James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

The Keeper laughed. "I may let you," she said. "Are you alright?"

"As well as can be expected," he said calmly. "I, just needed time alone for a while. I'm ready to go back."

"Good," she said. "Jesmind, leave."

"Not until you take your spell off!" she shouted. "I upheld my end of the bargain! Take it off now !"

"I can't do that," she said in an ominous voice. "You're still a danger to Tarrin, and I won't allow you to hurt him. Keeping you tame is in my best interest at the moment."

"You lied to me!" she screamed, her claws extending as her eyes flared from within with that unholy greenish aura.

"Jesmind!" Tarrin barked, jumping off the desk and putting a paw on her chest as the other took hold of her arm. In that instant, Tarrin came to understand why Jesmind hated him so much. It was more than a personal feeling between them. When he left her, she accused him of lying to her, of breaking his word. That was so totally against the basic nature of the Cat that it was her nature to take people at their word, and expect them to live up to it. Lying was a violation of the natural order of things, and that made any Were-cat angry. That, and there was her duty. She had a duty to try to kill him, to stop him from doing what he very nearly did. He could respect that, even more so now that he'd come so close to going mad. He looked back at the Keeper. "You made a promise," he said grimly. "Take the spell off of her."

"I won't do that," she said.

"You will ," he growled. "Because if Jesmind doesn't kill you, I will."

The Keeper's eyes widened. "But you hate her," she said. "She wants to kill you!"

"A promise is a promise," he said flatly. "I didn't understand that before. I do now."

Jesmind gave him a strange look, and she put a paw on his shoulder.

"You will take that spell off of her, and you will do it right now , or else this room will need a lot of cleaning. If you think either of us are nasty now, you should see what we can do when we're working together."

The Keeper blanched, standing up. "I'll need the Council. It's Ritual Sorcery. I can't do it alone."

"Then have someone bring them here," he said in a dangerous tone. "Now." Duncan paused at the door. "Now!"

" Duncan, go get the Council," the Keeper commanded.

"Don't think this changes anything between us," Jesmind said in a quiet voice.

"I don't expect it to," he replied. "I have no real quarrel with you, Jesmind. You have one with me. I don't look at you as an enemy, no matter how hard you try."

"Then come with me," she offered. "We can let the past be the past. We can start over."

"I can't do that," he told her. "I came back here for a reason, Jesmind. I can do Sorcery. I nearly killed myself with it while I was away. If I don't learn how to control it, I'll either accidentally kill you or end up killing myself. And the only place I can learn is here."

"Why do you have to be so stubborn!" she snapped, stamping her foot.

"Why do you have to be so contrary?" he retorted. "I only need a couple of years, woman. That can't be much more than a blink of your eyes."

"Then I guess we're back to where we started, aren't we?" she hissed.

"I guess so. Jesmind."

"What?"

"Don't even think of stepping on my tail."

She gave him a look, then laughed helplessly. "I see you've gotten over your silly modesty."

"You bring out the worst in me," he replied dryly.

"Yes," she said. "I imagine I do, at that."

"Are you calm now?"

"I guess so."

He let go of her and stepped back. "You look haggard."

"You're a damned hard man to find," she grunted, stretching a bit. "I haven't had a good night's sleep in almost a month. How's the arm?"

"Never better. You didn't rip enough out of it."

"You wouldn't hold still."

"That was the idea."

She gave him a long look. "You've changed, cub. A great deal. Was the time away good for you?"

"I managed to keep from going mad, if that's what you mean," he said.

"That must be where you got the doll."

He fingered the little doll absently. "A keepsake, from someone who helped me get through it," he said. Then he put his paw over the little doll to totally smother Janette's scent. He hadn't smelled any of it before, but he was going to take no chance that Jesmind would track his little mother down and use her to draw him out. "And no, I didn't kill anyone, before you ask."

"Small favors," she mused.

"I find all this rather entertaining," the Keeper injected dryly, "but I have work to do. Could you take your reunion outside?"

"No," they said in unison. "We don't leave your sight until the spell is off Jesmind," Tarrin added.

"I'm afraid I can't trust you anymore, Keeper," Jesmind said with hot eyes. "So we're going to keep an eye on you until you uphold your end of the bargain." She crossed her arms under her breasts, giving the diminutive woman an icy stare. "And I expect you to live up to our previous bargain as well. I promised not to touch Tarrin on the Tower grounds. And I'll uphold that. In return, I can come and go as I please."

"You threaten to kill me, and then you make demands of me, in my own office," the Keeper snorted. "You are either insanely brave or monumentally stupid."

Jesmind was about to say something, but Tarrin put a paw over her mouth. "Just let it drop," he told her.

"But-"

"Let it go," he said. She glared at him, but his powerful gaze made her lower her eyes. Then he saw those eyes harden. She was obviously flaring up at being stared down. "I'm not going to fight with you, no matter how pecky you get," he warned. "So just put it away."

" Pecky ?" she repeated hotly. "You watch yourself, cub, or I'll tan your backside and shave your tail with a board! You're not too old to spank!"

"You even try, and I'll strip you bare and hang you out the Keeper's window like a flag," he retorted. "The whole city will see you in all your glory."

Jesmind actually blushed. That was most satisfying, with what she'd done to him in the past.

"Children!" the Keeper barked. "Can't the two of you stay peaceful even for five minutes?"

"No," they said in unison.

She threw up her hands. "Goddess, deliver me from this nightmare!" she cried out in a plaintive voice, then she sat back down. "Tarrin, for my sanity, please take my spare robe down from the peg behind the door and put it on. You're driving me crazy standing there with no clothes on."

He nodded, pulling down the dark silk robe. It was comically small, barely stretching around his chest, and not even reaching his knees. Jesmind laughed when she saw it, and Tarrin sighed forlornly. The Keeper motioned to him. "I'll fix that," she said. He came over to her, and he felt that peculiar sensation of drawing in , then she put her hands on the robe.

It quickly and silently grew out, falling to the floor and fitting him loosely and comfortably. Its basic style even changed, going from a feminine garment to a gender-neutral one.

"Neat trick," he noted.

"It makes fitting new clothes easy," she shrugged. "It's one thing that we'll teach you here. Any Sorcerer that can touch Earth can do that."

"Touch?"

"There are seven spheres of Sorcery, Tarrin," she said. "Since Sorcery is the magic of the world, they represent the powers that make up and influence our world. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, which represent the physical world. Mind, Divine, and the sphere of Confluence, or Energy, which represent the mystical aspects of the world. Some Sorcerers have a particular affinity for one Sphere. Some can't touch a particular Sphere at all. It's entirely personal. Most Sorcerers can touch all six spheres, but they're not equally strong in them. Most that can't touch all six can only touch four or five, but they're very powerful in at least one of the spheres they can touch."