Honor and Blood

Ariana laughed nervously, blushing again. "I guess it's cultural," she said. "Little girls in our society aren't raised by their mothers to go chasing after the first boy that catches their fancy."

"Human girls are meant to be hard to get," Tarrin told her. "It's instinct."

"I'm not human."

"No, but you're probably related to them," he said evasively. "So that means that the instincts of humans are probably hiding inside you somewhere. One of them is 'women play hard to get'."

"I wonder why that is."

"Simple. A human male is looking for a loyal mate, who won't stray. If he has to work to get her, he's assured that she's not going to go ru

Ariana laughed. "I guess that makes sense."

"You other races wouldn't have half as screwed up a society as you have if you'd just listen to your instincts," he said accusingly.

"What's the custom of your people about marriage?"

"We don't marry," he replied. "There are seven females for every male, so marrying wouldn't work. Besides, Were-cats don't have the temperment to spend eternity with the same mate. We're transient beings. We take mates when the interest is there, and drift apart when the interest wanes. We don't form lasting attachments the way humans do."

"It sounds lonely. And what happens if you love your mate?"

"Love has nothing to do with being mates, Ariana," he said patiently. "I could love one Were-cat female, yet be mates with another. The love would have nothing to do with me being mates with the second."

"That sounds u

"Only to you," he replied. "Besides, you forget, we're a transient people. The love would fade over time, just as the interest does. At least the Were-cats don't try to fool themselves into thinking that love is eternal."

"You have a very cynical people, Tarrin," Ariana laughed. "Where's the romance and the poetry and the beauty?"

"Those aren't very common concepts among my people."

"It must be unbearable!"

"Not really. Were-cat females have as little patience about things like that as males. Females don't play games. They simply go after what they want."

"Without courting?"

"Courting among Were-cats begins and ends with 'do you want to sleep with me?'"

Ariana laughed. "Well, the poets among the Were-cats must have a hard time paying the bills."

"Probably. If there were any romantic poets."

"Well, have you ever loved someone?"

"Once," he sighed, thinking of Jesmind.

"What happened?"

"We tried to kill each other."

Ariana gave him a wild look, then burst out into gales of uncontrollable laughter. Tarrin didn't find it to be very fu

Jegojah strode into the campsite about then, carrying Sarraya by her wings, as the Faerie thrashed and hissed and threatened the Revenant with all ma

"They couldn't hurt me, you blockhead!" Sarraya screamed at him. "I was doing something important!"

"And what would that be?" Ariana asked.

"Oh, I see you're here," she said. "Well, I found a temple, and I was studying it. I was trying to find the names of the old Dwarven gods. I think that's some pretty important information."

"Important enough, it is not, to die over, no," Jegojah said. "One Sandmen, he was nearly inside the temple, yes."

"They can't enter it," Sarraya told him waspishly. "I know they can't, because they tried long before you got there. They won't come inside the temple's walls. And I have no idea why."

"Spirits, they can't enter ground consecrated to a god, no," Jegojah told her. "The power of the god, it repels them, yes."

"You mean all we had to do to get away from you was hide in a church?" Tarrin asked. "And how did you get on the Tower grounds? That's holy ground for my Goddess."

"Holy, yes, consecrated, no," the Revenant answered. "A difference, there is, yes."

The co

Sarraya nodded.

"And that's an effect of consecrated ground?"

"It is," Jegojah affirmed.

"Then I think that the Dwarves aren't as extinct as people think," he a

"That makes sense," Sarraya agreed. "I couldn't find a name anywhere in the temple. Or more to the point, I couldn't read anything. It's all in Dwarven."

"I doubt they'd be gracious enough to write things in a language you could understand, Sarraya," Tarrin said bluntly.

"You mean that there may be Dwarves still alive somewhere?" Ariana asked.

"I'm pretty sure of it," Tarrin replied. "They're probably living on some distant continent, far away from here, but there are still Dwarves. There have to be, if their god still has power in the world."

"Well, wonders never cease," Ariana smiled.

It made no difference to him one way or the other, but it seemed odd that they would discover that the Dwarves weren't really extinct. But that was a subject for another time. Tarrin was sleepy, and now that Sarraya was returned safely, he had no reason not to go to sleep. So he stood up long enough to shapeshift into cat form, then curled up into a comfortable ball by the fire.

"Jegojah, he will go," the Revenant said. "Jegojah, he wishes ye good night, yes."

Something about that tickled at Tarrin as he lay there, drifting off to sleep, listening to the Revenant's boots fade into the night. Just as he was about to slide into slumber, he realized that the Revenant probably wasn't going to come back. That didn't offend Tarrin, for Jegojah wasn't the kind to wax emotional. He was a pretty simple being, and he probably didn't want to get drowned in questions and farewells. He'd said his farewell, and that was that.

Tarrin sent a silent prayer to the Goddess that she watch over the Revenant, and get him to within sword's reach of their hated common enemy. And then he went to sleep.

The next morning dawned strangely calm for the desert. Tarrin, Sarraya, Var, and Denai were up with the sun, preparing to leave, as the two Aeradalla continued to sleep. He'd heard what he wanted to hear from Andos, so he saw no reason to remain for extended conversation. He'd wake them up right before he left, to tell them where to send the volunteers, and that would be that. Andos' attitude was dangerous to Tarrin, who found that he couldn't hold his a