A.N This is in response to Heather the Writer's challenge on the TPCC forum, it was a complicated challenge so I hope I got most of the elements! This is Set after Emporer Mage but before ROTG.
Disclaimer: Of course I don't own the characters, settings and main plot...I'm just borrowing them...indefinetly
The weather outside the palace ballroom looked frightful. Large storm clouds hung low over the capital and most of the forest animals had retired to their homes even though the downpour was yet to start. Some people were calmed by the weather but others were decidedly nervous, whether it be about the washing that they left out or what the rain would do to their hair. That was really what this ball was about, time to show off who had the prettiest hair and who had the most expensive clothes. Not everyone was enjoying themselves though, Duke Baird was among them.
"I'm sorry," he exclaimed as he trod on the toes of yet another woman, "honestly, I have two left feet."
"Nonsense," the woman simpered as she pulled the poor duke back in to a waltz, "I have never seen a finer gentleman."
Numair, who had been listening to their conversation intently from a corner, chuckled as the woman continued to rain compliments down on the old healer. If it were not for the Queenscove family's fortune Duke Baird would be left in piece at balls such as these. Numair himself had been lucky to escape most of the attention at this ball, but he was sure that his luck would not hold out for long. Maybe he had thought that a little too early because he felt a tug on his sleeve, he looked down to see that it was only Onua studying the room furtively.
"Have you seen Daine?" She asked after a moment, "she was here a moment ago and then she just appeared to vanish."
"Onua, Daine is a grown woman, I am sure that she does not need to have a constant guard. I will admit that I have not seen her since the first dance, but she is probably off with her friends from the Queen's Riders."
Onua scowled up at Numair, "just take a look around would you, I can't see her but you have an obvious height advantage."
He opened his mouth to retort but snapped it shut when he noticed that he couldn't spot Daine either. It was possible that she was behind the crowd on the ballroom floor or maybe she had gone outside to get some air. He excused himself from Onua and went to check if his magelet was hiding in the crowds or on the balcony. When he found her in neither place he went to ask Thayet if she had seen Daine.
"No," was her reply, "we were talking for a while near the start of the ball but a young man asked for her company on the dance floor and she had to leave. I have not seen her since then."
Numair muttered a hasty thank you and went to find a quiet corner to think in. Daine obviously wasn't in the ballroom or on any of the balconies. She was a wildmage though so it was possible that she had gone to help an animal. That's right, she told him during their lesson yesterday that one of the palace mares was about to foal at any moment and she was saving her magic in case of a complication. He had reminded her that complications were rare but had also praised her for thinking ahead.
If the mare had called to Daine for help she would have gone to her without thinking to tell anyone where she was going. She would be near the stables then, if it was indeed the mare that had called her away. Numair quickly found Onua to tell her where he was going before he headed for the nearest exit. He had only taken a few steps out of the ballroom when someone blocked his path with a thick, wooden cane.
"Where do ye' think ye' be going mister," the person holding the cane drawled. "I was told not to let ye' or Lord Raoul escape, get back in the hall if ye' know whats best for ye'."
Numair turned to find an old man behind him, wobbling on his crooked legs. With as much patience as he could muster he told the old man that he was searching for his lost student and, to be able to do that, he would have to leave the hall.
"Okay, ye' can keep walking but be it on ye' head, consequences and all," the old man had an odd glint in his eye that made Numair want to turn around and tell Onua to go looking for Daine instead, but he took a deep breath and stepped forwards. After he had taken three steps and nothing had happened to him he came to the conclusion that the old man was delusional. His confidence returning, he set off at his usual pace, only to be hit in the back of the head with what felt suspiciously like a thick, wooden cane.
When he looked back, rubbing his head to get the pain to go away, the old man was waving his cane threateningly. "I told ye' that it would be on ye' head if ye' continued, consequences and all."
"I will remember that for next time," Numair muttered as he walked down the corridor, his body tensed in case the old man was going to hit him again. When he reached the end of the corridor without anymore bruises on his body he felt like he had actually achieved something. Maybe there was a prize for avoiding a crazy old man with a cane.
His mind returned to thoughts of Daine as the palace stables came into sight. Hopefully she had avoided draining her magic again by saving it the previous day. He hated it when she forced herself to the brink of exhaustion to heal an animal. Though every time he tried to talk to her about it she would turn it back on him and say 'isn't that what you do with your magic?' It was useless to start an argument with Daine for they were both as stubborn as each other and would not give up until they had made their points. Such arguments usually ended with an agreement to disagree and leave it at that.
Expecting another such argument to arise when he found Daine, Numair wandered across to the mares stall. Cherry, as was written on her nameplate, was happily munching on her hay in a corner. Numair took a quick look around but he spotted neither a foal nor a wildmage. With a defeated sigh he turned back to the mare and, in what could only be explained as a lapse in his sanity, decided to ask her if she had seen Daine.
He cleared his throat and leant closer to the mare so that any passersby wouldn't hear him talking to a horse. "Excuse me, I know that you probably can't understand a word that I'm saying but I need to know if you've seen Daine. She's the girl who can talk to you, the wildmage?"
Cherry flattened her ears and snorted at him, she was obviously irritated by his presence. He waited for a moment to see if she would do anything else but when she moved her rump to face him and lifted one of her back hooves off the floor he decided that it was time to leave.
The rain that had been threatening to drop all afternoon began to fall as Numair crossed the courtyard to get back into the palace, the light sprinkle was refreshing but he did not have the time to enjoy it. The only sensible place left now for Daine to be was her quarters and she would not have gone back there unless there was something wrong. Or if the young man who asked her to dance asked her to bed as well, as soon as the thought entered his mind he shoved it away. Daine had shown little interest in her swains so it was unlikely that she had suddenly made up her mind. Though even after he dismissed the thought it continued to nag at the back of his mind.
His footsteps faltered when he heard a familiar voice from around the corner of the corridor that he was traveling. He stopped and listened harder to the conversation that was going on. The voice was Daine's, he was sure of it.
"Let me go," she pleaded, this immediately alarmed Numair. She never pleaded for anything other than a chance to speak with her animals.
"No," it was a man who spoke now, one that he didn't recognize. "I thought we agreed on this the last time that we were together. Have you forgotten the haystack already Daine?"
"No Perin, how could I forget after you so thoughtfully pushed me into it," there was a struggle and Numair had to force himself to stay still. He wouldn't come to Daine's rescue unless he was sure that she needed to be rescued.
"Come on love, you may not want to now but I know that you'll change your mind as soon as you're wearing-"
There was a slap and Numair was sure that Daine had hit the man called Perin in the face. "How dare you touch me, I wouldn't go with you if you were the last tree in the forest."
There was a growl from Perin and a bang as someone shoved a door open, it was at that point that Numair stepped around the corner. Perin had grabbed Daine around the waist and was in the process of dragging her towards the open door to her quarters. Livid with anger, Numair muttered a few words and wrapped Perin in a coil of his black magic. His orders were sharp and to the point but he was sure that the young man would suffer more under the wrath of a worried woman than an angry mage.
"You will go straight to the horse mistress Onua and explain what you were doing with her assistant. You will speak only the truth."
Perin looked like a fish as he opened and closed his mouth helplessly, obviously trying to apologize to the black robe mage so that he would get off lightly. Irritated by the fuss that Perin was making, Numair flicked a finger at him and he flew down the corridor and out of sight as if he was attached to an invisible rope. When he turned back to Daine he found that she was staring up at him from the floor.
"What are you doing on the floor, magelet?" He asked as he offered a hand to help her up. "Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?"
"I did tell someone where I was going. I told Perin that I was tired and I was going back to my rooms to get a little extra rest. He told me that he had to hand some papers in to the head clerk and he asked me if he could walk with me because the clerk's office is only a corridor down from my rooms-"
Numair interrupted her with a wave of his hand, "it's alright magelet, I can see what happened. I'm just glad that you are alright."
A comfortable silence fell between them and they just stood in the corridor for a moment, staring at each other, until Numair shook his head and turned in the direction of the ballroom. "I really must be getting back magelet, Onua was very worried about you and I have to tell her that I found where you disappeared to before she calls in the Riders."
"Oh, okay," Daine jumped, startled by the abrupt end to their silence, "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Of course you will magelet," he responded, quick to give an answer to her hesitant question. "Have a good rest."
Daine looked as if she wanted to say something more but Numair had disappeared before she got the chance to put her thoughts into words. She was glad that he had chosen that moment to depart for she was sure that if he had stayed only a moment longer she would have blurted out something silly. Something that a woman of her age should not have been thinking.
E.N A little random, I know. I hope that it was good enough though, I'm still sick so my brain is probably running in circles right now. I wont say 'please review' because that will just jinx it...damn...