A/n... Come on people! Review...
Chapter 12:
Sarah couldn't keep the grin off her face, much like Alanna couldn't keep the scowl off of hers. She had won the argument to ride the rest of the way, using the excuse of a rattling carriage jostling her broken bones. It was a close one, but the Lioness had had to rush off to deal with a problem – the bane of a Commander in the King's Own - so Sarah had just mounted Topaz and she rode off with the procession before Alanna could return and force her onto a carriage.
Now they were climbing the hill that led to Corus, and Sarah was waiting to see the reaction of the earthlings, who were riding in the carriage beside her, with Daine steering yet again. The cloth sides had been rolled up to provide a view; when they crested the hill Sarah heard several gasps.
"Man, that is cool." Fin breathed.
Olivia just gaped at the sight, and Sarah saw Casey and Elliot share amused glances. The sight was spectacular; the outskirting village swept out from a giant castle in a vast oval, stopping at a riverbed on one side, with a forest bordering another side. Snow littered the landscape, casting an almost magical look to it; Balor's Needle topped the view off, looking over the land, its tower higher than the tallest point on the castle. "Welcome to Corus, home of His Royal Majesty, King Jonathon of Conte the Fourth."
Daine glanced at Sarah, an amused look on her face, which she correctly interpreted as 'Be nice, you reacted the same way when you first saw it from this angle.'
Sarah shrugged, and they rode along with the caravan down the hill and through the city, making a grand procession; the King's Own in their powder blue tunics and armour, the Riders in their uniform brown. The youngest knight in the procession smiled at a figure in the crowd; Casey noticed her waving.
"Who's that?" She asked, and Sarah glanced over.
"The King of the Rogue." She answered, an answer that the attorney found cryptic at best.
"Who?"
"The King of Thieves, to put it in terms you'll get." Sarah amended.
The woman frowned. "You're friends with a thief?"
A laugh, and Sarah replied, "Don't say that too loud. All these people riding with us have orders to arrest him on sight."
"Why-" Casey's frown deepened.
"Shh. It doesn't matter. We're almost at the castle."
As they passed through the gates Sarah split off from the group, making a beeline for several figures standing to one side. So did Thayet, Alanna, Numair and Wildcat. Daine followed several moments later with the earthlings in tow. "Majesty." Sarah bowed to Jon, who returned the gesture. "Raoul, how're you doing, buddy?"
"A far sight better than you, I'm assuming." He eyed her broken arm with a raised eyebrow.
"Pfft, this? This is nothing. You should have seen me yesterday." She grinned at him, but they could all see it was strained at best. "Gary, what's been happening?"
"The usual. Running this country for Jon." He grinned at her and clasped her hand, patting her on the shoulder.
The King ignored Gareth the Younger's comment as he greeted his wife, before gesturing up the steps. "I've called a meeting of the Inner Council, for right now, if you're up to it." Sarah glanced back at her 'guests', and Jon's eyes traversed the group slowly. "Of course, any insight your friends could provide would be most valuable. If they don't wish to attend, I'll have someone show them to quarters in the guest wing."
"Well?" Sarah asked them, "Do you want to come to a meeting with the Inner Council? Wait a minute, don't answer. Will there be food there, Jon?" She turned to the king with a hopeful grin. When he nodded, rolling his eyes, Sarah turned back to the earthlings and repeated, "Well?"
They exchanged glances before shrugging. Casey put their silent exchange into words. "I think it would be best if we stayed with Sarah, Your Majesty." Having been one of the two earthlings to have already met him, she punctuated the statement with a short bow, doing Sarah proud.
Jon smiled in amusement and gestured again up the steps. "Shall we?"
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"Perhaps you'd like to make the introductions?" King Jon suggested, and Sarah blinked in surprise.
They had come straight into the Inner Council chamber and sat down; it hadn't occurred to her to introduce anyone. "Ah, yeah." She yawned; she couldn't help it, she was still tired from the healing. "Alright, Captain Donald Cragen, Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak, Doctor George Huang, and Detectives Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, Odafin Tutuola and John Munch, may I present -" Another yawn nearly cracked her jaw.
Jon eyed her with amusement. "Maybe we should adjourn the meeting until you've had some sleep."
She waved him off, rubbing her eyes as Alanna finished the introductions from her seat next to the younger knight. "Numair, Daine, Wildcat, Queen Thayet and Buri you know. May I also present His Royal Majesty King Jonathon of Conte the Fourth, His Royal Highness Prince Roald, King Jonathon's oldest son, Baron Sir Myles of Olau, my father, and the Crown's Spymaster-"
"That's why Kerri would have been replaced if she'd spied on you." Elliot interrupted, and Sarah shared a grin with the other occupants of the room.
"Yes Elliot." She answered, deadpanned. "That's exactly why Kerri would have been replaced if she'd spied on Alanna."
"Spying on my lass, was she?" A lilting voice from the door made the others turn around.
"Nah, spying on this lot. Nice to see you again, Cooper." Sarah nodded to the man who sat on Alanna's other side.
"It's Cooper now is it, lass?" He raised an eyebrow.
"You missed the introductions. His name-" She pointed to Huang. "Is George too. I was hoping to avoid confusion."
The former King of the Rogue and the real Spymaster nodded slowly, taking in the new group with sharp eyes. After Sarah had introduced everyone, again, Alanna continued naming all the Tortallans in the room. "Knight Commander Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, the Commander of the King's Own, Sir Gareth the Elder, advisor to the King, My Lord the Provost-"
Sarah interrupted her for the benefit of the earthlings. "That's like the head cop… guy." She flashed a grin to the sharp old man, who returned it with the faintest shadows of a smile.
Alanna nudged her into silence before finishing, "And the Head Magistrate-"
"Head judge… guy." Sarah explained.
"Duke Turomot." Sarah received another nudge for her efforts.
When she was finished, she turned back to Sarah. "I really think we should postpone the meeting. You wasted your energy riding the rest of the way here. You need some sleep."
Sarah sent Alanna a dirty look. "The sooner we get through the meeting, the sooner I can go to bed. I'm not sleeping until I know what we're going to do about my… situation. I'd rather I wasn't knifed on the next corner I turned."
"We won't let that happen." Raoul promised seriously.
"Oh, I know." Sarah tried for a light tone. "I'd just rather not dislocate the fracture by punching the guy in the head."
A rueful grin from Gareth the Younger. "You just can't keep out of trouble, can you?"
"How is this my fault?" Sarah asked, a petulant frown on her face.
"You're the unluckiest person I have ever met." He replied with a chuckle. "You attract psychotic killers like no one I know."
"I do not." Sarah replied. "The Gods send me on missions, and it just so happens that sends me to the general vicinity of psychotic killers and complete nutcases-" At a snort from Alanna and Numair, she glared at everyone sitting around the table. "And if any of you make a mention of nut jobs, or nut cases, or any other reference to an unfortunate story that you may have heard, I'll…" She trailed off with a frown. "Do something. That I'll think of later."
There were grins around the table, as well as a guilty look from Olivia, until Jon cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should get started. If you wouldn't mind telling us what happened?"
"When's dinner?" Sarah asked instead, and as though on cue a footman entered the room, bowing, before maids entered with trays of food. A grin lit Sarah's face, and she didn't bother with good manners, digging in before the King.
Alanna shook her head. "One day we need to drill some manners into you."
The younger woman shrugged. "Why? I'm good enough at pretending like I have manners in public, and everyone here knows I get cranky when I get hungry."
The Provost grinned wolfishly; the Magistrate muttered something about disrespectful youths. Jon just grinned and started eating. Partway through the meal he put his fork aside. "Now, Sarah, what happened when the Spidrens attacked?"
She swallowed before answering. "I heard a couple of twigs snap when I went fishing for dinner, and again when I was currying (A/n, NOT COOKING!!!) the horses. I didn't notice Topaz was scared out of her wits until the second occasion; that's when I called Numair over and asked if he could put up a shield. When he said it'd be better if we lay some gems, y'know, for boundaries, we set them around the camp. Just in the nick of time, too, cause that was when the Spidrens attacked."
"And then?"
"I asked the first Spidren to give me a reason not to kill it, and then when it wouldn't I shot it. Then I asked the second one how many of them there were, and he wouldn't answer, I shot him too. And then the third one actually told me how many there were in the nest, and that some mage had promised them free run of a village if they attacked me. The only thing he could tell me was that the mage had a funny accent and dark blue magic. I asked him whether he was going to kill people if I let him go, and Numair watched for a lie using eyesbright. He caught the lie, so I shot him too."
There were several nods around the table; Jonathon folded his hands in front of him. "And then?" He prodded gently.
"And then Numair kept the shield up and we contacted Alanna, to try and get back up, because the fact that someone had hired a bunch of Spidrens to kill me had us all worried. About an hour before Alanna was set to arrive the mages attacked. There were seven hurroks, and they were riding two of them. The man, I didn't see him very well, but he might've been K'mir, had yellow magic, and he attacked first. The woman was white, with teal magic. Numair'n me both knew we couldn't keep the shield up; not with the power them two were pouring into it. So I summoned my Nimbus 2001 to try'n draw them away, which worked a little too well. I don't know what happened afterwards with Numair, Wildcat and my friends here, but the mages attacked me for a little while, and I defended myself with my wand. I got rid of the hurroks without riders, and that was when the stormwings attacked." Sarah grimaced. "I dodged as fast as I could, but they had me in a perfect pincer movement. The male mage managed to connect with a fire spell, and my broom became unresponsive, and a stormwing finished it off by slicing the top bit off with its wing. I fell, so I did the first thing that came into my head and tried summoning the stormwing, which kinda worked. Anyway, I fell through the tree canopy and let go of the stormwing, before hitting a really, really big tree."
"It wasn't that big." Wildcat amended.
"It felt that big." Sarah retorted churlishly.
As Numair told what happened when she had left them to their headlong flight, Sarah rested her head on her arms, leaning on the table, and felt her eyelids droop. A yawn escaped her lips, and her eyelids slid shut. When Jon noticed, he held up a hand for quiet. "Now that she can't deny anything, Numair, I want to know what you think would happen if she went up against the two mages by herself, even if she's at full power."
The Black Robe mage glanced at Sarah sadly. "I think it'd be close, but they'd succeed in their mission. Sarah would be dead."
Jonathon pursed his lips as varying levels of shock crossed the faces of the occupants of the room. "Then she needs to have a permanent guard. One of you two need to be with her at every moment of every day." He addressed the last part to Alanna and Numair.
Alanna nodded seriously before Jon signalled for her to shake Sarah awake. "Come on, let's get you settled in your room."
"Wha- huh?" Sarah looked around with bleary eyes. "Damnit. Alright, alright, I'm going." She didn't notice the serious expressions on everyone's faces, or the fact that Numair, Daine, George Cooper and Alanna stood to escort her and the earthlings to some rooms. After all, too many guards were better than too few.
As she stood Alanna hugged her around the shoulder. "You push yourself too hard, you know that?"
"I do not." Sarah muttered, but she allowed herself to be led out of the room, and down the corridor.
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"Alright, so I'll stay with her, and you get the others settled in the guest room." Alanna spoke in hushed tones; Sarah was sleeping uneasily in the other room.
Numair nodded and herded the earthlings out of the room. Daine followed, while George Cooper stayed behind and wrapped his wife in a tight hug. "Don' worry, lass. She'll get through this, and we'll find them that want her dead, and make them pay."
"I know." Alanna answered in a whisper. "But all we know about the people that want her dead is that they have at least three mages in their employ. Three powerful mages. And resources enough to offer a dozen stormwings enough to make them attack Sarah."
"Don't worry, lass." He repeated, kissing her on the forehead and leading her to a chair, pulling her down beside him.
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"So…" Munch began, but Olivia, Elliot and Fin shot him death glares.
"We don't want to hear any conspiracy theories right now, Munch." Olivia warned. "Whatever it is you think, whoever you think is behind it all, we don't want to hear it."
"Just hear me out." He insisted. "I think it's the Tyrans."
"Oh, here we go." Fin groaned, shaking his head.
"They want to go to war with Tortall, so they're going to kill a symbol of hope for this country. Sarah's like an oracle, or a prophet, or something, and it would be a morale crushing blow if they lost her." At this Daine and Numair shared an amused glance.
"Right." That was Numair. "Perhaps you shouldn't be accusing foreign ambassadors of having anything to do with this situation without proof. Here we have something called 'Trial by Combat'. Basically, if someone takes offence to your accusations you'll find yourself in a duel."
That shut Munch up, and he walked on in silence until they reached a door three down from Sarah's. "Sorry, but the others are taken up by visiting nobility." Daine explained. "I'm sure you're close enough to Sarah for her not to be anxious about you causing trouble."
"She's worried about us causing trouble?" Casey questioned.
Daine cast her a quick grin as she opened the door and gestured them inside. "Yeah, she's funny that way. If she didn't have a broken arm, she'd probably already have three duels lined up for tomorrow, but she's worried about you lot making trouble."
"What do you mean, if she didn't have a broken arm?" Numair snorted. "That just means she'll have five challenges by the day after tomorrow. Opportunistic Conservatives will see the bandages and figure it's time to restore some of their lost honour."
"Restore lost honour?" Elliot scoffed. "By fighting an injured woman? How does that work?"
Numair shook his head ruefully. "It doesn't, but they'll take any opportunity they can. And I doubt Sarah will refuse."
"Because she likes to duel?" This question from Huang.
"That, and the fact that she likes to beat some sense into people that think women can't fight…" Daine answered with a grin. "Don't worry. Her left arm will be properly healed by tomorrow, and unless someone new decides they want to take a potshot at her, they really don't have a chance at winning."
"She's that good?" Casey asked, impressed.
Daine and Numair shared a look. "She was trained with the sword by the best swordsman in the country, and none of the Conservatives are willing to admit that Shang arts are any use in a fight between nobles."
"Wildcat's the best swordsman in the country?"
"No. Alanna is. But the fact is Wildcat has taught Sarah three other types of sword work, and Sarah's been taught a type of sword work that no one here has any experience with in the dimension from her last mission." Daine explained. "She rarely loses ground in a duel, just using the sword skills of a knight, but if she does she'll pull out the Shang or Jedi moves."
Numair interrupted their response. "You've each got a room; I'll see whether I can't rustle you all up some spare clothes-"
"Try Kuri Tailor." Daine interrupted. "It might be Rider supplies, but the palace seamstress will have an apoplexy if you tell her we need clothes for seven people, today, in the middle of Midwinter festivities, with Winter Solsticetomorrow."
Numair nodded and walked out the door with a wave. Daine was about to follow, to check on Sarah, when Casey called out, "Wait."
She turned at the door, looking back at the attorney and the people arrayed around the room behind her. "Yes?"
"I can't speak for the rest of these guys, but I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions about your relationship with Numair."
A grin graced Daine's face. "Thanks." And she walked out the door.
When she had left the room was silent. "Well." Cragen began. "I'm beginning to think this is all just one mass hallucination that won't end. Anyone else?"
"It was interesting…" George began. "The King treated Sarah, Alanna, Numair, Daine… everyone in that room as though he wasn't royalty. When they stepped through the door and the meeting began it was like a meeting of peers, not of a king and his subjects. And Queen Thayet didn't act like would be expected from a queen."
"Trust you to analyse the behaviour of the King and his wife while we're stuck here under the care of someone that has a price on her head." Elliot muttered. "Does anyone else think that if we aren't careful, we'll end up as collateral damage?"
Olivia shook her head as she investigated a room that came off of the main living room. It had a bed, a desk and a trunk at the base of the bed, as well as a screen to get changed behind and a little room she assumed was the 'toilet'. "Not likely. Not unless the assassins succeed in their mission; she almost died drawing them away from us last time. I believed her when she said she wouldn't let anything happen to us."
There were a few murmurs of assent, and they sat in near silence until Munch noticed the book case with history books in the corner. When the others saw the direction he was heading, they groaned and headed for their individual rooms, worrying or wondering, depending on their individual natures.
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"What are we going to do if we can't find the person behind all this soon?" Raoul asked. "Sarah won't take the body guard idea very well when we tell her, and if I know her at all she'll want to be a part of the investigation, which I'm assuming we won't allow."
"You're assuming correctly." Jonathon replied seriously. "And you're right, I don't think she'll be receptive to the idea for very long. Maybe I should suggest she takes her friends to one of the other dimensions."
"That'd just be prolonging the inevitable." The Provost growled. "If she disappears they'll sink back into the shadows, to wait for her return. Of course, if she could get help from those dimensions…"
"How would that help? Dragging more people into this mess?" Gary frowned, and his father answered for him.
"You've met some of them. They'd be enough to put a pause in anyone's step. She could ask Skywalker for help, or see whether that great wizard that she and Alanna told us about would be willing to come for a few weeks, to help us ferret out the conspirators." Duke Gareth the Elder replied.
"The problem we have withthat idea," Prince Roald began with a soft frown, "Is that I doubt she'd go to those dimensions and ask for help, and none of us can. She won't be willing to risk her friends' lives by asking them to help out in so dangerous a situation, and she's got too much pride, anyway. Which is probably why she won't be willing to seek refuge in those dimensions either."
"We can discuss her self pride later." Turomot began. "We need to decide on a punishment for the person looking to have her killed. Noble or not, we need an appropriate punishment for the scum trying to kill the Messenger for the Gods."
Myles had been sitting thoughtfully, and now he chose to speak. "I don't think the punishment should be any different from the person trying to kill an ordinary member of the nobility. The Gods will punish them appropriately when they make their way to Mithros' Court, but I don't think it's our place to punish them differently. It would be presumptuous of us to do so."
They sat in silence for a moment, before the King stood with a sigh. "Thankyou all for giving up your time and putting your tasks on hold for this meeting. Any thoughts you might have for a solution to our problem, please bring them to me. I'll see you all," He glared pointedly at Raoul, who had been trying to escape the Midwinter balls since they had started, "At the ball tonight."
When they had trickled out of the room, leaving him and Thayet alone, the Queen asked, "Are you going to make Sarah go to the ball? I know the Tyrans are getting antsy, but…"
"No." He answered. "Now's not the time to parade her around. I'll request her presence for tomorrow's ball, but I doubt she'll come if it's just a request. We need to deal with one problem at a time; and Sarah's is more urgent."
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"So… How are we going to tell her?" Alanna asked, peering into the room where Sarah slept fitfully.
"Shotgun not telling her." Daine replied, using a term she had learnt from the woman in question.
Alanna and Numair shared a glance. "Well I'm not telling her." Numair spoke first.
"Why should I have to tell her?" Alanna frowned.
George sighed. "You two act like children. I'll tell her, when she wakes up."
The two mages shared a grin. "Works for me." Numair shrugged.