James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"True, but because I have a copy of the Cathedral's plans, I have a good idea of where to look for it," Keritanima told her. "There are three hidden rooms large enough to serve as a secret library. Our plan will mainly focus on what path we take through the Cathedral to cover each room."

"How did you get your hands on a copy of the Cathedral's plans?" Tarrin asked.

Keritanima only winked at him in reply.

"Have I told you lately that I love you, Kerri?"

She laughed. "I love you too, brother," she replied. "I can't stay much longer, or Jervis will think I'm up to something."

"You are."

"But he's not certain of that," she winked. "And Allia, remember to put your shirt on before you leave today," she told the Selani with a teasing smile. "I'm sure you walking around topless doesn't bother Tarrin, but it'll give the other Initiates a fit. Brel would probably have a heart attack on the spot."

"Perhaps I should do that, if only to make the man shut up," Allia said sourly. "I'm growing tired of his moralistic ravings. I don't see why he can't understand that Tarrin and I are brother and sister, and not lovers."

"Maybe he has those kinds of thoughts about his own sister," Keritanima said with a wicked little smile.

"That's a very sickening thought," Allia grunted. "Humans can be so depraved."

"True, but they're interesting. I have to go. See you two in my room after classes."

"We'll be there," Tarrin replied.

"Hmm, maybe I should go knock on Brel's door bare to the world," Allia said with an evil look in her eyes. "That man has been on me for days about our living arrangements. He accuses me of being a harlot and a tramp, though he never comes out and says it directly, and it's obvious he thinks that I'm seducing you on a nightly basis. Perhaps some revenge is in order."

Tarrin laughed. "I'm sure he'd appreciate it, sister," he told her with a broad grin.

Allia meaningly put her hands on the waist of her trousers, and that sent Tarrin into gales of laughter. It only intensified when she pulled them down, exposing her every intimate charm to him, and then stepped out of them. She stood there wearing nothing but her boots, and that seemed to be even more amusing to him for some reason.

"Excuse me for a moment, my brother," she said with a flat voice, though her eyes were dancing with delight. "I have some vengeance to exact."

"Have fun," he managed to say, as she opened the door, and then stepped out into the hallway wearing nothing but a pair of boots, her long silver hair, and a vicious grin.

"Oh, I will," she promised, closing the door.

Allia was a treasure. He had no idea how he managed to live so long without her in his life.

Tarrin started counting. By the time he reached thirty, there was a strangled bellow from further down the hall, with Brel, Master of Initiates, telling Allia hysterically to go back to her room and put some clothes on! About two minutes later, she calmly stepped back in through his door, and the look on her face was absolutely evil. It only made Tarrin fall off the bed in bouts of helpless laughter.

"That was definitely worth the effort," she said idly to herself. "The look on his face will keep me smiling for a month." She slipped off her boots, righted her pant legs from where they had been pulled inside out when she took them off, and then stepped back into her trousers.

Perhaps it was the ultimate in bad luck that an enraged Brel opened Tarrin's door forcefully just as Allia bent down to pull her pants up, and she had her back to the door. He took one look at the Selani's shapely backside, her posture leaving absolutely nothing to his imagination, and then he simply fainted dead away at the threshold.

Tarrin was basicly a loss at that point. It took him almost twenty minutes to recover control of himself, and Brel lay there the entire time, as other Inititates crowded around him around Tarrin's door. Allia dressed herself with a calm certainty that told everyone she felt absolutely no shame in what she had done, and stood by the door and waited for Brel to wake up. Her icy blue eyes kept the other Initiates from questioning her, and most simply meandered off to spread wild rumor and stories of the event to the others.

After recovering control of himself, Tarrin stood up and gave Allia a grin, patting her on the shoulder just as Brel began to stir. His eyes looked up at the pair blearily, then raw horror crept into them.

"Never question my morals again, Brel," Allia told him coldly. "Else what I do next makes this look innocent by example."

The shrivelled old crotchety Sorcerer blanched at the cold-eyed Selani, his wrinkled face turning pale, then scrabbled to his feet and rushed away hurriedly.

"You're an evil woman, deshaida ," Tarrin laughed. "And I love you for it."

"I love you too, deshida ," she said with a wicked little smile.

Darvon's scent touched Tarrin's nose just as the man came into view at the door, with the massive Azakar trailing behind him. "I take it you were having fun with Master Brel?" the aged Knight asked idly.

"He could not accept that Tarrin is not my lover," Allia said bluntly. "I decided that it was time for him to understand a few things."

Darvon took one look at the hot-eyed Selani, and he chuckled. "I'm sorry I missed it. It must have been good."

Just thinking about it made Tarrin laugh again. "It was priceless, my Lord General," Tarrin assured him. "I always knew my sister is an evil woman. She proved it."

Allia only gave Darvon a wicked smile, which made him laugh. "I never doubted it," he said.

"What brings you into the Inititate's quarters, my Lord General?" Allia asked.

"Business, my sister, business," he said. "I had a talk with the Keeper yesterday, Tarrin. Some changes were made."

"Really?"

"She agreed to allow you off the grounds, but only if you give her a day's advance warning," he told him. "But she refused to allow you to go alone. So if you leave the grounds, you have to go with Azakar here to accompany you, and at least one Sorcerer. You may be a Knight, but even you have to admit that someone is out to get you. It isn't Knightly to refuse the help of the order, and we look after our own. So Azakar here has been assigned to accompany you and act as your bodyguard, and you get to choose the Sorcerer you want to go with you. You have to admit, this is much better than the complement of katzh-dashi that the Keeper was demanding on. I had to make some ugly threats to bring the Keeper down to this."

"Lord Tarrin," Azakar said with a curt bow. Azakar was still a cadet, where Tarrin was a vested Knight. That changed things between them, for Tarrin had always liked the massive young man, and Azakar had always treated him with courtesy.

"I guess I can accept that, my Lord General," Tarrin said.

"Good. You've been granted permission to go see your parents right now, but you have to be back by lunch. They want to return to your education. Dolanna is waiting for you at the gate. She goes with you too, and Faalken's going to accompany her."

So they had been willing to compromise. That told Tarrin a great deal. They wouldn't suffer outright defiance from any other Initiate.

Tarrin did indeed mean something to the Council. This was complete proof for his long-standing suspicion.

"Then can we go now? I guess I don't have that much time to see my father, so I can't waste any standing here."

"We just have one stop to make, Tarrin," Darvon told him. "At the Academy. Azakar here needs some new spurs."

Azakar gave Darvon a stunned look.

"Did you think that we'd let a cadet have a job as important as accompanying a Sorcerer, Azakar?" Darvon asked with a grin. "You'll be going out there with the honor of the Knights to uphold. It's better for everyone if it's your honor too, now isn't it?"