Honor and Blood

by James Galloway

  "Tarrin, what happened?" he asked calmly.

  "Something that was supposed to happen, father," he said evasively, giving his father a direct look. "Father, listen. Until she regains her powers, she's going to be very vulnerable. People may come after her, hoping to control her powers when she gets them back. You have to protect her until she's able to protect herself."

  Where did that come from? Was the Goddess tampering?

  "I heard that," his mother said sharply, coming from the door at the far end of the room. "What's going on, son?"

  "I can't explain it right now mother. Doing this is very tiring, and I can't hold it much longer, so you have to listen. Jenna's powers have changed, and for a while she's not going to be able to use her magic. There are some who probably want her for that power, so you'd better hide her or take her somewhere safe until she recovers her ability."

  "Tarrin, what's going on?" Elke demanded stubbornly. "I want answers!"

  "I can't give them to you, mother," he told her. "I have no idea how many others are listening to me talk right now, so forgive me if I don't explain things to you. Just listen to me, because I can only maintain this a moment more. Just take Jenna and leave. I don't care where you go, I don't want you to tell me where you're going, just go. You can't let anyone get to Jenna while she's incapable of using Sorcery."

  "It's all about what you're doing, isn't it, son?" Eron asked calmly.

  "Not really, but Jenna is important enough to protect. Don't you think so?"

  "Don't be impertinent, or I'll whip you, boy," Elke said harshly.

  "If you could touch me, I'd be worried, mother," he said dismissively. "I have to go now, I can't hold this any longer. Just keep Jenna safe. I'll contact her in a few days, to explain things to her in more detail. Just be safe," he told them urgently as he felt the illusion unravel.

  "Tarrin? Tarrin!" he heard his mother scream, but he was already losing his connection to his projected image. In the blink of an eye, his consciousness raced back to himself, and he felt and smelled and heard from his own body again.

  The feel of it was bitter. He was right there in the same room with his family! Right there, and he couldn't touch them! He desperately wanted to go back, to look into their eyes, to hold them in his arms, but he was too exhausted to try. And even then, he wasn't sure if he could find his way back there. Jenna's power had drawn him to her, and without her to guide him, he may not be able to return. All he could do now was speak to her through her amulet, where hers would be the only voice he could hear. It wasn't enough. Seeing his family again had made him realize just how much he missed them, just how much he wanted to be with them.

  But he couldn't. He didn't hate the Goddess for what she had done to bring him out to the desert, but he hated the need for it. He had to be there, he had to do what he was doing, for the safety of his family if anything else. They were depending on him, as were all the other members of his rather large, unusual family, depending on him to find the Firestaff and keep it out of the hands of those who would use it. His mother and father and sister, Allia and Keritanima, Triana and Jesmind, Mist and Janette, Sarraya, Dolanna, Phandebrass, Dar, Azakar, Miranda, Binter, Sisska, even Shiika, they were all depending on him. He couldn't fail them, not now, not after coming so far. No matter how much he hated it, he had to go on.

  "Tarrin?" Sarraya called tentatively. Tarrin sat up, wiping at a bit of moisture in the corner of his eye with the furred back of a paw. He was exhausted, and just moving felt like an effort.

  "I'm alright, Sarraya," he said. "I saw my parents."

  "I'm sure they were glad to see you, if only for a moment," she said gently. "To see you were well if anything. How is Jenna?"

  "She'll be alright," he replied. "She made the transition, but I'm sure you know that it wasn't easy on her. Now she'll be like me, without her powers until she learns how to use them again. Well, more like her body reattunes itself to the change in her ability."

  "And then she'll be a Weavespinner," Sarraya said, her voice a bit strange. "Two of you, and brother and sister! It's a sign."

  "It is," he said grimly. "I told you once before, Sarraya, the Goddess explained it to me some time ago. The old powers are reawakening in the world. Me and Jenna, we're just symbols of it, the return of the old powers of the Sorcerers. We won't be the last, either. The Goddess hinted that there would be others. But the only one she told me about for certain was Jenna."

  "It's more than that, isn't it?" she asked with a sharp look. "I know how Sorcery really works, Tarrin. The old powers couldn't come back unless there were Weavespinners. The magical limits of Wizardry and Priest magic are dependent on the Weave, and the Weave is dependent on the Sorcerers."

  He gave her a penetrating look. "You're right," he told her. "It's strange to think that my presence is fueling the powers of those who are trying to stop me."

  She laughed ruefully. "That's one way of looking at it, I guess," she admitted. "You feel like moving? I rebuilt the lean-to while you were out. Want to move back into the shade, or do you want to stay here?" She hovered over him. "Need something to eat or drink? Want a pillow?"

  He pulled himself up to his feet, but he could feel his bone-weariness. Using his magic as he had had literally sucked all the strength right out of him. He never dreamed that it could be so tiring. But then again, what he had done would have been considered impossible. "I'm fine, Sarraya," he said. "Just let me take a nap and get something to drink, and I'll be fine. I don't think we'll be moving until tomorrow, though. I need to rest."

  "We can't stay up here," she said with a fret. "You sit down and rest and let me go find a good campsite that's close enough for you to reach. Then we'll move and make a good camp, instead of this ramshackle rush job here."

  "Sounds like a plan to me," he said, moving over to the lean-to. He flopped down in the shade and rolled over on his belly. He was so tired that his tail simply laid limply across his leg, when it usually would have been swishing over him. "Just come and get me when it's time to move."

  "Sure thing."

  "Sarraya."

  "What is it?"

  "Thanks for caring," he said in a weary voice, then he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and immediately fell asleep. A deep, dreamless sleep, uninterrupted by stray thoughts. A sleep of recovery.

  Sarraya had found a good campsite, in a shallow valley between two flattened hills, a rambling little dell that concentrated the light of the campfire and gave them a great deal of warning should something come over the hilltops and attack. It required a herculean effort for Sarraya to rouse him from his sleep once she returned, having to resort to Druidic magic to shock him back into some sense of consciousness with ice-cold water. It was only about a longspan from where he had been sleeping, and it took him nearly an hour to trudge over to the rather elaborate campsite that Sarraya had erected before coming back for him. Three large tents, one of them filled with all kinds of foods, even meat, kept chilled by conjured ice. A tent for sleeping, complete with enough blankets to raise the top some span off the desert floor, so soft that he very nearly sank into them. She wouldn't explain why she raised the third tent, and he was too tired to care when he dragged himself past the large fire pit that she had excavated and crawled into the tent she had said was his. He fell asleep as soon as he was inside, and slept all the way until nearly noontime the next day, in a nearly comatose slumber that would have been impossible for him to awaken from, should he be needed.

  He finally did stir at the smell of cooking bacon, and the sound of it sizzling in a skillet. He felt as if his head had been stuffed with wool, but his body felt much better. He still felt tired, but he knew that that was an effect of sleeping for such a long time. The brightness outside told him that it had to be well into morning, at the very least, and he realized that he'd been sleeping almost non-stop since noon the prior day. He sat up and realized that he'd been laying on his tail all that time, rendering the limb numb and paralyzed from lack of blood fro
m about a longspan from the base down. It hung limply behind him as he stood up and stretched carefully so as not to bring down the tent, then it dragged on the ground behind him as he left the tent to see what was going on.

  Sarraya was hovering near a skillet that was itself hovering over the fire, a large slab of bacon sizzling merrily within it. The Faerie was sweating profusely, between the desert heat and the radiance of the fire. He looked down at her with both amusement and gratitude. It took a great deal to make Sarraya bend to such manual labor.

  "Morning," she said with a smile. "Sleep well?"

  "I have no idea," he grunted, stretching again. His back popped in several places, making Sarraya cringe.

  "What's wrong with your tail?"

  "I slept on it," he replied. "It's numb."

  "Well, it should start buzzing like mad in just a moment," she said with a laugh.

  "I know," he replied, squatting down by the fire. "I'm surprised that you lowered yourself to cooking on my account."

  "Well, I figured you'd need a hot meal when you woke up," she replied evenly. "I didn't expect you to wake up yet, though. I was planning on eggs, bacon, bread, and porridge."

  "I'll settle for the bacon," he told her, the smell of it making him hungry.

  "Well, you just sit down and wait," she said sternly. "You can't eat uncooked bacon. It's unhealthy."

  "How would you know? You don't eat meat."

  "I know how to cook," she said tersely, glaring at him momentarily.

  "Who taught you?" he asked curiously.

  "That's a stupid question!" she snapped at him.

  "Really? It's stupid to wonder where you learned how to cook meals that you won't even eat? My, I must really be dense."

  "If you must know, I learned how to cook a long time ago," she replied. "The Druid who trained me taught me. Cooking for him was one of my chores, because he was getting old, and couldn't get around much anymore."

  "That's surprising."

  "That I can learn things?" she said dangerously.

  "That a Druid got old," he said mildly. "I thought you lived forever."

  "No," she said. "Druids are the extensions of nature, and death is a part of nature. Druids live a long time, I'll grant that, and they're usually pretty spry right up to the end, but they die just like anything else."

  "I shoulda figured," he said as his tail suddenly began to tingle and buzz painfully. Blood had managed to flow back into the limb, and it began to twitch spasmodically as movement was restored. "How long was I asleep?"

  "Since yesterday. I had to throw cold water on you to wake you up so you'd come here."

  "Huh. I don't remember that. I don't even remember walking here." He looked around the campsite idly. "What are the other two tents for?"

  "One's for food, the other is mine," she replied. "I decided it would be nice to sleep in a place of my own for once, instead of always sleeping with you. I was starting to get tired of you rolling over on me."

  Tarrin ignored that. "A big tent for such a little lady."

  "I wanted a bit of luxury," she said primly. "We're all entitled to a bit of pampering now and then."

  "I guess," he sighed, flexing his tail as the tingles ended. "Looks like you've settled in, Sarraya. You want to leave today?"

  "Tomorrow," she told him. "Let's give you an extra day to rest, and I think both of us wouldn't mind a little break from all the travelling. I'd like to sit down and read a book, and you need to sleep some more."

  He yawned. "That sounds like a good idea. At least it will be after I eat something. Any trouble?"

  "Not so far," she replied. "This stretch of desert doesn't have much foliage, so there aren't many animals. I didn't see or hear any Sandmen last night, but I guess that's no guarantee that they're not around here."

  "Any Selani?"

  "I think I spotted one just after sunrise, but it was too far away for me to make it out. I think it was a Selani. It was tall and bipedal. I only saw it a moment."

  "Probably was," he told her. "They've been keeping an eye on us."

  "I know. Alright, bacon's ready. Just be careful, it's hot," she warned.

  Tarrin gave her a flat look, then reached out and picked it up out of the pan. She forgot that heat didn't bother him, not even the searing heat of sizzling bacon. He attacked the well-cooked bacon ravenously, wolfing it down in mere moments, just in time to take a conjured tankard filled with warm milk Sarraya offered. He drank that down in two huge swallows, then started on the basket of fruits that the Faerie conjured for him.

  "By the time you're done with that, I should have the eggs ready," she informed him as he started with an apple.

  After a very large meal, nearly more than Tarrin could eat, he settled down near the fire, laying on his back, staring up into the cloudless sky and soaking up the heat of the desert sun. Sarraya gave him a little kiss on the cheek, almost like a mother, then retreated into her tent to escape from the heat, and probably to take a much needed nap. He felt a little tired yet, but that was just an aftereffect of sleeping so long. His mind rolled over the amazing things that had happened the day before, trying to make sense of them. Jenna was a Weavespinner. He knew that she was, but he didn't expect her to bloom into her full power this quickly. He had seen Jenna and his parents again. that brought painful longing, but it wasn't something that he couldn't control. By now, they were all on board their grandfather's ship, if he knew his parents, sailing for parts unknown. They would take his warning seriously.

  A warning that he felt hadn't come from him. The Goddess had a habit of injecting herself into his words now and again. It had happened before, and he had little doubt that it was what she had done this time. The warning to move Jenna had come from the Goddess, but looking back on it, he could only agree with her caution. Jenna was vulnerable now, and there were alot of people who would want to control her for the power she would gain when she recovered. Jenna would be like him, capable of using High Sorcery unaided, and that would make her one of the most formidable magic-users in the world. That was a power that absolutely could not fall into the wrong hands. She may have incredible power, but she was still little more than an adolescent girl, relatively easy to manipulate and control for one skilled in the inner workings of the young mind.

  Two--no, three--Weavespinners. Himself, Jenna, and that Sha'Kar woman. How would that increase the power of the Weave? There were only three of them, it seemed ludicrous that only three beings could have such a dramatic effect on something that ranged over the entire world. Well, there were three active Weavespinners, he corrected himself. Those who had yet to touch their power would still have an effect on the Weave, but not as much of one. When Jenna made the transition, had come into full bloom of her power, the magical energy she released back into the Weave was more than what had filled her before it happened. Jenna's body, her presence, her magic, had amplified the power within her, made it stronger than it had been before, and then that power was released to spread out into the Weave. That had enriched the Weave somehow, like fertilizing a farm field.

  A rather distasteful analagy, but essentially correct, the Goddess sang in his mind, her voice amused. Are you well, kitten?

  "I'm fine, Mother," he said in a quiet tone. Sarraya was napping, and he didn't want to disturb her. "Still a little tired yet, but I'll be just fine. How is Jenna?"

  She's still sleeping, the Goddess told him. But she'll be just fine.

  "Do you, talk to her too?"

  Tarrin, what a silly question, the Goddess laughed. She's one of my Children now. Of course I talk to her, but not directly as I do with you. She's a lovely little girl. I'm very glad to have her. I get unconditional, boundless love from her, unlike the guarded posturing I get from you, and the rather leathery regard I get from the Sha'Kar.

  "You're going to make me jealous, Mother," he said in a light tone.

  I'm just teasing, my kitten, she said impishly. All of you are my beloved Children, and I love you all equally.r />
  "I know that, Mother." He paused. "How does it work, Mother? How--"

  I can't answer that, Tarrin, she warned before he began. That's a secret that you'll have to discover on your own. But seeing Jenna do what you were too busy to see about yourself when it happened to you should give you something of a basic understanding of what you're asking.

  That was truth. "Somehow we make the magic stronger," he answered. "I don't understand how, but where Sorcerers simply draw up the power from the Heart, the Weavespinners make it more than what was brought forth. The more Weavespinners there are, the stronger the Weave becomes, and the more powerful the magic it can sustain."

  Correct. A very complete answer. Sometimes your intellect amazes me, kitten. You don't often act or think in such analytical ways.

  "Thank the other side of me for that, Mother," he grunted. "It's dragging me down the path before the rest of me can stop and think about what it's doing."

  That can be a very endearing trait, she said lightly. But on to matters. You're going to need to be able to talk with Jenna with absolute privacy, and you already know that you can't do that through the amulet.

  "I know."

  So, you need to find a way to talk to her without anyone listening. You already know how and where, you've been there before. Just think about it, and it'll come to you.

  He closed his eyes. Someplace utterly private. Well, the only way he could talk to Jenna was through magic, since she was thousands of leagues west of him. The only magical means to speak was through the amulets, but it couldn't be that way.

  Then he remembered seeing Jenna enveloped in a golden glow, and felt her soul join with the Weave and seek out the Heart.