I've been rereading all of the books and had a brain blast with this. Just putting it out there and seeing what people think. Share the love let me know your thoughts and suggestions! Thanks.
Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce is all knowing and all owning. Those you don't recognize are mine. I apologize for spelling/grammar errors.
Enjoy, Anna Mo.
Chapter 1: Bleak
4 weeks ride from Tortall Castle.
The stench reached us before anything else. The wind brought us hints of burnt wood saturated in the smell of copper and sulfur. Burnt flesh, a sickly sweet concoction of human destruction, and we were getting used to this. We moved our face coverings over our noses and pushed our mounts forward. Trees spread across the valley and opened to a clearing, on a quick glance I calculated it was a village of one hundred. Now? Who knows how many survived? I signaled for a halt. I could feel the anger radiating off the squad, ten villages in three moons, we were nowhere closer to answers. The raiders struck in the dead of night and moved like whispers on the wind. No warning, no sound, even the animals gave no notice.
"Captain your orders?" Sargent Greden asked on my right. I looked once more over the village and watched as a mother carried the lifeless body of a child towards the death cart, my fists clenched. Turning to my squad I gave the orders for them to fan out and help in whatever way possible. I was going to contact the King's Own and tell them… tell them we were too late, again.
Meanwhile - Tortall
"How do we fight an enemy we cannot see!" Shouted Lady Knight Alanna, Champion of Tortall; Turning she grasped the window ledge in front of her, attempting to reign in her temper and miserably failing.
"Calm down-"
"DO not tell me to calm down Jonathan! How can you just sit there?!"
"What would you have me do Alanna!" Questioned the King. He sat in a plain winged chair at the head of the table surrounded by maps, reports, scrying mirrors and magical scrolls. Alanna turned to her longtime friend and one time lover. The years had treated him well, his chiseled chin was strong as ever and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes gave him an even more regal quality. His once black hair was dusted with gray and his royal blue eyes were not as bright as they once had been. King Jonathan's shoulders slumped and he scrubbed his face with his hands attempting to rub the weariness from his throbbing head. Alanna sighed and slid her hands on her breeches. In five quick steps she was at his side resting her worn hands on his temples.
"Alanna…" whispered Jonathan. All she could do was hush him. She sent her purple magic across his temples and brow easing the head ache and allowed her magic to move to his shoulders, maybe this way she could bear some of his weight. Once she was done she sat in the chair to his left leaving her hand on his. "I wish Thayet were here." He said as he leaned back in his chair looking into the fireplace, it was only embers now he noticed.
King Jonathan glanced back down at Alanna's hand on his; absent mindedly he moved his thumb across her fingers. His thoughts wondered back in time to when things were happy. His children on his knee, kissing his wife; lost in his trance he took no notice of the single tear that slid down his cheek. Alanna squeezed his hand and reached to wipe the moisture off his face. These were trying times in the kingdom; Tortall was waging a war only the gods could help them win now. Alanna prayed to the mother goddess every night and every morning. George prayed to his trickster god and everyone she knew prayed to any that would listen. She wasn't sure they would make it out of this one and that frightened her.
Let me know what you think!
