Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Ms. Pierce owns (almost) all =D

In Jonathan's chambers the young knights were in a hurry, rushing to get all the necessities for a long ride found and packed. It might only have been one side of the castle that was being bombarded, but four dozens of warriors had climbed over the walls in their side of the castle, having little opposition since most of the king's soldiers had hurried to the other side, where the commotion supposedly was. The short-lived battles had been loud enough to wake up the Tortallan delegation. They were planning to ride west and meet up with Duke Gareth who was on his way to seal the trade agreements prepared by the delegation. He and his army shouldn't be more than a day's ride away. Gary and Jonathan were discussing how to get to their horses and which gates to escape from.

"Alanna" Jonathan said to himself, when he realized that she'd be in the castle somewhere, in danger. "What?" Gary asked, looking up from the plans of the building.

Jonathan shook his head to clear it. "I mean Katherine – the Lady Katherine. We have to go and get her!"

"Are you insane? We can't do that now!" Gary exclaimed in disbelief that his cousin could be so irresponsible.

"We have to!"

"Her quarters are at the other end of the castle –we'd most likely run in to some nasty-looking warriors on the way." When his cousin just looked at him with that stubborn look on his face that clearly stated he was a prince and used to getting his way, Gary cried out in disbelief; "Jonathan you're the prince! The only heir! Do I really have to remind you of that? To some people your life is pre-e-tty important, so I say we get you out of here as quick as possible!"

Slowly, emphasizing each word, Jonathan said: "I. Will. Not. Leave. Without. Her!"

"I know you care for Katherine and that you owe her or something, but considering what's at stake here, we can't just drop everything in a quest to save some damsel in distress. Katherine is not as important as…"

This time, Gary was interrupted by Jonathan who nearly yelled; "She's not Katherine!"

The room immediately became quiet as the four other men in the room all stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Jonathan.

Jon paused and when the other men still only looked at him, blinking their eyes once or twice, he continued in a more calm tone; "Her name's Alanna. She's Alan." Seeing complete confusion on his friends' faces, he sighed, frustrated. "Dammit! Don't you understand? We cannot leave her behind cause she's Alan!" In his frustration, Jonathan did not realize that to others, his words didn't make much sense.

"Alan was a boy," Raoul logically pointed out, then added "and he's dead."

It was the first time Raoul had said aloud that Alan had passed on, as if he had not, could not, acknowledge it before. Of course, now he accepts it, Jonathan thought, typical!

He sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that evening. "Alan's not real, so he couldn't be dead. He's just as much a lie as 'Lady Katherine' is. Alanna pretended to be a boy - to be Alan - so she could become a knight." He waited, letting it sink in. Though it only lasted seconds, it felt like hours. He could see in their eyes how they finally began to understand.

"But – Alan didn't have breasts! Kath – Ah … Alanna does," were Gary's first words. Geoffrey and Douglass gasped, seeming more surprised that Gary would actually say aloud what they'd all been thinking, rather than over the fact that Alan was in fact a girl – and alive. Raoul just stood perfectly still, his thoughts probably running wild in his head.

Jonathan frowned at this outburst. Not exactly what he would like his cousin to be thinking of. Besides this was no time for such idiotic details!

"She tied them in with a corset. Now can we please go and find her? I don't like the way that warlord always watches her. I'd rather not wait to find out what he would do to her, if he got his hands on her."

In the throne room Alanna came just in time to see the king and his closest advisers killed. She was surprised – she hadn't thought they would be inside so fast, but of course, Karzai and some of his men would just have stayed in the castle. He'd never set out to lead the attack. The king obviously had not thought so far either, as he in that case would have been faster to find a safe place to hide out. Karzai had been the one to finish off the king. Upon seeing Alanna running in to the room, he turned and moved toward her. She was caught – it was no use running now. Instead, she fixed her gaze on the man who'd scared her from the day she arrived at this court. He had blood all over his upper body, other men's blood, couldn't just have come from one, she thought. She was strangely calm, but then again she was used to seeing people smeared in blood. The object of her thoughts made a flick of his hand and two of his men went for her.

Of course, you can't expect him to go and fetch what he wants himself, too degrading for a newly made 'king', she thought.

She fought off the first man easily – clearly he'd never been through knight training. Expecting her to be harmless, he tried to grab her arm, drawing no weapons.

Stupid.

She hit him in the stomach and smashed her knee up in his face when he doubled over from the first strike. Karzai laughed. As the other soldier went for his sword, Alanna moved quickly, taking out both knives, first cutting the hand that was currently searching for the dangerous weapon. Then, a quick slit through his throat and he was lying dead on the floor.

Karzai's laughter stopped abruptly. She'd killed one of his men.

This time, the two men standing closest to her were on her at the same time, and it was all she could do to keep her arms free. She slashed out to all sides, not really aiming, just damaging wherever she could, losing one knife in the process. Coming from behind her, Karzai took hold of her arm holding the remaining knife, and twisted it. She gasped and dropped the last knife. He had a death grip on her, and she was sure she'd just heard something in her arm snap. She hoped it wasn't a bone that had broken, but quickly tried to ignore the fact – she had to stay focused. Apparently, Karzai had had enough of holding on to her because he made a quick movement with the bend of his arm, effectively shoving her down to the floor. Alanna winced – unfortunately she'd reflexively used both hands to steady herself in the fall, and pain shot all the way up her now damaged arm.

Half sitting, half lying next to the man she'd killed just minutes ago, she looked up at Karzai, and he suddenly seemed a lot more frightening than he had, when she'd walked in on him, killing the king. Either it was because of the look on his face, indicating he was both angry as hell and at the same time enjoying himself, which in itself was downright scary, or it was because she was now on the ground, and he suddenly seemed a lot bigger. It probably wasn't the last, considering the fact that almost everyone towered over her. She was used to it.

"What am I to do with you?" he mused. "Seems I cannot leave you under the care of my 'fragile' soldiers while I take over the city, hmm?"

"Perhaps you should just take her here and now, Karzai. That table looks comfortable enough" was the advise of his friend. He sent Alanna a nasty grin, "that ought to be enough to subdue her."

Karzai scratched his left cheek, leaving bloody lines on the skin as he did so. "Perhaps you're right". It sounded so casually, as if they weren't talking about raping her, right there. In public.

Alanna sat up and started moving backwards, stumbling away from him, still sitting on the floor. He moved closer, seemingly enjoying the game, while she finally got herself back on her feet.

While she stepped back she was searching her surroundings for something, anything that she could fight with. If just she could come near a soldier, someone not as strong as Karzai, so that she could take his sword and use it against the sadistic warlord. But as she stepped back she stepped right in to the arms of a burly soldier behind her. He grabbed both her arms, and she yelped because of the pain this inflicted on her injured arm.

Well, she thought at least it doesn't feel like it's broken.

Karzai now stood only a hairsbreadth away from her, smiling wickedly. Not wanting him to have an easy victory, or maybe just out of spite, she spat him in the face. He roared and battered his clutched hand into her cheek, his ring cutting a deep scratch right above the cheekbone. He'd put enough strength behind his attack that Alanna found herself lying on the floor as a result.

"Step away from her!"

At that moment, Jonathan, Gary and Raoul strode in to the throne room, followed by their former squires and a handful other young men from their party.

The first thing Jonathan had noticed was Alanna, lying motionless on the floor – her bright coloured silk gown lightened up on the dark floor and was quite the eye-catcher. Am I too late? he thought, then braced himself; now wasn't the time to go running to her, not under these circumstances. Running defenceless into the midst of those warriors would get him killed. He held his breath, trying to think of how to proceed, till she slowly got up on one elbow, looking at him with those wide, unusual eyes of hers. Some misplaced strands of hair were falling into her face, though they weren't enough to conceal the read marks and blood streaming down her cheek. The dress, her uncle had been so worried she'd ruin, was a simply cut silk gown, with long tight sleeves, and the neckline, one of those that went in a straight line over the top of her chest, leaving her shoulders bare. The colour was a mix between a cream and bronze, and the somewhat nude shade of it combined with the straight cut, made it difficult to see where the bare skin ended and the dress began. He thought it made her look fragile, vulnerable even. Though he of all people knew very well that she wasn't. Not in the normal sense anyway. He felt all the protectiveness rise up inside of him and fought the urge to run his sword straight into the man who'd put her on the floor. Always good at keeping a level head, he stood his ground, and indicated for the others to draw their weapons. He was not leaving without her.

Author's note: Phew, that was a lot of text! But I felt like the scene needed it. Next chap will be interesting... well, for me to write anyway. Thanks to all my steady readers=)