"No, Kimmie," he told her gently. "It's best you did what you did, and you probably saved lives out there on the grounds. I don't blame you."

"But Jasana-"

"She won't be there long," he said in a dangerous voice, looking down into her eyes.

She sniffled, her luminous blue eyes shining with unshed tears. "Anything you need, my love," she said with all her heart. "Anything you need, and it's yours. If we don't have it, we'll take it from whoever does."

Tarrin actually laughed. "Don't get savage on me now, Kimmie," he told her. "It doesn't suit you."

"I can't help it. With my own child under my heart, I know exactly how you feel. I'd take the world apart stone by stone if someone threatened our baby."

"I say, that's no lie there," Phandebrass said as he reached them. "You should have seen her out on the grounds, Tarrin, you should. I say, I've never seen her so, aggressive with her magic before. I didn't know she knew half of those spells, I didn't!"

"She's a mother defending her children, biped," Sapphire said bluntly. "You males fail to appreciate how dangerous that can make a female."

"I fully understand it, madam," he said with a bow, "but to see it in my gentle, sweet little apprentice, it was a surprise, it was." He scratched his face, now starting to show signs he was growing a white beard. "I say, if you're off to help plan a rescue mission, count me in, lad. We can't let something like this go, we can't. It's time we put our foot down. Hard."

Hearing the usually easy-going and addled Phandebrass say something like that was a shock. He rarely showed any signs of actual aggression, and he didn't show signs of such focus very often. He was usually quite happy with talking his enemies to death. He rarely fought, but when he did, Tarrin realized as he thought back to the serveral battles they'd fought together, he used his magic wisely, efficiently, and to devastating effect. He showed signs of irreverence during minor skirmishes, but when it was a serious fight, he rose to the challenge, showing an almost inhuman coolness in the face of anything that faced him. Phandebrass seemed scattered, but when he focused his mind, he was a dangerous adversary. And he seemed focused right now.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Phandebrass," Sapphire told him.

"As you say, madam dragon, clan is all," the Wizard replied soberly. "I say, I may be no relation, but I'm rather fond of the lad, and I'm truly fond of his daughter, I am. They've been very good to me, and I say, I've not had such good company and such opportunities to learn in all my life, I've not. I take personal offense at them lowering themselves to such a dastardly trick, I do. I say, it's fair time we took the ki'zadun over our knee and spanked them with a spiked bat."

"I couldn't agree more," Sapphire nodded.

"Kimmie, I want you to go wait with Jesmind and Mist," he told her.

"Keeping us all together, hmm?" she said with a smile.

"Exactly that," he answered. "Sapphire wants to talk to Jenna, and there are some things I have to do before I can leave."

"Where are you going?"

"After Jasana," he answered.

"I say, let me pack up then," Phandebrass said.

"No, I'm going alone," he told the Wizard. "But you'll need to pack up anyway. They'll explain it all as soon as Spyder gets here."

"Spyder? She's going to help you?"

"No, she's going to help you," he told her. "You'll find out what's going on later, Kimmie. We don't have time to explain it right now."

"Alright," she said trustingly, letting go of him. "I take it I'll have to follow your scent trail back?"

He nodded.

"Alright then. I'll see you later, and we'll talk," she told him, pulling his head down and giving him a kiss.

"I say, I think I'll tag along with Kimmie," Phandebrass said. "I'll be a fifth wheel in a room full of Were-cats, but with me there, nothing's going to sneak up on them, it won't."

"I appreciate that, Phandebrass," Tarrin said sincerely, nodding to the human. "But before you go, I need a favor."

"Just ask."

"How good are you at astronomy?"

"Astronomy? I say, I'm no expert, but I do know a bit about it. What do you need?"

"On Gods' Day, the four moons are going to form a conjunction," he told him in dreadful intensity. "I need you to find out exactly when that's going to happen. Use a clock and find out to right down to the second. Down to the second, Phandebrass."

He gave him an unblinking stare, then nodded. "I'll draw you up a chart," he promised. "It will be ready by supper, it will. You have my word on it."

"Thank you."

"All you need do is ask, lad. All you need do is ask. Now if you'll excuse me, your pretty girlfriend is going to leave me behind, she is."

They left them behind, then quickly made their way towards Jenna's office. Tarrin paused to turn and look back, watching Kimmie hurry back the way he had come. Kimmie was looking well, and he was glad of that. He hated the idea of leaving her behind, but there was no help for it. He wasn't about to endanger another of his children. If he hadn't been so angry and so driven by his need to rescue Jasana, he would have paid her the attention she deserved. Ever since he'd some back to the Tower, she'd been pushed more and more to the fringes by Jesmind, and Tarrin felt sorry for her because of that. Jesmind seemed perfectly capable of being friends with Kimmie and dealing with her amiably about Tarrin as long as he wasn't around. But as soon as he did come around, she got defensive and possessive, and he knew her behavior was an attempt to push Kimmie out of competition for his affection. He remembered Jesmind's heated declaration when he'd argued with her back when he was a human, and it opened his eyes a great deal about her behavior. As long as she was the only one he loved, she had no qualms about allowing him to stray. But now that she knew that he loved Kimmie, she was worried that he may find more happiness with Kimmie than with her. And Jesmind, being who she was, was responding by trying to drive away her competitor.

Jesmind was jealous, and he probably couldn't blame her. He loved Jesmind with all his heart, but he also loved Kimmie. There were no depths or levels of love to him; love was love. What Jesmind didn't seem to understand was that both he and Kimmie knew that right now, he belonged with Jesmind. He had promised he would come back to her, and he would keep that promise. They were still mates, in his mind as well as hers, and only time and the process of their instincts driving them apart was going to change that. She had probably been a little hurt by what happened as well, feeling that she wasn't woman enough to be everything he needed, or feeling betrayed that he would fall in love with Kimmie when he was already in love with her, or probably both. And now with Jasana gone-he sighed. He needed to pay her some very special attention. With everything happening, she needed some reassurance.

Tarrin watched Kimmie walk away with hooded eyes, taking in the sight of her. Even from behind, her expanding waistline was starting to become apparent, but she was still one fine figure of a Were-cat female. If she only knew, but there was no way he could tell her. Then he turned and followed Sapphire.

Jenna's scolding was brief, but it was also intense and thorough.

Sapphire blasted into her, venting her anger and her displeasure in a very effective manner, blistering Jenna's ears with heated tirades of her lack of responsibility and her inattentivess, then drifting into outbursts of obscenity so vile that it even made Tarrin's ears cringe to hear them, things he wouldn't even say. Not satisfied with the colorful expressions available in Sulasian, her black vituperations extended into several languages. From Arakite to Sharadi, Torian drawl to a flowery language he'd never heard before, she ranged through all the worst available foul language present in those languages, sizzling the pale Jenna's ears. Then, as if to crown it off, she started raging at the girl in the language of dragons. She had never taught him any of the obsceneties, and that was probably why he barely understand a quarter of the words that came off of her lips. Jenna stood stock still and pale as the dragon bored into her with her remonstrances for allowing Jasana to be taken off the grounds. The Keeper stood there like a meek little girl who had just been caught with her hand in the pasty dish, taking the dragon's hot lecturing with a bowed head and a pale face.