"Mother?"

Triana snorted and nodded. "Kimmie's handling it well enough, cub. Leave her to it."

"You're sure?"

"I'm very sure. If you put a paw in, you'll only make things messy."

"You look well, honored one," Ianelle greeted in formal Sha'Kar. "The Keeper told us what happened. All of it."

"Then I don't have to explain things to you," he replied.

She shook her head. "Are you content with it?"

"I'm content."

"Then things are well," she decided simply.

Tarrin looked around and saw that everyone was here. His sisters, Triana, Jula, and Kimmie. Triana, Dolanna, Darvon, and Ianelle. Azakar and the Vendari, Miranda and Dar, and Phandebrass. Jesmind wasn't here, but she'd have no say in what was to come, and besides, he was still mad at her. It was everyone he needed to be here. "Alright, everyone find a seat," he said in Sha'Kar, reinforcing the seriousness of things. "I have some things to say, and we have plans to make."

"Pardon me, son, but if you're going to speak that language, I'm going to need a translator," Darvon announced.

"Mother," Tarrin said absently to Triana.

"I'll take care of it, cub," she said. "Can you speak Sha'Kar?" she asked bluntly of Ulger.

"Uh, no, my Lady," he answered hesitantly.

Without saying a word, Triana put her paws on either side of Ulger's head. Tarrin clearly felt and sensed what she did, and what was more important, he realized that with a little instruction, he could do the same thing. She took some of her own knowledge, copied it, and directly implanted the copy into Ulger's mind, making sure not to put it where other memories were being stored. Ulger's knees wobbled a bit, and Triana had to hold him up. "You'll be dizzy for a while, but now you can understand," she told him in Sulasian.

"I feel like the ground is spinning," Ulger complained.

"That will pass," Triana told him gruffly. "Darvon?"

A little hesitantly, Darvon stepped up to the intimidating Were-cat matriarch and submitted to her touch. Seconds later, he too had to be held up. Azakar tended to Darvon, helping him to a seat on a stone bench as Jula helped Ulger to sit beside him.

They gathered on stone benches, and Camara Tal and Koran Tal sat on the grass with Kimmie and Auli in front of them. Tarrin stood before them like a Novice instructor, looking over his friends and associates, and feeling a momentary sensation of pride. They had come far. They had put up with him, helped him, nurtured him, and protected him for two long years. They deserved much more than what they had, and Tarrin vowed to himself to make things right with each and every one of them, to show him how much he appreciated everything they'd done for him. But that would have to come later.

"I think most of you know what happened," he began. "I was turned against my will. I already found out who did it, and that punishment is taking place as we speak."

"Who was it, son?" Darvon asked, wobbling a bit in his seat.

"It was my daughter, Jasana," he replied, which made Darvon whistle much like Miranda had done. "Her mother and grandmother are teaching her the error of her ways. It's not my place to interfere in that, because Jesmind's her mother, and in Were-cat society the males don't intefere in how the females raise the cubs. But I have every faith in my mate and mother," he added with grim satisfaction. "They'll set her straight, or she'll die resisting."

"She's already very sorry, cub," Triana told him with flat eyes.

"Needless to say, finding that out set me off. That's what all that shaking was this morning. I kind of rearranged the geography in the cellars of the Tower, but Triana stopped me before I could do anything drastic." He looked to his sisters and Sapphire. "I'm sorry about that," he said sincerely. "I hope I didn't scare you."

"We were too busy running like frightened squirrels to be scared," Jenna said with a grin.

"What possessed you to face him inside, Were-cat?" Sapphire asked.

"I have experience in dealing with raging Were-cats, dragon," she answered calmly. "I knew exactly how to go about it, and the confined spaces down there were actually exactly what I needed. If he'd been outside, it would have been much harder to subdue him."

"You'll have to show me how you did it."

"Later," she said absently.

"Now that that little thing's out of the way, it's time we got back to business," he said. "I have my memory back, and I've already decided what I have to do now. And I'm going to need everyone's help to pull it off." He started pacing back and forth. "Everyone knows I have the Firestaff, and they're probably gathering around the Tower like vultures, waiting for me to come out. If I don't come out, then they're going to come in, and I don't think we'll have much luck stopping them. They've shown that they can find ways to get in. We all knew that I had to get out of the Tower to keep the Firestaff safe, but now that we've been surrounded, it's not going to be quite as easy as riding out of the front gate."

"No doubt there," Keritanima agreed.

"I can Teleport you to any number of places, honored one, Ianelle offered.

"It's not quite that easy, Ianelle," he told her. "If I just disappear, then they'll all still be here at the Tower, and that's going to cause Jenna some serious problems. I don't want anyone here getting killed because they think I'm still hiding in here. I want them to see me leave, to keep them out of Jenna's hair, but I also don't want them on my heels every step of the way."

"That's not going to be easy," Darvon frowned.

"It's going to be very easy, at least for me," Tarrin told him grimly. "I have a plan, but it's going to be very dangerous for some people. Unfortunately, those people are you," he sighed.

"Go ahead, my brother," Allia said.

Tarrin nodded. "Everyone knows I travel with you," he began. "It's a given. Sometimes it was much easier for them to find me by looking for Keritanima or Allia, or any of the other rather unusual members of our group," he added, glancing at Binter and Sisska. "It's a given that if they can see any of you, then I can't be too far away. I'm going to use that against them. Tomorrow, everyone outside is going to see all of you and me march out of this Tower under heavy guard from the Knights, go down to the harbor, and board a Wikuni vessel and sail away. That's what they're going to see," he said sharply. He turned and looked at the statue of the Goddess, then turned back. "I won't be with you. Tomorrow, I'm taking Sarraya and Allia, and we're Teleporting to the Desert of Swirling Sands. If there's anywhere in the world where I'll be safe, it's there. Nobody would dare come in after me, and if they do, both the Selani and Fara'Nae will make them pay for every step they take."

"But you said they'd see all of us leave," Dar said in confusion.

"That's right, they will," Tarrin said, looking at him. "Remember what we did in Dayise?"

"That's brilliant!" Keritanima said with a bright look.

"Oh!" Dar said in realizaton, then he laughed. "That's a good idea!"

"Darvon, I want you to find your biggest, strongest, and hopefully one of your smartest Knights," Tarrin told him. "He's going to be me for a few days, and he's going to have to be able to act the part."

"How can he be you?"

"Dar is a master of Illusion, and Dolanna's no slouch at it herself," Tarrin told him calmly. "They used those gifts to hide us several times while we were on on the road. We're going to do it again to misdirect our foes."

"We'll need an Allia," Dar noted.

"I think Auli here can be a convincing Allia," Tarrin said, giving his whimsical friend a calm look. "She actually looks a little like her, and Auli's a very good actress. It won't take much to make her convincing."

"I think I can do it, Tarrin," she said mildly.