So here is chapter 2…

Disclaimer: so not mine…I really wish it was…but nope

Come Back To Me

________________________________

Dom sat in his and Kel's rooms for the rest of the night. He didn't move, didn't touch anything, until Neal came in the next morning.

"Dom have you seen Kel? I can't find her, and Peachblossom isn't in the stable…"

"She left" He whispered, the reality finally setting in and he put his head in his hands and turned to Neal the pain in his eyes… "She's gone"

Neal turned white and left Dom sitting there as he ran to go and gather all of Kel's friends who were at the palace.

They all met in one of the private rooms in the library a quarter of an hour after Neal had left Dom. The men he had assembled were Prince Roald, Merric, Owen, Faleron, Seaver, and some of the men from the Own

They were all confused as to what was going on, nothing had been explained and they were all wondering what could have possibly happened.

Neal walked in and looked into the faces of all the men he had assembled "Gentlemen we have a problem. The lady Knight has gone missing, she left last night and that's all I know"

"Well what makes Kel, run off on her own at night?" Merric asked

"Last time she did that it was for her refugees that were stolen by Blayce" Roald replied

"So we can rule out that she did it for the sake of rescuing somebody… maybe she went to go fight bandits?" Owen said

"You're wrong" said a quite voice from the corner no one had seen Dom enter and they each looked once in his eyes but nobody wanted to look at the haunted look in his eyes

"She left for Kel; she thinks that these years of sitting around have made her soft. She wants to go somewhere to be useful. She said she would come back..." Dom's voice broke as he tried to finish

"Does that mean she doesn't want to be found?" some one asked

"I think it does" Neal said and as the men nodded they hoped that she was only gone for a week or two, they had no idea what was coming.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Council that was called to discuss Kel's disappearance was much more formal then the one Kel's friends had put together. Prince Roald was present, as well as Lord Wyldon, Lord Raoul, Lady Alanna, Buri, the Queen, King Jonathan.

"Jon is this any different then when I left to go south to the Bazhir after I was discovered?" Alanna was saying…

"Yes, Lioness it is. Everyone at least knew where you were and you had contacts. What does Keladry have?"

"Your Majesty, she is smart. She is also one of the best knights you have she could do quite well on her own. I do not think you should punish her for going, after all you didn't have any orders for her, and as a matter of fact neither did anyone else." Lord Wyldon replied

"Your right of course, I didn't have orders but we might have some very soon. What I am about to say goes no further out of this room either. There have been some omens and some signs from scrying that something drastic is coming to Tortall. We don't know when and we don't know what. All we know is that it will be bad, and that there is a prophecy about it in some of the old records. In fact that is where Numair is now, looking through scrolls for…."

"So what you mean to say Jon is that we are going to be in a type of war again, and one of our best fighters just left to go off on her own." Raoul said

Just then Numair burst into the room… "Majesty I found it, I found the prophecy for the events that the seer's might be seeing."

"Well, lets read it and see if it's anything worth paying attention to." Numair bowed his head and began to read from the ancient scroll he carried

"In a time when the Kingdom is at peace, things will be set in motion, things that can not be stopped. The rulers will fail to stop the tide from coming. And when it breaks over their kingdom it's destruction will be swift and terrible. The cities will be torn apart and homes and lives will be destroyed. There is no stopping this atrocity from happening if events do not come to pass... The protector must leave the kingdom freely she must not be forced and no one may travel with her or after her save for the Prince of the kingdom who must leave if he wishes to see his kingdom in one piece. The Protector and the Prince must become hidden from all who love them, and when they return together, the kingdom will be made safe. The old rule will fail and the Protector and the Prince will be forced to start a new Kingdom. Prepare your Kingdom; prepare your knights and your court. They must be ready if they are to attempt to help when the new rule returns. Do not fail your Prince. Do not fail your Protector. Be ready, the world is changing, the gods are fighting, and a new life is coming…"

"That's the last that is readable from the scroll Majesty" Numair explained "This was found to be dated a month or so before the decree that there were to be no more Lady Knights, they hoped to prevent this 'tide' from coming. Apparently it also explains what happened to all of the Lady Knights"

The men and women in the chamber sat in silence till Prince Roald finally spoke

"Father, I must leave. I will see this Kingdom in one piece, and I will not be responsible for it to fall"

The King looked at the Prince, a father looked at a son, a mage looked at a mage, and old man looked at a youth. Finally King Jonathon looked at his wife who had tears in her eyes she nodded ever so slightly. "Very well, Roald, you can go pack, we will see you off before you leave and we will have things to discuss with you then" Roald nodded and then left the room

"Jon, we should be scared shouldn't we" Alanna asked quietly

"Yes, Lioness we should be. I have very good reason to believe that soon we won't be apart of this kingdom anymore."

"We should start new recruiting for the Own, get it back up to the higher numbers" Raoul suggested

"The riders too" Buri added

"We may fail, but we will put up a fight until they come back" Lord Wyldon added

"But who do we tell, and how do we explain Roald leaving so soon after Kel's without talking about the prophecy." Thayet asked

"We should tell your councilors Jon, otherwise you'll never be able to approve the things that need to be fixed. I would personally leave out the mention of Kel though. I definitely wouldn't tell most of the kingdom however. In fact why don't you forbid them from going after Kel also, this will keep people from following

"We'll figure something out. Now if you will excuse me, Thayet and I need to go and tell our son good bye. I'll have someone send for you when we are ready to discuss what will be done tomorrow."

King Jonathan and Queen Thayet walked out of the rooms together holding hands, unsure of how much time the might have left together, and as they reached Roald's apartments they entered in and spent the rest of the evening with him.

________________

It was two bells past midnight when three cloaked figures went into the stables. Roald saddled Darkness and turned to his mother and father for the last time.

"I will find her father, and I will come back. I won't see this Kingdom fall I swear it to you."

"Roald, Your mother and I have never been more proud of you at this moment. We know it will be hard to be away when we will need you and Keladry the most, but it is a choice well made if this means that you can save the kingdom. You have our blessing and we pray that you will see us again. Go quickly, and come home when you can. Keep your selves safe and Roald we love you." Jon nodded once to his son and left and went out to the castle walls.

"Roald" Thayet said in her low voice " I would like to give you this before you leave, it should have been your bride's when and if you had ever chosen to marry, and if you and Shinko hadn't called it off, and if you find someone give this to her to show how you feel. I love you my son. Don't look back, no matter what, don't look back, you are doing the right thing."

Then she gave her son a hug and walked out to join her husband and as they walked up to the castle wall they saw a figure riding down the road from the palace, and he never looked back just like they told him not to…

______________________

Right so I was writing this and all of a sudden I look up and I see this plot starting to form, and I just let if flow so tell me what you think. This is so not what I planned but it was just flowing…

Go look at chapter 1 again… I made some changes… that will help it makes sense with this chapter…

I promise we will have Kel in the next chapter and we'll have little bits of whats going on in Tortall as well…

Thanks for all of those reviews they were really great! So leave me some more and let me know what you think!!!

~Kari