that.
	Im surprised you didnt smell it, Sarraya told him from her invisible hiding place on his shoulder.
	How much have I been in my natural form lately, Sarraya?
	Haley laughed.  Im not the only one packing a secret.  Didnt you wonder what that little barrel is that Ulger brought?
	Gunpowder, Tarrin answered.  Kerri gave it to us.  Ulger wanted more, but Kerri didnt think it was too good of an idea to give him too much.  He might get bad ideas.
	That does sound like Ulger, Haley winked.  I didnt know you knew about it.  I thought Ulger was keeping it a secret.
	Why do you think Im keeping Fireflash away from it? Tarrin asked.
	Haley laughed.  Good idea.
	I wonder, Tarrin said, watching two women in wool dresses walk by.  Neither woman was exactly pretty, but their dresses were of good quality, of different shades of blue.  How they got into this situation.
	You mean, how the One got so much control?  Odds are, the One started out much like Val did.
	But on this world, he won, Tarrin said grimly.
	More or less, Haley nodded.  The gods of this world either underestimated him or didnt care, and he took control.  I know youll hate me for saying this, but it does look like he did a better job at running things than Val would have, he admitted.  I dont like his methods any more than you do, he said quickly, but at least he managed to build something.  Val would have destroyed the world.
	You think so?
	Val was about control, Haley told him.  After he got it, that need to control would have eventually destroyed everything.  Thats whats happening here, or at least the start of it.  He swept his hand out.  The One wants to control everything.  He doesnt yet, else he wouldnt be fighting a war back on the other side of Dengal.  Hes built this society to gain that control.  All of them, theyre nothing but elements in his grand army of conquest, from the highest-ranking general to the oldest peasant.  And thats what keeps this society together.  But after the One gets control, then all of this will turn on itself.  His need to control will destroy everything hes built.
	I never took you for a thinker, Haley, Tarrin said soberly, nodding.  Haleys words made a certain amount of sense.
	Im three hundred years old, Tarrin, he chuckled.  Once you live that long, youll start thinking about things whether you want to or not.
	What do you thinkll happen?
	As long as the One has something left to conquer, then this will work, he said.  But the minute he finishes, then its over.  Thats what happened to the Urzani empire.  After they conquered the world, they had nothing left to do.  Their society turned decadent, and they were eventually destroyed.  It took a thousand years, but it did happen.  He bent down and picked up a small piece of straw lying on the dirt street.  No society that stagnates, that thinks it has nothing left to do, can survive.  Thats why the Younger Gods and the Wikuni gods back home always push us.  They want us to grow, to reach new levels, to expand and find new paths.  Gods like Val and the One, they want everything to stop, to be the same for all time.  Like the creation of a perfect world where nothing ever changes.  It doesnt work, because people need challenges, need to change and grow.  The Urzani taught us that.
	Thats profound.
	Thats Miranda, Haley admitted with a chuckle.  She explained that to me.
	Id say that Miranda is much more the Priestess than even I thought, Tarrin said quietly.
	You should sit down and talk with her some evening, Haley told him.  Youd be amazed at what you can learn.
	I can see that, Tarrin replied.
	They walked the pack horses back to the little grassy park, but to his surprise, saw that not everything was well.  Zyri was crying, being held by Dolanna, and Mist and Miranda were nowhere to be found.  Tarrin glanced at the towns children, who were still playing with their toys in the grass, but his attention was focused on Dolanna.  Whats the matter? he asked.
	Telven and Jal are missing, she answered.  They were playing with the other children, and we were letting them.  After so much time in the saddle, we thought it would be good for them.  But when we looked back to check on them, they were gone.
	Mists tracking them, Ulger told him.  It took a bit of doing hiding her so she could, you know.
	Fireflash went with her? Tarrin asked.
	Dolanna nodded.
	How long ago did you notice they were gone?
	Not long after you and Haley left, she answered.
	Well, it looks like they went full circle, Azakar said, pointing down the street.  Theres Jal.  Tarrin looked down the street, and saw the young boy, running towards them.  He had a whitish rod of some kind in his hand.
	Hold on, why is he holding a club? Ulger asked.
	Thats ice, Tarrin said.  He used his power.  I told him not to!
	Tarrin stepped up when Jal got close to them, and caught the boy by his shoulders.  He was dancing in place, and his eyes were wild and fearful.  Drop it, Tarrin ordered, and the boy dropped the shard of ice.  Whats the matter?
	Jal looked to try to say something, but nothing would come out of his mouth.  He instead turned and pointed back the way he came.  Tarrin looked over Jal and down the street, and saw a large complement of church soldiers and Priests, some on horseback, and on the lead horse, riding with a Priest, was Telven!
	Thats them! Telven shouted.  Theyre the witches, and one of them is one of the Damned!
	Tarrin was absolutely stunned.  Telven betrayed them!  Tarrins mind swam in an ocean of disbelief, and he could only stare at the men who were racing towards them, trying to rationalize it.  But why?  He had saved Telven from death, had taken care of him, had shown him kindness and given him a place where he could belongand this is how he repays them?  After the church of the One tries to kill him, Telven goes back to them?  Why?  Why, for the gods sake?
	Still reeling, Tarrin put Jal behind him and surveyed the men bearing down on them.  There were at least thirty, and he counted five black-robed Priests.  Telvens betrayal had stunned him, but now that shock was yielding to outrage, and to fury, a fury he quickly contained.  There were too many innocents here for him to lose his temper, and doing that would put his own friends in danger.  He shifted into his normal form, and then his eyes ignited from within with the glowing green aura that marked his anger, and finally, in stark majesty, his wings exploded out from his back, causing a sudden cascade of screams and shouts from the citizens who witnessed it.
	Get them out of here! Tarrin shouted at Ulger, looking back to him and pointing at Dolanna and Zyri with a paw.  Jal, go to Zyri! he ordered of the boy who clung to his leg, trying to shake him off, as he brought forth his sword from the elsewhere.  The blade immediately burst into flame, as licks of flame sprouted in his fetlocks on his wrists and ankles.
	Tarrin, we can help! Azakar said, drawing his sword.
	Dont abandon Dolanna, Tarrin hissed, crouching and holding his sword in both paws.  Telven, have you lost your mind?  Do you have any idea what youve done?
	Im getting rid of witches! Telven shouted back at him.
	They tried to kill you! he screamed.
	That was all Zyri! he shouted back. I never wanted to keep that witch of a brother, but I couldnt live by myself!
	There was little time for further debate, for the first of the mounted soldiers were almost on him.  Instead of attacking them, Tarrin held out his paw and shouted STOP! in a powerful voice, shifting his intonation just slightly, which was how a Druid addressed an animal in a manner in which the animal would understand.  All the horses charging at him suddenly whinnied in surprise, then pulled up short.  They did so with such sudden speed that five of the soldiers went flying over the heads of their mounts, landing on their backs on the street.  Buck your riders and run! Tarrin shouted at the horses.
	They obeyed.  All the horses started bucking and thrashing, causing the foot soldiers to scramble in every direction to keep from getting trampled.  The moment of chaos distracted all of the soldiers, and Tarrin used that critical moment to wave at the others, to get them mounted and out of harms way.  Go now! Tarrin snapped at them.  Find Mist and Miranda and get out of town!
	Tarrin! Dolanna barked, but she said no more when Tarrin decapitated the first man to reach him with his blazing sword, sending an arc of fire into the air along with the mans head.  Tarrin backpawed the still erect, headless corpse, flinging it to the side to get it out of the way as three more men charged him with wild cries and their swords drawn and brandished.  Both men came to an instant halt when they were impaled by spikes which erupted from the inner surface of his wings, sizzling across the space between them.  Those two spikes tossed the men aside contemptuously, and he saw that the rest of the host was starting to get organized.  There were too many to fight, not when they could get around him and attack the others.  He needed magic here.
	Sending his sword into the elsewhere to free his paws, Tarrin started chanting in the discordant language of magic, which made all five Priests suddenly start screaming in the languages of the gods.  But Tarrins spell was much faster to cast, and when he held out his paws, palms out, and then jerked his arms upward, they suddenly flared in a strange brownish glow.  The earth around the men began to buck and heave, and then massive slabs of stone exploded from the ground, sending dust, dirt, and small stones flying in every direction.  More and more of the slabs thrust from the street, until a large wall of rock separated Tarrin and his friends from their attackers, stretching from one side of the street to the other.
	Go now! Tarrin snapped at them, dancing back a few steps when a section of the wall suddenly began to glow with a whitish radiance.  That section of the wall vanished with a wavering flash of light, dispelled by the magic of the Priests.  Tarrin immediately began to chant again, his fingers weaving an intricate pattern before him as he quickly and flawlessly chanted the formula of the spell, even as the first of the soldiers ran through that hole, followed by a Priest, who skidded to a stop and began to chant himself.  Tarrins paws burst into flame at mental command during the course of the spell, for he needed an open source of fire for the spell to operate properly, and after he finished chanting, the spell latched onto the fire around his paws and consumed it to power the spells effect.  Smoke billowed out from Tarrins paws at a phenomenal rate, quickly covering the width of the street, and then the cloud of dark matter rolled away from him.  There came a storm of coughing and choking as the spell washed over the first of the men, causing the Priest to stutter and lose his place in the spell, ruining it.  The cloud engulfed their attackers, and the sounds of their hacking and coughing told Tarrin that the smoke would make it impossible for the Priests to cast any spell that required any significant amount of time.  That worked in his favor, as only those kinds of spells posed a major threat to him.
	One man staggered out of the cloud of smoke, hand over his mouth and sword held low, then an arrow appeared in his chest.  The man staggered backwards two steps and collapsed, and Tarrin glanced back to see Zyri, alone, eyes full of tears and a strange expression of a mixture of anger and fear on her face, sitting on her horse and with her bow in her hands, quickly reaching for another arrow.  Ulger was riding back towards her, in the act of clapping his barrel-shaped helmet down over his shaved head.
	Have you lost your mind, girl! Tarrin shouted at her vituperously, absently smashing another man who staggered through the smoke to the ground with his paw, then calling his sword from the elsewhere and impaling him through the chest with the chisel tip.  Get out of here now!
	I wont let them kill you! she said in a strangled tone.  I wont let Telven kill you!
	Ulger!
	Come on, fool girl! Ulger growled at her.  It dont do Tarrin no good to hold them off if you wont leave!
	But hell be killed! she protested.
	Youngling, if they dont have no Demons with them, aint nothin gonna kill Tarrin! he snapped at her, regressing to some dialect Tarrin had never heard before.  Hell just turn into a dragon and flatten the whole lot, but he cant do that as long as were under his feet!  Now come on, youre putting him in more danger by sitting here than you would be if we were runnin!
	Zyri looked tortured for a moment, her eyes lingering on him, but Ulgers words seemed to have finally sunk in.  She turned her horse and bolted in the direction the others went.  Ulger waved at Tarrin.  Show em a hammer of Karas, brother Knight! he shouted, then he too charged after the others, an old saying among Knights.
	Ulger actually had an idea there.  It was something that Tarrin hadnt even considered.  He turned and chopped another man who staggered out of the cloud down, then backed up a few steps.  Fury still roiled through his mind, but concern for Mist and Miranda was also there.  He really couldnt flatten anything until he was certain both of them were out of harms way, especially if their tracking Jal would bring them back to this area.  He wasnt worried about them getting away, but he didnt want to accidentally kill them while they were doing so.  Backing up again, Tarrin again sent his sword into the elsewhere and lunged down and pried a pebble out of the hard-packed dirt of the street.  He again chanted in the language of magic, gesturing with only one paw as the other held the pebble, and then he threw the pebble to the ground before him and completed the spell.  He quickly turned and rose into the air, then flew back away from the spells area of effect.
	In a sudden flurry, dirt erupted from the ground, flying in every direction, showering into the smoke, against and onto the roofs of the buildings to each side of the street, and onto the street immediately before the Were-cat.  In a matter of seconds, the magic of the spell had dug a pit nearly ten spans deep and stretching from one side of the street to the other, and was almost twenty spans across.  Another man staggered out of the cloud of smoke, which ended just before the pit, and then fell into it with a sudden cry of alarm.
	That would slow them down.
	But it wasnt enough.  His wings flaring with sudden light, globes of fire formed around Tarrins paws, and then he thrust his arms out to either side of him.  Cones of intense fire blasted forth from his paws, slamming into the faces of the buildings to either side of him, causing their thatch roofs and plaster-covered timbers to burst into flame, moderately sized fires that would spread to every building on the street in about ten minutes if they were not stopped.
	Now they had a choice.  Put out the fires, or chase him and let the city burn to the ground.
	A sudden blast of wind blew from Tarrins back, and it attacked the integrity of his cloud of smoke, tearing it apart quickly.  He saw most of the men had crawled through the hole in the wall, and the five Priests were all chanting now that they could breathe and speak once again.  Quickly, without thinking much about it, Tarrin created ten fireforms in the shape of ravens, and sent them after the Priests.  The ten birds made of living fire streaked across the pit and attacked the Priests with shrill cries of outrage, setting fire to their hair and clothes as they clawed and pecked at the mens eyes and faces, shattering their concentration and causing chaos as the soldiers tried to knock the fireforms away with their swords and shields, to protect their Priests.
	Movement from behind him made him turn, just in time to see another large complement of soldiers appear with another group of Priests, cutting off his escape.  The soldiers rushed forward at a barked command of one of the Priests, swords raised and shields presented, and they were too close for Tarrin to use another Wizard spell to delay them.  He also didnt want to set another fire, because if he did, it might cause the fires to rage out of control, and that might put Mist and Miranda in danger if they were nearby.
	The charging soldiers saw the fire-winged Defiled creature snap those wings out, flaring them open, and then they saw the wings start to have dark lines appear in stripes running parallel to the upper edges of the wings.  Their charge faltered, however, when the bands of wings suddenly split away from each other, the dark lines revealed as separations between each individual tendril, and the man suddenly faced a man not with wings of fire, but with a multitude of small, rope-like tendrils emanating from his back.  They tried to back up when the formidable-looking monster rushed forward, his feet seemingly not even touching the ground, until he smashed through two men and penetrated their front line, getting right into the middle of them.
	The surprise turned to terror when those many rope-like tentacles suddenly came alive, each one moving independently of one another.  Like a hundred angry whips, the components of Tarrins wings attacked the men surrounding him, a dizzying cloud of independent movement as each tendril lashed around him without touching any other.  Men were literally sliced apart by the fast-moving whips of fire, each ones edge honed down to a razor-sharp edge.  Blood, swords, body parts, gore, and pieces of slashed armor flew in every direction around the Defiled, who stood in the center of that whirlwind of death with his eyes closed, head bowed, arms tucked tightly to his chest to keep them out of harms way, and a look of intense concentration on his face as the multitude of pieces of his wings ripped every soldier around him for ten paces in every direction to pieces.  Screams were cut horrifically short, replaced by the shrill sound of the whips of fire as she whizzed through the air, and the sound of metal, bone, and flesh yielding to the edge and the tremendous speed of the solid fire which sought to shear them in twain.  Men were slashed into bits where they stood, before they could even turn to run, and only those at the furthest edge of the reach of those whips of fire managed to make any kind of defensive movement, and those pieces were themselves sliced apart in the lethal whirlwind of death that surrounded the Defiled creatures body..
	In a matter of seconds, it was over.  Every man in the attacking host who had charged at Tarrin was dead, and there were only a few pieces of them left large enough to be remotely recognizable.  Tarrins body was covered with blood and small bits of the remains of his attackers.  The hundred fiery whips retracted and grouped together into the recognizable shape of wings behind him, and then they merged together once again to form two solid masses.
	The Priests and those soldiers who remained behind to protect them stared at the blood-covered Were-cat in awe and terror, and then one of the soldiers turned and fled.
	Tarrin!  Were trapped at the gates! Mirandas voice called to him faintly, as she talked through one of her spells.  They closed the gates, and were in the middle of a throng of citizens trying to flee!  We need your help!
	Ill be there in a minute, he called.  If they were out of harms way, then there was no need to be careful anymore.  Move off the street.  Get out from in front of the gates.
	Were moving, she answered.
	Ulger had a damned good idea.
	His wings suddenly exploding out to five times their normal size, they folded around Tarrins body as it suddenly blazed forth with the light of fire.  Again, his body became fire, became a sentient force without form, and the wings that enfolded that awareness provided the means by which that formless consciousness could create a new form to house itself.  The fire grew, expanded, grew larger and larger, took up the street, rose above the houses, expanded to staggering size, and then took on the shape of the dragon.  Then the power of Tarrins might infused the fire, gave it flesh and blood bone, and the fire evaporated away to reveal the full might and majesty of Tarrin, who was no longer a Were-cat, but was now a full-sized gold dragon.
	From his new perspective, Tarrin looked down upon the terrorized men with scathing disregard, for they were now no larger than ants to him.  A paw so huge it could hold a man in its palm rose up from the ground, and then slammed down into the street with such force that it shook the buildings, knocked men off their feet, and left an imprint in the ground nearly five spans deep.  Tarrin turned to face the street that would take him back to the city gates, but two of the Priests began to chant in the language of the gods, preparing to cast spells to either attack Tarrin or protect themselves.
	Drawing in his breath, Tarrin turned his head towards those to chanters.  They had no idea how bad of a decision that was.  He was going to ignore them, but not if they were going to take action against him.  Tarrins huge maw opened, and then he used a dragons most fearful and destructive attack, his breath weapon.
	A raging hellstorm of fire, compacted into an expanding cone that started at his mouth, blasted forth from that open maw.  The fire spun about itself as it expanded in size, as it moved away from Tarrins mouth, and by the time it hit the street, the cone of fire was nearly fifty spans across.  It struck the knot of soldiers and Priests and engulfed them with a loud roaring sound of flames.  Tarrin ended the attack after just a second or two, and the cone of fire dissipated quickly, leaving nothing behind on the street except melted rock, blackened earth, and a few bits and pieces of red-hot, melted metal scattered among a fine layer of white ash.
	Using that weapon told him much.  It told him that a dragon didnt have an unlimited supply of the magical energy that powered it.  He had enough left to use four, maybe five full-power breath weapon attacks, and since a gold dragons paralyzing gas was a component of the fire weapon, it also depleted the gas built up in the pressurized bladders that flanked his lungs, where the gas was produced.  But he wouldnt need his breath weapon to get everyone out of town.  All he needed was his massive size.
	Tarrin glanced to his left, and saw the original group of attackers, trapped on the far side of the pit, staring up at him in awe.  Among them was Telven, who had betrayed them, betrayed him, sitting on the ground where the horse had thrown him off, staring up at him in shock and fear.  Tarrin felt an irrational surge in him to blast Telven into ash, but no matter how angry he was, he still wouldnt hurt a child.
	This is all your fault, boy, Tarrin told him grimly.  If youre so devoted to the One, then go to him.  But youve made your choice, so live with it.  Youve given up your sister, your brother, and the life I could have provided for you, and traded it in for a life of hating Defiled and being afraid.  If you hate us so much that youd kill your own brother and sister, then I want nothing to do with you.  Pray you never see me again.  If you do, child or not, Ill kill you.
	Tarrin left him there, marching down the wide street as people screamed and ran in every direction, his tail smashing the fronts of buildings in as it swayed to and fro with his gait.  He could see over the entire city, and his eyes were locked on the gate that they had used to come in, which was where the others were at.  He moved just slow enough to let the terrified townsfolk scramble out of his way, passing by throngs of soldiers and more than a few Priests, who could not think of anything to do against that, so awe-inspiring and intimidating Tarrin looked to them now.  He turned a corner, knocking down two buildings on the corners as he did so, leaving a pile of debris in the intersection as he tried to squeeze through the tight confines.  The streets were only just wide enough for him, and the corner wasnt wide enough to let him squirm around without doing damage.  But it put him on the street that led to the city gate, and he could see it clearly now.  The mob of townsfolk gathered at the gate all looked at him, and he saw that they were going to get in his way, so a little clearing was necessary here.  He took in his breath and emitted an earth-shaking roar, heard for longspans away, as he picked up his pace into a deliberate trot that told everyone in front of him that he was coming down that street, and they had better get out of his way.
	The result was nearly mindless panic.  The mob in front of the gates, who had been trying to get them open, now screamed in terror and fled to either side, running down both sides of the street that ran just inside the outer wall of the city.  The large crowd gathered in front of the gate quickly started to thin, and Tarrin picked up his pace when the street before him cleared of people.  Guards on the walls shouted and ran back and forth over the gatehouse and to each side of it, and several arrows came flying at Tarrin when he got within range of them, but the arrows struck his armor-like golden scales and rebounded harmlessly.  He didnt even feel them.  He roared once more, then lowered his head and broke into a sudden bounding gait as he bore down on the closed gates.  His backswept horns were presented to that wooden barrier, like a ram preparing to butt heads with a rival, and he lunged forward and locked his neck just before he made contact with the gates.
	The impact was deafening.  Squealing metal and shattering wood created a cacophony of sound as a cloud of debris plumed outward from the city wall as Tarrins massive head rammed the gates, sending shards of wood into the closed portcullis on the far side, which was bent outward and tore free of its mountings when it was struck by a gigantic creature who weighed almost as much as the gatehouse itself.  The portcullis slid down Tarrins horns and got stuck, but the mighty gold dragon paid the weight of it no mind at all as he backed up two steps and rammed the gates again, knocking what was left of the gates off their hinges and getting the twisted portcullis off his horns.  He then backed up a step and removed his head from the now open archway.  He turned and scanned the crowds, and quickly made out Azakar almost two blocks down on his left, well away from the gates.  He looked more carefully, and saw that Mist and Miranda had joined the others, that everyone was together.  Jal and Zyri were mounted, and both of them looked pale and shaken.  He didnt want to expose to the crowd that they were with him, so he reared back on his hind legs and spread his wings, which cast a shadow over nearly two city blocks.  A single thrust of those wings pulled his massive body into the air, and Tarrin was silently awed that creatures that were so unimaginably huge had the ability to lift that size, and all that weight, into the air using perfectly natural means.  A blast of fierce wind whooshed away from the ground under him as the displaced air roared away from his wings, and the people all screamed in collective fright when that monstrous body suddenly began to fall as the wings performed an upstroke, but it rose again even higher into the air as those sail-sized wings again pushed down the air, which pushed the body upwards.
	With just three more strokes, Tarrin was at a cruising speed and ascending over the farm fields outside the city.  It was a great deal of work to fly using wings, he discovered as the effort of pulling his monstrous bulk into the air registered on muscles that werent often used, and some which didnt exist when he wasnt in that form.  His wings beat the air, lifting him higher and higher as he gained more and more speed, until he had enough momentum to execute a turn.  He did so, turning in a wide arc around the citys wall, watching the gate he had knocked down.  He flew completely around the city, continuing to ascend, and when he came around to the gate once again, he saw his friends had managed to squeeze through the gate with their horses, and were pounding across the farm fields almost due south, moving to follow the river as it wound its way southward.  Tarrin took note of that, and then stopped turning and arced his way eastward, back the way that had come.  All eyes would be on him, allowing the others to escape unnoticed, and he could simply change into something much, much smaller and circle back to meet up with the others later on.
	Tarrin flew out over the edge of the valley and out of sight of the men and women in the city, leaving the city behind him, and unmitigated chaos in his wake.

Chapter 6

	Rage.
	Tarrin had experienced many different types of rage.  From the mindless fury of the Cat in its many degrees to the icy, cold rage of his human half, to almost every shade of anger, fury, rage, pique, irritation, annoyance, and discomfort in between, but he had never felt like this before.
	He had never felt betrayed.
	Not even Jasanas treachery that turned him Were the second time had registered to him what Telvens act had.  He found that he could think of nothing else as he flew south, away from the city, then used a low-hanging cloud to change out of his dragon form and into his own, mainly because the dragon was making his outrage even worse.  Dragons were noble creatures, and they reacted to betrayal in a manner even more vehement than a Were-cat.  Though he wasnt part dragon as he was part cat, the characteristics of the form did have some influence on him when he borrowed their form.  Changing back into his normal form freed him of a tantalizing impulse to turn around and raze that city to the ground.
	How could he do it?  How could he return to people who tried to kill him?  It made no sense!  Tarrin had to admit that he didnt give the boy the same attention that he had Zyri, but he had shown him kindness and concern, had offered him a place with him, had tried to make him happy.  He was willing to throw that away to go back to an order that would kill him?  Hed been willing to murder his own brother, all because he had suc