Chapter 7

It was a very calm, quiet, happy night.

The sun would be coming up soon. Tarrin lay on the huge, oversized bed he shared with Kimmie, arm draped protectively over her as he watched her sleep. He couldn't help but stare at her in wonder. She was pregnant. She was going to have a baby, their baby. Although he had two other children by two other females, this was his first opportunity to be there with the female during her pregnancy. He hadn't even known about Jesmind being pregnant, and when he made Mist pregnant, he knew that the circumstances of their meeting and his mission wouldn't permit him to be there with her. If she allowed him to remain at all. Females usually forced a male away after they became pregnant, part of the cat instincts working within them, and Mist was very much dominated by her cat instincts.

He already felt more intimate with Kimmie, closer. If anything, then because of the child they were bringing into the world. He liked her, she liked him. They were both turned, so he was sure she would be able to tolerate his more human-grounded concepts, just as he expected her to be more human in her approach to dealing with him, but he was pretty sure that she knew that he wouldn't be like human males. He wouldn't see her as an invalid or delicate, because she was a Were-cat female. Her pregnancy would have no effect on her until days before she was ready to deliver, when her body began preparing for the event. She'd be as mobile and capable as ever until then. Of course, there would be some changes in his behavior, he knew that. He felt wildly protective over Kimmie already, and her pregnancy wouldn't even show for two or three months. She was more than capable, but that didn't mean that he'd like it if she intentionally went into a dangerous situation. He'd allow her her studies and let her travel with him, but he wouldn't let her fight. And deep down, he had the feeling that Kimmie would be just as reluctant to fight as he would be to allow her to do so. Were-cats didn't get pregnant very often, and when they did, the instincts of protecting the unborn cub were exceptionally powerful within them. It was why Jesmind left him, it was why Mist returned to the Frontier. They were doing everything they could to put themselves out of potential harm. Kimmie wouldn't have that same opportunity, but Tarrin would make sure that she was the safest being on the face of the planet.

They hadn't told the others yet, but they knew something was going on. They'd attended Keritanima's rather unorthodox wedding the night before, which had been little more than a priest, Keritanima, Rallix, and all Keritanima's friends and siblings gathering in her apartment for a ceremony that lasted about five minutes. It was quick, clean, and easy, a simple exchanging of vows and rings that made their marriage legal under the law. Tarrin felt that it was almost too sterile, too unemotional, but he realized that this was a wedding of convenience, a marriage of necessity, not a marriage of love. That marriage, the official state wedding, would take place after Keritanima returned. It would be Kerri's chance to shine, her chance to have the kind of wedding any girl from her social background wanted, with all the emotional trimmings to make it a day she would never forget. Until then, though, she seemed content with her unofficial ownership of Rallix. They'd seen how wildly happy Kimmie was after the ceremony was over, saw that even Tarrin was happy, almost talkative and outgoing. For the grim, brooding Were-cat, that was almost unheard of. Five separate times, Allia asked him if he was feeling well. But Tarrin couldn't help it. He just couldn't stop smiling, just couldn't stop being happy over it. It was all both of them could manage not to tell all of them, but both of them wanted to do it after the wedding, so as not to take anything away from the already skeletal feeling of Keritanima's wedding ceremony. For all it was worth, that night belonged to Keritanima, and neither Tarrin nor Kimmie would steal her thunder.

But there were receptions, and there were receptions. Keritanima's inner circle had their own reception of congratulations and a strange fizzy wine called champagne, then Keritanima and Rallix attended the other reception, the one for which the invitations had been sent out. That one was attended by a group of confused and mystified nobles, who were invited to a party when they had no idea what the occasion was. Tarrin thought it odd for Keritanima to wed in secret then have a public reception, then Dolanna explained to him that in order for people to leave Rallix alone, they had to know that he was Keritanima's husband. So Keritanima was broadcasting that fact, using the reception as a perfect vehicle for spreading the news. Rallix had become a target as soon as the Queen took interest in him, inviting him to her ball, and that target grew larger when Keritanima revealed her alternate identity and absorbed all her assets under her true name. They would know that a wise, shrewd, observant man like Rallix would know the truth, and he'd become an inviting target for others to use against Keritanima. So Keritanima simply put him completely out of reach. Rallix had a Vendari bodyguard now, which happened to be Szath, and Dolanna explained that now Rallix had all the protections and distinctions allowed him under the laws that governed and protected the royal family. Rallix was now unassailable, or at least so out of reach that any attempts to abduct or kill him would be months in the planning, for the penalty if the perpetrator failed would be the most severe possible.

It had to be a culture shock for the quiet, efficient man. He'd gone from running a lucrative business in relative anonymity to being in the highest levels of the Wikuni government and society. He was given the official title of Duke of Wikuna, but wouldn't ever be called king. If Keritanima died, he wouldn't be in line for the throne.

After the reception—they didn't attend the stuffy noble one—they had a very long, very honest talk. Tarrin and Kimmie said what was in their hearts, brought everything out into the open so they could know one another's mind, done in preparation for the baby. Kimmie wasn't shocked to know that Tarrin didn't love her romantically, but he was a little shocked to hear that Kimmie did. Kimmie admitted that she had had a crush on him that started after he healed Mist, a crush that had bloomed into something more, but she was quick to tell him that she didn't expect him to feel for her the same way she felt for him. Unlike many females, Kimmie's crush was realized when she persuaded Triana to let her come with him, and she managed to catch her male. Kimmie explained that she was quite content with his attentions and his friendship, and that not only did she know where his heart lay, she was quite willing to take what he would give to her and be happy with it. She knew that he belonged to Jesmind, but, as she said, "I'm happy to borrow you from her for a while." That they were going to have a baby together made her even more ecstatic about the whole thing.

That took Tarrin a little mulling to rationalize. It felt, wrong, that Kimmie loved him, but he didn't love her in return. It was like violating her trust, or hurting someone he did like a great deal, and did love in a platonic manner. But she was patient and tender in explaining how she felt to him, that it was alright for him to love Jesmind and be with her, that she understood, that she was happy being his friend. Unlike many relationships, since Kimmie could consummate her feelings with him, it seemed to be all she wanted or needed. She had him for now, and though she knew he didn't love her the same way she loved him, it still seemed to be enough for her.

She had to talk for quite a while to ease Tarrin's concerns about that. It did change the way he looked at her a little, but he couldn't forget who she was. She was one of his best friends, someone that knew him better than he knew himself, someone who could read him like a book, someone he could entrust with his deepest secrets and be sure they would go no further. He could tell that she wasn't talking just to calm him, she was speaking sincerely from her heart, so when she said she was more than happy with the relationship they had, he believed her. He still felt a little guilty over it, but if it made her happy, he'd go right on going they way they were going.

After he swallowed that and understood it, he realized that it really wouldn't change their relationship a great deal. They'd still be tender lovers, they'd still have their talks, and they'd still be best friends. It did change how he saw her a little bit, it made him understand some of the things she did a little better, but he knew it wouldn't change them where it mattered. He would be a little more attentive to her, more sensitive to her needs, but the core of their relationship wouldn't change.

Kimmie sighed in her sleep, rolling over on her back. Tarrin put his paw under his head to prop it up and looked down at her, smiling gently. He reached down with his other paw and brushed her dark hair from her face, which made one of her reddish-furred ears to twitch reflexively. He admired her for a long moment, reminding himself yet again how pretty Kimmie was, and he felt at that moment to be a very lucky Were-cat. He had Jesmind's love, and he had beautiful, engaging, interesting females like Kimmie and Mist seeking him out as well. It felt strange to him to have multiple females interested in him, and for the first time ever, he accepted that fact gladly, even reveled in it a little bit, letting the dirty-minded rascal in him shine through for the first time. Even human males enjoyed attention from more than one female.

He just couldn't resist. He slipped his paw under the blanket and put his palm against Kimmie's flat, surprisingly soft belly. He knew he wasn't going to feel anything, he wouldn't for months, but just knowing that the baby was in there was enough to make him try anyway. He wondered what it would look like. Would it be a boy, or a girl? Would it be tall, short, thin, stocky? Would it have Kimmie's fur or his? Her hair, or his? Would the baby have blue eyes, or green? Usually that would be a given, but Kimmie was a unique female, and that put many of the things that were generally taken for granted in Were-cat infants in question when it would be Kimmie's baby. Triana seemed worried that the baby may have unforeseen problems, but Tarrin was pretty sure that Triana was just being over-anxious. The Were-cat traits had bred true for Tarrin, and he had little doubt that they would breed true for Kimmie, even if Tarrin was the father.

He wasn't sure what the baby would look like, but that didn't matter. He'd love it, the same as he loved Jasana, and would love Eron when he met him. Tarrin's children were everything to him, and this new child would never want for attention from its father. As soon as all this unpleasant business with the Firestaff was finished, he'd return to Aldreth, go home, and would always be there for his children. He'd never have to leave them again, never have to abandon a mate and child in service to another again. He'd be free, free to live his life, free to raise his children in peace.

And for the mothers… well, there were three of them, but his heart was large enough for them all. He loved Jesmind, loved her desperately. His compassion for Mist was still strong, and if they were together again, he felt that it too could be something more. And Kimmie… well, that was a delicate situation. He really liked her, she was one of his best friends, and that seemed to be enough for both of them.

Kimmie stirred as Tarrin caressed her belly, her tail wrapping around one of his shins, and she opened his eyes. She looked over at him and smiled gloriously, putting her paw over his. "Morning," she said. "Can't sleep?"

"I slept some," he replied. "I'm just, you know."

"I can see that," she said with that same smile. "And you have no idea how wonderful it feels."

"Kimmie, about last night—"

"Don't start that again, Tarrin," she told him seriously, gripping his paw. "You know how I feel now. Does it have to change things? You understood things last night, so please don't dwell on it anymore." She sat up and took his paw between hers, holding it to her breast. "I love you, but I know your heart belongs to Jesmind. I don't mind that, Tarrin. In a way, it makes me very happy, because you're happy. Can you understand that?"

"I, I guess so," he admitted.

"This may sound a little corny, but I don't mind being the mistress. Honestly."

Tarrin looked at her, and couldn't suppress a chuckle.

"I know it sounds funny," she said with a crooked grin, "but it's the truth. You and me, we're friends. Good friends."

"Best friends," he told her honestly.

"Best friends," she smiled. "But look at this as a Were-cat, Tarrin. Don't you think I can be happy being your mate? When you're with me, I know your attention is on me. I don't need you to love me to be happy with that. I have you, and I know you like me. I don't need you to love me back to be happy with what I have now. Please understand that."

"I just don't want to hurt you, Kimmie."

"There's no way you could hurt me, Tarrin," she smiled. "I know that may sound hard to believe, but it's true. When you go back to Jesmind, I'll be just fine. I know I can't keep you, the same way Jesmind can't keep you. I'm not jealous. Well, not too jealous," she admitted. "But it's no different than how she feels. And besides, you'd better get used to it."

"Why?"

"Mist, silly," she smiled. "Mist loves you too. You're going to be passed around between the three of us, Tarrin. You'll always have a mate that loves you. Won't that make the mating that much sweeter?"

He was silent, mulling over that concept.

"And the three of us will probably be a little happier knowing that you're going to be with females who care about you. We know you're not like most males, that you have special needs. We'll make sure you're always happy." She kissed his paw intimately. "And that's why I'm more than happy, Tarrin. I know you'll always honor my love for you, even if you don't feel the same way, because that's the kind of male you are. You won't use me and then throw me away, and you'll always care about me, even if you don't feel the same way I do. My time with you will always be about me, not about any baggage you bring to the relationship. I'll be sure you're always with a good female who loves you, and that you'll be happy when I'm not the lucky girl being your mate at the moment. That's all that matters to me."

At that moment, he felt incredibly blessed to have Kimmie with him. He knew she was speaking the truth, and it made him very happy she was there. He put his other paw on her cheek, and she leaned against it with closed eyes.

"I'll do my best to honor those feelings, Kimmie," he promised. "You'll never get a cold shoulder from me. You'll always feel wanted when I'm with you."

"Then what more does a girl need?" she asked with a winsome smile, pulling him into a deep, intimate kiss.

Kimmie's kiss effectively scattered his attention, to the point where he didn't sense the shifting of the magical forces within the room. So it was with a bit of surprise that he opened his eyes and saw a projected image of Jula standing at the foot of the bed. Jula was blushing furiously, though she wasn't looking away.

"Oh, Goddess, I'm so sorry," she said quickly, hastily. "I'll go back and leave you two alone."

Tarrin looked at her steadily, but Kimmie was laughing. "At least you got here before we went any further," Kimmie told her. "Ten minutes later, and you'd really have cause to be embarrassed."

Jula turned almost purple. "I'm sorry. I should have called ahead before just showing up."

"Well, you're here now, so you may as well stay," Tarrin told her. "What did you want to talk about?"

Jula looked at Kimmie, then sighed. "Well, this concerns Kimmie too, so I should just tell you both."

"What is it?" Kimmie asked.

"I heard something from Triana yesterday morning," she said, hedging a bit. "Uh, well, there's no easy way to say it. Kimmie, you're pregnant."

"I know that, Jula," she said with a glorious smile. "I found out last night."

"That's a relief," Jula said sincerely. "I wasn't sure if mother was going to tell you, but I thought you should know."

"She told us yesterday," Tarrin told her.

"Good, so I'm not really betraying her trust," Jula said with an explosive sigh or relief. "She said it in passing, and I don't think she realized I heard her, but I just couldn't sit on that kind of information. I just had to tell you two."

"It's nice that you care that much, Jula," Kimmie told her honestly.

"Tarrin's been good to me, better than he ever had to be, so I want to be good to him," she answered truthfully.

"I appreciate you looking out for us," Tarrin said. "Does Jesmind know?"

"Not yet, at least as far as I know. Triana hasn't been here since this morning, and I haven't told her, so there's nobody there to tell her yet."

"I'm not sure how she's going to react to that news," Tarrin grunted. "She'll either be happy or furious."

"I don't think she's that mean, Tarrin," Jula said. "Jesmind may talk rough and act rough, but she's a sweetheart once you get past her bark. I think she'll be happy about it, at least after she gets over a bout of intense jealousy."

"You may be right," Tarrin chuckled. "At least I hope so."

"If anything, it just gives Jasana and Eron another playmate," Kimmie smiled.

Sapphire flapped into the room through the open door and landed on the bed, sitting on Tarrin's lap and looking up at him expectantly. It was breakfast time for her, and she wanted food. "Well, another demanding little female is making her presence felt, so I'd better go, Jula," Tarrin told his bond-daughter, scratching the drake between the horns. "Sapphire has her 'I'm hungry' look."

"Alright. This spell is starting to wear on me, anyway. I'll talk to you later, father. Be well."

"You too," he nodded, and then her Illusion dissipated.

"Well, what do you want, Sapphire?" Kimmie asked the drake, picking her up and holding her over her head. "I'm in a good mood, so I'll make Tarrin conjure you a feast that will stuff you so full you won't even be able to fly."

"Talk about ulterior motives," Tarrin chuckled as he slipped out of bed. He fed Sapphire and refilled her water bowl, then returned to the bed and cuddled up to his mate. "You know, they'll be knocking on the door and telling us we have to get ready to go any minute now," he told her as the sun just began to stain the eastern horizon, visible out the window that faced the bed.

"Well, that gives us a few minutes then, doesn't it?" Kimmie asked with a hungry smile, dragging him down with her.

"Pregnancy hasn't done anything to curb your sex drive," Tarrin teased.

"Some things you do just for fun," she said with a wicked little laugh, then silenced him with a passionate kiss.

Fortunately, nobody knocked on their door until they were both up, dressed, and Kimmie was nearly finished packing away her magical equipment. But then again, Tarrin realized that Keritanima was a married woman now, and she'd probably used this one and only night with Rallix to have as much intimate fun as she possibly could. That meant that if she had gotten any sleep at all over the night, it was only a few minute's worth. That wouldn't make her too motivated to get out of bed this morning. And that meant that the official order to leave was going to be late. When that knock finally did come, it was Amber who delivered it, stepping just inside the door after Tarrin opened it to see who it was. She curtsied to him deeply. "Lord Tarrin, her Majesty requests that you and your Lady pack your belongings. She's running late, and you don't have much time to reach the ship before it has to sail on the morning tides."

"We're one step ahead of you, Amber," he told her with a calm look. "We'll be done in a few minutes."

"Very good, Lord Tarrin. I'll send porters for your things."

"Are we eating here or on the ship?"

"I think you'll be taking your breakfast on board, Lord Tarrin," she answered. "Her Majesty ordered her traveling gear packed and sent to the ship immediately, and I didn't see any preparations for breakfast in the kitchen earlier."

"I figured as much," he grunted. "Kimmie, are you ready yet?" he shouted into the inner parlor.

"Almost!" she shouted back. "Give me a few more minutes!"

"Do you know where Queen Keritanima is right now?" Tarrin asked curiously.

"When I left her, she was in her private rooms," Amber answered. "She was conferring with the king of the Vendari."

Preparing him for her leaving, Tarrin realized. "Alright, send your porters. We'll be ready by the time they get here."

"As you wish, my Lord," she said with a curtsy, then she scurried out.

Tarrin went into the study and helped Kimmie pack away her vials and bottles, seeing that she used a special leather satchel for them that had loops in it to keep them from banging around inside. Kimmie really didn't have very much, only her spellbooks, two satchels and a small box filled her her magical equipment, and a pack for her clothes. Tarrin himself only had a small pack for clothes and small personal effects, since he simply Conjured anything he needed and kept his weapons in the elsewhere.

"What do you do with all this stuff?" he asked curiously, holding up a small vial of strange green liquid.

"We use them as spell components for the more complicated spells," she answered. "These things have to be there when you cast the spell, or it won't work right."

"Strange."

"Be lucky you're a Sorcerer and a Druid, Tarrin. They don't require material components, or chanting, or somatics."

"What are somatics?"

"Precise gestures," she replied. "Some spells require you to stand a certain way, or even move your feet in a particular manner. If you don't do it right, the spell either fizzles or goes wild."

"That sounds like an awful lot to remember."

"Now you understand why it takes so long to study Wizard magic," she said with a teasing smile. "It's certainly not for the easily confused, that's for sure."

"I've never seen Phandebrass do any of those things," he noted.

"You've only seen Phandebrass use battle magic," she told him. "Combat spells are specifically designed to be fast and easy to cast. Most other spells aren't quite that easy."

"You're probably right," he agreed, closing the satchel. "Is this it?"

"Yes, that's it," she answered, picking up the small box. "Help me carry it into the receiving room?"

"Which room is that?"

"The first one you step in when you get into the apartment, silly," she laughed, waggling her tail at him as she walked away.

"Well excuse me," he drawled. "I didn't realize it had a fancy name. I've been calling it a parlor."

By the time they had all their things in the outer parlor—or receiving room, as Kimmie called it—five burly Wikuni arrived with Amber. They looked a little relieved when they saw only two packs, two satchels, and a small box to carry away, and did so with quick, quiet efficiency. "If you'll follow me please," Amber said with a curtsy. "Her Majesty is waiting for us."

"We can't keep Kerri waiting," Tarrin said absently.

"You know, I'm going to miss that bathroom," Kimmie sighed as they followed Amber out of the room, Sapphire riding on Tarrin's shoulder. "The first thing I'm going to do when we get back to the West is figure out how to put running water in my house."

"You're never in it," Tarrin reminded her.

"True, but it would be there on those rare occasions that I am," she chuckled.

"Where is your den, anyway?" he asked.

"Actually, right now, I don't really have one," she said. "I did have a place not far from Mist's territory, but she moved, and I just let my den go back to the forest. Ever since then, I've either stayed with her or been on the move."

"There's lots of empty territory around Aldreth," he told her.

"Yes, there is," she smiled. "Quite a bit."

Amber led them to a large antechamber on the ground floor, where everyone else except Miranda and Phandebrass had arrived. Keritanima and Rallix stood hand in hand with Binter, Sisska, and Szath standing behind them protectively, and Dolanna and Camara Tal were talking about something on the far side of the room. Allia and Dar were talking with Azakar, who for once wasn't wearing his armor, dressed instead in a blue tunic and black trousers, with new half-boots on his large feet.

"Where is Phandebrass?" Tarrin asked as he reached Keritanima.

"Fussing with the porters over his stuff," Keritanima growled. "He's being a bit ridiculous about it, telling them not to drop anything and having a hissy fit every time one of his boxes dips even and inch low."

"Phandebrass isn't playing, your Majesty," Kimmie told her seriously. "If those porters drop the wrong box, what's inside could very well explode. Some of the compounds we work with are very unstable."

"Well, I need to remodel anyway," Keritanima said absently, glancing towards one of the doorways leading out of the chamber.

"You look tired, Rallix," Tarrin said to the badger Wikuni.

Rallix chuckled humorlessly. "Her Majesty kept us up all night," he answered.

"You knew it was coming," she said to him archly.

"Yes, but the morning after always makes one wonder if the night was worth it."

"Excuse me?" Keritanima said in a very dangerous tone.

"I feel like I have a hangover, your Majesty," Rallix said quickly. "I'm just comparing how I feel now to that, that's all."

"Oh. Well, if you say it like that, then it's alright," she said to him calmly.

"You probably do have a hangover," Tarrin told him. "You two drank a lot of wine. Where is Miranda?"

"She went back to the apartment for something. She'll be right back." Keritanima fidgeted a bit with the ring that was now on her finger. It was a surprisingly plain ring, a simple gold band with no stones or adornment. Keritanima was a queen and was used to finery, but deep down inside she was actually someone who very much loved simple things. She could have had any ring she wanted, as expensive as she could make it, but she had chosen something that made a statement for what it represented to her instead of how many diamonds it had on it. The ring was a symbol of her union with Rallix, and it mirrored the simplicity of that state. Keritanima could be very artistic sometimes. "It's going to take me a while to get used to this," she admitted. "After it rubs the fur off my finger, it probably won't itch as much."

"Is that how you wore your jewelry before you came to Suld?" Tarrin asked.

"I didn't keep it on long enough for it to rub off the fur," she answered. "I wore a lot of jewelry, or the Brat did, but it changed so often that it didn't have a chance for me to get used to it."

"Married life seems to suit you, sister," Tarrin told her.

"It'll suit me a bloody lot better when I get back home," she growled. "One night with Rallix seemed like enough when it was ahead of me. Now that it's behind me, I want to postpone the journey another day."

"We can't do that," Tarrin told her.

"I know, she groaned.

"Then take him with you," Kimmie said sagely. "We have to stop in Vendaka anyway. We'll drop him off there, and he can catch another ship back to Wikuna."

"I'd love to, but Rallix has a lot of work to do here," Keritanima sighed. "He's now in charge of my efforts to educate the commoners about the benefits of the new system. Given his talents, they'll be ready for it by the time I come back."

"Her Majesty is a bit optimistic," Rallix said in a mild tone.

"We'll see."

Miranda returned with her shoulder back slung over one shoulder, and Chopstick riding on the other. Turnkey flapped into the room and immediately sought out Allia, and Phandebrass ambled in, his expression rather unfriendly. "I say, your Majesty, those clouts you sent to move my things are about as graceful as a stone golem!" he complained. "They nearly dropped my case of nitrates!"

"Is that bad?" Keritanima asked Kimmie.

"That's very bad," Kimmie answered honestly.

"I say, they should be more careful, if they want to live to get my things to the ship, they do!" he added. "Are we ready to leave?"

"I think we are," Keritanima said. "We'll be taking my personal ship to Vendaka. The steamship was moved there last month, where they finished getting it ready for us. As far as the reports I'm getting go, it'll be ready to sail when we arrive. I was told that the compartments on the steamship are very cramped, so we may have to double up," she warned. "So enjoy those big cabins on my ship as long as you can."

"I'm staying with Tarrin now," Kimmie told her calmly. "So if someone wants my cabin, they can have it. Mine had a pretty big window."

"Ah, so that's why you two have been almost sickeningly happy," Keritanima said with a grin.

"No, there's another reason for that," Kimmie winked. "We'll tell you about it when we set sail."

"Ah, a mystery. I adore mysteries," Keritanima said brightly, rubbing her hands together. "Don't tell me now. Let me figure it out on my own."

"If you want," Kimmie told her with a shrug.

Since everyone was ready to go, they wasted no time. They filed out onto the grounds, and then were driven down to the docks in large, comfortable carriages. After they arrived, the ship in which they'd traveled to Wikuna suddenly bustled with activity, as sailors and workers rushed to prepare the ship to sail as soon as the Queen gave the order. Keritanima led them along the dock, then up the gangplank and onto the ship. All of their gear was sitting in neatly stacked piles on the deck, the morning sun shining down on them, with about twenty uniformed servants standing around it. Tarrin recognized a couple of them; they were the same porters who had collected their belongings.

With sharp commands, Keritanima ordered the porters to deliver the luggage to specific rooms, telling the porters who was going to stay where. Keritanima gave Tarrin the same cabin he'd used on the journey over, and he found that to be more than satisfactory. It was large enough for both Tarrin and Kimmie. Keritanima kept them on deck until all the porters were done, and then she dismissed them with a kind word for the excellent service. They filed off the ship quickly, and then she ordered the captain to prepare to set sail for Vendaka, that they'd be weighing anchor as soon as Rallix and Szath disembarked. After she said that, she told all of them to go to their cabins and wait, for cooks would deliver a large breakfast to them, since none of them had yet had a chance to eat. "By the time you finish unpacking, breakfast should be waiting for you," Keritanima told them with a smile, albeit a strained one. It was strained because she then turned to Rallix, took his hand, and led him some distance away. Tarrin, and all of them, for that matter, intentionally didn't look in that direction. They gave Keritanima a little privacy to say goodbye to her new husband.

It was an understandably long time before Keritanima padded over to them, where they were all literally standing with their backs to where she and Rallix had been standing. She sniffled a bit, looked rather sad, but also looked a little annoyed. That was Keritanima, alright. Tarrin turned to look, and saw that Rallix and Szath were already down the gangplank, standing on the dock with the porters and the Royal Guard that had escorted them down from the Palace. Rallix didn't look very pleased that he and Keritanima were being separated either. That said something for how Rallix felt.

The gangplank was raised, and Tarrin felt the ship begin to move as he and Kimmie went to their cabin. The cabin had been cleaned scrupulously while the ship had been docked, with new linens on the bed and a fresh coat of paint on the walls. After Sapphire landed on the bed and curled up contentedly, familiar with the room and comfortable in it, they unpacked what few clothes Tarrin had, and then he helped Kimmie unpack her many dresses and the few pairs of trousers she kept, just in case. Kimmie's moving in felt more to Tarrin like she was taking over his living space, and for a moment he had the irrational sense that she was some kind of invader. But that passed when he realized that she was just using the space that he wasn't using at all, and hadn't used in the first place. Kimmie only unpacked her clothes, and one of her two satchels and box were stowed in the tiny closet by the bed. The other satchel, the one that held her three spellbooks, was set by the bed carefully. She sat down on the bed and bounced on it a few times, then flopped down on her back, startling Sapphire. "Traveling with you feels almost the same as when I did alone, except you have nicer, richer friends," she chuckled. "I could get used to all this pampering." She looked up at him. "There's something strange I noticed."

"What?"

"Keritanima doesn't really have many servants, and that's very odd given her station," she replied. "Unless she keeps them hidden. Every time I've seen her, the only servant around her is Miranda. Most monarchs are attended by a small army of maids, butlers, valets, pages, and generic lackeys."

"Miranda is Kerri's maid, and she's also the only one that she'll allow close to her," he answered. "Kerri is a very nervous person, Kimmie. She was comfortable here because this ship is an enclosed area. I could smell it all over her when she was in the Palace. She was expecting an attack to come at any moment."

"She did smell a little uptight," Kimmie agreed, then she snorted in the peculiar way that all Were-cats seemed to do. "Miranda's a lot more than a maid," she announced. "I can feel something strange when I'm around her. It's almost like her very presence is, well, disarming. I feel strangely comfortable when I'm around her. It's… it's like she sings to me."

Tarrin had forgotten about that, mainly because he was around Miranda so much that he'd gotten used to the sense of her. Kimmie couldn't help but notice it, because she was a Were-cat too. She'd probably noticed it months ago, but hadn't said anything to him for some reason. "She has that effect on people," Tarrin said carefully. He knew why she radiated that sense, but he didn't want Kimmie to know. That was a private matter, so private that even Miranda didn't know. "I've never met a single person that didn't immediately like Miranda."

"I noticed that too," Kimmie nodded.

There was a knock on the door, and then it opened. Azakar and Dar were outside, holding large trays in their hands, and two of the Wikuni cooks were standing behind them in the narrow companionway. "Can we come in and eat with you, Tarrin?" Dar asked politely.

"Sure," he answered, waving them in. They put their trays down on the table in Tarrin's room, and then the two cooks did the same. They bowed gracefully and then left without saying a word. The trays were filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, a bowl of porridge, and a small loaf of dark bread with a small pot of butter for it. Tarrin's mouth watered at the smell of it, and he had to shoo Sapphire away from the table before she decided to try to steal something for herself.

"Why aren't you eating in your rooms?" Kimmie asked them curiously as she broke her loaf of bread in half.

"Well, it's been a while since we've talked with you two," Dar said. "We're just being sociable, that's all."

Tarrin looked at them, the analyzed their scents. Dar was being sociable, but Azakar's reluctance at being there was obvious in his scent. Azakar hadn't really felt comfortable around Tarrin since they're been reunited. Tarrin understood the reasoning behind it, and really couldn't blame the big Mahuut. He'd come around once he realized that though Tarrin may seem much crueler and more mean-spirited than he was when Azakar had been kidnapped with Keritanima, he was still the same Were-cat Azakar had once known. In a way, Tarrin was glad Azakar felt that way. It told him that Wikuna hadn't changed his big friend, that he was still gentle, kind, and compassionate. That Azakar had lived as a slave and a gladiator for so long and had never lost those qualities said volumes about Azakar's moral fiber and the strength of his will.

"And, to be honest, I just had to ask what's going on," Dar added. "At the reception, I almost thought you were drunk, Tarrin. And Kimmie was being just as giddy. What, did the two of you find some catnip in the garden?"

Kimmie laughed, putting a paw over her mouth so as not to lose her mouthful of bread. "You could say that," she said after she swallowed. "Should we tell them, Tarrin?"

"May as well," he shrugged. "They'll find out sooner or later. In a couple of months, you wouldn't be able to hide it anyway."

"True enough," she said with a smile at him. "I'm pregnant, Dar," Kimmie said calmly.

"Really?" Dar said, as Azakar finally broke his silence, saying "that's wonderful!" The Mahuut looked at Tarrin, then averted his eyes and reached for his fork again.

"We just found out yesterday," Tarrin said. "We didn't want to reveal it at Keritanima's wedding. We didn't want to take anything away from her."

"That was kind of you," Azakar said to him in a hesitant voice. "Congratulations."

"Yes, congratulations," Dar smiled. "How far along are you, Kimmie?"

"Days," she replied. "Triana's the one that told us I'm pregnant, but Tarrin confirmed it with a spell."

"Triana? How on earth did she know when she's in Suld—or was—and we're here?"

"Triana has a very long arm, Dar," Tarrin chuckled.

"I would say so!" Dar exclaimed in agreement. "It must feel like she's always looking over your shoulder."

"Actually, I feel rather safe knowing that Triana is always watching me," he replied honestly. "If I ever get into serious trouble, she's always there for me." He chuckled. "I really need to learn how she can travel halfway across the world in a few hours."

"It must be handy," Dar agreed. "So, did Triana tell you if it's a boy or girl?"

"No, she didn't," Kimmie said, "and I don't want her to. I want it to be a surprise."

"I guess that means that you don't want me to peek," Tarrin noted.

"Absolutely not!" she said adamantly, staring right at him. "If you know, you'll find some way to blab, so you keep your spying spells out of my belly!"

"Yes, Kimmie," Tarrin said mildly, going back to his eggs.

The ship slid out of the harbor on the receding tide, a rather strong one, since it was the tide governed by the Twin Moons, and the ship raised all its sails and turned south. The wind blew from the west, out from the land, forcing the ship to quarter the wind as the crew crowded every finger of sail they could manage on its five masts. The air was warm and muggy, and there was a dark bank of clouds creeping in from the west, the wind obviously a forerunner of a storm system preparing to move in from the interior of the Wikuni homeland. Tarrin gave Kimmie a kiss after breakfast and let her go to her studies with Phandebrass, warning her not to overexert herself. Sapphire resumed her rulership of Chopstick and Turnkey as the three drakes flew up into the rigging, and Tarrin decided to spend the day at the rail watching the land go by, and keeping an eye on that weather system.

Dar and Azakar spread the word, so he had a procession of friends come up to him and congratulate him over the day. Allia was a bit put out with him that she didn't tell her immediately, but when he explained that he didn't want to take anything away from Keritanima's day, she understood his reasoning. He was rather happy that they didn't dwell on it, they simply congratulated him, interrupted Kimmie's lessons when she and Phandebrass came up on deck and concentrated more on her. He watched as she laughed and bantered with the others, patting her belly and making some comment that Tarrin didn't hear. He was glad that it was Kimmie that was getting the attention. She deserved it. After all, she was the one who was pregnant, after all.

Miranda took Kimmie aside after lunch, and the two of them disappeared for a while. He hadn't really talked to Miranda much since they'd been reunited, since his attention had always been taken up by other things, other people. He did know that Miranda was rather fond of Kimmie, and that the two of them did talk quite a bit. He knew that because Kimmie told him all about all the talks she had with Miranda. Kimmie and Miranda seemed to be fast friends, the same way Kimmie and Jula had been in the Tower. Kimmie had once been a human female, so she had a need about her to be around other women. She lacked that isolationist attitude prevalent in most other Were-cat females. In many ways, Kimmie was most certainly not a normal Were-cat.

Azakar came up on deck about midafternoon, as Tarrin finished another of his lessons with Camara Tal over Priest magic. Azakar looked a little uncomfortable for some reason, and that became more apparent when he came over to the rail where Tarrin was standing and looked over the sea, towards the land still visible to the west. The cloudbank was now almost directly overhead, and Tarrin could see that it was raining at the coastline. They'd get wet in about half an hour. Azakar's scent was hard to make out since the wind was so brisk, but it was obvious that he looked a little worried over something.

"Tarrin," he finally said. "I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" he asked calmly.

"I've been avoiding you," he said. "I'm sure you know that."

"I know. And I know why."

Azakar bowed his head. "I was wrong about that," he admitted. "I thought you'd become completely—you know. Keritanima explained all that to me, and when I saw how you were back in Suld, I thought you'd gone completely feral. I was actually afraid of you."

"It's an understandable reaction, Zak," he said gently. "I know how you are, and I don't blame you for acting the way you did. I'm actually rather glad you did, because it told me that though I've changed, you didn't. Wikuna is a hard place, and you managed to stay just the way you are despite everything they could throw at you. I'm very proud of you for that."

Azakar flushed, looking at the rail. "It wasn't really that hard," he admitted. "Kerri more or less protected me from most of that kind of thing."

"Well, either way, I think now you see that I may be hard and unforgiving, but not when it concerns friends. Go talk to Dolanna. She can explain it all a lot better than I can."

"I'll do that," he promised.

"And I want you to do something for me."

"What?"

"As you know, Kimmie is pregnant," he began. "She's a Were-cat female, Zak, so she doesn't need to be coddled or waited on. But she's devoted to her magic, and that may make her extend herself in ways that she doesn't need to be extending herself."

"What do you mean?"

Tarrin explained Triana's rather vague warnings about Kimmie being exposed to too much magic. "Triana's not entirely sure how this pregnancy is going to go, because Kimmie is turned, and I'm turned, and we're both magicians. Were-cats are very magical creatures, and she's afraid that exposing a baby with such an unknown factor in its parents to so much magical energy may be harmful."

"That's not an unreasonable fear," Azakar said after a moment.

"I know, that's why I agree with Triana," he affirmed. "So I want you to keep an eye on Kimmie. Don't follow her around or coddle her or wait on her, but do make sure that Phandebrass doesn't push her into things she shouldn't be doing, and make sure she doesn't push herself too hard. If you think she's overexerting herself, don't try to stop her, just let me know. I'd really appreciate it."

"I can do that, Tarrin," he said with a nod and a smile. "Actually, I'm rather glad I have something to do. With Binter and Sisska back, Kerri doesn't really need me to be her bodyguard like she did when she only had Szath. Outside of training with them and Camara Tal, I really don't have much to do."

"Well, watching Kimmie won't consume all your spare time," Tarrin chuckled. "She's got a level head on her shoulders, and I really don't think she's going to push herself too hard. Were-cat females are extremely protective over their babies, and that includes when they're pregnant. Her instincts are going to keep her from going too far, but sometimes instincts can't stop us when we're really focused on something."

"The way Kimmie focuses on her studies."

"Exactly," Tarrin nodded. "So just do me a favor and keep an eye on her."

"I'll do that. And if it looks like we may run into some danger, I'll make sure I'm always somewhere close to her. She may be a Were-cat female, but I think you won't mind if I make sure nothing gets close enough to her to do her any harm."

"Zak, you just read my mind," Tarrin chuckled. "And I would very much appreciate that. Thank you for offering."

"I'm a Knight, Tarrin. I'm not happy unless I have someone to protect," he smiled.

"Then feel free to protect away. But don't step on Kimmie's toes."

"I can protect Kimmie without having to follow her around like a puppy," Azakar told him confidently. "She'll never know I'm there unless something endangers her. Then it won't get a finger closer."

"Zak, you're a good man," Tarrin said, patting him gently on the shoulder. "I'm glad you're here."

"I'm just doing what I can, Tarrin," he said modestly. "With the likes of you and Kerri and Phandebrass around, we unmagical people have to fit in where we can."

"You're just as important as any of us, Zak. Even me," Tarrin told him seriously. "Don't forget that."

"I'll try not to," he smiled as the first sprinkles of rain began to fall.


The weather remained rainy for several days as the ship trekked southward, the sailors working through the rain to keep the wet sails catching the wind. Their diligence paid off as the ship sped towards its destination, and Keritanima was happy to estimate that they were going to arrive in Vendaka a full day early. Tarrin spent those rainy days in quiet rest and relaxation, feeling a calmness that he hadn't felt since before he'd been turned. They were completely safe skirting the coast of Wikuna, with only two military clippers and a vessel called a schooner escorting them, and his days weren't filled with learning or exercises or stress. It was almost like a holiday, and he took full advantage of it by lounging around and doing nothing of any importance whatsoever. He almost got bored after a few days, but every time he started feeling unsettled, he reminded himself that everything would be an unknown once they got on the new ship, and he may not have time to just lay around and do nothing. So he took complete advantage of the lull to rest up and enjoy his free time.

He had plenty of company during those days. He rekindled his friendship with Miranda by having breakfast with her every morning, and he caught up on all the things that went on in Wikuna and the Tower before he arrived, getting the whole picture from the mink. She didn't leave anything out, especially those part too embarrassing for Keritanima to repeat. He played stones with Azakar a few times a day, as well as playing chess with Sisska or Binter, and there was always his time with Allia. Tarrin talked to Jesmind and Jenna and Jula and Jasana right after lunch, a lunch usually shared with Azakar and Camara Tal, who were just finishing their sparring about that time, and then he went on to give Dolanna and Keritanima their lessons in Sorcery. Dar sat in when Tarrin taught Dolanna and Keritanima about Weavespinner magic, as he taught his former teacher the spells to summon Elementals, and guided her as she did in fact summon her first Elemental, a Water Elemental. His teaching of his sister and mentor didn't really seem like work, because they were both so dedicated to the craft and easy to teach. It felt more like an informal gathering of friends, when they just happened to talk about Sorcery. The time after those lessons belonged to Allia, as they spent their time together, and the

The nights belonged exclusively to Kimmie. Now that he knew how she felt about him, he did his best to honor those feelings by paying her a great deal of attention and being very responsive to her needs. They started off as great friends, but Kimmie's trust in him and devotion to him only increased day after day, as she saw how he had responded to her admission, and saw that he was being everything that she imagined he would be. Though he didn't love her the way he loved Jesmind, he did care for her a great deal, and he'd do what was needed to make her happy. And besides, it wasn't like it was a serious chore. Kimmie was easy to please, and he liked pleasing her. She wasn't as demanding as Jesmind, and certainly wasn't nearly as temperamental. Kimmie was a very mellow, laid-back Were-cat, and that attitude made her easy to please. All she really wanted from him was his attention, and he gave it all to her. Tarrin couldn't help but feel closer and closer to Kimmie as the days passed, and though his love for Jesmind didn't waver in the slightest, he found himself starting to think of Kimmie in many of the same ways he thought of Jesmind. Kimmie was a good mate, and he enjoyed his time with her. Living with her was just as easy as he thought it would be, requiring very little adjustment for either of them, and he found the time with her to be both enjoyable and rewarding.

Of course, he simply couldn't forget about the baby. Every time he looked at her, it was always on the forefront of his mind. Kimmie was carrying his child, and he couldn't suppress the wave of pride and joy that brought to him. Tarrin wasn't sure how Jesmind was going to take it, but he didn't intend to let Kimmie get very far away once they returned. He would return to Jesmind and be her mate, as he promised, but he didn't want Kimmie going very far. He wanted to be there for the baby, wanted to be involved in its life, he wanted the chance with this new cub that he didn't get with Eron or Jasana.

The time just flew by, so it seemed like it was only a couple of days when the ship turned southwest, following the coastline, and the rains only got harder. Keritanima explained that it was the monsoon season in the southern marches of Wikuna, when it would rain for months at a time, but it also happened to be the end of the season, so the rain was expected to break before long. It didn't break when the forests and grasslands visible off the ship's rail became dense jungle, and the temperature of the air got higher and higher as they neared the equator. The interior of the ship became very hot and very stuffy, so much so that even the heat-dwelling among them like Camara Tal and Dar began to complain. Miranda, who was both from a cold climate and had a full coat of fur, suffered the most, resorting to having Keritanima use Sorcery to keep their cabin cool and the air dry. Kimmie was a Were-cat, and cats liked heat, so the heat didn't really bother her. Tarrin was immune to heat, so it didn't bother him at all, but everyone else did seem to be quite uncomfortable.

The rain was as heavy as ever when they reached their destination on a very unpleasant late afternoon nine days after leaving Wikuna. Vendaka was the seat of the Vendari political power base, a large town made of very large, strange dome-like buildings that were covered with what looked to be moss. Tarrin understood the value of the dome buildings immediately, for the water simply cascaded off of them. The Royal ship passed through a very large concentration of other military vessels, defending the harbor town, it seemed, and then dropped anchor in a shallow bay that formed the harbor of the city, though it wasn't much of a harbor. The water was so shallow that Keritanima's ship had to drop anchor almost a longspan from the shore.

It dropped anchor beside the strangest ship Tarrin had ever seen. It was a very large ship, the size of a clipper, but it was much wider across the beam than a clipper. It had two large metal pipes protruding from either side of the sterncastle, both of which had smoke wafting from them. It had masts and sails, two masts to be exact, but the dominating feature was the huge circular construction that jutted out from the ship's port side. It was covered with metal halfway down, and within that cover the paddlewheel of the prototype ship was visible descending into the water. The ship was painted in a dark blue, with black trim, and it didn't look to have any gunports, or any cannons at all. The thing didn't look very sleek or fast, but then again, they weren't using it because of its speed or grace. They were using it because it could move against the wind.

Tarrin looked over the ship, absently moving the shield of Air he was using to protect himself from the rain with him as he moved down the ship's rail, studying the vessel. Its decks were filled with Wikuni, and to his surprise, a swarthy-skinned man with white hair, a human, was standing on the deck with a cloak thrown over his shoulders despite the heat, shouting in Wikuni and pointing with his hand at something. He shouted even louder, and Tarrin could make out his words. "No, no, no, you slack-jawed fluffbrain!" he bellowed at a rodent Wikuni of some sort. "Put that over there, and for the gods' sake, get that gunpowder off this ship! Which of you mental giants had the brainstorm to think this ship was armed? Do you want to blow us sky high?"

A human? What was a human doing in Wikuna? And what was he doing giving orders to the Wikuni? Tarrin puzzled over that for a moment, then he remembered that Keritanima said that she had Tellurians working for her in the Ministry of Science. This had to be one of those Tellurians. If Phandebrass was Tellurian and he had white hair, then maybe white hair wasn't uncommon there. But Phandebrass was rather pale, where this fellow was dark, almost as dark as Azakar. He looked Arakite, except for the hair, at least from that distance. So. Phandebrass' unusual appearance suddenly didn't seem quite that unusual, and it must not have had anything to do with magic.

Tarrin crossed his arms and watched the human bully the Wikuni for a few moments longer, then Keritanima joined him at the rail. She too was protecting herself from the rain with Sorcery, and their two shields of Air touched and almost disrupted one another. Both of them quickly and effortlessly adjusted the spells so they wouldn't interact. "It looks bigger than the plans said," Keritanima said without greeting or fanfare. "I see Donovan is already at it."

"Who?"

"Donovan Thale," she said, pointing. "The Tellurian. He's a Priest of Dragor, you know."

Dragor was the Younger God of creativity and innovation. If this Donovan was an inventor, it only made sense. "Worshipping Dragor is the state religion in Telluria," she told him. "Either Dragor makes them so creative, or they're so creative that no other god would do."

"I see he has white hair," Tarrin noted. "But he's dark, where Phandebrass is lighter."

"They come in all shades in Telluria. It's a melting pot of sorts, because it's on the southern edge of the Nyrian landmass, right where Nyr and Arathorn meet, and right across a channel sits the northernmost tip of Valkar. So they have all kinds there. But the white hair, that's something of a status symbol among them. Tellurians say if you're born with white hair, you're favored in the eyes of Dragor, because Dragor had white hair when he was mortal. It's so important that people not born with white hair bleach it. So in a way, it's a custom. You can always tell a visitor in Telluria because he doesn't have white hair."

"Phandebrass must be favored then. His hair is natural."

"He better be, as much trouble as he gets himself into," Keritanima snorted. "If he wasn't, he'd be dead fifty times over." She sighed. "Well, we'd better get ready to move over there."

"We're not going to the city?"

"That's Vendaka, Tarrin," she said bluntly. "Only a fool sets foot there if he doesn't know the customs. That's one place where the smallest misstep or misspoken word can kill you. I'd rather not lose anyone, so we're not going to land."

"That's hard to believe."

"Believe it," she told him. "Binter and Sisska only seem cultured because they operate under certain very strict rules I set down. An average Vendari would kill someone not Vendari over the slightest insult, whether real or imagined. Just imagine an entire city full of people like you," she said, slapping him lightly on the chest with the back of her paw. "The Wikuni have the sense not to go there unless absolutely necessary. We don't even have any trade enclaves. If we need something from the Vendari, they bring it to the dock there, and sailors load it after the Vendari leave."

"They're part of your kingdom, yet you don't interact with them?"

"They interact with us," she told him. "And part of the agreements between the crown and Vendaka is that we honor their borders. The only thing we really ask of them is that they help us in battle from time to time, and for the Vendari, that's all the compensation they need. Vendari love to fight."

"That's a strange situation. One-sided, and all the benefits fall on your side."

"Not really. The Vendari are protected by our navy, and believe me, the Zakkites would be all over this place if it weren't for us. The Zakkites have been trying to wipe out the Vendari for centuries. It's almost like a holy war for them." Tarrin didn't think that odd, considering that he knew the origins of the Vendari. The Zakkites created the Vendari to be warriors, and they had done too good a job. Tarrin guessed that ever since the Vendari turned on their former creators, the Zakkites had been trying to eradicate their past mistakes, and avenge the damage the Vendari caused after they rebelled. "It just burns them up that the Vendari thrive here, and they can't get at them. Why did you think all these ships are here, Tarrin?" she asked.

"I thought you ordered them down here."

"These are the ships that are always here," she explained. "The Zakkites do try to slip in from time to time, so we keep a pretty formidable fleet down here to run them off."

"Ah, now I understand," Tarrin nodded. "That ship isn't armed, is it?"

"Not with cannons," she grinned. "But I think you and me and Dolanna and Camara Tal could be considered weapons, don't you?"

Tarrin gave her a stern look. "Are we going to be escorted? You know we're going to run into trouble."

"I'm not that dumb, my brother," she grinned. "We'll have four clippers with us, for as long as they can sail. But when we get to where the wind is against us, we'll be on our own."

"By that time, it's not going to matter," Tarrin shrugged. "Nobody will be able to follow us."

"Exactly."

"I think four ships is pretty intimidating," Tarrin said in contentment.

"Quite," Keritanima agreed. "Well, it's time to spread the word. Go pack, brother. We'll be transferring to the other ship as soon as I get word to Donovan."

Tarrin didn't leave with Keritanima, looking over the ship some more. That was the ship that would carry them for forty days, then be the one that would allow them to sail behind the wind. The thought of that still excited him a little bit, but also made him a little nervous. That poem had said that it would take all three of them to pull this off. They needed Keritanima to get there, Allia to find it, and they needed Tarrin to get them there once Allia did. He wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but that was the closest explanations any of them had managed to comprehend. The poem had been quite vague, and there were lines of it that nobody understood even now. But the Goddess had confirmed what they'd managed to decipher, and quite honestly, that was enough. They were now where they were supposed to be to start, and they knew which direction to go and for how long. Forty days on a southwest heading, which would slowly shift as they followed the constellation, as it turned on the heavenly wheel. It would cause them to go more and more south as the days passed, keeping the constellation firmly in front of the bow. That was why they didn't just sail as soon as they got onto the ship, because of that alteration of course. Tarrin knew that a good astronomer with complete charts could probably navigate the course without having to leave at the summer solstice, but there would be a good margin of error there, and this was no time for error. From the way it sounded to him from the poem, what they were looking for would be very hard to find, so they had to be exactly right the first time. With all that competition out there, sailing around in circles would be a very bad idea. Besides, there was another time constraint hanging over their heads, that being the day that the Firestaff would be activated. Tarrin didn't know what day that was, but it had to be soon. The Firestaff had awakened and revealed itself to the world, and to Tarrin, that meant that the day of its complete activation had to be very close.

Actually, Tarrin would be overjoyed if that day came and went while they were still out to sea, still trying to get it. It meant that the day passed without anyone finding it, and then they could all just go home and not worry about it anymore. But that was a pipe dream, and he knew it. The Goddess wouldn't have sent him if things were going to be that easy. No, there had to be enough time for someone to have a reasonable chance to figure out where it was and how to get to it, even without the advantages that Tarrin had. If only Tarrin and his friends could get to it, then there was no real need to go after it in the first place.

But they were that much closer. The ship represented that, another major landmark on the long, twisting, crooked road down which the Goddess had sent him. There had been quite a few twists and turns on that road, and more than a fair share of shocks and surprises. But all in all, looking back on it, given the bad and the good, he was glad he did it. He'd seen so much, learned so much, and had had the chance to make such great and lasting friends. He'd stood at the top of the world and flown with the angels, he'd moved the world with his footsteps, he'd faced the spawns of the Abyss and seen that miracles did in fact happen. It had only been some couple of months over two years since the fateful day that Dolanna and Faalken had led him out of Aldreth, but it seemed a lifetime. A lot of it was spent in fear or pain or misery, but now things looked much better than they did then. All in all, he was content with the way things had turned out so far.

If anything, he'd have some wild tales to tell his children and grandchildren.

More smoke began issuing up from the twin metal pipes on the ship, like the chimney of a fireplace, and there was a strange rhythmic metalling banging coming from it. The ship shuddered visibly, and then there was a loud pop, which even vibrated the water lapping at the steamship's hull. And then the smoke began to thin and the metallic sounds ceased. The human, Donovan Thane, swore sulfurously and rushed out of sight, probably going down to see what had just happened.

Whatever it was, Tarrin hoped it was a good thing. That contraption suddenly looked quite ominous to him, an unknown thing with dangers he couldn't imagine. Keritanima said that the steam engines had a bad habit of exploding. Tarrin certainly didn't want that to happen while they were on the ship in which the steam engine was contained. That would not be a very pleasant experience, to say the least.

It didn't take Tarrin and Kimmie long to pack their things, since they'd only really unpacked the clothes. Keritanima sent a sailor to tell them to be ready to transfer over to the steamship at the top of the hour, so they spent the time waiting up on deck, Tarrin shielding them both from the rain, as he and Kimmie looked at the ship and Tarrin listened politely as Kimmie described the progress Phandebrass had been making on his memory spell, stroking Sapphire's scales as she was held in the female Were-cat's arms. "I think he's almost got it," Kimmie announced after telling him about the session they'd had the day before. "He cast it on himself and read a Wikuni book until the spell expired. Though he doesn't speak the language, he was able to perfectly copy the writing on the first ten pages, what he was able to read before the spell ended, and he retained the memory of it. He says he can't get it out of his head, since he doesn't understand what the words mean. He said it's like a piece of art that's so engaging that it haunts you for days," she chuckled.

"It does sound like he did it. Too bad he can't use it on you."

"Why not?" she protested. "The spell is safe now!"

"Triana said no spells cast on you unless I cast them. As soon as Phandebrass teaches me how to use Wizard magic and then teaches me the spell, I'll be happy to do it for you."

Kimmie glared at him. "Then how am I going to learn Sha'Kar?" she demanded.

"Hold on." He raised his head. "Mother, can I cast the memory spell on someone else?"

Yes, you can, came her mental response. A Sorcerer can only cast it on himself, but a Priest can cast it on another.

"There, that settles that," he told her. "I can cast the same spell I used to learn Wikuni on you, so you can learn Sha'Kar."

"Who were you asking? Triana?"

"The Goddess," he replied calmly.

"You have her at your beck and call now?" Kimmie asked.

"No, it's more like she seems to know when I'm about to ask her a question, so she comes to me and answers it. Sometimes I wonder how she knows," he mused to himself.

"She is a god, Tarrin," Kimmie chuckled. "If she didn't know, she wouldn't be a very good god, would she?"

"You have a point," he acceded.

Not long after that, sailors packed their belongings in a longboat and ferried it over to the steamship, and then longboats were brought up for the passengers. Keritanima and Miranda were the first ones to board the longboats, with Binter and Sisska attending them. Tarrin, Kimmie, Azakar, and Allia boarded the next one, and Camara Tal, Dar, Phandebrass, and Azakar boarded the last. Boarding the longboats was almost fun for Tarrin and Kimmie, since they had to climb down a ladder to the boat. The boat rocked alarmingly as Tarrin put a foot down in it, but in a few moments it became almost enjoyable to feel the boat sway as Kimmie, Dolanna, and Allia joined them. Four burly Wikuni manned the ship's oars, and then they pushed off from the Royal vessel and rowed for the steamship anchored not far away. Sapphire flew over them, turning circles in the air so as not to get too far ahead, but then Chopstick and Turnkey interrupted her waiting circle and distracted the blue drake into a game of airborne chase. The three drakes zipped off into the rain happily, quickly traveling out of sight. Tarrin wasn't worried, however. Sapphire could find her way back once she caught the two red drakes.

As Tarrin climbed up onto the deck of the steamship, he saw Keritanima was standing on the deck with Miranda beside her, talking to the Tellurian, Donovan Thale. That close to him, Tarrin saw that he was a world different from Phandebrass. For one, he filled out his cloak. Donovan Thale was a burly, muscular man with a barrel chest and remarkably thick legs, not very tall, built like a treestump. He looked a little older than Phandebrass but still had a youthful way about him. He had swarthy brown skin and white hair, looking a little like Allia in that regard, but now that he was closer he could see that Donovan Thale dyed his hair white. It wasn't natural. The roots of his shortly cropped hair were black, and that made him look more like an Arakite. His features had the same sharp quality about them that Arakites did; Tarrin felt that this man had an Arakite for a parent, or at the very least a grandparent. Around his neck, under his cloak, he saw that the man wore a steel amulet. The amulet was under his shirt, so he couldn't see the design on it, but it reminded him of the amulet that Camara Tal wore. All Priests wore such amulets, which had the holy symbol of their gods upon them; in fact, the vast majority of their Priest magic wouldn't function unless they were wearing the amulet. Tarrin's amulet was radically different from theirs, but the premise was exactly the same. Without his amulet, he wouldn't be able to use any Priest magic except for a few of the simplest spells.

Tarrin bent down and helped Kimmie the rest of the way up, who smiled at him in thanks. He patted her fondly on the bottom as she passed, and she responded by slithering her tail across his torso in a sensual manner. He reached down and helped Dolanna up the ladder, but his small friend only gave him a smile and warned him not to be quite so friendly with her posterior. That made Tarrin laugh, and he moved as if to do the same to her as she went by, which made her hurry up a few steps to get out of range. He helped Allia up, not that she needed any help, and then rejoined his mate as she walked around the deck of the ship.

It looked a lot different from a regular ship. There were only two masts and much less rigging, so the air above them looked strangely empty. The thing smelled of smoke and wood and coal, which was understandable, but the simple fact that he could smell it with all the decks being saturated with water and rain still falling heavily told him how pervasive the smell was. When they got out of the rain, it would be an overwhelming scent, drowning out everything else. The deck space wasn't empty, it was filled with rows of barrels and boxes, many of them with waterproof canvas tarps thrown over them and tied down. Keritanima said that there wasn't much free space on the ship, and she was obviously right if they had to store equipment and supplies up on the deck. Another thing he noticed was how few Wikuni sailors there were. On the Royal ship, there had to be fifty of them. But over here, he only saw nine Wikuni on the deck. But that really didn't mean anything, since the whole crew may not be on board, and that didn't count the Wikuni below decks working on that mechanical contraption that was supposed to propel the ship. He looked up between the two pipes and saw that the top of the sterncastle was covered over, with many windows along its walls, and that the wheelhouse was inside it. That, he saw, was a good idea. The steersman wouldn't have to stand out in the pouring rain, which often made the job a miserable one when the weather was bad.

"Ah, here you are," Keritanima said as Tarrin and Kimmie wandered over in their general direction as they looked at the ship. "Donovan, this is Tarrin and Kimmie. Tarrin, Kimmie, may I present Donovan Thale, the man who designed this ship."

"Not really the ship, just the engine," he said modestly, nodding to them.

"Don't be modest, Donovan," Keritanima smiled. "Who else is with you?"

"My whole team," he replied. "We're not letting her go out without us here to see how she performs."

"I thought you said you tested it," Keritanima said flintily.

"We did, your Majesty, but not under operating conditions," he replied. "We ran the engine for twelve straight hours, and she did fine. But you'll be running it for days, non-stop. She'll hold up, though," he said quickly, "but since we didn't do that, we want to be here to see if we can't improve her design with the next ship we build."

"And since they'll be right here, if it breaks down, we have the people we need available to fix it," Miranda added.

"True," Keritanima agreed with a nod. "When will we be ready to leave?"

"We're still loading the supplies, so it won't be until tomorrow morning at the very earliest, your Majesty," Donovan replied. "But since this is a first for all of us, I'd like to doublecheck everything one more time, so I'd like to leave no sooner than tomorrow afternoon."

"We'll be leaving tomorrow night, after sunset," she told him. "That gives you a full day and some spare hours to make sure everything's ready before hand."

"Yes, your Majesty," he replied calmly. "Everything will be ready. You have my guarantee of that, even if I have to step on a few necks to do it."

"Step away, Donovan. This journey has the highest priority. Until we leave, you'll be speaking with my voice."

"Thank you, your Majesty. I've been having trouble getting supplies from the other ships and the Vendari. They keep sending the wrong things. One fool loaded four barrels of gunpowder in the hold!"

"Don't all Wikuni ships carry cannons?" Kimmie asked curiously.

"This ship can't use gunpowder, my Lady," Donovan answered her. "The steam engine uses a fire to make the steam, and there's always a chance that the fire may get out of control and set off the gunpowder. I'll be able to design some ships that can carry gunpowder later, but since this is the very first ship of its kind, we don't want to take any chances."

"A wise precaution," Keritanima assured him. "The other ships will do the fighting for us if it comes down to it."

"We thought that too, your Majesty," Donovan nodded.

A rare reptillian Wikuni, tall and scaly, with a thick, meaty tail, was the one that showed Tarrin and Kimmie to their cabin. Keritanima's warnings had been correct, for the cabin was very small and very cramped. It had only a single bed, but at least Keritanima had thought ahead to have a bed installed large enough for him. It had a large chest at the foot of the bed, which was almost against the opposite wall, and only about seven spans of floor between the bed and the door. The cabin was not designed for extended stays, that much was for sure. The place was clean and sterile, but at least the ceiling was high enough to keep Tarrin's head from hitting the low beams that served as the deck of the level above. It had a window, a small round porthole, over the bed, that had a view of the coastline. Kimmie opened the chest and looked inside, then chuckled. "Enough room for our clothes, but not much else," she said. "I'll have to leave my equipment with Phandebrass."

"I'd hate to see how much room he'll have when he gets all his things in his cabin," Tarrin noted as he sat down on the bed. "He may end up sleeping up on deck."

"As long as he can get from the bed to the door, I think he'll be alright," Kimmie chuckled, reaching down and grabbing his paw. "Let's go look around. I want to see this steam engine thing."

Tarrin and Kimmie joined their other friends in an informal tour of the ship by the man Donovan. He showed them the steering deck and some of the mechanical gadgets that would tell the men in the engine room how fast they wanted the ship to go, and then he showed them the engine room. It took up the entire back half of the ship, forcing everything into the bow. It was comprised of a huge metal tank of some sort that had a multitude of pipes and metal things running all over it. Tarrin could see what looked like huge gears that ran from the massive contraption to a heavy shaft that extended out of the wall. That had to go to the paddlewheel, he realized. He couldn't make sense of much of anything he saw, but the ten Wikuni and four humans that were in the engine room did seem to know what was going on. There were levers and dials and wheels and handles scattered along the pipes, set into the equipment, jutting out of walls and the floor, attached to the many pipes that crawled all over the gigantic chamber. There was a huge door on the far side that led into the other hold that was in the bow, and Tarrin could see that it was filled almost to overflowing with a strange black rock. Coal. The smell of the place was certainly unusual, with the wood and tar mixing with the multitudes of copper pipes all over everywhere, and the sweat and fur of the Wikuni and the humans mixing with a riot of other smells he just couldn't identify, because he'd never scented them before.

"It looks like a convulsing spider," Dar said honestly, which made everyone laugh.

"I guess it does at that," Donovan chuckled. "Alright, here's how it works. We burn coal in that boiler right there, and it boils the water in that big tank right there," he explained, pointing to the indicated components. "The steam collects in the boiler until it builds up a lot of pressure. Once it does, we open a valve that lets some of the steam escape. The steam goes through these pipes to the engine itself, where its pressure causes those gears to turn." He pointed to the gears. "That area over there allows us to engage different gears to make the paddlewheel outside turn slower or faster, no matter how fast the gears coming out of the steam drive turn. Leonin calls it a 'gear-force transmission junction,' but that's too long, so we call it the transmission area. The steam drives the gears and enters these pipes over here, then it collects in that tank over there, what we call a condenser, where seawater flows through pipes inside it to cool the steam back into water. Once the water collects in the bottom, gravity causes it to drain back into the boiler through those pipes over there. Some of the steam is bled off to run water pumps that keeps the seawater in the condenser cool."

"It's all self-contained?" Keritanima asked.

Donovan nodded. "We can't use seawater in the boiler because of the salt, and the fact that the water has to be very clean. So we boiled water and collected the steam back into pure water and injected it into the system. The same water gets boiled and recondensed back into water over and over again. It's the most efficient way to go about it, seeing as how fresh water isn't easy to find on the open sea."

"What happens if you spring a leak?"

"We'll lose some water no matter what, your Majesty, because some of the steam drives the water pumps and the whistle," he told her. "We have some barrels of spare water in case of an emergency, and if all else fails, we installed a smaller boiler over there where we can boil the salt out of seawater and use it. It also doubles as a fresh-water maker, since the water it makes is drinkable. But we're not going to rely on it quite yet."

"It all sounds pretty complicated," Dar said.

"It is until you've been down here a while," Donovan told the youthful Arkisian.

"I say, you really have to show me the step-by-step procedure," Phandebrass told his countrymen with bright eyes.

"You'll have to get her Majesty's approval," Donovan told him seriously. "She funded this project, so she owns the rights to it."

"You can look, but you will not touch anything," Keritanima told him hotly. "Do you understand me? Touch just one control, and I'll have you thrown overboard!"

"I say, your Majesty, I understand that this is a delicate device, I do," Phandebrass assured her. "Why, they're working with steam under pressure. One wrong move, and the whole thing will blow itself up!"

"You should know about blowing yourself up," Camara Tal grunted.

Phandebrass ignored that. "I say, I must get myself a new book. I'll have to write all this down," he mused to himself. "I wonder if magic could improve the operation of it."

"Not unless you know a way to set a fire in the boiler we don't have to feed," Donovan grunted. "Half the ship is taken up by the engine, and the other half with the coal. It doesn't leave much room for anything else."

"It is most impressive," Dolanna said. " More impressive because it does not use magic anywhere in its design."

"Magic is a strong and respectable force, ma'am, but you'd be surprised what you can do with a little steel, a little creativity, and a lot of sweat."

"Indeed," Dolanna agreed with a nod.

"Well, that about finishes the tour, your Majesty. The rest of the ship is like any other."

"Why do you have sails when you have this thing?" Dar asked curiously.

"This engine is still experimental," Donovan told him. "In case it breaks down, the sails make sure the ship isn't dead in the water."

"A smart precaution," Miranda mused.

"When you're dealing with a prototype, you have to plan for breakdowns," Donovan told her with a nod. "It's the nature of the beast, as they say."

"I hope there won't be too many, Donovan. We're depending on your ship like we've never depended on anything else."

"We'll get you to your destination, your Majesty, even if I have to get the whole crew down here and turn the gears by hand."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Keritanima said with a smile.

"Let's hope, your Majesty."


The next day, the day they were to depart, was filled with bustling activity, at least for everyone else. The activity was taken on with a furious pace, for there had been a break in the rain, a rare break, and the skies remained cloudy and threatening to rain again at any moment. That gave the workers a certain amount of motivation to get as much done as they could before they started getting wet.

Tarrin and Kimmie rose with the sun, though Tarrin's back was a little cramped. The bed was long enough, but it wasn't very wide, and that made him sleep pushed up against the outer wall. Tarrin dealt with that by expanding the bed a good two spans with magic, until it took up over half of the small cabin. He also made a small, narrow stand for Sapphire's little bed, which Phandebrass had given to him, since the drake didn't like the idea of sleeping on the floor, since she ended up in bed with them. Drakes liked to sleep high up, where their ability to fly would allow them to simply escape a predator by jumping out of the nest and catching themselves before they hit the ground. They were sacrificing some open space, but as long as they had enough room to open the door, it didn't really concern him. The only things they'd really be doing in the cabin were dressing and sleeping anyway, it was too small for anything else. Kimmie certainly seemed to prefer losing some space to having to worry about rolling out of the bed as it had been.

Tarrin and Kimmie let everyone else go about their bustling, as Phandebrass, Dolanna, and Dar attached themselves to the scientists that had made the engine so they could learn about it, as Camara Tal, Azakar, Binter, and Sisska helped out the crew by stowing things and doing the heavy labor sometimes necessary on a ship, where their combined strength could accomplish things that took ten to twelve Wikuni to accomplish, and as Keritanima and Miranda talked with held long council sessions with some Wikuni and Vendari brought from other ships and the shore, organizing what would go on after she left, and organizing the roles of the four ships that would accompany them. They watched it all go by as Tarrin used the memory spell on Kimmie and used the entire day to do nothing but teach her Sha'Kar, both spoken and written. Every time he taught her a word, he showed her its written form. In that one day, Kimmie absorbed a staggering amount of the language, because they devoted an entire sunlight day to the task. Nearly fifteen hours, breaking only to eat or to stretch and relieve themselves. Since it was the day of the summer solstice and they were literally right on the equator, it made it the longest day of the year, and they used every minute of it to get Kimmie up with the others.

The skies remained heavy and ominous most of the day, but to everyone's surprise, they began to clear out about an hour before sunset. The clouds disappeared with a nearly frightening speed, almost racing out of the sky and disappearing over the eastern horizon. They cleared out in time for the sun to shine down on the ship not long before it set, casting hot light that almost immediately began to evaporate the water pooled on the deck and clinging to the masts and rigging. The hot air became almost unbearably muggy as the sun dried out the ship, for the air was strangely still. There was no wind to pick up the humidity and blow it away. Sailors began stripping off their clothes as the sunlit minutes passed, until nearly everyone on the ship was wearing as little as they could possibly get away with wearing. It was worst for the Wikuni, whose pelts trapped the heat and made them all look absolutely miserable. Except for Keritanima and Miranda, of course, with Keritanima using Sorcery to keep the air around her cool and comfortable. Keritanima was immune to the heat, but Miranda was not, so she was doing it strictly for Miranda's comfort. That said a great deal about how Keritanima felt about her maid.

The heat did cause a slight row, and that came from Camara Tal. Deciding that her leather halter, as skimpy as it was, was simply too hot, she simply took it off. That didn't bother Tarrin or any of the people who knew Camara Tal, since exposing her breasts was not considered a violation of modesty in Amazon society. For that matter, complete nudity wasn't really a violation of modesty in Amazon society, given that Amazons didn't wear anything under their tripas, and the kilt-like skirts were so short that a stiff breeze exposed everything that most human women fought so hard to conceal. The only violation of modesty in Amazon society was touching. Looking was just fine, but one did not touch an Amazon in any sensitive area unless it was explicitly allowed. It didn't bother any of Camara Tal's friends, nor did it really bother the Wikuni, but it did upset the Tellurians quite a bit, who gawked at her and tried their best to ignore the fact that there was a half-naked woman parading around on the deck. The fact that she was such a stunningly attractive woman, with appealingly large but not oversized breasts that had not sagged a finger during her life, made ignoring her a very difficult thing to do.

Kimmie found the entire thing to be quite amusing. They would pause in their involved teaching session to watch Camara Tal pace up and down the deck with a grim expression, anxiously waiting for them to set sail, and watch the eleven Tellurians on the ship scatter before her like mice before a cat, averting their eyes as she passed but stealing glances at her whenever they could, when they didn't think she was paying attention. They wanted to look, but they didn't want her to know that they were looking. That was what amused Kimmie so much.

As much fun as the uptightness of the humans was, it bowed to their lessons. By the time sunset came, as the wind suddenly picked up and the sailors hurriedly made the ship ready to leave, Kimmie had managed to grasp the fundamental structure of the language, the basic rules of grammar, and had learned all of the most commonly used words and the most common verbs, and had begun to learn the conjugation of verbs for dealing with various locative and temporal states. Tarrin figured that in five days, if he taught her from sunrise to sunset, Kimmie would be fluent in both spoken and written Sha'Kar.

"I've never seen a language where every sentence ends in the verb," Kimmie told him. "Torian and Sulasian are nothing like this."

"When did you learn Torian?" he asked.

"Tarrin, I am Torian," she grinned. "Remember?"

"Oh, I forgot," he admitted. "Sha'Kar is a pretty complicated language, Kimmie."

"I noticed. But it's very musical."

"I know."

They kept going right until sunset, when the smell of burning coal began to permeate everything, and the two chimney pipes—Donovan called them smokestacks—began to belch forth boiling clouds of black smoke. They were heating up the boiler, getting the ship ready to start moving. Keritanima came up on deck with Miranda, and they talked to Donovan for a long moment. Donovan was the ship's captain as well as the head scientist, so Keritanima was probably telling him when they were going to leave.

Sapphire landed on his shoulder with a chirp and a little nuzzle, breathing hard. She and Chopstick and Turnkey had been flying around almost all day, even flew out to the coast of Vendaka for a short time to investigate the thick jungle, and she looked a little tired. She hadn't done that much heavy flying for a long time. He chided her softly about wearing herself out and put her in his lap, massaging her back just between her wings, something she very much loved for him to do after she'd been flying a while. She laid down limply in his lap and allowed him to do whatever he wanted, enjoying the attention immensely.

Keritanima and Miranda came over to them, the Queen of Wikuna sitting on a rope bale with a flop, not looking very queenly. She looked a little tense, and he realized that their impending departure was wearing on her. It didn't take him long to figure out why. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back, Kerri," he told her. "Rallix is going to be there waiting for you when you get back, you know that."

"I didn't think I'd miss him this much," she admitted. "And I'm worried about him. Is he doing alright? Are they causing him any problems? Is he getting the hang of the job I asked him to do? It's frustrating not being able to be there to help him."

"Then talk to him. That always helps me when I miss Jesmind."

"How? He's not a Sorcerer, Tarrin."

"Talk to the priest on the ship and have him contact the Palace. Have Jervis give Rallix an amulet," he said, holding up his own. "I know Jervis must have a couple of them laying around somewhere. As long as he has the amulet, you can talk to him. The magic of the spell comes from your amulet, not from his. You can use your amulet to talk to anyone with his own amulet. I've used it to talk to Ariana and Shiika, and they're not Sorcerers either."

"I didn't know they could do that!" she gasped. "What a great idea! I'll go send the message immediately!" She jumped up, collected her skirts, then literally ran across the deck, seeking out the bear Wikuni that served as the ship's Priest. No Wikuni ship, not even a prototype like the steamship, sailed without a priest of Kikalli aboard.

Miranda gave Tarrin a very grateful look. "Thank you for that," she said. "Kerri's been getting snappy lately."

"I should have realized she was missing Rallix. She's a good actress to hide it for so long."

"She's one of the best actresses in the world," Miranda winked. "I have to say, you two look very happy. What have you been up to over here all day?"

"Teaching me Sha'Kar," Kimmie told her.

"That's it? I thought you were whispering secrets or something," she winked. "I did see you two watching Camara Tal."

"We were watching the Tellurians run away from her," Tarrin chuckled. "I didn't realize Tellurians were so priggish."

"If I were a human man, I'd be intimidated no matter what race I was if I saw those heading in my direction," she said with a naughty little smile. "Didn't you notice that every man that talks to Camara for the first time talks to her chest?"

Kimmie laughed delightedly, and Tarrin had to smile. Miranda was right. Camara Tal was certainly well endowed in that department, and even Tarrin had to admire her chest from time to time, just for its perfection. "She'd better keep them in the halter, or they'll be hanging down to her navel by the time she's sixty," Kimmie said with a sly grin.

"She's a Priestess, Kimmie," Tarrin said mildly. "I'm sure she knows some kind of spell for, well, bounciness."

"You mean firmness," Miranda grinned. "Well, as much fun as it is to stand here and gossip about Camara Tal's breasts, I'm getting hot again. I'm going to go back to Kerri and stay in her cooling spell. I'll see you later," she said with a wave.

"I really like her," Kimmie told him as they watched her leave. "She's very funny."

"A lot more than that," Tarrin agreed.

"You're right there. Alright, explain to me why there are four separate forms of the same verb again. I don't understand that."

The sun set and the stars came out as Tarrin and Kimmie continued their lesson. The ship began to throb and rumble under them as he continued teaching her Sha'Kar, as they tried to ignore what was going on to finish the lesson, reach a good place to stop. All his friends came up on deck, gathering around Keritanima near the bow, and Tarrin and Kimmie stopped their lesson and joined them. They looked up where Keritanima pointed towards the southwest horizon. "There it is. The Diamond Crown," she announced. "And it's fully above the horizon. We made it."

"Thank the Goddess," Dolanna sighed in relief.

Tarrin didn't see the constellation, but he was confident that Keritanima did. "And now we sail southwest," Tarrin mused.

"Forty days," Camara Tal added, putting a hand on his forearm. That told him how much she liked him, for Amazons didn't often touch others. "Let's all pray it's an uneventful trip."

"Amen," Tarrin agreed, patting her hand.

They all stood there for a long moment in silence, pondering the events that had brought them to Vendaka. They were on the ship, and the Diamond Crown was now visible. They were ready to go, ready to sail to where the Firestaff was located, ready to embark on the last leg of their long journey. Not all of them were there to give thanks for that moment, and those absences pained Tarrin greatly. Faalken, solid, dependable, funny Faalken, such a good friend, gone. Never to stand by Dolanna's side again. Sarraya, returned to her colony so she could rest and recover her strength. They'd see her again, but it would be after it was all over. She'd miss the most exciting part of the journey, when they faced this guardian and claimed the Firestaff.

Either way, it would be good to see her again, because to Tarrin, seeing her again meant that it would all be over. The next time he saw Sarraya, the Firestaff would be safely hidden away and wouldn't pose a danger to anyone. He'd be free to return to Jesmind and Jasana, keep Kimmie close to him so he could be there for the birth of their child, and start a new life for himself far away from the craziness that had so altered his life. Soon, it would all be over, and he would have his life back.

The ship's anchor raised, and then there was a strange rushing sound. Tarrin realized that it was the paddlewheel attached to the side of the ship, beginning to turn. The sound of the water beaten by the wheel was audible to them, and then the ship began to slowly move forward. They were under way, under way for the hiding place of the Firestaff, under way on the last leg of their long, arduous journey. Soon, now, very soon, they'd have the Firestaff, and his life would be his own again.

Soon.

Chapter 8