fter all, it had been the first day, and they'd barely made a dent in the first of the four chests of books and scrolls.  None of them had really expected to get so lucky as to find what they wanted so quickly.
	What they did do was gather around a dining table and discuss what they'd read.  Keritanima had read a ledger of names on the rolls of the tower at Abrodar, in Sharadar, and the other two books turned out to be scholastic books.  The first was a book of the Weave written for an Initiate, just like the books they'd read in the Initiate, and the other was a book all about the common magical spells of the other three orders, and how to most effeciently counter them.  Miranda had read a history book about the fall of the Dwarves, and Allia had read a book chronicling the study of one katzh-dashi named Embor on the fluctuations of the Weave over a five hundred year period.  It was a long book of dusty, monotonous observations, she had related with a grunt.  Dolanna had read a book on the societal customs of the early Arakite empire and how to best fit in at the tower located in Dala Yar Arak, a tower none of them knew had ever stood, and she had also read a book of theoretical thaumaturgy, concepts and ideas for weaves that were theorized to be possible, but had yet to be researched or attempted.  Dar had read a book about one katzh-dashi's attempts to take spells of other orders and researching weaves that achieved the same result, and, he admitted with a blush, had read portions of a book that turned out to be erotic poetry.  He did page through the book to make sure that that's all it had in it, but didn't read every line on every page.  Tarrin had only managed that one book, but everyone understood why and didn't press him about it.  They'd all been there to watch him reprimand his daughter and answer questions from his mate.  They had been distracting him.  As they'd expected, the books were more or less about magic, but it turned out that that wasn't all that they were.  Finding books on the society of Arak and erotic poetry proved that.  They also had learned a little bit about those who had come before them.
	"From what I read, the Ancients were more or less just like us," Keritanima announced.  "They may have known more, but the same basics are there.  Humans and Sha'Kar working towards the goals of the Goddess, whatever those were."
	"Studying magic and maintaining the Towers," Dolanna told her.
	"I think instead of reading each and every book, tomorrow we go through them and see if we can't sort them by subject," she said.  "Today was important because it allowed us all to read in Sha'Kar and get used to it, but I'd like to be done with this before that army gets here, so we don't have two things on our minds.  We need to weed out the books that probably won't matter.  It shouldn't take too long, since most of the books make their subjects pretty clear in the first ten pages or so.  We need to sort out and read the books on history, magic, and mythology."
	"Why mythology?" Dar asked.
	"Many old myths have some basis in fact," she told him absently, tapping her muzzle with a finger.  "And sometimes they pass on information that the people at that time either would not or did not put in their histories.  You never know, we may find what we need couched in the flowerly language of a child's fable."
	"I never thought of that."
	"I'm not surprised.  Most people discount fairy tales because they're just that.  Stories.  Repeat a story enough times, and it stops being history and becomes legend.  Legend becomes myth, and myth becomes a bedtime story."  She looked at the Arkisian.  "Of course, the story is all blown out of proportion because it changed so much over the years, but the nugget of truth is still hidden within the story itself."
	"I think that is a good idea," Dolanna agreed.  "Keritanima, if you feel up to it, you and I can return and sort them out after eating.  It should not take too long."
	"Sure, it shouldn't be that hard," she agreed.
	"It'll be even easier if I help out," Miranda said with a cheeky grin.  "I want to go get the book I wrote when we translated the Sha'Kar language, anyway.  I think I might tidy it up and edit it a bit, so we can teach others written Sha'Kar more easily."
	"You wrote yours in Wikuni," Tarrin pointed out.
	"And you wrote yours in Sulasian, and Dar wrote his in Arakite, and Dolanna wrote hers in Sharadi.  I think that represents the four most commonly spoken languages in the world, my friend," she grinned.  "Between the four of us, we've penned the most comprehensive translation guides in the world."
	"But they don't have everything in them," Dar admitted.  "I know I stopped writing them down after I started understanding how the shape and form of the glyph told you what kind of word it was.  And they don't have definitions.  Just the words."
	"What one won't have, one of the others might," Miranda shrugged.  "So I want to borrow the ones you all wrote too.  As to definitions, I don't need them.  The books are for teaching written Sha'Kar.  That means you have to be able to speak it first."
	"I didn't know you could read Arakite, Miranda," Dar said.
	"I can't.  But you can, can't you, Dar?" she asked with a cheeky grin.  "From what I understand, you can read Sulasian too."
	"Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get roped into something?" Dar asked to himself.
	"I'd never rope you into something.  I'll just convince you that it was what you wanted to do in the first place," she told him with a wink.  "That's how a woman does things, you know."
	"Only small, weak ones," Jesmind snorted.
	"We all weren't born with your advantages, Jesmind," Miranda told her.  "What I lack in size and muscles, I make up for with this," she said, pointing to herself.  Tarrin wasn't sure if she was talking about her body, her mind, or both.  Miranda certainly had enough of both of them to make her formidable.  "So, you want to give me a hand, Dar?  It won't take long."
	"I guess, if you can talk to me about something for a while."
	"About what?"
	"We'll talk about it later," he said with a look around the room, standing up.
	"Well, alright then.  Coming, Kerri?"
	"In a minute.  I want to eat this first," she said, motioning at the piece of pie before her.  "I can never say no to apple pie."  She looked at Tarrin.  "And I want to hear this story the Goddess told you, Tarrin.  This story of the past."
	Tarrin forgot about that, and at Keritanima's request of him, Miranda and Dar suddenly sat back down.  "Well, I guess I can, but it won't be as good as the way she told it to me," he replied.  "She even used Illusions to show me images from the past, but I can't remember them well enough to duplicate them."
	"I'll settle for the words, brother," Keritanima said.
	"Yes.  I am curious to learn how the Selani and the Wikuni are related," Allia added.  "There is no memory of it in the histories of our people."
	Tarrin composed himself, smacking at Jasana's paw as her claws dug into the tip of his tail, then began.  He didn't go as good of a job as the Goddess did, but he did manage to remember all the relevant information that the Goddess had given to him.  They all seemed caught up in the story, even Jesmind, who had her elbows on the table and watching him as he told them all about the First Races, the insurgence of the Urzani, and the circumstances that brought them down.  About how the Sha'Kar came to be born, the Blood War, and the circumstances that caused them to split into the three sub-races, one of which was extinct.  "That's why you two look so different, Kerri," he explained after he was done.  "When the Sha'Kar that sailed away arrived at what's now Wikuna, the gods that adopted you changed you so you wouldn't look anything like you did when you arrived.  I guess to make it a clean break, or maybe a fresh start.  I guess you'd have to ask your gods about that.  Allia's people didn't really change very much.  They still look like the Sha'Kar--even the Urzani.  If you want to know what the Sha'Kar looked like, look at the Selani.  They even kept parts of the original Sha'Kar language as their own.  Which is really the Urzani language."
	"How do you know that, brother?" Allia asked.
	"I've seen an Urzani, sister," he told her.  "Remember when I told you about Spyder?  She's Urzani.  She was alive before the Sha'Kar came to be.  The Selani are the same size as Spyder, on the average, but I guess that's because of the desert.  I saw images of the Sha'Kar when the Goddess told me the story, and they're shorter than the average Selani.  The Urzani were warriors, so they were big.  They shrank when they became the Sha'Kar, who were pacifists, then grew again when they became the Selani and went into the desert, with its harsh environment."
	"It fits with alot of what we have in our own history," Keritanima agreed with a nod.
	"It is a logical conclusion," Dolanna agreed, her expression curiously distant.
	"Now that's a story," Dar said with a foolish grin.  "I think I'm going to write that down."
	"Odds are, we'll read it somewhere in those books we have," Keritanima said. "Or at least parts of it."  She looked at Allia.  "Well, should I call you cousin or sister?" she grinned.
	"We are sisters much more than cousins," Allia replied with a light expression.
	"So, everything we call Sha'Kar was probably originally Urzani," Dolanna realized.  "That means that the Sha'Kar language is actually at least eight thousand years old, virtually unchanged in all that time.  That is a very amazing thing.  Time cannot help but change things."
	"Maybe the world needed something that wouldn't change over time," Dar said impulsively.  "A foundation, or something."
	"That is a very enlightened viewpoint, young one," Dolanna said appreciatively.  "Sometimes your ability to think abstractly impresses me."
	"Either way, I need to go," Miranda said.  "I need to get started, since all my time tomorrow is going to be taken up with reading.  Come on, Dar."
	"Alright," he agreed, standing up with the mink Wikuni.
	"Good story, Tarrin.  I'll see you tomorrow," she bid farewell as she took Dar's arm and dragged him from the room.
	"We'd better get there with her, or she'll dismantle the whole place," Keritanima warned Dolanna.
	"I would like to be finished soon, regardless," Dolanna said.  "I am still weary from the ordeal of the dome.  I am surprised it affected me so."
	"It did all of us.  About all I want now is a long sleep, but I'd like to get those books organized for tomorrow.  We don't have much more time."
	"Then let us be off," Dolanna said, standing.  "See you in the morning, dear one," she bid farewll to Tarrin.
	"And if you're going to bring Jasana, knock her out first," Keritanima grinned.
	"She'll calm down.  I think the courtyard got to her," he replied, glancing at his daughter, who was happily wolfing down a piece of pie.
	"Alright, you little troublemaker, I'm going to be ready for you tomorrow," Keritanima told Jasana with a toothy grin.  "Just you wait and see."
	"I didn't cause trouble," Jasana objected through a mouth smeared with apple pie.  "I was good, just like papa told me to be."
	"Ya ya ya," Keritanima sounded.  "We'll see how good you're going to be tomorrow after I bring in my surprise."
	"Surprise?  What is it?" Jasana asked with sudden, intense curiosity.
	"If I told you what it was, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Keritanima asked with a grin.
	"Meanie."
	"That's me, alright.  Queen Meanie," Keritanima said grandly.  In a flash, Keritanima's entire expression and bearing transformed, becoming stiff and imposing.  She drew herself up and assumed an almost frightening expression of disdain and aloofness.  Then she motioned imperiously at Dolanna.  "Attend me, servant!  Queen Meanie wishes to withdraw!"
	Keritanima's sudden regal bearing and overbearing manner, her amazing ability to fit herself into different personalities and act them out with convincing believability, were not lost on Tarrin.  He chuckled as Jasana giggled, and Jesmind fixed the Wikuni with a slightly challenging look.  Dolanna only smiled and decided to play the game, bowing repeatedly in Keritanima's direction as she swept before her and opened the door.  Keritanima rose up in a haughty, stiff-backed posture and then swept out of the room like the queen of the world, as if her foot came to rest on a stone that existed only to bear her weight.  She stepped past Dolanna and then snapped her fingers loudly three times at the smaller woman, who smiled after her, waved to those left, and then closed the door.
	"She's funny, papa," Jasana said with a loud laugh after the door closed.
	"My sister is a woman of many talents, little one," Allia told her with a smile.  "One of the greatest is the ability to make others smile.  It is an ability many overlook in her."
	"What Allia means is that Kerri is a ham, cub," Tarrin grinned.  "I guess that's a good thing, given that she's a queen and all."  He looked around.  "I wonder where Jula and the others are.  I haven't seen much of them."
	"Kimmie has adopted Jula, and they've been slinking around like a couple of little human girls, gossiping and carrying on," Jesmind told him.  "Mother still hasn't gotten tired of playing with Thean yet."
	"It's good for her," Tarrin shrugged.  "Jula needed a friend.  I'm sure nobody here has been very kind to her."  He said that with a direct look at Allia, who did manage to avert her eyes guiltily.
	"I admit it, my brother.  I was wrong about her."
	"I'm glad to hear that.  And I still haven't seen Shiika.  I wonder what's keeping her."
	"Nobody's seen any of the Demons in two or three days," Jesmind told him.  "They must be up to something."
	"Goddess help us when we find out what it is," Tarrin growled.
	"Truly," Allia agreed with a nod.

	The next morning turned into something of an argument in Tarrin's rooms.  Tarrin didn't count on Jesmind wanting to come along with him the next day, and no matter how much he argued, or even threatened, she would not change her mind about it.  "For the forest's sake, Tarrin, you're just sitting around reading!" she railed at him as the argument began to get hot.  "How is my being there going to mess that up?"
	He told her, in no uncertain terms, just how distracting her presence was to him.  She was his mate, and he loved her.  He always had a little trouble concentrating on things other than her when she was so close to him.  That did effectively end the argument, but not in the way Tarrin had hoped.  She gave him one of those vulnerable looks, then kissed him exuberantly, and then ran off to the kitchens to pack up a nice picnic lunch for them, so they wouldn't have to go anywhere.  Tarrin muttered some dark curses in the direction of the closed door, but he knew he'd been beaten.  When it came down to it, he just couldn't deny anything from his mate.  And besides, he did like her to be close to him.  The problem was that he liked it a little too much for something as serious as what he was doing.
	They arrived to find everyone else there and already reading, the books neatly organized on the table, and Keritanima and Dolanna looking tired but pleased.  The pair wasted no time handing him a rather thick book bound with what looked to be sandwood, and Tarrin realized quickly what Keritanima's little surprise was.  It brought back quite a few memories, for it was Bandit, the cat that Keritanima had taken to use to pass messages between them back when they were in the Tower.  He hadn't really thought of the rather pudgy cat since leaving the Tower, and was surprised that it was still here.  But then again, when they left, Bandit was forgotten, left behind in all the confusion and chaos surrounding their departure.  Bandit seemed to remember him, greeting him fondly by wrapping around his leg, and then padding over to where Jasana was tugging at the side of the tent.  She took one look at the cat and squealed in delight, promptly reaching down and picking it up, carrying it towards the fountain.
	"You know, I've been thinking about something," Keritanima said as Tarrin sat down near the fountain with Jesmind.  "The Keeper told me once that the Book of Ages wasn't written in Sha'Kar.  She said that it was written by the priests of Denthar.  She also said that it didn't have anything in it after the Breaking.  But Dolanna did know the truth about it.  I wonder how long she's been holding out on the katzh-dashi."
	"Maybe nobody asked her," Tarrin shrugged.  "Maybe the Keeper had it wrong, and never bothered to ask.  And remember, she's a katzh-dashi from the Tower in Abrodar.  They probably know things the Sorcerers here don't, and the other way around."
	"Maybe, but that seems like a pretty big hole."
	"I learned what I know of the Book of Ages from Phandebrass," Dolanna told them as she glided up to them.  "He may seem erratic, but Phandebrass is the most learned man of ancient artifacts I have ever met.  I am surprised he has not camped himself at your door to look at it, Tarrin."
	"So am I," he agreed.  "Kimmie wanted to talk to him, to be his apprentice.  Maybe she's distracting him."
	"Possible.  We have not had much time to see the others since we began this.  I feel like it has been a year since I last spoke with Camara Tal or Phandebrass."
	"Me too.  It must be a side effect of that spell," Tarrin agreed. "My sense of time has been all screwed up.  My mind tells me it should be the middle of winter, when it's just into summer.  We were in that thing for months, but only days passed out here."
	"Speaking of time, let's get cracking," Keritanima said, sitting on the bench before the fountain beside Allia and opening the book in her hands.
	"Months?  Explain this one to me," Jesmind said as Bandit tore across the courtyard, with Jasana chasing after him.
	Tarrin explained the dome of altered time to Jesmind, describing how they had spent months inside to learn Sha'Kar when only days passed on the outside, and then he described the physical effects it had had on him.  Then he quieted her with another conjured book and bent to his task.
	They stayed there through the morning, ate the lunch Jesmind packed for them, and continued.  At least until Dar suddenly flew out of the tent, waving a book in his hand. "I think I found it!" he screamed excitedly, rushing out in the courtyard and literally jumping up and down.  "I think I found it!  I think I found it!"
	Tarrin's heart raced a little, but it was Dolanna that restored order as they all gathered around the Arkisian.  "Calmly, Dar," she told him in a soothing voice.  "Show us."
	Dar dropped to the ground and opened the book to a place he'd held with his finger.  "Here!" he said, so shrilly that it sounded like a whistle, as they all knelt down in a circle around the book.  "Right here!"
	"Calm down, boy, and either read it to us or hand me the book!" Keritanima snapped anxiously at him.
	Miranda took the book from him with an apologetic smile, then picked it up and scanned the page with her eyes.  "It's definitely about the Firestaff," she agreed, finding a place to start reading.  "Here we go.  'After the Blood War, the Gods decided that the Firestaff was too dangerous to leave out, even though it no longer held any power, for it would always be a representation of the horrors of the Blood War and the temptation of power.  They charged the katzh-dashi to locate and secure a place to leave it where it would disappear from the memory of the peoples of the world, so as not to cause more chaos and strife.  The katzh-dashi created a suitable hiding place for the notorious item, taking the object out past the Stormhavens, even past the Dark Continent which was rumored to have become the refuge of those Sha'Kar who had fled from the horror of the Blood War, deep out into the trackless expanses of the empty, endless sea, and hiding it behind the wind.  To this day, some three thousand years since the Blood War, the location of the Firestaff remains a secret, known only to those who hid it away.'"  She looked up at them.  "Well, it's not an exact location, but we do know now that it was hidden somewhere overseas."
	"What's west of Wikuna, Kerri?" Tarrin asked immediately.  "The Dark Continent has to be Wikuna."
	"There's nothing but about four thousand leagues of empty ocean, brother," she replied uncertainly.  "There's absolutely nothing out there.  Not an island, not even a rock.  The only thing separating Wikuna from Shen Lung is a few thousand leagues of open ocean."
	"Well, that does describe empty, trackless sea," Allia pointed out.  "If the ocean there is indeed that empty, it fits the description in the book."
	"I don't understand it saying they hid it behind the wind," Dar said, his brows furrowing in thought, as the others nodded in agreement with Allia.  "What does that mean, anyway?  How do you take something and hide it behind the wind?  It has to be some kind of metaphor."
	"They did not want it to be found, so they were deliberately vague, Dar," Dolanna reminded him.  "It probably is a metaphor of some sort.  A poetic description."
	"Well, it's something, at least," Miranda grunted.  "So now we can all start looking for more references to this behind the wind nonsense.  Maybe one of the other books will have a more sensical description."
	"Maybe it is a literal description," Allia proposed, her eyes distant.  "The Ancients of that time had a great many secrets we do not.  Maybe they knew a spell that allowed them to literally hide the Firestaff behind the wind."  She looked up at them.  "Though I do not see how that could be done.  The wind is invisible.  If you hid something behind it, it would still be seen."
	"Maybe that's the metaphor," Miranda said brightly.  "Maybe it means that they hid it out in the ocean, but they hid it in plain sight.  Sometimes that's the best place to hide something."
	"Let's just hope that they didn't take it out in the middle of the ocean and throw it over the rail," Keritanima grunted.  "I really don't feel like swimming for it."
	Tarrin chuckled.  "Well, unless anyone has anymore ideas, let's go back to our books.  Keep reading that one, Dar."
	"And read it carefully," Keritanima added.  "There may be another remark in there about it."
	"I'll read it slow and careful," Dar told her with a nod, taking the book from Miranda.  "And after I'm done, one of you read it after me to make sure I didn't miss something by accident."
	"Good idea," Miranda nodded.
	That turned out to be the only excitement of the day.  Nobody else found anything of interest, and Keritanima found nothing new in the book Dar had been reading after she read it after him.  They left the courtyard at sunset a little more hopeful than the day before, having found at least one clue.  Tarrin excused himself from his family after eating and visited with Dolanna and his sisters for a while, then tracked down Jula to make sure that she was still doing alright. It turned out that she and Kimmie had indeed become thick as thieves, the Were-cat Sorceress finding a kindred spirit in the turned female.  On the way back to his rooms, where Jesmind and Jasana were waiting for him, a familiar face appeared around the gentle, curving bend in the Tower passage, a redheaded female with exquisite beauty, and a pair of leathery bat-like wings.  Shiika had finally reappeared, leading two of her Cambisi children.  One of them he recognized as the blond Anayi, the halfbreed that had appeared and saved him from an army of Trolls at the edge of the desert.  Her expression brightened when she saw him, marching right up to him and taking hold of his wrist.  "Well, they said you grew," she noted.  "They said I did it to you, too.  I think it's an improvement."
	"Hello, Shiika," he said cordially.  He wasn't entirely happy to see her, but she was helping, so he had to be nice to her.  Tarrin didn't hate Shiika, but like every other non-Demon around, he felt just a little uncomfortable around her.  She had that effect on people.  "Anayi," he said with a nod.
	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 