uickly.  In three months, I'll look like a human woman about to drop.  I'll give birth about a month later."
	"That sounds strange."
	"If I were human, it would be," she grinned.  "I'm going to break you of this habit of associating us with humans, Tarrin."  She brought her tail out from under her, a soggy mess that looked like a drowned furry snake, and waggled it for his benefit.  "As you can see, I am not human."
	"I've noticed that from time to time," he told her dryly.
	"I got spoiled with these baths when I was at Kerri's palace," she sighed, sinking back down into the water.  "The Sha'Kar do it with magic, and the Wikuni do it with technology.  Somewhere between the two of them, you can build me a bath where I get hot running water."
	"I'll look into it," he promised her.  "It does make you look like a drowned rat, though."
	"It takes forever for my fur to dry, but it's worth it," she laughed.  "Care to join me?  You could do with some cleaning up."
	"Only if I'm going to take a bath," he teased.
	"Spoilsport," she grinned.  "What about you, Sapphire?  Do you swim?"
	"Get in the water?  Me?  No thank you," she said with a shudder of her wings.  "I don't like water."
	Tarrin did decide that he could do with some cleaning, so he undressed and slipped into the bathing pool, which was larger than many ponds he'd seen in his lifetime.  Just like the bathing pool at the Tower, it was hotter at one side, and a little deeper on the hot end.  Tarrin couldn't be hurt by fire, but he could feel heat, and heat still felt nice on the muscles.  So he joined Kimmie in a rather hot part of the pool, probably as hot as Kimmie could stand, and draped his arms on the lip of the pool and put his chin on them as Kimmie washed his back.
	"Why do you do that, anyway?" Sapphire asked.  "Get into the water."
	"It's how we keep clean," Kimmie replied, splashing water on his back, then picking up a bar of soap from a tray on the pool's edge.  She lathered up her paws and started scrubbing his back vigorously.  Sapphire walked over to where Tarrin was laying against the side and sat down, looking down at him.  He opened his eyes and looked up at her calmly, marvelling once again at how amazing the little drake was.  Intelligence granted to her by the birth of the sixth sui'kun, and it had grown to the point where she could speak, where she was as intelligent as most humans.  She reached out with one of her prehensile paws, paws that had an opposable thumb, and urged him to show her the palm of his paw.  He did so for her, stretching out the fingers and extending his claws to let her look at it, to satisfy whatever curiosity she had.
	"What is it, little one?" he asked in contentment, caught up in Kimmie's attentions.
	"I have seen you crush things in this paw, and yet you touch me with such gentleness," she told him.  "I know that you and Kimmie are far stronger than any but the ones that smell similar to me.  How do you manage such gentle touches when you're so incredibly strong?"
	"We have very sensitive pads," he replied, lifting a finger and presenting the black pad on his fingertip.  "I've learned how to know how much pressure I'm exerting by how it feels on my pads.  If I didn't have them, I probably would be crushing things by accident.  I wouldn't know how much force I was putting into my grip."
	"It's something we practice, Sapphire," Kimmie told her.  "We know how dangerous we can be to humans, so we teach ourselves how to be able to work with them without hurting them.  I don't think they understand how hard we work to make sure they never notice how strong we are.  It's something we always have to be careful of.  One moment's distraction, and we might accidentally crush every bone in a man's hand if we're shaking it."
	"Some of the others you call friend are afraid of you.  Especially the big human."
	"It's something I may not like, but I understand it," he told her.  "I don't hold it against them.  You've never seen me lose my temper before, little one.  I can be very nasty.  They have seen it, so they're always cautious around me when they think I'm in a bad mood."
	"You would hurt them?"
	"Not on purpose, but it has happened," he admitted.
	"And still they trust you?"
	"Friends trust friends, Sapphire," Kimmie told her calmly, plainly, washing Tarrin's back off.  "They know he wouldn't hurt them intentionally, so when it does happen, they forgive him and move on as if it never happened."
	"I trust you," the drake told him seriously, putting both her paws on his palm pad and staring down into his eyes.
	"I'm glad to hear that, little one," he smiled gently up at her.
	"Do you love me, Tarrin?" she asked directly.
	"Of course I do," he told her.  "Ever since that first day, when you landed on my shoulder and nuzzled me.  You had me from that moment on."  He closed his paw over her little forepaws gently.  "I'll admit it's a bit different now that you can talk, but I didn't stop loving you just because you changed.  If I had, then I guess I really never loved you at all, did I?"
	"That is profound," the drake told him soberly.
	"It's truth.  Truth is always simple, but it can seem profound."
	"I think the wrong friend was teaching me philosophy," Sapphire said with a chirping sound.  A laugh!
	"You've got to stay on your toes around Tarrin, Sapphire," Kimmie giggled.  "He may not look it, but he's been very thoroughly educated by people with about five different cultural viewpoints, and he's got quite a bit of common sense.  That's always dangerous when you get into philosophical discussions."
	"The most dangerous one is always the one you think can't be a danger," she said calmly, a fallback to her instincts.  "Are you clean now?"
	"I think Kimmie's dawdling on purpose," Tarrin told her with a smile.
	"Then she needs to finish.  I want to learn Sha'Kar.  Will you teach me now?"
	"Alright, but we're not staying up all night this time."
	They didn't stay up until dawn, but they did stay up until about three hours before dawn.  It turned out to be another marathon session, as Tarrin cast the spell of learning on the drake, and Tarrin and Kimmie took turns teaching her the language.  Since they started well before sunset, it gave Sapphire almost twelve hours of continuous teaching, the equivelent of four of his normal sessions.  After four sessions, Kimmie could speak broken Sha'Kar and could understand nearly three quarters of what she was hearing in the forms of speech he'd taught her.  After that one session, Sapphire had exceeded Kimmie, showing that she was quite gifted at learning languages.  She was almost fluent in the two most commonly used forms of Sha'Kar speech, formal and semi-formal, and Tarrin estimated that if he taught her for about fifteen more hours, she would be fluent in the other forms, informal, personal, and high formal.  Kimmie had become fluent after about ten sessions.  Sapphire looked to be on pace to do it in eight equivelent sessions.  Tarrin wondered if teaching her in marathon sessions was what was making her more reticent than Kimmie had been.  Would constant, long-term exposure and repeated castings of the memory spell provide faster, more deep-seated effects?  The problem with the memory spell was that it was implanted memory, not learned the hard way.  Those implanted memories would fade if they weren't used consistently.  If Kimmie didn't speak Sha'Kar every now and then, the memory of the language would slowly fade from her mind, until she'd forget it.  It's why the katzh-dashi didn't depend on using the spell, because of that drawback.  It was always best to learn things by study and not by magic, but if what was taught by the spell was something that the recipient would use in daily life, like a language, then using the memory spell was an efficient and effective way of cutting about six months of tedious language study down to about a ride of regular learning sessions.
	Two things struck Tarrin when he woke up the next morning.  One, that nobody had been knocking on his door.  Not friends, not sisters, not servants, and not even the Sha'Kar family themselves.  And two, that Sapphire could be pushy when she wanted something.  He had to beg her off from starting right back up with the education as soon as they were up, because he wanted to know why Allia, Keritanima, Dolanna, or anyone else hadn't bothered to come see him the day before.  The entire day had gone by without him seeing any of them.  Sapphire's lessons had occupied his mind and made him lose track of that fact.  Sapphire was quite adamant about getting the rest of the learning done, so Tarrin compromised by casting the memory spell on her and leaving Kimmie to do the teaching, bringing them a large breakfast from the kitchen so they wouldn't have to interrupt their lesson.
	After he did that, he set out in search of his friends.  Their scents were all over the house, so it was a simple matter of tracking whichever scent was freshest that left the kitchen.  That happened to be Azakar's, so he tracked it to a chamber on the third floor, with a large, brass-bound door.  Tarrin knocked on it and waited, then knocked again.  When there was still no answer, he opened the door and looked inside.
	It was a huge room, but was about half the size of the one Tarrin was using.  It had a bed about the same size as the one in his room, on a raised dais at the back of the room, and with quite a few delicate-looking pieces of furniture.  It looked to be a woman's room.  Azakar was laying in the bed, sleeping from the look of him.  Tarrin decided not to bother him, closing the door and going off after the next closest scent, which was Dar's.  Tarrin tracked him to his room and knocked.  And when he got no reply, he opened that door and found himself looking into a room that was remarkably similar to Azakar's room.  Tarrin realized that both were guest bedrooms, and as such weren't quite so liberally decorated as Arlan's room.  Dar was also in his room, and he was also laying quietly in his bed.  But in Dar's case, he wasn't alone.  One of the servant girls was in the bed with him, sleeping with her arm draped over his chest.
	Tarrin had to grin.  So, Dar took Miranda's suggestion to heart.  It was good for him anyway, he needed a little physical pleasure in his life.
	Tarrin closed the door, and tracked down Dolanna's scent.  He followed it to her room, on the first floor,and opened the door after she too didn't answer his knock.  She had a bedroom somewhat larger than Zak's or Dar's, with ivy growing on one wall and a large statue of a nude Sha'Kar male standing before the living decor.  Dolanna too was in her bed, sleeping.  And to Tarrin's shock, she too wasn't alone.  He had never seen the human in bed with Dolanna, sleeping peacefully, but he was a rather handsome fellow with dark hair and tanned skin.
	That was three sleeping friends, two of which had company.  In Dar's case, it didn't seem a big deal, but he was surprised to see Dolanna doing the same thing.  Dolanna wasn't celibate or made of stone, but she didn't seem the type that would engage in a casual affair.  She was too...human.
	A bit curious, Tarrin scented and tracked down all his friends.  Except for Allia, he found them all in their bedrooms, sleeping, and all the humans were not sleeping alone.  Even Phandebrass had a pretty maid in bed with him.  Allia wasn't in her room, probably out with Allyn somewhere.  Keritanima and Miranda were also asleep, but Binter and Sisska were awake, playing chess near the door so they could move to defend it at a moment's notice.
	"Hey," Tarrin called from the open door.  "How long have they been asleep?" he asked, looking past them at the large bed on the dais, like all the other rooms, where Keritanima and Miranda were sharing the bed, sound asleep.
	"A long time," Binter replied.  "Her Majesty has been more or less sleeping since the night of the feast.  She has awakened only long enough to eat and relieve herself."
	"She's been sleeping for two days?" Tarrin asked with a gasp.
	"She has.  It was not alcohol they drank, Tarrin," Sisska told him.  "We managed to find one of the bottles of drink they consumed.  It was some kind of drug."
	"A drug?  They drugged us?" he asked in a dangerous tone.
	"It was a drug they themselves drank, Tarrin," Binter told him calmly.  "Perhaps they have a resistance to it, and that lack of resistance is why her Majesty has not recovered yet."
	"They are alright, aren't they?" Tarrin asked.  "Her and Miranda?"
	"Her Majesty is just sleeping, Tarrin," Sisska assured him.  "If you wanted, you could wake her up.  But she would be in a very surly mood if you did."
	"Probably," Tarrin grunted.  "I can't believe that they drugged us."
	"I doubt it was intentional," Binter said.  "These Sha'Kar, they seem to automatically assume that we are exactly as they are.  Perhaps they never conceived that the rest of us would be so strongly affected by their drugged wine."
	"It doesn't affect us, or you, I see," Sisska noted.
	"We'd burn it out of our systems before we'd feel it," Tarrin shrugged.  "Every one of our friends are sleeping, Sisska, except you two, me, Allia, and Kimmie.  And all the humans took a mate.  Even Dolanna," he said in disbelief.  "Do you think the drug might have induced some kind of mate-frenzy in the humans?"
	"There is no saying, but it wouldn't be impossible," the female Vendari answered.  "If even Dolanna and Phandebrass took lovers, then I would say that it would be more than possible."
	"Have either of you seen Allia?"
	"She visited last night," Binter answered.  "She did not stay long after she saw that her Majesty was still sleeping.  She was going to a party with the male Sha'Kar.  Allyn."
	"Allia went to a party?" Tarrin asked in disbelief.  "What in the world is going on around here, Binter?  Dolanna taking a mate, everyone getting drugged, and Allia goes to a party?"
	"We were wondering the same thing ourselves, Tarrin," Sisska told him with a level look, those black eyes of hers boring into his own.
	"Well, I'm going to go get some answers," he said bluntly.  "I'll be back in a little while."
	Tarrin left them, marched through the house with a grim look on his face, then reached Dolanna's bedroom door.  He did not knock.  But there was plenty of sound to alert those within to his arrival, as what was left of the door clattered to the tiled floor in a loud crash.  Dolanna sat bolt upright instantaneously, staring across the room in total surprise, as the male beside her tried to roll over and see what was causing all the racket.  Tarrin saw that both of them were nude, and the smell of their mating was still strong enough in the room to make it plain to him that Dolanna had indeed slept with the human.  Tarrin stalked into the room as Dolanna stared at him in both annoyance and worry, letting the blanket she'd been holding to her throat drop as he padded up to the steps leading to the bed.  "You," Tarrin said, pointing at the handsome male.  "Out.  Now."
	Gaping and trembling, the male did just as Tarrin ordered, scrambling out of bed, down the steps, across the room, then out the door.  He didn't bother to gather up his clothes beforehand either, rushing naked into the hall.
	"Tarrin, what are you doing?" Dolanna demanded.
	He didn't say a word.  He came up the dais and to the bed, then reached down and put his paws on either side of her head, almost completely covering it.  He sent tendrils of Mind and Divine into her, a simple weave to assess physical condition, and found that alien substance still flushing through her blood.  After two days, it was still there?  It had to be quite strong!  Changing tacks, he sent flows of Earth, Water, and Divine into her, the flows of healing, and wove them into a spell within her and released it.  The weave attacked that drug in her system and destroyed it, making Dolanna gasp and grab his wrists in her small hands as it felt to her like icewater had just been forced into her bloodstream.
	Dolanna's eyes were a bit glassy as she looked up at him after he pulled his paws away, then she put a finger delicately to her forehead.  "What did you do, Tarrin?" she asked woozily.  "I feel decidedly odd."
	"Those drinks you drank at the feast had a drug in them," Tarrin told her.  "It's something the Sha'Kar must drink all the time, so they're used to it.  But you and the others don't have the same resistance to it."
	"Indeed," she grunted, rubbing her temples.  "I feel as I did when we spoke after the feast."
	"What happened after you left?"
	"Well, I returned to bed.  I woke up in the late afternoon, and I felt very good.  Almost deleriously happy.  I wandered around the estate for a while, had a lovely chat with Master Arlan, and then I met a handsome young farm worker while Arlan and I walked the estate lawn and talked.  Arlan saw I fancied him, and sent him to my room--I do not believe I did that!" she gasped, relapsing into Sharadi.
	"It was the drug, not you," Tarrin told her, switching to Sharadi to make her more comfortable.  "All the other humans are sleeping with someone else in their beds too.  Even Phandebrass."
	"It's a pity we can't isolate the drug and take it back to the West with us," Dolanna laughed.  "They're always looking for the perfect aphrodisiac.  I think the Sha'Kar have stumbled on one."
	"How do you feel now?"
	"Like I have a hangover," she answered.  "But it's already starting to fade."
	"The spell burned out the drug, but you must be feeling some kind of after-effect of when it fades," he reasoned.
	"Most likely.  Did you really have to break down my door, Tarrin?" she asked with a slight smile.
	"Actually, yes.  I wanted your undivided attention, and I didn't want any arguments.  I knew if I used the direct approach, I'd get both."
	She chuckled ruefully.  "No doubt.  Now then, let me get dressed, and we'll give all the others the same rude awakening you gave me."
	"It couldn't have been that bad," he told her.  "And last night couldn't have been that bad either."
	"Why do you say that?"
	Tarrin touched his nose meaningfully.
	Dolanna blushed, which made her look quite lovely.  "Knowing that I was drugged makes me feel a little violated, but I won't lie, dear one.  I never met the man before, but he gave me a very enjoyable night."
	"That's all that matters, Dolanna," he told her, picking up her robe from where it was laying on the steps of the dais and handing it to her.  "You get dressed, and I'll fix your door for you."
	"Thank you," she said, accepting the robe from him.
	Though he wasn't as rough with the others, Tarrin and Dolanna visited all of their human friends one by one, and after ejecting the night's playmate, they took turns using the spell to burn out the drug that had affected them.  All of them had the same story to tell, about how they awakened feeling almost euphoric, and all of them had somehow managed to find an attractive member of the opposite sex who seemed interested.  One thing led to another, and they all ended up in bed.  Camara Tal was rather casual about it, remarking that she may ask Arlan about buying her bedmate for a new concubine, but Azakar and Dar seemed absolutely mortified that it had happened.  Phandebrass found it all to be rather interesting, and went off to the kitchens almost immediately to find a bottle of the drugged wine, so he could research its ingredients.  He very nearly forgot to put on his robe.
	After waking up all the humans, he brought them along with him as he went to Keritanima's room, and Tarrin and Dolanna used the healing weave to burn out the drug from Keritanima and Miranda.  Both of them had been asleep during the process, but they both woke up when it was complete.  Keritanima yawned and looked all of them over, all of them in morning robes, and blinked.  "What time is it?  Did I oversleep?" she asked.
	"You've been sleeping for nearly two days now, Kerri," Tarrin told her.  "That wine you drank at the feast had some kind of drug in it.  It affected you and Miranda by making you sleepy.  It had a, ah, different effect on the humans," he said delicately as both Dar and Azakar turned deep purple.
	"Oh.  Well, that explains that much at least," Miranda grunted, rubbing her head.  "I knew I couldn't have gotten that drunk off the wine."
	"Well, get a robe on or something and come to my room," he told them.  "While you two have been sleeping and the others have been, entertaining friends, I've been busy."
	Azakar continued to blush furiously, but Dar couldn't help but start laughing.
	They convened in Tarrin's room not long after that.  Kimmie came out of the bathing room with a towel wrapped around her, and Sapphire perched on her shoulder.  The first thing he did was tell them about his long talk with Iselde, relating his observations to them.  Then he told them about the book he read in great detail, relating what he'd leaned about the Sha'Kar from it.  Keritanima and Dolanna seemed absorbed in Tarrin's look inside the minds of the Sha'Kar.  "Simply put, they're a conceited bunch," he summed it up.  "But they're not nasty like some people like that are.  Actually, they seem rather nice, but only if you're their kind of people.  As Zak, Camara, Miranda and Phandebrass have found out," he added.  "They just have trouble accepting that everyone doesn't act like they do.  We didn't go into the servants, I thought that may be a bit confrontational, but that's the impression I get from them."
	"It's a good start," Keritanima told him.  "Dolanna, you and I need to go circulate at these parties and pick up their rumors.  Rumors are always a good way to get to know a society."
	"Where is Allia, anyway?" Dar asked.
	"She's with Allyn," Tarrin answered.  "She's working on things at a personal level, the same as I've been working on Iselde."
	"Someone should work on Arlan," Camara Tal noted.
	"I haven't even seen Arlan since the feast," Tarrin told her.  "I think he's been spending his every waking moment with the Elders.  Iselde said he's one of their students.  Actually, I haven't seen much of anyone since the feast.  I've been very busy with our secret weapon."
	"What secret weapon?" Keritanima asked.
	"Me."
	As one, they all whipped their heads and stared at Kimmie and the drake.  Sapphire looked very calm, very sober, regarding them with those staring amber eyes.  "Tarrin taught me how to speak," the drake announced.  "He's teaching me their language now.  When he's done, I'll go spy on the others and report anything important that I hear."
	They were all stunned into silence for a very long moment.  Then Keritanima laughed.  "That's quite a secret weapon, brother," she admitted.  "I didn't know she was capable of speaking!"
	"If you can understand, then you can speak," Tarrin said simply.  "I didn't think the shape of her mouth would permit her to speak human language, but I seem to have been mistaken."
	"This is quite an extraordinary drake," Phandebrass said in wonder.  "I say, I must--"
	"No, Phandebrass," Tarrin cut him off.  "Don't you dare even touch her.  I mean it!"
	"Well, there's no need to be rude, there isn't," he grumbled.
	"I won't let him touch me, Tarrin," Sapphire said with steely eyes.  "I remember that last time he examined me."
	"Hoisted by my own petard," Phandebrass chuckled ruefully.
	"Have you read the letters from the ship?" Tarrin asked Keritanima.
	"Not yet," she replied.  "Binter gave them to me on one of the rare episodes when I remember waking up, but they're still laying on my bedtable.  I'll get to them as soon as I get back to the room."
	"Sapphire delivered our orders to Jalis.  I didn't read the response, but I'd guess that his letter tells us he'll be ready to do his part of the plan."
	"I'd expect nothing less from him," Keritanima said proudly.
	"You have a good idea there," Dar said.  "It's too bad we don't have Sarraya, though.  She could have found out everything we need to know by now."
	"Who is this Sarraya?" Sapphire asked.
	"A Faerie.  She's even smaller than you, she can fly, and she can turn invisible.  She's the ultimate spy."
	"It sounds so," Sapphire nodded.  "I am no Sarraya, but I will do what I can."
	"Well, we've already lost a day, so let's get up and get cracking.  The order of the day is still to learn about the Sha'Kar," Keritanima said.  "I need to read those letters, and then me and Dolanna will invite ourselves to one of these nightly parties.  It's still early enough to get ready, isn't it?"
	"It's only a bit after noon, Kerri.  The parties don't happen until sunset."
	"Then we have time to do some other things.  I think I'll wander around the town and talk to the Sha'Kar on the streets."
	"Dar, you should talk to the human Sorcerers here," Dolanna told him.  "We cannot overlook them."
	"I'll do what I can, Dolanna."
	"Iselde should be at her lesson with Auli's mother right now, but when she comes back, she'll be up in the music conservatory," Tarrin said.  "Kerri, when she comes back, talk to her.  She tried to invite me to one of those parties yesterday.  I'm sure she'll bring you along with her and Auli tonight."
	"Why didn't you go?"
	"Go to a party full of pushy strangers when I'm alone?" he scoffed.  "Do you want me to hurt someone, sister?"
	"Oh.  Well, I forgot about that," she admitted.  "What are you going to do tonight?"
	"Teach Sapphire Sha'Kar," he answered.  "One more night should do it.  She's a very fast learner."
	"That is fast."
	"It may be one night, but it should take about twelve hours," Tarrin grunted.  "Sapphire seems to be very receptive to the memory spell, so she learns even faster than me or Kimmie did.  But I still have to go through the teaching."
	"Alright then.  Tarrin and Kimmie are going to teach Sapphire.  Me and Dolanna are going to crash that party.  Dar is going to talk to the human Sorcerers.  Azakar, Phandebrass, what are you going to do?"
	"I'm going to talk to the servants," Azakar said.
	"I say, I'm going to see if I can't get someone to show me how they built these buildings," the mage answered.
	"Arlan has a big library here, on the second floor.  I think I'll curl up with a few good books today," Miranda announced.
	"That sounds like a good idea.  I'll join you, Miranda," Camara Tal told her.  "It's better than trying to hold my temper with these arrogant Sha'Kar."
	"Well, it sounds like everyone has a good plan for today.  So I think we should get to it."  Her stomach growled audibly.  She grinned ruefully and put a hand over her belly.  "As soon as we eat," she amended.
	It was a plan, and a relatively good one.  They broke up and raided the kitchen en masse, then split up to pursue their individual objectives for the day.  Tarrin and Kimmie took Sapphire back to their room and started teaching her again, mainly because it was very important, and until Iselde came back and Allia turned up, there wasn't much else to do.  He finished teaching her the forms of semi-formal and formal Sha'Kar, and went on to start teaching her the informal forms.  There was a better chance she'd hear that if she was listening in on someone talking to himself than high formal Sha'Kar.  As she had the two previous sessions, Sapphire, aided by the spell, soaked everything up like a sponge, not forgetting anything that the two of them taught to her.  As was usual for Sha'Kar, Tarrin expanded her vocabulary as he moved into the new form, teaching her more and more obscure words as they progressed.
	Allia turned up about three hours after they started with Sapphire.  She walked into the room wearing a Sha'Kar robe while Tarrin and Kimmie were sitting on the divans while giving Sapphire a break to relieve herself, a scillinting silver robe that matched her hair, and looking rather lovely in it as well.  She had her wild hair combed out to where it was almost straight, and had a strangely content look on her face.  "You've gone native, sister," Tarrin told her with an appraising eye.  "You look like a Sha'Kar now."
	"I know," she admitted, looking down at herself.  "Allyn gave me this.  Isn't it nice?"
	"It's very nice," he replied.
	"Would you mind?" Kimmie asked.  "It really bothers me when you two do that."
	Tarrin looked at her, and realized they were speaking Selani.  "Forgive us, Kimmie.  It is a very old habit," Allia apologized.  "Tarrin was making note of my dress.  Is it not lovely?"
	"It's very pretty," Kimmie agreed.  "Did you have fun yesterday?"
	"Oh yes," she smiled.  "I wore Allyn out.  After he recovered, he took me on a tour of the island.  He showed me all the estates and told me the names and reputations of the families that live in them.  Then he showed me the forest surrounding the town, where some Sha'Kar walk for seclusion, and a sand beach on the northwest side of the island, on the other side from where we landed.  It was black sand.  I have never seen that before."
	"Volcanic sand," Kimmie said.  "The black lava rock, worn down to sand.  It must look pretty weird."
	"Then he showed me a carving that a Sha'Kar who died carved into a cliff face on the west face of the volcano," she continued.  "It is of two Sha'Kar standing in beckon to any who see it.  It almost looks alive, and the carvings have to be a hundred spans high.  It was quite impressive."
	"I guess it would be.  I've never seen any statue that big before," Tarrin agreed.
	"I learned much of the Sha'Kar's daily habits, as well," she said.  "They use magic almost as often as a Selani uses her feet," she complained.  "They will cast a spell to open a door when it is easily within their reach.  They are completely dependent on their magic.  I do not approve of that."
	"I noticed that at the feast," Kimmie said.  "There were plates of food flying all over the place by themselves."
	"I have already started breaking Allyn of that," she told them.  "He is taking me to a party tonight.  Would you like to come?  He asked me to invite you."
	"No, but you'll see Kerri and Dolanna there," Tarrin told her.  "They're trying to break into Sha'Kar society as well, but they don't have your inside edge."
	"This is not about breaking in," she said.  "This is about Allyn."
	Tarrin looked at her, a bit strangely.  She seemed almost...glowing.  Had just two days with the Sha'Kar boy had such an impact on her?  He knew she liked him, but she was talking like she was making long-term plans.  Didn't she realize that they were just too different?  Of course she didn't.  Allia, if she wanted A