James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"And what brings you past my door at this hour?" Dolanna asked in a calm voice.

"Don't push it," Jesmind told her. "I still can't believe that I'm doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Trusting one of you ," she spat. "But my cub trusts you, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"And what, may I ask, would you need my trust for?" she asked calmly and to the point.

"Something is going on," she said bluntly in reply. Dolanna sat up as she looked down at her, those large, dark eyes calm and attentive. "The Tower wants something out of him, Sorceress. It's so obvious, even he has noticed it."

"You give little credit to him," she said.

"Oh, I give him alot more credit than you think," she retorted, "but Tarrin's a backwater country boy thrown into a viper pit. He's not used to seeing intrigue and backbiting, and it is credit to say he's noticed something that he's really never seen before."

"I stand corrected," Dolanna replied mildly. "And why does this bring you to my door?"

"Because there's alot more going on here than just some errand that Tarrin can run for the Tower," she said. "Tarrin made mention of the fact that they brought Allia and the little Wikuni in as well, and all three of them seem to have alot of attention from the Keeper and the Council of Seven."

"I have noticed that, yes," Dolanna agreed. "I think it is because the difference in culture demands that all three of them be given close scrutiny."

"No," Jesmind snorted. "They're collecting them for a reason, and they don't seem to be too picky about how they get them."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when you caught me?" she asked. "Remember that collar that was around my neck?"

Dolanna nodded, and her eyes were beginning to look troubled. "It was magical in nature," she said. "You were being controlled."

"That's right," she spat. "And it was a Sorcerer that put that damned thing around my neck."

"How do you know this?"

"All of my kind have a touch of Druidic magic in us," she replied. "Some more than others. My own Druidic power rates about at the level of pond scum, but I can tell the difference between a Priest's chant, a Mage's spellcasting, and a Sorcerer's weaving. I tell you right now, woman, that one of you put that collar on me. One of you set me loose in Tarrin's bedchamber. I don't know if they wanted him dead or just wanted him to be Were, but there was no accident about it. I remember specifically being sent after him . I rather think that they wanted him dead, myself. That he survived was a stroke of the wildest luck. When he turned Were, they just added him to the other two. An added bonus."

Dolanna was quiet for a moment. "Why do you bring this to me?"

"Because only a fool wouldn't know that something's going on," she said. "Since I think that whoever caught me sent me to kill him, it makes me wonder why half of you Sorcerers want to train him, and the other half want him dead." She crossed her arms and looked down at Dolanna grimly. "I know you, Sorceress. My cub is alive because of you. I know that you are very attached to him. Well, I have to leave, so I won't be here to protect him anymore. So you have to find out what's going on, and protect him from whoever's trying to get rid of him."

"You are aware of much more than I expected," she said with a sigh. "I happen to know that Tarrin is indeed being trained for a very special task. I do not know what this task is, but I have been given instruction from the Keeper herself that he is to be trained as quickly as humanly possible. As to the attacks on him, that I do not know. I do know that the Keeper somehow knows who is behind it, but she would never share such knowledge with me. I am not, as they say, in the inner circle. My involvement in this begins and ends with Tarrin."

"So, the Tower wants him alive, and someone else inside the Tower wants him dead," Jesmind surmised. "Now, the big question is why . What makes my cub so important?"

"His power, probably," Dolanna said. "I tell you this, Jesmind. That boy is the most powerful Sorcerer I have ever seen. When he is trained, his raw power will be unrivalled on this world. It would take a full Circle to stop him. My guess is that he is being trained to undertake a mission that only someone with his power could complete."

"And some other group is trying to stop it?" Jesmind asked.

"I would assume so," Dolanna replied.

"It almost washes, but not quite," the Were-cat snorted. "If that were so, then what about the others? Are the Selani and the little mouse as strong as he is?"

"No," Dolanna replied. "The Selani is not strong at all in the gift. The Wikuni shows considerable potential, but she is not even close to Tarrin's raw power."

"Then what do they have to do with it?"

"They are non-human," Dolanna replied. "That is the only thing that links them together."

"So, we have a big hole," she said. "And it's going to be up to you to fill it, woman. I won't be here."

"You have given up on Tarrin?"

"No," she replied. "He's still my cub, and he always will be. But I can't stay here anymore. I'm going to go home and try to arrange to have someone else come and teach him what he needs to know, but I may not be able to. The others may decide that he's too old to be taught, and simply decide to have him killed."

"Others? Which others?"

"We don't all run naked through the forest and howl at the moon," she snorted. "Well, not all of us, anyway. The woodland folk all live by a set of laws, and we Were-cats are part of it. Those laws are why I tried to kill my cub. I didn't want to do it, but I had no choice. It's still against our law, but I hope I can convince them that he's not too far gone. There are few enough males as it is, killing one just because he had to come here first would be a crime."

"The Fae-da'Nar ," Dolanna said with a smile. "I have heard many stories of that most secret society. I even managed to learn some of your laws, from a Were-wolf."

"Yes, I know that Were-wolf," she said dismissively. "Doesn't it seem awfully convenient that the one Sorcerer that just happens to have experience in dealing with Were-kin just happens to be the one that finds a fledgling Were-cat on her doorstep?"

"I asked the very same question myself, when it ocurred," she replied smoothly. "I considered it coincidence before. Now, I do not think I am so certain."

"Good. Someone in this Tower is trying to kill my cub, Dolanna. I can't be here to protect him, so I want you to help do that for me, until I can get someone over here to take my place."

"So," Dolanna said with a smile, "this means that he is no longer your enemy?"

"He never was," she grunted. "He made me angry, but among our kind, angry doesn't really count. I've tried to kill my own mother. And I meant it at the time. It's the way we are." She turned around a moment. "It's him ," she grated. "When I was watching him from a distance, I saw the young cub I saw when I first found him, and I'd give up on taking him down as a Rogue. But when I tried to talk sense into him, he would get me so mad all I wanted to do was wring his neck. That cub has got a very sharp tongue."

"That is, interesting," Dolanna said with a light laugh. "He swears that it is you ." Jesmind turned around again, giving the Sorceress a curious look. "I have heard very much the same thing, but from him. He once told me that he called you his 'far friend', meaning that the further away you were, the more he liked you. It was when you talked to him that he became angry with you. And I think he still has trouble forgiving you for turning on him."

"I never turned on him," she said heatedly. "He knew what he was getting into-"