"Wylan's out of ale and wine," Garyth chuckled. "The Dals drank it all. What, you're disappointed?"
"Surprised is more like it," he answered. "It's not like Master Ren to drop down tankards of water in front of people."
"That's the truth," Garyth laughed. "He'd put a tankard of firewine in front of a swaddling babe if he thought the could get away with it."
"It's a case of loving what he sells," Tarrin mused. "Get back in your chair, young lady!" Tarrin warned sharply without looking. Sighing, Jasana climbed back up into her chair, then took a drink from the tankard. "I just can't take it anymore. Lad, would you mind?" he asked, holding out his hand. Tarrin looked at him curiously, then extended his paw without quite knowing what Garyth wanted. The cobbler grabbed him by the wrist and set his paw down on the table palm up, looking down at it. "I've seen your wife's hands, but I've never been brave enough to ask to do this," he admitted.
"She's not my wife, Garyth. She's my mate. There's a very big difference."
"You'll have to explain it to me someday," he replied absently, studying Tarrin's paw. "It really does look like a cat's paw. A cat's paw with fingers."
"I would hope so," Tarrin said mildly, extending the deadly claws on his paw for Garyth's benefit.
"Amazing that something so large can handle things with such precision," Garyth chuckled.
"Not entirely. I have serious trouble with buttons and human-sized silverware," Tarrin admitted. "But I've learned tricks to dealing with those problems." He glanced at Jasana, who was staring intently as Millie Korlan, a teen girl that had filled out significantly since the last time that Tarrin saw her. She wore her dark hair in a pair of braids now, and she was wearing a dress that certainly tried to show off her recently grown attributes.
"Why does she wear a dress with the top missing, papa?" she asked him innocently.
"Because she likes to, cub," he replied shortly.
"Young girls like showing off a bit, young one," Garyth told her delicately.
"If she likes showing off her-"
"Jasana!" Tarrin warned sharply.
"Well, if she likes showing them off, why not just go without a top? That's showing them off better than hiding most of what she wants everyone to see."
Garyth burst out into laughter, and Tarrin shook his head. Jasana said it more than loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Millie Korlan turned and glared venemously at the little girl, her cheeks flaming and her arms crossing over her breasts almost as if she'd been stripped bare before the common room. "Humans are picky about things like that, cub," Tarrin told her calmly. "Especially females. There are some things they just don't show in public."
"I think it's silly."
"It may be, but that's the way we are, child," Garyth told her with a grin, then he turned and winked in Millie's direction.
"But she's already showing them."
"She's showing the parts of them acceptable to be seen in public," Tarrin explained patiently. "If she showed-"
"Tarrin, lad," Garyth cut him off with a laugh.
"Well, let's just say that there's one part there that she can't show in public. Everything else is acceptable. Maybe a little scandalous, but acceptable."
Millie turned and fled from the common room, accompanied by more than a few chuckles.
"Which part?" Jasana pressed.
Garyth laughed. "Millie left. Why not tell her?" he said with a wide smile.
Without batting an eye, Tarrin did in fact inform his daughter about just what part the human female wouldn't reveal in public.
"That's not such a big deal," Jasana scoffed. "It's not like she's-"
"That'll do, cub," Tarrin said flintily.
"Yes, papa," she said obediently.
"Children are children, no matter what race they are," Garyth chuckled.
After Jasana calmed down, getting interested in the deck of cards Wylan Ren brought out to distract her, Tarrin let Garyth bring him up to date on all the news of the village. A more detailed account of what happened when the Dals invaded, as well as the recent goings-on with the Rangers and the struggle to choke off the Dal supply lines. Tarrin sat and listened for quite a while as Garyth filled him in on everything he could remember, at least until Jak returned. "Everyone's in, Garyth," he said in his dead voice. "They've brought in everything, so we're ready."
"Thanks, Jak," Garyth said with a nod. "Alright then, lad, it's time for you to do your part."
They went outside. Alot of the dispossessed familes form the outer farms were piled up in the green, carts and horses loaded with everything that they didn't want to leave behind. It made Aldreth look like a refugee camp. That saddened him a bit, to see his home turned upside-down as it had, but there wasn't much choice about it. He looked around and made sure that everyone was within the boundary of the buildings, and seeing them safely inside, he nodded and stepped into the center of the green.
Closing his eyes, he prepared, thinking over exactly what he wanted to do. He worked out the size of the Ward he wanted, and went over how he'd have to weave it together. He didn't want it to be permanent, but its size would demand that he use High Sorcery. Normal Sorcery or Weavespinner Sorcery wouldn't be able to form a Ward of that size.
He was ready. Opening his eyes, he reached out and exerted his will against the Weave, pulling in the power that had once flown into him unforced. His paws erupted with the ghostly radiance of High Sorcery, which made many of the villagers gasp and turn quiet to watch the mystical power of Sorcery exercised among them.
But nobody, not even Tarrin, noticed the look of intense, deliberate concentration on Jasana's little face as she watched her father perform his magic.
The power needed drawn in, Tarrin turned his attention to the weaving. Massive flows of Air and Divine power, the main flows of a Ward, radiated out from him staight up, then cascaded down in a truly huge circular pattern around the village, reaching the ground about a hundred spans past the outside edge of the village, well in bow range but not close enough for men to throw torches. The flows expanded and filled in, going from ropes to sheets, then the merged to combine into the singular magical construction that was the Ward. Tarrin continued to feed energy into it, saturating the formation of its matrix, charging it so it could maintain itself for a considerable amount of time. He filled it until the Ward's integrity couldn't withstand any more extra energy, and reasoned that a Ward of that size with that much charging would last for nearly ten days. More than enough time for the villagers to march down, take Torrian, then march back before it failed.
The air beyond the village shimmered visibly for a short moment, and then it vanished from sight.
Closing his paws, the light fading from around them, Tarrin released the residual energy inside him back into the Weave and let go. "That's it," he said calmly. "Nobody other than humans or Were-cats can cross the Ward, and no steel or iron can cross the boundary from outside the Ward. I set it so it will last about ten days. I think that's more than enough time."
"It should be, lad," Garyth agreed.
"Good. What time will the men be ready-"
Tarrin was brought up short as a sudden shift of the Weave warned him that something was going on. He looked around as that feeling became more pronounced, and then his eyes locked on Jasana just in time to see her close her eyes and assume an expression that was both serene and intensely focused. He could feel her reaching out with her power, reaching for the Weave, and what was worse, the Weave was reacting to her!
"Jasana, no!" he said with sudden fright. She wasn't trying to touch the Weave, she was trying to touch High Sorcery! He took three quick steps towards her, nearly reaching her, but he recovered from his frighetened reaction and went about stopping her in the only way he would be able to do so.