The world was tearing itself apart.
Struggling to remain standing, struggling to remain conscious, Tarrin wilted against the boxes behind him, paws to his head as the awful truth struck down on him, crushed beneath a weight that he could not bear. Jasana. Jasana had been the one to turn him. His own daughter!
It was a truth he could barely comprehend. The depths of his shock and betrayal were equalled only by the love he had for that little girl and his need to protect her. It went over and over again in his mind, seeing the single white hair, realizing that the scratches in the floor came from Jasana's claws, his expanded memory allowing him to look back on the conversations he'd had with his daughter and pick out every single one that had warned him of this possibility. Of course, that Tarrin was ignorant of the depths of her determination, and even now he was stunned that she would actually do what she had done. But Jasana had proved one thing in the time he'd known her, and that was that she was capable of almost any action if it meant getting what she wanted. He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to know what she had done, but it was something he could not ignore, not deny, not forget.
The room spun around and around like a top as mental shock wreaked havoc on his physical body. How could she do it? What possessed her to risk his wrath, when she knew how he would react? How could she betray him so utterly? He couldn't understand it, he just couldn't understand it! Feeling his knees buckling, he turned and leaned over the boxes, his tail convulsing and trembling uncontrollably. How could she have done it? And why did it have to be her? If it had been anyone else, he could have justified his rage. But he could not bring himself to harm his daughter, and it meant that his righteous indignation had no release, his fury had no outlet. It only made him more furious that it was her, that one of the most dear people to him had been the one to betray his trust. That rage built up inside him, mingled with the shock and confusion and consternation and chagrin that came with finding out that his own daughter had been the one to betray him.
Claws sank into the wood as his mind, overwhelmed by incredibly powerful, intense emotion, began to lose coherence. The rage was overhwelming, and it wanted to go up and destroy the girl. But she was his daughter, and he could not bring himself to harm her. His need to lash out at her was defeated by his very powerful instinct to protect her, and the frustration of being unable to satisfy his dark need was like an infection in his mind, festering and consuming rational thought, a rusted nail driving into his brain and leaving nothing but pestilence in its wake. Claws sank deeper and deeper into the wood as his fingers clenched, as a buzzing between his ears made it harder and harder to think, as his vision seemed to fade and become hazed. All rational thought seemed to flee from the fury building inside him, fury at Jasana, fury at his frustration, rage caused by knowing that one of the people he loved most dearly in the world had done such a terrible thing to him. Jasana had done the unforgivable, but he could not pass judgement on her. Her position as his daughter both made him even more furious at her for her betrayal, but also protected her from his retaliation. It was a trap, a deadly cycle that only caused his fury to build higher and higher.
Like the snapping of a twig, Tarrin's rational mind lost control, and it succumbed to the rage. Eyes exploding into the green aura that so clearly marked his anger, unholy beacons of pure evil, Tarrin threw himself into his rage. Claws crushed wood beneath them, pierced them, and the Were-cat was suddenly overwhelmed by an overpowering, almost mindless need to destroy. If he could not destroy the one responsible for the rage, then he would destroy everything else.
With an animalistic roar, Tarrin hefted up the wooden crate caught in his claws, lifted it over his head, and then hurled it at the wall with every bit of strength he could muster. It struck the wooden wall with such incredible force that the stones of the wall were actually buckled by the impact, and the wooden crate literally exploded into tiny shards that flew all over the room, with enough velocity to drive into the Were-cat's chest and arms and become lodged, like huge splinters. The pain barely registered on the Were-cat as he clasped his paws together and smashed them down on the crate that had been below the first, sending wood and pieces of old crystal that had been within it flying in every direction.
It was a rage unlike any other he had ever experienced, and even the Cat within understood it, in some deep, instinctive manner. There was no thought, absolutely no thought, only the burning, blinding, utter and complete rage, complete fury, almost pristine in its elemental purity. Fury destroyed thought, rage swallowed up memory and experience, transforming the dual mind of the Were-cat into nothing more than a murderous machine reacting only to stimulus, unable to even think in the submerged manner in which it usually did when operating in a rage. There was no thought, no thought at all, only driving, insane fury and an overwhemling compulsion to destroy. And since memory and experience were locked away by the rage, the unthinking mind could not reach out and smash things with Sorcery, which would have been its first response had it been in a normal enraged state. The unthinking mind could only lash out physically, could only satisfy the need to destroy with claws and fists and feet and teeth.
"Goddess!" Jenna called in shock as they scrambled to protect themselves from the flying shrapnel. "He's lost it! Everyone get out now!"
On hearing the voices, the Were-cat turned around and found himself facing four females. In his fury, he could not recognize any of them, they were all but red-tinged figures, objects to destroy, things to kill. With a snarling, hissing roar of challenge, the Were-cat dropped into a deep slouch, paws wide, ready to kill these unknown figures. Two of them backpedalled furiously, one stood stock still, but the last drew two weapons from beneath a baggy garment and brandished them at him. "Go!" that one shouted, though in his current state, the Were-cat could not understand the meaning of the sound. "I will keep his attention!"
The Were-cat lunged at that armed figure, but even in his rage, the Were-cat was honestly taken aback by the lightning speed of this adversary. With such grace and quickness that seemed impossible, the figure danced to the side of him, and he barely registered feeling a sword slice into his side, but felt no pain. The Were-cat, beyond such concepts of fencing and strategy, mindlessly flailed at the figure, but its speed and reaction to his blows were so complete that he may as well have been trying to catch fog in his paws. In but a heartbeat, the Were-cat was struck many times, but each wound healed over as quickly as the sword was removed. The blows only served to enrage him more, if that were even possible, and the other three figures dissolved into meaninglessness as the Were-cat focused on destroying this speedy one before him.
Jenna had never seen such a display.
She pushed Sapphire unceremoniously before her as Keritanima rushed for the door. They both fully understood what was happening. Tarrin had snapped, and now he was as much a danger to them as any Troll ever was. Allia had somehow gotten his attention, though, and she desperately wanted a single second to stop and watch her. She knew Allia was fast, but she never dreamed that any living thing could move with such blazing, absolute speed. Now, finally, she understood why her brother was so respectful of Allia's fighting ability. She was one of the few beings on this entire world that Tarrin feared enough to not want to fight. Allia didn't have Tarin's strength, nor did she have his magical might. But she had speed, inhuman, unbelievable speed, and Jenna finally understood that against such speed, strength was meaningless. His strength advantage was nullified if only because he wouldn't get an opportunity to lay a hand on her.
Every bit of that speed was on display in that dank storeroom as the Selani danced, darted, weaved, and twisted around the wildly thrashing Were-cat, confusing him and frustrating him to an extreme that Jenna didn't think imaginable. Short swords struck and struck and struck again, but the magical bracers on his wrists, the very items she created for him, were now protecting him from those light slashes and stabs. Only one out of every four or five had enough power behind it to breach the invisible magic that protected him, where Allia had the opportunity to put more into the attack, and those drew blood. But those wounds healed over as fast as she could inflict them, and they were probably doing little more than making him even more angry.
"Do not push me!" Sapphire snapped in outrage, trying to dig in her feet.
"Don't argue with me right now!" Jenna said in a savage manner, the voice of a woman trying to save her own life. "We have to get away from him!"
"He is in a rage?" the dragon asked.
"Yes!" Jenna shouted in exasperation. Could it be more obvious? Did he have to wear a sign declaring his mental state? "Kerri, Allia, let's get out and trap him inside!" she shouted. "He can trash this room all he wants, but we can't let him get out into the hallways like this! He'll kill anything in his path!"
"I'll pin him to the wall!" Keritanima announced, stopping and raising her hands.
Jenna's heart seized in her chest, and she nearly felt like she was going to faint. "Kerri, no!" she shouted. If she used Sorcery, Tarrin may respond with Sorcery! And in his state, she knew that even if the three of them Circled, the chances they could stop him would be miniscule at best! "Don't use Sorcery! Don't do it!" she screamed hysterically.
"Right, right!" Keritanima shouted as she reached the door. "I forgot about that!"
"A bloody fine time to forget!" Jenna seethed as she literally dove to the floor, pulling Sapphire down with her as the furious battle raging between the Were-cat and the Selani drifted too close to them. Allia's face was a mask of intense concentration as she labored to keep the Were-cat's killing claws off of her, continuing to slash and stab at him with her lightning thrusts, using her incredible speed and agility to keep out of his clutches. Tarrin was inhumanly fast, but Allia's speed defied rational explanation, moving so quickly that her hands almost seemed to blur, the flowing of her silver hair as she moved catching the light and drawing the eyes, helping to further confound an enemy facing her.
In a rapid series of weaves and bobs, the Selani finally managed to get into a position where she could do more than jab at him. She turned and brought up her foot and kicked him dead in the face, kicked him with such incredible force that his head snapped back, and she turned a complete circle after the blow to play out her momentum. If Allia had struck a man like that, she would have broken his neck. The blow barely phased Tarrin, managing only to stagger him back a single step, but that was a lifetime to Allia. She slipped to his side, rotated her body, ducked under a swipe of Tarrin's claws, got herself behind his blow and into a position where he was vulnerable to her. And then, with a sickening spatter of blood, she drove one of her shortswords through the side of his neck. The blow was carefully measured and expertly delivered, causing the blade to shear through the bone of his neck and sever his spinal column, but not severing his major arteries or veins or cutting his throat.
It had a spectacular effect. Tarrin crumpled to the floor like a sack of meal, and he did not move. He did not even breathe. He was face down, so she couldn't see his expression, but something told her that she didn't want to see his expression. Allia held onto her sword, held it in place even as he fell, and her wild look at them told her that this was by no means over yet. "Get out, quickly!" she ordered. "If I hold his spine apart for too long, it will kill him! We must be out before he regains his movement!"
Jenna was stunned for a very short moment before self-preservation took control of her again. Incredible! Allia had defeated Tarrin in a fight, even when he was in a rage!
The three ladies did not dwell on this sudden change of events for long. Keritanima bolted out of the door, and Jenna pushed Sapphire through before her. Allia watched them get out of the room with intense concern, and then yanked her sword free and darted towards the door. She literally flew out of the room, and then Jenna and Keritanima grabbed hold of the door and slammed it closed. "We have to brace this thing!" Jenna said feverishly, pushing on it as if a horde of Trolls were pushing from the other side.. "He'll break it down like it was made of paper!"
"Back!" Sapphire shouted in a commanding voice, waving them away with one arm. The three Sorcerers scrambled out of the way just as a howl of fury vibrated the door from the other side, and Sapphire chanted in a strangely discordant language, making several very precise gestures with her hands. Jenna felt a magical force travel through the Weave into the shapechanged dragon, and then it was released from her and infused the door. The door seemed to shimmer visibly for a second, then returned to seeming normalcy.
"How did you do that, Allia?" Jenna asked breathlessly as the door shuddered as if struck by a heavy piece of furniture, but it held.
"Jesmind taught me long ago how to kill a Were-cat," she answered in a panting tone. The short fight had pushed the Selani a great deal more than she first thought. "To put Tarrin down should he become too great a danger. Done briefly, it can serve to immobilize one without doing permanent harm."
"It worked well enough," Kerri said nervously as the door shuddered again. "But now what do we do?"
"We keep him in there, no matter what it takes," she answered in a loud tone as Tarrin started roaring in frustration as he continued to pound on the door. But Sapphire's spell was holding, and he was incapable of breaking it down. "I think you really ticked him off, Allia!" Jenna remarked in a dry tone.
"He will get over it. If he even remembers it," she answered calmly, but she had a white-knuckled grip on her two swords.
Sapphire's eyes widened, and she jumped back. "We must flee now!" she said with desperate urgency.
"What's wrong?" Jenna asked.
"Do not argue! Run, you foolish bipeds!"
Jenna paled when Sapphire, a mighty dragon, turned and fled with all speed away from the door. If anything, that was a fair indication to Jenna that whatever was about to happen was not going to be good.
Within the room, the Were-cat's rage had only doubled since regenerating from the ghastly wound inflicted by the speedy foe. Humiliation was added to the volatile chaos of emotion that roared through his brain, wounded pride making his volcanic temper erupt as never before. He had recovered fully from the blow, but the moment of incapacitation gave his quarry time to escape. The door was solid, and it would not budge despite his most powerful blows, and that only frustrated the Were-cat that much more.
Drowning in a sea of fiery rage, the Were-cat was only dimly aware of a strange, awesome power that seemed attracted by his intense emotion, drawing nearer and nearer to him. He felt it hovering just on the edges of his awareness as he slammed his fists and shoulder into the door again, and again, and again, trying in vain to burst it from its hinges. His claws could do no better, for they could not penetrate the wood, no matter how hard he pushed. When he broke all the claws on his left paw trying to sink them into the wood, he reared back and kicked the door, but only managed to rebound from it. The door was like nothing the enraged mentality of the Were-cat had ever experienced before, a baffling invulnerable barrier whose very existence was a direct challenge to the Were-cat's strength and dominance. Roaring in impotent fury, the Were-cat reared back, sank his claws into the floor, and then drove his shoulder into the door and pushed. He pushed with all his might, not trying to break the door with a sharp blow, but with inexorable pressure. His fury-tinged vision seemed to blur, blood pounded behind his eyes, bones in his shoulder threatened to snap under the monstrous force that he exerted against the door, but still it would not budge. Deep furrows were dug into the floor from his scrabbling claws, trying to gain purchase, but still it would not budge. He threw his entire might against that door, a might that every living thing would respect if not fear, and still the door would not budge.
The strange power seemed to rush in on him then as he found himself faced with a problem that could not be conquered by brute force. It flowed into his mind, searched through it, searched, and joined with it. It sensed that which infuriated the Were-cat so, the immovable door, and it seemed to respond to his animalistic, base impulse, his utter need to break down the door, to destroy it, to show it that he was the stronger. That power joined with that will, and even in his fury, the Were-cat felt it flow through him from wherever it came from and take up the task that he could not accomplish alone.
The door, which had been invulnerable to his physical attacks, shattered like crystal when that unknown power struck it, struck it with raw, elemental force, unshaped energy, unrefined might. The power of the blow shattered the wall on the opposite side of the passage beyond the door as well, hurting the Were-cat's ears with the loudness of the detonation, and sending a cloud of choking dust billowing into the room. Broken and whole stone blocks were littered in the passage and the dusty storeroom that had been on the other side of the wall, some of them smoking as if on fire.
The power did not flee from him after accomplishing this task. It remained joined to him, joined to his fury, and it became a welcome tool to the furious Were-cat in his need to lay waste to all things. Stepping out into the hallway quickly, he saw the four fleeing figures, among them the one upon which his fury had become temporarily affixed. The power within responded to the sight of them, sending another blast of unmitigated power down the passageway, a wave of incredible force that shattered the walls, the ceiling, even the floor as it passed by, shrouding the passage in a dense fog of dust and flecks of stone. He couldn't see them anymore, and losing sight of them in the middle of that wave of destruction pleased the Were-cat, made him certain that the object of his attention had been destroyed.
Losing the focus of his rage, the Were-cat returned to wild, uncontrolled destruction, but instead of flailing about with his arms and body, he now flailed about with this strange power that had joined to him. Walls collapsed and shattered from the monstrous power unleashed by the enraged mind of the Were-cat, sending thunderclaps of detonation echoing in all directions. The floor, which was solid stone beneath neatly cut and arranged stones, buckled and heaved as the stone was exploded from within, showering the rubble in the destroyed passage with red-hot jags of shrapnel. The celing collapsed on the Were-cat, but the power joined to him shrugged off the tons and tons of jumbled debris, forcing it back up, then sending it flying with a surge of repelling force.
The passage was a rubble-choked ruin, and it pleased the Were-cat in a dark manner that destruction had been achieved. But he was still enraged, still in need of destroying to appease his unsatisfied lust for destruction. The passage was sealed, but the collapsed roof exposed another level above the current one, a new place to destroy. Picking himself up within the strange power joined with him, the Were-cat lifted off the floor and floated up towards that new area, a new thing to destroy.
Not even in the Battle of Suld had Jenna come so close to being killed.
Whatever Tarrin had done-it wasn't Sorcery!-it had come down the hall at them, shattering the walls, ceiling and floor, like an avalanche of invisible force that destroyed everything it touched. The four of them had just barely managed to reach a side passage, and they literally dove into it and huddled on the floor, hands over their heads as the shockwave or whatever it was continued on down the passageway, with only a small wave of force passing harmlessly over them. But then came a rain of stones and a cloud of choking dust as the walls and ceiling in the passage were ripped apart and collapsed, forcing Keritanima and Allia to scramble forward on all fours to get clear of the avalanche of smoking rubble that blocked off the passage. Jenna was hit on the head by a rather large rock, and after a moment of seeing stars and feeling her head swim, she recovered enough to realize where they were and what had just happened.
It wasn't Sorcery, so it had to be Druidic magic. That was bad in its own right, but at least it wasn't Sorcery. If he touched the Weave, he could bring the Tower down around them!
"He's going to bring the Tower down around our ears!" Keritanima said, mirroring Jenna's fears as they all got up and ran blindly down the passage, a passage whose walls were now shivering and buckling in a very unsettling manner, as smoky dust was shaken from the arched ceiling above.
"The All has touched his anger, and it's responding to it!" Sapphire shouted as they ran towards the stairs. "He will not stop until he either exhausts himself or the All tries to do something his power can't support! And that will kill him!"
"Neither of those are acceptable, Sapphire!" Jenna said in a commanding voice. "I'll either lose my brother or the Tower! How do we stop him?"
"It takes a Druid of greater power than him," she replied. "I can do it, but I don't want to face him in a confined space! We must lure him outside!"
"Why not?" Keritanima demanded.
"Because I don't relish the idea of being buried alive!" she answered honestly. "I have to subdue him, Wikuni, and I don't think this structure can withstand that!"
There was an ear-splitting BOOM, followed up almost immediately by a violent shaking of the earth beneath their feet. One of the walls behind them fell in, but it was hard to see or hear in the pall of dust and the loud rumbling of the shifting rubble and earth all around them. The shaking of the ground was enough to spill Jenna to the buckling floor, but Sapphire's curses were even louder than the echoing thunder of the explosion.
"What's happening?" Keritanima asked fearfully. "That wasn't Sorcery!"
"That fool!" Sapphire raged, then cursed for several seconds. "It is the Were-cat Druid, Triana! She's engaged Tarrin within the Tower walls! She'll kill us all!"
Despite his unmitigated fury, the Were-cat had never faced an opponent of such power, and it took him aback.
Her body literally glowing with an angry light, the unrecognizable Were-cat female squared off against him in the ruins of another shattered passageway, a passageway that she had destroyed in an attempt to gain his undivided attention. It had worked. Something about this female tickled at his memory. He knew that he should somehow know her, but his fury-stained mind could not reach through the haze to make the connection. He could only see her as an opponent, as an enemy, and her might challenged him in a way he could not ignore. The primal force in him demanded that he meet this challenge, defeat it, prove his superiority and establish dominance.
Rising up, the Were-cat male danced from pile of broken stone to pile of broken stone in a dazzling display of agility, running forward over the uneven ground with claws extended and a look of mindless brutality twisting his features. The female stood her ground, spreading her feet and opening her arms, in a twisted mockery of a mother's opening embrace. Then she brought her paws together, and it was like the air itself sought to crush him in an invisible grip, literally catching him as if he'd run headlong into an invislbe wall and dropping him ankle-deep in loose stone debris. He responded almost immediately with the power in him, using it to push back this unseen attack. The powers battled against one another, causing savage lights to erupt around the male, raking the walls with lightning as two overwhelming magical powers contended directly against one another. It was a battle of strength, a tug of war using the magic as the rope, and they seemed to be evenly matched.
But that was an illusion, and even the Cat, who was in control, understood that. Rage and emotion made it impossible for the Cat to fully draw on the memory and knowledge of the Human, a rage of truly blind proportions, a rage so intense that even the Cat was inhibited by its power, unable to fully draw on all the resources within the mind it shared with the Human that were commonly available to it. It knew that there was experience with this power in the mind, it knew that there was extensive knowledge of another form of power that it could wield against her, but all of that was locked up inside the fury, and even the Cat could not touch it. It could only respond with raw emotion, base instinct, and the power within was limited to those primal actions, joined to a mind that had degenerated into nothing but stimulus and response, coupled to an overwhelming need to destroy.
But it would not just give up. The Cat would work with what it had and prevail, as it always did.
Diverting just a tiny bit of attention, the Cat struck at the debris separating them, causing a shower of dust and small bits of rock to lash out at the female The design was to distract, not harm, but the female brushed that spray of debris aside like swatting a fly, then made a slashing motion with her other arm. Something caught him high in the side and slammed him into the debris of the rockfall to the side, then she slashed in the other direction, causing him to sail across the destroyed passage and slam into the rock on the other side. The pain was barely registered as the treatment she gave him served to make him even more indignantly furious, and it was like his mind had become fire. The power within picked up on the idea of fire, and searing flame exploded around his paws. He thrust those burning paws in the female's direction, creating a hellish blast of superheated flame to roar down the passage towards her, faster than an arrow was shot from a bow.
The female didn't flinch. She simply rose her paws, and it was as if the fire struck a solid wall, blooming out over its unseen surface, unable to reach her. The she closed her fist and raised it, and all the loose debris on the floor, surrounding him, debris she had created, suddenly lifted up from the broken floor and hovered unwavering in the air, all around him, concealing her from his view. Then, as if struck by something to propel it forward, all of the debris raced towards him, seeking to crush him just as the invisible hands had done. The force exploded out from him, catching the stones between two opposing forces, and most of them shattered into gravel from the stress. When the pressing force disappeared, the cloud of gravel exploded away from him, embedding into the rockfalls on either side of him, the floor, the ceiling, and rocketing down either side of the passageway.
The Cat started in its fury, confused. The female was gone. The stones and gravel had hidden her from his eyes, but she wasn't there now. Not even her scent remained.
The Cat felt that she had fled, though it couldn't understand why. He had not done anything to make her flee. She had no reason to run.
That lack of comprehension turned into shock when living flesh impacted him from behind. The female's arms wrapped around him as she collided with his back, sliding up and around, locking under his arms, snaking up over his shoulders, and lacing her fingers behind his head. It forced his own arms up and away from his body, removing their usefulness to him, and the sudden overwhelming pressure she put on him, driving him down towards the floor, locked both his feet to the floor. Her tail immediately sought out his own and wrapped vice-like around the end of his, seeking to keep it from hooking her legs and trying to unseat her foundation.
The Cat realized almost immediately that since he couldn't see her, he had trouble focusing the power within on her. He tried blowing her off with that power, but she used her own to brush his aside like dust, cancelling it out. That power suddenly smothered all over him, clamping down on his own power and trying to throttle it, feeling like a thick molasses that had been poured over his body and mind. That smothering power assaulted him on myriad levels, body and mind, as tendrils of her power sought to burrow through the fury imprisoning his rational mind. The Were-cat could only struggle physically against her as her power both covered over his own, making it useless to him and sought to break into his mind for some inconceivable reason.
"Stop fighting with me!" she hissed from behind, tightening her hold on him to such a degree that the pain registered to him, and he could feel the tendon and ligaments in his shoulders threatening to tear. He could feel her power starting to peel away the layers of fury that submerged his concsciousness, slicing through the desperate defenses the Were-cat tried to erect in its path. "Stop it! I don't want to hurt you, cub!"
In desperation, the Cat finally managed to reach down through the fury and touch on knowledge denied to it earlier. It reached out and made a connection to yet another form of power, the one it had used so many times before, the magic of the Weave. But, to his horror, the Cat felt the female's power slash that connection with some kind of invisible knife, and then erect a barrier between him and it that made it unreachable.
Even in his fury, the Were-cat found tremendous respect for this opponent. She was simultaneously maintaining several forms of magical pressure on him, and still had the ability to physically restrain him. She seemed capable of multiple actions all at the same time, something that was very, very hard to do. She was an extraordinary foe.
"I said stop it!" she said seethingly, and then there was something like an arrow of her power lancing into his mind. She stopped simply wearing down his defenses, she penetrated them in a fast, powerful strike, a strike that made his mind go numb and caused him to lose all the strength in his body. He was driven down to his knees, felt her pressing down on him as her myriad magical assault stripped away all his defenses, felt her magical attack drive into the heart of his mind. But once it was there, it did not seek to harm him. Instead, it freed his rational mind from the prison of his fury, returned his senses to him, reassured him with its gentle, loving presence within him. Her touch on his mind allowed him to recognize her as his adopted mother, and her touch joined their minds in a way he had never before experienced. It was a window between them, and he found he could look into her mind as easily as she could look into his. Within her mind was a crushing fear, a fear of hurting him, and a strange exhileration of using her Druidic power at its peak, as if subduing him appealed to her competetive nature. He could see beyond the moment, look in and see the towering protectiveness she had for her children, all her children, a need to nurture and defend that stemmed from the trauma she had been forced to suffer a thousand years ago, when she and the other first-born, children of the Breaking, children born radically altered from their parents, had been forced to destroy them. He could feel the pain she still carried within her over that, for she had loved her parents despite everything that had happened. Just as he absolutely would not allow another friend to be killed during the course of this mad quest, she would not permit any she called family to die. He saw faces, faces, an endless line of faces, all of them faces of those who had died, faces that had great meaning to the Were-cat matriarch. Were-cat faces, both those of the old ones and the new, faces of humans, faces of other Fae-da'Nar, faces of humans, even several faces of Wikuni. All friends, family, acquaintances, teachers, mentors, lovers. All dead. All gone now when she continued on, feelinga a strange guilt that she was the last of the oldest ones, the last to remember. It reminded him of the dreams he'd had, the dreams of where he was confronted with the endless faces of those who had died from his hands. Triana carried many scars inside, scars she did not show to the world, scars her own children did not know were there, and it made his feelings for her become that much stronger. He felt her emotions run wild when she touched on the reason he was out of control, and in that wild moment the only thing that kept her from doing the same thing he did was because her mind was anchored into his own.
Let go of the All gently, her thought mirrored into his mind, and he knew that she meant it for him. Slowly and gently.
Doing as she ordered, he slowly, carefully distanced himself from the All, using the newfound control and calmness her touch on his mind had instilled in him. Drawing from her experience with the All, he knew exactly what to do to break his connection safely. The All acted oddly when it was wielded in anger, and it required exceptional care to let go of it without it doing something while in the act of letting go.
Much to his surprise, what he was doing was something Triana had to do from time to time, and that was make a clean break from the All when her emotions would make its use unstable and dangerous.
The lock around his shoulders, pinning his arms, was released, and her arms slid down and embraced him from behind. She put her head against his shoulder, and he could feel her sympathy for him, feel the powerful love she held for him in her heart. A little dazed from the shattering of the rage and the enormity of touching her mind, a mind a thousand years old and possessed of memories and experiences both wonderful and horrible, he could only lean against her and both revel in and recoil from that touch. She had been forced to deal with him in the one state in which he never wanted anyone he loved to see, but he was glad that of all of them, it had been her. If there was anyone that would understand, it was Triana. Her hold on him also helped to hold him up. He was also tired, very tired, a weariness that was partially because of the emotional energy he'd expended in the rage, and energy he'd burned up flailing about with Druidic power. He wasn't as tired as he should have been, another indication that his powers in Druidic magic had increased, but he was still tired enough to feel it.
She was silent for a very long time, just holding onto him, as if he would return to his mindless rage the instant she released him. She also kept that strange window open between them, no longer actively rooting through his memory, but watching his emotional state with intense scrutiny, making absolutely sure that her breaking of the rage was a permanent situation. That, and he had the feeling that she was reluctant to break the contact, if only because it pleased her to hold it thus.
"I'm alright, mother," he said in a weary voice. She held him tightly for a long moment, and then finally let him go. "That was pretty clever," he complemented. "You shattered the walls just to put the bricks on the floor."
"I've had experience in this kind of thing," she remarked dryly. "It was a little more complicated given who you are, but it works more or less the same." She patted his shoulders, then stood up and helped him up. "The key of it is having you lose sight of me," she explained. "The only safe place to attack a raging Were-cat is from behind. I'm just glad you didn't think to try Sorcery until after I already had you."
"I, I think I was too angry to think about using it," he said dully, a paw to his head to try to remember. "That, and the Druidic power was already there. I never really thought of trying anything else until after it wasn't any use to me anymore."
"That's what I have to teach you to control," she said in a tired voice. "I'm, sorry, cub."
He knew exactly what she meant. "In a way, I guess I'm glad it was her," he said grimly. "If it had been anyone else, even you, I probably would have tried to kill them. Jasana's probably the only one that could do it and live."
"That doesn't excuse it," she said in a similarly grim manner. "I think a good thrashing is just the beginning of what needs to be done to put that cub in her place." She flexed her fingers in an ominous manner. "Next time, she may kill someone with her good intentions."
Tarrin realized that Triana was deadly serious. She was furious, just as angry as he was, but at least she had more control than he did. "It would be a start," he agreed. He didn't like the idea of laying such a punishment on her, but she had done something almost unspeakably wrong. No matter how good her intentions were, there was no excuse for it, and something had to be done. This was twice now that she had gone to extreme, dangerous, even reckless measures with him to get what she wanted. First she intentionally used High Sorcery to make him stay with her, and now she had turned him, despite his vociferous assertion that it was his right to choose, because it was what she wanted. Before, he had generally ignored or brushed off her manipulative ways, partially because she was very good at wheedling her parents into getting her own way. But now he saw how dangerous she could be, and it just couldn't be allowed to continue. He had never before seen a child that was willing to go to such great extremes to get her own way. It defied just the description of spoiled, it reached into an entirely new realm of selfishness that defied rational explanation.
They all knew that Jasana was a devious, cunning little manipulator, but now he had his eyes opened as to just how far she would go.
Tarrin stood up and took Triana's paw in his. He looked over at her-strange to see eye to eye with her again-and a wealth of unspoken feelings and understandings passed in his gaze. He had seen into her mind, her incredibly old, wise, and powerful mind, and he understood things a little better now. He found that he loved her even more than ever because he fully understood her deep feelings for him. He was the son she had been waiting for for five hundred years, the one child to which she could pass her wealth of knowledge of Druidic magic. He knew she loved her other children, but had always felt disappointed that of all of them, only Nikki, the youngest, showed any measurable Druidic talent. It was wasn't very strong, only a bit stronger than Thean's, and she didn't have any desire to explore it. His power was now almost as stong as hers, and she felt confident in her heart that training would bring him up to her level. He would be the keeper of Druidic secrets that only she knew, and they would not be forever lost if she happened to die. There were other Druids stronger than her in raw ability, but none of them were as old, except the dragons, and none of them had taken the risks that she'd taken in her lifetime with the power to explore its boudaries.
It surprised him to find out that his solid-minded mother was a wild gambler in her younger days. Some of the things she'd tried made him look like a timid housewife. And though she was much more cautious now than she had been, she still regularly risked death to explore the boundaries of her ability. He also knew where Jesmind got her fiery nature from. In her younger days, Triana was even wilder and more tempermental than her daughter. Some traits breed true, and Jesmind was proof of that. She'd inherited her mother's looks and her mother's temper. After a thousand years, Jesmind may be as mellow as her mother. For a temper that hot, it took a thousand years to cool it down.
She gave him a rare smile, breaking that emotionless mask that so thoroughly hid her emotions and her thoughts. "I know," she said simply. "Are you surprised by what you saw?"
"Yes," he admitted.
"Well, I wasn't," she said with a very tender look. "I knew I was right about you. The bond told me much more than what others could see, but I saw that I was right."
"About what?"
"About taking you as my son," she said simply. "You make me proud, cub."
"I take it you're not going to explain?"
She only smiled silently.
"I thought not." He looked around, then blew out his breath. "Jenna is going to kill me," he muttered.
"It can be fixed," she said dismissively. "If anything, it'll give these lazy katzh-dashi and Sha'Kar something to occupy their minds and keep them out of trouble."
"Maybe we should go find her and let her know things are alright."
"She knows," Triana said bluntly. "She'll find us. Well, let's go."
He knew exactly what she meant, and where they were going. To go punish Jasana for her actions. But first, he wanted to know how she did it. Somehow, she had stolen that blood and managed to slip it into the potion without anyone, not even Triana or Jesmind, catching her. Either she had help-which was a possibility-or she was much smarter than even he thought she was.
After crawling through a narrow choked-off rockfall, they got out into the undamaged parts of the passageways. He knew where he was now, so he led his bond-mother confidently to the main staircase, which would take them up to the apartments. He wasn't looking forward to this. Facing down people he hated was much easier than looking that little girl in the eyes and standing in the face of the storm of tears and snivelling apologies that he knew was coming. Jenna was devious, and he knew that she'd resort to playing on his affection for her to try to avoid getting punished. But her crime this time was much too grave to be smoothed over by a bit of crying and a little constructive cuddling.
One thing did gnaw a bit at him though. "How did you get behind me?" he blurted.
They stopped on the staircase. Triana, smiling in a mysterious way, stepped over to the wall. He felt it distinctly when she made contact with the All, and then she pushed her paw towards the wall.
And it passed right through!
"A trick I learned from a creature called a Phase Spider," she told him calmly, sinking her arm into the wall up to her elbow. "They're subeterranean creatures, feeding off things in the network of caves below the Skydancer mountains. They could pass through solid objects, and they used it to ambush prey and as an escape mechanism. It took me nearly ten years to learn how they did it."
Tarrin whistled as she pulled her arm free and put his paw on the stone. It was unyielding to him, as he expected it to be.
"That's a neat trick," he said appreciatively.
"It was a neat trick after I learned not to get things stuck when I ended the spell," she grunted.
"Did it hurt?" he asked with a shudder.
"You have no idea," she growled, holding up her right paw. "This is about my fiftieth paw, and I lost count of how many feet I've lost about five hundred years ago. Materializing inside solid rock is very painful."
"I can imagine," he breathed, looking at the stone wall and feeling a little pang of chilly sympathetic pain ghost through his arms.
"Just one of the things I'm going to teach you, cub," she said calmly, starting up the stairs again. "When I'm done with you, you'll wonder why you ever bothered to use Sorcery."
Tarrin chuckled reflexively at that rather bold statement, but he didn't doubt that Triana believed what she said. He followed after her, his expression turning stony as he remembered what they were about to go and do. There was no place for humor in it.
As they climbed up the stairs, Tarrin's mind raced about what was to come. The fact that they knew who did it seemed to pale now in the light of two very, very important things. How, and why. The why of it seemed rather straightforward, though. Jasana had been complaining about him not being Were, and had been carefully and quietly trying to sway him. He knew because he could look back over every single word she said, and intimate knowledge about his daughter's mannerisms, things the human Tarrin didn't understand, made things clear to him when he looked back on those conversations with opened eyes. She hadn't been more obvious because, quite honestly, she wasn't sure how to try to sway him. He could see that. She was being careful because the human Tarrin was very, very much unlike the father she knew, and in a way, that protected him from the majority of her conniving. Jasana could manipulate her parents rather easily, but the change in him had isolated him from her games, if only because she didn't know how to proceed against him. Of course, since she couldn't sway him, and didn't know enough about him to try-that, or she realized that in this case no amount of wheedling, cajoling, or pleading was going to make him change his mind-she had decided to do things without his permission, and that was what worried him the most. He wasn't sure if Jasana had the ability to plan out and execute something like this, not without anyone suspecting her. And if Triana hadn't suspected her, then nobody would. He hadn't. Not in the slightest, at any time, did he conceive that Jasana had been the one to turn him. He certainly would respect her ability to try, but not respect the idea that she would be able to execute her plan. No, in this case, Tarrin suspected that Jasana had help. That was what he wanted to know. Jasana had been the one to turn him, but she may have had a little outside help to pull it off, and she was going to tell him. Jasana would know that in this situation, telling the complete truth would make things better for everyone involved. After what she saw him do to Jesmind, and that over nothing more than bad treatment, she'd realize that if she didn't tell him who helped her, if he had to find out for himself, it would be much worse for that guilty party when he did. This was going to be the one time that Jasana wouldn't be able to worm her way out of trouble.
Before he realized where he was, they were on the floor where the apartment was. His own scent was still fresh on the floor, and he realized with some surprise that he'd only been there a short time ago. After the rage, it felt like he'd been here yesterday, or even longer. He felt drained, tired, like he'd been awake for a month, but he had too many important things to do to bother with being tired at the moment.
"How do you want to do this?" Tarrin asked as they approached the door. They could be calm and rational, or go in there and start with the punishment immediately. They could be stern and unbending or at least give Jasana a chance to defend herself.
Without saying a word, Triana reared back her fist and smashed it into the door. Though it was a big, metal-bound door, it was no match for Triana's power. The door held, admirably enough, but the latch and hinges had never been made to withstand the awesome stresses that the blow to the door put on them, and they tore like fine parchment in a child's uncaring hands.
"Alright then," he said grimly as he followed his bond-mother into the apartment. Jula and Kimmie were standing up by their seats, Mist was awake on the couch but had not moved to get up, and most importantly, Jesmind was standing at the doorway leading back to her bedroom. Jasana and Eron were sitting on the floor in the corner playing with some wooden blocks that Jenna had given them.
"Mother, that was a good door!" Jesmind protested, but that protest died away when she saw the barely contained mask of fury that contorted the matriarch's usually unemotional expression. The apprehension turned into a deep frown when she saw an equally irate Tarrin just behind her, and the fact that both of them were covered in dust, and in Tarrin's case, a little blood here and there. "What happened to you two?" she asked.
"You've been fighting!" Kimmie said in shock, looking at them. "You mean you two are the ones responsible for all that shaking?"
"JASANA!" Triana absolutely roared, pointing at the little girl with a clawed finger. "Come here right now!" She pointed to the carpeted floor immediately before her imperiously, and Tarrin realized, as did everyone in the room, that Jasana's very life hinged on her immediate and unequivocable obedience to her grandmother's command.
Soberly, her lower lip trembling as her half-brother looked at her in confusion, Jasana got up from the floor and shuffled over, very slowly, deathly afraid of what was coming, but even more afraid of what would happen if she did not obey. She stood before her grandmother, head bowed, tail drooping, and her paws clasped before her in a stance of supplication. Tarrin stepped up beside his bond-mother, staring down at the little girl, feeling that same fury begin to rise up in him again. He wanted to thrash her so badly his claws actually itched to taste her blood. She was the object of his rage, but he could not satisfy it as he so desperately wanted to do. If it were anyone but her, they would be dead by now. Anyone but Jasana.
"There is absolutely no excuse for what you have done!" Triana said in a furious tone, the mask of emotionless slipping from her face. "Do you have any idea how many laws you've broken? Do you realize that by all rights of law and custom, I should kill you right here and now?" She hunched over the little girl, looming over her like a shadow of Death herself. "Well? Answer me!"
Jasana looked up at them, her green eyes wet with tears, and they were all Tarrin could see. No matter how furious he was with her, he still could not deny that he loved her. Her punishment would be severe, but her life would never be in jeopardy. There was a pleading look in her eyes, on her face, but she flinched away into an expression of chagrin and good, honest fear when she saw her father's grim face.
Kimmie was the first to see to the heart of it. She gasped loudly and actually collapsed back into her chair by Mist's couch, her paws over her mouth and a look of sincere shock in her blue eyes.
"What are you talking about, mother?" Jesmind demanded, coming around the couch.
Triana looked up at her daughter, and the coldness in her eyes made Jesmind stop in the act of walking forward, with her foot still hovering off the floor.
"Jasana was the one that turned Tarrin!" she announced in an dark tone that was literally dripping with cold fury.
Jula paled, her tail sticking almost straight out, Mist closed her eyes and muttered several choice curses, and Jesmind just stared at her mother, still with her foot in the act of coming down onto the floor. Jasana fell to her knees and began sobbing in very loud waves, paws over her face and her tail thrashing behind her like a dying snake.
"She what?" Jesmind asked in a low, cold tone.
"She turned Tarrin," Triana seethed. "We know she took the blood that turned him."
" Jasana!" Jesmind gasped in shock, almost falling to her knees herself. "How could you do such a thing!" she demanded, then she did stagger back and sit down hard on the couch behind her.
Eron wandered over to her mother and put his little paws on her arm. "Mama, what's going on?" he asked in an innocent manner. "Why is ev'yone mad at Jas?"
"Jasana did a very bad thing, cub," Mist said in a low tone, but it was not one of disbelief. "And now she has to be punished for it."
Tarrin could see, sense, that all the animosity in the room was going to make Jasana unintelligible. All the adults were mad at her, and the very real fear of the kind of punishment that someone like Triana could hand out would be the only thing dominating her mind. He wanted answers, and he realized that that meant taking a less dramatic approach. He put a paw in front of Triana to tell her that he would handle this, then he knelt in front of his crying daughter, now bent over with her paws over her face and weeping uncontrollably. His looming over her seemed to make her come out of it a little, and she looked up at him with her heart in her eyes, a heart that was breaking. She gave out a forlorn wail and threw herself against his chest, cowering between his arms and gripping his vest with her little claws digging into his skin.
He did not comfort her, but he didn't yell at her as Triana had done either. "Look at me," he said in a level tone, a tone that demanded obedience. She sniffled and looked up into his eyes with apprehension and a little stark terror, still gripping his vest.
"Why did you do it, Jasana?" he asked in a surprisingly calm voice.
She could only blubber for a long moment, then she sniffled loudly and bowed her head, unable to hold his penetrating gaze any longer. "B-B-Because everyone was sad," she hiccupped. "Everyone was sad, and it was all because you were a h-human," she continued. "You an' Mama were fighting, an' you were mad at each other, an' you promised me we'd be a family again. I just wanted everything to be the way it was supposed to be!" she wailed in a plaintive tone, looking up at him with anguished eyes, clutching at his vest so hard that she was rending it. "B-But you're alright now, and we can all be together again!" she said in a desperate voice. "Don't be mad at Mama, Papa! It makes her so sad when you're mad at her!"
Putting a huge paw on each of her little shoulders, he pushed her out away from him. She refused to let go of his vest, trying desperately to hold onto him, tearing the leather away in her little paws. "I am very mad at you, cub," he said in that same calm voice, a voice probably more terrifying to her for its even temper than the raging outburst that would have probably been more what she would expect. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you have any idea how much it hurt me that you'd do this to me?"
"B-But you're the way you're supposed to be!" she objected tearfully, as if that explained everything. "Everything's supposed to be alright now! It's supposed to all be alright!"
"It wasn't your choice to make," he said in a seething manner that made the little girl flinch from him. "You were with me all that time, girl. You knew how I felt about it! Why did you take that away from me? Why?"
Her eyes quivered, and she started crying again, holding onto his paws, trying to get them off her shoulders so she could collapse against him, but he wouldn't let go of her. It hurt him to do this to her, but it had to be done. She had to be made to understand that if she didn't stop, she was going to do something that would be absolutely unforgivable. As if what she'd done to him wasn't unforgivable in the eyes of the law of Fae-da'Nar, but these were rather special circumstances.
"Did you once think about the consequences, girl?" he asked in a level tone. "Answer me," he ordered after a moment of listening to her sob.
"Everything was supposed to be alright," she said in a miserable tone, sniffling. "You and Mama would be happy again, and we'd be a family."
"So you didn't," he surmised. "You decided you knew what was best for everyone, and you just went and did it without ever once thinking about how it was going to make anyone else feel."
"I just wanted-"
"It's not about what you want!" he cut her off in a sharp, angry tone. "Now you're going to learn, cub, that there are consequences to the actions you take. If you'd have left things alone, they would have worked out. I would have decided to be Were again, and I'd have come home. But because you interfered, now I'm mad at your mother, and I'm so mad at you I can't even explain it to you. I am so mad at you I went into a rage and very nearly killed my own sisters, and your grandmother had to risk her own life to stop me. Because of what you did, I almost killed several people that I love as much as I love you, and if that would have happened, I would have never been able to live with myself. Because of what you did, I came this close-"he took his paw off her shoulder and held his finger and thumb the barest of spaces apart in front of her-"to destroying almost everything in my life that matters to me. And it all happened because you interfered. I want you to think about that, Jasana. I want you to really think about that, and I want you to know how close you came to losing me forever because you couldn't wait, because you didn't like things and you decided to try to make everything the way you wanted them to be. Well, you've done that, but now nothing is like you want it to be, and it very well may never be that way again. And it's all because you interfered."
Gently, the voice of the Goddess touched him in a very private, intimate manner. To keep Jasana from overhearing it. Remember, she's only a child. You're getting close to destroying her life.
I'm about done, Mother, he thought grimly. But she was right. Jasana had the mind of a six year old child, and he was treading very close to shattering the entire foundation upon which that life was set. It was time to reassure her of a few things.
"In a while, I'll get over being mad at you," he told her as she wept with her paws over her face. "You're my daughter, and I still love you very much. But you have to be punished for what you've done, Jasana. You have to learn that every act you take has consequences, no matter how much you believe what you're doing is right. And I won't be mad at your mother forever either. As soon as I get over that, I'll come home, and if I think you've learned your lesson, we'll be a family again."
She looked up at him with those beautiful green eyes, shining with tears, and her hopeless expression brightened just a little. "W-We can be a family?"
" Only if you prove to me that you've learned your lesson," he said firmly. "I'll forgive you, but only when I'm sure that you won't pull an insane stunt like this again. Do you understand?"
"I understand," she said in a little voice.
"Now you're going to answer me, and you're going to tell the whole truth. No hedging. Do you understand?" She nodded vigorously. "Did anyone help you?"
She shook her head.
"How did you find out about the blood?"
"Jula told me the story about how she became my sister."
"Did she tell you where the blood was?"
She shook her head. "Jinna Brent told me."
Jinna Brent was the Water seat, and Tarrin couldn't put any real blame on her. Odds were, she had no idea just why Jasana was asking. Jula blew out her breath when she realized that Tarrin was hunting for any possible accomplices, and there was no doubt that he would not be as gentle or forgiving with them as he had been with his daughter. "How did you get it without anyone knowing?"
"I just went down and got it when everyone was asleep," she sniffled. "Nobody ever goes down there, so all I had to do was get out of the house without Mama catching me. I thought someone may find out I stole it, so I tried to hide who took it by using magic that Aunt Jenna taught me. I hid it in my room after I took it. I knew nobody would find it there, because it didn't have any smell, and mother makes me clean my own room. She won't let any of the maids come in and do it."
"How did you get it into the potion?"
"I talked Kimmie into showing me where they were doing the magic a long time ago, before I even decided to do it," she said after a moment. "I put it in the day before you drank it. The old human was sleeping, and Aunt Kimmie was here taking a nap. I snuck out with Eron and left him in the kitchens, did it, then came back and we went down the baths with his boat."
Tarrin recalled that Jasana had turned up missing that day, and they they had been found in the baths. "Eron, did Jasana leave you in the kitchens?" he asked his son directly.
"I didn't see her go," he said in a casual manner. "Cook Golin was giving me sweetcakes."
"You and your stomach, cub," Mist growled at him, but in a loving way.
"And that's it? Nobody helped you?"
"N-No," she said.
"That doesn't sound very certain," Triana snorted.
"Well, nobody helped me," she said, looking at the floor. "But I didn't think of it myself."
"Who did?" he asked bluntly.
Jasana wouldn't look at him for a moment, then she finally did, and when she did, she looked ready to break out into tears again. "You did, Gramma," she blurted. "You and Mama and Aunt Kimmie and Aunt Mist. You were talking about ways to make Papa himself again, and when Mama said that someone should bleed on him accidentally on purpose, I remembered Jula's story about how she used Papa's blood. I promised you I wouldn't use my blood, and I couldn't get anyone else's without getting caught, so I used Papa's blood."
Tarrin levelled a very frosty stare at his bond-mother. Triana coughed delicately and gave him a helpless look. "Well, we were desperate," she said defensively. "And it was just talk. We didn't actually do it, cub."
"No, but this little eavesdropper here was alot braver than the lot of you," he replied in an icy tone.
"I wouldn't have imagined that she'd actually try it," she answered.
Tarrin realized that he'd gotten all his answers. Everything Jasana said fit in with what he already knew, and it also fit in with the way things happened as he undestood them. Despite his anger with her, he was privately very proud of her, proud that she could take an idea mentioned in passing and develop it into a marvelously well thought-out plan. If the simple fact that they used things that she had no experience in to track her down, she very well may have gotten away with it. Jasana had decided on her objective, decided on what she needed, organized things to acquire them, then executed her plan, and she did it all without anyone suspecting that she was up to no good. She was only two years old-around six or seven in human years-but already displayed remarkable intelligence and cleverness. Were it not for the fact that he was the victim of her scheme, he would have been tremendously impressed by it. He really was impressed by her, but he couldn't let her know that.
He was satisfied that that was everything he needed to know. He was confident that she had acted alone, and in his own mind, that was the end of it. The fury he'd felt before was actually starting to cool, as he heard her and understood things. He was very angry with her, but his love for his daughter had already started to nullify the blind rage he'd been experiencing, and it pulled at him a little bit to know that she would suffer through her punishment. He didn't want to see her suffer, but in this case it was an absolute necessity. If they didn't choke off this habit of hers of altering the entire world to suit herself, she was eventually going to do something for which there would neither be forgiveness nor leniency. Her turning him was a crime punishable by death, and she had to be made to understand that. It was something that just was not done, and the laws of Fae-da'Nar were explicit about it.
Taking his paw off her shoulder, he looked down at her with stern, almost cold eyes. She gazed up at him with teary eyes, her desperate fear evident on her face, as was just a glimmer of hope. "I'm not the one who's going to punish you, cub, though I'm sure you would have preferred it if I did," he told her. "Your grandmother is already chomping at the bit for it, and I'm not going to gainsay her. Besides, I think I've already punished you enough," he added thoughtfully.
Jasana threw a wild look at her furious grandmother, and it dawned on her that she wasn't going to get out this quite as easily as she was starting to think she was.
"I'm sure your mother's going to have a few things to say to you as well," he said soberly.
"Oh, you'd better believe that!" Jesmind said hotly, stalking up on them from where she'd stumbled into her seat.
"Stand in line, cub," Triana told her grimly. "I get her first."
Jasana blanched, almost unconsciously trying to sidle up to her father for protection, but he stopped her with a paw, then stood up before her. She barely came up to the middle of his thigh, and she seemed so small and defenseless. Then he reminded himself how much chaos that defenseless little child had caused.
"I'm going to leave this in your paws, mother," he told her calmly. "I'd better find Jenna and get my scolding overwith. I know she's going to let me have it over all the damage I caused. She'll probably make me fix it."
"I think she'll be happy enough you're alright," she said in a absent manner, her hot eyes fixed on Jasana.
He looked down at his child one more time, a serious, grim look, seeing her tears and fighting against them moving him to take pity on her. There could be no pity this time, or else he may lose her to her own cleverness in the future. "I'm going," he announced.
"I'm coming with you," Jula announced, moving towards him. "I, really don't want to be here for this."
"Alright," he nodded, turning his back on his sobbing child deliberately. He traded knowing looks with Triana, then padded away from her. He absently picked up the door on his way out and repaired it with a quick weave of Earth and Fire, then closed it behind him. Jasana's howls of pain started almost immediately after that, as Triana probbly put the girl over her knee, raised her tail out of the way, and proceeded to flay the skin off her backside. Tarrin considered it a necessary act. He had laid in the mental punishment, making her see just how much damage she had caused, and now her mother and grandmother were going to make her sorry she ever thought of doing it in the first place. Hopefully the combination of the terror of being punished so again and the very real threat Tarrin made to not forgive her if she ever did anything like that again would be enough for her to start thinking about the consequences of her actions before she did them.
"I really didn't want to see that," Jula said with a shudder. "I feel sorry for the cub. She only did what everyone else wanted to do, but was too afraid to try."
"I know, but if she were older, Triana would have killed her. You know the law."
"I know," she sighed. "What happened down there? The whole Tower shook."
"I was in a rage. Triana stopped me, and she did it faster than I thought she could have. I think she has experience in dealing with raging Were-cats."
"With Jesmind as her daughter, I wouldn't be surprised," Jula said with a slight smile as they reached the stairs, Jasana's howls still ringing in their ears.
"I remember every moment of it," he grunted. That was very unusual for a rage. Usually he had no memory of it initially, but the memory slowly bled into him afterwards. He remembered every minute of this one, from Allia besting him in the storeroom to laying waste to the lower levels of the Tower to the very, very short confrontation between him and Triana. "I've never been handled like that before," he admitted. "Triana must have practiced for the day she'd have to subdue me. It took her all of about half a moment." He put a paw to his head. "I was too enraged," he told her in a distant tone as they descended down the staircase. "I was so mad, so completely enraged that I couldn't even remember things I usually remember when I'm in a rage. I couldn't even use Sorcery."
"That's a good thing, father," she said with a shudder.
"I'd have to agree with you," he nodded. "I don't think that would have happened anyway, Jula. Mother was watching, and she wouldn't have allowed me to use Sorcery against her Tower. Remember, what she gives to us freely she can withhold when it's needful." He was silent a moment. "I do remember trying for Sorcery there at the end, and I think I could have used it if Triana hadn't been on me. I was shocked, daughter. I'm still shocked. Triana's a lot more powerful than I thought."
"I thought you said you couldn't remember how to use Sorcery."
"Triana had me in some kind of locking move," he told her, "and she was overwhelming me with Druidic magic. I think that shocked me out of the depths of that rage, enough for the Cat to regain access to some parts of our mind. I reached for Sorcery because Triana had taken everything else away. And she was waiting for me to try that," he admitted with a grim chuckle. "I didn't think a Druid could cut me off, but I know now I was wrong about that."
He thought back over that episode, and realized once again how much of a liability the rage could be. He'd been so furious that he didn't even try to defend himself from Allia, didn't understand the danger she posed. He just attacked her wildly, and in that wild, undisciplined flailing, Allia picked him apart and stuck her sword in his neck. He had been so enraged that he couldn't even remember how to use his magical abilities. The only reason he had Druidic magic was because the All connected with him, not the usual system where he reached into the All. And even when he had the power, he could do nothing with it than crude, elemental bashing, flailing about with the magic like it was an extra arm, using nothing but raw, unrefined eruptions of naked power. He had had no control, no finesse, none of the usual exacting precision with which he usually wielded his Druidic magic and his Sorcery both, and his fury severly limited the possible ways he could have used the All. In this case, that was a good thing, since he was too angry to get creative in his destruction, but in any other case it would be a very, very bad thing to have happen. Then with Triana, he was so enraged that he couldn't use his full power, couldn't even use the power he had at hand in a rational manner, and she beat him because of it. Tarrin was glad they'd beaten him, but that competitive part of him still objected to being bested, no matter what the contest. Besides, they were very important lessons for him, lessons in how not to act when facing a powerful foe. He'd learned long ago that rage was an asset to his opponent, not to himself, because it reduced his capacity to think rationally, and now more than ever using his magic required a great deal of rational control. Jegojah had taught him that lesson in the most bitter fashion, when his rage had caused Faalken's death. In a way, it was good to be reminded of that fact. If he was in a rage, all he could do was use heavy-handed, crude magic, relying on power. Now he knew so many spells, so many spells that could protect him or help him win a fight, but he couldn't use any of them if he was so enraged that all he wanted to do was blow things up. It was even more critical with Druidic magic, for in a fury he may try to sink a mountain into the sea or something else like that, and it would end up getting him killed. It was good that he had lost his temper inside, where the confined space also limited the available options for destruction. Since all he had around to destroy were crates and walls and ceilings and floors, he didn't try something that he wasn't capable of accomplishing, like exploding one of the buildings on the Tower grounds or something like that. The restrained nature of the underground passages were actually an asset to him that time, and their simplisitic monotony protected him from himself.
Yes, he realized, if he had lost control anywhere else, there was a very good chance he wouldn't have lived for very long.
He thanked the Goddess for small favors, and continued down the staircase with a new, sober sense of determination. He could never have that happen again. Who he was and what he could do meant that it would most likely be fatal the next time.
Jasana's howls of pain were lost to his ears now, and he was secretly glad of that. Maybe he was a doting father, but he really didn't relish the idea of seeing his child in pain. Any of them. And from the look in Triana's eyes, she was certainly feeling pain right now. Triana could be very heavy-handed when she punished someone, an extension of her dominating nature. She would beat some sense into the child, she would make her see things her way. In her own way, Triana was the best available choice to punish Jasana, for she would show no favoritism, and she would not relent until she was certain that the child had learned her lesson. Triana could be ruthless that way.
"She's that strong?" Jula asked.
Tarrin realized they were still talking, and he shook his head. "It's not her power, cub, it's how she uses it. I think at one time, she was using about six different spells on me. That means she had to be actively concentrating on each and every one. And she was physically struggling to keep me in that strange armlock, and she was using a very delicate spell designed to reach into my mind and shake my conscious mind free of the rage. That's not something I'd try if it was the only thing I was doing. She's a very powerful Druid, cub, I can't say she's not, but I don't think I'll ever see anyone in my life that's not a god that has more control over magic than Triana. I don't think even I could do what she did."
"After a thousand years, I think you'll admit you lied just now," she teased.
"Maybe, but I doubt it," he grunted. He could sense Jenna and Keritanima clearly now; they were coming up the stairs. Jenna was actively searching for him, sending faint magical pulses into the Weave in waves and looking for the responses as they made contact with Sorcerers. It was an old Weavespinner trick called sounding, something she had learned from either Spyder or the Sha'Kar. The modern katzh-dashi knew of a weaker form of the trick they used in the form of a spell, which they used to ferret out untrained Sorcerers, for they would register to the technique, albeit very faintly. Because Tarrin had such a powerful effect on the Weave, he would have the strongest response, and that would tell her exactly where he was. It was a trick that let her get around the nondetection ability in his amulet, which protected him from almost any other form of magical detection. After all, she wasn't looking for him, she was looking for the effect he had on the Weave. That was a very different thing, and it was something that the amulet did not-could not-conceal. "Here comes Jenna and Kerri."
"I can feel them. I can feel Jenna sounding for us."
"I get the feeling I'm in for a scolding," he said ruefully.
They met on the staircase, and if he were human, he would have fallen over when all three of his sisters embraced him on the uneven, dangerous staircase. They all talked at once, quickly, rashly, and he had to call loudly to interrupt them. "I'm alright!" he almost shouted, looking over them at Sapphire, who stood in a dignified manner, though her eyes told him that she wanted to run up to him and hug him too.
"What happened?" all three asked, almost simultaneously.
"Triana broke my rage, somehow," he answered, putting a paw on Jenna's shoulder. "I'll tell you thins, I've never been manhandled like that before. She knew exactly what to do."
"I felt her. I thought she was being rash, but I see she had a good plan," Sapphire said.
"Mother's experienced in handling Were-cats in a rage, Sapphire," he told her calmly. "She calmed me down before I could do any more damage. Sorry, Jenna," he said sincerely. "I hope you're not too mad."
"I understand why, brother," she told him compassionately. "I can't really be that mad. If I were in your place, I probably would have done the same thing."
"I guess I'll have to fix everything," he sighed.
"You're too important to be doing menial labor," she said firmly. "I have a whole Tower full of laborers, brother. Besides, this'll give the Sha'Kar an opportunity to train the katzh-dashi in some of their magic. There's nothing like practical training."
"I guess," he chuckled. "I'm, sorry I attacked you."
"It's no big deal, brother," Keritanima grinned. "Allia managed that."
"I see you haven't forgotten, sister," he said wryly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I do not forget," she said cooly, but she was smiling.
"The Selani was very impressive," Sapphire complemented.
"I'm just amazed that she could beat you," Jenna admitted.
Tarrin looked at her. "Sister, it was very easy for her to beat me," he told her. "When I'm like that, I can't even think. That means I can't act with any kind of plan or strategy, and I can't use any of the techniques I've learned. When I'm in a rage, I'm actually much easier to kill. That's one reason why I try very hard not to get into them."
"Oh," she said in understanding, nodding her head.
"I've never suffered a rage like that before," he said hesitantly. "I was so far gone, I couldn't even use Sorcery."
"We noticed, and you have no idea how glad we are of that," Jenna said honestly.
"Did you come from Jesmind's apartment?" Keritanima asked.
"I came from where they are," he nodded grimly. "Me and Jasana had a little chat. Right now, she's being punished by Triana and her mother. I have no doubt that it's very unpleasant."
"She needs it," Keritanima said hotly. "It's time that little brat learned the rules."
"Fine one to be calling her a brat," Tarrin teased.
"At least I knew there was a place I couldn't go," Keritanima said bluntly. "I love her like my own daughter, but I could strangle her right now."
"She is just a child, sister," Allia said in defense of her. "Were she older, she and I would be discussing this as a matter of honor," she said ominously, "but her age protects her."
Tarrin winced inwardly. That would have been a discussion only one of them survived, and he seriously doubted that it would have been Jasana.
"I know she did something terrible, but I don't want everyone to alienate her," Tarrin said imploringly. "Let's give her a little time to understand just how much trouble she's in, but don't shut her out. Remember, she is just a child. She didn't do what she did out of malice."
"True," Allia admitted.
"Sapphire?" Tarrin asked meaningfully.
She sighed. "I won't harm her, little one," she assured him. "She is your daughter, and as you said, there was no malice in her heart. Only misguided need. I can understand why she did it. I will take my own turn in her punishment," she added fiercely, "but I won't kill her, and I won't exile her from the clan."
"I'm glad to hear that, my friend," he said with a sincerely appreciative look.
"I think we can move off these stairs now," Keritanima chuckled. "Let's go find a room somewhere and sit down. And I think the others might be happy if we let them know what was going on."
"That's a good idea. I have some things to tell them anyway," Tarrin nodded.
And he did. He'd initially given himself three days in order to find out who had turned him, but that had been found out, thanks to Allia's keen eyes. Now that that was over, his mind was once again focused on his mission, and right now that mission was to hide. But just hiding wasn't going to be good enough, he realized. He needed a little more to happen in order to make things clean and take some of the pressure off Jenna, and he had a fairly good idea of how to go about that. There were too many eyes watching the Tower, and he didn't want those eyes to stay on the Tower after he left. He needed to dislodge those eyes, and an idea had already started forming in his mind. But before he could set it in stone, he needed to put it in front of the others. He'd need their help in order to pull it off.
"Jenna, talk to Dolanna, and have her assemble everyone in the courtyard," he told her, stressing that word so she'd know just which courtyard he meant. "What I have to say can't be overheard, and that's the one place on the grounds where I'm absolutely sure that it won't happen." He scratched his chin with a claw. "I think we'd better ask Darvon and Ianelle to join us. I may need their help."
Jenna nodded soberly, then put her hand on her amulet.
"Not like that. In person," he warned.
"You have some nerve ordering me around, brother," she teased with a wink.
"Would you rather I made you?" he asked bluntly.
She laughed. "No, I don't need you to beat me into doing your bidding," she grinned. "I'll go take care of it."
"Jula, go with her. It's not seemly for the Keeper to wander around undefended right now."
"As you say, father," she said immdiately, and the two of them split off at the next landing.
"Courtyard?" Sapphire asked.
"You'll see, and please don't ask," Tarrin said.
"That is a good idea," Keritanima nodded in agreement.
Tarrin looked at her. "Where is Binter?" he asked, noticing for the first time that the massive Vendari wasn't with her. He was so used to seeing him standing behind her that he had just accepted the idea of it blindly.
"Binter will let me go out with Allia," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "He trusts her to look after me, and it gives him and Sisska time to be by themselves for a while."
"I don't think you could be any safer," Tarrin nodded in agreement. "But what about Miranda?"
"She's with Azakar," she answered. "He's the other one they'll let escort us by ourselves."
"Well, we need them. Will they be hard to find?"
"Not hard at all." She touched her amulet lightly. "Binter, I need you and Sisska. Find Miranda and meet me in the kitchens." She gave Tarrin a smile. "I gave Binter an amulet, so I can talk to him when we're separated."
"Good idea," Tarrin complemented.
"I guess we will wait in the kitchens," Allia mused.
"That's fine. I find myself hungry," Sapphire announced.
They waited in the kitchens for only as long as Sapphire could manage to eat a drumstick off a roasted goose before Binter and Sisska appeared with Miranda and Azakar in tow. They looked as serious as ever, but they both did look at Tarrin a long moment when they appeared. Binter stepped up to him boldly and looked him up and down as Miranda gave him a warm hug, wrapping her hands around his chest. "I see you are well, friend Tarrin. Have you punished the guilty one?"
"In a manner of speaking," he said grimly.
"Such a crime deserves death."
"I know, but it was Jasana, Binter. I can't kill her."
Miranda whistled in surprise as Binter simply stared at Tarrin. "Were she a Vendari child, she would be killed."
"Well, I'm not Vendari," he shrugged. "I think she'll be very sorry. Triana and Jesmind are punishing her as we speak."
"Perhaps death isn't necessary," Binter said directly. "Those two could invent a punishment just as severe."
"That's kind of what I'm counting on," Tarrin said with a slight, humorless smile.
"Are you alright now?" Miranda asked. "We heard some of it, and felt the Tower shake. We realized that you were venting down in the cellars."
"That's a good description of it," he said dryly. He wasn't going to admit that he'd attacked Keritanima in front of Binter and Sisska. "Triana managed to snap me out of it."
"It's good to see you up and about, Tarrin," Azakar said to him. "I hope you're feeling well now."
"Well enough, Zak," he answered. "I've already attended to finding out who did this to me, and Jasana's getting her just desserts as we speak. So I'm going back to what I'm supposed to be doing."
"It didn't take you long to find out," Miranda said in appreciation.
"Thank them for that," Tarrin motioned at his sisters and Sapphire. "Between the three of them, they managed to find out it was Jasana after about a half an hour. Don't ever try to hide something from them," he warned with a slight smile.
"I'll keep that in mind," Miranda said with a cheeky grin.
They left the Tower grounds, and then entered the gardens and the maze. Sapphire started looking a little irritated after they'd been within the maze for about twenty minutes, but nobody would tell her where they were going. The four who had just joined them realized where they were going when they left the Tower and started towards the gardens, and they were smart enough not to say anything aloud. The courtyard at the center of the maze was still one of the Tower's most closely guarded secrets, for it held the icon of the Goddess herself, and that made it a place that the katzh-dashi would defend to the death. And defending it was much easier if nobody knew it was there.
The courtyard was exactly as he remembered it; he doubted that the Goddess would allow anything to change. The entrance was still choked off, making them squeeze into the place, and he looked at it with calm, relaxed pleasure. It was all as it should be, with the very large grassy courtyard with the white stone pathway surrounding a large marble fountain surrounded by beautiful rose bushes and stone benches. The two tier fountain was massive, and the sound of its water tinkled merrily throughout the courtyard. And at the center of the top tier, hands held out in a gesture of loving welcome, was the statue of the Goddess, the icon of the Goddess, her link to the physical world and the representation of her power. As always, the statue was nude, and was so remarkably detailed that every single hair on her head was easily discernable, even from that distance. The others knew now what that statue was, though they had not for a very long time. Not even Keritanima or Allia had known until the planning for the Battle of Suld, when Keritanima figured out the truth. It was one secret that Tarrin had been very careful to keep.
Sapphire, however, was quite a bit more observant than his other friends. She took one look at the fountain and the statue atop it and paled visibly. She gave Tarrin a wild look, but his calm, reassusing gaze and a single nod of his head told her that he knew, and that it was perfectly alright for them to be there.
"Now do you understand why nobody will eavesdrop on us here?" he asked her.
"I do," she said in a reverent voice. "I also understand why you didn't want to say anything. They don't know, do they?"
"Everyone here knows," he told her. "All my closest friends know, as does the Council. It's not the kind of thing we want advertised."
"It's quite an overwhelming presence," she admitted.
"I feel cheated," Keritanima laughed. "I never felt anything. I still don't feel anything."
"You aren't a dragon, little one," Sapphire sniffed arrogantly. "We are much more sensitive to such things than you."
He saw Keritanima draw herself up to respond with a blistering retort, but Tarrin's sudden hard stare quelled that. Aggravating Sapphire was not a good idea. Sapphire was friendly with Allia and Keritanima, but that friendliness only extended so far before she would lose patience with them. He was surprised that she would have forgotten that, since she'd spent a month and more in the dragon's company after they all discovered she was a dragon.
"We may as well get comforatable," Tarrin said. "It may take a while for Jenna to round up the others. I think a few of them won't be easy to find."
"They'll be close," Keritanima said. "We were all waiting to hear word about your condition, and after the earthquake you set loose in the basement, they'll stay where they can be found quickly."
"Good point," Tarrin acceded.
They waited perhaps a half an hour or so in relative peace, as Tarrin deflected several questions from his sisters about the rage he'd suffered and how Triana had beaten him. He didn't want to think about that right now, it was still a little raw in his mind. Miranda entertained herself with a bit of paper that she meticulously folded and refolded and folded again, until Tarrin started seeing a shape form from the folds, that of a bird. "Something the Shou ambassador taught me a few weeks ago," she said with a cheeky grin when she noticed Tarrin staring at the piece of parchment in her hands. "He calls it origami. It's quite challenging."
"Shou? I didn't know the Shou had an ambassador in Wikuna."
"They do now," Keritanima said with a frown. "They actually managed to get a ship to Wikuna, and it was carrying the ambassador. Since they went to all the trouble to get there, we allowed him to set up an embassy. So far they're the first humans to reach Wikuna without our help, and I don't like it."
"Why not?"
"Because if they can get to Wikuna, then they can get a fleet to Wikuna," she said sourly.
Tarrin snorted. "Kerri, no nation on Sennadar would dare engage the Wikuni in a naval war," he said flatly. "It's suicide. Not even the Zakkites are willing to try that. That's why they always try to ambush your ships, and they run away as soon as warships appear on the horizon."
"True, but humans are devious little suckers," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "You can't take your eyes off them for a minute, or they'll be getting into all kinds of trouble."
"Amen," Sapphire agreed in a fervent tone.
"I think I'll have the Admiralty increase the patrols in the Sea of Silks," Keritanima mused to herself. "I think we'd better keep an eye on those damned Shou. Next thing I know, there'll be Imperial dragonships showing up on the shores of Tlaztexcolta, or maybe even Sha'Kari."
"Tlaztexcolta?" Tarrin asked.
"A small continent due south of Wikuna," she replied. "An interesting people live there. They worship strange gods, they don't have any iron, and the place is literally overflowing with gold."
"Uh oh," Tarrin chuckled.
"We trade for their gold," she said defensively. "We have quite a market down there for steel tools and such, and they trade us gold, spices, some stunningly beautiful native crafts, and other things. Some of their native birds are starting to become all the rage in the noble houses. It's now a status symbol to own a parrot, because they can be taught to say words."
"They can talk?" Allia asked.
"Not like we can, but you can teach them to mimic words," she answered.
"I wonder how they do things without iron," Tarrin mused.
"They're very resourceful, brother," Keritanima said in a very complementary manner. "You'd be surprised at some of the things they've learned to do with stone and obsidian. They have cities as big as Suld, and they built it with stone blocks that are larger than a woodshed. They're geniuses at engineering and construction, and it's even more impressive when you consider the fact that they don't have iron tools and they don't extensively used wheeled transportation, because there aren't any domesticated animals like horses native to their lands. The biggest domesticated animal I know of that they have are goats, and goats aren't very good at pulling wagons. We could learn a few things from them. They're quite advanced, all things considered. Western society would consider them barbaric because of their religion and their customs, but they're actually quite civilized and very intelligent."
Tarrin mused at that for a while, trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a place with no iron, no horses, and with a culture advanced enough to build things out of blocks that weighed more than a hundred men. How did they move them without horses? He couldn't even imagine how they did it, and he became very impressed with them, despite the fact that he'd never heard of them before. They certainly sounded quite impressive.
He didn't have too long to muse about it, though, for Dolanna, Dar, Camara Tal, and surprisingly enough, Koran Tal, pushed through the choked opening and into the courtyard. Koran Tal's eyes almost immediately affixed on the statue of the Goddess, and Camara Tal had to push him from behind to get him out of the way. Almost immediately behind them were Jula and Kimmie, and a very hot-eyed Triana. Now Tarrin understood why they were trying to get out of the way, with Triana breathing down their necks. "Mother," he greeted standing up. "I didn't think you were coming."
"I'm not quite done dealing with your daughter, cub," she said in a grim tone. "Jesmind is putting her paw in right now. As soon as I'm done here, I'll go back and finish what what needs to be done."
Tarrin almost felt sorry for his daughter; in a way, he did, but he knew that it had to be done, so there was no use in having remorse over it. Triana looked at Camara Tal, and her eyebrow raised slightly. "You shouldn't be here," she announced flatly.
"I have more right to be here than you," Camara Tal replied cooly. They were old friends, and that was probably the only reason Triana didn't thrash her for her tone.
"You spend ten years trying to get pregnant, and you're going to put it all at risk now?" Triana said with a slight smile.
Camara Tal's eyes widened, and her hand went to her knotted, washboard stomach. "You mean-"
"It's only a few days along," she told her. "In nine months, you'll be gracing us all. Want to know if it's a boy or a girl?"
" No!" she said in a strangled tone. "Leave that much a surprise, at least!" she proclaimed, then she laughed helplessly. Then she threw her arms around Koran Tal and kissed him passionately.
"I say, congratulations, Camara!" Phandebrass said happily, and suddenly the Amazons were surrounded by well-wishers, congratulating her and her husband. Tarrin smiled warmly, happy for a little good news this day. Camara Tal had been adamant about having Koran Tal be the father of her children, and she had waited ten very long years before finally getting her wish. He was happy for her, but in a way, he was a little irritated with her timing. He may need Camara Tal in the time to come, and her pregnancy was going to complicate things.
"Well, it doesn't change anything," Camara Tal finally said after Kimmie gave her a warm hug. "Amazon women don't run and hide in their bedchambers when they're pregnant. I'll be with you until I'm too ungainly to be any use to you."
"Are you sure, Camara?" Tarrin asked.
"Just try and stop me," she declared.
"I hope you don't mind me joining you, then," Koran Tal said. "I won't leave her when she's pregnant. I know how crazy she is. Someone has to be around to remind her that she's got two lives to worry about."
"She'll have any number of people to hold her back," Keritanima chuckled.
"I don't need a man holding my hand!" Camara Tal snapped at her husband.
"You need someone, and if you don't forget, that's my child too," he said in a frosty tone. "And I thought we agreed that there were going to be a few changes," he reminded her in a dangerous tone, rising up and looking over at her defiantly.
"Careful, Camara," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "You're on dangerous ground."
"Stay out of it, fuzzybutt!" Camara Tal told her hotly. That made Keritanima collapse in helpless laughter, and Camara Tal looked a little sheepish afterwards. "We'll discuss this later, husband. In private," she said to him, glancing at the laughing Wikuni Queen.
"I'm sure it's going to be a lively discussion," he said icily, glaring at her a bit.
Jenna arrived a moment later with Ianelle, Darvon, and each of them had a youngster in tow. Darvon was escorted by Ulger, and Ianelle had Auli with her. Auli gave Tarrin a regretful look, but smiled and kissed him on the cheek when he greeted them. Darvon clapped him on the shoulder in his gruff manner, about as close to a show of emotion one would get from the Lord General, and Ulger shook his paw with a smile. "We hear that was you shaking up the Tower earlier today," Ulger said with a grin.
"I was a bit peeved," he said in a short manner.
"Leave it, Ulger," Darvon warned in his powerful voice. "I see you decided to return to the Were-cats," he said. "It wouldn't have been my choice, but if it's what makes you happy, then I'm glad for you." He gave Tarrin a slight smile. "I was hoping you would stay human and come over to the Knights, where you belong."
"I'm afraid they've managed to put the hooks into me a little too deeply for that to happen, my Lord General," Tarrin replied with a smile.
"One can always hope," Darvon said.
"I hope you don't mind me being here," Kimmie told him hesitantly.
"I'd feel strange if you weren't," he answered gently. He could see that he'd been right. Jesmind was trying to push Kimmie out of the way, it was all over her face. He was going to have a very long talk with her about that. "How is Mist?"
"Up and moving," she answered. "She'll be whole in about an hour or so."
"How are you?" he asked, taking her paws. Telling her that even though Jesmind didn't like it, she was still very much a part of his life.
She gave him a glorious, worshipful smile. "I'm just fine, my dear friend," she told him truthfully. "I'm just very glad to see you whole again."
"I'll step on Jesmind's neck for you."
"I can manage it, Tarrin," she smiled. "If you interfere, it's only going to make things more difficult. She'll think you're showing me favoritism. This is a female matter, love. Let us females handle it."
"Mother?"
Triana snorted and nodded. "Kimmie's handling it well enough, cub. Leave her to it."
"You're sure?"
"I'm very sure. If you put a paw in, you'll only make things messy."
"You look well, honored one," Ianelle greeted in formal Sha'Kar. "The Keeper told us what happened. All of it."
"Then I don't have to explain things to you," he replied.
She shook her head. "Are you content with it?"
"I'm content."
"Then things are well," she decided simply.
Tarrin looked around and saw that everyone was here. His sisters, Triana, Jula, and Kimmie. Triana, Dolanna, Darvon, and Ianelle. Azakar and the Vendari, Miranda and Dar, and Phandebrass. Jesmind wasn't here, but she'd have no say in what was to come, and besides, he was still mad at her. It was everyone he needed to be here. "Alright, everyone find a seat," he said in Sha'Kar, reinforcing the seriousness of things. "I have some things to say, and we have plans to make."
"Pardon me, son, but if you're going to speak that language, I'm going to need a translator," Darvon announced.
"Mother," Tarrin said absently to Triana.
"I'll take care of it, cub," she said. "Can you speak Sha'Kar?" she asked bluntly of Ulger.
"Uh, no, my Lady," he answered hesitantly.
Without saying a word, Triana put her paws on either side of Ulger's head. Tarrin clearly felt and sensed what she did, and what was more important, he realized that with a little instruction, he could do the same thing. She took some of her own knowledge, copied it, and directly implanted the copy into Ulger's mind, making sure not to put it where other memories were being stored. Ulger's knees wobbled a bit, and Triana had to hold him up. "You'll be dizzy for a while, but now you can understand," she told him in Sulasian.
"I feel like the ground is spinning," Ulger complained.
"That will pass," Triana told him gruffly. "Darvon?"
A little hesitantly, Darvon stepped up to the intimidating Were-cat matriarch and submitted to her touch. Seconds later, he too had to be held up. Azakar tended to Darvon, helping him to a seat on a stone bench as Jula helped Ulger to sit beside him.
They gathered on stone benches, and Camara Tal and Koran Tal sat on the grass with Kimmie and Auli in front of them. Tarrin stood before them like a Novice instructor, looking over his friends and associates, and feeling a momentary sensation of pride. They had come far. They had put up with him, helped him, nurtured him, and protected him for two long years. They deserved much more than what they had, and Tarrin vowed to himself to make things right with each and every one of them, to show him how much he appreciated everything they'd done for him. But that would have to come later.
"I think most of you know what happened," he began. "I was turned against my will. I already found out who did it, and that punishment is taking place as we speak."
"Who was it, son?" Darvon asked, wobbling a bit in his seat.
"It was my daughter, Jasana," he replied, which made Darvon whistle much like Miranda had done. "Her mother and grandmother are teaching her the error of her ways. It's not my place to interfere in that, because Jesmind's her mother, and in Were-cat society the males don't intefere in how the females raise the cubs. But I have every faith in my mate and mother," he added with grim satisfaction. "They'll set her straight, or she'll die resisting."
"She's already very sorry, cub," Triana told him with flat eyes.
"Needless to say, finding that out set me off. That's what all that shaking was this morning. I kind of rearranged the geography in the cellars of the Tower, but Triana stopped me before I could do anything drastic." He looked to his sisters and Sapphire. "I'm sorry about that," he said sincerely. "I hope I didn't scare you."
"We were too busy running like frightened squirrels to be scared," Jenna said with a grin.
"What possessed you to face him inside, Were-cat?" Sapphire asked.
"I have experience in dealing with raging Were-cats, dragon," she answered calmly. "I knew exactly how to go about it, and the confined spaces down there were actually exactly what I needed. If he'd been outside, it would have been much harder to subdue him."
"You'll have to show me how you did it."
"Later," she said absently.
"Now that that little thing's out of the way, it's time we got back to business," he said. "I have my memory back, and I've already decided what I have to do now. And I'm going to need everyone's help to pull it off." He started pacing back and forth. "Everyone knows I have the Firestaff, and they're probably gathering around the Tower like vultures, waiting for me to come out. If I don't come out, then they're going to come in, and I don't think we'll have much luck stopping them. They've shown that they can find ways to get in. We all knew that I had to get out of the Tower to keep the Firestaff safe, but now that we've been surrounded, it's not going to be quite as easy as riding out of the front gate."
"No doubt there," Keritanima agreed.
"I can Teleport you to any number of places, honored one, Ianelle offered.
"It's not quite that easy, Ianelle," he told her. "If I just disappear, then they'll all still be here at the Tower, and that's going to cause Jenna some serious problems. I don't want anyone here getting killed because they think I'm still hiding in here. I want them to see me leave, to keep them out of Jenna's hair, but I also don't want them on my heels every step of the way."
"That's not going to be easy," Darvon frowned.
"It's going to be very easy, at least for me," Tarrin told him grimly. "I have a plan, but it's going to be very dangerous for some people. Unfortunately, those people are you," he sighed.
"Go ahead, my brother," Allia said.
Tarrin nodded. "Everyone knows I travel with you," he began. "It's a given. Sometimes it was much easier for them to find me by looking for Keritanima or Allia, or any of the other rather unusual members of our group," he added, glancing at Binter and Sisska. "It's a given that if they can see any of you, then I can't be too far away. I'm going to use that against them. Tomorrow, everyone outside is going to see all of you and me march out of this Tower under heavy guard from the Knights, go down to the harbor, and board a Wikuni vessel and sail away. That's what they're going to see," he said sharply. He turned and looked at the statue of the Goddess, then turned back. "I won't be with you. Tomorrow, I'm taking Sarraya and Allia, and we're Teleporting to the Desert of Swirling Sands. If there's anywhere in the world where I'll be safe, it's there. Nobody would dare come in after me, and if they do, both the Selani and Fara'Nae will make them pay for every step they take."
"But you said they'd see all of us leave," Dar said in confusion.
"That's right, they will," Tarrin said, looking at him. "Remember what we did in Dayise?"
"That's brilliant!" Keritanima said with a bright look.
"Oh!" Dar said in realizaton, then he laughed. "That's a good idea!"
"Darvon, I want you to find your biggest, strongest, and hopefully one of your smartest Knights," Tarrin told him. "He's going to be me for a few days, and he's going to have to be able to act the part."
"How can he be you?"
"Dar is a master of Illusion, and Dolanna's no slouch at it herself," Tarrin told him calmly. "They used those gifts to hide us several times while we were on on the road. We're going to do it again to misdirect our foes."
"We'll need an Allia," Dar noted.
"I think Auli here can be a convincing Allia," Tarrin said, giving his whimsical friend a calm look. "She actually looks a little like her, and Auli's a very good actress. It won't take much to make her convincing."
"I think I can do it, Tarrin," she said mildly.
"Are you sure that's going to work, Tarrin?" Darvon asked dubiously.
"It works very well, Lord General," Keritanima smiled. "There's a girl in Wikuna named Kalina, that looks so much like me that we look like twins. She made it easy for me to be in two places at the same time. Kalina was very good at acting, and she had everyone absolutely convinced that she was me. Trust me, what Tarrin's proposing isn't just effective, it's damn effective. As long as Auli and your new Tarrin don't mess up, they'll have every single person in Suld thinking that we all got on a ship and sailed off towards the horizon." Keritnaima frowned. "I'd rather not be on a ship, brother. Can I Teleport us all to Wikuna after we get out to sea?"
"We'll need a little more misdirection than that, sister," Tarrin said. "When you get on that ship, I want you to sail for Dusgaard, in Ungardt, and I want you to make a show of it."
Keritanima narrowed her eyes, then she laughed brightly. Miranda too was smiling in a malicious manner. "Tarrin, you impress me," she said sincerely.
"I don't understand," Ianelle admitted.
"The Ungardt are notorious for not liking outsiders," Miranda explained to her. "Tarrin is Ungardt, and he has close kin there. If he asked them, they'd take all of us in and protect us like we were part of their clan. By having us go to Ungardt, Tarrin is putting us in a place where it will make it very hard for any spies our enemies have to keep an eye on us, and he's also making anyone that tries to follow us have to wade through a forest of axes and swords tro get there. And the Ungardt are not to be taken lightly, my dear Ianelle. They're respected as some of the toughest fighters in the world. That means that anyone that wants Tarrin has to face an army of big, strong, well-trained, and very nasty foes to get to him. It's not something that anyone would undertake without a great deal of hesitation."
"My grandfather would probably enjoy the whole thing," Tarrin agreed with a nod. "He needs to give his warriors some exercise from time to time. My grandfather also happens to be a clan-chief, Ianelle, something of a king. Anrak will protect your daughter and my friends with an army, and its no army that any sane man would want to cross."
"They sound like they enjoy violence," Ianelle sniffed.
"Moderately so, yes," Tarrin agreed bluntly. "Nothing makes an Ungardt happier than a nice little war."
"I think your grandfather will be disappointed if we don't bring him some people to kill," Miranda teased. "And his warriors may not like getting their hopes up and end up having nobody to fight."
"Anrak'll have to take that up with his kinsmen," Tarrin shrugged. "Besides, if they can't fight with outsiders, they'll just fight with each other. They do it all the time anyway." Tarrin looked at his bond-mother. "I know it's asking alot, but I need Sarraya, mother," he told her. "We work well together, and I'll need her if I'm going back to the desert."
"I can have her here by midnight," she said confidently.
"Good. Thank you."
"Why can't I go with you?" Keritanima said. "Why just Allia?"
"Because I'm Selani, sister," she answered simply. "Tarrin did not undertake the desert alone the first time. Remember, he travelled with two Selani. My brother's wise in knowing that he will need a Selani with him."
"It makes things easier, Kerri," he nodded. "I don't have to worry about Selani groups attacking me outright, and Allia's knowedge of the desert will be very useful. Besides, they're going to need you in Ungardt to maintain the misdirection. It's not going to end as soon as you get there, because we have to make everyone believe that I'm there. That's important. Besides, Var and Denai taught me enough to survive in the desert, but it's still going to be much easier on me if Allia's there."
"What dangers are there in the desert?" Darvon asked. "I've heard that it's a barren wasteland."
"Well, first off, just about everything is poisonous," Tarrin said, ticking off a finger. "Then there are the inu and kajat, and quite a few other nasty desert animals that make life there very interesting."
"What are those?"
Immediatley, Tarrin turned and wove an Illusion of a kajat, a very detailed image that appeared to the side of them. It was fifteen spans tall, with mottled brown skin, and a huge mouth full of dagger-sized teeth.
"Karas' hammer!" Darvon swore as they all gaped at the massive Illusion. "Is it really that big?"
"This is an image of a small one, Lord General," Allia said sedately. "The adults are considerably larger."
" Inu are about the height of a man, with the same general build as a kajat," Tarrin said. "But they're very fast, smart, and they hunt in packs. Even the Selani fear them."
"We respect them, brother, but we don't fear them," Allia said pointedly.
"I'd fear them," Darvon muttered honestly, staring at the Illusion.
"After we get to the desert, I'm not quite sure what we'll do," Tarrin admitted. "Probably join up with a Selani clan and simply wait until Gods' Day comes and goes. After all, it's the getting there that's important." He looked at Allia. "Maybe we'll go see Ariana. I've always wanted to show you Amyr Dimeon. I think you'd be amazed by it."
"I would like to see it," she nodded with a smile.
"So, what do you think of my idea?"
"I think it's bloody clever," Keritanima said. "You're going to give gray hair to everyone chasing us, brother."
"I think that is the general idea, Kerri," Dolanna told her with a smile.
"It has merit," Jenna said soberly, tapping her chin with a finger. "We'll be pinning down the eyes and ears of our enemies, and putting them in a position that they will not enjoy. Besides, I like the irony of it. You pretend to seek shelter with one group of dangerous people only to go take shelter with another. It's a plan inside a plan. Even if they do realize that Ungardt is just a ruse, they won't have any better luck trying to ferret you out of the desert." She looked at him. "There's just one little flaw."
"What?"
"You know Grandfather, Tarrin. He'd never believe Kerri. I''ll have to take a little trip up to Dusgaard and have a talk with Grandfather. You know how he likes to argue."
"That's true," he conceded. "Since mother and father are back in Aldreth, I guess you would need to set things straight. Think you can Teleport up?"
"I don't know how," she admitted.
"Sister, by tonight, you'll know more about Sorcery than Ianelle," he told her confidently. "I haven't told anyone this yet, but when I was turned, the memory potion was affecting me. It has several, interesting side effects. One of them is that I picked up a great deal of information from the echoes of memories in the Weave. I can weave almost any spell any Sorcerer has ever used, and Mother told me to teach them to you. I only have one day, so you'd better be very attentive."
"How did that happen?" Jenna asked in surprise.
"I'm not sure," he said. "But it did. I've also had something of an expanded memory since I woke up. I can remember absolutely every second of my entire life, even from before I was born. It's a very weird feeling," he admitted.
"I say, what an amazing turn of events!" Phandebrass said brightly. "I really must talk with you, lad, I must! I thought that there may be some unusual side effects of your turning, but I hadn't expected this! I say, why, I may be able to manufacture a new potion that enhances the ability to remember! I may make a potion that increases intelligence, I may!"
"It'll have to wait, Phandebrass," Tarrin told him bluntly. "I have too much to do today."
Phandebrass looked a little crestfallen, but said nothing.
"Mother told me that the life memory will fade, but what I learned from the Weave never will," he told them to assure them. "She said that though it was a bit hard on me, I wasn't permanently harmed by the ordeal. My memory will return to normal after a little time, except for those things I learned from the Weave."
"That's a relief," Jenna said sincerely.
Tarrin looked to Sapphire. "I know you were just waiting for me to recover, my friend," he said. "As you can see, I'm well now. What do you intend to do?"
"I intend to return home," she said calmly. "Since you are going to the desert, I guess I will leave with you tomorrow. You'll cut a great deal off of my travel time."
"You're more than welcome to come with us," he told her honestly.
"I need to get home. I have no doubt that my brood has destroyed our caves with their revelling in my absence, and I must be there to set things right."
Tarrin chuckled. "I guess young ones are young ones, no matter what species. They all seem to have this knack for upsetting parents."
"Truly," she agreed with an impish smile.
"Well, I guess that's about everything," he said. "What we need to do now is get ready to leave. And don't make a secret out of it," he told them. "We want them to know that we're leaving, remember that. Jenna, I need to start with you as soon as we can."
"I will handle the arrangements, my Keeper," Ianelle told her.
"I appreciate that," she nodded.
"I have just the Knight in mind, son," Darvon told him. "He's an overly clever young Senior Cadet that calls himself Fox. He's half Ungardt, just like you, and he's a born troublemaker. I think he can do the job nicely."
"He'll need a crash course in how I behave," Tarrin said.
"I can handle that," Keritanima told him. "Me and Dar need to go see him to tailor the Illusion to him anyway." She took on a thoughtful look. "Darvon, do the Knights still have those Trollskin gloves?"
Darvon looked at her, then laughed. "That's quite clever, your Majesty," he said. "Yes, we still have them. And if we put them on Fox, then he can have a little help convincing people he's Tarrin."
"My thoughts exactly," Keritanima nodded with a wicked little smile.
"I can help with that," Triana told them bluntly. "Bring him to me. I'll make him as tall as Tarrin, and then the Illusion will only have to change his features. I've noticed that Illusions that change height have trouble dealing with the physics of movement."
"Can you put him back, Mistress Triana?" Darvon asked.
"As easily as I grow him, I can shrink him," she said confidently. "It won't be too pleasant, but it'll work."
"That will make the Illusion much more convincing," Dar said professionally. "It's a good idea."
"I already know how Allia acts, so I think I can handle being her," Auli added. "I hear about nothing but Allia from Allyn anyway. If I didn't know her by now, I never will. And since I'm about her size, you shouldn't ahve to do anything to me to make it believable," she said quickly.
"You'll be fine as you are, girl," Triana said to her absently.
"I say, I need to make a few preparations, and break down my lab," Phandebrass said.
"I'll be staying here, Tarrin," Kimmie said. "I'm getting a bit too round to be travelling just now."
"I didn't want you to go," he told her. "I'd rather have you and our child out of harm's way from now on. I think Jula can serve well enough as the party's resident Were-cat."
"Me?" she said in surprise.
"You," he told her. "They may need our unique abilities before it's all said and done, and you're also a Weavespinner, daughter. I'd rather have that kind of power protecting my friends. Is that alright, mother?"
Triana looked to Jula. "Only for a short time," she said bluntly. "Jula is still a child."
"I know, but I don't think a couple of months alone will hurt her too much."
"I don't like it, but it's necessary," she said sourly. "I'll be stopping by to check up on you, girl, so don't think you'll be out of reach of my arm," she warned.
"Yes, Triana," Jula said obediently.
"Mist won't like it, but I'm going to have her stay here," Triana said. "It'll be easier to keep an eye on the cubs if they're together, and she can replace Jula as a babysitter."
Jula flushed a little at that, but wisely said nothing.
"If I want to get Sarraya back here by midnight, I have to start getting things done now," she announced, standing up. "It won't take me long to stretch this human, but I have a few other things to do before I can leave."
"Yes, we have much to do," Ianelle agreed. "Keeper, I'll be at your earliest convenience."
"I'll let you know when we're done," she said.
They broke up then to prepare for tomorrow. Tarrin did pause to talk lightly with them, with Dolanna and Dar and Camara and Koran Tal, answering a few questions and assuring them that he was alright. He wanted to spend more time with them, tell them all about what happened to him, but they all had too much to do now to waste time on idle chitchat. Things were starting to come to a head, and everyone knew it. When they all left the Tower tomorrow, nobody doubted that their leaving wouldn't cause shockwaves through all of Sulasia, all of the West, that could possibly lead to another war. Only this war would be fought in Ungardt, and the odds were going to be stacked most decidedly in the other direction. Tarrin wouldn't need to assemble an alliance of different peoples to stand against that. The Ungardt would use their rugged, hostile homeland as all the ally they would need to protect it.
Summers were very short that far north. Very soon now, as summer wound down into autumn, the first snows would fall, and not long afterwards the countryside would be a snow-choked quagmire, hostile to any kind of large-scale action. Ungardt weather was never very good, and all those elements would combine to make any idea of forced invasion very costly. Any attackers would be faced with two overwhelming opponents if they invaded Ungardt. The Ungardt people, and the Ungardt winter. Both were equally formidable, and equally merciless.
And if things worked as he hoped they would, they would all be bashing their heads against the proverbial rock to get to him, and he wouldn't even be there. If everything was done right, every eye in the world would be affixed to Ungardt. That meant that since he'd be in the desert, he'd be relatively safe. As if he wouldn't be safe enough. Even if he did tell everyone where he was going, he doubted they could do anything about it. The desert was even more hostile to an invading force than Ungardt, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Not over this. The Firestaff was too valuable, too precious, too dangerous to take any risk whatsoever. With Tarrin leaving, Jenna could seal the Tower to protect his mates and children, and anyone who tried would find themselves facing an army of Sorcerers and fanatically loyal Knights. Anrak Whiteaxe, his grandfather, would use every resource at his disposal to make his friends unassailable in Ungardt, and Tarrin would do the same in the desert to make the Firestaff just as unreachable.
If everything worked as he hoped, them leaving and diverting the attention of his enemies to the fortress kingdom of Ungardt would prevent them from getting any kind of hold in any one place. And if he could keep them off balance and guessing for just a few short, critical rides, then he would slip completely beyond their reach. The Firestaff would be safe in the desert, Gods' Day would come and go, and then he could finally end this madness. He would put the Firestaff somewhere safe, wherever the Goddess told him to leave it, and not worry about it for another five thousand years. He could then return to Aldreth with his mate and children, with Mist and Kimmie close by, and settle into the life of wonderfully ordinary domesiticity that he so desired.
All they needed was a little luck.
To: Title EoF