It had to be a test of some kind, because only about six people knew where he was. Sarraya, Triana, Keritanima, Allia, Fara'Nae… and the Goddess.
It was the only thing that made sense. The Sha'Kar had been sent, sent to test him in some manner.
But why? That was the question. Did the Goddess want him to get a taste of a real Weavespinner? Was it a lesson? An ordeal? A test of loyalty? A test of faith? A test of power?
On the other hand, if someone like that was really alive, what did she need him for anyway? That Sha'Kar Ancient could have easily taken the book from Shiika. She probably knew where it was all along. She may even know exactly where the Firestaff was located. Why send him, when she could have gotten it by now? It was certain that nobody living on this world could possibly take it from her. She was the paramount, the most powerful living being he'd ever seen.
It made very little sense. And since it had no easy answer, it was something best left to think about when he felt more rested.
Just moving was an effort. He was laying on his side, and his tail was numb from where he was laying on it. He managed to slide a paw under him, then push himself off the bare rock, but it felt like he weighed a thousand stones. He pulled himself off the ground, then pulled his tail out from under him and rolled over to sit down. He dropped the limp tail in his lap, waiting for the blood to flow back into it and reawaken it.
He nearly got knocked over when Sarraya slammed into him at full speed, her tiny body almost toppling him as she grabbed hold of his neck and hugged him fiercely. "Tarrin!" she said in excitement and relief. "You're awake!"
"You nearly knocked me back out," he wheezed, putting a paw down to steady himself. "For a little thing, you hit hard."
"Sorry," she said, letting go and hovering before him. "I take it you're tired?"
"That's an understatement," he said tonelessly. "I think the only reason I woke up was because I'm hungry."
"Well, say no more," she smiled. She motioned with her hand as he felt her come into contact with her Druidic power, and a large roasted goose simply appeared on the ground before him. The smell of it wafted to him, and it caused his stomach to almost take control of his body. "I usually don't steal like this, but this is a special condition." Then she giggled impishly. "I'm sure the cook who made it must be rubbing his eyes in disbelief about now."
"No doubt," he said with a tired smile, reaching down for it. It was still hot. She must have swiped it right off someone's dinner table with her Conjuring.
The goose was perfectly cooked-she'd probably Conjured it off some inn's main dining table-and the first bite unleashed an onslaught of ravenous hunger. He stripped both drumsticks before Sarraya had much of a chance to do anything, and he began working on the main body of the bird with his claws and teeth by the time she was sedately perched on a rock facing him. She'd Conjured up some berries for herself, and they shared a meal in relative silence, at least until Tarrin slowed down in his eating enough to speak between bites.
"How long was I asleep?" he asked.
"Just over the night," she replied. "I brought you over here to get you away from that mess you made."
"What mess?" he asked, but Sarraya was already pointing. He looked in the direction she indicated, and he saw a black pillar of smoke boiling up from the ground some distance away, spreading out into the high sky. The smoke was being distorted by the morning wind, wind caused by the sun's heating of the air, wind that rushed from the east to the west, then was turned back by the prevailing winds that came in from the west once the sun had heated the desert.
"That's your doing," she told him archly. "In ten years, there's going to be a mountain there."
"A mountain? What did I do?"
"You ripped a hole in the earth that runs all the way to the magma," she said casually, but he could tell that just saying it was of monumental importance to her. "I can't fix something that big, so it's just going to have to stay."
"Magma?"
"Liquid rock," she explained. "The earth rests on an ocean of liquid rock, so hot that you wouldn't even have time to feel pain if you fell into it. Not that you'd live long enough to get that close to it in the first place."
"Oh. My father calls it lava. He saw some when a volcano in Shace erupted."
"Lava, magma, it's the same thing," Sarraya shrugged. "Since your little hole goes all the way through, now it's spewing out of it. It'll cool off and turn back into rock, then build itself up into a mountain."
"The land isn't going to sink, is it?" he asked fearfully.
Sarraya gave him a curious look. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"You said that the land floats on it. When you put a hole in a boat, it sinks."
She glanced at him, then laughed. "No, that's not going to happen. You don't know very much about the real way the world works, do you?"
"I'm not Phandebrass, Sarraya," he said defensively. "I know what my parents taught me, that's about it."
"All that time in the school in Suld, and you didn't learn anything?"
"They didn't give me much time to learn anything but Sorcery," he grunted in reply.
"Funny that you didn't know about the magma, yet you wove a spell to cause it to erupt."
"I do things I don't understand when I do that," he told her. "It's like when I'm like that, I know things I don't really know, and I forget them when it's over."
"Probably because you're in touch with the Weave," she speculated. "Nevermind. You don't look like you're up to a debate right now."
"No, not really," he said, looking back at the smoke. "So, that'll be a mountain?"
"A volcano, to be precise," she answered. "We can call it Mount Fury."
Tarrin chuckled ruefully. "At least it'd be a fitting name."
"Do you remember much about what happened?"
"Some," he replied. "I get the feeling that after a while, the rest will come back to me. What happened to that Sha'Kar woman?"
"She disappeared not long after you passed out," Sarraya said worriedly. "Tarrin, you were being Consumed. What happened? How did you weasel out of it?"
"I, I have no idea," he replied. "I don't really remember very much about that."
"The Sha'Kar spoke to me before she disappeared," she said. "She said she was there to test you. She said that she was sent to make you lose control."
"I had a feeling that was the case," he said calmly. "I thought about that a bit just before I opened my eyes. I couldn't think of any sane or rational reason she would have come here and attacked me that way."
"At least you're thinking," she teased, then she got serious again. "She said that you had to lose control if you were ever going to get stronger. She said that all Weavespinners had to face being Consumed. She said that if you survived, you were a Weavespinner."
"I thought I already was one."
"Maybe in name, but I think you had to do that to be able to use the power that the Weavespinners use. Can you feel anything different right now?"
"I can see the Weave, Sarraya," he answered, looking around and surveying it with his strange second sight. "I can see every strand, and I can feel the pulsing of the power flowing through them like blood through a body. I can feel that power pool up in the strands nearest to me, and feel them bend in towards me. Almost like I'm attracting them."
"I think you are," she agreed. "Look at your amulet."
Tarrin picked it up off his chest, and immediately saw the difference. The central star now had two bent lines coming out of each side, reaching out and touching the triangles that surrounded the star. The star looked vaguely like a spider with those little leg-like formations extending from it.