Well, Here it is part number 2. Thank-you everyone who reviewed the last one.



It had been 2 weeks since the ambassadors came and they were finally ready to leave. Selena had told only Ruth what she was doing. Ruth had objected, but she did understand.

The day before the ambassadors left, Selena packed her things. It wasn't much, just a bit of food and a necklace her mother had given her.

That night Selena wrapped a shall around her shoulders and snuck out of her house and headed for the palace.

Once there, she hid behind a pillar and watched the guards ready the carriages. Selena crouched down and waited for them to leave. When they did she ran over to the carriages and got into one of them.

The carriages were big, with compartments all over the place. Selena found a compartment underneath the seats. It was big enough for an underfed, short 15 year old girl.

Selena crawled into the compartment and shut the little door on it. Then she curled up and somehow, with all her nervousness, fell fast asleep.

***************************************

When Selena awoke, the carriage was moving. She grinned and stretched out the best she could. As the carriage rolled on, she heard people talking.

"Numair, could you put my bag in that compartment under your seat?" someone asked.

"Alright" a man's voice said.

Selena closed her eyes and curled up, as the compartment door was opened.

The man who looked in was the one who had thanked her two weeks before. He looked shocked when he saw her, but quickly regained composure.

"Looks like we've got a stowaway" he said to the other people in the carriage.

"Come out, we won't hurt you" he told Selena.

Selena crawled out of the compartment and glanced around at the people in the carriage. There was the Lady Knight, the woman who had stood beside the tall man when Selena had offered him food. There were to other men there, but Selena had not seen them before.

"What's your name?" the tall man asked.

"I'm Selena, aren't you the mage with the black robe?" she asked.

The man nodded.

"Yes, I remember your Numara Salmon" she said.

"It's Numair Salmalin" he told her, as the people in the carriage laughed.

The others introduced themselves. The woman was Daine, the Lady Knight's name was Alanna, the two other men were Sir Raoul and Sir Gareth the Younger.

"Your not going to send me back to the palace, are you?" Selena asked.

"What about your family, won't they be worried about?" Daine asked.

"Yes, but I'll be happy knowing my share of food is going to my sister" Selena told them and they smiled at her.

"What will you do in Tortall?" Alanna asked.

"I'll work in their palace. Do they treat slaves nicely there?" Selena asked.

"We don't have slaves. If you want you could be a servant" Sir Gareth told her.

Selena nodded and smiled at all of them.

"You know it's cold in Tortall at this time of year" Alanna said.

"Yes, there's snow, ice...." Numair started.



"What's snow?" Selena asked, interrupting Numair.

"It's like cold, wet sand. It makes the air cold too" Sir Raoul said.

"I don't mind. Mr. Salbeen...." Selena started.

"Mr. Salmalin" Numair interrupted.

"Sorry, Mr. *Salmalin* can you heal with your Gift?" she asked.

"No, but Alanna can" Numair told Selena.

"Can you heal this?" Selena asked and held out her arm to Alanna. There was a cut on her hand.

Alanna nodded and put her fingers on the cut. Purple magic shimmered around her fingertips and suddenly the cut had disappeared. Selena gasped and everyone laughed.

The carriage drove through the night. Selena fell asleep in her seat. When she woke up, Alanna was awake and so was Daine. But the men were snoring loudly.

"Their really loud" Selena complained, covering her ears.

"We've gotten used to it. We'll have to hear for the next two days"Daine told her.

"TWO DAYS" Selena cried, astonished.

Alanna and Daine nodded. Selena sighed and stared out the window. She realized they had left the desert. A sudden wave of homesickness caught her. She hadn't enjoyed working long hours in the sun, but she had always loved the desert.

"Where are we now?" Selena asked.

"We're in Tyra" Alanna told her.

Selena sat back in her seat and suddenly saw something that amazed her.

"What are those big tall things with the green stuff on top?" she asked.

"You mean the trees" Daine said with a laugh.

"What splendid things they are" Selena murmured.

The trees were all different shapes and sizes. There tall ones with pointy leaves on them and short ones that had branches sticking out on all sides.

Selena was so amazed by the trees and by the new country side she saw, she didn't even hear the men waking up.

Selena didn't join in the conversations, because she didn't want to miss any interesting thing they went by. Soon it was lunch time and everyone stopped to eat. Numair introduced Selena to the other ambassadors. No one said anything about sending her back. They had all seen what had happened two weeks before.

When the carriages started up again, Selena took a nap. She slept until early in the morning the next day. By then, they had entered Tortall.

"We should be there by the end of the day" Numair told her.

Selena was so excited, she couldn't sleep. She tried to take naps, but it didn't work. For the whole day she sat staring out the window, waiting and watching.

Near dusk, Selena saw a marvelous town raising up the distance.

"Is that it?" she asked.

"That's Corus" everyone said.



Well, part 2 is over and done with. Please read and review. Oh yeah, the characters, except for Selena belong to Tamora Pierce. Okay, everyone happy now? Oh, for anyone who's interested. I found the front cover for Squire at www.randomhouse.com. You have to type in Tamora Pierce in the search thingy and it'll come up as Page by Tamora Pierce. Click on that and the front cover of Page will come up. Under that it says "Other works by this Author". "Click on that and you'll find it. That was confusing. It took me forever to find it.