Part
14: Dealing
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"What do you mean he would beat you?"
Kalasin practically screamed.
"Really, how many times have we gone
over this, now? He didn't like me and could never figure out what my adoptive
mother saw in me. He resented me because he wanted a boy. His other sons were
never as strong as me and he had never wanted a girl working with him. So at
four, I took up archery and knife fighting, then when I was ten learned how to
use a sword and ride a horse. I was always too busy to help him on the farm. So
he beat me."
Rachel put her head down, ashamed of the
next part. Kally quietly asked, "Is there more?" Rachel nodded.
"Once, he was really angry and took my
knife from my room and stabbed me with it. Then he left me in the woods to die.
He had said to me, 'Nobody lives from a slice like that. You'll be dead before
nightfall.' My magic saved me then, but I didn't realize. I still have the
scar." Rachel lifted up her shirt and Kally saw the long scar across her belly.
"He was furious when I came home, two days later." Rachel started crying and
Kally realized that she was the only person Rachel had told.
"Well, I guess we have to do something
bout that, don't we?"
**
Later that week, Rachel was practicing her hand-to-hand combat against Kally (or they thought she was) and they were getting a large audience. Kally would gain the upper hand and then Rachel would, but they seemed equally matched. Their practice had already lasted for an hour and neither of them looked like they were tired.
Kally landed a kick in the stomach and
Rachel went down. Everybody thought that she was going to stay down and were
surprised when she jumped up and got Kally back. Kally also jumped up and so
their combat went on.
Two hours later, somebody finally went
to get somebody who could talk some sense into them. They ended up getting Kel
and Alanna.
They took one look, and then in unison
said, "Looks like fun." And they also started fighting against each other.
Four hours later, there was Rachel,
Kally, Alanna, and Kel, but Daine and Thayet had also joined in when one of the
new pages had fetched them.
Jonathon was in a meeting and he was
missing Thayet, Daine, and Alanna. Normally they would be the first ones there,
but now he couldn't even find out where they were.
Looking out the window, he saw a big
crowd by the practice courts. Beckoning to those present, he walked out and to
the practice courts.
It had been six hours since Rachel and
Kally had started fighting and they were still fresh. It wasn't actually a
practice fight, Rachel had been showing Kally some of the moves that she had
been taught and they had gotten in a fight about a certain hold. They hadn't
been able to decide on the right way and had just started fighting, taking their
frustrations out on each other.
They realized that they had a big
audience and that their parents were there. They also realized that they had
been fighting for 61/2 hours and that everyone else that
had started after them were lying on the ground exhausted.
Rachel and Kally both used that hold on
each other at the same time-both doing it their different ways- and it ended
with Kally on the ground.
"I told you, my way was right." Rachel
said, feeling good about herself.
Before Kally could say anything, Kel
interrupted, "That last move you did?" Rachel and Kally nodded.
"Well, both of you are doing it wrong." That started
the argument between the three of them and it was a funny sight to watch. Three
good friends arguing over a hold (that none of them were doing right, except
for Kel.) and trying to show each other that their way worked. Kally had pulled
Seaver over and showed them that hers truly worked. Then Rachel grabbed Faleron
and showed them that her both that her way worked the best. Faleron was at the
other side from where they were standing and Seaver was still next to Kally (on
the ground of course.)
Kel laughed and beckoned Roald over, "You guys don't
know what you're talking about. Let me show you the real way." Roald knew that
Kel was doing it right and he also knew that Kel was good at this move, because
every Saturday they would practice this exact same move.
Kel grabbed Roald's hands and the next thing
everybody knew, Roald was flying over their heads. They even heard him hit the
ground. Or they thought they did. Kel was the only person who actually knew
where he was.
They searched around where they were, while Kel sat
underneath a big oak tree. Finally everybody went over to Kel and demanded to
know where Roald went.
Before Kel could answer, they heard laughter coming
from the tree. Everybody looked up and saw Roald sitting in the branches.
He looked down at Kel and said, "That was better
than last time. Last time I barely grabbed hold of the lowest branch. This time
I could grab hold of this branch." He grinned down at her and she grinned in
reply. He climbed down and looked at everybody's confused faces. "Did you
really think I would just let Kel do that without practicing with her? You must
think I'm crazy." Everybody started laughing and the girls apologized to each
other and everything returned to normal, except one thing.
Over the next year, six teens spent a lot of time
together. Only one person knew their secret and Alanna would never tell anyone.
On the longest night of the year Roald was going to
through the ordeal. Kel, Kally, Rachel, Faleron, and Seaver kept him company
during the day. Faleron (who had been knighted the night before) was trying to
reassure Roald that he was going to be okay, but they could all tell that he
was nervous.
On the same day, Rachel decided she wanted to change
her name. Her parents (the King and Queen) agreed with her. They thought it was
a good idea that she wanted to change her name and forget her past. So through
the day the whole day, Rachel was suggesting names and asking her friends what
they thought.
When they were returning to the palace, Rachel hit
upon a name that everybody loved, Alana. So while Roald was in the Chamber of
the Ordeal, Rachel was getting her name changed.
The next few months after Midwinter saw Kel and the
gang (you know who they are!) getting into fights frequently. Mostly the fights
were between Kel, Alan, Kalasin, Roald, Faleron, and Seaver. But in early
April, only three of them were arguing. The girls. They were arguing about one
thing that confused everybody. Alana had only told Kally and Kel about her
adoptive-father and she was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she
was treated a lot better in Tortall than in Maine. One day she just couldn't
keep quiet any longer. She took her frustrations and anger out on anybody near
her.
"Kel, you're not doing it right!" Alana snapped. She
was in an extremely bad mood that day and no one seemed to know why.
"I believe that Kel is doing it correctly." Kalasin
replied calmly.
"Then you're doing it wrong, too!"
"Alana, what's wrong?" Kel sounded worried.
"Nothing!" Then she sighed. "Today is the day that I
was adopted." She said that in a whisper because there were other people around
them, practicing.
"What's wrong about that?" Kalasin asked. "I
would've been glad to be adopted."
"Yeah, I'm sure. You wouldn't have been glad because
the moment I put my stuff away and closed the drawers, my adoptive-father came
into my room and started beating me because I had taken too long."
Finally getting Alana to calm down, they moved from
subject to subject and finally stayed on one topic while they practiced. Kel,
her hand-to-hand combat, with Kalasin as the attacker and Alana was making
something that they had never seen before.
After awhile they were lost in their own thoughts
until Kalasin said, "Kel, what in Mithros' name was that?" Alana glanced up and
cracked up before she thought of the downsides of losing her concentration.
Everybody in the practice yard stopped as they heard a rumbling and creaking.
They bolted as Alana, Kel, and Kalasin screamed at the same time, "Run!!" Of
course, they didn't follow their own advice, but tried to figure out what was
going to happen.
"What were you making?" Kel yelled over the noise.
Alana yelled back, "I was making- or trying to make
a… Well, I don't exactly know what it is, but Numair told me to make it. He
said that he needed it and wanted me to make it for him. I wasn't supposed to
lose my concentration."
Kalasin jumped up and managed to gasp, "Is it
supposed to do that?" The others looked and yelped. Out of the mess that Alana
had made of the potion was a very large tree, one that was still getting
larger.
Alana looked up. She saw an eagle before turning to
look at the palace. It was too far away for her to run and get Numair. She
looked back at the eagle and shrieked, "Numair, go get Numair and Daine.
Please?" The eagle soared towards the palace after answering that he would
gladly go get them.
While they waited the tree kept growing and so did
the tension between the three of them. Finally Kel yelled, "Well, aren't you
going to make it stop growing? Do something Alana! I'm not going to sit around
here and watch a tree grow right before my eyes! It's already higher than all
the other trees! Come on do something!"
"What do you think I've been doing, just sitting
around here? I can't do anything more! So leave me alone!" This argument went
back and forth until Kalasin decided that she couldn't stand it anymore. She
tried to tell them to stop, but they only got her into the argument. Numair and
Daine were just running up when they challenged each other.
Numair calmly told them to be quiet and asked Alana
what happened. She told him. He got to work and left Daine watching over them.
As soon as Numair started working, they started arguing. This time about
Alana's old family. Kel was the one that started it.
"I'm sure that you were actually beaten. Why
wouldn't your adoptive-mother stop him?" Kel asked.
"Because he beat her, too! He always said that all
women were wenches and had to be treated like one!"
This went on for quite awhile. When Alana would get
madder, her tree would grow. She never got any calmer; she only got mad and
frustrated.
The three girls even managed to pull Daine into the
argument, and once you got her arguing, she wouldn't stop.
They were actually throwing punches at each other
when Alana +Kalasin's parents came along with Roald, Faleron, and Seaver. When
they got there, Numair was holding his upper arm (from where someone had
punched him) and all four girls were rolling around on the ground, yelling at
each other.
Roald, Faleron, Seaver, and Numair walked forward
and each of them pulled someone out. Roald grabbed Kel. Faleron grabbed Alana.
Seaver grabbed Kalasin, and Numair grabbed Daine.
Alana yelled, "You try being beaten every day since
you were two!!" Everybody stopped, they all stared at Alana, she continued, "Oh
did I tell you that he even went so far as to stab me and leave me in the woods
to die? I have the scars to prove it. He also dropped me off of the barn roof,
which is thirty feet in the air, you try being thrown-" Faleron put his hand
over her mouth and was whispering in her ear to calm her down.
The tree that had been growing carefully shrunk to
normal size and when it had, it broke the bottle and pushed roots into the
ground. Everyone was staring at Alana and was surprised when she turned towards
Faleron and started to cry on his shirt.
Spook came flying over to land on Alana's shirt. Everybody
could see that he was trying to comfort her. "Go away, Spook. I'm fine." But
she didn't try to enforce her order so everybody knew that she wasn't fine.
Over the next couple of days, Faleron and Alana got
closer. When they were around other people together, they would smile at each
other like they shared a secret. They weren't the only ones acting weird. Kel,
Roald, Kalasin, and Seaver were being just as weird as them.
The only difference you actually saw in their
behavior was from Alana. She was actually happier then when she first came (if
that is possible) and she never mentioned her other family again.
On the first day of March, King Jonathon announced
that they had found suitable marriage interests for their three oldest
children. Of course, Jonathon wouldn't tell his children or his court who they
were.
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Hi guys!!! Can you guess who they're
being betrothed too? You'll just have to wait. Sorry!! I'll try to get
the next chapter up as soon as possible. Only if you review of course!!!
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