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  Auli. He liked her, and he wondered just how interested she was in him. From what Dar had told him about her last night, as the two of them played chess, Auli had been the island's hussy back when all the Sha'Kar were being mentally controlled. Was her flirting just an echo of that past, or was she truly interested in him? What level of interest did she really have? She'd flirted with Dar too, was she only interested in playing with them, or did she want a relationship? It was too much of a gray area. Tarrin wasn't going to hold her past against her, since she couldn't help it from what he'd been told. The mind control had made all the Sha'Kar act like Auli to one degree or another. He could certainly see it in them when they went out. The Sha'Kar would blush a little when they met members of the opposite sex, probably past romantic interests. The Sha'Kar weren't half as morally strait-laced as the people in Aldreth were--after all, they did bathe in company and weren't quite as set against showing skin as where he came from--but some of them had seemed to cross some line in their culture that was not to be crossed back when they were under control. He knew they were a bit embarassed about it, but he hoped they didn't dwell on it too much. One couldn't beat one's self over the head over things over which one had no control. They should just forgive themselves and others and then move on. It would be best for all of them.

  Held against her or not, Tarrin couldn't deny an attraction to Auli. She was very pretty and she had a very attractive figure. But until he felt more comfortable with everything, he decided that maybe it was a good idea not to pursue things with her. He'd be a friend to her, though. She was too much fun to be with for him to avoid her. Besides, he needed to talk with her, get to know her a little so he could figure out if she was just flirting for the fun of it, or if she'd been serious. That look she gave Kimmie certainly looked serious, but then again, not only was she a girl, but she was a non-human girl. Girls were mystery enough, but one from another culture? One that wasn't human? She'd be ten times harder to figure out.

  That seemed the best course of action.

  The boredom of waiting for the Sha'Kar to get up and get ready at least gave him plenty of time to think about all that. They were all standing just outside the fences in a large open area on the outskirts of town, and they weren't alone. Excited human servants were around them, gabbing excitedly at the times to come, when they would be free of the island. All of them had agreed to serve in the Tower as they gradually adjusted to freedom, since none of them were prepared to deal with the radical shift in lifestyle that would come with freedom. At least they were wise enough to understand that. There were also many Sha'Kar there, gathered with their trunks stacked in the center of the mass. The youngers looked extremely unhappy, since they were about to leave a life of pampered luxury for the demanding life that would come in the Tower.

  That had been a rather amusing little event. Some of the youngers had actually tried to rebel the night before, stating flatly that the island was their home, and they were not going to leave it. The elders among them had debated, argued, shouted, even ordered them to give up on the idea, but they were all adamant. They were happy on the island, and they were not about to leave. They would continue with their lives of parties and fun, and not an elder was going to tell them that they couldn't do it. Ianelle, that clever fox, gave in to their demand and told them that they were more than welcome to remain behind, where they would be forever exiled from the culture of the Sha'Kar, and not be visited. For any reason. And then she told them quite absently that since the servants were technically still slaves, and they were owned by the patron or matron of each house, who all happened to be elders, that meant that all the servants would be leaving in the morning. All the serving girls, all the cleaners, all the pages, all the farmers, all the food gatherers, every single human servant. The youngers were more than welcome to remain behind, but they'd have to feed, clothe, and support themselves. They could have their grand houses and their parties, but not much else.

  It had been a devastatingly effective tactic. Faced with the prospect of having to grub in the dirt to feed themselves, the youngers had the wind sucked right out of their sails. And the human Sorcerers that had sided with the youngers quickly jumped ship, knowing that any human left behind, Sorcerer or not, would be seen as a servant in the making. That ended that rebellion faster than any other thing possibly could have done so.

  For that reason, the Sha'Kar around them weren't all that good company. The youngest looked very put out and surly, and the elders all looked very aggravated with their children. That gave the place a feeling of hostility that put Kimmie and Triana a bit on edge, making them pull in a little closer to Tarrin, which made him hostile. The others with them hadn't come out yet, staying behind with Arlan, Iselde, and Allyn to make sure they'd gotten everything from their manor house that they wanted to take. The only one there was Dar, who in the days since his loss of memory had become one of his closer friends. He liked all the others, and Allia was probably the one he liked the most, but Dar was about his age, and he just felt comfortable with him. Besides, Allia spent alot of time letting Allyn fawn over her. Tarrin had never seen a man more totally enslaved by a woman than Allyn was with Allia. Allia seemed to enjoy it, and Allyn wouldn't take his eyes off of her even if she told him to.

  Tarrin looked around and realized that he didn't see any babies among the Sha'Kar. There were plenty of very young Sha'Kar, no more than teens, but very few children and no infants. The youngest he'd seen looked to be about a six year old boy.

  Only about half of the Sha'Kar had arrived, around two hundred or so standing or milling around on the grass, muttering or talking with one another. Tarrin stood near to Kimmie and Triana and watched them, listened to them as the older ones talked about the work to come and the satisfaction and eagerness to return to the life so long abandoned, and the younger ones growled and sulked over losing their homes, losing their decadent, pampered lifestyles. Though he'd been there, Tarrin couldn't remember the Tower, so he had no idea what kind of place was waiting for them there. And he was interested in it. It was just one of the many things he was interested in learning.

  Tarrin spotted the others, helping the three Sha'Kar with them carry out five large trunks. Azakar carried two, and each of the others was being carried by a Sha'Kar and one of their friends. Dar came right up to him with his single pack slung over his shoulder and greeted him, and they stood together and watched as the trunks were set with the others and the group reassembled. Tarrin saw the remaining Sha'Kar converging on the field from around the large, spaced town, moving in large groups, and he realized that they'd be leaving very soon.

  "It looks like we're about to go," Dar noted, mirroring his thoughts.

  "It's about time," Tarrin said in Arakite. "Triana got me up at sunrise."

  "I know, Dolanna woke me up not long after," Dar said, switching to Arakite himself. "A little packing and a whole lot of waiting."

  "Truly. They didn't even have anything to eat," he complained. "Triana had to use magic to get us food today."

  "We'll live," Dar chuckled. "They'll have all the food you can eat in the kitchens at the Tower."

  "I'm going to feel lost there," Tarrin said. "Except that they won't let me get lost."

  "It's a big place, Tarrin," Dar said with a grin. "It's easy to get lost."

  "Good," he said with a conspiratorial smile.

  A human woman stepped up to them, and it was a very strange looking woman. She had blue hair. She was very tall, buxom, wearing a dress that looked to be made of millions of tiny little blue scales. Her eyes were amber, like Keritanima's, and there was a sinister quality to them that put Tarrin just a little on edge. She smiled when she saw Tarrin, and reached out and took his hand. "I see you're well, little friend," she said, and Tarrin recognized Sapphire's voice.

  "Sapphire?" he said in surprise. "Is that you?"

  "Do you like it?" she asked, turning around for his benefit. "It was the best spell I could find on such short notice. Am I looking
human enough?"

  "Well, the blue hair and the yellow eyes are a bit unusual, but yes, you do look human. That's a magic spell?"

  She nodded. "Dragons find it useful to sometimes go see what the humans are up to, and it's much easier to move around like this. When we arrive in our true forms, it always causes a panic for some reason. You humans are such jittery little things," she said absently.

  "I think little is the key word there, Sapphire," Tarrin said. "It's hard to be nice to someone when they can step on you by accident."

  "Probably," she said. "Was your night well?"

  "A little boring, but otherwise fine," he said. "Are you going to be staying in the Tower?"

  She nodded again. "For a few days. I'm still trying to track down my two youngest, and it'll be easier if I stay in one place. Once I find them, and I'm sure you're going to be well, I'll return to my lair."

  "I'll miss you," Tarrin said impulsively, and it was accompanied by a slight flash of memory, him holding her in his arms, cuddling her, and that also brought a small shock of pain.

  "I'll miss you too, little friend," she said, squeezing the hand in hers gently. "I never thought I'd feel so much kinship with a biped. The world is a funny place sometimes."

  "If I told my friends one of my best friends was a dragon, they'd lock me in the cellar," he said with a wry smile. "But from what they tell me, I had all sorts of very strange friends. Wikuni, Selani, Knights, Sorcerers, Wizards, Amazons, Faeries, Were-cats, even Demons and dragons. I wish I could remember it all," he fretted.

  "Give that crazy Wizard a chance, Tarrin," she said sedately. "He seems a bit addled, but I heard his mutterings and carrying on when he examined me. He's an excellent Wizard. I think he's better than I am, and that's no slight complement."

  "They say Phandebrass is good," Tarrin agreed. "I haven't seen him for a couple of days, though. I think he's still on the ship."

  "Where is that Sha'Kar that was with you?"

  "Probably being punished by her mother," Dar snickered.

  "She seems the type," Sapphire agreed with a smile. "I can't help but like her, though."

  "Me too," Tarrin agreed.

  The rest of the Sha'Kar arrived, and then a complement of about thirty Sha'Kar and five or six human Sorcerers split from the host and headed south, towards the ship. Ianelle stood up on one of the trunks, and her voice carried all the way across the field. "Everyone gather as close to the trunks as you can," she called. "The less space we take up, the easier this is going to be. Tight together now, don't be afraid to bump into someone!"

  "Well, this should be fun," Camara Tal grunted from the far side, picking up her pack and her shield.

  "Let's pull in," Triana ordered the others.

  The large host of people gathered closely together around the pile of trunks, as Ianelle ordered, and Tarrin felt a little jostled and just a little uncomfortable for some reason. He'd never been squashed up with people like that before, and it wasn't an entirely fun experience. Kimmie was pushed up against his back, Triana just in front of him, and Dar and Sapphire were on either side of him.

  "Do you think they're waiting for us at the Tower?" Tarrin asked Dar.

  "I think they are. Ianelle's been talking to your sister through the Weave. I think they already told her where to have us appear on the grounds."

  "I wonder what's going to happen," Tarrin said nervously.

  "Me too. Guess we're going to find out," Dar said with a grin.

  After everyone was scrunched up together, Sha'Kar and some of the human Sorcerers surrounded the area around them. They all looked towards Ianelle, and when she raised both her hands, all the others did the same. Tarrin felt something very strange happen then, some kind of magic that seemed to flow between all the Sorcerers taking part in the spell. All their hands suddenly began to glow with a strange wispy light, and Tarrin felt the magic build up all around them. For a moment, he got the impression that there were a whole bunch of little strings or threads or something flying around them, bobbing and weaving around one another so fast that it was hard to keep track of them, and again he saw those strange faint white lines that seemed to be all over the place flare up. Keritanima told him that he was seeing the Weave, but he ignored it most of the time. But now all those lines seemed much clearer, much more visible, even overlaying over the real world instead of the real world overlaying them.

  It was terribly anticlimatic. One moment he was watching Ianelle's hands, which were glowing more brightly than all the others, and he could see the forest behind her. Then the next second, her hands and the glow didn't change, but in a fast shimmer, the area behind her did. There was absolutely no sense of moving, no flash of light, no sign of any kind that they had just done something, mainly because the sun had jumped across the sky in dramatic fashion. Where it had been early morning a second ago, now the sun was at its zenith, marking it as noontime. But he could see behind her, and it wasn't the woods. It was a huge tower made of white stone, stretching almost impossibly high into the sky, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of spans. That huge spire was surrounded by six smaller towers, also of white stone, and some of them had slender bridges spanning from them to the main Tower so high over their heads that he couldn't see if there was anyone on top of them.

  Tarrin was quite shocked by it, and the silence from the host told him that he wasn't the only one. He could do nothing but gape up at the Tower like a rabbit staring down the gullet of a wolf, awed at how impossibly high the thing was. Pristine and white, shining in the summer sun, the Tower was a gigantic monument to the lost power and majesty of the katzh-dashi. How could anyone look up at it and not feel overwhelmed?

  "I never thought I'd see it again," he heard one of the Sha'Kar say in a reverent tone. "After so long, we have come home."

  Home. He could see how a place like that could be home to so many. It was so big!

  They weren't alone. He realized that as he looked down the Tower's wall, and saw a large complement of robed humans standing between them and the Tower. In the very center of them, flanked by Sorcerers in colored robes that seemed to mark some kind of rank, was Jenna. But this wasn't the Jenna he remembered. This was a much older, taller, and filled out Jenna. Not the pre-teen girl he'd left behind in Aldreth, but a very pretty young woman with long dark hair falling over her shoulders straight and true, curling up as it touched her shoulders. She had grown into a very pretty young lady, with dark, full lashes, dark liquid eyes that seemed to shine, and her mother's cheeks. She stood regally, as if she owned everything and everyone, wearing a simple dress made of some kind of sheer fabric, like silk or satin, but then she abandoned that austere poise when she saw Tarrin, crying out his name and running forward. Tarrin stepped up and nearly got bowled over when she slammed into him, hugging him tightly and calling out his name over and over again.

  "Look at you!" Tarrin said with a smile, pushing her out to arm's length. "You're almost full grown!"

  "Look at you!" she said with a teary smile. "You look just like you did when you left! Triana said you can't remember anything at all. Is that true?"

  He nodded. "Phandebrass is trying to cure me," he told her. "Is he here?"

  "He's coming with the ship," Triana told him from behind as she looked down at them.

  "They said you're the Keeper now," Tarrin said.

  She nodded with a grin. "That's me. The regal ruler of this realm," she said with a wink. "Not that I take it very seriously. The Council keeps trying to tell me what to do, but they're going to find out that I don't think this is just for show. The Goddess told me that it's my throne, and I'll run this Tower as I see fit, not how they want me to." She looked around. "Where's the First? What's her name? Ianelle?"

  Ianelle stepped up to her and gave her a very deep curtsy. "Honored one, as promised, we have come home," she said with a nod, in the most formal mode of Sha'Kar speech. "Is all prepared?"

  "I've got everything ready for you," she replied in semi-formal Sha'Kar, a
sign to Ianelle that she preferred to do without the flowery, formal speech. "The West and Southwest towers are yours, and as you requested, the servant staff there has been given those orders you passed to me. For now, until we sort things out, your Council is going to sit with the current one, and after we adjust, we'll choose a new Council."

  "Those are good choices. Small chambers, frugal. That's what we need," she said with a slight smile. "Perfect."

  "You've been here before?" Jenna asked in surprise.

  "I was once on the Council at this very Tower," she said with a nod. "I was the Divine seat."

  "Well, I'm sure we can sort things out. Do your people speak Sulasian?"

  "Only some, and it is the Sulasian of a thousand years ago," she said with a rueful smile. "I'm sure we have terrible accents, but we will adjust."

  "Well, you're going to have to learn," Jenna said with a frown. "Only about twenty of the Sorcerers here have managed to learn Sha'Kar. All of the Council does, as well as some of the more prominent Sorcerers among us. But all of them are learning as quickly as they can."

  "We will help them along, and they will help us along with Sulasian," Ianelle said. "Sha'Kar was always the common tongue within the walls of the Tower."