Chapter 2

When Mist told him about wanting to assume her proper height, he really hadn’t given it much thought. When he did, he thought fleetingly that it was going to be like it was for him after Shiika kissed him and caused his body’s aging to accelerate at a frightening rate; the hunger, the weakness, the discomfort. Granted, he’d been lost in the Cat when that happened, barely aware of what was going on around him, only aware of the unbearable emptiness that had consumed him after he’d been separated from his sisters and his friends.

He could not have been more wrong.

Mist’s transformation began the day after Fireflash’s appearance, after another day of following Kimmie’s trail across flat grasslands, moving in the direction that he would call south, since he was assuming that the sun rose in the east and set in the west like it did at home. She warned him that it had started that morning, as they packed the tents in a brief, heavy shower that seemed to be something like a norm for this region, and he hadn’t thought much about it. He figured she’d be bad-tempered for a month or so as her body slowly grew out to its new size, because she said it would take about a month, and secretly he was hoping that it would end as quickly as possible. Mist was bad enough with her feral tendencies, but having her with a lightning temper was going to be very dangerous for everyone around her, even him. Having Mist finish this growth quickly would be best for everyone involved, even Mist.

But it was not taking a month. Most of it happened that day.

Mist didn’t complain. Mist never complained. It was the sound of it that made it unpleasant for him. She lay quite limply in the saddle with him, sometimes panting quite heavily, and the sound of her bones cracking made him spend that day in a continual shudder. Around about lunch, he was wondering if Mist was going to survive what was happening to her, and he even consulted Dolanna on it.

“This is not Sennadar,” she told him patiently. “She assumed it would take a month because she was going on what she knows. We are not home, dear one, and this alien world is affecting what is happening to her. All we can do for her is make her comfortable and wait for this accelerated growth to abate.”

It was agonizing for both of them. Tarrin kept a hand on Mist’s flank for the rest of the day, a hand of comfort and a steadying anchor to keep her from sliding out of the saddle, and he could feel it under his palm. Mist’s body was growing at a phenomenal rate, and he could actually feel that growth under his hand. Her cat form, like her other forms, was growing larger as well, a reflection of her size in all her forms, and it was an indicator of his mate’s progress.

By the time they stopped, by a small pond with unhealthy-looking green water, Much of Mist’s growth seemed to have been finished. She was visibly larger now than she had been that morning. He put her on the pillow Sarraya had slept on to rest as they set up camp, as Fireflash laid beside her both to give her company and to protect her. After they were done setting up camp, after the firepit was dug and a fire started, Mist dragged herself off the pillow and shapeshifted into her base form.

It was quite a momentous event.

The first thing that got everyone’s attention was the sound of leather ripping. Tarrin’s head whipped to her as he heard that sound, and saw her just in time to see her clothes literally burst from the strain of trying to contain her. They fell around her in tattered shreds, leaving her nude, but nobody noticed her nudity in the stunned gaping at her.

She was nearly as tall as Tarrin.

She fell to one knee, her paws hugging her midsection, and for a moment he had to gawk at her like a mouse staring down the gullet of a snake. Her body was just the same as it had been when she was short; highly developed muscle corded around a surprisingly feminine frame, a mixture of power and femininity that made Mist a paradox, for no one could look at her and deny neither her luscious curves nor her physical power, but it was like some god had grabbed her at both ends and pulled her out like taffy. Her face was still the same fierce, handsome visage he knew, but there was a new sharpness to it, the sharpness of maturity, and her eyes were more hawkish than ever. Her hair was still short and unruly, a wild black mass atop her head. She still looked just like Mist, but now this Mist was nearly ten spans tall, only a few fingers shorter than him. Tarrin rushed over to her and put his arm around her shoulder to steady her as she swayed on her knee. “Mist!” he said in a strangled tone. “Are you alright?”

“Have…to…cook,” she said between labored breaths.

“You fool, sit back down!” he told her chidingly, yet commandingly.

“Karas’ hammer,” Ulger said, looking at her. “Is it me, or is she trying to catch up with Zak?”

“No wonder it hurt so much,” Haley said clinically, inspecting her with his eyes. “I’ve never heard of a Were-kin doing that before. It usually takes rides. I’m surprised she lived through it,” he added soberly.

“That’s Mist you’re talking about, Haley,” Sarraya told him.

“True. Half of Fae-da’Nar thinks she’s invincible.”

“She’s got that much of a reputation?” Ulger asked.

“My dear Ulger, from the point of view of Fae-da’Nar, you look upon probably the second most feared being on the face of Sennadar,” Haley told him lightly. “Given she’s beside the first, you understand why the Woodkin breathed such a sigh or relief when they heard they were leaving for a while.”

“She doesn’t seem all that mean.”

“And what is this?” Miranda asked, tapping the half-healed gash over his eyebrows.

Ulger laughed. “A love tap,” he replied. “I’ve gotten worse from frisky barmaids.”

“I thought Triana was the most feared,” Miranda added to Haley.

He shook his head. “They respect Triana, but they don’t outright fear her. They know she’ll obey the rules. But Tarrin and Mist have never been much for adhering to our laws. If it wasn’t the fact that they’d kill a couple hundred Woodkin in any attempt to kill them, they’d probably have tried. They’ve debated killing Mist for years, and they really wanted to, but the fact of the matter was that nobody was insane enough to try. They knew it would take an army to do the job, and they’d lose a good chunk of it in the process.”

Miranda chuckled humorlessly. “Now that’s a reputation,” she agreed.

“Why didn’t the Druids just do it?”

“Ah, yes, that,” Haley replied with a slight smile. “Well, it’s not that easy, Azakar. Mist herself never showed any great aptitude for Druidic magic, but she does have one little trick that stopped that idea cold.”

“What?”

“Mist can sense Druids,” he replied. “She’s Were-kin, and she can detect us. After she turned feral, everyone learned to stay out of her range. It was instant death to take one step past the markers of her territory, and she even killed Druids. Many Druids speculate that the markers of her territory were the limits of her ability to sense us. She killed Druids immediately and without question whenever they tried to come into her land.”

“Yeah, that’d kinda put a stopper in that idea,” Ulger chuckled.

“Doesn’t that break the rules of Fae-da’Nar?” Miranda asked.

“Not when the Druid enters the territory of someone else, it doesn’t,” Haley replied. “Druids are respected and given safe passage as a matter of courtesy, not of law. Mist had every right to defend her territory from anyone, even Druids, as long as she marked her boundaries and put out the cross this line and die markers. Putting out those particular markers gave her the right to kill anyone who crossed the line. Given who she was, you’d understand why killing Druids who invaded her territory was so important.”

“To prevent just what they wanted to do,” Ulger surmised.

“Triana was the only one who could go into her territory,” Sarraya added. “Most of the Hierarchs wanted her to kill Mist, but she wouldn’t do it.”

Tarrin ignored the talking over the others as he made Mist sit down on the pillow, then held her down with a hand on her shoulder when she tried to get up. “Didn’t you hear me? I said sit down,” he commanded.

“Yes, my mate,” she said demurely, gripping his forearm in paws which were now absolutely huge. “I don’t really feel much like standing right now anyway.”

“Does it still hurt?”

“Some, but not as much as earlier,” she answered. “I’m just really tired and very hungry.”

“Stay there, I’ll get you something to eat now while you wait for Miranda to cook dinner.”

“I love being volunteered,” Miranda laughed.

“I’ll help, but get started. Mist needs to eat. Now. Trust me, I went through this myself.”

“Just not as fast,” Sarraya said clinically.

“I’ll fetch some cheese and meat,” Azakar said firmly. “You stay there, Tarrin.”

“Bring a lot,” Tarrin ordered.

“Tarrin, may I fetch one of your large cloaks for her?” Dolanna asked politely. He knew she wouldn’t rifle through his packs without his permission.

“She’ll probably fit in my clothes,” he told Dolanna. “Bring a shirt and a pair of breeches too.”

Azakar brought over a large sack of dried meat and cheese, and Dolanna threw one of Tarrin’s cloaks over Mist’s shoulders as she began to eat ravenously. He made to go help Miranda cook, but she waved him off and instead received help from Dolanna and Sarraya as Ulger, Azakar, and Haley completed setting up camp on their own. After camp was set up, Miranda cooked a hearty stew in a pot over the fire with another pot simmering beans beside it, and Mist continued to eat. She emptied the sack of its cheese and meat by the time the stew was done, and ate most of that herself after letting the others take a plate. She then ate what was left of the beans after everyone took their fill of those as well, and then ate three loafs of bread and another wheel of cheese as they cleaned up the dishes and Azakar and Ulger removed their armor to tend to small spots of rust on them which had appeared after the last time they got rained upon.

Tarrin watched her eat in concern, but he was still quite bowled over by how fast she had grown. She had done all that growing in one day, and it looked to more or less be over. But why had it happened? It should have taken a month, but instead it had happened over the course of only one day. He didn’t even want to think of how painful it had been for her, but this shocking development had him rightfully concerned.

The food did wonders for her. Her body seemed to visibly fill out as she ate, as that Were-cat metabolism absorbed the food and quickly used it to replenish weakened muscles, something that not even this alien world seemed to affect very much. After eating, she laid down by the fire and immediately fell asleep, cloak drawn around her like a blanket. Tarrin sat beside her, playing idly with her short, wild hair, trying to make sense of what happened. But there just wasn’t enough information to even draw any kinds of conclusions. It was a mystery, a mystery they could simply pin on the fact that this was an alien world. Somehow, this world had caused her to grow in one day rather than one month.

It was quite an adjustment for him to see her so large. Mist was always such a small thing, not much taller than Dolanna, sometimes she seemed like a child to him. But now she was taller than Jesmind, almost as tall as him, and another reminder of her age. Mist was nearly seven hundred years old, one of the elder Were-cats, but her small size always made her seem so much younger. She looked more mature now, that was for sure, a new sharpness to her face that made her seem much like Triana was. He took hold of her paw, which swallowed up his human hand, stroking the short, thick black for on the backs of her fingers and then rubbing his fingers along the thick pink pad on her palm. She was going to have a period of adjustment, that was for sure. Being taller changed everything, and after seven hundred years of being small, she had quite a long road ahead of her. Being with her like this in human form, it reminded him again how incredibly tall he was, how tall she was now, because now he felt like a child beside her.

After a while by the fire, Dolanna suggested that he take her to their tent. He shapeshifted into his natural form and collected her up, feeling how heavy she was now compared to before, and took her to their oversized tent. He packed her away on their single large sleeping mat and pulled the covers up around her, then went back outside and collected up the pillow. He brought it back to the tent and put it by their sleeping mat, then deposited Fireflash on it. He yawned and immediately curled up on it, allowing Tarrin to go back out to sit by the fire with Dolanna, Sarraya, Haley, and Miranda, as Azakar and Ulger went to their tents a bit early so they could get some sleep before their turns at watch. They talked for a while about what had happened to Mist, but they too had no real answers, and could only say what he had already thought, that they could only suppose it was this alien world and leave it as an unexplained mystery.

“Is she alright?” Miranda asked.

“We’ll see in the morning. She will be a bit clumsy for a while, though.”

“I can imagine,” Haley said. “She’ll literally wake up and be nearly twice as tall as she was before she went to bed. She’ll have to learn how to move again.”

“She will probably be a trifle sore as well,” Dolanna said. “I suggest we give her a wide berth until she feels better.”

“That might be a good idea,” Tarrin agreed. “I need to go back in there. She’ll sleep better with me there.”

“That nose of hers even goes when she’s asleep, doesn’t it?”

“Now you know where Eron got his sense of smell from,” Tarrin replied. “Though his is better than Mist’s, she’s still got quite a nose. Better than mine.” He looked to Sarraya. “If you’re not sleeping in my tent, at least try to sleep close,” he told her. “So Fireflash can be close to your amulet.”

“I’m making her her own little tent,” Miranda told him. “It’ll look like a doll’s tent, but it’ll be just her size. She can pitch it beside yours.”

“How are you doing that?” Tarrin asked curiously.

“I just need a little leather, some string, and a couple of sticks, Tarrin,” she giggled. “Making something like that is easy.”

“You’re the resident seamstress, Miranda,” he told her absently.

“A tent, for me? When can I have it?” Sarraya asked in excitement.

“I should have it done by tomorrow night,” she answered. “I don’t sleep much, and it gives me something to do with my hands while I’m waiting for everyone else to wake up, and I can work on it while we ride, since it doesn’t take much precision.” She looked at Tarrin. “Um, I did kind of filch some of that leather that Mist brought with her,” she admitted. “Just a small piece of one hide. Do you think she’ll mind?”

“To keep Sarraya out of our tent? She won’t mind at all. In fact, she might kiss your feet.”

“Hey!” Sarraya said waspishly.

Tarrin stood up, towering over them like a giant. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“Sleep well, dear one,” Dolanna answered.

Mist slept heavily that night, and Tarrin, despite being sleepy, kept waking up during the night to check on her. He knew it was silly, because he knew she was fine, but he couldn’t help it. Sarraya had flitted into the tent with them not long after he went to sleep, sharing the pillow with Fireflash, who didn’t seem to mind her presence at all. Her presence also reassured him, since her presence when they had gone through the desert had become important to him, and having her near again was like the reawakening of an old need within him. It was well after midnight that he finally settled down and managed to sleep for longer than half an hour, arm draped protectively over his mate, the smell of her and the sound of her strong, steady breathing finally overwhelming his concern and allowing him to sink into a dreamy kind of contentment that made his sleep a peaceful one.

Well past dawn, he was stirred awake by her, as she caressed the side of his face with her paw. He opened his eyes and looked up at her, at a mysterious expression on her face, as she gazed down upon him. “What?” he asked sleepily.

“I’m just marvelling at how much smaller you look to me now, my mate,” she told him with an enigmatic smile.

“Are you alright? Does it still hurt?” he asked, reaching up and putting his arms around her.

“I feel like I got wrung out with the wash, but I’m alright,” she answered. “I haven’t gotten up yet, but I get the feeling it’s going to be different.”

“You’re not going to fall over every time you take a step, but you’ll have to get used to it,” he told her.

“Alright then, let’s give it a go,” Mist said deliberately, sliding aside and rising up onto her knees. She put a paw down on the ground and put a foot under herself, then slowly rose to her feet. She towered over him that way, tall and regal and intimidating, at least until he got up himself. She was only a few fingers shorter than he was, and the change in aspect at looking at her was profound.

“You should fit in my clothes now,” he told her. “That’ll hold you until you make some new clothes.”

“It should,” she said, looking at her paw, turning it around so she could see both sides as Tarrin picked up the clothes that they’d selected for her the night before. “I feel…lighter.”

“You’re stronger,” he told her evenly, handing her a pair of sturdy leather breeches. “And you’ll bang your head on doorframes a lot until you get the hang of ducking. But you’ll be alright.”

She carefully stepped into the breeches, chuckling. “That will take some adjusting,” she agreed, then stepped into the other leg and pulled them up. They were loose at the waist and very tight through her hips, since hers were so much wider than his, but they did fit her well enough. “I won’t wear these long,” she grunted, patting her hips.

“You’ll bust out of them if you try,” he noted clinically.

“I feel like I’m being squeezed by a Giant,” she said, putting a paw on her backside.

“Miranda can help with the breeches,” he told her. “She’s a very good tailor.”

“I can make my own,” she told him absently.

“If she helps, you can get them done that much faster,” he explained. “Oh, yes, she used a little bit of your leather. Not much, just enough to make Sarraya a tent.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “I won’t need all that much, and we can always ambush a few humans and take their clothes. I can make patchwork clothes out of them.”

“Let’s not be unfriendly to the natives, my mate,” he chuckled as he handed her the shirt. Fireflash yawned and got up from his pillow, stretched, then vaulted up onto Tarrin’s shoulder.

“From what I’ve seen so far, they deserve it,” she shrugged as she pulled on the shirt. It was just a bit tight through her bosom, but otherwise fit her just fine.

“We’ll see. We don’t know enough about this place yet to draw any foregone conclusions.”

Mist moved tenderly as they came out, and he could tell that she was already having trouble with her balance and her strength. She kept looking like she was about to topple forward at any moment. She walked around the camp gingerly at first as the others went about the morning chores, and Azakar and Ulger watered the horses, and seemed to become more confident with herself with each step. They all watched her without being obvious about it, and he could tell that they were all rather shocked at seeing her so tall. He knew she’d need another heavy meal to make sure she was fully restored, so he dug extra meal out of the sack and went about making an extra pot of porridge that would be served with the rest of the breakfast Miranda was preparing. “Should I add more bacon?” she asked without much greeting.

He nodded. “And another loaf of bread.”

“She’s going to eat up our entire stores in three days at this rate, Tarrin,” she warned him.

“She won’t have to eat like this again,” he assured her.

“I hope not. She might start giving me looks that would make me very uncomfortable,” she said with a cheeky grin.

“She’d never eat you, Miranda,” he said mildly.

“Oh? And how do you know that?” she asked lightly.

“Because Wikuni taste terrible,” he answered as he went towards the packs.

Tarrin was right to fix so much food, because there was nothing left when breakfast was over. Mist ate everything that the others left behind after they took what they wanted, and then shifted into cat form and lounged by the extinguished firepit as the others packed the horses and got ready to go. She slept most of the day as Tarrin carried her, Fireflash, and occasionally Sarraya with him in the saddle. Miranda, hiding again behind the Illusion of Mist, sat in her saddle and finished sewing Sarraya’s tent, then quietly started working on a new leather tunic for Mist. Miranda already had an idea of her size, since she had made clothes for Tarrin before, so all she had to do was add some extra room in the chest. She cut the leather when the stopped for a break, and her nimble fingers worked thick leather twine through holes she punched into the leather with an awl in the saddle. Haley watched this display of dexterity with undisguised admiration, that she could sew while riding on a horse, but she paid the Were-wolf little mind, for all her attention was on her work. Tarrin led her horse for her while she did so, because she wasn’t paying any attention to where they were going.

By sunset that night, Mist had a sleeveless leather tunic in her size. She tried it on, neglecting to go into a tent to take off the tunic she was wearing, but everyone was familiar with Were-cat customs and didn’t pay it much mind. “Nice,” she told Miranda, twisting at the waist to test the fit. “Sleeves?”

“Tomorrow,” she answered. “Those take a little work. I don’t want to do that while riding.”

“I’m surprised you managed to do that so well on a moving horse, Miranda,” Haley told her.

“It’s not like I was doing embroidery, Haley,” she chided him. “If I wasn’t moving, I’d have finished it in a couple of hours instead of it taking all day.”

“You’re better than me then,” he chuckled.

The sleeves were ready by morning, and they lingered at their camp an hour longer than necessary to give Miranda time to finish sewing the sleeves onto the tunic. When she was done, Mist had a nice undyed buckskin tunic with laces at the neckline, elbow-length, and loose sleeves that flared very slightly at the ends. “You can make me pants too,” Mist told her. “These are going to split the next time I bend over.”

“That would certainly be a show,” Ulger snickered.

She gave him a level look. “Look all you want, but remember that you’ll never be man enough to have it, human,” she told him.

Ulger gave her a slight scowl, Miranda laughed, and Haley winced with a sly twinkle in his eyes as Mist stalked off towards the tent she shared with Tarrin. “Might I suggest keeping your thoughts to yourself, Ulger?” Dolanna said with a light tilt to her voice that betrayed her amusement, though her words was as formal as ever.

“Yeah, cause he’s not big enough to play with Mist,” Sarraya giggled.

“Not anymore,” Haley remarked.

“He never was,” Miranda added, which made Ulger scowl at her.

Pants weren’t that hard to make for Miranda, for she decided to use two pieces of material and simply lace them up the sides, while sewing them together on the inside seam. That would allow Mist to alter the fit to suit her by undoing the outside lacing and relacing it. She had to measure Miranda for the pants, which was something that Mist had never undergone before. “Hold still,” Miranda ordered as she held a knotted cord to the outside of Mist’s leg.

“Why are you wasting your time?” she said. “Just make them like Tarrin’s and add some space here.” She put her paws on her hips.

“I’ve never made pants for Tarrin before, so I don’t know his size,” she answered, looking up. Then she chuckled ruefully. “I still can’t get used to how tall you are now.”

“I’m surprised I grew this much,” she admitted. “I figured I’d just be a few fingers taller than Jesmind.”

“Well, I like it. I don’t feel like my mate is a child anymore,” Tarrin announced.

“Then it’s a good thing,” she told him with lowered eyes, then she raised them to look into his face with that same look of admiration that always seemed to be there.

Miranda flashed him a knowing grin, but said nothing.

By working well into the night, Miranda had the pants finished by late morning. She did the sewing work while they were stationary and did the easier parts, such as punching the holes for laces and making the leather thong, while they were on the move. Then it was a simple matter to lace the sides up, and then hand them to Tarrin. “There you are,” she said with a grin. “These should hold her until I make more.”

Tarrin held them up and admired them. They looked to be a perfect fit for his mate, and the leather lacing on the outsides of the legs would leave the skin beneath that mesh appealingly bare. She had sewn in a waistband that was almost continuous that would prevent the pants from falling off her if the lacing broke, and the pants had the customary slit and button in the back for her tail and the leather lacing in the front so she could get them on over her hips. The craftsmanship was outstanding, but that was the norm for Miranda. There was almost nothing that Miranda could not sew.

“Kimmie changed direction,” Azakar announced from the front, pointing off in a new direction. She’d been moving in a virtual straight line for days now that they’d been following the trail. The way Azakar pointed was what Tarrin would call east, for it was almost directly towards where the sun rose in the morning. “She went that way.”

“I wonder why she did that,” Dolanna mused. “Perhaps some new information came to light, or she saw something I do not see.”

“Or she was chased,” Ulger added, looking at the ground. “It’s been a month since she passed, so it’s impossible to tell if that happened.”

“Well, if we come across any decaying bodies wearing those uniforms those guards had on at that village, we’ll know,” Haley chuckled.

“I think there’s a wood over that way,” Azkar said, holding his hands up his bare head to shield his eyes from the noontime sun. “I think, it’s hard to tell. I think she went right for it.”

“This is where I miss Allia,” Dolanna said. “Her eyes would tell us.”

“I’ll go look, Dolanna,” Tarrin said, taking Fireflash off his shoulder and putting him on the horse’s back in front of the saddle. He reached into his saddlepack and took out the violet visor that Allia had given him, which they used to shield their eyes from sand and the sun’s glare. He used it when flying to keep the wind out of his eyes, which made it much easier to see. “We need to have a look around anyway.”

“Do not reveal yourself, dear one.”

“I’ll be up too high,” he answered her. “I want to get a look around. We’ve gone days now without seeing any human settlements, and I want to know if there are any around us.”

“Why?” Sarraya asked.

“Because we need to resupply,” he answered. “We’re down to a ride’s worth of food. I’d rather buy it than hunt it, because the only thing I’ve seen out on this grass plain to hunt so far are rabbits.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. No deer, no elk, no antelope, nothing big,” Ulger said. “That’s unusual.”

“Not if we’re in a void surrounded by human habitation,” Tarrin said. “They might have hunted them all out, and the other wild ones have no way to get in here.”

“That, or they simply do not exist here,” Dolanna reminded them.

“We’ve seen deer,” Haley noted. “But then again, the deer from home don’t live out on grasslands.”

“Give me a few minutes,” he said as she handed the reins of his horse to Azakar.

“Oooh, I’m coming too!” Sarraya said, zipping up from the back of the line and circling Tarrin a few times in her excitement.

Instead of dismounting, Tarrin nimbly climed up to stand on his saddle, then brought forth his wings an instant before Dolanna sharply called for him to stop. “What?” he asked.

Dolanna smiled wryly. “Dear one, you just burned holes in the back of your shirt and vest. How are you going to fix them?”

“I’ll-oh. Forgot about that,” he grunted ruefully. “I’ll have to use that Wizard spell to fix them.”

“Next time, dear one, take them off. It will save you some trouble.”

“I will,” he promised. “Ok, we’re going straight up, Sarraya.”

“Straight up is no sweat!” she declared as she started ascending over them.

Tarrin put on the visor and lifted away from his horse, soaring straight up easily, almost languidly, as he momentarily lost his head in the glorious sensation of being able to fly. Even after years with the ability, the pure joy of it had never become old for him. He caught up with Sarraya, then cradled her in his paws as he accellerated faster than she could fly, quickly and easily getting them nearly two longspans above the ground.

“Showoff!” Sarraya accused as he levelled off and hovered in midair. She flitted around him, just a little unsteady as her multicolored wings beat frantically at the thinner air to keep her aloft.

“Alright, let’s get a look,” he told her, and he started looking around. They were in a bowl of sorts of flat land, with a mountain range visible to what he would call south, the direction they were moving, and a spur of that range creeping through to the east. There indeed was a forest to the east, where Kimmie went, not a large one, though, and just at the edge of his vision he could see the walls of a human settlement, on the other side of the forest. Kimmie was moving in a straight line right for it. There was another very small settlement to the northeast, and there was a road that went from it and into the forest, north of where they would enter the forest if they followed Kimmie’s trail.

“That looks like a village over there,” Sarraya called. He turned to look, then looked off where she was pointing, to what he considered southwest. There was indeed a very, very small village there, or perhaps a large farm, just on the horizon, its cultivated fields just barely visible. “We need one of those Wikuni spyglasses,” she complained.

“You-hey, Miranda might have one!” he said. “She had one at one time, I remember seeing it in her satchel when I was riding in it.”

“Let’s go ask her!” Sarraya said. “Care to give me a lift down?”

Tarrin took hold of her and dropped back down close to the ground so quickly his stomach rose up in his belly. He got down to within a hundred spans of Miranda and shouted down to her. “Miranda, do you still have that spyglass you had in your satchel?” he called.

“I think I do!” she shouted back, going for the shoulder bag that she always carried with her, which was now attached to her saddle. “I don’t remember taking it out!” She rummaged through it for a few seconds, then pulled out a bronze tube. “Got it!” she called.

“What did you see up there, Tarrin?” Dolanna called as he came down.

“There’s a city to the east on the other side of the woods that Azakar did in fact see, and a village southwest and northeast of us,” he answered in a quieter tone as he hovered by Miranda’s horse. The horse shied a bit from him, seeing the fire of his wings, but Miranda kept him steady as she handed him the spyglass. “The city looks good-sized, but I couldn’t see that much. There’s a road that runs from the northeast village into the forest, and it looks like it’s headed for that city. Kimmie headed arrow-straight for that city.”

“She must have needed something,” Dolanna mused.

“I’ll be back down in a few minutes,” he told them as he took hold of Sarraya again and vaulted up into the sky. Once he got back to his former altitude he released the Faerie, extended the spyglass, and aimed it at the city. It took a bit to get it focused, but it allowed him to see much better. The city was about the size of Torrian before Tarrin had burned it down, surrounded by a log wall whose exterior had been charred to prevent attackers from using fire to burn it down. It did have a stone gatehouse, and from the look of it, they were building a stone wall in front of the log wall to replace it. They had the foundation laid, but had only just started raising it. The buildings within were made of wood, but they didn’t look to be all that elegant. They had a slapdash quality to them, as if they were hastily constructed.

“Hmm,” Tarrin mused.

“What?” Sarraya asked. “What do you see?” He described his observations to her, and she put her finger to her tiny chin for a moment in thought. “I wonder why they’re building walls if this One guy controls everything?” she asked.

“Maybe we were wrong about that,” Tarrin said. “But they certainly think they need to be defended from something.”

“Yeah, from us,” Sarraya said with a nasty little giggle.

Tarrin turned the spyglass on the road, and could barely make out a column of soldiers on that road, moving towards the city. He swept it past them, then grunted. “That village northwest of the city, we must have passed by with it just under the horizon,” he realized. “We came from that general direction, but we didn’t see it.”

“We should have seen smoke from their fires,” Sarraya fretted.

“Sarraya, there are no fires,” he told her, looking at the village, which was too far away to make out much detail.

“Well, we can barely see it now, so odds were we couldn’t see anything on the ground, fires or no fires,” she told him.

“True. I think the land rises between the village and where we came through, that would have helped hide it. I wonder how long it’ll take those soldiers to get there.”

“What soldiers?”

“There’s a column of soldiers marching on the road,” he told her, zooming in on them again. “About a hundred, I think. They’re moving towards the city.”

“Walking? Not today.”

“You’re probably right there,” he agreed.

“How long do you think it’ll take us to get to the city? You’re the one with the better view.”

“We might get there by sunset if we don’t get hung up too much in the forest. It looks like it’s about five leagues away from where we are now. With these horses, five leagues is more than doable in half a day.”

Sarraya laughed. “Five leagues is doable in half that time,” she told him. “We could make twelve leagues easy on those horses. Twenty if we don’t stop too much and go at a canter. They’re very strong horses.”

“Yeah, but we have to go through the woods, and that’ll slow us a bit. If it’s got a lot of underbrush, we might not make it today.”

“Well, let’s go back down and tell the others, so we can get moving,” Sarraya told him.

After explaining what they saw, Dolanna wasted no time making her decisions. “Let us move towards the city and try to reach it by nightfall. I would like to sleep in an inn this night,” she announced. “And this time we do nothing untowards,” she said, levelling her steady gaze on Tarrin.

“I’ll try,” he promised as Azakar turned his massive horse in the direction Tarrin considered due east.

It took them a couple of hours to reach the edge of the forest, which was filled with massive hardwood trees that cooled the air considerably as they entered it, complete with all the sounds he would expect to hear in a wood, from squirrels and chipmunks to the scratching of woodchucks to the chirping of birds in the foliage high above and also on the ground, foraging amond dead leaves that carpeted the forest floor. There was no underbrush, so they made very good time as they moved along Kimmie’s trail. It met up with a wide path, just large enough for a very small cart, about two longspans into the trees, and Kimmie turned onto that path. They did as well, making much better time as the forest began to show undergrowth, where holes in the canopy above allowed sunlight to filter down to saplings, bushes, and vines that obscured their vision on either side of the track. Mist stood up from where she was reclining, her ears swivelling towards the brush to their left.

“What is it, Mist?” he asked the black cat in the saddle with him.

“Humans,” she replied in the manner of the Cat. “Hiding in the trees.”

“Sarraya, be a dear and go take a look,” he said to the Faerie, who was sitting on the other shoulder opposite Fireflash.

“I’m on it,” she told him confidently, and though he didn’t see her, he heard the buzzing of her wings as she zipped off in the direction Mist was looking.

“What is it, dear one?” Dolanna asked.

“Humans are off over there,” he answered, nodding with his head. “Sarraya’s investigating.”

“Ah. I will inform Haley and Ulger.”

Tarrin pulled his bow out from the holster in his saddle, which slung it behind his leg, and uncapped the quiver slung on the opposite side, and Azakar drew his broadsword meaningfully after pulling his shield down from where it was slung on his arm to get a grip on it. The others also visibly prepared for an attack, as they waited for Sarraya to return with information about the hidden humans. Tarrin reflexively nocked his bow when he heard a rustle of leaves off in the same direction the humans were hidden, but refrained from drawing it when a squirrel erupted from a small bush and bounded across the track to a tree on the far side. He was about to pull the arrow off his bow when he heard the buzzing of Sarraya’s wings approach them. She landed on his shoulder and sat down sedately. “Nothing to worry about,” she told him. “Just a bunch of peasants. They’re gathering berries.”

“Perhaps you should foray out ahead of us to ensure the path is clear,” Dolanna proposed.

“Sure, Dolanna,” Sarraya answered, flitting off his shoulder. “I’ll be ahead a ways. If I see anything, I’ll come back and tell you.”

It took them most of the afternoon to reach the other side of the forest. They passed two groups of humans dressed in rough homespun smocks and tunics. They were very thin people who had the look of frightened animals, moving quickly and in a tight group, staring at the mounted party as it passed. They all bowed or curtsied as they went by, with fear in their eyes, and Tarrin realized that their very fine clothing-by their standards-the Knights’ armor, their weapons, and their horses had to denote them as rich or part of the nobility. If such a thing existed here. When they left the treeline, they could see a fair sized town, about the size Torrian had been before it burned down, surrounded by that blackened log wall. A large group of men worked outside that log wall to build a stone one, laying heavy stones in place under the eyes of three mean wearing scarlet tabards. They had a crest of a white triangle on a black circular background on the chests of those blood red tabards, and they were gathered around a large scroll of parchment that one of them was holding, talking about something and pointing to it. They stopped when Azakar led them towards the stone gatehouse of the town, their eyes hard and uncertain as they watched the group pass by.

When they reached the gatehouse, Azakar pulled up to a stop and Dolanna moved her horse forward as six men carrying halberds and wearing rusty chain jacks with surcoats of the same scarlet and with the same device upon their chests stepped forward. “Good evening, my Lords,” the tallest of them addressed in Penali. “Praise be the One. What business have you in Dengal?”

Dolanna urged her horse up with Azakar’s. “We travel from one point to another, goodman,” she answered.

“Hush, woman!” the man barked. “Let your betters speak!”

Tarrin’s eyes blazed as a sudden well of icy fury roiled up in him, but Haley calmly urged his horse up to the front. “Forgive our customs, my good man,” Haley said with a light smile, “but we have come from a great distance on a pilgrimage. Where we come from, it’s customary for the one of highest rank to do the talking, and our good Lady here happens to outrank us all.”

“That’s bunk,” he snorted. “Who would put a woman in any position of authority?”

“If that woman gives the order, we’ll make you a head shorter, lout,” Ulger said in an ugly manner, putting his hand on the hilt of his broadsword. “Now be civil, or we’ll have to go get you a new tongue.”

The threat present in those words was not lost on the tall, gangly man. He gave the shortest of bows to them and took a single step back. “What business have you in Dengal?” he repeated.

“We seek nothing more than a bed for the night and a chance to replenish our stores. We shall be gone with the morning sun,” Dolanna answered him, perhaps a bit tartly. “Now stand aside.”

“I can’t let that, that thing through the gate,” he said, pointing at Tarrin. Or, more to the point, pointing at Fireflash, who was sitting on Tarrin’s shoulder. “What is that thing?”

“It’s called a drake,” Tarrin answered. “It’s a very rare animal that lives on an island off the coast of our homeland.”

“It’s not normal. I don’t see why the Church hasn’t killed it yet.”

“As it is still quite alive, I would say that the Church does not agree with you. Or are you now saying that you know better than the Church?”

There was a veiled threat so hideous within those words that the man melted out of the way, bowing several times and proclaiming that he did not.

“Very good. Now direct us to your finest inn.”

“We only have the one, your Ladyship, the Three Masks. Straight down this street, about halfway into town, on the left. There’s three wooden masks hanging outside the door. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you. Enjoy your day.”

“May the One watch over you,” he said with another bow as they started moving forward.

“By the trees, I hope not,” Sarraya whispered from his other shoulder.

The streets of the town, Dengal, were choked with half-dried mud, and the stench of human waste assaulted even Tarrin’s human nose as they moved along the pedestrians. The contents of chamber pots and kitchen refuse were simply tossed out of windows into the streets, creating a miasma of stench that clung close to the ground, hanging almost like a smoky mist over the sewage filling the bottoms of narrow ditches dug into either side of the muddy street. Small wooden bridges connected the buildings to each side of the street to the street itself, or long wooden decks that were built out over them to provide passage for many people at once. The first thing that Tarrin noticed outside of the numbers of crudely dressed humans were the guards. Patrols of ten men in uniforms similar to those men at the gate roamed the streets, and there was never less than two in sight from the backs of their horses at any one time. All the citizens of the town gave these patrols a very wide berth, even if they had to wade in the ankle-deep sewage in the ditches on the sides of the street. The buildings themselves were made of rough timber, log walls chinked with mud that lined the sides of the streets, at least until they got about a quarter of the way in. The buildings went from rough timber to slate tiles, wattle and daub, and even a few stone buildings that looked to be businesses, and what was not a surprise, the large, ornate stone building that had to be the town’s chapel clearly visible at the end of the street. It had two spires on either side of its front and a stained glass window, with that same triangle an circle design, over the large brass doors that led inside of it.

The Three Masks was a small inn exactly where the guard said it would be. Nervous grooms took the reins of the horses as they rode into a very small yard to the side of the main building, then waited as they all dismounted. Ulger took one of them aside and spoke to him in low tones, and the whitening of the man’s face told Tarrin that the Knight had made several nasty threats should anything happen to their horses, their packs, or anything within them. Tarrin picked up Mist and carried her after he dismounted, following the others into the inn’s main building, a ratty doorway with no door, only an old blanket nailed across the doorway to provide some illusion of separation between outside and inside. Tarrin thought the place to be a seedy dive until they got inside and found a small yet meticulously clean common room with tables in the middle of the floor, a row of booths on the far wall, and a small, cozy little bar on the left. The door that was probably hung in the doorway before they arrived was laying between two chairs, and a small, portly man with a patch over his left eye and a head full of short-cropped graying hair was bent over that door with a carpenter’s planing tool, shaving some of the wood off its edge. The tool he was using, Tarrin noted, was fairly well made and built around a sharp steel planing blade, hinting that perhaps these people were not as primitive as they seemed to be.

“Goodness me, we have guests!” the man said in surprise, putting the tool down. He took one look at them and then gave a false smile. “The Church is on up the street, my Lords,” he told them. “They should have plenty of room for you.”

“We’re not from the Church,” Tarrin told him, answering before Dolanna could speak. “We need rooms for the night.”

“Well, then, welcome to the Three Masks. I’m Merik Thatcher. You have come to the best inn in Dengal,” the man said brightly.

“You mean the only inn,” Ulger chuckled.

“Well, that makes it the best, does it not?” he answered with a sly little look at Ulger. “Come in, my Lords, come in! And please forgive this mess, I’ve been meaning to fix this door for a while now. It’s just the luck of the Defiled that you would pick this particular day to pay me a call. Would you like something to take the dust from your throats?”

“We would like our rooms, please,” Dolanna answered him. “And perhaps directions to your greengrocer or nearest food merchant. Our travelling stores are growing thin, and we have need to resupply to continue our journey.”

“Well, er, is that what you need, my Lord?” he asked, giving Dolanna an odd look before turning to address Tarrin. The man’s eyes locked on Fireflash, but unlike the guard, this man said nothing, nor did he make any indication that Fireflash was out of the ordinary.

“You heard the lady, goodman,” Tarrin answered him.

“Yes, I most certainly did,” he said with a charming smile. “Please, have a seat if you’re of a mind while you’re waiting for me to get your rooms ready, though I’d bet that you’re tired of sitting by now. Such finery could only mean you rode here on horses, or perhaps even a carriage. Brolli, we have guests!” the man called towards the bar. “Start supper!”

“Aye,” a feminine voice called from the back.

“Would you like to inspect our rooms, my Lord? You can look things over as I prepare them for you.”

“That’s my department, goodman Merik,” Miranda told him with a smile, though the Illusion of Mist made it look predatory, when he knew Miranda wore her cheeky grin beneath it. “But judging from the condition of your common room, I think I’ll find little to criticize.”

“You’d be within your rights not say that with this door hogging the room and my clean floor littered with sawdust and wood shavings,” he said with an honest smile.

“But it’s a clean floor under that sawdust, goodman,” Miranda told him with a straight face.

He laughed. “You honor me, my Lady. Are you sure you don’t want something to drink?” he asked again. “I shouldn’t be but a few moments to prepare your rooms, but you should spend those moments in comfort.”

“I’ll take whatever you have on hand, my good man,” Ulger announced. “I could use a drink.”

“Would you prefer ale or water?”

“Ale, of course,” he replied.

“Anyone else?” he asked, but there was only silence. “Brolli, could you bring a tankard of ale out for our guest?” he called.

“Aye, Merik,” she called back.

“I’ll go prepare your rooms. If you need anything at all, just tell Brolli, and she’ll get it for you. We, ah, can discuss the cost of the night’s stay when I return. If you would follow me, my Lady?”

“Certainly,” Miranda told him, stepping forward. “I’ll only be a few minutes, my Lord, and I’ll make sure that the rooms here are worthy of you,” she said, giving Tarrin an outrageous smile when Merik couldn’t see, and Tarrin inwardly groaned. Miranda was going to play up this notion that they were nobles, and he’d have to endure simpering and my Lords being thrown at him all night.

Ulger swung his leg over a chair and sat down as the woman Brolli brought out a crude ceramic tankard filled with dark ale. Brolli was a very small, thin woman of middle years wearing a homespun smock that left her legs bare, with heavy lines around her mouth, her graying brown hair pulled back from her face and done up in a tight bun. Brolli seemed a severe woman, but her smile was warm, almost gentle. Ulger took it and downed almost half of it in one swallow, then set it on the table before him with a heavy clunk. “Not bad,” he said with a nod.

“Thank you, my Lord. Does anyone else want anything?”

“No thank you,” Tarrin said.

The woman too stared at Fireflash for a long moment, who regarded her with his amber, reptillian eyes steadily, then she curtsied and hurried back into the kitchen.

“We must finish our shopping quickly, before the shops close,” Dolanna told them. “Each of us will take some gold and fan out to buy what we need. Miranda and Ulger will remain to watch our possessions.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Haley said. “It’s going to depend on where we can buy what we need.”

Merik returned with Miranda about ten minutes later. The disguised Wikuni gave Tarrin a bright smile, and Tarrin immediately was worried. “The rooms are more than adequate, my Lord,” she announced.

“Yes, I told you they would be. And your maid here has already settled the night’s lodgings, so we don’t have to worry about that,” Merik added. “Now, you needed the locations of merchants?”

“Yes,” Dolanna told him.

“There are several, and they’re all not far from here. Just go out the door, turn left, and then go either left or right at the next corner. That’s Market Street, and you can find almost anything you need in a shop or stall.”

“Thank you, good innkeeper,” Dolanna said.

“Now, my stablehands will take your things up to your rooms, so you can get to your shopping. Would you like them to port for you?”

“That will not be necessary,” Dolanna replied. “Azakar, please go out and make sure they do not unsaddle two of the pack horses.”

“Yes, Dolanna,” the Mahuut said with a nod, and he hurried towards the empty doorway.

“Very well. Miranda, you and Ulger shall remain here. The rest of us shall see to our stores.”

“Sure, my Lady,” Miranda said with a little curtsy.

“Merik! I need some help with this!” Brolli called from the kitchen.

“Excuse me, my Lord,” he said, bowing to Tarrin. “I’ll be back in a moment. Coming, Brolli!”

“What did you tell him!” Tarrin hissed at Miranda in Wikuni after Merik left the room.

“Only that you’re a travelling noble of very high rank who’s a historian, and you’re searching far and wide for ancient lore,” she replied. “Dolanna is your cousin, also a noble of high rank, and the rest of us are your servants.”

“Miranda!” Tarrin said sharply.

“Hey, it works,” she said with a cheeky grin. “By the way, you’re a duke of Sulasia. He has no idea where Sulasia is, but he certainly believes you’re a noble.”

“Our clothing leads them to believe so,” Dolanna said in agreement. “And her story will make things easier for us to explain.”

“How did you pay the man, Miranda?” Dolanna asked curiously.

“Oh, with some money I stole from a merchant along the way,” she answered absently. “That fat one in the litter.”

“But we were on horseback! How did you do so without him noticing?”

“I have lots of talents, Dolanna,” Miranda winked. “Some of them aren’t quite as obvious.”

Dolanna gave her a look, then laughed helplessly. “Perhaps I will have only Ulger remain. You should go to a moneychanger and trade in our nuggets for coin.”

“I can take care of that, Dolanna,” Haley said mildly. “I’ve had dealings with moneychangers. I’ll get us a good conversion rate.”

“Very well then. The rest of us shall buy our stores.”

“What should we get?”

“I will buy the meal and some bread, and also food for the horses. Haley will buy cheese and dried meat, and Tarrin will buy whatever vegetables he can find that will not perish on us quickly, as well as some beans. Azakar will accompany me, for I know he will not allow me to wander alone.”

“You’re right,” he agreed as he came back inside.

“But first Haley will get us some coin of the realm,” she said. “Are the horses ready, Azakar?”

“Yes ma’am,” he answered.

“Haley, ask Merik where we might find a moneychanger, then meet us outside. Sarraya, Mist, you shall remain here. Tarrin, you must convince Fireflash to remain as well, but we have seen how well he listens to you,” she said with a gentle smile at the drake.

“You got that right,” Sarraya giggled from her invisible perch on Tarrin’s shoulder.

“Certainly, my Lady,” he said with a rakish smile and a graceful bow, then he walked toward the kitchen.

Merik’s directions were fairly accurate, and they found themselves outside of a small, sturdy timber building whose entrance was flanked by two guards about ten minutes after leaving the inn. Haley spent perhaps twenty minutes inside, then came out with a small satchel that weighed heavily on its strap. “Not bad,” he announced, reaching in and taking out several small leather pouches. “I had him divide it up. Everyone take one, and Azakar will carry the rest. Nobody in his right mind would try to steal it from him,” he chuckled.

“I would say not,” Dolanna said with a smile at her massive protector.

They split up from there, and Tarrin walked along the street, looking for a place that sold vegetables. Greengrocers were a staple in any market in Sennadar, but this was a different world, and he was unsure what these people would do given the fact that the vast majority of them seemed to be very poor. There were people in what would be considered finery here, though their clothes would probably be worn by milkmaids and farmers back home, wool tunics of moderately fine weaving, or tanned le