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THE HARSH LAND NORTH:
PART 2
"You're lucky - a minute later and you and your man would have spent another night camping," said the Guard at the city gates to a very dusty knight and his man-at-arms. Aside to his companion the Guard commented, "Don't see how he won his shield." They snickered, but the knight ignored them, having heard such sentiments ever since he was knighted.
"Come on, George, lets find that inn Miles told me of." Without a second glance they rode off, not noticing how the Guard's expression turned dark when he realised they were Tortallan.
In the inn (! - sorry, couldn't help myself) knight and soldier sat and watched the crowded room, listening to conversations and gathering information. "I didn't think the commoners would feel this strongly. I thought only the Scanran court had it in for us." George looked surprised at her comment.
"Nay, they hate us even more than the royalty. And why shouldn't they? It's them who'll suffer come war time, and them who hear of our rich farmlands and then look to their own barren fields." Alanna nodded at that, but was still worried at just how much hatred she could feel in the room.
"This is not going to be fun."
Although to keep up the disguise they had paid for two rooms, somehow come sleep time George managed to follow Alanna without being noticed. "What would people say, do you think, if they saw us like this, my 'man-at-arms'?" She was referring to the fact that to save water they had decided to bath together and were currently entwined washing each other. He just chuckled and splashed water in her face, which of course set the both of them off into an all-out brawl which ended up soaking the carpets. Neither Alanna or George noticed the sopping wet floor coverings, though, as they were slightly busy with each other on the bed.
The next day was spent in riding from the border city of Krama (shut up, i'm struggling here!!) to the capital of Scanra, the great Drhamdi (so i suck with names). They were dressed in their best - Alanna wearing her gold chain-mail and George the uniform of the King's Own. Now they were ambassadors and in order to allow George to discover what he needed to they would not be able to act as though they were connected in any way, and whenever he was in or around the palace George would have to wear the uniform of the Own.
As King's Champion Alanna was given the royal treatment and invited to sit at the high table at the banquet that night. It was obvious that the whole Scanran court disbelieved the many stories of her prowess and skill at arms, and she could quite clearly hear many of the younger knights snickering and making jokes about how exactly she had won the position of Champion. Beet red in the face Alanna doggedly went on eating, using all of her willpower to stop herself from cutting the idiots apart and bathing in their blood. ~It would not help our cause if you went on a rampage, Alanna! Duke Gareth would not appreciate it if you caused the war single handed!~ She kept repeating this to herself while staring at the Duke, forcing herself to remember just how terrifying it was when he became truly angry.
Throughout the meal the King ignored her and the Queen sneered at her, neither even pretending to like the female knight. She did, however, talk to the King's brother, Duke Karl, who commanded Scanra's army. He knew her reputation as a fighter was not false, and Alanna was immensely grateful that he accepted her as a fellow swordsman.
That night in her chamber Alanna went over the day's events and sighed. ~I wish George was here. I wouldn't mind them all hating me if only he was here to comfort me at night.~ She tried to be brave, to act as a knight should and just ignore everything, but she still ended up crying herself to sleep.
***
George would have wished the same thing - that he were with Alanna in the castle - had he the time to think such things. As it was he was more concerned with staying the thieves that were swarming him trying to cut his throat. "Damn Scanrans just had to be the touchy type!" He muttered under his breath while swiping at a cutthroat's chest with his knife. The men backed up for a second, disconcerted because their attack had been held off by this lone man. That gave George the time he needed to set himself, and then before they knew what hit them three thieves were down, clutching at their sides. He grinned at their shock - he could even best Alanna at knives - and then lunged towards his next victim : an axe-man. The deadly weapon rose up under its wielder's mighty strength and came screaming down headed straight for George's head. Swiftly he ducked and rolled, coming up at the brute's side and slicing at his waist. His knife cut through clothing but stuck on a thick leather jerkin, and George only just managed to get free before his head was split by the mighty lump of metal. Weaving like a dancer he evaded the axe, looking for openings in his opponent's guard; one appeared and like a flash George was in, knife aiming for an unprotected patch just below the man's armpit that would allow a knife to slip neatly between the ribs and pierce his lungs. Gasping for breath the hulk dropped to the ground, axe clattering harmlessly behind him.
"Just you and me, my friend," George whispered to the only man left facing him, a wicked grin playing over his face. Sweating from fear the man broke and fled, turning to glare as George chuckled humourlessly at his cowardice. "Were you under my rule, friend, you'd've lost an ear for that! Run along to your 'king' and tell him I said good day!" ~Damn fool~ he thought to himself.
Before he had been so abruptly attacked George had been in the process of gleaning information from a pair of young Scanran thieves. They hadn't told him much, only that they knew the army was big, but they wouldn't cooperate with him when he asked for their master's lair so as to find out what he needed. He'd been about to teach them just how persuasive he could be when the gang of thugs had come to their friends' rescue, and now he'd lost all possible way of getting an audience with the King of Thieves unless it was as his prisoner. Tortallan and Scanran thieves had never had much contact - they had never been friendly even when George was a child. He sighed. "Jon needs this information - the conniving Scanran royalty will hardly show our diplomats their full army when war is on our heels. Oh for the Crooked God's sake! How did that happen?" He was referring to a deep gash that started in his shoulder and ended at his wrist which had only just started to hurt but had been bleeding profusely for some time. Running towards his inn he bound it with strips from his tunic, praying to all the gods he knew that he would reach it before the loss of blood sent him unconscious.
***
Alanna had a fitful night's sleep, but knew that she would need all her energy and then some to make it through yet another day at court. Rising with the sun she set off to the practice yards, so similar to those she had spent most of her teenage life in. Here too boys and knights were hard at work keeping in peak condition, but all stopped and stared when they saw just who the small redheaded figure was that trotted into the arena. She smiled nervously at the gawking assembly, then set to work first with the exercises Liam had taught her and then with her sword, so that by the time she had finished every part of her body had received a thorough workout. Everybody else ignored her once she got to work - a female in their practice yards was shocking but she did not deserve their acknowledgement. One page who stole a peek was hit by his instructor and given extra duties for a week.
That day the Tortallan delegate was given a tour of the Scanran army and its bases, which appeared to be quite small, especially in comparison to Tortall's. However they had been expecting this and were not lulled into any false sense of security - Scanra wanted war, and by appearing the weaker of the two it could entice Tortall into warfare and then defeat an unwary opponent, thus giving them the victory and control of all of Tortall's wealth. Duke Gareth was fed up with these futile attempts and requested that they proceed straight to the audience chamber for another day of lengthy speeches.
These hadn't even gone on for an hour before the hatred the Scanrans felt towards the Tortallans shone through and knights were rushing swords drawn to cut down the offending diplomats. They were stopped by and enraged King who first glared angrily at his hotheaded young knights and then glared hatred at the visitors.
"Your majesty," spoke Alanna, "this man here has laid a challenge at my door, and I would accept it. Will you give us permission to depart and see to it straight away?" At that Duke Gareth glanced sternly at his one-time pupil, asking her silently if she truly wanted to do this. Her curt nod was all the answer he received, but he knew that by the calm way she spoke and moved she was not going to give the fool any quarter. He could also tell by the fire in her purple eyes that she was not mad, but furious.
"I almost feel sorry for the idiot," he said aside to another Tortallan.
The King decreed that as the talks were going nowhere everyone would witness the fight, and they all settled themselves in the Royal Arena, Tortallans silent and Scanrans sneering. Alanna sighed wistfully as she looked at her sword - it was not Lightning but a different blade, serviceable and a good heft but still not crafted for her hand as her first sword had been.
Bowing to the King, both turned to face each other and stood in the 'guard' position. At the signal to begin Alanna skipped back and around, playing with her victim, forcing him to strike first. He did and faster than anybody could watch she darted in and underneath his blade, attempting to disarm her opponent. He disentangled himself and stepped away, murder in his eyes. Stalking her he swiped and nipped, trying to force Alanna to open her guard and let him score the winning blow. Laughing inside at the futility of this trick she easily evaded his sword and continued to draw him out, trying to tire him. The Scanran struck, yelling insults at her country, her King and her honour, but instead of making her angry and forcing a mistake she merely grew deadly serious and determined to end the fight.
The spectators could see the change in her mood, and her calm face with violently flashing purple eyes struck fear into the hearts of all the Scanrans - she looked like a spectre that would rain death down upon them all. Blade moving faster than the eye could follow Alanna leapt at her opponent, flowing her sword up and around his and ripped it from his grasp, stopping herself just in time from slicing through his bared neck.
She turned to the King and watching dignitaries and said, "Tortall will not be brought down as easily as you think. I advise you to consider long and hard before you seal your fate." With that she stalked out of the room.
With awe fear in his voice one Scanran knight whispered, "She didn't even raise a sweat..."
After Alanna left the King stopped anyone else from departing, saying to the beaten man on the arena floor, "You know what must be done." With a nod the knight retrieved his sword and struck it through his own heart, not crying out once. In answer to the questioning gazes of the Tortallans the King merely told them, "He was beaten. His weakness bought him his death."
In her room that night Duke Gareth shared dinner with her, neither wishing to venture out amongst so many hostile faces. "That was rather stupid, you know. They'll all just hate you more."
"I know," was the quiet reply. "But I couldn't ignore the challenge, you know that! I'm Jon's Champion - anyone who challenges me also challenges Tortall, and I've sworn to protect our country with my life. It would have dishonoured us all if I'd refused." The duke smiled reassuringly at her glum and disheartened tone.
"I understand. You couldn't have denied him, but did you have to provoke him in the first place?" Swiftly Alanna went from being remorseful to enraged at his comment and turned from the wickedly grinning duke to finish her meal in silence.
to be continued...
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uh my fingers hurt, i can't be bothered to write any more at the moment. anyway, so more will be coming soon, just not just yet.