A/n: this is the first real chapter I've ever written. The last one was mostly from the book. If you have any ideas of how I can make my fic better please tell me. I don't care if you send a flame. I want to know.

A/n: any thing you recognize probably belongs to Tammy. In the last chapter I was kidding about taking stuff from other peoples fics. I know how hard it is to write these and would never steal from anyone. :-)

The Purple Dress

Chapter Two: On the Road to

the City of the Gods

In the morning the two children in Lord Alan's office were at the glummest they had ever been. And he knew why and smiled. If they had gone through with their plan, when they were found out He would have been a laughing stock and probably banished from Tortall and all his books. He shuddered. That would be horrible. The library he had now had taken him his whole life, he could never rebuild it.

The children were so mad at their father that they couldn't look at him. If they had they only would have gotten madder at the fact that he was smiling. When the two letters came into their vision they both grabbed their own and practically ran out of the room.

When Alanna got to her room she through on her riding clothes grabbed the rest of her stuff and fled the room of her childhood, wishing with all her might that it had been longer.

When Thom got to his room he very slowly got ready. He wasn't as mad as Alanna. In fact most of it was an act. He was quite happy to leave. No more having to ward his room so no one would know that he was practicing magic. No more having to come up with excuses to cover up his magic use. He was sure that he would be able to find all sorts of magic stuff in Corus. Like books and amulets. He could even get Alanna to send him the things he couldn't find. Sure he would have to fight and would get hit a lot, but he could deal. To get away from the current restrictions on life he would do almost anything.

As he left his room Thom put on his pouty, mad face and went down the hall.

When Thom saw his sister waiting for him outside, for a moment he didn't have to fake his pout. She was the one thing he was actually going to miss around here. He went up and hugged her then the two of them got on their ponies and road away with Coram and Maude.

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The four road on in silence. Coram and Maude knew this must be hard on the children, tonight would be their first night more than a few feet apart. As soon as they were old enough they had asked for rooms that were right next to each other and then had there beds as close as they could, only the wall separated them as they slept.

The children were each wrapped up in there own thoughts. Alanna was wondering how long it would take her father to find the mess she had left for him. She hadn't destroyed anything but it would take him a long time to clean up his precious library. She guessed at least a couple of months.

Thom was thinking about how he was glad he had stole one of his father's books before Alanna had gotten to them. He thought he had seen a spell for an illusion in there that just might fit his purpose. He also memorized a spell that would let him stay awake for days on end. He wasn't going anywhere unprepared.

Their paths split all to soon and the next thing either of them knew they were hugging at the fork in the road. Thom told her his idea about her sending him books on magic. She thought this over for a second, as a smile broke out over her face she said, "Only if you send me weapons and instructions," then in Coram's gruff voice, "so I can continue to properly use them," then in her own voice she added, "and so I don't hurt myself. He smiled at that and they walked back to their ponies to wait for Coram and Maude to finish saying goodbye.

Thom's last thought as he saw his sister go was of how much he loved her and was going to miss her.

As Alanna road off down the road her last thought as she watched her brother go was that there was still hope for her to become a warrior maiden.

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When they stopped for noon lunch the silence between Maude and Alanna was a comfortable one. As soon as they started ridding again Maude began to talk. She said, "Last night the gods gave me a vision. They said that you have to use your gift and if you don't something very bad will happen." While she said this Alanna had been gapping at her. She had had almost the same dream. In fact she had had it several times; she had just always ignored it. Hearing that Maude had the same dream she decided to start using her gift in small amounts once in a while. She only had the dream when she hadn't used her magic in awhile.

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For the next three days Alanna's life followed a kind of pattern. Get up, eat, ride, eat, ride, eat, sleep then do it again. On the forth day she got up, ate and then road for about an hour before she saw an entire city made of white. All the building were so plain she almost cried in sadness. This place looked so depressing, her home for the next 6 years was just so depressing. But she, Alanna, would never cry, she refused to. All she could think about as they road to the gate was how hard it was to just not cry.