Disclaimer: All characters, places, etc are the property of Tamora Pierce and Random House. (except for whatever character I decide to make up for myself) and no money is being made from this.
A/N: I really dunno what I'm doing with this story, I'm just typing a random story on a whim, so if it's crap I am VERY sorry. I luv you all! Edit: Laurana here. Yes, I'm still the same person even though I changed my pen name slightly. Just fixing little typos and whatnot. Oh…and I decided to make the names more Tortallian-ish (if I can).
Chapter 1 – My Family
I am an assassin; that is what I do. I kill because that is all I know and killing is the only thing in this world other than George that hasn't betrayed me. So before you start judging me, listen to my story. Find out how I came to be where I am.
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My house didn't deserve to be called a house. It was more of a hut. There was barely any room in it to fit me and my five sisters, let alone enough room for my parents, my brother and the numerous animals that my oldest sister insisted in bringing home. There was barely enough money to feed my whole family, and more often than not I was the one to go hungry because I was the oldest. In spite of this, or possibly because of it, my family was so tight that of one person was insulted, everyone in the family took it personally. Don't think that we were a perfect family, because we most certainly were not.
Take this incident for example. When I was only seven and had just met George, my brother, who was only two days younger than me (we were supposed to be born on the same day, but something happened and my poor mother had to go through 72 hours of labor to have us) decided that George was trying to kidnap me and tackled him with all of his seven-year-old strength. Poor George was knocked over in the dirt and refused to speak to me for weeks because he was convinced that my brother was Chaos herself. I had decided then and there that I would marry George, even though he was eight to my seven and a year seemed like such a long time to one so little. I was furious at my brother and refused to talk to him. As a result, none of my friends (who were also his friends) would talk to me, and my sisters were too little to understand what was going on so they followed my brother's example because they were always convinced that he was smarter than me. This left me alone and without any company because my parents were never home long enough to realize that I was being so cruelly ostracized.
My mother used to tease me about my tomboyishness. She told me nobody would ever think a girl who was covered in mud was worth marrying. She told me that one day, a beautiful noble lady would walk by and announce that she wanted me as her holster because she had mistaken me for a boy. Mother explained to me that father would even forget I was a girl and tell me to work in the brick-laying room, and then where would I be? She constantly reminded me to be more lady-like or she might even sell me to the man who makes dumplings down the way.
None of these threats worked. Who wanted to be married anyway? The only person worth marrying was George, and he couldn't care less if I ran around Corus with not a stitch on. I didn't care if I became a holster, at least then I would be with horses; I had never touched a horse in my life and very much wanted one. As for the brick-laying, my father would never do something like that. The only thing that really scared me was the man who made dumplings down the way. I had never seen him, but had heard of him often, and what I had heard was not very encouraging. Whenever Mother used that threat, I would get cleaned up in a jiffy and try to be as ladylike as possible until she told me I had improved, and back into the mud and streets I would go till that threat was issued again.
My father thought I was the best thing that ever happened to him. I was the apple of his eye, and he didn't choose to hide it. It made my siblings extremely jealous, but it was worth it because on my thirteenth birthday, he had managed to find enough money to buy me a small dagger from the Raven Armory.
Where he got the money was a mystery to everyone in the family, but he had gotten it and he had spent it on me. My mother was furious and wouldn't speak to either of us for weeks. She complained to everyone else in the family about how Father must have stolen the money, or if he had saved it up, he had probably starved everyone in the family to do it. She grumbled, griped, and groaned about how he was only helping to destroy me; I would never become a lady now, not with that crazy dagger that I kept hidden and strapped on the inside of my wrist.
I still have that dagger, and it's still concealed in the exact same spot, as clean and shiny as the day I first got it, even though it has been covered in blood too many times for me to count.
Mother screamed at Father for months, she demanded to know what on earth possessed him to buy it and when he only responded with a self-satisfied smile, she slapped him and gave my brother his dinner. After a while, she asked him why on earth didn't he give it to my brother, after all, what would a girl ever need with a dagger? All he said was that it might save my life some day; he had no idea how right he was when he said it. When my mother heard that she gasped and slapped him, and then my poor father was deprived of his meal once again.
Just as I was my father's pride and joy, Andy was, in some way, my mother's. Although that may just have been because Mother and Andy both loved Father more than a little less than I did.
It was my father's fault that my brother's name was Andorielle, of course we always called him Andy, but it was written on the official documents that he was Andorielle. Nobody knew, but he lived in constant fear that it would be found out. Andy should have been my father's favorite, because he was the only boy in the family, but my father insisted that he was a piece of trash and would never be fit for anything. Father really did love Andy. When he finally told him so, it was too late.
Andy and I looked nothing alike and were nothing alike, but we loved each other to death despite the fact that we could barely be kept from each other's throats. He was tall and lanky, with a headful of messy blond hair that could never be tamed and constantly had dirt stuck in it. His dark green eyes were the only thing we had in common. He would have been handsome had it not been for the large, ungainly nose planted in the middle of his face. All the men in my family had the same nose, and that was why all the men in my family were never particularly good-looking.
People made fun of him because he had such red full lips. They would often call him a girl, without ever knowing how deep that name cut him. He really was a rather sensitive person, but he never let it show to anyone but me. The next day, the offenders would be found with multiple bruises, a black eye or two, and an occasional broken nose. The only person I allowed to make fun of him, other than me, was my father. Even my father was wary of my wrath if Andy was too offended, because I had the worst temper in the family and that was why Father loved me so much.
Elspeth was my oldest sister, the one who was obsessed with animals. She and I looked so much alike that we were the two everyone thought were twins whenever Mother announced proudly there was a set of twins in the family. Nobody could ever see the one year that set us apart; they immediately assumed we were the same age because Elspeth was tall for her age, and I was short for mine.
It didn't matter what everyone else said, but I could never see myself in Elspeth's bookish face. Elspeth taught herself how to read, and afterwards proceeded to teach – or attempt to teach – everyone else in the family. I have always kept my literacy a secret, not ever having seen any point in giving out any more information than is needed, especially not in my profession. I even kept it secret from my family; Elspeth often grew exasperated with me because I used to play it dumb while being taught. I didn't know them why I did it, perhaps because I wanted to spite Elspeth, since she was Mother's favorite.
She was everything Mother ever wanted in a daughter; smart, pretty, hardworking, and above all else, the most ladylike person I ever met in my life. She was what every girl strives to be, and she did it without any effort. Her compassion for anything and everything on the face of this earth was the reason for all the animals in the house. She often found some poor abandoned stray in the middle of the gutter, and brought it home in order to nurse it back to life.
That was the other thing with Elspeth; she knew what she wanted to be in life, and she had the Gift to help her along. She knew that she was going to be a Healer one day. She drove me near crazy, practicing on us, stray pets and wild animals alike, even the neighbors' children. She was perfect in all aspects, and that was why everyone loved her.
The funny thing is, I always thought that Irissa was the prettier one. She was very shapely, looked good in just about anything, had full lips, a quaint little nose, and had dark blonde hair that had never been cut in her entire life. She let it grow and grow, and since it grew so fast, it had reached her ankles by her sixteenth birthday. I loved her hair, and I wished desperately for those long, shimmering, golden waves that were always cascading down her back. I only explanation for why she refused to put her hair up, was probably because she was the biggest idiot I ever met in my entire life.
Perhaps that was what prevented her from being loved by everyone just as Elspeth was. Rissa was afraid of mud, terrified of un-painted nails, and froze at the thought of wearing the same outfit more than once. That fear of hers probably contributed more to the fact that my family was barely scraping along financially than my father's low-paying job. As a result, Elspeth's and my dresses were often made too short and all my other sisters' dresses were made too long in order to insure that Iris never had to wear the exact same outfit more than once. I never really understood why Mother and Father indulged in her silliness, but then again, nobody ever said I understood too much. It was a gift from the Goddess then, that none of my other sisters were too vain; I would rather wear Andy's hand-me-downs; and my mother was so amazing with the needle that she could make a burlap bag into an evening gown every time she took it into her hands with her sewing basket.
I swear to the Goddess that Lilith was one of the only reasons I hadn't gone and drowned myself in Lake Naxen by the time I turned fifteen. Lily was tomboyish like me, and loved everyone in the family to death; yet, for some reason, was nobody's favorite. My mother often yelled at her for being just like me, Andy thought she was a nuisance, Father often forgot she existed, Rissa was disgusted by her muddiness, Elspeth told her she was even dumber than was, and my two youngest sisters listened to everyone else and decided not to like her either.
As for me, I was delighted with her. Andy would always be my favorite, just because he was my twin, but Lily fascinated me. She possessed a spirit identical to mine, only she had the Gift and was the fastest thing on two legs. Lily wasn't pretty enough to be recognized, and didn't want to be recognized. She spoke little and ate less, and was so thin that I was often worried she would be blown away by the wind. Of course, she was too stubborn to let the wind take her so easily, and constantly reminded me she was just like the flower she was named after, all she needed was sunshine and rain.
It was a relief to be around her, especially given the family that I had. All my other sisters thought I was a failure in life because I was always beating everyone up, and took any chance they got to lecture me about it. Lily couldn't care less about my etiquette; she loved me because I was me and because I let her do just what she wanted.
She didn't look like much, with her short brown hair, dreamy hazel eyes, and habitual muteness, yet when she ran, she could outrun anyone and anything. We often won bets this way because I would bet a good, solid, copper that she could win, and all the boys would look at her, then back at me, and then laugh. I would smile my lopsided smile and hold out my hand for the money as they gaped in wide-eyed wonder as she flew across the finish line way ahead of everyone else, laughing her little heart out. Lily loved everyone in the family, and the only one who truly loved her back was me.
Katalynne was a diamond in the rough. Her talent for turning a patch of dirt into a living, breathing scene was far beyond anything anyone else in my family possessed. She was perfectly content with a scrap of parchment and a chunk of charcoal. Of course, her art supplies didn't come from nowhere, and so ever since she was old enough to scrub and clean, she worked at our neighbor's house and got paid for her labors. What money she earned, she spent on more quills, more parchment, more canvas, and more paints. She never had to teach herself to draw, she just knew how to; and could often be found sitting in the middle of the alleyway, painting away to her heart's content. What's more, her work was wonderful. Most of it was kept in the house, and made our pathetic little home look a bit fancier. Her best ones were bought by our neighbors or sold during Market Day to various travelers. She earned quite a handsome sum from them, and immediately went to the market to buy more supplies.
She worried me no end. Her eyes were often frustrated, and her unwieldy brown hair was so hard to keep in order that she often went to the kitchen and attempted to chop it off. She never was able to do it, and after a while, just braided it into two tight braids and prayed to the Goddess that it would stay that way. She didn't believe she was pretty and no amount of persuasion could sway her. She wished constantly for a figure like Rissa's, beautiful black hair like Elspeth's, and oh what she wouldn't do for my eyes. She wished constantly for a beau, but after a month of chasing one boy, gave up and resigned to painting her prince charming and hanging him up on her wall. This painting drove Rissa and Lily crazy, and when they pulled it down, Lynne flew into a tantrum and gave the two of them a thrashing. After it was over, she felt so bad about hurting them that she painted them both a portrait to comfort them and placed it over their cots.
Valona, the baby of the family, loved to argue, and that's really all there is to say about her. She argued with everyone, even the tax collector who came by once every two months.
She argued with Mother about her hair, which was the ugliest shade of brown ever imaginable. She would stick the tangled strands in Mother's face and proclaim that they resembled a piece of, well, excrement. How, she reasoned, would she ever get married off with hair like that? Mother wouldn't let her dye it red, and Val was furious.
She quarreled with Father about anything and everything because she knew it made him happy. She figured if she made him happy enough, he might buy her a nice present from some nice store on her thirteenth birthday too.
She fought with Andy over the stupidest things because there was nothing else to fight with Andy about. He developed a habit of ignoring her and letting her do anything she wanted. This, of course, didn't please Val in the slightest because she was only happy when she could throw a fit over not getting what she wanted.
She broke Elspeth's nose once because Elspeth wouldn't let her help with the kittens as a result of Val's clumsiness. Val didn't care a wit about her clumsiness; she kept insisting that her fingers were built to be clumsy, and who could argue about how the Great Mother Goddess made her?
She got into heated disputes with Rissa since Rissa was the stupid one in the family, and she loved to confuse her with statements like, "When I tell you to say uncle, you must not say uncle, because there is no point of making you say uncle when you want to say uncle." Then she would proceed to tell Rissa to say uncle, and poor Rissa would stare at her in such bewilderment and then gulp and say uncle. This made Val mad, because she had just told Rissa not to say uncle just a few moments before.
Lily got yelled at by her because she would attempt to argue with Lily and Lily never answered back. This, understandably, made her even madder because she could not see the point of wasting her breath on someone who would not even try to yell back. What's worse is that when Val got mad, she would turn a bright red, and that would make Lily laugh so hard she usually ended up shaking on the floor. Poor Lily would have to run up to the room they shared and lean against the door to keep Val's pounding fists from hitting her bare arms.
She nearly blasted Lynne's eardrums our on a regular basis because Lynne was always leaving her paints and art supplies all over their room and the Goddess knew that Val didn't need any streaks of bright orange on her face on top of having that horrid hair of hers.
As for me, all you need to know about me is that my name is Arielle.
A/N: soooooooo... how was it? Ok, I kno, it prolly was a little weird, but hey, what can I say? I'm in a really weird mood. Spring break really does do things to your mind you know. Well, so, who's you favorite? R&R ALL! You kno you WANT to! Muah! Luv everyone lots! -Laurana