"Ah, Tarrin," he said with a smile. "Well, we're getting ready to leave."

"This isn't getting ready to leave," Tarrin said bluntly. "This is wandering around."

"Well, we've hit a bit of a snag," Garyth said delicately.

"What snag?"

"Not all the men are willing to leave the village undefended. And I can't say that I blame them," Garyth said quickly, putting up a hand in supplication. "No matter how sure you, or even they, may think it's safe, even I don't like the idea of every man marching out of here and leaving our wives and children exposed. The men all got together and talked about it, and we decided that half would go, and the rest would stay behind to defend the village in case it's attacked. So we're calling in everyone from the farms and we're going to barricade the village."

Tarrin looked for a reason to be angry with them, but he couldn't. Because they were right. Even if they occupied the road, that wouldn't stop a small division of Dals from coming in from the forest. He blew out his breath and nodded. "I'm not going to argue about that, Garyth. You and the men are right. It wouldn't be right to leave the women and children alone. I still say it's for no reason, but I'm not going to press the issue."

"Not everyone is happy about it," he said. "Most of the families are worried about their houses if we get attacked, and it's going to be a tight fit when all the families are piled into the village houses."

"There are plenty of tents around here, Garyth."

"Tents don't make for very strong walls when you're fending off enemy soldiers," Garyth told him with calm reasoning.

Tarrin considered it, and pondered a method to satisfy all the worries of the villagers with the most efficient way. He considered Wards, conjuring up walls of stone to surround the village, even splitting the earth to form formidable barriers, allowing the archers to pick off those who tried. The problem with a Ward was that it wasn't visible, and it probably wouldn't afford anyone with any real assuredness that it was there and would protect them. The problem with walls or ditches was that it was going to significantly rearrange the village's geography, and people would complain or object. But they couldn't have it both ways.

"Which would you prefer, Garyth," Tarrin said calmly. "A Ward, a wall, or a moat?"

"What?"

"Which do you want? I can only make one."

"What are you talking about, lad?"

"If they're that worried about the village being attacked, I can fix that for them," he said patiently. "I can set up a magical Ward that will keep strangers from entereing the village. I can create a wall around the village, or dig out deep trenches to slow them down and let the archers pick them off."

"Around the entire village?" Garyth said in surprise.

"It's not that much area, Garyth," Tarrin said dismissively. "I've done more, but that was tearing down, not building up." He looked around. "The Ward would be the easiest, but you can't see it, so I'm not sure if the villagers would feel comfortable with it. The wall would be the least damaging to the land, but it also creates its own problems when it comes time to take it down."

"I think that Ward idea would be the best," Garyth said. "We're all a little familiar with Sorcery here, lad. We know what it is and that it can be very strong. I'd rather not break up our village into chunks just to protect it."

"Fine. I'll create a Ward that stops anything but humans or Were-cats from moving across its border, and I'll also set it so that nothing made of steel or iron can cross from outside to inside. That'll prevent anyone with a weapon from entering the village, but it'll let archers shoot arrows at people outside the Ward."

"How will that stop the Dals?" Jak asked curiously.

"They wear chain hauburks, Jak," Tarrin said calmly. "They'll be stopped by their armor. They won't be able to come in unless they take off their armor, and no soldier alive is going to take off his armor in the face of arrow fire."

"That's clever, lad," Garyth said appreciatively.

"I've done this before, Garyth," he said calmly. "I know how to set Wards. Just give the men time to bring all the weapons they want to bring into the village, and I'll erect the Ward."

"I know Sorcery doesn't last long, lad."

"It'll last as long as you want it to last, Garyth," he said mildly. "I can guarantee that."

"I'll go spread the word," Jak said, excusing himself.

"He's taken all this very hard," Garyth sighed. "It's an event when he leaves my side."

"He'll get a chance to get even," Tarrin told the mayor. "Sometimes that's the best therapy."

"I see you're getting a ride, Jasana," Garyth said to the little girl with a smile.

"Everyone looks short from up here," she replied. "Papa always gets to see over everyone's head."

"Yes, well, some of us are blessed and some aren't," Garyth chuckled. "I'm surprised your mother let you come here without her."

"Papa's with me," she said calmly. "Mama knows papa won't let me get in trouble. Mama would kill him."

"She probably would," Tarrin agreed with a straight face.

Garyth laughed. "You two must have quite a home life."

"It's not boring, that's for sure," Tarrin said dryly.

"It's going to take Jak some time to spread the word, and even longer for everyone to finish before you can do your magic, lad. Want to go share a tankard and talk about what we're going to do?"

"May as well," he agreed, pulling Jasana off his shoulders. "I think you can walk now, cub."

"Aww," Jasana protested, grabbing the end of his tail and holding on.

"I think we could get you something to eat too."

"We just had breakfast, Garyth, thanks anyway."

They filed over to the Road's End, then found a seat near the back corner of the room. The common room was bustling with activity, as villagers met and exhanged goods or ideas, stopped for a brief drink or a slice of honey bread, or brought supplies into the inn. Tarrin accepted two tankards of water from Wylan Ren, who smiled and was about to say something before someone called him away. Tarrin sniffed at both, then handed one to Jasana, who was too busy looking around from her seat beside him. "Water?" he asked curiously.

"Wylan's out of ale and wine," Garyth chuckled. "The Dals drank it all. What, you're disappointed?"

"Surprised is more like it," he answered. "It's not like Master Ren to drop down tankards of water in front of people."

"That's the truth," Garyth laughed. "He'd put a tankard of firewine in front of a swaddling babe if he thought the could get away with it."

"It's a case of loving what he sells," Tarrin mused. "Get back in your chair, young lady!" Tarrin warned sharply without looking. Sighing, Jasana climbed back up into her chair, then took a drink from the tankard. "I just can't take it anymore. Lad, would you mind?" he asked, holding out his hand. Tarrin looked at him curiously, then extended his paw without quite knowing what Garyth wanted. The cobbler grabbed him by the wrist and set his paw down on the table palm up, looking down at it. "I've seen your wife's hands, but I've never been brave enough to ask to do this," he admitted.

"She's not my wife, Garyth. She's my mate. There's a very big difference."

"You'll have to explain it to me someday," he replied absently, studying Tarrin's paw. "It really does look like a cat's paw. A cat's paw with fingers."

"I would hope so," Tarrin said mildly, extending the deadly claws on his paw for Garyth's benefit.

"Amazing that something so large can handle things with such precision," Garyth chuckled.

"Not entirely. I have serious trouble with buttons and human-sized silverware," Tarrin admitted. "But I've learned tricks to dealing with those problems." He glanced at Jasana, who was staring intently as Millie Korlan, a teen girl that had filled out significantly since the last time that Tarrin saw her. She wore her dark hair in a pair of braids now, and she was wearing a dress that certainly tried to show off her recently grown attributes.