James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

He knelt by her, checking her pulse to make sure it was strong, then he smoothed the wet red hair back from her face. "Why do you have to be so damned stubborn?" he asked her weakly. Then he bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips. "If you'd just wait a while, you stubborn witch, I'd go with you." He stood up. "But it's too late for that now, I guess. I hope you're happy with your decison. If you'd have waited, or came here with me, I wouldn't have ran away."

He turned around. "Goodbye, Jesmind. Have a nice life." Then he hobbled away from her.

As soon as he'd gone far enough up the steps, Jesmind opened her eyes. They were lucid, calm, even mischievous, and she smiled a victorious little smile. But then that light look hardened over into one of firm resolve, and she shook her head as if to clear her mind of unwanted thoughts. She waited until the sound of his passage were too faint to detect, then she scrambled to her feet and darted up the steps, making less sound than a ghost.

Tarrin was met in the hallways by three Sorcerers as he hobbled back towards the Novice's quarters, two men he did not know, and the red-haired Ahiriya, who were rushing towards the baths. She was in the forefront, and she took only one look at him with those penetrating eyes. "Did you kill her?" she asked.

"Hardly," Tarrin said a bit weakly. He hadn't completely healed from the grievous injuries he'd suffered at Jesmind's hands. "It was all I could do to get away."

Ahiriya put her hands on his shoulders, and the icy sensation of Sorcerer's Healing rushed through him, putting him up on his toes as his blood seemed to turn to ice. The other two Sorcerers obeyed Ahiriya's short command to search the baths, rushing away quickly. When that icy rush faded, it took the pain along with it. Tarrin staggered back and away from her, his strength, taxed by her healing, flowing back into him. Unlike a Priest's healing, a Sorcerer's healing took some energy away from the person being healed, using it to heal the recipient, and that always left Tarrin feeling slightly drained.

"Your things have been moved to another room," she said. "That boy who rooms with you demanded to be put in the same room with you," she chuckled. "He's got guts, I'll give him that. Let's get you a robe or something to wear, and we'll take you to your new room."

That touched Tarrin. Despite the obvious danger, Dar was going to stay roommates with him.

The room Tarrin was led to was on the second level, not far from the room that Allia held alone, and it was at the very end of a hallway. The fact that there were two mailed guards standing at the entrance to that hall, quite a distance down, was not lost on him. Even though there were a goodly distance away, they defended the only way in or out, and thus stopped anyone from getting so close to him again.

The room was absolutely identical to the room he'd had below. Dar was there, busily putting up his art back on the walls, and the young man gave Tarrin a look of profound relief as he entered. Tarrin put his paws on the Novice's shoulders wordlessly. "Are you alright? Did you kill her? What happened?"

"I'm fine, no, she's not dead, and we fought for a while before I got in a lucky kick," he said with a gentle smile. "I also have a name, Dar. That man gave me a name before the Wraith killed him. That may be why the Wraith killed him."

"What name?"

"Kravon."

Dar gasped slightly. " The Kravon?" he said in shock.

"Who is he?"

"He's a renegade," he said as Tarrin let go of him and took of the too-small robe that had been found for him. His belongings were in the chest-they'd done nothing but move the whole chest. "I heard about him from my parents. He's a Wizard, and he supposedly leads a group of other Wizards who go around stealing magical artifacts. My father said there's more to it than that, though. He said that they're trying to do something."

"Why would he want to kill me?" Tarrin asked himself. "I'm nobody."

"Maybe it's not who you are," Dar said. "Maybe it's what you are."

"No, why kill me because I'm a Were-cat when he sent the Were-cat that changed me?" he countered. "He was at it before that happened anyway." He pulled on a new pair of trousers and pulled out a shirt. The door opened abruptly, and Tarrin and Dar were staring the Keeper right in the face. They both stood and bowed awkwardly, Tarrin hastily throwing his shirt on afterward.

"I see you're alright," she said.

"Well enough, Keeper," he said.

"What happened?"

"Two men tried to kill me in my sleep, then Jesmind took advantage of the confusion and attacked me when I went to the baths to clean up," he told her plainly. "One of the men gave me a name before he died," he told her triumphantly. "He said he works for Kravon."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing about it. Tarrin seemed to understand in that instant that there was an awful lot that the Keeper knew, things that would answer all of the questions that he had, and that she simply was not going to tell him. She knew why they were trying to kill him. She knew who was trying to kill him too, he was certain of it. He also came to understand in that instant that she wanted something from him. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. He was here specifically because they wanted something. And that made him nervous.

"I'll have someone look into it," she said shortly. "We can't find Jesmind, but that won't be like that for long."

"You'll never catch her, Keeper," he told her.

Her eyes seem to flash momentarily. "You have a low opinion of us, boy," she said in a steely tone.

"No ma'am, I just know Jesmind. She could hide in plain sight so well you'd step on her. She hid from all of us from the day after she bit me to the day we met in the forest, and that was no mean feat. Trust me, Keeper, you won't find her. Don't even bother."

"I'll have it done anyway," she said. "It amuses me."

"As you will, Keeper."

"Well, things will get back to normal around here now," she said. "I've put men at the entrance to this hallway to prevent any more midnight guests, so it shouldn't happen again."

"Thank you, Keeper," he said politely.

"You two try to get some sleep," she said, then she turned and walked out without another word.

"That was strange," Dar said.

Tarrin looked at the door with his eyes narrowed. The first stirrings of mistrust were coming to life inside him. Things were not as they appeared here in the Tower. And he meant to find out what was going on.

The next attempt on his life came the very next day, and his wariness from the previous night had been what saved his life. Tarrin and Allia were out on the field, practicing, when the fur on the back of his ears stood up. In that absolute instant, he knew something was wrong. He lunged forward and drove Allia to the ground, even as something buzzed spitefully over his head. There was a cry of pain seconds after than, and the sound of someone falling. Then it was chaos. Tarrin looked up, and saw that one of the students, laying on the ground near them, had a crossbow quarrel through his neck. His eyes were already vacant and glazed. Had that bolt hit him, it would have hit him right between the shoulder blades.

"Spread out and capture anyone with a crossbow!" Valden, one of the Knight instructors, bellowed instantly. One of the attending Sorcerers rushed forward, but he could see that he was too late. So he closed the boy's eyes, then pulled out the quarrel.

It was tipped with silver.

"That was meant for you," Allia said grimly.

"I know," Tarrin replied quietly. This young man was totally innocent, a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was one more thing he was going to flay from the hide of whoever ordered the attack. His eyes went flat, and his ears laid back. "And I'm going to find who shot it."