Chapter 18

        There was just something about the arrival of a new member of the family that just made everything else seem like it wasn’t a problem.

        It was early morning, just after sunrise, and Tarrin and Allia were sitting in Keritanima’s private bedroom, alone, on either side of the bed as the Wikuni queen reclined within it, still recuperating from a very difficult birth.  Keritanima had banished everyone else from the room, even her own husband and bodyguards, so the three of them could spend some intimate time together and so they all three could get to know Keritanima’s newborn son, who was absolutely adorable.  Allia was holding him at the moment, tracing her finger along the black stripes that crept onto his face from under his chin and neck, creating a frame of sorts that highlighted those dazzling green eyes and cat-like black nose of his.  He had an abbreviated muzzle, like most cat-type Wikuni did, but his nose was smaller than most cat-type Wikuni, more button-like, like Miranda’s nose.  He was a tiny thing to Tarrin, but as Wikuni infants went, he was absolutely huge.  That was one of the reasons Keritanima had so much difficulty giving birth.  Little Faalken was a monster of a newborn, and the size of his hands and feet told Tarrin that he was going to be massive.

        A sui’kun.  That wasn’t lost on Tarrin, for more than one reason.  Long ago, Mother told him that there would only be two extra sui’kun, nine of them.  But this was a tenth, a third extra sui’kun, and one that wasn’t supposed to be there.

        Tarrin knew almost immediately what that meant.  They had already replaced him.  That way, if they had to kill him, there were still going to be two additional sui’kun to support the Weave and prevent another Breaking.

        But he wasn’t really thinking about that rather unpleasant possibility right now, for he was focused on his new nephew, as they all were.  He was awake, looking up at Allia with those eyes of his, trying without much success to raise his furry little arm and grab hold of her delicate fingers as they traced his wide, rather handsome little face.  As she did that, Tarrin and Keritanima watched, her clawed hand in his paw lightly.

        Tarrin’s ears flicked as the bells outside paused, and then started again.  Every chapel, church, shrine, temple, and cathedral’s bells were tolling, and they would toll in celebration until sunset.  The day had immediately been declared a holiday, the news spread through the network of Priests that allowed information to reach every Wikuni all over the world in a matter of moments.  All the world now knew that the Wikuni queen had produced an heir to the throne, and the Wikuni were celebrating.  No Wikuni anywhere on Sennadar would do a lick of work this day.  Ships would anchor wherever they were, shops would close, and everyone would celebrate.  The only places open this day would be the churches and the festhalls.  Quite an unusual combination.

        “So, Allia, when are you going to present us with a niece of nephew?” Keritanima asked as Allia cooed at Faalken.

        “I’m working on it, deshaida,” she chuckled, tapping Faalken on his little nose, which made the little baby smile.  “I come in season next month.  I‘ve already made arrangements.”

        “Arrangements how?” Tarrin asked.

        “I’m staying at our village,” she replied.  “We have a better chance of conception if we’re not moving.  We’ll have about nine days, and we have to make them count.  We don‘t have much time.”

        “You’re going to wear that poor boy out,” Keritanima told her with a sly grin.

        “That’s not the problem, sister,” Allia said seriously.  “Children aren’t allowed to have children.”

        “I--oh,” she frowned.  “Allyn has to be branded.”

        Allia nodded.  “Before I conceive.”

        “Is he ready?” Tarrin asked.

        “I have no doubt he can take a good brand, but he has to prove that he’s ready beforehand,” she told him.  “That means he has to know what has to be known.  Father will test his knowledge.  If he can pass that test, he’ll be given the chance to have the iron put to him.  Then it comes down to the Holy Mother’s assessment of him.”

        “That won’t be much of a problem,” Tarrin told her as Allia carefully handed the infant to him, and he cradled little Faalken in his arm carefully.  “Allyn’s a fast learner,” he assured her as he looked down into the little cub’s dazzling eyes.  He extended a claw, a claw almost as long as the infant’s arm, and dangled it over his head.  Faalken reached up and grabbed hold of it, showing tiny little claws of his own hiding inside his fingers.  “He has quite a grip,” Tarrin told them as the infant pulled on his claw.

        “Try nursing him, and you’d be surprised what kind of a grip he has,” Keritanima grunted.  “He finds my fur entirely too convenient a handle.”

        “Shave it off,” Tarrin told her absently as he bounced the infant very gently in his arm.

        “Right,” she snapped heatedly, glaring at him.  “I’ll do that just as soon as you shave the fur off your arms.  That way we can both look stupid together.”

        Tarrin held up his free arm, glancing at his black fur and the shaggy fetlock that grew on the outside of his wrist and lower forearm.  “I guess I would look a little silly,” he agreed.  “But you can cover your shaved areas with a dress, sister.”

        “You were being serious about me shaving my fur?” she asked in surprise.

        “Halfway,” he admitted.  “But now that I see that he’s got claws, maybe him grabbing your fur is better than him sinking those little needles into you.”

        “That would be unpleasant,” Keritanima laughed in agreement.

        “Well, how does it feel to be a mother, sister?” Allia asked, giving her a smile.

        “It’s weird,” she answered.  “It’s strange to think that I brought him into the world, but at the same time, it seems totally natural.  And I fell in love with him the first time I saw him,” she said with a dreamy kind of contentment that only a parent could display.

        “And think, you’re responsible for making him a king,” Tarrin told her.

        “No, I don’t think he ever will be,” she said seriously.  “He’s a sui’kun, Tarrin.  I’m a little shocked about that, but I think it means that he might not have the time to sit on my throne and play king.  That might end up being the job of the next one.”

        “Next one?” Tarrin chuckled.  “Already thinking of expanding the nursery?”

        “A little,” she admitted.  “But I’ll bet after I deal with raising him, I’ll never want another one ever again.  I surely don’t want to be the one to have to give birth,” she said with a sigh, flopping back onto her pillows.  “I seriously thought I was going to die.  I’ve never felt that much pain before.  I don’t think crossing over was even that painful.”

        “But it was worth it, wasn’t it?” Allia asked.

        “Oh yes,” she said immediately, beckoning for Tarrin to give her back her baby.  He did so carefully, and she cuddled him to her with a loving expression gracing her furry face.  “It was worth having to do it ten times.”  She looked up at him.  “Did you sleep alright, Tarrin?” she asked.  “I mean, this was the first night that, you know,” she said, pointing at his shoulder.

        “I didn’t have any problems,” he replied.  “They stay retracted unless I want them to come out.  It seems to be some kind of natural position for them, just like when they’re out.  I don’t think about how they look, they just take that shape and size by themselves.”

        “Well, that’s good,” she said, and then she grinned.  “I was afraid I’d have to have Amber change your sheets every day.”

        “Why?” he asked.

        “Scorch marks,” she winked.

        Allia laughed, and Tarrin gave her an unamused look.

        “How long are you staying?” the Wikuni Queen asked.

        “As long as you want us to stay, silly,” Allia replied.

        “I don’t ever want you to leave,” she answered with a toothy grin.  “But since I’m not going to get that, what’s the other option here?”

        “Well, I was hoping to get back to the tribe in three or four days, so I have as much time as possible to get Allyn ready for the ceremony,” she answered, scratching her shoulder absently.  “In the meantime, I’m going to go over things with him here, where the shaman and father can’t hear me breaking all sorts of rules about what I am and am not allowed to tell him.”

        Both of them laughed.  “We’ve ruined her, Tarrin,” Keritanima told him with a wink.  “She’s just as bad as we are now.”

        “Posh,” Allia said dismissively.

        That made Tarrin chuckle anew.  Allia was never one to be all that strict about the rules, at least not when it benefited her not to do so.  So long as it wasn’t a matter of honor to break a rule, or she was sure she wouldn‘t get caught, she was quite willing to break it if there was gain in it for her.  That was one of her very few un-Selani traits.

        “So, if all goes well, when will there be a little Selani joining the family?” Keritanima asked.

        “Fourteen months from now,” she answered, “assuming I conceive immediately when I come in season.”

        “Then the next little family reunion will be in the desert.”

        “No,” Tarrin told her.  “It’ll be in Suld.”

        “Why is that?” Keritanima asked.

        “We had breakfast with the others this morning,” he told her.  “Tiella’s pregnant.  I could smell it on her.”

        “Really?” Keritanima asked, then she laughed.  “I knew Dar had it in him!”

        “I’d think that he had it somewhere else,” Allia said slyly.

        Keritanima gaped at her.  “Allia!  That’s nasty!” she declared, then laughed even harder.

        “You’re a married woman now, Kerri,” Tarrin told her with a slight smile.  “Besides, you were throwing around even worse statements last night.”

        “Oh, I don’t believe you remember that!” she said with a growl, leaning back and putting a pillow over her face, but being careful not to disturb her infant.  “I am so embarrassed!”

        “Given the circumstances, I’m sure the others will understand, Kerri,” Allia told her, but she had a slight, roguish smile on her face.

        “I hope so.  I’d hate to have Binter and Sisska make them forget.”  She looked to Tarrin.  “Tarrin?  What about Miranda?”

        “She almost had a nervous breakdown when I asked her, Kerri,” he said gently, carefully.  “She wasn’t ready to come.  I’m sorry.”

        She was quiet a long moment, then she sighed.  “Well, if she wasn’t ready, then she wasn’t ready.  I’m sad she wasn’t here, but if it was that hard for her even to think about it, then maybe it was best that she didn’t come.  We can always show her Illusions,” she said with a sudden brightening of her eyes.

        “We can at that.  Including sound Illusions of you howling like a banshee and cursing out the entirety of existence.”

        “Oh, you two are terrible!” she growled, grabbing the pillow over her face and throwing it at him.

        “That makes us a matching set, sister,” Allia said with an evil smile.

        “Well, we can’t let that become common knowledge now, can we?” she answered primly.  “I have a Royal reputation to maintain.”

        “Speaking of royalty, I wonder what happened to Shiika,” Tarrin mused aloud.

        “Shiika?  That witch was coming here?” Keritanima asked sharply.

        Tarrin glanced at her, then chuckled.  “May as well tell you.  Yes, she was,” he affirmed.  “But she should have been here by now.  I wonder what happened.”

        “No doubt she wanted to catch me after I gave birth so I’d be more tractable,” Keritanima said with a hawkish look, her amber eyes narrowing.

        “No, she said she wanted to crash your big day in revenge over some kind of trade proposal.  She considered it relatively outrageous.”

        “Which one?” Keritanima said with a wink.

        “Yar something or other,” he said with a wave of his paw.  “I wasn’t paying much attention.”

        “Yar Akram,” Allia announced.

        “Oh, that one.  Well, it was my get-back for that ridiculous gunpowder proposal.”

        “What proposal?”

        “She wanted our formula for gunpowder!” she said in shock, almost outrage.  “And if that wasn’t bad enough, the only thing she offered for it was a deserted rock fifty miles off the coast of Yar Arak!”

        That was relatively serious.  The formula for gunpowder was probably one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world, and it was amazing that it remained a secret so long, given the avarice nature of the Wikuni.  It was amazing that a Wikuni that had the knowledge hadn’t sold the formula for his own gain yet.  If Shiika wanted the formula for gunpowder, she’d better offer up half her empire in payment for it.  That’s what it would take to buy it from Keritanima.

        There was a sudden commotion at the door to her bedchamber, the sound of scuffling, and then it burst open.  Shiika stepped in, brushing her hands together as if to rub dirt from them, and the legs and tails of Binter and Sisska could be clearly seen beyond that door, hanging in midair.  “Will they never learn?” she said in irritation as her unnatural scent touched his nose.

        “Shiika!  What did you do to my guards!” Keritanima demanded with heat, sitting up in the bed.

        “I moved them,” she said curtly.  “They didn’t want to get out of my way.”

        “If you hurt them--”

        “Oh, calm down,” she said, then she snapped her fingers.  Both Vendari suddenly dropped, landing on the floor on their feet, and their weight caused the entire floor to shake ominously.  Binter immediately came through the door with his hammer raised, preparing to crush the Demoness through the floor with it.  Keritanima quickly put up her hand to warn him off, and he pulled up short.  If Shiika knew he was there, she never registered it, never so much as turned around, simply folding her wings neatly as she wiped her hands on her red silk gown.  Binter gave a single nod and backed away, then withdrew back out into the parlor, his huge hand on the door.

        “Not so fast!” Shiika shouted, then she put her fingers to her lips and whistled shrilly.

        All three of them started when a massive black shape stalked through the door, looking like a shadow, but one that stood as high as Shiika’s chest.  Its sulfurous scent told him immediately that this was one of Shiika’s Hellhounds, denizens of the Abyss, intelligent dog-like animals that were tainted with evil and could breathe fire.  It was the biggest Hellhound Tarrin had ever seen, almost the size of a pony.

        “Alright, now you can close the door,” she said without looking over her shoulder.  The Hellhound padded into the room, then started bounding towards the bed, its tongue lolling out of its mouth in a playful canine grin.  “Congratulations, Kerri,” Shiika said with a sudden smile.  “Sorry I couldn’t be here last night, but I was unavoidably detained.  Is that the new crown prince?”

        “What did you bring that Hellhound for?” Keritanima asked, giving the animal a worried look as it put its paws on the bed and leaned towards her.

        “It’s your present,” she answered.  “Just like the one I gave Camara.  She’s been fixed so she’ll be loyal to you and your baby, and you can ask Camara how effective Hellhounds can be at guarding.”

        “You’re giving me a gift?” Keritanima said hesitantly, warily.  She understood the intrinsic danger that could represent.

        “No strings, no conditions,” she said with a sudden smile, holding up her hands as if to show them she was holding nothing dangerous.  “The Hellhound is my gift to you, given freely and without expectation of favors in return.”

        Keritanima looked to Tarrin, who nodded slightly.  The way she said it was a formula, a method of saying just what the statement meant that could hold no hidden meaning.

        “Well, uh, thanks,” she said uncertainly as the Demoness slinked over and sat sedately on the edge of the bed beside Tarrin.  She was trying very hard not to look at him, but he could see the corner of her eye, and how her eyes kept trying to glance over at him.  Could she tell?  Could she sense the change in him?  Now that she was much closer, he could clearly and distinctly sense the sense of disharmony about her, and it was quite strong.

        We are going to talk, her voice echoed in his mind.  As soon as I’m done here.

        Tarrin could tell somehow that her mental voice went no further than him.  It was a private communication.

        “Why were you detained, Shiika?” Keritanima asked.

        She blew out her breath.  “I had to put down a rebellion.”

        All three of them gave her a sudden start.  “A rebellion?” Keritanima scoffed.  “I thought the Arakite nobility were happy with you.”

        “It didn’t come from them, or the military, or the citizens.  It came from Anayi.”

        “Anayi?  Your daughter?” the Wikuni gasped.

        “I guess she felt that living under me wasn’t worth it anymore.  It’s about time,” she announced with a chuckle.  “I’ve all but pulled the rug out from under her.  I just didn’t expect her to try to raise an insurrection against me while she went out the door.”

        “You’ve been goading her?” Tarrin asked in surprise.

        “Of course I have,” she said with a wink at him.  “Anayi’s the smartest and strongest of all my daughters.  She has potential, a lot of potential, and she’s not going to realize it if she stays in the palace all her life.  She needs to be out and about in the world to realize that potential.  I’ve been goading her into leaving home for a long time now, but she’s so dense she wouldn’t take the hint.”

        “She’s not dense, she’s loyal,” Tarrin told her.  “Anayi actually loves you, Shiika.  Gods know why, but she does.”

        “I’m her mother,” she said primly.

        “That doesn’t mean too much to Demons, I’ve noticed,” Keritanima observed.

        “What did she do?” Tarrin asked.

        “Used her powers to turn some of the Royal Guard against me,” she said with a laugh.  “She stirred up the palace like an anthill kicked over by a petulant child.  There was open fighting in the hallways between the guards she’d managed to dominate and the guards still loyal to me.  She used all the confusion to steal some of my spell books and a couple of magical objects from my collection, then she ran.  Such a clever girl!” she said with another laugh.

        “You let her steal from you?” Allia asked in confusion.

        “Of course I did,” she grinned as Keritanima inched away from the Hellhound nervously, which was getting more and more up onto the bed.  “It was a test of sorts to see what she was capable of, what she could manage to get away with, and she did quite well!  She didn’t steal anything I can’t live without, and I have copies of all my spell books, so it wasn’t like it was any great loss for me.  Oh, don’t be surprised to find her in Aldreth when you get back, Tarrin,” she noted.  “She was flying in that general direction.  She’s on the way to your house.”

        “Why my house?” he asked.

        “Kimmie,” she answered.  “She’s been wanting to learn magic for years now, and she knows Kimmie is a skilled mage.  She also knows that she doesn’t have any apprentices, and that Kimmie is one of the few people on Sennadar who would look past the fact that she‘s a halfbreed Demon and treat her kindly.  She’s going to try to get Kimmie to take her on as an apprentice.”

        Tarrin remembered Anayi saying something about Kimmie the last time they talked, and he knew that Anayi had hot resentment towards Shiika because she wouldn’t teach her Wizard magic.  Shiika could very well be right about her seeking out Kimmie as a teacher.

        “Um, Shiika, could you get that beast to back up?” Keritanima said nervously as the Hellhound jumped up onto the bed, cradling her infant protectively away from the animal.

        “She’ll obey you, Kerri,” Shiika told her dismissively.  “Utterly.  And she knows Wikuni and Sha‘Kar, so you can give her commands you want others to understand, and commands you don’t.”

        Keritanima glanced at the winged Demoness, then fixed her amber eyes on the glowing red eyes of the Hellhound.  “Down,” she ordered in a quavering voice.  Those eyes widened in surprise as the Hellhound obeyed, turning and jumping down off the bed, then sitting beside it.

        “Enough about me and my family troubles.  Let me see your baby!” she commanded with a wide smile.

        Unable to resist showing off her infant, even to Shiika, Keritanima sat up and let Shiika take a good look at her son.  “His name is Faalken,” she told her proudly.  “Isn’t he beautiful?”

        “He’s a little furry, but despite that, he’s quite handsome,” Shiika answered with a sly smile and a wink.  Odd, Tarrin noticed…Shiika was almost bubbly.  That was very much unlike her.  Perhaps she truly was happy about Anayi finally leaving home.  “A tiger, eh?  Those are pretty rare.”

        “I know,” Keritanima replied, and Tarrin felt her weave a very gentle Mind weave and use it to touch the mind of her son.  “He’s a little tired,” she announced.  “I think I’ll put him down for a short nap.”

        “You’re cheating, Kerri,” Allia laughed.

        “How so?” Shiika asked curiously.

        “She’s using Mind weaves to assess Faalken‘s condition,” Tarrin told her.  “That way she knows what he wants when he cries, and when he’s ready to be put down for a nap.”

        “That’s not cheating, that’s keeping my sanity,” Keritanima said brusquely as Allia moved, and Keritanima swung her legs out and crawled out of bed.  She moved a little unsteadily at first as she paced over to the crib, as Allia and Shiika got up and went with her, watching as she put the tiger Wikuni newborn into his crib and fussed over him.  Tarrin looked at the Hellhound, who was sitting exactly where she’d sat down when Keritanima told her to get down.  The Hellhound looked back at him quite seriously, then gave Keritanima a hauntingly longing look.  Shiika really had fixed the Hellhound.  Tarrin felt a little sorry for it, that all it wanted to do was be accepted, and so far, Keritanima had only shown it fear.

        He could totally identify with that feeling.

        Tarrin reached down and put his paw on the Hellhound’s head and patted it, and the Hellhound closed her glowing eyes in a dignified kind of manner and accepted his attention with eloquence.  He felt a strange heat coming off the animal, which he found oddly comforting.  He petted the Hellhound gently and patted her shoulder.

        “You want one, Tarrin?” Shiika asked, looking at him with a strange kind of smile.  “I have about fifteen left.  I’d be more than happy to fix one for you.”

        “No, I have my drake, Shiika,” he answered.  “I’m more than happy with him.  But I think that this little girl needs a name, Kerri,” he prompted.

        “A name?  Why does it need a name?” she asked.

        “She deserves a name,” he said pointedly, scratching her behind the ear.  “Or would you rather act like she doesn’t exist?  How would you feel if you were rejected by the people you loved?”

        “Love?” Keritanima began, but a single look from Tarrin cut her off.

        “Don’t say it,” he warned in a low voice.  “Look at her, Kerri,” he ordered.  “Look closely.”

        Keritanima looked at the Hellhound in irritation, but she suddenly brought herself up short by the look of utter adulation on the Hellhound’s face.  “Fixed, you say?” she asked Shiika speculatively.  “And what does that mean?”

        “She obeys you utterly,” she answered.  “You, Rallix, and when he’s old enough, Faalken.  She’ll do whatever you say.  She’s also about as smart as a human, so she can understand complex commands and carry out complicated tasks.  She’ll be your pet, and if the need arises, your protector.  Just ask Camara about Ember.  She’s head over heels about her Hellhound.”

        That much was certainly true.  Camara Tal left Ember behind in Amazar because she didn’t want to bring her to Wikuna, but she loved her Hellhound like a member of the family.  Just like Fireflash was a member of Tarrin’s family, Ember was part of the Tal household.  Even though they’d started out on the wrong foot, Tarrin and Ember got along now.  She understood that he was a part of the family and didn’t try to attack him anymore, and truth be told, he rather favored her.  She was smart, loving, loyal, and quite affectionate.

        “Well, I guess I can keep her for a while,” she said with a speculatively look, kneeling down.  “See how it works out.  Come here,” she ordered.

        The Hellhound got up and padded over to her, then sat down and bowed her head to allow Keritanima to pet her.  “She needs a name,” Tarrin prompted.

        “She’s black as night and I thought she was Shiika’s shadow when she came in, so that’s as good a name as any,” Keritanima answered.  “Shadow.  Your name is Shadow,” she told the Hellhound as she tentatively stroked her fur, then put her furry hand under the Hellhound’s chin and scratched.  “She’s soft,” she reported in surprise.  “I didn’t think a Hellhound would feel so fuzzy.”

        “You’ll find her to be full of surprises,” Shiika told her, then she looked at Tarrin.  “I guess I’ll have to get another one ready in about nine months.  Did you know that Tiella’s pregnant?”

        He nodded.  “I smelled it on her this morning.”

        “I passed her in the hall,” she explained.  “I think I’ll give her a male,” she said.  “I gave Camara a female because I knew she’d prefer one.  You know how chauvinistic she is.  Kerri got Shadow here because this is the biggest Hellhound I have, I wanted her to have the strongest Hellhound in the pack.  Nothing’s too good for my favorite adversary,” she said with a grin.  “I have a rather mild-natured male that would be perfect for Dar and Tiella.”

        “A mild-natured Hellhound?” Tarrin asked with a slight scoff.

        “All my Hellhounds are fixed in a few ways,” she answered.  “If they weren’t, they’d be unruly and very hard to control.  I also don’t let them run around and eat people, so I had to do a little alteration on their base natures.  My Hellhounds aren’t like other Hellhounds.  You know it’s shown to pass through breeding?” she said to him with a little surprise on her face.  “Shadow here had a litter last year, and all her pups are exactly like the adults.  At least I don’t have to fix every litter they have.”

        “You breed them?” Allia asked curiously.

        Shiika nodded.  “Hellhounds tend to kill each other when they fight for dominance in the pack, so I have to breed them to keep up their numbers,” she answered.

        Keritanima giggled, which made Tarrin look back at her.  Shadow was licking her face, her tail wagging as she pawed at the Wikuni queen.  In a way, the Hellhound was a subtle mirror image of the enigmatic Demoness.  She was a Demon, but she wasn’t like other Demons.  She lacked that fundamental evil that all other Demons possessed.  She was by no means kind and gentle and sweet, but she also was not cruel and vicious and sadistic.  Many times, Tarrin had wondered why she was different, but had never dared to broach the subject with her.

        “Well, I think Shadow’s place in the house of Eram is relatively secure,” Shiika said with a slight smirk, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

        “What can these Hellhounds do?” Allia asked.

        “Their main power is that they can breathe fire,” Shiika answered.  “Believe me, against anything but a Weavespinner, that’s a very formidable power.  They’re also very strong, smart, and cunning.  Oh, and they can see in the dark.  They can see heat like it was light, which lets them see perfectly at all times.”

        “That could be useful,” Allia observed.

        “Want one?” Shiika asked.  “I have a few too many, but I don’t want to give them out to people I can’t trust.”

        “I think Kedaira would be very jealous,” she declined with a smile.

        “Eh, maybe I’ll give Dar and Tiella theirs now,” she said, mainly to herself.  “They’re getting unruly.  If I don’t thin out the pack, they’re going to start killing each other.”  She smiled in a malicious fashion.  “I think I will.  I couldn’t be here to spoil Kerri’s big day, so maybe I’ll spoil Tiella finding out she’s pregnant.”

        “You’re an evil woman, Shiika,” Allia said with a laugh.

        “I know,” she agreed with a grin.

        “You could always give one to Kang,” Tarrin offered.

        “He has two,” she told him.  “He’s my best general and the commander of my entire army, so I have two Hellhounds with him to help guard him.  One of my daughters also shadows him discreetly at all times.  I’m not about to lose him, Tarrin.  My army would go to pieces without him.”

        “Give one to Darvon,” Tarrin offered.  “Call it a gesture of friendship from the Imperial throne and the Legions, a token of respect.”

        “Now that’s an idea,” she said brightly.  “I could score some points with Arren.”

        “Don’t start giving her ideas, brother!” Keritanima warned from the floor between laughs.  Shadow had knocked her down and was still licking her face.  “Alright, alright, enough!” she finally ordered.  The Hellhound immediately withdrew from the Wikuni queen and sat at the foot of the cradle.  “I think we should withdraw.  Faalken’s getting a bit cranky because he’s trying to sleep and we’re talking.  I’ll introduce you to Faalken when he wakes up, Shadow,” she told the Hellhound.  “For now, you need to meet Rallix, Binter, and Sisska.  You will obey them as you obey me.”

        The Hellhound dipped her head in understanding.

        “I’ll leave you two to that,” Shiika told them as she stood up.  “I have a few things to look into, and I want to have Shun bring the male Hellhound I’m giving to Dar and Tiella here so I can fix him.  I want you to meet Shun, Tarrin.  Come with me?”

        He looked down at her, saw the serious look in her eyes, and understood that she wanted to talk to him privately.  That would probably be for the best, so he nodded.

        “We’ll be back in a little while,” Tarrin told his sisters.

        “Don’t take too long,” Keritanima told them.  “And don’t agree to anything she says!” she warned.

        Tarrin filed out of the apartment with Shiika, and past Binter and Sisska, who each fixed the Demoness with flat, unfriendly looks.  They left her apartment in relative silence, then started down one of the hallways.

        “I see I was right,” she announced without any kind of preamble as they turned a corner, passing a quartet of roving Royal Guards, who patrolled the halls of the palace.  “It shines on you like the sun, Tarrin.  And I already know what happened with Stragos Bane.”

        “I had the feeling you knew,” he admitted.

        “Well, you’re totally safe from me now,” she admitted to him.  “I kept trying to get you before you manifested your powers.  Now that you have, I can’t touch you.  So we can be friends without anything like that hanging over our relationship.”

        “Really?” he said archly.

        “Can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said, looking up at him with a wink.  “I still say you’d have had more fun with me than Niami.  You missed out on it, Tarrin.”

        “That’s your opinion,” he told her.

        “That’s half the reason I was late.  At least late enough for me to still be there when Anayi pulled her stunt.  The Elder Gods called me to council.”

        “They did?” he said in surprise.

        She nodded.  “I’ve told you before, Tarrin, the only reason I’m allowed to stay here is because me and the elder Gods have an agreement,” she reminded him.  “I do what they say, and sometimes I perform tasks for them.  In return, I’m allowed to live here, so long as I don’t cause any serious trouble.  Guarding the Book of Ages was one of those tasks,” she revealed.  “But they usually don’t talk to me directly.  They send Spyder.  So I know that when I’m called to appear before them in person, they usually have something very serious to say.”

        “What did they want?”

        “They told me not to give you any reason to fight with me,” she admitted casually.  “They know that me and you have something of a weird friendship, but they wanted to make sure we didn’t cross the line and get into a feud.  They don’t want another Bane-level incident, but they’re being paranoid.  I’m a Succubus, not a balor.  I don’t have that kind of raw power, and they know it.”

        “How many balors do you own?” he asked pointedly.

        She laughed. “None, but I do own a couple of nalfeshnee,” she admitted.  “Two of them are about as strong as a balor.”

        “Then there’s why they’re being paranoid,” he told her.

        “Well, it’s a moot point.  I’d never fight with you, Tarrin.  I like you, and I really like your mother.  I do need to go see her,” she mused.  “I’m thirsty for some of that excellent tea she makes.”

        “I see they’re taking steps,” he grunted.  “I’ve already received a visitor of my own.  Ahiriya.”

        “You should have expected it,” she told him.  “Watch her, Tarrin.  She’s got a temper, but she’s also very cunning and rather smart.  Always tiptoe around Ahiriya.”  She looked up at him.  “How are you taking it?”

        “It hasn’t quite sunk all the way in yet,” he admitted freely.  “It’s a shock, but at least my family and friends didn’t go into hysterics.  They accept it.  That makes it much easier for me to deal with it.”

        “It’s not all that strong,” she told him, then gave him a sheepish look. “No offense.”

        “None taken,” he assured her.

        “But it’s that sword that’s got the Elder Gods all knotted up.  I sensed that potential in it when you threatened to give me a third eye with it.  I see I was right about what it did.”

        “You knew?”

        “I suspected,” she corrected him.  “Well, let me be the first one to officially welcome you to the Second World,” she said grandly.

        “What?”

        “The world the mortals don’t see,” she told him.  “You’ll find all sorts of things different up here, Tarrin.  You’re a part of it now, just like me and the Cambisi.  We’re immortals.  Gods, Demons, Archons, Deva, and the Entropics, we’re all part of the world that the mortals never see.”

        Tarrin only recognized two of those terms.  “What are those?” he asked.

        “I think you already know what Gods are, so I’ll ignore that one,” she told him with a smile.  “You might know what Demons are, but not what they do.”

        “I know what they do,” he answered her.

        “Alright then.  Archons are spirits that serve the gods as messengers and soldiers, but they rarely come into the material planes.  When they do, it‘s because they‘re performing tasks for the gods they serve.  That‘s just about everywhere else, though.  Archons are forbidden from entering Sennadar, so the gods here have to do everything themselves.  Deva are the servants of the God of Gods, going around and doing His will directly.  They most often serve as messengers between the God of Gods and the Gods, but they also take up arms and fight against Demons and Entropics.  They‘re nasty,” she said with a shudder.  “Even the weakest ones, which are called Deva, and their name is something of a label for the three kinds of them.  Demons wet themselves if a Planetar shows up, and they flee in terror if a Solar even shows up in the same dimension as them.  Gods, Archons, and Deva are on one side, and Demons are on the other, fighting a war that‘s been going on since the dawn of creation.  Demons are trying to conquer everything in existence, and the Gods, Archons, and Deva oppose them.”

        “What about those last ones?“

        “Entropics are the embodiment of destruction, something like how Demons are the embodiment of chaos,” she told him.  “Everyone hates Entropics.  Deva and Demons will actually fight on the same side against them.  They’re the bane of the multiverse, because they seek to totally destroy everything.  Demons won’t stand for that, because they want to conquer everything.  That’s why Demons side with the enemy against them.  Entropics are horridly powerful, so it usually takes a sizable force to deal with even a weak one.  When a strong Entropic appears, everyone drops everything and bands together to destroy it.  It’s the only occasion where you’ll see Demons, Archons, and Deva all on the same side.”

        Tarrin recalled something Mother had told him in passing long ago, about a force called entropy, which was something that all gods feared.  These entropics had to be manifestations of that power.

        “So, you’ve just told me about a bunch of things I’ll probably never see,” Tarrin surmised.

        Shiika laughed.  “About that,” she agreed.  “Archons and Deva aren’t allowed to come to Sennadar, and Entropics don’t appear on the material plane.  They only appear in the Astral.  Mortals call them the psychic maelstrom, because getting close to an Entropic is a lot like being in a hurricane.  They don’t understand what they really are.”

        “Mortals go to the Astral?”

        She nodded.  “Loads of them.  Higher beings aren’t the only ones that travel between material planes and dimensions.  Mortals are quite common in the Astral, more common than Archons, Demons, or Deva.”

        “What about gods?”

        “They’re not allowed to visit the Astral in their true forms,” she told him.  “They’re only allowed to visit in spirit.”

        “Well, where do gods live, then?” he asked.  “I mean, they’re not allowed on the material plane, and they’re not allowed in the Astral.  Where else is there?”

        “There are other dimensions aside from those two, Tarrin,” she answered as they reached the grand central hall, then turned towards the throne room.  “What some call the Abyss or the Nine Hells is an example of that.”

        “They’re the same?” he asked.

        “Sort of,” she replied.  “The Abyss and the Hells are different areas of what people who know simply call Hell, or the Lower Plane.  Each is its own dimension, but they’re all part of a collective whole.  There’s an Upper Plane that mirrors this for the forces of good and law.  Places called the Twin Paradises, Olympus, Arcadia, the Seven Heavens, they’re all different dimensions of a collective whole called Heaven.  So, you have Heaven’s aspects above, and Hell’s aspects below,” she said, holding one hand up high and one down low to illustrate her point.  “The material planes and the planes of the Elementals are in the middle, caught between the two and keeping them safely separated.”

        “What about this Core I’ve heard about?”

        “Ah, you have been reading,” she said brightly.  “The Core exists squarely in the middle of everything, at the center of all existence, and that’s the domain of the God of Gods.  It exists outside all the other planes, kind of like a place that’s not a place.  But it does have a position, because this material plane lies very close to it.  That’s why magic in Sennadar is so powerful.”  They turned away from the throne room and started walking towards the kitchens.  “There’s only one way into the Core, and that’s through a gateway that nobody can find except the Deva.  They’re the only ones who go to the Core.”

        Tarrin chuckled.  “Why are we even talking about this?” he asked.

        “I have no idea,” she answered with a wink.  “Well, have you explored the extent of your powers yet?” she asked.  “I can see a pair of ghostly wings behind you, so I assume that they’re there.”

        “You can see that?” he asked in surprise.

        “I’m a Demon, Tarrin.  I can see things that mortals can’t see.  One thing you’re going to find out is that people like you and me can’t ever hide from each other.  I can see the truth of you, and you can see the truth of me.  Don’t I look different to you now?”

        Tarrin looked at her, looked carefully, then shook his head.  “No,” he answered.  “You look just the same as always.”

        She pursed her lips, then stopped in the hallway.  “What do I look like?”

        “Red hair, dark skin, the same you always look to me,” he answered her.

        “Well, that’s not how I actually look,” she said absently.  “I’m a blond.  Actually, I look something like a short Ungardt.  And I have horns,” she added with a wink.

        “I’d never have believed that.”

        “Hush,” she said shortly, putting her finger to her chin and scrutinizing him.  “You should be able to see me,” she said in irritation.  “Why can’t you?  I can see you as clearly as the light of day.  So why can I see you, but you can’t see me?”

        “I have no idea,” he answered honestly.  “I have no idea how any of this works, Shiika.  About the only thing I know how to do is make the wings retract so they’re hidden.  That’s it.”

        “That is it,” she said with a snap of her fingers.  “Extend your wings.”

        “Here?  Now?” he asked fearfully, looking around.

        “Why not?” she countered, opening her wings slightly. “It’s not like I’m hiding mine.”

        “People know you have yours,” he told her.

        “You can’t hide them forever, Tarrin,” she told him seriously.

        “I’ll hide them as long as possible,” he replied fervently.  “I’m not pulling them out in public.  If you want to see them, then let’s go somewhere private.”

        “I don’t want to see them,” she told him as they turned around and started back towards the stairs leading up to the apartments.  “I just think that the wings directly represent your power.  If you don’t have them out, you don’t have any power.  I think that’s why you can’t see me.”

        “Is that possible?”

        She nodded.  “The kind of power people like us have depends a great deal on metaphor, Tarrin.  The wings are your power.  If you don’t have them out, you can’t use it, or even the little tertiary abilities you should have.  I have a similar restriction.”

        “What would that be?” he asked curiously.

        “I can’t use any of my Demonic powers if I’m in a male form,” she answered honestly.  “Everything about a Succubus deals with seduction and control, mostly of the opposite sex.  If I take the form of the opposite sex, it neutralizes my powers.  The only thing I can do is change back.  There are male versions of my type called Incubus, and they have the same restriction the Succubus does.  They can take a female form, but if they do, they have no power aside from the ability to change back.”

        “I’ve never heard of an Incubus,” Tarrin mused.

        “You won’t see them here,” she told him.  “Mages can Summon Demons to Sennadar, but they can’t stay unless they kill the mage that Summons them before the spell ends.  And when they do, they usually find Spyder on their butts before they can even take three steps.  The Elder Gods won’t let free Demons roam Sennadar, except for me.”

        So that was one of the things that Spyder did for the Elder Gods, he realized.  She killed freed Demons.

        “Here, this room is empty,” she prompted, pointing at a door.

        “How do you know?” he asked.

        She tapped her forehead.  “Just one of my little tricks,” she told him with a smile as she opened the door, revealing something of a council chamber beyond, with a small round table surrounded by seven padded chairs..  He stepped through behind her and closed it        “Alright, now bring out your wings.  If I’m right, you should be able to see me.”

        He took a step back, closed his eyes, and willed the wings to come forth, and they responded by burning through the back of his vest--again--and filling out to their full, voluminous size.  He spread them out reflexively to stretch them, let them extend out and revel from the release from their confined state, then he folded them behind him and opened his eyes.

        He was quite surprised by what he saw.  He indeed could see Shiika’s true form, and though she looked quite different, she was still very lovely.  She was much more delicate-looking than he expected, but she was also nearly seven spans tall, taller than many human men, almost nose to nose with Allia.  The wings looked no different, but her face was much softer, with high, elegant cheekbones and strangely arched, thin eyebrows that were a dark blond color.  She had red eyes, though, a mark of her inhuman nature, irises the color of rubies, and a pair of slender horns that sprouted out from her straight blond hair, just about where his ears were on his own head.  They jutted up at a very gentle angle towards the back of her head, then bent sharply and turned forward, over her forehead, ending in slightly upturned points.  Very sharp points.

        “So, can you see me?” she asked.

        He nodded.  “You’re taller than I thought you’d be.”

        “So that is how it works for you,“ she said with a smile.  “You’re just seeing an image of how I really appear, Tarrin,” she told him.  “Look closer, and you’ll see that.  I’m really down here,” she said, putting her hand over her head and pointing down towards herself.

        Tarrin blinked again and looked at about where her chin was, and realized that he could indeed see her forehead.  The image of her true self then kind of faded, became opaque, and the Shiika he’d always seen before appeared from within it, a dusky-skinned woman with red hair and gorgeous features.  “What you see up there is the real me,” she told him, pointing at about where the image’s nose was, an image that became less and less substantial as he looked at it.  “It’ll look something like a ghost hovering just behind me.  Any time you see one of those ghostly images, you’re not dealing with a mortal being.”  She put her finger under her chin and studied him a long moment, which made him feel distinctly uncomfortable.  “I like them,” she finally declared.  “They’re very handsome.  You should leave them out.”

        “No,” he said with quiet intensity, causing them to retract again, hiding them from sight.  He followed that up by reaching within, through the Cat, and touching the All.  He used the same spell Sarraya used to mend the vest, but since he couldn’t see what he was doing, he relied on the All to merge the vest without a seam.  “And you won’t tell anyone,” he told her, looking at her quite seriously, and seeing that the ghostly image of her true self was again hidden from him.  “If people found out about them and found out what they meant, they’d panic.  I won’t risk that.”

        “I used to think that too,” she told him.  “I hid for centuries.  It’s almost weird to me that everyone knows that I’m a Demon, but they don’t care.  Isn’t that strange?”

        “They’d care about me,” he said grimly.

        “You’re being too paranoid,” she told him derisively as she opened the door.  “You should give mortals a chance.  You’d be surprised at them.  I certainly am.”

        “No thanks,” he told her as he followed her out, and they started back towards Keritanima’s apartment by some kind of unspoken agreement.  “Shiika,” he said suddenly.

        “What?”

        “Why are you different from the other Demons?” he asked before he even realized what he was asking.

        She chuckled.  “It took you three years to ask me that?” she said with a sly look.

        “I’ve been curious about it for a long time,” he admitted.  He decided that he might as well go through with it, even if he really hadn’t planned on asking her.  Especially since she didn’t seem to have a hostile reaction to the question.

        “Well, seeing as how you’re my equal now, I may as well tell you,” she answered.  “It was about seven thousand years ago, on a different material plane,” she began.  “Back then I was doing what a good Succubus does, seducing mortals and taking their souls, when I was Summoned by a powerful Wizard.  To cut a very, very long story short, he fell in love with me.  True love,” she told him quite seriously.  “Not puppy-dog love, Tarrin.  True love.  I didn’t care about that, of course,” she admitted quite honestly.  “I saw it as a way to get his soul, but I underestimated that crafty old mage.  He loved me, but he was smart enough not to trust me.  He knew he could never have me so long as he didn’t trust me, so he decided to fix me so I could be trusted.”

        “Fix you?  The way you fixed the Hellhounds?”

        She nodded.  “He knew he couldn’t control me with magic, so he decided that the way to be able to trust me was to make me love him.  Demons can’t love, Tarrin.  It’s absolutely impossible, totally against our very natures.  That was the core of his dilemma.

        “But like I said, he was one very crafty mage.  He came up with a plan, and it involved a specific type of magical object that existed on his world, an object that carried a magical curse.”

        “A curse?  Why would he want something like that?”

        “Keep quiet and I’ll tell you,” she chided him.  “It took him about twenty years, but he finally found the cursed object he needed, a magical crown, and to cut it short, he tricked me into putting it on.”

        “And you were cursed.”

        “Hush!” she said sharply.  “The crown carried a curse that caused the personality of the person who put it on to reverse.  A saintly old man would turn into a ruthless monster, but an evil Demon was supposed to change into a good-natured, sweet little maiden.  Needless to say, it didn’t work the way he intended.”

        He managed to piece it together quickly.  “But it did affect you,” he said.

        She nodded.  “I’m a Demon, Tarrin, and the evil nature of a Demon was too much for the crown’s magic to completely reverse.  But it did more or less neutralize my more sadistic and evil tendencies.  It didn’t make me good, but it did take away much of my evil.  Truth be told, I rather like being this way,” she admitted honestly.  “It’s the best of both worlds.  I still have my Demonic powers, but I’m not totally obsessed with conquering and ruling like I was back then.  And since I’m a Demon that doesn’t have a Demon’s mentality, it allows me to do things that no other Demon can do.  Like stay here on Sennadar, for example.  I‘m actually accepted here, because of my unique advantages.”

        “What happened to that mage?” he asked curiously.

        “The crown made me go a little berserk, and in the confusion its magic put me under, I killed him,” she told him levelly.  “His plan didn’t work the way he intended, but it did pave the way for the little slice of paradise I have here.  If he hadn’t have put that crown on me, the Elder Gods of Sennadar would never have allowed me to stay here.  I’m a little sorry I killed him, but I do thank him almost every day.  His love for me set up the happiness I have now, and I think he’d be happy to know that.”

        Tarrin was silent a long moment as they walked, pondering her story.  Strange that it was the love of a mage that would be the reason she was so different than other Demons, but in a way, it did make a sort of sense.  If he loved her that deeply, then he would have found a way to make it safe for him to love her, and find a way to have her love him in return.  It seemed a little unfair that she killed him in the end, but then again, life often did not have a happy ending.  But, as she said, he probably would be happy to know that his act of love had brought happiness into Shiika’s life.

        “Stupid, isn’t it?” she said self-effacingly.  “Not quite what you’d expect, you know.”

        “I don’t know, Shiika,” he answered.  “Love is probably the most powerful emotion there is.  It can make people do amazing thing.”

        “I know,” she said with a nod.  “You know, I’ve never told anyone that before, not even my daughters.  But, since you’re who you are, I guess I owed you that much.”

        “You don’t owe me anything, Shiika.”

        “Sure I did,” she told him with a smile.  “It’s only fair, given how much I know about you.  And now that you know one of my deepest secrets, maybe it’ll show you that I really do want to be your friend.  No strings, no conditions,” she told him, raising her hands over her head in a manner similar to when she said those same words earlier.  “Just friends.”

        “We’ll see,” he told her with something that was nearly a smile.

        “Come on, I’ll introduce you to Shun,” she offered.  “And maybe try to talk you into taking a Hellhound,” she said with a smile.

        It was just one of several interesting events of the day, which Tarrin withdrew to ponder in solitude that afternoon.  Discovering the secret of Shiika’s rather unusual condition did in a way incline him towards her more favorably, as much for her brutal honesty as for the circumstances of it all.  She was quite honest about the fact that she wasn’t a good little girl, but then again, that was a well-established fact.  Shiika was still dangerous, but because of the crown, she was actually trustworthy after a fashion.

        Tarrin didn’t have much time to dwell on that before he met Shun, who was a petite Alu with curiously large wings for her size and short cropped hair that was black as pitch and straight as straw.  He remembered her from the battle, one of the ones he’d blasted with that shockwave of air and sent flying, and also one of the ones who had clipped him before Anayi rammed him and knocked him off the roof.  Shun was rather pretty, but it was apparent almost immediately that she wasn’t too bright.  She fawned all over her mother, and he could see the mindless devotion in her eyes.  Shun thought the sun rose and set around Shiika, and it was Shiika’s formidable mind that supplied Shun with all the thinking she ever had to do.  In a way, he supposed, that at least made them a good match, since Shiika would never release Shun the way she had Anayi.  Shun would get into way too much trouble, because she wasn’t smart enough to understand the delicate complexities under which she’d have to operate if she were on her own.

        But it was a situation that Shun was very happy would never come up.  She was quite happy with being her mother’s “best errand-girl,” as she called it, and almost swooned in delight when Shiika ruffled her hair, kissed her on the cheek, and sent her back home after she delivered the Hellhound with kind words for a job well done.  Shiika had to assure him that she hadn’t fixed Shun, that unfortunately, that’s the way she was.  Shun had a very dependent personality, always needing to be told what to do, always wanting to be told what to do.  Shiika was a little disappointed that she wasn’t smarter, but she admitted that she’d always keep Shun in her service both to keep her safe from herself, and to give her the direction that she seemed to crave.

        That in itself was quite eye-opening to Tarrin, but for a different reason.  He realized as he watched Shiika and Shun that Shiika cared for her dim daughter, that she was very protective of her.  She obviously would trust her to deal with what they’d all thought was an oddly strong mortal, but she kept her safe and out of harm’s way when it came to her possibly running afoul of the gods.  He wasn’t sure if it was love, but there was certainly a degree of caring involved there.

        A Demon who cared.  If that didn’t cause the entire universe to unravel itself, then nothing would.

        Just as he was trying to digest that bit of surprising information, Darvon, Kang, and the sashka dropped their little surprise on everyone.  That surprise came in the package of an adolescent Vendari whom he called Kishaa.  It seemed that the three of them had organized something of a formal competition among the young Vendari to find the one with the most potential among them, and the winner of that contest would win the right to become part of Keritanima’s private retinue of bodyguards.  The contest dealt with much more than martial skill, it dealt with intelligence, the ability to think quickly and correctly under stress, and the ability to be creative and resourceful in unfavorable conditions, and that was what the sashka had wanted Darvon and Kang’s help creating.  Kishaa won that competition, and just as Tarrin and Shiika were getting back to the apartments, the sashka was presenting Kishaa to Keritanima.  He told her quite bluntly that Kishaa would become a part of her personal entourage, and it was his solemn duty to protect Faalken, the same way Binter and Sisska were sworn to defend her.  The three military men had decided that two Vendari were not enough to protect Keritanima’s growing family, and so they conducted their contest to find a suitable addition.  Kishaa was the result.  Kishaa would be trained by Binter and Sisska, becoming something of a foster family to the adolescent male, and Tarrin realized that he could find no better tutors in those two formidable warriors.

        Personally, Tarrin didn’t find much problem with the idea, but Keritanima was not very happy about it.  She felt that between Binter, Sisska, and now her Hellhound Shadow, that Faalken would have ample protection.  She also told them that she didn’t want him to grow up surrounded by an army of protectors, to never have the chance to be a child.  Keritanima and the sashka argued about it for quite a while--or at least Keritanima did.  The sashka had made up his mind, and he absolutely would not be moved.  Keritanima crashed up against that stone wall for nearly an hour before she finally realized that there was no way she was going to move him, not even by issuing a royal command.  He just shrugged that off, telling her that the safety of her and her family was more important than her own personal feelings, and he had a sworn duty to look after the monarch.  He was simply carrying out the duties imparted upon him by the agreement between Vendaka and Wikuna.

        After witnessing that interesting exchange, and formally being introduced to Kishaa, they all gathered in the throne room for a formal midday feast to celebrate the birth of the crown prince, and to formally present him to all the noble houses.  It was a feast without much of the wrangling and political gossiping that usually came when noble houses gathered, and they all looked just a trifle sulky.  Now that Keritanima had produced an heir to the throne, the noble houses seemed to understand that there was virtually no chance of getting things back to the way they used to be, when the nobles had all the power and used it to enrich themselves at the expense of the common Wikuni.  Keritanima would train and teach her son to make him just as formidable as she was, and they knew that there was virtually no chance of taking power away from the Eram dynasty.

        It was originally written in the constitution that there would be no monarch after her, but after much debate and feedback from the commoners, Keritanima had been forced to change that, because the concept of a monarch on the throne was so deeply ingrained into the Wikuni culture that to take that away would create tremendous unrest and uncertainty.  The way it read now, heirs to the throne could take it after her, but only heirs that were her direct blood descendents.  There was also a clause that would allow Keritanima to take that throne back from any sitting monarch at any time, in case that particular king or queen was weak or incompetent, playing on the fact that Keritanima was essentially ageless, and would live until something or someone killed her.  Keritanima was now the ultimate matriarch of a constitutional monarchy, and no king or queen would sit on the Sun Throne who could not prove Keritanima was a direct ancestor.  So long as the Eram line persevered, there would be an Eram on the Sun throne for the rest of Wikuna’s existence.  This was all but guaranteed, because Keritanima--and Faalken, since he too was a Sorcerer--would not die of old age.

        After the feast, as the bells outside still tolled, Keritanima took the baby up to a high balcony and showed him to the large throngs of Wikuni who had gathered outside the palace, gathered of their own volition just for the chance to see their new prince.  They all went wild when she held up the tiny bundle, rejoicing the birth even if they couldn’t see anything but a little bundle wrapped in heavy blankets to stave off the biting Wikuna winter.  Binter, Sisska, and now Kishaa were right there with her and Rallix, standing behind her and ready to leap to her defense at any moment.

        That evening was marked by a formal ceremony where the High Priest of Kikkalli formally anointed Faalken as the Crown Prince, a little ceremony filled with stately speeches in High Wikuni, the ancient form of their language, which sounded hauntingly like Sha’Kar.  Keritanima had never taught Tarrin that, because she didn’t know it.  Only the Priests used it, and then only during religious ceremonies.

        The surprise wrapped up in that ceremony came after Faalken’s anointment, when Keritanima told the High Priest quite seriously that she wanted Tarrin and Allia declared a Prince and Princess, since they were her brother and sister.  This startled both Tarrin and Allia, since Keritanima had never told them anything about this little idea, and it could possibly cause friction with the Wikuni.  But it was an empty title and everyone knew it, since the constitution of Wikuna stated that only the direct blood descendents of Keritanima could hold the throne, and for that reason, the High Priest agreed.  So, first Allia and then Tarrin knelt in front of the bull Wikuni and had pungent oil rubbed on their temples, and they were officially declared to be a Princess and a Prince.

        Keritanima didn’t seem to be finished with her surprises.  She stood up and informed everyone after those little ceremonies that Jenawalani and Veranika were hereby reinstated to title of Princess, but their oaths to never take the throne were still binding.  She told her assembled nobles and guests that it was only just and proper for Jenawalani and Veranika to be recognized for who and what they were…Keritanima’s sisters and directly related to the sitting Queen.

        The effect this had on Jenawalani was quite dramatic.  She’d been standing on the dais with the other direct relatives of Keritanima--Tarrin, Allia, Rallix, and the bundle that was Faalken that was in Keritanima’s arms--and on hearing this she covered her face with her hands and started crying.  Tarrin had come to know Jenawalani in the times he visited Keritanima in her palace, and he knew that she truly and sincerely loved her sister.  That Keritanima would stand up and all but publicly announce that she loved her in return, loved and trusted her enough to give her back what she had relinquished out of terror of the then vengeful Queen, said just about everything that needed to be said.  Tarrin put his paw on her shoulder gently, and she buried her face in his chest.  Tarrin didn’t see it as a restoration of an empty title, he saw it as an official recognition of their relationship, and a public announcement of the feelings that existed between them now.  Jenawalani had grown up quite a bit after Keritanima banished her to Wildwater, had come to understand just how empty her life had been, and had been very lonely.  He remembered Kikkalli telling her that the seed she’d put inside Jenawalani’s heart had bloomed, a hint that Kikkalli had shown the mink Wikuni the error of her ways.  The result was that the Jenawalani that came back from Wildwater to expose her father’s plot was much more mature, and that maturity had been the chord that had caught Keritanima’s attention.  The two sisters has joined together to put down Damon’s rebellion initially out of mutual desire to punish their father for what he had done to them as children, how he had raised them to be heartless monsters, but it had developed into a strong mutual bond of friendship that the two of them had to keep carefully hidden from the other nobles.  And now, it was again a bond between sisters, filled with love and respect, a bond that was officially summed up in one word.

        Princess.

        Tarrin had never met Veranika, but he knew a great deal about her from listening to Keritanima.  She received daily status reports on her sister at the school to which she had been sent after Keritanima took the throne, and Veranika was the top student at the school.  She had tremendous motivation to be so, because Keritanima threatened to cast her out of the house if she wasn’t.  Veranika was going to be the matriarch of House Eram, for the house that held the throne often did not serve as both monarch and house ruler, and Keritanima was ensuring that she was schooled properly and motivated to take the job quite seriously.  Keritanima had Rallix looking after the interests of House Eram at the moment, and though he split his time between that, the duties as Minister of State, and the trading company they owned jointly, the Twenty Seas, the house fortunes had been steadily increasing.  Even a quarter of Rallix’s time was worth more than a room full of economists and merchants.  He was that good.  Had Rallix been born a noble instead of a commoner, Keritanima had no doubt that whatever house to which he would have belonged would be the richest of them all.  Keritanima had not yet relented to let Veranika come home, not even during the school holidays, but he had the feeling that the next time her school had a holiday, Veranika would indeed be coming home.  He also had a sneaking suspicion that Kikkalli had also done a little tampering with Veranika, to show her that being loved was more important than being powerful, a lesson that Jula could teach anyone in a single afternoon of frank education.

        After that, they all gathered again in Keritanima’s apartment for a private gathering, which was the first meeting between Shiika and Sapphire.  It went much as Tarrin expected, for Sapphire wasn’t all that impressed by Shiika, and Shiika had the sense to treat Sapphire with a great deal of respect and deference.  After those two got through the pleasantries,  Shiika sprung her little surprise on Dar and Tiella.  She had the male Hellhound come in from Keritanima’s study and sent it over to sit at Tiella’s feet without explanation.

        “I didn’t know you gave Keritanima two of them,” Tiella told her, a little uncertainly.  Tiella was still a little nervous around the truly exotic people in their group, such as Triana, Sapphire, and Shiika.

        “He’s not hers,” Shiika told her with a sly smile.  “He’s yours.”

        “Mine?  Why are you giving me a Hellhound?” she asked in confusion, but Dar suddenly started laughing, his eyes bright.

        “Haven’t you noticed that I give a Hellhound to every member of Tarrin’s family that has a baby?” she asked in a serious tone, but her expression was impish.  “It’s how I make sure that they grow up safe and sound.”

        “But I don’t--” she started, then she saw the knowing smile on Jula’s face.  “I’m pregnant?” she gasped, touching her belly tentatively.

        “Only just, girl,” Triana told her.  “To those who can smell it, it’s obvious.”

        Tiella’s face scrunched up as if she was about to start shouting, then she squealed in delight and hugged Dar fiercely.  “We’re going to have a baby!” she announced ecstatically.

        “I say, congratulations, Dar and Tiella!” Phandebrass called happily, raising a goblet of wine.  “To another member of the family!”

        Tarrin managed to sneak away from the festivities for a while, as he and Fireflash ended up on the roof, looking down on the city of Wikuna in the late evening, with the skies cloudy and threatening and an absolutely frigid wind whipping in from the northwest, which made the little drake start shivering almost immediately.  He wove a small spell that kept his drake nice and warm on his shoulder, surrounding him with warmed air that the wind couldn’t blow away.  Tarrin stood at the highest crest of the large, rambling rooftop, looking down at a darkening city as the wind whipped his braid over his shoulder to snap like  a pennant in the breeze.  Quite a bit had happened that day, some of it quite revolutionary to his mind, but the grim truths revealed that morning were what were most heavily on his mind.  Faalken’s status as a sui’kun did not bode well to him, for they had brought up a third replacement that would still keep the required two sui’kun in reserve to protect against another Breaking, and that freed the gods up to kill him without suffering any kind of magical backlash on the Weave.  It seemed to make no sense, given that Ahiriya had come and proclaimed that the gods wanted to try to work something out that would prevent a fight.  It was much like a king quietly preparing his troops for war as he agreed to peace with his intended adversary.

        He wasn’t quite sure what to think.  Their telling Shiika not to do anything that might goad the sword into changing him seemed that they were willing to try to coexist with him, but this bringing up a third extra sui’kun seemed like the first stage in the preparations they needed to make to kill him off.  The other preparations they had to make were to scout out the proper location, set up the support they needed, and then plan the trap.  They needed to find a place somewhere far distant from civilization, where the damage that might come about from the war could be contained without laying waste to tracts of developed land.  They had to make sure that they had all the gods there and ready to deal with him, and they also had to lure him out to that location.  They would strike hard and without warning, try to kill him before the sword could respond and change him, which would give him the power to fight back.

        That brought up a curious question in him.  He had been able to see Shirazi’s eyes within the sun, but hadn’t been able to see Shiika’s true form.  Shiika told him that all his divine powers were unusable so long as the wings were retracted they way they were, and their experiment seemed to back up this observation.  But why had he been able to see Shirazi’s eyes?  Why could he sense gods watching him, even at that very moment?

        Wait, he’d seen Shirazi’s eyes in the desert because the wings were out, but before all this happened, he remembered seeing them, before he talked to his Elementals and learned about the Demons.  Perhaps because that was before he got the wings, whatever minor abilities he had at that time worked differently…or something.

        This was all uncharted territory to him, and not only did he have no idea how any of it worked, he was half afraid of finding out.  Some analytical part of him kept telling him that if he never learned how to use any of his powers, if he rejected them, then maybe the gods would leave him alone.  Not only was that a bit ridiculous, it also directly went against what Ahiriya told him to do.  She outright ordered him to learn how his power worked, and she wouldn’t do that if the gods would feel less threatened by him if he never learned how to use that power.  On the other hand, it seemed illogical to him that Ahiriya would order him to learn how to use power that he might use against her if it came down to a war.  If she forbade him from learning how to use that power, it would make him much easier to defeat.

        And that would have set off all sorts of alarms in his mind, he realized.  The paranoid side of him would have concluded that if they didn’t want him to learn how to defend himself, then they were just setting him up for the kill.

        Damned confusing stuff, all this god contemplation.  There didn’t seem to be any easy answers to anything.  Every answer was an argument against another subject, which itself led to the answer of the original question.  It seemed illogical, nonsensical to him, and for the first time, he really understood what Triana meant when she told him not to try to outthink the gods.  He was just a mortal, and their motivations and actions would never truly make sense to him, because he just didn’t have enough of a mind to comprehend them.  He was the mouse trying to understand the behavior of the human, putting things in an analogy that the Goddess had used for his benefit so long ago.  But to the gods, he wasn’t any normal mouse, he was some kind of rabid, maniacal mouse carrying a deadly disease that they would contract if he bit them.  That was making them treat him both with fear and caution, willing to nail shut the hole he’d made into their house and let him live inside the wall, because it was easier than risking getting bitten if they tried to stomp on him.

        Maybe.

        Because he didn’t understand the gods, he had no idea why they were acting the way they were, behaving in what to him was a contradictory manner.  About the only thing he could do was do his best to ignore them, to go ahead and live his own life, and worry about them only when they showed up.  He would have to make a few plans to prepare for the eventuality of them attacking him, though.  That was only wise.  It wouldn’t be easy, but he’d figure something out.  After all, he usually did.  Besting smarter and stronger foes was something of a skill of his.  He bested Jegojah on several occasions.  He bested the Glabrezu Shiika had guarding the Book of Ages--and Shiika herself--in Dala Yar Arak.  He bested the six-armed Marilith that he now knew was named Shaz’Baket, at Suld, who was the same one who later stole Jasana and cut Eron‘s throat to prevent him from chasing after her.  He bested Grand Syllis--well, Keritanima did, actually--and the dragon in Sha’Kari, and then, in the paramount, mother-of-all-bestings, he outsmarted Val at Gora Umadar.

        Wait a minute.  Maybe that was why the gods were so afraid of him.  Not because of his power, not because of the danger he posed, but the simple fact that he had already proved that he could destroy a god.  Even though he was all but mortal, that one fact must hang over him like the shadow of the cloak of Death Itself--himself, he wouldn’t disrespect Dakkuu like that anymore--that he had taken on a god with nothing more than his mortal comprehension and powers…and he won.  The mouse had truly defeated the human, with no help from any other mice, not even the help of any other human.  The mouse and the human had battled one on one in a challenge of wits and nerve, and the mouse had emerged the victor.  More than anything else, he was confident that that was the one thing that terrified the Elder Gods more than any other fact, the simple fact that even without his divine power, he was a formidable and tangible threat.  The fact that he now had power made him even more dangerous, for it gave him a direct weapon to wield against any god he decided to challenge.  In their eyes, he was the proof that the gods were not invulnerable, they were not infallible, and they could be defeated by the very mortals they so scorned and looked down upon that they considered them barely worth their notice.  He had to be a dreadful scourge in their eyes, something just below the level of an Entropic, an eternal reminder that even gods could find themselves on the losing side of a battle, even against mere mortals.

        Tarrin realized that it wasn’t his power that the gods feared…it was his reputation.  His power merely gave that reputation considerably more weight.

        And what motivation so set them against him?  Nothing more than pride.

        Now he understood.  All he had to do was think of the gods as nothing but a pack of spoiled children, and he’d be able to understand them.  But these were very smart spoiled children, cunning and clever and devious.  Just as he did with Jasana, he was going to have to identify their main goal and understand that they had absolutely no reservations about stooping to any dirty trick to achieve that goal.

        Their main goal, so far as he could see, was to get rid of him.  He was a threat to the Balance, a threat to the order of things, and what was most important, he now understood…he was a threat to their sense of security, superiority, and their towering pride.

        The problem before him:  why did the gods tell him to learn how to use his powers, while bringing up another sui’kun to replace him?

        Answer:  they wanted to see what he could do so they’d know how to defend against it.  They were getting to know the enemy, learning his powers and limitations, while quietly preparing to get rid of him with a minimum of trouble to the world.

        A trick worthy of Jasana.

        Now it made sense.

        Tarrin crouched down, sitting on the backs of his heels, elbows on his knees, watching the lights of Wikuna flicker into being as streetlamps were lit and torches outside of festhalls were set as the bells continued to peal in celebration.  Now that he understood the basic motive behind everything going on, he felt he could prepare suitable defenses against it.  One certainty, he knew immediately, would be that his family was out of bounds.  The gods wouldn’t come after his children or his mates or his friends, because that would be just about the fastest way there was to enrage him, and an enraged Tarrin was a force too unpredictable to want.  Since he knew they’d be safe, it left him free to ponder ways in which he could protect himself from their scheming, and avoid falling into any traps he was certain they were already starting to set up.

        Which wasn’t going to be easy, but it was workable.

        He crouched there for a while and pondered on that, then his mind drifted to Shiika.  Strange that he knew her secret now, and in a strange way, it did make him feel a little more secure about dealing with her.  He’d always liked her--somewhat--but his inability to trust her destroyed any kind of relationship that they could have enjoyed.  But he was fairly sure she was telling him the truth when she told him that she couldn’t touch him now, and that meant that there really wasn’t anything standing between them.  Even if that was a lie, her request to be her friend with no strings or conditions was something that he could forever hold over her whenever she got predatory.

        He found the idea of being friends with Shiika…appealing.  She was bright, clever, she had a sense of humor, she wasn’t squeamish, she accepted him for the truth of him, and she was an insightful look into a world that he knew nothing about, yet had now been involuntarily thrown into.  Shiika could teach him things that he couldn’t learn anywhere else.  She was certainly worming her way into the group’s good graces.  After just hours, Keritanima was already quite happy with Shadow, and Tiella and Dar seemed quite acceptable to the idea of their Hellhound, which they named Blackfire.  And much to his chagrin, Tara and Rina all but jumped up and down in excitement when Shiika offered one to Kimmie, both as a companion and a chance to study one of them up close.  Kimmie seemed unsure about taking her up on her offer, but he knew that Tara and Rina--and Jasana, for that matter--would have her worn down by morning.  She wasn’t completely opposed to the idea, and her daughters would use that to nag her until she agreed.  Tarrin was a little irritated with Shiika that she would ask Kimmie when Tarrin already declined, but then again, he should have known that she would do something like that.

        Fireflash bit him on the neck in irritation.  “What?” he asked shortly.

        The drake hissed at him several times, slapping his tail against Tarrin’s back.

        “Alright, we’ll go get something to eat,” he relented as the clouds above seemed to darken enough to cause the bells of the city to fall silent, to make them assume that the sun had set.  “I hope you don’t mind Hellhounds, Fireflash,” he mused as he padded down the angle of the roof, his claws and pads having no trouble finding traction on the snow-covered tiles.  “I get the feeling that one’s going to be taking up residence in the house.”

        The drake chirped its diffidence.

        “Good,” he said as he dropped down onto a balcony.  “If the Hellhound bothers you too much, you can always come tell me about it.  I’ll fix it.  And you’ll always be first in my eyes,” he assured the gold drake, reaching up and patting it on the winged flank fondly.

        Fireflash gave a sound that was almost like a purr, rubbing his head against Tarrin’s neck and jaw affectionately as they moved into the palace and towards the kitchen.

©2000, James Galloway. All Rights Reserved.