James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

By the time he reached the house, they were already packed and waiting on some of Tomas' men to pack their belongings on a sled. Jenna looked miserable in her heavy furs and cloak, with a red nose and eyes that told him she'd been crying. Jenna and Janette had become quite close, and now they were separating. Tarrin hugged his mother and father, then picked up Jenna and held her in his arm as he greeted Tomas and Janine. Janette was still in bed, for they didn't want to wake her up and put her through the goodbyes. She had said her goodbyes before bed the night before.

"Looks like this is it," Tarrin told his mother.

She nodded. "It'll be good to visit home," she said. "I was worried that Jenna wouldn't be able to see her birthright."

"I'm going to be cold," Eron complained.

"Live with it," Elke told her husband. "You agreed to it."

He chuckled ruefully. "I know, but I'll still be cold."

"When are you planning on coming back?" Tarrin asked.

"Next fall," she replied. "I think we'll go back to Aldreth. It was nice to live in Suld, but I miss the village life."

"There are a number of villages on the coast, mother."

"I know, but Aldreth is our home. I don't think your father and I would really feel comfortable in some other village."

"No, I won't," Eron agreed. "Aldreth is the place for us, son. It took leaving it to really ram that home."

"At least I'll know where to go when all this is over," he said with a smile.

"We're ready to go!" Tomas called from the sled.

"Well, this is it," Elke said, embracing her son. "You take care of yourself. And write to us."

"I'll try," he promised, hugging her back. He turned and embraced his father, clapping him on the back. "You stay warm."

"I'll be spending the winter by the fire," he laughed. "You just stay well."

"I will." He cuddled Jenna close, then tapped her on the nose. "You stay out of trouble, stripling," he told her. "Mind our parents. And no using Sorcery on your cousins!"

"I'll be careful, I promise," she said with total insincerity. Jenna had learned some simple Mind weaves, especially one that made people take her suggestions as good ideas, and try to carry them out. That had already gotten her spanked about five times. A willful teen with the power to make others do what she wanted was a very bad combination.

"I mean it," he warned. "If mother and father tell me you're tampering, I'll come up there and kick your butt."

"They won't, I promise," she said with a grin.

Tarrin carried Jenna just a little ways off from their parents, to look at the sled. He set her down and looked at her for a long moment. Jenna, his sister. She was already blossoming into a lovely young woman, and she had a maturity to match her skills with her magical power. But she was also a child, and a child that Tarrin trusted. He and Jenna had always been close, even though they did fight as often as other siblings. She was leaving, and with his life ahead of him uncertain, she was a good friend to have. "Jenna, I want you to do something for me."

"What, Tarrin?" she asked.

He reached under his red Initiate shirt and pulled out a small wooden box. "I want you to take care of this for me," he said. "It has some things in it I've owned for a long time, interesting little things I found in the forest. I don't know where I'm going to be this time next year, and I really don't want to lose these. Would you take care of them for me?"

"Of course I will," she promised, taking the box. "May I?"

"Go ahead," he said, and she opened the box. "Wow, Tarrin, these are really neat," she said, holding up the gossamer wing. "What kind of insect owned this?"

"I have no idea," he said. "That's why I've kept it. Someday, maybe I'll find out."

"Who knows?" she said, putting it back in and closing the box. She slipped it into a small pack that probably held some of her personal belongings. "I'll take good care of it, Tarrin," she promised. "It'll be just fine."

"I hope so, brat," he said with a teasing smile, picking her back up again and whirling her around, making her giggle, then carrying her back over to his parents.

"Why didn't you bring Allia, Tarrin? I wanted to say goodbye," Elke complained when they returned.

"She's asleep, and she needs to sleep," he replied calmly. "I'll tell her for you, mother. Now you have to go, before Grandfather tans your backside for making him miss the tide."

After one more round of kisses and hugs, he watched his precious family pile into the sled, and with Tomas, start off for the harbor. Janine, with a heavy robe around her to ward off the chill, stood on the porch beside him, watching them go. "They'll be alright, Tarrin," she assured him.

"I know," he sighed. "Mother and father have always made their own luck, Janine. Now that they're out of the line of fire, they'll be just fine. I'm more worried about me."

"You have time to come in for some breakfast? I'll have Deris make you some pancakes."

"No, this wasn't a sanctioned visit, Janine," he told her. "I'm going to get in trouble for this as it is. I have to get back. I just wanted to be here to say goodbye."

Janine patted him on the arm. "A year isn't all that long, Tarrin. You'll probably be there to welcome them back where they call home."

"I hope so, Janine," he said soberly. "I really hope so."

The game of Beri Bally Bell that Miranda and Jervis cooked up had taken time to develop. But it was the nature of spies and other perpetrators of intrigue to have a great deal of patience. Splitting time between her scribing duty and her planning, Miranda had managed to work out most of the details with her rabbit Wikuni counterpart in just a few days. The real time came from pulling back their people and preparing them for the mission at hand. The sudden pullback of spies on the grounds and in the city had confused Ahiriya, but it did not stop her from her aggressive blockade of all useful information, nor did it stop her hunters from trying to root out and destroy the agents the Wikuni pair had laced through the Tower, Court, or among the parlors of the noble houses.

It began later that day, when a certain agent belonging to Jervis was spotted by a Royal guard slipping quietly out of the office of Duncan, the Keeper's personal secretary. Inspection of the office had revealed several drawers and cabinets had been opened and rifled, drawers and cabinets that held sensitive information. This incensed Ahiriya, and she sent out her people to totally disrupt all operations in the Tower.

She had taken the bait.

Miranda had seemed rather smug that afternoon, as she sat quietly on a stone bench in the courtyard as Keritanima read from the book, teaching Tarrin and Allia more and more words from the Sha'Kar tongue. She had a needlework hoop in her lap, and her small needle flashed rhythmically back and forth as her precise hands created an intricate geometric pattern in one of Keritanima's frilly dresses. Keritanima, ever in tune with the subtleties of her oldest friend's moods, seemed irritated by Miranda the entire session. By the time the sun began to creep behind the living wall forming the boundary of the hidden courtyard, she looked almost completely exasperated.

The courtyard itself had become one of the Tower's great mysteries to Ahiriya and many others. They knew that Tarrin, Allia, and Keritanima disappeared into the maze for hours at a time. They knew that they had to be doing something in there for such a long period of time every day. Scouts, trailers, even attempts to follow them from the tops of the Tower all failed, however, because Tarrin and Allia knew how to cover signs of their passage, and the magic surrounding the courtyard hid it from probing eyes. People sent in to follow the trio were always left lost, wandering the maze for hours themselves, just to try to find the way out. The maze was huge, and it was very deceptive. Only a handful of people on the grounds knew their way along every twist and turn. The only ones that weren't Tarrin, Keritanima, Allia, or Miranda happened to be the four gardeners that kept the hedgerow walls neat and trimmed. And they swore up and down repeatedly that there was no courtyard within the maze, and there was nowhere other than a walkway itself where the three could go. It drove Ahiriya crazy, and it also stretched Keritanima's little game very thin.