Jay woke with a start and pulled his dagger out from underneath his bedroll. He jumped to his feet, dagger in hand, and pointed it at a startled looking Van, who stood in the doorway of their tent.

Jay lowered his blade with a small sigh. It was only Van. You could never be too sure with these mercenaries, he thought to himself on particular one coming to mind. "Sorry," he said quietly. "I just thought--"

"What did ye' think?" Maverick asked from his own bedroll. Jay hadn't realized he was awake and leaning up on his elbow lazily. Since three days ago, when Jay had first stumbled upon the Mercenaries, he had shared a tent with Van and Maverick. Apparently their old roommate if you would, had left the band for some reason. "Did ya just think that 'e was Prewt or somethin'?" Jay lowered his head a bit to hide his red cheeks. Maverick chuckled and rolled back over in his bedroll. "Both of ya go to sleep. We still gotta a few good hours of dark left and I intend to use 'em to the fullest."

Van cast a weary eye to Maverick then to Jay before finally doing as he was told and heading back to his bed roll.

Jay laid back down, but by the time he heard snores coming from the other two in the tent, he still couldn't find sleep. So Jay sat up, put on his boots, and headed for the tent opening. He'd always found when he had been younger, a walk would do him good if he couldn't sleep. No use just wasting time in the tent.

"Watcha back, Jay." Maverick said quietly from his bedroll. Jay rolled his eyes and walked out into the night.

Jay made his way through the sea of tents. Since he had been here he had been amazed by the fact that so many people could travel together without attracting little to no attention. Jay had asked Emma why they didn't break up into smaller groups to travel, but she explained that there were whole families in the Mithros' Mercenaries and she didn't want to be responsible for separating them.

"Besides," she had continued. "The mercenaries are already broken up into two smaller groups as is."

"What?" was Jay's confused reply.

"They're two bands of us. We're the bigger half. The other half is somewhere up near the Grimhold Mountain area. We're supposed to meet up with them in a month or so, probably around Golden Lake."

Jay swallowed his face flushing a bit out of nevousness. "G-Golden Lake you said?"

"Yeah," said Emma, casting Jay a funny look. "Why? Have any problems with Goldenlake folk?"

"No," Jay lied quickly, and changed the subject. "Who leads the other half of the Mercenaries?"

Emma took the hint and answered, "Price, Price Chase. He's third in command."

Jay had also been confused about why he had never heard of the group before now. Surely if a patrol from the army or the Own had found trace of a strange group of warriors wondering the countryside he would have heard about it.

Jay continued on his walk. Emma was a strange one, he thought. Jay did like her. He respected her as well. He thought it funny how a girl of barely fifteen could control people who were more than half her age. She just had the air of a leader. Having been around them most his life he knew a good one when he saw one. She was just like none he had seen before.

She's probably delusional, too, he thought to himself. She seems normal but than she says that Mithros leads them. How in the world could it be possible for a girl who says she leads a band of mercenaries lead by Mithros not to be off her rocker?

Jay walked into the trees. His hands moved up, pushing a few thin branches out of his way as he made his way slowly through the woods. A few minutes later he thought he heard voices. He continued on though until he thought he could make out Emma's voice and a male's voice as well. But then who was she talking to?

The voices ended abruptly when Jay snapped a twig with his boot and he was faced with the cold steal of Emma's sword.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"I like him." Emma told the large black man in front of her simply. She brought a hand up to her face, examining her finger nails closely. "Everyone does. I don't see why he's a problem."

The man rolled his eyes while pulling on his large, gold hoop earring. Any person just passing by would assume that this was Bubba. But there were a number of differences. One being this man was much taller than Bubba, and that was saying something. Another this man didn't have the same Bhazir accent as Bubba. "And you, my dear, only see the good in anyone. That's why you're always so easy to fool."

Emma leaned against a tree, crossed her arms over her chest, and rolled her eyes. "And you don't? Remember that bandit in Old Runeham?" The man just rolled his eyes as well. "Ah! So you do? Yes, the one who you wouldn't let us kill because he begged for mercy. Then what did he do? He went and tried to kill Han!"

The two seemed to be having a contest to see who could roll their eyes the most, because that's what the man did next. "Are you ever going to let me forget that?" the man said, giving Emma a stern look.

"Nope." Emma said matching his stern look with an innocent smile.

The man sighed. "Look," he said calmly. "There is stuff about this kid that you don't know. He's got a backround--"

"So?" Emma cut in. "So don't I. So hasn't just about everyone in the Mercenaries. Why does one person make so much of a difference?"

The man opened his mouth to reply, but before he could speak Emma said, "He is also a mage." The man closed his mouth. "You know how badly we need one. We haven't had one in the Mercenaries since Larael left."

The man shook his head as if he was trying to think. After a while he finally just gave in. "If you're sure."

Emma nodded.

"You're going to regret this." the man said evenly.

Emma gave him a questioning look. "What are you talking about?" The man looked down. The look on Emma's face was replaced with an irritated one. "What do you know that you're not telling me?" she demanded a little louder then she had intended.

"Sh!" The man opened his mouth to say something, but than---crack!

Emma whirled around and drew Keening. "Who's there!" she shouted into the night.

"It's just me!" someone said quickly.

"Jay?" Emma asked recognizing the voice. "What are you doing up this late?"

"Couldn't sleep." Jay answered simply coming into the open from behind a tree. "Thought I'd take a quick walk." He glanced around the clearing for a second, seeing there was no one there. That's odd, he thought making a face. Maybe he'd just been hearing things.

Emma was almost certain he was not lying. Certain of that she turned around to see if the man she had been talking to had left. He had.

"What are you looking at?" Jay asked curiously, coming up to stand next to her. Maybe she was looking for the person she'd been talking to. He decided to keep the fact that he had heard her talking quiet.

"Nothing. Just thought I'd heard something."

Disclaimer--I will Never own Tortall---wait, not unless---no bad idea.

Anyways, before you yell at me for not reviewing let me tell you I have a number of lovely excuses. Drivers Permit test (which I passed with a 96 WITHOUT cheating thank you very much reviewers break into applause "Thank you! Thank you!) teeth infections shudders, last days of school, broken pottery finals, my own lazyness, writers block, computer hackers, getting sucked into the blue gooey thing (yes that did cause some problems) and a number of others that I don't feel like going on about right now.

Yes I know, this chapter is short but don't kill me! wails They do need to be longer and I agree fully with that! The next chapters will be longer and more interesting I swear! Any guess as to who "the man" Emma was talking to is? Well that's an easy one. But guess who maybe coming for a visit in one or two chapters? hint hint wink wink nudge nudge AND NO GIVING IT AWAY ROBIN!

So to my lovely reviewers:

Lady- Robin I know it's you by your offel spelling

Nottelling- righteyo

Flower Kid- Jay didn't steal anything, unless--NO! slaps self bad idea. Jay didn't steal anything

Mihaela- Jay isn't really either Alan or Kel prince. You would be closer I guess if you said Kel, but he isn't Roald

Cat'seyes- Yes, sighs longingly Morrowing is a great RPG. It makes me happy too. I taught you well Robin

Keeran Amytha- I'm sorry I can't tell you yet! Soon though, I promise. One or two chapter to go!

Kasey Rider- lol thanks for reviewing

Dragonshifter- sobs I know. I know. I will try in the next chapters, I just wanted to get this one out of the way

mycatcoco7- I'm sorry! I didn't review for a Missing crown! Oh, wait, did I...? Nevermind, sorry if I didn't. It is still wicked hillarious though! Superman and Batman add such a lovely touch

buttons7- I know what you mean about the prince thing. It seams to me that Tamora only used them to reinforce Wyldons character a little bit. I liked your story. It was soooo weird and kinda creepy. But I still like it.

Sqath101- raises fist into the air enthusiastlicaly GIRLS ARE MUCH BETTER THAN MALES! We should take over the world together and keep men under ground and souley use them for breeding! grins evily

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

(UPDATED: May 25, 2006)