The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  "It must be some kind of aphrodesiac to humans," Kimmie said. "Even Dolanna and Phandebrass ended up sleeping with strangers last night. We wondered if it had any kind of effect on you."

  "Not that I noticed," she answered. "I doubt my interest in Allyn was spurred by this drug. I was starting to feel interest in him before the feast."

  "That soon?"

  "As soon as I saw him," she answered. "He is a very handsome boy."

  "You're alot closer physically to the Sha'Kar than the Wikuni are," Tarrin speculated. "Maybe you're similar enough to where this drug really is no more than alcohol to you."

  "That does seem reasonable," Allia agreed, adjusting the hem of her robe. "I feel uncomfortable in this. I am not used to feeling such a draft on my legs."

  "Take it off," Tarrin told her.

  "I want to look presentable for Allyn at his party," she said quickly. "He asked me to wear this, so I will wear it."

  Tarrin reached up and put his paw on Allia's arm, and sent probing flows into her. Maybe the drug had affected her, because she wasn't behaving normally. His searching spell sought out the presence of the drug, but found none. Perhaps she was acting strangely without being affected by an outside source that wasn't Allyn. Perhaps it was love. Love made people do strange things. Tarrin himself was living proof of that.

  Allia, falling in love? It wasn't absolutely outlandish. She was a very loving and emotional person. And she was certainly deserving of some happiness.

  Tarrin let go of her, smiling up at her. "Well, if it makes you happy, then I'm all for it," he told her. She seemed to understand what he really meant, and smiled down at him, then kissed him on the cheek. "When will you be finished learning, little one?" Allia asked the drake.

  "Tarrin tells me tonight," Sapphire answered her.

  "Have Chopstick and Turnkey shown signs of this?"

  "No, and that's driving Phandebrass crazy," Kimmie replied. "He's kept them locked up in his room since they got here. He said that the Sha'Kar keep wanting to take them home with them, and they don't know how to care for drakes properly. He's afraid the Sha'Kar may hurt them by accident."

  "So far, our little friend here is the only one to show us how smart she is," Tarrin said, patting Sapphire on the flank, right under the wing. "Maybe Chopstick and Turnkey will show the same intelligence, but it'll just take them longer."

  "I, don't think so," Sapphire said slowly. "They seem...different. I don't know how to explain it. But they're different from me."

  "They're another species of drake," Tarrin reasoned.

  "It's more than that. They're not like me. I don't know how I know that, but I do."

  "Well, we'll take your word for it, little one," Tarrin told her.

  "How are they different?" Kimmie asked intently, staring at Sapphire.

  "I'm not sure. But I feel that they're different somehow. They don't have the same sense that the drakes in my pack had. That's as well as I can explain it, I'm sorry."

  "Well, they don't have magical powers like you do," Kimmie said. "Could that be it?"

  "Maybe," the drake said, her amber eyes narrowing.

  "Well, I am going to go, my brother. Allyn is going to treat me to some Sha'Kar desserts that were not served at the feast."

  "You know, he is shorter than you, Allia," Kimmie said with a grin. "That doesn't bother you?"

  "He is not short where it counts, Kimmie," Allia said with a wicked little smile, and that made Kimmie explode into gales of girlish laughter. "I will see you after the party?" she asked Tarrin.

  "We'll be here. Drop by with Allyn before you drag him to bed and torture him some more."

  "We will come see you," she promised. She kissed him on the cheek one more time, then sauntered out of the room.

  "She's so bad!" Kimmie said, trying to recover her composure. "She's evil! I like her alot better like this than I do with what she shows everyone else!"

  "You're lucky. I haven't seen her be so open with anyone other than me and Kerri. She must really like you, Kimmie."

  "I feel honored," she said, then she broke down into fits of giggling again.

  Tarrin and Kimmie got back to the business of teaching Sapphire Sha'Kar after Allia left, breaking briefly to get some food. Afterwards, Tarrin refreshed the spell of learning and let Kimmie take over for a while, and he went to go look for Iselde. It was just before sunset, meaning that she would be getting ready for her party tonight. He wanted to make sure that Keritanima and Dolanna had talked to her and arranged to have her escort them.

  He found her in her room. He knocked politely to gain entry, and after he announced who he was, Iselde called for him quickly to come in. Iselde's room was about half the size of Arlan's chamber, but was much more cluttered. Iselde had a love for furniture, it seemed. She had three divans, two plush chairs, and two couches arranged in a loose circle near the door, and one of her walls also had ivy growing on it. The soft light that emanated from the walls seemed brighter in her room than in any other. She too had a bed on a dais near the back of the room, and had a bathing room just off from the bed, the arch on the far wall. She had several bureaus and dresser chests with drawers, and also several conventional chests stacked in corners. She had four bookcases, all of them holding an impressive amount of books, as well as little crystal figurings, tiny sculptures, little paintings, and other various types of small art. Iselde seemed to like minitature things. Iselde's room had a crystal chandelier, the first such decoration he'd seen, but it was not meant to hold candles. It was a piece of crystalline art, with carefully cut pieces of crystal hanging from the polished brass tines by fine golden wire. The chandelier caught the light from the walls and reflected it and refracted it, resulting in a dazzling display of multicolored light whenever the viewer moved his head to regard the thing. It was quite lovely, and the light it gave off was almost hypnotic. Iselde wasn't very neat either. There were dresses and slippers and frilly little things that had to be underclothes scattered all over the furniture, looking like a human girl's room. She also wasn't alone. Auli was with her, and to his surprise, Iselde had asked him in while the two of them were in the act of changing clothes. Auli was completely nude, her back to him as she held up a shimmering blue robe that caught the light of the chandelier in a very appealing manner. Iselde's hair was wet, and she was wearing a bath robe.

  "I didn't realize you were dressing," he said apologetically. "I'll let you finish."

  "There's no need for that, honored one," Auli said, giving him a naughty smile while looking over her shoulder. "We Sha'Kar aren't quite as stuffy as the humans are."

  "If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me," Tarrin shrugged, sitting on one of the divans. "Did Keritanima and Dolanna come talk to you today, Iselde?"

  "They did, honored one. They asked if I would take them to the party tonight. I told them I would."

  "I like the furry one," Auli announced. "What was her name? Keratimina?"

  "Keritanima," Tarrin corrected.

  "She's got a wicked sense of humor," Auli giggled.

  "That sounds like her," Tarrin agreed smoothly.

  "Are you coming to the party, honored one?" Iselde asked hopefully.

  "Not tonight," he replied. "I'm helping my mate with something, and we can't be bothered."

  "What are you helping her with?"

  "It's something that has to do with being Were and her being pregnant," he lied. "You wouldn't understand, even if I told you."

  "Oh. Alright then," she shrugged, holding the dress up again. "I think this one will do tonight," she told Iselde. "It's Thaline's party, and you know how stuffy she is. She'd throw me out if I wore something more fun."

  "There's only the one party tonight?" Tarrin asked.

  "There's only one party on any night," Iselde answered him as Auli pulled the dress over her head.

  "That's alot of people."

  "Not everyone attends a party every night, honored one," Auli said. "Us youngers tend to do it becaus
e we're bored and don't have anything else to do. Some Sha'Kar don't bother circulating. The social outcasts and the oldest, who don't have to worry about it the way we do. So there are some faces at a party every night, and others come when the mood hits them, or the host of the party is someone they're friends with."

  "Ah. I understand."

  Iselde shrugged out of her robe and held up a green shimmering dress. "I like this one," she told Auli. Tarrin admired her lithe form; it reminded him of Allia. Iselde wasn't nearly so generously endowed in the bosom as Allia was, but she had a similarly beautiful figure. Just thinner. And she lacked Allia's muscular appearance. She pulled the dress over her head and fussed with her hair after getting it on. "Do you think I should wear a chain in my hair?" she asked her friend.

  "Well, I found out what I needed to know, so I'll let you two get ready," he announced, standing up.

  "My mother asked me to invite you to our house tomorrow, honored one," Auli said to him. "So has about everyone else we know, but my mother threatened to do something nasty to me if I didn't deliver her invitation."

  Tarrin chuckled. He remembered Iselde tell him that everyone she knew wanted her to invite him to their homes for them. Obviously Auli's mother had the same idea. "What's your mother's name?" he asked.

  "Lienne," she replied.

  "Do you know--what's their names--oh, Trevan and Tarielle Andiari?"

  "Not really, honored one. They're a little too old to be in our circles. But they have a good reputation and they're good Sorcerers. Why do you ask about them?"

  "Of all the Sha'Kar I met at the feast, those two are the only ones that stuck out," he replied. "I don't remember your mother introducing herself to me, Auli. But those two, they stuck in my mind. I'm not quite sure exactly why, but they did."

  "Tarielle's come to buy art from my mother, and she seems nice enough," Auli told him, tying a sash around her waist.

  "I was curious about something. Why don't Sha'Kar wear more jewelry?"

  "Why would we want to do that?" Auli asked. "Jewelry is supposed to accessorize the woman, not the woman accessorize the jewelry. Aren't I beautiful enough without gaudy baubles to distract the eye from me?"

  "It's an old custom that dates back before we came here," Iselde told him sedately, ignoring her friend. "Too much jewelry is seen as tacky among us, so we don't wear more than a ring or two, or earrings." She touched her golden amulet. "Except this, of course. But it's a symbol of our devotion to the Goddess, not something we wear to highlight ourselves."

  "I think it's a silly old custom," Auli sniffed. "It's not like the Goddess can hear us or anything. I think the Elders make us wear them just to go through the motions." She got a sly look. "Actually, I think they make us wear them because they think it will impress the Goddess that we were so faithful even when we were separated."

  "Why don't you take it off then?"

  "And become a social pariah? I don't think so," she snorted. "That's the biggest blunder a girl can make. Lamidrelle Velsanse showed up in the city without her amulet two years ago, and they still gossip about it today. It didn't matter that the chain broke and she had it in her pocket, all that mattered was that she wasn't wearing it."

  Tarrin reached behind him and scratched at the fur at the base of his tail absently. "Well, I think I'll leave you two to finish getting ready. I found out what I came her to find out."

  "I've noticed that you always say you're leaving more than once," Auli winked at him.

  "That's because certain talkative young girls keep trying to keep me from going," he told her with a slight smile. "I'll see you two tomorrow. Iselde will bring me over to your house, Auli."

  "I'm not talkative. You just can't resist my beauty. That's why you don't want to leave," she teased flippantly.

  Tarrin snorted in the way that Were-cats did, glancing at her. "It takes more that what you've got to keep my attention, Auli," he told her, then he started walking away.

  Tarrin heard her give a huff and stamp her foot, almost drowned out by Iselde's sudden laughter. "I was wrong! I really don't like you!" Auli shouted at him as he left.

  "That'll change in a few hours," he said absently, waving a paw noncommitally over his shoulder.

  Tarrin returned to his borrowed room and continued with the task of educating Sapphire. He saw that Kimmie had a couple of her books in Sha'Kar open on the floor, sitting on a rug with Sapphire looking down at it, teaching her how to read as she taught her more words. He gave Kimmie a break to go stretch her legs after she told him how far they'd progressed, and took over Sapphire's education. She seemed to be having trouble making out the different systems the Sha'Kar used to write. He found that the spell was wearing off, so he renewed it and continued on.

  It took until nearly midnight, but when they were done, after nearly seventeen marathon hours of education, Tarrin proclaimed Sapphire to be fluent in Sha'Kar. She possessed the same language skills in it that he did, him teaching her everything he knew about the language and its many nuances and subtle variations. Sapphire seemed very pleased with herself. She took him by surprise when, as soon as he said they were done, she asked him if he would teach her Wikuni next. He laughed and promised he would, but only after they were done what they were doing there. When they had the Firestaff, he promised, he would teach it to her on the way back to Suld. He told her he'd make sure she was fluent before they got back to Wikuna, so she would be able to understand what was going on.

  About ten minutes after Sapphire laid down on her bed and got some much needed and well deserved rest, Allia barged in without knocking. She wasn't alone, either. Keritanima, Dolanna, Allyn, Iselde, and a male Sha'Kar that Tarrin didn't know were with them, the male letting Isele hang off his arm. The unknown male was tall and narrow-featured, with unusually long fingers, and dull blond hair held back from his face by a gold circlet. Kimmie and Tarrin had just started playing chess, and they paused to look up at them as the filed into the room. Iselde was laughing happily and pulling on the male's arm, who looked a little nervous. Allia was smiling broadly, showing more emotion in public than he'd ever seen out of her, and Keritanima was wobbling very slightly. Dolanna looked a bit flushed. Were they drugged again? The smell of them reached him, and he couldn't mistake the heavy wine-smell that emanated from all of them. It wasn't a drug...it was good old fashioned wine.

  "Brother," Allia said vibrantly. "It's too beautiful a night for you and Kimmie to be sitting in here. Come outside with us!" She was speaking in informal Sha'Kar, a clear indication she felt comfortable with the unknown male Iselde was using a prop. "The stars are out, all four moons are full, and the Skybands look very bright and beautiful tonight."

  "Yeah, come on, Tarrin," Keritanima slurred slightly. "Stop being so stuck up and come out and have fun!"

  "Stuck up?" Tarrin asked mildly, trying to cover his shock. He'd never heard Allia talk like that unless they were alone. "If anyone understands why I don't mingle, I thought you would, Kerri."

  "Oh, bugger that," she told him. "Come on!"

  "Are you drunk, Kerri?" he asked bluntly.

  "I don't know. Dolanna, am I drunk?"

  "I think so, Kerri," she replied. "I think I am too. How curious," she said, looking down. The floor...it keeps moving." She grabbed hold of Kerri to keep from falling over. "How does it do that?"

  Tarrin was stunned. They were all roaring, blind drunk! He thought that only one or two of them was so drunk, but it was all of them!

  "I think I may be drunk too. Isn't it marvelous?" Allia asked with a brilliant smile, then she laughed lightly. "Come on. We can look up at the stars and just watch."

  "I think the only stars you ladies are seeing are the spots in front of your eyes," Tarrin told them.

  "Don't be a prude, honored one. You'll start sounding like an Elder again," Iselde giggled. "And here I went and told Oran here how relaxed you are. Don't prove me a liar."

  "Relaxed and blind drunk are two different things, Iselde," Tarrin told he
r.

  "Now you are being a prude, brother," Keritanima accused.

  "Our dignity wouldn't allow us to get drunk," Kimmie said. "It's against our instincts. So is losing control of ourselves. Would any of you really like to see what a Were-cat is like when she's drunk? When she's not in control of herself?" Kimmie asked pointedly.

  Kerri winced, and Allia looked a little concerned. Dolanna just kept staring at the floor. "Ah, not really, Kimmie," Keritanima said. "I don't think I'd want to clean up that mess. It would be monumental."

  "Why would it be a mess?" the male asked.

  "Were-cats are very strong, Oran," Iselde told him. "If the honored one got drunk, he'd be ripping doors off their hinges and shattering tables without meaning it."

  Tarrin wasn't sure how Iselde knew that. Did Allia or Keritanima tell her? "Did you have fun at the party, outside of getting drunk?" Tarrin asked, trying to organize his thoughts. Seeing them all like this had shocked him so deeply that he couldn't even think of where to begin to try to figure out what happened that got them like this.

  "It was a blast," Keritanima grinned. "We drank and talked and talked some more, then we danced half the night. Then we listened to Auli's mother sing, then we listened to a few Sha'Kar playing some old songs. Then they caught Auli in Thaline's parents' bedroom with Julian Orialis, and she got thrown out," she laughed. "I hope they managed to finish before that."

  "Julian left the party afterwards," Iselde giggled. "I think he went to go find Auli so they could."

  "Don't talk about that," Allia said, patting Allyn on the backside. "You may make us go to bed early."

  "I won't complain, Allia," Allyn said with a worshipful smile as he looked up at her.

  "What do you think Oran?" Iselde asked. "Uncle Arlan is at the Grand's house tonight. Want to go play?"

  Oran groped her in a most obvious manner, grinning. "Well, sorry all, but me and Oran are going to go and take pleasure from each other," Iselde announced like she was going to run to the kitchens for a snack. "Have fun without us! Come on, Oran!" she giggled, pulling him out of the room.

  "I think a night in bed with you is better than staring at the stars, Allyn," Allia told him.