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Desert

Chapter 11: Chivalry

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Alanna peered cautiously around the corner. With a quick glance, she counted seven slaves and half a dozen bodyguards in the anteroom that led to Ozorne's suite. She remembered Numair saying that Ozorne didn't like to be disturbed by frightened slaves or paranoid guards, and that all the rooms were magically guarded anyway.

She smiled. A challenge!

Ducking back around the corner, she shut her eyes and made her breathing deep and even. Reaching into her mind, she pulled out a series of peaceful images- violets, the whisper of the waves near her home, soft duck-feather quilts, siege walls with the gates wide open, her sleeping children… she smiled and tied all the images into a powerful sleep spell. When someone was spelled, they would replace all the images with ones of their own. Alanna was almost stirred out of her meditation when she herself yawned, but tied the ends of the spell together and sent them swirling on the air currents in the room. There were eleven thuds as every person in the room fell asleep.

"Nicely done." Numair said from the shadows close behind her. Alanna jumped and glared at him.

"You could have told me you were there!"

"What's the fun in that?" Numair peered around the corner at the sleeping servants. A soft purple haze floated over each of their faces.

"They're all smiling. You must be in a good mood, Alanna." Numair walked into the anteroom and began picking up the guards weapons.

"Stop teasing, you…what the hell happened?" The stocky woman gasped, catching sight of Daine. She was inspecting one of the purple hazes with interest, oblivious to the dried blood and tears on her face. Alanna ran to her and wiped the blood off, wincing at the deep gouges underneath.

"I had an…argument with Katryn." Daine whispered. Alanna raised a hand to heal her, but the girl flinched away from the glow of the gift and pulled away from the knight. Alanna pursed her lips in annoyance and looked up at Numair enquiringly. He inspected a short dagger avidly, and said in a totally flat voice,

"Katryn tried to kill Daine. I stopped her. She lost control of her gift and died. I tried to stop her from that as well, but…" he tailed off, throwing the dagger away. Alanna nodded and looked at the ornate doors at the end of the anteroom.

"Daine, we have a job to do. You don't have to come with us."

"I want to." Daine replied, squaring her shoulders and looking Alanna straight in the eye. The knight smiled slightly, nodded a second time, and opened the doors.

The room was almost entirely dominated by an enormous canopied bed. Heaps of cushions and embroidered sheets made it look like there were several people in the bed- a safety precaution, in case a would-be assassin decided to stab the lump under the blanket. One of the lumps sat up and blinked blearily at the three visitors.

"Ah… I see my suspicions about you were correct, Daine." Ozorne said, as calmly as if he were surrounded by bodyguards. "I'm disappointed with Katryn…I'm sure I told her to kill you."

"She's dead." Daine spoke strongly, although the ingrained deference to this man was making her tremble.

"And the Lady Knight… looking for this, I dare say." The emperor continued unaffected, swinging the ember stone from its new chain around his neck. "Arram, did you know she had this? Such a pretty prize for the lioness to hide from you, don't you think? It would have been so much more effective in the hands of a true mage, rather than this woman."

"I knew she had it." Numair sounded surprised. Daine wondered what the stone actually did. Alanna gritted her teeth and held a hand out to the emperor.

"Give it back, and your death will be quick and painless."

Ozorne laughed. "How very cliché. You seem to misunderstand…" He clapped his hands. Instantly, the shadows in the room came alive. Guards streamed in from every corner, and each of the remaining doors. They surrounded the three intruders, weapons drawn.

"As you can see, you're outnumbered, outsmarted and generally outdone." Ozorne's voice became hard. "Throw down your weapons."

Alanna glanced at Numair and drew her sword. She smiled sweetly at the Emperor and lifted her sword, as if to hand it to the guards.

"Seize them." Spat Ozorne.

Alanna uttered an animal roar and spun, pushing the circle of guards back from her. Ozorne smirked and curled a fist around the stone, a dark pool of magic clouding around him as he called on it. Numair uttered a spell. The bolt of magic shattered against Ozorne's shield. Numair quickly cast similar shields on himself, Alanna and Daine, and started throwing fire at the soldiers, looking drained and desperate.

Alanna quickly moved among the guards, not bothering to kill them, just disabling their sword arms or disarming them. The flow of soldiers continued as she cut her way through the crowd.

"There's too many of them!" She yelled to Numair over the noise of shrieks and battle cries. "I can't even cut through to get to Ozorne!"

"My magic doesn't work against him- I'm too tired to break his shield. You'll have to keep trying!" The mage replied. Alanna nodded grimly and continued to hew herself a path.

The pool of magic darkened, and suddenly vanished with a noise like a thunderclap. Ozorne looked surprised but concentrated on the stone once again, this time putting all his power into the spell.

"Numair!" Alanna screamed, plunging a dagger into a soldier's arm, "He doesn't know how the stone works! If you could just…"

There was a sudden snarl, and an even more sudden scream. As one, all the guards, and their two enemies, turned to stare at the enormous bed.

A sleek mountain wolf was crouched on the bed, ready to leap at any guard who approached it. Cuts on its face made its expression almost demonic, and its muzzle was covered in blood. Next to it, the body of Ozorne lay prone, a dark stain spreading from what used to be its throat. Unnoticed by the fighting warriors, the wolf had crept in the gaps between the sea of legs, silently slinking up to Ozorne while he was intent on the stone.

The guards gasped as one, as the wolf effortlessly bit through the chain that lay about the corpse's throat, and picked up what looked like a live coal in its jaws. It regarded the soldiers with an air of obvious contempt.

"Gods…" an awestruck guard whispered.

"It is a minion of the gods, come to pass judgment on us!" wailed another. Several guards backed away, making the symbol against evil.

"It killed the emperor!" a third guard accurately observed.

"Kill it!"

"After you!" The observant guard offered generously.

The wolf uttered a primeval snarl, muffled by the ember stone in its jaws. With nothing left to protect, and a snarling beast eyeing their throats, the guards turned and ran from the room. The wolf wagged its tail happily and jumped from the bed, running from the room.

Alanna and Numair glanced at each other and ran to follow it. The wolf quickly led them through a twisting series of passages, avoiding the main corridors where they would have been spotted. Abruptly, they turned a corner and saw the causeway that led to the docks. The wolf put the stone down carefully and looked back at the two mages.

"Alanna! Numair!" A sailor ran down the jetty, his voice heavy with worry. "We have to hurry! We…" he caught sight of the wolf and gulped. The wolf looked at him, then whined and darted away.

"Daine- wait!" Numair called, starting after her. Alanna grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"The tide turns soon- we have to leave! They're not going to be pleased with us when they find the emperor."

"We can't leave her here. I'll be back soon." The tired mage pulled his arm free and ran after the wolf.

Daine was in the stables, human again and frantically buckling a halter onto Cloud. The pony was shifting uneasily, not understanding the haste, or why she had been dragged from the warm hay so early.

"Daine," said Numair softly. The girl spun round, tears sliding down her cheeks, and glared at him.

"You're in the way. I have to leave." She wiped her eyes angrily and took hold of the halter, turning the pony around in the cramped stall. Numair blinked, confused.

"Where are you going? Aren't you coming with us?" Daine flinched and dropped the rope she'd been tying to the halter.

"I can't. I… I saw how scared that man was. How long would it be, do you think, before everyone in your country tells their children stories about the wild girl to make them behave? Before they lock their doors at every stranger, before they hunt me down? It's happened before." She said bitterly, picking up the rope and tying it, "It will happen again."

She looked at the floor. "I'm going into the desert. No-one else will die because of me."

"You will die." Numair said, leaning against the doorway wearily. "No, don't interrupt- listen to me. If you hadn't helped us, both Alanna and I would have died tonight. We owe you our lives. We will never let you be hunted, or locked out. You stopped Ozorne from attacking our country. No-one will fear you, they will value you for the person you are. You will be free. If you go into the desert, you will die."

"I deserve to die," she whispered, "I'm a murderer."

Numair stood up and scowled at her. "You're stubborn, irrational and misguided, but you certainly aren't a murderer and you definitely don't deserve to die. If you did, I wouldn't be here trying to talk you out of it."

Listen to the stork-man. Cloud advised, edging closer to a tasty patch of straw. You did what you had to do, to survive. Ozorne is the murderer, not you. Pass me those oats.

Daine smiled shakily at the pony, and glanced at Numair. "Can I bring Cloud with me? She's all I have left."

Numair nodded and took the leading rope. "It will be difficult, you know- we're still at war."

Daine smiled up at him as they fell into step together. "I know. But this time, I choose to fight."

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The End

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A/N: Well, that's it! The first story I've ever completed. As you can probably tell, there's going to be a sequel, but I'm going to write a good deal of it first before I start uploading it, so there aren't as many long waits. Obviously there isn't that much D/N in this story- that will develop in the sequel.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed- your ideas and constructive comments really helped!