Weavespinner

by James Galloway

  "Triana hasn't caught her yet?"

  "From what I've heard, she tried," Ianelle said. "But the one Jesmind attacked Triana and actually managed to get away from her."

  "Jesmind attacked Triana?" Tarrin gasped. Maybe nobody would have to worry about Jesmind for much longer. Triana probably wouldn't take very kindly to that. It seemed shocking that Jesmind would attack her own mother, but then again, she'd been really mad. Triana herself said that when a Were-cat was enraged, they were capable of such drastic actions.

  "Just outside the main Tower," she nodded. "It was over quickly. I think the attack startled Triana, and that was enough for Jesmind to get away from her. They've cleared the Tower halls, and the Wikuni is laying a trap for Jesmind by putting down a magical false scent trail. They're going to lead her into a position where she can't get away."

  "They may need some help."

  "They have it," Ianelle noted. "There's another Were-cat with Triana now, a very short one with short black hair. She looks more than capable of handling Jesmind. She's quite intimidating."

  "That would be Mist," Jenna chuckled humorlessly. "You're right about that. Jesmind couldn't possibly get past Mist."

  Tarrin remembered the stories he'd heard of her. Mist was the mother of his son, and she was one mean, ornery Were-cat. Triana had left the Tower to bring her here, he was sure of it. Had she brought his son as well? Why had Triana done that? It worried him, unsettled him, that Triana would bring yet another Were-cat to the Tower, and one that had such a big stake in things as she did. He had no doubt that Mist was going to be just like Jesmind and Kimmie, and would do anything she could in order to make him change back.

  "Anyway, as you requested, here she is," Ianelle said, pushing Auli forward. "Explain yourself, daughter. Have you any idea how much trouble you've caused?"

  "I didn't cause any of this," she said indignantly. "What me and Tarrin do is none of her business. I made sure that Tarrin wasn't attached to anyone first."

  "But you completely ignored it when he warned you this may happen."

  "I can handle that fleabag."

  "That fleabag will tear you apart if she gets her claws in you," Ianelle snapped. "And your magic won't be enough to stop her. She's a Were-cat, foolish girl. She has her own magic, and had she caught you, you would have found out that your Sorcery would not have saved you."

  Auli glared a little at her mother, but said nothing.

  Ianelle pushed Auli into the chair beside his, and even after all this, he found himself thinking about the night they'd shared. The trap she had woven was still working on him. "What possessed you to push things this far, girl?" Ienalle demanded. "I've been told what happened. That you've been following him around, trying to seduce him for several days now. Explain yourself!"

  "He said no to me," she said in a challenging manner, as if that explained everything.

  Ianelle looked about ready to explode. "That's it?" she said incredulously. "All this was over your ego? How shallow and self-centered can you be, daughter?" she raged. "Have I taught you nothing about our proud traditions and your heritage?"

  "Those are your traditions and your heritage!" Auli shouted, standing up and facing her mother. "I didn't want to come here! I wanted to stay in Sha'Kari and live the life I had! But no, you and the other Elders had to drag us back to this doghouse of a Tower and impose the most ridiculous restrictions on us! I was happy there, and I mean to be happy here! And if being happy means seducing a man I find very handsome and attractive, then that's exactly what I'm going to do!" Auli snorted almost like Triana, then sat back down.

  Ianelle didn't seem to be quite as easy with the confession. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she actually balled her fist. Sha'Kar were pacifists, but sometimes Tarrin thought that Ianelle was pacifistic only because of her adherance to tradition. At that moment, she looked about ready to slap her daughter across the face, and the slight twitch in the corner of Auli's lip told him that Auli wouldn't be surprised to have it happen either. "I think I need to have a little talk with Auli," Jenna said in a commanding tone, heading off any such outburst.

  "I will deal with you later," she promised in a harsh tone. "Will you need anything further of me, honored one?"

  "No, Ianelle. Give me a little time with Auli."

  "As you wish," she said with a curtsy, then she swept regally from the room.

  Auli sat silently, and Tarrin felt a little uncomfortable as Jenna leaned forward on her elbows on her desk, fingers interlaced, looking at the two of them like some kind of instructor catching students passing notes. "So," she finally said. "This was nothing more than seeing if you could." Auli was silent, simply sitting there and giving the Keeper a slightly challenging look. "And you did. I guess for that, you can feel proud. But I don't think you ever once stopped to think what success may mean, did you?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "It's very simple, Auli. What do you think is going to happen now?"

  Auli was silent a moment, then she put her hands in her lap demurely. "Nothing much," she answered. "Jesmind is going to calm down, and then things will get back to normal."

  "For you, I guess they might," she agreed. "Oh, you're going to have a big fight with your mother, but I get the feeling that that happens all the time." Auli smiled a little at that. "But you never thought about what's going to happen to Tarrin, did you?"

  Her amused look faded.

  "I didn't think so. You just put him in all sorts of trouble."

  "She's not his girlfriend," she said defensively.

  "No, but she thinks she is," she pointed out. "And that's all that really matters for her, isn't it? Just like getting Tarrin was all that mattered to you."

  Auli was silent, and she didn't look quite as confident as she did before.

  "All this over the fact that you couldn't accept the fact that Tarrin said no," she sighed. "Now then, I want you to listen to this. Now Tarrin is going to have all the Were-cats angry with him, and that's going to make it very hard for him to see his daughter. He spends alot of time with her, and he loves her very much, and now he's not going to be able to do that as much as he'd like. Your need to satisfy your ego is going to force him to stay away from her for a while. It's going to make him very upset, and it's going to make his daughter even more upset. After all, she doesn't really understand what's going on. Now we have to tell her that her father can't come up and be with her because her mother is mad at him."

  Auli glanced at Tarrin and flushed guiltily. Jenna's remarks must have finally struck bone.

  "Tarrin tried to stay away from you, as I'm sure you know," she continued. "Did you ever once stop to think why?"

  Auli glanced at him again, then looked at her hands and shook her head.

  "He's very attracted to you, you know. I'm sure he's not completely unhappy you got him." Tarrin blushed slightly. "It wasn't because he didn't like you or he didn't want you. It's because he was trying to protect you. He knew what Jesmind would do, and he didn't want to put you in harm's way. We all knew that, of course, and almost everyone that knows him offered to discourage you from chasing him. But he told us not to. Do you know why?"

  She shook her head, her long blond hair slipping over her face.

  "Because he really likes you, Auli," she said in a level tone. "He didn't want anyone doing anything to make you angry, because he still wanted to be your friend. I don't think you have any idea how much he likes you, and how much easier you were making it for him to deal with his amnesia before you started trying to seduce him. He thinks of you as a friend, and he didn't want to lose you over something as silly as your trying to seduce him. You put him in a terrible position, because Tarrin is very loyal to those he considers a friend. He couldn't sleep with you because of Jesmind, but he didn't want to lose your friendship either. Even now I guarantee you he's worried about you, because Jesmind will come after you, Auli. Never forget that, and I suggest you keep one eye over your shoulder until Jesmind leaves the Tower. He'
s trapped again, because he's Jesmind's friend, and he's your friend, and now two of his friends are going to be fighting with each other. Do you like Tarrin, Auli?"

  She was silent.

  "Well? Do you?"

  "Yes," she said sullenly, in a very small voice.

  "Do you consider him a friend?"

  "Yes," she answered, much more quickly.

  "Then tell me, how could you do this to a friend? How could you disrupt his life and cause so much trouble for him if he's your friend? Aren't friends supposed to look out for each other? Aren't they supposed to help each other? Is he really your friend, or is he just someone you happen to like, who you'll use when it suits you?"

  Auli looked away from both of them.

  "It's unfortunate it had to come to this. Tarrin did everything he could to protect you, because he is your friend. And you ignored all his warnings, never once considered how what you were doing was going to affect his life. You just barrelled ahead, because he said no. You've turned the entire Tower on its ear, because he said no. You've caused a rift between Tarrin and his daughter, and it was all because he said no. What do you have to say for yourself, Auli? I'm waiting for an explanation."

  She was silent for a very long moment, and then she jumped up from her chair and ran towards the door. Tarrin heard it clearly; she was crying.

  Tarrin felt sorry for her, but he was more impressed with Jenna. With quiet words, she had driven the point home more effectively than Ianelle had. Then again, Ianelle acted out of anger, and Auli responded with anger. Jenna had come at her with reason, and Auli could not defend herself against it. Jenna had made Auli see what her actions had caused, and to his surprise, she had actually made her feel guilty. Something Ianelle probably never could have done.

  Jenna's eyes narrowed, and she put her chin on her interlaced fingers. Then she looked at Tarrin and smiled as Auli fled from the room, sobbing loudly. When she ran out the door, Duncan made a move to block her.

  "Let her go, Duncan," Jenna called.

  Tarrin looked at Jenna with newfound respect. Clearly, whatever Spyder had done to her had affected more her more than he realized.

  "She'll be alright," she said with a smile. "And it isn't half as bad as I made it sound. Jesmind's going to be fairly ticked off for a while, but she'll calm down. And she'll blame Auli, which means that she's not going to hold a grudge against you. Actually, after she realizes she trashed your room, she'll probably be as sweet as she can possibly be to you."

  "I hope you're right," he sighed. "At least she may be afterwards. I intend to yell at her a little for being so ridiculous."

  "She doesn't consider it ridiculous at all, Tarrin," she said soberly. "Jesmind loves you, and she's not quite sure what to do about you. She sees Auli as a very powerful threat. Do you know why?"

  "Not really."

  "Because she's afraid Auli is going to make you want to stay human," she answered. "That's why she reacted like this. She doesn't want you to have anything to do with her, because she can't compete with Auli directly."

  "What do you mean?"

  "She can't be what she sees Auli trying to be," Jenna explained. "She sees Auli kiss you, and she knows she can't do the same. She hears you slept with her, and she knows she can't do the same. She thinks Auli is stealing you from her, and there's nothing she can do about it. The only thing she can really do is make you stay away from her, or her from you, but she's found out that that's only managed to alienate you. So, she's trapped in a bad situation."

  Tarrin knew something about that, but hadn't had it explained to him quite in that context. Jenna made him see through her eyes, and he realized that Jenna was right. Jesmind couldn't be a girlfriend to him, and that's what she thought Auli was trying to be. Him and her had been on bad footing ever since he came back to the Tower, because she refused to treat him like an adult. And now this was added to that bad blood. He was still angry with her for treating him like a baby and not trusting him, but at least he could understand her anger.

  "Why can't she just trust me?" he lamented.

  "Because she doesn't know what you're going to do," she said. "If you told her you wanted to be a Were-cat again, you'd see all her contrariness disappear. But she doesn't know if you're going to do that. Nobody does. So she has to fight for you, and this is the only way she knows how."

  "I didn't consider that."

  "I rather think you didn't. There's alot at stake here for Jesmind, Tarrin. And Kimmie, for that matter. I know you've heard them tell you that they love you, but I don't think you've believed it. Well, does this convince you?"

  He was a bit startled, and her words made him think. She was right. Hearing people tell him that didn't really make an impact for him, but to see it like this, now he understood. If she did love him that much, then she would go to such extremes. After all, she was fighting for her love, and he could see that his choice was a very important thing to her. If he chose to stay human, then there was no way he could be to her what she wanted of him, what she needed of him. She would be pushed out of his life in the role she desired, and she would lose him as everything but a friend. And she didn't want to be just his friend. She wanted to be as close to a wife as Were-cats got, what they called mates.

  "It's hard to know the feelings of another, and when Were-cats are concerned, it's very hard," she said with a slight smile. "They're very hard creatures to know, but they're very easy to understand once you get to know them."

  "What do you suggest I do?" he asked.

  "I'm not going to suggest anything, Tarrin," she told him. "Mainly because it won't do any good for several days. Jesmind is furious, and she's going to be acting out on her every emotion for a while yet. So you'd better be careful around her. She may be nice to you, but she'll be a powder keg with a lit fuse. It's not a matter of if she goes off, but when."

  "I wouldn't be surprised."

  "And I know that you're still a bit angry with her. Just do me a favor and before you start shouting, look at things from her side."

  "I guess I can try. Jenna, can I ask a question?"

  "Sure."

  "What do you want me to do?"

  She knew exactly what he meant, and it made her take on a very grim expression. "I wish you wouldn't have asked me that," she sighed. "I have two positions, brother. As your sister, I would very much like to see you stay human. You are my brother, and I saw how hard it was on you to be a Were-cat, and how much it changed you. I could accept what you were, but it always pained me to see how much different you were from the brother I remembered. But as the Keeper, I would prefer to see you be a Were-cat again. You'll be a great deal more effective in protecting what you're carrying if you're Were. Just thinking that kills me sometimes, but unfortunately I can't look at this from a purely personal viewpoint."

  He understood completely, because he'd been thinking the same kinds of things lately. That he may have to make his choice based on what was needed of him, not what he wanted to do. "It just never seems to be easy anymore, does it?" he asked.

  "Sometimes I wonder why I ever left Aldreth," she said with a wan smile.

  "Me too."

  "Well, I'll send you someone to help you put your room back together, Tarrin," she promised. "They can fix everything that Jesmind broke, so don't worry. After that, I suggest you hang around your room a while. Triana's going to be looking for you, and I suggest you be where she can find you quickly."

  "That's a good idea."

  They both got up, and Jenna came around her desk and gave him a very tight hug. Then she kissed him on the cheek and smiled up at him. "Alright, if you need me, just send word. I'll be here whenever you need me, alright?"

  "I appreciate that, Jenna. I guess it's good to have a relative in the big chair," he said with a smile.

  She giggled. "I guess it is. When you're sitting in one, I'm going to be there with my hand out."

  "Like that's going to happen," he scoffed.

  It was an absolute disaster
.

  Tarrin shuffled through the remains of his room, stopping every few seconds to try to identify something laying on the floor. He'd never seen such a mess. Not satisfied by destroying the furniture, she must have turned around and started destroying the pieces as well, systematically breaking everything into smaller and smaller pieces, until there was nothing left larger than a child's head. The debris was nearly ankle deep on the floor of the room, a jumbled mess of torn wood, ripped cloth, and broken metal. She had destroyed the furniture, torn up the tapestries, ripped up every stitch of clothing, broken every decoration, and destroyed all his personal effects. There was absolutely nothing left that he could find as he picked through the debris, nothing even remotely identifiable. He knelt and frowned when he found the hilt of his dagger, the dagger he'd won the the staves competition in Aldreth just before he left with Dolanna. The blade was snapped off at the hilt, and the hilt itself, fashioned to look like a falcon, was twisted and bent, as if crushed in Jesmind's hand. He was a little dismayed to see that; Jesmind had to be alot stronger than he thought in order to bend the steel like this.

  Continuing to rummage through the wreckage, he could find nothing else even remotely resembling anything that had once been in the room. There were bits and pieces of fabric that he could only identify because of its color, the blue bedspread and curtains, the white sheets, the leather bits that had once been his favorite leather breeches. He found some fragments of the wash basin and pitcher, for they were the only pieces of porcelain in the room, and he did find enough of a piece of one of the legs of the washstand to identify it. Aside from that, nothing was recognizable. The Sorcerers that arrived on Jenna's behest took one look inside the room and shook their heads, and tersely informed him that everything was simply too far gone even for magic to restore them.