Chapter 21

The training and research with Phandebrass turned out to be a dramatically short-lived idea. It wasn’t that Phandebrass wasn’t a good researcher, or that Tarrin didn’t like him, it was that he was so annoying. Not even the presence of Camara Tal was enough to detract him from driving Tarrin up the wall within the first hour. Tarrin was prepared for the questions, for the prodding, the outrageous proposals, but he had forgotten how fanatical Phandebrass could be when something that got his interest was right there in front of him.

And besides, by lunchtime, there really wasn’t anything else to research, for Tarrin had learned what he could do, and how it worked. And it admittedly wasn’t very much. He was much more powerful as a Sorcerer or a Druid than he was as a divine being, at least in his current state. If the sword changed him, then all bets were off, but when he was like this, his divine powers were actually quite modest.

In fact, he generally already knew how it worked. He already knew he could fly, and had learned how that worked. He knew he could generate heat and fire, and it only took him about an hour to figure out how that worked as well, since the power was extremely obedient. The only thing that Phandebrass managed to figure out that he didn’t know was that he seemed to have the ability to control fire that was already lit. So long as he had the wings out, he could take control of fire near him, make it burn hotter, get larger, or even go out. He could also control its shape as well as its size, making what Phandebrass termed fireforms that could detach from their fuel source and move around, like little Fire elementals. At his urging, a single candle flame could be come a horse made out of fire, for example. And since he had the ability to generate fire on his own, he would never lack for a fire on which to use this ability.

After lunch, they learned how the wings affected his other forms. In all his forms, they discovered, the wings were still there. If they were retracted when he shapeshifted, they remained retracted, but showed on him exactly as they did in his normal form. In cat form, there were two long, wide streaks of living fire down either side of his back, and when he extended the wings, they were sized for his cat form. That made him look very odd. Wings on a humanoid form didn’t look all that strange, but a winged cat was very weird-looking. His human form was exactly like his normal form, with the pools of fire in the same place on his back. The idea that he was going to lose his anonymity in cat form bothered him, bothered him a great deal, at least until Triana’s arrival and her wisdom reminded him of something.

“You’re a shapeshifter, cub,” she told him in a bit of irritation. “Just cover the fire with skin.”

“I can do that?”

She gave him a long, flat look.

“Sorry, I’ll try,” he said quickly.

And that solved the only real problem he had. Triana’s suggestion worked, and it worked perfectly. He was a shapeshifter, capable of molding his form within the general frame in which it was locked. Just as he could change the length of his hair, he learned how to cause his skin to grow over the two pits burned into his back which were filled with living fire, completely hiding it. It was utterly smooth, leaving no hint at what amazing things lurked beneath, and he was capable of it in all three of his forms. He again had the ability to hide in plain sight as a cat, for the skin and fur that grew over the retracted wings completely covered them, left no bulges, and since the living fire moved with his muscles and his bones, it didn’t show any deformed lumps or such that might give him away.

By dinnertime, Tarrin had had about enough of Phandebrass’ endless questions and his insane ideas. He’d wanted Tarrin to blow up a building on the grounds to see if he was capable of it. He wanted to try to cut a piece of Tarrin’s wing off to study it. He endured those suggestions well enough, but when Phandebrass seriously tried to get him to bite someone to see if they’d turn and have aspects of Tarrin’s abilities, he’d had just about enough.

He gave Phandebrass several ugly ultimatums, took Camara Tal home, and vowed not to go anywhere near Phandebrass for about ten years.

And that ended that.

Phandebrass was bitterly disappointed, of course, but he seemed to realize that he’d finally gone too far, and wisely allowed the matter to drop. Tarrin wasn’t above dishing out a bit of physical chastisement upon his friends when they annoyed him, and the idea of getting his hide peeled into strips by an incensed Tarrin was even enough to dissuade the usually unstoppable Phandebrass.

It was probably for the best, for Kimmie became quite demanding of his time. She took his promise to learn Wizard magic quite seriously, even if he didn’t, and he found himself in her tower every day with Anayi, being educated in Wizard magic. Despite the fact that Anayi already knew the basics, Kimmie started them off at the very beginning. That annoyed the halfbreed Demon considerably, but she wasn’t about to gainsay her master.

Master. It was hard to think of Kimmie that way, but in her own way, she turned out to be as domineering as Triana. She was in charge, and she didn’t let either of them forget it. She was demanding, she had high expectations, and she did not tolerate it when she felt either of her students were not performing up to the level of which she felt them capable. The mild-natured Were-cat was two different people, it seemed. When he was learning magic from her, she was an impatient, commanding general, worthy of Darvon or Kang, pushing them, prodding them, and at times driving them nuts. But the instant his magical instruction was over, she transformed into the same sweet, friendly Were-cat she had always been. It was a little confusing to him at first, but he realized that it was nothing more than an extension of Were-cat mentality, and it was the manner in which she taught.

Time seemed to blur by as he tutored under Kimmie, but the winter didn’t fly by as fast as he would have liked, because he still owed Triana a spell. Kimmie understood when he left her instruction early to sit in his library and ponder, or wander the snowy landscape around his house and think about the spell. It gave him a great deal of trouble, because there were more things to consider than just figuring out what to do. His first major stumbling block was deciding on what the spell would do. That was a tricky thing, because Triana had already taught him everything she knew, and her education was pretty thorough. At first he thought to try to use a spell from Sorcery or Priest magic, but Druidic magic could already more or less do everything that those could, or at least mostly. There were some spells of High Sorcery that Druidic magic couldn’t duplicate, but those were powerful spells, and they would be much more complicated than five layers. He was not going to go past five. Triana said five, and she would get five.

But he couldn’t think about it forever, so he decided on a course of action and started. His first idea was a spell that was a stronger version of speaking to an animal. This spell would allow the Druid to literally touch the animal’s mind and access its senses, allowing the Druid to communicate with it mentally, see through its eyes, hear through its ears, and so on. There was no Druid spell that did this, so it seemed a good thing to try. It took him about two rides of study and consideration, thinking about how the spell was going to work, what each layer would mean and what kind of image and intent would be required. The first layer, of course, would be the basic motive of the spell, in this case to be connected to the animal’s mind and have the ability to experience its senses. That was an intent motive more than an image motive, but the image would be very important, for it would be an image of the animal he intended to touch. The second and subsequent layers were the restricting layers, explaining to the All exactly how the Druid wanted the spell to work. Each layer would set down a law or rule and further define the spell’s operation. The second layer would, for a Were-cat, be a necessary one to prevent the Cat from rebelling against the connection, by creating an insulating barrier between him and the animal, making it a passive connection, just like the connection he had with his Elementals. The third layer would be granting the Druid the ability to control every aspect of the link, able to disconnect himself from hearing the animal’s thoughts, or one or all of its senses. The fourth layer would be defining the range which the animal could go from the Druid without breaking the spell. And the fifth—

Well, the fifth layer never materialized. Try as he might to further define the spell with a fifth layer, he discovered that one was not necessary. Four layers was all it took—three for a human—and after getting Fireflash’s cooperation and casting the spell, he discovered that it did indeed work. But four layers were not five, and that meant that he had just wasted nearly a month. Spring was right around the corner, and Triana would be very short with him if he came to her with empty paws.

So it was back to the start of the bachka board, as Dar might say. He was running out of time, so this time he did pull a high-order spell out of Sorcery and try to figure out a way to do it with Druidic magic. And since he was going for the big time, he used the one spell in Sorcery that Druids would kill to be able to use.

Teleportation.

He stopped his lessons with Kimmie and locked himself in his library for nearly a month as he feverishly worked to figure out how to make the spell work. The first layer, naturally, would be the image of the Druid appearing in his landing area, and the intent to disappear from where he was and appear where he was going. After that, it got tricky. After a great number of nearly fatal experiences, he managed to work out what kind of provisional layers he was going to need to make the spell operate. The second layer was how the All was going to accomplish this miracle. It was going to pick up the space surrounding and including the Druid and anything he was touching—except for the ground, he made that mistake once and it was not pretty—and move it the exact same way that Sorcery moved things. To pick up that space, pull the space out of the landing area, then swap them. The third layer was an important operating rule that told the All that this moved space would be spherical in nature. That was very important, for dislodging a smooth and geometric shape was much easier than an irregular one, and the sphere was the simplest and least taxing shape to use. The next layer was an appendix to the spherical rule that told the All that the dimensions of this sphere would be dictated by the volume that the Druid and all things he was physically touching took up—except the ground!!!—extending a safe distance of two spans beyond the outer edges of this volume. The fourth layer was a safeguard which told the All to postpone the activation of the spell if the edge of the spherical boundary of either side of the spell, both the Druid’s space and the space on the other side, cut through a living thing, and hold it for as long as a living thing was on the boundary. This was important layer, though trees gave it a bit of a problem, and what was nastier was that it could be omitted to make the boundary of the sphere a lethal killing tool if the Druid activated the spell while something was halfway across the boundary. Only what was inside the sphere was going to go, so whatever parts of the attacker’s body were outside the sphere were going to be left behind. It would get very messy very fast. The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth layers were the actual mechanics of the spell, telling the All how to pick up both pieces of space and exchange them without killing the people in the sphere. It was here where he defined the limitations of the spell, and he copied the Sorcery limitations because he was familiar with them. The Druid had to be able to clearly and concisely imagine the landing point. He had to have physically been there, have an intimate understanding of the area in which he was landing, be able to physically see the point where he was going, or be in very close physical proximity to the landing point. That covered the two distinct ways in which Sorcery’s Teleportation could be used. The All had to execute this exchange of space instantaneously, which reduced the taxing of the spell and also protected the lives of the people being Teleported. Unbound space in flux could kill the occupants of that space, so that had to be stopped at all costs. Another important technical rule he laid down in final layer was that the target space’s dimensions had to be absolutely exactly the same as the source space’s dimensions.

That particular failure had been relatively spectacular. It was a good thing he practiced this well away from the house, because the tiny clearing where he’d been practicing the mechanics of the spell was now a very large clearing. They’d probably heard that BOOM in Daltochan.

And that was it.

It wasn’t a five layer spell, it was a nine layer spell, and that meant that not very many Druids were going to be able to use it. But it worked. Tarrin practiced it for several days and found that it worked almost exactly the same way that Weavespinner Teleportation worked. The only difference he noticed was that the Druidic version had a distance limitation defined by the ability of the caster. The further you tried to go, the harder the All had to work, and thus the more demanding it was. He couldn’t use it to Teleport halfway across the planet like he could with Sorcery, because it would be too demanding and too dangerous. But he could use it to get there by Teleporting in manageable stages, from here to there to there to there and then to where he was going. It was an efficient spell, its demands brought down to a safe level by the strict conditions and careful instructions the spell’s layers set for the All. Any Druid capable of learning a nine layer spell would certainly be able to use it, and most of them could probably use it to Teleport upwards of two or three hundred leagues in one jump. Triana could probably get about a thousand leagues, and Sapphire about fifteen hundred, but then again, those two were an order of magnitude stronger than most Druids capable of using layered spells.

After he was done, he sat down on one of the trees he’d knocked down when the spell misfired, blew out his breath, then chuckled. Boy, was Triana going to be surprised.

Winter bowed to the urge of spring, and life returned to the semblance of normalcy that existed in the Kael household. Tarrin returned to his lessons with Kimmie in both language and magic, Tara continued to terrorize her mother, Rina completed her lessons in Duthak from Jula and actually turned out to be quite fluent, Jula continued learning the intricacies of Weavespinner magic from both Tarrin and Jenna, Jasana continued to skirt the edges of the rules that governed her use of magic, and Jesmind kept getting more and more short-tempered. Forge and Fireflash got to be even closer friends, and what was most surprising of all, Mist had begun to visit with Eron for short periods of time, staying as long as her temper would allow, and enduring it only so her son could spend time with his sisters. Most of the time, Mist stayed outside, well away from Jesmind, and Jesmind wisely stayed away from her. Jesmind did not want any of Mist, because she was even more fierce and powerful-looking now than she was when she left. She’d even actually grown a few fingers, which surprised Tarrin a little. Perhaps, being surrounded by Were-cats who were so much taller than she was had finally triggered a desire in her to grow a little. She was an Elder, and should be over a span taller than she actually was. But the desire to remain small was enough to stunt her growth, as her aspect as a shapeshifter stamped the vision of how she felt she should look onto her body, keeping her from growing.

For Tarrin, it was good that Mist was visiting again. It made both her and Jesmind a bit cross, as neither had recovered quite yet from their fight, but nothing made him happier than hearing all his children laughing and playing in the house. Sandy didn’t seem to have any trouble striking up a friendship with the massive Forge or Fireflash, and the three of them became quite the odd little pack. A Hellhound, a gold drake, and a desert fox running around together. It was quite a sight. The only friction that they’d really had was when Allia brought Kedaira along on one of her visits. Desert foxes saw inu as predators, so it took quite a bit of coaxing and some lengthy explanations and assurances from Tarrin to get her to calm down. After that got straightened out, things went rather smoothly. Hellhounds had no experience with inu, so they met each other without predispositions. Drakes were distantly related to inu, and Kedaira took to the drake immediately. Kedaira found a place in that very odd little pack of extremely rare and unusual animals, and seemed particularly to enjoy playing with Forge. Perhaps it was because the massive Hellhound, as large as a small pony, was physically capable of rough-housing with the inu, and inu loved to play rough. Forge was definitely a dog for someone Tarrin’s size.

One fine spring morning, when both Allia and Keritanima were visiting him at the same time, Keritanima with Rallix, Faalken, and the Vendari in tow and Allia with Allyn and Kedaira, Triana returned, and she wasn’t alone. She and Sapphire, who was in her human form, appeared at the edge of his clearing as he and his sisters sat on the front porch and enjoyed a little tea before Tarrin had to go to his lessons with Kimmie. Rallix had the infant Faalken in the house, showing him off to Jula and Jasana, while Forge, Fireflash, and Kedaira played in the yard. Sapphire regarded that with a bit of amusement, even more so when Forge and Kedaira, who could sense Sapphire’s true nature, sat down and remained motionless as she passed. She paused to pat each of them on the head, then reached up and stroked Fireflash’s chin when he boldly landed on her shoulder and nuzzled her neck fondly. Dragons and drakes shared a very special relationship.

“Well, it’s time,” Tarrin grunted.

“You did finish that spell, didn’t you?” Allia asked.

“Of course I did,” he scoffed. “Last month. I told you I did, deshaida.”

“You told me you were pretty sure you were finished,” she corrected him.

“Well, I’m sure of it now,” he answered.

“Whether it’s ready or not, we’re all sure you’re finished with it now,” Keritanima said with a little smirk, nodding at Triana.

“You,” he said, rearing back his paw in a feigned attempt to strike at her.

She gave him a toothy grin.

“Well, cub, I’m back,” Triana said as she reached them. “Are you ready?”

“I think I have something that you’re really going to want, mother,” he told her with a slightly smug smile.

“I wouldn’t raise our expectations, Tarrin,” Sapphire told him. “If you fail to meet them, we might be disappointed.”

“You won’t be disappointed,” he said confidently, standing up. “I have two spells. One’s four layers, three if you’re not a Were-cat, and the other’s nine.”

“Nine,” Sapphire said, obviously impressed. “And what does this nine layer spell do?”

“I figured out a way to mimic the way a Weavespinner Teleports,” he announced.

That got everyone’s attention, even Keritanima and Allia’s. “You did, eh?” Triana asked.

“It’s not exact,” he admitted. “There are some differences and a few limitations, but it does work. I know, I’ve used it.”

“Cub, you now have my undivided attention,” she said with a sudden intensity that actually frightened him just a little bit. If anyone would kill to be able to Teleport, it would be Triana. “Let’s go someplace quiet and you can start teaching us.” She didn’t ask to see the spell in use, but then again, she wouldn’t need to. If Tarrin said it worked, then it worked. She would take his claim at face, because they were both Were-cats.

They went down to his library, and he sat them down and started explaining the way the spell works. That was important. A Druid had to have an intimate understanding of exactly how a spell works, because that understanding would make the image and intent much more clear. He spent the day and half the night down there, and they only took two very short breaks to eat and use the privy. They were down there again the next day, and then the next, as he meticulously explained the spell, then very methodically taught them the layers, as methodically and carefully as they had taught him. Their very lives depended on how effectively he could teach, so he was not taking any chances.

After three days, about lunchtime on the third day, Tarrin finally finished with a demonstration. Reaching within, through the Cat, he touched the boundless might of the All, then began the spell. Each image and intent was formed and held until he felt the All snap, and then he moved on to the next, again and again, until he reached the final layer. He didn’t have to do anything to release the spell like he did with Sorcery. As soon as the All snapped to the layer and found nothing to replace it, the cascaded instructions would all take effect, and the spell would activate as the All acted on this set of complicated and very intricate instructions.

Without a sound, Tarrin disappeared from in front of them and reappeared on the far side of the library.

They turned and watched him walk back, there eyes betraying their healthy respect for his spell. “That’s how it works,” he announced. “I couldn’t get around the distance limitation, though, so I’m afraid we’re stuck with it unless one of you expands on the spell and works around that.”

“I might someday, but not until I have full mastery of the spell and the mechanics behind the way it affects the universe,” Triana said. “So it won’t be any time soon.”

“Tarrin, I am very impressed,” Sapphire said in glowing tones. “This is a much more complicated spell than we asked of you, and this one could be unbelievably useful. I’m sure Triana is already drooling at the prospects of it.”

“That is no lie,” she agreed. “It’s going to cut hours off my travel times.”

“Well, I sorta got the idea for it because I’m a Sorcerer,” he admitted, scrubbing the back of his head. “And if that animal communion spell I worked on first wouldn’t have been so easy, I’d never have tried it. But I was running out of time, and I was getting a bit desperate,” he admitted with a rueful chuckle. “I had to go with what I could think up quickly.”

“I am not unhappy,” Triana said fiercely, so impatient to learn the spell that she was actually squirming in her chair.

“Alright then, my instructor, walk us through this spell,” Sapphire said with a bright smile.

Tarrin gave her a start, then laughed. “Of course, my friend,” he said, preparing to act the tutor, to observe their images and their intents and ensure they were correct, just as they had done for him.

It took four more days to train them in the use of the spell, two devoted to each of them. It didn’t have to take that long, but since was the first time Tarrin had ever taught a spell, everyone, including him, was being exceedingly careful. There was no room for error in Druidic magic, and he was not going to gamble with the lives of his mother and dear friend in any way. The complexity of this spell required even more elaborate safeguards, for an error in building the spell could be lethal, and not from the danger the All posed. The spell itself could be deadly if it went wrong, so absolute perfection was a complete must.

He taught Triana first, which Sapphire seemed to prefer. And after two days, she mastered the mechanics of it utterly. By sunset on the second day, he quite apologetically proclaimed her proficient.

He wasn’t quite sure, but he had the feeling that Triana spent all that night bouncing all over the West and half of Yar Arak, Teleporting around and learning the limit of her range. When she joined them the next morning, she looked exhausted, but very, very happy.

After two more days, he proclaimed Sapphire proficient as well, and they were done. “Well, I hope this means I’m acceptable,” he told them with a little shy smile.

“Cub, you just proved you’re a head over the Hierarchs,” Triana told him proudly, actually giving him a hug. “You’re everything I hoped you would be. You are truly my son.”

“I’m happy you’re happy, mother,” he said sincerely. “Your opinion of me matters to me very much.”

“Cub, you are a Druid,” Triana announced with finality.

“Very much so,” Sapphire agreed.

And that was that. They had nothing more to teach him, and he had delivered up his promised spell. He was officially endorsed by two of the strongest Druids on Sennadar, and one couldn’t get higher credentials than that.

With that part of his life finally over, he returned to other pursuits, the highest of which at the moment was fulfilling his promise to Kimmie, and time again seemed to fly by like a diving falcon. Spring flowed into summer, which waned into autumn, which was covered over by winter, which bowed to spring. His children grew noticeably over that year, hurrying towards maturity in the way that Were-cats did, but his relationship with Jesmind had become noticeably strained over the months. The extended amounts of time he spent with Kimmie, who she saw as a rival for his attention, made her waspish. She had agreed to allow Anayi to stay under the explicit condition that she watch and make sure that Kimmie didn’t try to steal him from her, but as the months passed, even Anayi’s assurances that nothing untoward was happening failed to be enough.

The constant nature of it also seemed to aggravate her temper. He spent every day with Kimmie, pausing only when they all traveled to the Tower to celebrate the birth of Tiella’s son, who she named Tarvis, an archaic Arakite word meaning defiant, something of a tweak of the nose of Dar’s mother. Dar’s mother was still on her holy quest to get her son away from “that mud-footed little rural hussy,” as she called Tiella, despite the fact that Dar had legally disowned his parents under Arakite law. Jesmind got more and more bad-tempered as the months passed, until she was nearly unbearable by the time that spring melted off the winter snow pack. He really didn’t understand what her problem was, and nothing he did seemed to make her temper improve. And he certainly tried. He didn’t like seeing her like this, and he wanted her to be happy, but every attempt he made to understand her irritation and try to soothe her only seemed to make things worse.

It all came to a head one warm spring night, as Tarrin sat in the common room, one of Kimmie’s books of magic in his lap. He was leafing through it without much enthusiasm, as Fireflash looked at the magical writing from his shoulder lazily, and Forge laid by his feet after a long day of keeping Tara out of mischief. Anayi and Kimmie were still in her tower, working on something too advanced for him. He had reached the point where she felt he could safely cast cantrips and very easy spells, spells whose operation he understood. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that, for some reason, he could cast many more spells than his training might allow. He had once cast a Wizard spell just by repeating the words he’d heard that red dragon a Sha’Kari use when it cast the spell on him, and he still had that ability. He didn’t understand what he was saying, or how it worked, but he could do it. But he humored her after a fashion, only casting the spells whose operation he could truly say he comprehended.

Arcane magic was a strange force. The power to cast its spells depended on a combination of magical aptitude and the ability to understand the dynamics of that power as it was shaped by the will and the words of the mage who was accessing it. Knowledge truly was power as far as Wizard magic was concerned, the ability to comprehend the forces at work when the magic was brought from that other place. This was why Phandebrass was so phenomenally talented as an Arcane mage, his vast intelligence and broad understanding of so many things gave him the ability to understand things about magic that most Wizards would never truly be able to fathom. Comprehension created force, and force shaped the power in the way the caster desired. He created the shaping of that force with the language of magic, each syllable and the intent behind it a component that focused the raw magical energy into a specific effect. The reason Tarrin could cast spells that he couldn’t understand was the fact that he was a Mi’Shara, an overwhelming magical aptitude that got around his lack of understanding. He couldn’t cast the big Wizard spells, but he could handle the moderately strong ones. Phandebrass was the other way around. He could cast spells beyond his magical aptitude because he had such an awesome understanding of the nature of Arcane magic, able to work around his limitation in the exact way Tarrin worked around his, but doing it from the other side of the line.

The learning required was done so he could understand the nature of Wizard magic, and that understanding gave him control. Where most apprentices had to study for three years or so before they could handle their first real spell, not a cantrip, Tarrin had reached that level in six months. He had the same trouble with the language of magic as he did with the language that Priests used to cast their spells. It was a language, a complete language, but it made no sense. Being an adept of languages, he wanted to understand the language itself, not just understand which words he had to speak to produce the effect he wanted.

He wasn’t bothering anyone. He wasn’t picking any fights, he wasn’t doing anything. But despite that, Jesmind marched into the room, grabbed the book, and hurled it to the side. It slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground in a heap.

“What?” he asked in a measured tone.

“What do you mean, what?” she demanded. “Where have you been?”

“Sitting right here,” he answered. “Where you saw me sitting not half an hour ago when you came in.”

“I’m tired of you sitting around and doing nothing!” she shouted at him. “All you do is read!”

“Who cooked dinner last night? Who did the hunting yesterday? Or does last night not matter today?” he asked coolly.

“Don’t you give me any lip, Tarrin!” she snapped at him. “Now get up and help me cook!”

“I don’t have any problem with that, Jesmind,” he said. “But you could try asking.”

That just about did it. Her eyes went flat, her claws came out, and he could tell by the way she spread her feet that she was serious. She’d come in spoiling for a fight, and she wasn’t going to leave until she got one.

That in itself wasn’t much of a problem, but what happened when she took a swipe at him definitely was. In the blink of an eye, she ceased being Jesmind and became an enemy, as months of constant badgering had finally seemed to work its way into him. He met her head-on, in the true Were-cat manner, and proceeded to thrash several months of her bad treatment of him out of her hide. He completely dominated the smaller Were-cat almost immediately, and he felt the touches of rage start rising up in him as they battled across the common room, overturning the couch, breaking a chair, and shattering the tea table. He was getting sincerely angry with her, and that anger was making him less and less careful about not seriously hurting her. In mere moments, he had her pinned to the floor, as she thrashed against his grip on her, tried to get her feet up to take a chunk out of his back with the claws on her feet, and in a terrible moment of anger, he felt the impulse to kill her. He had his clawed paw raised and ready to rip her face off with a final blow.

That was what snapped him out of it. He closed his eyes and shook his head, then let go of her and backed off very quickly. Jesmind wasn’t feeling half so accommodating, however, as she sprung up and launched herself at him with a mask of mindless fury on her face. That snarl of fury turned into a shocked look of surprise when Fireflash came streaking over Tarrin’s shoulder, then unleashed a full blast of his paralyzing gas right into her face. He swooped away after he unloaded his powerful attack, and Jesmind staggered back, then fell twitching to the floor. He landed on Tarrin’s shoulder and hissed threateningly at Jesmind, snapping his teeth and daring her to get up and try again. Forge simply put his head back down on the floor and let it go. He’d been told long ago not to interfere between the adult Were-cats, only with the children.

Tarrin, however, wasn’t quite as upset as Fireflash was, but then again, the little drake was always quite protective of him, much the way Sapphire had been. He was more confused and worried than afraid, at his reaction to Jesmind’s attack, and his own response. But then it became clearer when he realized that the same thing had happened between Jesmind and Mist.

Despite their love, they had more or less reached the limits of their tolerance for one another.

Fireflash gave another vituperous hiss in Jesmind’s direction, and he put a finger over the drake’s snout. “That’s enough of that, mister,” he chided in a distracted tone. “You got her, she’s not getting up for a while. It’s over.”

Fireflash gave Jesmind a victorious, smug little look, then quite deliberately turned his back and her and flicked the end up his tail at her insultingly.

He came over and squatted down by her, rolling her over on her back. Her eyes were wild and outraged, the only things she could control with any kind of success. “It’ll wear off in about a half an hour,” he told her, his eyes flat and his anger towards her surging up to the forefront once again. “And I think it’s about that time that Triana warned us was coming. I’ve about had it with you, and you’ve obviously reached the end of your rope with me. But I’m not kicking Jasana out of the house. This is her home, and she belongs here,” he declared. “So, since I can’t kick you out without kicking her out, I’m leaving. I’m sealing off my library so you can’t get into it, so you won’t even know I’m there when I’m using it, and that’s it. You can live in my house until Jasana’s grown, I can still use my library, and we never even have to see one another. And if you try to get into it, I won’t treat you like a visitor,” he warned in a brutal tone. “Come looking for trouble, and I’ll give it to you, Jesmind. More than you ever wanted.”

She seemed to try to say something, but Fireflash’s paralytic attack had rendered her incapable of motor control.

He stood up, looking down at her, still feeling the urge to bash her face in, and he finally understood the bitter pain that came from being a Were-cat in love. He loved her, he still loved her, but at that moment, he was more than capable of killing her. And in doing so, he’d be killing a part of himself. Unable to give up his feelings yet unable to be with her, it was a terrible feeling, something he didn’t wish on anyone else. It was no wonder that Were-cats were so eager to part if they started getting too close, because for a Were-cat, love was as dangerous an emotion as rage was. Love kept them together long past the point where they should have separated, and now it was threatening to cause them to kill one another. But there was one thing for certain, one unavoidable fact that now rose before him, one that he did not like.

This mating was at an end.

He blew out his breath, sliding his paw over his face. “What’s all the racket about? Father, why is mother laying on the floor?” Jasana asked as she came down the stairs.

“She attacked me, cub,” he said grimly.

“Why would she do that?”

“Because we’ve been together too long,” he answered her. “It’s the same thing that happened with Mist. It’s time for us to part.”

Despite the fact that she was half-grown, Jasana reacted with immediate, fervent vehemence to that statement. “NO!” she screamed in a shrill voice, rushing up and almost knocking him down as she grabbed hold of his waist, hugging him, her head pressed firmly against his belly. “I don’t want to leave you, father! I don’t want you and mother to split up!”

“Cub, you’re being selfish,” he said, putting his massive paws on her shoulders and pushing her away. He knelt down and looked her in the eye. “Remember what happened with Mist?”

“Jula got them apart before—“

“Do you think Jula can stop me?” he asked bluntly.

She gave him a stricken look, her bottom lip quivering.

“That’s right. If she’d have gotten me mad enough, she’d be dead. It’s just good luck that I realized what was going on and stopped myself before I totally threw myself into a rage.”

“What, what did you do to her?” she asked.

“Fireflash gave her a face full of his breath weapon,” he answered.

“Oh,” she said in understanding, kneeling by her mother. Goddess, she looked so mature now. She looked about ten years old, growing like a weed, so much so that her pant legs were halfway up her shins. “Calm down, mother,” she said gently. “The paralysis is going to last about a half an hour.”

“Take her upstairs,” Tarrin commanded. “Put her in a bedroom in a guest room and Ward the door. Do not let her out, not until after I’m gone.”

“Why?”

“Because if you let her out, she’ll come after me again,” he told her bluntly. “And if she does, I might kill her. Now get her away from me. Her scent and the sight of her are making me angry. Go!”

Jasana blanched, then used Sorcery to pick her up and quickly get her upstairs.

He shouldn’t have been too surprised. The way she’d been acting lately, it should have dawned on him. After years of being together, he should have seen this coming. He was just surprised that it was Jesmind who had finally reached the end of her tolerance instead of him. Then again, she was actually more bound to her instincts than he was, and the fact that he was once human actually made him much more tolerant of the extended presence of others. Humans were much more social than Were-cats, and despite him being turned so utterly, there were still some vestiges of his human upbringing and aspects lurking within him. Despite his very anti-social appearance, Tarrin was very much a social creature. He was just very picky about who was allowed to socialize with him, that was all.

He sighed. He was going to miss his house, but he wasn’t going to evict Jasana from her home. Besides, after so many years in one place, he admitted to himself that maybe a little roaming around wouldn’t be a bad thing. See the cities he’d yet to visit, meander around, learn new things, see different places…that sounded nice. And he always had his library, the one place where Jesmind would not be allowed to go, so he would always have access to his books.

He could live with that.

Best to do this quickly, before the gas wore off and Jesmind was mobile again. The first thing he did was set a Ward on the door to his library that would block Jesmind from passing, but allow anyone else to cross it. He set it so no sound or scent could pass through, and laid a permanent Illusion over it that would keep anyone from looking through it, one of the more useful combination tricks one could use with a Ward. He set it so it would last virtually forever. That would keep Jesmind out of his library, keep her from knowing if he was in his library, but not block anyone else from visiting the library if they had a need to do so. He reached out from where he was and put a weave on Jesmind’s amulet, blocking it from making contact with his own. He secured the weave in that peculiar manner the Sha’Kar had taught him that would keep the weave charged without him having to concentrate on it. The tightness of it would keep the weave active for a few years, more than long enough for her to calm down. That would keep her from simply using the amulet to annoy him to death, but still allow her to use it to make contact with everyone else, and allow him to contact her if it was needful. That was the important part. He quickly and thoroughly took absolutely everything that belonged to him out of the room, using Druidic magic to send it down into the library. Jesmind had a bad track record of destroying his possessions, and he wasn’t going to tempt her vengeful nature. He went through the first floor of the house and made sure that everything that was distinctly his was well out of her reach.

That done, he realized that he really had nothing else to do as far as the house was concerned. His possessions were now secure, and Jesmind wouldn’t do anything to the house, because that would tempt the wrath of the Goddess, and not even Jesmind would risk that, no matter how enraged she was. He only had about five more minutes before Jesmind got mobile again, and there was no guarantee that she couldn’t frighten the sin out Jasana with ugly threats and make her let her out of the room. Jasana probably remembered what happened the last time she was put between her parents, but this time she’d have to live with the one she was acting against. He wouldn’t blame her at all if she caved in, because Jesmind could be very nasty and spiteful against those who acted against her.

That was…everything. He could leave now. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to go until Jula came back, until Kimmie finished whatever she was doing with Anayi, tell them what was going on and explain things to them. But he did have to get out of the house proper, so he retreated to his library and Whispered to Jasana that she could let Jesmind out. She did so, and Tarrin could sense her prowling the room, seeing that everything of his was gone, and he felt her put her paws on the Ward, as if to claw through it. But that was impossible, and the sense of her retreated away.

Jula returned later that evening, and almost immediately came down into the library. She was wearing an Arakite robe; Jula traveled quite a bit. “Father, what’s going on?” she asked.

“Me and Jesmind had a serious fight,” he answered. “Serious enough to tell me it’s time we parted ways for a while.”

“I was waiting for that,” she sighed. “Jesmind’s been a real bitch for almost a month now. I sorta suspected that this might happen, because it’s how Jesmind and Mist were acting before they got into it. So what’s going to happen?”

“I’m leaving,” he answered. “I won’t take Jasana away from her home, and that means Jesmind has to stay. So I’m going.”

“But this is your house!” she protested.

“It’s still mine,” he answered mildly. “I’m just going to let Jesmind stay in it for a while. Besides, I think it’s time for me to go out and see some things. I’m actually kind of inclined to the idea of it. Just like how you travel,” he said with a smile.

“But I come home every night,” she told him. “Or day, or whatever.”

“That won’t happen too often, but I have Jesmind Warded out of the library, so this is my place,” he said. “She can’t get down here, and since this is where my important things are, they’ll be safe and protected.”

“From Jesmind,” Jula chuckled.

He nodded. “I’d like you to babysit the Ward, and make absolutely sure that Jesmind does not come down here,” he told her. “I remember the last time she got bitchy with me.”

Jula gave a rueful look. “Oh, yes, the room destroying incident.”

“I’d rather not have a repeat of that. If she destroyed a few of the more precious things down here, I would kill her.”

Jula looked around, and nodded. Hidden in Tarrin’s library were some of the rarest and most valuable examples of Dwarven art and handiwork that existed in the world. The centerpiece of his collection was the axe that had belonged to the last of the Dwarven kings, which rested on a stand on the bookshelf that sat immediately behind his oversized desk. The little metal cat statuette that had held his soul after destroying Val was also now on that shelf. That was the second of his four most treasured possessions. The other two were the Firestaff and his artifact sword, though he didn’t have the same kind of sentimental attachment to them as he did to those two objects.

“Have you told Kimmie yet?” she asked.

“She hasn’t come out of her tower yet,” he answered. “She may not until morning.”

“Oh, she’ll be out soon enough. She has her cubs in there with her.”

“Then she should be out soon. It’s almost dinnertime.”

“Why don’t you just call to her?” she asked, tapping her amulet.

“It’s not wise to interrupt a Wizard when she’s in the middle of something,” he answered with a shake of his head.

“True.” She looked at the stairwell as the sound of footsteps reached both of them. He turned himself and saw Kimmie coming down. “Well, speak of her, and here she comes.”

“Tarrin, what’s going on?” she asked. “Jasana almost got her face burned off when she came into my lab and told me to come over here.”

Without much emotion, Tarrin explained what happened. “I suggest you get your tower ready to live in it, Kimmie,” he told her. “You’re next. You might want to pull back from Jesmind for a while.”
She pursed her lips. “That’s a good point,” she agreed. “With you gone, she’ll probably get even more short-tempered with me. I can’t leave my tower right now because of Anayi, but I can withdraw into it with my cubs and keep myself separate from Jesmind.”

“You don’t seem too surprised.”

“I saw this happen between Mist and Jesmind,” she answered. “I was expecting it.”

“You could have warned me,” he said in a bit of irritation, glaring at both of them.

“Triana explicitly told us not to interfere,” Jula answered. “She saw this coming too, father, but she wasn’t quite sure when it was going to happen. About six months ago, she pulled us aside and told us not to say anything when it started. She didn’t want you trying to avoid the inevitable. Those were her exact words,” she added quickly.

Tarrin fumed a bit at his meddling bond-mother’s interference, but said nothing. Even with her not there, he wasn’t in a habit of gainsaying Triana, on just about anything.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Kimmie asked.

“How did you know?” Jula asked.

“He’s moved all his things down here, and there’s that Ward up at the entrance,” she answered. “If he wasn’t leaving, all of Jesmind’s stuff would be littered out on the front lawn. It doesn’t take much to piece it together, Jula.”

“Don’t rub it in,” she told her friend with a bland look.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” he affirmed. “I think I’ll go wander around for a while. You know, I’ve never really had the chance to do that. Outside of the period between when I left Sarraya in the desert and I got to Aldreth, I’ve never really been alone. I’ve always had something else to do or something pinning me down to the house. I think I’d like to be alone for a while, without any training, any responsibilities, and any demands on me. Just go out and live for a while.”

“You still have training, Tarrin,” Kimmie said flintily. “My training.”

“It’s going to have to wait for a while, Kimmie,” he told her.

“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy,” she told him adamantly. “But I can’t have you in the tower with Jesmind prowling around, so I’m going to come to you, no matter where you are.”

“It is going to have to wait,” he told her. “There’s no way you’re going to be able to come to me, Kimmie. Jula can’t Teleport you because she may not have been where I might be at that moment.”

Kimmie frowned. “Alright, two days out of every ride, you have to come back to the library, and I’ll teach you,” she proposed. “It’s going to take longer, but you owe me this, Tarrin,” she said fiercely.

“I can live with that,” he agreed. “It’ll give me a chance to see my cubs, too.”

“When are you leaving, father?” Jula asked.

“Right now,” he answered. “I don’t think I want to try to explain this to Tara and Rina,” he sighed.

“They’re old enough to understand.”

“Yes, but Tara’s going to blame Jesmind,” Tarrin pointed out. “You know what’ll happen.”

“Jesmind will have Tara wrapped around her leg and with her little teeth sunk into her calf,” Jula said, then she laughed helplessly.

“That’s about what’ll happen alright,” Kimmie agreed. “Tara can be an absolute hellion when she’s upset, and Jesmind causing her father to leave the house will definitely make her upset.”

“You want help defusing Tara?” Jula asked.

Kimmie nodded. “She’s more mellow with you than me, Jula. We just have to make it clear that this was nobody’s fault. It’s just part of being Were.”

Tarrin nodded in agreement. “I think I’ll start in Suld.”

“Where are you going?” Jula asked.

“I have no idea,” he said with a kind of dreamy smile.

“Well, we’ll hold down the house for you, father. Don’t worry.”

“And it’s not like you’re going to disappear,” Kimmie smiled. “You’ll be back in eight days. You’d better,” she said with a teasing smile.

“Have Jula come fetch me,” he told her.

He didn’t want a scene with his cubs, so he quickly stowed some clothes and necessities in a Conjured pack, then summoned Forge and Fireflash to him. He sat them down in front of his chair and used Druidic magic to talk to them, explained what was going on, then told Forge that defending the house and protecting the cubs was now his duty, and that he’d be back two days out of every ten to visit with him and make sure everything was going alright. Fireflash absolutely declared, in an ultimatum, no less, that he would not leave Tarrin. Fireflash was going with him, and if he didn’t like that, well, that was just tough. In actuality, Tarrin didn’t mind that at all. Fireflash was his drake, and it was always good to have a little company when traveling.

And that was that. Giving Jula and Kimmie hugs, ruffing Forge’s head, Tarrin shouldered his pack as Fireflash jumped up onto his other shoulder. “Explain to my parents,” he told Jula as he set his will against the Weave, and flows surrounded him as he wove the spell of Teleportation, that would take him to the landing point in the Tower at Suld.

It was bittersweet. He didn’t want to leave Jesmind and the cubs, but he knew that he had to do this. If he tried to stay with Jesmind, they were going to kill each other. But it also meant leaving his precious house, leaving his children behind, and that was what hurt. But it had to be done, and it wasn’t forever, after all. Two days out of every ten he would be home, and he would be able to see his children, spend time with them, be with them. For the other eight days, he would wander the world and see all those things he had yet to see. He actually looked forward to that, even if it did mean separation from his beloved mate and children.

The spell complete, he snapped it down and released it, vanishing from the home that the Goddess had made for him, starting a new phase of his life. But it wasn’t forever. He would be back in eight days to see everyone and take his lessons, but until then his time was his own, with no responsibilities or duties or requirements on him.

For eight days, he would be utterly free.

It was close to sunset in Suld when he arrived, which made wandering around a moot point.

He snuck off the Tower grounds effortlessly and shifted into his human form once he jumped over the fence, stamping his feet in his shoes to settle them before disappearing into the city. They’d managed to rebuild the destroyed sections of Suld since all that happened a year and more ago, and he passed through them on the way to his destination, wandering around in a wide arc. The buildings were all stone or wattle and daub with slate roofs, and Arren had taken advantage of the rebuilding to make improvements. The streets were wider and straight, until the narrow, twisting streets of the rest of the city, the layout more efficient. Lamps sat on poles at regular intervals along the sides of the streets, illuminating fronts of stores and houses that looked pristinely neat and clean. They had installed a better sewer system under those streets while they were built, which made this part of town actually an attractive place to live now, with its broad, well-lit streets and new buildings. The people who had lost their homes owned most of it, having gotten much better houses when Arren rebuilt it all, so they didn’t complain one bit.

The wall expansion project was also moving along nicely. They had the new wall about half built, which was due almost exclusively to the fact that Arren had somehow managed to strike a deal with Jenna to have Sorcerers aid in the construction. It would expand the city by half, and people had already started building shops and houses out beyond the old outer wall, risking being on the outside of the wall for that period before it was completed, but then again, Sulasia was at peace with everyone at the moment and there weren’t any brigands or robbers that operated this close to Sulasia’s capital, and Arren had the Watch patrolling those expanding communities beyond the wall after dark. That made it quite safe. It would make Suld the largest city in the West, even larger than Tor, and Arren obviously had grand plans to make Sulasia even more of a major power in the world than it was now.

His destination was Haley’s festhall, which he had renamed since the last time Tarrin visited it. Now the sign hanging outside the expanded building called the festhall The Singing Siren. Tarrin stepped past two burly fellows at the door and walked in, and found that Haley had made some alterations. There was a large stage on the back wall now, and it looked like he’d built that stage by sacrificing the kitchen that had been back there the last time he’d been in. But the rest of the place looked more or less the same, except the bar was now a circular construction in the center of the room, well back from the stage to leave room for tables before the stage. Haley was standing behind that circular bar with three other bartenders, which had a round stand in the middle holding jars and mugs and bottles and ewers and jugs of every kind of spirit imaginable. The place was absolutely packed, nearly every table taken and almost every stool at the circular bar occupied.

Tarrin had to shoulder his way to the bar, taking up a stool that let him see the stage if he leaned back and looked around the burly fellow wearing the livery of a city Watchman who sat to his left. “Haley!” Tarrin shouted over the din of loud talking in the room as Fireflash jumped down onto the bar and sniffed at an empty glass sitting in front of the young woman to Tarrin’s right, who was wearing an expensive blue gown and had her brown hair pulled back away from her face with silver barrettes.

Haley looked his way, then smiled and hurried over to him quickly. “I see you’re slinking around,” he said with a grin. “How have you been, you rascal?”

“I’ve been fine, Haley,” he said. “I see you’ve fixed it up more.”

“Yeah, I ripped out the kitchen and put it in the building behind this one, then installed the stage. It’s worked out rather well, I must say. I’ve got some good acts.”

“Haley, more,” the woman behind him ordered, shooing Fireflash from her glass with a wave of her hand.

“Certainly sister,” he smiled.

Tarrin glanced at her again, then his eyes widened as he recognized her.

It was Audrey!

Audrey, the female Were-wolf who had fought with the Sulasian Rangers as they came down to Suld, then fought to protect the city from Kravon and the ki’zadun. She was a sharp-featured woman with dark hair, but he certainly didn’t recognize her in a fancy dress and with her hair all pulled back like that. It made her look like a different person!

“Audrey!” Tarrin blurted.

She gave him a sharp look, then her eyes also widened. “Tarrin Kael!” she blurted in reply, then she laughed. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” he asked in reply.

“Visiting,” she answered. “My pack likes to keep track of what’s going on in Suld since the war, so I drift down every couple of years to see what’s going on. Now, what are you doing here?”

“Just passing through,” he answered. “I need a place to stay tonight, and Haley always knows the best places.”

“Haley knows just about everything going on in Suld. That’s why I come here,” she laughed.

“Why are you wearing that gown?” he asked curiously.

“You need it to get into the swanky inns,” she answered. “I was curious to see how the nobles and the rich did things.”

Tarrin looked at the stage. “What happened to the brothel?”

“It’s in the building beside this one now,” he winked.

“Where are those two giants?”

“She got pregnant,” he sighed. “I gave them a leave of absence. But I did get some other rather special talent,” he smiled.

“Who?”

“A Siren,” he answered. “That’s why I changed the name of the place. She sings twice a night, four days a ride. She packs the entire festhall.”

Tarrin chuckled. “I’ve never met a Siren.”

“Trust me, you would not like her,” he grunted. “She’s a shallow, vain, self-centered, demanding, horrid, egotistical little bitch. If it wasn’t for her drawing power, I’d have canned her a month ago. She feels that she’s doing me the ultimate favor to sing in my festhall.”

“Is she worth the aggravation?”

“On performing days, yes. The day after, no,” he chuckled. “Then again, I might be in a position to replace her soon. There are a couple of Nymphs who are getting jealous of all the attention the Sirens are getting, and they’re trying to get me to let them come and perform dances. That might get dangerous,” he chuckled again.

“Slightly,” Audrey snorted.

Nymphs were female spirits, what some called anima, which were the embodiment of femininity. They were all extraordinarily beautiful, sweet, charming, and had the power to infatuate any man who looked upon them, cause men to want to obey them when they heard their voices, and utterly enslave men who gazed upon them when they were naked. There were male counterparts called Andross, known as animus to sages, who were the embodiment of masculinity, who had similar powers over women. Strangely enough, they weren’t the same species, and actually hated each other. That was probably because their powers didn’t work on the other. Or maybe it was the universal truth: men and women would never get along. Being the purified spirit of each gender, they probably couldn’t stand each other.

“There’s also a Dryad that wants to come and recite poetry. I’m giving that one serious thought.”

“Odd that so many Woodkin are coming here.”

“Well, since the war, I think the Woodkin are getting curious about human civilization,” Haley said seriously. “The Were-kin and the Centaurs went back with a bunch of stories, and not all of them were bad. The Centaurs especially were impressed by the Sulasians, and the hospitality they received in Suld. Children would come up and give them presents.”

“I was a bit surprised,” Audrey admitted. “Much of what I was taught about the humans turned out to be wrong. We thought that Aldreth was an exception to the rule, that it was the only place we could go and find any measure of acceptance. We were wrong.”

“Don’t let them hear you say that,” he chuckled. “Aldreth has grown to depend on the trade it does with the Woodkin.”

“Oh, it’s still our primary contact with human kind, Tarrin,” she told him. “But we’re not as afraid to visit other cities as we were before, that’s all.” She took a drink. “Why do you need a place to stay? Don’t you have that house?”

“I’m wandering,” he answered.

“What about Jesmind?” Haley asked.

“We had a fight,” he shrugged. “It’s over.”

“Ah. Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” he said delicately.

“I’m not,” Tarrin growled. “She was getting to be a serious bitch.”

“So, you’re off to see the world, eh? Where are you going?”

“I have no idea,” he answered. “Me and Fireflash here were just going to go wherever the mood took us in the morning.”

“Ah, I remember my wandering days,” he said wistfully. “It’s definitely something all of our kind should do at least once a hundred years.” He looked about to say something else, but his gaze turned towards the door, and Tarrin noticed that it was getting rather quiet in the large festhall. Audrey turned to look behind her, and he saw her expression turn startled. “By the eternal tree,” she breathed.

Tarrin turned himself to look, and saw a solitary figure standing in the doorway. The figure itself didn’t look unusual, but it was the cloak that got everyone’s attention. It was utterly black, featureless, like someone had cut the fabric of the night and laid it over the figure’s shoulder. It rested on the shoulders of what looked like a tall, sleek Sha’Kar woman, her expression distant, imperious, with a faint but noticeable scar on her left cheek.

Tarrin almost fell out of his chair. It was Spyder.

She stepped into the room as all conversation slowly dwindled to nothing. Sha’Kar were rarely seen in places like this, and they were still something of a mystery in the city, despite them being here for years. But there was something about Spyder that seemed to scream to everyone who gazed upon her that this was an extraordinary person, not the kind of person you would meet more than once in your entire life. She floated into the festhall’s main room as if she owned it, her utter black cloak swirling around her, and she was coming right to him. He got off the stool and stood, waiting for her to arrive, then took her hand when she reached him, as she offered it. “It has been a long time,” she said in that manner of hers, speaking quickly, but speaking with utter precision, pronouncing each word with exactness before moving on to the next.

“You’re looking well,” he said mildly. “What brings you to me?”

“Mother said that you would stand in my place for some time to allow me to rest. I have learned from Mother that you are currently available. I would take up your offer.” She gave him a cursory glance. “This does not suit you any longer,” she said with mild disapproval.

“It prevents widespread panic,” he answered with a slight smile, but he did shapeshift for her, resuming his humanoid form. That caused some gasps, but the people of Suld were more or less used to the idea that Tarrin did turn up in the city from time to time. Sighting him in the city was unusual, but not extraordinary. Fireflash jumped up onto his shoulder and regarded Spyder with amiable curiosity.

“You will stand in my stead?” she asked.

“For you, yes. For them, no,” he said flintily.

“I ask on behalf of only myself,” she told him mildly.

“Then I will.”

“You honor my humble festhall beyond all measure, my Lady,” Haley said grandly yet eloquently, bowing behind the bar. “Would the Lady desire a drink or some paltry attempt to grace her pallet with a meal?”

“Ever the fast talker, Haley,” she said with a strange smile. “Mark well this one, brother Tarrin. He could charm the birds away from their feathers.”

“I’ve noticed that in him from time to time,” Tarrin said with a smile at the Were-wolf.

“Alas, Haley, I have need for certain haste. Perhaps another time.”

“My door is always open for you, grand Lady.”

She gave him a mysterious smile, then turned to Tarrin. “Come. I have much to show you before you may perform the tasks required of you.”

“Whenever you’re ready,” he assured her.

“Then let us go.”

So fast it made him a bit dizzy to try to keep track of it, she wrapped them in flows, formed the spell of Teleportation, then snapped it down and released it, causing the two unusual figures and the drake on his shoulder to vanish from the festhall like a dream.

Such went Tarrin’s rather brief vacation.