Rite of Passage
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This is a fanfic about the 2nd generation. All characters you recognize belong to Tamora Pierce. Ilane, and Baird II of Queenscove, Onua and Sarra Sarrasri-Salmalin of Magekaeep, and my names for Alana's twins are mine. Sorry about the cliff-hanger. Please review.
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The girl sat on a rock, her reddish-brown hair trailing behind her into the snow. Lids closed over the emerald eyes, fringed in soot black lashes. Her clothes were the rough garb of a boy, but stones winked in each ear. The sandy-haired, gray-eyed boy beside was a good four years younger than her, and was playing with stones. These were Ilane and Baird of Queenscove, and they had business here, on the coldest night of the year. A pale girl with thick, dark curls and mismatched eyes climbed the hill, her blue and brown eyes squinted against the pale sun. She was half-carrying a frail girl, with brown hair and blue eyes that were almost white. A raft carrying adults floated in midair. Both had reddish-blond hair and violet eyes.
The odd-eyed girl called,
"Is this everyone?"
"Yeah, no one else could make it."
The twins on the raft disembarked.
"Aliane! Myles! Over here!"
"Sarra! Onua! Ilane! Baird!"
Ilane of Queenscove ran to the assistance of Sarra and Onua Sarrasri-Salmalin of Magekeep.
"Sarra, come over here."
Sarra looked at her with her blue-and-brown eyes, then sat in front of the rock. Aliane and Myles of Trebond, Oleau and Pirate's Swoop began to build a large snow fortress.
"Da taught us. It'll keep out the cold," Aliane said, her blondish braids swinging behind her.
"Ali's right. We have to keep warm," her twin added. Myles' nose was an unfetching blue. When they had finished, they all trooped inside and pulled the raft over the door to keep warm. Myles performed a simple fire spell, and flames formed on the snow.
"So, our search brings us here, to the shore of the Ice River."
Onua began to cough feebly. Always sickly, her illness had slowly progressed. She should not have been there, but with her parents trapped half-way round the world, at the place known as Chitral's Pass, to be precise, she had to remain with her sister.
"Thom used to tell tales of Chitral," Aliane said, then sighed. Thom, two years older than herself and her twin, closer, indeed, to Ilane and Baird's mother Keladry than anyone else, had gone through the Ordeal of Mastery. He was now the second-youngest ever Master of the Mithran Light, and studying in Carthak to become a Black Robe. Eventually he would be more powerful than even his doomed namesake, her Uncle Thom, dead early in life, killed by his own vanity. He had been the youngest ever Master, and Thom was following in his footsteps. She worried over her brother, who might one day become as cold, vain and almost heartless as the first Thom of Trebond. Myles looked at her, then turned to the others.
"Ali and I are a little young for this, but there was no one else, so we have to come. You have not been trained." Myles laughed and pounded the floor for emphasis, the light catching the silver Dragons embroidered on his gloves. Trained by Eda Bell, the Wildcat, he had followed in the footsteps of Liam Ironarm, and was the Shang Dragon. His sister was a knight, though she had started late. He turned to twelve-year-old Sarra Sarrasri-Salmalin and ten year old Onua.
"We know where your parents are, and may able to divine from Verilidaine and Numair's location that of our parents and of Keladry and Nealan. The others won't be much help, they're all at the palace."
Sarra watched him.
"When this is over, will I be a mage?"
"Sarra, if you survive this, that will be heroism enough, for Ali and I have been ordered to leave at a certain point-to be precise, the desert. We wish to speak with our tribe-mates, and bring news of Kara and Kourrem to our parents, when they are found."
"I see."
Ilane looked at them through half-closed eyes. She was not yet used to the Tortallan time, after spending three years at the Yamani court, she had returned a month before and had some sort of jet-lag affecting her Gift and draining her energy.
"We have to start out tomorrow. If something goes wrong, what happens?"
"Our parents die, and we may also."