Twenty years after the end of the Fourth Shadowwar, Thomas Gown is a happily married family man with a beautiful wife and a perfect son. When he takes his son back to Lexandria University to arrange for his wizardly education, however, he learns tha...
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"Oh Tom!" cried Lirenna, hugging him tightly and burying her happy, smiling face into his chest. "A shayen dwelling tree! To live inside a living thing! Who would have believed it, that they would actually let us live in one of their dwelling trees?"
"Things must be serious indeed," agreed Thomas, stroking her hair. “Their numbers must have dropped quite a lot if there aren’t enough left to care for their trees. I wonder what could have caused that?”
"The fell men,” replied Lirenna, remembering what she’d read in the shae man’s head. “A full scale war has broken out in the south. The shae here are quite worried about it and lots of them went home to join in the fight. It happens every so often, apparently. The fell men emerge from their tunnels and run amok for a couple of years, then go back when they’ve had enough. They seem to just get bored and start a war just for something to do.”
“The shae folk should pursue them into their tunnels and teach them a lesson,” suggested Thomas.
“Probably,” agreed the demi-shae, “but we hate going underground. Once my people drive them back into their tunnels they call it mission accomplished and go back to their flutes and poetry. The thing is, the fell men hate it on the surface. They only come up to look for a fight. What we should really do is just ignore them and hide until they go away. Deny them their entertainment, but the dwelling trees have to be defended.”
“Yes, I can understand that,” agreed Thomas, looking around in wonder. “I can’t bear the thought of something like this coming to harm.”
The demi shae grabbed his arm and hugged it. “Oh Tom! A shayen dwelling tree! I can't wait to tell grandfather! He'll go green with envy!"
Thomas was forced to smile. The trees themselves were to be found all over the world, but the wasps whose larvae caused their trunks to swell up to the size of houses could not tolerate the lower temperatures that normally prevailed north of the Great Lake, which meant that most northern shae folk had never seen a dwelling tree, let alone lived in one. Dallon might well find himself feeling more than a twinge of jealousy for his half shayen granddaughter and Thomas found that the idea gave him a great deal of amused satisfaction.
"So," said Thomas, taking Lirenna gently by the shoulders and holding her at arm's length so he could look her in the eyes. "Are you going to tell me what a Ta-la-lendron is?"
The demi shae was instantly serious. "They're very special shae folk," she said. "So special that we don't like to talk about them to those of other races."
"Oh," said Thomas, crestfallen. "Of course, I understand."
Lirenna laughed gaily. "Oh you silly thing, I didn't mean you! Of course I'll tell you! Just so long as you don't go and have a good laugh about them with all your drinking buddies."
