A/N: Heh heh heh...wouldn't y'all like ta know who our dear Kel falls in love with? *evil grin* nopes...I'm not tellin, I'm not tellin..ya won't get it outta me!! Nononononono! Don't worry, you'll find out...eventually...
Disclaimer: None of it's mine, as much as I'd love it to be...specially Thom...*drools* can you say HOTTNESS???? LoL..
~~~~~
"So, you do know you aren't allowed to be here . . . right?" Thom asked, scraping his fingers across the wall, over the little ditches and bumps around and in the doors. The sound produced gave Neal the shivers, and a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He shuddered. This kid really knows how to grind someone's nerves, he thought. Nodding, he calmly answered, "Of course . . . but, seriously, when are we ever doing something that we're allowed to do?"
Kel and Thom both turned and looked at him oddly. Thom raised his left eyebrow, then glanced at Kel to see her reaction to Neal's obvious density. She only rolled her eyes. "Neal, you do know that he was talking to me, right?"
"Oh . . . Erm, yes. Yes I did." The look in his eyes and the way his step faltered for a moment made it quite clear, that, no he did not know that Thom had been talking to his friend. "Well . . . I'm not supposed to be here either, you know!" he cried, to justify his stupidity.
Kel smiled slightly and once again returned to her dream world, leaving the boys in her dust. None of them were going to follow her down - or rather, up - the rickety spiral of her thoughts.
Thom wondered if Keladry was always so quiet and faraway, then quickly looked away from her, not wanting to be nosy. Or to get too involved. She does have to leave as soon as Granda can travel, he reminded himself. Don't get attached or interested. He sighed. That was going to be the hard part.
With Ma always away and the Swoop in a shamble of worry for her life, or her being there and not having time for anything but quality family togetherness, and with the last four years, her moodiness, it was rare for any new faces to show up. And even if they did, he was usually too busy to pay them any notice. As much as he wanted to make friends, family came first. And, unfortunately, in his household, spare time was spent largely on bonding or worrying.
The only friends outside of his younger siblings - and let's face it, he told himself, they aren't much of friends - that he had were the servants. Maude was his stand-in mother when Alanna was away, always available in case of trouble - even girl trouble, he thought wryly. Especially girl trouble. Not that I've had much of that. Coram, on the other hand was like an uncle to him, and he couldn't count the number of times he'd snuck out of bed at night to go have a talk with him about such things too embarrassing to discuss with his father, and Gods forbid, most certainly his mother!
And, close as he was to Carina, she had her younger brothers to care for and a constantly sick mother, slightly senile, to watch over as well, often leaving him behind in her busy life. Plus, she had her work at Pirate's Swoop. So, in short, his time with her, was rare and short-lived. Sad, it was, her being his best friend and all. Again he sighed, drawing himself out of his thoughts at long last.
"Where exactly are we going, then?" Neal asked, making Kel jump and jerking her out of her own thoughts.
"Hm?" Thom asked, startled. "Oh. My father's study." He turned to face Kel. "He'll be very interested to meet you."
Subconsciously, Kel backed away from Thom, hardly noticing what she did and the vulnerability it conveyed. "Mhmm," she made a noncommittal sound. This was not going well. First, she met the Lioness - well, saw the Lioness - and her predecessors only reaction had been dammit - is there any such thing as a good "dammit"? she wondered briefly - then she'd made a fool out of herself in front of Thom and now she had to prove herself to his father. And to top it all off, she was lucky if she didn't get kicked out for being her, whether it was her fault or not.
Thom noticed her worry, and gently touched her upper back, below the right shoulder. "He isn't expecting you to be perfect, you know. Just to be you." He felt her twitch - was it a wince? - under his touch, but she didn't pull away, until finally, almost regretfully, they reached another bend in the hall, and she hung back to let him lead.
Three doors up was the study. Glancing at Kel once more, to assure himself that she wasn't having a nervous breakdown, he tapped outside the door frame. "Here we are."
Kel hugged herself, self-consciously, drawing up her shoulders a bit and resting her calloused hands on them.
After a moment's pause, Neal impatiently asked, "Well, are you going to knock?"
"Oh. Right." Thom raised a fist to the door and rapped once, twice, a third for good measure. "Da?"
Inside the study, Baron George of Pirate's Swoop sat, attempting to puzzle out a letter he'd received from an old friend:
Majesty,
Now before you go and get upset, understand you've been the best King of Thieves any of us have ever had. Even His Majesty says so. I know you're saying I took a big risk sending this to ye but don't you worry, I sent it through His Majesty Himself, and you can trust his loyalty to you, even if he does have more power than you do now. He even scribed this letter for me. Now, onto the important business. Remember our "smiling friend" from years ago? Rumor says some of his friends have been making some comments...just thought you'd like to know.
~Stephan
Sighing, he read the letter once again. Their "smiling friend" was Duke Roger of Conte. Somehow he doubted that Stephan truly meant some of Duke Roger's friends. So there must have been some other reason. Duke Roger had wanted to take over the throne and murder the royal family, but Jonathan hadn't known of the nickname - only him, Alanna, Thom, plus a few trusted thieves.
He snapped his fingers impatiently. The answer was on the tip of his tongue, at the edge of his mind, just barely out of reach.
The sudden knock at the door broke his concentration.
"Da?" a voice called from the other side of the solid wood barrier.
"Come in, Thom," George told his son, still studying the letter. Thom slipped the door open carefully, restrain and warning clear in his eyes. George caught sight of two people behind his son, but not for long enough to recognize. He did, however, snatch that Thom was making sure his father knew to hide anything he didn't want strangers to see.
Hurriedly folding up the letter, he asked, "What is it, Thom?" Then, gesturing for the two others to come in as well, he said, "And who might you be?"
Exchanging glances, Kel and Neal didn't say anything, for they we're too busy racking their brains trying to remember if the King's decree had at all mentioned the Lioness' husband. Being in enough trouble as it was, neither of them had any desire to get into any more.
Either Thom guessed the reason for their silence or he just thought they were waiting for him to introduce them, for that was what he did.
"Da, this is, erm, Keladry of Mindelan and Nealan of Queenscove."
Placing the neatly folded letter on the table, George tapped the box before him, which held his collection of ears, a relic from his thieving days. "Well, now isn't this an interesting turn of events." Turning to face them again, he studied Neal. "Long time, no see Nealan. Or is it still Neal?" At Neal's shudder, he laughed. "I'll take that as a yes."
"My least favorite aunt calls me Nealan, Baron George," came Neal's standard introduction of himself.
"Do you tell everyone that?" Kel asked, trying to get her mind off the situation they were in.
"You have a least favorite aunt?" Thom asked at the same time.
Choosing to answer Thom's question, as Kel's was just pure silliness, Neal said, "Yes, I have a least favorite everything."
Thom was appalled. "You're lucky you have enough aunts to have a least favorite. I don't have any. Uncles either for that matter."
"You have an uncle, Thom. He's just not living anymore. Your Uncle Thom, he's your name sake." George told his son, glad Alanna wasn't here. She was still hurting from her twin's death years ago, and Thom saying he had no uncle would have upset her.
"Doesn't count," Thom muttered ruefully.
"Let's get down to business though," George said, in a way that told them all that the subject was closed. "Last time I checked it was a few day's ride from the palace to here. I'll give that it was quite a while ago, but I don't think it could have changed that much. So, the question remains, how did you get here?"
"That is the question, now isn't it?" muttered Neal, then, to the Baron, "If I knew, sir, I'd tell you, but I don't have the slightest idea."
Not understanding how one could travel at least a few days journey in only a few hours and not know how it had happened, George, naturally, asked for details. Neal told their tale of how the walls had begun to distort and meld together, eventually becoming so unpredictable that a wall could appear midair or a door where a picture had been.
Kel didn't bother speaking: she knew Neal would tell him everything and anything he wanted to know -- and lot's more besides. Instead she took the time to study the room she was in. Recalling the fact that Thom had said it was his father's study, her interest faded a bit - if it had been the Lioness' she would have been jumping for joy . . . or as close as Kel came to that. She noted, though, that there were a lot of maps in the room; many were pasted on the walls and, of these, more than a few had markings on them of different colors that Kel assumed represented people - or army regiments, she realized. Her gaze flicked to the desk where the Baron was sitting and focused on the box in front of him. What did it say on it - ear collection? Ear collection! What on earth . . . , she thought, but put if off for some sort of a code or something. Neal had said he was the former thief king.
George caught Kel looking at his questionable -- for that's certainly what it was -- collection. Remembering fondly his talks with Alanna on how he wished to marry someone who wouldn't scream if she discovered his interesting collection, he guessed this girl would be one of those people. His curiosity whetted, he broke through Neal's endless chatter. "Would you like to see it?"
"What?" Neal asked, having just said, "And then Sir Myles told us we were at Pirate's Swoop and Kel just stared at him while he moaned on the ground."
George shook his head. "Not you. Keladry, would you like to see it?"
Startled, Kel asked the same thing Neal had a moment before. "What?"
He smiled slightly and gestured to the package on the desk. "Alanna tells me I need to do something with it -- maybe you could give me a suggestion."
Without waiting for an answer -- which was probably a good thing, as Kel was so surprised that he would have had to wait ages for one -- he tilted the container towards them and carefully unlatched it. Tipping up the lid and laying it back against the table, he looked to them for a reaction.
After a moment of silence, Neal asked, "What is it?" And Kel stepped closer, peering at the boxes' contents.
Eyes dancing, George grinned. "Exactly what it says."
Neal's eyes widened. "What?!" he shouted. Shrilly he demanded, "Just how did you go about getting this particular collection together?" Neal's imagination filled the blanks in quite vividly and, by finding out the truth, he hoped to banish those images.
"How do you think I got them?"
Neal didn't say a thing, but he turned a bit green and put a hand to his forehead, feeling faint.
"That's exactly how I got them," George told the boy in front of him, guessing from his reaction what sort of thoughts were running through his mind.
Neal pressed a hand to his mouth and Thom backed away from him.
Kel just stood there, looking at the shriveled ears and studied them. They weren't a pretty sight, what with the bits and pieces of dried skin hanging off from the edges, but they were rather interesting.
Finally glancing up again and meeting George's eye, she said, "I think Neal's going to be sick."
He noticed that Kel didn't look in the least bit disgusted or sick -- she just looked interested. Same type of reaction Alanna'd have, he thought. But she's so much quieter . . . I wonder how she can be such good friends with Neal. Shaking his head, he put it off for another time. Now, Neal needed a solid container to lose his dinner in. And now meant right now.
"George," a voice called from down the hallway, once Neal was in better shape.
"Lass, I do think you've got some explainin' to do," George drawled while coming to the door of his study and leaning on the frame. He raised his eyebrows imploringly.
"I didn't do it George, I'm not sure who -- or what -- did, but it certainly wasn't me. Goddess curse it!" She said as she and her father both stumbled. "Are you alright?" she asked him. Myles nodded, but Alanna saw the sheen of sweat on his upper lip and forehead. She shook her head and sighed, muttering something about stubbornness.
George hurriedly walked over to help them in and told Thom to draw a chair up for his Granda. Then, Alanna and George assisted Myles in sitting down. Alanna took his pulse and let out another heavy sigh. Then her scolding face came on. "Da, how many times are you going to get yourself sick before you stop drinking?"
Waving a hand, Myles said, "Oh don't fret so, Alanna. I'm fine; haven't had a problem in years. Just ask the two of them." He pointed vaugly to Kel and Neal.
Alanna glanced at them and George said, "Well?"
"Well," Neal drawled, "I'm sure if Kel wanted to, she could fool you into thinking he's telling the truth, being as she's the best liar this side of Scanra, but also seeing as she was only just lecturing him on the same thing when we left the banquet tonight, I doubt you'll see that happen. So, in short: Don't look at us."
Alanna sighed and glanced pointedly at George, who ushered Thom, Kel, and Neal out, telling them that the adults needed to talk about the situation and what to do.
A/N: Tell me whatya think, pls (email: faerie-dragon@home.com IM: LadySquireKel) and just a question: I can't post in the forum. Any other authors have this problem or is it just my screwed up comp???
Love and hugs,
Dani
Disclaimer: None of it's mine, as much as I'd love it to be...specially Thom...*drools* can you say HOTTNESS???? LoL..
~~~~~
"So, you do know you aren't allowed to be here . . . right?" Thom asked, scraping his fingers across the wall, over the little ditches and bumps around and in the doors. The sound produced gave Neal the shivers, and a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He shuddered. This kid really knows how to grind someone's nerves, he thought. Nodding, he calmly answered, "Of course . . . but, seriously, when are we ever doing something that we're allowed to do?"
Kel and Thom both turned and looked at him oddly. Thom raised his left eyebrow, then glanced at Kel to see her reaction to Neal's obvious density. She only rolled her eyes. "Neal, you do know that he was talking to me, right?"
"Oh . . . Erm, yes. Yes I did." The look in his eyes and the way his step faltered for a moment made it quite clear, that, no he did not know that Thom had been talking to his friend. "Well . . . I'm not supposed to be here either, you know!" he cried, to justify his stupidity.
Kel smiled slightly and once again returned to her dream world, leaving the boys in her dust. None of them were going to follow her down - or rather, up - the rickety spiral of her thoughts.
Thom wondered if Keladry was always so quiet and faraway, then quickly looked away from her, not wanting to be nosy. Or to get too involved. She does have to leave as soon as Granda can travel, he reminded himself. Don't get attached or interested. He sighed. That was going to be the hard part.
With Ma always away and the Swoop in a shamble of worry for her life, or her being there and not having time for anything but quality family togetherness, and with the last four years, her moodiness, it was rare for any new faces to show up. And even if they did, he was usually too busy to pay them any notice. As much as he wanted to make friends, family came first. And, unfortunately, in his household, spare time was spent largely on bonding or worrying.
The only friends outside of his younger siblings - and let's face it, he told himself, they aren't much of friends - that he had were the servants. Maude was his stand-in mother when Alanna was away, always available in case of trouble - even girl trouble, he thought wryly. Especially girl trouble. Not that I've had much of that. Coram, on the other hand was like an uncle to him, and he couldn't count the number of times he'd snuck out of bed at night to go have a talk with him about such things too embarrassing to discuss with his father, and Gods forbid, most certainly his mother!
And, close as he was to Carina, she had her younger brothers to care for and a constantly sick mother, slightly senile, to watch over as well, often leaving him behind in her busy life. Plus, she had her work at Pirate's Swoop. So, in short, his time with her, was rare and short-lived. Sad, it was, her being his best friend and all. Again he sighed, drawing himself out of his thoughts at long last.
"Where exactly are we going, then?" Neal asked, making Kel jump and jerking her out of her own thoughts.
"Hm?" Thom asked, startled. "Oh. My father's study." He turned to face Kel. "He'll be very interested to meet you."
Subconsciously, Kel backed away from Thom, hardly noticing what she did and the vulnerability it conveyed. "Mhmm," she made a noncommittal sound. This was not going well. First, she met the Lioness - well, saw the Lioness - and her predecessors only reaction had been dammit - is there any such thing as a good "dammit"? she wondered briefly - then she'd made a fool out of herself in front of Thom and now she had to prove herself to his father. And to top it all off, she was lucky if she didn't get kicked out for being her, whether it was her fault or not.
Thom noticed her worry, and gently touched her upper back, below the right shoulder. "He isn't expecting you to be perfect, you know. Just to be you." He felt her twitch - was it a wince? - under his touch, but she didn't pull away, until finally, almost regretfully, they reached another bend in the hall, and she hung back to let him lead.
Three doors up was the study. Glancing at Kel once more, to assure himself that she wasn't having a nervous breakdown, he tapped outside the door frame. "Here we are."
Kel hugged herself, self-consciously, drawing up her shoulders a bit and resting her calloused hands on them.
After a moment's pause, Neal impatiently asked, "Well, are you going to knock?"
"Oh. Right." Thom raised a fist to the door and rapped once, twice, a third for good measure. "Da?"
Inside the study, Baron George of Pirate's Swoop sat, attempting to puzzle out a letter he'd received from an old friend:
Majesty,
Now before you go and get upset, understand you've been the best King of Thieves any of us have ever had. Even His Majesty says so. I know you're saying I took a big risk sending this to ye but don't you worry, I sent it through His Majesty Himself, and you can trust his loyalty to you, even if he does have more power than you do now. He even scribed this letter for me. Now, onto the important business. Remember our "smiling friend" from years ago? Rumor says some of his friends have been making some comments...just thought you'd like to know.
~Stephan
Sighing, he read the letter once again. Their "smiling friend" was Duke Roger of Conte. Somehow he doubted that Stephan truly meant some of Duke Roger's friends. So there must have been some other reason. Duke Roger had wanted to take over the throne and murder the royal family, but Jonathan hadn't known of the nickname - only him, Alanna, Thom, plus a few trusted thieves.
He snapped his fingers impatiently. The answer was on the tip of his tongue, at the edge of his mind, just barely out of reach.
The sudden knock at the door broke his concentration.
"Da?" a voice called from the other side of the solid wood barrier.
"Come in, Thom," George told his son, still studying the letter. Thom slipped the door open carefully, restrain and warning clear in his eyes. George caught sight of two people behind his son, but not for long enough to recognize. He did, however, snatch that Thom was making sure his father knew to hide anything he didn't want strangers to see.
Hurriedly folding up the letter, he asked, "What is it, Thom?" Then, gesturing for the two others to come in as well, he said, "And who might you be?"
Exchanging glances, Kel and Neal didn't say anything, for they we're too busy racking their brains trying to remember if the King's decree had at all mentioned the Lioness' husband. Being in enough trouble as it was, neither of them had any desire to get into any more.
Either Thom guessed the reason for their silence or he just thought they were waiting for him to introduce them, for that was what he did.
"Da, this is, erm, Keladry of Mindelan and Nealan of Queenscove."
Placing the neatly folded letter on the table, George tapped the box before him, which held his collection of ears, a relic from his thieving days. "Well, now isn't this an interesting turn of events." Turning to face them again, he studied Neal. "Long time, no see Nealan. Or is it still Neal?" At Neal's shudder, he laughed. "I'll take that as a yes."
"My least favorite aunt calls me Nealan, Baron George," came Neal's standard introduction of himself.
"Do you tell everyone that?" Kel asked, trying to get her mind off the situation they were in.
"You have a least favorite aunt?" Thom asked at the same time.
Choosing to answer Thom's question, as Kel's was just pure silliness, Neal said, "Yes, I have a least favorite everything."
Thom was appalled. "You're lucky you have enough aunts to have a least favorite. I don't have any. Uncles either for that matter."
"You have an uncle, Thom. He's just not living anymore. Your Uncle Thom, he's your name sake." George told his son, glad Alanna wasn't here. She was still hurting from her twin's death years ago, and Thom saying he had no uncle would have upset her.
"Doesn't count," Thom muttered ruefully.
"Let's get down to business though," George said, in a way that told them all that the subject was closed. "Last time I checked it was a few day's ride from the palace to here. I'll give that it was quite a while ago, but I don't think it could have changed that much. So, the question remains, how did you get here?"
"That is the question, now isn't it?" muttered Neal, then, to the Baron, "If I knew, sir, I'd tell you, but I don't have the slightest idea."
Not understanding how one could travel at least a few days journey in only a few hours and not know how it had happened, George, naturally, asked for details. Neal told their tale of how the walls had begun to distort and meld together, eventually becoming so unpredictable that a wall could appear midair or a door where a picture had been.
Kel didn't bother speaking: she knew Neal would tell him everything and anything he wanted to know -- and lot's more besides. Instead she took the time to study the room she was in. Recalling the fact that Thom had said it was his father's study, her interest faded a bit - if it had been the Lioness' she would have been jumping for joy . . . or as close as Kel came to that. She noted, though, that there were a lot of maps in the room; many were pasted on the walls and, of these, more than a few had markings on them of different colors that Kel assumed represented people - or army regiments, she realized. Her gaze flicked to the desk where the Baron was sitting and focused on the box in front of him. What did it say on it - ear collection? Ear collection! What on earth . . . , she thought, but put if off for some sort of a code or something. Neal had said he was the former thief king.
George caught Kel looking at his questionable -- for that's certainly what it was -- collection. Remembering fondly his talks with Alanna on how he wished to marry someone who wouldn't scream if she discovered his interesting collection, he guessed this girl would be one of those people. His curiosity whetted, he broke through Neal's endless chatter. "Would you like to see it?"
"What?" Neal asked, having just said, "And then Sir Myles told us we were at Pirate's Swoop and Kel just stared at him while he moaned on the ground."
George shook his head. "Not you. Keladry, would you like to see it?"
Startled, Kel asked the same thing Neal had a moment before. "What?"
He smiled slightly and gestured to the package on the desk. "Alanna tells me I need to do something with it -- maybe you could give me a suggestion."
Without waiting for an answer -- which was probably a good thing, as Kel was so surprised that he would have had to wait ages for one -- he tilted the container towards them and carefully unlatched it. Tipping up the lid and laying it back against the table, he looked to them for a reaction.
After a moment of silence, Neal asked, "What is it?" And Kel stepped closer, peering at the boxes' contents.
Eyes dancing, George grinned. "Exactly what it says."
Neal's eyes widened. "What?!" he shouted. Shrilly he demanded, "Just how did you go about getting this particular collection together?" Neal's imagination filled the blanks in quite vividly and, by finding out the truth, he hoped to banish those images.
"How do you think I got them?"
Neal didn't say a thing, but he turned a bit green and put a hand to his forehead, feeling faint.
"That's exactly how I got them," George told the boy in front of him, guessing from his reaction what sort of thoughts were running through his mind.
Neal pressed a hand to his mouth and Thom backed away from him.
Kel just stood there, looking at the shriveled ears and studied them. They weren't a pretty sight, what with the bits and pieces of dried skin hanging off from the edges, but they were rather interesting.
Finally glancing up again and meeting George's eye, she said, "I think Neal's going to be sick."
He noticed that Kel didn't look in the least bit disgusted or sick -- she just looked interested. Same type of reaction Alanna'd have, he thought. But she's so much quieter . . . I wonder how she can be such good friends with Neal. Shaking his head, he put it off for another time. Now, Neal needed a solid container to lose his dinner in. And now meant right now.
"George," a voice called from down the hallway, once Neal was in better shape.
"Lass, I do think you've got some explainin' to do," George drawled while coming to the door of his study and leaning on the frame. He raised his eyebrows imploringly.
"I didn't do it George, I'm not sure who -- or what -- did, but it certainly wasn't me. Goddess curse it!" She said as she and her father both stumbled. "Are you alright?" she asked him. Myles nodded, but Alanna saw the sheen of sweat on his upper lip and forehead. She shook her head and sighed, muttering something about stubbornness.
George hurriedly walked over to help them in and told Thom to draw a chair up for his Granda. Then, Alanna and George assisted Myles in sitting down. Alanna took his pulse and let out another heavy sigh. Then her scolding face came on. "Da, how many times are you going to get yourself sick before you stop drinking?"
Waving a hand, Myles said, "Oh don't fret so, Alanna. I'm fine; haven't had a problem in years. Just ask the two of them." He pointed vaugly to Kel and Neal.
Alanna glanced at them and George said, "Well?"
"Well," Neal drawled, "I'm sure if Kel wanted to, she could fool you into thinking he's telling the truth, being as she's the best liar this side of Scanra, but also seeing as she was only just lecturing him on the same thing when we left the banquet tonight, I doubt you'll see that happen. So, in short: Don't look at us."
Alanna sighed and glanced pointedly at George, who ushered Thom, Kel, and Neal out, telling them that the adults needed to talk about the situation and what to do.
A/N: Tell me whatya think, pls (email: faerie-dragon@home.com IM: LadySquireKel) and just a question: I can't post in the forum. Any other authors have this problem or is it just my screwed up comp???
Love and hugs,
Dani