Jesmind had still yet to talk to him, and that was bothering him a little bit. She knew he was angry, but he figured she would have put that aside to make sure he was alright. That wasn't normal for her, and he realized that maybe he was going to have to put his anger aside for a little while and check on her himself. He was depending on her to let him keep tabs on his daughter, Mist, and Kimmie as well. Then again, tht may be one of the reasons she wasn't talking to him. Jesmind had shown a great deal of jealousy over him, and he had the feeling it was because Mist and Kimmie, her two rivals, were right there. If they weren't around, she'd probably be alot less jealous, but with them there, she felt she had to compete for his attention.

Probably not. As a reason, anyway. Jesmind could do something that Mist and Kimmie couldn't do, and that was talk to him any time she wished. That she wasn't using her advantage meant that something else had to be bothering her.

He knew that it had to be Jasana. Having to punish her that severely had strained her, but she knew it had to be done. That was another reason to talk to her, if only to cheer her up a little bit.

The next morning, the four of them ran with a sandstorm threatening from behind, and they came over a rise and looked over the very gentle hills that crowned the distant cloud on the horizon, not yet hidden by the wavering air caused by daytime heating. They pulled up and looked at it a long moment. "Here we are," Allia said. "We'll be there by the midday heat."

"I wonder why we haven't seen any Aeradalla," he growled, looking around in the sky. "The last time we came, we saw a bunch of them before getting this close."

"I was wondering the same thing myself," Sarraya agreed. "I didn't think we were this close, seeing as how we slowed down so Allia's pet could keep up with us."

"They don't normally go in this direction," Allia said. "They seem to hunt to the south of the Cloud Spire. You don't see them very often when you approach from other directions."

"As often as they fly just for fun, you'd think that we would have seen some of them by now," Tarrin fretted. "It's strange."

"Well, by this afternoon, we'll know," she told him sedately. "Let's move, brother. We're wasting valuable travel time."

"We'll find out now," he said bluntly, setting his feet. "I'm not about to wandering around up there unless I'm sure of things."

"How do you propose we do that?" Allia asked.

"Easy." He put a paw to his amulet. "Ariana."

"I forgot about that," Allia chuckled.

There was an interminably long pause. "Ariana," he called again.

"Tarrin?" came the startled reply. "Is that you?"

"Would it be anyone else?" he asked archly. "Where are you?"

"At home," she replied.

"Good. I'm about twenty longspans northeast of you right now. Why aren't there any Aeradalla in the sky?"

There was a long pause, then her laughter reached him. "What are you doing in the desert?" she asked brightly.

"That's not important right now," he told her. "What's going on?"

"It's the imbralla," she told him. "A religious observance. For one ride we don't fly unless we're hunting or moving from tier to tier. We do it memory of our distant past, when we had no wings and couldn't fly. After the imbralla, we have a grand holiday to honor Shaervan and the gift he gave us. You're just in time for it, my friend," she laughed. "The imbralla ends the day after tomorrow."

"Do you think we'd cause much of row if me and a friend or two come up?" he asked.

"Not at all," she replied. "I think you'd be the only outsider we'd allow in. Andos hasn't forgotten what you did for him, you know. Neither have I. Do you know I'm the richest merchant in Amyr Dimeon now?" she asked with a laugh. "I also just happen to be the Queen," she added with a smug little smirk in her voice. "I'll tell Andos you're coming, and if he doesn't allow you to come up, I'll do the allowing for him."

Allia smiled, and Sarraya laughed. "She hasn't changed," she snickered. "That's the same girl we saw flatten the nose of a fresh patron in that bar."

"From barmaid to queen. What an interesting turn of events," Tarrin chuckled.

"I'll tell you all about it when you get here. Do you need me to come and get you?"

"I can get up on my own."

"I rather thought you could. I've seen you fly before in Suld. Remember where the palace is?"

"One of those four buildings on the top tier surrounding the obelisk, right?"

"Just so. It's the one facing north. I'll tell the guards to expect you."

He was about to reply, but a power of staggering greatness suddenly broke in between them. "Tarrin, come back immediately!" it was Ianelle's voice, and she sounded frantic. Almost panicked. "Tarrin, you have to come back right now!"

"Ianelle?" he asked in confusion.

"There are Demons on the grounds, honored one! We need you!"

Tarrin was shocked, and Allia and Sarraya both gasped. Demons on the grounds! No wonder things had been so quiet! They were going to lure him back by attacking the Tower, because that's where his mates and children were!

Well, it was going to work. "I'm coming right now!" he said quickly, letting go of the amulet.

Demons on the grounds! The horror of the battle of Suld rose in him again, but this was a different kind of horror. The guards and Knights would have no way to fight against Demons, and only someone with an extensive knowledge of Sorcery could fight against them. Tarrin and Jenna had that knowledge, and she would need him to help her.

Everything was out the window now. They were attacking the Tower, and it held many things that were precious to him. The Goddess, his sister, his mates, his children. So much of his life tied up there, and he could not turn away, no matter how dangerous it may be to go back.

Without a thought, without even a warning, Tarrin enveloped the four of them in the weaves of Teleportation, and they vanished from the desert, within sight of the goal they had decided upon when they arrived, within sight of a goal they did not reach.

So close, yet a world away.

To: Title EoF

Chapter 11

Because he had no idea what was happening or where things were taking place, Tarrin Teleported them back outside the towers, in the sand-filled area where the Knights trained their cadets. It was the one place that he knew would be empty at that moment; if there truly were Demons on the grounds, then every body that could swing a sword would be fighting against them.

He felt it the instant he arrived. The Weave was literally thrashing around the Tower as he felt several powerful Circles scattered through the grounds, all of them wielding High Sorcery. Even from that distance, he could feel what they were doing, and he was a bit startled at their ingenuity. Sorcery could not harm a Demon, since it was a part of the world. Only things not of the world could harm one. Since they couldn't use Sorcery, what they were doing was sucking all the Wizard and Priest magic they could get their hands on out of the Weave. Because both forms of magic were other-worldly in origin, and therefore could do injury to a Demon. At that moment, Tarrin seriously doubted that any Wizard or Priest anywhere on the entire planet could cast any spells. If he tried, the power of the Sha'Kar and the katzh-dashi were intercepting the power before it could reach them, pulling it back to the Tower grounds, and then unleashing it as raw, magical force. They couldn't shape the Wizard magic because they weren't Wizards, and the same applied to the Priests. They had to use both types of intercepted magic in their primal states, but that primal state was more than enough to do significant damage to anything it struck. Raw magic was a destructive force, not a benign force. The power they could unleash in the real world wasn't even a fraction of what was in the Weave; Tarrin realized that doing what they were doing was horribly inefficient, and only a small portion of the magical energy they drew actually managed to manifest in the real world. They had to draw vast amounts of energy to form an attack with enough power to kill. That was why they hadn't already wiped out all the Demons.