Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Tamora Pierce does.
Chapter four
Tina dragged Alanna down stairs to the History Room.
"I…guess…the History…Room…is your…favorite…room," Alanna said trying to catch her breath.
"Once you step inside it'll be your favorite room too," Tina replied opening the door.
When the door was fully open Alanna just gasped. The room was huge!
"C'mon. It's better when you step in the room." Tina pushed Alanna in the room. Tina was right. The room was better inside.
The room was full of artifacts. Most of the stuff was on the wall. There were pictures, swords, shields, books and a bunch of papers. Alanna just stood there with her mouth on the floor.
"Neat isn't it?" Tina said proudly.
"Some of this…seems…familiar…" Alanna walked over to the lioness shield.
"Who did this belong too?" Alanna asked examining the shield.
"I don't know. When I was little my grandfather would tell me stories about the artifacts but he died before he could tell me about the lioness shield. All I know is that it belonged to the first women knight and that she masqueraded as a boy for several years to get it. My father told me that much."
"It like I've seen this before," Alanna said still looking over the shield as if to find a clue.
"How could you? This shield has always been in this room. It's never left this house. Well back in 1300 A.D when she was using it. Do you remember where you've 'seen' the shield. I mean there is a collage that has a red flag with a yellow lion on it but a shield? Are you sure that you've seen the shield before?"
"Yes. I'm positive." Alanna tried to search her memory of when she'd seen the lioness shield. After a few minutes of searching her memory, it hit her! Thom!
"Great Mother Goddess! My twin brother, Thom gave me that shield right before I went to battle Roger!" then Alanna eyes got big.
"Roger! What happened to Roger? Where's Roger. Where's Thom… where's Jonathan?" Alanna seemed worried.
"Who's Jonathan? And who's Roger?" Tina was very confused but the names seemed familiar from like a story her grandfather had once told her.
"Who's Jonathan?" Alanna couldn't believe her ears. "Everyone knows who Jonathan is. You must be from the eastern lands. Really far East. Jonathan of Conté is prince of Tortall, my knight master, my best friend and my-" Alanna stopped herself before she said 'lover'.
"Roger is Jonathan's cousin. His name is Duke Roger of Conté. The most powerful sorcerer in all of Tortall. He tried to kill Jonathan and the Queen."
"Tortall? There hasn't been a Tortall for hundreds of years," Tina explained.
"What? What do you mean? There has always been a Tortall." Alanna was now very confused. Tina then explained the history of Tortall and how it disappeared.
"Back in the 1600's there was a war. The biggest war Tortall has ever seen. Thousands of people died, and thousands of people injured. In the end Tortall was over ruled by neighboring counties. A few years later the bigger lands decided to change the names of the countries and change the borders. They changed the names of all the countries to the names they have today. Right now Tortall is part of Europe. Part of Portugal to be exact. Tortall is gone and has been for a long time. I'm sorry Alanna. Wait a minute. How can you be alive if you lived thousands of years ago."
"I'm not sure. The last thing I remember before I came here was Court had just found out that I was a girl and Roger was really mad at me for that so he attacked me with magic. That's it! He must have sent me to the future! It's the only thing that makes sense. What's this?" Alanna got sidetracked and pointed to portrait that was covered up. She was about to uncover it when Tina stopped her.
"Please don't. Whenever I see it I get this feeling that I really hate and I would really not like to experience that feeling right now," Tina explained.
"Oh. Who is it a picture of?" Alanna asked still curios about the covered up portrait.
"A king and queen from Tortall. I don't know their names. There wasn't a name plate or anything."
"Maybe I'll know who they are since I am from Tortall." Alanna really wanted to see the picture.
"Ok. Fine." Tina uncovered the picture and turned around so she wasn't looking at it.
When Tina uncovered the picture Alanna gasp. She couldn't believe who the portrait was a picture of…
A/N: Muwahahahahah! A cliffy! I seem to get more review when I write a cliffhanger. Review and tell me what you think. REVIEW!
