"Why would she do that?" Tarrin gasped.

"Because I made her that mad," she answered bluntly. "And if she'll take a swipe at me, cub, don't ever think that she wouldn't do the same to you."

Tarrin was a bit worried about that statement. "Maybe, maybe I should avoid her for a while," he said in a hesitant voice.

"I think that's a good idea," Triana agreed. "And if she confronts you, keep what I said in mind. It's alright to stand up to her, but for the forest's sake, don't get physical with her, and don't do whatever it was you did that set her off this time."

"I know what happened," he said glumly. "It's my fault, Triana." He quickly told her about his error in choice of words, which turned a rather innocent exposure of the falseness of her threat to refuse his rights to see Jasana into a very real threat against her rights to her daughter.

"That would do it, alright," she grunted. "You hit the one nerve bigger than her love for you. I suggest you don't do that again."

"I won't, I promise," he said fervently.

"Good. I'll be back later, cub."

"Alright," he acknowledged.

When Triana left, he was a little less assured of the whole thing. He knew now that Jesmind could be dangerous, but only if he did something very wrong. The problem he could see now was that he wasn't sure what was in the forbidden zone anymore. He'd got her mad and said some bad things to her. He still did not intend to break off his frienship with Auli, and that was certain to infuriate her. So maybe what Triana said was for the best. Maybe just staying out of Jesmind's way was the best thing to do. If he wanted to see Jasana, Jula could arrange that for him. Her or Mist. Either way, he could continue spending time with his children without having to worry about saying something in passing that may get Jesmind just that mad.

The incident with Jesmind passed over the course of the day, and Tarrin worried less and less about it. He didn't worry about it at all once sunset came, and Auli and Dar knocked conspiratorially on his door. He did manage to convince Sapphire that he'd be quite safe with two Sorcerers along with him, but he was sure that she could see through his subterfuge. For whatever reason she had, he was very thankful for it when she deigned to let him go out with Auli and Dar without her accompanying him.

That turned out to be a good thing. Auli wasted no time in taking command of the host, and she immediately bent them to causing mischief. The first act of the evening was to go down into the baths and change the color of the water into something that very closely resembled blood. While people were bathing. It didn't really phase the Sorcerers, since they probably knew that someone had just used magic, but it caused a hysterical fit among the Novices and few Initiates that were currently using the pool.

That was just the start. Auli managed to get Dar into the spirit of things, and it wasn't long before Illusions stalked the halls scaring people, or the baked rolls cooling on a kitchen table were suddenly filled with live worms, or some of the suits of armor that served as decorations along the halls on the lower floors started moving around by themselves, figures in the paintings and tapestries started to move around in them, or passages and intersections suddenly seemed to change directions or disappear, thanks to Dar's Illusions. Auli ran the gambit of the Tower in that one night, coaxing Dar into helping her cause magical mischief, while Tarrin could only watch and struggle not to give them away every time he all but exploded into laughter.

In one short night, Auli and Dar had managed to infuriate, scare, terrorize, confuse or shock almost everyone in the Tower. From the horde of rats in the cellars to the rather risque image of a Sorceress holding open her robe that now adorned the top of the South Tower for all of Suld to see, from the cute, pink, floppy-eared, horse-sized rabbits that were grazing on grass on the east side of the grounds to the smith's forge that had water gushing out of the furnace on the west side, Auli made sure to leave no part of the ground untouched by their night's marauding. The worm-filled rolls seemed to be the pinnacle of the evening's activities, for it turned out that they were served to the Novices for dinner. The screams of horror and disgust were audible down almost every passage and hallway. Though it certainly was not a fun night for most of the Tower residents, it was grand fun for the three of them. The only place they didn't go to cause trouble was the Knights Academy, and it wasn't because Auli didn't want to go. She had this great idea to scare all the cadets and make them run out of their barracks, and all because she wanted to see how many of them were naked. But Tarrin intervened rather forcefully at that point. Since he was a Knight, he felt it his duty to protect the order from Auli. At least not without the permission of the Lord General, anyway. He knew that Darvon may very well approve of such a thing, to give the cadets an exercise in dealing with the unexpected. Auli saw no reason to do it if the "wrinkled-up old boring Elders" knew about it or condoned it. But when Dar teased her about only wanting to do it to see the cadets naked, she actually seemed to reconsider. Perhaps Auli's desire to see the cadets naked was stronger than her resistance to the idea of misbehaving with the blessings of someone in charge. Tarrin promised to break the idea to Darvon in the morning, and that idea was shelved for the immediate future.

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful night. Tarrin got to indulge in a little harmless fun-at least harmless for him-and it vastly improved his mood. After the day he'd had, he needed to vent a little, and Auli provided the perfect means to let him relax.

This wasn't to say that their activities went unnoticed. The next morning, Jenna called him into her office and blasted him for going along with Auli, but even she laughed helplessly when she told him about the terrified Knight cadets who had been sent out to round up the magically enlarge bunnies before they got into the gardens and did some real damage. It turned out that none of them really had any experience in wrangling horse-sized rabbits, and they caused something of a stampede among the herd. There were huge pink fuzzy bunnies everywhere, trampling cadets, knocking holes in walls, even a few that managed to jump over the fence and terrorize the city. Jenna may be the Keeper, but she was young enough to appreciate the joke. Her amusement ended when she told him just who had to pay for all the damage, and she gave him a blistering ultimatum that any further "walks" with Auli and Dar had better not lead to the same chaos the next day. She threatened to make the three of them go down into the cellar and round up every single rat that Auli had managed to put in there. Then she laughed and told him that one of the Sorcerers, a strapping big Dal, had literally fainted when he saw all the rats. It turned out the man had something of a phobia for rodents. Then she laughed again and told him that he'd better not see the bunnies, or he'd have a heart attack.

Despite the trouble, Tarrin had had too much fun the night before to be easily dissuaded, even by Jenna. Being a troublemaker was new to him, but he had to admit that it was tremendously entertaining.

The only one that even made him feel anywhere near sorry about the night before was Jasana. Jula and Mist brought them out to the gardens and he spent time with them. While Eron ran around aimlessly, Tarrin carried Jasana on his shoulders as they walked along the paths between fruit trees and beautiful flowers. "You're being mean to Mama," she accused in a grim voice.

"She was mean to me too, Jasana," he said mildly, knowing what this was about.

"No, last night. You went out with the Sha'Kar."