A Life Less Ordinary: Chapter 22
By Sulia Serafine
[1-10-01. This is a Protector of the Small fanfic; all credit goes to Tamora Pierce. I'm broke, so you can't sue me.
Oh, one more thing: BAD LANGUAGE (I. E. cursing, swearing…). You have been warned!
I'd also like to thank those who gave me help with the character descriptions. Your names will be in the "closing credits" of the new stories as soon as I do them. If anyone else want to help me, please e-mail me at silverwLng@aol.com, okay? I'm finally getting around to working on my tiny website, and there's a new section for my Tortall stories. I'll tell you the address when I deem it worthy to be seen by you. Enjoy the chapter, I know you've been waiting for it! Please, tell me what you think..]
Days later:
The portal continued to waver, but was stable enough to replenish the number of soldiers lost by the Mirans. The defense of the Palace was slowly deteriorating. The people within it dreaded the day that the defense would be gone completely. Keladry looked up in the sky to where the black hole was situated. She could almost swear she saw purple flash in it.
"My mind is playing tricks on me," she said under her breath and proceeded to find Buri and get her orders. The King's Own had arrived, with the Lioness not too far behind. Alanna always came to greet Keladry before Jonathan. Keladry suspected that Alanna felt guilty for what happened to her. The Lady Knight probably had the notion that if King Jonathan had allowed Alanna to meet Keladry and guide her through her years as page that Kel wouldn't have been thrown into another world.
"What's done is done. No one can change it," she thought.
As she walked on the top of the outer palace wall, Keladry spied a cloud of dust rising up on the road toward her. A group of a half a dozen men was wearing Tortallian clothing. A knight led them. "He looks familiar."
She jogged toward the corner of that wall. The former page could remember when she would be terrified of jogging on top of the walls. The height nearly paralyzed her in the past. And she could remember who always tried to help by being cruel.
~~
"Don't be a lump now. What are you waiting for?" Joren called up to her. Leaves rustled where Keladry was crouching on a branch. She sluggishly moved toward the center of the tree and hugged the trunk.
"Waiting? Oh, just waiting for this tree to get a little shorter," she sarcastically replied.
"I don't have time for this. If you can't get down from there, then I'll just ride ahead to Arthados without you."
Keladry growled at him. "I wouldn't be up here if you hadn't slipped that pinch of belladonna into my food! It knocked me out for half a day and you carried me up here!"
She could hear him snort from below.
"Well, excuse me if I wanted to help you for once."
"Help? You call this help?"
"Well, how else would you have gotten so far up, huh? Climbing down's a lot harder than climbing up because you have to watch your step." If the thick foliage wasn't blocking her, she could have sworn he was grinning. "Hey! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"
She gripped the tree trunk tighter. "Oh, when I try to kill you it definitely won't make you stronger."
~~
"It would have been better if he'd gone to Arthados without me," she thought. She nearly died at Arthados. What happened there regretfully changed her view on life. It made her to think twice before helping anyone. "I shouldn't have gone with him. It's his fault. It's always his fault. But… he wouldn't leave me behind." She shook her head. "Hey!" she called to the gatekeeper. "Who approaches?"
The man lifted up his helmet to get a better look at her. "Oh! It's you, Lady Keladry."
"Yes, yes," she said impatiently. "Who approaches the Palace?"
"Sir Faleron of King's Reach!" another man yelled back. It was one of the older knights who took charge of who entered and exited the palace. He looked anxiously around with a spyglass. "There are no signs of Mirans," he reported. "Open the gates! Give them entrance!"
Keladry watched below as the gates were opened for the small party. Half a dozen exhausted men entered. She could make out the exhausted expression on Faleron's face. "Wait," she thought. "Joren is supposed to be with Faleron." She ran across the battlements to the nearest ladder.
"Faleron!" Keladry called as she put on her gloves and used them to grip the edges of the ladder and slide down. She ran to her friend's side. She tried to catch her breath as he dismounted from his horse.
"Kel? Is something wrong?"
"Where's Joren?" she asked. For a split second, she didn't want to show anyone that she was worried about him. Still, Keladry had to know and let her emotion surface to her eyes. Faleron gazed at her guiltily.
"Umm… You see," he began. Keladry came closer and forced him to keep looking at her. He shamefully turned his head. "He disappeared one night. That was it. I wanted to search for him, but we were so pressed for time, Kel-- I swear!" He started to blame himself for her disappointed look. It vanished in a second and Keladry put her mask on again.
"So, he's being a lazy good for nothing by skipping out on us," she said tartly, expertly covering up her hurt. "For a second, I thought someone had sent him off to do something of importance. We'd be in trouble then. He can't do anything right."
Faleron opened his mouth to speak. Then he decided better on it and nodded. "Right. I shall see you later, Kel."
"Goodbye, Faleron."
He let a servant take his horse and briskly walked toward his men at arms. Keladry took a deep breath and returned to her post.
~~
Joren went back to the storeroom as silently and swiftly as he had left it. He placed the weapons given to him in the bundle he found them in. Then he tucked it behind an earthen jar of spices. His arms moved mechanically as if he was going to breakdown if he didn't exhibit control over himself. Finally, the wretched young man curled up behind one of the storeroom's shelves and closed his eyes.
It might have been hours. He continued to lie there like a dying man pondering his life. Presently, the door opened. Perhaps it was servant or a guard. He or she could find him and have him killed. It just might as well be the answer to his problems.
"Joren, I know you're here. Come out. We have to talk."
"Go away," he replied to the Empress without lifting his head. "I don't want anything to do with you or any of this."
She found him and knelt by his side. "I know what you're feeling."
He turned his head and glared at her. His voice was dripping with venom. "How could you possibly know anything about me?"
"Because you're just like him."
He got up to a sitting a position and pointed a finger at her. "Don't say that! I'm nothing like him! He's a fucking murderer! He's the one responsible for the agony that this world suffers!"
The Empress's face contorted into a more gloomy expression. It seemed wrong for natural beauty like that to be sad. Still, Joren did not relent from his furious accusations and reproaches. She shook her head. "I know. But please, hear me out. I've spent so much of my energy bringing you here."
Joren punched the floor. He could feel the skin on his knuckles get scraped by the stone. It brought a stinging sensation to his hand that he completely ignored in his blind anger. "Why me? Why the guy who resembles the Emperor? What's so magical about it?"
"I don't know. That is the way it was written in Old Magic. As counterparts, your souls are nearly the same, and so is your inner power. You are resistant to your own power," she repeated. The older woman actually thought it would calm him to say it.
She was wrong.
"Oh, don't even try that!" He stood up and stared down at her. "I don't suppose it says in Old Magic that I am also resistant to not killing my twin, huh?"
"He's not your twin," she corrected lamely, getting on her own feet. The Empress wrung her hands nervously.
"Like I care!" he yelled.
"Please be quiet! We'll be caught!" She held up her hands and grasped his shoulders. "I know, you're angry. You feel confused and betrayed by the world. It isn't fair to you. It isn't fair to anyone how the world works."
He calmly removed her hands from him. He took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. "I know that already. And by now, I've accepted the rest of the world for being the dead end that it is. But people? Oh, Gods on High, I don't know what to do with people." He pointed to the door of the storeroom. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I have been missing from my home for four years. I could walk out that door and return there. It's where I belong. You had no right to take me away."
The Empress looked away. "I know I had no right to do that. But it was the only way to save us."
Joren came close to her side and said angrily into her ear, "What did you do?"
She blinked away tears. His voice made her distraught. All at once, his suffering was poured into her so that she identified with his forlorn heart. Joren stomped away and rested his forehead on the wall. He punched the stone walls furiously, not caring how it hurt his already injured hands. She wiped at her moist eyelashes. "Please, don't do that. Stop it; you'll hurt yourself." She put her hands over her face. "Okay. I'll tell you. I sent the labafret to roam where you and Keladry were. Knowing you, you could find your own way to make it mad and send you to this world." She smiled a little. Then, she sat down, her glimmering blue gown settling around her like a pool of water. A whimper could be heard from his direction. The Empress continued. "I was hoping that the two of you would become close. She was meant to be with Neal, but I couldn't let that happen when I needed you to be with her. It would be even better in a place where Neal didn't exist." She paused. "But I was wrong about that. Owen was there."
"Damn selfish of you," he muttered.
"I know. But please, there's more." She touched her wedding ring. "I knew you would be stronger if you had someone. I didn't know any other girl that could force herself to put up with you long enough to fall in love."
"Put up with me?" he echoed. "Oh, thanks for the boost in confidence."
"You know its true!" she shot back. He kept shamefully silent. "It doesn't matter now. Joren, now that our two planes are overlapping with each other to create portals, you must kill him. I know you didn't mean to open that portal, but--" She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Joren whirled around.
"What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything," she replied evenly.
"No, no. You said something. What is it?" he demanded. "What are you hiding from me?" When she remained quiet, he crouched down by her. "Hey! You're the one who wanted to explain things. So explain already!"
She took a deep breath. "I shouldn't have given it to you. It's my fault. I just wanted someone to stop my husband from conquering the world. I didn't want to drag another universe into this."
"You're not answering the question."
Hesitantly, she spoke. "The cat, Joren. Hold it in your hand."
He never broke his gaze from her as he reached into his pouch and held the tiny ivory cat in his palm.
"Now, tell me a lie."
He blinked. "What?"
"Try to tell me a lie," she repeated quietly. "Any lie would do. Tell me your name is Owen."
Joren frowned. "But that's ridiculous. Why would I want to…?" Joren stared at the little animal figure in his hand. His eyes widened. "No, no this isn't what I think it is."
"Tell me your name is Owen," she ordered.
"My name is O…" He cleared his throat. "My name is Ooooo….Joren." He got a terrible coppery taste on his tongue. "Ugh. I can't say it. I can't… lie…" He stared at the cat. "No! That isn't possible! I don't believe it!"
"What's so hard to believe? Have you ever lied while holding that cat in your hand?"
He shook his head. "But-- no! I--"
~~
He gripped the tiny ivory cat tightly in his hand. "Well then, I'd command the labafrets to bring Egavar to Tortall! Maybe he'd know how to help me! And while they're at it, they can let the Mirans come in this land for our knights to fight and defeat!" He waved his arms about in mock melodrama. "Why, we could fix everyone's fucking problems, couldn't we?"
~~
"Labafrets obey the Truth," he whispered. "Mithros have pity on me, it is true. The Truth Stone!" He stared at the cat. He sneered. Then, in one impulsive move, he threw the cat at the wall. It shattered and fell to the floor. Joren cursed under his breath, dropping onto his knees and sorting through the shards of ivory.
"Why did you do that?"
"To see this," he answered and picked up a flawless diamond roughly the shape of a baby acorn. "This is it, huh? The ivory was crafted around the diamond. I'm guessing you did that so I would buy it for her, didn't you?"
She nodded solemnly. "You will have time enough to ponder these things later, but we must plan for your task."
He sighed. "Why do you want your husband killed?"
"There's no other way to stop him," she replied. Tears sprung to her eyes again. "I've tried for so long! So, so very long… I love him too much to let him do this to the world." She tilted her head back. Her voice became gentler, if it was possible. "I remember… when we were young." She wiped her eyes. "I remember a time when he told me. He told me that I was the only thing that kept him anchored into life. This monarchy has always been a horrible one. We were hoping to change that." She paused and blinked. "Then I went away to tend to my ill mother. I was gone for a very long time and he fell under the influence of bad men. And then… you know the rest. He's too gone for me to do anything."
"You could try some more," he suggested quietly.
"People are dying as we speak. The world cannot wait for me try anymore. Goddess, you don't know how much this hurts me. To kill my husband?"
"To kill Keladry," he thought. "That's how she feels. The same way I feel about killing Kel. Or abandoning her." He smiled weakly at the older woman. "I suppose now the world has to wait for me to try."
They stayed like that for a while. Joren knelt down and started to gather the fragments of ivory off the floor. He guiltily placed them in his pouch. Then he turned to the Empress and coughed softly. "Yes? What is it?" He looked doubtful for a moment. "Tell me. What's on your mind?"
"Are there others that are willing to help us?"
"Yes. There are men more loyal to me than him. I shall call them to guard our chambers tonight. And you will do it then." She wiped her eyes again. "I… I must go. I have to spend time with him before--"
"What do I do until then?"
"I shall send one of my servants to you. You will know him right away." She departed from the room. He carefully closed the door, making sure no one was watching. He waited until he no longer heard the footsteps of the woman, then backed away. For a steady while, he contemplated his decision. At last he nodded to himself.
And so, it was agreed that he would kill the Emperor of Mira on the third day of autumn in the Palace of Woes.
Joren sat down again. He drew his knees to his chest and rocked back and forth. His head was a mess. He was going to kill a man who looked exactly like him, save for age. And Kel? Oh, Gods, the last four years was meant to make them strong-- to make them strong together.
"I hate my life," he whispered. He ran a hand through his hair. He snuffed the wick of the lantern nearest him and stayed where he was on the floor. Half the room plunged into darkness.
A few minutes later, the room was still dark. The door creaked as it inched open. A youth about sixteen years old with curly brown hair and gray eyes crept into the room. He was short and slightly on the chubby side. Joren squinted. His heart immediately lightened. "That isn't who I think it is."
"H-hello? Is anyone here?" the boy called out. "The Empress sent me for Joren of Stone Mountain. Hello?"
Joren struck a match and lit the lantern. The boy nearly jumped. He was frightened by the sudden action.
"Are you Joren?"
He got no response.
"Oh. I guess you are," the youth shrugged. "My name is--"
"Owen?" Joren interrupted. "Your name is Owen, isn't it? You look just like Owen Jesslaw, back home. I guess he's a squire right now." He scratched his head while trying to recollect his memory. He turned to the boy. "Well?"
The boy frowned. "Actually, my name is Neal."
Joren narrowed his eyes. "Oh, you're kidding me…"