But what in the world did coal and wood have to do with a ship? For that matter, what did coal and wood have in common with one another? Ships were made of wood, but what use was coal?

It burned. So did wood. Both of them would burn.

That seemed to click in his mind. So, it had something to do with fire. But what?

Dolanna returned, carrying a cup of the tea she favored, setting it down on the bench as she seated herself before it. The tea smelled a little bitter, probably from Dolanna using Sorcery to heat it up again after it got cold. The steam wafting up from the liquid danced as Dolanna's movements disturbed the air-

Steam. Steam!

A memory of a conversation he'd had with Keritanima in the Tower returned to him, as clear as a bell's chime, a little snatch of idle talk that suddenly carried a tremendous amount of meaning. He remembered it clearly, as if it were yesterday. They were in Keritanima's room. He had been playing chess with Sisska and losing, and he had noticed Miranda's Tellurian pen for the first time. That was when Miranda mentioned it. "Lately, they've been working on a machine that uses steam to drive gears. They call it a steam engine," she had told him after telling him about the pen, and the wood-burning stoves that the Wikuni sold.

"What good is that?" Tarrin had asked.

"They intend to use them in ships, so ships don't have to depend on the wind anymore," Keritanima had told him. "The Ministry of Science in Wikuna has picked up the idea, and they're also trying to fit the steam engines to power ships. It has some promise." When he asked how that would be any help to a ship, she had explained some of it to him. "The steam drives a paddlewheel. Like the waterwheel on a mill. The paddlewheel pushes the ship along, no matter what direction the wind is blowing. They're faster than anything but a clipper with the wind full astern."

Steam was boiled water, and you couldn't boil water without fire! So you'd need coal and wood to fuel a steam-driven ship!

That was the answer!

"That's it," he breathed, then he looked at them all. "That's the answer!" he announced.

"What?" they all asked at once.

"Kerri, you once told me about something you called a steam engine ," he said. "You said the Ministry of Science was trying to put one on a ship. Wouldn't you need coal and wood to fuel a ship that was propelled by steam?"

Keritanima looked about ready to say something, then she dropped her head down onto the stone bench. And she didn't do it gently. "I'll be tarred and feathered!" she laughed, raising her head up and brushing her hair out of her face. "I completely forgot about that! I remember a report from them just before I left, about them having a working prototype now!"

He turned and looked at the statue. "Mother, am I right?" he asked intensely. "You told me you'd confirm it if I was right and I believed I was right. Am I right? Did we get everything right?"

"My kitten, my dear children, you are indeed right," the voice of the Goddess emanated audibly from the statue. "You have indeed solved the puzzle. You have found where to begin, which direction to go, when to leave, and by what means to get there. I am proud of each and every one of you."

They were all quiet for a long moment, but Jasana raced up to the edge of the fountain and looked up at it in wonder. "That was the shining lady!" she said in surprise, looking at the statue. "I thought she was in there, but she wouldn't say anything!"

"We have done it," Dolanna said, breaking the silence. "We leave from Vendaka at the summer solstice. My friends, we have found the path to the Firestaff. We now know what no one else in the world knows. And we must not repeat this, any part of this, to anyone. Not even our other friends. This is our secret, and it must remain so."

Tarrin looked at her, then looked at the others, a strange feeling in his stomach. They had done it. They had unlocked the mystery, and now they knew, if not the exact location, then the direction in which to go to find the Firestaff. Tarrin had been seeking that ancient relic for two years now, and for the first time since he began he knew where to go in order to find it. For the first time since he had started, now his journey had a palpable, physical, foreseeable destination. They had found the path to the Firestaff, just as Dolanna has said. They had found what they were looking for.

He felt… relieved. But he also felt even more anxious in another way, for the mystery was no longer a mystery. Everyone in the courtyard now knew the directions to the Firestaff, and that meant that it was information that they had to ferociously defend. If anyone else discovered what they knew, there would be a race on the high seas for the Firestaff. If they weren't careful, they may be attacking the ship of the clever fellow that had discovered their secret and got there before they did, and reached the prize.

The Goddess told him that he had the best chance of success, but she had warned him on repeated occassions that it didn't prevent someone else from getting to it and getting it before he did. He had the advantage now, for the first time since they started, and he wasn't about to give that advantage up. Now he had more to lose, more to protect, and what was most important, something to live for.

For the first time, he could see the end of the journey. And it made him even more worried.

To: Title EoF

Chapter 33

Because it had not taken as long as Tarrin had expected to unlock the mystery surrounding the location of the Firestaff, he found himself with plenty of spare time on his paws. That wasn't to say that he did nothing, or got lazy, though. Because he did know where to go to find the Firestaff now, he became exceptionally paranoid after that revelation, keeping his distance from anyone who wasn't included in his personal circle. He would avoid people in the halls of the Tower, he wouldn't leave the grounds, and definitely absolutely would not come within a longspan of Shiika or the Cambisi. Tarrin knew they were telepathic, that they could hear the thoughts of those around them, and despite the help they had rendered, Tarrin didn't completely trust them. Then again, it was foolishness to trust a Demon; even Shiika would admit to that. Their inhuman scents made it extremely easy for him to avoid them, for he could smell them coming at least two minutes before they arrived. That ghastly scent, to which he doubted he would ever grow accustomed, broadcast their location to anyone with a sense of smell. He was sure that Shiika and her daughters were probably getting a little annoyed with him avoiding them, but he wasn't about to let them know their secret.

Since his days weren't taken up by reading, he found plenty of time to take Jenna out into the courtyard and practice, just as Spyder commanded them. He found himself just a tad rusty at what Spyder taught them the last time, and he had to reinforce the idea of both giving and taking when using the Weave. When he again found it to be second nature, the two of them went about their homework, and that was learning how to whisper through the Weave. Tarrin had an understanding of what had to be done to accomplish the task; it required a partial touch on the Weave, a connection to it something like joining with it, but not so complete that he entered it. A partial joining, as Jenna reasoned it, a deeper connection without having it pull their consciousnesses into it. They spent a good afternoon after a noontime shower in the courtyard working on that idea, and it was Jenna who figured out how to do it first. She taught Tarrin, and her description of it was fairly accurate. It was a strange feeling, because when he was reaching into the Weave in that manner, its strands became the dominant part of his vision, and the choral pitches of the sound they made came to his ears. It was the real world that became ghostly and immaterial to him when he was reaching into the Weave in that manner, as if his consciousness had shifted planes of reality without leaving the real one. Jenna called it bridging, spanning the gap between the real world and the interior world of the Weave, which was almost like another world unto itself, and Tarrin had to agree that her word was fairly descriptive.