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Hello! This is Juliette's Jealous Twin
I hope you love Tamora Pierce, because I do.
Her writing inspires me in so many ways.
so I'd like to dedicate this fanfiction story to her.
And I'd also like to add that most of these characters belong
to the wonderful Tamora Pierce!
A/n: I'd like to also add that in writing this story I had trouble with figuring out how Nawat should speak and write. In the second book, he barley talks at all. Because of this, his speech in this fan fiction may be a little off. I know some people are going to comment, "he speaks different from in the book". My excuse is that I didn't have enough materiel from the first book and second to help me. If you don't like that, I did put in the story that Aly says, " his handwriting is getting better" to convey that Aly was helping Nawat with his handwriting and speech. I thought it might be nice for her to help him like that. I don't know…. I guess that's the only thing I wanted to say to you. Also I plan to write at least 6 – 9 chapters for this fan fiction. Thanks, Enjoy!
Please comment, if you have any question, concerns of just wanna say hi then message me or find me on facebook and Enjoy!
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* Epilogue *
The Rajmaut streets looked as if they had been covered with a black velvet sheet, in mourning for a day's light that would never come. As the rain's droplets made the world bleed wet darkness like a runny painting, everything shivered in the cold.
Mae walked in silence, bright eyes darting under her own veil, and made the people around her crawl back into the grimy shadows. The usually bustling street was cut in disturbing silence, as it was too cold to speak. Which made the petty stall owners hide beneath the eaves of shops and in the corners of alleys.
Rajmaut's harbor towns were known for their evil, late springtime rains. Rajmaut rains made the crops and flowers beautiful and gleam with health while the poor shopkeepers and stall owner's lives wither, and wilt from meager pay. The rainy springtime was also the worst time to be a spy, watching in the streets.
Rajmaut's crowded Market Town was always filled with people, bee-hiving their way night and day through the storefronts, making a spy's job easy. "The last place they will look for a spy is in a crowd, they expect them to be in the shadows lurking like rats. The last place they will least look for you is in plain sight. Because when you are among many you are assumed to be just one of many, and un-important." Mae remembered Aly telling her when she had just started her spy training, which was true; crowds did make a big difference. Mae wished she was in one know.
Instead she was walking in the freezing rain, in a mourning young woman's disguise: a veil and thick dark colored tunic, under which were hidden assorted weapons. A single brooch lay upon her neck on silver chain, a painting of her "late husband" who had died a couple weeks earlier. She was a veiled ghost walking alone along a black-mirrored road, the sides lined with phantom faces.
As she passed the empty stands and dimly lit shop windows she glanced the faces of the miserable individuals whose glassy eyes bored into her. An old raka man twiddling a stick, a young half-blood girl collecting droplets of dirty water in a chipped clay bowl, a pair of men sharing a blanket in an alley, and poor luarin stall owner shivering beneath his own stand. It seemed as if the wretched rain had soaked even the people's sprits.
But Mae, erased their sorrowed faces for her mind and tried to focus on her current mission.
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As the night's last droplets fell, the sun began to warm the sopping cobblestones and stucco houses, with it the springtime rain lighted to a soft drizzle, a single veiled figure appeared at the palace gate. The young woman nodded under her Cathraki veil and signaled to the guard to her right:
"Taoloc, I have a fresh seed for Crow's Queen." Which was code that she had information for the Copper Isle's Spymaster, Master Crow. The guards nodded back and signed back. "The east tunnel is fine this time of day Mae, take that side, you know the way."
Mae smiled, thanked Taoloc, and swiftly walked east toward the hidden tunnel concealed next to the Merchant's wall entrance. As agile and careful as a housecat she trotted into the shadows, and dissolved as if she had never been there. As she turned the corner so that she was concealed if anyone should enter to get to the Merchant's wall, she leaned her poised back against the wet stone, and listened for any footsteps coming in or out of the tunnel; only when the tunnel was silent she began to change out of her sopping disguise.
As she unveiled her face and began to change back into her regular servant's clothes, she starred into her own face in one of the tunnel's many glossy puddles. A young half-raka face starred back, a 17-year-old girl built like a sinewy dancer. With her hairpins now gone, Mae's long, millions of tiny spidery pitch-black braids glowed almost blue against her light browned skin. She quickly combed them and nimbly ran through tunnel's cobblestones, leaping over the sleek mirrored puddles.
As she came to the tunnel's end she was in a softly lit hall already bustling with servants, trades people, merchants, and nobles all waiting to get a moment with a palace adviser, or even Queen Dovasary herself. This was the Merchant's Entrance, and the only way to get into the palace if you were a lowly person, or a trading slave merchant. Mae weaved through the crowd, and made her self "one of many" making it look as if she was waiting in line like the rest, as she passed through a group of Bazhir trade merchants.
As Mae milled her way through the crowd blending in and quietly pushing people aside she made her way to the East Wing, which was reserved for the Queen's highest staff. With precision she made her way up a right stair, went up actually 2 flights, turned to the left corridor and found Spymaster Crow's private quarters. As she made her way to her office, the usual guard stopped her.
Sivan stopped her, Aly's full-raka mage guard. He signaled, and nodded. "Aly's got no one in there now, go right ahead Mae. Hope you've got good news, cause she's been cross for days, hasn't slept in her palace quarters for about a week. " Mae nodded back as he knocked on the door four times, and then opened it letting her in.
