AN: Please note that this is THREE years later! (I don't know about you, but I never pay attention to the dates- I'm a spaz that way! And other ways!)

Thanks to C. T. Eleczko, Ginastar, fairydust000, Lady Merlin, Pie of Doomeh, and Darking Girl for your reviews! Thank you to my betas! It's thanks to KyrieofAccender that you guys have this chapter!

Disclaimer: I'm not Tamora Pierce. Tortall, the Copper Isles, Carthak, and most of the characters, etc, are NOT mine! Cyne, her brother and sister, Brand, and Merle are mine! That's about it!


Chapter Seven

Tempting the Gods

September 8th 480 H. E.

"Hey!" Rolling her eyes, Cyne ignored Brand's indignant protest as she strode down the hall. "Wait up!" Sighing, she paused at the top of the stairwell and looked back, eyebrows raised at her companion. Gasping for breath, he jogged up to her and stopped. A smile playing across her lips, she instantly turned and began walking even faster. "Now you're doing that on purpose! Slow up a bit!"

"Thankfully for you, Brand," she drawled. "-spies don't have to be very physically fit."

"Of course they have to be, I- hey!" he squawked. When she turned back to him, Cyne did not bother hiding the smile. She cocked an eyebrow.

"Took you long enough to figure out I was insulting you."

"Well, for your information, I just ran to catch up with you. All the way from Merle's chambers!" She gasped.

"Oh, no!" she said mockingly. "All that way, only to have me walk away from you at a decent pace!"

"Decent pace, my frigging-" Cyne looked up to the ceiling as Brand swore. "I don't know how you do it, small as you are." It was true; he was a full head taller than her.

"Quiet," she snapped, tossing her dark braid over a shoulder. "I want to find out what your parents and my aunt were talking about-"

"And I say it's none of your business! That's why they aren't discussing it with you-" She fell momentarily deaf to him as she turned down the corridor leading to Dove's study.

"If you aren't going to shut up, you should go," she said in the most cheerful voice she could manage. "Before I hit you over the head with something," she continued in a mutter.

"Oh, now you're resorting to threats. You're becoming more like Merle by the da-"

"Shh!"

"-but-" Whirling around, Cyne glared warningly at him, one finger expressively pointing back the way they had come. "But-"

"Nope!" she interrupted him, a dangerously tyrannical glitter in her eye. "I"m starting to think that Merle has the right idea of it! Go away if you're going to talk! Go on!"

"I-"

"Ah ah ah!" She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. With a huff and a less-than-dignified glare her way, Brand fell silent, and Cyne allowed herself a smug smile. She had known his curiosity would get the better of him, just as hers got the better of her all the time, which had led to the plan to eavesdrop when she had heard Lady Alianne and Dove talking about her. Brand should have known better than to hinder when she was seeking answers.

She had promised Merle to find out whatever it was, since the other girl was too sick to get up. A few days ago, Merle had been watching one of the noble's children when the poor boy chucked up the contents of his stomach all over her lap. Whatever she had caught, both of her friends knew they did not want to be anywhere nearby...

The two crept towards the door. In one swift step, Cyne moved so that she was on the opposite side of the door, ear pressed up against the crack, her body positioned so that she would not be seen through the door cracks. Dove had told her that Aly had once caught her spying because of that mistake.

Several months were spent torturing Brand after the exciting birthday three years earlier that ended with many huffy noblewomen stalking out with food stuck to their gowns. Finally, Cyne had found out that Taybur Sibigat was an assistant to none other but the spymaster of the Copper Isles, who simply happened to be Lady Alianne, Merle's mother. It made sense, she had decided, after she had spent a couple of hours wondering why she had not pieced it together herself. After all, Merle and Brand had been trained for what she knew to be spy work now, and she had been with them the whole time. It was hardly her fault if she could not figure out so simple an answer-

"-as I was saying," she heard Dove continue doggedly. "I haven't an idea on how to keep such news from her." Cyne stiffened; she didn't like to be vain, but she could not doubt that she was the 'she' Dove was referring to. Why else would they leave when her aunt saw her walk in? Despite advice from Aly, Dove trusted Cyne with anything and everything that went on, in the palace and out of it. "I mean, her parents… were not happy, and-"

"Then just tell her!" Cyne recognized the voice of Lady Alianne, otherwise known as Aly. "Dammit, it isn't that terrible!"

"Oh?" Dove demanded, voice slightly shrill. "That pirates have invaded the coastline of Carthak and she won't be seeing her family any time soon?"

Cyne's stomach sank; she had not seen her family since she had last left Carthak, about three years ago. Finally, they were supposed to come and see her, but if Carthak had pirate trouble-

"I ought to know about not seeing family," Aly was saying. "Dove, it's hard, but not impossible. She'll still be able to function-"

"Oh, function. Yes, as long as she can still walk and talk, that's fine." The queen's voice was bitter. "I'm sorry, I forgot her welfare is my concern-"

"-as well as mine," Aly injected sharply. "She's my daughter's friend. One of my daughter's closest friends. And she's my dearest friend's niece. I might not know her very well-"

"No, you-"

"-for reasons of concealing my-"

"Aly, there is little cause for concern. She knows you're the spymaster of the Isles." There was a long silence.

"What?" the woman asked quietly, sounding stunned.

"Either she found out herself, or Brand or Merle told her," Dove explained. "I don't know how I know she knows or how I found out- she just does." She hesitated. "I don't think you give her enough credit. She knows how to keep her mouth shut."

"I agree with that," Aly muttered, still distracted.

"And she's growing more and more important as she grows up. Soon she will be part of the elite circle that knows who you are and knows the details of the secrets of the kingdom!"

"Of course, of course," she muttered. "Sorry, Dove." Cyne heard Dove's familiar sigh and smiled. She could almost see her aunt brushing a few loose strands of her hair out of her face. It was something Dove always did when she was agitated. "I'm just so caught up in-"

"Work," Dove completed practically. "Yes. I know. We all are." Cyne jerked her head at Brand, and they drew away and down the hall. She had found out what she had wanted to know, and she would have to be as cheerful as ever until Dove told her.

She missed her father. Ysul was a great teacher, but he still was not her father. He never teased her or complained about his day with her... And she missed Mequen. Her brother had always been a steady presence in her life, and now he was a shadow of a presence, somewhere across the Emerald Ocean, sending letters when he could.

He had been at the training school for knights for two years, and was doing well there. Cyne had not heard from her mother or Neoma, but she had expected that. Neoma was young, and her mother... was her mother. Cyne sighed. Sarai certainly meant well, and would have written... if she had had the patience to sit down at a desk and puzzle out what to say in a letter that would travel over land and sea to her waiting daughter. Sometimes, Cyne wondered if her mother had even bothered to pick up a quill and attempt to write a note or two.

But what worried her more was that she was not sure if she herself cared whether Sarai had or not.

"Well, I'm not caught up in work," Brand murmured lowly as they reached one of the many reception halls. Lips twitching in amusement, Cyne noticed that several of the primmed and well-dressed girls- all of whom were only a few years older than she- looked at her with mixed disgust for her breeches, envy for her companion, and shock that they were alone. She doubted they knew who she was, and was grateful for it. If they did know, they would probably surround her with their fake smiles and compliments, each trying to gain the favor of the Queen. Cyne snorted; as if what she thought of them could make them higher in her aunt's esteem! Then again, the girls would still probably be more intrigued with her companion.

Brand was an attractive young man, when he made an effort to be presentable. His tangled black hair had- at closer inspection- golden threads that shone in the sun, and his deep, darkly honey-colored eyes captured the fancy of more than one young woman. He was also tall enough for most ladies to accept as a dancing partner without question, and muscular from his combat training. Cyne and Merle had long ago decided not to mention this to Brand. As Merle put it, if his head swelled anymore, Brand would need new hats. And it would cruel for the two girls to add to his expenses. The boy in question looked to the ceiling and a long sigh escaped him. Cyne's eyebrows rose slightly.

"What?"

"I wish that somebody up there would give me something to do. I'm bored, and nothing productive comes out of being bored, except lovely verses that describe the beauty of young women at Co- Yewoch!" He glared at Cyne, who was already studying the opposite wall innocently.

"As you were saying, absolutely nothing productive comes out of sitting around bored," she replied as they passed by several giggling young noblewomen. "But I ought to clot you over the head for jinxing us like that, except that I am proclaiming to the gods now that I have nothing to do with you and thus should not be dragged off on whatever harebrained quest they can think up for your lack of appreciation for boredom. You ever hear what happened to Merle's ma? She got kidnapped by pirates and hauled off to the slave pens after she started wishing for excitement." Brand sighed woefully.

"Ah, for the trials of the world around us. I wish something exciting could happen to-"

"You, and you alone," Cyne said firmly. "Nothing about me or Merle. We like our eternal boredom."

"Ah, but no one writes about those that manage to survive that peril," he replied dramatically as they swept out the hall and the gazes of oogling girls and glares of well-groomed matrons. "I would like a ballad, all to myself-"

He was silenced by a barrage of teasing hits all the way down to the stables.


September 29th 480 H. E.

The streets were dark, and the tall buildings shadowed the bustling crowd even more. As pickpockets and prostitutes slipped out into the world before them, merchants closed up shop and locked whatever rare valuable there might have been away. And, unknown to the world around them, three folk observed the scenes around them with the air of those who had never been there before without a proper guard.

"Don't tell me that you're chickening out now," Brand whispered. Cyne swallowed as her wary, bright eyes traveled around their surroundings.

"This was a stupid idea," Merle hissed. "Sneaking out of the palace. At dusk, too!" Then she glanced down at her fine clothes and grimaced. "In these! I think not, Brand!"

"You should have thought about that before," he retorted smugly. "Me and Cyne wore the right sort of-"

"Yeah, as close as I could get. It still isn't close enough to common clothes, even for wealthy merchants. Remember that the two of us girls don't have so much to wear that can pass for-"

"It ain't bad," he said, flexing his fingers lazily. Cyne was tired of this game; she scowled angerily at Brand.

"Yes, it is. If you had the brains of a skunkĀ­-"

"-along with the stink of one," Merle chimed in.

"-then you'd know we shouldn't be doing this."

"So? Blame it on me." Cyne could barely hear her friend in the din around them; she grabbed her two friends and slipped down out of the square before retorting.

"That doesn't work; we'll only get in more trouble for trying to push the blame to you. You idiot, it would be better just to-" Cyne and Brand both whirled around as Merle screamed.

While they had been arguing, they had wandered down a narrow, dark street.

And, somehow, it had to be empty, except for-

Cyne froze as about ten, burly men crept out of the shadows around them. Two blocked the entrance to the loud, bustling marketplace where one would be relatively safe. A small gasp escaped her lips as two more thugs blocked off the rest of the alley and their friends spread out around the two pairs.

And if their hard, confident expressions meant anything, they were not about to let three young nobles get away.


AN: Eeeee. Not the best of cliffhangers, I know. I'll try to do better in the future.

I also realize it's shorter than most of my other chapters. But I think that it was nessecary to end here.

I will have chapter 8 on Tuesday. Perhaps even Monday, but Monday's a busy day for me... Working at a kids' camp, basketball, and soccer practice keep me busy. Very busy.

Oh, by the way, if any of you like, check out Group Askew! It's a roundrobin group that I'm part of. Right now, we're writing Eldorne's Atonement, a story about Delia's young relative and how she tries to redeem Eldorne's good name!