Disclaimer: nothing's mine and this counts for all future chapters, I'm not putting it anymore, k? good.

Chibi noin – hmmm. You shall find out :-P

            The dawn approached in a hazy mist of concealing fog. Keladry of Mindelan sat on her horse, slightly slumped over as she stared off into the distance that she could not see. Her mind's eye traveled to a place she had never been, hoping for a glimpse of the person that had been consuming her mind for the past day and a half. Sighing, she sniffed as she lifted her chin at the sound of her name, head turning slightly to look back.

            "Kel?" The voice was familiar, a voice she'd been hearing a lot for the past few months. She smiled slightly, his presence had never failed before to raise her spirits.

            "When are we leaving?" She turned to ask the question, staring into bright blue eyes steadily, her own hazel eyes curiously blank.

            "Very shortly, Lord Raoul says. Kel," Dom said, hesitating slightly, "are you alright?"

            "How can I be alright?" she asked rhetorically, her voice nothing more than a murmur. "The person I have wanted to be like for my entire life is being held captive and I have to stand by and do nothing. How can I do that?"

            There was a brief silence. Dom sighed, laying one arm across Peachblossom's neck as he gazed up at her. "We are all in the same position, Kel. Raoul is one of her best friends. But he must stay strong for the Own."

            She glanced away, squinting into the distance and he knew he was losing her. "Kel, we're going to get her back. She's the Lioness; they can't hold her hostage for long." Hesitantly, he placed a callused palm down onto one of hers that gently held the reins. Startled, she glanced back down at him.

            Words burst forth in a torrent of emotions. "They can do whatever the hell they want if I don't stop them! Dom, don't you see? I have to go. I have to save her. No one else is willing to defy King Jonathan, it has to be me. You can cover for me until it's too late for Raoul to send people after me."

            He shook his head solemnly. "No, I can't."

            Aghast, she stared at him, struggling to ignore the rising pain in her chest. "What do you mean, you can't?" she demanded, eyes flashing.

            "I can't, because I'm going with you." Here, he grinned, dazzling her with such a display of mutual happiness.

            "You can't be serious," she said, before another voice suddenly dropped into their conversation.

            "And you can't be thinking of leaving me behind!" This was a voice they both knew. Something shifted in Dom's eyes before he tore his gaze away to look at the newcomer.

            "Meathead," he started, before being interrupted.

            "No, Dom!" Neal cried, his voice growing increasingly indignant. "I'm not going to let you and Kel just go gallivanting off to Scanra," he paused as they both shushed him, "while I have to travel to the border to be put under the command of a Healer who thinks that scrubbing dirty bedpans is an appropriate job for me."

            "Neal, we're not just going to go waltzing in. We have to be crafty. You don't fit with our disguises," said Kel, matching gazes with the green-eyed knight.

            "Disguises?" Dom questioned, before Neal could say anything else. He studied her and then chuckled heartily. "You've been planning this. You knew I would come all along."

            A crimson tint spread across Kel's high-set cheekbones. "Well, I had hoped," she said softly, smiling demurely.

            Neal's eyes flicked back and forth from his cousin to his best friend, before he spoke again, setting this information aside to be dissected later. "Sorry to ruin your honeymoon plans, but I'm coming. I'll make up my own disguise."

            Kel blushed again and it took Neal only a little while to figure out that it was because he hadn't been so far off base with the honeymoon reference.

            "I still don't see why I have to be the squire," Neal grumbled, letting his horse have free rein to pick its way through a patch of pebbles.

            Kel sighed. "They'll be looking for the Gift in the knight. Dom blends in more than you do. You would call attention to yourself. Unwanted attention."

            "Plus," Dom added with a cheeky grin, "who would ever believe you could win the heart of such a lady?" Blue met hazel and held on strong for a long moment. Kel glanced away, a slight frown crossing her face. He was trying to make a joke of it and they were good enough friends to be able to joke with each other, but lately she'd been wondering about those sidelong glances of his.

            Sighing, she forced it from her mind. We're going to Scanra, she reminded herself, not to a ball, no matter what this dress makes you think. She wrapped the shawl tighter around her shoulders; the dress slipped around the top of each of her arms, leaving her neck bare. It was very fashionable; all of the ladies at Court had begun wearing the model. Kel was wasting no chances with her disguise. You are a noble Court lady, she told herself as she shook a strand of light hair out of her eyes.

            Her gaze flicked over Dom's outfit, from the Queenscove shield that belonged to Neal, hanging from his saddlepad and proudly bearing the arms of a Tortallan knight, to the worn leather gloves, to the face she had once loved on Neal and now was fond of on Dom.

            She tugged at the reins gently. Peachblossom obediently halted, flicking his ears back questioningly. Dom looked back at her and halted as well. "Kel?" Neal stopped a little bit farther ahead, out of earshot but not out of sight.

            "We're leaving Tortall," she said slowly. Peachblossom snorted, as if agreeing with her. He tossed his head, eager to be moving again. "Can we really do this? Can we really move through a country we know nothing about? We don't even know where she is. This is treason. If we take one wrong step, we've blown everything. Alanna's life, all our hard work to get where we are, everything. Can we risk it?" Her gaze slid forward into the distance, into Scanra, as if the answer lay before her.

            Dom moved closer, sidling his horse next to hers. Hesitantly, he reached for her hand, the hand that was unrecognizable in the silk white glove. She gave it to him, as a lady would. "We can, Kel, or we'll die trying." The words were spoken softly, meant to soothe the anxious, earnest look she trustingly gave him. As he brought her hand up to meet his lips, she realized that that was the only answer he could give that would satisfy all her misgivings. And there was no one else in the world she'd really rather be with right now, in this position.

            Lifting her chin, she hardened herself on the inside. Not on the outside, of course. A lady was soft and delicate and feminine. Everything I'm not, Kel realized. She stiffened briefly, before relaxing. The dress hid all of her muscles. She was a lady, not a knight. Alanna's life depends on whether I can pull this off or not. And so, with a deep breath, she smiled for Dom and headed into Scanra. It was going to be a long journey.

Uggggh. This chapter sucked very much. Very short, too. I'd redo it, but I'm more eager to write the next Alanna chapter. Kel and Dom are cute, aren't they?

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If I don't update before Thursday, Merry Christmas everyone!!

love, linza