James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"I think you forget your place," the Keeper said in her commanding tone.

"Then feel free to educate me," Tarrin said, casually popping his claws and giving them a cursory glance, letting the Keeper see just how long and sharp they were.

"Myriam," the dark-haired woman cut in. "Myriam, you forget-"

"I forget nothing," she snorted.

"Tarrin is right," the woman pressed. "If swearing oaths is against his nature, to force him into more than he is willing to give may upset the balance of his mind. You don't want him disappearing for three more months, do you?"

"No," she said.

"Take my word for it, Myriam," she said. "If he didn't want to be here, he would never have returned. I think we can trust him with what he has already given."

"Yes, yes, you are right," she said with a contrite smile. "I forget that he returned on his own."

"I have one more thing," Tarrin said.

"What?"

"I want Dolanna to teach me."

"We've already arranged that," she said. "Tarrin, no one person can teach you, but Dolanna will be involved in your education. She will be one of your instructors."

"Why more than one?"

"Because different katzh-dashi are better at different things," a tall, slender man wearing a blue robe said calmly. "Each instructor teaches a student what he or she excels at, so that the student is always trained by those who best know the subject at hand."

That made sense, so Tarrin only nodded and took a less hostile stance.

"You will have many teachers. Even some of us will instruct you," the blond woman said.

"Now stop asking silly questions," the Keeper grunted. "Go to your room and pack your things. The Mistress of Novices will arrange your move to the Initiate rooms. The Master of Initiates will be expecting you before noon."

"Yes, Keeper," Tarrin said quietly. He gave them all a very curt, cursory bow, then padded out of the room.

"Defiant," Koran Dar, the tall, willowy Amazon Seat of Divine Power, what some called the Seat of the Goddess, mused as the door closed.

"As stubborn as a rock," Amelyn, the dark-haired Seat of the Mind, grunted.

"But he is the one," Jinna, the blond Water Seat said quietly.

"He is a Weavespinner," the Keeper said almost reverently. "A Weavespinner !"

"Maybe there is hope for us after all," Darrian, the burly Earth Seat, said in his gravelly voice. "There's been no record of a Weavespinner since the Ancients left us."

"Remember, that's not a requirement," Nathander, the Seat of Air, said in a calm voice. "The ancient writings state that any of noble blood that is not human can do this task."

"He hardly looks noble," Ahiriya grunted.

"He's the son of a clan princess," the Keeper told her. "A prince. That qualifies. The Selani is the daughter of the chief, and her Royal Highness' pedigree leaves no question in the matter."

"Be that as it may, since we don't absolutely need him, we can always get rid of him if he gets out of control," Nathander said in a brutal tone. "One of the other two will suffice."

"But they don't have his power," the Keeper said. "That may be very important when the fur starts to fly."

"The dagger in your hand is better than the spear flying towards your back," Nathander said in his detached tone. "I don't relish the idea of taking a life needlessly, but we must always keep the greater good in mind. If he gets out of control, we may have to put him down. To protect the rest of us, if for any other reason. A madman with that kind of power running around could shatter what it took us two thousand years to build."

"I must agree," Amelyn said. "I can't affect his mind with any of my weaves, Keeper. If he goes mad, there won't be anything I can do to heal him."

"Then we'll have to be careful," she said, looking at the door. "That boy is our best chance. We just have to keep him sane long enough to do what he needs to do. After he's done, then we won't need him anymore," she said in a grim tone of finality.

Tarrin walked with Allia from the main Tower and towards the North Tower, the tower of Initiation. Both of them were packed, wearing Novice white but carrying no Novice uniforms with them. They were being led by a young Initiate wearing a red shirt. The fact that Allia was with him told him something, that they wanted to keep them together. They'd rushed her through two months of Novitiate in two days, then simply said she passed and told her to pack this morning. Probably not moments after he walked out of the Test himself. He wasn't sure what their game was, but he knew it had something to do with him, maybe with Allia. They wanted something, and they wanted Tarrin to give it to them. Or possibly both Tarrin and Allia, judging by the way they were kept together.

But that wasn't something he didn't already know, and it wasn't something that he was in a position to do anything about at the moment. He had no idea why they wanted him, what they wanted, or when they wanted it. He was totally in the dark, and without information, he had no way to plan a way to get him out of or around whatever this thing was that they wanted. The Goddess in the statue had said that, at this moment, half of the world's attention was placed right on his shoulders. No doubt this maneuvering in the Tower had something to do with the Goddess' proclamation. They knew that he was important. That had to be key to the reason that he was here.

The North tower, like all six of the surrounding towers, was much smaller than the main tower. About half the height. Several bridges ran from its red stone walls over to the main tower, some hundred spans or more in distance, and Tarrin wondered how the plain stone spans, with no support or bracing, managed to stay up. They didn't even have guardrails. The bridges were not for Novices. Tarrin had never set foot on one of them before. From what he knew of the Tower, most of the main tower was filled with the library, rooms for the katzh-dashi , and it was where most of the business of the order was conducted. The North Tower was for the Initiates and their training, and the South Tower was mainly for research. It was where the books not kept in the main library were stored, the books full of things that were potentially dangerous to people who had no idea what they were doing. Like nosy Novices. There was alot of traffic between the South Tower and the main spire, because many of the Sorcerers worked there to try to rediscover the secrets that had disappeared with the Ancients.

From the inside, though, Tarrin couldn't really tell the difference between the towers. They had the same gray stone walls, and were lit with glowglobes hovering near the ceiling. The Initiate led them through the main doors and down a corridor that led towards the center of the tower, then down one of the curving inner ring hallways. He took them up a flight of stairs, back into the intersecting hallway, and out to the outermost ring, the room with windows facing outwards. That was where the office of Brel was. A sign hung on a scrupulously scrubbed door with his name and his title. The young man, a tall Draconian from the look of him, with long dark hair and broad shoulders, knocked exactly three times and waited nervously. His two charges made the young man decidedly nervous. "Enter!" a voice called.

The young man opened the door. "Two new Initiates, Master Brel," the young man said. "The Mistress of Novices bid me bring them to you."

"Very good, Lem," he said in an irascable tone. "I'm coming out."

"Yes, Master Brel," he said, closing the door. "Nobody goes in there unless they're in trouble," he whispered to them.

Tarrin rolled his eyes, and Allia chuckled a bit.

Brel came out with a slamming of the door, ignoring the short bows given to him by the three in the hall. He was a small man, thin and very short, looking about ten years past his grave. He was sallow and emaciated, with thin little wisps of white hair clinging to a scalp pocked with liver spots. His face was sunken and weathered, but his brown eyes were very lucid and sharp. The man reminded him of Mother Wynn, the old woman he'd encountered on the flight away from Jesmind and to the Tower. His scent was sharp and acrid, and it was obvious from the smell of him that he didn't bathe as often as he should have. He wore a stained gray robe that had a couple of tears in it, belted at the waist. "First rule," he said in a snappish tone. "Nobody goes in my office, unless I let them in. Is that clear?"