A/n: WE UPDATED! Sorry for the long wait.
Jammes - only a few things to say: I love you...Tree...and Ed is bigger.
The sisters traveled on in silence matching Brom's hard pace. Kamell and Tarja listened as he trained the young rider in the ancient language, throwing riddles at him that would fool most accomplished scholars' in their complexity. Brom finally attacked him with an easer question.
"What is so fragile that when you say its name you break it?" Brom asked a befuddled Eragon. A few moments passed before he answered.
"Silence?" Brom nodded, his haggard eyes scouring the land before him.
"We are close," he announced. Saphira confirmed that indeed they were.
"What is the sea like?" Eragon could not help but ask.
"Surly you've heard stories," Brom said, brushing the question aside.
"Yes, but I want to know," Eragon persisted.
"The sea is the essence of life; it portrays every human emotion to the up most extent. The se can never be captured or confined and where there is no path water will make one." A part of Brom's soul wept as he spoke, his eyes glazed over with memories. Eragon remained silent, reflecting on Brom's words as well as wondering if he could ever act the same in times of true strife. Out of the mist Treim rose above them in a glittering silver wall.
"Our first trial will be getting through the gates unnoticed; the empire will want you caught, and us dead," Brom told Eragon as they came upon the gate. As they approached two guards blocked their path.
"What's yer name," one asked in a board tone, his expression one of indifference. Eragon thought that Galbatorix might parade through without the slightest care from these two.
"They call me Neal," Brom said roughly, slouching to the side with a dumb grin adorning his face. His companions bit back laughter.
"And who's the other three," the other guard asked.
"I was gettin' to that. This'd be my nephew Evan, my niece Lauren," he pointed to Kamell, "and my daughter, Anne."
"Yer business?"
"Were visitin' an ol' friend," Eragon said, adding a thick accent. "I'm here so he don't get lost. A touch of brain fever you see."
"And I sapose you two are here for the same?" He asked Kamell.
"She don't speak none, sir," Tarja intercepted. "Born mute. I'm here to help my uncle, poor soul." Tarja patted his shoulder, relishing the contact even if it was only for a brief moment.
"All right! Get on with yer. And don't be causing no trouble."
" 'A touch of brain fever', eh?" Brom growled when they were far enough away from the guards.
"I couldn't let you have all the fun," Eragon laughed, catching Tarja's eye and pleased to see that she was smiling. "This place looks ready for war." As Brom explained the strategic architecture of the city, Kamell took the time to speak with her sister.
" ' Born mute'," Kamell asked angrily.
"I didn't trust you not to blow our cover with an insolent remark," Tarja said sternly, her apathetic nature returning. "They might have recognized your voice."
"What do you take me for: a fool? I have kept our secret and I have kept yours," she whispered in rage, taking a glance at Eragon.
"And yet you act like a love struck child," Tarja spat back. "Until you can with hold your anger and bite your tongue you will be treated like a child. You forget that I have been the adult between us since before I was even a woman."
"And you forget that by blood I am your elder sister and will not be spoken to with your impertinent attitude. I do not need a mother or a nurse and I do not need your wisdom to protect me." They fell silent as Brom and Eragon swung down from their horses and entered a pub.
"You have got to be kidding me," Tarja muttered before dismounting and entering after them.
To put it bluntly the pub was not of the highest reputation, neither for customers nor cleanliness. Brom and Eragon made their way to the bar; Tarja grabbed a hold of her sister's wrist, stopping her from following the men.
"Stay back here. We don't need these people thinking we are working," she hissed in Kamell's ear, annoyance from the past argument still in her voice. Silently she obeyed, hanging back in the shadows near the door. They watched as Brom slid a few coins across the bar, his voice too far away to distinguish what exactly he was saying.
"Why must we delay here? It is a perfect day, nothing but clouds in the sky. We should be traveling." Kamell whispered back to her sister, as they watched the man with two missing fingers call something about people telling were to find someone named Jeod.
Brom feels Eragon needs to do something first," the two were careful to keep their voices to only to themselves, each wishing at that moment that they shared the connection that Eragon and Saphira used freely. Even with their mastery of the ancient language and all their schooling, such powers could not be learned.
"He should go straight home," Kamell commented coldly, making a point to be as vague as possible in fear of being overheard.
"Take that up with him, not me," Tarja snapped. Ending their conversation they slid into a table in the shadows as Brom continued to speak to the man, downing a mug of beer.
"Why are we not up there with them?" Again Kamell tried to speak, watching them anxiously like a child waiting for dinner to be finished.
"Because no one in their right mind would speak freely in front of two poor females. Better to talk to a rude man and his nephew than a bigger family." Her comment silenced Kamell who dropped her gaze to the floor in a defeated manner. Despite the fight she put up earlier she succumbed to her sister's dominating nature. After what seemed to Kamell like a lifetime, Brom and Eragon left the bar, glancing at the sister to follow them out, back to the streets with people who carried themselves with dignity, unaware of the turmoil the was falling to, unaware of the presence of the one who could save them.
"Where is she?" Brom asked Eragon in a low tone, his eyes scanning over the city before them.
Saphira where are you?
Well hidden, she answered shortly, upset that she was being excluded.
"Out of sight." Brom let out a growling sigh, annoyed already at the youths he was surrounded by. (A/N: Scar (Lion King): I'm surrounded by idiots…)