Nobody was hurt other than you, she assured him. They did bop Dolanna on the head to keep her from using Sorcery, but it was nothing serious.
"Poor Kerri," Tarrin sighed. "That was the last thing she wanted. Is she going to try to escape?"
Keritanima is utterly furious, but she's not being foolish, my kitten, the Goddess told him. She knows now that she has to go back. Her father will never stop until he brings her back, and she doesn't want any of you to get hurt because of her. Let Keritanima deal with her situation. It was what she was meant to do in the first place.
"What does that mean?"
Only that I need her more in Wikuna than I need her at your side, she replied cryptically. Don't worry. She knows that you're going to be alright. I told her in her dreams. She may not be very religious, but she believes it. Mainly because she wants to believe it.
His poor sister. She may have known he'd been hurt when they took her, or been taken away thinking he was dead, or maybe not knowing one way or the other. She must have been going crazy.
Boy, did he feel sorry for the people on the ship carrying her.
She's calmed down a great deal since I told her, the Goddess laughed chimingly. Now she is turning her mind to the task of how to deal with her father.
"I hope she's alright. I'm worried about her."
She will be just fine, the Goddess said gently. Right now, I'm worried more about you. For a second, I didn't know if you were going to live. Had the quarrel been a finger more to the right, it would have went right through your heart. If it weren't for Triana, you wouldn't have made it.
"Triana saved me?"
That she did, the Goddess said with profound relief in her voice. She used her Druidic power to give you the strength you needed to survive the shock of the wounding, and then Dolanna helped stabilize you with Sorcery so your wounds could be cleaned and dressed, and to keep you warm and comfortable to take as much strain off your body as possible. Now it is just a matter of time and rest for you to recover. And that's what we need to talk about.
"What about it?"
Triana has found a way to satisfy both sides in your feud with Fae-da'Nar, she told him. She intends to teach you what you need to know while you're recovering. This way, she has you as a captive audience, and you don't lose any time. The time you're going to lose now is time you'd lose no matter what. You may as well do something constructive with it.
"Is it time I can't afford to lose?"
It's time I'm ordering you to lose, she said sternly. Your health is much more important to me than your mission. You're not starting out again until you're fully recovered.
That touched him, deeply, and he felt his love for his ethereal goddess grow stronger within him.
So for now, I want you to rest and recover, my kitten, she said in a voice powerful in its compassion and love. Listen to Triana, and learn what she has to teach. She's on your side now. You'll find her to be just as powerful a friend as she was an opponent.
"I will. I just wish I could talk to Kerri."
Then talk to her, she said impishly.
"But I can't. She's out of reach."
My dense little kitten, the amulets you all wear are connected together by my power and the bonds that make you siblings. I told you that once before. It has the power to allow you to speak with your sisters, no matter where they are. Just put your fingers to the amulet and will it, and she will hear your voice. But you will not do that until you are strong enough, she said adamantly. Keritanima knows that you're alright. She can wait a ride or so to hear from you.
"Alright," he said grudgingly.
Don't you dare disobey me, she warned. I'm ten times worse than Dolanna and Triana put together when it comes to nagging. My nagging, you can't tune out.
Tarrin found that strangely amusing. "Yes, Mother," he acquiesced with a slight chuckle.
Good. I have to go now, kitten. Rest and get better. I'll be watching over you.
And then her presence within him was gone, leaving him feeling strangely empty. But the feeling of her touch gave him a newfound strength, a strength he used to bring himself back into himself, to reconnect with his senses and his surroundings. He rose up to consciousness quickly and effortlessly, and opened his eyes.
He wasn't in the cabin on the ship. He was in a modestly sized bedroom. It had a large window to his left which illuminated the room, with brown curtains hanging from a rod spanned over the top of it and pulled to one side. Chairs, five of them of varying types, had been brought in to surround the bed. There was a large chest in one corner, and a small washtable in the other corner. Each side of the bed's head was flanked by a small nightstand, both holding oil lamps that were not lit. The door was to his right, and he found himself looking a tapestry of a large, grand galleon hanging on the wall facing him. He saw his pack sitting on the top of the chest, and his staff was leaning in the corner beside it. Sitting beside him, slumbering in her chair with her hand held limply in his paw, was Allia. She looked much better now than she did before. Dolanna sat in a chair on the other side, reading a book, and Triana stood with her back to him, staring out the window. She made no move to turn around, her tail slashing back and forth absently, but when she spoke, it was obvious she knew he was awake.
"Good morning, cub," she announced. "It's good to see you awake."
Allia's eyes snapped open so fast it nearly startled him, and Dolanna put down her book and smiled warmly at him. Triana turned around, her stony face softened by a gentle smile that made her beauty truly radiant.
"Triana," he said weakly. It was a challenge to talk, and the pain in his chest intensified when he tried to take in the breath to speak. Every inhale and exhale sent a ripple of pain through him. He felt weaker than a newborn baby. He found that he could barely move, and any attempt to do so sent fire through his chest and torso. The pain was severe, but it seemed somewhat dulled to him, almost as if he could register the pain, but it couldn't affect him as it should have. "Why?" He already knew, but he wanted to hear it from her lips. He knew she wouldn't lie to him.
"I told you, I haven't given up on you yet."
"You said-"
"I know. And at the time, I meant it. But it's our nature to be a bit impulsive. I'm sure you noticed that." He looked at her, his eyes agreeing. "I've been watching you, cub. You have some rough edges and a serious control problem, but I think we can salvage you."
"Triana has agreed to teach you what you need to know to make them stop attacking you, Tarrin," Dolanna said. "Right now, listening is about the only thing you can do, so it is not a bad agreement."
"That's right," she affirmed. "It won't take you long to learn. I don't have to teach you about being Were, because it looks like you've managed to get that part. It's the laws of our society you have to learn. And I intend to file off those rough edges," she said bluntly. "You're way too wild, cub. I'm going to reign that in, even if it kills you."
Tarrin didn't like the tone in her voice, so he covered it by looking to Allia. "Sister," he greeted with a weak smile.
"You must stop torturing me like this, deshida," she said with a wan smile, squeezing his paw gently. "I am too young to spend my life at your bedside."
"It's not exactly planned, deshaida," he said weakly. "You need to complain to the people who keep doing this to me."
Allia laughed nervously, then reached up and put her hand on his cheek. "Tarrin, Keritanima-"
"I know," he cut her off, squeezing her hand. "While I was asleep, the Goddess spoke to me. She told me that Kerri's going back to Wikuna."
"Is she alright?" Dolanna asked.
Tarrin nodded. "They're treating all of them well," he assured her. "She told Kerri that I'm alright, so she's not going crazy worrying about me."
"Thank the Goddess," Dolanna said in relief. "I was worried for them. Greatly worried."