Honor and Blood

by James Galloway

  "The Cat, he lives not in that world, no, so it is hard for him to understand," Jegojah said sagely. "But the Human, he knows. The Human, he should be guiding the Cat in this unknown territory. Yes."

  And with that, Jegojah got up and wandered off into the night. The Revenant didn't sleep, so he amused himself at night by chasing the Sandmen around, and keeping an informal watch on the camp. They couldn't hurt him, and he rather enjoyed letting them try. The Revenant, Tarrin observed, had a rather strange sense of humor sometimes. But Tarrin had to agree with Jegojah's warning. Andos was a king, and that meant that he had some measure of ego. Tarrin had done more than step on it during their brief exchange, he had ripped it out of the Aeradalla, thrown it on the ground, then stomped on it repeatedly. But Tarrin's Were-cat pride and concept of the world wouldn't allow him to apologize, or even acknowledge that what he had done was wrong. In Tarrin's mind, he was still the dominant, so he could do anything he bloody well pleased. If they didn't like it, they could fight him over it. It was just that simple. The trick was at least getting the Cat to acknowledge that Andos was a powerful man, a man worthy of respect. The Cat didn't have to like him, but it had to respect the power that Andos could bring to bear. It was a different kind of power than the Cat usually acknowledged, an intangible power, but a viable one nonetheless.

  He mulled that over for quite a while, until Ariana strode over and sat down beside him. He was curious, so he looked behind her, and saw that she had had to open her wings slightly so she could sit. A good amount of her white plumage was pressed against the sandy ground. Sitting on the ground like that wasn't easy for a being that had a wingspan of some twenty spans.

  "It took me a while to calm Andy down," she told him. "What possessed you to talk to him like that?"

  "Simplicity," Tarrin replied calmly. "He offended me, and I don't react well to being offended. Laying things out quickly kept him from getting in serious trouble."

  "How did he offend you?"

  "He questioned my words, and demanded I prove what I was saying. That's as good as accusing me of lying."

  "Ah. I'll tell him about that, and warn him to choose his phrases more carefully next time."

  "That would be a good idea. It would be a shame for you to lose your king so soon after getting him back."

  Ariana laughed. "You certainly don't play around, don't you?"

  "I'm too old to play," he grunted.

  "Well, I don't know about that. Since we're talking about something related, I just have to know. What happened to you? You weren't this tall the last time we met."

  "I came out second best in a fight with a Succubus," he answered honestly. "She drained me, but her power couldn't kill me. It aged me instead. My kind keep growing all their lives, so my body grew to reflect the years the Succubus drained out of me."

  "Wow. I didn't know that."

  "Very few people do."

  "I guess it really is about age, isn't it?"

  Tarrin glanced at her. "I guess so."

  "Well, I think you look much more handsome now than you did then. Before, you looked like a boy. Now you look like a man."

  "I'm thrilled you find me handsome, Ariana," he drawled. "It has drawbacks."

  "What?"

  Tarrin twisted a manacle. "The fetlocks, for one," he grunted. "They keep itching because of the manacles."

  "Then take off those ugly things. Really, why do you wear them?"

  "Because they remind me of the price I paid when I trusted someone," he said pointedly, intensely, staring at Ariana with an unwavering gaze. "They're there to make sure that I never make that mistake again."

  "Wow, it must have been something pretty bad."

  "You have no idea," he shuddered. "And it's something I don't want to talk about."

  "Alright, but I think it must be pretty lonely."

  "Lonely is far better," he said shortly.

  She delicately let the matter drop. "If your city is so much danger, why don't I fly you there?"

  "I can't do that," he told her. "My goddess told me I have to get to Suld on my own. I won't disobey her."

  "Surely she didn't mean you couldn't get help from me."

  "She made it very clear. I have to get there on my own."

  "Well, then, that's what you'll have to do," she declared. "You should never disobey your god. It's a very stupid thing to do."

  He nodded eloquently. "How did things turn out in the city?"

  "Pretty well," she replied. "All that money you gave me ended up being for nothing, because Andy had the Palace Guard reassembled by the time I got back. By sunset the next day, he had full control of the city again, and the Council was in serious trouble. They got arrested for their crimes, and all the property they took was given back. I got my house back," she said triumphantly. "And I hope you don't mind, but I used the money you gave me to restart my trading business."

  "I don't mind. We wouldn't have given it to you if we didn't want you to use it."

  "Where is the Faerie, anyway?"

  "Around here somewhere, but she should know better than to stay out after dark," he said, realizing that Sarraya still hadn't come back from her exploration of the ruins. "Jegojah, has Sarraya come back?" he shouted.

  "Not yet. Jegojah, he will go get her," the Revenant called from the edge of camp. "The Faerie, she probably lost track of time again!"

  "Most likely," Tarrin said in a quiet tone, agreeing with the undead warrior. "So, how long do you intend to string him along?"

  Ariana blushed deeply. "I'm not--"

  "Don't lie to me, Ariana," he said with a faint smile. "I'm not human or Aeradalla. I can smell it all over you. You can't hide it from me."

  Ariana turned a deep shade of purple.

  "It's nothing to be ashamed about," he told her calmly. "But lying to yourself is never a way to honor your feelings. If you want him, go get him. He's not going to fall into your lap. Well, unless you plan it out pretty well."

  "I would, but I think he still thinks of me as the little girl he grew up with," she sighed. "I've done everything but throw myself at him, and all he does is laugh and call me silly."

  "He doesn't think you're a little girl. Just as your scent can't hide your interest in him, his can't hide his interest in you. I can smell it on him. If you chase him, he won't run away from you."

  "Are you serious?"

  "Would I lie about something like that?" he said bluntly. "Sometimes I think it's a miracle other races manage to reproduce. You're all so incredibly silly about that kind of thing."

  Ariana laughed nervously, blushing again. "I guess it's cultural," she said. "Little girls in our society aren't raised by their mothers to go chasing after the first boy that catches their fancy."

  "Human girls are meant to be hard to get," Tarrin told her. "It's instinct."

  "I'm not human."

  "No, but you're probably related to them," he said evasively. "So that means that the instincts of humans are probably hiding inside you somewhere. One of them is 'women play hard to get'."

  "I wonder why that is."

  "Simple. A human male is looking for a loyal mate, who won't stray. If he has to work to get her, he's assured that she's not going to go running off after the first male that shows interest in her."

  Ariana laughed. "I guess that makes sense."

  "You other races wouldn't have half as screwed up a society as you have if you'd just listen to your instincts," he said accusingly.

  "What's the custom of your people about marriage?"

  "We don't marry," he replied. "There are seven females for every male, so marrying wouldn't work. Besides, Were-cats don't have the temperment to spend eternity with the same mate. We're transient beings. We take mates when the interest is there, and drift apart when the interest wanes. We don't form lasting attachments the way humans do."

  "It sounds lonely. And what happens if you love your mate?"

  "Love has nothing to do with being mates, Ariana," he said patient
ly. "I could love one Were-cat female, yet be mates with another. The love would have nothing to do with me being mates with the second."

  "That sounds unnatural."

  "Only to you," he replied. "Besides, you forget, we're a transient people. The love would fade over time, just as the interest does. At least the Were-cats don't try to fool themselves into thinking that love is eternal."

  "You have a very cynical people, Tarrin," Ariana laughed. "Where's the romance and the poetry and the beauty?"

  "Those aren't very common concepts among my people."

  "It must be unbearable!"

  "Not really. Were-cat females have as little patience about things like that as males. Females don't play games. They simply go after what they want."

  "Without courting?"

  "Courting among Were-cats begins and ends with 'do you want to sleep with me?'"

  Ariana laughed. "Well, the poets among the Were-cats must have a hard time paying the bills."

  "Probably. If there were any romantic poets."

  "Well, have you ever loved someone?"

  "Once," he sighed, thinking of Jesmind.

  "What happened?"

  "We tried to kill each other."

  Ariana gave him a wild look, then burst out into gales of uncontrollable laughter. Tarrin didn't find it to be very funny, but if he were human, he had to admit that he probably would have. Not for what he said, but in the offhanded manner in which he said it. It almost did sound like a joke.

  Jegojah strode into the campsite about then, carrying Sarraya by her wings, as the Faerie thrashed and hissed and threatened the Revenant with all manner of vile, ugly ways to die for a second time. Jegojah seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the Faerie's warnings, finally dropping her near the fire. Sarraya just barely managed to get her wings going before hitting the sandy ground. "Jegojah, he found the Faerie in one of the old buildings," he replied, "surrounded by Sandmen."

  "They couldn't hurt me, you blockhead!" Sarraya screamed at him. "I was doing something important!"

  "And what would that be?" Ariana asked.

  "Oh, I see you're here," she said. "Well, I found a temple, and I was studying it. I was trying to find the names of the old Dwarven gods. I think that's some pretty important information."

  "Important enough, it is not, to die over, no," Jegojah said. "One Sandmen, he was nearly inside the temple, yes."

  "They can't enter it," Sarraya told him waspishly. "I know they can't, because they tried long before you got there. They won't come inside the temple's walls. And I have no idea why."

  "Spirits, they can't enter ground consecrated to a god, no," Jegojah told her. "The power of the god, it repels them, yes."

  "You mean all we had to do to get away from you was hide in a church?" Tarrin asked. "And how did you get on the Tower grounds? That's holy ground for my Goddess."

  "Holy, yes, consecrated, no," the Revenant answered. "A difference, there is, yes."

  The connection instantly clicked together in his mind. He remembered his talks with the Goddess about other gods, and the differences between Elder and Younger gods. "Wait a minute," Tarrin said quickly. "You said that the church repelled the Sandmen?"

  Sarraya nodded.

  "And that's an effect of consecrated ground?"

  "It is," Jegojah affirmed.

  "Then I think that the Dwarves aren't as extinct as people think," he announced quickly. "The gods of the Dwarves are Younger Gods. Their existence depends on worshippers. If that church's power is still in effect, then the god to whom it's consecrated still has to be alive. And that means that he has to have worshippers."

  "That makes sense," Sarraya agreed. "I couldn't find a name anywhere in the temple. Or more to the point, I couldn't read anything. It's all in Dwarven."

  "I doubt they'd be gracious enough to write things in a language you could understand, Sarraya," Tarrin said bluntly.

  "You mean that there may be Dwarves still alive somewhere?" Ariana asked.

  "I'm pretty sure of it," Tarrin replied. "They're probably living on some distant continent, far away from here, but there are still Dwarves. There have to be, if their god still has power in the world."

  "Well, wonders never cease," Ariana smiled.

  It made no difference to him one way or the other, but it seemed odd that they would discover that the Dwarves weren't really extinct. But that was a subject for another time. Tarrin was sleepy, and now that Sarraya was returned safely, he had no reason not to go to sleep. So he stood up long enough to shapeshift into cat form, then curled up into a comfortable ball by the fire.

  "Jegojah, he will go," the Revenant said. "Jegojah, he wishes ye good night, yes."

  Something about that tickled at Tarrin as he lay there, drifting off to sleep, listening to the Revenant's boots fade into the night. Just as he was about to slide into slumber, he realized that the Revenant probably wasn't going to come back. That didn't offend Tarrin, for Jegojah wasn't the kind to wax emotional. He was a pretty simple being, and he probably didn't want to get drowned in questions and farewells. He'd said his farewell, and that was that.

  Tarrin sent a silent prayer to the Goddess that she watch over the Revenant, and get him to within sword's reach of their hated common enemy. And then he went to sleep.

  The next morning dawned strangely calm for the desert. Tarrin, Sarraya, Var, and Denai were up with the sun, preparing to leave, as the two Aeradalla continued to sleep. He'd heard what he wanted to hear from Andos, so he saw no reason to remain for extended conversation. He'd wake them up right before he left, to tell them where to send the volunteers, and that would be that. Andos' attitude was dangerous to Tarrin, who found that he couldn't hold his annoyance at not being unconditionally obeyed in check. So the best thing to do was to simply cut their interaction as short as possible. Tarrin and Sarraya didn't travel with very much, and Selani were experts at packing a camp for the day's travel, so it only took a few moments to gather everything together, fill waterskins, eat breakfast, and be ready to leave. Jegojah had yet to return, and Tarrin knew that the odds that he would return were very slim. The Revenant could find them, and if he did intend to travel with Tarrin, he'd catch up. If not, Tarrin understood. Jegojah had a year and a day to hunt down and exact his vengeance on Kravon, and that meant that he couldn't just lay around and waste time. He'd already wasted two days staying with Tarrin, and those two days could possibly matter. Getting at Kravon wouldn't be as easy as walking into his study. Jegojah had to go through quite a few defenses, both magical and mundane, to get within sword's point of his hated tormentor. Jegojah had already decided to leave, last night, and Tarrin wished him good luck and good hunting.

  Ariana came out of the tent she'd shared with Andos just as the Selani shrugged their packs into place. Her blue hair was dishevelled and her halter was skewed, making it apparent that Ariana was not a morning person. She yawned widely, but her eyes came alert when she saw the five of them getting ready to leave. "You're leaving now? Without waking us up?" she demanded.

  "We were going to wake you before we left," Tarrin told her. "Actually, since I can talk to you and not Andos, it's probably for the best."

  "Why is that?"

  "Your king annoys me," he replied bluntly. "If you do have any other volunteers, tell Andos to have them fly to Suld. The Sorcerers there will be expecting them, and they'll be working out of the Tower."

  "I can do that, but I was hoping we could at least eat breakfast together."

  "I have a long way to go, Ariana, and I don't have much time to get there. I have to get to Suld before the ki'zadun's army does. I'll be running Var and Denai so hard they may have to stay behind."

  "I told you before, you can't outrun a Selani, Tarrin," Denai challenged. "Especially me."

  "We'll see about that, Denai," he said calmly.

  "If they may slow you down, why are you taking them?" Ariana asked.

  "Because they know the desert," he replied. "Right now, I need the fastest r
oute to the closest pass through the Sandshield. Var and Denai can give me that route."

  Var nodded. "We are about a tenday and a half from the North Pass, but the weather is going to make it a dangerous journey across."

  "Danger isn't an issue now, Var," Tarrin told him bluntly. "Just get me to that pass. I'll worry about how I'm going to cross it."

  "Denai is going to have to get you to that pass, Tarrin," Var said mildly. "I have to go back."

  "Why?" Sarraya asked.

  "My clan should be moving in this direction by now," he replied. "I have to meet them and tell them what's going on. Don't worry, we'll probably be in Suld before you will, Tarrin," Var smiled lightly. "Few can match the speed of a Selani clan on the march."

  "I'll miss your company, Var," Tarrin said honestly.

  "It won't be for long," Var smiled. "It will only take my clan about ten days to cross what took you a month. You weren't really moving very fast. We'll only be about ten days behind you."

  "I want you to make sure your people understand that I'm not asking this of them, Var," Tarrin said.

  "We know. That is why we'll be there."

  "Good enough, then," Tarrin said. Var extended his hand, and Tarrin clasped it in his paw, swallowing it up. "Safe journey. May you find cool shade and sweet water."

  "May the winds ever be at your back, Tarrin," Var told him.

  Denai hovered around Var as Sarraya said her goodbyes, then pulled him off behind a tent for some personal farewells, that would probably best be conducted outside the eyes of the others.

  Tarrin saw no reason to linger. Everything was ready. Denai could catch up, as could Jegojah, if he chose to do so. He had no reason to stay.

  "Be there for me, Ariana," he said calmly. "I'll see you in Suld."

  "You're leaving right now? Stupid question," she laughed. "I'll be there waiting for you, Tarrin. You may even see us fly overhead while you're on your way."

  She stepped up and hugged him, which took Tarrin off guard. He wasn't used to such intimate contact with someone he still considered a stranger. But he kept his fear and his surprise in check, though the claws on his paws did reflexively extend before he got himself under control Ariana had no idea how close she came to getting hurt.