Disclaimers: These characters
belong to Tamora Pierce. Some of the
characters they belong to me. For
Tamora Pierce book lovers, you all should know which characters are which. If not, then you should! ^_^ Read and Review please…also enjoy!
CHAPTER THREE:
by Hendy
Settling back in the
carriage, Myles looked at his defiant charge and inwardly sighed. His original thought had been to give her to
Alanna, or more specifically, to use the resources at Pirates Swoop to help
train the girl to be a proper noblewoman. She would have been educated, well
mannered and still have had plenty of time to be active and learn the basics in
protecting herself. He could tell two things however just by looking at the way
she was casually twirling a small dagger. Firstly, she already knew the basics
of protecting herself and secondly, that her becoming a proper young noble
woman was about as likely as himself losing thirty pounds. He sighed.
Startling, Rue looked at him, suspicion in her eyes.
"I'm not going to hurt
you child." Myles told her in a mild voice. "You needn't jump every time I move."
"I'm not jumping." Rue
retorted. "And besides, I don't care if you are a knight. With all that padding on your stomach, I can
just outrun you."
Ah, thought Myles,
knights make her nervous. I wonder why. Her remembering that detail of his
knighthood surprised him but it did not show on his face. "Perhaps you could
out run me." He agreed, in the same mild tone. "But I don't think you're
arrogant enough to believe you can out run my five guards." His tone turned
sharper as he added, "Are you?"
Confused, Rue asked,
"Am I what?"
"Arrogant. Do you consider yourself arrogant?" He asked.
"Arrogant as in I have
no problem in admitting when I'm good at something or perhaps arrogant in that
I believe myself to be better than everyone else?" She asked in return.
Miles smiled
patronizingly and replied "Whichever one you want."
" Well, then
yeah." Silence fell in the coach and
after two minutes of no more forthcoming information from Rue, Myles was forced
to ask, "Yes to which one?"
Rue smiled sweetly and
replied "Whichever one you want."
```````````````
Rue looked at the
passing streets that were slowly beginning to become more sophisticated and
better maintained as the coach came closer to the palace. A sudden lurch threw
Rue violently to the side of the coach, slamming her hip into a sharp corner of
something. Wincing in pain, Rue rubbed
the sore spot and thought bitterly to herself that it wasn't broken cobblestone
streets on a ship. On a ship there isn't any smoky air, or garbage infested
streets. There aren't any starving people who smelled and grabbed at carriages,
or children who had on barely any clothing and grinned with a wide child's
smile but looked at the world with old eyes.
The carriage came to a
sudden jerky halt as a peddler's cart overturned. As the guards ran forward to
help the man out, Myles leaned out the window to give unneeded directions to
the driver of an alternate route. Rue sighed, as she placed her chin against
her hand and stared out the window. A hard looking child sauntered up, and
smirked at Rue. Shouting to the inside of the carriage, the girl called, "Hey!
How'd a skinny thing like you gonna handle Lord Chubby there?"
All the girl's friends
snickered. Rue's head shot up. "What?
You think grandpa here is, is usin' me?" She stared at the street kid
incredulously. "Never gonna happen, streetie. Never, no and not gonna happen."
She shook her head and
the girl suddenly leaned closer to the carriage and yelled. "HEY LORD
CHUBBY!!!" Myles shot up and knock his head on the carriage ceiling with a loud
crack. Rue and the street kid giggled at each other at this display and the kid
continued.
"I was wondering,
since you ain't using ugly girl here, how's about me?" Myles gave Rue a look.
"Get away from the
carriage, child." Myles told the girl quietly and flipped the girl a coin out
the window, after which she scampered away. Myles tapped the top of the
carriage and as they lurched off, Myles stared at Rue.
"Rue", he began "I
understand you don't want to be here but telling complete strangers that I am a
child user is beyond the realms of my patience. I will not allow it."
Rue stared at him in
horror. "I did not say anything!!" she protested. Myles looked into her eyes,
stared hard and long and nodded his head.
"All right. I believe
you but only because I know how much you don't like me. But that child did
bring up a problem that I had with Alanna; a problem I had not thought of."
Myles settled back against the cushioned seat and Rue asked "What problem?"
"Rumors." Myles said. "Rumors that will not help you at all."
Rue stared at him
"What type?" Myles ran his hand over his beard. "Well, Alanna and I were very
close when she was younger- a couple of gossip mongers with nothing to do,
mentally you understand, began the rumor that I was using Alanna,
eh…" Myles cleared his throat and turned a shade of pink. "That I, uh,
used her in appropriately, that is" He coughed again and cleared his throat,
all the while turning different shades of red and pink.
Rue stared at him in
shock. "They thought you was banging Alanna? But she was supposed to be a bo…
oh." Myles smiled at her expression.
"Yes. Oh." Rue shook
her head and asked what the heck this had to do with her. "Rumors might
resurface."
"Oh, I ain't a
boy. I'll tell 'em all." She said.
"No no. They'll think
I'm using you anyway. Idiots." As the latter comment had been mumbled Rue
assumed it applied to the gossipmongers.
"I am going to have to
find a way out of this." Looking at the ring on his finger, Rue pointed and
said, "Ain't you married?"
Myles smiled fondly at
the ring and in a satisfied voice "Yes. To a wonderful woman."
"Well, you could
always get caught doin' somethin' in public that at my age I ain't supposed to
know about."
Myles, not a stupid
man, knew what she was referring to and quickly disabused her of that notion.
"No, absolutely not. Quite out of the question."
Rue shrugged. "Just a
suggestion grandpa. Don't get your panties in a twist." About to reply to that
comment, Myles stopped and shrugged.
"Ready to hear?" He
asked.
"About my father?" She
wondered.
"What else?" Myles
asked.
If that smile on your
face is anything to judge by, your delicious sex life thought Rue
sarcastically. However all she said was "Nothing. Go ahead."
"All right" Myles took
a breath and began. "What I have to say may not go beyond this carriage.
It is very important that you say nothing of this conversation to anyone, ever.
Not just for my safety, but for your fathers also." Getting affirmation from
Rue that she understood and would comply, Myles continued. "I am our good King
Jon's spy master girl. What that means is that I gather information for the
Kingdom's use. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. You're a
glorified fishwife." Expecting a temper tantrum, Rue was shocked when Myles
threw back his head and laughed. After of about a minute or two of this
behavior, wiping tears away, Myles said "Very apt description. I must tell my dear Eleni. She'll love it!"
Myles began to smile and looked out the window with an absentminded and stupid
look on his face.
Rue groaned. Just my
luck-I get stranded in a country whose spymaster is a newlywed. I hate
newlyweds!! Shaking himself back
into reality, Myles continued. "Well, as spy master, I have many contacts. Some
personal but most through my…well, I guess if I were a king, these people would
be my advisors or generals. They get information for me from places I can't go.
For instance, one person goes to the merchants for me."
Rue interrupted "Why
can't you go to merchants?"
"I'm one of the King's
advisors. If I would go, merchants
begging for favors would attack me. It would be incredibly tiresome.
Satisfied?" Rue nodded.
"You'll be meeting two
of my best people. You already know a third." He looked at Rue intently.
"Do you remember how your fathers ship never seemed to follow logical
routes? And how your mother always seemed to handle the actual buying,
haggling, and shipping to and from the boat? Well, this is because your father
was too busy working- for me. He was not an actual merchant. He was a spy. And
over half his crew was too." Rue stared at Myles, naturally amazed. Her entire
history had been turned on its head; nothing was as it appeared and no one she
knew was really who they were supposed to be. Her head swam and rang with the
surprise. But one little detail about Myles had said stuck in her mind, and as
the implications of that became clear, Rue burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?"
Myles asked mystified.
"You never knew!" Rue
laughed harder.
"Never knew what?" Myles
said.
"My father was only a
merchant in Tortall, Lord Myles. Everywhere else my father was a pirate, a
rather notorious one in fact. All those things he ever brought into Tortall
were booty from raids! Ever heard of the Captain? That's my papa!!" Myles made a small choking noise that sounded
almost exactly like a squawking chicken. The political ramifications of this
were going to keep him up for weeks, he knew. Rue began to laugh even harder
and for the first time since she had awoken on land, was happy. At someone else's expense, true. But it was
something.
As the carriage rolled
to a halt in the palace grounds, Myles glared at the still giggling Rue. But in
his regular good humor, Myles soon shrugged it off and began to see the humor
in the situation.
"You and I are going to talk about your future child. But first we are first going to bathe, and find some proper clean clothes. Ready?" Myles asked. Rue nodded and jumped down from the carriage, following Myles into the palace.