Weavespinner

by James Galloway

  It was a moment that lasted an hour, and among the many things in Tarrin's life that he could say had been good, the time in that chair, sitting before the warm fire, his beloved mate in his lap, just being together without any words or anger to push them apart, had to be one of the best.

  So as not to ruin the time they had together, almost as if they had both thought the same thing, they parted without ceremony or fanfare, and without any kind of farewell. Jesmind knew she could talk to him whenever she wanted, and that seemed enough for her. Seeing the light of dawn through the window to the side of the chair, Tarrin nudged Jesmind. She looked at the light, sighed, and then put her paw on his cheek and kissed him intimately. Everything she was feeling, everything that mattered to her was in that kiss, communication so much more effective than words that it made speech seem like grunts and snorts. After she kissed to him all her feelings, all her love for him, all her anxiety over him leaving, all of her worry over his anger towards her, she got up and walked out without saying a word.

  After all, it wasn't a farewell. It was more of a brief parting. They both knew he would come back, and they both knew where he was going to end up. His love for Kimmie was sincere, but Jesmind had been his first love, and he had vowed to come back to her. He was a Were-cat, and that made his word as good as his life. He would honor that promise, honor his love for her, and he would come back to her. They would be together until time and their natures pulled them apart, and he would not deny her a single day he felt she was owed.

  Perhaps two months in the desert would be good for him. After those two months away from her and his daughter, it would do much to cool his temper. He could come back anxious to see them, willing to forgive, and Jesmind would have two months to reflect on her behavior and be ready to apologize.

  But that time wasn't here yet. He still had a very serious thing to do, and that fact was never far from his mind. The most active part of it was over now. He had gone from seeker to hider, from hunter to the hunted, from the chaser to the chased. He had been chasing after the Firestaff for two years, trailing along behind him a long procession of those who would either kill him before he could find it or take it from him after he succeeded. Now everything was different. They were all chasing after him now, but for an entirely new reason. And he no longer had to look both ahead and behind, towards the Firestaff and back at those who sought to bring him down. Now all his attention was set firmly behind him, at those who wanted what he possessed, and were willing to go to any means to take it from him. They were desperate now. It was only two months until Gods' Day, two months until the five thousand year cycle of the Firestaff reached its climax, and it became active. One day out of every five thousand years, that was all. And the memory he had gained from his turning told him that it wasn't just that one day, it was a specific moment in that one day.

  Approximately every thousand years, the four moons of Sennadar were part of a rare phenomenon called a conjunction. When one occurred, the four moons would align in the sky, one in front of the other in front of the other in front of the other, four bodies occupying the same space in the sky directly in front of the sun, forming a grand eclipse. Eclipses weren't unusual for Sennadar, having four moons to take turns blocking the sun on various parts of the world. Tarrin himself had seen seven in his nineteen years to varying degrees, from only partial blockage to the most severe, when the White Moon Domammon, the largest of the four, blotted out the sun with its massive bulk for nearly two hours some three years ago. The most unusual had been the very rare Hourglass Eclipse, when the twin moons, Duva and Kava, blocked the outside edges of the sun with their own edges and turned the sun into a round-ended hourglass, like the core of an eaten apple. Tarrin had only been five when he saw that one, and an Hourglass Eclipse only came around to a particular region once every few hundred years. The cycle of lunar movement caused a conjunction to happen on Gods' Day only once every five thousand years, at the beginning of its cycle--or end, depending on how one viewed it--renewing the cycle for another five thousand year rotation. It was that one day, when the four moons joined on Gods' Day, that the Firestaff would activate, and it would be active only so long as the four moons were aligned. That was a period of about twenty minutes. Vala, the Red Moon, was the fastest of the moons in its orbital movements, and it would be the first to move out of alignment and break the conditions necessary for the Firestaff's activation.

  Twenty minutes out of five thousand years. Everything he had done, everything that had happened to him, everything that mattered, it all came down to that one simple thing. To defend the Firestaff, to keep it out of anyone else's hands, for only twenty minutes. That was all he had to do.

  Standing up, snuffing out the fire with the barest of conscious thoughts with a weave of Fire, Tarrin turned and bent to the task of packing. None of it was what he'd come to the Tower with, gifts to replace what Jesmind destroyed, but everything he needed was there. The pack Jula gave him held the knives and clothes he'd received as gifts. All the knick-knacks and trinkets would stay here, but Tarrin did pack with him the crystal bell Sapphire had given him and the metal cat sculpture that had been a gift from one of the Sorcerers. He also packed the little doll that was a constant reminder of his little mother, something that still brought a gentle smile to his face whenever he beheld it. All of it went into the pack, which was sent off into the elsewhere once it was put on his back. He brought out of the elsewhere his sword and staff, to check them and make sure all that time in that magical place wasn't harming them. The sword was fine, but the staff was feeling a bit dry and brittle, and he realized that the living wood was starting to deteriorate in the magical place his amulet created. He sent weaves of Water and Earth through it, restoring its moisture and enriching it with the nutrients the Ironwood required to survive, even after being cut from its parent tree for years. The staff almost seemed to strengthen in his paw, the wood regaining its luster and vibrancy, the feel of it on his pads that seemed so comfortingly familiar. After restoring it, he again sent it back to the elsewhere, but made a mental note to himself to take it out every day and let it bask in the sunlight and get some fresh air. A little attention every day would keep it strong and dependable.

  There was another sword now, one he had almost forgotten. It was the one that Jenna had given him, the one enchanted to have such an edge that it could cut almost anything, standing patiently in the corner and waiting for him to have need for it. It was very small to his paws now, almost unusable, the hilt to small to fit in the palm of his paw, but that wasn't an overwhelming obstacle. He was confident he could enlarge the sword without disrupting its magic, getting it large enough for him to use. It could certainly be useful. His black metal sword was keenly sharp and very strong, and it had the strange ability to harm extra-dimensional beings like Demons. This sword could chop basalt apart and slice through steel, especially given the amount of power he could put behind it, and it would be extremely useful. It took him a moment to get everything organized, having to pull everything except the Firestaff out of the elsewhere and rearrange it. The swords were put under the pack on his back, crossing between his back and the leather pack, and his staff remained in his right paw, with the Firestaff occupying his left. After he got everything arranged, it was all sent back to the elsewhere, leaving only his clothes and the Cat's Claws out in the real world.

  In a matter of minutes, he was done. His pack was packed and stowed, his weapons were checked and stowed, and he'd ensured that he didn't forget anything. After he got a little breakfast and told a few people he was going, he'd be ready to leave.

  For obvious reasons, his leaving was not going to be a big event. Almost everyone in the Tower, even his own close friends, would find out about it after he was gone. He didn't want anything unusual going on to even hint that things were not as they wanted them to appear. He would tell Jenna and Keritanima that he was leaving, Dolanna if she was awake and happened to cross his path, but no one else. He wanted to be gone bef
ore they started talking, and he wanted Keritanima and Jenna to tell them he was gone to keep them from wondering what happened to him.

  Stepping from his now unguarded room, he went down the stairs, considering that. He was a little regretful that he couldn't say goodbye to his friends, but it was for the best. Any protracted goodbyes would seem odd, given that he wanted everyone to think that he would still be with them. So it couldn't look like he was going anywhere, and that meant that he couldn't visit all his friends and tell them he was going. Everything had to maintain an illusion of events as they wanted them to seem to unfold. Him visiting people he intended to travel with was not normal for him. His pattern would be to gather with them only when they were ready to leave, not go out of his way to visit all of them before hand. But him visiting his sisters at any time of the day or night, sometimes for no reason at all, were not unusual. That was why him visiting Keritanima or Allia or Jenna wouldn't seem unusual.

  It turned out that he didn't really have to worry about that, for he came across Jenna, Jula, Dar, Allia, and Allyn in the kitchens. They had all also gotten up early, and Dar was wearing a rugged pair of undyed leather breeches and a stout brown wool shirt, with a brown cloak pinned over it. Travelling clothes. Allia was already in her desert garb, a small, simple pack sitting by her feet as she waited for a pair of cooks to finish cooking her some ham steaks. Allyn too was wearing desert garb, but it looked a bit baggy on him, and he didn't look very comfortable. This made Tarrin smile a bit; Allia was already starting her re-education of her husband-to-be. If he even knew what she intended for him yet.

  "What is this?" Tarrin asked lightly, pointing at Allyn. He spoke in Sha'Kar, which was actually a necessity when dealing with the Sha'Kar. Only a very few of them spoke any other language, and all of them were original Ancients, like Ianelle. But a thousand years of disuse had made most of them forget most of it, and they had to refresh themselves in its use. Tarrin had heard Ianelle speak Sulasian once before, and she did so with a very strange accent, using archaic words that had fallen out of use long ago. But Ianelle had learned Sulasian back when those words were common. It was a strange testament to how things changed over time, even things that seemed immutable, like language.

  "I wanted to see what it was like, honored one," Allyn replied after giving him a graceful bow. "It's not quite what I expected, I admit. These things are alot heavier than they look."

  Desert garb, at least desert garb actually worn in the desert, was very loose in fit, and was done in layers. There was a layer of loose-fitting trousers and a long-tailed shirt, and a very full, almost robe-like cloak that went on over the outer shirt. A very long, wide strip of cloth was wrapped around the head, a tail of it hanging down to serve as a veil against blowing sand, and some Selani had cloaks that had hoods for additional protection. Since Allia had silver hair, she preferred to leave it uncovered, flowing out from the bottom of her wrapped headgear, since it was much more effective at reflecting the sun's heat that any cloth. Tarrin had noticed that though white or silver hair were uncommon among Selani, those that did have it tended to leave it out as well. Allia would let it fan out over her back and let it help protect her from the sun's heat. Since her hair was so thick, she could probably go without the headgear, but then she'd have no easy way to wear a veil against blowing sand. When Tarrin first saw it, he wondered how they could wear all those clothes out in a desert and not bake. It turned out that the layers of clothes created an effective barrier against the heat. Tarrin at that time had been thinking in terms of keeping heat in, when the purpose of the desert garb was to keep heat out. Heat created by the body and trapped by the layered clothing was much preferable to allowing the searing heat of the desert in against their skin. In comparison to the desert heat, it was comfortably cool under those layers of baggy cloth. The Selani made their clothes out of a plant fiber that was very light, breathable, and exceptionally strong. It wouldn't accept dye, but the fibers were naturally tan or brown, and in the desert, those were camaflaging colors, the colors of sand and rock.

  "It takes some adjusting," Allia told him in a gentle manner, looking at him with open affection. "Don't worry, deshida, you'll get used to the weight."

  Tarrin had to suppress a smile. Allia had called Allyn deshida. Next would come the term jisha, which meant beloved, and then dejisha, which meant husband. He wondered if Allyn had any idea the trap into which he had fallen. That Allia was addressing him as a friend as close as her own brother meant that she had obvious designs for him, so obvious that anyone with even a passing familiarity with Selani language would instantly realize it.

  "I feel like a bolt dowel," Allyn complained. "Like I have cloth wrapped all around me."

  "It can't be too much different than those robes you wear," Jula noted.

  "Robes are open, Mistress Jula," Allyn answered. "I don't think I've ever worn something that rides up between my legs. It's almost a nervous feeling."

  Jula laughed, and Tarrin smiled. "He fears a sense of restriction," she said delicately to him, winking in Allyn's direction.

  "In Allyn's case, that's a real fear," Tarrin told her absently. "He has a bit much to restrict."

  Allyn blushed furiously, and Jenna gave Tarrin a shocked look before bursting into laughter. "Tarrin!" she finally managed to say. "Behave yourself!"

  "He only speaks truth, sister," Allia said with a wicked gleam in her eye, glancing at her intended in a rather sultry manner.

  "You're as bad as he is, Allia!" Jenna laughed.

  "Probably," she agreed without a hint of embarassment. "Don't worry, sister. We'll find a good man for you, and then you'll be as bad as us."

  "I'm not ready for marriage, Allia," she chuckled, waving a hand before her.

  "Who says that you have to marry a man to enjoy him?" Allia asked with pointed amusement.

  Jenna blushed to the roots of her dark hair, then laughed helplessly. "You're not as bad as Tarrin, you're worse!" she accused.

  "She's young, Allia," Jula told her sagely. "Give her a little time." She then swung her head and looked at Dar, who had been very quiet so far.

  "Oh, no, Jula," he chuckled, putting up his hands. "I learned too long ago that I can never get out of these kinds of talks unscathed when Were-cats and Selani are involved. I'm not coming anywhere near this conversation."

  "I see he learned alot more than Sorcery in your care, brother," Jenna laughed. "He learned wisdom too."

  "He's not as moralistic as you may think, sister," Allia told her with a smile at him. "Dar is Arkisian, and they're quite progressive. Much more progressive than your very strait-laced Sulasian culture."

  "You see?" he complained to Jenna. "I try to stay out of it, and they find ways to drag me in!"

  "That's because they like you," Triana's gruff voice called as she came up behind them. She put a paw on Jula's shoulder, and the smaller Were-cat female deferred to her almost immediately, stepping aside so she could stand beside Tarrin. "Is everything ready?" she asked, looking at Jenna.

  "Kerri has the ships waiting," Jenna answered her. "Miranda went to go wake her up. As soon as we get her Majesty's sleepy backside out of bed, we can get all of them herded onto the ships and on their way. Is everything ready?" she asked in reply.

  Triana nodded. "I've made all the arrangements you needed," she elaborated.

  "Where is Sarraya?" Tarrin asked curiously.

  "Fetching Camara Tal and her husband, but that was too long ago. She probably told them to get up and then got distracted. You know how Faeries are," she said dryly.

  "I'm mad at you for stealing Koran, Tarrin," Jenna flared. "He's one of my most trusted advisors."

  "You'll live, sister," Tarrin told her. "Besides, you'll have to take that up with him. I'm not pulling his strings. He's going because he wants to be with Camara."

  "I heard she's pregnant," Allyn said. "Is that true?"

  Tarrin nodded. "Koran's going with her to keep her out of trouble. She'll need him."


  Tarrin looked to Triana. "How long are you going to stay here?"

  "Not long," she answered. "I want to make sure Mist isn't going to have a fit, and then I'll be off again. I'm getting a bit stir crazy staying in one place so long," she said with a snort.

  "I hope Sapphire's ready to go," he said pointedly. They all knew that Tarrin had other travel plans, and Sapphire was part of them.

  "She's down the hall, in one of the private dining rooms," she told him. "She's ready whenever we tell her it's time to go. She's too dignified to stand around and wait with the rest of us."

  "That's probably for the best," Jenna said. "I really like her, but she does seem a bit rough-tongued."

  "She's arrogant and overbearing, and for her kind, that's perfectly normal," Triana told her bluntly.

  "I think this waiting for me to get better put her on edge," Tarrin explained. "Her temper's gotten worse over the rides. She's usually alot nicer than this."

  "Well, we can all hope she calms down," Jenna sighed.

  Tarrin realized that things were actually falling into place rather nicely. If Sapphire was alone, then him going to see her to say goodbye wouldn't be strange. He could arrange things to appear very clean and smooth while he actually made his getaway. He needed to see either Jenna or Keritanima and tell them he was leaving, and here was Jenna. He was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't get to say goodbye to Keritanima properly, but it was her own fault for being so lazy. "Well, I don't think I told you, but she plans on leaving today," he said pointedly, looking right at Jenna. "She's not going with us. She's going home."