"I don't think you could be any safer," Tarrin nodded in agreement. "But what about Miranda?"

"She's with Azakar," she answered. "He's the other one they'll let escort us by ourselves."

"Well, we need them. Will they be hard to find?"

"Not hard at all." She touched her amulet lightly. "Binter, I need you and Sisska. Find Miranda and meet me in the kitchens." She gave Tarrin a smile. "I gave Binter an amulet, so I can talk to him when we're separated."

"Good idea," Tarrin complemented.

"I guess we will wait in the kitchens," Allia mused.

"That's fine. I find myself hungry," Sapphire announced.

They waited in the kitchens for only as long as Sapphire could manage to eat a drumstick off a roasted goose before Binter and Sisska appeared with Miranda and Azakar in tow. They looked as serious as ever, but they both did look at Tarrin a long moment when they appeared. Binter stepped up to him boldly and looked him up and down as Miranda gave him a warm hug, wrapping her hands around his chest. "I see you are well, friend Tarrin. Have you punished the guilty one?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said grimly.

"Such a crime deserves death."

"I know, but it was Jasana, Binter. I can't kill her."

Miranda whistled in surprise as Binter simply stared at Tarrin. "Were she a Vendari child, she would be killed."

"Well, I'm not Vendari," he shrugged. "I think she'll be very sorry. Triana and Jesmind are punishing her as we speak."

"Perhaps death isn't necessary," Binter said directly. "Those two could invent a punishment just as severe."

"That's kind of what I'm counting on," Tarrin said with a slight, humorless smile.

"Are you alright now?" Miranda asked. "We heard some of it, and felt the Tower shake. We realized that you were venting down in the cellars."

"That's a good description of it," he said dryly. He wasn't going to admit that he'd attacked Keritanima in front of Binter and Sisska. "Triana managed to snap me out of it."

"It's good to see you up and about, Tarrin," Azakar said to him. "I hope you're feeling well now."

"Well enough, Zak," he answered. "I've already attended to finding out who did this to me, and Jasana's getting her just desserts as we speak. So I'm going back to what I'm supposed to be doing."

"It didn't take you long to find out," Miranda said in appreciation.

"Thank them for that," Tarrin motioned at his sisters and Sapphire. "Between the three of them, they managed to find out it was Jasana after about a half an hour. Don't ever try to hide something from them," he warned with a slight smile.

"I'll keep that in mind," Miranda said with a cheeky grin.

They left the Tower grounds, and then entered the gardens and the maze. Sapphire started looking a little irritated after they'd been within the maze for about twenty minutes, but nobody would tell her where they were going. The four who had just joined them realized where they were going when they left the Tower and started towards the gardens, and they were smart enough not to say anything aloud. The courtyard at the center of the maze was still one of the Tower's most closely guarded secrets, for it held the icon of the Goddess herself, and that made it a place that the katzh-dashi would defend to the death. And defending it was much easier if nobody knew it was there.

The courtyard was exactly as he remembered it; he doubted that the Goddess would allow anything to change. The entrance was still choked off, making them squeeze into the place, and he looked at it with calm, relaxed pleasure. It was all as it should be, with the very large grassy courtyard with the white stone pathway surrounding a large marble fountain surrounded by beautiful rose bushes and stone benches. The two tier fountain was massive, and the sound of its water tinkled merrily throughout the courtyard. And at the center of the top tier, hands held out in a gesture of loving welcome, was the statue of the Goddess, the icon of the Goddess, her link to the physical world and the representation of her power. As always, the statue was nude, and was so remarkably detailed that every single hair on her head was easily discernable, even from that distance. The others knew now what that statue was, though they had not for a very long time. Not even Keritanima or Allia had known until the planning for the Battle of Suld, when Keritanima figured out the truth. It was one secret that Tarrin had been very careful to keep.

Sapphire, however, was quite a bit more observant than his other friends. She took one look at the fountain and the statue atop it and paled visibly. She gave Tarrin a wild look, but his calm, reassusing gaze and a single nod of his head told her that he knew, and that it was perfectly alright for them to be there.

"Now do you understand why nobody will eavesdrop on us here?" he asked her.

"I do," she said in a reverent voice. "I also understand why you didn't want to say anything. They don't know, do they?"

"Everyone here knows," he told her. "All my closest friends know, as does the Council. It's not the kind of thing we want advertised."

"It's quite an overwhelming presence," she admitted.

"I feel cheated," Keritanima laughed. "I never felt anything. I still don't feel anything."

"You aren't a dragon, little one," Sapphire sniffed arrogantly. "We are much more sensitive to such things than you."

He saw Keritanima draw herself up to respond with a blistering retort, but Tarrin's sudden hard stare quelled that. Aggravating Sapphire was not a good idea. Sapphire was friendly with Allia and Keritanima, but that friendliness only extended so far before she would lose patience with them. He was surprised that she would have forgotten that, since she'd spent a month and more in the dragon's company after they all discovered she was a dragon.

"We may as well get comforatable," Tarrin said. "It may take a while for Jenna to round up the others. I think a few of them won't be easy to find."

"They'll be close," Keritanima said. "We were all waiting to hear word about your condition, and after the earthquake you set loose in the basement, they'll stay where they can be found quickly."

"Good point," Tarrin acceded.

They waited perhaps a half an hour or so in relative peace, as Tarrin deflected several questions from his sisters about the rage he'd suffered and how Triana had beaten him. He didn't want to think about that right now, it was still a little raw in his mind. Miranda entertained herself with a bit of paper that she meticulously folded and refolded and folded again, until Tarrin started seeing a shape form from the folds, that of a bird. "Something the Shou ambassador taught me a few weeks ago," she said with a cheeky grin when she noticed Tarrin staring at the piece of parchment in her hands. "He calls it origami. It's quite challenging."

"Shou? I didn't know the Shou had an ambassador in Wikuna."

"They do now," Keritanima said with a frown. "They actually managed to get a ship to Wikuna, and it was carrying the ambassador. Since they went to all the trouble to get there, we allowed him to set up an embassy. So far they're the first humans to reach Wikuna without our help, and I don't like it."

"Why not?"

"Because if they can get to Wikuna, then they can get a fleet to Wikuna," she said sourly.

Tarrin snorted. "Kerri, no nation on Sennadar would dare engage the Wikuni in a naval war," he said flatly. "It's suicide. Not even the Zakkites are willing to try that. That's why they always try to ambush your ships, and they run away as soon as warships appear on the horizon."

"True, but humans are devious little suckers," Keritanima said with a toothy grin. "You can't take your eyes off them for a minute, or they'll be getting into all kinds of trouble."

"Amen," Sapphire agreed in a fervent tone.