"What?"

"We can't leave until we have a better understanding of what's going on," he said. "We have to know what we're up against before we try to get away from it, and as much as we can find out about what's going on. Who they are, how many there are, what they may do if we run, and how bad they want to follow us. We may need to know in order to escape."

"That's what I intend to do," she said. "I have to think about what you told me for a while. I have to make new plans. Oh, yes, Tiella bathes at the second bell, so you should go talk to her in the morning. That's what I came in here to tell you in the first place, and I'm running out of time. I'm sure that Jervis' men realize that I'm not in the maze, and they're probably looking for me."

She came over and licked the side of his cheek with her fox-like tongue, her version of a kiss, then took Allia's hand warmly. "Keep him from gnawing on the furniture, shaida," she said in an outrageous voice that broke the tension.

Allia laughed, and Tarrin chuckled ruefully. "I will do my best," Allia said in a completely insincere serious voice. "Take care, and be careful."

"I'm always careful," she said, her tail swishing back and forth as she quickly went to the door, opened it, looked both ways, then scurried out.

"That was eventful," Allia said carefully. "I think she's hit some truth, but not all of it."

"I think so too," Tarrin said in a somber voice. "I think so too."

"Well, it won't do you any good to sit in here and brood. We have an appointment, if you remember."

"Yes, I remember," he said. "We'll go as soon as it's dark."

"Good. The time with your family will do you good. This place isn't good for you, deshida. It keeps you too nervous."

"I have a good reason to be," he said, leaning back onto the bed.

"Then let's go take it out on the practice field," she said. "It's been too long since we worked out, and a little exercise will do your mind good."

"I think you're right," he agreed. "I need to find my staff. I lost it in the fight with that thing, and nobody's returned it yet."

"Someone has to have it," she said. "Let's go find it, and then we'll go onto the field."

They were two ghosts flitting through the darkness, and despite the very heavy patrolling and human presence, they passed through the Tower grounds like shadows.

Moving with absolute silence, Tarrin and Allia crept along the buildings and through the clearings with guards all around them, moving confidently and quickly between gaps in their patrols. Allia was Selani, and they had developed hiding and the ways of stealth quite beyond the human ideas of it. She proved she was everything her race was said to be by keeping up with the Were-cat as he moved on padded feet that made no sound, using his ears and nose to ferret out the position and direction of the guard patrols so they could more easily work around them. Because he had been trapped there, Tarrin knew the grounds better than most of the guards, and he knew where every nook and cranny was that would allow the Selani to hide herself from sight. Tarrin simply changed form, and used his small cat body as a disguise. At a distance, the guards couldn't tell Tarrin from any of the other cats that roamed the grounds.

– How much further?- Allia signed to him in the Selani hand code. She could understand him when he spoke in the manner of the Cat, but she couldn't reply in the same way. But it was a moot point, for her hand code was just as comprehensive as her spoken tongue. There was a handsign for almost every word in her language.

"Not too far, just past those buildings," he replied in the unspoken manner of the Cat, hunkered down in the dewing grass as they watched a ten man patrol march by with torches casting dancing shadows on a series of low buildings behind them. Some of them were wearing heavy cloaks, to hold off the autumn chill. Winter wasn't far away, Tarrin knew, and the cloudless night wasn't doing much to keep what heat was left from the cool day trapped near the ground. The first frost couldn't be but a few days off.

She made a slight whistling sound to make him look at her. -How far away is the house?-

"Now that I'm not sure of," he replied. "It's been a while since I came from there. I remember how to get there, but I was in cat form when I did it. The distances aren't the same to me, because it takes me longer to get places in this form."

– Ah. It still can't be that far away.-

"Suld's a big city, litter-mate," he said, using the cat's concept of the word sister. "But it didn't take me more than an hour to get to the Tower, so I figure that it'll take us about half an hour to find it. Alright, let's move."

Tarrin shifted back to his humanoid form, and the pair darted across a large open area, the last of them before reaching the fence, and then slipped between two low storage buildings that faced the perimeter fence. He looked to and fro, testing the air with his nose, straining to hear movement with his ears. There was no guard patrol nearby, and he thought that they had enough time to negotiate the passage through the fence.

They ran on silent feet up to the fence, and they immediately began a pre-arranged plan to get through the fence as fast as possible. Allia first reached out, to see if the Ward would prevent her from passing through it as Tarrin did the same, to show her where it was. Allia's hand passed through, where Tarrin's hand was stopped. Once they knew that, Tarrin bent down and put his paw out, and Allia stepped into it. After two silent hefts to prepare themselves, Tarrin vaulted Allia into the air, pushing her as she jumped off his driving paw. She soared up and over the fence, then landed and rolled gracefully on the paved street beyond. Tarrin pulled off his shirt quickly and tossed it down over the ward, between the bars of the fence. Whatever magic the bars of the fence held that kept others out, it didn't react to non-living things, so it did nothing to the cloth of the shirt. Tarrin changed form quickly and rooted under the tail of his Initiate shirt, then wriggled through and under the bars, squirming out of the neck on the far side of the fence as Allia took out a cloak with a deep hood from where it was tied onto her back, shook it out, then put it on. Then he changed form again, snatched up his shirt, and the pair of them sprinted off into the darkness.

They slowed down and worked the streets parallel to the fence until they crossed a street that Tarrin knew, and then Allia followed him silently as Tarrin backtracked the path he took to get from his little mother to the Tower. It hadn't been all that long ago, but his point of view was different in his base form, so it took some adjustment that slowed them down a bit. The streets were occupied, but as he thought, he didn't attract a great deal of attention. They simply took him for a Wikuni, albeit an unusual one, and that was the end of that. Allia would attract attention, were she not hiding herself in the deep folds of the long cloak and hood she was wearing.

It took him almost an hour, but he finally found the stately house behind its iron fence. In his humanoid form, he could appreciate how large and grand his little mother's house was. Tomas was a very successful merchant. "Is this it?" Allia whispered as Tarrin looked to see if anyone else was on the street.

"This is it," he confirmed, jumping up onto the top of the ornate iron fence, then reaching down and helping Allia up and over it. They worked through the almost dead garden, a garden prepared for the winter's cold, until they were at the front door. Allia knocked on it boldly as Tarrin stood off to the side, out of sight of the door. Janette was the only one that knew how he looked out of cat form, and he didn't want to startle or surprise whoever opened the door.