A/N: Thank you all who reviewed!!!! It meant a lot to me!!!!! Oh, and Saturn, I know I didn't really elaborate on the whole red gift thingy. It will be explained here!!! And thank you all!!! Reviews are very important to me!! (*hint hint*) :D

Disclaimer: you know the drill, I don't own any characters you recognize, bla bla bla… lets get on with the story shall we!!!

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Into the Wrong Hands: Chapter 6



Theo was worried. Kaddar looked worried, and that made Theo worried. They had left the shelter of the stable, and were heading out of what looked like practice grounds. Kaddar led them along a path that looked to be less used than most, but Theo still felt that standing out here in the middle of the day made her an easy target. They were walking, to who knows where, when Daine let out a sort of strangled yelp from the back of the line. She ran up to Kaddar in the front, and began whispering to him in his ear furiously. Theo tried to listen in on what she was saying, but couldn't hear her at all. She turned back to Justin and gave him a what-the-hell look, and he shrugged. She held back for two seconds so he could catch up to her, and they walked side by side watching the two in front of them whispering. Suddenly, Kaddar nodded to Daine, and stopped and turned back to Justin and Theo.

"Daine came up with a great plan!" he told them, his voice low. "we need to first get into the palace, but from there it should be great."

Theo stared at him, her insides curling. "ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!?" She whisper- yelled. "Why would we go into the place where there are the most guards in the whole country!?"

Kaddar gave her another of those How-the-hell-do-you-know-these-things look. Theo ignored him. "Because," he started in a sly whisper, "That would be the only place that he would never think you would go."

Theo thought about that one for a minuet, and started to see his logic. "Ok," she told him after a while, "How do we do it?"

"First, we need to get you to Numair, he can put some kind of spell so that no one will be able to see you guys, and then we can go to Lindhall's tomorrow, like we were planning. You guys will be able to stay at my teacher's, and we can talk there safely. The only problem is how are we going to get into Numair's or Daine's room?" he seemed to be asking himself these questions, and so no one answered him. After a while of Kaddar looking like he was deep in thought, an idea came to Theo, and she spoke up.

"Why don't we just stay here, while you go and get Numair and bring him back?" Kaddar looked as if he were considering it for a moment, and then brightened.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, but then his face fell, and Theo could tell he'd caught a bug in his plan. "But we cannot go to Lindhall's today, we have to go tomorrow. Where will you stay tonight?"

At that moment, Justin, who everyone had forgotten was there, spoke up. "What if we went back into that secret hidden room in the horse-house- thingy?"

"That's a great idea Justin!" she rolled her eyes at his lack of knowledge about horses, but hugged him anyway. He hugged her, and for a moment, the two of them were alone again, with only themselves, and no one else. Kaddar let out an audibly fake cough, and Theo realized where they were, and sprang off of her one time best friend, and now crush. When did everything get so complicated, she thought to herself, as the four of them now headed back to the stable, or, horse-house-thingy, as Justin called it, to get settled for the night.

They walked onto the stable, and after they made sure that no one else was in it, opened the door again. Kaddar walked in, and Theo and Justin followed. Daine stayed in the hallway, to make sure that no one came in on them. Kaddar turned when they had gotten in, and looked at the two teens.

"You must be cautious. There are people out here who would want very much to get their hands on you, and not just for the emperor. He will have many guards about also, so its best if you stay quiet, and don't come out, whatever you do." The heir to the throne of Carthak looked dead serious, and shivers ran down Theo's spine from the look he was giving them.

"Trust me Kaddar," she told him, " we don't want to found out either!" Justin agreed with her by nodding his head vigorously. Kaddar looked at them for a moment longer, and then nodded.

"Alright," he told them, starting to back up to the doorway. "You need to stay here, and don't make any loud noises. Remember, the horses and the stablemen can hear you if you do. We will be back here a few hours after the sun rises tomorrow, and we will take you to the University." He looked unsure about this part, and that made Theo a bit nervous. She took a step towards him and took his hand.

"Thank you," she told him sincerely, "thank you for helping us." He looked embarrassed at her display, and so she backed off. He nodded quickly, and closed the door behind him as he walked out.

For a moment the two were in total darkness, and then Theo remembered her books, and clapped her hands loudly. Lights came on from overhead, Theo looked up at the perfectly sphere balls of light in wonder, and Justin looked up in amazement.

"How did u know to do that?" Justin asked her, still looking at the ceiling. Theo laughed, and answered him.

"I told you, I read the books." She sighed, remembering where they were. "How are ever going to get home," she said out loud to herself. She sat down on the floor, and all of the thoughts of her home started to come back to her. Justin looked at her for a moment, looked back up at the globes of light, and sat next to Theo.

"I dunno." He told her quietly. "How about you explain some of this to me, because I have been completely lost since we fell here or whatever did happen."

Theo inwardly sighed, not wanting to think right now, but she knew that her friend deserved an explanation. "I don't know half of it. But here goes… we are in a story. Tamora Pierce's book, Emperor Mage. Its all about this girl, Daine, who can talk to animals with her magic—"

"Wait," Justin interrupted her, "magic?! You can't be serious. There's no such thing as magic."

Theo laughed. "Sure there is. We're not in our world anymore, so the rules don't apply. There is such a thing as magic, and lots of people have it. It's a thing called 'The Gift.' You're either born with it or you're not. They use it to do all kinds of things. That's what the guy we saw that first night had. The one that was glowing with red fire. I'm guessing that he used whatever gift he had to bring us here, but I have no idea why. I think when people use their gift for a really big thing, like moving people for instance, they start to glow the color of their magic, and this guy was glowing red. At least, that's what Alanna did." Theo was now more thinking aloud to herself, than explaining to Justin, but he didn't seem to mind.

"How do people know if they have magic? And what do they do with it?" Justin asked her. They were now sitting down together on the floor, leaning on one another for support, and Theo looked into Justin's eyes to answer him. She started to talk, and Justin leaned down and put his lips onto hers, before she could speak.

Theo had been kissed before. She had had boyfriends like every other girl in high school. However, she had never been kissed by anyone she knew so well as her best friend since third grade. It was a totally new experience. She felt like she was going to be lost forever, and at the same time, she wanted the kiss to never end. Eventually, Justin took his lips away from hers, and looked at her.

"Um, er…" he began. Theo laughed, once again. She was glad to note that Justin sounded just as unsure about this whole thing as she felt. Justin was still staring at her as if he needed an answer, so she gave him one. She put her hand behind his head, and brought him closer. She kissed him again, this time with more passion. (A/N: ok, folks, I know I know, alone in a dark room by themselves. Don't worry, this is still PG-13, and it won't go any farther!!! ( Anyway, back to the story…) they kissed, longer this time, and when Theo backed away, she could tell she had startled him, and she giggled a bit.

"What," Justin asked her quietly.

Theo shook her head. "Nothing," she told him. "I was just thinking about what everyone back home would have said if they had seen that!"

"Probably they would have said about time!" Justin answered, and laughed. Theo giggles with him, and then stopped, thinking for a moment.

Theo looked at the gloom of the rest of the room. "Do you think that they are worried about us?" she asked him quietly, serious again. "I don't know if we'll ever see them again." Justin put his hand under her shin, and gently made her look him in the face.

"I know we will. We'll find a way somehow. Don't worry." Theo smiled, feeling safe for a moment, and leaned against his chest. Justin continued to think, and when he thought of another question to ask of his best friend, and now girl friend, he looked down at her. What he saw made him smile. Theo had fallen asleep, leaning on Justin. He wrapped his arms around her, protecting her from everything else in this world, and leaned back and went to sleep himself.