Chapter 14

        That next day turned out to be Tarrin’s last day of freedom for a very long time.  He did indeed take Janette to see the raker, after contacting Keritanima and having her make sure that the ship didn’t leave port during the night.  It was a thoroughly pleasant day, even if Fireflash did terrorize all the seagulls down at the docks by chasing them around all day.  All the gulls gave Tarrin reproachful looks, at least when they weren’t flying for their lives with a playful, fire-breathing drake about to barbecue the feathers off their tails.  He took her to several other ships, simply because Keritanima made sure that there were quite a few ships available for her to tour.  They toured a Shacèan galleon, a Wikuni galleon (one of the few non-Wikuni ships that the Wikuni used), a Wikuni clipper, and Tarrin got his first look at one of the new Wikuni steamships, getting the chance to watch it glide into port, which he later discovered was the first foreign port the ship visited on its maiden voyage.

        Keritanima hadn’t been sitting on that.  The time since they used the prototype had been spent in intense research and experimentation, and this ship, the Intrepid, was the end result of all that hard work.  The steamship was about twenty spans longer than the prototype had been, but was no wider across the beam--probably to help with its wallowing problem, and they’d redesigned the ship’s bow and streamlined its sides a great deal.  The paddlewheel wasn’t amidships, it was by the stern, there were two of them--one on each side--and each was much thinner than the paddlewheel Tarrin remembered.  It also had a protective casing around the top of those wheels, built into the sterncastle, adorned with the royal crest of Wikuna, and also unlike the prototype, this one had two decks of gun ports, ready to open to reveal the deadly cannons that made the Wikuni the masters of the sea.

        The captain of this vessel was an old face.  It was Jalis, the Wikuni who had commanded the steamship that had carried them to Sha’Kari.  He looked prouder than the mother of a king, strutting around the vessel in his full dress uniform, tall cap on at a jaunty angle, enjoying the looks of stunned awe that came from the captains and sailors on all the other ships, including other Wikuni ships, as the ship slid perfectly up to the dock without need of any help, moving under its own power.

        A tour was certainly in order.  In fact, Keritanima had had Jalis step up to full speed to get the ship there just so Janette could see it, a kind and thoughtful act on her part.  Or, perhaps, a chance to show off.  Either was possible where his Wikuni sister was concerned.  Jalis showed them every finger of the vessel, from the stern castle to the bilges, from stem to stern, and Tarrin was totally impressed.  The vessel was remarkably well built, surprising given that they must have been working like mad to get the ship built so quickly after it had been designed.  The steam engine in this ship was actually smaller than the one in the prototype, but there were two of them, one for each wheel, and they had been redesigned so they were safer, had fewer moving parts, and required less manpower to operate and maintain.  The twin engine rooms were behind those enclosing cases and paddlewheels, behind steel bulwarks, and Tarrin discovered that the paddlewheel covers were also made of steel.  The two layers of steel provided an armored protective sheath protecting the precious engines.  They needed that kind of defense, because this ship had only one mast, and that wouldn’t provide enough sail to let the ship move at anything more than a total crawl.  This ship completely depended on its engines for movement, so the designers had taken steps to protect them if the ship engaged in battle.

        “Quite a step up from that cramped rowboat,” Tarrin noted as Jalis led showed them his personal office, which doubled as his cabin, complete with a desk facing a stunning array of windows that faced astern, under which he had placed his bunk.

        “After we got back to Wikuna, her Majesty locked Donovan and all his engineers in a laboratory for two months and told them to design a steamship that could truly replace a clipper.  This is the result.”

        “I think they got it right,” Tarrin agreed as Janette jumped up onto the bed and looked out the window.

        “I think they did too.  I’ve put her on her paces for ten days now on the open sea, and she’s not once failed to impress me.  She’s fast, stable, agile, she can carry as much cargo as a galleon, and she packs the firepower of a clipper.  And now, if she’s outnumbered, she can put her nose into the wind and run, and there’s nothing that can catch her.  Not even Zakkite Triads.”

        “How long did it take you to get here?”

        “Twelve days.”

        Tarrin gave him a flat look.

        “I’m not lying, my Lord,” he chuckled.  “Twelve days.  That’s all it took.”

        “It takes a clipper a month to get here!”

        “Yes, but a clipper has to rely on the wind.  I steamed at full speed for eight days to test the engines, then dropped down to three quarters after we did some trials.  I’ve been on the sea for a month, but I’m not counting the days we used doing turning maneuvers and some down time as the engineers inspected the new engines.  If you take out the days when we weren’t moving forward, it only took us twelve days to get here.”  He flinched as Fireflash swooped into the cabin and landed on Tarrin’s shoulder.  “Two thirds is the standard speed the engineers decided we’d use, and at that speed, it’ll take a steamship fifteen days to go from Wikuna proper to Suld.  If they go under full steam, it‘ll probably take about ten.”

        “That’s insane, Jalis.”

        “Sometimes this technology frightens me, my Lord,” Jalis said seriously.  “Next thing you know, someone’s going to make a machine that can fly.”

        “If anything this steamship proves, is that almost anything is possible,” Tarrin answered him.  “Even without magic.”

        “Tarrin, I have just got to get myself one of these!” Janette said in glee, jumping up and down on the bed.  “I can run Shou spices to Suld in two months, when it takes everyone else nearly a year!”

        “These are Wikuni ships, little miss,” Jalis told her with a smile.  “I don’t think you’ll manage it.”

        “Ha!” she said with a light smile.  “My best friend is your queen‘s brother!  I think he might be able to convince her Majesty to sell me one!”

        “She’s a nimble little one,” Jalis laughed.

        “She’s going to be a merchant, Jalis,” Tarrin said dryly.  “She’s already started learning to use her contacts for her own ends.”

        “Remind me to sell my stock in Wikuni trading companies in about four years,” Jalis said quietly, which made Tarrin chuckle.

        As good of a day it was, it did eventually have to come to an end.  Tarrin did jump over to Amazar and check up on Camara and Koran Tal and their infant daughter before returning home, which was something he liked to do every few days or so, and then it was back home for dinner.  Of course, it wasn’t that it was a bad thing to go home.  Jesmind had been downright kittenish lately, Jasana had been behaving, and the twins weren‘t fighting with Jasana or each other as much as usual.  It was that he had a feeling that Triana was going to be coming home soon, and the vacation was going to be over.

        That turned out to be positively prophetic.  Triana was at the dinner table when he arrived, talking with a surprise guest.  Sapphire, who was in her magically granted human form, was sitting beside Jesmind with Jasana in her lap. 

        “Tarrin, you’re late,” Jesmind said crisply, getting up and moving towards the stove.  “I saved you a plate.”

        “Thanks,” he nodded.  “I stopped in to see Camara and check on my god-daughter, and she tried to feed me that spiced stew her mother cooks.”

        “That stuff that melts your teeth?” Tara asked, then she giggled when Tarrin nodded.  “I kinda liked it.”

        “Sometimes I think she does that just to see if I’ll eat it,” he said as he sat down.  “I’m happy to see you, Sapphire,” he said.  “You should have told me you were coming.  I’d have been home sooner.”

        “It is of no moment, my little friend,” she smiled.  “I’ve set my affairs so they can handle themselves for a while.  Triana told me you’ll be starting five tomorrow.  That means that it’s time for you to learn what I have to teach you.  Both of you,” she said, looking towards Triana.

        “I’m looking forward to it,” Triana said with uncharacteristic eagerness in her voice.

        “Already?” Tarrin asked.

        “Are you reluctant to learn from me?” she asked with a surprisingly winsome smile.

        “No.  Afraid,” he answered with a straight face.

        “You should be,” she said sagely, trading glances with Triana.  “Any Druid who does not fear the magic should not be learning it.”

        “You’re saying you’re afraid, Auntie Sapphire?” Tara asked in an almost challenging tone.

        “Even dragons have the sense to be afraid of some things, Tara,” she answered bluntly to the blue-eyed Were-cat child.  “Only a fool has no fear.”

        “Well, I wouldn’t be afraid of any stupid magic,” Tara announced.

        “Then you shall never learn from me,” Sapphire told her with steel in her voice.

        Jesmind stood.  “Well, if this is the last day without any training, then the rest of it is mine,” she declared.  “The rest of your night is mine, my mate.”

        “I think I can live with that,” he answered her.

        And so, Jesmind took the rest of his free time, and he didn’t mind at all.  They went for a long walk around the forest, as Jesmind told him about Jasana’s day of learning how to hunt, which had not gone well.  Jasana had decided that learning to hunt the regular way was too slow and boring, so she cheated using Sorcery.  Jasana had a tendency to do that any time she didn’t think doing it without magic was either fast or easy enough.  Jesmind read her the riot act and then they started over, and after that, Jasana did quite well.  She would never be as good at hunting as Eron was--Tarrin kept tabs on his son as much as he did on his goddaughter--but she’d be good enough to support herself once she was an adult.  Once that news was passed, they just walked around and talked about nothing of importance, which was in itself an important thing for them to do from time to time.  With everything that always seemed to go on in his life, sometimes he felt he didn’t give Jesmind the attention he felt she deserved.  She was his mate, and he loved her, but she was competing for his attention with people who did not like to be ignored.  Between Triana and Sapphire and his children and his family and the large number of people he liked to keep track of, sometimes he felt he didn’t give Jesmind the time that was rightfully hers.

        Sometimes he marveled at how patient she could be sometimes.  She had a temper and she often pushed him and tested him to see how far she could go, part of the endless competitive squabbling between Were-cat mates as they continuously tested and shifted boundaries, but those were just distractions from the amazing amount of patience she exhibited as she allowed him to spend time and pay attention to others.  No matter how much she complained about it and fussed about it, he knew that she was more than willing to endure those periods for the times when he did give her all his attention.  Kimmie and Jula both had told him some time ago that when it came to him, Jesmind was very much capable of acting out of character, even acting against the basic impulses and instincts that ruled all Were-cats.  It was realizations like that that told him that they were right.

        As they walked out towards Sathon’s grove, which wasn’t very far from the house, Jesmind pointed towards the snow-capped Skydancer Mountains.  “I forget how pretty they are sometimes,” she sighed, leaning against his shoulder.  He put his arm around her and took in her scent.  “Sathon was here earlier today,” she told him.  “He said that they’ve been seeing Goblinoids up in the mountains again.”

        “It’s about time,” he answered.  “It took them, what, a year to get back down here?”

        “There can’t be very many of them,” she mused.  “Maybe me and Kimmie and Jula should go up there and wipe them out.”

        “Down, girl,” he told her, which made her giggle like a little girl.  “I wonder how many survived Gora Umadar.”

        “You sank it into a lake of lava, my mate,” she scoffed.  “A handful would be a large estimate.”

        “At least the Ogres and Giants survived,” he sighed in relief.  They were Goblinoids, but neither race was inherently cruel like the others were.  Ogres and Giants managed to co-exist rather peacefully with humans and Fae-da’Nar.  Ogres were extremely stupid, and sometimes caused problems, but not because of an evil bent for mischief.  On the whole, they were big-hearted creatures who tried to be nice and do good, but their dim understanding often interfered with their noble intent.  Giants visited Aldreth about once a year, just before winter, to stock up on supplies and occasionally have Karn the smith make them tools or weapons, which they would pick up a month or so after ordering them.  Karn always gave those orders priority, with the blessing of the village.  Not because they feared the Giants, but because they were special individuals who couldn’t really go anywhere else, so the villagers wanted to make sure that they had everything they needed before the snows made coming down out of the mountains a dangerous proposition, even for a Giant.  Before being turned, Tarrin had met Giants on four different occasions, and had found them to very polite fellows, always careful and mindful of where they were stepping.

        “Oouaff, I hate Ogres,” Jesmind grunted.

        “Mean woman,” he teased.

        “You bet,” she said with a light jab to his ribs.  “How was Camara?”

        “Frazzled,” he answered.  “Her daughter has more energy than she does.”

        “You need to take me down there so I can see her,” she told him.

        “It seems like everyone’s starting to have kids, love,” he mused.  “You started it with Jasana.  Then Kimmie has hers, and Camara has a daughter.  Now Kerri’s pregnant.  I wonder who’s next.”

        “Probably Dar and Tiella,” Jesmind chuckled.  “Humans breed like rats.”

        “It might be a while before Allia has a child,” he told her.  “Selani females only come in season once every two years or so, and they carry for only six months before delivering.  In that respect, they’re a lot different than any of the Sha’Kar descendents.”

        “They do?  We’ve known her for two years,” she realized.  “When was she in season?”

        “A little under two years ago,” he answered.  “When we were traveling from the Stormhavens to Dayisè.  I, wasn’t talking to anyone then, and it came and went without me and her talking about it.”

        “Oh, so she has to wait a while before she can get pregnant.”

        “I’m not entirely positive,” he told her.  “She did say that married Selani can come into a brief fertile phase if they make love a great deal,” he told her.  “Continual sexual contact triggers an out-of-cycle fertile period.”

        “How often do they go at each other?” she asked with a naughty little smile.

        “Often enough, I’d wager,” Tarrin answered.

        “The Selani are so different from the other splinter races,” Jesmind said.  “I wonder how that happened.

        “Fara’Nae changed them, the same way the Wikuni gods changed the Wikuni to separate them from their past.  But in Fara’Nae’s case, she changed them so they could survive the desert better.  It’s a brutal environment, love.  Trust me, I know.”

        “Let’s stop gossiping about family,” she told him with a chuckle, looking up at the mountains again.  “It’s going to be like you’re not even there again,” she sighed.  “I know mother and that dragon are going to hog all your time.”

        “I don’t think it’s going to be that bad,” he told her.  “Sapphire’s the one that’s going to be doing most of the teaching, and she’s not like mother is.  She’ll be demanding, but I don’t think she’ll totally dominate all my time.  I know she won’t make me carry around boulders,” he chuckled.

        “I saw some of those rocks,” Jesmind grunted.  “I don’t think I could even lift them.”

        “You could if you exercised,” he told her.

        “I don’t think I’d want to do that,” she told him.  “I don’t really need to carry around those rocks, after all.”

        Tarrin chuckled.  “At least you’d be more of a challenge in bed,” he teased.  “You’re too easy to push around now.”

        “Oh, is that it?” she asked archly.  “You just wait, Tarrin.  Next time we’re in bed, we’ll see who can wrestle who on his back.”

        “At least it’ll be fun.”

        “I can make it not fun,” she threatened insincerely.

        “Then what fun would that be?” he said, which made her laugh.

        “At least now I can appreciate how human females feel,” she admitted.  “I’m not used to a mate stronger than I am.  It’s weird.  Not altogether bad, but weird.”

        “When I’m five hundred years old, maybe I’ll be as wise as you,” he continued to tease.

        “My, you’re plucky today,” she grinned, jabbing him in the ribs.

        “Just enjoying my freedom,” he told her.  “I know that tomorrow I’ll go from an adult to a little kid.”

        Jesmind looked at him, then laughed richly.  “I see.  Triana and Sapphire?  How intimidated can someone who isn’t a thousand years old get?”

        He nodded.  “I’d better get my impertinence out of my system.”

        “That’s the truth.”

        “What are you doing tomorrow?”

        “More hunting lessons,” she answered.  “I’m teaching Jasana how to track.  She’s not big enough to bring down big game yet, but you’re never too young to learn how to track it.”

        “Good.”

        “I met someone today I think you know,” she told him.  “Audrey.”

        “The Were-wolf?  I remember her,” he answered.  “Dark hair?  Dangerous eyes?”

        “That’s the one,” Jesmind nodded.  “She was at Sathon’s.  I stopped in there for lunch, since we were just a little ways off from the grove.”

        “I wonder what she was doing there.”

        “Who knows?  She’s a Were-wolf.  It’s not like I really care.  She asked about you, you know.”

        “Why would she do that?”

        “Who knows?  Maybe she wants to know where you’ll be, so she can bring her pack and try to kill you.”

        “I doubt that,” he told her.

        “She’s a Were-wolf, Tarrin,” Jesmind chided.  “She’d kill you in a heartbeat if she thought she could get away with it.”

        “She knows she’d never get away with it,” he told her calmly as they turned and walked down a short rise, towards a small stream that had deeply worn down into its banks, so much so that there was an eight span cliff from the edge to the water’s surface.  Tarrin stopped and sat on the edge, feet dangling down towards the water, and Jesmind slid down beside him, leaning back on her paws and looking over towards him.

        “How much longer is your training going to take?” she asked.

        “I’m not sure,” he answered.  “Not long, I hope.  It’s already coming onto a year.”

        “Not quite a year, love.  More like seven months.”

        “It feels like ten years,” he grunted.

        “It does for us too,” she told him.

        They were quiet a long moment.  “Jesmind.”

        “What?”

        “Why did you stop playing the lute?” he asked.

        A look of sincere pain flashed across her face, and she rose up and drew in her legs, wrapping her arms around them.  “Remember when I told you I had a mate once, about eighty years ago?” she asked in a quiet, subdued tone.

        “I do.”

        “I told you he died, in a fire,” she continued.  “His name was Arrick, but he always wanted to be called Snake.  Well, what he loved most about our time together was when I played the lute for him.  He always said it showed the beauty of my soul,” she said in a joking manner, but her voice was strained.  “He’d sit there for hours and do nothing but listen to me play.  Well, I never told you that I was there when he died,” she told him.  “Lightning struck a tree by our cottage and it caught fire, and it dropped embers into the thatch.  We were asleep at the time, so it caught us by surprise.  The whole cottage was filled with smoke by the time we woke up.  We got separated.  I managed to squirm out of a hole in cat form, but Arrick never made it.  I think the smoke killed him before he could get out.

        “After Arrick died, there just wasn’t any joy in it for me anymore,” she told him, sniffling a bit.  “Every time I tried to play, all I could think of was him.”

        Tarrin put his arm around her, and she leaned against him.  Even after eighty years, she still grieved for a lost love.  It showed the power of Jesmind’s emotions, and it explained a great deal about her personality to him.  Jesmind was a woman of extremes, who always threw everything into everything she did.  It was apparent to him now that she loved with the same intensity, and losing a love was devastating to her.   It was more devastating in that she had trouble letting go, did not want to let go.  Instead of healing over time, her emotional wounds remained open, and she buried them deep inside and erected defenses around them to keep from feeling that pain.  That was why she stopped playing the lute, because it brought forth memories that hurt her.  Instead of coming to terms with that grief and moving on, she instead refused to let go, refused to forget, refused to give up her grief, which caused the pain of loss to become locked inside of her.

        They sat there for a while, as Jesmind tried to get over bad memories, and Tarrin considered what he had learned about his mate, until the shadows of the forest began to deepen.  It was getting late, and it was time to go home.  Instead of walking, Tarrin Teleported them home, and then tenderly tucked his mate away in bed for a while so she could be alone, and then went out and cooked dinner.  The whole time he thought about Jesmind, and what he could do to help her, help her permanently heal the wounds in her heart and move on.  It distracted him all during dinner, as he was nonresponsive to his children and his friends, and retired to his underground library to ponder the problem a bit longer after he got Jasana into bed.  He kept turning over the axe of the Dwarven king in his paw over and over again, absently studying the Duthak runes upon it as his mind pondered more immediate problems.

        After a while, he felt he had a good solution.  He put down the axe and shapeshifted into his human form, then Teleported himself to Suld.  He left the Tower quickly and without anyone noticing--few recognized him in his human form--and rushed down to the festhall that Haley owned.  It wasn’t sunset quite yet in Suld, and that meant that the streets were filled with a mix of people still going about their business and people on their ways to taverns and festhalls to celebrate the end of a day’s labor.  Haley’s festhall was just off a square notorious as a working area for harlots, but it was also heavily visited by people of all economic backgrounds.  Well-to-do taverns and festhalls were on one side of the square, and seedier establishments faced off against them from the other side.  There were distinct boundaries here, though they weren’t visible, as the richer folks stayed on one side and the poor on the other, with the harlots in the middle hawking a good time to the men on both sides.  Haley’s festhall was solidly on the invisible boundary between rich and poor, and that meant that his establishment saw clientele from both sides.  Tarrin had the feeling that Haley did that on purpose, or had specifically chosen this particular festhall to buy for that particular reason, for it meant that not only was he always busy, but Haley enjoyed access to the information that circulated among the rich as well as the poor.  Tarrin hadn’t come here before, but he had the feeling that Haley knew everything that was going on in the city of Suld, from the gossiping and wars of intrigue and status of the rich to the location of every fence in the city, as well as who was who among the figures of the underworld.

        The place was busy, and it was huge.  Tarrin stopped at the front entrance and found himself staring at a warehouse-sized building with a grand porch and a balcony above it, supported by wooden columns that were carved to resemble Knights of Karas in their armor.  There was a large table on that balcony with six people sitting around it, lords and ladies wearing expensive gowns or fine doublets or tunics and hose.  The balcony faced the square, and the square itself was on something of a rise in the central section of the city, meaning that whoever sat on that balcony would get a good view of the square, as well as be able to see the harbor over the roofs on the opposite side.  The air was a bit cool, but that didn’t seem to bother the diners above, and Tarrin realized that that had to be one of the most expensive tables in Haley’s establishment.  Much to Tarrin’s surprise, a Wood Giant was standing by the door, his fifteen span tall, barrel-chested burly body dressed up in a tailed waistcoat and wool breeches, eyeing everyone who came in the door with his saucer-sized green eyes.  Tarrin realized that the Wood Giant was Haley’s bouncer and enforcer, and an intimidating mountain of muscle like that would keep everyone on his or her best behavior.  Tarrin walked past him with a nod, which was returned in a dignified manner, and Tarrin stepped inside.  The interior was a cavernous common room of sorts, an immense open area with booths lining three walls, a huge bar taking the right half of the far wall, and a grand stage that was built up in the far left corner of the room, where a quintet of musicians played a variety of instruments.  The floor in the back half of the huge room was empty, an area for dancing, perhaps, but there were tables on the floor on the side of the hall closest to the door.  The hall extended up to the second floor, where a palisade of sorts ringed the common room, holding more booths, and with its supporting columns dropping down to anchor between booths built underneath them.  Quite cleverly, Tarrin saw, the booths on the right side of the palisade were built up against the rail, letting the people on that side get an unobstructed view of the musicians on the stage.  The booths on the other two walls that Tarrin could see from the entrance were built back and away from the rail, using the space between the rail and the booths as a walkway where serving wenches and men in waistcoats carried trays of food and wine and stronger spirits.

        The festhall was packed.  Men and women wearing ruder clothing sat at the tables and at the booths on the ground floor, while the richer folk sat at the booths on the ringed second floor.  Haley’s serving staff scurried quickly yet elegantly between tables, out of the doors on the right side of the bar, in the corner, and up two staircases which were directly beside the double-doors on the far wall leading back into the kitchens and on the right wall just steps from the kitchen doors.  Tarrin saw that the staircases were put together like that to keep serving staff from crossing in front of the stage or across the middle of the open area, preserving it for whatever uses it had.  Even the serving people who came to the bar did so by hugging the right wall, moving out just a little to avoid passing too closely by the stairways and the kitchen doors to avoid collisions, and then went up to the bar.  He saw that customers freely moved through that open space as they pleased, stepping up to the bar and standing before it.  There were no stools before the bar, as there were at many taverns and festhalls.  Haley kept the area around his bar clear.  Anyone wishing to be at the bar was forced to stand, but that did not dissuade many.  And it was a curious mix, as richly garbed men rubbed elbows with fellows wearing rough wool shirts and leather breeches shined with wear and age.  There were three men behind the bar, busily pouring drinks from kegs and casks on racks against the back, with rows and rows of glass bottles holding liquids of many different colors arrayed above them.  Haley was one of them, solidly in the middle of the bar, talking with a short pudgy man with a balding pate fringed with short red hair, a red doublet and cape, black breeches and black flared knee boots.  He had a rapier on his belt, his hand resting lightly on it as he spoke with the disguised Were-wolf.

        Tarrin moved across the open area and stepped up beside the red-clad man, listening as they chattered musically to each other in Shacèan.  It was one of two languages used in the West that Tarrin didn’t speak…or at least not quite yet.  Reaching within, through the Cat--which wasn’t quite as easy as it usually was when he was in human form--and put a single finger up against the back of the man’s neck.  He had used this spell several times before, but never as the recipient of the knowledge, but found after it began to work that it didn’t make him nearly as dizzy as it had when Triana had used it on him.  There was only a slight discomfort, and that faded quickly.  The same couldn’t be said for the man who unknowingly supplied Tarrin with his knowledge of Shacèan.  The man staggered against the bar, putting a hand to his head.

        “Are you well, my friend?” Haley asked in concern, in Shacèan, reaching out to steady him, but his eyes were immediately locking on Tarrin.  They widened in surprise, then a great smile graced the handsome man’s features.

        “I find myself suddenly quite dizzy,” the man replied.

        “Perhaps the shaulze you drank had a dreamberry in it,” he offered.  “You know how those can take time to hit you.  I have a bed in a room in the back.  You’re welcome to lay down and wait for it to pass.”

        “Yes, yes, perhaps you are right.  I think there was something solid in the shaulze.”

        “Yari, be a dear and escort Michoud here to a place where he may lay down for a while,” Haley called in Sulasian to a pretty blond serving woman who was passing by the bar.

        “Of course, Master Haley,” she said with a slow smile, setting her tray on the bar and taking the man Michoud’s arm.  “This way, good sir.”

        Tarrin watched as the blond escorted the man, who was shorter than her, towards the double-doors.

        “That’s one way to get my attention, Tarrin,” Haley said with a broad grin, speaking in Sha’Kar.  “You really didn’t have to do that, you know.”

        “I’ve been meaning to pick up Shacèan for a while,” he told her.  “When I get home, I think I’ll lift Torian off Kimmie.  She’s been meaning to teach me for a while.”

        “She wants to teach you, not have you pull it out of her,” Haley told him.

        “Well, then we’ll have to wait, I guess,” he answered.

        “What are you doing here, Tarrin?  Not that I mind having you visit, of course,” he said with a smile.  “It’s just unusual to see you out here.”

        “Well, I have been meaning to come see your new place,” he said.  “And I need your expertise.”

        “It’s not quite what I envision yet, but I’m working on it,” he said, motioning towards the second floor booths.

        “What do you envision?” Tarrin asked.

        “Running every other festhall out of business,” he winked.

        “That’s not what you had in Dayisè.”

        “I know, but I guess I’m getting more predatory,” he chuckled.  “What do you think?”
        “I’m impressed,” he answered.  “Was it like this when you bought it, or did you remodel?”

        “It was a dump when I bought it,” he answered. “The common room was the size of the stage, and the rest of the place was a brothel.  I spent a great deal of money fixing the place up.”

        “I see two floors, but the place is tall enough for four.  What’s on the upper floors?”

        “The front half of the third and fourth floors are a gambling parlor,” he answered.  “The back half of the third floor is private rooms that I rent out.”

        “I see you kept the brothel,” Tarrin smiled.

        Haley laughed.  “Actually, the brothel I moved to the building behind this one.  I own it, but that way I keep the two of them separate.  I even hired a good madam to keep things under control and keep the girls safe.”

        “Who is that?”

        “His wife,” he said, pointing at the Wood Giant by the door.

        Tarrin laughed.  “I’d imagine things are quite orderly over there,” he agreed.

        “The funny part is that she gets into her job.  She wears revealing nightgowns and everything.”

        “I hope nobody tries to hire her.”

        “A couple have already tried.  Gringal there doesn’t care, because he thinks it’s funny.  So does she, for that matter.  She just pats them on the head and tells them that they’re too young.”

        Tarrin laughed heartily.  “I can just imagine that.”

        Haley winked.  “The rooms I have up there are rented out for people who want private, discreet meeting places.”

        “So, you’re dabbling in crime.”

        ‘Something like that,” he said with a grin.  “A few rather shady fellows have rented my rooms from time to time, but it’s none of my business.  They’re paying for the use of the room.  What they do in that room doesn’t concern me as long as they’ve paid.”

        “Master Haley, we’re running low on apple brandy,” one of the other barkeeps called.

        “Well, run down to the cellar and fetch another cask!” he said sharply.  “Good grief, Nian, you don’t have to ask me if you can go get more every time we run out of something!  Just go get it!”

        “Sorry, Master Haley, but my last employer wouldn’t let us do that.  I’m just used to asking, that’s all.”

        “Apple brandy?” Tarrin asked.

        “Kael brandy,” Haley told him with a wide smile.  “I made a deal with your father.  You can’t buy your father’s apple brandy anywhere in Suld but here.  Well, not at a reasonable price, anyway,” he added.

        Tarrin chuckled.  “I knew my father was spending a great deal of time in the brew house, but I didn’t realize he was making ale and brandy to sell.”

        “He’s making a killing,” he answered.  “I don’t know how he makes so much of it.”

        “It’s not that hard, Haley,” he answered.  “You just throw the ingredients in a barrel and let them sit for six months, and check them every once in a while.”

        “I’ve never learned much about brewing.  I’m more interested in drinking it than making it.”

        “You certainly move fast, Haley,” Tarrin chuckled.  “You haven’t even been here a year, but you’re already on the inside loop.”

        “It’s no fun not knowing what’s going on,” he answered.  “So, what kind of expertise did you need from me, Tarrin?”

        He leaned on the bar and looked at him.  “I want to find a lute,” he answered.  “And a Nyrian citar.”

        “That’s all?” he asked with a scoff.  “You can Conjure as many as you want.”

        “But I don’t know what makes a good lute, Haley,” he said.  “If I don’t know, there’s no way I can be sure of getting a good one.”

        That was true, and Haley would know it.  If a Druid had no personal experience with the object he wanted to Conjure, there was no way of telling what kind of quality he was going to get.  Tarrin wanted high-quality instruments, and that meant that to get them, he had to find someone who knew what made a quality lute and citar.

        “True,” he agreed after a moment.  “Alright, I can help you there.  Do you want me to Conjure you a couple, or--”

        “No, I’m not going to cheat about this, Haley,” he said.  “It’s important to me.  I want you to find the best lute and Nyrian citar you can find.  Cost isn’t an issue.”

        “When do you want them?”

        “As soon as possible,” he replied.

        Haley licked his lips.  “You know, if the right person comes in tonight, I could arrange to have you buy them tomorrow morning,” he told him.  “There’s a music shop near the docks that’s quite well known, and the owner collects antique instruments.“

        “I don’t want antiques--“

        “Tarrin, some of the best instruments you’ll find are antiques,“ he interrupted.  “If it was made by a master, like Tuelli, it’ll be the best you can buy, and it‘ll sound sweeter than a child‘s laughter.  Let me ask around.  Are you going to bed any time soon?”

        “No, I’ll stay up,” he replied.  “I can’t stay here, though.  Jesmind’s going to come looking for me soon, and I don’t want her to know I’m not home.”

        “Alright.  I’ll nose around a bit.  I’ll contact you when I have something to tell you.”

        “I’d like to get them fast, Haley.”

        “Then go home and let me find them for you,” he said with a grin.

        “I appreciate it.”

        “You’re a friend, Tarrin,” he said with a negligent wave of his hand.  “Friends do favors for each other.  It’s the right thing to do.”

        “And you’ll be holding that favor over my head later,” Tarrin noted dryly.

        “I’m not a fool, Tarrin,” Haley winked.

        Tarrin used a privy in Haley’s festhall as a private place to use to Teleport back to his basement study, where he sat down and started looking through his collection of Duthak texts to make himself look busy if Jesmind came down into the study.  He was so busy that he didn’t really think to wonder why the desk and chair were so big.  But, after a while, he got enthralled in reading about ancient Dwarven kings and lost track of things, at least until Jula rapped her knuckles on the desk and about startled him out of his wits.

        “Jula!” he gasped, putting a hand over his chest.  “Warn me next time you do that!”

        “My, my, father,” she said with a teasing smile.  “It’s not often I can sneak up on you.  At least not usually,” she said as she reached out and tapped the side of his head.

        Flattening his human ear against his head.

        Tarrin looked down at his hands--hands--and realized that he never shapeshifted back into his base form.  And for the first time, he noticed that there was no pain involved in holding the human shape.  None.  He’d been in human form for a few hours now, and even with all the practice he had at holding it, he’d at least feel the itch that preceded the nagging ache.  But there was nothing at all.

        “Huh,” he mused, looking at the human hands before him.  “I didn’t even notice.”

        “You must really be good at holding the human shape,” she said as she sat down.  Tarrin stood up and changed form, then seated himself back into the chair, a chair that now felt just right.  “That or you’re really distracted tonight.”

        “A little of both, I guess,” he said absently, closing the book, one of the copies he’d made at the Imperial Library, and pushing it aside.  “I’m waiting for Haley to get back in touch with me.”

        “Haley?  Why are you waiting for him for?”
        “He’s doing something for me,” he answered.  “What are you doing prowling around, daughter?”

        “I just got back from Wikuna.”

        “What were you doing over there?”

        “Checking out technology in action,” she answered.  “I paid a little visit to Kerri’s shipyards.  You know they’re building four more of those steamships?”

        “Kerri tends to move fast,” he said dismissively.

        “They’re building them even faster,” she told him.  “That’s not the only thing they have over there now,” she continued.  “I wasn’t sure what it was, so maybe you can explain it to me.”  She motioned to the far side of the desk and wove an Illusion, a memory of what she saw.  It was a huge building with several smokestacks, where Wikuni were hauling carts of small grayish-red rocks inside.

        “It’s a foundry, daughter,” he told her.  “They have a blast furnace in there.  It’s how they make steel.”

        “Not that, father, this,” she said, getting up and pointing to side of the foundry that was built on a quay over the ocean, where rows of dark metal plates had been laid out.  Tarrin scrutinized them, and recognized that they were steel, and had been laid out in a pattern.  And what was more, that they would be assembled together to form a side of the hull; they had the shape for it.

        Clever girl!

        Tarrin laughed, leaning back in his chair.  “Kerri should give her engineers a raise,” he told her.

        “What is it, father?” she asked.

        “They’re going to cover a steamship with armor,” he answered.

        “Why on Sennadar would they do that for?” she asked.  “It’ll sink like a rock!”

        “I’d guess that it won’t,” he told her.  “Kerri wouldn’t have them build it if it was just going to sink.”

        “But why do that?”

        “Can you think of a catapult on Sennadar that could put a dent in a ship covered in metal armor, Jula?” he asked.  “Those aren’t cargo ships she’s building, they’re warships.  Put cannons on an armored ship like that, and you have a ship that nothing on the twenty seas can challenge without magic.”

        “But it’ll rust!”

        “Not if she coats the steel plates with some non-rusting metal, like nickel,” he told her.  “A foundry can get a fire hot enough to melt nickel.  Nickel doesn’t rust.  They just dip the steel plates into a vat of molten nickel and coat them, and then you have rustproof steel.”

        “Hmm,” Jula said, looking at the Illusion again.  “I didn’t know that.  When did you learn about metallurgy?”

        “I was briefly apprenticed to the village smith while his regular apprentice was recovering from a broken arm,” he answered.  “I learned a lot from Karn that summer.  I’m surprised I remember so much of it.”

        “I wonder why she’s doing that, though,” she mused.  “I mean, the Wikuni already rule the seas.  Why bother to put armor on a steamship?”

        “The Wikuni stay on top by always staying two steps ahead of everyone else,” he told her.  “They can’t sit still, or they’ll find other nations on the water with steam engines and cannons too.”

        “Oh.  I can understand that.”

        Tarrin glanced at her.  “How did you get in here without waking up Jesmind?” he asked curiously, realizing that Jula had to have gone through his room to reach the stairs to his library.

        She grinned.  “I Teleported to the stairs,” she told him.  “I know better than to go into your room at night, father.  Jesmind gets a tad violent.”

        “Just slightly,” Tarrin chuckled.  “Did you go anywhere else?”

        She nodded.  “I hopped down to Abrodar and checked in with Dolanna.   She’s a bit put out with you, father.  You haven’t talked to her in nearly a ride.”

        “She knows how to put her hand on her amulet, Jula,” he snorted.

        “Nobody wants to contact you because of your Druidic training,” she reminded him.

        “Forgot about that,” he grunted.  “I’ll talk to her tomorrow, then.”

        Tarrin felt the fingers of a Druidic magic spell reach into the study, and then a swirling pool of misty darkness appeared to the side of Tarrin’s desk.  It filled in with swirling bluish energy, and then solidified just as Haley’s image appeared within it.  It was the Druid’s answer to the shaerams, one of the ways  that Druids talked to one another over great distances.

        “Haley,” Tarrin greeted.  “That was fast.”

        “I walked down to talk to the person we discussed,” he answered.  “I caught up with him at a tavern down the street from his shop.”  He glanced at Jula.  “He has the items we discussed.  He’s willing to do business right now.”

        “Alright.  Stay where you are, and I’ll be there in a little bit.  Don’t let him get too drunk.”
        Haley laughed.  “Tarrin, you want them to get drunk before you start bargaining with them.  It confounds their good sense.”

        “Just keep him from falling off the barstool, then,” Tarrin smiled.

        Haley nodded.  “See you in a shake,” he said, and then the misty portal that allowed them to see one another evaporated like smoke.

        “What are you after, father?  More Dwarven relics?” Jula asked.

        “Something more important than that, cub.”

        “What?”

        “Peace of mind,” he answered.  “Go to bed, or whatever you want to do.  I don’t want any company for this.”

        She bobbed her head slightly as Tarrin stood.  “As you wish, father.  You’ll be home soon?”

        “I shouldn’t be gone long.  If Jesmind wakes up and starts looking for me, tell her I had to go to Suld real quick to take care of something important, and I should be back very soon.  It is the truth.”

        Tarrin shapeshifted back into his human form and flexed his fingers a moment, then looked to his bond-daughter.  “I’ll be back in a little while.”

        “I’ll be waiting,” she told him as he set his will against the Weave and quickly and expertly wove the spell of Teleportation, which transported him in the blink of an eye from his underground study to the courtyard of the Goddess at the Tower, in Suld.

        He had some business to attend to.

        Moving around in his human form, he had discovered, had all kinds of advantages.  The fact that nobody recognized him had to be the greatest advantage of them all.  He didn’t attract a crowd wherever he went, for one, and there weren’t all the points and stares and whispers that always followed him around.  People talked to him, were actually rude to him--something that was surprisingly refreshing, in a masochistic sort of way--and treated him just like anyone else.  He wasn’t Tarrin Kael, the Mi’Shara to the people who saw him on the street.  To them, he was just another Ungardt prowling around Suld, probably looking for someplace to get roaring drunk and end up in the town jail after getting into a fight and breaking someone’s arm and knocking out a few teeth.

        The merchant Haley had him meet, a short, thin fellow named Thuram, didn’t recognize him, and as such he found himself actually bargaining with the man over two old--but not antique or rare--instruments, a standard five-stringed lute and a Nyrian citar. Thuram bargained like a wolverine, but Tarrin really wasn’t that interested in the cost.   After all, Druids didn’t have a care for money.  He bargained mainly because it had been a very long time since he had done so--without his soul being on the line, anyway--and found it oddly fun and a bit challenging.

        So, after about an hour and a few tankards of Stormhaven ale, Tarrin and Thuram agreed to a price, and went to his shop to pick up his prizes and settle payment.  The lute looked aged, but it was the darkening of wood which had been lovingly maintained over the years.  The Nyrian citar was much newer, but it looked to be in quite good condition.  Tarrin took them and paid the man the agreed price, Conjuring the gold into an empty pouch, and then the deal was done.  Tarrin returned home with his prizes and put them in his study, then went to bed.

        That morning, he woke up before Jesmind he put a note on the bedroom door that they were not to be disturbed for any reason, went down to his library, and waited.  When Jesmind woke up and found him missing, she always went looking for him.  She did so not ten minutes after he was up, padding down the stairs without bothering to put on any clothes.  “Tarrin!” she called.  “What are you doing down here this early in the morning?”

        Tarrin moved towards her as she approached him, Conjuring her robe and helping her into it without speaking a word.  “What?” she asked, looking up at him curiously.  She realized that he had something on his mind.

        He led her to his desk and had her sit in the chair opposite his, and he leaned against the desk.  He held out his paws and Conjured forth the lute.

        She looked at it for a long moment, then stared up into his eyes, hurt and pain and uncertainty raging through them.  She looked ready to jump out of the chair and smack him, but the haunted look in her eyes told him she was too startled to react that way just yet.

        “Why?” she managed to whisper.

        “Don’t play for him, Jesmind,” Tarrin told her in a low, gentle, compassionate voice.  “Play for me.”

        She stared at the lute for a long, long time.  Tarrin watched her, watched the emotions play over her face, inside her eyes.  Hurt, outrage, indignation, a sense of betrayal dominated at first, as she felt he had taken the deep, intimate, private thing she had confided to him and used it in a cruel and twisted manner.  But then it was slowly replaced by understanding, as she comprehended that he wanted her to again do what she loved to do, trying to give her a reasoning for it that would allow her to play without it causing her such pain.  He watched it in her eyes, watched the turmoil as the sense of loss she felt when playing battled with this new reasoning, a reasoning that would again return joy to the art that she had long abandoned, the art that she had loved so much to practice.  She bowed her head, hiding her eyes from him for a long moment, then she looked up at him with tears brimming within those glorious eyes.  “Oh, Tarrin!” she cried, launching from the chair and crushing him in a powerful embrace.

        He held her for a long time, stroking her hair, comforting her, as memories of a lost love swept through her mind, and a pain long buried, long ignored, went its course as she came to terms with it.  She understood, and what was more important to him, she would be able to play without painful memories of the past destroying the joy of it in her heart.

        She pushed away enough to look up into his eyes.  “I love you, Tarrin,” she said in a quavering voice.

        “I love you too, Jesmind,” he answered, leaning his head against hers and holding her for just a little while longer.  He knew that soon, Triana and Sapphire would claim all of his time, but for now, for this moment, he had all the time in the world to be with his mate, to be with Jesmind, and to remind her in a way he usually didn’t remind her just how much he loved her.

        Time could be a harsh taskmistress.  After the moment of tenderness with Jesmind, reality intruded in the form of Triana and Sapphire, who had come to claim him.  They weren’t exactly sure what was going on, but they really didn’t care, for Sapphire had things to do, and nobody kept Sapphire waiting.

        Triana did seem to understand, for as they were starting towards the small meadow where they did their training, the sound of a lute, tentatively played at first, came from the open front door.  She looked back towards it, then looked to Tarrin…and then she smiled.

        The first day was nothing but a reassurance for Sapphire that he had mastered everything beforehand, but it was when they came home that mattered to him.  Jesmind was sitting on the porch, the Nyrian citar in her human hands, plucking at it with a gentle smoothness that caused the instrument to give forth a rich, unusually twangy sound that Tarrin rather liked.  The smile she gave him when the three of them returned was an absolutely glorious one, a smile that made him warm inside as he passed by her to go inside.

        She played for him that night, down in the library, she played many songs that conveyed a gambit of emotions.  From sad ballads to quirky little ditties, from marches that stirred the blood to light-hearted tunes that almost made him want to laugh, she played for him that night, and the glow of her face and the light within her eyes told him that for her, it was like rediscovering a lost treasure.

        And that was all the thanks he ever wanted.

        After that, the house was rarely silent.  Whenever Jesmind wasn’t working around the house or attending to Jasana or doing chores, she was playing.  When she wasn’t playing, she was humming or actually singing, and that was when Tarrin realized, for the first time, that his mate had a beautiful voice.  He had never heard her sing before, and it told him how important music had been to her before Arrick died, and the joy it brought to her was tainted by the pain of losing him.

        But he didn’t have much opportunity to hear her sing, as his days were utterly owned by Sapphire.  They started each morning just after sunrise, and they usually ended in mid-afternoon, giving Tarrin a few hours of daylight to be with his mate, children, and friends.  Sapphire worked him quite hard, and when she was working with Triana, either teaching or learning, he was expected to sit and be very attentive to what was passing between them.  When he was done every afternoon, he was both physically exhausted and mentally drained, but he was learning.  The five layer spells were intricate and difficult to cast, but they were very powerful, on a level equal to the basic Weavespinner spells.

        But the learning was taking time.  He stayed under the tutelage of Sapphire and Triana through the rest of spring, into summer, and well into the strangely cold and windy autumn that heralded an early winter, enduring a seemingly endless pattern of waking early, learning magic by day, and rushing to keep up with the rest of his life the rest of the day.  That time was chaotic most of the time, as he tried to keep up with three fast-growing daughters, his mate, Kimmie, Jula, and all his friends and family around the world.  Keritanima ballooned up quickly over the summer, and by the time autumn had taken firm hold of Aldreth, she was only rides away from delivering her first child.  Both Triana and Sapphire had stepped up their training over the summer, for they were keenly aware of the Wikuni queen’s pregnancy, and knew that it would mark another of the large gatherings of the people in Tarrin’s life to celebrate the Royal addition, and thus a long break in the training.  To avoid that break, they both labored to finish beforehand, so there would be no interruption.

        Of course, Tarrin kept abreast of what was happening beyond his forest home.  The war of trade proposals continued to rage between Keritanima and Shiika, as the two females developed an intense dislike of one another that was grounded in mutual respect.  Shiika still managed to invade his life, for she had struck up an odd friendship with his mother Elke over the spring, and was often found dropping in for tea in the afternoons.  Tarrin had no idea how those two had struck such an unusual friendship, but as far as he’d seen, Shiika had been on her best behavior.  She never tried to bargain with Elke, never tried anything…it was almost as if Shiika really did like Tarrin’s mother.  That was mind-boggling, as far as Tarrin was concerned.

        There was big news, of course.  As much as Tarrin expected, Tomas and Janine had had it out over Janette’s future, and Janine hadn’t won.  Tomas hadn’t exactly won, for that matter, for Janette had interrupted their argument and stated in no uncertain terms exactly what she wanted out of life.  She wanted to be a merchant and a mother, to take the business her father had started and turn it into a family-controlled interest.  This seemed to satisfy Janine’s need for her daughter to be a wife and socialite, and Tomas’ desire for Janette to be whatever she wanted to be.  And once it was settled, the perky thirteen year-old just kissed her parents on the cheeks and told them she wanted to go to school in the Tower.

        Tarrin had always mused that Janette would end up in the Tower, and he was right.  Early one summer morning, Tomas and Janine delivered Janette to Jenna, and she started the Novitiate.  Tarrin was there, of course, as was most of his extended family, but they didn’t let Janette know they were there.  It was a distant celebration of sorts, as they watched the girl take her first steps down the path that she had chosen for herself.

        And, of course, there was no fee levied against Tomas and Janine.  Janette’s education would be free.  Thus was one of the advantages of being related to the Tower’s Keeper.

        There were other people to keep track of.  Over the months, Tarrin kept an eye on Miranda as she wandered the lands of Sennadar, almost aimlessly.  She started in Dayisè, then meandered around the mainland of Shacè and the Free Duchies.  Then she got on a ship in Tor and sailed to Telluria and meandered down the peninsula into Arathorn, and then wandered over most of the northern sections of the continent.  Tarrin never let her know that he was watching her, and he never got close enough to talk to her or to hear her or scent her, if he would have been there in reality rather than just a projection.  He wanted to talk to her, but he knew that this was time that Miranda needed, and he would not intervene, he would not interfere, he would not intrude on her journey of self-discovery.

        Not all news during that time was good.  Stragos Bane had disappeared.  Shun could not find him, and she continued to search for him for months after Shiika had set her to find him, turning it into her own personal crusade, and he had not returned to Suld during that time.  Azakar had continued to prepare for his return, however, as he had been commanded to do, ready to deal with the dangerous adversary when he did finally reappear.  The Hierarchs too couldn’t find him, and the attacks against the Were-kin had stopped.  Tarrin had a sneaking suspicion that Azakar’s taking of that amulet was the reason for that.  Without that magical amulet, Stragos Bane couldn’t find Were-kin who were in human form.  That, at least, was good news concerning Bane.

        Other things progressed as he more or less figured they would.  Haley’s festhall had become the place to be in Suld, and the cagey Were-wolf was now on the inside loop concerning almost anything that happened.  King Arren had gotten married at Midsummer to a young, pretty, and surprisingly intelligent Draconian Duchess named Lilligwen, much to the intense protests of the Tykarthians, for they feared it would endanger Sulasia’s long-standing policy of neutrality concerning the eternal war that raged between the remnants of that ancient kingdom.  Arren had put their fears at ease, however, the very first time the new king of Draconia, a shifty fellow named Vardon, had asked for Sulasian aid, and had been decisively rebuffed.  The straggling remnants of the once-overwhelming populations of the Goblinoids had finally managed to filter back into the mountains north of Sulasia, from the Skydancers to the Frozen Mountains, and re-establish themselves in their former territories.  But there were only a handful of them now, compared to the vast hordes of just years before, ensuring that any trouble they caused would be minimal at best, and easily handled by any kingdom’s army.

        Probably what was the most interesting news over the summer had to be what was happening in Shacè.  The old king had been assassinated, and without an heir, it became a short and bloody war of succession between the assorted Marquis of the kingdom.  The eventual winner was a young firebrand of a man named Poiren, a man with natural charisma, intelligence, and vision.  The first moves he started making was to bring the other Marquis back under the heel of the crown, which was shaping up to become quite an intense civil war, as the Marquis had grown quite accustomed to having their own way, and didn’t want to again have a king looking over their shoulders.  Poiren had already secured Keritanima’s cooperation, and the rebel Marquis had suddenly found themselves rejected when they tried to buy gunpowder from Wikuna.  Wikuna would only sell to Poiren, and that definitely tipped the scales in his favor as the summer wore on, and the battle lines started to become apparent.  Seven of the nineteen Marquis had sworn fealty to Poiren, and they were a large block of demesnes in the southwestern corner of the kingdom, including the fife immediately north of Dayisè.  That gave Poiren a solid base from which to launch his campaign of reunification of Shacèan lands under the power of a single king.

        Over that spring and summer, Tarrin graduated from five layer spells to six, and then from six layer spells to seven.  At this point, both Triana and Sapphire briefly stopped teaching him, even though Triana knew eleven layer spells, and Sapphire knew fourteen layer spells.  Tarrin didn’t understand why they stopped at first, until he realized that both of them wanted to test him, gauge his ability, before moving forward.  They needed to make sure he had the power to cast the spells that they had not yet taught him, and it was a wise precaution which he completely agreed was necessary.  But after several tests, they were both confident that he could handle almost any spell they taught him.

        What Tarrin noticed was the dramatic reduction in the number of spells they taught him once they got past six layers.  Triana only knew nine eight layer spells, four nine layer spells, two ten layer spells, and only one eleven layer spell.  Sapphire knew three times as many spells as Triana, but Tarrin could count the number of spells of twelve layers and higher that Sapphire knew on one paw.  However, even though the number of spells decreased, the attention and time it took to teach him those spells increased.  Spells over seven layers were the most powerful Druidic spells, and that meant that each one took days, sometimes even rides, to teach to him, to let him memorize their complex formulas of staggered images and intents.

        Tarrin often found himself the spectator after that, as Triana and Sapphire traded spells, and he watched with keen interest how two Hierarch-level Druids dealt with magic.  What surprised him was that they were just as careful, just as cautious, as Tarrin himself.  They understood the incredible danger of the magic they were using, and approached the learning of any new spell with tremendous care and caution.  They depended on one another as they were learning from each other, as they did for each other what both of them did for him when he was learning; having a Druid there to try to stop any potential misfire or mistake.  That was the amazing part…the idea that both Sapphire and Triana, towering figures that seemed near perfection, were indeed admitting that they were not as perfect as they appeared, admitting that even they needed help from time to time.  He knew it was a silly impression, but that was the way the two of them came across to him from time to time.

        And the spells they taught one another, then taught him, were spells of power.  These were spells that would require him to use High Sorcery to cast them as a Sorcerer, at least the ones that could be duplicated using Sorcery.  Spells that would let him directly affect the universe itself, reaching way beyond the traditional boundary of Druid magic, that being that it generally only affected the natural world.  The spells of seven layers and higher were most often used to produce unnatural results.  The most powerful spell that Sapphire knew, her fourteen layer spell, was a spell that stopped time in a limited area for just a moment.  That was something that Tarrin didn’t think was even possible, and the complexities of it boggled his mind when he considered the idea that only time in a small area was altered, while time everywhere else continued on normally.  It also didn’t make much sense to him to even know the spell, given that it took a while to cast, it produced incredible strain on the Druid who used it, the Druid had to be inside the area of effect when the spell was cast (though the Druid himself wasn’t affected by the spell’s magic), and its effect lasted less than a minute.  He couldn’t really think of any use for it.  But, as Phandebrass might say, the knowledge of it was all the use he may require.

        By the time he had mastered that spell, the Skydancer Mountains were thickly blanketed with snow, Keritanima’s delivery was only ten days away or so,  and much to his surprise, Triana and Sapphire had nothing left to teach him.  Not only had Triana learned all the Druid magic that Sapphire knew, so did Tarrin, and that seemed to both amaze and slightly annoy the dragon on some level.  Amazed that bipeds could learn the magnitude of magic that the dragon knew, and a little annoyed that they could.  That was the towering superiority that all dragons seemed to possess, a mighty ego that told them that they were better than the little crawling humanoid bipeds that swarmed around their regal, extended lives.

        That last afternoon was quite poignant, as he sat on a log in the small meadow as cold, chilling rain fell around them, but not touching them thanks to a spell that had been created over their heads.  Triana sat to his left, Sapphire to his right, a triangle of Druids learning from one another--mostly, anyway--and having come to the end of that cycle of instruction.

        “Very good,” Sapphire announced as Tarrin’s spell came to an end, and time returned to normal all around them.  The purpose of this exercise had been to stop time, but exclude certain objects from its effect, namely Triana and Sapphire.  She folded her hands in her lap and gave Tarrin a steady look.  “That is all.”

        “What do you mean?” he asked.

        “I have nothing left to teach you,” she announced.  “You have learned every Druidic spell I know, my little one.  You are no longer my pupil.  With time and practice, you might even become my equal.”

        “You mean that’s it?” Tarrin asked in surprise.  “No more training?”

        “That’s all,” Triana told him.  “You learned everything I have to teach you a month ago.  Now I’m not worried that everything I’ve learned over the years will be lost.  In you and Sapphire, it will live on.”

        “You talk like you won’t be here next year, mother,” Tarrin teased.

        “Life is never a certain thing, cub,” she told him.  “I may be old, but I know that it can all end in an instant, and you may never see it coming.  I‘d always feared that would happen to me before I found someone capable of learning what I had to teach, but now it‘s not a worry anymore.  Cub, what you‘ve learned from us over this year is magic even the Hierarchs don‘t know, magic some of the Hierarchs can‘t even use.  I knew you had the talent to learn, Tarrin.  You‘re a stronger Druid than most of the Council of Hierarchs put together.”

        “He does have the gift.  As do you, friend Triana,” Sapphire agreed.  “Both of you do.  That you can learn Druidic magic only dragons use says everything that needs be said.”

        It was a strange feeling.  They had been at this for a long time, and the very thought that he was now done with it was a weird one.  There would be no more carrying around massive boulders, no long, engaging debates with Triana over the particulars of Druidic magic, no more feeling like a half-trained child--no, he’d always feel like a half-trained child compared to Triana and Sapphire.  But it was over.  His time was his own once again, and for a moment he couldn’t figure out what he would want to do with it.

        Oh, it hadn’t been bad, at least not all of it.  The grueling physical training hadn’t been very fun, but he had come to enjoy learning magic from Triana, and then Sapphire, learning magic from two of the most accomplished Druids alive.  Learning magic that was of the highest order of Druidic magic, the power to reach beyond the limitations of the universe and alter the fundamental laws that governed all…at least for very brief amounts of time.

        Long ago, Sarraya had told him that Druidic magic could do anything, and she had been proven right.  The spells he had learned from Triana and Sapphire went beyond Sorcery, could do things that Sorcery could not.  It was the power to alter the very universe itself, and it was a tremendous responsibility to use correctly.

        Tarrin blinked.  There was one spell, he realized, that Triana had not taught him.  The spell she used to travel.

        “Mother,” he called.  “You didn‘t teach me one of the spells you know.”

        “That‘s right, I didn‘t,” she agreed.  “That’s half of your final test, cub.  By the first bloom, you had better be able to cast that spell.  I will not teach it to you.  You must discover it yourself.”

        “What’s the other half?” he asked in consternation.

        “You will teach me a spell, cub.  You will teach me a spell I do not know.”

        That brought him up short.  “If I--” he started, then he realized what she was doing.  She was going to make him explore the boundaries of Druidic magic himself, the way she had done, force him to experiment, force him to test the limits of his power.  It wasn‘t just a test to see if he could do it, it was a test of knowledge, a test of skill, where he would have to take everything that Triana had taught him and apply it in ways that she had never prepared him for, to use it to expand himself beyond the limitations his training had imparted upon him.  She was going to see if he could break out of the mold that every Druid placed around himself as a defense against the power of the magic they wielded.  It was a trial by fire, where he would risk death to learn the secrets of Druidic magic without help, without protection, with only his training, his knowledge, his common sense, and his intuition to guide him.  “I understand, mother,” he said with a nod.

        “That is just a little dangerous, Triana,” Sapphire noted.

        “If he can’t find the answers himself, then he’ll never be a true Druid,” she declared.

        “And what is a true Druid, then?” Sapphire asked with a slight smile.

        “A Druid who can step off the beaten path of Druidic magic and face the danger of the unknown to blaze a new trail,” she answered.  “A Druid willing to take risks to improve himself.”

        “I do not entirely agree with this task, but he is your pupil, friend Triana,” Sapphire said.  “I will not gainsay you.”   Then she looked at him.  “It had better be an interesting spell,” she told him with a slight smile.  “You will also teach it to me.”

        “I thought you didn’t agree with this,” he said accusingly.

        “Not entirely.  I think it’s too dangerous, and you haven’t had enough practical experience quite yet.  But as I said, you are Triana’s pupil, not mine.  Not anymore.  She would not give you the task if she felt you had no chance to succeed, and as you are her pupil, she knows the limits of your power better than I do.  This is the task she has given you, and it is your duty to complete it to the best of your ability.”

        He felt just a little bit sick, and a great deal intimidated.  This was no easy task Triana had laid at his feet.  It would truly test the limits of his knowledge and his power…but he should have expected no less.  He knew that Triana had always meant to train him until he was her equal, and that meant that like her, he would have to risk death to expand the abilities of Druidic magic.  He would truly have to walk in her footsteps before she was satisfied that he truly had no more to learn from her.

        He was silent and pensive for a long time, then he squared his shoulders and looked Triana in the eye.  “I’ll make you proud, mother,” he announced.

        “What more could a mother ask?” she asked with a surprisingly gentle smile, reaching over and putting her paw on his shoulder.

        It was over…but not entirely.  The official part was over.  He returned home earlier than usual, and Jesmind was certainly the first to notice.  She was in the kitchen when he arrived, coming in to hear her humming as she roasted a side of a deer over the fireplace on the far wall of the kitchen, near the cast-iron stove they used for other cooking.  “Well, this doesn’t happen very often,” she told him as he put his paws on her shoulders, in the middle of turning the side of meat over on the spit so the other side was closer to the fire.  “What, did the Hierarchs call mother away again?”

        “No, we’re done,” he told her.

        “Done?  As in over?”

        He nodded.

        “Well it’s about damned time!” she suddenly announced loudly, locking the spit in the holder and turning around.  She put her paws on his waist and kissed him lingeringly.  “Now we can get back to some semblance of normalcy around here,” she continued as she stepped past him, towards the pantry.  “Do you want stewed cabbage with the venison?” she asked as she disappeared inside.

        “No, but I wouldn’t mind some stringed beans,” he answered.

        “Does this mean Sapphire’s going back home?” she asked.

        He nodded.

        “Thank the trees,” she said with an explosive sigh.  “I like her, but she never failed to give me the creeps.  It’s like she was watching me all the time.”

        “I think she does that with everyone.  Where are the others?”

        “Kimmie’s got all the cubs,” she answered.  “They‘re gathering iceberries.  I don’t know where Jula is.”

        “She’ll show up eventually,” he shrugged.

        “Where are mother and Sapphire?”

        “They let me go, so they’re probably out there still talking,” he answered as he pulled a cooking pot out of the cupboard beside the stove.  Jesmind emerged with two clear glass jars, sealed with wax, holding stringed beans.

        “I’m still making cabbage, and Kimmie’s baking an iceberry cake,” she informed him.

        Tarrin chuckled.  “You’re taking the news rather nonchalantly,” he noted.

        “Tarrin, it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on,” she told him.  “You tell me what you’re doing, mother tells me what’s happening.  You think I’d be surprised to hear that news?”

        “Touchè,” he laughed, leaning against the counter.  “I have to discover a brand new spell, something new, before it’s all over, though, so I’m not entirely done yet.”

        “Well, at least that’s something you can do on your own, without them taking you away from me,” she said as she passed by, kissing him lightly on the cheek, before heading back into the pantry.  “Allia was here this morning.”

        “What did she have to say?”

        “Kerri’s going to deliver soon, and Dolanna wants to get all the travel arrangements set up.  You know, who’s going, who’s not, that sort of thing.”  She peeked out of the pantry.  “Now that the training is over, you should tell everyone.  I’m tired of being your messenger girl.”

        “You know you love it,” he teased.

        “Says you,” she said as she disappeared back inside.  “Jenna says it’s going to be eight days until Kerri gives birth.  That gives us five days to get everything organized, a day to get there--”

        “You mean an hour,” he corrected.

        “You know what I mean,” she said sharply.  “That gives us a couple of days before she pops, and however long we want to stay after she delivers.”

        “You have it all worked out,” he commended.

        “Dolanna did,” she admitted as she came out with a large head of cabbage.  “You know Dolanna.  She’s got a plan for everything.”

        “You’re exaggerating, love.  She’s just prepared, that’s all.”  She pulled a bowl out of the cabinet and set it on the table in the middle of the kitchen, then started stripping the leaves of cabbage off the head.  “Want me to start the beans?”

        She nodded as she popped a small shred of cabbage leaf into her mouth.

        Tarrin bent to the task of getting the beans ready to cook, which meant going down into the cold room to get some bacon.  After that was done, he threw the bacon, beans, and some water into the pot and started the fire in the stove using Sorcery, creating a ball of flame that would remain at a steady temperature that was just right for simmering string beans, and setting it so it would last for several hours.  “Did Allia have anything else to say?”

        “No, not really,” she said.  “She’s just hoping that Kerri doesn’t linger.  She said that they’re close to Gathering.”

        “It is almost that time,” Tarrin realized.  Gathering, the coming together of the thirteen Selani clans, happened in the late autumn and early winter, the time when the desert winds were at the weakest in the yearly cycle before flaring up again after the new year.  “I guess she’s anxious to go this year, what with Allyn having all the time to train and all.”

        “I hope she brings that two-legged monster of hers,” Jesmind mused.  “And Camara brings that damned Hellhound.  I want to see which one kills the other.”

        “Jesmind!  Be nice!” Tarrin chided.

        She laughed.  “You’re right, I should.  Besides, the Hellhound’s a Hellhound.  Allia’s walking nightmare couldn’t hurt it.  It wouldn’t be half as much fun as I first thought.”

        “Well, mother and father are going this time,” Tarrin told her.

        “Elke and Eron?  Why are they going?”

        “Kerri’s an adopted daughter,” he told her.  “They wouldn’t miss the birth of a grandchild for anything.”
        “They weren’t there when I had Jasana.”

        “You didn’t tell anyone you had Jasana.  Not even me,” he said flintily.

        “True,” she agreed without batting an eye.

        A streak of gold and a flap of wings heralded Fireflash’s entrance into the kitchen, and he landed on Tarrin’s shoulder and immediately started nuzzling the side of the Were-cat’s neck.  Fireflash and Tarrin had formed a strong bond of love and friendship over the months, despite all the work he did, and it was totally obvious to everyone in the house just who Fireflash preferred.  He liked everyone in the house, but given his choice of shoulders, he would always choose Tarrin’s.  “Hello there,” he said fondly, reaching up and scratching the drake between the horns.  “Have a good day?”

        “I guess the cubs are home,” Jesmind said, glancing at the drake.

        “Mother!” Jasana called, skipping into the kitchen.  “We got a whole bunch!”  She looked up at Tarrin in surprise, the smiled sweetly.  “I see Grandmother let you off the leash early today, father,” she said teasingly.  Tarrin looked down at his daughter, and was amazed almost daily at how fast she had grown, how mature she looked now.  She was four and a half years old now, but she was the size of an eleven year old human child, and had the maturity of mind to match.  Her habit of copying Jula had taken hold of her, and she had stopped calling him Papa almost four months ago.  She all but idolized Jula now, trying to dress like her, trying to act like her, trying to have that same understated sense of intelligent style that she could mimic, but never perfectly copy.  The dangerous little cub she had been had slowly been replaced by a more confident girl, who was still overly clever and manipulative, but had finally seemed to understand that there were boundaries in which she could operate without getting killed.  Her games often got Tara and Rina into trouble instead of her, but there would be no more events like some of the monumental acts of manipulation that had occurred in the past.

        “You mind your manners,” Tarrin said sternly, swatting the cub on the backside as she went by.

        “Yes, father,” she grinned up at him.  Then she stuck out her tongue at him impudently.

        “You,” he said, holding up his paw threateningly, to which she replied with laughter.

        Tara and Rina rolled into the kitchen carrying to large baskets, filled with dark blue berries.  Iceberries, a sweet berry related to the blueberry that only ripened just before the first snow.  “Papa, Papa, looky!” Rina said happily, running up to him and holding up her basket.  “Look how many I picked!”

        “Too bad you ate twice as many as you picked!” Tara said accusingly, then she too padded over and held up her basket to Tarrin.  “I brought home more than she did, Papa,” she proclaimed proudly.

        “And I picked more than both of you put together,” Jasana taunted.

        “You used magic, you cheater!” Tara and Rina said in perfect unison, rare proof they were twins.

        “Cubs!” Kimmie chided as she strode into the kitchen carrying a third basket.  “I see Triana let you off her leash early today, Tarrin,” she said with a greeting nod.

        Jasana gave him a smug look.

        “Ya ya ya,” he said, raising a backpaw to Jasana, who collapsed to the ground in laughter.  “I think a few cubs around here had better learn a little about respect.”

        “I respect you, Papa,” Rina announced, holding her free paw up towards him.

        “Kiss-up!” Tara accused as Tarrin picked up his blue-eyed daughter.  She threw her little arms around his neck, careful to avoid hitting Fireflash, and kissed him on the cheek.

        “I see they’re all feeling fine today,” Tarrin chuckled as he bounced Rina a couple of times.

        “Scrappy as ever,” Kimmie smiled in reply.  “Where are Triana and Sapphire?”

        “Still talking, I guess,” he answered.  “I’m finally done with the training.”

        “You mean they actually decided to give over?” Kimmie asked, then she laughed.  “I never thought I’d see this day!”  She put the basket down on the table.  “Just in time for Kerri’s delivery.  They had to be planning around that.”

        “Taking it into account, I’m sure,” Tarrin agreed, taking Rina’s basket and putting it on the table beside it.  “My time is my own again…just in time to go to Wikuna.”

        “It always seems to work out that way with you, Tarrin dear,” Kimmie chuckled.  “You seem to never get a break.”

        Kimmie didn’t see the sudden hot glare Jesmind leveled at her back, as Kimmie dumped the berries in the smaller basket into the larger one, and then picked up the now empty basket.  No doubt it was incited by her calling him dear.  Jesmind was still terribly jealous, and took serious issue when Kimmie used any kind of term of endearment where she could hear it.  “Let me go borrow some eggs from Mistress Elke, and I’ll get started on that iceberry cake.  Be back in a shake.  Oh, hullo, Sapphire,” she said with a smile as the human-shaped dragon entered the kitchen.

        “Kimmie,” she said fondly, putting a hand on her shoulder.  “I will be leaving you now, my little friend.”

        “Tarrin told us the training is done,” she answered.  “How did he do?”

        “Today?  Quite well,” she answered.  “And now that the task is done, it’s time for me to return to my lair.”

        “Well, I’m going to miss you,” Kimmie told her.  “It was almost like old times.  Well, except for you not being a drake,” she said with a disarming smile.

        “Yes, but going home is also good,” she answered.  “The calm season is taking hold in the desert, and I’d rather not miss it.”

        “You’re leaving tonight?” Tarrin asked.

        “I am leaving right now,” she answered.

        “Aww!” Jasana sounded.  “You don’t have to go so soon!”

        “I am never more than a call away, Jasana,” she answered.  “Does it matter if I leave now or not?”

        “It does to me.”

        “I appreciate that,” she said with a smile.  “But I was never one for extended goodbyes.  When it’s time to go, then it’s time to go.  And so, I must go.”

        She held out a hand to Tarrin, who stepped up and took it, swallowing it up in his massive paw.  “I will miss you, my little friend.  You must come visit me soon.”

        “We’ll all be in Wikuna in just a few days, Sapphire,” he reminded her.

        “True, but I want you to come visit me at my home,” she told him.  “I’ve never had you over, little friend.  It’s past time for me to introduce you to the brood.”

        “I think I’d like that,” he said honestly.

        “I‘m sure they would as well,” she announced, letting go of his paw.  “I’ll see you in Wikuna, my little one.  Until then, be well.”

        “Safe journey, Sapphire,” he said.

        “G-bye, Auntie Sapphire,” Rina said with a wave.

        With a smile towards all three cubs, Sapphire raised her hands, and then she simply disappeared.

©2000, James Galloway. All Rights Reserved.