Chapter 8

        The interior of the Tower was nothing like the outside.

        After a very long, very exhausting, and rather boring ceremony of welcome carried out by Alexis and her Sorcerers, they were finally permitted to enter the amazing tree-shaped building.  Tarrin wasn't one for much ceremony, and he thought Alexis would know better, but he guessed he was wrong.  It lasted nearly an hour, and all seven Were-cats were looking decidedly unsettled by the end of it.  Alexis spoke in greeting, then she welcomed each one of them individually with a gift of a small gold pendant that was made in the shape of a shaeram.  Just as she finished greeting the last of them, and Tarrin thought that it was over, she had her assembled Sorcerers sing.  Tarrin had to admit that that part he didn't mind all that much, for Alexis had obviously made the group of her best singers.  The hundred or so Sorcerers there couldn't be the entire complement of her Tower.  After the seranade, Alexis spoke some more, blessings from the Goddess and assurances that they'd be well fed and housed until they left in the morning, by which means nobody but Alexis and her Sorcerers knew.  Then, after that, they finally managed to glare at the woman long enough to make her wrap things up and bring them inside.

        The inside of their Tower was so much like the main Tower at Suld that for a moment he thought that he had somehow been Teleported back.  The hallways parallel to the outside were just slightly curved, following the shape of the round Tower, making it impossible to see much more than twenty or thirty spans ahead.  The walls were a richly polished dark marble or granite, different from theirs, but the red carpet right in the middle of the passage and the glowglobes and the art hanging from the walls was in the exact same manner as the passages back in Suld were decorated.  Doors lined the passages, much closer together than at Suld, hinting that the rooms here were smaller, but aside from the color of the walls, it was almost exactly like home.

        That impression only counted against the building.  The katzh-dashi of Abrodar really, really irritated Tarrin.  As the group passed, they all bowed and curtsied.  This in itself wouldn't bother Tarrin, since they did have a pair of queens, the Lord General of the Knights, and Jenna in the host.  But he quickly found out that they were bowing to him.  Those damned Sha'Kar had infected the Sorcerers of Sharadar with the need to call him honored one, and that was all he heard as they moved through Alexis' Tower.  Honored one here, Honored one there, from down the halls and up the staircases, from the most richly dressed Sorcerer down the dirtiest scullion, all of them called him that, and much to his annoyance, he was the only one they addressed in that manner.  Jenna was also a sui'kun and was the One Keeper, but they didn't call her that.  They called her High Keeper or Her Grace, saving honored one for him and him alone, much to his ire.  If that wasn't bad enough, they also bowed or curtsied so deeply that he thought they were going to fall over, looking clumsy and foolish in the process.  That in itself probably wouldn't have bothered him too much, but it was the looks in their eyes that really got him agitated.  It was a look of mindless, almost thoughtless awe.  Granted, his height and unusual appearance would be enough to startle most people, and he did have something of a reputation, but it in no way justified the doe-like fawning looks that all the people in the Tower gave him.  It wasn't fear; he would have been more than content if they had looked at him with fear.  But it wasn't fear.  As a matter of fact, not only were they not afraid of him, they didn't have the sense to be afraid, no matter how much he glared or scowled or gave them the look.  It was worshipful adoration.

        Tarrin was not an object of adoration.  He was going to educate them very fast that if they wanted to gawk at him, it had better be looks of terror, not loving gazes of adulation.  All it would take would be one object lesson, but his sense of duty to the Goddess kept interfering with those wonderful violent fantasies.  These were katzh-dashi, and he wouldn't feel right ripping a few of them open for simpering at him the way they were.  This left Tarrin in a bit of a quandary.  They didn't have the sense to back off when he glared, and he wouldn't feel right about smacking them around for looking at him like that.  After all, they were Sorcerers.  He knew that the Goddess would have quite a few dark words to share with him if he did that, and she was one of the very few that Tarrin would obey.

        There was one thing he noticed about Sharadites.  They were all small.  He thought that Dolanna was petite, even diminutive, and to him, she was.  The top of her head just barely reached the base of his sternum; to the peoples of the West, she was just slightly taller than adolescent girls.  But to other Sharadites, she was only slightly shorter than the average height.  Even their males were rather short, a little over five and a half spans tall or so on the average, where the average man in the West was just shy of six spans.  This was a surprise, but he realized that just as some human strains were taller than the average, like the Ungardt and the Amazons, there were bound to be some that were smaller than the average.  It just took a little getting used to, that was all.

        It was easy to pick out the non-Sharadites in the groups because of their size.  There were many pale-skinned humans, like Sharadites, who were much taller, as well a liberal representation by what looked like Arakites, with the same swarthy skin, but with slightly narrower faces and sharper features.  Probably Godans or Nyrians, cousins of the Arakite race.  The Sha'Kar were gracefully taller than most of them, however, standing out with both their shimmering robes and their innate grace as much as the fact that their heads tended to be above everyone else's.

        At first he wasn't sure what Alexis had planned, at least as she seemed to wander around her Tower as if not sure where she wanted to take them all.  Then he actually listened to her prattle, and realized that she was giving everyone a very brief tour of her amazing Tower, only pointing out the important places, like the kitchens, the baths, the privies, and telling them how to reach the library from a staircase at which they briefly stopped.  Tarrin had been too busy giving flat looks to worshipful Sorcerers and servants to pay Alexis much attention.

        The last straw was one of their Initiates.  He was a rather weedy looking fellow with pimples on his face and a slight gap between his front teeth, who bowed to Tarrin so deeply he stumbled forward, then pushed a small book and a quill forward and asked him to sign it.  Tarrin gave the boy an incredulous look, so startled he honestly was left speechless by the request.

        "Why in the world would you want me to sign your book?" he asked after a long moment of trying to understand what the boy was after.

        The boy gaped at him, then stammered out what sounded like five apologies at once as he bowed repeatedly.  Alexis came over and put a hand on his shoulder and soothed him with a few words, explaining that it wasn't a custom of the northerners (what they called the peoples of the West), then she sent him off with a swat on his bottom.  After he was safely off, she turned and gave him a sly smile.  "It's proof he met you," she answered.  "A keepsake of the experience."

        Jasana giggled uncontrollably, and Jesmind snorted.  Tarrin gave Alexis a flat look and put his paws on his hips.  "What experience?" he said crossly.  "What earthly difference would it make if he'd ever seen me or not?"

        "Tarrin, you're a celebrity," she told him, with that same sly smile.  "That means you have your own troupe of fans."

        "Fans?" he asked in a dangerous tone.

        "Admirers," she amended.

        "Nobody in Suld acts this silly.  I'd brain them if they did."

        "Well, we don't have that innate terror of you down here that they do up there," she teased.  "You didn't rack up the exploits here that makes the Sorcerers in Suld so wary of you.  Chalk it up to lack of exposure."

        "I can fix that," he said in an ugly tone.

        "Just enjoy it," she told him with a slight chuckle.  "For the moment, you're the only thing on everyone's mind here, Tarrin."

        "It's silly," he snorted.

        "Of course it is.  They're humans, aren't they?" Triana interjected, which caused Haley to nod sagely.

        "Now now, be nice," Alexis chided.  "Triana, isn't it?"

        "Girl, you're about to learn the first rule," Triana said in an unflappable manner, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

        If Tarrin's disquiet with the situation didn't faze the Queen of Sharadar, Triana's blunt statement and the sense of aggression that suddenly emanated from her did.  The smile slid off her face and she regarded the Were-cat matron cautiously a moment.  "That would be?"

        "Gramma is always right," Jasana piped in.  "You never tell her what to do, and you always do what Gramma says, or she'll spank you."

        "I...yes.  I think I can live with that rule," Alexis said in a calm, unruffled voice, though her body language showed immediate submissiveness towards the imposing Were-cat.

        Triana managed to deflate Alexis' humor at the situation, and the tour wrapped up quickly.  She took them up near the top of the Tower and announced that the entire floor was theirs, that there were ten very richly appointed apartments on the floor, each with two bedrooms and all of them with balconies that looked out over the city.  She told them that they could refresh themselves or rest for a short while before the grand feast Alexis had prepared for them.  The problem was, none of them were really tired.  They'd only been up for a few hours, and it was already close to sunset.  They ended up all gathering in Tarrin's apartment and simply catching up, as each of them told the others what they'd been up to, and listening to a few stories.  Stories such as Dar and Tiella's ongoing war with Dar's mother, and inane ramblings from Phandebrass as he told them all what sort of magical chicanery he'd been up to lately.

        In a way, it was a good thing.  It gave the core group of Tarrin's inner circle the chance to catch up with each other, since some of them hadn't been in intimate communication.  Dar hadn't been sending messages to Azakar, for example, and poor Sarraya had no one to give her news, mainly since her flighty mind didn't let her concentrate on the idea of talking to one of them long enough for her to do anything about it.  Dolanna had only been getting the major news from Jenna, since she always had so many demands on her time, and since whenever Dolanna projected out to talk to Tarrin, they almost never discussed those kinds of things.  It also gave those who had been included in that inner circle a chance to get a better understanding of those within it, and pick up on some inside information that they all knew, never explained to outsiders, and usually tended to leave those who listened to them completely lost.  Those who could keep up, anyway, for their conversations tended to bounce around among Sulasian, Sha'Kar, Selani, Wikuni, and occasionally into Sharadi.

        And, of course, it was a chance for meetings.  Tarrin had been dreading the idea of Auli meeting Sarraya, but it didn't turn out as bad as he thought.  The first words out of Sarraya's mouth was a snide comment about Auli's beaten silver belt, a comment that there was enough silver in it to buy half of Nyr.  It was just vague enough to seem innocent, but of course was a blatant insult about the girth of Auli's waist.  If there was anything that Auli had, it was vanity, and the remark about her weight struck her to the quick.  What Sarraya didn't count on was that the fluent-minded Auli had a razor for a tongue, and she managed to completely destroy the Faerie in about thirty seconds.  Sarraya flitted away to sulk and gather her wits, for she rarely got thrashed like that, leaving the young Sha'Kar the victor in that initial exchange of a war that was sure to follow.

        Sometimes the relationship between Auli and Ianelle was oh so obvious.

        The catching up didn't bring Tarrin anything new, at least nothing obvious, mainly because he tended to be at the center of the web of information that existed among them, so he spent that time pondering on his friends.  Two things were still in his mind that he needed to check, and those were Haley and Miranda.  What had happened in Dayisè that caused the Circle of Heirarchs to summon him?  It had to have been bad.  They wouldn't have summoned him if was something minor, like someone discovering that he was a Were-wolf.  No, he had to have done something that got public attention, like killed a taproom full of people.

        And why did Miranda seem so...distant?  He could look at her and see it.  She seemed her normal self, witty and charming, but also somewhat quiet, content to speak or content to remain silent, as both suited her.  That was Miranda's way.  But there was something else there, something she was hiding from Keritanima and the Vendari, something that seemed alien when one thought of Miranda.  Was it...discontent?  That seemed almost impossible. Though she didn't know it--and neither did anyone else in the room, for that matter--Miranda was actually an Avatar created by the goddess Kikkalli, the head of the Wikuni pantheon of gods.  She wasn't a physical manifestation of Kikkalli, she was more of a special Wikuni who had a spark of divine inspiration in her.  If Wikuni were works of art, then Miranda might be what one would call a great masterpiece.  Kikkalli's gift to Miranda was a quick mind, a steely will, and the mental capability to be both a companion for Keritanima and a confidante, someone smart enough to understand the complicated little Queen and also someone with whom Keritanima could scheme and plot.  Miranda had literally been created to be a friend and servant of the Queen.  So for Miranda to be dissatisfied seemed to violate the very nature of his insufferably cute little friend.  Miranda literally lived to serve Keritanima.  It was what she was born to do, and the need to be there to help, protect, and serve the Queen was ingrained into her very being.

        Tarrin brooded about that for quite a while, until the group began to get a little tired of sitting around and talking.  A servant informed them it would be about another hour before dinner, so they decided to wander around the Tower, or stroll the grounds, or have a short rest in their own apartments.  Tarrin seized on the opportunity to find out what was going on, blowing off all the others in short order, even Triana--who gave him a sharply remonstrating look--and managing to get hold of Miranda's elbow and guiding her away from Keritanima, Rallix, and the Vendari as they walked out his door.  They turned and went one way, and Tarrin turned them the other.  Sisska looked back when Miranda didn't come up behind them, then simply nodded Tarrin's way when she saw that he had her.  Sisska would trust Miranda's safety to Tarrin.

        They walked for some time without saying a word, but that wasn't unusual.  The relationship between the Were-cat and the mink Wikuni was both rather complicated and exceptionally simple at the same time.  They simply enjoyed each other's company.  No more, no less.  That meant that they were just as content to be absolutely silent as they were chatting away at each other.  Miranda was one of the very few people who could make Tarrin forget himself and act immature, even silly or childish, because he felt totally comfortable with her.  Tarrin ignored the mewling sheep of the Tower as they bowed and curtsied and gawked and blubbered as they passed, keeping his attention on Miranda.  When she felt they were far enough away from Keritanima's formidable ears, she'd say something.

        "I reckon we're far enough away now," she said in a surprisingly serious voice.  "Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?"

        "You can't hide from me, Miranda," he told her.  "Kerri may not see it, but I do.  And I'll bet that Binter and Sisska can too.  What's the matter?"

        "I guess that's the whole problem," she sighed, looking up at him.  That wide-cheeked face, which was so overwhelmingly cute that she could disarm absolutely anyone with just a smile, seemed so very sober.  That was not an expression he was used to seeing on her.  She could be very serious, but rarely did she ever look serious.  That cute act was so well practiced for her that it was something she did without even thinking about it.  "I know you'll think I'm silly, Tarrin, but I guess I'm just a little jealous."

        "Jealous?  Over Rallix?"

        She nodded, the side-parted bangs that seemed to hover over her forehead bobbing with lively verve.  "Kerri doesn't seem to have time for me anymore," she confided.  "She's always with him, and we don't talk the way we used to."

        "You knew it would happen."

        "I know, but I thought that at least she'd try to take the time to keep up with me," she told him with a great deal of emotion in her voice. "It's like she's forgotten me, old friend.  To her, I'm just there.  Whenever she needs something, she remembers that I'm there, but any other time, I'm just part of the scenery.  She never seems to talk to me anymore, and whenever I try to talk to her, she always cuts me short."  She sighed.  "I've become an old dog laying by the fire, one that nobody bothers to notice unless they need to step over it or they want their slippers fetched."

        Tarrin was quiet a moment as he pondered her words.  That didn't seem like Kerri.  She didn't forget people like that, and especially not Miranda.  She was the one friend who had stuck with her since she was a little girl, the only one she could confide in.  Tarrin and Allia may be Kerri's brother and sister, but Miranda was her best friend.  "Well, you could always pack up and leave."

        "I can't do that!" she protested instantly.  "She may need me, and what good will I be if I'm not there?"

        "I didn't say leave forever.  I mean leave her apartment."

        "I already did that," she told him.  "Kerri threw me out."

        "She did what?"

        "She threw me out," she repeated.  "She told me that me being there was interfering with her personal relationship with Rallix.  I live in the apartment next door now."

        "Now that's raw," Tarrin frowned.  Keritanima tossing Miranda out of her apartment would be like Tarrin making Jesmind live in the cellar.  "I don't know, Miranda.  That's not like Kerri.  Not at all."

        "I know, but I guess her marriage has made her a different person," she said somberly.

        "Well, if you don't want to leave her employ, then you can either beat her over the head with your dissatisfaction, or you can just endure it.  Or you could find a nice man and settle down yourself," he urged.

        "Marry?  Me?" she said, then she laughed.  "I was never meant to be a wife, Tarrin.  I was a born bachelor--well, bachelorette."

        "Then find a significant other for a while.  Personally, I think marriage is a bit overrated."

        "That's only because you'd kill your wife inside ten years," she teased with one of those cheeky grins that made her so unbearably cute.

        "True," he agreed.  "You just need to focus on men who share your interests."

        "Let's see, my interests are needlepoint, rumormongering, knitting, intrigue, crochet, spying, flirting, and assassinations," she said, ticking off her fingers with each new item on her list.  "I don't know to many men who can plot the downfall of a noble house while doing saddlestitches."

        "What about that one Kerri always talked about?  Jervis?"

        "Jervis?" she said, then she laughed loudly and for a very long moment.  "Me, take up with Jervis?  Give me some credit!"

        "What's wrong with him?"

        "He's too ridiculous looking for me to take him seriously!"

        "Yes, alot of people say the very thing about you," he said, giving her a slight look.

        "Yes, but I'm a girl," she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him.  "I'm not supposed to be taken seriously."

        Tarrin ignored that.  "Well, if not Jervis, then maybe you should find a nice rich nobleman, let him spend his entire fortune on you, then break his heart with malicious glee," he said in a serious tone that made Miranda laugh.

        "Who says I haven't done that already?" she teased, winking at him.

        "No comment," he drawled.  "What I'm saying, Miranda, is that there's an entire world out there waiting for you.  You don't have to feel like being on Kerri's right side is all there is to life.  I know it's where you want to be, but just take a little time to experiment a little.  Who knows, you might find something out there that you like.  Maybe not as much as serving Kerri, but something that would definitely be fun."

        "Are you telling me to leave?"

        "I'm telling you to remind Kerri what it's like when you're not there," he told her seriously.  "After a few months of having you not laying by the fire to step over and fetch her slippers, maybe she'll appreciate you the way she should."

        "But what if--"

        "There is no what if, Miranda," he told her curtly.  There's only is and is not.  Right now, Kerri won't fall to pieces if you're not there, and Wikuna won't self-destruct without you there to keep all the knots tied."  He looked down at her.  "Who knows, maybe you'll even find out a few things in the process."

        "What things?"

        "Try and you'll see," he told her.

        She was quiet a very long moment.  "I don't know, Tarrin."

        "Look at it this way, Miranda.  What do you have to lose?"

        She looked up at him, then laughed ruefully.  "Everything," she said.  "If I make Kerri mad, she may give me the heave-ho."

        "She'd never do that, and you know it," he chided her.  "No matter how mad she gets at you, you're still Miranda, her very best friend in all the world.  Even if she did have an irrational episode and did do it, she'd hate herself almost immediately afterward, and she'd come crawling to get you back."

        Miranda chuckled.  "That would be a sight to see," she said.  "The mighty Queen of Wikuna crawling across a room to beg her maid to come back to work for her."

        "Kerri's might is only in her own mind.  I think it's time to teach her just how far her authority reaches in some respects."

        "She's the queen, Tarrin.  We can't disobey her."

        "Bull.  You disobey her on a daily basis.  I know you do."

        Miranda's cheeks ruffled demurely, a Wikuni version of a blush.  "Well, I'm a special case."

        "That's right, Miranda.  You are special.  I think you need to educate my thoughtless sister about just how special you are."

        "You know something, Tarrin?  I think you're about the best friend a young girl could have," she said with a gloriously affectionate smile, taking his arm in both of her hands and leaning against his side as they walked.

        "Only certain young girls," he told her with a quirky kind of half-serious smile, putting his arm over her shoulders.

        Tarrin felt much better about the Miranda situation by the time he returned to his room.  He found it a little hard to believe that Keritanima ws ignoring her like that, but then again, love made people do strange things.  Jesmind had to be the ultimate example of that.  Where Tarrin was concerned, she was capable of acts that so went against her personality, and often her very nature and instincts as a Were-cat, that it seemed impossible.  She had tolerated the other females in the house, because Tarrin liked having his children around him, even though it was a direct challenge to her Were-cat nature.  That was just one example of many, examples that had begun almost since the day they'd first been properly introduced.  But, unfortunately, this was not one of those times.  She had that angry look about her when he came in, as Kimmie was trying to keep Tara from running out the door without her pants on, and Jasana and Rina were playing some kind of game with little loops of red yarn wrapped around their fingers.  Tarrin absently hooked Tara with his tail as she tried to scurry past, then pushed her to where Kimmie could get a grip on her shirt.  Tara's trousers were in Kimmie's other paw, a large tear in the seat of them, ripped from the hole for her tail down.

        Tarrin knew his mate, and knew that something was on her mind, and past experience had taught him that it was best to get her to release that anger before she had a chance to stew on it.  Not that she wasn't one to make her feelings abundantly clear to everyone, but sometimes, in typical female fashion, she preferred to keep private her ire and the reasons for it, so as to be more worked up and more able to blame Tarrin for her mindset because of his obvious misdeeds.

        He stared at her.  "What?" he asked bluntly.

        "Do you intend to spend any time at all with your family while we're out here?" she asked tartly, putting her paws on her hips and glaring up at him.

        Tarrin glanced at Kimmie.  "Jealous again, isn't she?" he asked.

        "That's a given, Tarrin," she replied with a sly smile at Jesmind, then held Tara by the end of her tail as she chanted a spell of magic to repair the tear in her trousers.

        Jesmind flashed Kimmie a rather hot look, then returned to glaring at Tarrin.  "Don't change the subject!"

        "That is the subject," he told her with quiet reserve.  "You worry too much, my mate.  For the next few days, I'm going to be spending alot of time with other people, but that doesn't change things between us, does it?"

        It was typical Jesmind.  Her most aggravating trait was her jealousy, a hot, very un-Were-cat kind of possessiveness concerning him, a trait that was almost human.  Past experience between them made her not quite completely trusting in him, for she still stung somewhat over his mating with Kimmie.  She had let him go and allowed him to take Kimmie for mate, but he had fallen in love with her.  And though she had forgiven him for it and come to accept it, and was more than aware that his feelings for Kimmie did not in any way change or take away from his love for her, it made her wary and guarded concerning him, afraid his fickle heart would end up in some other woman's pocket.  Jesmind did not like to share, and she was especially defensive concerning her mates.  It was a trait that had been in her long before she met Tarrin, a trait that had caused her to have a century-long spat with the Were-cat Rahnee, when she had stolen one of Jesmind's mates away from her.

        But it wasn't something that Tarrin couldn't manage.  This particular thorn in her personality was the one that stabbed him more than any other, so he had a great deal of experience in digging it out of his hide.  Usually, all it took was a reminder of just where she stood with him, and a little extra attention when they were alone.  After that, she'd be rather kittenish for a while.  Tarrin endured these barbs in her personality quite willingly in order to get to the softness that lay beneath that dangerous exterior.  When she wasn't angry or pecky, she was a vibrant, affectionate, quite enjoyable and agreeable woman.  The problem was, Were-cat mentality made those peeks at her she-softness uncommon, usually only coming when they were alone and when she was happy and content.  Happiness wasn't difficult to give her, but in a house with other grown females in it, the alone part wasn't always easy to accomplish.

        Tarrin looked around.  "Where's Jula?" he asked curiously.  He realized he hadn't seen her since the greeting ceremony.

        "Jenna took her with her," Kimmie answered.  She always knew where Jula was, for Jula wouldn't leave the room without telling her.  "I think they're with that other Keeper.  Alexa?"

        "Alexis," he corrected.  He noticed a sudden hot look from Jesmind, for telling her that her standing in his eyes didn't change, then turning around and asking about another female, but in this case it was totally silly.  Jula was his daughter, and she knew what that meant to him and his still human-like outlook on life concerning certain things.  Tarrin had never thought of Jula in terms of a mate, and he was rather sure that he never would.  "Jenna should keep her out of trouble," he said absently, then he looked down at Jesmind.  "Maybe I should see if she'd keep you out of trouble while she's at it."

        "I only cause trouble when you bring it down on yourself," she flared, but he could see the slight smile on the corners of her slightly pouted lips.

        "Right," he drawled, swatting her playfully on the backside as he stepped past her.

        "It really is your fault, you know!" she called to him as he walked away.  Now that was more like the Jesmind he knew and loved.  It seemed her pique of jealousy had passed.

        Tarrin passed the time teaching Jesmind how to play chess, as Jasana watched with intense curiosity.  Jesmind had never really gotten around to learning, mainly because at home she was one of the primary hunters in the house.  Jula and Kimmie had always been busy with the children, leaving Tarrin, Jesmind, and Mist to do the hunting for the entire household.  But Tarrin was often busy, either holding lessons or speaking to various figures from around the world, or engaged in intense study, so he didn't hunt every day.  Mist and Jesmind tended to split the duty, but after Mist left, it left Jesmind with it more or less by herself.  She did have eithar Kimmie or Jula along with her about every other day, when one of them could find the time, but she didn't quite like that.  Jula actually turned out to be a rather good hunter, but Kimmie seemed hopeless at it; as far as Jesmind was concerned, anyway.  Tarrin had the idea that good old fashioned prejudice was creeping into her opinion, due to Kimmie's rather unusual habits.  Kimmie was very good at catching small prey, but she tended to either avoid or pass over larger game, like deer and antelope.  Jesmind had a bigger is better mentality that caused her to go right after those animals which Kimmie had never really bothered to hunt, and as such was not in practice for hunting.

        After Tarrin handed Jesmind her fifth defeat, trying to explain to her where she was going wrong, a herald arrived at the door and announced that the feast would commence in exactly half an hour, and would they kindly dress and prepare for the occasion, thank-you-very-much.  Jesmind sent the foppishly dressed young man running with a savage hiss at the suggestion that she wear a nice brocade gown; Alexis had obviously not warned her Tower's staff about the volatility of Were-cats.  For her, it was probably just a good joke to play on her staff.  The warning really meant nothing more than the fact that Tarrin had to work fast to beat Jesmind a sixth time before they came for them.  Were-cats didn't dress for any occasion, because they knew that nobody in the Tower could make them.

        Tarrin would have thrashed Jesmind in that last game had Jasana kept herself from intefering.  She kept pointing out the holes Jesmind had made in her defense, and his mate actually listened to their daughter's advice, shoring up her lines in only two clever moves and ruining Tarrin's quick death strategy.  Tarrin gave Jasana several ugly looks and then told her to go mind her own business, which caused Jesmind to put her daughter in her lap and announced, quite shamelessly, that if she could help her beat her father in the game, then Jesmind would find some favor in her eyes for her.  Jasana didn't seem to care about that, by the challenging look in her eyes when she settled herself on her mother's lap and stared steadily into her father's eyes over the chessboard.

        The game slowed down dramatically at that point.  Jasana knew how to play, as Tarrin had taught her months before, and the game reminded him just how intelligent and cunning his daughter was.  In the game she had the chance to unleash it all, playing a solid game that seemed offensively bold, but carried cunning defensive undertones that always would cause Tarrin more harm than her when it came time to sacrifice pieces.

        They only got about three moves into the game when the door opened, and Dolanna and Azakar entered with Sarraya buzzing in just behind them.  Azakar stood just behind and to Dolanna's left, the common position for a Knight, so he could throw his shield over his charge in case of attack.  It seemed that since they were reunited, he instinctively sought Dolanna out and took up his task of being her Knight, a position he had inherited from Faalken, and one he approached with utter seriousness.  "Dear one," she said in Sharadi with a smile as they came in.  "The feast is about to begin.  Are you going to get dressed?"

        "I am dressed, Dolanna," he answered absently, his eyes on the chessboard.

        "Triana's went around and implanted the Sharadi language in everyone," Sarraya announced.  "She taught me how to do it!  Can I do it for you, Tarrin?"

        "I speak Sharadi," he warned.

        "Oh.  How about you, Jesmind?"

        "Not in a million years," she said with blunt flintiness, glancing over her shoulder and giving the Faerie and icy stare.

        "Well, huf-fy!" she snapped.  "Kimmie?"

        "I already speak Sharadi, Sarraya," she said mildly.  "Tarrin taught it to me days ago.  He did for all of us, seeing as how we were coming here and all."

        "Toadwarts," Sarraya sulked, landing on Tarrin's shoulder and looking down at the board.  "She's got your tail in a knot," she said critically as she studied the board.

        "Well, if everyone is ready, then we should go down," Dolanna urged.

        "Let's get this overwith," Jesmind grunted as she stood up, pulling Jasana up with her.

        The main dining hall here was just as large as the one back in Suld, but they had really gone over the edge with dressing it up for the occasion--what occasion, Tarrin really couldn't fathom, but they certainly seemed to think that it was important.  They had colorful buntings hanging from the walls, and streamers that looked to be made of crystal lace that glittered in the light of the many glowglobes, hanging from the top of the buntings and draping across to a huge chandelier in the exact center of the room.  The chandelier had a thousand little crystals hanging from elegant, sweeping brass protrustions, each of them glowing with a soft, gentle light.  The tables were all rather small, seating about six or seven, all of them round and positioned at exact distances from one another with an almost military precision.  The tables were all made of a dark reddish stone, but were rather thin and delicate, and looked to be reinforced with magical assistance to keep them from collapsing under their own weight.  Each chair was made of red cherry wood, complete with a cushioned back and a thickly padded seat.  At the far end of the chamber was the main table, which was a long rectangular affair made of glittering quartz standing on a slightly raised dais.  The chairs around it, twenty of them, were made of quartz as well, shimmering and scillinting in the magical light, and the table was set with the finest bone china, delicate crystal goblets, and gold silverware.  The chamber was already full of robed men and women, as well as a few wearing doublets and hose and fancy gowns that marked them as nobles or high-ranking members of Sharadar's government.  It only made sense that they would be here, since Alexis was the Queen of Sharadar in addition to being the Keeper of the Tower.  Alexis herself was seated at the middle of that main table, and all of Tarrin's friends and companions were seated there, patiently waiting for the rest of them to arrive.  Jenna sat immediately to Alexis' left, but the chair to her right was empty, as were the two chairs beside it further down the line.

        All the conversation in the hall stopped when Dolanna led them into the dining hall, and much to his surprise, they all stood up.  Every eye was on them as they hesitated for a short second at the entrance to the dining hall.  It made Tarrin more than a little wary and nervous.  Though he had come a very long way, the elemental feral nature that made him so dangerous not more than a year ago still lurked within him.  He still didn't like strangers, and still didn't like crowds, and this was a crowd of strangers.  His trepidation did not ease as she led them across the dining hall, towards Alexis, who stood and waited for them to arrive.  The others at the table stood as well, a gesture that made Tarrin think that they were all being very silly.  What was even more silly was that every single person who had stood up when he arrived at the door bowed or curtsied as he passed by, and remained so even after he went by.  His eyes darted back and forth, trying to puzzle out this strange action, until Jesmind had to push him from behind to keep him moving when he nearly turned and stopped to regard them.  Why were they making such an incredible fuss?  After all, he was nobody special.  He held no official rank, he wasn't a noble or a politician.  He was just Tarrin.  He did happen to be a sui'kun, but that made no difference to him, as his sister and daughter were as well.  He didn't consider himself special because others in his inner circle shared his unique power, which really wasn't all that unique.

        By the time they reached the main table, Tarrin was certifiably unnerved, and unnerved Were-cats were very unpredictable and volatile.  Dolanna, who always seemed to be able to sense the subtle shift in his moods, put a comforting hand over his furred wrist, over his fetlock, and her very touch calmed him a surprising amount.  Tarrin had forgotten the powerful effect the small woman had over him, a power that had not diminished with the distance between them and the time they had spent apart.  She looked up at him with steady eyes, and he seemed to understand what they were saying to her.  To calm down, that though it was unusual behavior, there was no reason to fear it.  And there was fear there.  Tarrin had little fear of normal humans, but Sorcerers wielded magical powers, and that gave them the capability to hurt him.  That knowledge caused him to respect the danger they posed.

        Alexis graced him with a sweeping curtsy, which caused Jenna to giggle a little under her breath, putting her hands over her mouth to cover it.  The redheaded queen glared hotly at Jenna for a moment, as if to berate her for ruining her moment, then that hostility evaporated as she graced Tarrin with a dazzling smile.  "Please be seated, honored one," she said in a strong voice that carried across the dining hall.

        "Don't call me that, Alexis," Tarrin growled under his breath as he took the chair she indicated, to her right.  The others sat where there were available chairs, with Jesmind sitting at Tarrin's side, and Jesmind glaring Dar out from in front of the chair beside hers to give Jasana somewhere to sit so she was within her mother's reach.  Dar moved to the other side of Tiella, who looked a little uncomfortable sitting beside Jasana.  There was a little rearranging so Kimmie could sit with one of her children on each side of her, between Jenna and Phandebrass.  After the issue of seats was decided, Alexis gave them an amused grin and then sat down herself.  When she did so, the assembled diners also took their seats, and the low buzz of talk rose up from the dining hall.

        "Do you mind telling me what all that bowing was about?" Tarrin demanded immediately.

        "You're the honored one, Tarrin," she said with a slightly teasing smile.  "We're only affording you the respect you deserve."

        Tarrin snorted darkly and affixed Alexis with a hostile narrow-eyed stare.  "I get enough of that from the Sha'Kar," he grated.  "I don't need them infecting you with their bad habits."

        "We're only following ancient rules of etiquette," she winked in reply.  "Don't you like being fawned over?"

        "No," he said in a low, growling voice.

        "Oh, come on, them bowing is half the fun of being the leader," she said lightly.  "I think we should get this dinner going, don't you?"  She picked up a small crystal bell that was standing by her goblet of wine, and then rang it briefly.  No one could have possibly heard that little bell over the buzz of the many conversations, but Tarrin distinctly felt the surge of Sorcery that emanated from that little bell when it was rung.  Tarrin sniffed out the path of the spell, and found that it terminated in the kitchens.  Nobody really heard it in here, but it was as loud as a rampaging Ogre in the kitchens, the unmistakable signal to start bringing in the feast.

        In mere moments, a massive feast was laid out on all the tables by an army of servants wearing pristinely white robes or gowns, the color of the purest snow.  Tarrin's irritation with Alexis and his discomfort and nervousness about being in the dining hall with so many strangers was mometarily subdued by the wonderful smells coming from the trays that were being set before them.  There was every kind of food Tarrin had ever sampled laid out on the table, as well as many he had never seen before.   There was beef and fish and venison and pheasant and quail and lamb and pork, and there was crab and lobster, one of Jesmind's favorites, but there were also dishes made of small sea-dwelling things that looked like tapered pale pink segmented worms with little red tails, and salads made of more kinds of vegetables than he had ever seen, plants of every color, even purple, be them leaves or bulbs or stems or stalks or buds or roots.  Vegetable dishes were very important, as the Sha'Kar were more or less vegetarians by virtue that most Sha'Kar found most meat to taste bad, though there were some meat dishes that they would eat.  Obviously some kind of racial trait.  There were other kinds of fruits and vegetables as well, from grapes to little green lemon-like fruits with fuzzy rinds, carrots and rigid bowed stalks of green plants, what looked like a big green pine cone to little red balls with a kind of ringing garland of tiny green leaves about their midsections.  There were watered dishes to go with the solids, soups and stews of every kind one could imagine, simmering in large kettles hung from little tripod stands set on the tables so the hot kettles wouldn't scorch the tablecloths.

        Though Tarrin didn't notice it, nobody so much as touched a thing until he reached for a tray of roasted pork ribs, and then the feast began.  The talk at the tables was muted as people paused in their conversations to chew and swallow.  Tarrin sampled many of the dishes that he had never seen before, asking Alexis what they were.  The little tapered segmented things were called shrimp, and he found them to be strangely tasty, though they had a weird metallic taste that both seemed to detract from and enhance the base flavor of the meat.  There was a soup that was so spicy and hot that it made Tarrin's tongue burn, and a baked pot dish of spiced beef, carrots, potatos, and stringed beans that he rather favored.  The different mixtures of vegetables in the various salads gave each one a unique taste, and he was surprised that a bunch of green plants could have such varying ranges of taste.  Perhaps the Sha'Kar weren't as boring in culinary matters as he once believed.

        After a quite satisfying meal, trays and trays of cakes, pastries, and pies were brought out for dessert, of which Tarrin partook liberally, almost forgetting himself and the fact that strangers' eyes were constantly on him.  He tried several different desserts, sweet ones and tart ones and buttery ones and even one that was both sweet and spicy-hot at the same time, until he felt that if he ate one more bite, his stomach would burst.  He pushed away his plate and leaned back in his chair, feeling quite sedate and calm and content at that moment.

        But it didn't last long.

        As if his finishing his meal was some kind of signal, Sorcerer after Sorcerer nervously approached the main table and bowed or curtsied before Tarrin, Alexis, and Jenna, then introduced themselves to him with nervous voices, trembling hands, and fear rolling off of them like the tide.  But it was a fear borne of speaking to him, as if his grand stature were so awe-inspiring that it made them tongue-tied and unbalanced.

        Though they were nervous a little afraid to speak to him, their effect on Tarrin was quite different.  These were strangers, strangers with the power to harm him, and yet they were afraid of him.  Tarrin's feral instincts caused him to fear them as well, but their fear and subservient demeanor triggered his dominant nature, making him both wary of them and slightly tolerant of them, as they knew their place in the scheme of things and submitted to his rightful authority.  But that tolerance was very thin, and it was quickly worn away by the long procession of new faces replacing the prior ones.  Tarrin's tranquility was quickly boiled off by the seemingly endless line of strangers that mounted the dais and geneflucted and simpered or wheedled before him.

        Dolanna moved quickly to intervene when she noticed that Tarrin had reached the end of his tolerance, but not quite quickly enough.  One rather tall Sorcerer--at least tall for a Sharadi--boldly advanced to the edge of the table after bowing and introducing himself as Shazil Lothu, and his sudden advance triggered a defensive reaction in the Were-cat.  Tarrin laid his ears back, bared his fangs and hissed threateningly at the man, who stopped and tried to backpedal so suddenly that he actually lost his balance and dropped onto his backside.

        "I think Tarrin is ready to retire, my Keeper," Dolanna said in a reasonable and very calming, soothing tone, reaching them and putting a hand on Tarrin's shoulder.  "I think his endurance for pomp and circumstance has reached its limit this evening."

        "Yes, I think I agree with you, Dolanna," Alexis said critically, looking at a totally unapologetic Tarrin, who was looking flintily over the table at the frightened Sharadi male, who was still sitting on the floor fearfully.  "It's alright, Shazil," she told him.  "If you recall, our guest has a certain aversion to crowds, and his temperament has limits.  It's not personal.  It's just his way of declaring that he's ready to retire, that's all."

        "That's some announcement," Dar chuckled.

        "F--Forgive me, Honored One," the Sorcerer Shazil stammered.  "I meant no offense."

        Tarrin waved a paw before his face wearily.  "I--It's not your fault," he answered.  "I've just had enough for one evening."

        "Well then, why don't we declare an official end to the feast?" Alexis prompted, standing up.  "As you know, we're going to be starting out tomorrow, and I think we'll all want to get some rest.  It's going to be quite exciting," she said with a dangerous gleam in her eyes, a gleam Tarrin had seen in Phandebrass' eyes more than once, usually right before something exploded in his face.

        It was not a look that instilled any confidence.

        Tarrin fretted about whatever surprise the unpredictable Keeper of this strange Tower had up her sleeve for most of the rest of the night.  Dolanna had been invited to sit a while with Tarrin and his family, for she was one of the few humans around which both Jesmind and Kimmie would totally relax.  Kimmie because of her friendship with her, and Jesmind because of the total trust Tarrin had in his diminutive mentor and friend.  Sarraya managed to invite herself along, and for once she didn't make a nuisance of herself.  Probably because she was more than a little worried about what Jesmind may do to her if she caused any trouble.  Besides, Jasana liked Sarraya for some strange reason, and it was a chance to introduce Tara and Rina to both one of Tarrin's most trusted and loved friends and both another dear friend as well as another non-human member of Fae-da'Nar.  Exposing the twins to a Faerie would be a good learning experience for them.

        They all forwarded assumptions about Alexis' plan, but none of them really thought of anything that seemed to fit both the practicality of transporting all of them in the time frame allotted as well as being exotic enough to fulfill the Sharadi Queen's promises about her surprise.  Her collusion with Phandebrass was the wild card, and because of that, almost anything was possible.

        "Ugh, can we talk about something else now?" Sarraya complained.  "If you all keep worrying about it, your hair is going to fall out!"

        "It's just like a bug to not worry about anything," Jesmind told her.

        "At least I won't get worry wrinkles like you," she taunted in reply, then wisely flitted off Tarrin's shoulder and put herself out of reach of Tarrin's mate.  Tara and Rina were watching her with rapt attention, and the Faerie put her hands to either side of her head and made several rather strange faces at them, all of which made the two toddlers giggle uncontrollably.

        "I wonder what's going on with Haley," Tarrin mused.  "Something must have happened."

        "He told me about it before the feast," Dolanna told him.  "We took a walk through the city.  There were several landmarks he wanted to see before we leave."

        Tarrin leaned back on the couch, which was entirely too small for him, and absently accepted Jesmind as she nuzzled in against his side.  When Dolanna didn't immediately say anything, Sarraya zipped just over Tarrin's head and put her hands on her tiny hips.  "Well, spill it!" she shouted.  "What did that weird Were-wolf do that got his butt hauled up before the Council of Hierarchs?"

        "It was nothing major, Sarraya," she answered.  "He had a run-in with Stragos Bane."

        Sarraya rose about two spans into the air and gasped.  "He's still alive?" she asked in sudden fear.

        "Who is Stragos Bane?" Tarrin asked.

        "He's a Were hunter!" Sarraya said in an intentionally melodramatic voice.  "He's about the only human the Were-kin were really afraid of!"

        Dolanna nodded.  "He just happened to come to Haley's inn to stay while waiting for a ship to leave Dayisè.  Stragos immediately knew what he was and attacked him.  Unfortunately, his inn was burned down during the tussle, and Haley's true nature was revealed to the city."

        "Why would Haley be afraid of a human?" Jesmind asked dismissively.

        "Because he wears silvered armor and carries a magical silver sword that seems to have been made specifically to kill Were-kin," Sarraya answered.  "And he also happens to be a good fighter.  He'd killed some hundred Were-kin about ten years ago, then he vanished.  He seemed to try to hunt down any Were-kin that left the Frontier when he was around, but then he vanished, and everyone thought that someone had killed him."

        "I guess they didn't," Kimmie said mildly, swatting Tara's paw away as she tried to stop her mother from straightening her hair.

        "Rumor in Dayisè was that Stragos Bane came to Dayisè to find your trail, Tarrin," Dolanna told him.  "The stories of you are many, and because you are Were, I guess it is only natural that this Were hunter would seek you out.  After all, you are the most famous Were-kin in the world right now."

        "That'll be a laugh," Sarraya snickered.  "When he shows up in Aldreth, call me, Tarrin.  I want to see you thrash him."

        "I guess he's got too big of a head now," Kimmie agreed, though not as boisterously.  "He'd be a maniac to try to kill Tarrin."

        "He'd be the ultimate prey," Jesmind said steadily, her eyes thoughtful.  "The ultimate test."

        Tarrin could understand that line of thinking.  To this Stragos, Tarrin would be something of the top of the pyramid, the keystone in the arch.  If he could kill Tarrin, then the rest of the arch would be easy to knock down.

        But then again, he was only a human, whose only advantage seemed to be a magic sword that could kill Were-kin.  That would be no advantage against him.

        "I hope Haley managed to salvage something," Tarrin sighed.  "Is he going back to Dayisè?"

        Dolanna shook her head.  "The inn was a total loss, and much of the reason he stayed there was because nobody knew the truth about him.  He told me he intends to relocate and open a new in elsewhere.  He hinted that he might do so here in Abrodar, though I doubt he would be happy here."

        "Why is that?"

        "Haley thrives in an atmosphere of intrigue and deception.  Such behavior is very rare here in Sharadar.  We are a very orderly and peaceful people, who do not scheme and plot to better our place in life.  The only scheming one finds here is in the nobility, and it is as nothing compared to other kingdoms."

        "Borrr-ring," Sarraya teased.

        "I guess we are boring to outsiders," she smiled.  "Many who visit here say that the people are as much a part of the scenery as the buildings, with almost as much personality.  But they do not understand the nuances of Sharadi culture, that is all."

        "You sound like a Sha'Kar," Kimmie chuckled.

        "Maybe now you understand why we and the Sha'Kar get along so well," she replied with that same smile.

        "At least you're not as arrogant as they are," Tarrin told her.

        "Old cultures breed old people, even when they're young," Sarraya pressed.  "You teach your kids how to be dusty old curmudgeons before they even start wondering what's under the clothes of the other gender."

        "As I said, few understand us," she said lightly, giving Sarraya a slight smile.

        Tarrin did understand, and in a way, his ability to speak Sharadi gave him that insight.  That, and his closeness to Dolanna.  The Sharadi were actually quite lively, personable people, but much like other old cultures, theirs was one almost drowned in tradition and custom that made them seem austere and regal, and not a little dried-up and boring.  But more than that, Tarrin knew that the Sharadi were a very subtle people.  By the merest lifting of an eyebrow or corner of her mouth, Dolanna displayed tremendous shifts in her emotions and mood, though the general expression of her face didn't change by a large degree.  These physical subtleties mirrored the great subtlety of the Sharadi language, where the mere shift of inflection in one word could alter the meaning of an entire sentence.  Their culture was much like their language, where small things were changed in small ways, but had great meaning to those who understood their significance.  But to someone outside of that understanding, one Sharadi would seem as dull and boring as another Sharadi.  Only when they were upset or under duress did Sharadi often display great emotion, and when they did, they made it count.  Dolanna had only lost her temper once since he knew her, but it was as impressive a tantrum as any that Tarrin had ever thrown, only without the widespread geographical devastation.  Almost like the bursting of a dam; the water ravaged everything in its path, and then once the lake was drained, it returned to calm steadiness.  The Sharadi were much the same way in that when they did release their emotions, they really let them go.

        What made Dolanna rather interesting was that she was one of the most forceful Sharadi Tarrin had ever known.  She did have a wider range of emotion about her, and her expression did change, but Tarrin now understood that she only did that when around northerners, an act that to her would be grand exaggeration, almost melodrama, but to the more emotional northerners, she would only seem less distant to them than she would if she acted like she did at home.  She had tried to adapt to the customs of the northern Tower, but didn't quite manage it.  Much like she had never managed to master the concept of shortcuts in language, which is why her Sulasian always sounded so formal.

        "She never will, Dolanna," Tarrin told her.

        "I rather doubt it.  She can barely hold a single thought in her head more than a minute," she answered in that same light voice.

        "Hey!" Sarraya said indignantly.  "I'm not that impulsive!"

        "Yes you are," several voices said in unison.

        "Hmph!" she snorted.  "You're all just jealous!"

        "Only in your own mind, bug," Jesmind told her languidly, leaning her head against Tarrin's shoulder.

        Kimmie yawned, then reached down and patted Rina's head tenderly, who had it in her mother's lap.  "I think I'm about ready to take a short nap," she said.  "All that food made me a little sleepy."

        "Well, I'm not sleepy," Jasana declared immediately.

        "I never said you were," she said with a smile.  "But I think I'll go put Rina down for a while, and catch a little nap myself.  Watch Tara for me?" she asked Tarrin.

        He nodded, then the door opened and Jula came in.  She shut it behind herself and blew out her breath, causing her bangs to rustle.  "What's the matter with you, cub?" he asked her.

        "I've been trying to find out what Alexis has planned," she replied.

        "Well, did you?" Sarraya asked.

        She shook her head.  "Whatever it is, she's got it under very tight wraps.  Not even Auli could find out, and Auli knows everything that goes on around here, I've discovered."

        "You were with Auli?" he asked.

        She nodded.  "I like her.  She's funny," she disclosed.

        Jesmind snorted, and her claws dug just a tiny bit into Tarrin's side.  Jesmind didn't like Auli because when Tarrin was human, she seduced him.  That made the Sha'Kar a possible competitor in her eyes, and since she wasn't a Were-cat, Jesmind didn't have to obey any niceties or customs concerning her.  Tarrin was usually careful to keep Jesmind and Auli either well separated or with several obstacles between them if they were in proximity to one another.

        As a friend, sometimes Auli was more trouble than she was worth.

        "Someone has to know," Tarrin reasoned.

        "Alexis probably made some ugly threats if anyone talked," Jula replied.

        "Just ask Phandebrass," Jasana offered.  "I heard you say that they talked to him about whatever it is they were doing."

        "He won't tell us," Tarrin frowned.

        "So?  Make him tell you," she said casually.

        "Phandebrass doesn't intimidate, cub," Jula told her with a smile.  "Anyone who does what he does for a living has nerves of steel, and besides, he's too familiar with Tarrin."

        "Then you do it," she concluded.  "He doesn't know you."

        "Actually, he does, and rather well," she countered.  "You forget, cub, I was in the Tower with him and the others while father was coming back across the desert.  Me and Phandebrass know each other very well."

        "Well, then Gramma can do it.  Nobody refuses Gramma."

        "That might work," Tarrin agreed after thinking a minute.

        "Why don't you ask me," Sarraya piped in, flitting down and waving her arms before his face.  "I can find out what's going on!"

        "You think you can?" Tarrin asked her.

        "Tarrin!  How quickly you forget!  Nobody can hide anything from a Faerie who has her mind set on finding out!" she teased with a smirk and a wink.

        "Alright then, Sarraya, let's see if you can back up your promises," he told her.

        "Hah!  You'll be eating those words when I get back!" she said smugly, then she faded from view even as the sound of her buzzing wings retreated towards the open window.

        "Think she can find out?" Kimmie asked, standing near the bedroom to where she had been carrying Rina.

        "She has a good chance," Tarrin admitted.  "Sarraya can be quite a spy when she's serious about it."

        Tarrin spent the rest of the already very late evening with family, but after they all turned in for short naps before the dawn, Tarrin found himself not ready to sleep.  The jump in time from Suld to Abrodar had messed up his internal sense of time, and besides, he really wasn't that sleepy.  He decided to go for a walk around the city in the comforting cover of night, but in order to get out of the Tower, he realized that he would need some way to get around unnoticed, without the fawning and bowing and all the attention that it would surely bring down on him.  The simplest way to do that was simply to change form, to shift into his fully human form and then simply walk out.  That was the manner in which he decided it would be best to proceed, and did so without too much trouble.  It had been quite a while since he had shifted into his human form, and he found it to be surprisingly pain free as he went from his room to the gates leading off the Tower's grounds.  He had done very well to adjust to the human shape in the past, and had built up quite a tolerance to it, but now it seemed even easier to him.

        He paused just outside the Tower's gates when he realized that it was the first time he had held the human form since his death and subsequent resurrection, and he now occupied a body that was made from him, but was not the original him.  It had taken him time to get used to this new body that wasn't new, or whatever it really was, since it always confused him whenever he tried to figure it out.  Maybe that period of adjustment had aided his ability to stave off the pain of holding a form that was no longer natural for his kind.

        Abrodar was a very large city, about half again as large as Suld, but the differences between the two were radical and unmistakable.  Suld was actually the older of the two cities, but its architecture was a chaotic clash of many different styles, and buildings there were torn down or destroyed as often as they were built.  But here in Abrodar, it seemed that the same buildings that had been constructed thousands of years ago were still standing.  Their architecture was bizarre, alien, and it all looked absolutely ancient, vaguely similar to the rugged construction of the ruins of Mala Myrr.  Had Abrodar been built by the Dwarves?  The city had been here during the Blood War, so it was entirely possible.  There were hints of Dwarven architecture in the buildings, with their oversized building stones and the columns and balconies that dominated them, the small, narrow windows and the strange semicircular sculptures over the doors of the buildings, a Dwarven custom of design where the glyph that represented the name of the family within was carved into a semicircular block over the door, inside a holy symbol of the Dwarven goddess of family and duty, whose task it was to watch over and protect those beyond the door.  That semicircle was one of the very rare instances of the use of a curved line in Dwarven architecture; actually, one of the rare uses of something not straight in their entire culture.  Their alphabet was nothing but straight lines and crisp, exacting, sharp angles, and their building philosophy was as angular as their writing.  But in this one recurring situation, they used a semicircle, and built around its top to level out the top of the wall above the door, working around that radical element introduced into their construction rather than altering the semicircular block.  It was one of the very rare situations where the ancient Dwarves worked around something.  Their usual method was to change the aberrant element to suit their own designs.  Perhaps the labor involved to work around the symbol of their goddess was itself an offering to her, a demonstration of their devotion by changing themselves in order to suit her desire.  It was entirely possible, as the Dwarves were an intensely devout race, unerrantly faithful to their nine gods.

        But on closer look at a shop, he saw that though the architecture was Dwarven, the construction was not.  The building was much newer than it appeared, and he realized that all buildings built in Abrodar adhered to the ancient architecture that dominated the city's skyline.  Where Suld had evolved over the centuries, Abrodar looked just as it had thousands of years ago because the Sharadi would not allow it to change.

        That was something of an insight into the Sharadi mentality, an ancient race with an ancient culture that was rigid and organized, but tended to reject change.  That inflexibility could be their fatal flaw in the future, he realized.  Animals that did not adapt to the changes of nature died out, while those that did survived.  If the Sharadi did not learn to change with the times, they would become a culture in danger of becoming extinct.

        But it was still beautiful, and Tarrin was reminded of the Dwarves just enough to wander much of the western sections of the city, nearer the river, before sunrise, where the larger and older buildings were located, comparing what he saw to the ancient illustrations he had seen in the decayed books of the Imperial Library and the ruins of Mala Myrr.  Tarrin even found a few ancient villas whose foundations had been laid before the Blood War, though the buildings themselves had been repaired and remodeled and patched so many times that literally all the stone and wood and tile and mortar that had orginally built them had all been replaced, but had not changed the basic design or appearance of the building.  They were links to the distant past, the last maintained vestiges of a lost race.  Tarrin wondered if the Sharadi who lived here knew that their city had originally been built by the Dwarves.

        In a way, the Sharadi resistance to change, in this one instance, pleased Tarrin a great deal.  The Dwarves were gone, but here, in Abrodar, one could walk the streets and see the legacy that they left behind.  It was quite fitting.

        Of course, the Sharadi didn't seem that much bigger than the Dwarves, so maybe ancient Dwarven architecture suited them, but for Tarrin it was bloody inconvenient.  The one time he decided to enter a building, a raucous tavern by the river's bank, just off the stout wharves they had built into the wide, slow-moving river, he almost had to go on all fours to get under the door's top.  Of course, all sound within absolutely stopped when the towering Were-cat literally crawled in under their door, then stooped to keep his head from banging against the ceiling, but he didn't really notice them.  His eyes were taking in the walls and doors of the common room, looking for evidence that the Sharadi had been faithful to Dwarven construction on the inside as well as the outside.  In this, he saw, they did change things.  The interior of the buildings was much different from a Dwarven building, meaning that they adhered to their ancient building appearances only on the outside.  They scrambled out of his way, staring at him with wide eyes, as he padded across the common room to inspect the plaster-coated far wall, plaster that showed signs of its age with many pits, stains, nicks, and scratches that had filled in with dirt over the years.  Tarrin shifted from the wall to the ceiling, seeing that it had been replaced recently, using the same type of stone as the outside but showing the relative shoddiness between the meticulous construction of the outside and the construction inside.  They went to great pains to make the outside perfect, but they weren't quite as demanding when it came to things that only they themselves would see.  He couldn't pin that attitude on all Sharadi, only the ones who had built the ceiling, but it was a valid observation nonetheless.

        He left as silently as he came, and left an utterly silent tavern behind him when he did so.  But he didn't remain alone for very long.  Not too long after leaving the tavern, a familiar scent touched his nose, and he saw a dark figure moving towards him from further up the street.  It was Haley, dressed in a rather dashing black waistcoat with no sleeves, a Shacèan affectation, over a white silk shirt with flared sleeves and with delicate, almost gaudy lace at the neck and cuffs, flared black trousers tucked into highly polished black leather knee boots, and a graceful rapier hanging easily from a belt made from woven strands of gold inlaid into a sturdy, wide leather strap with a wolf's head in relief as the buckle, complete with a small emerald to serve as its eye.  A long, narrow-bladed dagger with a small basket-hilt rested in a sheath just over the rapier's mounting studs, the end of it resting lightly against the leather-covered scabbard of his rapier, a weapon that most would call a poinard, but the Shacèans called a main gauche.  It was a fencer's dagger, used to complement the rapier in the off hand, primarily a defensive weapon, but still a weapon.  They were on the same side so Haley could use his free hand to help him draw his rapier, then slide it up and draw the main gauche in a single smooth motion.  He even wore a cape to complete his look of a Shacèan Musketeer, a short waistcape that flared every time he turned and tended to float on the gentlest breeze.

        He raised his hand in greeting as they approached one another, then Tarrin turned a corner just before meeting him.  He fell into step beside the Were-cat easily.  "I wondered how long it would take you to come out," Haley said with a chuckle.  "It's not often that you can explore a city like this one."

        "Have you even been back to the Tower?" he asked.

        Haley shook his head.  "What in the Tower can compare to this?" he asked brightly, motioning with both hands to the city spread out before him.  "This is where the action is, my cousin, this is where the life is.  The Tower is a dusty old tomb compared to the life being lived out here."

        "I can't argue with that," Tarrin said honestly.  "Now I see why you don't stay with your family."

        "I guess I'm just too human for them," he chuckled ruefully.  "They never fail to amaze me, Tarrin.  They have such short lives, yet they do so much with them.  Humans never seem to stop from the day they're born to the day they die.  It's almost like they know they don't have much time, so they live every day to its fullest."

        "That can be as much a problem as an asset," he said.  "Sometimes they meddle in things they have no business being in.  Val was a good example of that."

        "True, and you can hate him for what he did--starting the Blood War and all--but you still can't help but admire him for his ambition, and you have to admit that he did some pretty impressive things before he became a god.  He built an empire from scratch and turned it into a force that only the Sharadi could match.  That's an accomplishment.  His only drawback was that eternal human weakness.  Greed."

        "Hate the message but not the messenger?"

        "Not exactly," he said quickly.  "I hate his memory for the destruction he wrought, but when you look before that, before greed and ambition turned him evil, you'll find that he was actually a pretty decent guy.  He was a great man whose legacy will forever be so tainted by his evil that it blots out the good that he managed to accomplish before hand.  But there was good in his history before he started his quest to rule the world."

        "You have a strange way at looking at history, Haley."

        "No, I just looked at all of it, Tarrin.  Not just those things that everyone else accepts.  I believe in seeing the whole picture, from both sides.  I've read some Valkari history books, and they're quite different than the history books most sages have now.  They show what went on in Valkar before Val went mad with power and started down the path that led to the Blood War."

        "I think I've had enough of talking about Val, Haley," he said wearily.

        "I guess you would," he agreed with a nod.  "Quite alot of bad blood there.  Sorry I brought it up."

        "That's alright.  Why are you out here dressed like a Shacèan, Haley?  You stand out like a cannon in a ballroom, as Kerri would say."

        "I lived in Shacè for thirty years, Tarrin," he laughed.  "I guess I've been nationalized."

        "That's a strange word."

        "It is, but it's as good a description as any."

        "Dolanna told me what happened.  Do you plan to go back to Dayisè?"

        "I won't be able to go back for a while," he sighed somberly.  "I had to reveal myself to deal with Stragos, and they'll talk about that for a good five years."

        "I'm surprised you had so much trouble with a human, Haley," Tarrin said reproachfully.

        "This was no ordinary human, cousin," Haley said seriously.  "Whoever trained him did not leave any holes in his education, he was damn smart, and he had several actual magical items with him.  Between his skills, that magic, and that damned sword of his, I was put on the defensive from the get-go and stayed there almost until the end."

        "What kind of magic?"

        "Well, he had an amulet that looked like an eye on a chain that made everyone see me as a Were-wolf instead of as a human," he said.  "I remember that the eye opened as soon as he looked at me, and everyone started screaming and pointing.  He had a metal glove on his free hand that shot fire and lightning out of it.  That's how my inn got burned down.  He had on this silver-plated armor that caused a jolt up my arm every time I made contact with it with my sword and main gauche, almost like it was lightning flying up my arms.  It hurt so much, I couldn't bring myself to try to touch his armor with anything I was holding.  Then there was that sword," he growled.  "It glowed from the instant he drew it, and it hurt like bloody blue blazes if he so much as slid the flat of the blade across the back of my hand.  I think the sword and armor were specifically made to battle Were-kin.  I could sense the pure hatred that seemed to emanate from both the sword and the armor as soon as we started fighting."

        "How did you beat him?"

        "It wasn't a matter of beating as much as it was a controlled retreat," he admitted with a frown.  "I was pretty ineffective against him, even when I shifted into my hybrid form, but he was no match for my Druidic magic.  As soon as I managed to get enough of a cushion to bring it to bear against him, I had his chafed little backside right at the end of my spear; so the Ungardt say," he said with a smile.  "After I dropped a building on him, he decided I wasn't a very fun playmate anymore and managed to disappear in the all the dust and confusion."

        Tarrin actually laughed.  "No wonder the Council of Hierarchs summoned you."

        He winced.  "They had quite a few unflattering things to say to me, that's for sure," he admitted.

        "I didn't think you had a building in you.  I thought you'd be more around the area of a large cart, or maybe a good solid carriage."

        He laughed.  "I didn't either, but fighting for your very life sometimes shows you that you can exceed your limitations," he agreed.  "He wouldn't have been impressed if I sent a horse cart flying at him, but he was very impressed when I uprooted a small house and sent it flying down the street."

        "I think most people would be," he said dryly.

        "Outside of a few certain exceptions," he chuckled.

        "I'll be the people in that house were impressed."

        Haley laughed deeply.  "Tarrin, at that moment, they were probably the most impressed people on the entire island," he said richly.  "Lucky for me that they survived to fully appreciate how impressed they were.  If I'd have killed them, I don't think the Hierarchs would have let me off with a stern scolding."  He glanced towards the east.  "Well, it's coming on dawn, and we're supposed to leave at daybreak.  I think we'd better wander back towards the Tower, or we'll make everyone very cross with us."

        "They can wait all day," Tarrin said absently.  "They're certainly not leaving without me."

        Haley gave him a look, then laughed once more.

        The trip back reinforced an old acquaintance he'd had with Haley, and actually caused it to change into something approaching friendship.  Haley was a very smart, droll fellow with a rich sense of humor, exquisite manners, and a razor-sharp mind.  That was why he liked Dayisè so much, and it was an environment that suited him.  What likened Tarrin to him was that he didn't make a fuss about him.  To Haley, Tarrin was just Tarrin, not an earth-shaking magical force, not a creature to be feared or to hold in awe.  Haley treated him like a person, and Tarrin warmed to him greatly because of that.  Haley remembered Tarrin from their first meeting, and marveled at how much he had changed, but not so much that it changed who he was.  Tarrin remembered Haley from their first meeting, and found that he was very much like the Haley he had seen just before they left his inn, after the Were-wolf had warmed up to the idea of having a Rogue in his home.  Tarrin had been impressed by Haley then, and found a little respect for him.  They had both built on those impressions of each other and found common ground, and it was a common ground that suited both of them.  Tarrin ignored the fact that Haley once threatened to call Triana down on him, and Haley ignored the fact that Tarrin was a Were-cat, a traditional enemy of the Were-wolves.

        Haley joked about that as they returned to the Tower, about how the world would end if a cat and a dog ever became friends.

        But from the way it was looking, the world just might be about to play its finale.

        It would take a little while for Tarrin to come to trust Haley enough to consider him a friend, but he did like the Were-wolf, and he knew from past experience that that was the first step.  Tarrin wouldn't turn his back on Haley or trust him, but he enjoyed his company and thought him to be a rather funny person.  For Tarrin to accept Haley as he did his other friends, it would take time and patience.

        Though Tarrin seemed much different to those around him, he was still feral, and always would be.

        It turned out that there in fact were some things that a determined Faerie could not find out.

        Sarraya had come up empty in her quest to discover what Alexis' secret was, mainly because almost everyone was asleep when she decided to find out.  All she could really do was what Jula and Auli did, search the grounds to try to find the vehicle by which they were going to travel.  And just like Auli and Jula, Sarraya found nothing.

        They all debated what it could be as they gathered for an intimate breakfast devoid of outsiders, but it was still a rather large group.  It was a chance for them to catch up with Dolanna and what she'd been doing since returning to Abrodar, which wasn't very much.  She'd mainly been acting as a teacher and translator for the Sha'Kar, training the humans in the Sha'Kar language and serving more or less as Alexis' First, as Ianelle did Jenna.  The Sorcerers in the Tower resented Dolanna for that, as she was seen as something of a wild element within the Tower's political landscape.  She didn't jockey and jostle for position as they did; she didn't create a pool of friends and a base of relative power to impress the other katzh-dashi and therefore earn respected positions within the Tower as they had; and she didn't slave and toil within the Tower, making herself look wise and important as they had.  She hadn't even asked for the job.  Alexis had simply informed the Tower in an open Council, where the Council met in the main hall with the rest of the katzh-dashi attending, that Dolanna would assume the newly created position of First, the Keeper's right hand.  Dolanna was even more surprised than the powermongers that were outraged by the announcement.  Just as the Council in Suld had done when Myriam Lar stepped down and personally named Jenna as her successor, the power-player katzh-dashi in the Abrodar Tower had a collective apoplexy and were extremely put out by the appointment.  But unlike in Suld, the Goddess did not have to personally intervene, mainly because it was not a retirement from the position of greatest authority as it had been in Suld.  Alexis was still the Keeper, and she brought her power down on the whiners like a sledgehammer, assigning anyone who objected too vociferously to what was called "boot duty," travelling Sharadar and the neighboring kingdoms of Darrigon, Vendar, Kypernius, and covertly doing the same in Stygia, which was an ancient rival and enemy of Sharadar, searching out youths with the inherent aptitude for Sorcery.  Unlike in Suld, this was seen as the lowest and most menial task a Sorcerer could perform, something given to neophytes who had only just completed the Initiate, and Alexis' heavy-handed tactic silenced all criticism almost immediately.

        Dolanna wasn't very comfortable in the position, but it did smooth things over with the Sha'Kar.  It put her in a position of authority over them, and allowed her to direct them and handle them without constantly having to go to Alexis.  The Sha'Kar weren't that unruly, but their natural arrogance and impatience with their human counterparts began to show quickly after they reached Abrodar, and Dolanna had to constantly keep an unofficial war from being declared between the two races.  It had taken some time, but Dolanna had managed to get both sides to come to understand the other, which led to the current period of goodwill and cooperation between human and Sha'Kar.

        Of course, the position unofficially had become the "keep a leash on Auli" position.  The Sha'Kar's wild child made sure to keep things from getting too sedate or boring in the Tower with her stunts and her outrageous activities, from figuring out some way to make the stone leaves of the Raintree Tower turn brown and wilt, as if the ancient magical construction was about to shed for the winter, to causing a riot in the area of Abrodar called Lowtown, where the river sailors and caravan guards and the shady types that preyed upon them tended to gather.  She had caused two men to get into a fight after she flirted with both of them, but both of them had a dozen or so friends with them at the time, and it went from a personal dispute between two men into a barroom brawl.  The full-scale barroom brawl spilled out into the streets, and the fighting absorbed any number of passers-by as it roiled through the crooked streets near the docks.  The denizens of Lowtown were a rather high strung lot, and it didn't take much for them to get embroiled in the private war between Auli's would-be suitors.  The open fighting touched off a riot that required Alexis to mobilize the army to quell.  Much like Sarraya, Auli had the ability to cause trouble wherever she went, even when she didn't intend to do so.

        Auli was there, of course, for she was one of Tarrin's friends, looking just as pretty and dangerous as ever, with her slightly heavy-lidded eyes and that mischievous half-smile that always seemed to grace her lips.  Jesmind had taken her presence remarkably well, as if the time since he had been human had reinforced her sense of security.  Now that Tarrin was a Were-cat again, he'd have nothing to do with Auli in that fashion, and Jesmind finally seemed to understand it.

        What had everyone just a little nervous was the fact that Auli was smiling as Sarraya talked.  They had all dreaded the idea of Auli and Sarraya getting together, for the potential for disaster that existed between the two of them was all but undeniable.  Neither had any sense of self-constraint, and the two of them would only incite the other to be more daring, more bold, and more outrageous.  But so far, they seemed to be unexplosive.  The little tiff that occurred between them from before seemed to have been either forgotten or dismissed, and they were actually starting to be nice to each other.  Whether it was genuine friendliness or only a front so Sarraya could avenge herself against Auli was the question, and unfortunately it was a question whose answer would remain a mystery until Sarraya herself answered it with her actions.

        Tarrin knew Sarraya, and he'd bet money that Sarraya was just trying to worm her way into Auli's graces, only to humiliate her in the most spectacular fashion.  Sarraya was both petty and spiteful, and considering that she was a Faerie, that was an extremely bad combination.  The only time that Sarraya could ever really formulate complicated and clever plans was when they were plans to get back at somebody for a past slight, be it real or imagined.

        Of course, what Sarraya probably didn't realize yet, and probably only Tarrin, Iselde, Ianelle, and Allyn knew, was that his Sha'Kar friend was more than a match for Sarraya.  She'd been playing games like this for hundreds of years, and Sarraya would find herself woefully unprepared.  Auli could probably read Sarraya like a book, and was just leading her by the nose so she could turn Sarraya's plot against her.  Though she was immature and more interested in fun than work, Auli had a very sharp mind and was capable of surprisingly astute observations, as well as an awareness of the subtleties hidden within words that often betrayed a speaker's true intent.

        After breakfast, as the others went up to pack what little they'd unpacked for the single night's layover, Tarrin went on ahead with Jula, and met up on a staicase with Auli and Dolanna, each of which was leading a young servant who was carrying their baggage towards the front lawn.  That was where they were all supposed to meet, so they could all marvel at Alexis' clever way to transport them to Amazar.

        "Any luck finding out what that sneaky Keeper has up her sleeve?" Tarrin asked Auli after trading kisses on the cheek, a Sha'Kar custom of greeting between friends.

        "Bah," she snorted.  "I have no idea.  Nobody will tell me, even when I offered them all sorts of things that I know they were interested in."

        "I think you overlook the simple fact that they simply might not know," Dolanna said calmly.

        "You know," Tarrin said accusingly.

        Dolanna only smiled slightly.

        "I should have known!" Auli said in disgust, glaring at Dolanna.  "Of course you would know, Dolanna!  You're only halfway in Ally's dress with her!"

        "I thought you had the wisdom not to use that term about the Keeper, Aulienne," Dolanna said in that infuriatingly calm, unruffled manner of hers.  In all the time he'd known her, he could count on one paw the times he'd seen her upset or at a loss for either words or actions.  Dolanna all but had icewater in her veins when it came to her ability to handle surprises.  "You know she despises it."

        "So what?" she said flippantly.

        "Maybe the fact that Alexis could set you to scrubbing pots for the next ten years is a good reminder," Jula offered with a chuckle.

        "Telling me to do something and making me do it are two different things, Jula," Auli told her with a roguish grin.

        "So, what is Alexis' big secret, Dolanna?" Tarrin asked directly.

        "I cannot tell you, dear one," she said sternly, but then she smiled.  "But I can assure you that it is not dangerous, and that you in particular are going to like it."

        Tarrin felt all his reservations about this secret vanish instantly with that statement.  "If you say it's not dangerous, that's g