"I think you're putting too much worry in it," she snorted. "If you just sit back and relax, things often fix themselves. You people plan too much."

"I've seen what happens when you don't have a plan, Sarraya. I have scars to prove it. If I have a choice between Dolanna's plan and your luck, I'll take Dolanna's plan."

"You have no faith."

"I have plenty of faith. It's just not in you."

Sarraya glared at him a moment, but he was unmoved by her pique. "You were alot more fun when you were still in awe of me," she growled.

"The reality doesn't live up to the first impression," he said seriously, trying not to smile in her face and ruin it.

"Were-cats!" Sarraya snapped, flitting off the rail and flying towards the stern.

Tarrin smiled to himself as he watched her flutter off, then leaned down on his elbows and watched the dolphins swimming alongside the ship.

Tarrin wasn't alone long. After about half an hour of letting his mind wonder, feeling Camara Tal's eyes on him the entire time, Dar rushed up to him holding a small construction made of sailcloth and small shanks of wood. It was a kite, something that Dar had never played with before. Phandebrass had been describing the kite festival held every spring in Telluria, and he had drawn out how a kite was made for Dar, who had never seen one before. He had been spending all his free time making his kite, and it looked like he was finally finished. "Tarrin, want to help me with this?" he asked brightly. Dar was fifteen, but a youth spent studying numbers and learning about how to act in proper Arkisian society had left the young man with a gaping hole in his childhood. He tried hard to be sober and mature, like everyone around him-except Sarraya, anyway-but he was still just a young man who still had daydreams and youthful visions of the world. Some young men still had a streak of their childlike infatuation with the world, and Dar was one of them. It was one of the things that drove girls crazy when they were around him. Dar was probably the most sought after young man on the ship by the dancers and the acrobats, and the funny thing to Tarrin was that he had no idea they were after him. He could smell it all over them every time Dar passed by. To his credit, Dar was a very handsome young man, dark, black hair, thin and graceful, with a clever mind and a way about him that made absolutely everyone take an instant liking to him. Though it wouldn't matter in Tarrin's eyes, Dolanna would probably disapprove if Dar began playing games with the girls, but it was a moot point. Dar wouldn't take advantage of the situation, even if he knew about it. He was a young man very solidly based in the upbringing he was given by his parents, who were moral pillars in Arkisian society. Arkisian morals were a bit different from the more western kingdoms, but he was always the soul of courtesy and knew where the line was between propriety and impropriety.

"Why not?" Tarrin said. "Where do you want to try?"

"Let's take it over to the port side. I think we can get it into the air without fouling it in the rigging."

It turned out to be almost ridiculously easy. They took the kite to the port side, close to the bow, in a hole where rope nets and ladders weren't attached to the bulwarks, and Dar threw the kite up into the stiff breeze pushing the ship east. The kite caught the wind immediately and reeled out to the end of Dar's thin rope, where it danced in the air erratically just outside the ship's side and a good twenty spans in the air. By watching the kite, Tarrin saw that the wind was slowly beginning to shift, leaving dead astern and quartering more to the south, and a look up showed him that Renoit had already ordered those on ship duty to adjust the sails to take it into account.

"Look at it go, Tarrin!" Dar laughed, but Tarrin's attention was not on the kite. The wind was shifting, and it was still very stiff. That wasn't a good combination. At that speed, the wind shouldn't be changing unless something large was forcing it to change. For that matter, it shouldn't be blowing that hard unless something was forcing it to do so. Both of those conditions could be created by a good sized storm.

"What's the matter, Tarrin?" Dar asked curiously. A gust of wind came up, yanking on the rope in Dar's hand, nearly pulling the kite free of his grip.

"That's the matter," he replied. "The wind is shifting."

"A storm?"

Tarrin nodded. "I think so. We can find out pretty easily, though. Allia!" he called loudly.

"Help me reel this in, Tarrin. It doesn't want to come down."

Tarrin helped Dar pull in his kite as Allia left the acrobats and made her way over to them. "What is it, brother?" Allia asked in the common tongue. Mainly for Dar's benefit. Though they had started out rocky, Dar and Allia had become good friends. It had mainly been because the Arkisians were not well liked by the Selani, but Allia had thrown over the Arkisian stereotype she'd hung on Dar's neck and found out he was actually a very friendly, engaging young man.

"I need your eyes, sister. Let's all go up into the crow's nest and have a look aft," he proposed. "I think there's a storm coming up behind us."

"I felt the wind shift," Allia replied seriously. "It is possible."

Dar followed the two non-humans to the mainmast, and he watched with trepidation as Allia grabbed hold of it and started climbing up it quickly and effortlessly. Tarrin extended the claws on his paws and feet and waited for her to get a good ways up the mast. "Just give me a little while, Tarrin," Dar said. "I can't climb that fast."

"You're not going to climb," he replied, grabbing Dar by the waist and dragging him into a secure grip at his side, then putting his claws into the mast and starting up.

"Tarrin, this is a bad idea!" Dar protested, grabbing hold of his forearm worriedly as the deck moved farther and farther away with shocking speed.

"Quit squirming," Tarrin chided absently as he climbed up the length of the mast.

The current lookout was climbing down by the time Tarrin reached the crow's nest, planting Dar in it securely before climbing in himself. Allia was already there, and the three of them made it a tight fit, since it was made more for one person. Allia shaded her eyes from the sun and peered intently to the stern while Tarrin and Dar did the same. Allia's eyesight was inhumanly keen. She could read an open book from five hundred paces away, and she could identify people by their face from over a longspan distant. From that high up, she could easily make out distinct features of objects close to the horizon. Her gift wasn't common among the Selani, but it did occur frequently enough among them for to understand it and make use of it. It made her a scout for her people, using her exceptional eyesight to help her clan locate hidden dangers.

"There is a storm," she announced finally. "A very large storm. It goes from one side of the horizon to the other. I think it is one of those, what did Kerri call it. Hurokeen?"

"Hurricane," Tarrin corrected absently. "I remember Dolanna telling me about the weather out here. Hurricanes are very rare in the Sea of Glass this time of year. The rough weather usually doesn't hit until late summer."

"Rare or not, there is a very large storm behind us," she said. "I do not know which way it is moving, though. I must watch it a while to find out."

"Maybe we'll get lucky," Dar said hopefully.

"Luck is not our ally, friend Dar," Allia grunted. "It always seems to favor our enemies."

"Better safe than sorry," Tarrin reasoned. "I'll carry Dar back down and tell Dolanna. Do you mind staying up here and seeing which way the storm's going?"

"Not at all, deshida. This is something we need to know."

"Alright, let's go, Dar. And don't squirm," he said, picking up the young Arkisian again.