You ask me 'why Diona?' and I'm not surprised.

Diona's a younger sister, like me, so I always felt she's getting a really bad deal with everyone portraying her as snobby and petty (including myself). She only wants what's best for her sister in this version of things, and she happened to think that being a Dog was a very bad choice on Beka's part. Besides, I wanted to have Beka's sister in this story. I'll head off the ineviatable question 'why not Lorine then? At least she's nice.' I don't think Lorine has the steel Diona does. Besides, where's the challenge in a 'nice' character?

As to the rest, well, I'll let Diona explain.

Sir Gwydion

Chapter Two: Diona's Story

Rosto stared at her incredulously. "If you're Diona, then what in the name of all that gods are you doing as a Dog?"

"Why, upholding the King's law of course, like every other Dog." She grinned briefly, then sobered. "I suppose I'd better start from the beginning, then. I hope you aren't in a hurry. It's rather a long story."

"I've got time."

"Alright then." she settled herself back in her chair and began.

"I was fifteen when Beka disappeared, and I was rather a brat. I thought I knew everything, and Beka was just being pig-headed in her fixation with being a Dog. I never really understood what drew her to the Lower City, never really understood her at all until I left my Lady Teodorie. She always looked out for us when Mama got sick, when I was six, but I was so frustrated with her then. She insisted that I not work, only she could. I didn't understand that, either. What made her so special? After all, she was only a year older then me and the only thing she could do was talk to those fowl birds of hers. I thought I could have been some real use, because I had-- have, the Gift, and stronger then most, too. I didn't know then what tends to happen to a bright youngling with a promising talent that she flaunts about. Beka didn't want that to happen to me.

"And everyday, even after we moved into my Lord Provost's house, I was constantly reminded of my agrivation with her. Even when she left. My younger siblings were forever chattering about her, wondering what she was doing, how many Rats she'd caught by then, when she would come to visit. I resented her for it, and I blamed her for being so foolhardy as to turn down the chance for a good position as a lady's maid.

"When she vanished, I'm ashamed to say that I thought it was no more then she deserved. My Lady encouraged the notion, and soon I had decided it was a fact. Then something happened that opened my eyes and let me see that for all her fine manners and pretty ways, my Lady Teodorie was a vindictive, unkind --" Diona paused, and slowly unclenched her fists. "Suffice to say that I no longer had any illusions as to her character.

"I started to visit my brothers in the stables more then I had before. It was noticed, and rumors sprang up that I had an, an indiscretion with a stable hand who was smitten with me. Words passed between me and my Lady that I would rather not repeat, and I swore that I wouldn't stay another day under her roof.

"I was shocked. have you ever done one thing for years and years, looking down on anyone who doesn't do the same as fools, only to realize when its almost too late that you were wrong the whole time? If you have, you know how shattering it was for me. I didn't force my decision on Lorine, Will and Nilo. They still have a chance to take the advantage my Lord Gershom tried to give us all. Lorine is a notable seamstress, and both of my brothers promise to be fine messengers.

"I left before the day was out, taking what little money I had with me to pay for lodgings. I began training as a Puppy, and I've never regretted it. I was Tunstall and Goodwin's Puppy, just like Beka. Now I have my own partner, Raif. We've been together ever since we were made Dogs, over a year ago now. I like what I do, better then I ever liked doing fine needlework and wearing fashionable, clean clothes.

"I would probably be content, if it weren't for Beka. I thought she was dead, until this morning, when I found this," she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a piece of ink spattered paper. In ragged, but nonetheless elegant script, it read Follow me, and you'll find what you seek. The words were followed by a single, clear paw print. It was a cat's paw, too small for most dogs and with tell tale claw marks.

"You think that a cat sent you a message?" Rosto asked skeptically.

"No," she said. "I think the Cat did."

Comprehension flitted over his face. The Cat . . . the constellation that sat at the feet of the Mother Goddess, infamous for its inexplicable tendency to vanish from the night sky. And a Cat who he was possibly acquainted with.

"You mean Pounce." It wasn't a question. She nodded. "No cat I've heard of -- not even the Cat-- can write." he told her.

"I think he used his tail," she went on stubbornly. "That's my own paper and ink there, and I've got a full set of cat paw marks leading from my desk where I found this to the window. They stop there."

Rosto leaned back in his chair, tilting it onto the back legs. The whole tale was outrageous. A cat, even Pounce, writing with his tail, ha! And Pounce had vanished along with his mistress, three years before. But then, where had Beka's necklace come from?

She might have given it to her sister, not wanting the gifts of the Rogue she refused to love-- but no, it couldn't have been that. He remembered noticing that she was wearing it when she said goodbye before departing.

His eyes narrowed as he saw a flaw in the story. "If you're a Dog, and a Cooper, and Tunstall and Goodwin's Puppy at that, why haven't I heard of you? Even if you haven't made such a grand entrance to your time with the Dogs as Beka did, I'd have heard about you from Ersken."

"I asked him not to. He'll tell you now, if you were to talk to him. I've met Kora too, she knows me."

"And if you're such a strong mage, why are you a Dog when you could land yourself any number of soft, well paying jobs?"

Diona shifted uncomfortably. "To tell the truth, I don't like using magic. It makes me think of too many things I'd rather forget."

She shivered and for a moment, her face turned dark, her bright eyes dimming. It made Rosto wonder what the past three years had been like for a gixie who'd not had to live on the streets for eight years. When she looked back up at him, there was something of Beka in the set of her jaw and the determination of her gaze.

"Are you going to help me?" she demanded.

Slowly, he nodded. The idea that Beka might be alive ate at him, undermining the barriers he'd put between himself and feeling. Hope traitorously stirred within him. He'd tried to stamp it out, but there it was, daring him to accept this strange yet familiar girl's challenge.

"We leave tomorrow," she said with a hint of a sigh of relief and a smile. "I'll meet you at the East Gate, and hour after sunrise, unless you object."

"The East Gate?"

"My window faces East."

With that, she stood, wrapped her cloak more tightly around her (after all, no Rat likes to see a Dog in its den) and left Rosto alone with is thoughts.

She'd put him off his guard, that was a certainty. It was unnerving to see someone like her, with such fair hair and dark eyes. He dismissed the notion instantly. Was his hair not that much fairer, his eyes that much darker? But she was not at all what one would expect, for someone who'd been a fine young lady not three years ago.

She had a nerve, though. A young Dog, barely out of her white Puppy trim, barging into the Rogue's own inn demanding that he listen to her.

And for the first time in too many years, Rosto the Piper felt his lips curl into a real smile.

-

Diona made it out of the Dancing Dove without major incident. The young Rat she'd bribed to let her in decide he wish for more payment then she'd given him, but she'd managed to evade him successfully. She was feeling quite self-congratulatory, in fact, when, turning out of Nipcopper Close, she was grabbed from behind. In an instant, she had her baton out, ready to knock the fool who thought to catch her's head like a kettle drum, when a farmiliar voice made her stop.

"And what, dearest partner mine, were you doing in the King Rat's Den?"

"Raif," she said, annoyed. "Let me go! Were you following me?"

"Not as such," he answered evasively, releasing her.

"'Not as such?' What a lier you are, Raifand Barkwater."

"Alright, I was. You've been awfully mysterious all day, leaving me and the others at the tavern like that, with hardly a word. I was curious." He looked down at her from beneath his mass of pitch-black hair and smiled winsomely. His eyes were what many people called Conte blue, after the dominant eye color of the royal family. Indeed, there were rumors that Raif was the illegitimate child of the previous King. It was possible, for his mother had worked at the palace before having a coming down in circumstances, and Raif himself had the Gift, which was one reason he was partnered with Diona. 'Let mages deal with mages' was the general consensus at the Kennel.

Whether or no he was descended from royalty, Raif didn't care. He knew his place in the world: at the Kennel and on the streets, and that was good enough for him.

Diona smiled at him. "Curiosity is solely the realm of cats, not Dogs."

He grinned back at her. The proclaimed in a dramatic voice,"I couldn't leave you, Oh My Best Beloved. You draw me like a magnet! You are my compass needle's North!"

She pretended to frown, enjoying the verbal sparring. "I'm cold and distant, then, like the North?"

"Not at all! You are very close!" He reached to take her into his arms.

"Then I'll step back."

"It would be beneath your dignity to retreat, Queen among Dogs."

"Careful there, or you'll swell my head so big that I'll think I'm too good for you."

"You are."

"There you've done it! Set me on a pedestal too high to reach."

"Then I'll grow wings."

Diona laughed, unable to stop herself. "A Dog with wings! That would be a sight, and no mistake!" She stepped forwardand wrapped her arms around Raif's neck, pressing her lips to his.

"Oi!" came a voice from the street. "You two quit lollygagging about on the street! Plain disgusting, it is!" The surly man sent a baleful glare their way, and continued down Nipcopper Close.

They broke apart, laughing.

"You're in a good mood, " Raif commented, not letting her pull away too far.

"Yes, I am."

"Mithros, will you never tell me what it is? It can't have anything to do with going into the Dancing Dove."

"But it does." She briefly explained everything that had happened that day, and about her sister.

Raif frowned. "You expect me to just let you go haring off on a mad adventure with the King of the Rogue?"

Her face hardened. "It's not a matter of 'let,' Raif. "

"Hang on, I wasn't finished. I was going to say 'without me'? I'm coming with you."

She opened her mouth to protest, then smiled ruefully. "Is there anything I can do to stop you?"

"Not a thing."

This time, her drew her into and alleyway before kissing her.

"Do you know what I think?" he whispered, trailing his lips from her cheek to her ear.

She shivered pleasantly and his fingers traced down her spine. "No, what?"

"I think --" he kissed her one more time before disentagling himself from her arms. "I think that Ahuda is going to murder us if we're late for baton practice again this week."

Diona looked up. Sure enough, the sun was beginning to set.

"I think you're right. We'd better run."

Just before they reached the Kennel, she stopped him.

"An hour after sunset at the East Gate, remember. Don't be late."

"I won't be. But I don't envy you telling Ahuda, let alone Goodwin."

She groaned in mock horror, spirits still soaring, and they walked into the Kennel, side by side.


Yes, I made a few changes to Diona for the sake of the plot, but there you have it. Hope you liked the chapter!

Sir Gwydion