"Sometimes I do not understand you, sister," Allia grunted.
"Then I'm doing it right," she replied in a frippant tone.
Everything was in readiness for them, and it told him two things. One, that Miranda was very thorough, and two, that Miranda could find the center of the maze. A single tent had been erected not far from the fountain, in a large open area. Inside that small tent were four modest wooden chests and four neatly folded lengths of waterproof canvas. She had even thought to have a trio of simple chairs with throw pillows placed in the seats and a small table set up in the tent, so that anyone visiting it would have somewhere comfortable to read.
Tarrin had felt a sense of peace and assurance flow over him when he stepped into the courtyard, and for the first time, he understood what it was and where it was coming from. He knew it was somehow connected to the Goddess, but he realized that the courtyard was holy to the Goddess, and that gave the sacred ground a very different feel for anyone who followed her. The courtyard was holy ground, and her presence there was powerful.
"I told her not to do that," Keritanima snorted as they entered the tent and looked around. Keritanima had the place illuminated with one of her little conjured balls of light.
"Do what?" Tarrin asked.
"Bring someone else," she replied. "I really don't think that Miranda dragged those chests in here by herself. They may look small, but those chests are very heavy."
"Even if it was Binter or Sisska?"
"Even them," she said adamantly. "I seriously debated letting Miranda in here."
"Why?"
"I don't know," she said after a brief pause. "Maybe because this place feels very private to me. I really had to bring myself to telling Miranda to come in here."
Tarrin didn't say anything. Keritanima was feeling that same closeness to the Goddess he did, a feeling that was always intensified there, in her courtyard. Keritanima was being affected by holy ground. That told him something about how she felt towards the Goddess.
"Anyway, let's take advantage of it," she said. "Time to pack away the booty."
They placed the books and scrolltubes into the chests, packing them carefully so that they wouldn't be damaged and looked orderly. Tarrin looked at the books as he did so, noticing that very few of them had any sort of marking on their black leather covers. The book with the shaeram on it was an exception rather than a rule. He opened one randomly and looked at it, and found it to be written in a very exacting hand, the precision of a writer who had been penning books for years. The short passage he read seemed to be talking about political affiliations among different magical and nonmagical orders in the west. He opened another book, and found a list of names, complete with dates and comments. The dates were from over two thousand years ago, and the comments seemed to be abbreviated words marking something the reader would understand. The key for those abbreviations was probably in the book.
Two thousand years? The book was that old? It looked like it was bound only last ride! He remembered the feeling of magic he felt in that room, and then he remembered that the place was a bit too clean, too dry. Perhaps that magic also preserved the books in their good condition.
"What is it, Tarrin?" Keritanima asked.
"This book has dates in it from before the Breaking," he replied. "I was musing that it doesn't look that old. That magic in the room must have preserved the books."
"It would be a wise thing to do," she agreed. "And the priests of Karas are anything if not methodical."
"They made a spell that lasted for over two thousand years," Tarrin said, mainly to himself. "That's some serious magic."
"Well, don't give them too much credit," Keritanima warned. "No doubt it took them some effort to do that."
"I guess," he shrugged.
"At least we know that the books are from before the Breaking now," Keritanima said as she placed scrolltubes in a chest. "That means that we might find something very useful in them."
"If not, then we wasted a whole night."
"Of course we didn't," Keritanima said. "We had fun, and we got to play together."
"You are weird," Tarrin told her flatly, which made Allia laugh.
"Of course I am, dear brother," she winked. "I'm a Wikuni. We're all weird."
"To your toenails," he agreed.
"Well, I'm done," Keritanima said, folding up the sack. Tarrin too was finished, but Allia was still placing the last few books into a chest. She too had paged through one or two of them while putting them away. Keritanima took one from her with a smile, the one with the shaeram on it, then opened it. "In common," she said. "I think I'll get started. I'm too wound up to sleep right now, and we have to start reading them sometime."
"We should all take one book," Allia said, reaching in and picking one up.
"No," Keritanima replied. "I'm not taking them out of the courtyard. If someone picked up one of our books and tried to take it back to the library, we'd have alot of explaining to do. If you want to read them, it will have to be done here."
"I guess that is only wise," Allia agreed after thinking about it for a moment. "How will you arrange that much time?"
"By not getting much sleep," she grunted. She sat down at the table and put the book in front of her, then opened it to the first page. "Tarrin, would you be the greatest brother in the world, and go get me something to eat? I'm starving."
"And how do I explain carrying a tray of food into the maze?" he asked.
"Not if they don't see you carrying it," she winked.
"Do you think you want to trust food I carry around that way?" he asked pointedly.
"We won't know until we try, now will we?" she asked with a grin.
"I'm hungry as well," Allia said, patting her flat belly. "I would be very honored if you would do this for us, Tarrin," she smiled at him, just a little bit too sweetly. "Clan members always help one another."
"I never had to put up with this from Jenna," he grunted sourly. "And since when did you start teasing me, sister?"
"I guess Keritanima is a bad influence on me," Allia said with a sly smile.
"Tarrin, swing by my room and tell Miranda to give you my scribing kit," she added.
"Goddess help me," he said in a plaintive voice, turning and changing form, then loping out of the tent.
When dawn came that morning, it found the three of them still in the courtyard. Tarrin was in cat form, curled up on the table and regarding Keritanima while she continued to read. Allia was laying on a canvas cot brought by Tarrin, asleep to at least look presentable for the next day. Miranda was there as well, sitting in the chair across from Keritanima, writing something down in an empty book studiously.
Keritanima had all the books on the table. She had skimmed through each one to get an idea of what information it held, and Miranda had written it all down on a small book she had brought when Tarrin came to fetch items for Keritanima. Miranda had returned with Tarrin instead, and she had taken the role of secretary and scribe, helping Keritanima catalog and document the suspected information held within each book. Tarrin was shocked that it had taken the entire night, but there was supposedly alot of information in the books. Most of it was history and observations, as the priests watched the katzh-dashi, watched them and wrote everything down. They had compiled lists of members, Council members and their histories, and even a list of the Novices and Initiates coming and going. The church had people deep into the structure of the katzh-dashi for them to get some of that information.