"You said-"

"Ah, you heard what I said. You didn't hear what I meant."

She fumed at him a moment, then crossed her arms and put on a pouting expression. "Does that mean the rest of it was true too? About the city in the clouds and the wicked winged lady and the bone man and the flying ships and-"

"More or less," he replied. "They're things that most people can't understand, so I don't make an issue of them."

"You're mean."

"I know I'm mean. Deal with it, cub," Tarrin said in a teasing tone.

"So what happened to make you grow like that?" Garyth asked. "Was it part of what-of what happend with Jesmind?"

"No," he replied. "This happened when I was attacked by a creature called a Succubus. Her attack aged me, and this is what happens when Were-cats age. I guess I should thank her, actually," he mused. "She helped me more than she hurt me."

"I don't see how."

"Were-cats don't die of age, Garyth," Jesmind told him. "We live until something kills us. We keep growing most of our lives, but the growing slows down as we get older and older. Only the very old ones, like my mother, reach a point where they stop growing, or at least grow so slowly that it doesn't matter anymore. Older Were-cats are much stronger and tougher than younger ones, the benefit of living to that age. I think Tarrin here is there now, too. He got the benefits without having to slog through a thousand or so years of boredom."

"A thousand years?" Karn asked curiously.

"Or so," Jesmind shrugged.

"Well, that's certainly interesting. How long are you going to stay, Tarrin?"

"Only a couple of days, and I think that's pushing it," he grunted. "I absolutely have to get to Suld before that army does. I can afford to delay a while, to deal with Torrian, but after that I have to drop everything and get to Suld as fast as I can."

"Well, we'll see what we can do to gather everyone up. We have to do it fast anyway. As soon as the Rangers pull back, the Dals are going to realize something's up, and they may try to reinforce Torrian. They must realize how important it is to their supply lines."

"I know." Tarrin set down his glass, then glanced at Jasana. "Eat," he told her.

"No. I'm mad at you."

"Fine. If you're not going to eat, you're going to go clean your room, do the dishes, pick up the porch, rake the yard, clean the barn, and do the laundry."

She glared at him, then picked up her fork and started on her ham steak.

Tarrin knew how to deal with rebellious little girls.

Jesmind gave him a knowing little grin, as did Garyth.

They finished their breakfast, and Garyth patted his belly and sighed. "It's been a while since I ate like that," he said with a sated smile. "I should visit more often."

"You're going to be too busy to visit," Tarrin told him seriously. "You have two days to get everyone ready. I won't wait any longer than that."

"I'll have everyone ready to go, but they're going to need some bolstering."

"I'm not a motivator, Garyth. The kind of motivation I cause in people tends to be terror, not inspiration."

Garyth laughed. "I'll take care of the rallying, lad. Are you going to be here?"

"I have nowhere else to go at the moment," he answered. "You'd better arrange a messenger to get out here and warn me if the Dals show up."

"I'll take care of it," he assured him. "I think we have alot to do, Jak, Karn. We'd better get moving."

"Aye. That was a good breakfast, boy," Karn told him with a small smile. "I ain't gonna ask where the food came from."

"That's a good idea," Tarrin replied with a slight gesture of his paw.

Jesmind showed them out with a few goodbyes of her own, then she closed the door and leaned against it, looking at Tarrin. "Two days?" she asked.

Tarrin nodded once. "I have twenty days to get to Suld, Jesmind. It'll take three to get to Torrian, so that leaves me with only fifteen days to get to Suld. And not getting there in time is not an option."

"It's not fair," she said with a frown. "You just got here, and you have to leave again."

"Blame the people forcing me to get to Suld," he shrugged.

"I'd rather blame you."

"You can do that all you want. It's not going to make any difference, though."

"Cheater," she accused.

"Among other things," he said, standing up and starting to pick up the dishes. Jasana was still eating, and the looks she was passing at her father were not very friendly. Jasana had heard his declaration about leaving, and he could see that she did not like it. But that was just the way things were. No matter how much she hated, Jesmind hated, and even he hated it, it wasn't going to change the fact.

He did hate the idea. Two days didn't seem like it was long enough. Not that he wasn't quite so angry with Jesmind now, calm enough to talk with her rationally.

"Are you going to contact mother?"

"Actually, I'm waiting her her to contact me," Tarrin replied. "She said she'd do it. She's overdue."

"She must have a good reason," Jesmind shrugged, helping him clear the table of the dishes not being used. "These aren't mine."

"They are now," he told her.

"Mother said you learned some Druid magic," Jesmind chuckled. "I hope you remember that I only have so much space in the cupboard."

"I can always banish them."

"No, I have room for them. No use wasting them." She looked at Jasana. "Hurry it up, cub. We have a garden to plant today."

"But I wanted to go hunting!" Jasana protested.

"Unless you learn how to hunt down wild tomatos, cub, we garden today."

"Papa can just make them appear."

" Papa should know better than to rely on things like that," Jesmind said sharply. "Your grandmother can do the same things, but you don't see her making things appear every time she turns around."

"Maybe gramma should learn from papa."

"If that happened, I'd put on a dress and live in the village," Jesmind snorted.

Tarrin gave Jesmind a cool look. Perhaps he did use his gifts a bit too much, but only because Sarraya had more or less taught him to do so, encouraging him to use his power so he could practice. Besides, he had good reason to do it, since they had no food to offer Garyth.

"I hope you brought some more clothes, Tarrin," Jesmind said. "You stay in this house, you pitch in. You're gardening today too."

"I'm so glad you think so."

"I know so," she replied. "That's where we'll be, and I'm not going to waste any of the short time we have." She smiled at him. "You'll get bored sitting in here by yourself. You're going to end up out there anyway, so why fight about it?"

Tarrin glanced at her, then chuckled in agreement. "I really hate you sometimes, Jesmind."

"I can live with that, if it means that you don't hate me the rest of the time," she said with uncharacteristic sincerity, looking up into his eyes.

He found a little more of his animosity for Jesmind fading away. "Not all the time," he said honestly.

"Those are the best times," she said with a sudden warm smile, reaching out and putting her paw on his shoulder. "Now then, cub, you're doing the dishes. I'm going to go change into clothes that I'm not too worried about, and we'll get started."

"Aww," Jasana huffed.

"Don't 'aww' me, young lady," Jesmind said crisply. "Now hop."

"Yes mama," she sighed, sliding out of her chair and fetching a bucket from the corner formed by the counter and the wall, then going out the door as Jesmind padded into his parents' old room. She was heading for the little brook just on the south edge of the meadow which held the Kael farm.

Tarrin had forgotten that their house didn't even have a wellpump inside. Keritanima knew about things like that… maybe she could explain to him how to install that plumbing she always talked about. Kerri said they had running water in her palace, both hot and cold. That sounded like something he wouldn't mind having in the house.