I'm surprised you remember me, she replied in her telepathic manner.

"I told you to talk," Shiika reprimanded her.

"Sorry, Mother," she said with a bow of her head. "Well, I've got everything set up," she told him. "We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us. The Wikuni even managed to get my Legions here in plenty of time."

"What were you doing, anyway?" he asked.

"Oh, just organizing my support," she said with a strained look. "I had to go to the Abyss to do it, though. I hate going there."

"You did what?"

"I'm a Demon, Tarrin," she said conversationally, stating the obvious. "When I need to talk to other Demons, that means I have to go where they are. They're in the Abyss. Eh, it was a good learning experience for my daughters, anyway. They've never been there, and I'm pretty sure they never want to go there again."

"That's the truth," Anayi said fervently. "I never realized that we had it so good here."

"Wait a minute. You're securing the help of Demons to fight other Demons? Won't they just get on the same side and attack us?"

"Of course not," she smirked. "I found out which Demons are on the other side, and went and talked to the Demons in the Abyss that really hate those Demons. If you didn't know, cutey, Demons will fight each other much faster than they'll pick fights with other creatures, and do it gladly. The only thing a Demon hates more than other creatures are other Demons. When those Demons show up, the Demons that want to gut them will be invited up here to deal with them."

"Sometimes, the best weapon against a Demon is another Demon, Tarrin," Anayi explained.

"But all that's done now. I think I'm going to go take a bath. A nice, long one. Maybe three or four days. I always feel so dirty when I come back from the Abyss."

"Why do I get the feeling that asking you to help was a big mistake?" he asked philosophically.

"You won't be saying that after the battle," she said with a teasing grin, reaching up and patting him on the cheek. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go wash the filth of the Abyss off of me. I really have to stop going there, but it always makes me so glad I live here."

Tarrin stepped aside and let them go, watching them. He wasn't sure if all this Demon business was a good idea. After all, you couldn't trust a Demon. There was nothing to keep them from joining the enemy and turning on them but Shiika's word. But the Demoness had yet to fail to keep up her side of a bargain. She had delivered on everything she had promised. Perhaps, just perhaps, Shiika and her brood were the exception to that rule. Maybe it was possible to put a little trust in her. But just a little.

Shaking his head for even thinking that, Tarrin padded off, back towards his rooms.

Dar's discovery had bolstered them, but that enthusiasm began to wane as they studied feverishly for two more days and found nothing. Tarrin had gone through four books in those two days, all of them histories of this or that Tower, this or that kingdom, and the fourth a biography of Televan the Wise, fifth Keeper of the Tower of Bazra Suun, a city in the far-distant kingdom of Telluria. Televan had been such a great man and dynamic force that he had altered the history of the continent of Arathorn, and so a book was written about his life. The book did make a few references to ancient relics and artifacts the man had seen or encountered in his life, but none of them had been the Firestaff, nor was there any reference to it anywhere in the book.

Tarrin struggled through a scroll holding ancient, archaic poetry as Jasana chased Bandit around the courtyard. The little cat had lost some weight in the days since Keritanima had given him to his daughter, for Jasana worked him mercilessly. Bandit learned quickly that Jasana wouldn't hurt him on purpose, but she did play rough, and she didn't know her own strength. Those were strong motivators to keep out of her clutches. The pudgy cat dropped nearly a quarter of a stone of weight while Jasana exercised him by chasing him around the courtyard. Tarrin glanced at the giggling child and looked back at the scroll.

And nearly had a heart attack.

Right below where he'd been reading about some flower were the words behind the wind.

Tarrin sat up and looked carefully at the scroll, reading slowly:

Twenty seas and twenty stars

Twenty stars over twenty seas.

Twenty days and twenty more

To seek behind the wind.

Twenty hearts and twenty souls.

Twenty golden crowns

Twenty stone of coal and wood

To reach behind the wind.

Twenty legends and twenty myths

Twenty forlorn forgotten.

Twenty beyond the first in blood

To find behind the wind.

Twenty dreams and twenty whispers

Twenty faithful champions.

Twenty try, but one may succeed

To pass behind the wind.

Twenty shadows and twenty reflections

Twenty nightmares and horrors.

Twenty stars point the way

To reach behind the wind.

Tarrin received a powerful jolt behind his eyes. He scanned it with his eyes and realized that this was very, very, very important. He read the poem again, then again, and then once again, until he was absolutely convinced of it. One passage in particular, the mention of a champion, seemed to jump out at him, because the Goddess called him her champion. The mention of dreams and whispers were consistent with him, because he'd once been plagued by bad dreams, and he could hear the whispers of the Weave.

Reading it again, he realized that another stanza referred to Keritanima. She had a crown, but the line about twenty stone of coal and wood made no sense.

The other three stanzas, though, didn't make any sense to him. He did understand that the first was important, because it had some sort of directions in it. You started somewhere and went for forty days towards something with twenty stars in it, but what that thing was, he had no idea. The one talking about twenty beyond the first in blood made no sense at all, and the last stanza too seemed to have nothing in it that made any immediate sense.

"Kerri," he called in a quiet voice, not entirely ready to shout out and feel foolish if he was wrong. "Could you come here a minute?"

"Sure," she replied, getting up from where she was sitting on the grass, leaving her book behind. She sat down on the other side of Jesmind, who was reading another book he got for her, and leaned in to look at the scroll he had in his paws. "What is it?"

"Read this," he said quietly. "And tell me I'm crazy."

Tarrin watched her, and he watched her eyes widen just a little more every time she finished a line. "You're not crazy!" she gasped when she was done. "Tarrin, this is what we're looking for!" she announced loudly. "Everyone come here quick!" she shouted, snatching the scroll out of his paws and rushing towards the bench before the fountain.

"You found it?" Dar asked excitedly as he rushed out of the tent with Miranda hot on his heels. They joined Keritanima as she set the scroll down on the bench and knelt beside it, on the bricks of the walkway. Tarrin and Jesmind got over there just as Keritanima started reading the poem aloud, and then she looked up triumphantly at them all. And saw six only confused faces staring back at her. Only Miranda seemed to understand, nodding quickly as her eyes lit up.

"What does that mean?" Dar asked impatiently.

"Don't any of you study astronomy?" she asked waspishly. "The twenty stars it talks about is the Diamond Crown!"

"And that would be?" Dolanna asked.

"Hopeless!" Keritanima snapped to herself. "It's a constellation, Dolanna!" she answered hotly.

"I've never heard of that one," Dar said.

"You can only see it from the southern hemisphere," she told him bluntly. "You can't see it from this side of the world."