Okay, I am truly,
truly sorry this is so late :-) Because it is so late, it's pretty long! So
thank you everyone who has the patience to wait – you're absolute angels, thank
you *so* much – and to all ye fabulous people who reviewed last time :-) Proper
thanks are at the bottom, but may it rain chocolate on you all!
Anything you have to say would be adored,
pored over, delighted in, worshipped and, quite simply, cherished. I'd love to
hear what you think; what you'd like to see, what you wouldn't, mistakes,
criticisms, comments :-)
Enjoy! Ki
Hanging On Part
Fourteen
"Hurry up, Pip," muttered Neal to himself,
straightening his tunic one final time and adjusting the crafted dagger at his
side. "Haven't got all evening."
He was dressed in soft forest green and tawny
brown that set off his blazing eyes. Neal shifted anxiously from foot to foot.
The thought of facing the court had him more unnerved than if a troop of
spidrens had crashed through the window.
He gave the footman ready to announce the
nobles a nervous grin. The man stared impassively back, standing perfectly
straight in his powdered wig. As a couple swept past, the lady resplendent in a
gold silk dress, he flung open the doors and shouted their names through the
door. Neal felt the noise of the court roll over him briefly before the doors
were slammed shut.
He heard a frantic clattering of heels behind
him and a squawk from an indignant courtier waiting to enter as Pip rushed in,
her face becomingly flushed from what was obviously a mad dash.
"Oh Neal!" she gasped, "I am *so* sorry, I
was just practising knife throwing—" (Neal quickly made a vow not to let her
*touch* his blade.) "—and I just *completely* forgot."
"Hardly surprising, dear," commented a court
lady in crimson, looking down her nose at Pip. "From what we hear..." Her male
companion was giving Pip a look Neal didn't like at all, while the lady, with
her piled up mass of red hair, sneered elegantly, "...knives aren't the only
*weapon* you've been handling."
"Lady Rhiannon, isn't it?" Neal said
smoothly, keeping his anger under control. "And Lord Gregory." The lady's
disdainful stare swung to pin him. "How *is* your husband? Oh, how foolish of
me to forget, he ran off with that scullery maid last summer, didn't he? *What*
a scandal that was...the court didn't stop gossiping about you for *weeks* and
Mithros bright, I could tell you some rumours about you that would make you
hair stand on end...oh I *am* sorry, that's a wig ,isn't it?"
Her companion gave her a horrified look and
dropped his hand from the lady's arm.
"Well!" said Lady Rhiannon, her cheeks
mottled with red. "Well, really!" She stormed off through the doors.
Pip was hysterical with delight. "Oh thank
you, Neal!" she said gleefully. "I didn't know you had such venom in you!"
Neal grinned. Then for the first time, he
looked at her. And his jaw fell open.
Pip had left her hair down in a tumble of
shiny brown curls that framed her delicate face. Unlike the fashion, she had
used no make-up at all, and had a healthy tan that made her skin glow golden.
Her dress was a sleekly-cut deep green that fell mid-way down her calves, slit
along one side to the knee, and instead of the elaborate laced-up boots of
dragonhide and wolfskin that style demanded, she had on a pair of high-heeled
sandals that brought her an inch or two above Neal.
"My dear," he said, when he had recovered his
voice. "You're quite something."
She grinned. "You don't look too bad
yourself."
"And you're looking positively smug," he
said, seeing the wicked glitter in her sea-green eyes. The footman, he noticed
from the corner of his eye, was watching them with interest.
"Vinson of Genlith had better watch out," she
declared, flicking her hair back. "I'm about to have the last laugh."
Neal offered his arm, and she took it
daintily, watching the other fussing, flapping peacocks of noblewomen that
minced past, clinging to their escorts. Pip held herself away from him, walking
in firm strides.
"Ready?" said Neal under his breath.
"Into the fire," she replied, and they both
fixed smiles on their faces as the footman opened the doors and bellowed,
"Squire Nealan of Queenscove, protégé of the
King's Champion, and Lady Phillippa ha Minch, cousin to the King!"
Neal nearly stopped still in shock.
* * * *
"Look at that!" said Ryan as they rode along
the path, Master Salmalin and Bruna a little way behind. Kel followed his stare
to see a glowing crimson sun, hovering on the horizon like a mad red eye. Night
was sweeping above in shades of blue and grey, soft as the whisper of silk.
"Red sky at night, shepherd's delight," Kel
quoted, grinning at him. Neither of them had said a word about the night
before, but every time he looked at her, they would share an amused, secret
smile. She liked seeing the warmth in his eyes.
"Red sky in the mornin', shepherd's house
burnin'," he finished.
"We're approaching a village, children,"
Numair Salmalin spoke up. Kel stopped her horse and turned to look at him. His
dark eyes were solemn. "Take care to act normally. Make no mention of the
Gift."
"Ain't they goin' to recognise you?" Ryan's
dove-grey eyes were fixed sharply on the mage. "Reckon you're pretty well known
after t'Immortals War."
The mage glanced up and down the road, then
waved his hand in front of his face. The glow of his silver-shot black magic
glittered brightly for an instant, and as he drew his hand over his face, Kel
was astonished to see his features change. The dark eyes became a clear hazel,
the swarthy skin becoming pale and his hair shortening. He looked like a young
knight.
"I'm sure this will do," the mage said and
gave them a boyish grin. "Lady Bruna, keep your face hidden. These are your
father's lands, are they not?"
The girl nodded silently and drew the hood of
her cloak over her fine-boned face. "His cursed lands," she said in a low
voice. Kel had to wonder why she hated her father so much.
The mage took a deep breath. "Let's go. Lady
Keladry, you are my squire for the day. I doubt news of your appointment to
Raoul will have reached this far into the land. Be careful. This is a dangerous
place."
And as they rode towards the smoky shadows of
he village, it seemed to Kel that the night began to close in around them with
its claws waiting to fall.
* * * *
"Cousin to the
King?" hissed Neal under his breath as he and Pip stepped down the stairs. He
could hear the hubbub rising in the Court and, staring down at them, he felt as
though he had stepped into a field of peacocks, dressed in all the gaudy
colours of the rainbow. Jewellery flashed at him from every direction, curious
faces watching them.
"We don't advertise the fact," muttered Pip.
Her grip on his arm was painful and it was only then he realised how nervous
she was.
They stopped a few feet from the throne, Neal
bowed and felt Pip dip into a graceful curtsey.
"The Lioness is late, Squire Nealan," the
King remarked, his sapphire eyes twinkling. "What's her excuse this time?"
"She's washing her hair, sire," Neal said
promptly.
The King snorted. "Of course she is, Squire
Nealan. Sir Alanna always gets an urge to wash her hair extremely thoroughly
when I summon her to a Court gathering. And it's amazing how she looks exactly
the same as normal when she does finally turn up."
"Will of the gods, sire," said Neal.
"Of course. It is nothing at all to do with
the fact she detests the Court," King Jonathan sighed. "A shame, when she
livens it up so. As do you, Cousin."
"We haven't seem you much lately," Queen
Thayet said, leaning forward on her throne. She smiled kindly at Pip. "I
haven't been in the defence classes recently – the Riders are taking up much of
my time at the moment – but Buri tells me you have been absent of late."
"I've been busy, highness," Pip said.
"Hmmm." The Queen pursed her lips. "Well,
Phillippa, I really do think it's a good idea if you go. The realm is dangerous
nowadays."
"Not as dangerous as me, highness," Pip said
and grinned wickedly. Neal knew she was thinking about Vinson and wondered just
what sort of nasty revenge she had planned.
The Queen raised an eyebrow. "Arrogance is
not a virtue, Phillippa. And my Court tells me you have been displaying rather
a lot of it."
Pip's smile vanished instantly. "The Court
has a tendency to invent its entertainment."
"I know, young lady," Thayet said sternly. "I
do not believe a word of what I have been told. However, there are others who
are only too happy to. I am sure your friendship with Squire Nealan is just
that, as the Lioness has assured me, but take care." She sat back, effectively
dismissing them.
"Oh look," Pip said softly, vengefully as
they walked into the crowds. "There's Vinson."
Sure enough, the thin, skeletal youth was
ringed by women and Neal could just pick out his sneering tones, throwing those
vultures some scrap of gossip he had made up, no doubt.
Beside him, Pip stopped, and gave him a
catlike, secret smile. "Back in a moment, Neal," she said sweetly. "There's
Uline. I must just go and say hello."
"And if I come with you, it'll spoil the
effect?" said Neal, puzzled.
"Bear with me," she said. "Why don't you go
and dance with Tanisa?" Neal looked over and found the vapid smile of the blond
girl in the unbelievably tight purple dress fixed on him.
"Goddess," he muttered, "How can she breathe
in that dress?"
"She doesn't, dear," drawled Pip. Her green
eyes glinted at him mischievously. "Why on earth do you she's so vacant?" She
paused. "Oh, look, she's coming over. You have fun chatting, now." She flitted
away like a sylph in that ivy-green dress, and Neal steeled himself for the
painful company of Tanisa.
* * * *
The horses' hooves sounded dull and heavy on
the air. Kel couldn't stop her eyes from flicking around. This wasn't right.
The people lined the streets, rows and rows of utterly silent black figures
standing with arms crossed and weapons tapping meaningfully, faces set and
curiously blank.
"Halt."
The word was soft, quiet, yet it fell on the
dead air like a blast of blazebalm. A noble's voice, Kel realised, shocked.
She pulled her horse up short, feeling
Peachblossom shift and whinny to tell her that he didn't like this either, and
subtly pulled her weapons closer to hand.
The man who had stepped into the road was
dressed in black. His face was masked, so only the icy rabid black of his eyes
lanced them. Looking into them was like falling into pits where strange
creatures lay fingering old bones. Kel swore she could hear their snuffling,
their grating breath in her ears before she shook herself.
"Good day," Numair said mildly, his magically
changed face reflecting only polite courtesy. "How may we help?"
The man moved towards them in an odd, slinky
walk. It was as if a serpent had been given legs, and it sent chills wriggling
down Kel's back as around them, the village took a step forward in unison. Kel
felt Peachblossom shift backwards and cold fear begin to spread through her
like a blossoming winter flower.
"Name yourselves."
"I am Sir Raimun of Corus," Numair said
mildly. "This is my squire, Keladry of Mindelan. We are accompanying this lady
and her servant to their home." Ryan looked mortally insulted at being called
Bruna's servant, but he kept his eyes fixed on the ground.
Let it work, Kel prayed, keeping her face
Yamani-smooth though her heart beat like a drum gone mad.
Silence, beat after thundering beat of her
heart as the four of them stood there, frozen in the evening gloom with these
sinister figures swaying all around with their blank faces, their impassive
stares. Kel could see no humanity in them; even the smallest children stood
still as statues with their faces clean and emotionless.
"You *lie*," hissed the figure. "You lie,
Gifted scum."
"Uh-oh," she heard Ryan mutter softly. "Don't
sound like they're ready to whip out the welcomin' banners."
"We feel your taint," that black figure said
coldly, solemnly. "And we will cleanse you from it."
"We have no Gift," Numair Salmalin said
calmly. Kel was astonished at how calm he sounded and looked. "I am but a
knight, my squire but a girl. Would that we did; it would make riding the dark
nights easier."
"I see the deceit in your eyes," the man said
flatly. His gaze swept over them, and Kel felt her blood run cold. This was not
a man she stared at, it was a monster. What was it the alicorn had said?
~ Even the gods have been forsaken. Those
mortals worship something else now, something evil and rotting. ~
"Leave us be," said Ryan sharply. "We ain't
Gifted. We're just travellers."
The man laughed; a high, grating sound, it
raked at the air like talons. "Why do you let them lie, daughter?"
For a moment, Kel didn't know who they were
addressing, then slowly, oh so slowly, she followed the man's inhuman stare,
turning to look at the girl whose face was white as candle wax, her eyes two
terrified holes within her head.
Bruna of Farbrook had no words to answer her
father.
* * * *
"Pippa!" Uline cried, throwing her arms
around Pip in a typical display of extravagance. She was so lovely, Pip
thought, but couldn't be envious of Uline in her electric blue dress with the
loose gauze robe thrown across it, as ran the fashion, and the gems sparkling
bright at her throat and ears.
It was impossible to dislike her; she was
always so sweet to Pip, treating her like the sister she would soon be and
defending her from the sly jibes of other nobles. Now, she handed Pip a glass
full of golden–white wine and bade her tell them all the news.
"Hello, 'Lina," Pip said, smiling. "Kieran,
you look so...like you belong in the menagerie."
Her older brother, with his solemn hazel eyes
and extra years, scowled at her. "It's the fashion, Pip."
"And if the fashion were sackcloth and ashes,
Kiery, would you wear that too?" she demanded archly.
"Don't call me that childish name." He
smouldered at her. Pip knew exactly how to annoy Kieran, and took great
pleasure in it. "There's no crime in looking good."
"Yes, but you look atrocious." The latest
fashion of gaudy colours and glinting jewellery was most certainly not her
staid brother. "Uline, are you really going to marry this fool?"
Uline smiled up at Kieran, whose face
softened fractionally. "If I didn't marry a fool, Pippa, I wouldn't marry at
all."
"And from what we've been hearing round the
Court," Kieran said harshly, "You won't marry at all, Pip. What on earth are
you thinking, fooling around with the Lioness's squire?"
Pip glared at him. "You *are* a fool,
brother. Neal is my friend and those rumours were spread by another squire.
That noxious little Vinson of Genlith. Honestly, I'd pay to have him turned into
a toad if he weren't already one."
"Why would he do that?" Kieran said
scornfully. "He's nothing to do with us, Pippa. And his family are rich
merchants."
"Oh," said Pip softly, "but, my naïve
brother, Vinson has a secret of his own that he would like to keep *very* much
concealed."
"Do tell!" Uline said, her face flushed with
excitement. "I always *knew* there something sinister about that little beast.
You know, he once crooned the most *obscene* thing at me when I was walking
past—"
"*Did* he, by the gods!" Kieran said angrily.
For all her brother's gravity, Pip knew he loved Uline with a passion that he
would never show in public. And strange as it was, flirtatious, sunny Uline
seemed to love him too. "And I'll bet it's that odious little wretch that's
been spreading such filth about Ian!" The rumours about the ha Minch's dead
brother had stung them cruelly. Pip knew Kieran had revered Ian, and now his
eyes glowed with the heated wrath of a tiger. "I'll—"
"You will do nothing, Kiery," cut in Pip
coolly. She knew what dreadful etiquette it was to silence an older sibling,
but her family had become used to her outspokenness.
"What are you planning, Pippa?" said Uline,
in her soft, well-bred voice.
Pip ran her finger idly around the rim of her
wineglass and tapped it, hearing the clear chime. "Plan? Oh, Uline, you make me
sound so devious."
"Out with it, you scheming witch," Kieran
said sharply. He knew her too well, Pip thought.
"I'm planning nothing," she insisted, "but
Kiery, wouldn't it be unfortunate if some words...say, about
Vinson's...unfortunate secret, happened to simply *slip* from my mouth, like
his syphilis—" She clapped a hand over her mouth "Oops! Oh, how *could* I?"
Uline put her hands to her heart. "He has
*syphilis!*"
Pip smiled sweetly. "Say it loud enough,
'Lina, and someone important will hear...and before that lying fool knows it,
it will be true."
Kieran's eyes glinted with mischief. However
ruthlessly he suppressed it, her brother had a streak of the family wildness in
him too, and learning that Vinson had insulted his beloved, not to mention his
brother, was enough to rouse it. "And how did he come by this...regrettable
disease?"
"Oh, I really couldn't say," Pip drawled,
taking a sip from her wineglass. "But young squire are wont to, shall we say,
explore...and if one *will* consort with tavern whores—oh, I've said too much
again! It *must* be the wine."
"It must be," Kieran agreed darkly, eyeing
her glass. "Why don't you drink some more, my devious little sister, and let us
see what else falls from that cunning mind of yours."
Green eyes and hazel met, and the two
siblings shared a satisfied smile. He may be dull, Pip thought, but you can
always count on your family.
"And is it not strange," murmured Pip,
sipping at the wine. It really *was* a good vintage, strong and not too dry.
"That a tavern whore of that very area was found beaten and battered not so
long ago? The whisper of the streets grows loud enough for us to hear...and it
tells me that whore lost a bastard child, the beating was so severe."
"Oh Pippa," Uline said, somewhere between
shocked and delighted, "now I know why Kieran says you are the black sheep of
the family!"
"I'm beginning to think she is a wolf in
sheep's clothing," Kieran said respectfully. "You've certainly grown some sharp
teeth, Phillippa. Is any of this true?" He said the last in a very low voice,
so the nobles pretending not to eavesdrop would not hear.
"No," Pip whispered, "but he has smeared our
reputation with mud, so we will smear his with dung."
"Oh look!" said Uline, unable to hide her
luminous smile. "There is my sister, and Jyar." Jyar of Fief Greenwood was
Uline's closest friend. "I think I'll go and talk to them..."
Kieran grinned. "And I recognise Michael and
David. They were pages when I was...I think I'll go and see how they've fared."
Pip sighed contentedly. "Better, I suspect,
than Vinson of Genlith." She raised her voice a little. "Such an honourable
family...they will be devastated to hear he has been dabbling with commoners."
Over the other side of the room, Vinson was
sneering at her, completely unaware of the whispers that began to flourish all
around him as Uline and Kieran's friends, looking hocked and fascinated, slid
over to other groups...who moved to speak with other little huddles of flashy,
chattering courtiers...the words slid from ear to ear like wildfire, and soon
the Court was aflame with the news.
Pip went to rescue Neal from the clutches of
Tanisa, seeing the slightly pained look on his face. Having pried the girl
away, murmuring that her friends seemed to want to talk to her about something
rather scandalous, she smiled at her noble friend.
"You look very satisfied, my dear," commented
Neal. "Like the cat that got the cream."
"This cat," she said, smiling as the players
struck up a waltz, "just used her claws. That's one mouse who will never
threaten me or my family again."
"Hear hear," Neal said brightly, his emerald
eyes glowing at her. He really was striking, Pip thought. Not handsome, but
then who needed handsome when you had a wit and charm like his?
"Oh no," she said coyly, accepting his hand
as they stepped onto the dancefloor. "Hear*say*."
* * * *
"That's your father?" hissed Ryan, his eyes
huge and wide. "He's the one whose been killin' the Gifted an' drivin' away the
magic?"
Bruna didn't answer. Her lips were pressed
together and Kel could see her hands trembling on the rein.
"Tell me truly, daughter," that snaky smooth
voice said. Kel thought it was the most terrible, merciless sound she had ever
heard. "Who do you travel with?"
Bruna stayed silent, her beautiful face tight
and strained.
"Tell me!" The iron-hard voice cracked into
the air like a whip. "The fire is waiting, foul tainted child, and I am
prepared to wait the time it will take for the brands to heat."
Brands? Kel stared at the hard black eyes, at
this lord's, this fiend's ruthless face. Brands were for cattle and goods, not
children. And in those eyes, she saw the insanity, grown old and hard like ice.
He cares nothing for her, she understood. She is his daughter, but he doesn't
feel anything for her.
Dear Goddess, what had he done to her? She
dared not think, for she feared the answer would be too dreadful to
contemplate.
Bruna's shaken voice was bereft of its
arrogance, of its richness, a thin grey ghost. "There are three Gifted."
"You have no Gift!" he said in that flat and
dead voice. "Ugly changeling, you are not Gifted. You are Cursed. I have worked
so hard to free you from your curse, but still the evil stays inside you,
eating away at you. Your soul has decayed. I see it, I see it and there is only
one thing for you now."
His black eyes seemed to widen and swell
until they dominated that masked face, two pools of slick black oil.
"Only death will cleanse you now," he hissed,
and to those silent, waiting villagers with their crude weapons and voided
faces, he said, "Cleanse them. Destroy their evil!"
And they attacked, screaming.
But they were saying no words. They only
howled, like beasts driven mad, that eerie ululating sound echoing in the air
until it filled Kel's ears and drove into her brain.
Numair shouted something, words that rent the
air in two with a terrible thundering boom and a blinding light exploded into
the air. The howls of the village people became frightened, but still they
attacked. Kel leapt from Peachblossom, knowing it was safer and saw Ryan and
the mage dismounting too.
Bruna, she saw with horror, put up no
resistance as she was dragged from her horse. Gods, was she mad?
Spells zinged through the air, in flashes of
silver-black and turquoise lightning, knocking people out as Kel parried and
blocked the rakes and feeble weapons of the people. She was trying not to hurt
them, but even the children clawed at her, hissed and spat curses that would
have shocked even gutter-children.
"Kel!" Ryan was street-fighting and magicking
his way through the crowd, giving as good as he got and usually better. "You
okay?"
"Fine!" she shouted, stumbling slightly as a
fist connected hard with her shoulder. "Need a weapon?"
"Need a damn miracle!" he said and was beside
her, flashing her that bold smile, despite the cuts bleeding all over his face
and arms. He snapped a word and a blast of wind threw the people back, briefly
leaving a clear circle around him and Kel. "I ain't ever seen anythin' like
this. Weapon, lass?"
"On my back," said Kel hurriedly, catching
her breath. "Axe."
"Cheers." They stood back to back, weapons
poised. "Ridin' with you is an adventure, I'll say that."
"It's your fault we're in this mess!" she
said indignantly. The horde weren't attacking...they were just standing there,
as if waiting for something. "Ryan...any idea what's going on?"
"None, an' I don't like it," he said grimly.
"Master Numair's shapeshifted, he's gone to see if there's any help an' if not,
he comin' back...he said somethin' about Old Thak? Sounded pretty mad."
Then they saw the black-clad man stepping
through the crowd, who parted like curtains drawing back. He stood for a
moment, his frenzied eyes glittering at them, then he saw Ryan properly.
"You!" he snarled. "Monster! You freed
another of your foul kind!"
Ryan stared. "You're the one who hurt Andrea!
An' I'd a' freed anyone *you* caught. Am I the one with the serious sanity
complex? I don't think so. *I* ain't killin' anythin' I don't understand."
The man stared, then he tilted his head back
to the sky, shaggy dark hair tumbling back like a wolf's pelt. And he *howled*.
And when they charged, he was at their head,
all of them baying crazily.
Kel braced herself, felt Ryan do the same.
But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next. Their bodies seemed
to ripple like something moving underwater, undulating and bending unnaturally.
And she saw the man's face *change*, the teeth lengthening to fangs, his eyes
turning the eerie, reflective green of a cat's.
The halflings, she thought suddenly,
desperately. Oh gods above, it's happening again.
And when the pack of wild beast-men hit, they
were completely helpless. Kel felt claws scrape along her chest as she was
hurled to the ground; she saw Ryan fall back, his throat a crimson mess, and
knew he was dead. Desperately she fought, trying not to think about it,
fighting for her very life against this terrible magic...*that* was why they
killed the alicorn, that was why they killed the Gifted. For their power, no,
no, no...
The world exploded in a rolling surge of
silver fire and—
That voice she loathed so, that terrible
gloating voice filled the silence. She could only wait for its judgement...
* * * *
Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to
hear what you think!
Galactic, starry
thanks to the lovely people who reviewed the last part You made a really
utterly depressing week much, much better :-) This is going to sound really
cheeky...sorry...but the Xing-y thing which sends me reviews (bless its ickle
electronic cotton socks) doesn't recognise signed reviews at the moment, so I
have no idea whose review is whose. You couldn't do me a *huge* favour, could
you, and write who you are? I truly appreciated you taking time out to share
what you thought. You made my exams bearable! Merci beaucoup et les baisses a:
The almighty
Ariana: ::grins:: You don't have to be first: that you've reviewed at all makes
you special! Red, white and blue? I'm the French flag? (How appropriate!) Encantador? What a fabulous word! My word is
celeste; heavenly; as that be what you are!
The astounding
Arwen: Thanks! Uh...I don't know about soon but uh...I'm on holiday now, so
hopefully I'll be able to get the next part or two out on time :-) Thanks for
being patient!
The cracking Cali
Gurlie: I don't know, I'm wavering about Kel and Neal (in the books, this is.)
Sometimes I think yes, and sometimes I think no. :;sigh:: Oh, I can't wait for
Squire, and it's a whole three *months* before it's even published, and probably
another six before I get hold of it...okay, I'm whining. I'm shutting up. Thank
you!
The chirpy Chip:
Thanks! ;:grins:: I'm thrileld you're liking the story (even if it does take me
so frickin long to get the parts out!) And I hope you enjoy the rest of it
::beams:: Marc and Bruna...evil! You really are!
The delightful
Dead Flower: ::grins:: Confusing? Well, yeah...sorry, that's what pours out of
my overloaded little mind, little being the operative word. Bruna, well...it
gets worse before it gets better. She's had a tough life. Though that isn't
really any excuse for being a complete chienne.
The divine
Destiny: Thank you! This will continue (gods know how long...it's been going a
month or two, wouldja believe? Don't worry...four months is the longest it's
ever taken me to write a story.) Thank you for your encouragement!
The fantastique
FireLily: I am *very* glad for all you delightfully lazy people who can't be
bothered to sign in right now ~ the Xing thing doesn't tell me who's submitted
the review if they've signed in (bizarre much!). I like writing Ryan :-) He's
infectious (but mind you, so is measles.) Merci!
The halo'd
Heavengirl221: I am a total sucker for romance, either writing it or reading
it! So...people pair off :-) I'm trying to write what I can, but these damn
exams are getting in my way! However, it's half-term in two weeks and then you
won't see me typing for dust. Thanks!
The joyeuse Jinx:
I like the idea of streetrats (ever since I saw Aladdin...I still adore Disney
films.) It sure snows a lot where you are! (it's flooding round my way.) I
thank people...it's a thing I do...I mean...it's *right* and it's *fun* and if
more people said thank you, there'd be a lot less trouble in the world. Okay, I
didn't mean to go all quasideep. Thank you!
The kalos Kierce:
Thank you! Brief and bounteous!
The kudostic Kira:
Ah, metaphorical fireworks, ain't they fun? Maybe there's some kind of moral to
the story (don't hold a knife to someone's throat? Though that one may be
pretty obvious)...but revenge is always fun! I'm glad you don't mind the wait,
because gods know you have to wait long enough! Thanks for your patience!
The mignonne
Magelet: Thank you :-) I have no idea when the next part is coming, due to my
complete lack of organisation (read: lazy git.) But I'm aiming for a part on
the week every week! I hope you enjoy and merci muchly!
The mighty Me:
Thank you! It's always lovely to be told that, and it's picked up my seriously
c*** day.
The miraculous
Mel: What the hell is going on? Well, that's a question I ask myself every
morning (as well as why on *earth* did I set my alarm for 6am) and the answer
is: no one really knows. Maybe it's some big cosmic joke (in which case I'm not
sure I want to hear the punchline). As for the story: I'd like to coin that
famous phrase All Will Be Revealed :-) Thanks for the luck! It's served me well
so far!
The natty Noel:
Thank you for such a blush-making list of adjectives! Pip gets her own back, as
life should be :-) Your midterms are part of your grade? My mocks aren't -
they're just a pain in the ass! (But then again, they are *exams*.) How Ryan
and Andrea are connected...hmm...well...you'll find out!
The priceless
Perfect1: I'm delighted to hear that! (But hey, if you do spot any glaring
errors, revolting bits of writing or general plot vortexes, yell.) Thanks!
Sorry the next part took so long to get here...
The phenomenal
Phantasea: Well. I'm a-guessing you just found out what happened to dear Ryan
(was it evil? If it was, I probably wrote it after a particularly nasty 'xam).
Neal's a big strong maaaaaan. He can cope on his own! (And if he can't, well,
what's he doing being a knight?) :-) Thank you!
The quickfire
Quartz: Yes, Bruna, that complete chienne was crying! And you will find out
why...and Ryan's dying too...and you just found that one out to! I like a
cliffhanger or two. No Prozac? Try bananas! Very healthy and also scrummy! And
goes well with melted chocolate. I have no plans to cut off my ear, though
plans for my head may be forthcoming :-) After all, there's nothing in there,
why do I need it?
The sunny Shannon
Cooper: Yes, a cliffhanger...they're so...addictive. I can't resist.
(Cliffhangers and white Toblerone...my two fatal addictions.) What happens?
Well, I guess you just found that out :-) And I hope you liked it! Whatever it
was! (I write this before I write the next part.)
The splendifirous
Silver Mist Tigress; By the way, where did you come up with that great name? I
have a thing for description. I can't stop (like Pringles, once you pop, you
can't stop...maybe it's time for my medication). I don't know, I love
cliffhangers because they just leave everything poised to go any way you want.
And you sit there and try to think what's going to happen and feel smug if you
do :-) Thanks!
The tremendous
Team Socket: Is it me, are you insatiably romantic? :-) I'd just like to borrow
from Doris Day here, and say Que sera, sera. (I'm pretty sure that's French...)
Thanks! Forever? Well...forever's a long time.
The brilliant :o):
Thanks! That's okay, reviews don't have to be long ::grins:: I'm not going to
put a word limit on them...though that would be kind of funny. Ah, computer
studies; the bane of many a life. Well, November 5th may have been and gone,
but fireworks, like jelly (and when I say jelly, I don't mean what you put on
your toast, I mean the wobbly translucent stuff) are great at any time. Thank
you!