"Will we be ready?"

"Brother, we were ready six days ago," she grinned at him.

"Everything is in place, and everyone knows what to do, dear one," Dolanna told him. "There is naught but to make small adjustments to take the scouting reports we received into account. That is all."

"Well, that's something," Tarrin fretted.

"I know you've been practicing magic with Jenna. Is she ready?"

"As ready as she's going to be," he sighed. "You'd better go talk to her. She should circle with you at least a few times before you have to do it for real, so everyone knows what to expect."

"We have already thought about that," Dolanna assured him. "Jenna is out in the city with her parents. We have sent a runner for her."

"Probably with Grandfather."

"They went to where the Ungardt are staying," Dolanna agreed. Then her eyes settled on the book in his lap. "I did not know you started reading it, dear one. May we join you?"

"Later," he said brusquely. "Besides, to be honest, so far it's been a struggle to stay awake to read it," he admitted. "It's boring where I'm reading it right now."

"How can anything like that be boring?" Keritanima challenged.

"You'll find out when you get your turn," he told her evenly. He sent the book into the elsewhere and stood up. "Well, we don't have much time, so let's get cracking," he told them. "What do you need me to do?"

"You? Nothing," Keritanima told him. "Everyone and her brother have already received abundantly clear orders about you, Tarrin. You are not to leave the Tower grounds, effective right now. The ki'zadun may have sent out some advance assassins to try to get you, so we've closed the Tower off from the city and closed the city gates so no one can come in or out until it's over. When the army gets here, your job is to defend the icon, Tarrin. That's it. You're our last line of defense, and, I dare say, the most dangerous one for our enemies to try to overcome. We'll make damn sure that anything that gets to you will have to run through a gauntlet that will make it easy for you to finish off."

Tarrin grunted, but he knew she was right. The Goddess herself had told him not to leave the Tower after the army got here, and if he had to stay on the grounds, the best place for him would be in the courtyard, serving his Goddess by defending her icon from attack.

"What is important for you now, dear one, is to rest and make yourself ready," Dolanna told him. "We know you have been training your daughter, and also been training Jenna. That cannot have left you feeling very fresh."

He chuckled. "That's why I'm here right now. Jesmind threatened to do some awful things to me if I didn't rest."

"She's a smart woman," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "Just so you know, I had the sashka and Jervis make some arrangements," she told him. "The Ministry of Science is working around the clock to finish the prototype steamship. They're pretty confident that it'll be ready by the time we arrive."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked. "I mean, someone may find out."

"My dear brother, you underestimate the effectiveness of my secret service," she grinned. "Besides, all I said was that I'd like to see that project completed before I returned. I didn't say that I was going to use it. I just remarked that I thought it had tremendous potential, and tripled the operating budget for the project. It's not out of the ordinary, at least for my people."

"Oh. Well, I guess that's alright then. Besides, it's your kingdom."

"At least for now," she grunted. "Jervis sent me some rather disturbing reports. It seems that the noble houses are starting to get sneaky again. Something's being planned, and it bothers me that I'm not there to step on it."

"Doesn't your regent have enough manpower at hand to squash any rebellion?"

"Of course he does, but I don't want to see common soldiers and innocent people getting killed because the noble houses decided that they can take back the power I took from them while I'm gone," she fretted. "I will say this, though. If they do pull anything, I'll dissolve the nobility on the spot."

"That will cause a civil war," he warned.

"True, but if they pull anything, they'll have fired the first shot, brother," she said seriously. "And I warned them I'd do it. You can't make a threat and then not carry it out. It weakens your position."

"Then maybe you'd better go home," he told her. "I don't think one more Sorcerer is going to make much of a difference."

"I'll make a big difference," she objected. "They need me to form the big circle. I'm one of only two non-human Sorcerers. Without me, the power of the circle that will serve Jenna is going to be alot smaller."

Tarrin forgot about that in his haste to try to help. "Oh, right," he sighed. "What are you going to do?"

"I've already done it," she replied. "Jervis is on it. He'll find out what's going on. And when he does, I'll know how to best go about breaking it up without starting a civil war."

"Good luck."

"Jervis doesn't need luck."

"He didn't do too well against you, sister."

"True, but that was me," she said with a toothy grin. "He shouldn't have too much trouble with the noble houses."

"At least you hope so."

"I know so," she said confidently. "I think Jesmind will get nasty if she finds us in here bothering you, brother, so we should go," she grunted. "Besides, I have about a million things to do."

"I figured you did. Go ahead, sister."

Keritanima and Dolanna turned to go, but Tarrin called out. "Hold on, Dolanna," he said. "Stay a minute."

"Very well, dear one," she said with a nod, seating herself on the couch opposite his.

"I'll see you for dinner tonight?" Keritanima asked.

"As long as you show up," he teased.

"We'll be there. See you then," she said in farewell, then scurried out of his apartment.

"What did you wish to talk about, dear one?" she asked.

"Nothing serious," he told her with a smile. "I just need a little correction, that's all."

"In what?"

"Well, I don't think you know, but someone taught me Sharadi while I was away," he told her. "She's Selani, and they have a bad problem with pronouncing other languages the same way they do their own, so I'm not entirely sure how well she taught me."

Dolanna smiled brightly at him. "You learned my native tongue? That pleases me, Tarrin. Very much so."

"You know me, Dolanna. Can't stand not being able to speak a language."

"You would have made a wonderful diplomat," she smiled.

"At least before this happened," he grunted, holding up a paw. "Now, I'd be more inclined to rip off the head of the other ambassador as I would to talk with him rationally."

Dolanna laughed lightly. "True enough. Where would you like to begin?"

It turned out that despite his worries, Denai had indeed taught him well. There were some minor things to adjust in pronunciation and proper word order, but they were indeed minor things, little nuances that would separate him from someone who simply learned the language to sounding like a native. Tarrin strove for that completeness of language in every one he learned, wanting to be so fluent that he sounded like a native, wanting to know those tiny little things that a native would know that a taught pupil may not.

And just like Allia, the stiff formality that was always in her words vanished when she reverted to her native tongue. She still spoke in a measured, stately way, as she did in Sulasian, but the words she used weren't as formal or unbending. That alteration in speech patterns was exactly what he strove to overcome; Dolanna spoke Sulasian as a second language, and it showed in how she spoke it.

"Well, dear one, whoever taught you certainly did a good job," Dolanna praised in Sharadi. "He even managed to teach you some of the more abstract words."