"I told you that you wouldn't understand," he told her bluntly. "I just needed some time to think things over."
"That's all you've been doing for the last two months, brother," Keritanima snapped at him. "I've almost forgotten you. And what I see in front of me now isn't the same person I knew two months ago."
"You're right," he said flatly, stepping past her. "I'm not."
"That was stupid, Kerri," Dar whispered in a savage hiss, but Tarrin's sensitive ears picked it up as he walked away.
"Sometimes you have to smack Tarrin to get him going in the right direction, Dar," she whispered back. "Trust me."
"I'll let you do that," Dar said quickly.
Crossing his arms, he stood near the mast, a little angry with his sister, but that quickly faded. No matter who he was or how she acted, Keritanima was his sister, and he loved her. He could forgive her for her words, because she was important to him. But she didn't have to know that just now. Better to let her stew for a bit. That seemed a just compensation for that little remark.
"You're off to a good start this morning," Allia told him in Selani, touching him lightly on the shoulder as she came up from behind. "How's your stomach?"
"It's getting better," he replied. "The scratches stopped bleeding last night. Dolanna says they'll heal, just not fast like any other injury would."
"Keritanima's right, you know," she said softly. "You aren't the same as you were."
"Don't start with me, sister," he warned.
"I'm not starting anything with you, brother," she said defensively. "There was a time, not too long ago, when we would talk for hours and hours, about anything. We kept no secrets from each other. And now you won't speak to me anymore about the things that matter to you. You've closed yourself to me, Tarrin. To me! I'm your sister! If you can't speak to me, who can you talk to?" She stepped in front of him and took his paw between her slender, four-fingered hands. "I don't care how you think you feel, my brother, or how you think we'll feel about you. I will love you, no matter who you are or what you do."
Tarrin closed his eyes and bowed his head. "I don't know if I can, sister," he said quietly. "I don't even understand half of it myself."
"Well, talking about it may help," she replied.
"Maybe. But I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet, deshaida. Maybe later, but not now. Not yet."
"I'm not very happy to hear that, but I'll give you that time," she said calmly. "I don't like seeing my brother upset."
"Well, I appreciate the confidence."
"It has nothing to do with confidence," she sniffed, leaning against him. "It has to do with family."
"Have I told you lately that I love you?" he said with a rueful chuckle.
"No, as a matter of fact, you haven't," she said in an imperious tone.
"Well, I love you, sister."
"And I love you, my brother. Now stop this sillyness and let's get something to eat."
"What sillyness?"
"Standing there looking like you're about to tear the mast out of the deck," she replied.
"I did not."
"Don't make me call in witnesses," she said with a light grin, her blue eyes twinkling.
"I'll just make them conveniently forget," he teased.
"Brother, when it comes to a choice between making you angry or making me angry, which do you think they'll choose?"
Tarrin gave her a slight smile. "They'd probably jump overboard."
"I guess that would be a choice," she acceded after thinking a moment. She said it with a completely serious voice. "Not one I'd take, however."
"I think not," he said, following her below decks.
Because of the situation, when the ship docked at the wharf closest to the inlet, Tarrin, Keritanima, and Allia found themselves confined below decks with Azakar, Binter, and Sisska, while Dolanna and the others went ashore. Tarrin chafed at the treatment. He didn't want to be trapped in a small cabin with very large people. But after Dolanna calmly explained that the six of them were highly recognizable, they all had to agree that keeping them hidden was only wise. Roulet was heavily populated by Wikuni, and by then they had to be looking for Keritanima. And that meant that they probably had descriptions of those members of the Princess' party that stood out the most. Dolanna, Faalken, Dar, and Miranda were rather nondescript, at least in the manner of being easily picked out of a crowd, so the chore of buying supplies for the group fell upon them.
Tarrin stood by a porthole, looking out into the city. It was alot like Den Gauche, but not as large. It was built along a very shallow, gentle rise coming up from the waterline, but the buildings of Roulet were dirty, unkempt, and somewhat ramshackle. That had to be a reflection of the type of people that populated its streets. They all tended to be as shady as the buildings around them. Much like Den Gauche, the city was dominated by a large stone fortress at the top of the rise, looking out over the inlet, but it was shadowed by the two hills flanking the bottleneck entrance of the small bay which held the harbor, those hills topped by those two huge stone fortresses. Roulet would be a nightmare for any admiral to invade. Tarrin could see that now that he got a good look at the inlet and harbor.
"How long did Dolanna say they would be?" Azakar asked calmly as he came up beside Tarrin.
"She said as fast as possible," he replied absently. "This doesn't look like the kind of place where respectable people would want to linger."
"I don't like the idea of them being out there alone," Azakar said.
"Faalken can more than take care of both Dolanna and Dar, and neither of them are really defenseless, Zak," he assured the huge, young Knight. "Miranda can take care of herself if it comes to that, but I don't think she'd wander away from the others. Not in a place like this."
"I should be there to watch over her," Sisska growled in her very unfeminine, bass voice. "She is alone."
"Not quite," Keritanima said calmly. "I specifically ordered her to stay with Dolanna."
"And you expect her to obey you?" Sisska snorted.
Keritanima flashed the Vendari female a hot look, but said nothing.
There was a moment of tense silence, as Keritanima looked at Tarrin and started to say something, but fell silent. Tarrin knew that Keritanima wasn't exactly sure if he was speaking to her. "I don't think Miranda would be crazy enough to go out alone among them," Tarrin told Sisska. "This isn't Kerri's father's court."
"My father's court was ten times more dangerous than any pack of rabble-rousing pirates," Keritanima said archly.
"True, but at least there, being attacked openly in a city street wasn't a possibility."
"So you say,"she grunted in reply. "Why do you think I had Sisska escorting Miranda around?"
Tarrin looked at Sisska, who only nodded. "Well, you shouldn't worry too much anyway," he said. "If anyone touches Miranda, Sisska will have to get in line to get a piece of him." He flexed his claws in a very unwholesome manner. "I get the first shot."
"Think twice," Sisska challenged. "Miranda is my child, Tarrin. Avenging her is my responsibility."
"I think we dwell on impossibilities," Allia said. "Dolanna will not allow Miranda to wander, and she certainly will not put them in a position where they must fight."
"True," Keritanima had to admit. "I don't see why we're standing around talking about who we're going to fight."
"You're surrounded by bloodthirsty warriors, Kerri," Azakar said with a wink. "We're just talking shop, that's all."
"Oh, get off of yourself, Zak," she said with a snort.
The space across from the ship filled with a large black ship, sleek and deadly looking, its sides bristling with those little wooden doors that concealed cannons. The ship was some distance from the dock itself, but men on the dock already had ropes in hand, reeling the ship in to a resting place along the quay. The ship's deck and rigging was populated with a very wide assortment of beast-faced Wikuni. They moved with a quiet, precise grace that demonstrated the vaunted Wikuni attachment to ships and the seas, working in a seemingly unheard harmony that made the ship slide perfectly up to the side of the dock. Standing on the steering deck was a tall female, a panther Wikuni, her black fur covering a very lithe form. Her face was very striking, even from the distance Tarrin saw her, a human-set face with a cat's triangular nose, a hybrid mouth, and cat ears poking out of a mass of hair the same inky black as her fur. Much like Tarrin, she had a long tail, heavier than his, that swished behind her absently as she moved away from the steering wheel. Wide, expressive amber eyes broke up the dark features of her furred face, twin yellow orbs that seemed to draw attention to them. She was dressed in a blue coat and white shirt, and a pair of white pants tucked into a pair of shined black leather boots.