Description: Daine goes missing and Alanna and Numair attempt to find her leading the mage to have an encounter with the emperor. Alanna, Numair and Daine have a long overdue talk in the mage's rooms.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Everything belongs to Tamora Pierce.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry that this chapter is mostly copied from the book. The scenes are really important to the plot and there's a lot Numair needs to work through.

Chapter 7

A loud banging on the door woke Numair several hours later. Varice rolled over and muttered a complaint reminding the mage exactly what had happened last night. He dragged himself out from under the covers and pulled on last night's breeches as the knocking sounded again. The mage opened the door trying to use his height to block the view into his room and found Alanna standing there somewhere between angry and worried.

"Is Daine with you?" the short knight demanded.

Numair frowned scrubbing a hand through his loose mane. "What?"

"Daine. Is she in your room?"

The mage blushed. "Why would she be in my room?"

"Because she isn't in hers and yours was the first place I thought to check." Alanna said patiently.

"What do you mean she isn't in her room?" Numair came fully awake as his own fears caught up with him.

The Lioness gave him a withering look. "When I went to check on her this morning she wasn't in her bed or anywhere in her room. Kitten and that new monkey friend of hers were in the bed but there was no sign of Daine."

"Give me a moment and I'll help you look."

"I'll go and check the bath house in case she's there," the redhead called as she set off down the corridor.

Numair closed the door going to find a shirt to pull on.

"What are you doing? Come back to bed." Varice moaned.

"Daine's missing. I'm going to help Alanna look for her," he explained as he pulled on his boots.

"You heard the Lioness, she's probably in the bath house," the naked woman gestured vaguely.

"Perhaps," the mage said scraping his hair back into a horsetail. "But I'd feel better if we knew for certain."

"Why did the Lioness think the girl would be in your room? You aren't…?" Varice paused and eyed him suspiciously.

Numair whirled to glare at the woman in his bed. "No, I am not! I suggest you return to your rooms."

He didn't even check to see if she'd heard him as he stormed out the door and went to find Alanna. The Lioness met him on her return from the guest baths.

"Any sign of her?" the mage asked.

"No, and the slaves I spoke to hadn't seen her either."

"You check the terrace and I'll check the formal gardens. Mayhap she is just greeting the animals there."

The two raced off and Numair tried not to think the worst. Daine was fine; she'd shapeshifted and gone for a morning flight somewhere or was in the garden saying hello to some new animal friend. The mage searched the gardens when a thought struck him, and he knew exactly where his errant student had run off to. The aviary should have been the first place they checked when there were sick birds Daine had tended to only the other night. Numair turned and marched towards the aviary intending to give his student a thorough tongue lashing for scaring them like this. She should know better than to run off without telling anyone, especially in Carthak.

The mage burst through the doors and stopped short when he saw his former friend standing in the centre of the room feeding his birds. A chill went down his spine at the thought of Daine here alone with Ozorne.

"Where is she? Where is Daine?" Numair demanded angrily.

The emperor turned and sneered at the mage. "Is that any way to address to me?"

"We have checked the baths, and the garden, and she is nowhere to be found. If she is here and you are concealing her from me –"

"Be assured, Draper, she is not here. We had hoped she would be, to see how our birds have improved."

Numair glared "If they have, then you have no further need of her. We all prefer that you leave her in peace."

"We are inclined to give her grace and favour," the emperor replied haughtily. "She has served us well, and we wish to reward her."

"She requires no rewards for your providing, Your Imperial Majesty," the mage practically snarled. "She is well enough as she is."

"Such heat for a girl child, and one without family or connection to recommend her. Why concern yourself in her affairs?" Numair's rage turned icy. He had never cared about where someone had come from when selecting his friends. "You will forget she exists the moment some rare tome of magic comes into your hands, or some arcane toy. That has always been your way." The mage clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. Daine meant more to him than any mere magic. "You take up with someone, make them feel you are their sworn friend, then turn on them the moment you have what you wanted from them."

"How like you to see it in those terms." As if learning magic at the Imperial university meant that Ozorne could command Numair's Gift. "She is my student. You will never understand that. You could never sustain so profound a tie. Once you gained your throne, you decided you no longer required mere human bonds."

"Human bonds." Ozorne muttered while examining his gilded nails. "I am certain you and your lovely student have a most profound bond. Must you share a bed with her animals as well as her?"

Numair lashed out in fury and connected with an emerald shield. "If you interfere with her, if you harm her in any way, it will be a breach of the peace accords," he raged rubbing his hand. "All the Eastern Lands will unite to destroy you."

The mage turned on his heel, his cheeks burning from embarrassment and rage and stormed out of the aviary. That last part had been an empty boast, but he certainly hadn't meant to lose his temper. Numair's hands trembled as he walked in a direction, any direction, just to get himself away from Ozorne. The trembling started to get worse as his rage transformed into terror when he acknowledged he'd just hit the emperor. Numair stopped and gripped a wall as he fought to get himself under control. He still needed to find Daine.

The mage checked the menagerie and even looked in the Immortal's menagerie to see if his friend had gone in there. Utterly despondent, he trudged back to the Tortall delegation hoping Alanna had located her. The short knight greeted him with a smile as he made his way through the gardens.

"Any luck?" he asked.

"Yes, I just saw her run back to her rooms. Little rogue! I have no idea where she was hiding. I'll have a word with her later. Come on, let's get some breakfast."

Food was the last thing the mage wanted as he followed the Lioness to the breakfast table. He couldn't control his trembling hands as Ozorne's last words tore into him; 'share a bed with her animals'. Numair didn't look up when he heard Daine enter the common room as he picked at a bread roll.

"Sorry everyone, I went to check on the aviary birds before breakfast and lost track of the time," she said a little breathless. "Then I couldn't find my way back here."

The mage's hands shook as he wondered if Ozorne had known she was there and had hidden her from him. Must you share a bed with her animals? Had she been there when he'd attacked the emperor? Had she heard anything of what had been said?

Alanna frowned. "We should have realised that's where you were. Daine, you really should have told someone where you'd gone. Numair and I were worried about you."

The mage looked down hoping he wasn't blushing as badly as he felt. He managed to eat a little bread and some fruit as the others rose from the table.

"Daine, you asked to speak to me alone. Let's go to my room." He knew she wanted to talk about the badger, but Numair needed to ask her if she had been in the menagerie with Ozorne.

"Then I go, too." Alanna said standing.

"It isn't needful – it's just a magic thing." Daine said.

"If you visit a man's room, you need a chaperon," the Lioness explained. "Really, Numair, you know Carthakis. They think an unveiled woman is no better than she ought to be. Until we leave here, you can't talk with her unless she is chaperoned or you can manage it in public."

The mage blushed a deep shade of crimson. That was the third accusation of the morning that he was acting inappropriately with his young friend. "A fine thing, when I can't talk to my student alone. Let's go, then."

The women followed him into his room, and he was relieved to see his lover had left until Daine whispered to Alanna. "Did Varice have a chaperon?"

Numair wasn't sure his face could get any redder and was glad he had his back to the pair. How in Mithros' name did Daine know Varice had been in his chambers?

"Perhaps she didn't want one for what she was here to do." Alanna hissed back at the young woman not making the mage feel any better. This was precisely why he didn't have affairs in his rooms at the palace.

The mage kept his back to the both of them and attempted to calm himself while invoking the cantrip to conceal the room against all types of listening spells, as well as listening through the walls. Alanna went to sit on his bed and after a deep breath Numair joined her. "It's safe now. Talk."

Daine stayed standing as she faced the pair. "The badger came to see me in my cabin just before we arrived in Carthak. He was angry we'd come here and tried to convince me to turn around and go home. He said it was a bad place to be, that the great gods have lost patience with the emperor, then he breathed this silver fog on me. A gift if things went bad. Rikash said something similar when Numair and me spoke to him the other night. Something about Carthak being unhealthy."

"It's hardly new. Seers throughout the Eastern and Southern Lands have been giving warnings of some disaster that looms over Carthak. Without better information, we have no reason to break off the talks and return home. Have you such information?" he asked hopefully.

Daine shook her head.

"Next time, tell the badger he must be more specific, if the warning is to be of any use." Numair grumbled.

"What about that breath thing the badger did?" Alanna asked. "Do you know what it is?"

"Oh, I know. And I don't like it – not one bit." Daine said ominously as she approached the stuffed statue of a king vulture in his room. She removed a handkerchief off the bird's head Numair didn't remember putting there and stuffed it in her pocket. "Here's what the badger did."

The Wildmage rubbed her hands on her breeches then grabbed the bird's head as light blazed around her fingers. Had the mage known what to expect, he might have changed his sight to get a better idea of what had just happened. As demonstrations went it was very impressive as the vulture stretched its wings as if waking up and then leaned down slowly to peer into Daine's face.

"Hello." The young woman said weakly. "I need to sit."

The Wildmage staggered over to the bed and sat heavily with her head on her knees. Numair retrieved the vial of wakeflower from his pouch in case she fainted.

"Daine?" Alanna leapt off the bed and stood in front of the young woman checking her pulse.

"I'm fine. Just dizzy," she replied.

Daine took several deep breaths as the reanimated vulture made its ungainly way across the room to peck at the window screen.

Numair looked down frowning in concern at his young friend. "Is your weakness part of this new working?"

"I don't know. The times it happened before – the tiger rug in my room, and the three-horn skeleton in the Hall of Bones – it was just a flash. They didn't move about for long."

"I need to sit." Alanna said as she flopped heavily back onto the bed. "The – what did you say? – tiger and the three-horn. Did you bring them to life on purpose?"

It was like this with Daine and her magic sometimes. Numair could say he was almost used to the surprises she could pull on him, but that wouldn't be entirely truthful.

"No. It was an accident," the young woman replied miserably.

The bed was suddenly filled with a king vulture as it leant against Daine offering its silent affection. Numair jumped off the bed deciding it was getting too crowded and started to think.

"That might explain why you're weak. This time you tried to do it. Do you agree?" Alanna aimed the question at him.

The mage tugged his long nose. "To reason without information is fruitless. To acquire more information, Daine must conduct further experiments." Which they absolutely could not do whilst in Carthak. He rubbed his temples trying to ward off the imminent headache. "What precisely did the badger say?

"Um – Something like 'I have a gift. Something to help when all goes ill' – I think. Oh, and it seemed like he was talking to someone else before he breathed on me. Someone I couldn't see."

Numair filed the last part away for the moment needing to focus on the information at hand and Daine's new magical ability. "The tiger and three-horn – what happened?"

"There was this horrid tiger skin in my room which I wanted to remove. I don't think I actually touched it the first time, but when I got close my hands got all hot and itchy. The white fire sort of streamed out of my hands and onto the tiger skin. Then it closed its eyes and relaxed its jaw like it was sleeping and didn't move again. I used a long-handled brush to stuff it under the bed, but when we got back from the menagerie, this old slave woman was cleaning my room and handed me the skin. There was this white light and I near fainted then too. Only, when I could focus again, the slave had gone, and the tiger skin was standing all on its own. I'm worried the light and my falling scared the old woman away.

The incident with the three-horn was when Lindhall took me to visit the Hall of Bones. I touched the skeleton of the three-horn, but I didn't see any flash that time because Lindhall clapped to activate the light-globes. Then it turned to look at me and wiggled its toes but that's all it did. Lindhall was talking to a slave at the time, so I don't think he saw."

"You are sure neither the slave in your room nor Lindhall saw anything?" Numair asked her deeply concerned.

The young woman thought for a moment. "No. I don't think they could have covered up if they saw."

Alanna laughed nervously. "Nor could I!"

The vulture started to preen Daine's hair as she looked at it. "I can't talk with him. It's like he's got no mind. But he must, mustn't he? He looks like he can think."

The mage watched the interaction between his student and the awakened vulture for a moment. It certainly appeared like Daine maintained her bond with the creature even though it was dead. If they had the opportunity to experiment, he would have been interested to see if this new power of hers would work on human skeletons, or if this was in some way tied to her wild magic and would only work on animals. So far, her only encounters seemed to all have been with animals.

"The timing is inconvenient," the mage said playing with his black opal pendant. "We can't investigate properly while we are here. I will say this much – what you have done sounds like no wild magic I have ever heard. Only the gods can bring the dead back even to a seeming of life."

"I'm no god." Daine protested.

Numiar looked at her with deep sympathy. Maybe not a god, sweetling, he thought, but certainly the daughter of one. The mage was now utterly convinced by the Banjiku's words. This latest power leant a lot of credit to their belief.

"What if the badger passed some of his godness on to me?" she asked hopefully.

Numair considered it for a moment then shook his head. "There is nothing in the writings about animal gods to indicate they are able to do such a transfer. Not only that, but normally their power affects only those of their species. The badger's magic should apply to badgers alone, as the wolf god applies only to wolves, and so on. Only the great gods have power that translate across species: Mithros, the Goddess, the Black God, the Graveyard Hag, the Master of Dream Gainel –"

"Don't name them all." Alanna said patiently.

His lips twitched in a smile. "No – of course not. In the meantime, Daine, I think it would be best if you said nothing of this and, in particular, did nothing with it until we got home."

"'ll try. It keeps getting away from me, though."

"What about him?" Alanna asked nodding to the king vulture. "We can't just let him run around in here. He's losing features, for one thing."

"What do you want to do, wing-brother?" Daine asked the bird. The vulture hopped over to the windowsill and began to peck at it again. "You want out?"

"Taking him out now is tough. People will ask questions," the Lioness said and turned to the mage. "I assume you want this kept quiet."

"As quiet as possible. You don't know Ozorne. If he found out she could do this…" The thought made him shudder. "You don't ever want him to find out."

"If I take you to my rooms, will you stay there and pretend to be stuffed if the servants come in? When it's dark, we'll go outside." Daine talked gently to the vulture.

The large bird nodded its head demonstrating that it had not only gained the bond with the Wildmage but also developed the intelligence that resulted in exposure to her.

Numair reached into his belt pouch and drew out a crystal holding it out to his student. "This cat's-eye agate will make you two invisible once the spell is activated. When you're in your room, put it in your pocket. Out of the light, the charm will end. Don't bump into anyone, or they will see you, spell or no."

"Come on." Daine said standing and looking back at the king vulture. "You'd best walk. You're too big to carry."

The mage drew the sign for invisibility over the cat's-eye and handed it to Daine. She stepped closer than was necessary and took the crystal avoiding looking at him.

"Numair – you shouldn't have tried to hit him. I don't think he liked it," she whispered.

The mage went white with shock and froze as Daine and the vulture left his room. He'd managed to recover from his earlier fright and his encounter with Ozorne, especially with the discussion about Daine's new powers, but her words brought it all rushing back.

"Who did you try to hit?" Alanna's voice caught him off-guard as he'd forgotten she was still in the room.

He swallowed and turned slowly to be met with a hard, purple-eyed stare.

"Numair –?"

The mage fled to the privy as his stomach rebelled and he lost his meagre breakfast. He sat on the cold tile floor with his head in his hands trying to stop himself from trembling, close to having a panic attack if he couldn't get control of his breathing.

What had he done? He never should have hit the emperor! Ozorne had all he needed now to have him arrested. All because the emperor had accused him of sleeping with his student which he'd been accused of before and brushed off. Must you share a bed with her animals? Having Daine's friends sleep beside him had never been an issue before. Numair enjoyed sharing magical experiences with his magelet and having her animal friends visit them at night. He'd always appreciated the extra warmth at his back and had even had Kitten in his bed on the odd occasion. Now Ozorne made it sound like a sordid thing.

Numair stood slowly and splashed some water in his face as he regarded his reflection. Share a bed with her animals… Shakily, the mage returned to his rooms and put on a clean change of clothes as the gong sounded to call the delegation to the talks. Another knock came as Alanna burst through the door.

"Of all the stupid, irresponsible, foolhardy –" the Lioness broke off and grabbed his head between her hands. "Goddess bless, you look awful!"

"Have I doomed the talks to failure? Doomed us all?" He felt Alanna's Gift flow through him taking away some of the nausea and shock.

She frowned at him clearly having an internal debate with herself. "I don't think the emperor will let this effect the talks, but I doubt it will help."

Numair squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You weren't thinking, obviously. I need to get going. I think you should stay behind today." The mage opened his mouth to object, but Alanna held up a hand silencing him. "You're in no state to focus on the negotiations and your presence might antagonise the emperor further. Stay in your rooms, calm down and try not to do anything else stupid. We'll talk later."

With that the Lioness closed the door and left the mage standing alone in his room feeling like a complete fool.