"Running for your life can do that, ma'am," he replied calmly. Tarrin didn't like this woman. He wasn't sure why, but he did not. It was a gut feeling, an instinctive reaction, but he did not like her.
"So I've been told. Well, you've made it, young one, and we can all be happy of that." She sat down at the table, and the other woman followed her. She was a rather tall woman with black hair and very pale skin, wearing a yellow silk dress that was cut rather low in the front. Silk seemed to be the fabric of choice in the Tower among the ladies. The woman had a very pretty face, and was obviously very young, but her dark eyes were expressionless. It gave Tarrin the chills to look into them. It was like looking into the eyes of a corpse. "Because you look about ready to fall over, we'll put off formally admitting you into the Novitiate for two days, so you can rest a bit and get back some of your strength," she told him. "Until then, feel free to look around, but you're not to leave the Tower grounds. Although you're not officially a Novice yet, you should start abiding by the rules that all Novices follow. I've sent for Elsa Gaarnhold, the Mistress of Novices. Where you sleep and what you'll need will be her responsibility. She'll also provide you with some new clothes and show you where things are."
The young man Sevren had sent for food returned with a tray heavily laden with roasted chicken and goose. Tarrin's mouth started watering the instant the smell of it touched his nose. "A good idea," she remarked, standing up. "I'll leave you to your meal, young one. I'm sure you'd like to stay, Dolanna, so please do so."
"Thank you, Keeper," Dolanna said quietly.
"Elsa should be along in a while. Just wait here for her." They all stood, and then the Keeper and the dead-eyed woman with the yellow dress left without so much as a word.
"Strange," Sevren said calmly.
Tarrin didn't waste any time. He sat down at the table where the young man had set the tray and attacked the food with a vengence. The young man left, and Sevren and Dolanna sat down at the table with Tarrin. Sevren and Dolanna exchanged polite introductions, and Tarrin offered each of them something off the tray.
"Thank you," Dolanna said, pouring glasses of wine for each of them. Tarrin wondered how the man knew to bring more than two glasses. "Tarrin, what happened after we separated? I have been worrying for you."
"It's a very long story, Dolanna," he said between bites. "To make it short, I ran into Jesmind."
"Jesmind?"
"Her," he said calmly.
"Ah. She came to find you?"
"She'd been following us the whole time," he replied. He gave Sevren a cautionary glance. "Sevren, I just met you, but I think I can trust you. Promise me that what you're about to heat goes no farther than this room."
"You have my word, my boy," he said immediately.
"She didn't know who collared her," he told Dolanna. "She can't remember anything that happened while it was on her neck. The only reason she knew about me was because you took off the collar with her in sight of me."
"I hope that it was not a bad occurrance," she sighed.
"It is now," he grimaced. "She was taking me back into the Frontier. I kept trying to convince her to come to Suld with me, but she wouldn't hear of it. So I ran away from her. And she was not happy about it."
"I feared as much," she said in a heavy voice.
"She's going to try to kill me, Dolanna. There's no doubt in my mind. She's decided I'm a Rogue because I refused to learn what she has to teach me, and that means that I'm marked. The people here should know that Jesmind will come here, and when she does, she'll try to kill me."
"I will let the Keeper know. She will be the one that will have to take steps."
"That's why I'm in such sorry condition," he said. "I wasn't sure if she was right behind me, but I wasn't about to take the chance. I've been running almost constantly for the last fifteen days or so. Dinner was whetever I could find during a ten minute stop to rest."
"Well, you have made it, my dear one," she said with a gentle smile, putting her hand over his paw.
"Only just," he sighed. "The entire forest north and west of Suld is literally crawling with Goblinoids. Maybe someone should be told about that. There may be enough out there to come down and attack a fair sized town."
"That should be passed along," Sevren noted.
"There were also humans around trying to kill me," he told her. "I was almost done in by a little rat of man with a sling. I found out that someone was paying a reward for dead bodies of anyone even remotely resembling a Wikuni travelling on the High Road. I just hope no innocent Wikuni were killed."
"Dear one, Wikuni almost never leave sight of the sea," she told him. "They are almost married to the ocean. That is why Wikuni are so rare outside of harbor towns."
"What else did the man tell you?" Sevren asked.
"Not much. I killed him pretty soon after I shook off getting hit in the head with the rock," Tarrin shrugged. "I wasn't exactly thinking straight, else I would have grilled him for more before I killed him."
Tarrin missed the slightly worried look Sevren passed to Dolanna, and her very slight gesture to leave it be.
"Have you been having the dreams?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "Jesmind did teach me a little bit before we split. She taught me how to make them stop. That's at least one good thing that came of it." He put down a stripped goose leg bone. "She also taught me how to shapeshift. It's actually pretty easy."
"Did she teach you anything else?"
"Not really," he replied. "We were only together a few days, and we spent alot of that trying to sneak around the Goblinoids that were all over the place." He decided not to tell her about the night they'd spent together. That was too private, even to discuss it with Dolanna. "What happened after the Wyvern sunk the ship?" he asked.
"There were several casualties among the crew," she replied. "We helped them as best we could, and then we took another ship south. It was a very uneventful trip after you left us. That leads me to believe that you were the reason for it."
"I was," he said. "Whoever it was that's after me certainly didn't stop after the Wyvern. I spent most of my time running from Jesmind and dodging Goblinoids at the same time."
"Are you sure that they were after you?" Sevren asked. "I'm assuming here that by Goblinoid you mean more than one race. They don't usually cooperate."
"These were," he replied. "I saw a Dargu tribe meet with a Waern tribe, and the chieftans spoke without drawing weapons. That's not right, because Waern consider Dargu a delicacy. They're working together. And that means that there's someone that's telling them what to do that they fear more than they hate the others."
"A very grim suggestion," he said, stroking his chin in thought. "I think that the King should know about this. A coordinated horde of goblinoids could storm any city in Sulasia, except for Suld." He picked up a slice of beef. "They may decide to pick a few cities in their leisure time."
The door opened, and a huge woman entered. She was wearing a pair ofblack trousers and a brown shirt, and her long, thick blond hair was done up in a simple braid that was as thich around as Tarrin's wrist, and reached almost to her backside. Her face was strong but very handsome, and she had a sword belted at her waist. There was no doubt that she was Ungaardt. Tarrin stood and eyed her calmly as she closed the door and approached them. "Vasra guhn," Tarrin greeted. Tarrin had been taught the language of the Ungaardt by his mother. They used it often, especially since Eron had never gotten around to learning it.
"Vasra dughus," she noted with surprise. "What clan?" she asked in the Ungaardt tongue.