Author's Note

Last Chapter Kyia pushed Athram off of his own bed. He landed on the floor with a loud thud and Craft and Rodney were almost in tears from laughing so hard. Someone knocked on the door and Kyia froze. Athram popped up over the side of the bed, only the top of his head and his eyes visible. Rodney got up to answer the door and Kyia was relieved to see Amery standing in the door rather than a palace servant or, gods forbid, Duke Graham himself.

"I think I found my cousin," Amery said sarcastically to no one in particular. "I knew that she would be at the centre of this cacophony."

Chapter 9

Another week passed quickly. The three boys Kyia had come to know as 'The Bastards' (nicknamed by Craft, Athram, and Rodney) kept a close eye on Kyia and Amira. She found that her brother was a regular in their company and didn't know whether to be shocked or not. Gavin had said they were friends. Athram was keeping a close eye on her as well, never letting her or the other two girls go anywhere alone.

Finally Market Day came, two weeks into the cool month of October. Duke Graham announced that all pages were allowed into the city from breakfast until supper the next day, unless they were confined to the palace for misbehavior. At that point he shot a dirty look at Brandon and Anthony who snickered and ducked behind their hands to hide their smiles. Duke Graham cautioned all the older pages to look after their charges and told the first year pages to stay close to their sponsors. Kyia was excited that morning when Rebar came to fetch her. She hadn't been into the city since she'd arrived in Corus.

"Stop bouncing, Kyi," Amery growled as she walked alongside him through the palace gates. He was in a bad mood because it was seven in the morning and he hadn't gotten enough sleep, or so he said.

"But I'm excited!" Kyia protested.

"I don't care," Amery grunted and glared at her with his piercing green eyes. Kyia stuck her tongue out at him and he made a grab for it. She retracted it into her mouth quickly and grinned.

"Too fast for you!" she teased and skipped away from him as he lashed viciously out at her. She bumped into Athram's back and he turned around and looked down at her.

"I see my young charge isn't very happy this morning?" he stated sarcastically. Kyia laughed.

"He's never happy any morning," she pointed out. Athram shrugged. He wasn't really a morning person, either.

"I think we'll be stealing you away from Rebar today," Athram told her as they ventured into the milling crowd. Even at this early hour the streets were alive with peasants and hawkers, thieves and nobles.

"Why?" Kyia inquired innocently.

"You'll see," Athram promised.

"Won't Rebar be mad?" Kyia asked hesitantly. Athram shook his shaggy blond head.

"He knows where we're taking you," he assured her.

"We?"

"Craft, Rodney, and I," Athram cleared for her.

"Who else is coming?" wondered Kyia allowed.

"Amery, Nolan, and Cade," replied Athram absently as he scrutinized over a piece of jewelry in a hawker's cart. Kyia shrugged and followed the group further into the crowd. She purchased a blue headscarf to put over her hair to keep it out of her eyes and a length of leather for a tether for Snowdust who had been left back at the palace because Kyia had no way of keeping track of her. They ate lunch at a small inn in the heart of the city. The food included a bowl of hot stew, a thick slice of fresh bread, and a cup of cool, refreshing water. Finally, as they were leaving the inn, Athram grabbed Kyia and Amery from the back.

"Let's go now," he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"What about Rebar?" Kyia questioned, gesturing at the tall Bazhir heading off in the opposite direction with the others. Kyia noticed Craft, Nolan, Rodney, and Cade standing behind Athram.

"Its okay," Athram said. He whistled and Rebar and a few of the older boys turned around and glanced at Athram. Athram pointed down at Kyia and then gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. Rebar nodded and waved. "Okay, let's go." Athram steered Kyia and Amery around and Rodney began leading them through the crowds once more. Five minutes later they were heading down a deserted side road.

There were no houses on either side, only a big, run-down, weathered mansion standing at the end of the street. The high stone wall surrounding the entire property was over run with ivy. From what Kyia could see through the bars on the wrought iron gate, which was also over run with ivy and chained shut with a thick iron chain and heavy lock, the property was littered with large amounts of leaves and other debris. Kyia followed the dirty, smashed, brick path up to the mansion with her eyes. The steps leading up to the porch were splintered and a hole was in one of them. The wrap around porch was dangerous looking with its railing broken at different intervals and the floor boards were warped or completely missing in some places. The front door was still set into the doorway but the paint was peeling off the surface and cracks were evident in the wood. The eaves troughs were clogged with countless years of debris and most of the windows were broken. A widow's walk wrapped around a spiraling tower on the right side of the house. A small once-white table sat on it with two matching chairs, one on it's side. Shingles from the roof were missing in several places, as well. A smaller building was beside the house. It looked like a shed, or had been once. The roof had caved in on the right side and the door was missing. A very tall, very old beech tree sheltered it, it's trunk twisted and it's branches were low enough to climb onto. The whole property looked like a death-trap.

"Where are we, Athram?" Kyia asked softly. She didn't know why, but she felt the need to whisper. The street was, indeed, silent. The only noise came from the leaves being stirred around by the breeze and the faint sounds coming from the market they'd left behind.

"Asgard Hall," Athram whispered back mysteriously.

"Thanks, Athram, that really helps," Kyia said sarcastically, but still quietly. Athram chuckled and then they came to a stop in front of the gates. A gust of wind swept past them and the gates on their hinges. A metallic creak echoed up and down the empty street. Kyia shivered involuntarily.

"What are we doing here?" inquired Amery. Beside him, Nolan was looking intently through the gates, his mind working furiously. Cade looked just as confused as Kyia felt.

"You'll see," assured Athram. "Shh. Listen."

Rodney walked up to the gate and carefully wrapped his hand around the second bars from the middle and recited in a whisper, "Yggdasril be opened."

He stepped back and the lock popped open. Before Kyia's eyes the chain began to unwind itself from around the gate as if invisible hands were doing it. Kyia stood wide-eyed between Athram and Amery as the chain dropped to the ground and the gates creaked open to admit them. Athram, Rodney, and Craft seemed completely unbothered by this unusual goings on and walked loftily through the gates and onto the broken path, glancing to either side and muttering a barely audible thanks to thin air.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Rodney asked the four young pages standing dumbstruck before the open gates. "Do you need an invitation? Come along!" Kyia was the first to take a hesitant step towards the entrance and then another, followed next by Nolan and then Amery and Cade. She stepped onto the broken brick pathway and then suddenly it wasn't broken anymore! Kyia stopped abruptly and looked up. Athram, Craft, and Rodney were standing just as they had been, though now they were grinning. The house behind them wasn't old and weathered and destroyed anymore! The windows were all whole now, the paint on the door wasn't peeling, the railings were intact as were the floor boards. The eaves troughs were clear, all the shingles were there, the house was in relatively good condition. The shed was upright, its roof wasn't buckled. The lawn was still littered with leaves, though not as many as she'd seen, and most of them were raked into piles. The path was whole, only a brick broken here or there. She looked behind her and was startled to see two big, tall, burly men standing on either side of the gate. Nolan had a look of realization on his face and Amery and Cade looked rattled.

"Well get on through," one of the men stated, but not unkindly. "We've got to lock the gate back up." Kyia and the boys walked unsurely the rest of the way to the older boys. They heard the tinkling of the heavy chain behind them as the two men picked it up then the creaking of the gates being closed and the clatter that meant they were winding it around the gates once more.

"Where are we?" Kyia repeated as soon as she reached them.

"Asgard Hall," Athram replied once again.

"Athram!" Kyia whined.

"Home of the Aesir Rogues," Craft finished for his friend.

"The who?" Amery asked rudely.

"Thieves," Rodney laughed.

"Theives!" Cade exclaimed. "Oh gods, we're gonna die!" The three older boys laughed and even Kyia cracked a smile.

"No, you're not gonna die," Rodney assured them. "I'm the son of an Aesir Rogue. Do you really think they're gonna kill one of their own or whoever I bring here?"

"You're a thief?" Cade choked.

"No," Rodney sighed. "Not technically. My mother is, or at least she was, a rogue. She was actually Queen of the Rogue way back when there was only one Court of the Rogue."

"They have a system of government?" Kyia asked, disbelieving.

"Of course they do!" Rodney said indignantly. "How else do you expect them to operate?"

Kyia opened her mouth to say something, closed her mouth, and shook her head. "Never mind."

"D'you lot want to get moving?" one of the men asked. "No offense or nuthin' but people can still see you as long as you're on Bifrost. And hear you. So either get off the path or get movin',"

"Sorry Heimdall," Athram said guiltily and then to Kyia and the boys. "Let's go. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Rodney and Craft had already started towards the steps.

"What's Bifrost?" Cade asked curiously.

"The path," Athram replied as he walked before them up to the mansion. "Its the only glitch in the magic protecting this place. Everything and everyone is invisible and inaudible inside these walls unless they're on this path. That's why you couldn't see Heimdall and Odin back there." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

"And Yggdasril is..." Nolan prodded, speaking for the first time.

"The gate," explained Athram. "Can't be opened from the outside, only from the inside."

"Doesn't anyone wonder why this place is chained shut?" Kyia inquired.

Athram shook his head. "No, the Rogue spreads rumors that its haunted. Most people believe it. Even if some one was brave enough to come here they wouldn't be able to get inside anyways. Unless they knew how."

"The thing Rodney said? Yggdasril be opened?" Kyia asked.

Athram nodded again. "And how he put his hands on the bars. The bars are the most important, I think." Kyia jumped up the steps two at a time and followed Rodney and Craft into the house. As soon as she stepped over the threshold the racket of dozens of people met her ears. Even a fiddle could be heard issuing from one of the rooms. The vast entrance hall was brightly lit from the open windows and warmth began to sink into Kyia's flesh. A staircase made of dark maple wound up to the upper floors, a deep red carpet running up the centre. A wardrobe, looking very out of place in an entrance hall, stood in the corner of the room. Men and women, boys and girls swarmed all over the house yelling and laughing. A boy a few years younger than Kyia slid down the banister on his bottom and fell in a heap at the bottom. Kyia thought he might be hurt but then he leaped to his feet and took off into a room to their right. No one took any notice of Kyia and her friends.

"Arkitec!" Athram bellowed. "Arkitec! Where are you?"

"He's off at the market," a kind looking, plump woman told him as she descended the stairs. She had light brown, graying hair, dark blue eyes, and rosy cheeks. She wore a starch white apron over her dark blue skirt and her crisp, light blue shirt was spotless. She was of average height and Athram, Craft, and Rodney seemed to know her.

"Hello, Falora," Craft said, taking a step towards her and letting her envelope him in a hug.

"Hello, Craft, my you've gotten tall," she said as she released him and hugged Rodney.

"You say that every time you see me, Falora," Craft reminded her.

"Well its true," the woman told him happily. "And you!" she said turning her attention to Rodney and hugging him. "You're looking a bit peaky. Are you sure you're eating all your vegetables?"

"Yes, Falora," Rodney laughed. Athram stepped into the woman's embrace next.

"Staying out of trouble?" she asked him playfully.

"Always," Athram replied with a smile as he pulled away and brandished at Kyia, Amery, Cade, and Nolan.

"Oh! Who are these darlings?" she exclaimed. The older boys laughed.

"These are our charges and Rebar's," Rodney said. "Kyia's the girl, Amery's the blond, grumpy one, Nolan's there with the black hair, and Cade's the one looking like he just swallowed a rock a bit too big for his throat."

"Rodney! Don't say such things!" the woman scolded maternally. Rodney grinned. "Well hello, my dears, I'm Falora," she introduced herself. "Its a pleasure to meet you all." Her blue eyes twinkled invitingly as she smiled warmly at them. "Oh aren't you just gorgeous!" she exclaimed as she looked at Kyia. Kyia smiled shyly. "Pretty as can be." And before Kyia knew what was happening the older woman had her wrapped in her arms. She could hear Amery snickering behind her and mentally cursed him. The woman released her and bustled over to Cade.

"Oh don't worry, dear, there's nothing wrong with you. You don't look like you choked on anything. And you have wonderful eyes!" she complimented him as she hugged him. Nolan was her next victim, who she commented was a 'handsome devil'. Amery was last and as she turned on him Kyia saw the snicker die on his lips. "You look just like Kyia!" she observed. "The same nose and jaw." She hugged him to her bosom and then bustled back towards the stairs.

"Do you know when Arkitec will be back from the market?" Athram called as she climbed back up the stairs. Falora chuckled.

"That boy was supposed to be back ten minutes ago!" she said and disappeared onto the second floor. Athram laughed as well and looked back at Kyia and the boys.

"That's Falora," he said. "She's got enough love to fill the palace ten times over." Kyia smiled with Athram and stepped further into the house. Athram led them into a room that looked to be the dining room. It was filled with several small round tables and chairs. People sat at different tables doing different things. At one table three men were playing cards, at another two young boys were playing with stones. Rodney led the way to an empty table and they sat down there. A teenaged girl appeared through a swinging door on the far side of the room with a tray of cups and a jug of lemonade. She set it down on the table in front of Kyia and then disappeared back through the door. Kyia was sipping her lemonade when she heard the front door slam shut and then a boy appeared in the doorway to the dining room, chest heaving. He grinned at Athram.

"Your mother says you should have been back ten minutes ago!" Athram called over to him as the boy began to weave his way through the tables and chairs towards them. "That was about five minutes ago, though."

"So I got a little bit distracted," the boy called back. "So what? You gonna kill me for it?"

"No but you're mother might," Craft laughed back.

"Fair enough," the boy said and dropped into the only available chair at the table, next to Kyia. He looked to be about the same age and height as Athram, with white-blond hair and blue eyes. He turned towards Kyia and she blushed.

"Well, hello!" the boy laughed. "I'm Arkitec, nice to meet you."

"Hi," Kyia said.

"D'you have a name or should I just call you The Pretty One?" he asked teasingly. Kyia's blush deepened.

"I'm Kyia," she told him.

"And she's ten," Athram interjected. "You probably shouldn't be flirting with ten year olds."

"I was not flirting," Arkitec said defiantly. "I was complementing. There is a difference, you know?" Athram snorted.

"Well if you weren't flirting then I guess you'd like to know who these three are too?" asked Craft and Arkitec nodded. Craft introduced Amery, Nolan, and Cade quickly and Arkitec greeted each of them energetically.

"So you're all nobles, too, I suppose?" he asked them. They nodded. "I see. I was just robbing nobles." Athram burst out laughing, as did Rodney and Craft. Lemonade sprayed out Craft's nostrils and Kyia laughed. "Really!" Arkitec said honestly. He hadn't even cracked a smile yet. He raised his arm and dropped three small purses onto the table. "See? Told ya!" Kyia and her friends continued to laugh and Arkitec grinned childishly.

"Arkitec Reeves!" a commanding voice shouted. Everyone turned to face Falora standing in the doorway, hands on hips.

"Hello, mother!" Arkitec greeted her jovially. "Can I help you?"

"Can you help me?" she asked disbelievingly. "You were supposed to be back twenty minutes ago, young man. You could have been caught or - or dead!"

"You worry too much, mother," Arkitec told her and rose from his seat to meet her with a peck on the cheek. "Have I ever been caught? And I'm not going to ask if I've ever been dead because, well, I think that would be sort of obvious..."

"That's not the point!" Falora cried. "There's always a chance you'll be caught. Always!"

"I know, mother, that's why I'm careful," coaxed Arkitec.

"You better be," Falora told him.

"I am."

Falora turned on her heel and walked out of the dining room. Arkitec watched her go and as soon as she turned the corner he sat back down heavily.

"Why were you late, anyway?" Rodney asked curiously.

"I was being chased by the Palace Guard," he said indifferently and took a swig of his lemonade while everyone else burst out laughing once more. "What? I got away from them, didn't I?" The rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly. Arcitec was yelled at by the cook, and then again by his mother, and then once by one of the older thieves. He managed to sweet talk his way out of all of them and Kyia was stunned by him. Finally dusk began to fall, made earlier by the late season, and Kyia and her friends were forced to leave. Kyia did so reluctantly. She had only been in Asgard Hall for a couple hours but already she found she loved being there. She walked through the gates, past Heimdall and Odin. She heard the gates clang shut behind her and looked around. The chain was winding itself around the gate once more and Asgard Hall and Bifrost and the shed were returned to their broken state. Heimdall and Odin had disappeared. Kyia couldn't wait until the next market day to go back.

Author's Note Hello! There's Chapter 9! Wow!