"What manner of instrument is that?" Jesmind asked him. "I've never seen its like."
"It's called a violin," he replied. "They make them in Telluria. I happened across it some five years ago when I heard one of my ship captains, Bascone, playing it in his cabin. I thought I'd never heard a prettier instrument. I was totally taken with it, so he taught me."
"You never played it while I was here," Tarrin told him.
"That's because a certain daughter of mine broke my violin a few days before you came, Tarrin," Tomas told him, glaring at a flushing Janette. "I had to send off to Telluria to get a replacement. It took almost five months to get a new one, and it was dreadfully expensive."
"The lengths we'll go to to get what we want," Jesmind mused, looking at Tarrin meaningfully. "I learned how to play the lute some time ago, but it's been a long time."
"I can see how it would be hard to learn," Tomas said, looking at her paws. "I've seen Tarrin use his hands. They're not very agile, despite how agile he is."
"That's not a big deal, Tomas," she said, taking on her human hands and showing them to him. "I can change these. I guess I just lost interest in it after a while," she explained, returning her arms to their natural state.
"I could never lose interest in music," Tomas chuckled. "Outside of my family and my business, it's my one true passion."
"Of course, it's been more of a passion lately," Janine added.
"I guess I didn't appreciate it as much before as I do now," he replied to his wife.
Deris, the rotund, red-faced cook, appeared in the doorway to the parlor. "Beggin' your pardon, my Lady, but dinner is set," he announced. "You can seat yourselves whenever you feel ready." Karl
"Thank you, Deris," Janine said with a nod. "We'll be in directly."
"Yes, ma'am," he acknowledged, then waddled off towards the dining room.
The meal was as good as Tarrin remembered. Deris had made roasted pheasant, ham-flavored stringed beans, spiced potatos, a rich soup that tasted like cream and mushrooms, some dish he called salad which was nothing but a variety of vegetables cut up and mixed together, and topped it off with a cake covered in sweet icing. Tarrin enjoyed the meal tremendously, and from the looks of it, so did Jesmind and Jasana.
"I really need to get the recipe for this cake," Jesmind said, taking her third piece. Jesmind had a fondness for sweet things.
"You cook, Jesmind?" Janine asked curiously.
"I'm not the best in the world, but I do like to cook," she replied.
"I've started to take an interest in it, but Deris says I'm hopeless, and chases me out of the kitchen," Janine laughed. "I think he just says that to protect his job."
Tarrin happened to be glancing at Tomas, and the look Tomas gave him told him that Deris was not trying to protect his job. That made Tarrin smile a bit. The idea that Janine was not good at something was alien to him, because she was so good at so many things. But Janine was an intelligent, determined woman. If she wanted to learn, she would.
"Mama is a good cook," Jasana protested. "I like everything she makes."
"That's because you hadn't eaten a single thing I didn't make before we came here," Jesmind snorted.
"I still think you cook good."
"Well, I appreciate that, cub."
They finished the meal, and returned to the parlor to enjoy glasses of fine wine. It was then that Tarrin decided it was time to broach a few subjects. "Who arranged for the guards?" he asked.
"Your mother," he replied. "With things being so tense, there's been a rash of burglaries and crimes all through the city. Elke wanted to make sure we had some protection, so she arranged to have those two stand guard."
"They're nice enough, but I don't understand a single word they say," Janine chuckled.
"I dare say you're as safe as you can be, Janine," Jesmind said. "Even the Vendari have second thoughts about tangling with an Ungardt. Some of them are as big as Vendari themselves."
"That's no lie," Tomas laughed. "What grows them so big, Tarrin?"
"I have no idea," he shrugged. "Well, I guess I should go ahead and get it out in the open."
"What?"
"I don't like the idea of you being out here when the battle starts," he told them seriously. "When the enemy army gets here, I want you all to come to the Tower. I'll feel alot better if I know you're there."
"Elke and Eron have been asking us that for rides now," Tomas told him. "I just don't want to leave the house, Tarrin. Everything we have is here."
"There's more to it than that," he told him. "You're my friends, and I don't know who knows about you. There is a chance that they may come after you to get to me. I don't want to take that risk, Tomas. I'll guarantee that the house will be protected. I'll protect it myself, if I have to. So please, come to the Tower when the time comes."
That seemed to shake Tomas, and he looked uncertainly at his wife, who only returned a blank look. "If you put it that way, Tarrin, it's very hard to say no," he finally admitted.
"Let's go, Father," Janetted prompted. "It's not going to hurt anything, and we'll be alot safer in there than out here."
Tomas looked torn for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "You're right, of course, my daughter," he agreed. "We will be safer in the Tower, and it will put Tarrin's mind at ease."
"I don't like the idea of leaving the house alone," Janine complained. "Who knows may try to loot it while we're out."
"I'll make sure that people are here to keep that from happening," Tarrin told her. "You're friends of the royal family of the Ungardt clan here, so the clan will form a human wall around the house to keep out thieves, if that's what it takes. Just tell me or my mother what you want, and we'll make it happen."
"Well, that does take a load off my mind," Tomas said with a relieved smile.
The relief went both ways. Tarrin was greatly relieved that his precious human friends would be safe when the fighting started, and that was what was most important to him.
"It's getting late, beloved," Jesmind reminded him. "There's some thunder out there. We should be getting back, or we'll be running home in the rain."
"I guess so," he sighed. "I do have some things to do there."
"Well, at least you can come back and visit," Tomas told him. "Would you like to come back, Jasana?"
"Umm," she nodded, looking at Janette. "I'll bring my doll next time, so you can meet her."
"If there's anything left of it," Jesmind muttered under her breath.
And so they said their goodbyes, promising to visit a little more often, and they were sent off with a bottle of Tellurian wine. It was dark by the time they left, and it was also raining. Tarrin used Sorcery to protect them from the rain, an invisible shield through which the water could not penetrate, and they rushed back towards the Tower between flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.
"So, what did you think?" Tarrin asked of his mate as they sped home.
"I like them," she replied. "Especially Janine. She reminds me of mother."
"She does have that same way about her, doesn't she?" he agreed.
"Did you like Janette, cub?" Tarrin asked.
"Umm. She was really nice."
"Good. Maybe we'll go see them again in a couple of days."
"I'd like that."
"I wonder what happened to Sarraya," Jesmind said.