That was enough. He wouldn't survive from those injuries. Shaking blood from his paw absently, he stared directly at the four horrified young women, his expression blank. They were clutching onto each other. He noticed the dead silence in the inn; the fury and speed of his assault had taken them all aback, and he was done before even one tried to intervene. "Don't grieve for him," Tarrin told them in a cold tone. "What he got is what he gave to a young girl not an hour ago, something he would have done to any of you. He got what he gave. No more, no less."
Then the turned and left the man to bleed on the floor, and wait for Death to come and claim him.
That bit of business concluded, Tarrin walked out of the inn and into an alley, then changed form and stalked off. He was still trying to find a cat to replace him, and he wasn't going to stop until he did.
He snuck back into the inn close to dawn, his business finished. He found a suitable cat about an hour after killing the man who had so grievously injured the young girl, and spent most of the rest of the night teaching it what it needed to know. Once he had that done, and assured the cat that Kern would feed it and care for it, he took it to the Star of Jerod and woke up Kern. He introduced the cat, explained how to instruct it to pretend to be him, then explained the cat's demands in return for this service. Kern was very receptive, for a cat's demands usually went no further than a steady supply of food and a warm place to sleep comfortably.
The inn's common room still had people inside it, but it was nearly empty. Only a couple of patrons and a single serving girl remained in the room, the three men drinking from tankards and talking in low tones as the girl cleaned tables nearby. Haley stepped from a door near the bar and his eyes seemed to be drawn directly to where Tarrin was standing, near the stairs. He gave Tarrin a blunt look, then pointed to a table near the back, to which Haley moved and sat down. He was demanding an audience of sorts, he guessed. There was no real reason to refuse. Tarrin jumped up onto the table and gave the Were-wolf a calm look.
"And where have you been all night?" he asked in a slightly hostile voice.
He didn't see any reason to reply. He wouldn't understand anyway. He just stood up and walked to the edge of the table, then jumped down and started for the stairs.
Upstairs, he settled onto the couch just as the door to Allia's room opened. She padded out on bare feet and a nightgown lent by Dolanna, looking like a dark-skinned rose in the pink garment. Her long silver hair was a bit wild, and her eyes hung heavily. The night without sleep didn't affect Tarrin at all, for he could go days, rides, without any real sleep. Allia didn't sleep long, but she always had trouble waking up.
"Tarrin," she said sleepily. "Dolanna was looking for you. You were gone all night."
"I had to find a replacement cat for Kern," he told her in the manner of the Cat. "It wasn't easy."
"That Haley was also looking for you. I don't know why."
"He probably had a good reason," he said knowingly.
Keritanima and Miranda came from their room. Keritanima was wearing one of her dressing gowns and looked very much like herself, rather than the strict, stern Kaylin. Miranda wore a soft robe that was tied loosely, hanging off one shoulder. Miranda looked as if she wanted to go right back in there and go back to sleep. "Morning," Keritanima said.
Dolanna's door opened, and she stood in the doorway. She gave Tarrin a blunt look, obviously she wasn't happy about something. "Tarrin, come in here, now," she said in an authoritative voice.
Getting up, he padded into her room calmly. There really wasn't much she could say. After all, she didn't tell him that he couldn't go out. He sat on his haunches and looked up at her expectantly.
"Change," she ordered, and he did so, going from looking up her great height to looking down at her. She grabbed him by the paw and turned it over, looking down at the dried blood clinging to the pads. "Really, Tarrin, can you not go out by yourself without killing someone?" she said in exasperation.
"He had it coming," he said flatly. "He nearly killed a young girl."
"And when were you elected judge and executioner?" she demanded. "They are not your fights, young one. You should have turned him into the watch."
"Some things can't be forgiven," he said in a ruthless tone, looking directly into Dolanna's eyes to challenge her position.
"Word of it reached us," she told him. "That an exotic Wikuni killed a man in the middle of an inn's common room. The method of killing immediately told me who it was. Right now, the Watch is hunting for you, so I do not suggest you go out in your natural form."
"That's not a problem," he told her. "Nobody's seen me change, so nobody knows where I am."
"I do," Haley said from Dolanna's door. Tarrin hadn't heard him open it. That said a great deal for the Were-wolf's stealth. "Dolanna, you lost all the ground you gained last night. I'm not going to let him run through the streets and kill people whenever he feels like it."
"Perhaps it would be best to hear his reasons before you pass judgement, Haley," Dolanna told him. "Well, young one? Exactly what did provoke this?"
Without emotion, staring directly at Haley the entire time after he entered the room and closed the door, Tarrin recanted the story of how he found the young girl, then what he did to the man who put her there. "I don't know where you grew up, but where I was raised we believe in an eye for an eye," Tarrin told the Were-wolf in a neutral tone. "I did to him what he did to her."
"And why didn't you turn him into the watch?" he asked.
"Because they wouldn't have done what needed to be done," he replied calmly.
"Why bother?" Haley asked. "What was the girl to you?"
"She was in need," he said, glaring at the Were-wolf.
Sighing, Haley sat down. "Boy, you just have no idea what you're getting yourself into," he said. " Fae-da'Nar forbids us to act outside the laws where we are unless they jeopardize our own lives or livelihood. I may not like what the man did, but I can't go around and dish out my own version of justice to whoever I feel deserves it."
"I'm not part of your order," Tarrin told him.
"You better be, boy," he replied bluntly. "If you're not, then they'll kill you."
"They can certainly try," Tarrin seethed.
"I think we can dispense with the threats," Dolanna interrupted. "Tarrin does not kill indiscriminately, Haley. He usually has a good reason."
"Boy, I'm not calling you down," he said. "I'd probably have done the same thing myself. I'm not heartless. But I understand that the well being of the Forest Kin depends on us being able to function within the human society. When among humans, it's important that we don't upset them, and we act more human. If we mess that up, many of the things that we need will be out of our reach, because the humans won't trust us anymore."
"So, what would you have done?" Tarrin asked, giving Haley a slightly cross look.
"I don't really know. But the point is, I would have weighed the consequences before just charging off. That's something that you can't seem to be able to do, and that makes you dangerous." He gave Tarrin a direct look. "You're feral, boy. You think you know what that means, but you're not even halfway close. If you keep doing what you're doing, dishing out justice, killing anyone you deem in need of it, you're going to get harder and harder. Killing will be easier and easier, and you'll find it to be the quickest and easiest way to solving your problems. Dolanna told me you feared becoming a monster. If you keep up the way you're going now, you're going to be that monster. It won't be the savage mindlessness you fear, it will be a cold and calculating sadism that will make people fear you ten times more than if you were insane. Were-cats are all half feral, that's one of the reasons the rest of the Were-kin don't like them. But Were-cats like you and Mist define everything the rest of us don't like about your kind."