Chapter 7: Behind the Heiress's Door

Odale walked beside Rodrian. He actually looked a bit like her father, but much older than what her father was. Or had been like when he died. The hair growing from his temples were turning iron-grey, and his beard was seemingly fading.

He was a rebel. She couldn't get beyond that. Her uncle was a rebel. It was hard to digest, even though he didn't look like what she thought a rebel would look like. The boys she'd met earlier didn't look like what she'd imagined rebels to look like, either, but they were different. They weren't her uncle. "Your name is Odale, right?" Rodrian asked her.

Great, Odale thought. Her uncle had already forgot her name. "Yes," she just said.

Rodrian smiled. "I saw you fight," he said. "You were good. Did Marcia really teach you that?"

Odale's cheeks turned red. "No," she replied. If he'd grown up in the Castle, he would more than likely know who DomDaniel was.

Then, Odale thought, on the other hand Rodrian was a rebel. Maybe he'd like DomDaniel? Maybe... Rodrian's hand brushed against her shoulder. "Then who did?" he asked her carefully.

"My old mentor," Odale answered.

Seemingly, Rodrian realized that she didn't want to talk about it. "How's your sister?" he changed the subject, which Odale didn't like any better.

"Well," Odale replied.

"You've talked a lot to her, I suppose?" he asked her. She hadn't. Odale could probably count how many times she'd met Lorea since their first encounter, and Lorea made her uneasy. She was supposed to be dead, wasn't she?

Besides, Odale almost felt as if Lorea had taken her place as Cashmére's daughter. She knew that she'd been trying to avoid Cashmére for a while, but she had grown more and more to like her... and it was as if Lorea had gotten in between. It wasn't that Odale disliked Lorea. Maybe she didn't appreciate that Lorea had came at just that time, but she didn't hate her...

She realized that Rodrian had asked her a question. Embarrassed, she had to ask him to repeat himself. "So, Marcia's your tutor?" he asked her, again.

Odale nodded. "How is it to have your aunt as your tutor?" he asked her. Odale shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "Okay..."

Rodrian stopped. "Alexander," he said. Odale looked up, and widened her eyes. She'd thought he was dead.

Alexander Flarthy stood infront of her, with a smirk as wide as ever. "Rodrian," Flarthy raised a hand as a greeting. "And miss Overstrand. Funny to see the two of you together here, seeing as the two of you look... very alike. Seeing it as you're madam Marcia's sister, and miss here is-"

Her uncle put a protective hand on her shoulder. "Odale here," he said. "Is actually my daughter."

Odale tried not to look surprised. "Funny," Flarthy said. "How did she end up in the snow, then, Rodrian? Did Runa leave her there?"

"Mistake," her uncle murmured. "Now, I haven't seen my daughter for a few years. Will you leave us alone, now, please?"

Rodrian dug his fingers into her arm, dragged her away. Odale felt an odd feeling of coldness build up inside her. Had Rodrian lied to Flarthy, or was what he said true? He couldn't be his father, could he? Was that why she wasn't blonde, like her mother and sister?

When Flarthy was out of sight, her uncle stopped her again. "Odale," he said. "How do you know him? Does he know who you are?"

"He knows I'm Marcia's niece, that's all," Odale replied. "I... he worked at the Tower, and before that-"

"With DomDaniel, I know," Rodrian said. "You're the little..?"

"The little what?" Odale snapped.

"Assassin?" he asked her. Odale nodded.

"Are you really going to let a girl humiliate you like that?" his brother said. People looked at them funny, probably because they didn't understand the language. Alistair liked that, from time to time. That no one understood what he said...

"Of course not," he replied. "But what can I do? Overstrand keeps appearing beside her, like some kind of guardian..."

Alistair sighed. "But sure, if I get the chance, of course I will beat her to pieces..."

Jerome raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can manage?" he asked him, with a glimpse in his eye. "Because you couldn't beat Yvonne-"

"Shut up," Alistair growled. "We don't talk about her, remember?"

His brother laughed at him. "You're still pathetic," he said. "She's gone now, anyways."

"She's our sister," Alistair said. "She'll never be gone."

Alistair was still angry with their sister, who'd left them. 'I feel so misplaced, Alistair', she'd said. 'I can't live like this anymore'. Of course she could have, Alistair thought. She just didn't want to, she was just lazy...

Jerome grabbed him by the arm. "See that over there?" he whispered smiling. Alistair looked. It was a girl, with black hair. The girl saw them, too, unfortunately. Alistair watched her. She was about the same age as the girl who'd almost beat him, but she didn't look especially fast.

He made a move towards her. Before he or Jerome could react, the girl was gone. They looked at each other. Was she some kind of witch? The purple eyes had made him feel uneasy.

Odale stopped. "This is where my mother lives," she said. It looked bizarrely normal, Rodrian thought. Nothing hinted that the Eastern Snowplains former Heiress lived there... He looked at her.

A few years ago, he would have killed her mother if he could have. Actually he had imagined it at some points and once he'd almost done it. Rodrian didn't know what had changed, what had happened to him. He simply didn't find any pleasure in it any more.

His niece opened the door to him. "Mum!" Odale shouted. "I'm back!"

"Odale!" Cashmére said. When she saw Rodrian, she froze. Rodrian froze too. He had forgot to take his cloak off.

"Mum?" Odale said. "This is Rodrian, my uncle. Mum, I know it looks bad, but-"

Cashmére laughed. She actually laughed, and Rodrian stared at her in confusion. So did Odale. "This isn't happening," she laughed. "First you bring home that myling... and now this."

"Uhm," Rodrian decided to interfere. "Is Lorea home?"

Odale's mother gave Rodrian an angry look. "What do you care?" she spat. Rodrian looked to his feet. Cashmére had every right to be mad with him. Perhaps he'd hoped that, since he'd take care of Lorea, she wouldn't be so... furious, but he'd been wrong.

The former Heiress shook her head. "Since Lorea came back..." the woman stopped, as if to think. "I've been thinking about what could be said. If I'm grateful, angry or something in between."

Rodrian's mouth was as dry as desert. "But I'm not angry, I'm furious," Cashmére said. Then, her voice was raised. "You, just as all the other rebels, took my daughter from me. You took my husband from me-"

"I took care of your daughter!" Rodrian protested. "For years and years-"

"If you truly cared," Cashmére's voice was dripping with poison. "You would have given her back to her father and me. We would have been grateful, but now... you've wrecked a family!"

Rodrian closed his eyes. It was true. Every word of it. Cashmére's eyes flashed and she sent away a ray towards him. He barely dodged it. "I don't want to fight you!" he said.

"Coward!" she growled. The carpet underneath his feet was ripped from underneath him, and both he and Odale fell. Cashmére made the carpet wrap around him. "I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"

"Mum!" Odale exclaimed. "Stop it now! He's my uncle."

Cashmére's arms dropped to her sides and looked at her youngest daughter. "Odale," she said softly. "Don't you see? He took your sister from you, did he not?"

Her daughter nodded. "But you left me," Odale said. "With the intent to kill me."

Cashmére looked away, the same way Rodrian had. "I know, amica," Cashmére mumbled. "But I... I didn't want you to suffer."

"You couldn't even kill me," Odale said venomously. "You didn't even give me that. You just left me."

"Love-"

"So don't come and say that he deserves to die, because he did far more for Lorea than you ever did for me!" Odale snapped. Cashmére nodded.

"Well, then," she said. "Rodrian, Lorea will be here in a moment. She's out with a friend for the moment."

In a way, Zamir liked being alone. No one stared at his eyepatch when he was alone, nor did anyone whisper anything close enough for him to hear that they were whispering but not close enough for hint to hear what they said. He really liked all that, but there was one part he didn't like.

The being-alone part. But with Odale having pretty much left him, he had no one. Except for his new mentor, of course, but that was different. His new mentor was a good person, Zamir could tell, but he could not confide in his new mentor. Zamir fiddled with his sleeve. And Odale was furious. Maybe she even hated him.

Zamir had told her he'd known that Merrin had the Two-Faced Ring. At first, she'd laughed at him. He'd been angry, too, said that it wasn't a joking matter. Then he'd seen how her eyes went all dark. Then, the silence had begun. She'd said nothing to him for days, looked and walked right past him... At last Septimus had convinced her to talk to him. And she had. Or yelled at him, more so. Afterwards Odale had left him alone again. She'd told him he was just as bad as Merrin had been.

He closed his eyes. He'd already known he was. All of it wasn't his fault, he'd always been an unlucky bird. Zamir had his eye to prove it. He hit his hand hardly into the wall, but it only hurt and didn't relieve his anger. "Zamir!" his mentor called. "I need you here. Pronto."

"Rodrian!" Lorea laughed. "Rodrian!"

She threw herself at him, Rodrian wrapped her arms around her. "Lorea," Rodrian hugged her, "I've missed you so much."

Lorea smiled. "Where's Runa?" she asked. Rodrian's voice caught in his throat.

"In an inn, just," Rodrian said. "Where we're staying.

"Okay," Lorea said.

Cashmére grabbed Odale by the arm. "Don't you want to say hello to Colum and Lorea?" she asked. Odale shook her head.

"I need to go, now, mum," she said. "Marcia said she wanted me to go back to the Tower at once. With Septimus gone, there's twice as much work to be done..."

"Well that's not fair, is it?" Cashmére replied. "Please stay, Odale. It's family, after all."

"I know, it's just that Marcia wanted me home," Odale said. "I can't just ignore her. At least not today..."

Her mother sighed. Then, Odale saw it. Cashmére was jealous, of Rodrian. Odale smiled. "But you can go with me, at least part of the way," Odale continued. Cashmére smiled back at her daughter.

"Of course," she said. "I'd love to. Let me just get my coat..."

"C'mon!" Jerome rose to his feet. "Let's get her now."

Alistair laughed at him. "No," he said. "As I've said, a hundred times about now. Will you leave it alone for a while, Jerome?"

Jerome snorted, sat down. "So, you're not going to do anything, then?" he asked.

"Of course I am," Alistair said. "I actually have a plan... but not yet. I'll have to wait a little while."