Sarraya glowered hotly at Sapphire's back as the dragon sauntered into the kitchen, but Triana's humorless chuckle drew her eyes away. "And that, bug, is why you should learn to think before you open your mouth."
"Oh, shut up!" Sarraya snapped waspishly.
There wasn't much time left before dawn, but it was time enough. They broke up their lesson and Tarrin returned to his room to rest a while. He was a little too wound up to sleep, and he really didn't feel like it anyway. So he just sat down in a comfortable chair by the fireplace and stared into the fire for a while, thinking about what was going to happen over the next few days. He was hopeful that his idea was going to work, for it would protect everyone without putting anyone in too much danger. Grandfather wouldn't mind the opportunity to give his warriors a little exercise, and he was actually looking forward a little to going back to the desert. He had always wanted to go there with Allia, and now they were going to get their chance. The only place in the desert where he'd spent enough time to be able to Teleport was that ruined dwarven city in the northwestern regions, quite a distance from Amyr Dimeon, which was his goal. But that wasn't a problem. An Air Elemental could get him there in a day, maybe two. All he had to do was get them to that city. He thought back to that city, and the great happenings that had taken place there. It was where he and Jegojah had fought for the last time, and where Faalken's body was now entombed in the marble crypt he had made for him. It was where Jegojah had given him the information that had allowed him to defend Suld. In a real sense, it was where everything that had led up to where he was right now had begun. Perhaps it was fitting that he returned there, to that somber place, a city left behind by the brave Dwarves who had sacrificed their entire race to save the world.
Two months. It was all going to be over in about two months. The morning outside was surprisingly crisp, as the late summer-actually early fall now-had a bite to it not normal for that time of year. About now in Aldreth, all the crops were either in or in the process of being harvested, and the trees were just getting ready to change colors. There would be colors on the trees on the foothills and low mountains north, and there would be snow on the peaks of the high mountains behind them. Everyone would be hard at work right now. Father would be bringing in his crops of barley and whey, and running around procuring the fruits and other vegetables he needed to do his fall brewing. Mother would be getting on him about hunting up enough to restock the basement cold room for the winter; the Kael household almost never resorted to eating the farm animals. They did slaughter an occasional pig or sheep for ham or mutton, but the sheep were for wool, not meat, wool that mother was probably spinning into cloth and yarn right now, taking off the thin summer coats and getting them nice and ready to fill out to protect themselves from the coming cold nights.
It would be a little harder on his parents without him and Jenna there. Tarrin did most of the hunting, freeing his father to pursue his love of brewing, and Jenna was quite good at spinning the wool, which left mother with plenty of time to tend the sheep. But now that the Sorcerers had fixed father's knee, he should be able to hunt up a full storeroom in a short amount of time; this time of year, there were so many deer and elk infesting the area around Aldreth that they had to shoo them out of the yard to get to the sheep pens in the morning. They were slowly migrating south, moving out of the mountains as fall took hold in them and moving slowly towards the more hospitable forests in the Frontier to spend the winter. As autumn progressed, they would move farther and farther south, and the Kael cold storeroom would be filled to the ceiling with deer and elk meat, carefully dressed and packed to maximize storage space. They wouldn't touch those stores usually, using it as an emergency reserve for when the hunting turned lean, and the food they could buy from Aldreth became more and more expensive and less plentiful.
Well, in two months, if he was lucky, he'd be heading back there. He wasn't going to live on his parents' farm; he was a grown man now. No, there was a little clearing in the Frontier, not far from the Keal holding, that had a nice little stream flowing along the edge. It was where he'd always wanted to build his own house, because he spent a great deal of time in that meadow. It was a crossroads of sorts for the many trails he'd followed in pursuit of game, or just wandering around where he knew he wasn't allowed to be. It was the heart of the territory that that young hunter had considered his own, and it would serve him now as the heart of his territory as a Were-cat. From Watch Hill to the Broken Gulley some two days east of the Kael farm in the Frontier, from the foothills of the Skydancer Mountains down to the Nameless River some two days south, that would be his claimed territory. A very large area, but he was a very large Were-cat, and he would have no trouble protecting his claim. He could have as big a territory as he could defend, and he could defend a big swath of land.
Strange that he would be thinking of after now. He'd never really allowed himself to do that before, but then again, things had never looked so optomistic. He had the Firestaff, and what was more important, he had a tremendous advantage now. They couldn't catch him, they couldn't take it from him, and everyone else he cared about would be well protected. His sisters and friends would be in Dusgaard under the protective banner of his grandfather, and his mates and children would be entrenched firmly under the watchful eyes of his sister, who was just as formidable as him. For the first time in a very long time, he felt very confident that things were going to turn out alright.
Very soon now, he'd have the peace and quiet he so craved. It made him very calm, as the Cat within finally found contentment in enduring just another couple of months, and it would be a couple of months that would actually seem quite pleasant. No running for his life, no armies chasing after him. Just peace and quiet, a holiday of sorts to wait out the year and get past Gods' Day. Provided, of course, that everything worked as he hoped.
There was a knock at the door. It annoyed him slightly, and he was too far away from the door to be able to catch the scent coming under the door to identify whoever it was. "What?" he called.
"Can I come in?" a voice called from the other side. Much to his surprise, it was Jesmind, and she was being strangely polite. Usually, she'd just barge in. Obviously, his anger with her was making her rather tractable. He still was angry with her, but he was about to leave, and he felt that she deserved at least the chance to say goodbye.
"Alright," he called.
She opened the door and stepped in. She was dressed as she always was, in clothes she favored. She liked canvas breeches because she felt they were tougher than leather, and she always did like loose shirts of linen or cotton, light and breathable, with short sleeves. She closed the door behind her and padded up, and he could tell from her scent that she was a little irritated over something. Seeing her reminded him of how angry he was with her, how inexcusably she had acted while he had been human. But on the other hand, he was about to leave for about two months or so, so it would be necessary for them to talk now. Talking through the amulets was an option, but it just wasn't as good as face to face communication. Seeing her reminded him of how much he loved her, but right now that love was stained with an oily film of annoyance and anger.
"How is Jasana?"
"Locked in her room," Jesmind said flintily. "After the thrashing she got, she won't think about coming out for a while."
"Is she going to be alright?"
"She'll be fine," she assured him. "She'll whine and cry for a while, but when she realizes that no amount of conniving is going to make us change our minds, she'll start doing things our way."
"It's about time," he said bluntly.
"It was overdue," Jesmind admitted. "I guess it's both our faults. We knew how she was. We should have done something about it sooner." She sat down on the bed, bouncing on it slightly. "Mother told me what you decided. I think it's a good idea."