on man from making something of himself and keeps him in his place, when he would be much happier and much more productive if he were given the chance of pursuing his dreams.  Just go walk along the docks, my noblility, and count the ships.  You'll find that nearly all of them are owned by noble houses.  Then go for a walk in the common sections of the city, and see the starving children, the worn shacks that so many of our people have to live in.  All the wealth we bring in is held by an elite few, whom I can't have help pay for running this kingdom.  That changes, effective right now.  From this day forth, all citizens of Wikuna, even me, must pay the same taxes.  In return for that, the requirement of providing arms and soldiers to fight for the crown is hereby waived.  So you have no reason now to object to being taxed," she said flintily to the gathered people.
	"Things here in our homeland have become fractured, my people," she said.  "There's a rift between the nobility and the common population, a rift that will cause a violent revolution if we don't do something about it.  And it's about time that all of you realized that this kingdom isn't here simply to make you rich and provide you with cheap labor to make you richer.  The nobility has to get more in touch with the needs and the desires of the people who make up this kingdom, the common man and woman.  If all of you don't recall, the crown and the nobility is here to provide for the people, not to use the people for its own ends!  All of you have become blinded by your greed to the real needs and issues that confront our kingdom.  You don't see the people starving in the streets because you're too busy counting your coins.  You don't hear their cries for help because you're too busy plotting to gain even more power and wealth.  Well, I have some very bad news for you.  All that is going to stop, and it's going to stop now."  She opened the satchel and withdrew a single parchment, then held it up for them to see.
	"This is our new constitution," she declared loudly.  "I've made some copies so you can read it and understand where it goes.  For a few thousand years now, the power in Wikuna has rested in the throne and in the nobility.  This constitution is going to change that order significantly.  The crown and the nobility will still hold some power, but they will have to share it with the common population."
	That created an instant storm of grumbling, gasps, and not a few shouts from the assembled nobility, but the looming threat of the Vendari prevented another outburst.  "I did not give anyone permission to speak!" Keritanima boomed, making everyone quiet down.  "This kingdom has suffered under the oppressive rule of my family for nearly five hundred years, and we've become less than we could be because of it.  This constitution," she said, holding it out, "will create a new system where the crown will share power with a parliament, a congress of individuals consisting of both nobles and commoners.  The crown will surrender some power to this parliament, and the parliament will have the ability to override the crown when necessary.  This new system will require any new law to pass through parliament, where both the nobles and the commoners have to agree to its merit, and then it comes to me for final approval.  This system will give everyone, commoner, noble, and monarch alike, an equal say in what laws govern our nation.  The injustice that exists now will end, because the common man will now have the power to prevent or strike down a law that creates that injustice, or pass a new law that corrects it."
	That created dead silence.  The concept of a shared power system was totally alien to noble and commoner alike.  "The term you're looking for is a Republic," she said with a gentle smile.  "I've also taken the liberty of creating a Charter of Rights, a document of law outlining the basic rights possessed by all individuals, and a set of declarations to protect all Wikuni equally under the law.  It will also create a standard of justice that will be applicable to everyone, even me, so that no one person may be held above another in the eyes of the law.  This consitution will supersede all decrees of law that would conflict with them, but it will carry over those points of law that don't conflict with the constitution.  Of course, Parliament can vote to repeal those decrees, once it's formed and established."
	"Begging her Majesty's pardon, but how will this parliament work?" the mayor of Wikuna asked curiously.
	"Simple, goodman," she smiled.  "There will be two houses of Parliament.  The House of Lords, and the House of Commons.  The noble houses will send two nobles to the House of Lords to represent their houses, and commoners will be elected by the population to serve in the House of Commons.  All points of law will pass through Parliament, first through the House of Commons, then through the House of Lords.  If both houses vote to pass this point of law, it's sent to me, where I have final authority to approve or disapprove the law.  If I approve it, it is law.  If I disapprove it, it's sent back to the Parliament, who will vote on it again.  If a two thirds majority of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords vote to override my disapproval, then it becomes law whether I want it to or not.  Parliament will have some other powers, and the crown will have some other powers.  Overseeing both of these branches of government will be the Supreme Barristry, which will have the power to cancel any law or action made by either the Queen or Parliament that they deem is outside the bounds of the constitution.  Simply put, we can't do anything we're not allowed to do, because someone will be there to make sure we're doing our jobs right."  She swept a tendril of hair out of her face.  "These are broad generalities, of course.  The specifics of it are spelled out in the constitution.  What it does, however, is makes sure that nobody can run roughshod over the nation.  Not me, not the nobility, not anyone."
	"But your Majesty, you can't do this!" one noble objected.
	"Of course I can," she smiled winsomely.  "I'm the Queen.  But if you feel that there's some legal block to my changing things, you're more than welcome to go look for it.  I'll bet you ten thousand crowns that you won't find anything, though," she winked at the wolf Wikuni roguishly.  "I've studied the law alot more than most of you, and I'm much more familiar with it than you'll ever realize.  The power to change the basic operation of the kingdom has been a power that has never been restricted.  Even being subject to common law, there's nothing stopping me from doing anything I please, because I am the Queen."
	"What's to stop you from just changing things back?" the Mayor asked.
	"For the first few years, nothing," she replied honestly.  "That's a safeguard I put into the system so that if it gets somehow corrupted, I can change things back and try again.  But once things are in place and they're running smoothly, I'll remove my own ability to change things.  That will make the transition from the monarchy to the republic smoother and more secure for everyone involved, because at least everyone will know that someone is in definite control at all times.  There will be much less confusion.  Oh, and to let everyone know right here and now, this constitution states that if I die before the full enactment of this constition, it immediately becomes permanent law.  It also states that there will be no more monarchs after me.  All claims to the throne of Wikuna will be nullified except for my own.  And if I die, a commoner will be elected to my position, and he will be called Prime Minister, with all the same powers as my own except for the ability to change the legal system.  So, if all of you would like to prevent utter chaos, you'll keep me nice and safely alive," she said bluntly.  "You can have a republic, or you can have anarchy.  The choice is yours."
	The full horror of that thought was clear on the faces of the assembled nobility.  To be subject to a commoner!  It was a thought that was like a thousand knives stabbing at them.  Most nobles thought they were a breed above the common Wikuni, were a distinct class, nearly their own race.  They felt they were superior to the common man, when the only thing that really made them different from a commoner was their title and the amount of money they had.
	"I think if you go home and think about it, you'll find the idea to be not as repugnant as you think," Keritanima told the nobles reasonably.  "You'll have to pay taxes and be more responsive to the needs of the people, but as the people prosper, so shall you.  Instead of selling to each other, you'll find a new market in the common man, who will suddenly have money to afford the goods you trade.  The nobility is tied to the prosperity of the land.  What I'm going to do will only bring prosperity, because for the first time, all Wikuni will be working together for the betterment of our nation."
	She held up the satchel.  "I made ten copies of the full constitution," she said.  "One copy stays with me.  One copy goes to the Mayor, so he can read it and understand it.  I want to see you tomorrow, Mayor," she told him calmly.  "The remaining eight copies will be copied again, and each noble house will receive one, so you can read it and understand how things are going to work.  We have alot of work to do before we can set up the Parliament.  We have to build a building, for one, and we have to organize the means by which the commoners that will represent the people will be elected.  That's something that all of us are going to decide.  One week from today, I'm calling a gathering of the house rulers, myself, and some of the most learned and distinguished commoners of the realm, and we'll all sit down and hammer out the exact process by which we'll change over to the new system.
	"And I think that's enough earth-shattering news for one day," she said calmly.  "All of you go home and wait for the copy to arrive, then read it.  Do more than read it.  Understand it, see what it's trying to do and commit yourself to making it work, because more than your fortunes depend on how smoothly the new system operates.  I'll see all of you again next week, when the real business of ironing out the details will get under way.  This audience is concluded.  You are free to go."
	Keritanima left the noblity of Wikuna, and the commoners, completely astounded.  Changing things so drastically had never crossed their minds, and the very idea that she would give up some of her own power seemed to be totally crazy to them, but they'd just have to wait and see.
	What she was doing was for the best.  In ten years, they'd look back on this day and thank her.
	Her thoughts drifted as she walked off the dais, surrounded by her friends and advisors, thoughts of Rallix--she had plans for him, oh yes, plans indeed!--and of Tarrin.  They had to be in Dala Yar Arak by now, and he had to be struggling to find the Book of Ages.  And he was doing it without her intelligence to guide their actions, without her skill to aid them.  She was trapped on Wikuna, for several more months, until she could get things running on their own and make things stable enough to allow her to leave for an extended period of time.  She put her hand on her amulet, wondering if she should talk to him--it had been so long!--but fearing that doing so would make her dependent on the sound of his voice, would make her miss him so much that she got irrational.  She had to keep her wits about her, she couldn't afford distractions.  Between thoughts of Rallix and worries for her brother and sister, she had enough distractions.  She couldn't make it even worse.
	She could only hope for the best.
	"Keep them safe, Goddess," Keritanima said under her breath, holding onto the amulet.  For the first time in her life, she was praying, believing the words, not simply mouthing platitudes to appease expectant priests.  "I can't be there for a while.  Watch over them and keep them safe, please."
	I have always watched over them, as I have always watched over you, a choral voice echoed in her mind, a voice with such power that it reverberated with its own magnificence.  She felt her knees weaken when a sense of love flooded into her, through her, filling her with a sensation that made the sweetness of Sorcery seem like a candleflame compared to a bonfire.  Keritanima's soul opened to that sensation like a flower receiving the blessings of the sun, basking in its warmth and beauty, feeling a part of her infused with it.  You are my children, and I will always be here for you.  You need only ask.
	"Kerri, you're crying," Miranda said gently, putting her hand on her shoulder.  "Are you alright?"
	"I'm more than alright, Miranda," she said with a quivering voice as the sense of the presence of the Goddess faded, taking a little piece of her with it as it left.  "I'm whole."
 
Chapter 17

	It was a perfect day to do nothing but lay around.
	Tarrin lounged in the highest spars of the rigging lazily, looking the hundred or so spans down to the deck with half-open eyes and little interest on the happenings beneath him.  The summer sun beat down on him, making him drowsily warm, and a good breeze from the west pushed the gaudily painted ship steadily to the east, making time for Dala Yar Arak.  As it was, they were just barely going to make it on time.  They had lost too much time in Shoran's Fork, and Renoit had been forced to cancel performances he had booked in Arkisia.  So the ship sailed out past the sight of land, heading towards the rugged peninsula that was created where the Sandshield Mountains descended into the Sea of Glass, which marked the border of Arkis and the beginning of the desert.  Tarrin lay there in complete security despite the gusty winds, only occasionally shifting when the healing injury to his chest found a certain position no longer comfortable.  Head on his arm, one leg and tail dangling limply from the spar, he looked down to the deck and watched with only mild interest as the dancers practiced their trade near the stern, and a pair of jugglers tossed wooden duckpins to each other near the bow.
	Tarrin liked it in the rigging, mainly because it was the one place where that infernal Amazon couldn't follow.  He couldn't really fault Camara Tal, for she was only doing her job.  To be honest, he respected her, and liked her just a little bit.  But Tarrin didn't know her, didn't entirely trust her, and he found her continuous presence to be extremely aggravating sometimes.  He liked being alone, or at least with only a few people, and the unknown Amazon woman was not on his list of acceptable companions.  He tolerated her because the Goddess had all but ordered him to take her along with him, but that was about it.
	It was almost frightening how much like his mother she was.  If she had pale skin and blond hair, he would swear that she was actually Ungardt.  She had that same bluntness, that same direct way of looking at the world and that same direct way of tackling life.  Camara Tal wasn't very talkative.  She preferred to stand in relative silence, going about the job that was assigned to her with a cool professionalism that assured anyone watching that she knew exactly where her charge was and exactly how safe he was.  In that respect, she reminded him more of Binter and Sisska than his mother.  But the instant she opened her mouth, it was like hearing his mother's words in a different voice. And she wasn't afraid of him.  That probably annoyed him more than anything else.  Azakar had tried the same stunt, but he learned very quickly that there was a line that he didn't cross, and the big human had learned to respect that line.  Camara Tal had no such reservations.  She would order him around.  She would boss him, she would command him, and for some mysterious reason, he wouldn't turn around and rip her arms off.  He wasn't afraid of her.  Impressive as she may look, she was still human, and there wasn't a human alive that he couldn't kill.  It was the way she looked at him.  She could order him with that gaze, overwhelming his resentment at being ordered around with one cool stare.
	He knew that there would eventually be a reckoning between them.  She would go one step too far, and her strange ability to dominate him would be broken, and he would turn on her and do something she wouldn't likely forget anytime soon.  If she lived through it.  The thought of killing her didn't really bother him that much, because he didn't really know her, but he knew that Triana would disapprove of such an act, so at least in that respect he thought about other things first.
	His time with Triana had helped in some ways, but it had hurt him in others.  She had taught him to understand his own nature a little better, and in that understanding there was an incredible feeling of helplessness.  He was no better than Mist in the simple respect that he was too weak to overcome his own instincts.  It was his instincts that made him fear and distrust the humans on the ship, the people who would look at him and do their best to not draw his attention.  He knew they posed no threat to him, he knew that there was no danger, but he still just couldn't help being afraid of them.  They were strangers, and just knowing he could kill them wasn't enough to make him feel safe when he was around them.  After all, Jula had been a human, and she had definitely stripped him of his freedom, and had helped turn him into what he was now.  No matter how much his human mind knew that he was safe on the ship, his instincts refused to allow him to feel safe and secure among them.  He understood where it was coming from, but it was so strong that he was helpless against it.  It was almost infuriating, knowing that nothing but his own irrational fear made him a pariah, but no matter how hard he tried, he just could not handle it.
	And he had tried.  Many times.  He had tried talking to the performers, he tried having Renoit teach him the Shacan language, he tried helping Shelli set up a performing cat act, since he could speak to the animals and tell them exactly what they had to do.  But every time, it ended quickly and it ended nervously.  he nearly hurt Shelli when she put her hand on his shoulder by accident.  He had to give up at that point.  He was just too nervous, too frightened, too worried about what someone might do that he posed a physical threat to them.
	The only person on the ship outside his personal circle he could talk to was Phandebrass.  The doddering mage was wildly curious about Tarrin, had been ever since he came on the ship, and the times that he had spoken to the mage had reinforced a sense of ease around him that no one else on the ship outside his circle had managed to match.  His intense curiosity had only increased with Camara Tal and Sarraya coming on board, who were also extremely exotic individuals with many interesting things to teach him.  Phandebrass lived to learn, had spent many long hours talking to Dolanna about Sorcery, to Faalken about the Knights, to Dar about the Arksian upper class, and to Allia about her people and their mysterious desert, a place no human would set foot in and few humans had ever seen. Ever since they left Shoran's Fork some ten days ago, Phandebrass had been grilling Sarraya about Faeries and Fae-da'Nar.  The Faerie didn't seem to mind the attention, though she did nearly kill one of Phandebrass' pet drakes, who mistook her for an appetizer.  Phandebrass had dismissed that incident as the accident it was, and after all, the drake was fully healthy again.  It wouldn't come within fifty spans of Sarraya, though, and that had caused an interesting relationship to form.  When the drake--Tarrin could never tell them apart--left Phandebrass because of Sarraya, it would sit on Allia's shoulder and beg for attention.  The drake seemed fascinated by the Selani, and Allia seemed to like the creature.  It fled from her when Tarrin approached, however.  To the drakes, Tarrin was a predator, and they avoided him religiously.  That suited him just fine.  One of the little monsters snapped at him two days before, and the fact that it could fly was the only thing that saved its life.  If he could get his paws on them, he would kill them, and they knew it.  So they made it their business to know where he was at all times, and stay very far out of his reach.
	Sarraya was turning out to be more of a problem than the Amazon, strangely enough.  In the ten days they'd been together, she's already worn Tarrin's patience thin with her mercurial personality.  She was a flighty little thing, given to pursuing whatever caught her fancy at the moment, and that made her very unpredictable.  Tarrin did not like unpredictable.  Her pranks and jokes quickly wore at his nerves, especially when she had the nerve to put a bucket of water over the door to his cabin.  Toying with him was tempting death, but that didn't seem to phase her in the slightest.  She would just go on talking or laughing, fading from view if she thought she pushed the moody Were-cat too far and hiding from him until his temper cooled.  She knew Were-cats, and she understood that much of their reputation came from the fact that they were very impulsive beings.  Trying to kill Sarraya was more a reflexive reaction than actual hatred, and the Faerie knew that she'd be safe again after Tarrin had a chance to cool off.  Where Camara Tal wore on his patience, Sarraya really pushed his temper.  And Tarrin didn't have very much temper to push against.
	Dolanna had promised to fix that.  The Faerie's games with Tarrin kept him in a state of almost perpetual anger, and that was causing everyone around him to suffer.  Everyone but Sarraya was paying for her games, and they were all getting just a little put out with her.  Tarrin had no idea what wild notion Sarraya contracted to start playing pranks on him, but just knowing that Dolanna was going to put a stop to it made him feel much better.
	It was such a wonderful day.  Tarrin closed his eyes and soaked up the summer sunshine, letting the sound of the creaking ropes and the shifting sails meld with the subtle shifting of the wood.  The smells of the sea and the ship danced inside his nose, smells of wood and hemp and canvas, salt and water with a hint of tar, and the scents of the humans in the rigging as they adjusted one of the sails to better catch the wind.  There was also the scent of the lookout, one of the acrobats, who sat in the crow's nest not far from him to keep an eye out for ships and other potential hazards.  The angle of the wind brought the smell of the iron in the manacles to his nose, as well as the strange smell of the black metal of his amulet.
	Thinking of the amulet made him think of Keritanima.  She was on the way back to Wikuna, probably with some very unpleasant plans for her father.  He missed his clever little sister a great deal, missed her wit and her toothy grins, her cute little jokes and the calm presence of her.  He wanted her to come back, but he knew that she had something that she had to do first.  There was no telling what evil schemes she had concocted for her father, but if he knew her, they'd be very thorough ones.  Keritanima hated her father with a passion that was nearly religious fervor, and his attack on her, his injuring of Tarrin and kidnapping, had absolutely enraged his intelligent sister.  That much was easy to tell, with what he knew of her and how she sounded when the spoke to her some rides ago.  He knew she'd deal with her father and be back as soon as she could but it didn't make her not being here any easier on him.  Keritanima was a very important part of his life, and not having her there with him brought to him the most curious sense of loss.  It was almost as bad as when he left Aldreth, or worried that his parents would reject him after he had been turned Were.  But there was nothing he could do about it.  She would come back when she would come back, and all he could do was wait for her.  Just knowing that he could speak to her was a comfort, but hearing her voice without her being with him, without the scent of her reassuring him she was there, was curiously painful.  Close enough to communicate yet not close enough to feel she was there, it felt like some cruel joke to him, and he actually preferred not talking to her unless it was necessary.  Hearing her voice just made it that much worse.
	The fluttering of wings made his ears turn towards the sound, and the woody smell of Sarraya touched his nose.  He opened his eyes to see the blue-skinned sprite, with her multicolored chitinous wings, land lightly on the spar in front of him.  She was so very tiny.  He could never get over that, no matter how many times he saw her.  She brushed her auburn hair out of her face absently and sat down on the spar, looking down.  She was quiet, and that told him more or less why she was there.
	"Who did you outrage this time?" he asked with only mild curiosity.
	"Renoit has no sense of humor," the sprite fumed.
	"No.  Renoit doesn't have your sense of humor.  I don't think anyone on this ship appreciates the things you do."
	"I didn't come up here to be lectured," she flared.
	"You came up here to get away from Renoit," he said with calm logic.  "Anyway, let me show you how we feel after one of your pranks."
	And with that, his tail struck over his head like a cobra, the tip smacking her squarely in the belly.  She was carried forth with his tail like a leaf blowing in the wind, and it knocked her off the spar.
	It took her nearly thirty spans to gain control of her fall.  She stopped tumbling and managed to pull out of her freefall, then flitted between ropes and around jibs and landed back on the spar, out of the reach of his tail.  She put her hands on her tiny hips and glared at him.  "I have half a mind to get you for that, Tarrin!" she shouted in her high-pitched, piping voice.
	"Renoit has a whole mind to get you for what you did to him, Sarraya.  If you get me, then it's only fair that he gets you."
	"But that wasn't funny!"
	"Really?  I thought it was very funny," Tarrin said in a low voice, staring at her.  "Who doesn't have a sense of humor now?"
	"No sense of humor at all!" Sarraya growled as her wings began beating at the air, making that peculiar rhythmic buzzing sound, and she flew over to a spar on the foremast.
	Tarrin settled back down and closed his eyes, his tail swatting at something that touched his back before returning to rest.
	Things were different now, different but the same.  Meeting the other side of his family had shown him things about himself, but so far they were things that he couldn't change, couldn't conquer.  He didn't fit in with them anyway.  He was turned, not born Were, and that gave him a fundamentally different personality than them.  To him, the others were strange, even a little worrisome.  He saw things through eyes that had once been another species, and even now the memories of his human life influenced what he saw.  The Cat was a relatively new resident inside him, and even though he'd come to terms with it, it couldn't help but still be influenced by what had always been there.  He wasn't the same person that left Aldreth anymore.  He wasn't even the same person that left Suld.  Time and events had forced him to change to adapt, forced him to change or risk being driven insane by his own instincts.  He could reconcile that, but there were times when it saddened him.  Being feral was a self-imposed prison, Mist had shown him that.  He was a prisoner of his own fear, and knowing it was fear made him angry and easy to set off.  There was alot of life out there he was missing simply because he couldn't bring himself to associate with strangers, alot of things he could learn if only he could bring himself to talk to people.  But there was no changing it.  He was restricted to those few people that he trusted, and he relied on them in ways that made him feel more of a pet than a sentient being.
	But it was water under the bridge.  He looked down at the jugglers, two young human men from Shac who had been born and raised in this circus.  There were other children in the circus, but they had been left in Dayis with some of the performers, because Renoit wouldn't risk them in the long and dangerous journey to Arak, nor would he expose them to the slavers and kidnappers that preyed on children who were notorious in the capital city.  Outlanders were always at risk in Dala Yar Arak, and the younger they were, the better.  The number and wide racial range of slaves one owned was a symbol of status among the Arakites, and non-human slaves were especially prized.  From what Dolanna told him, there were a large number of Goblinoids serving as slaves in Arak, and the Arakites constanty sought to invade the desert and steal Selani children.  This they did with the utmost caution, for fear that a single mistake would bring the entirety of the Selani race sweeping over Saranam to attack Arak once again.
	They had to go to a cesspool like that and perform, entertain the people, while they looked for the Book of Ages.  Just thinking about that worried him.  Dala Yar Arak was the largest city in the world, and it would make the task nearly impossible.  There were countless people with the resources to own a rare book like that, and that was just assuming someone knew they had it.  It could be hidden behind a loose stone in a poor man's hovel, for all they knew.  It would be a very dangerous place for both him and Allia, probably for Camara Tal as well, because they were all so blatantly exotic.
	Camara Tal.  He looked towards the stern, and there she stood.  She wore that same open-fronted haltar and thigh skirt she called a tripa, her sword hanging from a belt secured loosely around her waist, dipping down onto her hip on the right side.  She just stood there, waiting for him to get tired of hanging in the rigging and come down.  She was tenacious, she was very patient, and sometimes she drove him crazy.  She spent the time in conversation with Phandebrass, who had a book in his lap, sitting beside her, writing in it furiously as they conversed.  No doubt the mage was asking her about her people and their customs, writing it all down in his book.  Phandebrass was a mage, but he had a keen interest in the societies and customs o