I don't own anything here that even vaguely belongs to Tamora Pierce.
The Collision
Chapter 4~ Truelberries
The four Winding Circle mages boarded the ship with their teachers to Carthaki. Veralidaine
Sarrasri, soon to be Salmalin, told them the story about how Orzorne was turned into a
Stormwing. "Here we are," Daine said brightly. "Good 'ole Carthaki," Good 'ole Carthaki
was barren, yet no troops were about. There were no corpses either. King Jonathan seemed
just as puzzled. "We will go to Emperor Kadder's palace," he said.
At the palace, a messenger rushed out to meet them. "Emperor Kadder wishes for you to
meet him at the dining room. So Jon left his troops outside to guard, while himself, Daine,
Master Numair, the four Winding Circle mages and their teachers went to the dining room.
On the table, a feast was laid out for them. Briar reached greedily for some chicken but
Sandry nudged him. King Jonathan introduced the Winding Circle mages. "Where are the
Copper Isles people?" Jon asked.
Kadder sighed. "They are fighting us by the means of secrecy," he said. "Undercover work.
My men turn up dead everyday but without stab wounds ,"
"Why are they attacking you?" King Jonathan asked.
Kadder shook his head. "That is what we are trying to find out. We haven't done anything to
them nor them to us,"
"Well, I will place my guards all around Carthaki and the mages will help,"
So Numair, Sandry, Tris, Daja, Briar, Niko, Rosethorn, Lark, Frostpine and a few other less
experienced mages got to work. "What we need is some sort of net to catch them in,"
Numair said.
"How? We don't know what magic they are using, and whether they are using magic or not,"
Sandry added.
"Well, we'll just have to find out," decided Daine. So they decided that the next time there
was killing, if killing at all, they would try to find out what magic the Copper Isles people
were using.They got their chance the very next day. Tundah, Kadder's main head servant,
was killed during the night. The mages inspected the site of the killing.
"You know, there isn't any blood," Briar observed thoughtfully.
"Maybe the guards that found Tundah cleaned it up," suggested Tris.
"No, did you see Tundah's corpse? No stab wounds whatsoever. He was killed with poison,"
Numair said.
"He wasn't acting strange after dinner," Niko said.
"It could have been truelberries," suggested Daine.
Confusion was written on the Emelan mages' faces.
"Truelberries are a type of poison that takes a long time to act," explained Numair. "But
they were only recently discovered by Tortall. Either someone from Tortall has been forced
to give them truelberries
or they are stealing it,"
"What do they look like?" Rosethorn, the plant mage asked.
"Red and sometimes pink. They can easily be mistaken for cherries," Alanna said.
Sandry frowned. "I thought I saw cherries on Tundah's plate and I was wondering how
come a servant got cherries and we didn't," she said.
"Well, now we know what was used. But how can we use that to trap the killers?" Sandry
wondered.

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Well, there is my fourth chapter! The next one will be about them trapping the killers, I
think. I was hoping to finish it with five chapters but I'll probably go on to 6 or 7. Well,
review!
~~~Takarimon