"Druid? You mean the Watchers?"

"That's what he said you called him," Sarraya replied.

"Watchers are men and women of honor," Denai said. "They have always been helpful to our people when we've needed it. The Holy Mother has decreed that Watchers are to be treated with courtesy and respect. If you are a Watcher, then you're worthy of honor."

"Well, it's nice to be appreciated," Sarraya said, giving Tarrin a teasing look. "At least someone around here does."

"Don't worry, Denai. Sarraya will give you plenty of reasons not to think so highly of her in just a few days."

Sarraya glared at him, but Denai laughed.

"Well at least I don't snore!" she flared.

"Says you," he replied mildly.

She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to a smiling Denai. "What is this Gathering I heard about?"

"We gather together every year," she replied. "We trade goods and stories. We compete among ourselves in contest of skill, and the societies have a chance to gather and share knowledge and renew kinships. It's also a time to find husbands or wives, because it's not good for the people as a whole if too many marriages are made within the same tribe. We gather at the Cloud Spire, so its shade makes the long days less taxing on us."

"Sounds like a huge fair," Sarraya mused.

"Fair?"

"A fair is a good comparison. A fair is much like a Gathering," he told Denai.

"I meant to ask you something, Tarrin."

"What?"

"Your brands. Are you truly of the clan chief's blood?"

Tarrin gave her a curious look, then he rememebered that the little line through the clan brand on his shoulder denoted "royal blood," and was something only the blood of a Clan Chief wore. "My deshaida is the daughter of a clan chief," he told her. "I've never met her clan. She was the one who gave me the brands."

"Strange for her to do it without her clan's permission."

"She made it rather clear that it was unusual," he agreed. "But the circumstances were unusual too."

"What circumstances?"

"None that concern you," he told her rather shortly, crushing the bone with his sharp teeth and drawing out the marrow.

"Ignore him, Denai. Until he gets to know you, he'll be about as warm as an angry hornet."

"I meant no offense," Denai said contritely.

"Don't worry about it," Sarraya told her. "Old badger-butt over there doesn't like anyone at first. Just give him time, and he'll grow on you."

Tarrin fixed Sarraya with a flat stare, his tail stopping in mid-swish.

"See? Only someone who loved him would put up with that day after day," she said flippantly.

Despite herself, Denai laughed. "Why are you crossing the desert? Why not use those water-carriages that the beast-people use?"

"Ship. They're called ships," Sarraya told her. "We're travelling overland because it's a bit unsafe on the ocean right now. Tarrin's brands give him safe passage through the desert, and none of our enemies will follow us here."

"Enemies? It sounds like you have quite a story to tell," she said, her eyes taking on a dreamy quality.

"We do, but it'll have to wait for later. Tell me about that singing I was hearing as we left your people."

"They were singing for me," she replied. "Singing a prayer of good passage, so that the Holy Mother may watch over and protect me on my journey."

"Interesting. Tarrin told me that the Selani love to sing."

"Singing is the way the Holy Mother wishes us to say our prayers aloud," she told the Faerie. "Because we sing our prayers, we've found singing to be soothing to us, or voice our contentment. If you hear a Selani singing, then the Selani must be either feeling very good, or is a little upset."

"What happens when you want to pray for something that you don't have a song for?"

"The song is the prayer," she said pointedly. "We build the melody as we go. The better the song, the better the chance that the Holy Mother will answer the prayer. From the time we can speak, we learn the concepts of music and melody and harmony, all so we can be heard above other Selani when we pray."

"It sounds like a competition."

"I guess it is," Denai admitted. "Singing is one of the most serious competitions during the Gathering. The greatest singer in the desert is afforded much honor."

"What other competitions are there?"

"There are alot of them. One of the most honorable is the contest of the Dance," she said. "There are all sorts of contests of skill with weapons and feats of strength or agility. There are races and contests to see who can climb the highest up the Cloud Spire. The societies compete among themselves to see who can make the greatest object, or perform their craft with the greatest skill. The items that win those competitions stay with the winning Selani's clan until the next Gathering. It's a matter of honor to own an object that won a society's contest at the Gathering."

"What happens to them at the next Gathering?"

"They are given to the most promising apprentices of the societies, so they can study them and learn the secrets of their crafts," she replied.

"So, let me guess. The apprentices compete to see who gets to keep last year's winners?"

Denai nodded, reaching to her waist and pulling out a slender dagger. "This was one of those objects, made for the competition between oribu'oni. It was given to my brother when he won the right to own it, and he gave it to me. It's the best dagger I've ever owned. Its balance is perfect for throwing."

"You call it a dagger, I'd call it a sword," Sarraya grinned.

"Are all your people your size, Sarraya?"

"Of course," she smiled. "I'm actually a bit tall among my people."

"I've never seen a race so small. No offense," she said quickly.

"None taken, Denai. We know we're short. We don't have complexes about it, you know."

Tarrin snorted in derision. "You stay out of it!" Sarraya barked at him, then turned back to Denai. "Sometimes being so small has advantages. You just have to look for the good in it, that's all."

"Are all Tarrin's kind so, so tall?"

"No," Sarraya replied. "He's out of the ordinary for his kind, but as a whole, his kind are much taller than humans, or Selani."

"It only goes to show that it's as the Holy Mother teaches. That the world is full of great differences, and that those differences make the world richer for their presence."

"That's very profound," Sarraya said with no hint of teasing or amusement in her voice.

Denai gave Sarraya that charming smile, then took a sip of water from a waterskin. "We'll continue this way for a day or two more," she said. "But then we'll have to turn due north to avoid the Great Canyon."

"How far away is this Cloud Spire?" Sarraya asked curiously.

"It's in almost the exact center of the desert," Denai replied. "Nearly a month of travel, north and west of here."

"Really? I didn't realize that the desert was so big."

"It's nearly as large as the West," Tarrin told her absently.

"It'll take longer for my people to get there because they'll have to avoid certain dangerous areas," Denai said. "They'll spend almost as much time travelling south and east as they do north and west."

"What kind of areas?"

"The Great Canyon," she said, looking up as she thought. "The Maze of Passages, the Great Salt Flat, and the Boiling Lake."

"Boiling Lake? What is that?"

"A large lake, but the water is so hot it boils," she replied. "My mother says it's because of heat that comes from underground. The water boils as it comes out of the ground, and it has a bad smell. The very air around the Boiling Lake is unhealthy, so we avoid it. The whole region is empty, because the fumes from the lake and the water itself kill off any plants or animals that try to live there."

"What is the Maze of Passages?"