He saw no reason not to find out. He excused himself from the others and climbed up the rock spire, a particularly tall and wide one, and reached its flat top. He seated himself facing north, then took his amulet in his paw and formed an image of his sister in his mind. "Keritanima," he called.

"Tarrin?" she replied almost immediately. "Where have you been? I've been worrying about you!" She was speaking in Sha'Kar, the accented Sha'Kar that Tarrin had shed with his contact with the Sha'Kar woman.

"I'm alright, sister," he told her. "I'm still in the desert. Where are you right now?"

"About halfway to Suld," she replied. "The icebergs have been pretty bad for so early in the year, so I'm getting a little peeved. Miranda says hello."

"Hi, Miranda," he called. He knew that Miranda could hear her.

"What's with the dialect?" she asked.

"Kerri, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," he replied. "Let's just say that I learned the proper pronunciations from someone that I know was right."

"I take it that it's something you don't want to talk about like this?"

"Exactly. How did things go before you left?"

"Pretty good, actually," she said with a brightness in her voice that told him she was smiling. "I managed to get the nobles to heel. Sashka is probably teaching them how to sit up and beg about now, I'd imagine. He made it pretty clear that the Consitution I gave him to go by would be the absolute law of the land, and the nobles aren't stupid enough to not believe him. They also know that I gave Sashka power of the military, so if they try anything funny, he'll crush them. I may have a heart, but Sashka is a Vendari. His idea of warfare tends to go along the lines of 'scorched earth.' The nobility won't cross him."

Tarrin smiled. "I'm glad things worked out pretty well. How are Zak, Binter, and Sisska?"

"Zak is fine. Binter and Sisska stayed in Wikuna."

"Why?"

"Sisska is pregnant," she replied calmly. "There was absolutely no way I was going to permit her to travel. I have a new Vendari bodyguard named Szath. He's pretty unimaginative and not very bright, but at least he gets along with Zak. I guess that's all that matters."

"Only one?"

"I thought the same at first, because of Sashka's nearly fanatical insistence that I be well protected. But I have Zak, who's turned out to be an equal to a Vendari in a fight. The fact that Szath is the biggest, strongest, toughest Vendari I've ever seen in my life may have something to do with only having one sent to replace Binter and Sisska."

"He's that big?"

Tarrin, he lookes like a mobile tree," she said in a sudden voice. "He's a salt-water Vendari, and they have brown scales. He's a head taller than Binter, and about half again as wide. He could probably knock down a house with his bare hands. He can't even fit through the door to my cabin, so he stands out in the hall. Nobody can get around him when he does, so the staterooms past mine are empty."

"Wow."

"Wow indeed. As soon as Sisska lays her eggs, they'll be coming back. Her clan will care for the eggs while they're here."

That surprised him, but it should not have. Vendari were related to reptiles, though they were warm-blooded. It was only logical that they were egg-layers. "How long will that be?"

"Sisska should be putting down her brood in about a month, and I'll have them on the fastest clipper in the fleet as soon as she feels ready to move. That'll probably be the day after."

"You going to be alright with this Szath?"

" He's a Vendari, Tarrin," Keritanima chuckled. "He may not be very bright, but his honor and devotion to duty are unswerving. I've already sworn him to secrecy about those things I don't want to spread, and he'll keep his word. He'll take those secrets to his grave. If he even remembers them, that is," she added with a rueful grunt. "How are you doing?"

"On schedule, more or less. I'm about two days from a place called Cloud Spire, and the Selani clans are gathering there for their yearly meeting."

"I didn't ask where you were, I asked how you were doing," she said archly.

"I'm alright, sister," he replied calmly. "I'm well and whole, at least right now."

"You're being evasive, Tarrin," she accused.

"I know. Things have happened to me here that I don't want spread around. They'll see it soon enough in a while."

"You won't even tell me?"

"I'd love to, sister, but unfortunately I have no idea how many other people I'm talking to at the moment."

"Alright, I get the point," she sighed. "I take it that it's going to apply to where you've been and what you've done?"

"More or less. I can tell you that I'm travelling with a pair of Selani, but I'll be leaving them behind once we reach the Cloud Spire. That's half the reason I'm going that way."

"What are they like?"

"Nothing like Allia," Tarrin chuckled. "Var is reserved, but he's a little stiff. That's because I still don't really like him, so he won't be himself around me. Denai is another matter."

"Uh oh," Keritnaima giggled. "I take it she's a handful?"

"Imagine Sarraya with no reservations."

Keritanima laughed. "She can't be that bad."

"She intentionally threw herself off a longspan-high cliff just to impress Var," he told her. "She's worse than Sarraya. She has absolutely no fear. Not of the desert, not of me, and not of just about anything. She's old enough to be an adult, but young enough to be stupid."

Keritanima was howling with laughter, and it took her a moment to get back under control. "Well then, I imagine that your nerves are pretty much well shot."

"Not really. I finally found a threat gruesome enough for her to believe. She's been pretty tame the last few days."

"Sounds like you like her."

"Why do you think that?"

"You have a soft spot for fearless little girls. Besides, if she's not afraid of you, if she's like you say she is, she probably flaunts the fact that she's not afraid of you in your face."

"She's done it a few times," he admitted. "Not lately, though. I frightened her pretty well after that stunt at the cliff."

"What's she like other than that?"

"She's a typical teenager. She talks too much, she's combative, competitive, devious, manipulative, and she thinks she knows everything."

"Sounds like a typical teen to me," Keritanima chuckled. "It's good to see that certain age qualities are universal across races. I guess it gives us all common ground."

"Maybe. Have you talked to Allia?"

"Yesterday. They're doing alright. Allia's getting a little restless, sitting in the Tower. Dolanna, Camara Tal, and Sevren are trying to find the traitor in the Tower, and Dar is getting a little aggravated with Allia, because she follows him everywhere he goes. Phandebrass hasn't come out of the library yet, and Triana is still here, training Jula."

"Did Allia tell you why Jula attacked the Keeper?"

"She did. It seemed that they were having a discussion, it turned into an argument, the Keeper tried to take Jula's amulet, and that set her off. From the sound of it, Jula and the Keeper never really got along, and it's alot worse now. Jula is a pariah in the Tower. None of the Sorcerers want anything to do with her, because she betrayed the order. There have been a few attempts to have the Council and the Keeper throw her out. None of them are crazy enough to attack Jula directly, though, so they have little choice but to try to go through Tower politics."

"I can imagine."

"It's more than that. It turns out that being a Were-cat makes Sorcery stronger. Jula's power has increased significantly since she got to the Tower. She's more than a match for anyone in the Tower. Add in those claws and her Were gifts, and she's nearly as dangerous as you."

"Huh. I didn't know that."