but not a specific one.  The magic tended to grab the closest object that fit the Druid's parameters when the spell was used, regardless of who owned it beforehand.  Creating was just that, creating something from nothingness, often used when Conjuring an item would deprive someone of something valuable or when something with specific dimensions or qualities was desired, and Summoning was causing a specific object to appear.  Druids used the tricks to conjure food and drink, conjure gold and other valuable items, and generally to conjure anything they needed.  Druids never went hungry and were rarely left without something they needed.  Tarrin preferred Creating rather than Conjuring, for he never was very comfortable with the idea that the food he was Conjuring was being stolen off the plates of innocent people.  It required more energy than Conjuring, but he was willing to make that sacrifice knowing he didn't just steal the food out of a child's mouth.  "I'll have people asking me for menus."
	Keritanima chuckled, and Miranda grinned at him.  "You're such a good friend," she told him.  "What did we do without him, Kerri?"
	"Oh, just deposed my father and took the throne of Wikuna," she teased, winking at him.
	"And you didn't want the throne," Tarrin chided.
	"I still don't, but I'm safer on it than off it," she replied honestly.
	"How is the new system working?"
	"I'm not entirely sure yet," she answered.  "The nobles seem to be accepting it, but on the other hand, Jervis told me that they've been real secretive lately.  I have the feeling that they're up to something, so I had Jervis find out what it is."
	Keritanima was the queen of Wikuna, having taken the throne from her father, Damon Eram, with deceit, chicanery, and political cunning.  In other words, like any Wikuni monarch would gain the throne.  But since Keritanima didn't really want the throne, she had changed the system of government into something she called a republic, where the people generally governed themselves.  Keritanima was still the head of the government and had tremendous power, but not the absolute power she had had as the sole ruler.  The nobles, secure in their dominion over the commoners, had had a fit when Keritanima had effectively stripped them of all their power and made them little more than rich commoners.  But when Keritanima threatened to turn them into poor commoners, they all bit their tongues and decided to cooperate.  But Keritanima had said that the Wikuni nobles were hard to repress for very long, and this secrecy probably collaberated her worries.  No doubt they were up to something, taking advantage of Keritanima's absence to deal with the crisis at Suld.  She had left the subject king of the Vendari that lived in Wikuna in charge in her place, and it struck Tarrin as odd that the nobles would be insane enough to try anything against him.  Sashka was a Vendari, and they had very, very strict and regimented laws and customs, and though he was governing the Wikuni in Keritanima's stead, he would still act with the same severity of action.  If the Wikuni nobles tried anything, it was entirely possible the Sashka would summon the Vendari army and crush the nobles in a massive war of absolute destruction.  That was the Vendari way.  And it was not something that any Wikuni--human, Aeradalla, Fae-da'Nar or just about anything with intelligence--would want to have happen to them.  The Vendari were the most feared and respected race on Sennadar, because their size and power made them almost invincible warriors.
	Chopstick gave a little growling hiss, demanding more attention, and Tarrin dutifully began to pet the little drake again.  "You are getting so spoiled, Chopstick," Tarrin chuckled, using a claw to scratch delicately under his little horns, something he really liked.
	"You should get your own drake, Tarrin," Keritanima told him.  "You have a way with them."
	"I don't need my own drake when I have Chopstick and Turnkey," he replied easily.  "Besides, they'd get jealous."
	Chopstick chirped in agreement.  The drakes were very smart, and understood quite a bit of Sulasian.  They were much more intelligent than a common housepet.
	"Well, Phandebrass has been trying to breed drakes," Miranda said.
	"Both of them are males," Tarrin said in confusion.
	"I know, but we have drakes in Wikuna," she told him.  "They're unbelievably expensive, but you can buy one in Wikuna.  I think Phandebrass is thinking of buying a female."
	"He'd better be careful," Keritanima snorted.  "Drakes have very aggressive mating habits.  Chopstick and Turnkey would fight one another for the rights to her, and the fact that they're brothers wouldn't matter.  Drakes sometimes get killed in duels over females."
	"Then he should get two," Miranda said calmly, biting apart the yarn and then holding up what she'd been knitting.  It was a tasselled shawl, and it looked to be finished.  "Ah, there we are," she said with a smile.  "That looks nice."
	"Who's that for?" Keritanima asked curiously.
	"Oh, nobody," she replied.  Miranda knitted just for the sake of knitting.  "I'm sure somebody will want it."
	"It'll go nice with my new party gown, as soon as I change the color," she hinted.
	"You'd change the color of your gown for my shawl?" Miranda asked with a slightly mischevious smile.
	"You," Keritanima laughed.  "The shawl!"
	Miranda handed it to her friend without a word, then dropped her knitting gear into the leather satchel she carried with her everywhere she went.  "I've had about enough of knitting for a while," she announced.  "I think I'll start doing needlepoint again.  Or maybe crochet."
	Keritanima threw the shawl over her shoulders, and Tarrin saw that Miranda had knitted it to fit her perfectly.  Obviously, Miranda had an owner in mind for it since she started it.  "I'll get an ivory hoop for the ends, and it'll sit perfectly," Keritanima mused.  "Just over my neckline."
	"She's fishing," Miranda whispered to Tarrin.
	"I am not!  Well, not really," she amended.
	"Oh?  And just who is she fishing for?" Tarrin asked.
	"Rallix," Miranda replied with a cheeky grin.  "The badger that runs the trading company she owns under one of her other identities."
	"Kerri told me about that," he told her.  "Just be careful, Kerri.  Workers get nervous when the boss starts flirting with them."
	"He knows who I am, Tarrin," Keritanima said with a face.  "It turns out that he knew the whole time," she said in a voice that made it clear that the idea of that still mystified her.  "I'm not out to get him, Tarrin.  Not yet, anyway.  I'm just testing the waters, that's all."
	"She's already picked out the rings," Miranda laughed.
	Keritanima's face fur ruffled so badly it looked like she'd been attacked by a pack of licking puppies.  "Well, a girl should be ready for any eventuality, shouldn't she?" she said defensively.
	Tarrin smiled.  It was a very good thing that Keritanima had started noticing a man.  He'd been worried about her that way, worried that her bad childhood had hardened her to any kind of intimate contact with others.  It was a very healthy thing if she'd started noticing a man.
	"Want me to kidnap him, Miranda?" he offered.  "We can persuade him that marrying our friend here is the only way he'll live to see tomorrow."
	"Tarrin!" Keritanima gasped in shock.  "You leave him alone!  I'll get him in my own way, in my own time!"
	"You can't rush these things, Tarrin," Miranda chided him.
	"I'm not too familiar with Wikuni mating habits."
	"It's not a mating habit,"Keritanima said sharply.
	"Do you want to marry him?" Tarrin asked bluntly.
	"Well...maybe."
	"And that means that you want to mate with him?"
	Her fur ruffled furiously.
	"Then it's a mating habit," he said in a calm, logical manner.  "Some animals are just more complicated than others."
	"Not like those Were-cat females," Keritanima sniped in reply.  "Always ready to rip off their clothes!"
	"They're a bit more honest about what they want than other races," Tarrin replied calmly, taking no offense.  "At least with a Were-cat female, you know exactly where you stand with her, and exactly what she wants.  There's none of this flirting and deceit and silly games that seems to go on with humans and Wikuni."
	"Were-cats have no romance in them!" Keritanima accused.  "None at all!"
	"We're part animal, Kerri.  Romance is an alien concept to us," he agreed without batting an eye.
	Keritanima snarled slightly.  She wasn't used to losing arguments, especially when the points she was making helped the other side.  "Well, it's not right," she growled.
	"For you.  It works for us, though.  And that's all that really matters."
	"Well, our way works for us," she declared.
	"And that's all that matters for you.  Don't compare your culture with mine.  They're apples and pears."  He turned to Miranda.  "Explain this to me, Miranda."
	"Well, Kerri has to attract Rallix's attention first," she began.  "She'll do that with low-cut dresses and little hints in her conversation.  When she has his interest, she has to show him that she's the only woman for him, and that all other women are worthless.  That won't be too hard for Kerri, she's good at making people think the way she wants them to.  Then she cleverly guides him into believing that he chased her the entire time, and then dupes him into asking her to marry him, while he thinks he started it the whole time.  So he won't think she's too forward, you understand.  At least not until after they're married, and he can't do anything about it," Miranda added with a wink.
	"You make it sound so deceitful," Keritanima snapped at her friend.
	"Deception seems to be a Wikuni requirement," Tarrin said dryly.  "Where some races find size or attractiveness or ability desirable, I guess Wikuni see deception and glibness as good traits in a mate."
	Miranda laughed.  "I think you're right, Tarrin," she agreed.
	It all seemed a bit silly to Tarrin, but to each race its own customs and culture.  He wasn't one to pass judgement on them because their ways weren't as simple and uncomplicated as his kind's were.
	"When does the quest for the prize begin?" he asked.
	Probably the minute the gangplank hits the wharf in Wikuna," Miranda laughed.  "Kerri wants his ring on her finger before we leave for Vendaka.  That gives her about two weeks."
	"You can force a man to marry you in two weeks?" Tarrin asked her in surprise.
	"I'm not going to force him," she said challengingly.
	"You call that testing the waters?" Tarrin asked with a laugh.
	"She just didn't want you to think that she was a hussy, Tarrin.  It's not becoming for a Wikuni lady to seem too aggressive."
	"But she's a queen.  She's supposed to be aggressive," Tarrin scoffed.
	"Then people would think that she's a titled hussy," Miranda told him.  "Women aren't supposed to seem too willing, Tarrin.  Not in Wikuni society.  They have to play hard to get, even when they're playing it against a man they want to get them."
	"What a waste of time," Tarrin grunted.
	"It makes the victory that much sweeter," Keritanima grinned at him.
	"I doubt it'll take that long," Miranda said with a smile.  "Rallix is smitten with our cunning little queen here.  I'll bet fifty gold marks that he'll fall all over her as soon as he sees her flirting with him."
	"I'll take you up on that, Miranda," Keritanima said confidently.  "I'm a good judge of people, and I haven't seen that in him.  Not that I don't want him to do it, but I'm not going to be that optomisitic."
	"It's your money," Miranda shrugged.  "Or mine now, as it were."
	"Don't count your gold yet, Miranda," Keritanima said smugly.
	The bell rang again, and then Keritanima stood up. "I'm going to go wash up for dinner.  See you there," she said, then she sauntered away, her fox tail swaying back and forth behind her with her stride.
	"That's the easiest fifty marks I've ever made," Miranda laughed after Keritanima went below decks.
	"What is this Rallix like?" Tarrin asked.
	"A good man," she said sincerely.  "Smart, well educated, and very loyal and dependable.  He's known about Kerri for a long time, but kept her secret and kept working for her.  Kerri doesn't understand why, not really.  She thinks he did it because he was making a fortune at her trading company.  But I've looked into his eyes when he's looking at her, so I know that that's not the reason at all."
	"He loves her," Tarrin surmised.
	"You bet," she said with that cheeky grin.  "He's devoted to her, and he's absolutely loyal to her.  He doesn't even skim off the top.  Rallix wouldn't have given away Kerri, not even after a week on the rack.  He'll be a good husband for her, because he won't be quite so pliable once they're on even ground."
	Tarrin chuckled.  "He's that strong?"
	"He's like steel, Tarrin," she winked.  "Kerri's going to have quite a shock waiting for her when she does marry him.  She'll be up against someone just as strong as she is."
	"That's good.  If Kerri could knuckle under her mate, she wouldn't respect him."
	"I know.  Now then, let's get moving before they ring the bell a third time," she announced.  Tarrin stood up with her, putting Chopstick up on his shoulder, and they walked towards the stairs.  "I think I'd like a nice porterhouse, tender, well aged, and cooked to where it's still pink in the middle," she told him.  "Do you do baked potatos?"
	"For you, Miranda, I'll do a banquet."
	"You're such a good friend," she gushed, leaning on his arm girlishly.
	"Flirt."
	"I have to stay in practice, you know," she said with a teasing giggle.
 
Chapter 2

	Life aboard a sailing vessel was one of routine.
	Even for the passengers, the days turned into a procession of regular events that made the days blur together, which both made Tarrin feel like time was flying by, even as each individual day seemed to drag out endlessly.  Breakfast some hour past sunrise, then for Tarrin, it was long, involved discussion and debate with Camara Tal.  The Amazon had decided that simply teaching him the spells of Priest magic wasn't enough.  She grilled him on his knowledge of theology, philosophy, and history, and she surprised him with the depth and bredth of her knowledge.  Tarrin had never pegged the fiery Amazon as a scholar, but she proved to him that she was easily as well educated as Phandebrass, especially in the realm of multipantheonic theology.  Camara Tal knew the name of every god, Elder, Younger, and those not accepted by the organized pantheon, which were called cult gods.  She knew most of the beliefs and goals of the religious orders of all those gods, even things Tarrin was surprised an outsider would know, like certain ceremonies they performed.  She grilled him about his beliefs in his goddess, even going so far as to ask questions about what she expected of him as a Priest, something even he didn't know.
	While Camara Tal and Tarrin argued over finer points of philosophy, the others had their routines as well.  Azakar would sit with Dar and play stones or chess.  Dolanna would learn the finer arts of needlework or knitting from Miranda, and Allia would usually spend that time in the company of Keritanima, who had gone back to reading books, or going over reports brought in to her by the priest on board the ship, who received them via magic from Jervis or the sashka.  Phandebrass and Kimmie would be off by themselves, and they appeared in the most unusual places.  One rainy morning, the entire ship was rocked by an explosion in the bilges, and when sailors went to investigate, the found the pair of them in there setting fire to water.  That little stunt caused the entire fleet of ships to come to a halt, but then again, it probably was for the best, for the rain intensified into a rather nasty storm.  The ships all dropped their sea anchors and rode it out, then continued on that afternoon.
	At noon precisely, they had lunch, and then they all changed their activities.  Tarrin sat down to teach Keritanima Sorcery and be taught Wikuni by her and Miranda in return, as Allia, Camara Tal and Azakar sparred on the widest part of the deck.  Camara Tal had first done it to see if Azakar had improved, but now she was the student as Azakar taught her some of the forms and techniques the Vendari had taught to him.  Allia had watched at first, but she realized that sparring with the likes of the Amazon and the Mahuut would improve her own forms.  Basicly, that meant that the two of them suffered as Allia's target dummies as the Selani gave herself a workout.  The two of them were good, but they just couldn't match the Selani's blazing, inhuman speed.  Kimmie and Phandebrass continued their morning session into the afternoon, often changing locations.
	At an hour before sunset, dinner was placed, and they took the evening meal with the ship's captain, a leopard Wikuni with a chunk missing from his right ear who called himself Karlin, Admiral Torm, and the Wikuni priest aboard, a willowy mammallian Wikuni that looked something like a cross between a squirrel and a chipmunk, with golden fur.  Keritanima told him that he was called a prairie dog, whatever that was.  It was some kind of animal indiginous to Wikuna.  Whatever he was, he was a quiet, observant fellow named Velton, modest and discreet, and someone with whom Tarrin didn't mind sharing company.  Given his more aggressive behavior since taking ship, that was saying that the Wikuni priest was almost a friend.
	After dinner, they all generally wound down, drinking whatever was available and sitting up on deck to watch the sunset, sharing company.  It was important for them to do so, since they had been separated in one way or another for a very long time.  Tarrin needed to reacclimate himself to the others, and those who had been separated from him for so long needed time to readjust to him.  Especially Azakar.  The Mahuut didn't quite know what to make of Tarrin now, or what to do about him or how to act around him.  Tarrin was many things, even to those with him, but Azakar seemed to have the most trouble understanding what had happened and how Tarrin had changed.  When Tarrin had been separated from Azakar, Miranda, and Keritanima, he had been a much different person.  Young, afraid, and on the edge.  His behavior was erratic then, but only to an untrained observer.  Now he was gruff, quiet, brooding, given to not speaking unless he had a reason to do so, and more than a little mean.  That probably set Azakar off the most, for despite his huge size and impressive fighting ability, Azakar was actually a very gentle and caring person.  Tarrin's vicious nature seemed to disturb Azakar, where the others had had time to get used to it.
	Just after sunset, every evening, Tarrin found someplace quiet and talked to Jesmind and Jasana.  They talked of very unimportant things, more like listening to Jesmind fume and rant and rail about this or that, venting her frustration.  There was little for him to say to them after the fifth day, after he'd described the ship and the sea and the things he saw for the tenth time.  Speaking to Jesmind made him a little less lonely, but he had yet to mention the fact that he was having trouble with Kimmie.  He was very evasive about it, because Jesmind asked after her almost every night.  He wouldn't lie to her, but he'd learned many ways to misdirect the truth when necessary, and he knew his mate.  He knew how to deflect her, distract her, make her forget what she was asking.
	Little had changed in Suld since they'd left, nearly twenty days before.  Jesmind and Jasana stayed on the Tower grounds with Jenna most of the time, as his sister continued to write her book and teach Jula about Sorcery.  Jula had regained her powers already, and had just begun the practical exercises to learn Weavespinner magic.  Since the ship was moving, and Tarrin couldn't enter the Weave unless he was stationary, he was missing out on quite a bit of what Jenna was teaching his bond-daughter.  He would have liked to have been there for that.  Triana too remained in the Tower, to watch over Jesmind and Jasana and, to his surprise, to get to know his parents and Jenna intimately.  Triana had adopted Tarrin, and now she was coming to know the other side of his family.  His mother and father were planning to return to Aldreth, but had delayed that at Triana's request, so they could get to know each other.  Tarrin imagined that Triana was very impressed with his parents.  They were very strong, very admirable people.
	After his nightly talk with Jesmind, Tarrin spent special time with Allia, usually in his cabin but sometimes walking around on deck, to reinforce the powerful bond they shared.  They didn't have to speak or do anything, or even interact with one another.  They only had to be in the same room together, and be alone.  That was all either of them needed.  It was their time to speak to each other of things they didn't tell any of the others, not even Keritanima, where Tarrin told his sister the whole truth about anything she wanted to know.  Tarrin held no secrets from Allia, just as she held no secrets from him.  After Tarrin finished telling her about what happened to him, Allia told him about what happened to her after they parted, things even of the most intimate nature, personal observations and such that would offend all the others, even Keritanima.  Allia was like that sometimes.
	Everything else may change, but the powerful bond between Tarrin and Allia would always remain.
	After spending time with Allia, Tarrin went to bed.  It was a bed he now shared with the two drakes, curled up with them on top of the covers in his cat form, because the bed was too small for his tall body.  Tarrin liked sleeping with the drakes, because they were cozily warm all the time, and Tarrin liked heat.  They would sleep through the night, and then when the sun came up, the cycle would repeat itself again.
	It was a day, much like any other.  Tarrin had just finished teaching Keritanima about the intricacies of Weavespinner magic, teaching her techniques for controlling the magic, trying to jar her powers back.  She'd yet to regain her powers, though he could sense in her that she was very close to them.  Any day now--any time now, for that matter--she was going to realign herself and find her magic again, and it was what Tarrin was waiting to happen.  He couldn't really teach her anything else until she regained her powers, so his tutoring lately had only been various exercises and observations, trying to help her regain her powers more quickly.  But he couldn't go too far, because Sorcery was still a very private affair, even Weavespinner magic.  Keritanima's method of using her magic was her own, and trying to teach her his own methods would interfere with her ability.  He could only tell her what to do; the method of going about doing it would be uniquely her own.  The only thing that they would share would be generalalities defined by the laws of Sorcery, laws by which they had to operate.
	He heard her growl as she closed her eyes and raised her muzzle. "I can feel it right there," she growled in a low tone.  "I can sense it.  Why can't I use it, dammit!  It's getting frustrating!"
	"Relax," he told her.  "You can't do it if you're agitated."
	"Then that's the problem," Miranda winked at him.  "She's been agitated ever since you started teaching her.  She's too impatient, she wants it all right now.  If you'd just relax and let things happen yourself, Kerri, you'd have been using magic again days ago."
	"Like you know anything," Keritanima huffed at her in irritation.
	"Kerri," Tarrin chided.  "Calm down."
	"Don't tell me to calm down!"
	"Someday you'll learn not to order me around, Kerri.  You know I'm not going to obey you," he said evenly, adjusting himself on the stool that a sailor had brought for him.  Since many Wikuni had tails, much of their furniture either didn't have backs or had split backs, making it easy on the tail to use the seat.  "Remember the exercises in mental discipline that Allia taught us?"
	"Of course I do," she replied.  "I--oh, I see," she said with a sudden toothy grin.  "That might work.  If I can use the meditation trick to focus myself, I might be able to regain my magic."  She glanced at him.  "That's a clever idea, brother.  I'm surprised you thought of it."
	"You do so much for my self-esteem, Kerri," he said in a dry drawl.  "Try that tonight.  Meditation will do more than focus yourself, it will calm you down.  Miranda may be right, sister.  I tried to push it when it happened to me, and I got so wrapped up in trying to use my magic again that I didn't sense that I could do it all along.  I think you're falling into the same trap I did."
	"Maybe," she acceded after a moment.
	"I say, hello there, Tarrin," Phandebrass greeted as he led Kimmie towards the stairway below decks.  "How go the lessons?"
	"Fairly well," he replied.  "Though we're more or less circling until Kerri regains her powers."
	"Well, well, good luck, your Majesty," he said with a smile.  "How are the language lessons going?" he asked her.
	"It's scary," she told him.  "That spell he uses lets him memorize everything.  He's fluent already, all he needs is to expand his vocabulary.  It's Dolanna all over again."
	"Well, my dear, Dolanna is a very clever woman, she is.  I think I might try to develop a spell to duplicate that effect," he mused to himself, looking up.  "To think that I could go into a library and remember everything I read!  I say, what a wonderful thing that would be, it would!"  He looked at them.  "I say, how are the lessons going?"
	Tarrin suppressed a chuckle.  Whenever Phandebrass was heavy into his magic, he tended to get extremely absent-minded, even forgetting things he'd just said.  It looked like he was in one of those states at the moment.  "Kimmie, you'd better take him down below before he forgets we're on a ship," Tarrin told the female.
	"We're already on the way," she said with a light smile.
	"Now I see why he irritates Camara Tal so much," Keritanima said with a giggle as Kimmie led him below decks.
	"That's not what irritates Camara," Tarrin replied.  "What irritates Camara is how his studies overwhelm reality.  Did I tell you that he tried to stop a Demon and ask it questions during the battle in Suld?"
	"He didn't!" Keritanima gasped with a laugh.
	"Oh yes he did.  Camara told me about it.  Tried to stop it in its tracks and ask it all sorts of questions.  Camara said that if she'd been beside him, she would have brained him herself."
	"Phandebrass puts learning above almost everything.  Even his own safety," Miranda surmised in a calm voice.  "He must be either terribly brave or completely crazy."
	"I think he's a little bit of both," Tarrin said, glancing back to the stairs below.  The wind had shifted, and Kimmie's scent, left on the deck, was touching his nose, tickling at him.  Her scent caused all sorts of impulses to rise up in him any time he scented it now, impulses he both wanted to satisfy and actively tried to ignore.  He put his paw over his nose in irritation, letting his own scent and the scents left behind on his paw drown out that smell.
	"You know, I think Kimmie's the most unusual Were-cat I've ever met," Keritanima said.  "She seems almost human."
	"She was turned, like me.  But the turning didn't seem to change her all that much," Tarrin told her.  "But don't let her personality fool you, Kerri.  She's just as much a Were-cat as me."
	"I've noticed.  I've also noticed that you've been avoiding her lately," she said slyly.
	Tarrin growled lightly in his throat, glaring at his sister.  He had a feeling where this was going to go.  "I think you should mind your own business," he warned.
	"You are my business, brother," she said mildly.  "And I have a nose too, if you recall.  I've been noticing a change in Kimmie's scent lately, and now that I've seen how you react to it, I know what it is."
	"Well, what is it?" Miranda asked.
	"She's either in heat or she's playing for him," she replied with a glance to where the female had gone below decks.  "You'd better not let Jesmind find out.  She'll kill both of you."
	Tarrin snorted, putting his chin in his paw.  "I think she doesn't realize she's doing it," he replied.  "She doesn't act like she's after me, so I think it's unconscious."
	"And that means you're not going to do anything about it."
	"I don't plan to," he replied.
	"You should.  Every time Kimmie goes by, you suddenly get very short-tempered."
	"I can't argue about that," he admitted.  "But it would be cheating on Jesmind."
	"Cheating or not, if you kill one of my sailors in a tiff, we're going to have a very nasty fight, brother," she warned.
	"I can keep a handle on things.  I've gone through this before."
	"I know, Allia told me about it," she said.  "With Jula."
	He nodded.  "I didn't have much trouble with her.  I shouldn't have much trouble with Kimmie."
	"There's a difference here, brother," Keritanima said mildly.  "You didn't like Jula at the time.  You do like Kimmie."
	"True, but it doesn't matter."
	"We'll see," Keritanima said absently.
	The rest of the day went on more or less as usual, except whenever Kimmie was close to him.  Telling Keritanima about it seemed to make it stay at the forefront of his mind, and he found himself thinking about Kimmie whenever his mind wasn't actively engaged with something else.  More than once, he caught himself thinking of some way to get her alone, and he had to crush all those impulses and keep himself occupied to stop it.  But those thoughts rekindled any time he came across Kimmie's scent.
	That was the problem.  They'd been on the ship for twenty days, so Kimmie's scent was everywhere.  The rain washed her scent out of the exposed deck, but Phandebrass' habit of moving around meant that she put her scent back down all over everything very quickly afterwards.  Below decks, her scent was mingled with all the other scents layered on the floor and walls and furniture, but Kimmie's scent was the first one he noticed, and he realized that he was actively looking for it.  There were few places on the ship he could go to get away from her scent.  The crow's nest, his room, and Allia's room.  That was it.  Kimmie had been in everyone else's rooms, even Keritanima's.
	Keritanima had been right.  He had been getting short-tempered whenever Kimmie passed.  It was a combination of her and the resurgence of t