Destiny Ruler- sorry about the rudeness with the 'so-called friends'. I kinda forget that some people actually have to work. I'm happy you still think I'm a good writer, I think my writing ability is going downhill with the not taking the time to change what I think isn't that good and not being able to go back and change stuff because no one really wants to go back and read it once they've already read it.
Kementari, I'm really happy you liked my chapter. I think you'll really like this one. Or kill me for it. I think everyone will kill me for it, really. Please update your story, I know you have the time to write more (but maybe not the inclination?)
Queen of Connaught- Again, happy you liked. I believe I have read both of your fics, and I believe they are also quite good. *in singsong voice* Someone likes Numair, someone likes Numair.
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Betrayal
Chapter 6
Mensen delivered the end of his report to the Lord Provost.
"The girl killed Narten?" The Provost queried.
The guard smirked. "She said she was sorry, said she would fetch a healer and help get him off the roof. When she killed him, she had not a scratch on her body. If that girl is human, I'm the King's brother."
"Woodsfeld reported she dismantled the tracking spell he placed on her. This is going to be a game of cat and mouse worthy of the winner's prize. That girl is not going to be easy to capture."
* ~ * ~ *
The healer said Raine could go not long after Kel had almost thrown her back out into the streets. The Baron said he didn't have anything else to do, so he let Aaren have the afternoon off. Aaren offered to show Raine around the palace, which she accepted, but Kel said she had to be back at her quarters after dinner to be shown where everything was and to be given instructions on what to do there.
"The kitchen staff eat after everyone else has been served, but all the other servants eat with the nobles," Aaren told Raine when he showed her the mess hall and the adjoining kitchens.
"How strange. I didn't think a noble would sit with a commoner, much less eat with one." Her own experiences with nobles told her that they looked down on commoners and avoided being social with them at all costs.
"Mostly they sit at different tables. Although there have been a few exceptions." He continued, "If the Lady ever wants you to fetch something from the kitchens, you go here."
Raine pulled a chair out from a nearby table and sat down. "I won't be able to remember all of these places when I have to run errands," she panted. "Don't tell me there's more."
Aaren shook his head. "If you want, I can show you other parts of the castle."
She thought about it for a moment. "Are there any girls in training to become Lady Knights?"
"A squire and two pages. If you want to become a warrior, you'll have to join the Queen's Riders."
Raine recoiled sharply. She didn't want anything to do with the fighting arts: people who fought got hurt.
"I'm not old enough," she said rudely. "Who said I wanted to become a warrior anyway?"
"Lady Kel will teach you self defence whether you are willing to learn or not," Aaren replied tartly, correctly guessing why Raine had responded so harshly. "Considering why she'd be a fool not to."
The room seemed to grow cold. "Why did I come here then?" Raine quietly challenged him.
Aaren saw the challenge and backed off. "Because someone tried to kill you, and you didn't know what else to do. It's a better reason than most." He pulled out a chair and sat down.
Raine shook her head gently, and the cold disappeared. "I'm sorry. You saved my life and I've been awful to you."
"There's no law that says you have to be friendly with someone who saves your life," Aaren prodded her gently.
"But it's awfully rude not to," Raine added. "It's just, the idea of me being trained how to hurt people is scary. I don't want to be able to hurt people like that."
During the tour, Aaren had purposely chosen to take Raine through halls of armour and halls of maps and paintings to see whether she would prefer going to the palace's museum, the library, the training yard or the menagerie. It was more accurate to ask, but it felt almost silly to ask. Not to mention, he enjoyed surprising people with what information e had picked from them.
"Do you want o go to the library?" Aaren asked. "It's big enough to get lost in."
Raine's eyes lit up. She didn't have to say a word.
"Follow me."
* ~ * ~ *
Numair closed the door behind him as he went into the Lord Provost's office.
"Have you caught the girl yet?" the black robed mage asked.
"No." The response was as sour as old grapes. "Thanks to our tracking mages, she was cornered by two of my men, which she defeated in combat. She killed Narten, and reportedly left without a scratch, save a possibly fatal wound received after the contest." He didn't look too happy. "If she's dead, we won't be able to locate the Dominion Jewel."
"The Dominion Jewel is one of the most powerful sources of magic this side of the Emerald Sea," Numair said matter-of-factly It would be near impossible to hide its presence from our tracker mages."
The Provost sat down. "We have called in the realm's best tracker mages. The Dominion Jewel has not been detected in a detailed search of the Eastern and Southern lands. We need that girl alive to find the Jewel."
* ~ * ~ *
Raine looked over the top of the huge leather bound volume she was trying to read. Aaren looked a bit bored, and the book was hard to understand.
"A few years ago," she started, rousing Aaren from his semi-sleeping state, "I had a really, really good friend. This was back in Post Caynn," she added, "where I grew up. My family still lives there. Her friends called her Mouse, and because I played with them a lot, they named me Sparrow. I haven't had a good friend since: not in m master's house, not in Corus."
He didn't say anything.
"You're pretty quiet. Why have you told me so much about places and people, yet nothing about yourself?"
"I prefer not to talk much. No one ever wants to know anything about me, so I don't tell them."
Raine waited for him to continue. When he didn't, she reminded him, "I asked. I want to know about the person who saved my life."
"There's nothing to tell you," he insisted. "I've been a servant here for as long as I can remember."
"What about your parents?" she persisted. "Do they work here? Or do they live in town?"
"I don't know."
It was time to change the subject. Aaren was looking like he didn't want to say anything more. If he did know something, he was a very convincing liar.
"You have the Gift? I wish I did too. I'm as useless as a three legged mule."
"It doesn't make life any easier," he said shortly.
"That's not what I've heard, all these wonderful stories of what Gifted people can do, in legend and in real life."
She had pushed him to his limit. "What I did to you two nights ago, it drained me so badly I slept almost 'til dawn. I only pulled you away for a few seconds, and I was so close to losing you. That's the most wonderful I have ever done with my Gift, and I was scared it would kill me. That's the kind of fun having the Gift is."
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Amei sat facing the river, letting her Gift spread out to warn her of anyone approaching. She had brought the fake Dominion Jewel, and had the usual number of daggers hidden on her person. The wound in her side throbbed every so often, just making sure she didn't forget it.
There were a lot of guardsmen and peasant soldiers within her magical sight for the time of day, but all of them seemed to be off duty: there were a few small groups of them scattered around, talking and laughing. None of them seemed to be drunk, which was atypical of guardsmen who were off duty, but Amei didn't feel anything strange enough to suggest she should move away from them. There were also children splashing away in the river, but their mothers and sisters called them away before the sun started to throw red streaks over the sky and across the rippling river.
Amei only turned away when an arrogant, middle class, quick tempered aura accompanied by a cherry red Gift entered her magical sight. She quickly checked the illusions she had placed on the large stone to make sure they still held and carefully stood up. He might be able to tell she had been injured earlier that day, but it didn't really matter. Amei would get what she wanted here, and so would the scholar.
"Good evening," she greeted him pleasantly when he arrived. "I almost thought you wouldn't make it."
"It's just barely sunset now," the man replied. "I thought you might not be here yet. So, where's this Jewel?"
"Only where it needs to be," Amei answered lightly, placing a protective hand over the pouch. "Are you going to ask me to give it to you before you keep your end of the bargain?" If she gave it up too quickly, he might begin to suspect her plan.
"I'm afraid I am," he sighed dramatically. "Only a fool would trust a street rat with their most valuable possession."
"But you trusted me to steal it for you. If I was going to steal it and run, I would have disappeared before you met me at the palace gates. The black market is looming closer, if you will not listen," Amei warned him. "I can get my money elsewhere."
"Have you ever wondered why I have never given you my name, any information about who I am?" The subject change startled Amei.
"Just another way to protect yourself against the men of the law," Amei said more dully than she meant to. She had been curious since he had asked her to steal the Jewel, but in the underworld, information was given out on a need to know basis, and she didn't need to know.
"Sure you don't want to know?" He looked slightly disappointed.
"No." She was dying to know.
"I thought you might find the truth interesting, that's all." He looked like he was going to change the subject, but then he changed his mind.
"I am the Earl Renid, of Breyfeld. My manor's half a day's walk from here, to the north. I have a reputation for doing anything to avoid going to Court. I just enjoy playing other nobles off each other, inconspicuously of course," he added, "and add as much information as I can to my studies of power. One day I'll be controlling that Court, by use of manipulation and brute force."
Something clicked in Amei's mind, the reason he was prepared to tell her so much information, information that could get him hanged as a traitor to the Crown. "Here," she said a little too briskly, giving him the pouch. "It's yours."
The noble, Renid, laughed. "You are very foolish, foxling. What I have said cannot be taken back, but at least I can prevent you from telling anyone else." He grinned. "I noticed you look a bit short of breath, girl. Did the royal guard find you today?"
Amei moved away from the river and unsheathed her fork daggers. She felt sick.
So this is what it feels like to know you're going to die.
"Kill her!"
The guardsmen and peasant soldiers Amei had noticed earlier rushed forward, surrounding her. They attacked with daggers and short spears; stabbing and slashing. Amei could block the attacks at her front and sides, but couldn't stop them from stabbing through her rib cage, or breaking her spine from the back.
One of them hit her side, and the blow opened up the wound in her lung. Another one stabbed her in the belly, under her defence, and twisted his spear spitefully. Another caught his spear in her dagger and twisted, breaking her wrist. One impaled her from back to front, disabling no major organs but hurting Amei so much that in that moment Amei wished they would hurry up and kill her.
Short of breath, exhausted, lightheaded to the point of barely being able to stand and certain she was going to die within the next ten minutes even if they did leave her be, Amei turned towards the river and pushed away the peasants, staggered towards the water and half-jumped, half-fell into the river. Even though she knew she was going to die, her instincts were telling her to get away, to find someone to help her.
"No you don't, kit," Renid growled. He called on the cherry red fire within himself and made for certain that the girl would not survive.
* ~ * ~ *
Amei kicked herself in the direction her mage sight told her was up. She was not a strong swimmer and never had been, but now she was away from the battle, she knew she could survive. She pushed up and up, her body becoming weaker from lack of air. The only thing she wanted to do was to take a big lungful of air.
She kicked as hard as she could, and her hand touched a surface that felt like glass.
No! She screamed in panic. She punched and kicked at the smooth surface, gathering as much force into the attacks as she knew how. The surface didn't give way, the glass didn't crack.
Her lungs finally gave out, forcing her to breathe in a lungful of water. She used the rest of the energy she could find to try and break the glass surface, unable to reason enough to try and find the edge of the hard surface. She punched and kicked at the hard surface frantically in the few seconds before her body started shutting down. Her energy gave out, her thoughts ran together like wet paint on a rainy day.
Amei gave up, her consciousness leeching into nothingness.
* ~ * ~ *
On the shore, Renid pulled a large violet gemstone out of the pouch, its bright surface catching the rays of the dying sun.
"Thanks, foxling. You've been extremely helpful."
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Oh, sorry. Did you like her? I was just feeling like the evil author I am, and I thought my story needed a little something to change the mood. *Mwa ha ha ha ha* Yes, I am an evil, evil author.
If you don't like it, review. If you do like it, review. Please.