James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"Because of the one thing that does link us all, Tarrin," she said. "We were born as royalty. You were born with royal blood, even if you were brought up as a country bumpkin. You're the son of a clan-chief's daughter. If you didn't know, an Ungardt clan-chief is a king. That makes you a prince. I don't think the others in your party have that distinction."

Tarrin gaped at her.

"You know what I think happened?" she said. "I think they set Jesmind loose on you to infect you, not to kill you. And then they were going to collect you up and train you to do the same thing that the Tower wants us to do, because the rumor and information I've gathered so far points to something that more than the Tower knows, something that's important enough for kingdoms to fight wars over. But you ended up in the Tower instead of with them, whoever they are, and when they realized that, they did their best to kill you. The reason that they almost specifically came after you is the same reason why I'll believe that you'll be chosen for this task. We don't come anywhere near you, Tarrin. Not in strength, fighting ability, survivability, or power in Sorcery. You're the logical choice, and that's why the ones that don't have you want to kill you so badly."

Tarrin stared at her in shock. He had no idea what to say, no idea what to do. It all rang true with an awful clarity, and there was a logic to it that he could not deny.

"But now that you're having trouble controlling your power, they'll get unpredictable," Keritanima added. "They'll bend you backwards trying to get you to do it right. And they'll want it now . Just be careful, Tarrin. As soon as they think that you can't get your power under control, the Tower is going to try to kill you. You're much too dangerous a weapon to be allowed to leave here alive, because they know that they will snap you up and try to get you to do whatever it is that they want done. So even if you can't control your power, make them believe that you can. It'll only extend your own life."

Tarrin was both awestruck and dumbfounded. Everything that she said fit in with everything that had already happened, and they were motives that explained alot of what had already happened to him. Even he had wondered at how he survived the fight with Jesmind. Keritanima could be right; maybe the collar around her neck prevented her from killing him. One of the few things he remembered about the nightmarish fight was her poised to kill, the pose that she was locked into when Dolanna wrapped her up. He had no idea if that blow would have been delivered now, because she did follow through with a blow meant to kill at the very beginning, when he'd woken up to see her trying to rip out his throat. Was she there to kill him, or to turn him Were? It was a chaotic jumble in his mind, and he struggled to remember something, anything, about the fight that would tip the scales for one side or the other. But it was a blank. He had blocked the majority of the fight from his mind, because of the intense pain he sensed he had endured both in the fight and in the subsequent transformation. Because he wasn't sure, then Keritanima's offering had some merit. It did explain the attacks, and it also explained the Goddess' cryptic remarks about his importance. But the attacks could also be explained with Jesmind being sent to kill him, and for mainly the same reasons.

Keritanima trusted her instincts. Tarrin had learned that lesson as well. He wasn't sure about all of it, but something in what Keritanima had said clicked within him. What she said made sense. He didn't know if it was right, but it made more sense than anything else he'd come up with. He had no idea how she could so fluently and quickly reach those conclusions, but it made him realize just how intelligent the complicated little Wikuni really was.

It was at that moment more than any other that he realized that his very life was being held in the slender Wikuni's manicured little paws. And that he trusted her with it explicitely.

She had literally bowled him over with her observations, and had left him speechless. Sudden rage coiled up in him at the thought that someone may have done this to him, had had Jesmind turn him Were just to make him suitable to complete some form of task. It sent him flying into the highest type of rage he could hold without losing himself to his animal instincts. How dare they destroy his life! What right did they have! If that was the case, then whoever did would pay, and pay dearly . He would have absolutely no mercy. Allia's hand came to rest on his shoulder, and that was when he realized he was actually trembling with rage. His mind whirled with possibilities, but the same icy discipline that kept him from going crazy when he found out he'd been turned Were again clamped down on his mind, forcing him to calm down and think rationally. Emotion was tossed aside, and a steely layer of cold reasoning took control of him. "Either way, Kerri, it makes one thing very clear."

"What?"

"We can't leave until we have a better understanding of what's going on," he said. "We have to know what we're up against before we try to get away from it, and as much as we can find out about what's going on. Who they are, how many there are, what they may do if we run, and how bad they want to follow us. We may need to know in order to escape."

"That's what I intend to do," she said. "I have to think about what you told me for a while. I have to make new plans. Oh, yes, Tiella bathes at the second bell, so you should go talk to her in the morning. That's what I came in here to tell you in the first place, and I'm running out of time. I'm sure that Jervis' men realize that I'm not in the maze, and they're probably looking for me."

She came over and licked the side of his cheek with her fox-like tongue, her version of a kiss, then took Allia's hand warmly. "Keep him from gnawing on the furniture, shaida ," she said in an outrageous voice that broke the tension.

Allia laughed, and Tarrin chuckled ruefully. "I will do my best," Allia said in a completely insincere serious voice. "Take care, and be careful."

"I'm always careful," she said, her tail swishing back and forth as she quickly went to the door, opened it, looked both ways, then scurried out.

"That was eventful," Allia said carefully. "I think she's hit some truth, but not all of it."

"I think so too," Tarrin said in a somber voice. "I think so too."

"Well, it won't do you any good to sit in here and brood. We have an appointment, if you remember."

"Yes, I remember," he said. "We'll go as soon as it's dark."

"Good. The time with your family will do you good. This place isn't good for you, deshida . It keeps you too nervous."

"I have a good reason to be," he said, leaning back onto the bed.

"Then let's go take it out on the practice field," she said. "It's been too long since we worked out, and a little exercise will do your mind good."

"I think you're right," he agreed. "I need to find my staff. I lost it in the fight with that thing, and nobody's returned it yet."

"Someone has to have it," she said. "Let's go find it, and then we'll go onto the field."

They were two ghosts flitting through the darkness, and despite the very heavy patrolling and human presence, they passed through the Tower grounds like shadows.

Moving with absolute silence, Tarrin and Allia crept along the buildings and through the clearings with guards all around them, moving confidently and quickly between gaps in their patrols. Allia was Selani, and they had developed hiding and the ways of stealth quite beyond the human ideas of it. She proved she was everything her race was said to be by keeping up with the Were-cat as he moved on padded feet that made no sound, using his ears and nose to ferret out the position and direction of the guard patrols so they could more easily work around them. Because he had been trapped there, Tarrin knew the grounds better than most of the guards, and he knew where every nook and cranny was that would allow the Selani to hide herself from sight. Tarrin simply changed form, and used his small cat body as a disguise. At a distance, the guards couldn't tell Tarrin from any of the other cats that roamed the grounds.