"No," he said with a faint blush. Tarrin put his head on his paws, closed his eyes, and immediately fell asleep.
It was morning. Jesmind was asleep beside him, and he'd again slept through the night without dreams. The air coming into the den smelled of wet leaves, and he could hear dripping water. After the thunderstorm, the rain had continued on as normal rain for most of the rest of the night, breaking the rather long dry snap that had been going on. He leaned over her and looked out the opening, seeing water droplets sparkling in the sun, and he could hear a wind blowing the tops of the trees. He wanted to go out and see. Putting his back against the top of the den, Tarrin tried to inch over Jesmind without disturbing her, but there was almost no room. His tail swished across her side and leg, and her eyes opened immediately and focused on him. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"I wanted to go outside and see, but you were in the way." He was about to say more, but her eyes seemed to go softer for a moment, and the texture of her scent changed in a way that he couldn't explain. He stared down into those lovely eyes of hers and seemed to be captivated by them. He could smell her, feel the nearness of her in the cozy den, and it seemed to be clouding his judgement. He hadn't even realized that he'd leaned down close to her until he was already there. She just seemed to lay there and see what he would do, and for some reason that bolstered the young man's courage. Closing his eyes, he lowered his head and kissed her.
It was an awkward kiss, tentative, and Tarrin didn't even know what he was doing until he felt Jesmind's paws slide up and around his back. But Jesmind seemed to urge him, and when she kissed him back, the sensation of it totally blew all coherent thought to the four winds. He realized in some corner of his mind that she made sure to get a hold on him before returning his kiss, because the sudden sensation and raw sensuality of it actually frightened him. He tensed up and tried to pull away. Jesmind let him go only so far before her claws dug into his back, and the pain caused him to instantly stop. "Whatever is the matter?" she asked, her voice breathless, her eyes a bit confused and a tad annoyed.
"You...I...I can't do this," he said in a panting tone. He wanted to, but he felt that if he did, he wouldn't want to leave her. But he had to. Her own safety depended on it.
"And what is stopping you?" she asked in a calm, quiet voice. "I know I'm not. I've been working you up to this since the moment we met, and I'm not about to let you back out now." She used a leg to throw both of them over, until he was on his back and she was on top of him, her smoldering eyes staring down into his and her paws holding him down. "I thought I was going to have to hit you over the head to get your attention. I've never been so blunt about getting a man's eye."
"But we can't, I can't--"
"Stop talking nonsense," she said in a cooing voice. She leaned down and kissed him again, and all resistance, as well as all thought, fled his mind.
Chapter 6
Tarrin had no idea what to do now.
It was midday, and they were still inside the den. Tarrin was gathered up into Jesmind's arms, and as she slept contentedly, he brooded.
This was not what he wanted to happen.
It was, but it wasn't, and in that respect, it had been more than he ever dreamed. Jesmind had been an infinitely tender lover, and that expression of her warmth and feeling for him had touched him to his soul. He knew that he'd never think of her in the same way again. He felt a feeling of trust in her that defied explanation, grounded in the incredible intimacy that they had shared, and he would tell her anything she wanted to know, and he would trust that it would go no farther. He'd come to know her every line, her every curve, and her scent was imprinted forever into his mind. He didn't know if it was love, but there was certainly something between them now, some sort of bond that could not be broken.
What he had feared would happen had happened, though...he didn't want to leave her. He wanted to stay with her and learn what she had to teach, but more than that, he just wanted to be with her. And he knew that, unless she agreed to go with him to the Tower, that it wouldn't come to pass. The problem was, he couldn't just come out and ask her to go to the Tower with him. If she knew that it was his intent, then she'd watch him so closely that he'd have no chance to get away from her. He knew that he'd have to approach the subject very delicately, try to urge her into it, convince her that teaching him at the Tower was just as good as back at her home. And he also had to impress upon her how important it was that he learn how to control the untouched talent of Sorcery that was deep inside him, control it before he hurt someone, or hurt her.
It was very heavy thoughts, and he worried at them fretfully, almost as much as he worried at who was trying to kill him. He had no doubt about that now. They had been trying since he'd left home, and they weren't about to stop. They were probably even behind the fire in Watch Hill's inn. And they had caused this to him, the change that had forever altered his life. He didn't really blame Jesmind. She was a pawn, and whatever he'd thought at first, she had no direct responsiblity for what had happened. She was just a tool used by another. There is an old saying in the army; don't kill the messenger when he brings bad tidings. Jesmind had been the messenger. Whoever they were, they had access to some very exotic creatures, like Jesmind, they had mages like the one he'd killed, and they could make the Goblinoids do what they wanted them to do. That was considerable power, because Trolls didn't like to talk to their dinners before eating them. Those Trolls had to be afraid of the ones that told them to chase him to do what they wanted. Trolls were like that. And it was very disturbing, because from what his father had said often, the Goblinoids weren't much of a threat because of their infighting. Tribes fought tribes with just as much enthusiasm as race fought race. Well, he more or less had concluded that those Dargu had been working for the same people. If these people could command all the different Goblinoids and prevent them from killing each other, then they had an extremely powerful army at their disposal.
It was a puzzle, and it was like trying to put one together with a blindfold on, and he wasn't allowed to touch the pieces either. But until he knew who and what was behind it, there was nothing that he could do but keep one step ahead of them. They seemed fanatically intent on keeping him from reaching to Tower of Sorcery. He was just as determined to do it just to spite them. Tarrin thought about that as he absently played with Jesmind's hair, studying the white-backed cat ear that was poking up out of that brilliant red mass, noticing how it was large, but not too large, and how it moved even in her sleep towards any sound. He ran the back of his finger along her cheek, then over the smooth skin where a human ear would have been. It looked odd to him, even now, not to see an ear there.
"Mmmmm," Jesmind sounded, stretching under him. Her arms wrapped back around him almost immediately, and she gazed up into his eyes with a bemused, content expression on her face. "Good morning," she sounded, bringing a paw around and tapping him on the tip of his nose. "Such a serious face," she chided. "Don't I get a smile?"
"Not right now," he told her.
"Well," she said, ignoring him, "I'd say that that was definitely worth stopping for."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," he said dryly.
"Cub, I don't think you want to hear how much I enjoyed it," she said with a grin. "Unless you'd like a rather detailed account of the parts I found most pleasurable?"
"Ah, no," he replied urbanely.
"Good," she said. "Talking about it with you right here will just give me ideas, and as much fun as this is, we have to move. Where are our clothes?"
"I have no idea," he replied.
She laughed richly. "Then we really must have enjoyed it," she observed. "I hope I didn't tear them."
She waited a moment. "Tarrin."
"What?"
"To get up, you have to get up," she told him. "I can't move with you on top of me."
After finding their clothes, Tarrin crawled out of the den. He had dirt caked to him in many places, and there were streaks of brown on him. "Th
at's what happens when you sweat in a dirt-floored den," she told him with a wink. She looked much the same as he did. "There's a stream somewhere nearby. We can wash off there."
The smell of water led them to a very small little brook, and they found an area of relative depth to wash off the dirt, then let the sun and wind dry them before they dressed. As they sat by the stream, basking in the warmth of the sun, Tarrin decided to start trying to convince her to come with him. "Where will we go from here?" he asked.
"We'll have to turn northwest for a while," she told him, smoothing out the fur on her arms, then using her claws as a comb to brush her thick hair. "I think going on to Darsa is the best thing to do, whether they follow us or not. After we lose ourselves in the people there, we can get back to my range easily."
"Why turn northwest?"
"Because of the Scar," she told him. "It's a big ravine that runs almost to the coast. Once we get to it, we'll run beside it. Darsa is at the end of it."
"If you're worried about that, then we can just go to Suld," he said. "It's a large place, full of people, and we'll be allowed to stay in the Tower. I think that we'd be safer there than running around out here."
"No," she said firmly. "I'm not going anywhere near those spellweavers. It was one of them that collared me."
"Really?" he gasped.
"I know Sorcery when I smell it," she said in a deadly voice. "I don't know much about Druidic magic, but I've got enough of it to sense a Sorcerer's weaving, and I felt that right before I lost my memory."
"Not all people who can use Sorcery are Sorcerers," he told her. "Many of them don't want to be in the order. Maybe it was one of those freelancers."
"I don't care," she grated. "I'm still not going anywhere near them. And neither are you."
"I have to," he said. "Jesmind, I am one of those people. Before I left home, I saw my sister nearly kill someone with Sorcery. It was an accident, but it was no less deadly. If I don't go somewhere and find someone to teach me how to control it, that may happen to me. And I may kill somebody. I don't want to hurt anyone, Jesmind, least of all you."
She gave him a hot look, but he pressed on regardless. "I don't see why you can't teach me what I need to know there," he said in a reasonable tone. "That way I learn what I need to know about being what I am, and I'm in a place where I won't accidentally kill someone with Sorcery."
"I'm not going there," she told him in a steely tone. "And since I'm not, you're not. And that's the end of it."
"Gods, woman, do I have to burn your hair off to make you understand?" he said hotly. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and if I hurt you, I think I'd kill myself. There's only one place that I can go to keep that from happening. Why are you being so stubborn about this?"
"Cub, I'm about one step from shutting you up," she growled, balling one oversized hand-paw into a fist. "I said no. In case you don't understand what that means, it means no. I'm not going to Suld, and you go where I go. That means you are not going to Suld."
He was getting angry with her, but he knew better than to press it too far, else she'd start getting suspicious. When the time came, he needed as much a head start on her as he could get.
After dressing, they started off again at that ground-eating pace that they'd used the day before. It was amazing that he could run so fast for so long. At that pace, he knew he could outrun a horse, for while a horse could run faster, it couldn't do it as long as he could at the speed he was running. The forest became populated by more and more evergreens as the terrain quickly became hilly. There was less undergrowth as well, which allowed them to run faster when there was no trail to follow.
The Scar was almost self-descriptive. It was a huge ravine that simply opened with no warning. It was about a hundred paces across where they'd encountered it, and it went straight as an arrow due east and west. Jesmind stood confidently at the very edge of the deep crevice, which had a considerable amount of standing water at the bottom which was at least two hundred spans down, shading her eyes with her paws from the bright sun as she studied the horizon to the east, and then to the west.
Tarrin stood at the edge, looking down at the narrow lake at the bottom. "What now?" he asked.
"There are some bridges across here and there," she said. "There are enough woodsmen around for them to need them. We'll cross one and get on the other side, then cut the bridge so the Dargu can't follow." She grunted. "Damn, I don't see any," she informed him. "Let's skirt this thing to the east and see if we can't find one."
They turned east and followed along the edge of the ravine. Tarrin noticed that it stayed at almost the exact same width, and the walls of the ravine's sides were smooth, with striated, multi-colored bands of rock that went all the way down to the water's edge some distance below. "I wonder if there are any fish in there," he mused.
"There are," she told him. "I fell in once. It took me almost an hour to climb out. That water is cold."
"How did that happen?"
"The bridge fell out from under me," she shrugged, "and I was too far away to jump to the edge."
"I wonder what made it," he said.
"From what I hear, it was some God," she remarked. "I guess he was having a hissy fit or something."
They found a bridge about an hour later. It was a rotted rope bridge with wooden planks, and it looked like it would collapse if a fly landed on it. Jesmind frowned a bit after looking at it, but a few tugs on the supporting ropes showed that they were firm. "We may as well try this one," she said. "The worst that can happen is that we both get wet."
"I hate getting wet," Tarrin growled.
"I do too," she said. "It's a race thing."
Jesmind went first, since she weighed less than Tarrin. But not much. The planks groaned considerably as she put her weight on them, but they held. The ropes creaked just as loudly, but they too held. "Come on," she said after she was about a quarter of the way across.
"Is that wise?" he asked.
"The support ropes are strong enough," she said. "So long as we're far enough apart, it'll be just fine."
Tarrin put one padded foot on the first plank, and he winced when it creaked ominously as he put weight on it. He kept both paws on the handrails as he gingerly stepped out onto the bridge, moving with the sure-footed caution for whom that cats were famous. Tarrin realized that he had absolutely no fear of the height. It was the fear of the bridge breaking out from under him that made him go so slow.
After he was about halfway across, Tarrin suddenly stopped. He realized one simple thing. That this was the perfect opportunity to separate himself from Jesmind. With the Scar between them, she would have to find another bridge to get back across, and that would give him enough of a lead on her to get away.
Tarrin agonized over it for several seconds. He didn't want to leave her. He was afraid that she would be angry with him for his treachery. No, he was sure of that. But the single thought of Jesmind's skin charred and her hair on fire strengthened his resolve. It was for her own good as much as his.
With her back to him, Jesmind didn't see Tarrin flex out his claws, grab the rail rope securely with his other paw, and then shear through the rail with his claws.
The rail snapped like a broken bowstring, popping back towards the walls of the ravine and breaking guideropes that secured the support ropes to the rope lattice holding the footplanks. The floor fell out from under both of them, and Jesmind wildly managed to get her paw on the unbroken support rope, which sagged and suddenly groaned loudly from the sudden extra weight. Tarrin flexed out the claws on his foot, and, holding the support rope with both paws, he set his claws of his foot against it and pushed. They ripped through the sturdy hemp easily, and then the rope bridge separated into two pieces.
Tarrin fell with one section, and Jesmind fell with the other, on opposite sides.
The impact with the wall was bone-numbing. Tarrin almost lost his grip on the rope as he rebounded away from the wall and his hands stung fiercely. He scrabbled on the
wooden planks with his claws, then found purchase as they sank into the old wood. Breathing a few deep gasps of air, he put his forehead on the rotting wood and thanks whatever Gods were watching that he didn't take a swim. "Tarrin!" Jesmind called urgently. He looked back and up. She was higher up on her section, hanging on with her paws and footclaws in the same manner as him. "Are you alright?"
"I'm alright," he replied soberly, then he started climbing up. The rotted condition of the planks made climbing up them dangerous, so he opted to just hand-walk up the support rope, which was still in good condition.
"Don't!" she called.
"What?" he asked, still climbing.
"You're on the wrong side," she shouted to him. "You'll have to drop into the water and climb up my side."
"I'm not getting in that water," he said adamantly, neatly evading giving away his intention for a few precious moments. He had a good rhythm at that point, and he was climbing up the side of the ravine with surprising speed. She beat him to the top, but not by very much. He clambored over the edge of the wall and turned around to face her.
"Well, we can follow along on either side until we find another bridge," she called.
"You're safe now, Jesmind," he called calmly.
"What?"
"I'm sorry."
She was quiet a moment, then her ears laid back. Even from a hundred paces away, he saw her eyes literally flare up from within with an unholy greenish glow. "You did that!" she accused. "You little--"
Tarrin winced at the barrage of sudden graphic curses she threw in his direction. She was incensed, and he was suddenly glad they were separated by an uncrossable barrier. "You're going to Suld!" she shrieked. "You lied to me!" she said with a sudden vehemence that frightened him.
"I never did any such thing!" he called back.
"You said you'd stay with me, and now you're running away!" she accused. "You lied to me, Tarrin!"
"I said I would learn what you had to teach," he called back. "I never said when. You don't understand that I need to go to Suld, Jesmind. I don't have a choice. I wanted you to come with me, but you refused. This is more your fault than mine. When I'm done at Suld, then I'll be happy to go with you. But not until then."
The Tower of Sorcery Page 22