He nodded.
"Alright then. I'll see you later, and we'll talk," she told him, pulling his head down and giving him a kiss.
"I say, I think I'll tag along with Kimmie," Phandebrass said. "I'll be a fifth wheel in a room full of Were-cats, but with me there, nothing's going to sneak up on them, it won't."
"I appreciate that, Phandebrass," Tarrin said sincerely, nodding to the human. "But before you go, I need a favor."
"Just ask."
"How good are you at astronomy?"
"Astronomy? I say, I'm no expert, but I do know a bit about it. What do you need?"
"On Gods' Day, the four moons are going to form a conjunction," he told him in dreadful intensity. "I need you to find out exactly when that's going to happen. Use a clock and find out to right down to the second. Down to the second, Phandebrass."
He gave him an unblinking stare, then nodded. "I'll draw you up a chart," he promised. "It will be ready by supper, it will. You have my word on it."
"Thank you."
"All you need do is ask, lad. All you need do is ask. Now if you'll excuse me, your pretty girlfriend is going to leave me behind, she is."
They left them behind, then quickly made their way towards Jenna's office. Tarrin paused to turn and look back, watching Kimmie hurry back the way he had come. Kimmie was looking well, and he was glad of that. He hated the idea of leaving her behind, but there was no help for it. He wasn't about to endanger another of his children. If he hadn't been so angry and so driven by his need to rescue Jasana, he would have paid her the attention she deserved. Ever since he'd some back to the Tower, she'd been pushed more and more to the fringes by Jesmind, and Tarrin felt sorry for her because of that. Jesmind seemed perfectly capable of being friends with Kimmie and dealing with her amiably about Tarrin as long as he wasn't around. But as soon as he did come around, she got defensive and possessive, and he knew her behavior was an attempt to push Kimmie out of competition for his affection. He remembered Jesmind's heated declaration when he'd argued with her back when he was a human, and it opened his eyes a great deal about her behavior. As long as she was the only one he loved, she had no qualms about allowing him to stray. But now that she knew that he loved Kimmie, she was worried that he may find more happiness with Kimmie than with her. And Jesmind, being who she was, was responding by trying to drive away her competitor.
Jesmind was jealous, and he probably couldn't blame her. He loved Jesmind with all his heart, but he also loved Kimmie. There were no depths or levels of love to him; love was love. What Jesmind didn't seem to understand was that both he and Kimmie knew that right now, he belonged with Jesmind. He had promised he would come back to her, and he would keep that promise. They were still mates, in his mind as well as hers, and only time and the process of their instincts driving them apart was going to change that. She had probably been a little hurt by what happened as well, feeling that she wasn't woman enough to be everything he needed, or feeling betrayed that he would fall in love with Kimmie when he was already in love with her, or probably both. And now with Jasana gone-he sighed. He needed to pay her some very special attention. With everything happening, she needed some reassurance.
Tarrin watched Kimmie walk away with hooded eyes, taking in the sight of her. Even from behind, her expanding waistline was starting to become apparent, but she was still one fine figure of a Were-cat female. If she only knew, but there was no way he could tell her. Then he turned and followed Sapphire.
Jenna's scolding was brief, but it was also intense and thorough.
Sapphire blasted into her, venting her anger and her displeasure in a very effective manner, blistering Jenna's ears with heated tirades of her lack of responsibility and her inattentivess, then drifting into outbursts of obscenity so vile that it even made Tarrin's ears cringe to hear them, things he wouldn't even say. Not satisfied with the colorful expressions available in Sulasian, her black vituperations extended into several languages. From Arakite to Sharadi, Torian drawl to a flowery language he'd never heard before, she ranged through all the worst available foul language present in those languages, sizzling the pale Jenna's ears. Then, as if to crown it off, she started raging at the girl in the language of dragons. She had never taught him any of the obsceneties, and that was probably why he barely understand a quarter of the words that came off of her lips. Jenna stood stock still and pale as the dragon bored into her with her remonstrances for allowing Jasana to be taken off the grounds. The Keeper stood there like a meek little girl who had just been caught with her hand in the pasty dish, taking the dragon's hot lecturing with a bowed head and a pale face.
There was silence for several moments after Sapphire seemed to play herself out, looking at Jenna with those ominous eyes and panting from the exertion of such an outburst, as Jenna simply stood there with her hands folded in front of her, looking as contrite and vulnerable as she could possibly look. It was a trick Jenna used to devastating effect against her father, and it had allowed her to weasel out of a great deal of punishment when she was a little girl.
A devious nature was something of a family trait on the female side of Tarrin's family line.
But Sapphire had the same mettle as their mother, and Elke Kael had been immune to her daughter's suffering and simpering posturings. She glowered at Jenna for a moment as she recovered from her tirade, then she sighed and looked to Tarrin. "I feel much better now," she admitted.
"I don't think Jenna agrees with you," he said absently.
"You're right," she said in a weak voice.
"I would not have been able to focus on the matter at hand if I hadn't gotten that out of my system," she said conversationally.
"Has Spyder contacted you, Jenna?" he asked.
"She did. She said she's coming, and we have something serious to talk about. You have any idea what she means?"
"Yes. We're about to stop a second Blood War, Jenna," he said grimly. "Before it has a chance to get out of control."
"What?" she asked woodenly.
"The same people who attacked the Tower aren't done yet, sister. They've rebuilt their army, they have Val raising an army of Demons to aid them, and Spyder herself is going to put a hand in to stop it. So are all the gods, both Elder and Younger. This is going to be a direct confrontation, Jenna," he said with unwavering eyes. "If we don't stop this here and now, it's going to be the Blood War all over again."
"I can understand why she's so upset," Jenna said, putting a hand to her stomach. "But what does this have to do with Jasana?"
"She's being held in the middle of that army," he said emotionlessly. "That's going to make getting her out a bit tricky."
"I can tell you have a plan, little one. What is it?" Sapphire asked.
Tarrin sat down in the chair in front of Jenna's desk. Jenna sat in her own, and Sapphire in the one beside his. He Conjured up a small map of the area of Gora Umadar, which consisted of little more than a square surrounded by a large circle. But it geographically correct and to scale, since it was a Conjured creation. "This is Gora Umadar," he told them.
Jenna whistled. "They're holding Jasana there?"
He nodded. "It's a big pyramid built on the tundra," he told Sapphire. "Spyder told me about it. Val's icon is in the pyramid, and that's where the Demon took Jasana. I can get her out, but it won't be easy." He traced a finger around the circle. "This line is where all the snow is melted," he told them. "They must be using some kind of magic to keep the area warm, because they've got a few hundred thousand Goblinoid and human soldiers surrounding the pyramid."
Jenna frowned. "That must be where all the survivors from the battle here went."
"As well as their armies from probably every stronghold they have here in the West," he added. "I went to the place where they had Jegojah's Soultrap, and the place is completely empty."