James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

He had been defeated.

Jula swallowed, putting a hand to the pit of her stomach. He almost got her. Had he had one more step, those claws would have found her, and she would have not lived to see if it would work. Tarrin had stopped when he was but a finger's width from her throat, and then slowly stood upright, his face losing its mask of rage, and his eyes draining of that curious inner radiance that marked his anger. He was now docile, and suppliant to commands.

"Tarrin," she called calmly.

His ears picked up, and he looked at her.

"You will accept orders only from me. Do you understand?" He nodded mindlessly. "Follow me. Speak to no one as we walk."

"Tarrin do," his voice replied, but there was nothing in it that even hinted that the voice was alive.

It was a night of chaos, punctuated by shouting, and the occasional clashing of sword on sword. At first, it was very uncommon and erratic, but then it became so obvious that the Keeper was forced to mobilize the Tower Guard to put a stop to the violence. But even that only contained it, for the men that worked for Ahiriya were spurred on by their mistress, to seek out and eliminate the infestation of opposing agents. But what Ahiriya didn't understand until it was too late was that that was exactly what her counterparts wanted her to do.

It got so crazy that Allia didn't make it back to her own room. She stopped at Keritanima's room first to pick up a book she had left there, and Binter had barred her in after a fight started down at the end of the hall. The massive Vendari absolutely refused to open the door after that. With Binter guarding one door and Sisska guarding the other, the life of the Princess, her maid, and her guest were made very secure, but there was no attempt to get at them.

Allia slept fitfully that night, as the occasional sound of shouting disturbed her sleep, and also the nagging feeling that something was not right. As soon as Binter ventured into the hallway and proclaimed it safe, Allia was out of Keritanima's room, and she returned to the coupled rooms that were hers and Tarrin's.

The first indication that something was not right was that Tarrin's door was unlocked. She entered his room, and found everything neat and clean and untouched. The bed had not been slept in-that, or Tarrin had made it so it looked exactly the same as it did the day before. That, she doubted. Tarrin favored sleeping in his cat form, if only to avoid having to make the bed, and that always disturbed the blankets. His staff was standing in the corner, and the books Lilenne had suggested to him were still sitting on the small table in the corner. That too was not normal. Lilenne demanded that the books be returned to the library the first thing every morning, so he had to drop them off before going to his appointments where they studied his power.

Concerned, Allia left the room and quickly hurried over to the main Tower. Things were tense, as large numbers of guards roamed the passageways, and Sorcerers, Initiates, and Novices alike moved around in a great deal of confusion and uncertainty. Everyone knew that something very strange had happened the night before, and it involved open fighting in the hallways of the Tower. But Allia didn't concern herself with others, she was there for only one reason, and that was to find her brother. She checked the three places that he may be in the main Tower, the kitchens, the dining hall, and the baths, but he was not there. The kitchen staff had not seen him, and neither had the Novices who tended the baths.

Fear beginning to creep into her, Allia returned to the North Tower and immediately sought out the two people that may have seen him. She found Dar first, as he was scurrying towards the exit to go to the main Tower for breakfast. "Allia, good morning," he said gently to her as she approached.

"Have you seen Tarrin this morning, friend Dar?" she asked immediately.

"No, I haven't," he replied. "We were going to play some chess after class. Why, what's wrong? Did he get caught up in that strange craziness last night?"

"I do not know," she said grimly. "Tarrin is not here. He would have told me if he was going somewhere."

"Why don't you go ask Keritanima, and I'll go ask Tiella," he replied. "I was going to meet her for breakfast."

"Yes, I was looking for her," she said. "Come back to Keritanima's room with your answer."

"Alright," he said, reaching out and patting her on the shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile. "He probably just wandered off. You know how he is."

"I hope so, friend Dar," she sighed.

When she returned to Keritanima's room, she was forced to pull Keritanima aside as a small ferret Wikuni chatted with Miranda. "Sister, Tarrin didn't go back to his room last night," she whispered to her in Selani. "His bed was untouched, and now I can't find him anywhere on the grounds."

"What?" Keritanima demanded, a bit too loudly. "You're sure?"

Allia nodded. "He isn't anywhere he would usually be."

"If he went out to watch the fireworks last night-" she began, then she snorted. "Come on, let's go see if he was in his room last night," she said, grabbing Allia's arm and pulling her towards the door.

Tarrin's room wasn't that far away from Keritanima's, so it only took them a moment to get there. With the immense Binter in tow behind them, Keritanima and Allia re-entered the room. Keritanima immediately closed her eyes and knelt on the floor, putting her black button nose close to the stone. "Tarrin was here last night," she said. "But he wasn't alone. There's a human scent here, one I don't know. It's female. She was here a while, but Tarrin wasn't. Bah," she snorted, standing up. "I'm not about to crawl around on the floor like a bloodhound." She raised a hand, and Allia felt her touch the Weave. A faint glow suddenly sprang into being on the floor, an erratic, splotchy trail of sorts that entered the room, moved towards the closet, then turned towards the center of the room. Then it merged back into the glow by the door. "That's Tarrin's scent," she said. "Now, let's follow it and see where it goes."

"Clever," Allia said. "You must teach me that weave."

"It's something I thought up a few days ago," she shrugged.

The glowing trail wasn't completely illuminated. As Keritanima walked along, the trail in front of her appeared, and the trail behind them winked out. They followed the trail through the North Tower and out onto the grounds, where the trail began to break up on the cold, frost-covered ground. Keritanima depended on Allia's sharp eyes to pick out the faint, weak glow among the frosted blades of grass, and they slowly tracked the trail across the grounds.

It ended at the main gate, where a group of guards stood vigil beside four or five covered forms. They eyed the pair of Initiates with hostility as they approached. Tarrin's scent trail went right through the gate, right across the Ward, to disappear into the streets beyond.

"What happened here?" Keritanima demanded.

"The same that happened on the grounds last night," one guard replied. "Enemy agents attacked last night, and they killed the guards to get onto the grounds."

"Posh," Keritanima snapped, coming over and lifting one of the blankets. The man had been young, and his chest had been caved in as if some Giant had grabbed him in his massive hand and squeezed the life out of him. That was not a wound caused by any weapon she had ever seen. "Unless the agents all joined hands and jumped up and down on his chest, I don't see how they accomplished this ."

"They had to have had a mage with them," another demanded. "One of them was burned, and another was frozen solid."

"Arcane magic doesn't work on the grounds, blockhead!" Keritanima snapped at him. "This was Sorcery!"