"What does that mean?"
"It means that I consider them to be my sisters, even though they weren't born my sisters," he answered. "I love them just as much as I do my real sister, your aunt Jenna. She's in Suld too, along with my parents, your grandparents, Eron and Elke. I'm sure they'd love to meet you, kitten," he told her.
"I want to meet them too. Mama says very good things about Gramma Elke and Grampa Eron."
"Let's see. There's Dolanna, a Sorceress who's been a very good friend of mine for a very long time. She's very wise and very nice, and I love her very much. There's Dar, a young apprentice Sorcerer who's been a very good friend to me. There's Phandebrass, like I told you, and there's a priestess woman named Camara Tal. She's alot like your mother," Tarrin chuckled. "There's Azakar, a human even bigger than I am who's a Knight, and there's Miranda, one of your aunt Keritanima's friends and helpers. And there's Sarraya, a Faerie that travelled with me over the desert, who's a real good friend."
"You know alot of people, papa."
"I know," he agreed with a little bob of his head. "I've met alot of interesting people while trying to find that magic object."
"It's not fair," Jasana complained. "I don't want you to go."
"I won't be gone long, kitten, you'll see," he said gently.
"I still don't want you to go."
"I'm afraid that that's life, kitten," he sighed. "Just make the best of it you can."
"What if I find the magic thing. Could you stay home then?"
"Kitten, if you went to find it, then you'd be the one leaving," he pointed out.
"Well, why can't all those people in Sul--Suld find it? They don't need you!"
"They do need me, kitten," he said gently, though he realized that this was going to degenerate very quickly no matter what he said. "I have something that we absolutely have to have to find the magic object, and I have to get to Suld with it."
She was quiet a moment, and that made Tarrin brace himself. "Well, if you don't bring it back, that means that nobody can find the magic object," she reasoned. "That means that if you don't leave, then nobody will find it, and you'll have no reason to go."
"I wish it were that easy, kitten," he sighed. "But it's still no guarantee that it won't be found."
"But you said that nobody could find it without you!"
"I'm sorry I said it that way, kitten," he apologized. "Because someone can find the magic object without what I'm carrying. It just would be very hard for them to do it."
"If it would be so hard without you, why can't you just not go? They won't find it."
"I can't take that chance, kitten," he said grimly. "The magic object, it's something that could ruin the entire world if bad people find it before I do. I don't want to let you grow up in a wasteland, kitten. I'm doing this to protect you and our home as much as I am--no, the only reason I'm doing it is to protect you and our home," he said firmly. "The humans, I don't much care for them or their world. I do care about you and our world, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect them, and you. If it means that I have to go away for a while, then that's what I have to do."
Jasana seemed subdued by the vehemence of Tarrin's statement, and was quiet for a long moment. "I don't want you to go," she said in a small voice.
Tarrin stopped, then reached over his head and grabbed his daughter in a gentle grip. He pulled her off his shoulders, knelt down, and set her down in front of him. She had a sullen expression on her adorable little face, playing with the tail of her shirt absently, not quite willing to look her father in the eye. "Look at me," he ordered, and she reluctantly lifted her gaze to look into his eyes. "I'll have to go no matter what you say, kitten," he said firmly. "That's something that you can't change, no matter how much you wheedle, whine, beg, cry, complain, or demand. It's just the way things are. This is going to be our last day together until I come back, so please, Jasana, please don't waste it by arguing with me over this. Make sure I leave tomorrow with happy thoughts, alright?"
Her eyes sheened over with tears, and she sniffled. "But I don't want you to go, papa!" she cried. "It's not fair! Mama said when you came home, we could all be together!"
"We will, kitten, but it's going to take a little more time," he said gently, putting his paws on her shoulders.
"I don't care about later. I only care about now," she sniffled.
She was definitely a Were-cat. Tarrin smiled gently as she wiped her nose with the back of her furry white paw, then reached down and tapped her on the nose with a finger. "If you don't care about later, then why are we arguing about this?" he said lightly. "After all, here I am, right here with you, and it's right now. You'll just have to be happy with that now, won't you?"
"But--"
Tarrin put a finger on her lips to quell whatever argument she was about to pose. "No buts, kitten," he smiled. "Remember, we have all day. Don't fight with me over this. Sometimes it's best to accept reality and make the best of it. We have this one day, kitten, so let's make the best of it."
She sniffled again. "Alright," she said in a defeated tone, but there was a hint of something in her eyes that told him that she wasn't anywhere near done with this. Jasana was a dangerously devious little girl, and he could see plan sparkling in those eyes. And it made him very, very nervous for some reason.
He carried her the rest of the way to the village in relative silence. When they arrived, he paused at the treeline to see the whole village bustling with activity. Men milled about urgently, carrying supplies and leading horses, and gathering in small groups to talk. Aldreth was a village of about thirty homes with about thirty outlying farms--or what was considering outlying, which made it a place populated by about four hundred people. About a hundred of them were adult men, and almost all of them were there on the green, around the houses, moving in and out of the Road's End. In the middle of it all was Garyth Longshank, a rolled parchment in his hand and directing men and women with sharp commands, with Jak Longbranch standing silently beside him. From the looks of things, they were both preparing to leave and fortifying the larger houses in the village against possible attack.
"What's going on, papa?" Jasana asked curiously from his shoulders. "The humans are all running around."
"I'm not entirely sure, cub," he said with mild irritation. They should be getting ready to go, not dancing around on the green! He padded down the road that split one of Therin Trent's fields on the west side of the village, then between the thatcher's cottage and the herbalist's shop, which was now empty and partially burned, and onto the green. Men and women stopped what they were doing and stared at him as he marched into their presence, standing head and shoulders above the tallest of them, looking at faces regarding him with awe that would have shooed him away not two years ago. They too seemed to have forgotten about Tarrin Kael the village boy, the strange boy that spent almost all his time wandering around the forest, who was the target of both cruel gossip from the mothers and adoring sighs from the village's young girls. Now they looked on Tarrin Kael the Were-cat, a towering, imposing figure with a scowling expression that made them shrink back from him. "Garyth!" Tarrin called as he approached the mayor. "What's going on around here?"
"Ah, Tarrin," he said with a smile. "Well, we're getting ready to leave."
"This isn't getting ready to leave," Tarrin said bluntly. "This is wandering around."
"Well, we've hit a bit of a snag," Garyth said delicately.
"What snag?"
"Not all the men are willing to leave the village undefended. And I can't say that I blame them," Garyth said quickly, putting up a hand in supplication. "No matter how sure you, or even they, may think it's safe, even I don't like the idea of every man marching out of here and leaving our wives and children exposed. The men all got together and talked about it, and we decided that half would go, and the rest would stay behind to defend the village in case it's attacked. So we're calling in everyone from the farms and we're going to barricade the village."
; Tarrin looked for a reason to be angry with them, but he couldn't. Because they were right. Even if they occupied the road, that wouldn't stop a small division of Dals from coming in from the forest. He blew out his breath and nodded. "I'm not going to argue about that, Garyth. You and the men are right. It wouldn't be right to leave the women and children alone. I still say it's for no reason, but I'm not going to press the issue."
"Not everyone is happy about it," he said. "Most of the families are worried about their houses if we get attacked, and it's going to be a tight fit when all the families are piled into the village houses."
"There are plenty of tents around here, Garyth."
"Tents don't make for very strong walls when you're fending off enemy soldiers," Garyth told him with calm reasoning.
Tarrin considered it, and pondered a method to satisfy all the worries of the villagers with the most efficient way. He considered Wards, conjuring up walls of stone to surround the village, even splitting the earth to form formidable barriers, allowing the archers to pick off those who tried. The problem with a Ward was that it wasn't visible, and it probably wouldn't afford anyone with any real assuredness that it was there and would protect them. The problem with walls or ditches was that it was going to significantly rearrange the village's geography, and people would complain or object. But they couldn't have it both ways.
"Which would you prefer, Garyth," Tarrin said calmly. "A Ward, a wall, or a moat?"
"What?"
"Which do you want? I can only make one."
"What are you talking about, lad?"
"If they're that worried about the village being attacked, I can fix that for them," he said patiently. "I can set up a magical Ward that will keep strangers from entereing the village. I can create a wall around the village, or dig out deep trenches to slow them down and let the archers pick them off."
"Around the entire village?" Garyth said in surprise.
"It's not that much area, Garyth," Tarrin said dismissively. "I've done more, but that was tearing down, not building up." He looked around. "The Ward would be the easiest, but you can't see it, so I'm not sure if the villagers would feel comfortable with it. The wall would be the least damaging to the land, but it also creates its own problems when it comes time to take it down."
"I think that Ward idea would be the best," Garyth said. "We're all a little familiar with Sorcery here, lad. We know what it is and that it can be very strong. I'd rather not break up our village into chunks just to protect it."
"Fine. I'll create a Ward that stops anything but humans or Were-cats from moving across its border, and I'll also set it so that nothing made of steel or iron can cross from outside to inside. That'll prevent anyone with a weapon from entering the village, but it'll let archers shoot arrows at people outside the Ward."
"How will that stop the Dals?" Jak asked curiously.
"They wear chain hauburks, Jak," Tarrin said calmly. "They'll be stopped by their armor. They won't be able to come in unless they take off their armor, and no soldier alive is going to take off his armor in the face of arrow fire."
"That's clever, lad," Garyth said appreciatively.
"I've done this before, Garyth," he said calmly. "I know how to set Wards. Just give the men time to bring all the weapons they want to bring into the village, and I'll erect the Ward."
"I know Sorcery doesn't last long, lad."
"It'll last as long as you want it to last, Garyth," he said mildly. "I can guarantee that."
"I'll go spread the word," Jak said, excusing himself.
"He's taken all this very hard," Garyth sighed. "It's an event when he leaves my side."
"He'll get a chance to get even," Tarrin told the mayor. "Sometimes that's the best therapy."
"I see you're getting a ride, Jasana," Garyth said to the little girl with a smile.
"Everyone looks short from up here," she replied. "Papa always gets to see over everyone's head."
"Yes, well, some of us are blessed and some aren't," Garyth chuckled. "I'm surprised your mother let you come here without her."
"Papa's with me," she said calmly. "Mama knows papa won't let me get in trouble. Mama would kill him."
"She probably would," Tarrin agreed with a straight face.
Garyth laughed. "You two must have quite a home life."
"It's not boring, that's for sure," Tarrin said dryly.
"It's going to take Jak some time to spread the word, and even longer for everyone to finish before you can do your magic, lad. Want to go share a tankard and talk about what we're going to do?"
"May as well," he agreed, pulling Jasana off his shoulders. "I think you can walk now, cub."
"Aww," Jasana protested, grabbing the end of his tail and holding on.
"I think we could get you something to eat too."
"We just had breakfast, Garyth, thanks anyway."
They filed over to the Road's End, then found a seat near the back corner of the room. The common room was bustling with activity, as villagers met and exhanged goods or ideas, stopped for a brief drink or a slice of honey bread, or brought supplies into the inn. Tarrin accepted two tankards of water from Wylan Ren, who smiled and was about to say something before someone called him away. Tarrin sniffed at both, then handed one to Jasana, who was too busy looking around from her seat beside him. "Water?" he asked curiously.
"Wylan's out of ale and wine," Garyth chuckled. "The Dals drank it all. What, you're disappointed?"
"Surprised is more like it," he answered. "It's not like Master Ren to drop down tankards of water in front of people."
"That's the truth," Garyth laughed. "He'd put a tankard of firewine in front of a swaddling babe if he thought the could get away with it."
"It's a case of loving what he sells," Tarrin mused. "Get back in your chair, young lady!" Tarrin warned sharply without looking. Sighing, Jasana climbed back up into her chair, then took a drink from the tankard. "I just can't take it anymore. Lad, would you mind?" he asked, holding out his hand. Tarrin looked at him curiously, then extended his paw without quite knowing what Garyth wanted. The cobbler grabbed him by the wrist and set his paw down on the table palm up, looking down at it. "I've seen your wife's hands, but I've never been brave enough to ask to do this," he admitted.
"She's not my wife, Garyth. She's my mate. There's a very big difference."
"You'll have to explain it to me someday," he replied absently, studying Tarrin's paw. "It really does look like a cat's paw. A cat's paw with fingers."
"I would hope so," Tarrin said mildly, extending the deadly claws on his paw for Garyth's benefit.
"Amazing that something so large can handle things with such precision," Garyth chuckled.
"Not entirely. I have serious trouble with buttons and human-sized silverware," Tarrin admitted. "But I've learned tricks to dealing with those problems." He glanced at Jasana, who was staring intently as Millie Korlan, a teen girl that had filled out significantly since the last time that Tarrin saw her. She wore her dark hair in a pair of braids now, and she was wearing a dress that certainly tried to show off her recently grown attributes.
"Why does she wear a dress with the top missing, papa?" she asked him innocently.
"Because she likes to, cub," he replied shortly.
"Young girls like showing off a bit, young one," Garyth told her delicately.
"If she likes showing off her--"
"Jasana!" Tarrin warned sharply.
"Well, if she likes showing them off, why not just go without a top? That's showing them off better than hiding most of what she wants everyone to see."
Garyth burst out into laughter, and Tarrin shook his head. Jasana said it more than loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Millie Korlan turned and glared venemously at the little girl, her cheeks flaming and her arms crossing over her breasts almost as if she'd been stripped bare before the common room. "Humans are picky about things like that, cub," Tarrin told her calmly. "Especially females. There are some thi
ngs they just don't show in public."
"I think it's silly."
"It may be, but that's the way we are, child," Garyth told her with a grin, then he turned and winked in Millie's direction.
"But she's already showing them."
"She's showing the parts of them acceptable to be seen in public," Tarrin explained patiently. "If she showed--"
"Tarrin, lad," Garyth cut him off with a laugh.
"Well, let's just say that there's one part there that she can't show in public. Everything else is acceptable. Maybe a little scandalous, but acceptable."
Millie turned and fled from the common room, accompanied by more than a few chuckles.
"Which part?" Jasana pressed.
Garyth laughed. "Millie left. Why not tell her?" he said with a wide smile.
Without batting an eye, Tarrin did in fact inform his daughter about just what part the human female wouldn't reveal in public.
"That's not such a big deal," Jasana scoffed. "It's not like she's--"
"That'll do, cub," Tarrin said flintily.
"Yes, papa," she said obediently.
"Children are children, no matter what race they are," Garyth chuckled.
After Jasana calmed down, getting interested in the deck of cards Wylan Ren brought out to distract her, Tarrin let Garyth bring him up to date on all the news of the village. A more detailed account of what happened when the Dals invaded, as well as the recent goings-on with the Rangers and the struggle to choke off the Dal supply lines. Tarrin sat and listened for quite a while as Garyth filled him in on everything he could remember, at least until Jak returned. "Everyone's in, Garyth," he said in his dead voice. "They've brought in everything, so we're ready."
"Thanks, Jak," Garyth said with a nod. "Alright then, lad, it's time for you to do your part."
They went outside. Alot of the dispossessed familes form the outer farms were piled up in the green, carts and horses loaded with everything that they didn't want to leave behind. It made Aldreth look like a refugee camp. That saddened him a bit, to see his home turned upside-down as it had, but there wasn't much choice about it. He looked around and made sure that everyone was within the boundary of the buildings, and seeing them safely inside, he nodded and stepped into the center of the green.
Tarrin Kael Firestaff Collection Book 3 - Honor and Blood by Fel © Page 98