Chapter 2: Corus

Two days later, Lia and King Jonathan arrived in Corus, Tortall's capital city. Lia could hardly believe her eyes, and her ears. Everything was so cluttered… and loud. "When do we reach the palace?" she murmured. The King didn't hear her. She asked again, louder this time.

"Just a short ride now," he said. "The noise takes getting used to."

Lia nodded and kept staring.

When they arrived at the palace, they were greeted by a swarm of young children. "Father, Father!" they all cried. "You're back!" they stopped to bow a foot away, then jumped on him.

"Children, get off your father. You're smothering him." Said a new voice, rich and female.

Lia looked for the source of the voice, and gasped. There stood the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Thayet!" The King sighed. "Please, get these savages off me! It's undignified."

Queen Thayet of Tortall gave in to a fit of giggles. "But… it's funny!" she laughed.

Lia just smiled. She was going to have fun here.

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Rel had not yet gotten over the fact that she had wings. Numair had poked and prodded them and tested them with magic, and Alanna had sighed over this, but eventually they got to the point and told her that if she wanted she could come to Corus with them. Rel agreed, of course. Why would she refuse?

The day after they left Rel's town, Alanna decided to examine her for infections. That resulted in a furious Alanna, a startled Numair, and a very confused Rel.

"She has worms, lice, fleas, and numerous scars from beatings!" Rel overheard Alanna talking to Numair one night. "That's not mentioning the badly healed bones, and I think that she has diabetes, though a mild form."

Rel frowned. What was diabetes?

"There's nothing we can do besides heal her as best you can and teach her how to manage her blood sugar." That was Numair, sounding frustrated.

"I know!"

"well then, why are you telling me? Why not tell her? She's just outside the door anyway."

"I know, Numair! I have the Gift, too!"

The door opened. Numair beckoned her in. "Um…" she started.

Numair silenced her with a look. "Let me give you the complete overview.

"You grew up in a town where nobody liked you or cared about you. Therefore, you have all kinds of diseases. You have several parasites, badly healed bones, and you have diabetes, which is a disease where the sugar in your blood can get too low or too high, because your body has trouble producing a chemical called insulin.

"You also have wings." He ended. "That is why the villagers treated you unkindly, because they thought you were a demon."

Rel gasped. Of course! That was why. Demons were legendary creatures, who had a human-like body, but possessed bat wings and horns. Now that she thought about it, she could see why the people were scared of her. But she was going to Corus now, and none of that mattered. Then there was the other thing, the thing that they didn't know about… but that was something else.

Two months later, Rel got her first glimpse of Corus.

It was magnificent. The city was vast, and on a hill, in the middle of it all, rose the castle, tall and majestic. Its towers were tall and tipped with silver, and its grey foundation stone was gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.

As they rode through the town, people came out to see the Lioness and Numair, and the girl that they had with them. Rel's pendant was on, but the people knew that nobody normal rode with the world's strongest mage and the Lioness. Rumors began to circulate. Before they reached the palace, Rel had heard of herself as a mage, a shapeshifter (almost), a demon (no), an angel (as if), and a wildmage (maybe?).

An hour later, after she had packed up, Rel received a summons to see the King. She started to grow nervous. She was just a common girl (with weird wings).

There was a knock on her door, and she went to answer it. A woman with curly brown hair and a smile walked in. "Hello, you must be Rel. I'm Daine. I'm Numair's wife. I heard you rode back here with him." Her eyes twinkled. "I should apologize. How many theories has he bounced off you?"

Rel blinked. What? "Umm…" she said. "so… uhh… Lady Daine-"

Daine cut her off. "No 'Lady'. Just Daine."

"ok… um… Daine, so, where should I go? I'm supposed to see the king…" she stuttered. Everyone had heard of Daine the wildmage.

Daine smiled. "Follow me."

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Palaces are the most confusing places in the world, thought Lia as she turned into the mess hall – another wrong turn. As she backtracked, She noticed Daine leading another girl around her own age somewhere. "Hi, Daine. Where are you going? Can you take me to the meeting? You're going there, right?"

"Yeah, I am. This is Rel, she's sorta like you."

Lia was surprised. Like her? Having wings?

"anyway… follow me."