Tarrin laughed. "Have you told her yet?"

"No, but she knew," Sarraya sighed. "Triana's got ears everywhere. She's already promised any number of ugly things she's going to do to me for teaching you."

"It's not your fault," he protested. "I needed to know."

"True, but I get the feeling that Triana wanted to be the one to train you," she told him. "Triana's attached to you. I think she sees you as the son she could have had. Laren disappoints her anew every time they meet."

"He'd better hope he never meets me," Tarrin growled. "I don't like him."

"He's just like that, Tarrin. You get used to it."

"I won't."

"Then he'll avoid you."

"He'd better."

"Down boy," Sarraya teased. "Woop, it looks like our sleeping prince and princess are waking up," Sarraya said, looking down the rock spire. Tarrin leaned over and looked, and he saw the two Selani coming out of the nittle nook, stretching. Denai looked around, then closed in on Var and leaned over his back as he put on a boot. Tarrin couldn't hear what she said to him, but his reaction was immediate and certain. He whirled around and stood up, then looked around furtively. Then the two of them retreated back into the niche. Tarrin had no doubt that Denai had invited Var to a little competition of her own devising, one best contended when Tarrin and Sarraya were off somewhere else.

Sarraya laughed evilly. "Maybe I should go down there," she said. "If I time it right, I can catch them right as-"

"No you won't," Tarrin interrupted. "Leave them alone. I want them to be distracted when we reach the Cloud Spire."

Sarraya glanced at him. "I take it we're going to leave them behind?" Tarrin nodded. "Pity. I like them. Denai is fun, and Var tells funny jokes."

"We can't take them with us, Sarraya. This is their home. Best to leave them at the Gathering. I'm pretty sure we can make it the rest of the way without their help."

"They were helpful, though."

"I'll give them that."

"How long do you think we should wait?" Sarraya asked with a wicked little smile.

"Denai is young, but Var isn't. I'd say about an hour. She'll probably have worn him out by then."

Sarraya gave him a look, then laughed so hard she nearly fell off the spire. "Alright. We'll give them privacy. But it'll be fun to run them afterward. It'll give us an idea of how much stamina they have."

"You're wicked, Sarraya," Tarrin said with a little smile.

"I know. I have a good teacher," she said with a coy wink. "Now then, let's eat while we're waiting. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry."

"We have to be something," she shrugged as she bent to conjuring up lunch.

To: Title EoF

Chapter 14

Var and Denai made no indication that they had expanded their relationship, but Tarrin wasn't all that worried about that. His mind was on other things right now.

It was sunrise the next morning, and his attention was captivated by what stood before him. It was a huge cloud, hanging on the northern horizon, blurring in the great distance. But it was apparent what it was. A massive cloud that obviously gave the Cloud Spire its name.

He didn't realize that they were so close to it, but the sudden emergence of Selani scouts should have hinted that they were very close. They began to see them yesterday afternoon, standing on rock spires, hiding in the denuded scrub that marked the passage of the Selani herds, perched on boulders watching the desert for possible dangers. None of them approached them or tried to talk to them, and that made sense. Selani from different clans didn't often go out of their way to talk to one another. They were forbidden to fight among themselves, but the clan mentality made Selani from other clans potential enemies, so there wasn't a great deal of communication between them outside the Gathering. They passed through them without incident, making camp in a small cave eaten out of the side of a rock spire by the scouring wind. Tarrin was atop that spire, eyes shielding from the sun coming up on his right, staring at the cloud bank intently.

It had to be magical. Clouds couldn't form out here because there wasn't enough moisture. And if there was, the sun would burn them away with its intensity. It was very possible in his mind that the cloud that gave the Cloud Spire its name was an effect of that magical object he was sensing, because as soon as he saw the cloud, the distance and location of that object seemed to click in his mind. He saw an immediate relationship between the object and the cloud, and had realized that the odds were, the object made the cloud. Or the cloud hid the object, one or the other.

That put him off a little bit. If the object made the cloud, then it was possible that the object was at the top of the Cloud Spire. He already knew that that was the domain of the Aeradalla, and he had little doubt that they wouldn't welcome him as a visitor. Despite trying to come up with reasons to believe it wasn't there, hard evidence wasn't easy to refute. The distance was too perfect, the direction too perfect. The object was somewhere either on, in, or immediately around the Cloud Spire. He hoped that it was something the Selani gathered around it possessed, but that cloud told him that most likely that was a longshot. He'd know as he got closer to it, as the sense of its location was more exact, but he had already begun to prepare himself for the possibility that he may have to climb the Cloud Spire to find out what it was. His curiosity was just too piqued, he just had to find that object. It was very possible that it could be the Firestaff, and he couldn't leave the desert without discounting that possibility.

"Morning," Sarraya called as she flitted up to him. "Didn't see you get up."

"I've been up since about midnight," he replied. "This many Selani so close make me nervous. I couldn't sleep."

"They're not going to bother us, Tarrin," she chided.

"Tell that to my suspicious nature."

"Attention, Tarrin's suspicious nature," she called in a booming voice. Tarrin looked at her, and saw her grinning like a naughty child. "You have nothing to worry about. The Selani will not bother us. That is all. Return to your prior paranoid delusions."

Tarrin gave her an unamused look, then went back to studying the cloud. "That's the Cloud Spire, alright," Sarraya said when she looked in the same direction. "A cloud like that, out here? Can you say magic?"

"I figured the same thing," he sighed. "It's possible that the object I'm sensing has something to do with that cloud. There's a chance we may do some spire climbing, Sarraya. Just so you know."

"That's not going to be easy, Tarrin. Maybe impossible. Denai and I were talking last night, and she says that the spire goes up into that cloud. It may be longspans high."

"Then I'll just be climbing a while," he shrugged. "I can't leave without finding out if it's the Firestaff, Sarraya. I'll kick myself for ten years if we pass it by, and then have to turn around and come back here to get it."

"Why don't you let me go look?" she offered. "I can fly, and the Aeradalla won't see me."

"Fine. Just tell me how you intend to find it, and you're free to do it yourself."

She looked at him, then laughed ruefully. "I get the point," she acceded. "I wouldn't be able to find it, would I? At least not like you could."

Tarrin nodded. "If it's up there, I could point to it. I'm hoping that we don't have to do that. There's a chance it may be some relic the Selani are holding. Or it may be hidden in the Cloud Spire itself, without me having to climb to the top. I know it's somewhere around the spire, but not exactly."

"Well, we can hope," she agreed.

"Where are Var and Denai?"

"I heard Denai giggling as I flew up here. It's no stretch to imagine what they're doing."