Disclaimer: I own nothing but the conceits and headcanon.

Notes: Assume each season of AtLA is a year, not just a few months.

Notes2: I want you to imagine that the Tortallan universe is on one hemisphere of the planet and the Avatar one is on the other.

Notes3: Eun-Ji "From Sino-Korean 恩 (eun) meaning "kindness, mercy, charity" combined with 智 (ji) meaning "wisdom, intellect" or 地 (ji) meaning "earth, soil, ground"." This is about the only name I put this effort into.

Alanna listened with a combination of amusement and disbelief at the collection of words coming from the ambassador of the Yamani Islands. "The thing with the . . . some type of bear and red shoes?"

"Badger moles?" Numair added. "I have to admit, if there is somehow no magic in their lands, only this bending, I could understand his skepticism. Still, allow me," he said and leaned forward bringing his hands slowly together. All these years later and Alanna's nose still itched whenever magic was performed around her. Numair was quick, however, and a moment later he had transformed the pillow on Zuko's former cot into a log.

All three of the young people stared at the log. Then Sokka poked it. Then he picked it up and began looking around the bed, talking all the while. He was very thorough, Alanna had to give him that. Then he stomped over, looking angry, and began shouting and flailing. Suki grabbed him and began talking to him very quickly while Zuko looked pained and very confused. Finally he calmed and Zuko turned to Menitako and spoke. "Zuko wished to apologise for his friend's display. In Sokka's skepticism he made several accusations which Zuko does not wish to repeat for fear of causing offence."

"That don't sound good," Daine said. "I guess if he really doesn't believe that magic is real he'd look for anything that'd explain it, even if it's insulting."

Sokka stood and came forward looking upset. He seemed to steel himself, then bowed and said a few words. Then he blurted out more, which made Zuko wince. They went through Zuko to Menitako. "I apologise for my actions. It didn't seem believable that magic would exist. Can I learn it?"

"No," Numair replied through their relay of translation. "Only if you're Gifted can you learn magic."

"Oh," Sokka said. He looked downcast. "So, it's like bending that way."

Menitako intervened. ~Perhaps, Prince Zuko, you or your friends might demonstrate some bending?~

Zuko glanced at Suki and asked her a question. She replied, and he turned back to them. ~I can offer you a demonstration of firebending, yes.~

"But not Sokka?" Alanna asked. "Didn't you say she told you that Sokka there had a power of water?"

The question was relayed and Alanna watched as Sokka seemed to shrink in on himself. Zuko's jaw clenched as Suki clearly moved to comfort Sokka before he turned to them. The answer was relayed. "Sokka is of the Water Tribes," Menitako told them. "There are four nations in their lands of origin, each named for the predominant bending of that nation. Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, Water Tribes and Air Nomads. Sokka is not a bender, although his sister was."

"His sister?" Alanna asked.

Daine answered. "According to the beaver-bison, Appa, something happened to the sister while they were on the ship. He thinks she must have been lost overboard in the storm."

Alanna hissed in sympathy as Sokka snapped something at Zuko and Suki. They both winced and Suki seemed to be trying to soothe him or placate him. Zuko turned his back on them, his face now a mask. "Zuko says that, yes, Katara was a waterbender. It was her healing that allowed them to survive the trip, he thinks. She used her healing to keep herself from being fully affected by the poison, he calls it Kesu Root, and was able to then apply her bending to their survival until the storm."

Zuko spoke more and gestured to the door. Menitako spoke in tones of surprise to him. "He wanted to go outside for his demonstration of bending and I asked him why. He says that fire is a particularly combative element and he is poorly trained in the art of fire dancing. In any event, he would rather not risk causing a fire in the infirmary."

"He can't just do a trick like Numair did?" Raoul asked.

When the question was passed along, Zuko rolled his eyes and flicked a hand toward the fireplace with the logs laid on. It obligingly burst into flame, and then he spread his fingers, clenched them into a fist, and the fire went out. He then shot a reply through the ambassador. "Unless I am much mistaken, your mages will likely be able to do something nearly identical. It's hardly a demonstration if all I am showing you is something you can already do."

Numair looked fascinated. "But his magic - pardon me, bending - it functions so differently from the way a mage would do such a thing. It seems to be working on some level that is different than the Gift. Much more like Wild Magic-"

"He's lookin' to be distracted," George interrupted. "The question is whether we should let him."

The question wasn't answered as the last pair still lying on the beds finally stirred. The boy sat up, groaning and holding his head, while the girl promptly slid off the bed and onto the stone floor. The healer moved to pick her up, as did Alanna. Sokka promptly blocked the healer from reaching her, while Zuko moved to stop them from getting the girl.

When she looked up, Alanna got a shock. This girl, she was blind. Her head moved around left and right, cloudy green eyes not focused on anything. She asked a question and Sokka responded, then Zuko. "Why don't you want us to go near her?" she asked.

The response was unexpected. "Toph sees through her connection with the earth. If you were to pick her up or put her back on the bed she would be more disoriented. It would be like blindfolding her right after she opened her eyes."

Toph asked a question and was answered by Sokka. Another question and Sokka and Suki answered nearly simultaneously. Aang snapped something and leaped to his feet, then staggered, nearly falling over. Sokka reached out, holding him up and talking urgently to him. Toph meanwhile looked slightly to the side of them, her head tilted, concentrating. Then she turned to look at Zuko.

"Sparky," Toph said, "Come over here a sec."

Zuko gladly turned his back on these too-interested strangers, on Aang and Sokka's denial and grief. If this kept on he might start howling at the moon. He was reasonably sure, from everything Katara had said about Yue, that she wouldn't appreciate it. "What is it?"

Once he was close beside her, Toph spoke softly. "You think Katara's dead, don't you?"

"Yes," he said. The stark statement made something in his chest hurt.

Toph blinked rapidly for a moment, then pressed her lips together. "I know it'll be hard for you. When . . . when Snuffy, one of the badger moles that I learned bending from, when he died it was really hard that I couldn't talk to anyone about it. I'm here, Sparky."

Zuko dropped a hand to her shoulder and squeezed, for his own comfort as much as hers. Toph had known about him and Katara. Had known they were more than friends and allies and sometime sparring partners. He hadn't been paying attention to the others, but they had things to worry about other than his grief or Sokka and Aang's denial about Katara, who may have been a waterbender, but that was no defence against gale-force winds in the middle of the ocean. "Can you get up? I still have to go back to translating everything, and now that you're awake, I'd really appreciate your insight on whether or not anyone's lying or nervous or . . . anything."

"I really don't like being the walking lie detector," Toph complained.

Suki snorted. "Except when you can use it to make trouble, you mean," she said.

The delicate-looking earthbender grinned at that, "Well, making trouble is totally different, isn't it?"

Zuko looked over at Aang and Sokka. "Are you . . . up to letting me finish up translating?" Zuko asked. "I mean, we're still working through who we are and what's going on. And only one person here speaks a language any of us know."

"Actually," Sokka said. "I think the woman with brown hair over there can speak with animals. Like, have a proper conversation. At least, that's the impression I got when she spent all that time talking to Appa."

Aang looked up at her, eyes wide. "You think she can really talk to animals?"

"Or commune with them or something," Sokka said, shrugging. "Things seem really weird over here."

"Weirder than Ba Sing Se?" Toph asked. "Because that just-bear was pretty weird."

Sokka shook his head, "I've seen a few animals out at the stables where they're keeping Appa," he held out a hand to Aang, "And he seems pretty okay for the moment. Anyhow, they're all like . . . just-whatevers. I saw a . . . not-cat just-owl in the rafters. And a not-ostrich just-horse with four legs. It's like if you took an ostrich horse, gave it extra legs, swapped the feathers for fur and gave it hooves. I can't even . . . you have to see it."

"Weird," repeated Toph, looking disturbed.

Suki spoke up then. "They also seem to have magic. I mean, real magic. You see that log on that bed? It was a pillow."

"I don't suppose you speak the Ancient Tongue," Zuko asked Aang. "It might be a little easier the more people can carry on a conversation with Menitako noh Hitajami over there."

Aang sighed. "Not really. I mean, I might pick it up quickly, I usually do with languages. I think it's like the bending and my being the Avatar. But I don't know it right now. The monks were more determined to get me to my mastery of air than anything else."

Zuko sighed. "Okay then. Can we maybe not have a crisis while we finish getting through this? Guys, fill Aang and Toph in while I go back to interpreter duties." He returned to his previous position. ~I apologise. It was necessary to explain several things to my friends.~

~I do understand the difficulty,~ Menitako assured him. ~But the others wish to understand what particularly upset your friend . . . Aang?~

~Yes, Aang,~ Zuko started. ~I . . . He cares very deeply for Katara. Our friend who was lost overboard.~ This was difficult to say, especially since he didn't want to get caught up in inconsequential details that didn't clarify what was happening. ~Sokka was calming him down. Aang is the Avatar, and when he becomes . . . overset he . . . there can be serious consequences.~ Zuko took a breath to centre himself as the hole left by Katara was rapidly expanding past the emptiness he felt every time he thought of the engagement pieces he'd purchased for her. ~Katara was the only one of us truly good at . . . calming him.~

As his words were being spoken to the strangers on the other side of the room, Zuko snagged Toph. "Anything to report?"

"About them?" she asked. "There's some worry. That one," she gestured at the dark-skinned one called Numair, "Seems more . . . curious? Interested? He's not worried, but he is excited." Zuko frowned. "What are you thinking?"

"He's the one who changed a pillow into a log. Maybe . . ." He shook his head. "I don't know, but I think he's maybe a powerful magician, and that has something to do with it. But I have no idea what that would be."

Menitako returned after a period of conversation. ~This word, 'avatar', has been mentioned several times. What is this title?~ Zuko told this to the others who gazed helplessly at each other. How could no one have heard of the Avatar?

~The Avatar is the only bender who can bend all four elements,~ Zuko explained. ~But it is more than that, because the Avatar is reincarnated, over and over again, going from each nation to the next. Fire, Air, Water, Earth then back to Fire again. He or she is charged to maintain peace and protect the balance of nature.~ He repeated this to the others. "Anything to add?"

"I'm also supposed to be the bridge between this world and the spirit world," Aang said. "I think I'm better at that than the peace thing at this point." He looked depressed.

Zuko added Aang's words to his explanation. As he finished, Menitako seemed to get an idea, collecting a parchment from a nearby table, rapidly sketching symbols onto it. ~There are some ancient scrolls, very poorly preserved, that had these phrases on them,~ he said. ~This could be 'Avatar', as those are 'spirit world' and 'rebirth'.~

Looking at the sketch, Zuko concentrated. ~I think . . . I may have seen that text before,~ he said. ~At least, that phrasing is . . . distinctive. It speaks of Avatar . . . Eun-Ji? She was Earth, I think.~ He pointed at the symbols that, if properly completed would have spelled the name. With a few brief strokes of the strange feather-not-brush, he completed the name.

"What now?" Sokka asked.

"They seem to have one scroll that I think I read when I was thirteen," Zuko said. "I was reading everything I could find about Avatars at the time to try to figure out where he was." He glanced at Aang, shrugging. "Sorry."

Aang shrugged back. "If it helps now I'm not going to complain, really. So, it's a scroll about the Avatar?"

"He said it's poorly preserved, I'd assume because they don't have an . . . or the Avatar here. So no one needed to save writings. But that bit he wrote out, 'And with great flowering of smoke and ash falling like snow, so did Eun-Ji cross the waters, then sweep all away to the spirit world."

"Cross the waters . . ." Aang murmured. His eyes began glowing and Sokka yelped.

"Right now!?" demanded the Water Tribesman. "Really?"

"Hoo boy," said Toph.

~What is happening?~ demanded Menitako.

In his distraction, Zuko replied. ~Good question.~

"Good question!" Raoul shouted, "That's all he said?" A wind had sprung up, swirling around them, and a whirlwind had surrounded the bald boy.

"Minos, Mynoss and Shakith," Numair swore as he stepped forward, a shield beginning to flare into being between them and the apparition before them.

Suddenly it stopped and the air calmed. But instead of a bald youth with tattoos on his head and hands, was an old woman, tough and stern. The sight of Sokka slapping his head in what seemed to be exasperation made Raoul feel infinitely better than anything Numair was doing. "Is he . . . annoyed?" Alanna said in fascination.

"I'd be more concerned about herself, there," George said a little sharply. Though he too seemed to have relaxed with the sight of annoyance instead of fear or some other worrying emotion.

The woman spoke, her voice ringing with power. It reminded Raoul of Numair at his most terrifying, of Jonathan when he used the Dominion Jewel to keep Tortall from shaking apart at his coronation and how he'd felt during his Ordeal of Knighthood.

Menitako's eyes were wide and shocked as he said, "She says she is the Avatar Eun-Ji. She was there when the Cataclysm happened and rent the earth. The bonds between the spirits of the Four Nations and the Triune Gods of the Far Lands were broken past repair and the world sank to chaos. They did not know what happened to the distant island of their people that lay close to the Far Lands, but the ocean became an impassable barrier, even for the Avatar, and all magic vanished from among the people."

There was another skirl of dusty wind, and Aang was back, sagging briefly. Raoul couldn't help but be amused as Sokka apparently began to scold Aang. He was also a little relieved by the fact that the others seemed as taken aback by these events as the Tortallan side of the meeting were. He also noted that Zuko was looking a little harried. "You know," he said to Alanna, "That looks like Ambassador Mikal from Tusaine two months ago after he had to deal with you instead of Jonathan for an hour."

The look she shot him spoke volumes on how she'd make him suffer the next time he was foolish enough to face her in sword practice. That or frogs in his bed. Alanna had never quite outgrown that, and given how dangerous she was, Raoul mostly encouraged her to go with that instead. Sure, it was more embarrassing than losing to the Lioness, but it also hurt less.

"Is that a frequent occurrence?" Numair asked sounding more fascinated than worried. "Aang turning into a previous Avatar?"

George and Alanna shot him looks of disbelief. "Could you hold off on the academic interest until we can be sure this isn't some sort of a threat?"

But Menitako had already moved to interpret Numair's question. This sparked a flurry of conversation during which Sokka looked remarkably blase about the whole thing, Aang just looked tired and the others exclaimed over it. Finally Zuko turned to Menitako and spoke.

"Zuko claims that, while Toph and Suki have never seen this, he has seen it once before when Aang was possessed by the spirit of his predecessor, Roku. However, Sokka did see this occur once before with another avatar, one by the name of Kyoshi-"

"The same as the island Suki is from?" Numair inquired.

This prompted another collection of exchanges and a flurry of what seemed to be an argument. "Suki is apparently unhappy she had not previously heard of this apparition of the creator of her island . . ." he trailed off and asked a question of Zuko, who inquired of the others. "I was correct," Menitako said, sounding perplexed and disturbed. "This Avatar Kyoshi defeated a warlord by the name of Chin the Conqueror, then separated the end of a peninsula into an island that is literally days travel out to sea from the mainland."

"The Avatar is that powerful?" Alanna asked, pointedly pushing the conversation back onto something more practical.

They watched as Zuko pulled Toph to his side and asked her a question. The girl sat on the floor, both hands resting on it, nodded at him and only then would he reply to Menitako's question. It wasn't an answer though. "He wishes to know what we will do with this information."

"I need to evaluate any and all potential threats to the kingdom," Alanna declared. "I need to know how dangerous the Avatar is."

Zuko's response was to consult with the others, but most particularly Toph. Raoul saw Numair's eyes narrow at them, and leaned over to ask, "Is something wrong?"

"Not precisely," Numair said. "But the fact that he was consulting with Toph so closely made me wonder. Bending does seem to be a magic like Wild Magic, and I can see it. She is using her bending to watch us, I think for intentions."

Daine spoke up then. "Maybe they're tryin' to be sure of us like we're sure of them. Aang's fair young, so maybe he's not got all his power yet and they're tryin' to keep him safe 'til he does. They did say they was in the middle of a war."

"So, mayhap this is like those early days when you were tryin' to hide how powerful a mage you were from us," George said to Numair. "If they're as unsure of us as we are of them, assumin' they're bein' truthful, trust would be hard."

Their attention was drawn back to their foreign visitors. "Zuko says he wishes assurances from you that you do not intend to use Aang as a weapon against your own enemies, nor that you will arrange to send him to theirs."

Alanna stood and said, "I swear as King's Champion and upon the Mother Goddess that we have no intention to cause any harm to you or yours for as long as you do not attempt harm against any in the Kingdom of Tortall or any of her allies. If a war comes upon us we might ask for assistance, but we will not compel you to fight against our enemies against your will."

After Menitako's interpretation was finished, Zuko turned to Toph who spoke briefly. The whole group seemed to relax at what she said and Zuko replied. "He swore upon Agni, spirit of the sun and fire, that he and the others mean you no harm for as long as you and yours do no attempt harm to the Avatar and his party. He only asks for temporary refuge and the means to find their way back to their lands. The Avatar is needed in the war with the Fire Nation and they were sent here in order to ensure that none of them could cause trouble. Apparently, when Sozin's Comet returns in a few months-"

"Powell's Comet?" Numair inquired. "I assume that's what he's referring to."

Menitako shrugged. "I only know what they tell me, and they call it Sozin's Comet." He asked a question and clarified. "It is called that because one hundred years ago Fire Lord Sozin used it to destroy the Air Nomads." He asked another question and looked shaken at the reply. "When Prince Zuko says destroyed, he means utterly. Aang is literally the last of the Air Nomad people. There are no more, and he only survived due to several bizarre circumstances unlikely to be repeated. That was the start of the war."

Daine clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide and Numair put an arm around her shoulders. Alanna looked grim and George's lips pressed together into a thin line, even as his casual air didn't visibly diminish otherwise. Raoul shook his head in disbelief. He'd seen some terrible things in the Immortals War, he'd seen horrible deaths of all sorts in the war with Tusaine and as the head of the King's Own, but to so utterly and completely destroy an entire people was beyond his ken.

Zuko, and thus Menitako, was not finished. "The comet increases the power of firebenders tenfold or more. The current Fire Lord, Zuko's father, intends to use the comet to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground. Aang has been informed by the spirits that he has until then to defeat the Fire Lord or there will be no balance left to protect. His sister, Princess Azula, her plan was to send them off in the ship to die. It was intentional cruelty because Sokka and Suki were chained and the benders had been given Kesu Root so that they would be paralyzed without bending, but fully aware of their fate as they died of starvation or exposure."

"And their friend who they lost overboard, Katara, was able to keep herself from being affected, at least partially, which is how they survived," Raoul concluded.

Alanna walked up to Zuko, glanced briefly at Menitako, and said, "I promise that we will do everything we can to help you return in time. For now, I have to make my report to the king."

Zuko relayed her words to the others who collectively sighed in relief. "So, can we ask questions now?" Sokka asked plaintively.

"And I'd really like to see Appa," Aang added. "I want to see if he's up to flying and I want to try to find Katara." Zuko winced, and Aang realised that Zuko thought Katara was dead. He glared at the firebender and said, "So, can I see Appa?"

Suki put a hand on his arm. "Just a second Aang. Let's just find out who these people are and where we are."

Zuko turned to Menitako and asked him to tell them who everyone there was. After a moment or two Aang began to slowly pick out a word here or there, tilting his head as the words drifted into his mind in that half-remembered way that bending always had. "Can you understand them?" Toph asked him, sounding surprised.

Aang winced. "A little, but not much. Gyatso was supposed to teach me the Ancient Tongue, but like I said, everyone was really concerned that I get my mastery of air before anything else." Something occurred to him then, "Zuko," he asked when Zuko turned back to them, "Why do you know the Ancient Tongue?"

"Because the tutors and teacher of Fire Nation nobility believe that no education is complete if you don't read the language with some fluency." He said. "Basically, it's because I was the prince."

"Oh," Sokka made a face. "I'm more glad than ever I'm not royalty." Then he sobered. "So, who are these people?"

"Menitako noh Hitajami is actually an ambassador from a place they call the Yamani Island," Zuko started. "I think, based on what Eun-Ji said, that those islands are that group of people lost after the Cataclysm."

"Which would explain why they know the Ancient Tongue and not anything anyone actually speaks day-to-day," Suki said contemplatively.

Zuko inclined his head in agreement. "The one with orange hair, Alanna, is properly named Lady Alanna of Trebond and Olau, and she is a warrior who . . . she is of noble birth and there is a specific warrior class of nobility," he said. "It has a specific title, 'knight'. But she is also named as 'King's Champion'." He shrugged, "I'm not sure whether it's an honourary title or if she has some specific governmental role, but it looks like she's clearly got the king's favour."

He then looked back at the strangers of this new land they were in. "The young woman with the curly brown hair is called . . ." he paused, apparently working his way through something, then slowly spoke the name. "Veralidaine Sarrasri. But she prefers being called just Daine."

"She's the one that talked to Appa," Sokka said. "Does she talk to animals?"

"Apparently yes," Zuko replied. "There's something they call her, but Menitako claims that it doesn't translate well, and it's not a proper title, just a thing people call her."

Then he turned back to the other man, and they continued with the back-and-forth. "This is so boring," Toph muttered.

"Don't start anything, Toph," Sokka said. "I mean it. We don't know enough about these people and I don't want to have to break anyone out of prison because you accidentally mortally offended the king."

Toph made a face in his direction. "I know that, Snoozles, I'm just saying that sitting around here waiting for Sparky to ask them a question, for that Menitako guy to pass it along, and then for the others to answer and relay it all back is boring."

Zuko interrupted. "So, the dark man is specifically a Numair Salmalin, and I gather that he's one of the most powerful mages they've ever seen. The woman Alanna is also a mage, apparently. And their magic comes in colours. That is, if you have a magic 'Gift' they call it, it'll be coloured. So, Numair's is black and Alanna's is purple."

"Huh," Sokka said. "Coloured magic. Interesting."

Aang looked at Numair. "Do you think he's ever lost control?" he asked, wistfully. Katara had once told him about the iceberg she'd broken in two by accident the day she and Sokka found him, but it just wasn't on the same scale as when the Avatar spirit took him over. It wasn't the same, and it might be nice to talk to someone who'd been there.

"Oh my . . . Aang, don't even give me that idea," Sokka groaned. "Seriously? The last thing I need to imagine is some guy to can literally turn me into something else losing control over that."

Aang pressed his lips together and didn't answer that. Katara would have understood what he was getting at, he was sure of it. At least, he wouldn't have felt as stupid trying to explain it to Katara as he would to Sokka. Then he looked at Zuko. The older boy, man now really, eyed him a moment, then spoke softly to Menitako, who glanced at Numair, then nodded.

Then they had a few more words, clearly words of introduction and Zuko turned back to them again. Sokka was still grousing about mages and terror. It was like the giant Fire Nation spoon theory all over again. "What if he used his magic and turned us all into a giant bowl of chicken-lizard soup!" Sokka half-wailed, arms flailing.

"Seriously?" Toph asked. "I assume the Giant Fire Nation Spoon of Doom would come to allow the Fire Lord to eat the magic chicken-lizard soup?"

"The what?" Suki and Zuko chorused.

Aang waved a hand at them, hoping to keep anyone from asking anything else about that. "Sokka has a thing . . . we were on the train in Ba Sing Se after Azula tried to drill through the outer wall. It's-"

"Sokka gets those crazy ideas, you know that," Toph interrupted dismissively.

"A spoon?" Zuko asked. Then he shook himself and seemed to be trying to derail Menitako's queries about what had Sokka so upset. He firmly shook his head and said another firm denial to the man, which Aang thought might have included the word 'crazy', and then turned back to them. "The man there, George, is properly George Cooper, a type of lord they call 'baron' of a place called Pirate's Swoop. He's also Alanna's husband."

Toph broke in. "Maybe you should talk to him, Snoozles," she said, "See what it's like to be married to someone who's a better fighter than you."

"Toph," Suki said reproachfully. Sokka just subsided into muttering dire imprecations.

Finally Zuko pointed them toward the tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair. "Raoul of Goldenlake, and he is a knight, like Alanna, and is the one in charge of knights who form a warrior group called the 'King's Own'."

"So, this is someone's castle, right?" Sokka asked. "Are we in the King's castle?"

Zuko turned and asked the question. "It seems," he said when he'd finished getting a reply, "That Suki was right, the land we're in is named Tortall. We're currently in a port city called Port Caynn. It's a very short distance from the capital city, Corus, and might even be considered an extension of it in some ways it's so close. The ship ran aground on a beach just past the docks, they said."

Despite how important it was to learn everything about where they were, Aang sighed. He wasn't going to get out to see Appa anytime soon, was he?

Liam, Jasson and Lianne were walking along the beach accompanied by their governess when they first saw her. "Look there!" Liam shouted, pointing at the lump of cloth. The three children ran forward, ignoring the women who were supposed to be watching them and dodging the guards who were supposed to guard them, and dropped down next to what resolved into an unconscious young woman.

Before they could do much of anything, a ragged band of armed men erupted from the trees and grabbed the princes and princess, along with the unconscious woman and the nurses, and absconded with them all before the guards could pull out a weapon. As the children were jounced along and tossed onto horseback, the nurses struggled and were thrown aside by the kidnappers who clearly didn't want any trouble with their hostages. They moved fast and were gone before anyone was able to catch up to them.

The men went on horseback for quite a while, then split into two groups, one group taking the princes and the other group taking the princess and the unconscious woman. The boys were loaded onto a boat and went up the river, while the others scrambled up and over a rocky hill after slapping the horses' flanks to get them going in another direction.

They met up with the other group a half an hour later, headed straight into a dank system of caves and eventually came out into a large cavern in which one of the multitude of conservative lords King Jonathan was forever wrangling with was waiting. "Did you have any trouble?" asked Baron Hillebrand.

"No, My Lord," replied the man. "We-"

"Our father won't stand for this!" shouted Liam.

The lord smiled at the children. "Oh, I think he'll do just about anything for you brats. Especially if that foreigner queen of his gets as soppy and pathetic as women tend to when their children are involved."

"Oh yeah? Shows what you know," Jasson said back. When the adults laughed at him, especially the men who'd been assigned as their guards, he regretted talking back.

"Is that so?" asked Hillebrand. "I think he'll do all sorts of ridiculous things instead of being a king. Letting peasants have important places in government, letting animals pretend that they're human-"

"What're you talking about?" demanded Liam. He was the oldest there, so it was up to him to be in charge. And the more the baron talked, the more they'd understand what was happening and maybe be able to figure out how to get away.

The baron sneered. "That . . . that lizard-thing he allows to teach the pages and squires about immortals, that peasant girl who claims she talks to animals and that Carthaki mage that dangles from her fingertips."

"Are you talking about Numair?" Lianne asked curiously. "Because he's from Tyra, not Carthak."

"It's the same savagery masquerading as culture," the man said dismissively.

"What do you want from us?" Liam put in. He wanted to know what was happening. That was the important thing, not how stupid the baron was for not knowing the difference between Carthak and Tyra.

He smiled at them, and it was a mean smile. "I'm going to send a letter to your father. I'll be speaking on behalf of all those of us who feel he is forgetting what made Tortall a great nation in the past. We'll make some demands of him. And if he doesn't listen, he'll be getting you all back in pieces."

That was when he noticed the woman in red. "Gentlemen, is there some reason this peasant came with you?"

Now that the children were able to get a good look at their kidnappers, they realised that one of them was a knight from a very minor house. "I thought it would muddy the waters a little bit," he explained. "At least until the king hears our demands. We take the woman and they're left wondering why, and perhaps thinking it has nothing to do with the royal family. They'll still be confused. But she's just some lump of red cloth," he said with a dismissive shrug. "She won't cause any trouble and we may even be able to have her look after the children so we don't have to bother."

"Reasonable," the baron said to his knight-lackey. "But she's your responsibility."

It was then that the woman groaned and woke.

Katara woke lying on the floor of a cave. Groaning a little at the aches and pains she felt from hitting the water so hard she sat up to find herself looking at strange people in strange clothing, skin that was as pale as the richest of Earth Kingdom noblewomen, eyes that were oddly rounded, noses that were narrow and protruded far more forward than anyone she'd seen before. "Where am I?" she asked them.

When she'd finished speaking a look of disgust crossed the face of the most richly dressed man. He sneered something at her, but she'd never heard a language like that before. She'd had to learn the language of the Earth Kingdom as well as Trade Common, but that sounded nothing like it. She tried it anyhow and got another sneer. She tried her few words of the language of the Fire Islands and found a kick aimed at her for her trouble.

She tried to dodge, but she was still weak and hurt from the Kesu Root and from her fall off the ship, and didn't manage anything besides keeping the worst of the injury at bay. A loud protest was raised from richly-dressed children, the oldest boy flinging himself at the man. The boy was caught and tossed back at the others, both of whom tried to jump on top of the man.

The crowd of thugs, whoever they were, responded to all this by grabbing the children and tying up all four of them. The One In Charge, with his fancy, silky clothing in reds and blues, shouted at his thugs, especially one in particular, and then stormed off.

As they lay there, Katara just catching her breath to figure out where she was and what to do next, the children looked at her and spoke. She shrugged. "I don't understand," she said to them, knowing they wouldn't understand any better.

The oldest looked at the other two, and then he tried something else. It was a different language, she could tell that much. She shrugged, and tried Earth Kingdom. Nothing. The girl then said something. It was halting, and it was clear she didn't know this new language at all well, but Katara appreciated the effort. She shook her head and tried a bit of the language of the Tribes. It wasn't a good chance, because hardly anyone outside the Tribes ever needed to learn it, but you never knew.

All three shook their heads. Then the oldest one tried something else. Nothing. It wasn't long before the four of them had exhausted all their efforts to communicate.

When the One In Charge came back, he shouted at them incomprehensibly for a while, until the children yelled back. Katara pulled herself to her knees, trying to convince them, without being able to make herself understood at all, to stop upsetting the man, who was carrying a sword. He responded by backhanding the oldest boy into the wall, where he slumped down, unconscious.

The children were both shocked into silence at that, staring in horror at the oldest one. The girl shrieked and seemed about to fling herself at the man, even while tied up, but Katara managed to knock her over before she took a hit like the older boy. The man laughed, then said something to the children, both of whom clearly spit defiance at the man, and then he sauntered off still laughing.

The girl began crying while the younger boy seemed to be desperately trying not to cry. The oldest boy lay there, still, and Katara began to worry about him. If only she had some water she could cut the ropes, get them out of there and heal the children. She settled into as close to a meditative posture as she could get and reached out with her senses. The one thing that time had done for her was that the last of the Kesu Root was out of her bloodstream.