James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

Tarrin noticed absently that Dar was the only one in the room that didn't have a tail.

"Hullo, Tarrin," Keritanima said without looking up. Like him, her nose was very sharp. She reached down and made a move, and Dar winced.

"Ouch," he said. "I was hoping you wouldn't see that."

"Dream on, Dar," she teased with a wolfish smile. "Want to give up now, or are going to go through the futile motions of trying to dig yourself out?"

Dar laughed. "I'll quit while I'm behind," he decided, setting one of the pieces on its side. Tarrin had no idea what significance that move had, because he didn't play the game.

"It's refreshing to find a human that knows how to play a real game," Keritanima told him. "Want to lose again?"

Dar laughed. "No, not right now," he said. "Judging by the look on Tarrin's face, he wants to talk to one of us."

Keritanima glanced at him, her penetrating amber eyes taking in everything at once. "Me," she said calmly, her voice losing its vapid demeanor instantly. "Would you mind excusing us for a while, Dar?"

Dar gave Keritanima a curious look, and nodded. "I'll see you at dinner?"

"Sure," she replied. "Save me a seat."

Dar patted Tarrin on the shoulder as he passed by, and then was let out by Sisska. "You're getting cozy with him," he noted after Sisska shut the door.

"I like him. Both of us do, for that matter," she shrugged. "He's impossible to not like. I've never met anyone quite like him."

"He had the same effect on me," he replied. "I think that's why they made him my roommate."

"It's possible. Something's on your mind, Tarrin. Why don't you just get it off you chest now?"

"Why don't we go take a walk," he said, giving Binter and Sisska a fleeting look.

"They know about me, Tarrin," she assured him. "They've been my guards for three years, and their honor forbids them from revealing the truth about me. Isn't that right, Binter?"

"It is so, your Highness," he said calmly. "We have both sworn ourselves to secrecy. Death Herself could not make us reveal what we know to those who do not."

And that answered that suspicion.

Tarrin sat down on the bed beside Miranda and began to relate what had happened in the Chambers of Seven in a calm, analytical voice. "I have no idea how I know some of it," he grunted after explaining what he felt when he joined their circle. "I've never really been taught anything about circles. Just what Dolanna's said in passing. I knew that they couldn't go over seven, but I never asked why."

"Lula hasn't really gotten into circles either," Keritanima said. "I think that's something they teach after the individual instruction is complete. Lula said they'd be reforming a class again soon. Maybe even in a couple of days. Lula likes me. Maybe I could get her to teach me a bit about circles tomorrow."

"That may help, but what about the conclusion? Could we form a circle larger than seven, as long as there's a mind of another race present?"

"It certainly seems logical," Keritanima said after a moment. "Mind weaves don't affect members of other races, because of a dissimilarity in the way different races think. It only stands to reason that if circles are limited by a similarity in the thought processes of the Sorcerers that make them, then Sorcerers with different thought processes could expand that limit. By only themselves, at the very least, or perhaps they can act as a buffer between two smaller circles, letting two circles join into one through them."

"I never thought of that," Tarrin said, thinking about it. Who was to say that the lead of a circle couldn't turn around and join another circle?

"But I think that you're right, brother," she said. "There's a good chance that you may be onto something. Too bad we can't really take advantage of it. There are only three of us. Four, if you count Dolanna. Actually five, if we let Dar into our little group. And Dar hasn't yet managed to touch the Weave."

"There may be something we can use, Kerri," Tarrin told her. "When I got swept up into the Council's circle, the stress put on me suddenly lifted. I was still being flooded, but I could almost control it. I shunted most of what I couldn't control onto the Council, and that left me coherent enough to understand a few things before the circle was broken."

"What broke the circle?"

"I did," he said. "The Cat in me doesn't like the sensation of joining consciousness. It attacked the circle's bonds as soon as they formed, and it broke them before I could really get a handle on what was going on. I think it was an instinctive reaction. With some practice, maybe that part of me could accept a circle."

"We're not going to experiment, Tarrin," she warned. "I have a fondness for my own tail."

"I'm not asking you to, sister," he assured her. "But you're the smartest of us. If anyone could think up a way we could use this information, it's you."

"Not without a better understanding of the subject," she said emphatically. "Maybe a visit to the library is in order. They have to have a couple of books on circles there."

"That's always an idea," Tarrin agreed. "But that'll have to wait."

She nodded. "We have bigger whales to hunt tonight."

"I'll take care of it, Princess," Miranda said demurely. "I know where the library is. I'll find the books you'll need."

"Thank you, Miranda," Keritanima told her sincerely. "You're too good to me."

"Someone has to be, Princess," she said with a disarming smile. Tarrin glanced at Miranda, and he caught a very slight little smile.

"Be careful, Miranda. You don't have appearances on your side here."

"What does that mean?"

"My younger sister, Jenawalani, she's a mink too," Keritanima told him. "That let Miranda get through the palace at home a little easier. They look nothing alike, but from a distance, it's hard to tell them apart."

"My tail is longer than Princess Jenawalani's, and her coloring is more gray than white," Miranda told Tarrin calmly. "And she's shorter than I am."

"And she's ugly, where Miranda always has the eyes of the young men," Keritanima said, which made Miranda's cheek fur ruffle slightly. A Wikuni version of a blush. "Sisska, be a dear and escort Miranda tonight. She's starting to attract attention, and the rather unpleasant deaths of few of my spies means that I have to start protecting the important people."

"It will be as you command, Princess," Sisska said in a deep, rumbling voice. A voice that was not even remotely female. Now that he looked at them, he couldn't easily tell Binter and Sisska apart by anything other than scent. Binter's crest was larger than Sisska's, and she was shorter than him, but they weren't very apparent distinctions. They were equally muscular, and there were no real physiological differences between their genders. No, Sisska was a bit slimmer than Binter, but she was still awesomely muscled.

"Deaths? You mean there were more?" Tarrin asked.

Keritanima nodded. "Three," she replied. "All of them were my spies at court. Someone's trying to undermine my operation, and now I'm not so certain that it's Jervis. Ahiriya has her own people, and I have the feeling that it's her."

"How can you tell?"

"Because wanton killing isn't Jervis' style," she replied. "He prefers to buy off enemy spies and turn them into double agents, because he has such a large budget to work with. Ahiriya is reputed to have a heavy hand. Eliminating the opposition is more in line with her way of doing things. It also makes sense. Jervis doesn't care what I know, because it's not his job to keep me in the dark. He's just here to keep an eye on me, and use his information network to search out and remove threats to my safety. In that respect, Jervis works for me . But Ahiriya has a very real need to keep Miranda from finding out what's going on, and then taking steps to protect me, or passing that information on to Jervis. Right now, Ahiriya is probably doing everything she can to disrupt both my and Jervis' operations, because they both represent a threat to the interests of the Tower. I don't doubt that a few of Jervis' men have also turned up dead. I'm waiting for him to get his daily reports, so I can confirm that."