Tarrin Kael Firestaff Collection Book 3 - Honor and Blood by Fel ©

by James Galloway (aka Fel)

  "I say, you must have a much different culture," Tomas said to Jesmind with a slight grin, which Janine couldn't see.

  "We don't hide things from our children, Tomas," she said evenly. "We're part animal, so that means that we accept all things natural as they are, without assigning the same importances to them that humans do."

  "Ah. A very logical explanation," he said. "Would you like more tea?"

  "Please," she said, holding up her cup.

  Tomas rather artfully steered the conversation to inane, little things, giving his wife the time she needed to regain her composure. Janine managed to engage Jesmind in a talk about music, then she agreed to play her harpsichord for them. Tarrin had heard her play that keyboard instrument before, with its haunting, sharp sounds, and Tarrin used that time to catch up with Janette. He laid on the floor by the fire with her and Jasana, listening to her as she told him all about everything that had happened to her since he'd last seen her, all those things that were important to a child, yet had little meaning to an adult. The time and the talking let him reestablish the strong bond he had with the little human girl, the girl whose love for him had sustained him through many hard times, had caused him to make many of the decisions that had brought him to where he was. The hectic pace of his life didn't often let him lay back and enjoy the simple things in life, or appreciate what he indeed did have. Then again, here lately, he had so many of his friends and family around him that he couldn't seem to find the time to spend as much time with each and every one of them as he should. He always felt like he was neglecting one to pay attention to another.

  "And then the kite went wayyyyyyy up," Janette was telling him about her latest excursion to the park, where an older gentleman was flying a kite. "I didn't think anything without feathers could go up so high! He said that it was the wind that held it up there, but I don't see how. Anyway, it went up and up and up, until the old man ran out of string. Then his string broke! And the kite just kept going higher and higher and higher. I think it's still up there."

  "It came down," he told her, drawing on his Weave-blessed understanding of how the basic elements operated. "When the string broke, the force causing the wind to lift it higher was taken away. The kite probably went up a little more, then dropped like a stone."

  "I don't see how."

  "Well, a kite has the string connected to it like so," he said, absently weaving an Illusion of the kites he'd seen before them, but on much smaller scale, that could fit in the palm of his paw. "You see, the string connects right here, and when you're holding the string, it makes the kite lean in such a way that it pushes the wind under it. That makes the wind lift the kite."

  "Wow! I knew you could do magic, but nothing like this!" Janette gasped, staring at the Illusion.

  "It's a simple trick, little mother," he told her lightly, dissolving the Illusion.

  "Do it again!"

  "It's unseemly to flaunt magic, little mother," he told her, fully aware that Jasana was right there and listening. "I needed the Illusion to show you how the kite works. I don't do magic for no reason."

  "Aww," she said, then she fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Not even for me?"

  "I have a little one that does that to me already, Janette," he laughed, jerking a thumb at Jasana. "I'm not as much of a pushover as I used to be."

  Janette pouted a short moment, then looked at Jasana. "You ruined him, Jasana," she accused. "He used to do anything I wanted."

  "I'm working on him, Janette," Jasana said soberly. "He's harder than mother is."

  "I heard that, cub!" Jesmind snapped at her from the harpsichord, where Janine was showing her the inside of it, how it worked. Tarrin remembered that Jesmind had quite a fondness for music.

  "Where did you learn about kites, Tarrin?" Janette asked.

  "Well, I didn't learn about kites. I just understand how air works," he replied. "I have to know, because of magic."

  "I wish I could do magic," she sighed.

  "You can't be a Sorcerer, I'm afraid," he said regretfully, "but you could always learn how the Wizards do magic. That kind of magic, anyone can learn."

  "Really?" she asked brightly. "I could learn magic?"

  "Really," he assured her. "A different kind of magic than mine, but it's still magic."

  "Ooh, Mother, can I learn magic?" Janette called loudly.

  "Well, it's a bit early yet for you to decide what you want to do, Janette," Janine said artfully from the harpsichord. "You may decide to get married and settle down."

  "I could do both," Janette said happily. "I could get married and still learn magic. Or even better, I could get married to a magician!"

  "I think we'll have to wait a while to see if that happens," Tarrin told her with a smile. "You've got some growing to do before you start thinking about getting married."

  "Do you know any of that Wizard magic?" Janette asked.

  "Sorry, cub," he smiled at her. "I've never really thought about learning any."

  "Oh. Darn," she said with a pout. "Think we could make a kite, then? We could fly it out in the garden."

  "That shouldn't be too hard," he told her.

  And so, after inconspicuously Conjuring some of the materials they'd need, Tarrin, Janette, and Jasana built themselves a kite. It wasn't the prettiest kite in the world, made of a pair of old sticks with a cast-off, stained piece of sheet stretched over the frame. They tied it to a long ball of twine, and then rushed out into the garden to see if they could make it fly. Unfortunately, the sea breezes that blew in off the Sea of Storms had died down in the waning afternoon, leaving the air too still to make the attempt. "Oh well," Tarrin shrugged. "You can try tomorrow, Janette. The wind always blows in the morning."

  "How did you learn all those things, Tarrin?" Janette asked curiously as they went back into the house. "About magic, and about wind and when the winds blow and stuff."

  "Well, I've had alot of people teach me," he replied as they set the kite in the corner of the parlor. "You have to do alot of schooling to learn any kind of magic. Alot of the other things I know I just picked up during my travels."

  "Like what?"

  "Well, a couple of languages," he told her. "I learned how to speak Sharadi while I was gone. And another language, an ancient language nobody uses anymore."

  "Why learn it if nobody speaks it?"

  "Because people used to write things in that language, and I needed to read it," he told her. "There's alot of things to learn, and sometimes you have to do things like learn languages nobody uses anymore to find out what ancient people knew."

  "That sounds interesting. Alot better than learning how to play the flute," she grumbled, just loud enough for her mother to hear her. Tarrin chuckled inwardly; that battle was still raging between mother and daughter.

  "Your mother said you know quite a few languages," Tomas interjected. "I'm surprised you could learn another. It's very hard to learn languages."

  "I know, but I seem to have a knack for it," he replied with a shrug. "Sometimes, I get them mixed up when I'm trying to think of what I want to say, though."

  "I can imagine," he laughed. "I've been taking lessons in Wikuni, because I deal with so many of them. I decided it was time to find out what they were saying to one another in my presence."

  "That's surprising," Tarrin said. "They usually don't teach it to outsiders."

  "I had to look quite a while to find someone willing to teach me," he chuckled. "And it cost me a bundle. Finding a tutor is hard enough, but they all want outrageous fees for their time."

  "Have you learned it?"

  "Yes," he replied. "My losses against Wikuni merchants have declined sharply since I invested in learning the language," he added with a sly smile. "It's all but recouped what I spent to learn."

  "Then it was a wise business investment," Tarrin told him. "I guess I should learn Wikuni one of these days."

  "That Wikuni that's a friend of yours?"

  Tarrin nodded. "She's the only one
I can't talk to in her native language. I guess that's something I should fix."

  "Good luck," Tomas laughed. "Wikuni is hard."

  "It can't be much harder than Selani," he shrugged.

  "Will you be staying for dinner?" Janine asked. "Deris wants to know now, before he starts cooking."

  Tarrin's eyes brightened at the thought of Deris the cook. He was quite skilled. "Yes, I think we'll stay for dinner," he replied after looking to his mate, who nodded eagerly. "I haven't had a Deris meal in a while."

  "At least this time, you'll be eating at the table," Tomas chuckled.

  Janine graced them with a few songs from the harpsichord as they waited, and she browbeat Janette into playing the flute for them. Janette had improved vastly since the last time he'd heard her play, to where she had gone beyond competent. She almost made that strange instrument sing of its own accord; she had been playing a wooden flute, but now she had one made of metal, and its acoustics were far superior. Tomas even graced them with a performance, playing the oddest instrument he'd ever seen. It looked vaguely like a lute, with four strings on a high bridge, but he played it tucked under his chin, drawing a stick across the strings with what looked like horsehair drawn from its ends like a little bow. The sound it made was rich and melodious, and Tarrin quickly came to appreciate both the sound of the instrument and the skill of the man playing it.

  "What manner of instrument is that?" Jesmind asked him. "I've never seen its like."

  "It's called a violin," he replied. "They make them in Telluria. I happened across it some five years ago when I heard one of my ship captains, Bascone, playing it in his cabin. I thought I'd never heard a prettier instrument. I was totally taken with it, so he taught me."

  "You never played it while I was here," Tarrin told him.

  "That's because a certain daughter of mine broke my violin a few days before you came, Tarrin," Tomas told him, glaring at a flushing Janette. "I had to send off to Telluria to get a replacement. It took almost five months to get a new one, and it was dreadfully expensive."

  "The lengths we'll go to to get what we want," Jesmind mused, looking at Tarrin meaningfully. "I learned how to play the lute some time ago, but it's been a long time."

  "I can see how it would be hard to learn," Tomas said, looking at her paws. "I've seen Tarrin use his hands. They're not very agile, despite how agile he is."

  "That's not a big deal, Tomas," she said, taking on her human hands and showing them to him. "I can change these. I guess I just lost interest in it after a while," she explained, returning her arms to their natural state.

  "I could never lose interest in music," Tomas chuckled. "Outside of my family and my business, it's my one true passion."

  "Of course, it's been more of a passion lately," Janine added.

  "I guess I didn't appreciate it as much before as I do now," he replied to his wife.

  Deris, the rotund, red-faced cook, appeared in the doorway to the parlor. "Beggin' your pardon, my Lady, but dinner is set," he announced. "You can seat yourselves whenever you feel ready." Karl

  "Thank you, Deris," Janine said with a nod. "We'll be in directly."

  "Yes, ma'am," he acknowledged, then waddled off towards the dining room.

  The meal was as good as Tarrin remembered. Deris had made roasted pheasant, ham-flavored stringed beans, spiced potatos, a rich soup that tasted like cream and mushrooms, some dish he called salad which was nothing but a variety of vegetables cut up and mixed together, and topped it off with a cake covered in sweet icing. Tarrin enjoyed the meal tremendously, and from the looks of it, so did Jesmind and Jasana.

  "I really need to get the recipe for this cake," Jesmind said, taking her third piece. Jesmind had a fondness for sweet things.

  "You cook, Jesmind?" Janine asked curiously.

  "I'm not the best in the world, but I do like to cook," she replied.

  "I've started to take an interest in it, but Deris says I'm hopeless, and chases me out of the kitchen," Janine laughed. "I think he just says that to protect his job."

  Tarrin happened to be glancing at Tomas, and the look Tomas gave him told him that Deris was not trying to protect his job. That made Tarrin smile a bit. The idea that Janine was not good at something was alien to him, because she was so good at so many things. But Janine was an intelligent, determined woman. If she wanted to learn, she would.

  "Mama is a good cook," Jasana protested. "I like everything she makes."

  "That's because you hadn't eaten a single thing I didn't make before we came here," Jesmind snorted.

  "I still think you cook good."

  "Well, I appreciate that, cub."

  They finished the meal, and returned to the parlor to enjoy glasses of fine wine. It was then that Tarrin decided it was time to broach a few subjects. "Who arranged for the guards?" he asked.

  "Your mother," he replied. "With things being so tense, there's been a rash of burglaries and crimes all through the city. Elke wanted to make sure we had some protection, so she arranged to have those two stand guard."

  "They're nice enough, but I don't understand a single word they say," Janine chuckled.

  "I dare say you're as safe as you can be, Janine," Jesmind said. "Even the Vendari have second thoughts about tangling with an Ungardt. Some of them are as big as Vendari themselves."

  "That's no lie," Tomas laughed. "What grows them so big, Tarrin?"

  "I have no idea," he shrugged. "Well, I guess I should go ahead and get it out in the open."

  "What?"

  "I don't like the idea of you being out here when the battle starts," he told them seriously. "When the enemy army gets here, I want you all to come to the Tower. I'll feel alot better if I know you're there."

  "Elke and Eron have been asking us that for rides now," Tomas told him. "I just don't want to leave the house, Tarrin. Everything we have is here."

  "There's more to it than that," he told him. "You're my friends, and I don't know who knows about you. There is a chance that they may come after you to get to me. I don't want to take that risk, Tomas. I'll guarantee that the house will be protected. I'll protect it myself, if I have to. So please, come to the Tower when the time comes."

  That seemed to shake Tomas, and he looked uncertainly at his wife, who only returned a blank look. "If you put it that way, Tarrin, it's very hard to say no," he finally admitted.

  "Let's go, Father," Janetted prompted. "It's not going to hurt anything, and we'll be alot safer in there than out here."

  Tomas looked torn for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "You're right, of course, my daughter," he agreed. "We will be safer in the Tower, and it will put Tarrin's mind at ease."

  "I don't like the idea of leaving the house alone," Janine complained. "Who knows may try to loot it while we're out."

  "I'll make sure that people are here to keep that from happening," Tarrin told her. "You're friends of the royal family of the Ungardt clan here, so the clan will form a human wall around the house to keep out thieves, if that's what it takes. Just tell me or my mother what you want, and we'll make it happen."

  "Well, that does take a load off my mind," Tomas said with a relieved smile.

  The relief went both ways. Tarrin was greatly relieved that his precious human friends would be safe when the fighting started, and that was what was most important to him.

  "It's getting late, beloved," Jesmind reminded him. "There's some thunder out there. We should be getting back, or we'll be running home in the rain."

  "I guess so," he sighed. "I do have some things to do there."

  "Well, at least you can come back and visit," Tomas told him. "Would you like to come back, Jasana?"

  "Umm," she nodded, looking at Janette. "I'll bring my doll next time, so you can meet her."

  "If there's anything left of it," Jesmind muttered under her breath.

  And so they said their goodbyes, promising to visit a little more often, and they were sent off with a bottle of Tellurian wine. It was dar
k by the time they left, and it was also raining. Tarrin used Sorcery to protect them from the rain, an invisible shield through which the water could not penetrate, and they rushed back towards the Tower between flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.

  "So, what did you think?" Tarrin asked of his mate as they sped home.

  "I like them," she replied. "Especially Janine. She reminds me of mother."

  "She does have that same way about her, doesn't she?" he agreed.

  "Did you like Janette, cub?" Tarrin asked.

  "Umm. She was really nice."

  "Good. Maybe we'll go see them again in a couple of days."

  "I'd like that."

  "I wonder what happened to Sarraya," Jesmind said.

  "Probably back at the Tower, where it's dry," Tarrin growled as he stepped in a deep puddle.

  The visit to his little mother and her family did much for his spirits, but it also didn't stop him from getting back to work. That night, Spyder didn't call him out, so he spent the time with Jasana. He gave up trying to teach her how to touch the Weave the way normal Sorcerers did, because she had proved utterly incapable of it. She had touched High Sorcery, and just like it had done to him, it always rushed to her. It made trying to teach her standard Sorcery a complete waste of time. Since he couldn't do that, he started teaching her how to access High Sorcery. He was painstakingly detailed about it, going over it again and again, and never failing to emphasize how hard it was to control, and how dangerous it could be. He made her repeat back what he told her, almost word for word, until she had the entire process memorized. At that point, there was nothing more he could teach her by word. She had to start learning by deed now, and that terrified him. He remembered what it was like for him, how many times he had nearly killed himself with his power. But Jasana was stronger than him, and the two times he'd seen her use her power or heard her talk about using her power, she had demonstrated an ability to control it that he had lacked. Where he was at the mercy of the power unless he was enraged, Jasana seemed to have some modicum of control. He was afraid to take that next step, but he knew that it had to be done. Jasana had to touch the Weave, had to touch High Sorcery, and he had to let her do it.