" Oui, madame," she said in a heavy accent. "Do you require anything?"
"I think I need a cold bath," Faalken said, looking at the young girl. That got him an elbow in the ribs from Keritanima. She winced when her elbow made connection with the steel of his armor.
"Just a meal for now, my dear," Dolanna told her. "I will call you if we require anything more."
" Oui," she said, giving a bobbing curtsy. "I will hurry the meal."
"Be still my breastplate," Faalken said, watching the door for a moment after she closed it.
"I think it's your codpiece you should keep still," Keritanima said waspishly.
"I love Shacean maids," Faalken said with hearty sigh and a look at the door.
"You love anything in a dress. That's one reason I'm so worried about wearing the robes," Azakar told him, which made the Knight glare at him.
"I think I broke my arm," Keritanima said sulkily, rubbing her elbow.
"That'll teach you to elbow a Knight."
"I'll just set fire to your breeches next time," she told him with a slightly ominous smile.
"I think the maid already did that," Faalken said, which made Allia and Dar break out in laughter and drew a nasty look from Keritanima.
"Children," Dolanna chided. "We should settle in. We will probably be here for a few days."
"I don't see how someone so old can be a child," Keritanima said in a surly tone as Faalken and Azakar entered one of the rooms.
"Faalken's temperament passes a great deal of idle time, Keritanima," Dolanna told her in a calm voice, though she was smiling. "Given the choice of spending a month with him, or a month with you, I would choose him. He is much more entertaining."
"That was low, Dolanna," Keritanima said shortly.
"At least he does not shed," she said, passing into one of the rooms.
Miranda burst out laughing, but it came up short when Keritanima whirled on her and gave her an ugly look. "Don't you start too!" she snapped.
"Kerri, I never stopped," she said with a cheeky grin. "And you do shed."
Keritanima growled in her throat, then stomped into one of the rooms. She made sure to slam the door. Hard.
Miranda giggled like a little girl, then looked down and gave Tarrin a cheeky grin. Then she winked. "You two better claim rooms," Miranda told Allia and Dar.
"What about you?" Dar asked.
"My place is with her Royal Shedding Highness," she said simply. "Binter and Sisska will get a room too. They may be Kerri's bodyguards, but even they need time to themselves sometimes. I'll keep an eye on her Highness."
"We appreciate your consideration, Miranda," Sisska said in her deep, unfeminine voice.
Tarrin jumped up onto the deeply cushioned couch, upholstered in dark satin, then laid down sedately near the arm. "I think Tarrin is claiming this room as his own," Allia said with a smile at him. Tarrin nodded to her. "Alright then. I think I would like to unpack this," she said, holding up her pack.
All the others went into rooms, leaving Tarrin alone. He didn't mind all that much, for he was rather tired, and it had been a long day. The couch was soft and pleasant, and it would make a perfect bed for him. Azakar was carrying his pack, so he knew where to go to get his things. He had just drifted off to to sleep when the door opened, and two large men carried in a table. More men behind them brought in chairs, and then a series of ladies lavished large amounts of sumptuous-smelling food onto the table. Haley himself stood at the door watching the activity, and his smile returned when Dolanna came out of her room. "As promised, one meal to die for," Haley told her, kissing her hand as the last servant filed out. "After you dine, I'll have bathtubs brought up so you can wash the sea off of your skin."
"That would greatly please me, Master Haley," she said sincerely.
"You never told me you had a pet, Dolanna," he said, looking at Tarrin. "I didn't see it when you arrived."
"Mistress Allison was carrying him in her bag," she said calmly. "The cat likes it in there, and it makes it easy to transport."
"He's a big cat," he said with a smile, approaching Tarrin, as if to pet him. But the closer he got, the more striking the dissimilarity of his scent became. It was blazingly obvious to him that Haley wasn't human, wasn't what he appeared to be. Didn't Dolanna know that? Was he an enemy, a lurker, someone who preyed on the unwary? Tarrin laid his ears back when Haley got near, and then hissed at him when he reached out to pat him on the head. A clawed paw took a swipe at that hand, which was out of range, but it got his attention. Haley backed off, slowly, giving Dolanna a rueful grin.
"I am so sorry, Haley," she apologized as Tarrin growled at the man threateningly. "I have never seen him do that before."
"Maybe your cat can smell me," he chuckled ruefully. "I know I don't smell like a human."
That got his attention. That he referred to them as human meant that he wasn't one himself.
"Tarrin's sense of smell is quite acute," Dolanna agreed. "Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense."
"Tarrin?" Haley said with sudden interest, giving Dolanna a sharp look. "You mean this is the Tarrin?"
"How do you mean?"
"Dolanna, how did you get this far?" he asked suddenly. "Do you have any idea how many of us are looking for him? I don't believe that you got all the way to Dayise!"
"We have been aboard a ship for two months, Haley," she replied.
"Yes, of course," he said to himself. "The search has been on land. But you must have come ashore, or else Triana wouldn't have sent messages about him. Did he really destroy half of Den Gauche?"
Triana? How did he know Triana? He-
– -of course! He was part of Fae-da'Nar! But what was he?
"You have me at a disadvantage, Haley," Dolanna said seriously. "I did not think that you kept in touch with the others."
"Dolanna, what have you done to me?" he groaned. "I've already given you hospitality, but now I'm harboring a Rogue. If the Circle finds out about this-"
"They will not, Haley," she said. "We will only be here for a few days, at the most. Then we will be gone." She looked at Tarrin. "You can change, dear one. He already knows who and what you are."
Tarrin jumped down off the couch, then shifted into his humanoid form. Haley stared at him for a moment, eyes searching, then he sighed ruefully. Then he chuckled. "I don't believe this," he grunted.
"Who is this, Dolanna? You know he's not human, don't you?"
"Tarrin, remember when I told you that I had a Were-wolf friend, who taught me most of what I know about Were-kin?" He nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, this is the Were-wolf. Haley, meet Tarrin. Tarrin, this is Haley."
"Triana wasn't lying," Haley said appreciatively, looking up Tarrin's considerable height. Tarrin looked down on the slender man, finding it hard to believe that he was Were. He didn't look Were, though he did smell it. But then again, Jesmind had told him once that Were-cats were unique in that their human shape was no longer their natural form. It stood to reason that all other Were-kin could take a human shape. And when he was in human shape, he looked just he had, completely human. Haley, in human form, would look perfectly human. "You're a bit raw on the edges, boy. You need to leash that temper."
"What are you going to do?" Tarrin asked bluntly.
"Tarrin, Haley has welcomed us and given us hospitality," Dolanna said. "That means that until we leave his home, he will protect and see to our needs. Because he gave you hospitality, he will not do anything to you, or against you."
"It's a Were-wolf custom," Haley told him calmly. "Until you leave my range, you are pack-mates. That makes you family. But now that custom is making me choose between custom and law."