That's right," Allia said. "I couldn't see anything."
"So, Allia isn't human," Keritanima pointed out. "So there goes that theory. I can't explain it, and I don't think I want to know how, but I'll accept that something is hiding that place."
Tarrin thought that he knew, but he wasn't sure if he should tell them. Even his friends knew his sanity was tenuous, and if he started claiming that he had spoken with the Goddess of the Sorcerers, they'd probably go running for the Keeper. And he really wouldn't blame them. He was pretty sure that she kept the courtyard hidden, but he didn't know why, and he wasn't sure why she allowed him to find it.
"Alright, but do we want to depend on that?" Tarrin asked. "My parents live in the city. I'm going to go visit them tonight. If I ask, they'll probably let us bring the booty there."
"No," Keritanima said. "The Priests may be able to track it down with magic if we hide it in the city. But I'll bet my furry tail that their magic won't penetrate the Ward surrounding the grounds, so they won't know where to look to find what we steal."
"That's a very good point," Allia agreed. "If we have to live with the Ward, we may as well use it in our favor for a change."
"Just so," Keritanima agreed with a smile.
"Well, I was going to tell you this later, but since you're here, it may as well be now," Tarrin began. "I went to the library where they hold all the real books on magic, Kerri, and your idea of researching may come up empty."
"Why?"
"Because the Ancients wrote everything down in the language of the Sha'Kar," he told her. "Nobody knows it anymore. Jula told me that the Tower already has almost everything the Ancients knew in their library, but there's nobody left that can read it."
Keritanima scratched her muzzle absently. "So they lied in the lesson where they said the Ancients took everything with them."
"Probably not," Allia said. "They very well may have. What the Tower managed to gather is probably the books that the Ancients missed. It may be everything they knew, and it was just copies of what was already here."
"True," the Wikuni agreed. "So, it's a bust?"
Tarrin nodded. "Everything of importance to the Ancients was written in Sha'Kar, I was told."
"That's not what I was after, Tarrin."
"No, but Jula's talk made it apparant that the katzh-dashi had already tried what you wanted to try," he told her. "She described the Sha'Kar from what she said were records left behind that they could read. I think that's a pretty good indication that they'd researched as much of the Ancients as they could too, because she said the Lorefinders have been trying to break the code of the Sha'Kar writing for a thousand years."
"Hmm," the Wikuni pondered, eyes dropping to the floor as her fox ears ticked reflexively. "I think you're right, brother dear," she said absently. "I didn't know about the Sha'Kar books."
"I didn't either. I think the Tower keeps them a secret," Tarrin replied.
"That, or it's something that nobody talks about," Keritanima added. "I've noticed that there are alot of things that people don't talk about around here." She stood up. "That makes the cathedral that much more important," she announced. "More and more, it looks like almost everything we'll be able to use will be what we can take out of there."
"If there's anything in there at all," Tarrin added.
"Don't be a pessimist," Keritanima chided.
"You shouldn't pin all our hopes on a cloud," Tarrin returned.
"I'm not, believe me," she said. "If we can't find anything useful in the cathedral, then we're just going to run. We'll have to take our chances."
"You keep talking more and more about running," Allia noticed.
"That's because I have no intention of going back to Wikuna," she said bluntly. "It's either the throne or the grave for me, and the throne will lead to the grave. I have a much better chance here."
"You're Wikuni, Kerri," Tarrin said. "That makes you very easy to find."
"True, but I'm getting as far away from the sea as possible." That sounded as unnatural as one could get to Tarrin. Wikuni were born on the deck of a clipper, and to ply the seas and trade was all that their race lived for. "My father's reach shortens considerably once you lose sight of the sea. Besides, the only place we can go to escape the Tower is Allia's desert. The Selani are the only people that can protect us."
"I'll not have my father challenge the Tower until I know there's a good reason to run," Allia warned her. "You may be casual with my people, but my clan will be taking a very serious risk in harboring us if the Tower wants us badly enough. You forget, you're talking about an order that can send the weather itself to attack my people. My people can't fight the wind."
"Allia, as far as I'm concerned, we already have reason enough to run," the Wikuni replied. "It's blatantly obvious that they want something from us. They didn't bring us here just in the interests of interracial peace. They want something from us, and it must be bad, because they won't tell us what it is. You don't withhold information unless that information threatens your plans. If this task wasn't anything serious, or it wasn't dangerous, we'd have already been thoroughly prepared for it long before we took our first crack at touching the Weave." She sat back down again irritably. "I have the very strong feeling that we're being offered up like sacrificial lambs to further the Tower's goals, and I'm a girl that's learned to listen to her gut. It's saved me more times than I can conveniently count. That tells me right there how bad the Sorcerers want it. To put me in danger risks a war with my father, and no kingdom that borders the sea is insane enough to get into a war with Wikuna. And you, Allia, if your father found out that they killed you for their own ends, I have no doubt that the Selani would Call Council and pour over the Sandshield like a tidal wave of destruction."
Both Tarrin and Allia were quiet for a very long moment. Keritanima was right. If this task wasn't dangerous, they would have extensively prepared them for it. A soldier that fully understood the objectives of the mission stood a much better chance of successfully completing it. And the Tower was going to an awful risk. If Damon Eram or Allia's father found out that their daughters were being trained for a suicide mission, the destruction would reach staggering levels, because those forces would have to take Sulasia apart to get at the Tower itself. Wikuna and the Selani were two of the forces in the Known World that no nation wanted to cross, because they had a very long reach.
"I don't know about you two, but I don't want to be here when they decide to choose one of us," she told them bluntly. "I have the feeling that Tarrin will be their choice, but if he should fail, one of us would be next. I've lived too long to get killed by something that I never intended to cross paths with in the first place."
The attention of half the world is fixed directly on your shoulders, Tarrin remembered the Goddess saying. Yes, he would be their choice. But for what?
"I can't argue with your logic," Allia said finally. "So I'll have to admit that it would be a risk I would allow my father to take. And after we tell my father about what went on here, he'd certainly protect us. He did not send me here to become a pawn in the Tower's games."
"The only part I can't figure out is you," Keritanima said, pointing at Tarrin. "You're the one part that doesn't fit. And I want to know why."
"How do you mean?" he asked in confusion.
"Because how you ended up here doesn't make sense," she said directly. "One thing we all share is that we're all non-human. But you started out human. That link between us falls apart when I try to figure out why the Tower brought you here."
"It was bad luck that Jesmind-"
"No," she cut him off. "You told me that Jesmind was controlled. Someone sent her after you, and I've seen you fight. You wouldn't have stood a chance against her as a human, controlled or not. She would have ripped you in half the instant she got her claws into you."
"I didn't let her get her claws into me," Tarrin flared. "I held my own long enough for Dolanna to get there and use Sorcery on her." He grabbed his left arm almost unconsciously, the arm Jesmind had bitten.
"I'll grant you that," Keritanima said. "But you said yourself that them getting you as well as us was blind luck. I don't think so now."
"Why?"
"Because, brother dear, they'll choose you," she said with penetrating eyes. "I believe in luck, but this is luck that would make Bekir herself look twice." She got up again and began to pace. "You're a black sheep, Tarrin," she began. "You ended up non-human by accident. You're not important, you're just a farmboy from a backwater frontier village."
"Well thank you very much," Tarrin said acidly.
"Brother, you mean the world to me, but I'm looking at the big picture, not my view of it," she said with a disarming smile. "You are a nobody, Tarrin. You're not important. Or you weren't important before Jesmind sank her fangs in your arm. That's when you became important. Me and Allia, we share certain commonalities. We're both royalty, and we're both non-human by birth and upbringing. You don't fit in with us. You're a human in a non-human's body. Sure, you're not human now, but you were born human, and you still try to act human. Maybe that's what makes you so important, or maybe it was indeed just raw blind luck. Either way, the Tower will use you, and they know why. I want to know too."
"That doesn't explain why you think Jesmind was sent after me," Tarrin said bluntly. Keritanima was starting to jump around, and he couldn't quite follow her line of thought. She tended to leave things out when she was talking her way through a problem, so he focused on the part he did understand.
"Because of the one thing that does link us all, Tarrin," she said. "We were born as royalty. You were born with royal blood, even if you were brought up as a country bumpkin. You're the son of a clan-chief's daughter. If you didn't know, an Ungardt clan-chief is a king. That makes you a prince. I don't think the others in your party have that distinction."
Tarrin gaped at her.
"You know what I think happened?" she said. "I think they set Jesmind loose on you to infect you, not to kill you. And then they were going to collect you up and train you to do the same thing that the Tower wants us to do, because the rumor and information I've gathered so far points to something that more than the Tower knows, something that's important enough for kingdoms to fight wars over. But you ended up in the Tower instead of with them, whoever they are, and when they realized that, they did their best to kill you. The reason that they almost specifically came after you is the same reason why I'll believe that you'll be chosen for this task. We don't come anywhere near you, Tarrin. Not in strength, fighting ability, survivability, or power in Sorcery. You're the logical choice, and that's why the ones that don't have you want to kill you so badly."
Tarrin stared at her in shock. He had no idea what to say, no idea what to do. It all rang true with an awful clarity, and there was a logic to it that he could not deny.
"But now that you're having trouble controlling your power, they'll get unpredictable," Keritanima added. "They'll bend you backwards trying to get you to do it right. And they'll want it now. Just be careful, Tarrin. As soon as they think that you can't get your power under control, the Tower is going to try to kill you. You're much too dangerous a weapon to be allowed to leave here alive, because they know that they will snap you up and try to get you to do whatever it is that they want done. So even if you can't control your power, make them believe that you can. It'll only extend your own life."
Tarrin was both awestruck and dumbfounded. Everything that she said fit in with everything that had already happened, and they were motives that explained alot of what had already happened to him. Even he had wondered at how he survived the fight with Jesmind. Keritanima could be right; maybe the collar around her neck prevented her from killing him. One of the few things he remembered about the nightmarish fight was her poised to kill, the pose that she was locked into when Dolanna wrapped her up. He had no idea if that blow would have been delivered now, because she did follow through with a blow meant to kill at the very beginning, when he'd woken up to see her trying to rip out his throat. Was she there to kill him, or to turn him Were? It was a chaotic jumble in his mind, and he struggled to remember something, anything, about the fight that would tip the scales for one side or the other. But it was a blank. He had blocked the majority of the fight from his mind, because of the intense pain he sensed he had endured both in the fight and in the subsequent transformation. Because he wasn't sure, then Keritanima's offering had some merit. It did explain the attacks, and it also explained the Goddess' cryptic remarks about his importance. But the attacks could also be explained with Jesmind being sent to kill him, and for mainly the same reasons.
Keritanima trusted her instincts. Tarrin had learned that lesson as well. He wasn't sure about all of it, but something in what Keritanima had said clicked within him. What she said made sense. He didn't know if it was right, but it made more sense than anything else he'd come up with. He had no idea how she could so fluently and quickly reach those conclusions, but it made him realize just how intelligent the complicated little Wikuni really was.
It was at that moment more than any other that he realized that his very life was being held in the slender Wikuni's manicured little paws. And that he trusted her with it explicitely.
She had literally bowled him over with her observations, and had left him speechless. Sudden rage coiled up in him at the thought that someone may have done this to him, had had Jesmind turn him Were just to make him suitable to complete some form of task. It sent him flying into the highest type of rage he could hold without losing himself to his animal instincts. How dare they destroy his life! What right did they have! If that was the case, then whoever did would pay, and pay dearly. He would have absolutely no mercy. Allia's hand came to rest on his shoulder, and that was when he realized he was actually trembling with rage. His mind whirled with possibilities, but the same icy discipline that kept him from going crazy when he found out he'd been turned Were again clamped down on his mind, forcing him to calm down and think rationally. Emotion was tossed aside, and a steely layer of cold reasoning took control of him. "Either way, Kerri, it makes one thing very clear."
"What?"
"We can't leave until we have a better understanding of what's going on," he said. "We have to know what we're up against before we try to get away from it, and as much as we can find out about what's going on. Who they are, how many there are, what they may do if we run, and how bad they want to follow us. We may need to know in order to escape."
"That's what I intend to do," she said. "I have to think about what you told me for a while. I have to make new plans. Oh, yes, Tiella bathes at the second bell, so you should go talk to her in the morning. That's what I came in here to tell you in the first place, and I'm running out of time. I'm sure that Jervis' men realize that I'm not in the maze, and they're probably looking for me."
She came over and licked the side of his cheek with her fox-like tongue, her version of a kiss, then took Allia's hand warmly. "Keep him from gnawing on the furniture, shaida," she said in an outrageous voice that broke the tension.
Allia laughed, and Tarrin chuckled ruefully. "I will do my best," Allia said in a completely insincere serious voice. "Take care, and be careful."
"I'm always careful," she said, her tail swishing back and forth as she quickly went to the door, opened it, looked both ways, then scurried out.
"That was eventful," Allia said carefully. "I think she's hit some truth, but not all of it."
"I think so too," Tarrin said in a somber voice. "I think so too."
"Well, it won't do you any good to sit in here and brood. We have an appointment, if you remember."
"Yes, I remember," he said. "We'll go as soon as it's dark."
"Good. The time with your family will do you good. This place isn't good for you, deshida. It keeps you too nervous."
"I have a good reason to be," he said, leaning back onto the bed.
"Then let's go take it out on the practice field," she said. "It's been too long since we worked out, and a little exercise will do your mind good."
"I think you're right," he agreed. "I need to find my staff. I lost it in the fight with that thing, and nobody's returned it yet."
"Someone has to have it," she said. "Let's go find it, and then we'll go onto the field."
They were two ghosts flitting through the darkness, and despite the very heavy patrolling and human presence, they passed through the Tower grounds like shadows.
Moving with absolute silence, Tarrin and Allia crept along the buildings and through the clearings with guards all around them, moving confidently and quickly between gaps in their patrols. Allia was Selani, and they had developed hiding and the ways of stealth quite beyond the human ideas of it. She proved she was everything her race was said to be by keeping up with the Were-cat as he moved on padded feet that made no sound, using his ears and nose to ferret out the position and direction of the guard patrols so they could more easily work around them. Because he had been trapped there, Tarrin knew the grounds better than most of the guards, and he knew where every nook and cranny was that would allow the Selani to hide herself from sight. Tarrin simply changed form, and used his small cat body as a disguise. At a distance, the guards couldn't tell Tarrin from any of the other cats that roamed the grounds.
– How much further?- Allia signed to him in the Selani hand code. She could understand him when he spoke in the manner of the Cat, but she couldn't reply in the same way. But it was a moot point, for her hand code was just as comprehensive as her spoken tongue. There was a handsign for almost every word in her language.
"Not too far, just past those buildings," he replied in the unspoken manner of the Cat, hunkered down in the dewing grass as they watched a ten man patrol march by with torches casting dancing shadows on a series of low buildings behind them. Some of them were wearing heavy cloaks, to hold off the autumn chill. Winter wasn't far away, Tarrin knew, and the cloudless night wasn't doing much to keep what heat was left from the cool day trapped near the ground. The first frost couldn't be but a few days off.
She made a slight whistling sound to make him look at her. -How far away is the house?-
"Now that I'm not sure of," he replied. "It's been a while since I came from there. I remember how to get there, but I was in cat form when I did it. The distances aren't the same to me, because it takes me longer to get places in this form."
– Ah. It still can't be that far away.-
"Suld's a big city, litter-mate," he said, using the cat's concept of the word sister. "But it didn't take me more than an hour to get to the Tower, so I figure that it'll take us about half an hour to find it. Alright, let's move."
Tarrin shifted back to his humanoid form, and the pair darted across a large open area, the last of them before reaching the fence, and then slipped between two low storage buildings that faced the perimeter fence. He looked to and fro, testing the air with his nose, straining to hear movement with his ears. There was no guard patrol nearby, and he thought that they had enough time to negotiate the passage through the fence.
They ran on silent feet up to the fence, and they immediately began a pre-arranged plan to get through the fence as fast as possible. Allia first reached out, to see if the Ward would prevent her from passing through it as Tarrin did the same, to show her where it was. Allia's hand passed through, where Tarrin's hand was stopped. Once they knew that, Tarrin bent down and put his paw out, and Allia stepped into it. After two silent hefts to prepare themselves, Tarrin vaulted Allia into the air, pushing her as she jumped off his driving paw. She soared up and over the fence, then landed and rolled gracefully on the paved street beyond. Tarrin pulled off his shirt quickly and tossed it down over the ward, between the bars of the fence. Whatever magic the bars of the fence held that kept others out, it didn't react to non-living things, so it did nothing to the cloth of the shirt. Tarrin changed form quickly and rooted under the tail of his Initiate shirt, then wriggled through and under the bars, squirming out of the neck on the far side of the fence as Allia took out a cloak with a deep hood from where it was tied onto her back, shook it out, then put it on. Then he changed form again, snatched up his shirt, and the pair of them sprinted off into the darkness.
They slowed down and worked the streets parallel to the fence until they crossed a street that Tarrin knew, and then Allia followed him silently as Tarrin backtracked the path he took to get from his little mother to the Tower. It hadn't been all that long ago, but his point of view was different in his base form, so it took some adjustment that slowed them down a bit. The streets were occupied, but as he thought, he didn't attract a great deal of attention. They simply took him for a Wikuni, albeit an unusual one, and that was the end of that. Allia would attract attention, were she not hiding herself in the deep folds of the long cloak and hood she was wearing.
It took him almost an hour, but he finally found the stately house behind its iron fence. In his humanoid form, he could appreciate how large and grand his little mother's house was. Tomas was a very successful merchant. "Is this it?" Allia whispered as Tarrin looked to see if anyone else was on the street.
"This is it," he confirmed, jumping up onto the top of the ornate iron fence, then reaching down and helping Allia up and over it. They worked through the almost dead garden, a garden prepared for the winter's cold, until they were at the front door. Allia knocked on it boldly as Tarrin stood off to the side, out of sight of the door. Janette was the only one that knew how he looked out of cat form, and he didn't want to startle or surprise whoever opened the door.
It was the matronly, gray-bunned maid, Nanna. "Yes, may I help you?" she asked politely as she took in the dark, mysterious stranger standing on the doorstep, hidden in the shadows of a cloak and deep cowl.
"I am looking for the Kaels," Allia said in her accented voice. "I was told that they would be here."
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you have the wrong house," she said. "This is the residence of the Kellers."
Tarrin quickly changed form, and then boldly walked out onto the porch in front of Allia. He meowed to get Nanna's attention, and the matronly woman looked down. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and then she gave out a gasp that turned into a smile. "Oh, he sent you," she said. "Yes, yes, please come in."
Allia entered in with Tarrin as he padded in through the open door. All the scents he remembered from the house were there, as well as scents of his parents and sister, and it washed a wave of nostalgia and misty memory over him. In many ways, the house and the people in it were family to him. His real parents, and the adopted family that had taken a nearly insane Tarrin and, with love and attention and giving him a quiet place to work through his problems, returned him to a balance with himself. Janette was only a little girl, but she held a place in his heart that only his mother, Dolanna, and Jesmind shared. He would kill for Janette, just as quickly as he would give his life to protect her. "Allia, tell her I'm going to change, so she doesn't get frightened."
"Madam, he's going to change. He doesn't want you to be frightened."
"Let me close the door," she said, shutting the door and throwing two heavy bolts. "He won't frighten me, my dear. I've already been told about him."
Tarrin returned to his humanoid form easily, and Nanna gave him an appraising look that almost made him feel uncomfortable. "I must say, you're very, large," she said with a charming smile. "I don't see how you fit yourself into such a little body."
"Magic," Tarrin said with a shrug. "I've missed you, Nanna. How have you been?"
"Things have been slow," she sighed. "Janette moped around for a while, at least until Janine got her another cat. I'm afraid that Socks isn't half as obedient as you were."
Tarrin laughed. "I'll have a talk with him," he promised. "Was there any trouble with my family?"
"Janine was a bit put out, but you know how she is," Nanna said with a wink. "But now she has two little girls to turn into little ladies, and she gets along rather well with your mother. Tomas and your father act like they've been drinking buddies for fifty years."
"I knew that they'd take a liking to my family," Tarrin said, with a relief in his voice that belied his words. "I'm just sorry I had to send them here, but I couldn't think of anywhere else safe."
"It's alright, Tarrin," Nanna told him. "Tomas and Janine wouldn't turn them away, though Janine would complain about it a while. They're very good people." Nanna suddenly blushed. "And all that time, I thought you were a cat. I do hope that you'll be discreet?"
Nanna had a habit of talking to herself, and the things she said when she thought she was alone were very private. He fully understood why she blushed. "And what would I have to be discreet about, Nanna?" he asked in a direct voice.
She chuckled. "You're such a good boy," she said, reaching up and patting his cheek. "And this is Allia?"
"I see my parents talk," Tarrin said ruefully. "Allia, this is Nanna."
"A pleasure," she said, removing her hood, then unbuckling the brass buckle that held the cloak on her shoulders. She reached out her slender four-fingered hand confidently, and Nanna took it.
"Such a lovely young woman," Nanna said with a smile. "I've heard quite a bit about you, Allia. Tarrin's mother thinks of you as sent by the gods."
"No, I am not quite as important as that," Allia said with a rueful smile.
"Nanna, who's at the door?" Tomas' voice called, and he appeared beyond the entrance foyer. He looked just fine, much to Tarrin's relief, and he gave out a laugh and a broad smile when he recognized the visitors for what they were. "Well, look who drug in the cat," he said with a broad smile. "It's strange to see you that way, Shadow."
"Tarrin," he corrected with a grin, going over and taking Tomas' hand fondly. "I hope you don't mind that I sent my family here, Tomas. But I didn't know of anywhere else safe."
"They had to explain a bit as to how they knew who we were, but once we found out all the details, we were happy to accept them," Tomas assured him. "I've already made a few business deals with your father," he said slyly. "Do you know how much his apple brandy fetches in Suld? Not to mention his arrows."
Tarrin laughed. "You are a merchant to the core, Tomas," he said.
"Thank you," he winked. "And this must be Allia," he said, looking at the beautiful Selani.
Tarrin nodded. "Allia, this is Tomas, Janette's father," Tarrin introduced. "Tomas, this is Allia, my sister."
"I'll assume that the relationship isn't natural," Tomas said with a smile as he accepted Allia's hand.
"We were not born siblings, but we are in every other sense of the word," Allia said calmly. "Tarrin is like blood to me."
"Then you'll be like blood to us," Tomas said simply. "We've all but adopted Tarrin's family, and there's always room for one more at our table."
"You are most generous, Tomas," Allia said.
"What's the use of having money if you can't use it?" Tomas smiled. "Come, I know quite a few people who will be overjoyed to see you. They're in the parlor. Nanna, why don't you forget taking care of the dishes and come join us?"
"I'm almost finished, Tomas," Nanna replied. Though she was a servant, the servants in Tomas' house were very well treated, and almost like family themselves. Nanna never used titles for them when they were alone. When they had company was another matter. "I'll be along in just a bit. You know how messy Deris is when he cooks, and how much I hate dirt."
Tomas laughed. "Don't take too long, Nanna. And make Deris help you clean up his mess."
"I always do," she said with a smile. Deris and Nanna were married, and it helped make the house seem more like a family affair. Only the butler, Dernan, had no kin or family in the house. But he was such a sweet old man that everyone treated him with respect, courtesy, and a great deal of friendship. Janette called him Grandfather. Thinking of Dernan made Tarrin realize that it wasn't him that opened the door. "Where is Dernan?" Tarrin asked suddenly.
"He's gone to Three Forks to see his family," he replied. "His sister has taken ill, and they asked him to come."
"That's quite a journey. When did he leave?"
"Five days ago. He should be two days out of Ultern by now." Three Forks was a city south of Torrian, and they could have gone that way to reach Suld. But the river at Marta's Ford was much faster. There was a road that linked Three Forks to Ultern, but that was a fifteen day journey through unclaimed forest. There wasn't so much as an inn between Ultern and Three Forks, and it was a dangerous road. Tarrin hoped that Dernan was wise enough to travel with an armed caravan.
They entered the parlor, with its large fireplace where Tarrin had spent so many nights, the plush furniture and the tasteful portraits and art decorating the walls, but it was the people inside that Tarrin fixed his attention upon. Sitting in her favorite chair was Janine, a book in her lap, and in another chair near her was his mother, Elke, who was actually doing needlepoint. Eron Kael was sitting in a large chair by the fire, and Jenna and Janette were sitting on the bare floor off the rug, playing a game with metal jacks and a ball made out of a strange springy substance that made it bounce very high.
Jenna saw him first. She gasped and jumped up, startling Janette, and charged towards him. "Tarrin!" she cried, and he knelt down and let her fling herself into his arms. Jenna was a tall girl, but she still only came up to the base of his ribcage. Tarrin picked up his sister and twirled her around, then set her down as Janette managed to stand up. Elke was already halfway to him, and Janine had put her book aside as Eron struggled to his feet.
"I see you found it," Tarrin said to his mother as she embraced him.
"Your directions were lousy," she accused, going over to hug Allia. "How are you, Allia?"
"I am very well, kaisha," she said, which was a Selani term for mother. That Allia would call Elke "mother" was a clear indication of how she felt about Tarrin's parents.
Tarrin crushed his father in a fierce hug, and Eron winced a bit. "Still tender, father?" he asked, holding Eron at arm's length.
"A bit, but at least the Sorcerers fixed my knee," he said. "I don't limp anymore."
"Well, at least they're good for something," Tarrin said with a smile. He pushed his father aside gently and knelt as Janette approached him, almost warily. Tarrin held his paw out to her tentatively, emotion rising up in him. "Little mother," he said in a voice of the most profound respect and love.
She threw herself into his arms, and it was all Tarrin could do to keep from crying. The little girl meant as much to him as his own parents or sister or Allia. He enfolded her, surrounding her in his arms the same way she would enfold him in her protective embrace, and the same feeling of peace and security swept over him at her touch as it used to do when he was her pet.
She looked up at him with teary eyes, and he was amazed at how easily she accepted him as more than just her cat. She truly was a wondrous little girl.
"They gave me a new cat, but it's just not the same," she told him in a serious voice.
"I'll have a talk with it, little mother," he promised with a gentle smile.
Nanna brought out a plate of sweetmeats, and that gave them all a focal point. Tarrin folded Janine up in a warm hug as she came over, and she just smiled at him and swatted him on the shoulder. "I almost didn't believe her, until your parents showed up," she told him in an accusing voice. "That was a mean trick to play."
"It wasn't a trick, Janine," he told her. "I needed the time here."
"Your parents explained that to us," she told him.
"I hope I'm still welcome."
"Tarrin, you may have started as the family pet, but now you're family," she assured him in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. "You're just as welcome as my own mother."
"I've heard things about your mother," Tarrin winked. "That doesn't sound very encouraging."
Janine laughed. "Well, you're as welcome as my mother to me," she corrected. "How Tomas feels about it is another matter." She looked at Allia, who was busily trying to answer a million questions thrown at her by Elke. "This is Allia?"
"Yes, she's like a sister to me, and she's been completely adopted by my family," Tarrin smiled. "My mother adores her so much she hogs time away from my father and Jenna."
"Well, I'm sure she'll fit in here just fine," she said with a smile.
After the initial disturbance was over, everyone sat back down. Tomas and Janine sat in their favorite chairs, and Eron and Elke sat on chairs to the side. Jenna and Nanna sat down on the sofa on the other side, forming a box with the fireplace. Tarrin sat cross-legged on the floor with his back to the fire, and Janette was seated firmly in his lap. His arms were around her, almost protectively, and she was playing with the tip of his tail. Allia sat in a similar position beside him. Tarrin got serious, beginning to explain to his parents and his friends what was going on in the Tower. He left out a few things, like Keritanima's ideas about what happened to him, but he did make mention of the fact that the fight with the Doomwalker had altered his powers in Sorcery.
"It was you," Tomas said suddenly. "You scared off the bandit."
Tarrin nodded. "I used Sorcery, totally by reflex, because I'd been in cat form so long that I couldn't remember quickly how to change back," he told him. "That's why the knife was hot. I burned him with fire, and he ran back out the door." He looked down at Janette. "That was when I realized that I couldn't stay here anymore," he added. "Because I was afraid that I'd accidentally hurt you, or my little mother. That's something that I'd never forgive myself for, if it happened."
"While he was gone, I understood what he had been going through," Allia continued. "They paid me so much attention that I felt very uncomfortable. Members of the Council would ask about my progress, and they began to watch me at all times. I do not see how Tarrin endured it. They were about to drive me mad."
"Well, at least now you're pretty sure that they want something from you," Eron said.
"I've known that for a while, father," Tarrin told him. "But now it's getting serious. After the fight, and the accident-" he winced and closed his eyes. The memory of that pain was still fresh in his mind, and he couldn't think about it without shuddering. "Now that I may not be any use to them, they may decide that I'm not worth the effort."
"They wouldn't do that!" Janine said in shock. "This is the Tower we're talking about! The katzh-dashi! They've never lifted a hand against anyone!"
"The Sorcerers aren't what everyone thinks they are, Janine," Tarrin told her. "They're just as ruthless as any other organization with power, and they'll use that power. If I'm no use to them, they'll get rid of me. If only to keep me out of the hands of their enemies. I'm too dangerous to be allowed to run loose."
"I think you're jumping the bow, son," Elke said. "This is all just the Wikuni's conjecture."
"Yes, but if there's one thing I know about Kerri, it's that her conjecture usually ends up being true. That's one very smart little Wikuni." He shoved the tip of his tail into Janette's face, which made her giggle and try to keep the attacking appendage away. "We're going to be trying to find out what's going on, but it may not be easy."
"The Wikuni is setting up spies and information gathering," Allia said. "She seems very adept at it."
"It's how she survived," Tarrin told her.
"Hopefully, the actions will pan out for us," Allia continued. "Without us knowing what is going on, it puts us at a serious disadvantage."
"Have you heard any rumor about the light?" Tarrin asked Tomas.
"Some, but it's been mostly just rehashing of how it looked. I only heard one rumor that it was a bad omen, but there wasn't any real support for it, and they didn't go into detail."
"Well, something's going on. It's obvious now," Tarrin said. "We're doing our best to find out what it is, without letting them know that we know."
"What can I do to help, Tarrin?" Tomas asked.
Tarrin felt tremendous warmth and trust in the willowy man now. "At the moment, nothing," he said. "But it wouldn't hurt if you always kept a copy of your shipping schedule around. Just in case."
Tomas nodded. "I have six ships now, Tarrin. They're coming in and out all the time. I'm sure that any of them could handle a bit of extra passage."
Tomas understood perfectly. That was a tremendous load off his mind. Tomas would get them out of Suld, if it came to having to run. "You have no idea how comforting that is to me," Tarrin told him.
"It's always good to keep friends comfortable," Tomas said with a smile.
"How did you manage to get time to come here, Tarrin?" Eron asked.
Allia gave Tarrin a smile, and Tarrin laughed. "They didn't," he replied. "I gave myself the time off."
"They'll throw a fit if they find out," Eron laughed.
"Let them. Right now, they need me more than I need them. That lets me really push things."
"No doubt," Janine agreed. "Well, if you're playing hookey to be here, let's not waste your time with serious conversation that depresses you. Why don't we play some King's Castle? Your mother says you're very good at it, and I'm tired of Tomas losing all our games."
"I do not!" Tomas challenged.
"Then you be partners with Elke," she replied in a sweet voice.
"I'd rather have a chance at winning, Janine," Elke said, which made Tomas snort.
"I'll show both of you. Eron, do you hear this slander?"
"Oh, no, I'm not getting into this one," Eron said. "I'd have a very hard time trying to prove you don't lose by keeping us from losing."
That made both women laugh, and Tomas gave Eron a blistering look. "Then let's play Tarok," he offered.
"I hate Tarok," Janine objected.
"Precisely."
"You're very close to sleeping in the guest room, dear," Janine said in a dangerous tone.
"Put your money where your ego is, dear," Tomas said. "King's Castle. If me and Tarrin lose, I'll sleep on the floor tonight."
"You better make sure you find enough blankets," Janine said with a competitive grin. "Let's give my husband a backache, Elke."
"I think I can enjoy a bit in Tomas' suffering," Elke said with a nasty grin.
"That's mean, Elke."
"I'm Ungardt, Tomas," she told him. "We like being mean."
"I'll play, but I have other people to visit tonight," he said, giving Janette a telling squeeze. "Before it's her bedtime."
"Then I'll play for you, Tarrin," Eron said. "You visit with Janette. I'll put Tomas on the floor for you."
"He wouldn't do that!" Tomas challenged.
"Tarrin is half Ungardt, and my son, Tomas," Elke smirked. "He likes being mean too."
"You ruined it, mother. He'd have never known I would throw the game if you wouldn't have opened your mouth."
"Traitor," Tomas said sourly at him.
Tarrin just gave him a fanged grin, and that made the ladies laugh.
"This is cheating," Tomas growled. "I'm surrounded by people who want me on the floor tonight."
"You expected sympathy from this group?" Janine asked in feigned shock. "You need to wake up, dear."
"I would like to watch," Allia said. "I have never seen this game played before."
"I'll teach you the rules, Allia," Elke told her. "It's an easy enough game, if you're paying attention to what you're doing."
"Are not all games so?" Allia said, getting up as the adults started towards the card table in the far corner of the room.
"You come too, Jenna, so you can continue the tradition of female superiority in cards," Elke said, slapping Tomas on the shoulder with enough force to send him staggering forward. Sometimes his mother didn't know her own strength.
"Well now, it seems that I've got a certain little mother to catch up with," Tarrin told Janette, tapping her on the nose with the tip of his tail and making her giggle. "I've missed hearing all about your dolls, Janette."
"You don't care about my dolls," she challenged.
"I care about everything about you, little mother," he told her, pushing her off of his lap. "Now then, there's only one way that I can really visit with you."
"How is that?"
Tarrin reached under his shirt, and withdrew the small wooden toy that had been the main plaything in their many games. He dangled it from the end of its string, giving her a gentle smile, and then handed it to her.
"Oh, Shadow wants to play," Janette said with a beaming smile.
"Shadow does indeed," he told her with a gentle, loving smile, then he hunkered down and shapeshifted into his cat form.
Laughing, Janette dropped the scratched, battered wooden figure on the floor, and Tarrin pounced on it, feeling all his cares and worries melt away in lieu the pure simple joy of the game.
To: Title EoF