What he was doing stretched his powers of Sorcery to their limit. The Cat's Claws were powerful magical devices, and they would be perfect for his mate. He had no real need for them, because he had a weapon against which the Demons could not defend, and his magic made him their equal. But Jesmind had no protection from them, and what was worse, no weapon to harm them. He intended to change that. He focused all of his power on the Cat's Claws, and then reached deeply into High Sorcery, causing his entire body to limn over into Magelight, then have it condense down and form the concave four-pointed star that marked a sui'kun using his maximum power. He turned his full, true power against the bracers in his lap, his magic and his awareness sinking down into the black steel of their substance, deeper and deeper, until he was at a point where the tiniest bits of their substance were made aware to him. It was at this level that he unleashed his power, weaving flows of such microscopic smallness that it would have boggled the mind of nearly any other Sorcerer, manipulating the very core of the substance of which the bracers were made. He had to go very slowly and very carefully, for the substance of the bracers also housed the weaves that gave the Cat's Claws their power, and he could not disrupt that magic. Magic of that kind was strong, but it was also very delicate and very carefully designed. If he interfered with the way the weaves worked with one another, they would break down and destroy themselves, and render the items powerless. So he moved with painstaking care, Transmuting the metal of the Cat's Claws piece by tiny piece, moving methodically through them a section at a time, changing the metal very carefully around the weaves without disturbing them. It was exhausting work, and the effort of it was very quickly and very steadily draining him of his energy.
It took nearly two hours, but when he was done, almost in a swoon from the effort it had cost him, he was very pleased with the results. The metal of the Cat's Claws had been Transmuted into the exact same kind of metal of which his sword was made, that same strangely light, almost indestructible alloy that was not natural to his world, because all of the metals of which its alloy had been made did not exist on Sennadar. Though it was a creation of native magic, he could sense that the metal of the Cat's Claws were now harmful to a Demon, able to breach their invulnerability and strike them true injury. Though created by native magic, the result was a substance that still had no native existence in his world, and as such still constituted a weapon not of his world where it concerned a Demonic opponent. Just as the Ironwood of his staff had been raised in Sennadar and still had the power to harm a Demon, so this metal, created in his world, still had the power to do a Demon injury. He had used his own sword as a guide in how that metal was arrayed at its basest level, an organization of the tiniest of all pieces of solid matter, all of which did not exist in the natural order of his world. He saw that it was this alloy's properties that gave the sword its incredible edge and hardness, a toughness inconceivable to modern metallurgists, a metal so strong that it would take magic to make it bend or even break. The sword had been created by some strange alien magic, shaped into the form of a sword and given an edge that narrowed down to a single line of those tiniest bits of matter that made up its substance, quite literally because that was the only way it was going to be done. No smith's hammer could shape this metal, because it required a heat so intense that no smith could survive the temperatues required to melt the metal. The metal would not even melt in a volcano, it was that strong. He remembered when it had gotten red-hot in the desert after his battle with Spyder, how he'd been afraid to pick it up because he feared the blade would bend. Now he knew that it had never been in such danger. Though the metal did become red-hot, it would have been just as strong as it was now. The sword itself was curiously non-magical, but the properties of the metal and the need to shape it with magic, a magic that allowed the maker to give it as sharp an edge as could possibly be given to the weapon, made it as good as one.
Quite by accident, he realized that since he did have such an understanding of that metal now, he could conceivably Create it. But it was an unnatural substance, and as such it meant that the attempt would be exceptionally demanding, if he could do it all. But that was something to explore at a later date. One did not experiment with Druidic magic.
Completely drained, almost shaking with exhaustion, and suddenly absolutely ravenous, Tarrin leaned over his legs and gave himself a few minutes to recover. Jesmind wasn't back yet, and that was odd. He had no idea how much time had passed, but he knew it had been some good amount. Jesmind was too good a hunter not to have caught something by now. Tarrin put on the Cat's Claws and made sure they still functioned properly by extending the blades. With no sound, the metal reshaped itself, flowing down over the backs of his paws and extending out over his fingers, the edges of the blades lighter in shade than the black of the metal, an indication that they had reshaped themselves to form an edge just as lethal as the one on his sword. Nodding in satisfaction, he returned the blades and took off the two metal bracers.
Jesmind's scent blew in on a faint breeze that penetrated the fir grove, as well as the smell of blood and a large hooved animal. A moment later, she came into view, carrying an animal that had to weigh three times more than she did, but having very little trouble handling its bulk. She carried it into the clearing and threw it to the ground, wiping at a large bloodstain that interrupted the white of both her coat and the fur on her right arm. "Here you go," she said. "It doesn't smell all that appealing, though."
"It's something to eat," he said. "I don't feel like eating it raw, though. Let's get a fire going."
They did so quickly, putting a good fire down in a stone-ringed pit. Tarrin was too tired to use Sorcery for anything but lighting the fire, and in a very short time, they had large chunks of the caribou roasting on sticks over the fire. Jesmind leaned up against him, and he put an arm around her, taking in her scent and enjoying her closeness, but her scent was agitated, and her weary sigh told him she was still worried. It was only natural for her to be so, just as he was almost sick with worry for Jasana. But they were doing something about it, and that was the only reason he could bear it.
"It, would be nice if Jasana were here," she said in a small voice. "We've never once had a picnic together, do you know that? We never seemed to have had much time at all to be together."
She put her head against his shoulder and stared woodenly into the fire as he held her a little closer. "You can't give in to it, Jesmind," he told her. "We're doing something about it. Every time you feel this way, tell yourself that. We're on our way to get her back, and we will get her back. I need you to be strong, love. When the time comes, it's your strength that's going to get Jasana out."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to be making sure nobody tries to stop you," he told her. Then he remembered what he'd been doing. "Here, I want you to take these," he said, picking the Cat's Claws up from the ground, where they were laying by his sword.
"Aren't these those magic bracers Jenna made for you?"
He nodded. "I changed them a little so they can harm Demons. They will come after us, Jesmind. Val probably has them searching for us now, and when they find us, they're going to attack us in waves. My sword and staff can harm them, but now you have a weapon to use too."
"How can we fight so many?"
"We don't have to," he said. "There is a Ward that can stop them. We just have to survive long enough for me to raise that Ward, then I can kill them whenever I please."
"I guess that works," she said, holding up the two metal guards. "How do these work?"
"Put them on," he said, and she did so. She jumped a little when the black metal contracted around her lower forearm, then she laughed as she put the other one on. The black metal really stood out against her snowy fur. "All you have to do is want the blades to come out."
"That's all?"
"That's all. It does take a little effort, so you have to think hard about it. Go ahead and try."
Jesmind's brow furrowed in concentra
tion as she held her paws out before her, and it took only a second for the bracers to react to her mental command. The metal flowed down over the backs of her paws with dazzling speed, then flowed out and set into the five span-long talons that extended past her fingertips. "That's all there is to it," he said with a smile. "With a little practice, you can make the blades longer or shorter, or only make one or two of them extend. You have complete control over them. They're sharper than razors, they won't break, and you don't have to worry about hurting yourself. They're enchanted so that they'll never cut their owner. If you tried to stab yourself with them, the metal would just retract when it touched your skin. They won't hurt you, even if you try to make them hurt you. I almost forgot, you can make them unbind themselves from your paws if you want to pick something up. They'll stick out over your knuckles when you do it, like four little swordblades."
"What about the one on my thumb?"
"It retracts when you unbind them by itself. It would be at an odd angle if it stayed out."
"I guess that makes sense," she said, turning her paws over and looking at her palms, seeing the ten magical claws extending over her fingers. "They really look intimidating," she mused.
"They should be. You can cut steel with them."
"They're that sharp?"
He nodded. "Given how strong you are, you could tear them through a solid block of steel. The edge lets them do it, but it's your strength that makes it happen. The metal's unbreakable and it covers the backs of your paws, so they double as pretty effective shields. If you ever find yourself needing to defend yourself, use the bracers, or curl up your fingers and use the claws."
She nodded. "Well, I hope I never have to use them," she said as she retracted the blades, then she reached down and picked up his sword. She handed it to him, and he absently sheathed it and put it back in the elsewhere.
"I hope so too, but let's be realistic," he said as he touched the roasting meat with a finger. It was almost ready, which was a good thing, because his stomach was demanding food. He almost couldn't wait any longer.
"I intend to stick these in that Demon woman's eyes," she told him hotly, holding up her paws, though it was the bracer blades she obviously meant. "I guess I should be glad you gave them to me. Now I can pay her back for hurting me and stealing our daughter."
"That's the spirit," he told her with a heavy smile. "Now then, these are done. Let's eat."
The meal was hot and filling, and Tarrin managed to denude a good amount of the carcass with repaeted trips to it to reload the roasting stick before his appetite was satisfied. Between him and Jesmind, they managed to clean off all the good parts of the caribou and left little behind to serve as a later meal. Both had been running hard and used up alot of energy, and their Were natures didn't entirely depend on the All for its energy. It wasn't the first time he'd eaten like that, eaten five times more than his stomach could possibly hold, for his stomach was emtpying itself out even as he filled it. They fought briefly over the liver, always a choice part for a carnivore, and ended up splitting it.
Tarrin felt re-energized after the meal, was up and moving around spryly as Jesmind lounged a bit by the warm fire. "What now, my mate?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," he said, Conjuring a very detailed and fully accurate map of Ungardt and the tundra to the east of the Frozen Mountains. "We have forty-one days to get there, and we have to make sure we arrive in exactly forty-one days," he reminded her, sitting by her and putting the map on the ground. "We're right here," he said, pointing just to the right of a dot that represented Dusgaard. "There's only small villages of my clan and Clan Vjolgir east of us, but then it gets populated again when you get to the Frozen Mountains," he added, sliding his finger towards the right on the map, to where several symbols rested that represented mines and mine camps.
"What's out there?" she asked.
"Iron mines," he replied. "The Frozen Mountains are stained red from all the iron in them. It's the same in Daltochan, but they have other metals, like silver, tin, gold, lead, Mithril, and copper down there. There only seems to be iron in the Frozen Mountains. Ungardt makes half its money off the mines and the smelting camps. The other half comes from trade."
"I didn't know the Ungardt were so heavily into mining," she mused.
"We didn't used to be, but the Dals showed us how much iron we have," he shrugged. "In fact, we have alot of Dals at our mines. They're better at mining than we are, and they'll go where the mining pays the most."
"If you want to find a Dal, dig a hole," Jesmind chuckled, quoting an old saying.
"Mining's one of the very few things they can do up in their mountains," Tarrin told her. "So it only stands to reason that they'd be very good at it. Ungardt are too big and unruly to be good miners," he admitted. "There are alot of Ungardt there, but the Dals do alot of the mining with the more patient Ungardt, and the Ungardt usually work on refining the ore they bring out."
"What did you call it? Smelting?"
He nodded. "They mine coal from the hills just west of the mountains and use it in the smelting foundries up there," he told her. "That means we can do it cheap, so we can sell our refined iron cheaper than anyone but the Dals. And when the Dal iron gets imported out of Daltochan, it makes the price for Dal iron at ports about the same as ours."
"Ah, so there's no competetion with Daltochan," she noted.
"Not really. They mine alot more than we do, and there's never a shortage of people wanting to buy iron."
She looked at the map. "How long is it going to take us to get to the mountains?"
"About six or seven days," he said. "It's the crossing the mountains that's going to be tricky. There's bound to be heavy snow up there, and I may have to use magic to get us through the passes. And it won't be a direct route. We have to follow the passes," he said, snaking his finger up and down the map in the mountains, following a narrow, treacherous path, "and we'll be spending as much time travelling north, south and west as we will east. I have no idea how long that's going to take, but I'm guessing that it's going to take us at least twenty days. But it's after we come out on the other side that's up in the air. We can't go slow when we get out on the tundra, so we might be forced to wait in the mountains until it's time to move down onto the tundra."
"It's too open, isn't it?"
"It's flat as a board and there's not a tree between the mountains and the polar ice," he nodded. "It defines open. They'll see us coming from days away, and we'll be in the most danger when we come out onto the tundra plain. We very well may have to fight our way to Gora Umadar."
"How long will it take?"
"If nothing gets in our way, we could reach Gora Umadar in three days from the pass leading down out of the mountain," he said, pointing to the pass that was almost directly southwest of the black triangle representing the place where they were holding Jasana. "But I expect plenty of things to get in our way, so I'm giving us five days to get there. That means we have to be at the mouth of the pass here in thirty-six days," he said, pointing to the pass again. "If we're early, we hunker down and wait. If we're late, then we rush right out onto the plain and get a bit more direct in clearing a path to Gora Umadar," he said with an aggressive snort.
"What kind of weather will we face?"
"Not much but snow out here," he answered. "There's going to be some fierce storms up in the mountains, and there's nothing to stop the wind out on the tundra, so I'll bet that it's pretty strong out there."
"That doesn't sound too bad," she said with a neutral expression, examining the map. "As long as we don't mess around, we should reach the pass opening with time to spare," she surmised.
"I'd rather not," he said with a slight frown. "I'll go stir crazy if I have to sit in one place and wait. As long as we're moving, I feel like we're getting somewhere. But as soon as we stop, I'll get impatient, and I can't let that distract me. We absolutely have to get there on Gods' Day. Not a day sooner or a day later, and we have to arrange it so we rea
ch the pyramid itself as close to the first hour after noon as we can possibly arrange it."
"Why then?"
"According to Phandebrass' charts, the conjunction is going to happen a little after noon on Gods' Day," he said. "Phandebrass got a book of charts from the library that had all the information in it that I needed, but he wisely wrote all sorts of helpful notes in the margins for me. He figured out what time it would be in Gora Umadar when it happened, and added that for me in his notes. I'm glad he did. It's different times in different parts of the world at one time, because the sun isn't in the same place in the sky for the whole planet."
"Mother explained that to me once. It sounds weird."
"The planet is round," he said, drawing a circle in the dirt by the fire. "The sun doesn't move, we move around it, but since the planet is round, only one side of it faces the sun at any one time." He drew a smaller circle representing the sun. "Dawn and dusk are nothing but us sitting on the border between day and night, and noon is when we're directly facing the sun." He drew lines from his representation of the sun to the planet, lines to its edges and its center. "We reckon time by sunrise and sunset, so that makes the time different for different parts of the world. As far as I can tell, the conjunction will line up over Suld at exactly noon. Since we're going to be so far east of Suld, it's going to make it later in the day for us when that happens. Phandebrass figured that out. Hold on," he said, taking out the book and leafing to the page with the diagram of the conjunction on it, a page he'd marked by folding its corner. "Here it is. It'll be one hour and seven minutes after noon, time local to Gora Umadar," he told her. "The entire key for us is to get inside the pyramid and confront Val as close to that time as we can possibly make it," he told her. "With the conjunction so close, it's going ot make him desperate enough to bow to my demand to release you and Jasana before I give him the staff. After you two start out, I'll stall, telling him I won't give it to him until after you've cleared the enemy army. A dragon is going to land outside the pyramid and pick you up after you get out. When he clears the army with you, I'm hoping that the conjunction will be about to start, and that should be about when the Elder Gods are going to transport in the army to attack Val's forces. That's the signal they'll be waiting on to do it. That's when I'm going to try to make my escape, when Val is distracted by the appearance of the Elder Gods and the army."
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