Forgetting the Past

Chapter 11

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Kel had discovered the Marble Gardens after two weeks in the palace, about the time she forgave Dom for his cruel remark and the incident with Lady Jaine. She even helped Dom avoid the aforementioned Lady, who was still besotted with him more than a month after the one ball they had attended together.

In any case, the Marble Gardens had rapidly become one of Kel's favorite locations within the palace. True, they didn't have the rich scents and natural, flawless beauty of the real gardens, but they were cool during the day, and there was something about the delicate white blossoms carved from marble that decorated this room that had captured her heart. It was always quiet; most people found the silent stillness of the lifeless marble sculptured eerie and preferred to be elsewhere. But Kel knew she would never keep her mask in place by picture a lake again; instead, she would always picture this room, intricately carved of marble to form a garden forever frozen in colorless time.

I'm waxing poetic, she thought with a slight smirk.

There was a particularly beautiful portion with carved sparrows bathing in a carved fountain –no water in it, of course, to disturb the silence- that she loved best of all. After several days of wondering around this marvel, she had learned to move more silently than ever before, so that she would not break the spell that seemed to be over the place. Soundlessly, she drifted towards the elaborate fountain, passing carved lattice trellises lined with pale marble roses and the trunks of elegant marble trees that disappeared into clouds of delicate, individually carved marble leaves.

She spent nearly half an hour there, reflecting on her current place in life and remembering, with some regret and some happiness, the past, before leaving. She did not really care to admit it, but she was finding that she enjoyed this life just as much as her life in Tortall and her knighthood, and the peaceful peasant life she had lead in Galla.

If I had been prettier, I wouldn't have minded being a lady. Mamma would have made sure I was still allowed to practice my glaive, so I wouldn't have been entirely useless.

Finally, after nearly half an hour, she left the Marble Gardens to dress for dinner. She was almost halfway back to the suite she shared with Dom and Neal when a short, nervous, ratlike man shuffled up to her, nearly wringing his hands with anxiety. Several other noblemen were standing around –this was a popular place to rest after spending the day hunting or working on the palace training grounds- watching with amusement.

"Please… Lady Kiiala… would… wouldyouallowescortball?"

"I beg your pardon?" Kel asked, looking at him more sharply now. He had longish black hair pulled back from his face in several braids, which only made his nose seem to stand out farther from his face his chin and forehead recede farther, so that he looked not ratlike, but like a rat.

"Would you-" the man began again, more slowly this time, before a handsome man with the look of a Tyran about him interrupted.

"Lord Immiar is foolish enough to hope that a beauty like you would allow a rat like him to escort you. Of course, my beautiful lady, you needn't settle for him. I would be happy to escort you." A cocky smile adorned the man's handsome face.

"I- I…" Lord Immiar stammered.

Kel eyed the Tyran. He was tall and lean, but muscled, with smooth ash-blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes not unlike her own. His skin had the slight tan of a man who spent time outdoors, but only when he chose to do so. He was wearing stylish clothes that confirmed her guess he was Tyran- the embroidery at the bottom had been inordinately popular when they had set sell from the capital city.

"What is your name?" she asked, attempted to sound flirtatious. From the look on his face, she suspected that she had succeeded.

"Duke Yohanssan of Tyra," the handsome man said, puffing out his chest ever so slightly. He looked ridiculous, and Kel choked back an inappropriate giggle as he continued, "recently ascended to that position."

"Well, Your Grade Duke Yohanssan of Tyra, I decline your offer," she replied flatly, "I will attend the ball with Lord Immiar." She watched Duke Yohanssan, speechless with shock, with amusement. Lord Immiar also appeared speechless, apparently astonished that he had been accepted.

"Please, Lord Immiar, if you would meet me at my rooms before the ball starts?"

"O- Of course, L-Lady Kii… Kiiala," Lord Immiar stammered.

"What happened to not getting involved with anyone?" Dom asked sourly from his perch on her bed as the maid yanked away at Kel's falsely-blonde hair.

"I'm hardly involved, Dom," Kel replied, "I'm only going with him out of pity, and because men like Duke Yohanssan need to have their heads popped once in a while lest they float away. Immiar is a pitiful, cowardly little rat, and I'd never have gone with him if the Duke hadn't intervened."

"Lucky Immiar," Dom muttered.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"I'll probably only dance with him two or three times, for appearance's sake. That's all."

Dom sighed. "It's still not fair. You won't let me escort anyone, and yet-"

"Dom," Kel interrupted, exasperated, "If it bothers you so much, we can switch charms and you can be escorted by him. Really!"

Dom and Kel looked each other, both slightly stunned at what she had said. Then, as one, they started laughing.

"My lady! Really! Please hold still long enough for me to finish your hair!"

Chastened, Kel froze and Dom crept out of the room.

Immiar was early, Dom noted with dry amusement.

"Neal," he called into Neal's room, "He's here." Neal rushed from the room, staggering a little as he tried to stop too suddenly.

"You can send him in," Dom told the maid who had announced him. She curtsied and brought the ugliest, most ratlike man Dom thought he had ever seen into the room.

"I- I am here for… for Lady Kiiala," the man all but squeaked.

Most mouselike man, Dom corrected himself.

"We know," Neal said, having arranged his features into a menacing mask, "We want to talk to you for a while before we inform her that you have arrived."

"You," Dom stepped forward and pushed Immiar in the chest with a single finger. To his amusement, the man staggered under the miniscule force, "had better take hare of Ke-Kiiala. We both care about her very much. If you try anything with her, one of us will personally see to it that you are beaten to a pulp and then strangled and then drowned and then hanged. And then kept on bread and water for two months. Understand?"

Nervously, the little mouseman bobbed his head up and down in assent.

"Nileth, go get Kiiala." Neal grinned wickedly, and went to fetch Kel.

She was waiting for him. He noticed as she rose from the couch on which she sat that she had become much more graceful over the past month and a half they had spent here.

"He's here?"

"In all his ratlike glory," Neal affirmed.

She grinned and then winced. "I wish I hadn't said yes. I could have just said I'd rather go with him or something. Do you think it's too late to take it back?"

"Yep," Neal said, wickedly cheerful. She sighed and followed him into the main room.

Immiar was waiting there, and an ecstatic look overcame his ratty little face as she entered the room.

"My- my lady! You look wonderful!"

She smiled politely at him and stared pointedly at his arm. Blushing to the roots of his greasy black hair, Immiar, offered her his arm, which she graciously took, before allowing him to escort her out of the room and to the ball.

Dom and Neal had declined to dance, preferring to watch Kel dance with her ugly partner and make sure that nothing happened.

"He's holding her too tight," Dom said fiercely, "It's entirely inappropriate."

"I agree. I can't believe she's allowing it!" Neal exclaimed.

"I suspect that she's focusing too hard on the steps to notice," Dom said, a spark of amusement returning to his voice.

"We should stop this," Neal said determinedly, apparently having ignored Dom's last comment.

"We should," Dom agreed, "she'll blow our cover. No really Lady would allow herself to be held in such a way. He's practically holding her-" Dom choked off what he had been about to say, turning an interesting shade of scarlet.

"You should cut in."

"She'd hate that, Meathead. Why don't you do it?"

"I'm betrothed," Neal said, disdainfully, "It wouldn't be right."

"Yuki wouldn't care if you danced with Kel," Dom said, scowling at his cousin.

"You never know," Neal sniffed.

"Oh, fine, I'll do it."

He jumped up and strode towards the dance floor where Immiar was groping poor Kel.

He seemed to cover the floor in double speed, the intricate mosaics flashing past under his feet with remarkable speed.

"May I cut in?"

Lord Immiar pouted at him. Pouted. Dom thought he might be sick with disgust.

"Do- Duinar, what are you doing?" Kel demanded.

"Cutting in." He turned to Immiar, "It's polite to step aside when a gentleman asks to cut in. I suggest you do so." For a moment, it looked as if Immiar might actually stand up to him, but then his strength broke and he scampered away, leaving Kel and Dom alone on the dance floor.

"Kel, that was horrible," Dom chided, "I hope nobody noticed him… him… ugh. I hope nobody noticed. We'd never be able to handle all the gossip."

"Thank you. I was about to have to slap him, and that would have caused such a scene."

Dom was startled into giving her a real smile. "You're welcome," he replied, shrugging.

He led her for a few more notes until a servant approached them.

"My Lady Kiiala, Lord Duinar, Her Royal Majesty Empress Kalasin requests your presence and that of Lord Nileth immediately. I will take you to her."

Throwing silent, confused looks at each other, Dom and Kel followed him from the ballroom.

"Ah, Keladry, Domitan, Neal. I'm glad you came. I'm afraid that… I have some unfortunate news. I have received a letter from Tortall and… and… I have some unfortunate news."

The three looked at her apprehensively.

"It seems that… my father has taken my mother prisoner. All of your friends have fled to the Copper Isles and are under the King's protection. I believe he intends to wage war on Tortall within a year. And… all of your homes have been burned, except for Neal's. Duke Baird managed to raise a small army in time to fend off my father's henchmen. Tortall… is falling apart."

Empress Kalasin looked thoroughly lost. The land she loved was falling into chaos at the hands of her father, who had possibly gone insane.

"And… and Neal. I understand that you were betrothed to Lady Yukimi of the Yamani Isles?"

Neal paled visibly. "I was."

"She has declared you a traitor, and dead to her, and thus nullified your betrothal. She was married to Lord Jakol of Brokenbrook about a month after you left Tortall."

So this is the last chapter I'm going to rewrite. Pooooorrr Neeeeaaaal. (weep). I'm going to reformat the rest of the chapters so that they match, and then I'll hopefully write a new chapter. No promises, though :p If I promise I never actually do it, lol.