Chapter 8
It took Tarrin a while to get used to the novelty and difference of the mechanical ship. There were many things different about it, only a few of which the others could appreciate. Those problems were really annoying at first, but time and a little ingenuity solved them and made them either no problem at all or nothing to really worry about.
The first was the smell. The smell of the coal and the smoke was always in his nose, causing him and Kimmie and Keritanima as well to sneeze quite a bit and have trouble with breathing. The smell was pervasive and insidious, and it irritated his nose quite a bit. The wind sometimes blew down and from astern, blowing the smoke across the deck and giving everyone the same problems they had. Tarrin's answer to that some days after they began to was erect a Ward over the deck the penetrated down as far as his cabin within the ship, that kept out the smoke and blocked the smell from entering. Kimmie and Keritanima both kissed him liberally for that, but nobody was as relieved about the clear air and the ability to breathe without sneezing or choking as Tarrin was.
The second problem had been the sound. The steam engine wasn't quiet, and its rhythmic thrumming went on and on and on. It was audible everywhere on the ship, to a faint thrumming on deck to a deafaning cacophony when one was inside the engine room. It was so loud down there that the Tellurians and their Wikuni companions had to put cotton in their ears to avoid being deafened by the sound after prolonged exposure. It really bothered Tarrin at first, making it hard for him to sleep for the first few nights, but then he began to grow accustomed to its sound. Tarrin learned to stay out of the bowels of the ship, where his exceptional hearing made the sound painful to him, staying on the deck and the one level below it where the galley and his cabin were located. He wouldn't go any deeper into the ship than that, and everyone learned not to ask him to do so. It became less and less of a problem as the ship travelled southwest over the days, until it became a part of the background noise that Tarrin learned to ignore. The only time he took notice of it was when it changed or when it stopped, as they shut down the steam engine occasionally to grease gears or check something, or to inspect the pipes, which were too hot to inspect while the steam was going through them. The stoppages when the steam engine was shut down usually only lasted a few hours, and then they were on their way again.
The third problem was the rolling of the ship. Despite its great weight, the ship wasn't balanced in the water very well, for a great deal of its weight was in the bow, in the form of the huge quantities of coal that had been loaded for the journey. That made the ship unstable in the water, and it had a tendency to rock excessively back and forth in the wind or the waves. That caused seasickness, even among the Wikuni, until hard decisions were made. Some of the coal was jettisoned into the water, for they'd packed the hold to the rafters to make absolutely sure they had enough for the trip. They didn't do this until after Donovan went over the amount of coal the engine had been using for the first six days of the journey and deemed it safe to drop some of their weight. The rest of the coal was smoothed out and distributed equally through the hold, and that helped balance the ship and make it much more stable. The ship did still tend to wallow a bit, but that was because it was a little shallower in the keel than a clipper, and shallow-drafted ships were more prone to the rocking action of the waves and wind.
The fourth problem was the cramped conditions. Nobody could really do anything about that, but Tarrin didn't think that anyone realized how crowded the ship was until about the fifth day. The ship had twenty engineers on board to deal with the steam engine, and also had twenty-three sailors on board to help with the rigging and to maintain the ship as needed. Add to that the twelve of them who were strictly passengers, and that was quite a few people. The ship was big, but so much of it was taken up by the steam engine and the supplies that it left very little space left over for the people. There were always at least twenty people on deck, some of them working in the rigging or on the deck, but there were always people around. It was hard to find privacy on the ship, because the cabins were so small that one got claustraphobic after only a few hours in one. The air was hot, the climate was hot, and the boiler under the ship radiated its heat all through the insides of the ship and even made the darkest, coolest hole hot. And since it was so hot, the cabins below were almost unbearably stuffy. Even in the pounding, pouring rain, there were people on deck, just sitting in the rain because it was better than sweating to death below decks.
The ship had its share of problems, but Tarrin had to admit one thing. It was fast. The paddlewheel didn't stop turning, and it pushed the ship steadily on their course, sometimes having to slow down for their escorting ships when the wind slacked and robbed them of propulsion. The steamship more than easily kept up with the clippers, sometimes outrunning them and having to slow down so they could catch up, and that seemed to irk the men on those clippers to no end. Tarrin could see it in their faces when they tied up with the steamship when it made one of its brief stops for inspection or repair. They had expected the outlandish contraption to fail, and now that it was outperforming their precious clippers, they were getting resentful.
Sometimes Tarrin would stand at the rail and just watch the paddlewheel turn, amazed that such a strange looking amalgamation of iron tanks, pipes, gears, and rods, maintained with liberally applied grease and a whole lot of careful attention, made the wheel turn, and turn so steadily. It just whooshed right along, merrily churning the water and pushing the ship forward. It was almost as amazing as magic, that a group of men and Wikuni had come together and designed something that could move such a large ship using nothing more than boiling water. It was pretty remarkable, and they'd done it without magic. It just went to show that there were no limits to the breadth of their ingenuity and inspired creativity.
One could stand and watch what looked like a waterwheel for only so long, but fortunately, Tarrin had other things to do. He kept working with Kimmie, teaching her Sha'kar for half a day, and in twelve short days she had achieved a level of fluency that satisfied him. Which meant that she was as fluent as he was, both in written and spoken Sha'Kar. She even had his accent, though that was perfectly understandable, given he was her instructor.
Very little happened during that time, as they all got used to the crowded ship and its unusual noises and smells, as it steamed steadily southwest, turning gradually more and more southward as the constellation above them shifted by the slightest of degrees each night. Keritanima had them going towards the brightest star in the constellation, which served as the tip of the crown's formation, the middle of it. Keritanima figured that they couldn't go wrong if they steered by the constellation's center. More than that, they saw no other ships for those twelve days, having the very empty ocean on the southwest of Wikuna all to themselves.
That changed on the thirteenth day, when the formation of five ships came across a blasted hulk of another vessel. It had been attacked and partially burned, the rains putting the fire out before the fire sank the ship, a western galleon. It was a wreck, with two of its three masts fallen and charred wood decks buckled and torn. There were bodies on the ship, Allia told them as she looked at the ship with her superior vision, and that was reason enough for the ships to stop and send a search party over to the ship to inspect it.
Tarrin, who felt remarkably bored that morning, decided that he was going to go to the ship himself, regardless of what anyone else thought. So he used Sorcery to pick himself up off the deck on a platform of Air and float over to the ship. He probably startled half the Wikuni on the escorting clippers with his magical display, but he really didn't care. He set his feet down on the blasted ruin, and felt immediately that it had been caused by magic. The residue of the spells was still within the wood, and they were strong. The ship was attacked by magic, and the scattered bodies, many of them burned beyond recognition, told him that the attack came from above. Magical attack from above, that was classic Zakkite tactics. He knelt and put his fingers to the deck, relying on good old fashioned woodlore taught to him by his father to detect that the fires had burned about two days ago.
The first of the Wikuni arrived, climbing up onto the deck using grappling hooks and ropes, and he told the officer in charge of his findings. The officer, a tiger Wikuni, nodded and pointed to one of the bodies. "That's the uniform of a Shacèan naval officer," he said. "But what a Shacèan galleon is doing all the way out here is beyond me."
Tarrin knew why, but he figured there was no reason to tell him.
"I doubt there's anyone alive. Zakkites take survivors for slaves," the officer told him. "But let's look around anyway. Sometimes someone does manage to hide."
Tarrin helped the squad of six Wikuni search the ship. It was carrying no cargo, another oddity to the Wikuni, but they did find the captain's log in his cabin, and there was also a small chest with an impressive amount of gold. In another cabin, they found what Tarrin recognized immediately as spellbooks hidden under a pile of old clothes under a cot, which wouldn't have been found if Tarrin hadn't felt the presence of a magical spell that had been cast to hide the books from magical detection. There were five of them, and as he looked through them, he saw that they were quite full. Tarrin claimed the spellbooks as his own, putting them in an empty chest and telling the Wikuni that it would be dangerous for them to even touch the magical objects. They gave him a wary look and nodded in agreement, not willing to fight the imtimidating Were-cat over something he obviously intended to keep.
They completed their search, even searching the bilges, then they collected up everything that the Wikuni intended to salvage from the vessel and began loading it into the longboat they'd used to ferry over. Tarrin took the chest back to the steamship himself, and found himself facing five angry female faces. Keritanima, Allia, Kimmie, Dolanna, and Camara Tal all glared at him when his spell deposited him softly on the deck with the chest by his feet, and he stared at them all calmly. "What?"
"How dare you go off on your own unescorted!" Camara Tal managed to say first, cutting the others off. "How am I supposed to keep you alive if you run off whenever the mood hits you?"
"I wasn't in any danger," he told her calmly.
"That's not the point!" Camara Tal shouted at him, then started swearing sulfurously in her native tongue.
"The point, dear one, is that we need you," Dolanna told him flintily as Camara Tal continued to swear. "You are too important to just wander off, as Camara Tal put it. We are not saying you cannot go, but we would appreciate it if you would let us know first. It will save us a great deal of gray hair."
"I don't see why you're so angry," he told them.
"You explain it to him!" Camara Tal told Keritanima, then she stalked off.
"She's touchy," Tarrin grunted as he watched her walk away.
"You forget, she is here to protect you, Tarrin," Dolanna told him. "It is her duty to keep you alive. Just because you have been apart from her from a long time does not change that."
"She didn't act this way at Suld," he said challengingly. "She didn't have anything to say when I joined the battle."
"That was a different situation," Keritanima growled at him. "Don't you dare try to compare them."
"You were wrong, my brother," Allia told her. "The next time you wish to go off alone, ask."
"Alright, alright," he sighed, though he still didn't see what the problem was. "I'll ask from now on."
"Good."
Though he got off relatively easy with his sisters and friends, he didn't get away quite as easily with Kimmie. She gave him the cold shoulder for the rest of the day, and even refused to talk to him that night as they got ready to go to bed. That frustrated Tarrin to no end, frustrated and aggravated him, and he found it to be a very brutal and effective means of punishing him. She had shut him out, turned him away, and all he could feel when he looked at her was guilt over something he did that she didn't like, and frustration that she wouldn't talk to him. He wanted to talk about it, work it out, but she wouldn't even acknowledge him! Kimmie knew him better than he knew himself, and he had to admit, she'd found the one and only way to get under his skin, something that even he was surprised was so effective. It got so bad that he finally grabbed her by the arms and made her look at him. "I said I was sorry!" he told her adamantly.
"You didn't mean it," she hissed at him. "What if there would have been something very dangerous on that ship? What if it had been burned by survivors of a plague, and there you go flitting over there to catch that disease? Don't you realize that you're too important to go racing off like that? Did you see Keritanima in that longboat that went over to investigate the ship? Allia? Dolanna? Phandebrass? If you'd gotten yourself killed, what would we have done without you? Would you have deprived your cub to be of knowing its father?"
If anything, that got him. He dropped his eyes and blew out his breath, finally understanding why they were all so upset. He guessed that maybe it was a little rash. He was bored, and he didn't think things all the way through. "Alright, I'm sorry," he said contritely. "I shouldn't have done it."
"You're right. You shouldn't have," she said calmly, staring into his eyes. She pushed his paws off of her arms and rubbed her arm gingerly. "Now you have to make it up to me."
"I think I can do some of that right now," he said, turning and picking up the chest he'd taken from the ship, which had been sitting on the other chest at the foot of their bed. "I found these over on the ship. When I saw them, I figured you may be able to use them."
Kimmie gave him a suspicious look as she took the chest, then set it down on the deck and knelt in front of it. She opened it, and her eyes widened when she saw the leather-bound tomes within. She picked one up and opened it, and saw that it was written in a strange, glyphic language that Wizards seemed able to read. "This is a spellbook!" she gasped, looking at it. "I, I don't know this spell!"
"They're all spellbooks," he told her. "I thought you might want them."
"Might want--Tarrin, you've given me a treasure!" she told him happily, gazing up into his eyes. "These look like the spellbooks of an accomplished Wizard!"
She put the book down reverently and carefully, then vaulted up into his arms and kissed him exuberantly on the lips. "Well, you're doing a good job of making up," she grinned as she pulled away enough to look at him. "But I'm not ready to forgive you quite yet."
Tarrin ran a paw down her back meaningfully. "Maybe I can find some other way to make it up to you," he purred.
"Now you're getting the idea," she giggled breathlessly, then kissed him again, this time quite seriously.
Kimmie was absolutely overjoyed that he brought her the spellbooks. Even Phandebrass was impressed by them, as she showed them to her mentor, for the books contained several spells that even he didn't have. And Phandebrass collected magical spells the way a forest floor collected dead leaves in the autumn. She spent the next three days with Phandebrass as they deciphered the spells and learned how they worked, and she allowed her mentor to copy the spells into his own books. But she kept the spellbooks, copying some of the spells she knew into those books and using them as her primary spellbooks instead of her old ones. Tarrin asked after that one night as he watched her carefully writing in one of the new books, doing so on a very small table and chair Tarrin conjured for her, that took up almost the entirety of the available space in the cabin.
"It's easier to copy a few spells in here than it would be to copy a few dozen into my old books," she told him patiently. "I will copy the spells so I'll have more than one set of spellbooks, but for now, this will do."
"Why keep more than one set?"
"These books represent everything I know as a Wizard, Tarrin," she said patiently. "If they get lost or stolen, I'll lose everything. Any mage with even half a clue keeps a copy of his spellbooks in a safe place. Just in case the unthinkable happens."
"Oh. That makes sense."
"I'm so glad you agree," she drawled, then returned to her careful work.
They saw no other ships over those three days, but the formation was closer and the lookouts were being very alert. It was well known now on all five ships that Zakkites had attacked the ship they'd paused to inspect, and they weren't going to let their ancient rivals on the sea get the drop on them. On the fourth day, they did see a plume of smoke appear on the eastern horizon, but no one on any of the ships thought even for a second about changing course to investigate. That far out to see, the smoke could only be coming from a ship.
The day after that, they encountered their first live ship. It was an old, battered caravel, with a few patches in its sails, merrily making its way due west, and was looking to come close to crossing their path as it approached them. Keritanima went up to the steering deck as the formation around the steamship tightened noticably, as the four clippers moved into a very defensive posture around the unarmed ship that was carrying their queen. Tarrin and Dar happened to be on deck playing stones when the call of the sighting came out, and the clippers tightened up around the steamship. They put the game on hold and went to the rail to get a look for themselves, and saw the old ship with its patched sails and a few patches in its hull. The old ship had seen some action recently.
Tarrin and Dar watched as the ship slowed as it threatened to cross the path of the clippers, then ran up a white flag. That meant that they were either surrendering or they were attempting a parlay. Tarrin looked up at the steering deck, curious about this turn of events. What would Keritanima do? Would she attack the ship, which was probably a rival seeking the Firestaff? Would she stop to talk to them? Or would she simply pass them by?
It didn't take him long to find out. He wasn't quite sure how they knew the order, but the four ships surrounding them opened their formation a little, enough for the steamship to put on a little more speed, and they sailed right by the halted vessel, the sailors upon it gawking at the steamship in shock and awe. They'd never seen such a thing before. Keritanima had obviously decided to pass the other ship by without talking to them. All things being as they were, Tarrin felt that Keritanima made the wise choice. That fellow was sailing west, not southwest. He was going in the wrong direction.
Later that day, it suddenly seemed like it wasn't a very good idea. Allia came to Tarrin right before dinner and told him that the ship they'd passed earlier in the day was following them. Tarrin knew about Allia's incredible eyesight, so he didn't doubt her in the slightest, but that seemed a bit odd. With all that firepower, what in the blazes could that caravel's captain be thinking? Didn't he realize that if he irrititated Keritanima, she'd send one of her clippers to sink him? But how could he know that? As far as the captain of that ship was concerned, he saw a quartet of Wikuni military vessels escorting some kind of bizarre new ship. Maybe he was curious, and was following along a while to see where they were going, or get a better look at the steamship. Or maybe he was taking orders from a mage, who thought that the Wikuni knew where they were going. If that was the case, then Tarrin would be the first to sink them. He didn't want any company tagging along when they reached their destination.
All his speculation turned out to be moot, however. By morning, the caravel was so far behind that it didn't matter anymore. The steamship hadn't stopped during the night, continuing its steady course just south of southwest, and in the darkness the caravel wouldn't even be able to see the smoke plumes from the smokestacks to guide it as it tried to follow the faster vessels. Keritanima's boasting about the speed of the steamship turned out to be a critical asset to them now, since they could easily outrun any ship that tried to follow them.
The sighting of the attacked galleon and the encounter with the caravel galvanized the Wikuni and the Tellurians even more. They realized now that they were sailing on a crowded ocean, and they had to be ready for anything. The lookouts were doubled, and they scanned the seas and the skies both at all times during day and night. The ship no longer stopped for periodic inspections of the steam engine, running at all times to keep the ship moving, keep the ship from becoming a target. Tarrin saw that the cannons on the accompanying ships were being cleaned and inspected and the materials they used to fire were brought up from below decks, ready to be loaded and fired at a moment's notice. At night, the gunpowder was taken back below decks, why Tarrin wasn't sure, but he was sure it hadn't been taken very far.
Things got a little quiet and a bit tense on the ship after the two encounters. The sailors weren't quite as talkative as they were before, and the engineers working on the steam engine were all business, spending almost all their waking hours tending the invention carefully, even as it operated. The tension, added to the heat and the intermittent rain, made many of the sailors short-tempered, and there were a few fights on board the ship that caused a momentary distraction for everyone else. They kept it running continuously for two days, and the five ships hurried towards the southwest, towards their ultimate goal. At sunset on the second day, however, everyone knew that something was wrong when a sudden grinding sound rattled the ship, so loud and strong that the deck beneath their feet vibrated with the sound. The ship began to slow very quickly, so quickly that the ship trailing behind had to execute a sharp turn and drop its sea anchor to avoid ramming the stern of the steamship as it drifted to a relative halt on the choppy seas. As if the halt wasn't bad enough, the cloudy skies opened up on the ship almost as soon as it drifted to a halt, sending pounding rain down onto the deck and irritating people who were already nervous and flustered.
Tarrin decided that the best thing to do in a situation like that was sleep it away. He and Kimmie retired to their cabin and went to bed early.
It was approaching morning, a few hours before sunrise. Tarrin had awakened to relieve himself, and didn't feel like going back to sleep quite yet. He instead laid in bed beside Kimmie and watched her sleep, pondering doing something he promised her he wouldn't do. Though she wanted to keep the sex of the child a secret, that missing information had been eating at Tarrin over the last few days, up to where the need to know was reaching a fever pitch. Just like any cat, or Were-cat, once Tarrin's curiosity was piqued, it was almost impossible to deny satisfying it. He would have done it days ago if not for the promise he made to Kimmie not to do exactly what he was considering doing. Promises were not things taken lightly among Were-cats. To break a promise was to lie, and lying to another Were-cat was a cardinal sin. It was so much of a transgression that him lying to Jesmind was what put her on him and made her try to kill him. Oh, there were little white lies, the kinds of lies that a Were-cat wouldn't find offensive, for they were spoken when the speaker honestly believed he was doing the right thing. But this was much different than saying something not quite the truth to avoid a fight, or trying to hedge in a vain attempt to hide information from Triana. This was a promise.
Sort of. He hadn't explicitly told Kimmie he wouldn't do it. She had simply told him not to do it, and he had agreed with her. If he did do it, he could raise that as a valid argument against Kimmie, but there would be consequences. Kimmie had proved that she could get to him, get to him in ways that Jesmind could not. That silent treatment was a torture, worse than anything Jesmind had ever done to him, and he didn't want to face the next few rides with nothing but Kimmie's back for company.
That was the punishment he would face if he did it. He'd satisfy his curiosity, but he'd infuriate his mate in the process. But his curiosity was so strong that he seriously weighed those two things against one another, trying to decide which one was the lesser of the two evils. To leave his curiosity unsatisfied or get the silent treatment from Kimmie. He was going to have to suffer through one of them.
The Cat finally barged into his debate, quite effectively settling the argument. It saw a good thing here, a receptive female that kept it quite happy. It saw no reason to jeopardize a good mating, so it buried his curiosity beneath an instinctual impulse to protect his unborn child. He shouldn't do anything to upset or aggravate Kimmie until after she gave birth to the cub.
And that ended that. Blowing out his breath, he put his paw on Kimmie's bare belly, wondering at what was going on in there. He was sure that Triana could give him a day by day accounting of what went on inside a female after she conceived, but she wasn't there, and he wasn't going to peek. It was well within his power to find out, but the consequences for doing so were a bit more than he was willing to endure, for those consequences also affected their baby.
His paw made Kimmie stir, mumbling something in her sleep, rolling over on her side. Tarrin admired her silhouette, her feminine curves, and marvelled at how different she was from Jesmind. Jesmind had all those same curves, but everything in between them was hard, chiselled muscle. Kimmie was a female with softness in her, a deceptive softness given that she was a Were-cat and was stronger than three human men, but it was the same she-softness of the human women, something that Tarrin, having been turned, found quite appealing. Her differences from Jesmind were more than physical, though. Jesmind was fiery, tempermental, bullish, stubborn, and overbearing, where Kimmie was much more mellow, wiling to give and take with Tarrin without fighting with him over the smallest detail, as Jesmind did. Jesmind made him fight for absolutely everything, always testing the boundaries of their relationship, always pushing him. Kimmie just let things be and found happiness in whatever happened to be in front of her at the moment, but Tarrin had already discovered that when he riled Kimmie, she could be a steel-willed, as adamant as Jesmind was. The difference was that Jesmind was like that all the time, where Kimmie only did it when she found reason to oppose Tarrin's decisions, which she only did when she thought he was wrong. Jesmind would challenge him, even when she knew he was right. Two very different females with almost diametrically opposed personalities, and he had feelings for them both.
It was more than just friendship now. Tarrin could admit that. Tarrin still loved Jesmind, loved her with all his heart, but he'd begun to feel the stirrings of something maybe a little bit more than friendship for Kimmie. He loved her as friend, and she was a very good friend, but knowing that she loved him was starting to affect how he thought of her. He honored her feelings by trying to be what she wanted him to be, and it made her deleriously happy. And he was happy to make her happy. He was starting to go out of his way to please her, was starting to think of her in many of the ways that he thought about Jesmind. He knew that the baby had alot to do with that, that he was beginning to lavish attention on her to keep her from leaving him when they got back. And he knew deep in his heart that if he had to choose between Kimmie and Jesmind, he would choose Jesmind. That made him feel a little guilty, because Kimmie would be getting the short end of the deal. But on the other hand, she herself had told him that she entered the relationship fully understanding where his loyalties lay. She had been willing to give him up when they returned, and that made him realize how strong she was. Jesmind wouldn't step aside, not for anyone. Jesmind would probably come after Kimmie if she thought that Tarrin's loyalties were changing, getting Tarrin back by simply killing off the competition. Kimmie showed tremendous strength by admitting her love for him, then turning around and telling him that she was willing to let him go. He found a powerful new respect for his new mate after understanding that.
If anything, Tarrin decided, reaching down and sliding his paw along her bare hip and admiring her, he was glad Triana sent her with him. That wise old Were-cat matron, it bothered him how she was always right. Once, just once, he wanted Triana to be wrong about something, and he wanted to be there to see it. For as long as he'd known her, he had never known her to be wrong about anything yet. Maybe living for a thousand years made her alot wiser and more observant than most other people, but she couldn't possibly be right all the time, no matter how well she thought she knew him. Tarrin made that promise to himself as he slid his paw along Kimmie's waist and along her ribs, feeling her smooth, silky skin. He was going to see Triana wrong about something, even if he had to lie about it. He just wanted to see the look on her face. He'd have hell to pay for it, but that was a consequence he was willing to endure.
"Tarrin," Kimmie said sleepily, pausing to yawn, "either let me go back to sleep or put your paw back on my butt and give me a reason to wake up."
"Sorry. I was just admiring how beautiful you are, Kimmie," he told her, setting his paw firmly on her waist and laying back down.
"It's not that I don't like hearing you say I'm beautiful, but you can admire me in the morning," she said with another yawn. "Unless, of course, you had something else on your mind?"
"Not really," he answered truthfully.
"Alright then. We can do that in the morning too. Good night," she said firmly, then she scooted her back up against him and put her head back down on the pillow, pausing to grab his paw and pull on it, making him drape his arm protectively over her before sighing and immediately returning to sleep. Were-cats could do that, just go right to sleep so long as their minds weren't occupied with something. Tarrin put his nose in Kimmie's hair and let her scent wash over him, then closed his eyes.
Then opened them again. He rose up over Kimmie as he felt something....tug at him. There wasn't a good explanation for what he was feeling. It was coming from the Weave. He closed his eyes and concentrated on that sensation, trying to understand what it was. It was a tugging, alright, but it wasn't tugging at him, it was tugging at the strands. It was faint, but it was definitely moving in his direction, whatever it was that was causing the tugging. He was sure that there was something causing it, because he knew of no natural force within the Weave that would cause a sensation like that. Or at least nothing he had ever experienced. Besides, this didn't feel natural, didn't feel like it was a natural phenomenon. No, this was something external exerting force against the Weave...and it felt oddly familiar.
For long moments, Tarrin kept his eyes closed and kept his attention focused on the Weave, as the sensation moved closer and closer. As it approached, he got a clearer sense of it, and managed to discern that it was indeed an outside force exerting itself against the Weave. The tugging sensation was being caused by a strong outflow of magical energy, strong enough to cause an eddy current in the Weave itself that interfered with the magical flow through the strands. That was where the tugging feeling was coming from, from the magical current. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it was moving towards him steadily.
He waited a while longer, keeping his attention on the sensation. He was so focused on it that he didn't feel Kimmie roll over on her back and look up at him in irritation, reaching up and shaking his shoulder to get his attention. It was getting closer and closer, and as it approached, the sense of it seemed to divide. There wasn't one of those things, there were several of them. As they got nearer, he managed to separate them enough to count them, and realized that there were nine. Nine, but they were so close to one another that they'd felt like a single magical force from a distance. They were close enough now to make out the kind of magic it was, too.
It was Wizard magic. Powerful Wizard magic. Nine separate Wizard spells, moving towards him, spells so strong that they had had an affect on the magical currents in the strands. What kind of spells were they? As strong as they were, they had to be really big ones, high-order magic, the kind of magic a Wizard would cast to move a mountain.
Or move a ship!
Gasping, his eyes snapping open so fast it made Kimmie flinch, Tarrin realized what he was feeling. There was only one explanation for what he was feeling. Nine powerful spells moving towards him on the open ocean? Those were the magical spells that powered Zakkite Skyships! That was why they felt familiar, because he'd seen them and felt them before!
Tarrin swore sulfurously as he literally jumped over Kimmie and out of bed. "Tarrin, what's wrong?" she asked in concern, sitting up.
"Kimmie, stay here!" he said as he moved towards the door. "There are Zakkites Skyships moving towards us!"
"Like bloody hell I'm going to stay here!" she snapped, quickly rolling out of bed and rushing after him as he opened the door. She paused just long enough to snatch up the belt she wore with her dresses, that had small pouches holding the material components for her Wizard spells. She whipped it around her waist, and Tarrin paused to think that she looked a bit silly wearing nothing but a leather belt. Then again, Tarrin wasn't wearing anything at all, and neither of them really felt like they had the time to get dressed.
Tarrin ran to the end of the companionway and banged loudly on Keritanima's door. "Get up!" he shouted through the door. "Get up right now!"
"Tarrin, I'm going to kill you!" Keritanima's voice blasted through the door.
"Get up!" he shouted. "There are Zakkites moving this way!"
That made every door in the companionway open, almost all at once. All his friends were in various states of undress, from Camara Tal standing in her doorway completely nude to Dolanna's frilly nightdress, but none of them looked very sleepy. Keritanima flung her door open, wearing a silk robe, and her expression was one of grim sobriety. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I haven't seen them, but I can feel them coming. Can't you feel the pull in the Weave?"
"I can," Dolanna said after a moment. "It is very strong. Given we are on the open sea, it is only logical to assume that that could only be Zakkites."
"You're, you're right," Keritanima agreed, her eyes going distant for a moment. "That has to be a trio of Zakkite Triads. I count nine. Am I right?"
"Nine," Dolanna agreed.
"Nine," Tarrin nodded.
"Bloody hells," Camara Tal growled. "Let me get my sword."
"Quickly, all of you," Dolanna ordered down the companionway in a strong voice. "We do not have much time. Come above with whatever you can find, quickly!"
"A pitched battle with Zakkites. Not my idea of a good way to start the day," Dar grumbled as he hurried back into his room.
"If we do this right, it won't be as much a fight as the Zakkites think it will," Tarrin said, getting an idea. "How high up do Zakkites usually fly their ships, Kerri?"
"About a hundred feet--er, about a hundred and thirty spans or so," she replied.
"What would happen to one of those ships if it fell back to the ocean from that height?"
"It would crack like an egg," she told him immediately. She looked at him, then laughed. "Tarrin, can we do that?"
"It won't be easy, and it's going to take all three of us," he replied, "but we can."
"Do what?" Kimmie asked.
"Disrupt magic," Dolanna told her with a nod. "Yes, we could do that, but you are talking about disrupting an area of nearly a square span, dear one, and maintaining it for quite some time."
"Like I said, it won't be easy," he grunted. "I couldn't do it by myself, but we'll save ourselves a whole lot of headaches and save quite a few of Kerri's sailors if we do."
"Explain this to me, Tarrin," Kimmie commanded as Tarrin rushed away from Keritanima's door with Keritanima following behind, rushing towards the stairs that led to the deck above.
"Sorcerers can disrupt Wizard magic," he told her. "You know that."
"You're going to try to disrupt the magic that makes the skyships fly?" Kimmie asked, seeing the point of the matter.
"Not just that magic, but all Wizard magic," Keritanima told her. "The Zakkite Wizards won't be able to throw spells at my ships as long as we block them."
"With luck, the drop is going to do all the damage for us," Dolanna added. "So it is important that we ensure that their ships are airborne when we do this."
They burst out on deck, which was sheeted with water, and rain fell heavily from the sky driven by a rather stiff wind. The thick clouds concealed the moons and the Skybands, and made the night black as pitch. The rain reduced that already poor visibility even more. Tarrin could barely make out the lanterns on the clippers that were tied up with the steamship, ropes holding them together to ensure the ships didn't drift apart during the night. They would need light, and alot of it, if they were going to make sure that the Zakkite ships were indeed damaged or destroyed by the fall. "Kerri, go tell your men to signal the other ships to ready their cannons, but do it quietly," Dolanna told the Wikuni queen quickly. "We must be ready for them, but we do not want to know we are ready."
"We'll make it a big surprise," Keritanima grinned, and then she ran through the rain to the steep staircase that led up to the steering deck, and climbed up as the officer in charge of the dog watch saluted her sharply before she even got up to the deck. The others reached the deck looking as unprepared as Tarrin was. Dar wore nothing but smallclothes, doing his best not to look at Kimmie, Allia, or Camara Tal too much. Allia had grabbed her shirt and her short swords, the linen shirt she wore under her very long desert top not quite long enough to conceal the fact that she hadn't managed to put on anything else. Camara Tal had grabbed her swordbelt, and that meant that she also had her tripa, for the garment was actually attached to the swordbelt. So Allia had nothing on from the waist down, and Camara Tal had nothing on from the waist up. They were both armed, however, as Allia and Dar moved towards Dolanna, who was wearing her sheer silk nightgown and a frown, moving towards her so they could Circle with her if she needed them. Phandebrass was wearing a long nightshirt that left his skinny, knobby knees bare, but had managed to find the time to put on that ridiculous conical hat. He also had his belt around his waist, for like Kimmie, Phandebrass kept his spell components in the many small pouches tied to his leather belt. Binter and Sisska stood near Miranda, the two Vendari wearing nothing at all-ithough it didn't matter all that much, given that the reptillian nature of Vendari physiology made them both appear genderless, protecting the little mink Wikuni, wearing a robe that was tied so loosely that it threatened to compromise her modesty at any moment. She had a dagger in her hand, just as Binter had his hammer and Sisska had her axe, knowing that she could do little to help but ready to do whatever was needed of her. Azakar was by far the most prepared-looking of them all, for he had managed to get on his breeches and his breastplate both, but his feet were bare as he moved up behind Kimmie and took a defensive position nearby, sword in hand and eyes scanning the black, rainy skies.
"How far are they away?" Kimmie asked Tarrin seriously.
Tarrin closed his eyes and bridged into the Weave, so the energy of their magic would be more clear to him. He could sense their coming clearly, so clearly that he could discern both a direction and a distance. "They're about two longspans away, moving towards us from over here," he said, pointing off the port side of the ship. "They're all gathered together, but their ships are starting to spread out."
"They are preparing to surround us," Dolanna realized. "How do they know we are here?"
"Magic, since they're Zakkites," Camara Tal grunted. "They don't do anything without using a damned spell." She spat. "That's why they can't beat us. Can't do for themselves, and it shows. As soon as they lose their magic, they're helpess weaklings."
"Let us hope that remains true," Dolanna told her. "How fast are they moving, Tarrin?"
Tarrin was silent a moment as he gauged the nearing of the sensation. "They'll be here in a few minutes."
"Long enough for us to put on some clothes?" Dar asked.
"Dar, you were never this shy in the baths," Allia told him with a slight smile.
"That was the baths," he said with a slight blush.
"Put your moral outrage back in its box until this is over, boy," Camara Tal ordered him blunty, raising her sword. "I seriously doubt the Zakkites are going to be kind enough to stop and give us a chance to get dressed so we can meet them."
Tarrin tuned them out, gauging their distance more and more accurately. It was important for him to do so, for what he was about to do was going to be very exhausting, and that meant that it was going to have a limited range. What was most important was that they had to let the Zakkites get as close as possible, let them begin fanning out to silenty encircle the Wikuni ships and let them think that they had the element of surprise. If they thought they'd been detected, they would attack with their magical spells, and that may start before all their ships were close enough for Tarrin to affect them. So they had to be close, very close, just one step away from initiating their attack.
Tarrin explained that to the others as he monitored the approach of the Zakkites, and Dolanna nodded. "Then let us move off the open deck," she said. "Move among the lashed crates, so we are not so obvious. If they see us dressed as we are now, they will be certain they have been detected," she said with a slight smile.
Tarrin felt that a wise move, so they all scattered among the crates and barrels that were lashed into groups on the top of the deck supplies they needed but had no room to store anywhere else. Tarrin knelt between a line of barrels and a line of stacked wooden crates. Kimmie was just behind him and Azakar just behind her, looming over her bare back with his imposing size.
"Tarrin, the other ships are getting ready," Keritanima's voice came over his amulet. "What do you want us to do now?"
"Wait," he said, putting a paw to his amulet. "Let them come in, let them think they have surprise on their side. I need them to be close enough so only one of us can disable them all in one blow, and since I'm the strongest, I'll take care of that. So let me strike first. What I want you and Dolanna to do is light up the sea, bright enough for us to see several longspans in any direction, so your ships can see what they're shooting at. It's going to take both of you to make that much light, so get down here and Circle with Dolanna, Allia, and Dar."
"I need to be up here so I can relay orders."
"Tell Donovan to tell the others ships to hold their fire until you light up the sky, then fire at anything that looks like it's still a threat."
"I'll tell the other ships. Give me a minute, and I'll be ready. When do you want us to light up the sky?"
"After I disrupt their magic."
"I thought that would be the best time," she said with a chuckle. "So, we're going to pull their pants down, then yell and get everyone around to stare at their bare butts."
"Something like that," he agreed, unable to supress a slight smile at the image that conjured in his mind.
They waited in tense silence for long moments, hearing the feverish preparations taking place on the other ships, even as they tried to keep things quiet. The other clippers put out most of their lanterns, making it look like they were sleeping the rainy night away. Tarrin's attention was focused on the Zakkite ships, however, sensing them as they approached, and sensing also that they were both spreading out and slowing down. They were moving to surround the Wikuni ships, and they were aware that even in the pounding rain and the blinding darkness, the movements of their ships may give them away before they were ready to strike. Motion was much easier to see than shapes, and though their ships were painted black, there would still be some visible shifting in the background as they moved that a sharp-eyed lookout would be able to detect. All in all, Tarrin had to respect their tactics. They had obviously done this before, and they knew what they were doing. As long as they caught their prey off guard, victory for them was all but assured.
But this time they were not dealing with the average ship's crew. They were dealing with magic-users just as experienced and capable as they were. The Zakkites were going to be in for a very, very nasty shock.
They waited quietly for another couple of minutes, as the Zakkite ships moved closer and closer. He could sense their magic distinctly now, could feel the flow of magic from that other place from where Wizard magic came, through the Weave, and into each of the ships. He could even sense a precise location, and realized that what he was feeling wasn't a magical spell, it was a magical device. The devices that powered the ships' magical flight. Closer and closer they came, the furthest away only about half a longspan out, but that was still too far. He wanted them all within three hundred spans; that would be just outside the extreme range of their attack spells, but close enough for him to do something about them. He had the feeling that they wouldn't begin their assault until all their ships were within striking distance, to attempt to cripple and eliminate the four very formidable Wikuni clippers as quickly as possible. Even Zakkites tread very lightly around the Wikuni, as five hundred years of consistent losses on the sea against the seafaring empire had proved. They would treat the Wikuni with very high respect, respect for their very real chance of turning the tables on their attackers if they could get their cannons firing against the Zakkites, and that respect would demand that their ambush be as damaging as possible when they made the initial assault. Tarrin intended to use that against them, let them set up, which also put them right where Tarrin could get at them.
"Tarrin, I think I can see them," Kimmie whispered in his ear as she looked over the water barrels. "I see something moving out there, something in the air, and it's big."
"Just another couple of moments," he said to her. "The lead ship is only a few hundred spans away from us."
"Tarrin, Allia can see them," Dolanna told him through the amulet. "Are you ready?"
"Just another moment," he replied, putting his paw on his amulet. He ignored the leading ships, concentrating instead on the last three. They were about five hundred spans out, and that was too far. Tarrin waited in tense silence as his heartbeat ticked away the time, as the three ships he was watching crept closer and closer, seeming to take forever. He cast his senses about and realized that the other six ships had turned, were moving to surround the cluster of five stationary targets, leaving the three at the end to fill the hole they vacated and complete the trap.
That was when he would strike, just as they were about to enter the ring. The others wouldn't attack until they were in position, so he had to strike before they got into position and attacked. He started tamping his feet on the deck, an instinctual signal to Kimmie that the hunter was about to pounce, and she raised her paw over the crates and hissed audibly for everyone to get ready. Azakar thumped the hilt of his sword on the deck quickly, and that seemed to have the effect that Kimmie's barely audible and undecipherable voice did not. Everyone got very quiet, and Tarrin felt Keritanima, Dar, Allia, and Dolanna join in a Circle several rows of crates behind them.
Tarrin reached out and made a deeper connection to the Weave, beginning to get it ready. He would have to use High Sorcery to affect such a large area, and the glow would give him away. So he primed the Weave by saturating the two strands close enough for him to use, pooling up the power and making sure that it would only be a split second between him touching High Sorcery and being able to immediately draw in that prepared energy and use it. He already had the weave he was going to use in his mind, going over the weaving of it again and again until he was sure he could get it woven and released before the Zakkites could react to his magical light, which would give away the fact that the Zakkites were the ones that had fallen into the trap.
The three ships began to separate from one another, moving to fill in the empty side of the ring. Almost. Almost....
Now!
Tarrin stood up and opened himself to the power of the Weave, drew in the power of High Sorcery, and the Weave responded to him. His paws exploded in Magelight, a light that seemed brilliant in the murky, rainy darkness, a light that immediately drew every eye to his position. Tarrin sucked up that energy he had prepared like water pouring into a glass, and he began using it even before it was finished flowing into him. The weave necessary to disrupt Wizard magic swept out of him in a blisteringly fast wave, the flows wrapping and weaving and twisting into the proper spell so quickly that any who could perceive them would have trouble keeping up with what he was doing. He did his teacher proud by weaving a spell designed to affect a massive area in a shockingly short amount of time, so attuned and in touch with the power of the Weave was he, so attuned to his Goddess. Her power flowed through him effortlessly, and it obeyed his every command as the six flows of the power of Interdiction, the power to disrupt Wizard magic, formed in a huge globe nearly a thousand spans across with the steamship forming its center. Tarrin didn't have the time to look over the huge spell before releasing it, for every second counted. He could only release it and hope that he had woven it right. If he did not, it would either fizzle or explode in a Wildstrike, which itself would be just as dangerous to the steamship as the Zakkites were. The bigger the spell, the more unpredictable and potentially destructive a Wildstrike it could create would be.
The spell was true, however, because Tarrin felt it take hold around them. He felt the Weave react to that spell, as the strands within its area of effect suddenly stopped conducting the energy that fueled Wizard magic, swallowing it up and denying its release into the physical world. Almost at the same time, the Circle that Keritanima was leading did its part, creating a globe of blazing light directly over the steamship, so brilliant, so bright, that it illuminated the sea for almost a longspan in every direction, an incandescent beacon that blinded almost everyone with its brightness, blinded eyes that had become accustomed to the dark gloom.
Tarrin winced from the light, but his Were-cat eyes quickly adjusted to the change in brightness, allowing him to see what happened next. The nine black ships, floating in the air, suddenly all shuddered, then as one, they literally dropped out of the sky like massive stones. They had been about a hundred and fifty spans above the sea, high enough to clear the masts and rigging of the ships below them, but all of them were about fifty to a hundred spans away from the ships. They all plummeted towards the choppy sea, and Tarrin, as well as many on the silent Wikuni ships, could hear the collective shrieking of the men on board those vessels as they fell out of the sky.
Those screams were cut brutally short as the Zakkite skyships hit the water. They didn't all hit at once, they struck one after another as the ones closer to the sea hit first, sending huge blasts of water away from them and into the sky, blasts of water that sprayed over the four Wikuni clippers that encircled the unarmed steamship at the center of their formation. The cries of the men were replaced by the deafening roar of those splashes, and the sound of snapping and tearing wood as the nine ships were slammed into the water, were exposed to stresses that their wooden constructions had never been designed to withstand. Masts tore from decks, hulls split, keels snapped like twigs as the nine ships impacted the water. Tarrin had been looking to the port, looking towards the three ships that had filled the gap, and his eyes focused on only one of them in the chaos of flying water and shuddering vessels. That vessel struck the water almost perfectly flat on its keel, and it after the geyser of water cleared out of the way, he saw that the ship had broken in half almost perfectly amidships. The two halves tore away from one another in a squeal of grinding and tearing wood and snapping ropes, and both halves began to sink almost immediately.
"Merciful Sheniia," Kimmie whispered as she watched the ship Tarrin was watching, watched as stunned men jumped from its two halves, as men flounded in the water, seeking out floating debris. There was a sudden loud boom, the report of a cannon, and then another, and then they came quickly as the Wikuni cannons opened up on the ships, blowing massive holes in the ones that hadn't been shattered by the fall, making sure they would soon be joining the broken ones on the bottom of the sea. The firing only lasted a few moments, as it became clear that the few ships that had survived the fall intact had been burst open at the seams by the impact, and they were quickly beginning to sink. The Wikuni gunners ceased fire without orders, because quite literally, they were firing on doomed ships. They all stopped and watched as ship after ship slipped under the waves.
In a matter of ten minutes, it was over. The last of the Zakkite skyships slipped beneath the waves, leaving the seas surrounding the five Wikuni vessels littered with debris, bodies, and the men who had survived the fall, who were clinging nervelessly to whatever they could find. They were all stunned, absolutely senseless after the harrowing fall and impact with the water, or they were struck dumb with disbelief that their trap had been turned back on them with such a devastating effect. Keritanima ended the spell of light and broke the Circle, sending Dar and Allia back below so they could either return to bed or get dressed. Camara Tal, seeing that neither her sword nor her healing spells would be needed, also went back below decks, muttering in displeasure, but the relief of not having a battle showed on her face. Any warrior was pleased when it turned out that they didn't have to fight, even seasoned veterans like Camara Tal. Tarrin's father had always told him that the favorite saying of the men in the army, even the Rangers, was that the best kind of battle was the one that was avoided.
"I'd say your plan worked, Tarrin," Azakar said calmly, laying the flat of his sword on his shoulder. "Are the Wizards still being blocked?" he asked, sheathing his weapon. It was apparent that it wasn't going to be needed.
Tarrin nodded.
"Then if Camara Tal is right, they're helpless," he surmised. "It'll just be a matter of picking them up."
"No, it won't," Kimmie said with a sigh. "As soon as Tarrin drops the spell, they'll get their magic back. We can't afford that. We can't take prisoners, Zak. Not now. And especially not Zakkites."
Azakar looked at Kimmie with surprise, stunned that the gentle Were-cat who was so amiable would say something so ruthless. "But they'll die if we leave them out there!" he protested.
"They won't be helpless, Zak," Kimmie told him. "Some of those men swimming around out there are Wizards. They'll have magic that will help them save themselves."
"But what about the slaves?" Azakar said loudly. "They didn't ask to be here, and the Wizards aren't going to save them! Are we going to leave innocent men out there to die? Are we?" he demanded with a shout.
"We are," Tarrin said in a low voice, his tail slashing behind him as he looked over his shoulder at the Mahuut.
"That's cruel!" Azakar said accusingly.
"I'm not known for my sentimentality, Zak," he replied in a cool tone, narrowing his eyes at his fellow Knight.
"We can't just leave innocent men out there to die!" Azakar shouted.
"I'll give you a choice, Zak," Tarrin told him, turning around halfway. "We either leave them behind, or I'll kill them all right now."
Azakar gaped at him in horror.
"This is not a game, Zak, and we don't have time to be chivilrous, or even nice. Those men will threaten us reaching our goal, and I won't let anything stand in our way."
"But leaving them out there, that's cruel! That's evil!"
Tarrin raised a glowing paw, lightning crackling around his fingers. "Then I'll make sure they don't suffer very long," he said in a deadly serious voice.
"No!" Azakar said, reaching for Tarrin's paw, but the Were-cat pulled back out of his reach too quickly for him. "Tarrin, we can't do this! Kimmie, tell him we can't leave those men to die!"
"Zak, sometimes you're too much a dreamer," Kimmie sighed, looking up at him with compassionate eyes. "Tarrin is right, Zak. This is a war, my big friend, and sometimes in a war we have to do things we don't like."
"Well, I'm not going to be a party to murder!" Azakar shouted.
"Then choose, Azakar. It's up to you, because to be completely honest, I don't care either way."
Azakar looked at him with disbelieving eyes, shock apparent on his face. "I, I won't let you kill them," Azakar stated defiantly.
"Then we leave them behind," Tarrin said, turning his back on the Mahuut.
"I said I won't let you kill them," Azakar said hotly, drawing his sword.
Tarrin stopped dead. "Don't go any further, Zak," he warned in a deceptively soft voice, not looking at the Knight. "If you use that sword against me, you won't live to resheathe it."
Before things could deteriorate any further, Kimmie put herself between the two towering males, putting a paw on Azakar's chest and pushing him away. "Zak, are you insane?" Kimmie demanded in a surprised voice.
"I'm not going to let him kill them," Azakar said with a snarl.
"He's not. I am," Keritanima said in a strong voice from behind the Mahuut. Azakar turned and looked at the Wikuni Queen, whose eyes were hard and her posture stiff. The bearing of a monarch, not the young woman they all knew. "We take no prisoners, Zak. None. We can't afford the risk."
"I can't believe any of you!" Azakar hissed at her. "You're going to condemn innocent men to death because it's not convenient for you?"
"You have a choice, Zak," Keritanima told him in a level voice. "You can see the little picture, or you can see the big picture. We can pick up the survivors and save a few dozen lives. And if we do, we put at risk the lives of every single person on these ships, and even more than that, every single person you know and love. We put the lives of everyone in my kingdom at risk, in Suld at risk, bloody hells, we put everyone in the world at risk. You forget what we're doing out here. We run the risk of letting someone else beat us to the Firestaff, and having them use it. You know what's going to happen if that happens. Are you willing to risk that, Zak? Are you ready to put my life on the line? Miranda's? Dolanna's? Everyone you know and love? Are those few dozen lives worth risking the safety of the entire world?"
Azakar lowered his sword and his head, his eyes haunted.
"That's right. It's not an easy thing to face, is it?" Keritanima asked with a quavering voice. "Do you think I enjoy abandoning men to the sea? I don't, I assure you. If anyone understands, if anyone wouldn't want to see it happen, it's a Wikuni. But I'm going to do it because the risk I'd take if I saved them is just too terrible to contemplate. Those men are going to die. That's a fact that you can't change. They can die here and now, or they can die when we fail and unleash ultimate horror on the world. The only question is how many other innocent people are going to die with them."
Keritanima looked stern, but Tarrin could see the tears forming in her eyes. "So make your choice, Zak. Because I simply can't stand here and talk about this anymore."
With a hanging head, Azakar dropped his sword to the deck.
"Donovan, pass this order," Keritanima told the Tellurian as he approached her, speaking in a voice almost trembling as she tried to control it. "Pick up no survivors, and discourage them from approaching the ships. We'll weigh anchor and go under sail until the steam engine is fixed. We are leaving this place. We have to get away from those Zakkites before Tarrin can lower his spell of disruption, and I won't have him kill himself maintaining the spell while we lounge around here." She sniffled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd really like to be alone right now," Keritanima said with teary eyes, turning and running towards the stairs leading below decks.
Tarrin sighed. That couldn't have been easy for her. The memory of the dream came back to him, of Keritanima standing on a mound of skulls, weeping. Now he understood the meaning of it. Keritanima had no qualms about destroying the guilty, but when it came to sacrificing the innocent, it was a different story. It was something that, as a queen, she occasionally was forced to do, but it was never easy for her. And if it did become easy, then she would be no better than her father was. Tarrin looked towards Miranda, and they shared a knowing look, then the mink ran after her friend and employer. Miranda understood. The dream had been a warning, he felt, a warning to not allow Keritanima to dwell on what had happened. Miranda would know what to do.
Tarrin felt the weight of the spell begin to take its toll on him. It had taken High Sorcery to create, and he couldn't let go of High Sorcery until he ended it. His paws still glowed with Magelight, and they would remain so until he could safely end the spell. But as Keritanima pointed out to Azakar, he couldn't do that so long as they were close to the surviving Zakkites.
"I hate this," Azakar finally said, his head still hung low.
Tarrin reached down and picked up his sword, then wiped the water off of it and resheathed it for him. "So do I, Zak," he said honestly. "I know you think I'm a monster, but maybe now you understand me a little better. I don't do what I do because I like it. I do what I do because I know what will happen if we fail. In this case, my gentle friend, the ends justify the means. We must succeed, no matter what."
"No matter the cost?" he said in a quiet, plaintive voice.
Tarrin bowed his head himself, a wave of emptiness flowing through him, and there was no sound but the sound of the rain on the deck. "Some of us have already paid that price," he told the Mahuut. "Thank your gods you weren't one of them." Then he padded slowly, statefully, towards the stairs to return to the cabin, to get out of the pounding rain.