"Why not?"
"Because if they can get to Wikuna, then they can get a fleet to Wikuna," she said sourly.
Tarrin snorted. "Kerri, no nation on Sennadar would dare engage the Wikuni in a naval war," he said flatly. "It's suicide. Not even the Zakkites are willing to try that. That's why they always try to ambush your ships, and they run away as soon as warships appear on the horizon."
"True, but humans are devious little suckers," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "You can't take your eyes off them for a minute, or they'll be getting into all kinds of trouble."
"Amen," Sapphire agreed in a fervent tone.
"I think I'll have the Admiralty increase the patrols in the Sea of Silks," Keritanima mused to herself. "I think we'd better keep an eye on those damned Shou. Next thing I know, there'll be Imperial dragonships showing up on the shores of Tlaztexcolta, or maybe even Sha'Kari."
"Tlaztexcolta?" Tarrin asked.
"A small continent due south of Wikuna," she replied. "An interesting people live there. They worship strange gods, they don't have any iron, and the place is literally overflowing with gold."
"Uh oh," Tarrin chuckled.
"We trade for their gold," she said defensively. "We have quite a market down there for steel tools and such, and they trade us gold, spices, some stunningly beautiful native crafts, and other things. Some of their native birds are starting to become all the rage in the noble houses. It's now a status symbol to own a parrot, because they can be taught to say words."
"They can talk?" Allia asked.
"Not like we can, but you can teach them to mimic words," she answered.
"I wonder how they do things without iron," Tarrin mused.
"They're very resourceful, brother," Keritanima said in a very complementary manner. "You'd be surprised at some of the things they've learned to do with stone and obsidian. They have cities as big as Suld, and they built it with stone blocks that are larger than a woodshed. They're geniuses at engineering and construction, and it's even more impressive when you consider the fact that they don't have iron tools and they don't extensively used wheeled transportation, because there aren't any domesticated animals like horses native to their lands. The biggest domesticated animal I know of that they have are goats, and goats aren't very good at pulling wagons. We could learn a few things from them. They're quite advanced, all things considered. Western society would consider them barbaric because of their religion and their customs, but they're actually quite civilized and very intelligent."
Tarrin mused at that for a while, trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a place with no iron, no horses, and with a culture advanced enough to build things out of blocks that weighed more than a hundred men. How did they move them without horses? He couldn't even imagine how they did it, and he became very impressed with them, despite the fact that he'd never heard of them before. They certainly sounded quite impressive.
He didn't have too long to muse about it, though, for Dolanna, Dar, Camara Tal, and surprisingly enough, Koran Tal, pushed through the choked opening and into the courtyard. Koran Tal's eyes almost immediately affixed on the statue of the Goddess, and Camara Tal had to push him from behind to get him out of the way. Almost immediately behind them were Jula and Kimmie, and a very hot-eyed Triana. Now Tarrin understood why they were trying to get out of the way, with Triana breathing down their necks. "Mother," he greeted standing up. "I didn't think you were coming."
"I'm not quite done dealing with your daughter, cub," she said in a grim tone. "Jesmind is putting her paw in right now. As soon as I'm done here, I'll go back and finish what what needs to be done."
Tarrin almost felt sorry for his daughter; in a way, he did, but he knew that it had to be done, so there was no use in having remorse over it. Triana looked at Camara Tal, and her eyebrow raised slightly. "You shouldn't be here," she announced flatly.
"I have more right to be here than you," Camara Tal replied cooly. They were old friends, and that was probably the only reason Triana didn't thrash her for her tone.
"You spend ten years trying to get pregnant, and you're going to put it all at risk now?" Triana said with a slight smile.
Camara Tal's eyes widened, and her hand went to her knotted, washboard stomach. "You mean--"
"It's only a few days along," she told her. "In nine months, you'll be gracing us all. Want to know if it's a boy or a girl?"
"No!" she said in a strangled tone. "Leave that much a surprise, at least!" she proclaimed, then she laughed helplessly. Then she threw her arms around Koran Tal and kissed him passionately.
"I say, congratulations, Camara!" Phandebrass said happily, and suddenly the Amazons were surrounded by well-wishers, congratulating her and her husband. Tarrin smiled warmly, happy for a little good news this day. Camara Tal had been adamant about having Koran Tal be the father of her children, and she had waited ten very long years before finally getting her wish. He was happy for her, but in a way, he was a little irritated with her timing. He may need Camara Tal in the time to come, and her pregnancy was going to complicate things.
"Well, it doesn't change anything," Camara Tal finally said after Kimmie gave her a warm hug. "Amazon women don't run and hide in their bedchambers when they're pregnant. I'll be with you until I'm too ungainly to be any use to you."
"Are you sure, Camara?" Tarrin asked.
"Just try and stop me," she declared.
"I hope you don't mind me joining you, then," Koran Tal said. "I won't leave her when she's pregnant. I know how crazy she is. Someone has to be around to remind her that she's got two lives to worry about."
"She'll have any number of people to hold her back," Keritanima chuckled.
"I don't need a man holding my hand!" Camara Tal snapped at her husband.
"You need someone, and if you don't forget, that's my child too," he said in a frosty tone. "And I thought we agreed that there were going to be a few changes," he reminded her in a dangerous tone, rising up and looking over at her defiantly.
"Careful, Camara," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "You're on dangerous ground."
"Stay out of it, fuzzybutt!" Camara Tal told her hotly. That made Keritanima collapse in helpless laughter, and Camara Tal looked a little sheepish afterwards. "We'll discuss this later, husband. In private," she said to him, glancing at the laughing Wikuni Queen.
"I'm sure it's going to be a lively discussion," he said icily, glaring at her a bit.
Jenna arrived a moment later with Ianelle, Darvon, and each of them had a youngster in tow. Darvon was escorted by Ulger, and Ianelle had Auli with her. Auli gave Tarrin a regretful look, but smiled and kissed him on the cheek when he greeted them. Darvon clapped him on the shoulder in his gruff manner, about as close to a show of emotion one would get from the Lord General, and Ulger shook his paw with a smile. "We hear that was you shaking up the Tower earlier today," Ulger said with a grin.
"I was a bit peeved," he said in a short manner.
"Leave it, Ulger," Darvon warned in his powerful voice. "I see you decided to return to the Were-cats," he said. "It wouldn't have been my choice, but if it's what makes you happy, then I'm glad for you." He gave Tarrin a slight smile. "I was hoping you would stay human and come over to the Knights, where you belong."
"I'm afraid they've managed to put the hooks into me a little too deeply for that to happen, my Lord General," Tarrin replied with a smile.
"One can always hope," Darvon said.
"I hope you don't mind me being here," Kimmie told him hesitantly.
"I'd feel strange if you weren't," he answered gently. He could see that he'd been right. Jesmind was trying to push Kimmie out of the way, it was all over her face. He was going to have a very long talk with her about that. "How is Mist?"
"Up and moving," she answered. "She'll be whole in about an hour or so."
"How are you?" he asked, taking her paws. Telling her that even though Jesmind didn't like it, she was still very much a part of his life.
She gave him a glorious, worshipful smile. "I'm just fine, my dear friend," she told him truthfully. "I'm just very glad to see you whole again."
"I'll step on Jesmind's neck for you."
"I can manage it, Tarrin," she smiled. "If you interfere, it's only going to make things more difficult. She'll think you're showing me favoritism. This is a female matter, love. Let us females handle it."
"Mother?"
Triana snorted and nodded. "Kimmie's handling it well enough, cub. Leave her to it."
"You're sure?"
"I'm very sure. If you put a paw in, you'll only make things messy."
"You look well, honored one," Ianelle greeted in formal Sha'Kar. "The Keeper told us what happened. All of it."
"Then I don't have to explain things to you," he replied.
She shook her head. "Are you content with it?"
"I'm content."
"Then things are well," she decided simply.
Tarrin looked around and saw that everyone was here. His sisters, Triana, Jula, and Kimmie. Triana, Dolanna, Darvon, and Ianelle. Azakar and the Vendari, Miranda and Dar, and Phandebrass. Jesmind wasn't here, but she'd have no say in what was to come, and besides, he was still mad at her. It was everyone he needed to be here. "Alright, everyone find a seat," he said in Sha'Kar, reinforcing the seriousness of things. "I have some things to say, and we have plans to make."
"Pardon me, son, but if you're going to speak that language, I'm going to need a translator," Darvon announced.
"Mother," Tarrin said absently to Triana.
"I'll take care of it, cub," she said. "Can you speak Sha'Kar?" she asked bluntly of Ulger.
"Uh, no, my Lady," he answered hesitantly.
Without saying a word, Triana put her paws on either side of Ulger's head. Tarrin clearly felt and sensed what she did, and what was more important, he realized that with a little instruction, he could do the same thing. She took some of her own knowledge, copied it, and directly implanted the copy into Ulger's mind, making sure not to put it where other memories were being stored. Ulger's knees wobbled a bit, and Triana had to hold him up. "You'll be dizzy for a while, but now you can understand," she told him in Sulasian.
"I feel like the ground is spinning," Ulger complained.
"That will pass," Triana told him gruffly. "Darvon?"
A little hesitantly, Darvon stepped up to the intimidating Were-cat matriarch and submitted to her touch. Seconds later, he too had to be held up. Azakar tended to Darvon, helping him to a seat on a stone bench as Jula helped Ulger to sit beside him.
They gathered on stone benches, and Camara Tal and Koran Tal sat on the grass with Kimmie and Auli in front of them. Tarrin stood before them like a Novice instructor, looking over his friends and associates, and feeling a momentary sensation of pride. They had come far. They had put up with him, helped him, nurtured him, and protected him for two long years. They deserved much more than what they had, and Tarrin vowed to himself to make things right with each and every one of them, to show him how much he appreciated everything they'd done for him. But that would have to come later.
"I think most of you know what happened," he began. "I was turned against my will. I already found out who did it, and that punishment is taking place as we speak."
"Who was it, son?" Darvon asked, wobbling a bit in his seat.
"It was my daughter, Jasana," he replied, which made Darvon whistle much like Miranda had done. "Her mother and grandmother are teaching her the error of her ways. It's not my place to interfere in that, because Jesmind's her mother, and in Were-cat society the males don't intefere in how the females raise the cubs. But I have every faith in my mate and mother," he added with grim satisfaction. "They'll set her straight, or she'll die resisting."
"She's already very sorry, cub," Triana told him with flat eyes.
"Needless to say, finding that out set me off. That's what all that shaking was this morning. I kind of rearranged the geography in the cellars of the Tower, but Triana stopped me before I could do anything drastic." He looked to his sisters and Sapphire. "I'm sorry about that," he said sincerely. "I hope I didn't scare you."
"We were too busy running like frightened squirrels to be scared," Jenna said with a grin.
"What possessed you to face him inside, Were-cat?" Sapphire asked.
"I have experience in dealing with raging Were-cats, dragon," she answered calmly. "I knew exactly how to go about it, and the confined spaces down there were actually exactly what I needed. If he'd been outside, it would have been much harder to subdue him."
"You'll have to show me how you did it."
"Later," she said absently.
"Now that that little thing's out of the way, it's time we got back to business," he said. "I have my memory back, and I've already decided what I have to do now. And I'm going to need everyone's help to pull it off." He started pacing back and forth. "Everyone knows I have the Firestaff, and they're probably gathering around the Tower like vultures, waiting for me to come out. If I don't come out, then they're going to come in, and I don't think we'll have much luck stopping them. They've shown that they can find ways to get in. We all knew that I had to get out of the Tower to keep the Firestaff safe, but now that we've been surrounded, it's not going to be quite as easy as riding out of the front gate."
"No doubt there," Keritanima agreed.
"I can Teleport you to any number of places, honored one, Ianelle offered.
"It's not quite that easy, Ianelle," he told her. "If I just disappear, then they'll all still be here at the Tower, and that's going to cause Jenna some serious problems. I don't want anyone here getting killed because they think I'm still hiding in here. I want them to see me leave, to keep them out of Jenna's hair, but I also don't want them on my heels every step of the way."
"That's not going to be easy," Darvon frowned.
"It's going to be very easy, at least for me," Tarrin told him grimly. "I have a plan, but it's going to be very dangerous for some people. Unfortunately, those people are you," he sighed.
"Go ahead, my brother," Allia said.
Tarrin nodded. "Everyone knows I travel with you," he began. "It's a given. Sometimes it was much easier for them to find me by looking for Keritanima or Allia, or any of the other rather unusual members of our group," he added, glancing at Binter and Sisska. "It's a given that if they can see any of you, then I can't be too far away. I'm going to use that against them. Tomorrow, everyone outside is going to see all of you and me march out of this Tower under heavy guard from the Knights, go down to the harbor, and board a Wikuni vessel and sail away. That's what they're going to see," he said sharply. He turned and looked at the statue of the Goddess, then turned back. "I won't be with you. Tomorrow, I'm taking Sarraya and Allia, and we're Teleporting to the Desert of Swirling Sands. If there's anywhere in the world where I'll be safe, it's there. Nobody would dare come in after me, and if they do, both the Selani and Fara'Nae will make them pay for every step they take."
"But you said they'd see all of us leave," Dar said in confusion.
"That's right, they will," Tarrin said, looking at him. "Remember what we did in Dayisè?"
"That's brilliant!" Keritanima said with a bright look.
"Oh!" Dar said in realizaton, then he laughed. "That's a good idea!"
"Darvon, I want you to find your biggest, strongest, and hopefully one of your smartest Knights," Tarrin told him. "He's going to be me for a few days, and he's going to have to be able to act the part."
"How can he be you?"
"Dar is a master of Illusion, and Dolanna's no slouch at it herself," Tarrin told him calmly. "They used those gifts to hide us several times while we were on on the road. We're going to do it again to misdirect our foes."
"We'll need an Allia," Dar noted.
"I think Auli here can be a convincing Allia," Tarrin said, giving his whimsical friend a calm look. "She actually looks a little like her, and Auli's a very good actress. It won't take m
uch to make her convincing."
"I think I can do it, Tarrin," she said mildly.
"Are you sure that's going to work, Tarrin?" Darvon asked dubiously.
"It works very well, Lord General," Keritanima smiled. "There's a girl in Wikuna named Kalina, that looks so much like me that we look like twins. She made it easy for me to be in two places at the same time. Kalina was very good at acting, and she had everyone absolutely convinced that she was me. Trust me, what Tarrin's proposing isn't just effective, it's damn effective. As long as Auli and your new Tarrin don't mess up, they'll have every single person in Suld thinking that we all got on a ship and sailed off towards the horizon." Keritnaima frowned. "I'd rather not be on a ship, brother. Can I Teleport us all to Wikuna after we get out to sea?"
"We'll need a little more misdirection than that, sister," Tarrin said. "When you get on that ship, I want you to sail for Dusgaard, in Ungardt, and I want you to make a show of it."
Keritanima narrowed her eyes, then she laughed brightly. Miranda too was smiling in a malicious manner. "Tarrin, you impress me," she said sincerely.
"I don't understand," Ianelle admitted.
"The Ungardt are notorious for not liking outsiders," Miranda explained to her. "Tarrin is Ungardt, and he has close kin there. If he asked them, they'd take all of us in and protect us like we were part of their clan. By having us go to Ungardt, Tarrin is putting us in a place where it will make it very hard for any spies our enemies have to keep an eye on us, and he's also making anyone that tries to follow us have to wade through a forest of axes and swords tro get there. And the Ungardt are not to be taken lightly, my dear Ianelle. They're respected as some of the toughest fighters in the world. That means that anyone that wants Tarrin has to face an army of big, strong, well-trained, and very nasty foes to get to him. It's not something that anyone would undertake without a great deal of hesitation."
"My grandfather would probably enjoy the whole thing," Tarrin agreed with a nod. "He needs to give his warriors some exercise from time to time. My grandfather also happens to be a clan-chief, Ianelle, something of a king. Anrak will protect your daughter and my friends with an army, and its no army that any sane man would want to cross."
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