The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  "It's that agressive warrior spirit in you, Allia," Kimmie winked. "You conquered him, so it was time to enjoy the spoils."

  "The spoils were very enjoyable," Allia laughed.

  "So...thinking of marriage?" Kimmie asked.

  "Not quite yet, but I do like him, Kimmie," Allia answered honestly. "He is very kind and very gentle. He is just disobedient enough to be interesting, at least now that his awe of me is starting to wear away, and he has a clever and willful mind. And he is totally smitten with me," she said with a glorious smile. "I have never had a power like this over a man. It is almost intoxicating. If I asked Allyn to stab himself in the heart, he would do it without hesitation."

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kimmie grinned.

  "I am not planning on it. I am planning on going back to my room and enjoying my spoils a bit more, though," she said with an undisguised leer. "He should be recovered enough now."

  "Take it easy on him," Kimmie laughed.

  "Why'd you come here if you're not ready to get up yet?" Tarrin asked.

  "Oh, Dolanna wants us to gather at lunch," she said. "I am not the only one sleeping off a long night. Dolanna got drunk last night."

  "She did? It didn't show at all!" Tarrin said with a sudden laugh.

  "She holds her composure very well," Allia told him. "But she probably has a headache this morning."

  "Probably," Tarrin chuckled. Allia taking a lover wasn't a big thing, for Allia was no virginal maiden. She was as dirty-minded as many human sailors, if you were lucky enough to be as close to her as Tarrin was. But Dolanna getting drunk, now that was something very unusual, and a bit funny.

  "Well, I am going back to Allyn," Allia told them. "I will see you at lunch."

  "Go easy on him, Allia," Kimmie grinned.

  "He is the one that has to go easy on me," pulling her robe aside and baring her left breast. It had a visible bite mark on it. Kimmie laughed like a little girl, pounding her feet on the bed hard enough to make the whole bed shake violently. "As I said, brother, he is quite an energetic lover," she added with a wicked smirk, then she started going into rather graphic detail of some of the other things that Allyn had done to her. Tarrin was used to this kind of talk from Allia, but Kimmie looked a bit startled that not only would she say some of the things she said, but that she used some of the very vulgar words that she used. She looked a bit shocked when Allia finshed her lurid account of the night's entertainment, but Allia just smiled that wicked little smile and pulled her robe back up. "I will be back when I wear him out," she told them, then she started towards the door.

  "Tell me she didn't know what half of those words meant," Kimmie said in a stunned voice after Allia closed the door.

  "She should. I taught them to her."

  Kimmie looked at him, then exploded into helpless laughter. "I never thought she was that dirty!" Kimmie said in glee. "She sure had me fooled!"

  "None of the others really understand Allia, Kimmie. Keritanima comes closest, but even she doesn't understand some things the way I do, because Allia is alot closer to me than she is to Kerri. Allia is nothing like what Dolanna or Dar or Phandebrass believe her to be. She doesn't talk very much, so they all think she's a quiet and reserved woman, like Binter and Sisska. She rarely speaks, but when she does, you listen to what she says. That's how the others see her. They know she's more open with Kerri and me, but they don't know that she usually won't completely let her guard down unless she's absolutely sure she's alone with us. That's why when they do walk in on us, Allia is still quiet and reserved, so they think she's just stuffy like that all the time. They have no idea what she's like when you get her behind a closed door."

  "I'll say!" Kimmie laughed.

  "When we're alone, Allia talks alot, and she talks a lot different than she does when we're with the others," Tarrin told her with a smile. "There are things she'll say to me that she won't say to anyone else, because we're so close. As far as she's concerned, I could be in the room watching her and Allyn, and it wouldn't bother her a bit. That's how close we are."

  "Well," Kimmie said, the texture of her scent changing in a most appealing manner as she looked up at him. "Allyn certainly has a vivid imagination. Maybe we should try some of those things."

  "I'm not sure a few of them would be very comfortable," Tarrin said as he leaned down and kissed her, putting a paw on her lovely bottom and patting it fondly. "I'd break your tail."

  "I can live with that," she giggled girlishly against his lips as she rolled over and pulled him down onto the bed with her.

  Kimmie seemed to still be quite stunned by what she saw of Allia after they got up, bathed, and dressed. She asked a whole bunch of questions about Allia of him as they bathed, as they dressed, as they ate the light snack that Arlan's servants left for them while they were bathing. They were rather insightful questions, Tarrin thought, as Kimmie tried to dig under the facade that Allia held up the world and get at the woman underneath it. Tarrin told her that in reality, Allia was a rather outgoing woman, talkative and with a wicked sense of humor. She was fearless in her speech, and where Tarrin was concerned, there was no subject that was too personal. Tarrin had to guiltily admit that there were things he'd tell Allia that he'd tell no one else. Not Kimmie, not Jesmind, not his parents, not even Triana. That was how close they were, and he struggled for a long time to explain the intense bond of love that existed between them, a love so powerful, so deep, that it defied his every attempt to quantify it in rational terms. Kimmie seemed to understand how he felt about Allia after he couldn't explain it; his loss for words said more than any words ever could. Kimmie kept on him about how Allia acted when they were alone, and he told her that she was a clever, funny, outgoing, slightly mischievious woman. She didn't play pranks, but she had a deliciously wicked mind, and she had the intelligence to apply that evil bent in wonderfully mean ways. She was also very observant, often seeing to the heart of things long before anyone else, and was very compassionate and caring. He told her about how she always seemed to know exactly what to say in difficult or sensitives times, telling her about the many times that a single sentence from Allia defused his anger or made him think about what he was doing before he made a terrible mistake.

  Tarrin was surprised by Kimmie's curiosity about Allia, but then again, it was like seeing a woman they'd never met before that had Allia's face walk through the door and talk to them. Tarrin knew that Kimmie had never seen Allia like that before, and he was pretty certain by her reaction that she had never in her wildest dreams thought Allia would behave as she did.

  The others gathered in Tarrin's room a little after noon, Tarrin raising a Ward to prevent eavesdropping, and realizing that it was going to be a bit wearing to do it every time they needed to talk privately. So he exerted a little extra effort and wove up a very strong Ward that would stop eavesdropping as well as prevent a physical barrier to prevent Sorcerers from getting into the room using the Weave. He charged the Ward with more than enough power to make it last nearly a month, and then set it against the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room. He just finished up his work as his friends shuffled into his chamber, and he could see that more than one of them looked a bit worse for wear. Dolanna had dark circles under her eyes and looked a bit listless. Azakar flumped onto the floor on his backside, very hard, holding his head in his hands almost immediately. Dar kept yawning, and Tarrin saw that he'd put his robe on backwards and had forgotten to put on anything underneath it. Even Phandebrass and Camara Tal looked a little tender, both of them looking exhausted and scattered. For Phandebrass, that was no big deal, but it was in Camara Tal's case. She hadn't even combed her hair yet, and it stuck out at strange angles and had many stray strands escaping from the disorganized black mass. She and Phandebrass were wearing similar bathing robes, the Amazon's impressive bosom threatening to fall out of the loosely wrapped garment at any moment. Keritanima and Miranda were leaning against each other, both of them looking weary. Allia looked sleepy, the
first time Tarrin had ever seen her like that, but then again, he knew that she'd not only had no sleep last night, but had also had quite a bit of exercise almost all the way through lunch. The only ones that looked like they'd not had too much fun last night were Tarrin, Kimmie, Binter, and Sisska.

  "My, we're a happy little bunch this morning," Tarrin said with a chuckle, leaning over the raised part of the divan and looking down at Keritanima. "I never thought you'd get drunk, Kerri."

  "I couldn't taste the alcohol in those drinks," she moaned. "I didn't think they'd do this to me."

  "That is why I drank them," Dolanna agreed, rubbbing her temples. "Had I known they were alcohol, I would have been more moderate in my enjoyment of them."

  "None of you looked drunk when we walked back," Kimmie said.

  "It did not really hit me until I got back to my room," Dolanna told her.

  "Are you going to be alright? Zak? Dar? Phandebrass, Camara?"

  "I'll be fine after a few months' sleep," Azakar grunted.

  "I think I'm going to die," Dar complained in a pitiful voice.

  "I have never had a hangover like this, in all my life," Miranda announced. "And I've done my share of drinking."

  "Do you want to go back to bed, and we'll do this later?"

  "Yes!" Dar, Azakar, and Keritanima said at once, then all three winced and held their heads.

  "We made this bed, so we must sleep in it," Dolanna said in a quiet tone. "Things are too important for us to sleep away the day because of overindulgence. I guess we should start with what we have learned last night. Does anyone have anythign important to disclose?"

  "Well, the Firestaff is definitely here," Keritanima said. "I mentioned it in passing several times, and the older Sha'Kar all had the same reaction when I mentioned it. I don't think its presence here is common knowledge, but the older Sha'Kar definitely know it's here."

  "I think Iselde knows something about it," Tarrin said. "She had a reaction when I told her why we're here. I need to go drag it out of her."

  "Gently, Tarrin," Dolanna said. "We cannot let them know that we know, so we must be delicate about this."

  Tarrin looked at his Selani sister. "Did Allyn have anything to say?"

  "I asked him straight, my brother," she said. "He does not know if it is here or not. He did say that this island was enclosed in the Ward for protecting some forgotten artifact that nobody found when they came to the island, and he suspects that this might be where the Firestaff was placed. But he does not know."

  "They searched the island when they got here?" Keritanima asked.

  Allia nodded. "As I said, Allyn says that nothing was found."

  "I did manage to pick up somthing," Miranda said. "From one of the servants. The volcano is off limits. Nobody's allowed to go up there."

  "That could be where it is."

  "The volcano is active," Dolanna said. "Did you not see the smoke? That it is off limits may be a rule of common sense. Let us not focus too strongly on one thing when there are many other possibilities left unexplored."

  "I talked to some of the servants about their serving the Sha'Kar," Azakar said woodenly. "I couldn't believe what they had to say."

  "What?" Dar asked.

  "They serve because they want to," he said in disbelief. "One of them told me that when they serve well, the Sha'Kar reward them. I asked why they all seem afraid of the Sha'Kar, and he said it wasn't fear, it was the desire to serve. He said they don't torture the servants or work them cruelly, yet the ones that work outside are all almost malnourished and work from sunup to sundown every day. I think there's a split between how the inside servants are treated and how the outside servants are treated."

  "Did anyone notice that all the servants at the feast were attractive?" Phandebrass asked. "I looked around. Not a single plain face in the crowd. All the ladies were pretty, and all the gentlemen handsome.

  "And the outside servants were plain looking," Kimmie mused. "The Sha'Kar seem to be obsessed with beauty. Maybe they choose who does what job based on how attractive the person is. The uglier you are, the harder your job is."

  "That is possible," Dolanna said, still rubbing her temples.

  "Did anyone talk to the Grand or the Council?" Tarrin asked. "They avoided me all night."

  "I did not see them," Dolanna replied.

  "I didn't talk to them," Keritanima said.

  "I doubt they would have wasted time on me or Allia," Dar grunted. "The only Sha'Kar that would talk to me were the younger ones, the ones that aren't da'shar."

  "Did anyone count and see how many are older and how many are younger?" Tarrin asked.

  "There are about two hundred older ones, and three hundred younger ones," Keritanima answered immediately. "Some of the younger ones are already da'shar."

  "Iselde said about five hundred Sha'Kar came here originally. What happened to kill three hundred Ancients?"

  "That book you read said they suffered a plague and a fire that destroyed their town once," Kimmie reminded him.

  "The book said that the plague wasn't deadly to Sha'Kar, and no fire could kill a da'shar," he replied. "Unless the fire made something fall on a da'shar's head, anyway."

  "That's possible, if they were in the houses as they collapsed," Kimmie said.

  Dolanna shook her head. "With the magic they have available to them, I find that highly unlikely. It is a bit strange that three hundred would die, when this place seems very safe."

  "Did anyone find out something about the Sha'Kar's customs that may help us?"

  "I found out that they don't even look at anyone that isn't a Sorcerer," Camara Tal growled. "I think I could have walked around that feast absolutely naked, and not a single Sha'Kar would have noticed."

  "They would have noticed, Camara," Kimmie grinned. "You may be human, but as some of my kind say, what a human you are."

  "Some Sha'Kar find humans to be attractive," Tarrin told the Amazon. "You'd have had quite a few appreciative eyes."

  "That may be useful to know," Camara Tal mused. "Maybe I could drag one of those older Sha'Kar into bed under false pretense, and once I got him where I want him, throttle what we need to know out of him."

  "Delicately," Dolanna reminded her. "We must move delicately, Camara. The last thing we need to do is make enemies out of the Sha'Kar."

  "I wouldn't want to," Keritanima said. "They may seem a bit arrogant, but they're nice people if you talk to them."

  "They are also our brothers and sisters under the Goddess," Dolanna agreed. "Even if they oppose our mission, it is because of the mission, not because of us. We cannot forget that."

  "So, we know the Firestaff is here, but not everyone may know it's here. We know that the Sha'Kar won't tell us, and the ones that probably do know are avoiding us. Anyone have any ideas?"

  "I think moving slowly is the best course, dear one," Dolanna told him. "So long as the Ward remains active, in reality, we have all the time in the world. Let us not be hasty and make a rash decision that we will regret afterwards. We have only had one night to come to know the Sha'Kar. I do not think that is enough for us to understand them."

  "I have to agree with Dolanna," Camara Tal said. "She's right about the Ward. If you're the only one that can get through it, then nobody else can get in here and take the Firestaff right out from under our noses. So let's take our time and do this right, in a way that lets us get what we're after and not make enemies out of the Sha'Kar."

  "I think that's a reasonable idea," Keritanima agreed. "I haven't had enough time yet to do much of anything, and I can't think straight at the moment anyway. So me giving advice right now would be a bad idea."

  "I am on very good terms with Allyn," Allia told them. "I may be able to find the answers to delicate questions if I ask him to discover the answers for me. It would not look as suspicious if another Sha'Kar were asking the questions."

  Kimmie grinned knowingly at Tarrin. Good terms indeed. Very good terms.

  "Weren't you
dancing with him all night last night?" Dar asked her.

  "He is a good dancer, and I felt more comfortable dancing with someone I know rather than strangers," Allia said without blinking.

  "I think he has a crush on you, Allia," Miranda told her. "All that singing and poetry and Sorcery? He's definitely trying to catch your eye."

  "I know he is, and if it is needful, I can use that to our advantage," she said calmly. "But I must admit, I find his attentions flattering, and I have found that he is actually a rather innocent and sweet boy whose heart is in the right place. So I would prefer it if none of you would ask something of me that would put him in danger or damage our friendship. I happen to like him, and I do not want to hurt him."

  "Why won't--" Kimmie started in the manner of the Cat, but Tarrin stopped her by putting his paw over her mouth. Even if that wasn't how the language was communicated, it served to make her stop. Tarrin gave her a direct look, a look that communicated the fact that that was not a safe mode of communication in current company, and Kimmie's eyes flashed in sudden understanding. "What do you think the Grand and the Council are going to do when we start getting pushy about the Firestaff?" she asked, Tarrin realizing that it wasn't the question she meant to ask.

  "I'm not sure yet," Keritanima said, giving her a strange look. "I don't know enough about them yet to guess."

  "I hope it does not come to that," Dolanna said. "But I do think we need to appear that we are not going to be as patient as we will be. Let us tell them if they ask that we are giving Grand Syllis and his people three days to search their histories for clues to the location of the Firestaff. That seems a reasonable period of time for those who are in a bit of a hurry, gambling on old lore to shorten their journey."

  "That does sound pretty reasonable," Tarrin agreed. "Three days would be all I could wait if I wasn't waiting on something else."

  "It is important you play your part, Tarrin," Dolanna told him. "Be forceful with the Grand, and on the third day, be very demanding, and be contrary if he asks us to stay longer. After all, we are on an important mission, so it would look strange if we do not remain vocal and do not leave soon. We just need a valid reason to stay past our deadline, that is all."