Chapter 6

 

      Rage.

      Tarrin had experienced many different types of rage.  From the mindless fury of the Cat in its many degrees to the icy, cold rage of his human half, to almost every shade of anger, fury, rage, pique, irritation, annoyance, and discomfort in between, but he had never felt like this before.

      He had never felt betrayed.

      Not even Jasana’s treachery that turned him Were the second time had registered to him what Telven’s act had.  He found that he could think of nothing else as he flew south, away from the city, then used a low-hanging cloud to change out of his dragon form and into his own, mainly because the dragon was making his outrage even worse.  Dragons were noble creatures, and they reacted to betrayal in a manner even more vehement than a Were-cat.  Though he wasn’t part dragon as he was part cat, the characteristics of the form did have some influence on him when he borrowed their form.  Changing back into his normal form freed him of a tantalizing impulse to turn around and raze that city to the ground.

      How could he do it?  How could he return to people who tried to kill him?  It made no sense!  Tarrin had to admit that he didn’t give the boy the same attention that he had Zyri, but he had shown him kindness and concern, had offered him a place with him, had tried to make him happy.  He was willing to throw that away to go back to an order that would kill him?  He’d been willing to murder his own brother, all because he had succumbed to the hate that the Priests of the One preached to their masses.  Telven—

      —he had to stop thinking about it.  He was getting furious again, to the point where a tiny village not far from the road began looking like an inviting target for venting righteous wrath.  He couldn’t fathom what that boy could have been thinking.  To turn his back on his family, to spit in Tarrin’s face the way he did, to try to murder Jal…it was just inconceivable to Tarrin and to the Cat.  The Cat was much more flabbergasted than Tarrin, almost into insensibility, and Tarrin knew what that meant.  Once it managed to recover enough to be semi-rational again, it was going to try to overtake him and send him into a rage, like it did after Tarrin found out that Jasana had been the one to put the blood in the potion.  The time in dragon form had muted it a little, but he could feel it rising up in him, preparing to unleash its pent-up outrage on anything and anyone.

      He had gone far enough.  He was almost two hours ahead of the others, and he knew that Miranda was already leading them to him.  He descended and landed by the river, which was shallow and fast-moving here, the sound of water splashing on rocks reaching his ears and making him feel a little more tranquil.  He blew out his breath and sat down in the grass by the riverbank, looking down at the water, seeing the glow of the light of his wings on the surface of the water.  He shivered those wings slightly, but did not retract them.

      And he would not.  Ever.

      Someone had to stand up.  Someone had to walk down the street and be not normal and show the people that the Priests were lying to them.  Someone had to show them that the One was the one who was their enemy.  Someone had to show Telven—

      —Telven…for Niami’s sake, why?

      He would hide no more.  He didn’t care how much trouble it caused him.  The wings were a part of him, and he would not hide them.  If he had to slaughter every church soldier and Priest in every town he visited along the way to finding Kimmie, well, that was so much the better.  But he would not hide his wings again.  He might need to withdraw them temporarily to negotiate tight quarters, and certainly when he went to sleep or Mist would scalp him, but he wouldn’t hide them, he wouldn’t hide who he was, anymore.

      He had to shake himself to calm down again…he was right on the verge of exploding.  He glanced down and saw red, and at first he thought his vision was hazing over from his anger, but he realized that he was still covered in blood, and the smell of that blood, which he hadn’t noticed until now, was aggravating his temper.

      Well…there was a river right here.

      Undressing, having to retract his wings to get them out of his shirt, he trudged down into the water until it came up to his waist, and then spent a considerable amount of time in the surprisingly warm, slightly muddy water scrubbing blood off his skin and out of his hair and fur.  After he was done, he bent to the laborious task of washing the blood out of his shirt and trousers and vest, but found that it wouldn’t come out.  Nonplussed, Tarrin simply used a Wizard spell to cleanse his clothing, then left them laying by the riverbank to dry as he sat on a rock half submerged in the river and rebraided his wet hair.  He sat in the waning light of the afternoon sun, feeling its warmth rain down on him, and finally felt like he was calming down.  The simple act of getting clean took his mind off Telven, off how betrayed he felt, and let him look at things with more logic and less emotion.

      It was a given now that anything the children knew about him and the others, now the Priests of the One knew.  That meant they knew about his power, they knew about Mist and Miranda, they knew about Dolanna, and they probably knew that they were from another world.  He wasn’t sure if that information was good or bad, for there was an outside chance that perhaps the church would give Tarrin a very wide berth if they knew just who they were dealing with.  But that was probably just wishful thinking.  Odds were, the church knew that Tarrin and Dolanna were Sorcerers, or what they called the Damned, and they were going to specifically make it a point to come after them.  Tarrin and Dolanna were the embodiment of everything the church preached against.

      Fine.  Let them come.  He was tired of hiding.

      Shaking his head a little, feeling the weight of his damp braid, Tarrin looked down at his leathers and blew out his breath.  He wouldn’t wear them wet, so he shifted into his human form, complete with its set of clothing, and sat back down on the rock after laying his clothes out to dry in the waning sunlight.  He looked up at the sky and saw the clouds start to roll in from the west, threatening to hide the sun as it crept closer and closer to the horizon.  It wasn’t going to be easy now.  The Priests now knew about Tarrin’s shapeshifting, and he was pretty sure that they now knew about his weakness against silver.  He was pretty sure he told Zyri about that, and he had little doubt that Zyri had repeated the tales he told to her to her brothers.  He would not be surprised at all if the next batch of Hunters to cross paths with him were wielding silvered swords.  They knew about the others too, so it was going to be dangerous for everyone.

      Fine.  He didn’t care anymore.  If he had to leave a trail of bodies behind him on his way to get Kimmie and Phandebrass, that was just fine with him.  Perhaps, after he killed enough of the One’s people, the god would get the message and call off his followers.  He’d lost his sense of adventure with all this now.  All he wanted to do now was find Kimmie and Phandebrass, arrange for the gate spell to be used, and then go home.

      Sighing, leaning back on his hands, he curled his wings around himself a little and looked up into the sky, his expression pensive, distant.  Sometimes he cursed his wings and what they represented, but at that moment, there was a strange comfort in them.  They were warm, radiating a gentle heat that soothed him, and he was aware of every square finger of them in a way that no one would really understand.  They were more than simple appendages, they were a manifestation of the power that he had once possessed, and that was what he was aware of at that moment.  By mere thought, the wings lost their ragged appearance and became like an Aeradalla’s wings, with structure and feathers, colored in the hues of fire, in reds, blues, whites, oranges, and yellows, which gave them a strange mottled appearance.  They looked grand, he supposed, after staring at the inside slope of one, but he liked them the other way.  They reverted to their normal appearance, looking not quite like an Aeradalla’s wings, not quite like Shiika’s wings, something of a vague hybrid of the two, whose borders shifted slightly as the living fire seemed to undulate like a dancing flame.  Their power was needed now, for without Sorcery, without Druidic magic, facing what he knew that they were going to face, they were going to need everything they could get.  Miranda couldn’t protect them all, he knew that.  If he was going to do what he intended to do now, he needed all the power they could give to him.

      He was going to end this madness.  He was going to get Kimmie and Phandebrass and get everything done as quickly as possible, so they could all just go home.  He would take Zyri and Jal with him, raise them as his own, and they would leave Telven to face the consequences of the choice he had made.  Zyri and Jal would grow up happy and wanting for nothing, but Telven would reap the harvest of the seeds he had sown this day, living out his life being afraid and hating.

      “Well, I’m glad to see you’re calm,” Miranda’s voice came out of thin air, just behind him and to his right.

      “Miranda.  How far away are you?”

      “About a half an hour’s ride.  Are you going to stay where you are, or do you want to come to us?”

      “I guess I’ll come to you, it’s faster,” he answered.  “Which direction?”

      “We’re due north of you,” she answered.

      “I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he told her, standing up. “Let me get my clothes,” he added, looking at his damp clothes laid out on the ground.

      “We’ll be waiting.”

      Tarrin collected his damp leathers, and then, still holding them, he spread his wings and lanced up into the air.  He quickly oriented himself due north and picked up speed as he gained altitude, until he was nearly a longspan above the ground, and the terrain below was laid out before him like a verdant blanket, and easily visible for longspans in every direction.  What would take half an hour on horseback he could traverse in a matter of minutes, so he started looking for them not long after he levelled out his climb.  That high up, he could see the storm front to the west much more clearly, and he knew that it was going to start raining sometime during the night.

      He spotted them, still mounted, standing their horses by the riverbank not a few moments after looking at the storm.  He immediately started descending, feeling that strange lightness in his stomach, like he was falling, but by now he was used to that sensation.  He was upon them quickly, flaring out his wings and twisting a little in midair, then putting his feet on the ground a dozen or so spans away from them.

      He didn’t expect what happened.  Zyri burst into tears and slid off her horse, then ran towards him.  Her action startled him a little bit, but he should have expected it.  The poor girl had had her own brother betray her.  He opened his arms to her, and almost staggered back when she slammed into him, clutching him tightly, sobbing into his chest.  He saw that Jal was mounted with Mist, sitting in front of her.  His mate had her paws around the boy in a protective manner, and that he was leaning against her.  He was also trembling, not a little bit, holding onto Mist’s paw with both hands, hands which were shaking so badly that he doubted the boy could have gotten off the horse.

      “Did you have any trouble?” Tarrin asked Dolanna in a neutral voice.

      “No, dear one.  Did you?”

      He shook his head.  “I didn’t kill Telven, though I should have,” he growled.  “If anything, I want the boy to live long enough to appreciate the mistake he made today.”

      “I—I—can’t believe…he’d do that!” Zyri said chokingly.

      “Hush, little bit,” Tarrin said with infinite tenderness, stroking her hair.  “I think we should camp here, Dolanna.”

      “We might be too close, dear one,” she said hesitantly.

      “Zyri can’t ride right now, Dolanna,” Haley told her.  “And I think we all need a chance to sit down and collect ourselves.”

      “Don’t worry, Dolanna,” Tarrin said in a quiet, flat tone that they all knew too well.  “No one will bother us.”

      “I, very well,” she said with a nod.

      Tarrin accepted Fireflash onto his shoulder, dipping his head down to nuzzle his pet briefly, then held his hand out to Mist as she dismounted and approached him.  Her huge paw swallowed up his human hand, and standing beside her like that reminded him how huge she was now, as big as him.  It was easy to forget sometimes.  “Are you well?” she asked.

      He nodded.  “Well enough.”

      They set up camp right there, but Tarrin couldn’t do very much.  Zyri was still crying uncontrollably, so he ended up sitting right where he’d been standing, holding her close and letting her cry herself out, keeping his wings partially curled around them both as a measure of comfort.  He ended up with Jal as well, for the boy same over and sat beside him, still trembling, until Tarrin unfurled a wing and wrapped it around him.  He didn’t clutch onto Tarrin as Zyri did, but he stayed up against his side, holding onto the outer edge of Tarrin’s wing to keep it around him…as if he felt safe while wrapped within the living fire.

      After the camp was set up, Dolanna, Sarraya, and Miranda sat with him as Mist cooked and the others scouted the area, wary of the church sending soldiers or Hunters to kill them.  Tarrin kept hold of the children as the smell of stew reached them, stew and potatos baking on stones surrounding the fire, and pan bread baking just beside them.

      “What happened?” Miranda asked quietly.  “What we didn’t see.  I felt some serious magic flying.”

      He nodded.  “I got into a spell war with the Priests, then, once Ulger came back for this little tiger here, I was free to change and deal with them.”

      “Tarrin, we must face—“ Dolanna started, but he cut her off.

      “I know.  Everything we’ve told the children, the Priests know now.  They know about me, you, what we’re doing here, everything.”

      Zyri started crying harder again, but Tarrin put a hand on her back to calm her.  “It’s not your fault, Zyri.  Or yours, Jal.  It’s something that would have eventually happened no matter what.  This is the third town we’ve visited where we’ve done major damage, so it was just a matter of time.”  He glanced at the fire.  “That suits me just fine,” he said.  “I’m tired of hiding.”

      “Completing our tasks will be harder, I fear,” Dolanna said.

      “Maybe not,” Miranda mused.  “If Kimmie’s smart, and she is, she’ll have avoided civilization.  I’m hoping that this was the last city she visited.  The girl should have realized by the time they got here that just staying out in the country was the smartest thing to do.”

      “I’m not sure what they’re doing, but there does seem to be a kind of plan,” Sarraya injected.  “They moved in straight lines from place to place.  They’re going where they’re going on purpose.”

      Miranda nodded in agreement.  “We can only hope that they finished what they were doing, and now they’ll stay off the main shipping lanes.”

      “If only we could contact Kimmie,” Dolanna fretted.  “She has an amulet.  But mine simply will not work.”

      “Are there any Wizard spells in the book that can let us talk to her?” Sarraya asked Tarrin, landing on his other shoulder.

      He shook his head.  “I’ve looked.  Kimmie and Phandebrass have spells that can do that, but I guess they either never put them in my book, or they’re too advanced for me.”

      “If we cannot talk to Kimmie, then we must have her talk to us,” Dolanna stated.  “We must let her know we are here.”

      “She might already know, if rumor has gotten ahead of us.  Stories of a fire-winged man with a tail shouldn’t be hard for her to identify.”

      “This is not Sennadar, Sarraya,” Dolanna sighed.  “If anything, we are ahead of any rumors.  We travel much faster than most anyone else.  The only ones that might have advance information is the church of the One, and they would not disseminate that kind of information.”

      “Oh.  Yeah, you’re right,” Sarraya agreed.

      “Well, you can travel faster than anyone,” Miranda proposed, looking at Tarrin.  “If you can carry me, we can hunt down Kimmie.  We can make up the twelve days in a matter of hours.”

      “We could do that, but we’re not,” Tarrin said.  “I won’t leave the others undefended.  If we go, we leave the others without any kind of magical protection.  Since anything that comes after us will be a magic-user, that’s unacceptable.”

      “Then take us all,” Sarraya said casually.  “In dragon form, you can carry half a village, Tarrin.”

      “Have you ever ridden a dragon, Sarraya?” Tarrin asked pointedly.

      “Well, no,” she answered.

      “Trust me, you don’t want to learn when you’re a longspan above the ground.”

      “Then just basket us,” Miranda said with a grin.  “You said Ariana carried you around in a basket.  We just make a really big basket, and you carry it while you fly.”

      “Fine.  Make me a basket big enough to carry us all,” Tarrin said bluntly.

      “I—ah.  Point taken,” she winked.

      “That is an idea though,” he agreed.  “We just don’t have the resources to carry it out right now.  It would be way too dangerous for you all to try to ride on my back.  The only real safe place is just behind my head.  Anywhere else, and you’re going to fall off.”

      “What about further down the neck?” Sarraya asked.

      He shook his head.  “My neck is narrowest just behind my head.  Go further back and you’re sitting on a flat space you can’t lock your legs around.  There’s no way for you to keep your seat if I turn.  You’ll slide right off my neck.”

      “That would be a problem, yes,” Miranda winked.

      “We don’t have to rush,” Tarrin said with hard eyes.  “We’ll catch up to Kimmie and Phandebrass.  We’ve already cut their lead by more than half.”

      “Why do we not have to rush?” Dolanna asked pointedly.

      “Because I’m not going out of my way to accommodate anyone else anymore,” he answered.  “I’m going to find Kimmie and Phandebrass, and then we’re going home.  And Goddess help anyone who gets in my way,” he finished in a seething hiss.

      “Tarrin, we are not here to start a holy war,” Dolanna warned.

      “I’m not going to,” he told her. “But I will not hide.  Not now.  I’m going to walk down the street in my normal form and with my wings out.  If they’re stupid enough to get in my way, they’ll pay for it.  If they leave me alone, I leave them alone.  Sneaking around hasn’t worked for us, Dolanna.  Now, we do it the Were-cat way.”
      “It’s about damned time,” Mist said with a snort from the fire.

      “Dear one, you are the reason sneaking through has not worked,” she said with a slightly accusing look.  “Though, I must admit, I might have done what you have done myself.  I find the church of the One repugnant, evil, and completely despicable, and nothing would please me more than wiping it from the face of this world.  But that is a fight we cannot win, so we must be more careful.”

      “We had to be.  But now I can flatten anyone who crosses us.”

      “Literally,” Miranda said with a throaty chuckle.

      Tarrin nodded.  “This change in my power was just what we needed to be able to just bull our way to  Kimmie.  If we come up against more than we can handle at any one time, I just change into a dragon and sweep them aside.  He shifted slightly, keeping his grip on both children, then looked over at Dolanna.  He could see that she wasn’t sitting well with his intentions, but then again, the look on her face told him that she knew better than to push him.  The expression on his face made it clear that he would not be moved in the matter, and she knew him well enough to understand it.  The breadth of the friendship between them was such that they often communicated with one another without saying a word.

      “Well, then, I must ask, what do we do now?” Dolanna said tentatively.  “Going to cities will be difficult, and we will need supplies.”

      “We go anyway,” Tarrin said bluntly.  “When I said I won’t hide, I meant I will not hide.  If I have to kill a few hundred zealots, then so be it.”

      “Tarrin, you are talking war.”

      “Perhaps it’s about time someone brought a little taste of conflict to the lives of these sheep,” Tarrin growled.  “If they want to hate me and everything that I stand for, then let them see it up close and personal.”

      “Dear one,” she sighed, “let us not backslide.  If you are so intent on this, then I will accept it.  But we do not have to go looking for trouble.”

      “Yeah, it’ll find us all by itself,” Sarraya said with an evil little chuckle.

      “My meaning is, do not become what they think you to be,” she said patiently.  “Show them that they are wrong, not that they are justified to believe as they do.”

      Miranda nodded.  “I’d listen to Dolanna, Tarrin,” she agreed.  “I know your temper’s all up in a knot right now, but think about that once you calm down a little.”

      “I proably will, at least after I calm down some,” he grunted, squeezing the two children in his arms.  “These two are the only reason I’m not out trying to hunt down someone to kill.”

      “I think you being in your human form is helping with that, dear one,” Dolanna said with a slight smile.  “You were ever more reasonable when your human half has greater prominence in your mind.”

      “Are you saying that we’re irrational, Dolanna?” Mist asked gratingly.

      “Yes, Mist, you are,” she said honestly.

      Mist snorted.  “Finally, a human that understands us,” she said, leaning over the stewpot to test its aroma.

      Sarraya laughed.  “Were-cats are easy to understand.  Just stuff a bucket of attitude into a perfume bottle, and you have the average Were-cat.”

      “Let’s not start comparing races, Sarraya.  I wouldn’t want to embarrass all of you,” Miranda said with a cheeky grin.

      “Yeah, like your people are all that impressive, fuzzybutt,” Sarraya shot back.

      Haley and Azakar reined in their horses on the far side of the camp, and Ulger came up just behind them.  They let the horses join the others in the free-roaming miniature herd that made up their horses—they were told not to wander—and the three came over and sat down by the fire.  “There’s no pursuit anywhere,” Ulger announced.  “There was a column of church soldiers that went west from the city, but they’re no threat to us.”  He looked over to Mist.  “That smells good.”

      “It’s not ready,” she said with a warning stare.

      “But I’m hungry,” he complained.

      She held up a single finger and extended her claw.  “Remember what happened last time you stuck your hand in my cooking?”

      He put his hands behind his back.  “Well, the blood did make it taste better,” he admitted.

      “If you’re that hungry, grab some bread out of the food pack,” she told him brusquely as she stirred the stew, then put a lid on it and placed a spit holding several strips of meat beside the hanging kettle.  “As soon as the meat’s cooked, it’ll be ready,” she announced.

      “Well, I think we can unsaddle the horses,” Haley announced.  “I don’t think we’ll need a quick getaway tonight.”

      “I’ll take care of it,” Azakar announced, turning and going back to the horses.

      “I’ll give you a hand, Zak,” Miranda called, then got up and hurried after him.  “I need to learn how to do this.  I don’t know much about horses.”

      “Helping you will keep my mind of of Mist’s stew,” Ulger chuckled, then he turned and went to aid his brother Knight.

      Zyri and Jal refused to let go of him as they ate dinner, and it took quite a bit of coaxing to calm them down and get them to eat something.  Tarrin took that opporunity to change back into his normal form and put on some dry clothes, but they returned to his strong arms as soon as they were finished.  Zyri’s storm of weeping seemed to be over, but she continued to cling to him, keeping her head against his stomach.  Jal, whose exhaustion had finally overwhelmed him, had fallen asleep, and had slumped down into his lap.  Tarrin put a paw on Jal’s back, which was nearly as large as Jal’s back itself, then wrapped his wings around them to give Zyri some additional comfort.  Being surrounded by someone, feeling safe and protected, he felt that she needed that right now.  The others sat around the fire a while, but one by one they drifted off to their tents, until there was only him and Mist.  She sat with him, and he opened his arm and wing to her and let her snuggle up against his other side.  And for the first time in a while, he felt curiously complete.  He had a mate in one arm and a child in the other.  Zyri wasn’t his child, but her need had awakened his strong protective instincts, and at that moment it really didn’t matter that she wasn’t one of his children.  She needed him, and that was all that mattered.

      “I think we don’t do this often enough,” Mist said in contentment, putting her paw on the back of his, which was still resting on Jal’s back.  It still looked a little odd that her paw was almost as large as his.  Mist was only a shade shorter than him now, as towering and regal as Triana.

      “I know,” he agreed.  “Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

      “No,” she answered honestly.  “There’s a time for brute force, and a time for stealth.”

      “But Telven’s going to tell them about us.  We can’t hide.”

      “We can’t hide, but you going around with your wings out will draw every eye to us,” she told him.  “We don’t have to hide to be overlooked.  We’re stalking our prey, Tarrin.  We can’t do that stomping on every dry leaf in the forest.”

      “I know, but,” he said, then he sighed.  Then he chuckled.  “Wasn’t it you you were just agreeing with me?”

      “I agree that we stop sneaking around, but that doesn’t mean I agree with us marching up to Kimmie and inviting every church soldier and Priest to take a shot at us along the way.  You know I’d never tell you what to do, but you asked my opinion.”

      “You always give good advice, Mist.”

      “Odd that I’m agreeing with a human on this one,” she snorted.  “But at least Dolanna won’t pretend like the human way is the only way.  I’ve never met a more arrogant species.”

      “It’s a racial flaw,” he shrugged.

      “I’m amazed that you used to be one of them,” she snorted.

      “Well, we all can’t be perfect,” he answered.  “Now then, feeling better, little bit?”

      Zyri sniffled.  “A little,” she replied in a weak voice.

      “It helps to talk about it, kitling,” Mist said in a surprisingly gentle voice.

      “I can’t believe he’d do that,” she said weakly.  “I can’t believe—“

      “Just let him go, Zyri,” Tarrin told her.  “He’s made his choice.  If he’s old enough to make that choice, then he’s old enough to live with the consequences of his actions.”

      “But he’s my brother!” she protested.

      “And look what he did to you,” Tarrin told her.  “You did nothing wrong, Zyri.  The fault is his.  He’s not a child anymore, little bit.  What he did today was tell you that you don’t have to protect him anymore.  He’s made his first adult decision, honey.  It’s the wrong decision, but it was his to make.  Just don’t dwell on it.  He’s decided what he wants to do with his life.  Don’t let his decision ruin your life.”

      “But, but—“

      “There’s no but, kitling,” Mist told her bluntly.  “The boy’s gone.  Face it.  If he ever does show up again, odds are I’ll kill him.”

      Zyri blanched at Mist.

      “Don’t be surprised, girl.  You listened to Tarrin’s stories, you know what we’re like.  We don’t take well to betrayal.  You can say that that’s the worst thing you can do to a Were-cat, because among us, our word is our bond.  I’m amazed that Tarrin didn’t kill him on the spot, but sometimes he does stupid things.”

      “Thanks,” Tarrin said dryly.

      “Tarrin told you what to do, girl,” she continued.  “You have to live your own life.  You don’t have to look after him anymore, and you don’t have to be Jal’s mother.  So, the question is, what do you want to do?”

      Zyri looked away from her, and put her head against Tarrin’s stomach again. “I don’t know,” she answered in a small voice.

      “Then think about that instead of thinking about that treacherous brother of yours,” she instructed in a cold tone.  “You can’t change the past, so just accept it and move on.  And think about what you want to do with your life instead of worrying about your brothers.  One’s gone, and one has people to watch for him now, so you don’t have to be his mother anymore.”

      Zyri was silent.  Tarrin stroked her back and her dark hair, then patted her shoulders.  She responded by grabbing the edge of his wing in her small hands and playing with the solid fire, tracing her finger along a border between colors that often made the appendages look like they had feathers.

      “Well, if anything, you have time, kitling.  It’s not something you can decide here and now.  But don’t let me catch you moping.”

      “Yes, Mist,” she said quietly.

      “Well, you’re being awfully motherly,” Tarrin teased in the manner of the Cat, which Zyri could not hear or understand.

      “Someone needs to be,” she replied in similar fashion.  “Besides, she looks at you like her father.  It’s only fitting that she feel like she has a mother too.”

      “Strange family,” he mused with a slight smile.

      “You?  Talking about a strange family?  Please,” she retorted.

      “True,” he chuckled aloud.  “Now, little bit, you need to get some sleep.  We’ll have a long day tomorrow.  Go to your tent and get some sleep.”

      “Can I stay with you tonight?” she asked after a moment.  “I, I don’t want to be alone.”

      “Well, I think we can let you, but just for tonight,” Tarrin said after looking at Mist, who nodded.

      “You’ll have to wait a while, though.  Me and Mist are on guard duty,” Tarrin told her.

      “That’s alright,” she said.  “I can stay awake.”

      She was quiet a moment, and Tarrin looked down and saw that she was asleep.  “Riiiiight,” he drawled in a quiet tone.

 

      Finding Kimmie’s trail as it left the city was going to be a problem, but one that had an easy solution.  After everyone was up and ready to go, Tarrin flew very high up into the sky over the city, so high that nobody would notice him, and used Miranda’s spyglass to find the magically marked trail she left behind, for he was the recipient of Miranda’s tracking spell that morning.  Sarraya was with him, so after he saw that she left the city travelling on the road going east, he was supposed to send Sarraya back with the inforamation and wait where they could see him to lead them to the path.  But since it was on the road, he decided that it would be easy enough to find it, so they both returned to the group and forded the river a longspan north of where they were camped, on what looked like a rarely used wagon path.

      Tarrin knew they were all looking at him.  He was riding at the forefront, but after a night of thinking it over, he decided that listening to Dolanna and Mist was the wisest thing to do, so he was in his human form and his wings were concealed.  Mist was right; even if they did know about him and the others, there was no reason to be flaunting himself all over the place and draw every eye to him.  He wasn’t alone in the saddle, however, for Fireflash was on his shoulder, and Jal was riding in the saddle in front of him.  Jal was still a little traumatized by yesterday, so he kept the boy with him to reassure him.  He spent the time following Kimmie’s trail by having Jal use his power, both to get used to how it felt when he did so and to see how much control Jal had over it.

      Not much control at all, he discovered.  Jal could create water and ice, but the ice he created was crudely shaped in the form he wanted it to be.  Tarrin berated him a bit for that, and started trying to teach him how to refine that ability, to make shapes exactly the way he wanted them to be.  Tarrin had no experience with the boy’s power, but he figured that his ability to create ice was similar to a Druid’s Conjuring ability, and it just took a little mental imagry and concentration to get what he was after.  Tarrin demonstrated with fireforms, which, he figured, was a pretty close approximation to what Jal was doing.

      They made little progress that day, though it was an eventful one for its own reasons.  After a half a day of travel, they managed to skirt the farms and come up onto the road and rejoin Kimmie’s trail.  And once on that road, they started meeting other travellers.  The people didn’t panic or run away, which told them all that their descriptions hadn’t gotten out to the commoners quite yet, but they also noticed a steady decline in the number of people that passed by.  After a few hours, they met no more travellers, and Ulger noted darkly that that meant that they were going to run up against a patrol of church soldiers very soon, when word of them got back to a local chapel or roving patrol.

      Ulger’s prediction was quite accurate.  About an hour before sunset, a column of thirty mounted soldiers came trotting over a small rise and bore down on them, then reined in suddenly when they got close enough to see who they were.  This told Tarrin that the church soldiers did know about them, and had been on the lookout for them.  Tarrin handed Jal off to Dolanna and urged his horse forward, ready to change form and kill them the instant they became an obstruction.

      “Stand aside,” Tarrin said in a blunt manner.

      “By order of the One, you will surrender and be tried for the crime of witchcraft!” a thin, reedy looking fellow with a gold tassel hanging from the epaulet of his red uniform called.

      “Boy, I just told you to stand aside,” Tarrin said, staring at him.  But he glanced back and saw Dolanna, saw the reproachful look on her face, then sighed and looked at the situation through her eyes.  If he killed his way to Kimmie, he was going to create a big mess and put his friends in danger.  On the other hand, he was not going to hide who he was.  After all, he saw it as being relatively pointless now, because of Telven.  He had no doubt that every Priest of the One within a hundred leagues knew exactly who he was and what he could do, and knew all about everyone else in their group as well.  So, he had to reach some kind of a compromise between those two needs.

      Haley came up beside him and whispered, “you think you’re commanding enough to get the attention of thirty horses?  They don’t obey me outright all the time.”

      Tarrin chuckled.  “I think I can do that,” he answered, then looked at the officer.  “I’ll tell you one more time, stand aside.  I’m sure you know who I am and what I can do, so, do you really want to fight with me?”

      The man looked a little uncertain, but he drew his sword anyway. “Surrender now!”

      “Fool,” Tarrin snorted, then sat up in the saddle and shouted, changing his inflection to allow the animals to understand him.  “Run that way for a while!” he shouted at the horses, pointing to the north.  “Ignore your riders’ commands!  Run fast and don’t let them dismount!”

      The horses all blinked, looked at one another, then turned north and bolted at a dead run, leaving a wake of startled shouts and cursing.  The officer, who hadn’t had a very good grip on his reins, tumbled out of the saddle after about fifty spans, and was trampled over by about six horses that were running behind his own.  He lay limply in the grass, moaning weakly, and he did not move.

      “Nice,” Haley complemented.  “I never could get that much command into my voice.”

      “Take some lessons from Triana,” Tarrin told him.

      Haley laughed.  “No doubt there,” he agreed.  “You know, eventually they’re going to realize that any soldier on a horse will never get within ten paces of us.”

      “There are always birds,” Tarrin shrugged.  “I think a flock of birds descending on them would make it a little hard for them to charge us.”

      Haley laughed richly.  “We’ll sic an army of squirrels on them,” he said in a devious manner.

      “Chipmunks.  They’re more daring.”

      “I don’t know, I always thought woodchucks were pretty brave,” Haley said seriously as they watched the horses continue to pound to the north.

      “Well, if we want to delve into the realms of utter daring, then we should definitely be looking into otters,” Tarrin replied.  “Think an army of otters would make them quiver in terror?”

      Haley gave him a look, then laughed delightedly.  “Let’s stick with birds,” he said after a deep breath.  “At least they’re always handy.  We might have a tad of a problem rounding up enough otters to make a difference.”

      Azakar walked his horse up to them and regarded the prone officer distantly.  “Cute,” he noted.

      “Thank you,” Tarrin replied soberly.

      “Druids are much more than magic, Zak,” Haley chuckled.  “Make a Druid your enemy, and all of nature is going to be against you.”

      “I’ll remember that,” he said slowly, then urged his horse to continue down the road.

      They camped in a small dell between two low hills, and as Mist cooked, Tarrin made sure to keep Zyri and Jal busy.  Dolanna and Ulger seemed to understand that, so they too kept the children engaged.  While Tarrin worked with Jal to refine his ability, Dolanna taught Zyri a little Sulasian.  Then Ulger took both of them for their sling lesson.  When they were done, and after eating, Tarrin gave them their lesson in bows, then they all sat for a while before going to sleep, engaging in small talk as Tarrin stared up at that strange blue, green, and white moon.  He had the strangest feeling when he looked at it, a feeling that touched on that other part of him, the divine part that was still trying to find itself inside him.  It was distant, but it was a feeling of reaching out, like something, or someone, was desperately trying to talk to him.  He also sensed that something or someone was actively trying to prevent that, an interposing hand between them and Tarrin that sought to block all communication.

      That didn’t take any time to figure out.  He could sense, feel, that there were other gods in this dimension,  so that interposing force had to be the One, striving to prevent those other gods from communicating with Tarrin.

      “Tarrin?” Dolanna said for the fifth time, then she reached out and touched his arm.  Tarrin blinked and looked at her, saw that her dress was soaking wet but had wisps of steam escaping from it, then saw that they were all looking at him.

      “What?”

      “Turn the heat down, hon,” Miranda said with a wink, pointing at the fire.  Tarrin saw that she was standing over by the tents, along with everyone but Dolanna.

      Tarrin looked at it, and saw that the flames were white-hot  He felt the heat against his face, and realized that it was hot enough to melt lead.

      “Oh.  Sorry,” he said, causing the fire to return to normal with barely a thought.

      “Alright, Jal, now try to pull the water from my dress,” Dolanna instructed, holding her arms out.  “And thank you, dear one.  You kept it from bursting into flame.  That was quick thinking, child.”

      Jal blushed and gave her a sheepish smile.  Tarrin watched as the boy closed his eyes and screwed his face up in concentration, holding his hands out to Dolanna.  Then, with surprising suddenness, the water saturating her dress pulled out of the fabric in ropy tendrils, collecting into a gyrating ball in front of him.  He collected up enough water to make a ball the size of a sora melon, then froze it solid with a single touch.

      “Well done, nice and dry,” Dolanna said with quiet praise, which made Jal blush again.  “What was that about, dear one?” she asked Tarrin.

      “I, I could sense someone trying to talk to me,” he answered, looking at the moon again.  “But I also sensed someone trying to block it.  I think the other gods of this world are trying to contact me, but the One is interfering.”

      “There are other gods?” Zyri asked in surprise.

      “Of course there are,” Tarrin chided.  “I’ve sensed them before, when we first arrived here.  But after that, they fell silent.  I never thought to wonder why until now, because I’ve always had other things on my mind.”

      “Perhaps it would be worth our while to try to contact them,” Dolanna suggested.  “Given the One’s positions, they must be against him.  Perhaps they can give us information that will aid us in finding Kimmie.  Perhaps they can talk to her.”

      Tarrin shook his head.  “They can’t,” he told her.  “She doesn’t know about them or believe in them.  A god can’t talk directly to a mortal who doesn’t acknowledge his existence.”

      “That is a rule of our world, dear one.  This is not Sennadar,” she reminded him pointedly.

      “I know, but it’s still possible that it applies here.  There are certain rules that apply to all gods, set by the God of All Himself.  That might be one of them, I’m not sure.”

      “Who?” Zyri asked.

      “The God of All,” Tarrin told her absently.  “The Creator of all the universes.  This world may have been created by a god, little bit, but this universe was created by the God of All.  He creates a universe and brings into being a single god within it, who he directs to run his or her universe as he sees fit.  On my world, that first god, or goddess in this case, is Ayise.  I don’t know who that is here, but I’m certain it’s not the One.”

      “How do you know?”

      “A primary god like a first god has unlimited power, little bit.  If the One were that god, we’d all be dead.  He could kill us with a thought.”

      “Then how can the Goddess blackmail Ayise if she has ultimate power?” Azakar asked curiously.

      “Because she set the rules on Sennadar about how gods control the forces of the universe, and she’s bound by them as much as any other god, Zak.  She can’t just change them when they don’t suit her.  Niami’s using those rules to blackmail her mother into letting me come home.”

      “Well, why can’t she?  After all, she has unlimited power.”

      “When a god makes a contract, they must honor it, Zak,” Tarrin told him.  “It’s one of those rules that the God of All set down.  When Ayise created the system that the gods of Sennadar use, she placed herself inside that system, and because of that she’s bound by its rules as much as any other Elder or Younger god.  If she’d just kept herself aloof of her system, the she would be able to blow Niami off.  There’s also the fact that Ayise actively invested some of her power into her children.  She doesn’t have unlimited power anymore, Zak.  When she had her children, she gave each of them some of her own power.  In a way, if you look at the ten Elder Gods, you can say that the other nine are just extensions of Niami’s power, each with a different focus.  But they’re individuals, truly her children, so when she gave away her power to create the Elder Gods, she ended up placing her power into gods that weren’t just simple extensions of herself.”

      “Ah.  I think I understand.  Ayise wanted to run the universe with others, not all by herself.”

      “That’s the general gist of it, Zak,” Miranda said with a wink.  “Ayise is female, so the motivation to have children and nurture them most likely is the reason why she did what she did.  A male first god probably would have kept all his power for himself.”

      “I never thought that gender would really matter,” Azakar said.  “I thought gods would be above that.  I thought they were male or female because they wanted to be.”

      Miranda and Tarrin looked at each other, and laughed.  “Zak, the concept of gender is a multidimensional constant,” Tarrin told him.  “The two primal forces in the universe, animus and anima, know no boundaries.  Think of gender as an aspect of the power of the God of All, reaching into every universe.”

      “Why is that?” Zyri asked, then flushed and bowed her head.

      “Because the primary focus of the God of All is to create,” he answered her.  “To make sure of that, the forces of animus and anima infuse the multiverse, and their influence encourages creation.  That’s why, no matter which universe you visit, you are absolutely guaranteed to find one common denominator anywhere you go.”

      “Males and females,” Ulger surmised.

      Tarrin nodded.  “Males and females.  And it’s more than physical, as we all know.  Animus has a different way of thinking than anima, so there’s a fundamental difference in how males act than females.  The way that shows up differs from race to race, but males almost always have different ways of doing things than females do.  That’s one way animus and anima maintain separation.”

      “That’s the truth,” Sarraya snickered.

      “There are some exceptions, though.  There always are, both in nature and among some societies.  The Selani are a good example of that.  Males and females do act differently, but you have to pay very close attention to see it.  They all seem the same to people who don’t know them.”

      “Where did you learn all this, Tarrin?” Ulger asked curiously.

      In answer, Tarrin brought out his wings, then fanned them a little ostentatiously.

      “Oh,” Ulger said, then he laughed.

      “They do more than decorate my back, Ulger,” Tarrin said with a slight smile.

      “Well, I’ve noticed that you and Mist don’t act too different,” Azakar said slowly.  “No offense,” he said quickly, looking at Mist.

      “None taken,” Mist told him.  “Though if you think me and Tarrin act alike, you need to pay more attention.”

      “We’re were-cats, Zak,” Tarrin explained.  “We have something else influencing us that doesn’t worry about gender.  Besides, Mist is right.  If you think me and her act alike, you do need to pay more attention.”

      Ulger yawned.  “Well, this is interesting and all, but we’d better draw for guard duty so I can see if I can get some sleep.”

      “I’ll take first watch,” Tarrin volunteered.

      “I wonder why the first god here doesn’t do anything,” Sarraya mused.

      “Odds are, he simply doesn’t care,” Tarrin shrugged.  “A god whose primary focus is keeping the universe running usually doesn’t have time to pay attention to the little things like the One.”  He sat down by the fire, which was burning without wood now, but burning brightly and cheerfully in the firepit.  The bottoms of his wings bent in from contact with the ground, and he absently shortened them to take that into account.  Ulger was standing up and stretching, but Dolanna was staring at him in a curious manner, then she sat down before him.  “What?” he asked her, noticing rather uncomfortably that she was staring at him intently.

      “Dear one,” she said hesitantly.  “Would you do something for me without asking questions?”

      “Sure,” he answered, “but why—“

      She reached up and put her fingers on his lips to silence him.  “Bring out your sword, dear one.”

      Not sure what she had in mind, he obeyed her, calling forth his sword from the elsewhere.  “Alright, here—“

      “Take hold of your amulet, dear one, and try to contact Kimmie.”

      “I—“

      “No questions,” she interrupted.  “Just do it.”

      He sighed.  “Alright,” he agreed as he took his amulet in his paw.  “Kimmie.”

      There was nothing, at least at first.  But after a few seconds, he felt a strange sensation coming from the amulet, as if it was trying to work.  “Put your will behind it, dear one,” Dolanna told him.  “Treat it like a weave.”

      Without moving, Tarrin did as she directed, exerting his will against the amulet, treating the device like it was a weave he had created, something that required concentration to weave and maintain.  “Kimmie,” he called again, with more authority in his voice.

      He distinctly felt something, and there was a faint light touching his eyes from below.  He glanced down, and again saw the blade of his sword limned in ghostly radiance, like wisps of solid light, floating and ghosting around the black blade like smoke.  He nearly lost his concentration when he saw that, but he also felt a sudden surge of power rise up in the sword, surge into him through his grip on the hilt, a power that felt so much like the power of Sorcery that he could not have told them apart.  He directed that power into his amulet almost by instinct, and brightly light erupted from between his fingers as the device flared into incandescence.  The muted flows in his amulet surged with power, and that power reached out, he felt it reach out, spanning an unknown gap.

      “T-Tarrin?  Am I going crazy?” Kimmie’s voice weakly emanated from between his fingers.

      “Kimmie!” Tarrin said in surprise as more than one person by the fire gaped in astonishment.  “Kimmie, we’ve come to get you!  Where are you?”

      “Tarrin!  Oh, Tarrin!  Is it really you?  Am I dreaming?  Oh, please don’t tell me I’m dreaming!”

      Tarrin exchanged confused looks with Mist.  “Kimmie, what’s wrong?  Where are you?  Where is Phandebrass?”

      “I don’t—“ she started, and then there was a strange taint that floated across his fingers.  “Well, I see you finally figured out how to use the amulets.”

      Tarrin’s face turned white, because he knew that voice.  It was a voice he thought he’d never hear again.  “Shaz’Baket!” Tarrin said in an ominous growl.  The Marilith general of Val’s armies!  The last he’d seen of her, she cut Eron’s throat and left him for dead just before abducting Jasana!  “If you—“

      “Oh please, spare me the empty threats,” she said scathingly.  “As you’ve probably deduced by now, your little playmate belongs to me.  You see, after getting banished from Sennadar, I’ve been looking for a way to pay you back for destroying my Master.  Well, it was just luck that Kimmie happened to wander away from the protection of your gods, and the One graciously agreed to allow me to come here to give me that opportunity.  But she’s not the one I want, Tarrin Kael.  You are.”

      “If you want me, witch, you’ll get more of me than you ever dreamed,” he hissed.

      “Oh, I’ve heard,” she replied in an infuriatingly conversational tone.  “A demigod now, I’ve found out.  Turns out you weren’t god enough to slay my Master without dying yourself, and lost most of your power when your cursed Goddess found some miracle to bring you back.  Demons quiver in fear when they realize they may come up against you.  Certainly, a lowly little marilith like myself could never defeat someone as mighty as you.  But you see, I don’t have to,” she said with a chuckle.  “Turns out that you’ve pissed off the One something fierce, Tarrin Kael, and he’d like to have a little chat with you.  But he wants that little encounter to take place where everyone can see him grind you into the dust.  He didn’t think that you’d come and face him without a little, incentive.  It’s just lucky that I happened along.  I’m providing you with sufficient motivation to come face the One, and the One gets to destroy you, which is what I wanted in the first place.

      “So, Tarrin Kael, the One extends an invitation for you to come to Pyros and face him in a duel, where he will destroy you.  You don’t have to do that, though, but if you don’t, then Kimmie becomes my new toy.  I’m sure you know what Demons do with the souls of the mortals they possess, Tarrin Kael,” she said in an evil little whisper.  “If you don’t want that for Kimmie, then come to Pyros and just try to defeat a god.”

      Tarrin made no sound, but the light around his sword suddenly blazed forth into white fire, a clear indication of his anger and outrage.  That white started staining the wings on his back, as pure, incandescent white infused the wings where they extended from his back and crept steadily towards the edges in a ragged, irregular pattern.  Tarrin rose up onto his feet, his face an icy, emotionless mask.  “I’ll crush your soul like an egg, Demon,” Tarrin said in a barely audible voice, but in a tone that made Dolanna crawl back from him in sudden, inexorable fear.  “No matter what it takes.  I’ll make you pay.”

      “Then I’ll take that as an acceptance of my offer,” she said with morbid enthusiasm.  “Oh, and don’t think that we’ll just let you waltz into Suld like a visiting carnival,” she chuckled.  “The One is still coming after you, because he wants to kill everyone with you first.  He wants you to suffer before putting you out of your misery, and I know you oh so well, Tarrin Kael,” she said with an evil little lilt in her voice.  “The best way to make you suffer is to make those you love suffer.  How will it feel to know that you have to stay with the others to keep them alive, but that delay leaves Kimmie in my tender care that much longer?  You’ll keep them alive, but every day you’ll know that she’s suffering, and that you could put an end to it simply by abandoning the others.  I will sing her sweet screams to you every night,” she promised in a dreadfully eager voice.

      Tarrin’s eyes exploded from within with the unholy green aura that marked his anger, and his wings lost their usual smooth composition, flames rising up from the surface that was now reds, oranges, and yellows mixed with snowy white.  His vision began to blur over with red as the impact of the Demoness’ words sank into his mind, and an image of Kimmie being tortured by that soulless monster every day quickly caused his temper to boil over.  The fire beside him roared up into a pillar of fire that reached halfway to the heavens, the air around him shimmered and took on a palpable aura as his power superheated the air around him, and the searing heat of both it and him assaulted the others and caused the horses to turn and run in fear.

      “Uh, Dolanna,” Ulger said fearfully.

      “Now we run,” Dolanna said sagely and with authority.

      “Dolanna?  What’s wrong?” Zyri asked as Dolanna took her hand, then she yelped when the small woman yanked on it as she broke into a run, forcing the girl to keep up or be dragged.

      “Everyone, back!” Dolanna shouted.  “Move away from him now!”

      “Dolanna!” Zyri squealed.  “What’s happening?”

      “Tarrin’s going to rage, that’s what!” Sarraya said fearfully as she buzzed by the girl.  “And we don’t wanna be anywhere near him when he loses it!”

      But not everyone was running away from him.  Mist was instead lunging towards her mate, and Dolanna had turned just in time to see her action.  She was virtually floating through the air as she vaulted at her mate, rising up about ten spans above the ground before descending on a trajectory that would take her right to her mate.  Dolanna saw that she had the empty stewpot in her paws, holding it behind her, and she also saw that Tarrin did not seem to comprehend that Mist was hurtling at him.  She lanced through the air, breaching the shimmering aura that surrounded him, which caused her clothing and her fur to literally burst into flame.  Tarrin did snap his head up to look at her, but only after she was too close to do anything about it, for she whipped the stewpot around with a savage cry, swinging it like a weapon, and she aimed it right at his head.

      The impacting clong was so loud that it made everyone stop in their tracks.  The cast iron pot hit Tarrin right in the temple, and the raw, naked force behind the blow caused the sturdy pot to buckle.  Tarrin’s head was snapped to the side with a spray of blood, as well soaring skin, hair, and bits of bone, as the pot ripped away his scalp and the nubs that served as legs ripped into his skull.  The pot could do him no true harm, for it was a worked object, not a weapon of nature, but the raw power behind it, wielded by a Were-cat who was nearly as stong as he was, was more than enough to cause the impact of it to knock him senseless, as well as give him a concussion.  Tarrin was flung to the side, through the pillar of fire that was his own creation, his sword spinning from his paw.  It landed point first in the ground and stayed there, wobbling back and forth in the ground as its master collapsed onto his side in a boneless heap, where he did not move.  Mist slowly got to her feet as fire licked at her clothes and in her fur, throwing down the destroyed pot and regarding her mate with eerily emotionless eyes, but she flinched and gapsed when a torrent of water deluged over her.  Jal had run back, and was using his ability to inundate Mist, a large jet of water emanating from his hands as he extinguished the fires burning on her.

      She paid him not a whit of notice, for after standing there a moment as if stunned, she rushed to her mate’s side, picking his head up off the ground and seeing that he had already healed.  The others also rushed back as Mist carefully checked her mate, and saw that he was merely unconscious.  She had done him no permanent injury.

      “Mist!” Dolanna said in a frightened tone.  “Are you alright?”

      “I’m fine, Dolanna,” Mist said grimly, collecting her mate up in her arms.  “I need to get him to his bed.”

      “That was very fast thinking, dear one,” Dolanna told her.  “Are you hurt?”

      “I’m a little cooked, but I’ll be alright,” she answered in that same emotionless tone.  Dolanna looked at her, and realized that Mist herself was but one step from flying into a rage as well.  Kimmie was her daughter, after all, and they had all heard the terrible proclamation issued by the Demon who had somehow used Kimmie’s amulet to speak to them.

      “I, see,” Dolanna said hesitantly.  “Say what it is you need, and it is yours.  We are yours to command.”

      “Just bring me some water and stay out of my way,” she answered, looking down at the diminutive woman with eyes that flickered from within with the greenish aura that marked an angry Were-cat.  Mist was somehow controlling her Cat nature, actively trying to suppress a rage, something that Dolanna knew she had never done before.

      “Zyri, stop!” Miranda snapped demandingly.

      Dolanna turned to look, and saw that the girl was reaching for the hilt of Tarrin’s sword, her eyes wide and her expression shaken.

      “Dear child, never touch that sword!” Dolanna told her quickly and intensely.

      “I, I wanted to take it back to him,” she told them in surprise.

      “Leave it where it is, kiddo,” Ulger told her seriously, coming up beside her and putting his hand on her shoulder.  “That’s not something that any of us messes with.  When Tarrin wakes up, he’ll get it.  Until then, it stays right where it is.”
      “Is it dangerous?” she asked.

      “If Tarrin’s not holding it, yes, it’s very dangerous,” Miranda told her.

      Mist snorted, detouring just enough to march over to the sword.  She grabbed hold of the hilt without a second thought, and then pulled it out of the ground.  “It won’t hurt me,” she told them gratingly.  “Now soemone hold open the tent flap so I can get Tarrin in bed.”

 

      He first became aware of pain behind his eyes.  It was a dull pain, and it messed with his ears in a way that made him feel like he was both falling and spinning at the same time.  It also darted in and out of his thoughts, scattering them whenever they tried to organize.  He was able to take control of his senses, though, and knew that Mist was in his tent with him, but that she smelled like burnt hair.

      He grunted quietly and opened his eyes, but found his vision both blurred and doubled.  Two hazy images of Mist appeared to his eyes, leaning over him, her visage so distorted that only the scent of her told him who it was.  The image of her sharpened and then became recognizable, but she didn’t smile.  He could smell her tension, her pent-up anger.  Whatever was keeping her from exploding was beyond him, because she was but a hair’s breadth from flying into a rage.

      “Do you remember what happened?” Mist asked immediately, still staring at him with those penetrating eyes.

      “You hit me with the stewpot,” he said in a flinty tone, then he sighed.  “Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome,” she answered emotionlessly.  “Do you remember the rest?”

      The mere mention of that caused his wings to flare with bright light, and his eyes to limn over in green.  Just the thought of Kimmie in clutches of that monster was enough to send him spiraling into a rage, but Mist’s paws closed over his quickly.  “Not here,” she told him intensely.  “Not now.”

      “You’re, you’re right,” he said, blowing out his breath.  “Did I hurt anyone?”

      “No,” she replied.  “I got to you before you could.  What do we do now?”

      “What can I do, Mist?” he sighed.  “I can’t leave the others.  That bitch knows that, that’s why she taunted me with it.”

      “How will they know?”

      “Mist, love, this is the One’s territory.  If he’s anything like the Younger Gods back home, he can see anything important that goes on here, and I leave way too much of a footprint to move around without attracting his attention, so he can see what we’re doing.  If I leave, he can send his troops, or even worse, Demons, after everyone else.  The instant I leave, the rest of you will be swarmed.”

      “They have to catch us, Tarrin.”

      “Demons, Mist.  All they have to know is where we are, and they can Teleport right to us.  If I leave, you’ll get a face full of Demon.”

      “If they can do that, why haven’t they done it by now?” she asked pointedly.

      “I, I don’t really know,” he answered honestly.  “They can do it.  Why they haven’t done it is a mystery to me.  After all, if the One wanted to get rid of me, he could just summon up a few hundred Demons and sic them on us.”

      “He wants to kill you himself,” Mist told him.

      “No, he intends to face me because he’s the only one who can kill me,” he answered.  “The question is why make me come to Pyros?  Why not face me here, away from any civilization?”

      “You can ask him that just before you rip out his heart,” Mist told him in a cold, concentrated manner.

      “That’s a promise,” he answered with narrowed eyes.

      “You don’t touch the Demon bitch, Tarrin,” Mist warned him, flexing her fingers as her eyes exploded from within with green light, and her ears laid back.  “She has my daughter, and that matters much more than what she means to you.  The Demon is mine.”

      At that moment, Tarrin felt a fleeting feeling of pity for Shaz’Baket.  If the Demoness could look into Mist’s eyes at that very moment, she would know true fear.  On Sennadar, there were three understood rules which all life followed.  Be in harmony with nature, be in harmony with the gods, and never make Mist angry.

      He put his paw on her cheek, and she patted the back of it fondly.  “Do you feel well enough to move?  We’re breaking camp and moving on.”

      “Are the others ready?”

      “No, but they will be,” she answered brusquely.

      “What time is it?”

      “Midnight, more or less.”

      “They’re asleep?”

      “No.”

      “Have they slept at all?”

      “I don’t think so.  They’re waiting to see if you’ll be alright.”

      Tarrin got up.  “We should move now, if only because the One’s troops have to travel to reach us.  And I know they’re coming, so we shouldn’t make it easy for them.”  He glanced at his wings, then folded them behind him rather than retract them.  “We can stop somewhere and get some rest, then move on.”  He looked at her.  “Let’s pack.”

       “I’ll do it, you go out there and make the others get ready.”

      He nodded, kissed her on the cheek, then burst from the tent.  The others were already standing, having heard him talking, and Fireflash zipped from Haley’s shoulder and landed on his, chirping and rubbing the side of his head against Tarrin’s neck affectionately.  “Are you well, dear one?” Dolanna asked carefully.

      “Mist knocked the rage out of me,” he answered curtly.  “Everyone pack.  We’re moving.”

      “Pyros?” Ulger asked in a serious manner.  Tarrin looked at him, and saw that the Knight was tense, like a man about to do war.

      “As soon as we find out which way to go,” he answered.  “So we’re going north.  We’ll accost the first person we find to get directions, and start out.  We have to get to Kimmie as quickly as we can.”

      “The other question we must answer is what happened to Phandebrass,” Dolanna said grimly.  “Dear one, before we move, contact him.  We must know if he was captured.”

      Tarrin nodded, and realized his sword wasn’t in the elsewhere.  “Where is my sword?”

      “Mist took it to your tent,” Sarraya answered him.

      “Mist touched it?” he asked in shock.

      “It did her no harm,” Dolanna told him quickly.  “I think it knows her, or knows that she is your mate.  It did not strike at her.”

      With but a thought, Tarrin called to the sword, and it responded by floating quickly through the opened tentflap and to his waiting paw.  He closed his paw around it as his other went to the amulet, and then he set his will against the amulet.  “Phandebrass,” he called as the sword’s blade again limned over in ghostly radiance, almost like Magelight, and spots of white appeared within his wings.

      “I say, Tarrin!  Thank the gods you finally arrived!  I say, where are you, lad, and how are you making the amulet function?  There’s no Weave here!”

      “I have no idea,” he growled.  “What happened?  I just found Kimmie.  The church of the One has her.”

      “Aye, nasty business, that was.  I just barely managed to escape, and I’d be dead if not for Kimmie.  We were ambushed by a few dozen Demons.  Kimmie used the Shadow Step spell on me about an instant before a Vrock  took my head off with a polearm, she did.  I say, I still get a strange feeling across my neck when I think of how close that was.  I say, anyway, the spell teleported me about a longspan away, and I’ve been on the run ever since, I have.  Where are you, lad?”

      “About half a day south of a city called Dengal,” he answered.  “We need to find you, Phandebrass, but we can’t go out of our way.  The One is using Kimmie to force me to come to Pyros and fight him, and every day she’s in their prison is a day they can torture her.  So I’m going to Pyros to get her back.  One way or another,” he said grimly.

      “I say, lad, I can meet you along the way.  I’m in Pyros right now, I am, and I’ve been trying to find a way to break Kimmie free.  I also have some new friends you should meet.  They’re part of the Shadows, a group of Elementalists and Wizards that help find people and get them to safety before the One’s Priests kill them.  I say, I’m glad you’re here, I am.  I’ve had a bear of a time trying to get Kimmie out.  I can start on the road to Dengal right now and we can meet in the middle.”

      “He may be of more use to us there,” Dolanna said.  “Especially if he has met other magic-users that might help us.”

      Tarrin nodded.  “Just stay in Pyros, Phandebrass, and find out everything you can about where they have Kimmie, how many people are guarding her, the layout of the city, anything you think might be useful to us when we go get her.  And if you think you have a chance to get her out before we get there, by all means, take that chance.  We can’t let them keep her any longer than absolutely necessary.  But don’t get caught!  We need your help to do what the Goddess needs done before we can leave, so don’t get yourself killed.”

      “I say, lad, I’ll do my best to be careful, I will,” he promised.  “How are you doing this?” he demanded.

      “I honestly have no idea,” he replied.  “I just am.  Do you still have your spellbooks?” he asked impulsively.

      “Not all of them, no,” he answered.  “I lost my full set when Kimmie shadow stepped me to safety.  All I have left are my travelling spellbooks and everything I was wearing when she stepped me.  I say, I’ll just have to be careful not to lose them, I will.”

      Tarrin felt a sudden pang of concern.  “Which spells did you lose?”

      “I say, none, lad, none at all,” he replied.  “I have three of Phandebrass’ Collapsible Spellbooks, my own creation,” he said proudly, “and they hold all the spells I have, they do.  But I’m down to my last set of books, I am, so I have to be very careful with them.  If I lose these, I’m up a tree, I am.”

      Tarrin sighed in relief.  “Good.  I’ll try to contact you every other day or so to make sure you’re alright.”

      “I’ll do what I can, lad.  Kimmie’s one of my best friends, and I want her out of there, I do.  I say, are you alone, or do you have others with you?”

      “I have Dolanna, Miranda, Mist, Ulger, Azakar, and Sarraya.  Haley’s also here, but I don’t think you know him.”

      “We’ve met a few times.  I say, courteous fellow, well-mannered, he is.  Sarraya?  She’s not dead?”

      “She had a plan to get around that,” Tarrin said, giving Sarraya look.  The Faerie preened herself shamelessly.

      “Don’t let me start prattling, lad,”  Phandebrass said seriously.  “I know that we both want Kimmie out of the One’s prison and safe as quickly as possible, so I won’t hold you up, I won’t.  I’ll do everything I can to get ready for you when you get here, so we can go right after her.  If you’re in Dengal, then you’re about nine days away from Pyros.  It lies on the road that goes, dear me, let me get my map, hold on.”

      There was a protracted pause, and Tarrin spent that time looking at the others.  They were all tense, wary, but Zyri and Jal looked afraid and confused.  But there was a singular sense of urgency that seemed to emanate from everyone now.  They all know what dire straits Kimmie was in right now, and they all wanted to rescue her as quickly as possible…even the usually addled Phandebrass, who was showing uncharacteristic focus on the matter at hand.

      “Thanks much, Lorak,” Phandebrass’ voice came from the amulet again.  “Lorak gave me a map.  Unrolling it now, I am.  Here we are.  The road that leaves from the east side of Dengal is the road to Pyros, lad.  It turns to the north, and you’ll go through six villages and two good-sized cities along the way, Brund and Varga.”  There was a pause.  “Lorak says he can send word towards you to the circles of Shadows in the cities to be on the lookout for you, and help you if you need it.”

      “We won’t need it,” Tarrin said in a quiet tone.  “Trust me, Phandebrass, nobody’s going to miss me when I come that way.  I’m not going to hide.  You might want to tell this Lorak to get his people out of those cities.  I’m coming for Kimmie, and I’ll destroy anything and everything that gets in my way.”

      There was a lengthy pause.  “Very well, lad,” Phandebrass said seriously.  “I’ll have Lorak pull his people out of Brund and Varga.  No, Lorak, I’m not joking.  I say, when Tarrin says something like that, he’s not joking, he’s not, and he’s the kind of magic-user that can back up his claims.  I say, we’ll know he’s close to Pyros because of the columns of smoke that are rising into the sky behind him.  I say, there won’t be a chapel or temple to the One left standing between Dengal and Pyros, and the road’ll be littered with dead church soldiers.”

      “I’m glad you understand,” Tarrin told Phandebrass bluntly.

      “All too well, lad.  And hit a few of them for me as you come north.  I’m rightly incensed, I am.”

      “I can do that.”

      “Alright then, lad, contact me again in two days.  I say, I hope to have some information ready for you by then, I do.  Until then, be well, and good luck.”

      “You too.  Be safe.”

      “Good journey,” Phandebrass said, and he Tarrin took his paw off the amulet.

      Tarrin regarded the others with narrow eyes.  “Anyone have any objections?” he asked bluntly, looking right at Dolanna.

      She sighed.  “No, dear one.  Any objection I make will be ignored.  And I feel the same outrage as you.  It is clear from the words of the Demoness that they know where we are, so it will be pointless to hide.  So if we cannot hide to move quickly, then we will ride proudly and with heads held high, and drive our way through like a Wikuni clipper cutting the waves of a storm.”

      And with that, she rather pointedly reached into the bodice of her dress, withdrew her silver shaeram, and set it outside her blue dress, displaying it for everyone to see.

      “Nobody touches little Kimmie that doesn’t become a crusade for the Knights,” Ulger said flatly, punching his fist into the open palm of his other hand.  “As Karas gives me strength, we’ll ride through them like Death Himself and take her back from that unholy god and his Demon pets.”

      “Aye,” Azakar agreed with hard eyes.  “She’s family to a Knight, so that makes her one under Karas.  It’s only unfortunate that we don’t have more brothers here to exact vengeance.  I’d like to see how brave these churchmen are when a column of Knights comes riding over the hill.”

      Tarrin looked down at his sword, which was still glowing with wispy light.  Now that he was looking at it, aware of it, he sensed the power it held more clearly, and felt that power respond to his awareness.  He realized that the sword was using Sorcery, it was in touch with the Weave.  He could feel it clearly.  It was somehow reaching through the dimensional boundary between Sennadar and this world and making contact with the Weave.

      He had no idea how it was doing it, but it was.  The sword was bringing the power of Sorcery into this new world, and Tarrin had drawn on that power when he had used the amulets, had used the power the sword had drawn to fuel the weaves in the amulet to make them work.  He drew on that power once more, weaving a simple spell of Fire and Air which caused a ball of light to appear over his palm.

      There was no joy in this discovery.  There was only relief that he had access to another tool he might need to deal with the One and his Demons.  The power was substantially weaker than what he was used to, and it required a supreme amount of his own energy and concentration to control it, as he was weaving from power drawn literally from another world, but even that weak power might make a tremendous difference.  After all, it wasn’t the power, it was how it was used.  There was a great deal he could do with this power, especially if….

      “Dolanna,” he said, looking at her.  “Can you feel it?”

      Her eyes were wide, and a bit wild.  “Yes, I can!” she answered immediately.  She reached out towards the sword, and then he felt it respond to her, allowed her to touch the power within and draw it out.  She wove a spell of Air and Fire, creating a silvery sheen of light to sparkle between her hands.  “I can touch it!” she exclaimed.

      “Is that Sorcery, Dolanna?” Haley asked in surprise.

      “Yes, Haley, yes!  Tarrin’s sword has somehow made contact with the Weave!  The power within it is very weak, but it is there, and I can draw on it!  It is like weaving through a projection, but it at least is something!”

      “That’s how he made the amulet work!” Sarraya said, snapping her fingers.  “Where it was drawing power from the Weave at home, now it’s drawing power from him!”

      “Yes, Sarraya, I suspected as much earlier, because our items still function even without the Weave.  I knew that something has to be powering them, and now we know.  It is Tarrin’s sword!”

      “That’s nice to know.  Now let’s pack,” Miranda announced.  “One of my best friends is being held by a Demon, and that’s not going stay that way for long.”

      “Aye!” Ulger boomed, pounding his fist into his palm again.

      Tarrin looked at them, his glowing sword in his paw, and he felt both towering fury that Kimmie was being held and was suffering, but also tremendous relief and pride in his friends.  They felt as he did, and they would not falter, no matter how hard the path to Pyros would be.  He knew that with them, with their help, Kimmie was as good as home already.

      It was just a matter of going to fetch her.