"I know of eight that are within two days of here, Tarrin," Jesmind said. "Since I moved here, a few of them have moved their dens, and the rest are watching the Dals to make sure that no more Goblinoids march into our territory. Rahnee, Kimmie, Mist, Singer, Jeri, Shayle, Nikki, and Thean are all close to here." She gave him a rueful smile. "Shayle, Nikki, Kimmie, and Thean like to visit me. Jeri and Singer's dens were always close, Mist's new den is pretty close, probably because of me, and Rahnee moved closer because Jeri and Thean are nearby. They're both males."
Tarrin considered that, considered it carefully. Ten--no, eight--Were-cats were an awesome force. They were the equal of a hundred human men in a battle, mainly because the average human soldier had no way to harm a Were-cat enemy. Tarrin didn't count Mist or Jesmind, because they had children. And he doubted that Mist would leave her child undefended to come fight. Add them to the Rangers, who would know how to fight as an infantry, the farmers, who were all very good shots with a bow, and his own magic, and they had a solid force that could succeed.
"How quickly could they get here?"
"How easily can you contact mother?"
"Easily."
"Then they'll be here not long after you tell her to call them."
"Then that's what we'll do," Tarrin said. "Garyth, call your Rangers. I'd rather take Torrian without burning it to the ground."
"I'm glad I came today," Garyth chuckled. "When I heard that Tarrin killed the Dals here, it made my day. Now my whole ride is looking better. What kind of plan did you have in mind, lad?"
"I'm not very good at plans, Garyth, especially when I don't know what I'm working with. Let's see what we've got before we decide what we're going to do."
"Fair enough," Garyth smiled. "Now then, on to a more serious matter."
"What?"
"Breakfast. I'm starved," he said eagerly, reaching for the ham steaks.
Tarrin gave him an amused look, then they all joined him in breakfast. The talk about the table during the meal was aggressively trivial, as if the decision they had just made could be addressed later. Tarrin was assaulted by questions of what had happened after he left, what had gone on out in the world, so he was more or less obliged to give them an abbreviated tale of his journey after leaving Aldreth. He was very general, glossing over most of it, focusing on places and events rather than the real happenings, with all the moral and humanitarian questions they would raise.
After he told them about crossing the desert, Jasana slapped him on the wrist with her little paw. "You lied, papa!" she accused.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"You said you wouldn't have had time to do all those things, but you did, didn't you!"
"I never said I didn't do them, Jasana," he said with a grin. "I only said that if I did that, when would I find time to sleep?"
"You said--"
"Ah, you heard what I said. You didn't hear what I meant."
She fumed at him a moment, then crossed her arms and put on a pouting expression. "Does that mean the rest of it was true too? About the city in the clouds and the wicked winged lady and the bone man and the flying ships and--"
"More or less," he replied. "They're things that most people can't understand, so I don't make an issue of them."
"You're mean."
"I know I'm mean. Deal with it, cub," Tarrin said in a teasing tone.
"So what happened to make you grow like that?" Garyth asked. "Was it part of what--of what happend with Jesmind?"
"No," he replied. "This happened when I was attacked by a creature called a Succubus. Her attack aged me, and this is what happens when Were-cats age. I guess I should thank her, actually," he mused. "She helped me more than she hurt me."
"I don't see how."
"Were-cats don't die of age, Garyth," Jesmind told him. "We live until something kills us. We keep growing most of our lives, but the growing slows down as we get older and older. Only the very old ones, like my mother, reach a point where they stop growing, or at least grow so slowly that it doesn't matter anymore. Older Were-cats are much stronger and tougher than younger ones, the benefit of living to that age. I think Tarrin here is there now, too. He got the benefits without having to slog through a thousand or so years of boredom."
"A thousand years?" Karn asked curiously.
"Or so," Jesmind shrugged.
"Well, that's certainly interesting. How long are you going to stay, Tarrin?"
"Only a couple of days, and I think that's pushing it," he grunted. "I absolutely have to get to Suld before that army does. I can afford to delay a while, to deal with Torrian, but after that I have to drop everything and get to Suld as fast as I can."
"Well, we'll see what we can do to gather everyone up. We have to do it fast anyway. As soon as the Rangers pull back, the Dals are going to realize something's up, and they may try to reinforce Torrian. They must realize how important it is to their supply lines."
"I know." Tarrin set down his glass, then glanced at Jasana. "Eat," he told her.
"No. I'm mad at you."
"Fine. If you're not going to eat, you're going to go clean your room, do the dishes, pick up the porch, rake the yard, clean the barn, and do the laundry."
She glared at him, then picked up her fork and started on her ham steak.
Tarrin knew how to deal with rebellious little girls.
Jesmind gave him a knowing little grin, as did Garyth.
They finished their breakfast, and Garyth patted his belly and sighed. "It's been a while since I ate like that," he said with a sated smile. "I should visit more often."
"You're going to be too busy to visit," Tarrin told him seriously. "You have two days to get everyone ready. I won't wait any longer than that."
"I'll have everyone ready to go, but they're going to need some bolstering."
"I'm not a motivator, Garyth. The kind of motivation I cause in people tends to be terror, not inspiration."
Garyth laughed. "I'll take care of the rallying, lad. Are you going to be here?"
"I have nowhere else to go at the moment," he answered. "You'd better arrange a messenger to get out here and warn me if the Dals show up."
"I'll take care of it," he assured him. "I think we have alot to do, Jak, Karn. We'd better get moving."
"Aye. That was a good breakfast, boy," Karn told him with a small smile. "I ain't gonna ask where the food came from."
"That's a good idea," Tarrin replied with a slight gesture of his paw.
Jesmind showed them out with a few goodbyes of her own, then she closed the door and leaned against it, looking at Tarrin. "Two days?" she asked.
Tarrin nodded once. "I have twenty days to get to Suld, Jesmind. It'll take three to get to Torrian, so that leaves me with only fifteen days to get to Suld. And not getting there in time is not an option."
"It's not fair," she said with a frown. "You just got here, and you have to leave again."
"Blame the people forcing me to get to Suld," he shrugged.
"I'd rather blame you."
"You can do that all you want. It's not going to make any difference, though."
"Cheater," she accused.
"Among other things," he said, standing up and starting to pick up the dishes. Jasana was still eating, and the looks she was passing at her father were not very friendly. Jasana had heard his declaration about leaving, and he could see that she did not like it. But that was just the way things were. No matter how much she hated, Jesmind hated, and even he hated it, it wasn't going to change the fact.
He did hate the idea. Two days didn't seem like it was long enough. Not that he wasn't quite so angry with Jesmind now, calm enough to talk with her rationally.
"Are you going to contact mother?"
"Actually, I'm waiting her her to contact me," Tarrin replied. "She said she'd do it. She's overdue."
"She must have a good reason," Jesmind shrugged, helping him clear the table of the dishes not being used. "These aren't mine."
&
nbsp; "They are now," he told her.
"Mother said you learned some Druid magic," Jesmind chuckled. "I hope you remember that I only have so much space in the cupboard."
"I can always banish them."
"No, I have room for them. No use wasting them." She looked at Jasana. "Hurry it up, cub. We have a garden to plant today."
"But I wanted to go hunting!" Jasana protested.
"Unless you learn how to hunt down wild tomatos, cub, we garden today."
"Papa can just make them appear."
"Papa should know better than to rely on things like that," Jesmind said sharply. "Your grandmother can do the same things, but you don't see her making things appear every time she turns around."
"Maybe gramma should learn from papa."
"If that happened, I'd put on a dress and live in the village," Jesmind snorted.
Tarrin gave Jesmind a cool look. Perhaps he did use his gifts a bit too much, but only because Sarraya had more or less taught him to do so, encouraging him to use his power so he could practice. Besides, he had good reason to do it, since they had no food to offer Garyth.
"I hope you brought some more clothes, Tarrin," Jesmind said. "You stay in this house, you pitch in. You're gardening today too."
"I'm so glad you think so."
"I know so," she replied. "That's where we'll be, and I'm not going to waste any of the short time we have." She smiled at him. "You'll get bored sitting in here by yourself. You're going to end up out there anyway, so why fight about it?"
Tarrin glanced at her, then chuckled in agreement. "I really hate you sometimes, Jesmind."
"I can live with that, if it means that you don't hate me the rest of the time," she said with uncharacteristic sincerity, looking up into his eyes.
He found a little more of his animosity for Jesmind fading away. "Not all the time," he said honestly.
"Those are the best times," she said with a sudden warm smile, reaching out and putting her paw on his shoulder. "Now then, cub, you're doing the dishes. I'm going to go change into clothes that I'm not too worried about, and we'll get started."
"Aww," Jasana huffed.
"Don't 'aww' me, young lady," Jesmind said crisply. "Now hop."
"Yes mama," she sighed, sliding out of her chair and fetching a bucket from the corner formed by the counter and the wall, then going out the door as Jesmind padded into his parents' old room. She was heading for the little brook just on the south edge of the meadow which held the Kael farm.
Tarrin had forgotten that their house didn't even have a wellpump inside. Keritanima knew about things like that...maybe she could explain to him how to install that plumbing she always talked about. Kerri said they had running water in her palace, both hot and cold. That sounded like something he wouldn't mind having in the house.
"Tarrin, could you come here for a minute?" Jesmind called.
Tarrin padded over to the open doorway, then stopped for a moment. Jesmind had taken off her breeches, and she had her back to him, holding up a very old pair of ragged leather buckskins, stained with dirt, torn up with multiple holes, and looking about two steps from falling apart. But his eyes were more interested in Jesmind's bare backside than those old buckskins, reinforcing the simple matter inside him that he still had those kinds of feelings for his former mate. No matter how much he may be angry with her, he could never deny that Jesmind was the most beautiful, sensual, attractive, desirable woman he had ever known, had ever seen. Even if he was blindly furious with her, he would always appreciate her beauty. He stopped at the doorway, stepping in enough to where he didn't have to hunch over, then leaned against the doorframe. She looked over her shoulder at him, then chuckled. "I'm not going to bite you," she teased, setting the buckskins on the bed. "And it's nothing you haven't seen before."
Jesmind had totally rearranged his parents' room. The bed, desk, chest, nightstand, and clothes locker were all gone. Now there was nothing but a new bed, a very large one that would fit Jesmind's long body, a single large chest at the foot of it, and a rather large nightstand that stood beside the bed. Jesmind bent over to get something else out of the chest, and Tarrin found himself almost overwhelmed with a feeling of discomfort he hadn't felt in a very long time. He took a big interest in the window at that point.
What was it about Jesmind that did that to him!
She came up with a shirt that had its left sleeve torn off, then threw it on the bed and shrugged off her shirt easily. "What did you want, Jesmind?" he asked. "I'm sure you didn't call me in here to watch you undress."
"Maybe I did," she teased, giving him a wink and a mischievious grin. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"If you were serious about what you said to Garyth, about being able to burn down Torrian."
"I don't make jokes about things like that, Jesmind," he said seriously.
"If you can do magic like that, maybe you could do something for me," she said speculatively.
"What?"
"I wanted a device that does what that amulet of yours does, Tarrin," she said. "Makes my clothes disappear when I change form. I tried to get the Tower to give me one, but they didn't like me for some reason. Could you make one of those?"
Her question caught him off guard. He bowed his head, putting a finger on his chin, considering it. He could isolate the weave that gave his amulet that ability. With a little careful study and inspection, he may be able to figure out how the weave was done. If he could figure out how it was woven, he could duplicate it.
That was the first part. The second was figuring out how to weave it into an object in such a way that it would become permanent. Magical objects were exceeding rare, and his own was so complicated that he wasn't sure which of the weaves within it was the one that made the spells used in its creation unending. He'd have to really study his amulet, try to discern which weave was the one that enchanted the amulet and sealed the magic within and made it permanent.
"I, I've never tried anything like that before, Jesmind," he answered honestly. "I don't think I could sit down and do it now. I'd have to figure out how to do it first."
"No hurry," she said dismissively, sticking a leg into the breeches, then cursing slightly when her claws snagged on it and tore a new hole in about where the knee was. She delicately freed her claw and tried again, managing to get her foot out the bottom without causing any more damage. It was a common trouble with all Were-cats, because their feet were so big, and the claws on their feet wouldn't completely retract for some reason. "But you think you could do it?"
"I'm pretty sure I could," he told her.
"Good," she said, putting her other foot through, then sliding them up over her hips. "Would you button me, please?"
Tarrin padded over and pulled her breeches into place from behind, then buttoned the button she had in the back, where the back of the breeches had been altered for her tail.
"Thanks," she toned, reaching down for her shirt.
A sudden pool of softly glowing magical energy appeared to the side of them, coalescing and focusing until an image of Triana became apparent within it. Triana was in one of those generic guest rooms common in the Tower, that had similar furniture and curtains and often confused one as to where exactly they were. She had Jula with her, who was sitting on a chair behind his bond-mother, drinking a cup of what looked like tea. "I see I called on you at a bad time," she said evenly, looking at the two of them.
"Not at all, mother," Jesmind told her, putting her shirt on.
"You're late, mother," Tarrin told her. "What took so long?"
"She did," Triana said, jerking a thumb at Jula.
"So that's the new one," Jesmind mused, looking Jula over.
"Jula, come here and introduce yourself," Triana said sharply.
Jula put the cup down, then obeyed Triana. "Hello," she said with a mild smile. "Mother's told me alot about you, Jesmind. Hi Tarrin," she said with a smile and a wave.
"You're looking fi
t, Jula," he said.
Jula chuckled. "Well, I've been getting exercise, that's for sure," she said wryly.
"I heard. Any luck?"
"No," she growled. "Whoever she is, she's gone so deep underground that I can't find her. At least not yet."
"That's starting to annoy me," Triana interrupted. "Finding that spy was one of the key parts of this plan. Since we haven't found her yet, that sharp-mouthed Wikuni sister of yours has been waffling a bit. She's getting on my nerves."
"What do you think, mother?"
"I think that so long as Jula keeps putting the heat on her, this spy isn't going to do squat," she said bluntly. "She can't give anything away if she's too afraid of being discovered to try. That Wikuni knows that, so all her waffling and indecision just puts her right back in with the rest of us. It makes her combative and irritating, though, so she'd been wearing on me lately. We do know that he spy's still here, though."
"How?"
"She's tried to kill Jula twice."
That startled Tarrin. "She did? I never felt anything."
"It was nothing I couldn't handle, Tarrin," Jula said calmly. "It wasn't enough for me to get excited over it."
That explained why he hadn't felt anything through the bond. "Oh. Alright."
"Are you going to be able to do what you said you'd do?" Triana asked bluntly.
"I've already gotten the village mayor to help," he replied. "Garyth will gather together the ones willing to go down to Torrian and kick the Dals out of Sulasia. But we could use your help."
"How?"
"There are a bunch of Were-cats near here, mother," Jesmind said. "Kimmie, Mist, Rahnee, Singer, Shayle, Jeri, Nikki, and Thean. Some are watching the Dals, some are just close at the moment. If we had some of them to help, it would make it alot easier on the humans."
"That's a good idea, cub," Triana said after a second of thought. "I won't try to call Mist, but the others would definitely come and give you a hand."
"That's what I was thinking. A pack of Were-cats would really mess up the Dals. They can't hurt us."
"You overestimate yourself again, cub," Triana said sharply. "I taught you better than that."
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