James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"Welcome, my brother," Allia told the huge Mahuut with a gentle smile. "It is time for my class. Until later, Darvon, deshida ," she said, giving Tarrin a quick kiss on the cheek, then patting Azakar's shoulder as she passed by.

"Well don't stand there looking like a fool, cadet!" Darvon barked at Azakar. "Let's move!"

Azakar looked almost about to explode with pride.

He was wearing a surcoat over his mail shirt and a pair of silver spurs that denoted him as a Knight, and he looked like he was about to faint. Tarrin mused at it with a chuckle as they approached the gate leading out, where Dolanna and the cherubic Faalken stood waiting for them. The air was crisp and noticably cool, but the bright sunshine belied the chill in the air. The day was so crisp and clear that the individual colored lines of the Skybands were visible, which usually was only possible at night. They were all the same dull white, but the faint lines that separated the colors were just barely visible, if one studied them intently enough. Such a crystal-clear day was unusual.

Tarrin greeted Dolanna with a warm smile and taking her small hands, and Faalken was already digging at the new Knight, teasing him about his newfound status. They were surrounded by Tower guards, and people filed in and out of the grounds through the front gate. Standing by the front gate were the Keeper, Koran Dar, Amelyn, and the willowy blond Council member whose name Tarrin didn't know. Even from there, he could smell them, and they were all very anxious. It permeated their scents. They were afraid he'd go through that gate and then never come back, he was certain of it.

The idea had crossed his mind a few times, but there was no telling what would happen to Allia and Keritanima if he did fly the coop. They would all escape, but it would be a time of their choosing, and when the Tower had the least chance of getting them back.

"Well, dear one, are you ready?" Dolanna asked.

"I'm ready," he said. "I'm surprised they're even bothering to send you three with me."

"Why is that?"

Tarrin only smiled at her in return.

"Oh dear," she murmured. "Just be careful, my young one."

"Always, Dolanna. Always."

The four approached the Council members, who wordlessly linked into a circle. Tarrin could feel the connection join among them, as if each reached out and joined invisible hands with the others. He wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next, but Dolanna seemed calm and confident, and she payed the Council little mind as she smoothed her blue silk dress and wool cloak absently.

Then, the hands of the four Council members started to glow in a ghostly white light. The radiance that marked the use of High Sorcery. A hole silently opened in the empty air in front of them. It was surrounded by nothing, but the borders of that hole were limned in a pulsating bluish energy. Tarrin could see that they had somehow punched a hole in the Ward, a hole that would allow him to pass through it. He couldn't see what weave they had used to perform such an act, but it obviously involved all seven Spheres. High Sorcery always involved all seven Spheres.

"Be back by the tolling of the noon bell," the Keeper said in a tight voice, staring at Tarrin intently. "Don't make us come look for you. It won't be pleasant."

"Like you could find me," Tarrin snorted as he stepped through the penetrated Ward. He waited until Dolanna, Faalken, and Azakar were with him, and they stepped into the streets of Suld.

It was the first time he'd ever been in the city during the daytime. The streets were filled with people, dressed in all manner of clothing but sharing a common theme of warmth against the chill of the late autumn day. Sulasian doublets and breeches and long-hemmed dresses dominated the streets, but the occasional woolen mantle of an Arkisian, or the waistcoats and unusual appearances of the Wikuni were also rather common. Even the ruffled shirts and coats and tight-fitting pants called hose favored by the Shaceans. Several fur-clad Ungardt were strolling through an intersection, giving way to a horse-drawn open carriage that was occupied by a pretty middle-aged woman wrapped in an expensive velvet-lined cloak. A Torian woman, whose multitude of tiny braids clearly marked her city of birth, seemed to be haggling with a rough-faced Dal who wore the slate gray pants and brown cloak that were common among them. Suld was a city of trade, the largest city on the western coast, and from the city, on the well-maintained roads that criss-crossed the kingdom, goods travelled to Daltochan and northern Shace, even into southern Draconia and Tykarthia. Sulasia was famous for its craftsmen, and merchants from all over the world came to Suld to buy what were considered to be the best durable goods in the world. A Sulasian wagon would last ten years longer than one built by other hands, and there was a heavy demand for Sulasian four-banded barrels, famous for their durability. Daltochan was famous for metalwork and weapons, but Sulasia was famous for the things that modern man used in his daily life.

It gave Suld a multinational aire that Tarrin couldn't miss. Suld was the capital of Sulasia, seat of the Lion Throne, but the city looked more like a crossroads of the world. In Suld, Tarrin's obvious exotic appearance didn't attract as much attention as he thought it might. Some people gave him second looks, but by and large, he was left alone. But then again, the hulking ten span tall menace travelling beside him may have alot to do with that.

The only think Tarrin didn't like about it was the smell. He'd grown used to that foul miasma since being on the grounds, since it carried over into the grassy, natural setting of the Tower. Out in the city, with the humans all bustling about, it intensified that pungent amalgamation of waste, sweat, anxiety, animals, weathered stone, wood, and fire. There would be no way he could backtrack even his own scent in that unpleasant riot of smells.

After they were about ten blocks from the Tower gate, well out of sight from the katzh-dashi , Tarrin stopped by a large tavern, whose weathered sign showed a mug resting on the skull of a Troll. Trollskull Tavern, it was called. It wasn't that far from Tomas' house, and it would be a good place for them to wait for him.

"This is as far as you go," Tarrin told Dolanna and the others. "Just wait here for me. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"I have to accompany you, Tarrin," Azakar objected. "It's my duty."

"It's also your duty as my brother Knight to accede to my wishes," he told him calmly. "I'm not in any danger, Zak. Trust me. But I'm not leading the eyes following us back to my parents. I had them hide for a reason ."

"Just let him go, Zak," Faalken told him calmly. "Tarrin can take care of himself, and he could lose us so easily that at least we look dignified this way."

Tarrin chuckled. "True enough," he agreed in a modest voice. "I'll be back soon. Just have a drink and some breakfast, and I'll come get you when I'm ready."

"Alright, just be careful, dear one," Dolanna said, patting him on the arm.

He left them there, the quickly and easily lost all his followers by stepping into an alley, shifting into his cat form, and then squirming through a hole in a wall into a building that turned out to be a warehouse, sneaking through, and then slowly making his way to the house. It wasn't easy in cat form, because he had to cross alot of human and horse traffic, and more than a few people actively tried to kick him when he got close to them. But he reached the back door without a whole lot of trouble, shifted back into his humanoid form, and found it to be unlocked.

Nanna was busily chopping onions as Deris tended a pot sitting on the metal stove. The wood stoves were from Wikuna, and they were all the rage with anyone who could afford them, because they made cooking so much easier.