Chapter 5

Peace.

Sometimes it was hard to find among the others, but now, after what had happened the day before, it was even more elusive. Tarrin hadn’t felt so self-conscious in a very long time, because they all wouldn’t stop staring at him. He couldn’t understand why, after all of the things they had seen him do over the years, that that one thing would suddenly make them gawk at him like frightened lambs.

In a way, he felt like staring at himself. He never dreamed he would be capable of something like that, and the strange thing was, it was a relatively simple trick. The size of the shape was no barrier to the ability, the only restriction was that he couldn’t change into any animal or living thing that he had not previously touched. That was the only condition required to assume a form using that trick. It had been so, so easy, like it was something he should have realized he could do all along, but had never noticed until that moment. And the feeling of it, being that large, looking down on everyone like they were insects…no wonder dragons were so arrogant. It was hard to take someone seriously that would fit in the palm of your hand.

He’d brooded over it all afternoon, and after they made camp as well, taking watch once again to be alone. But still he brooded, staring into a fire that never needed to be fed, sustained by his own power without him even concentrating on it, because though the trick itself was an interesting one, the meaning of it very much had him worried. His powers were changing, they were growing, and that frightened him deep down inside himself.

Always before, the ability to separate himself from his power had provided a buffer, a way for him to feel normal. When his wings were hidden, he had no powers, nothing that distinguished him from everyone else, and that made him feel almost like he belonged. But now, now the power was changing inside of him, manifesting even without the wings, driving home the stark reality that he was not normal, and he did not belong in this world. He was an abomination, they called him, a creature that was neither mortal nor divine, with aspects of both yet truly belonging to neither group. It was his curse to walk the land and be among those who could never understand him, who would either be afraid of him or jealous of him, and be rejected by those who could, rejected and reviled because he was just enough like them to remind them that they were not as powerful and invincible as they believed. Too divine to be a mortal, not divine enough to be a god, he was trapped between the two, and that left him without any sense of inclusion. He was a singular, unique being, alone, and destined to remain so for the rest of his life. And that made him feel alone.

Strange that a Were-cat would have such a need to belong, but he did. Tarrin was born human, and he had always been surrounded by friends, by family, a core of people who had literally defined his existence. They still stood beside him, he knew they did, but now, now they were starting to stare at him, now they were forgetting about Tarrin and seeing the power. That hurt, more than a little bit, but he also knew that it was a temporary issue. Once they got used to it, they’d start treating him like they always did. Azakar would be distant around him, Sarraya would annoy and insult him, Haley and Miranda would joke with him, Ulger would irritate him just a little bit with his comments, Dolanna would quietly guide him, and Mist would be there to support him. He could only hope that they would get over it soon, because he didn’t think they understood how much their change in behavior towards him had upset him.

So much so that, after Ulger woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, he had left the camp to clear his head and sort things through. For Tarrin, that meant indulging in the one aspect of his divine power that he was never sorry he had, his ability to fly. Up high, above a deck of low clouds, Tarrin could find peace in the blowing of the wind, sanctuary in the cold bite of the thinner air, and a moment’s peace communing with the stars. Hovering in midair, he stared up into the sky, trying to understand why he was changing, why his friends were starting to worry more about the change than they were about him, and worry about Kimmie and the danger this world put them all in.

Could this world be affecting his powers? It was certainly possible. This was a different world, after all, with its own set of rules concerning just about everything. Sorcery didn’t work here, Druidic magic didn’t work here, so maybe the rules for using divine powers were also a little different. Maybe it was like grounding; he had to spend time in an area to ground to it so he could Teleport back there, so perhaps he had had to spend time on this world for his power to attune to it, and maybe here, his powers were actually a little stronger than they were at home. There, the gods hated him, and actively strove to suppress him. Here, the only god he had truly sensed as being active was the One, and though the One certainly couldn’t like him all that much, the One did not control this entire world. The One was a god of man, not one of the gods who controlled the Balance, gods who directed the world’s primal forces. He wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he was certain of it. Those gods, well, he didn’t know where they were, or if they even cared enough to bother to show themselves. The Elder Gods back home barely took notice of the mortals, for their attention was focused on keeping the world in harmony and maintaining the Balance. There was a good chance that the Elder Gods of this world simply didn’t care about the struggles of the mortals. They were just a tiny fraction of the totality of the Balance, unnoticed until something they did, or something did to them, upset the Balance.

Gods. Maybe they were exerting themselves a little, for he was starting to feel just a little manipulated. He wasn’t sure why, or how, but he had this strange, almost instinctual feeling that someone out there was goading him. Every time he lost his temper, he exhibited a new aspect of his power, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone out there was goading that, setting up scenarios that were inciting him into reacting. Were they testing him to see how strong he was? The One certainly came to mind. He knew Tarrin was moving around, and by now, he had to understand that Tarrin was not just an extremely powerful mortal. Tarrin posed a viable threat to any god just because of who he was, because he possessed the power to destroy a god’s icon. And since he’d already made it clear that he detested the One, it was possible that the One was directing his minions to set up atrocities in his path to test the extent of his power. It also showed that the One was willing to throw away a few hundred men, but not so willing to throw away too many, else he’d send an army after Tarrin. If that were indeed the case, it was a tactical risk, exposing a smaller unit to attack to reveal the strengths of the enemy, and plan accordingly with the main bulk of one’s forces. Put into those terms, the reasoning made sense, up to a point, because it made little sense to throw away men to test something he could discover by sending a single powerful Demon, so there was a nagging flaw in his reasoning. Though he had the feeling he was being pushed somehow, he wasn’t sure who was doing it, or why.

This was supposed to be easy, damn it all. Just come here, track down Kimmie, search old books for lore, talk to people, find the Dwarves and information on the lost Ancients, and then go home with whoever they found that was willing to go with them. This wasn’t supposed to turn into a game of hide and seek with a power-hungry god whose stranglehold on the land was a direct affront to Tarrin’s sensibilities. It most certainly was never meant to become anything other than a mission to recover either people or information. But things were by no means easy now.

He was afraid. He knew himself enough to be able to admit that. He was afraid of the power in him, power that was starting to grow. He was starting to use it for more than the occasional joy flight now, actively use his power, something he had never done before. By never touching it, he had distanced himself from it, tried to ignore it, tried to pretend that it wasn’t there just to delude himself into feeling that it didn’t matter. But it did matter, and no amount of wishing could ever change that.

Bringing his sword out from the elsewhere, Tarrin gazed upon the black blade and pondered it for a long moment, feeling the curious warmth of the blade against the pad on his palm. What he wouldn’t give to throw it away, it and everything it represented, just abandon this power within him and return to being mortal…being normal. But that was impossible now. The power came from the very core of him, inseparable by any definition. There would be no miraculous happenstance this time, like what happened when his Were nature was stripped from him by the curse the Elder gods placed on the Firestaff. The power came from his soul, it was his soul that had been forever and irrevocably altered. His was the soul of a god, a divine incarnation that had been forever changed in the moment of his ascension.

If he kept using his power, it was going to grow, and that chasm between him and the others was going to get wider and wider. It had already begun, with the shapeshifting. He would feel less and less like he belonged with them, and they would see him more and more as someone other than who he was. They would see the power instead of the man behind it. But that might be unavoidable, if he kept relying on his power to get them through this hostile world, and he kept enjoying the use of that power. He had enjoyed using his power to take on a new, different form. He couldn’t deny that, any more than he could deny his love of his ability to fly.

It was times like this when he felt the separation from his mother, from Triana, from his sisters, and especially from his Goddess most keenly. Always before, whenever he felt lost or confused, one of his sisters, or his mother, or Triana could help him work through his problems. When it was a big problem, like this one, Niami was always there for him, ready to guide him, to reassure him, to support him as he struggled through and found a solution. But they were beyond his touch now.

Or were they?

All he needed was something linked to Sennadar, something ingrained into the fabric of that universe, and he could use it as a bridge to reach into his own world using a Wizard spell that allowed communication between two dimensions. Wizards most often used it to talk to Demons and other otherworldly spirits to gather information, but there was nothing stopping him from using it to talk to someone in Sennadar. He just needed a material link to his world. And he had the Firestaff. If anything—

—Wait. It wasn’t there. Tarrin searched through the other place that was the elsewhere with a sort of sense of it provided by his amulet, a knowledge of what was held within it and where it was, and he found it was missing. Where did it go? He didn’t take it out, not even once, since coming to this world—

Oh. That was right. Niami said it wouldn’t allow itself to leave Sennadar, or they would have just tossed it through a gate to be rid of it. Obviously, the Firestaff had managed to extricate itself from the elsewhere and remained behind.

Odds were, it was lying in the snow in front of the gate. He hoped the Goddess or someone had the foresight to pick it up.

If he couldn’t use the Firestaff, he needed something else. It had to be something that was inexorably tied up with the power of Sennadar, something that was bonded to his world in such a way that its fundamental identity could not be altered. Wizards often used weapons forged by Demons, weapons made of the stuff of the Abyss, which was so unique that it maintained a tie to its home dimension.

His sword might work. It was an artifact created on Sennadar, and the circumstances of that creation gave it a unique tie to his home world.

Then again, Sarraya’s amulet was perfect. It met every condition. But, given that it was the only reason that she and Fireflash could survive here, he didn’t want to tamper with that amulet in any way. He would try it with his sword first, and if that failed, and Sarraya and Fireflash agreed, he could try it using the amulet…but only if they had a dire need to talk to someone in Sennadar. He wouldn’t risk their lives just because he wanted to talk to someone from home to help him work through his feelings. That would be unspeakably callous of him.

If only he could just Whisper, or bridge. But there was no Weave here, and Sorcery was denied to him. Things would be much easier if he could just use his Sorcery, because the Goddess would be within reach of him at all times, but that was quite impossible.

A faint flicker of light danced across the flat of the blade of his sword. At first, he thought it a reflection of the rising moon, that odd blue and green moon, but it was the wrong color. Tarrin ignored it, then he sighed and again looked up at the moon. He would save that for later, just in case he felt so lost or uncertain that talking to Niami was absolutely necessary.

Silly of him that he felt the need to run to Niami the instant he started feeling uneasy. He was an adult, for the tree’s sake. He’d have to work out his problems himself.

The first step, he supposed, was not hiding from his power anymore. He had it, there was nothing he could do about it, and that was that. It was about damn time he accept that fact. He didn’t have the time to be childish, he was putting Kimmie’s life at risk by trying to hide from what he was. If finding and saving Kimmie meant that he could no longer pretend to be a mortal, then so be it. Her life was more important than any immature impulses he was suffering through.

No matter what it might cost him, the only thing that mattered was what it would cost her.

Lowering his sword, he looked into the sky, up at the stars, then looked down to the clouds below him.

It was time to grow up.

“I’ll make you proud, Mother,” he said quietly, to himself, then he straightened up a bit. “I’ll make you proud, Niami.”

I am always proud of you, kitten, her voice touched him, but as if it had come from a great distance.

“Mother?” he called in surprise.

That title no longer suits me, Tarrin, her reply came. You are no longer my child, and I should no longer address you as one. If anyone has earned the right to call me by my name, it is you.

“How are you doing this, Mo—Niami?” he asked.

I am doing nothing, Tarrin. You are.

“I am?”

You wanted to talk to me, and so you are. I would guess that now, you’re strong enough to do it. I take it your powers are awakening?

“You knew this would happen?”

Tarrin, since when do I not know what’s happening to you? she asked winsomely. I knew that your powers would grow if you started using them. Always before, you’ve avoided doing that, but I would guess that since you have fewer options there, you’ve been forced to fall back on them.

“More or less.”

How goes it?

Quickly, Tarrin summarized their progress thus far in finding Kimmie. He told her about the One, and the troubles he was causing this world, and then explained the One’s hatred of magic and non-humans and related what Merik had told them in Dengal.

Hmm. That might cause it, if it’s true, she told him. The spirits of my children haven’t returned to me. I thought they were alive because of that, but if the One has trapped their souls in that world, then that would certainly explain it as well. You need to free them, Tarrin.

“How do I do that?”

Easy. Open a gate to Sennadar. If the One is blocking the souls of my children from entering the Astral, then you need to give them another way to reach me.

“How do I do that?”

There are Wizard spells that create gateways between worlds, Tarrin. They’re extremely powerful spells, and only the greatest of Wizards are capable of casting them, so naturally, Phandebrass can do it. Phandebrass has several versions of the spells in his spellbooks, but he can’t use them in Sennadar. He’s collected them over the years, you know how he is. You need to find him and tell him that he must cast one that has a sustained duration. The instant a gate is opened to Sennadar, I can call my children home. The One can’t stop it.

“But the Elder Gods won’t allow a gate into Sennadar,” he protested.

I’ll handle that from this end. Just find Phandebrass and tell him what we need. When he’s ready, let me know, and I’ll make arrangements with my mother.

“We’re on his trail right now, Mother,” he told her. “He’s with Kimmie.”

Then finding Kimmie is what’s important. When you recover her and Phandebrass, we can recall the souls of my children, and I can bring them home. And you can come home.

“That sounds strangely vehement, Mother.”

Niami, Tarrin. I’d much prefer it if you call me by my name.

“It won’t be easy thinking of you by any other name.”

You’re not a child anymore, Tarrin, she said with a light manner. I’ll have to find a new name for you as well. It just won’t do to call you kitten now.

“Niami, kitten sounds just fine.”

She laughed. Much as I love to call you that, it’s not suitable for you now. A name is an important thing, Tarrin. It is more than a way to call someone, it is a representation of who one is, and who one is to another. It’s no longer proper for you to call me Mother, so that must stop. And since I can’t think of you as a child anymore, I have to address you properly.

“You lost me.”

She laughed again. It’s a god thing, Tarrin. Well, actually, it’s a concept of all non-mortal beings, not just gods. A name has great power, just ask any Demon. The names they use aren’t their real names.

“I remember Kimmie teaching me about that. Now, why are you so vehement about me coming home?”

Let’s just say that the idea of you coming home isn’t sitting well with some of the others, she answered. They like you where you are. Out of their hair. But don’t worry about it, Tarrin. They are not going to do this to you. I won’t allow it.

“They don’t want me to come back?” he asked in disbelief.

Let me worry about that, Tarrin. They’re not going to treat you like this, not so long as I have an iota of life left in me. They often dismiss me because my power isn’t vital to the Balance, that I’m the only expendable Elder God. But they’re going to find out how powerful I really am, and just what happens when they cross me.

Tarrin blurted out a short laugh. He’d never heard her so, so, indignant before. “What are you going to do?”

If they think the power of my magic isn’t all that important, well fine. They’ll have to learn how to live without it.

“What do you mean?”

Tarrin, the power they give to their Priests comes through me, she said with a little anger in her voice. If they want to act like frightened children and dismiss me when I assure them that you’re no danger, that’s fine. This child is about to storm away from the playroom in a tizzy, and she’s taking her toys with her.

What she was saying dawned on him. “Mother! You’re going to deny the Priests their magic!”

You better believe it, honey, she said smugly. If they want to act on something this important to me without even listening, then I see no reason to continue being nice. They want to play this hard, so hard is what they’re going to get.

“You’re going to get in a load of trouble!” he warned. “I’m not worth that much!”

I say you are. Prove me wrong.

She’d used that reasoning against him before. He’d had no answer for it then, and he still had no answer for it.

“But, but what about the Balance?”

Tarrin, dear, if you recall, I told you that magic is the only aspect of our world that isn’t vital, she reminded him. Because of that, I can completely withdraw my power from the world and it will go on as it always did before. That gives me much, much more freedom than any other Elder god. Because the others have annoyed me, I’m going to withdraw the Weave from the other gods, and nobody, not even my mother and father, can force me to stop. And not just the Elder gods, Tarrin, all of them. The Youngers are going to scream bloody murder, and I’m just going to point to my parents and tell them that they’ll have to take it up with Ayise and Shellar. Mother and father are going to have an absolute furor on their hands, but I’m not going to budge. Not a finger. Either they let you come home, or no Priest will so much as light a candle with magic ever again.

The image of that in his mind, of Ayise and Shellar in that other-dimensional place where they truly lived, trying to calm down a pack of furious Younger gods, was just too funny to keep silent. She was going to blackmail her parents into getting her way, and there was nothing that they could do to stop her. If she didn’t allow the Younger gods to grant magic to their Priests, the worshippers that gave them their power may lose faith in them and stop believing, and that would make them weaker. Niami was playing a major trump card, because she was manipulating the Younger gods into rallying together and demanding that the Elder gods relent on this issue. If nobody could truly force Niami to stop, then she held every Younger god in the palm of her hand…and she was about to close her fist around them and squeeze. “Niami, you’re something else, do you know that?”

I know I am, she replied impishly. Just leave it to me, Tarrin. I’ll get my way, one way or another. My parents and my brothers and sisters often overlook me, but they will not ignore me for long.

Tarrin couldn’t help but laugh. “Mother, you’re going to throw the entire world on its ear. I do appreciate the thought, though.”

I told you not to call me that anymore, she said sharply. Brand it into your memory, Tarrin. I am not Mother to you anymore. Find another nickname for me, or call me by my name.

“It’s not going to be easy. I’ve always thought of you as Mother.”

Well, you’ll have some time to adjust before you get home. I’ll just have to think of something else to call you that sums up my feelings for you.

“Mother—Niami, it would please me if you just called me kitten,” he said honestly. “Not as a term addressing me as a child, but as a term of endearment. It pleases me when you call me that.”

Well, if that’s what you want, then kitten is who you will be, she told him with a warm voice. But no more a child.

“I’m starting to feel less the child,” he said seriously. “If I’m going to bring Kimmie, Phandebrass, and the souls of my brothers and sisters home, I’m going to have to suck it up and do for myself. There’s no Mother here to hold my paw this time. I didn’t anticipate running into a problem like the One, but I’ll find a way to do what I promised I’d do. I won’t fail you, Niami.”

Tarrin, when a girl puts her trust in you, she cannot go wrong, she told him seriously.

Tarrin looked down, flattered by her complement, and then he noticed for the first time the ghostly white aura surrounding the blade of his sword. It almost looked like, like…magelight. He brought the sword up to his eye level and studied the nimbus, which hovered around the blade in smoky wisps. He felt nothing from the sword, but that wasn’t unusual, for he rarely felt any kind of power coming from it.

“Well, Niami, I think I see how I’m doing this now,” he said with a hint of curiosity in his voice. “Or, more to the point, my sword. It’s doing this.”

Truly? Well, we knew the sword had power. And I’m certainly not going to complain.

“Me either.”

You should look into that, kitten. The sword obviously has some other abilities outside of its ability to grant you your true power. Those abilities might be useful to you.

“It’s never done this before,” Tarrin mused in curiosity.

It’s never needed for you to have it do it before, Niami told him. It’s reacting to your need, kitten. Artifacts do that when they’re in the hands of the person they were created to serve It’s tied to you, Tarrin, and that means that its power is also growing. You and that sword are linked. Changes to you are going to affect it as well.

“I didn’t think it would work that way.”

Well, kitten, an artifact’s power depends on the god who created it, and it’s not static. If a god’s power grows or weakens, the power of the artifact changes to reflect that.

“I’m not a god anymore.”

No, but that power remains, and that power is what created the sword. That power is changing, and so the sword’s power is also going to change.

“Oh.”

Niami chuckled. You still have much to learn about the power of gods, kitten.

“That’s no lie.” He looked down, and saw a glint of shimmering light among the clouds below. Even from that distance, he knew that that glint was off Sarraya’s multicolored wings. “Sarraya’s looking for me. I think it’s time to go.”

Alright, my kitten. Now that you know how to do this, don’t be a stranger. I miss talking with you, and I worry about you terribly because I can’t sense you.

“I’ll be fine, Niami. Please tell everyone I’m alright, and that I’m working on getting home as fast as I can.”

I will.

“I’ll try to contact you again in a few days.”

I’ll be waiting. Fare well, Tarrin, good luck, and I love you.

“I love you too, Niami,” he said, and then, unsure of how to make the sword stop, he simply sent it back into the elsewhere. He looked down at the approaching Faerie, and he had to admit that he felt much better now. He knew he had to be more mature, more responsible, but it also felt good to get a little guidance. And besides, it made him feel better to talk to Niami, it always did, and it probably always would. He felt a new feeling of purpose, and he also knew that his change in plans was alright with her, that he had made the right choice, was doing the right thing. That mattered to him, mattered very much. He looked up at the moon once more, and felt, for the first time in a while, that things were progressing in a satisfactory manner. He knew that working around the One wasn’t going to be easy, and he also knew that there was a direct confrontation coming when he tried to free the souls of the Ancients from the One’s prison, but he felt much more confident about it now. He was here for a reason, and that reason was what he had to keep in the forefront. His personal outrages over the One kept clouding the issue, and he had to stop letting that happen. He was here to recover the Ancients, and hopefully the Dwarves, and bring them home. He was also here to get Kimmie and Phandebrass back, and take them home as well. He also had to find a good home for the children…or, if they wished it, take them home with him as well. He wouldn’t mind taking them in, not one bit. Truth be told, he rather liked having them around.

Sarraya was panting when she reached him, flopping on her stomach on his shoulder. “Geez, Tarrin, do you think you could have gone a little higher?” she asked acidly. “You know I can’t fly well in thin air!”

“I didn’t know you were coming.”

“How else are we going to get your attention when the clouds block your view of the ground?” she wheezed.

“What do you need?”

“There’s more church soldiers on the move,” she said breathlessly. “They might be the same ones, we don’t know, but they’re moving in from the west. Dolanna wants you back, we’re about to move out.”

“We’re going west,” he fretted. “We’ll have to go through them.”

“We’re going to circle around them. Haley scouted them, there’s about two hundred or so on horseback, and we can get around them. We might have to kill a few scouts, but we can get around them without too much trouble.” She crawled up and then sat down properly on his shoulder. “Miranda’s put a marker on Kimmie’s trail, so we won’t lose it. I wish I knew how she did that,” she grunted.

“Priest magic,” he answered.

She slapped him on the neck. “I know that, you dingleberry!” she said indignantly. “Don’t get cute with me, Tarrin! I’m in a bad mood from having to fly halfway to the moons to come get you!”

“Excuse me,” he said mildly, but the banter was obvious in his voice to those who knew him.

“I hate you,” she growled. “Come on, let’s get back. You’re holding the rest of us up.”

It was a simple matter to fly down, and when he got under the clouds, he saw that the camp was packed, and everyone was mounted. Mist and Haley were gone, out scouting the soldiers, most likely, and they were waiting. Tarrin descended and landed lightly in his saddle, then retracted his wings. Fireflash was on Zyri’s shoulder, and he kept making the girl giggle by flicking his tongue against her ear. He was playing with her, Tarrin could tell, doing it on purpose. Jal looked half asleep, and Telven looked both nervous and excited at the sudden packing of the camp before dawn, and the impending maneuver to go around the soldiers.

“I am sorry to come fetch you, dear one, but we did not want you to come down and find us gone.”

“It’s nothing, Dolanna,” he said with a wave of his paw. “Thanks for giving me the time. I feel better now.”

“That is what matters, then,” she said, walking her horse over to his and reaching out to pat his furred forearm.

“Haley and Mist are out scouting?”

Dolanna nodded. “Azakar, has Haley waved us forward?” she asked the Knight. “I know he saw Tarrin descend.”
“Hold on, I can’t see him now,” Azakar answered, taking off his helmet. Tarrin saw a faint light wave back and forth in the darkness to the west. “There he is. He’s waving us up.”

“Then let us go,” Dolanna ordered.

“What’s that light?” Tarrin asked.

“One of my spells,” Miranda answered. “It imbues light on an object. I cast it on a few pebbles and gave it to them so they can signal us.”

“Clever.”

“I’ve been around the block a few times, Tarrin,” Miranda said with a cheeky grin.

“Put on your Illusion, Miranda. That white fur all but glows in the darkness,” Dolanna instructed.

“Oh. Forgot about that,” she said, and then her image blurred for a second before changing into the visage of Mist’s human form.

“Want me to move up with Haley and Mist?” Tarrin asked Dolanna.

“No. I like to keep one Were-cat with the host at all times, dear one. That is significant defense if anyone should attack the children or the horse train.”

“Or you,” Ulger told her.

“I have you and Azakar to defend me, Ulger,” she told him with a light tone. “A girl cannot get much more protection than that.”

Miranda and Ulger looked at each other. “A Were-cat,” they said in unison, then they both laughed.

“Give me a few minutes to rest, and I’ll get out there and help Haley and Mist,” Sarraya told them.

“No, Sarraya, you rest,” Dolanna told her. “Mist and Haley can manage.”

Following directions from Haley, Azakar led them in a wide circle around the host of church soldiers. They got within a longspan of them at one point, but the men hadn’t noticed the group of travelers. They would realize that something was wrong, though, because they passed the corpses of two men in church uniforms along the way. Both of them had been mauled, Mist’s work, as he realized she was making their deaths look like some kind of animal attack. Mist’s claws could easily pass for bear marks now that her paws were bigger.

Mist was an effective path clearer, for they encountered no major problems as they circled the eastbound soldiers. They stumbled back on Kimmie’s trail, which had angled slightly to the south, and then they returned to following it after Haley and Mist rejoined them.

“That went well,” Haley said in satisfaction. “I forgot how fun it can be to stalk.”

“You should get out more. You’re as quiet as a flock of ravens fighting over a carcass,” Mist admonished him.

“I was quiet enough,” he said with a wink at her, which made her snort and give him a flat look.

“How many were you forced to kill, Mist?” Dolanna asked.

“Nine,” she answered.

“Woah! You killed nine men and nobody noticed?” Telven asked in surprise.

“I know what I’m doing, boy,” she said, giving him a look that made him a little intimidated. “I’d be a sorry hunter if I couldn’t pick off a straggler on the edge of the herd.”

“You make them sound like food,” Telven said, making a face.

“They’re not, but the basic premise is the same,” she told him. “Sometimes you’d be surprised how often humans act like herd animals. I think you’re distantly related to sheep.”

“As long as we’re smarter than sheep, I won’t say a word,” Ulger chuckled.

They continued on at a brisk canter after sunrise and well into the morning, stopping only briefly for breakfast. They stopped again briefly for a quick lunch of bread and cheese, and then stopped once more in the midafternoon as Kimmie’s trail abruptly turned south. “What is that girl doing?” Mist growled as they turned to follow. “She’s just zigzagging around out here. That’s stupid.”

“Not if she’s being followed,” Haley said seriously.

“This is open territory. She can zigzag when she hits forest. You don’t waste time when you’re exposed, you run straight for cover,” she answered shortly.

“Mist does raise a point,” Dolanna. “What is Kimmie doing? I do not understand her reasoning for turning. They have followed this westerly course for days. Why the abrupt change?”

“I’m sure we’ll find out when we catch up to her. We can ask,” Ulger reasoned.

“Hold on, the path turns west again,” Azakar said, holding his hands up to his eyes to shield them from the sun angling on from his left. “She only went south about half a longspan.”

“Alright, now that doesn’t make much sense,” Ulger agreed. “Rabbit,” he called, pointing.

As they’d been doing all day, all three children quickly took out their slings and loaded them, then tried to hit the rabbit. Telven got his stone off first, but was nearly three spans off the mark. The rock scared the rabbit, which turned and bolted, and that caused Zyri’s stone to also miss. Jal came closest, trying to lead the rabbit, but it turned and raced the other way, which caused his stone to miss. Had the rabbit not turned, Tarrin saw, he probably would have got it.

“Aww!” Telven growled in disappointment.

Without much concentration, Tarrin smoothly pulled his bow from the saddleskirt, nocked it with an arrow out of the quiver hanging from the saddlebow, shook Fireflash off his shoulder so he could aim, and then sent the arrow flying at the rabbit. It looked to be off course, but the rabbit suddenly turned back into the arrow’s path, which caused it to skewer the animal squarely through the body, killing it instantly.

“Rabbits always zigzag when they run,” Tarrin instructed them as he dismounted. “You have to remember that.”

“That wasn’t bad though,” Ulger said. “You got a little too excited there, Telven. Don’t loose if you’re not calm enough to make a good shot, or you’ll scare the food away. You were pretty close too, Zyri, at least if it hadn’t have run. And Jal, I think you’d have got it if it hadn’t have turned. That was a good lead.”

Jal smiled bashfully.

“You three had better buck up, though. Tomorrow, you’re getting our dinner. So if you don’t bag anything, none of us are going to eat. And you don’t want to know how surly I get when I’m hungry,” Ulger warned with a rakish smile.

“I’ll try, Master Ulger,” Zyri told him.

Tarrin fetched his rabbit and carried it back to the horses. “Dinner?”

“I’m sick of rabbit,” Miranda said, making a face. “I want something out of the stores tonight. We can save it for tomorrow.”

“There’s not much dried meat left, and all the fresh meat is gone,” Mist warned. “Beans and porridge is about all I can muster, or maybe a vegetable stew. I’m saving that meat.”

“Why?”

“Because eating meat makes riding in the rain easier to take,” she answered.

“Mist, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It may not to you.”

“We do need to find a settlement soon, to replenish our stores,” Dolanna said.

“Or hunt up something other than rabbit,” Azakar said. “There’s been a few herds of what look like elk.”

“We should hit humans again soon,” Sarraya piped in. “Their road went off to the northwest from Dengal. We went north, now we’re going west, and there were those soldiers. We can’t be too far from a village or something. Maybe close enough to see. I’ll go up and have a look around,” she offered.

“That is a good idea, before we lose the day’s light,” Dolanna agreed. “We might have to leave the trail long enough to find a place to buy food. Go ahead, Sarraya.”

“I’ll be right back,” the Faerie announced, flitting up from Telven’s shoulder, then quickly rising straight up over the group.

“If we’re taking a minute, I think I’ll get down and stretch my legs a bit,” Haley called, then he dismounted.

“There’s a village over there, southwest!” Sarraya shouted down after descending low enough to be heard. “It’s a little one! And I think I see the walls of a town off to the west!”

“How far?” Dolanna called to her.

“We can get to it by midmorning tomorrow,” she shouted back down. “The village is about an hour’s ride away!”

“I think we can go on to the town,” Dolanna decided. “The village might not have what we need, and we need to limit our contact with the citizens of this land as much as possible.”

“Why?” Telven asked.

“Because it prevents…accidents,” she replied, glancing at Tarrin.

“Those aren’t accidents,” Ulger chuckled. “I’d say that they were pretty darn deliberate.”

Tarrin gave Ulger a cool look, which made the Knight laugh. “Hurry up Sarraya, before I get peeled out of my armor!”

“It would serve ya right!” she shouted back down. “I don’t see anything else, I’m coming back!”

“Shall we move on a little more or camp now?” Miranda asked, as Sarraya flitted down and landed on Tarrin’s other shoulder.

“Let us make the most of the daylight,” Dolanna announced. “Haley.”

“I’m ready,” he said, swinging back up into the saddle. “I wouldn’t dream of holding us back, Dolanna.”

They approached the town about midmorning, and saw that it was set on a river than flowed from north to south in a shallow valley on the grasslands. The land inside that valley was cultivated, and there were a large number of small villages, collections of hovels, and some lone farmsteads up and down that shallow valley for nearly two leagues in both directions. The town itself was quite large, about the size of Ultern, taking up both sides of the riverbank, and most of the shallow valley floor where it was situated. It was surrounded by a stone wall that was about thirty spans high and looked to be about fifteen spans thick, but it wasn’t easy to tell from the distance at which he was viewing it. There was a guard tower at a road some longspan or so south of where they were, at a road leading southwest, and another two guard towers on the opposite side of the valley, guarding roads that went west and northwest. There were small outpost-like guard houses at regular intervals along the valley’s rim, each of which was manned by ten men in the uniforms of church soldiers. Each guard house was only a few minutes away from the one to each side by horse, and there were horses tethered to posts behind each shack.

This was a town, Tarrin saw, that felt threatened by something. Then again, fear was how the One kept control, so it wasn’t a shock that they were afraid.

They rode south to get on the road, earning several very long looks from the guards at the houses and the tower that they passed, then rode down into the valley and towards the city. Peasants dressed in rough homespun smocks, many without shoes, toiled in the fields, and Tarrin noticed that they were under the watchful eye of nearby church soldiers, and even the occasional black-clad Priest or church official overseeing the farming effort. The children looked a little antsy, but Tarrin just gave them a long look to calm them down as they rode along the raised road through the fields, a road that was pitted and rutted, though dry and packed hard. It had not rained since that spat through which they had ridden several days ago, the road reflected that.

They waited behind a caravan of four wagons and about twenty men who had the looks of mercenaries about them, who were on horses immediately behind the horses at the city gates. The guards inspected each of the wagons as the drivers waited, and then they were waved through. They waited and watched, and Tarrin glanced at Mist, who was actually in her human form, riding one of the new horses. She and Miranda looked eerie together, but anyone who looked at them would probably just think that they were twins. Dolanna urged her horse forward, taking the place of the first wagon before the guards standing in the way of the opened city gates.

“What business do you have in Teram?” the tallest of the ten men asked in a bored voice.

“We seek to buy supplies in order to continue our journey,” Dolanna answered him.

The man glanced at her, then snorted. “Funny, having a woman address me. Now someone with a brain tell me why you’re here.”

“You’d better listen to the lady, my friend,” Haley told him lightly. “Or she’ll have you beheaded on the spot.”

At that, Azakar immediately drew his sword.

The man’s bored expression evaporated instantly. “Here now, what business is this?”

“This woman is a Lady,” Azakar told him in a very dangerous tone. “Address her with respect. If she gives the order, I’ll take your head off.”

Though the man had never seen the black armor of the two Knights, the immediate threat of that monstrous sword was not lost on the man. “M-My apologies, my Lady,” the man said, bowing suddenly.

“Must we go through this at every city gate we visit?” Dolanna asked Tarrin in Sharadi, obviously exasperated.

“Prejudices die hard,” he shrugged in reply.

“Stand aside,” Dolanna ordered the man in Penali. “Once we have our supplies, we will be away from your city and bother you no more.”

“No horse or wagon enters Teram without being searched,” he said gruffly.

“I am sure that that edict does not apply to nobles,” Dolanna told him in a stern manner. “I have yet to be searched at any city I have visited thus far. I will not submit to such a search now.”

“If you want through this gate, you will be searched,” the man said stubbornly.

“Right, just like those caravan guards were searched,” Haley said with a sly look. “Or does the search rule only apply to people you don’t like?”

“They weren’t pack horses,” the man replied.

“But they went through without being searched,” Haley objected.

“Tarrin, do you have any spellbooks in the pack horses?” Dolanna asked him quietly in Sharadi as Haley engaged the guard in a short argument. “Anything we do not want them to find?”
“Not that I can think of, but if they search us, they’ll see our amulets. You know what those mean here,” Tarrin answered.

“Here now, do you want us to think you’re witches?” the man snapped. “Where do you come from that you don’t speak Penali?”

“We come from a small island nation far to the east,” Dolanna told him. “Only recently brought into the church. If our use of our native language offends you, then perhaps you should not listen.”

The man’s face reddened, and Tarrin saw that this was about to get out of hand. It wasn’t like Dolanna to be so combative, but then again, he’d seen already that she had issues with people thinking that she was some kind of dumb animal because she was a woman. He stepped his horse up in front of Dolanna and leaned his elbow down on the saddlebow, getting closer to the guard. “Alright, listen,” Tarrin said in a very reasonable tone. “We need supplies. That’s all we’re here for. You can have half the city guard follow us around if you want, that’s just fine, but you’re holding us up, and we have to be done and on our way before we lose too much daylight. So, you can search our pack train, but since you didn’t search the men in front of us, then you’re not searching us. So, do the search and let us go on.”

“Not without a search of all horses, you’re not,” he said adamantly. “No horse passes this gate without being searched.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“Fine, then. Fireflash.”

The gold drake, who had been sitting on the saddle behind the saddlebow, jumped up and sucked in his breath, then blasted a cloud of greenish gas in the man’s face. He gasped in surprise, and that intake of air was all it took. He shuddered, then collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap.

“Witchcraft!” one of the other men screamed, moving to draw his sword.

“Please,” Tarrin snorted. “Haven’t you ever seen a drake before? They’re native to my homeland. Witchcraft,” he said scornfully. “Now then, anyone else want to get ugly?”

Fireflash put his forepaws on Tarrin’s forearm, over the saddlebow, and hissed at the men threateningly, then snorted out just enough greenish gas from his nostrils to make the men take notice of it. Tarrin’s dismissal of their claims of witchcraft seemed to have dissuaded them from that idea, most likely because of the manner in which he did.

“Wha-yoodoo-tamee?” the paralyzed guard slurred, his arm twitching jerkily.

“Making you more tractable,” Tarrin answered him, then he looked up at the other guards. “I hate having to talk over idiots. Now, I don’t have a problem with you searching the pack horses, but since you let the guards ahead of us pass unsearched, you won’t lay a hand on our mounts or us. Understand?”

The remaining guards nodded, glancing at the paralyzed man repeatedly. “What about our sergeant?” one asked.

“The animal in my lap here can breathe out a gas that paralyzes anything that comes into contact with it. The effect only lasts a few moments. He’ll be fine in a little bit, but he’ll have one serious headache after it wears off.”

They stood there, staring at him.

“Well? Get on with it.”

They did so, quickly and with surprising thoroughness. To their credit, they didn’t tear up the packs, and Haley and Miranda watched to ensure that nothing disappeared, but the men searched all their packs quickly and without making a fuss about anything. “Move along,” one of the others said to them as the man on the ground, whom the others had not touched, started moving jerkily.

“You’ll be able to move again in a few minutes,” Tarrin told the man steadily. “The effect is temporary. Effective, though.”

“Quite,” Miranda said with a smile at him.

They rode into town, which was much different than Dengal. Everything about this town revolved around farming. The streets were wide, to accommodate wagons, and rudely dressed peasants walked the streets with the finer dressed townsfolk, displaying the odd separation between the classes that Tarrin had never seen anywhere on Sennadar. Most of the space near the gate was taken up by large warehouses, and peasants were loading wagons to either side of the street, under the watchful eye of uniformed men.

“This must be a main food producer,” Haley noted as they moved past warehouses, into a residential area of sorts with shops scattered here and there along the buildings. “It looks like almost all the food they grow here goes somewhere else.”

“And they don’t let the peasants eat any of it,” Miranda added, looking back over her shoulder. There were no peasants where they were now. “It’s almost a crime that those people are so thin when they’re surrounded by food. It must be torture for them to be hungry and have it right there, but not allowed to so much as take a grain of wheat.”

“Kikkalli certainly wouldn’t approve,” Tarrin said, saying aloud what Miranda was thinking.

Miranda nodded grimly.

“Let us get this finished quickly,” Dolanna announced. “Tarrin and Haley will see to our stores, and the rest of us shall wait here. Take the pack horses and hurry, dear ones,” she told them.

“Why the change?” Ulger asked.

“We did not enter the town on the best of terms, Ulger,” she answered. “It will be best for us to stay together as much as possible. Tarrin and Haley can handle themselves, and what is more, they are used to operating either alone or in small groups. They will be more than safe.”

“Can we at least get down off the horses?” Telven asked plaintively.

“We can rest in that park over there,” Dolanna said, pointing to a patch of grass between two buildings a little further down the road, which had several children within it, playing with strange wooden hoops which they rolled about the lawn with sticks.

“That looks fun. Maybe I can show them my sling,” Telven said eagerly.

“We’ll get this done as fast as we can,” Haley assured them. “Anything special we should pick up?”

“Fresh meat,” Mist told him. “And more vegetables for stew.”

“It does not matter, so long as you hurry,” Dolanna told them.

“We’ll just surprise you then,” Haley said with a sly smile. “I’ll have to find something worthy of you, Dolanna.”

“Haley,” she said flintily.

He laughed, then took the reins Ulger offered to him. “Come on, my Lord. Let’s go shopping.”

“Fireflash, stay with Mist,” Tarrin ordered, picking the drake up from the saddle, and lobbing him into the air. He unfurled his wings and flapped over to Mist, landing on her shoulder, then sliding around the back of her neck to stand between her shoulders so he could look back at him.

“I’m coming with you,” Sarraya whispered from his other shoulder. He’d forgotten that she was there.

“Fine.”

Tarrin and Haley split up further down the street, after each of them agreed on what they were going to buy. Haley was going to handle meat, bread, and cheese, and Tarrin was going to handle vegetables, grain, meal, and perhaps some wine to accent the meagre fare. They secured directions to shops from a citizen, and got down to business. Tarrin found almost everything he needed in a single greengrocer’s, who had almost everything Haley needed as well. He unobtrusively sent Sarraya to go tell Haley about the place, and bought all the vegetables that they needed, four large bags of meal for porridge, a large sealed clay jar of raw flour, and even managed two baskets of fine-looking eggs and a small cask of ale. With that much, they had not only ready-made food available, but had the supplies on hand to make others from scratch if needs be. Haley met him at the door as he started loading it on his pack horse, and quickly moved in to buy most of what he needed as well.

“I just need meat now,” Haley said as he finished his shopping, and Tarrin helped him load it on his pack horse. “The merchant suggested a butcher just down the street. Want to come, or are you going back?”

“I’ll tag along with you,” Tarrin answered.

The butcher to which they had been directed was more than happy to see them, given that Haley all but bought him out of dried beef and mutton, bought a large amount of salted pork, and also bought nearly an entire butchered cow. “Ye must be feedin’ an army, good Master,” the thin, smallish butcher said, rubbing his hands before his bloodstained apron nervously.

“No, just people who eat a lot,” Tarrin answered, which made the little man laugh in a wheezing voice. “Road travel makes a fellow hungry.”

“That it does, that it does. Off to see the world, eh?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, y’uns be careful,” he said. “The One be with ye, and thanky for the business.”

“Any time,” Haley told him with a smile.

They left the little man’s shop with everything they needed except the wine. “The greengrocer warned me off on that,” Tarrin told Haley. “He suggested a cask of ale instead. He seemed to know what he was talking about, so I decided to take him up on it.”

“His shop wasn’t exactly swanky, Tarrin, and good wine isn’t cheap,” Haley nodded. “I think we can work with the ale. Dolanna doesn’t much like ale, but she can always drink tea.”

“How much tea did you bring?” Tarrin asked.

“Enough to keep her on her toes for at least another month,” he answered with a grin. “One of my bags is full of nothing but tea.”

“I was curious about that.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t smell it,” Sarraya told him from her invisible hiding place on his shoulder.

“How much have I been in my natural form lately, Sarraya?”

Haley laughed. “I’m not the only one packing a secret. Didn’t you wonder what that little barrel is that Ulger brought?”

“Gunpowder,” Tarrin answered. “Kerri gave it to us. Ulger wanted more, but Kerri didn’t think it was too good of an idea to give him too much. He might get bad ideas.”

“That does sound like Ulger,” Haley winked. “I didn’t know you knew about it. I thought Ulger was keeping it a secret.”

“Why do you think I’m keeping Fireflash away from it?” Tarrin asked.

Haley laughed. “Good idea.”

“I wonder,” Tarrin said, watching two women in wool dresses walk by. Neither woman was exactly pretty, but their dresses were of good quality, of different shades of blue. “How they got into this situation.”

“You mean, how the One got so much control? Odds are, the One started out much like Val did.”

“But on this world, he won,” Tarrin said grimly.

“More or less,” Haley nodded. “The gods of this world either underestimated him or didn’t care, and he took control. I know you’ll hate me for saying this, but it does look like he did a better job at running things than Val would have,” he admitted. “I don’t like his methods any more than you do,” he said quickly, “but at least he managed to build something. Val would have destroyed the world.”

“You think so?”

“Val was about control,” Haley told him. “After he got it, that need to control would have eventually destroyed everything. That’s what’s happening here, or at least the start of it.” He swept his hand out. “The One wants to control everything. He doesn’t yet, else he wouldn’t be fighting a war back on the other side of Dengal. He’s built this society to gain that control. All of them, they’re nothing but elements in his grand army of conquest, from the highest-ranking general to the oldest peasant. And that’s what keeps this society together. But after the One gets control, then all of this will turn on itself. His need to control will destroy everything he’s built.”

“I never took you for a thinker, Haley,” Tarrin said soberly, nodding. Haley’s words made a certain amount of sense.

“I’m three hundred years old, Tarrin,” he chuckled. “Once you live that long, you’ll start thinking about things whether you want to or not.”

“What do you think’ll happen?”

“As long as the One has something left to conquer, then this will work,” he said. “But the minute he finishes, then it’s over. That’s what happened to the Urzani empire. After they conquered the world, they had nothing left to do. Their society turned decadent, and they were eventually destroyed. It took a thousand years, but it did happen.” He bent down and picked up a small piece of straw lying on the dirt street. “No society that stagnates, that thinks it has nothing left to do, can survive. That’s why the Younger Gods and the Wikuni gods back home always push us. They want us to grow, to reach new levels, to expand and find new paths. Gods like Val and the One, they want everything to stop, to be the same for all time. Like the creation of a perfect world where nothing ever changes. It doesn’t work, because people need challenges, need to change and grow. The Urzani taught us that.”

“That’s profound.”

“That’s Miranda,” Haley admitted with a chuckle. “She explained that to me.”

“I’d say that Miranda is much more the Priestess than even I thought,” Tarrin said quietly.

“You should sit down and talk with her some evening,” Haley told him. “You’d be amazed at what you can learn.”

“I can see that,” Tarrin replied.

They walked the pack horses back to the little grassy park, but to his surprise, saw that not everything was well. Zyri was crying, being held by Dolanna, and Mist and Miranda were nowhere to be found. Tarrin glanced at the town’s children, who were still playing with their toys in the grass, but his attention was focused on Dolanna. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Telven and Jal are missing,” she answered. “They were playing with the other children, and we were letting them. After so much time in the saddle, we thought it would be good for them. But when we looked back to check on them, they were gone.”

“Mist’s tracking them,” Ulger told him. “It took a bit of doing hiding her so she could, you know.”

“Fireflash went with her?” Tarrin asked.

Dolanna nodded.

“How long ago did you notice they were gone?”

“Not long after you and Haley left,” she answered.

“Well, it looks like they went full circle,” Azakar said, pointing down the street. “There’s Jal.” Tarrin looked down the street, and saw the young boy, running towards them. He had a whitish rod of some kind in his hand.

“Hold on, why is he holding a club?” Ulger asked.

“That’s ice,” Tarrin said. “He used his power. I told him not to!”

Tarrin stepped up when Jal got close to them, and caught the boy by his shoulders. He was dancing in place, and his eyes were wild and fearful. “Drop it,” Tarrin ordered, and the boy dropped the shard of ice. “What’s the matter?”

Jal looked to try to say something, but nothing would come out of his mouth. He instead turned and pointed back the way he came. Tarrin looked over Jal and down the street, and saw a large complement of church soldiers and Priests, some on horseback, and on the lead horse, riding with a Priest, was Telven!

“That’s them!” Telven shouted. “They’re the witches, and one of them is one of the Damned!”

Tarrin was absolutely stunned. Telven betrayed them! Tarrin’s mind swam in an ocean of disbelief, and he could only stare at the men who were racing towards them, trying to rationalize it. But why? He had saved Telven from death, had taken care of him, had shown him kindness and given him a place where he could belong…and this is how he repays them? After the church of the One tries to kill him, Telven goes back to them? Why? Why, for the gods’ sake?

Still reeling, Tarrin put Jal behind him and surveyed the men bearing down on them. There were at least thirty, and he counted five black-robed Priests. Telven’s betrayal had stunned him, but now that shock was yielding to outrage, and to fury, a fury he quickly contained. There were too many innocents here for him to lose his temper, and doing that would put his own friends in danger. He shifted into his normal form, and then his eyes ignited from within with the glowing green aura that marked his anger, and finally, in stark majesty, his wings exploded out from his back, causing a sudden cascade of screams and shouts from the citizens who witnessed it.