A/N: Well, it turns out some people really do like the Hayden/Ribyyn relationship thing going on. It appeals to me too, though I don't know why. Thanks for the reviews. Ya'll should enjoy this chapter.... ::grin:: I like Lord Alden too. If you have any ideas on how to work him into the story don't hesitate to tell me!
I'VE FIGURED OUT A WAY OUT OF THE HOLE I'VE DUG MYSELF INTO! In other words...I know what to write next for Myles's Class and get myself out of the spot I've put myself in with this story. YAY FOR ME!
DISCLAIMER: I own the characters but Tortall and it's surrounding areas are owned by Tamora Pierce.
Lady Ribyyn of Hadic
Chapter 7 - After Death
The Rogue rode atop his midnight black horse, October. It had been six days since he'd sent his letter to the thieves of Port Caynn and he wondered if they thought he had changed his mind about sending help. He should have arrived in Port Caynn two days ago, but trouble had arisen in Corus and kept him there. People had begun to challenge his rule recently, though he'd only ruled for three years. Thankfully, he was able to keep them at bay.
The trouble in Port Caynn worried him though. He didn't like Port Caynn, and he'd tried to avoid it as much as possible. As he thought about what he would say to the man, Roank, he reminded himself, he slowly realized why he'd been avoiding the city.
He'd thought at first that the name was familiar, but had shrugged it off. However, his second, who knew the thieves of Port Caynn quite well, said that Roank's second was named Slyde. The King of Thieves shuddered at the thought. It was all too weird. He'd built up a wall of protection around himself and his heart, and it was all about to be shattered.
He glanced up at the sun. Noon. He sighed to himself and dismounted, tethering October to a tree branch. Grabbing his pack off the horse, he stretched and then sat down to eat his lunch, all the while thinking, Darin Smith, what have you gotten yourself into?
***
Four years ago:
The first thought that ran through his clouded mind was that his toes were cold. As this knowledge began to settle in, the thought grew, as did the cold. His feet were cold. His legs were cold. His arms and fingers were cold. In fact, most of his body was cold.
He also realized that he was damp. Actually, damp was a bit of an understatement. He was soaked in water from head to toe. Maybe that's why I'm so cold.
Something warm and wet was wiped across his face. He gave a moan, and he heard a small voice cry, "Mama! He's wakin' up!" Darin groaned as the voice echoed through his head.
"Hush child! Not so loud." The new voice was motherly and kind. A hand rested on his shoulder and shook him a bit, and then the unmistakable smell of wakeflower was placed under his nose. "I know you're awake lad. You can't fool a mother like me."
"I'm cold," he murmured inaudibly.
He must have spoken louder than he thought, because she seemed to have heard him just fine. "That'd be because you're wet."
I knew it, he cried triumphantly to himself. "Why'm I wet?"
"We found you in the river," said the small voice excitedly. "You were holdin' on t' a piece of driftwood and just floatin' down stream. M' brother fished you out."
Darin opened his eyes and shut them again immediately, as the light blinded him. He opened them again more slowly and began to blink. After a time his eyes adjusted and he could see his surroundings. He was in what looked like a park. There was a woman and a girl, and a bit further down he could see a boy and a man standing by a river.
The river. Everything suddenly hit him in a rush.
"Toss him in Roank."
"Goethe-"
"DO IT!"
"He don't have to if he don't wanna."
"Shove it Slyde! Yer too soft hearted fer yer own good! Still attached t' that damned sister of yers."
"Goethe, I ain't gonna do it."
"Fine then, I will! The last thing we need on our hands is a lazy boy."
"Goethe, stop!"
Hands grabbed him while other hands refused to let go. There was a slight tug-of-war before the first pair of hands won. There were some more yells of Goethe, and then he was tossed into the freezing cold waters of the river. He went under for a moment before instinct kicked in and he began to kick himself towards the surface. Or at least what he thought was the surface. He felt the air hit his face. Spitting the wet gag out of his mouth he gasped for air. Bringing his hands up to his face he pulled the blindfold off.
Now that he could see he could concentrate on trying to stay above the water. He wasn't the best swimmer in the world but he knew how to do it. Thankfully only his hands were tied together and not his feet. He could keep himself afloat that way, though it would be easier if he could just find something to hold onto.
The Gods must have been listening to his thoughts because at that very moment a log drifted by. Quickly he grabbed for it. He gripped it with his fingers and then pulled his arms over it. There was a small stump on the other side and he placed his wrists around it.
He knew he should have concentrated on getting to shore, but at the moment he was just too tired to. And the water was no longer running so fast. The slow rocking of the long drifted him off to sleep...
Darin struggled to sit up, and the girl next to him rushed to help. He slowly became aware that his hands were still tied together. Bringing his wrists up to his teeth he began to rip and chew at the bindings. She took his hands away and helped.
"Thank you," he said quietly, and he reached up to rub his eyes and then his neck. He looked over at the girl and realized that she was older than Ribyyn was. Or had been, he thought sadly. He wondered if she had gotten away.
"You're welcome," she said with a smile. Her face was rather pretty. She had a small, pert nose, with a dusting of freckles on it. Her eyes were an amazing mix of blue and gray. Her hair was curly and golden and it hung down to the middle of her back.
"Lad, are you alright?" the woman asked and Darin looked away from the girl. Darin nodded slowly while his mind screamed, No! You're not alright you FOOL! "What were you doing in the river?"
"I," he began, but then decided that he'd rather not tell these people about what had happened. He didn't even know who they were. "I'm not quite sure."
"You're lying," the woman said with a smile, "but since I don't know you, I'll let it slide."
Slyde, Darin thought to himself, and he heard the man scream, "Goethe, stop!"
"What's your name?" the girl asked. "Mine's Rona. Well, actually, it's Roneika, but everyone calls me Rona."
Rona. Like Roank. The one that didn't want to throw me in the river.
"My name's Darin."
"Nice to meet you Darin," she stuck out a hand, and Darin took it and brought her knuckles to his lips without a second thought. "Oh, so polite!" she laughed. "You've hung out with nobles haven't you?"
He smiled grimly and nodded. "Grew up with them. I was a servant in the castle. My father was the local blacksmith."
"My father owns Raven Armory."
"The Raven Armory?" His eyes widened.
"You've heard of it?" she asked with a wry smile. He grinned back at her. "This is Lila," Rona told him, pointing to the woman. "She's a healer. Down there, those are my brothers. The littler one is Padrick, he's twelve, and the older one is Tashé, he's nineteen - almost twenty. I'm going to be sixteen in December. How old are you?"
"You never stop talking, do you girl?" Lila asked her. Rona shook her head with a grin on her face.
"I'm fifteen," he said. He heard his stomach grumble and he grimaced. Rona and Lila apparently heard it too.
Lila stood up and called to Padrick and Tashé. "Come on lad. We'll get some food in there," she said to him as Rona's brothers ran over to them.
***
Darin sat outside Raven Armory waiting for Tashé to come out. He'd been living with the family for nearly a month and he'd yet to figure out where he was going to go. They were good enough, yes, but they weren't his family, and he still wanted to find out if Ribyyn was alright.
"Ullo," said a feminine voice from in front of him. Darin looked up to see a girl of about thirteen standing in front of him. She was short for her age with her red-blonde hair hanging down past her waist. Her eyes were a dark and unnerving gray.
"Hi?" he asked, confused.
"Ye look lonely," she said to him.
"I'm not."
This made her laugh. "Of course ye are! Yer sittin' out her all by yerself!"
"I'm waiting for a friend," he answered, his voice monotonous.
It was at that moment that Tashé came out of his father's shop. He turned to Darin and looked down at him, a small smile on his face. "Father wants me to watch the shop for the rest of the afternoon." Tashé's voice had taken on a bored tone. "I suggest you go find Padrick and hang out with him. Or you could stay with your friend here," he looked at the girl and wrinkled his nose, "though I wouldn't recommend it." The girl glanced up at him and made a face. Tashé rolled his eyes and looked back at Darin. "Father says to be back by supper." And with that the older boy reentered the shop.
"He yer brother?"
"No."
"Cousin"
"No."
"Then why d'ya listen to him?" the girl asked exasperated. She couldn't understand why someone would listen to a person that bossy unless they were family.
"Because I'm living with them."
"But you said.."
"Why are you here?" he interrupted her.
"What's your name?" she answered back.
Darin rolled his eyes. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to answer a question with a question?" He vaguely remembered Ribyyn saying that to him only a few months ago. It felt like forever.
"The first rule of respecting a lady, is never answer her question with another. It's dreadfully rude." She forced her face into the scowl Lady Sienna wore when she was angry at her stepdaughter.
Kalvin laughed. "The second rule," she crowed in imitation, "is never laugh at a lady. She will be insulted."
"But you're not a lady!" Darin said without thinking. Kalvin laughed harder.
"You know, I'm unsure whom I should beat up first." She deepened the scowl and tapped her forefinger against her chin. Darin found that he could no longer keep his composure. He fell onto his back with great guffaws. Ribyyn grinned and pounced on her brother, tickling him until he could barely breath. Just when she was about to turn on Darin there was a cry from behind them.
"LADY RIBYYN!" The boys stopped laughing abruptly and the young girl winced. They turned to see Lady Sienna standing there. "This is no way for you to act. You should be ashamed of yourself!" Suddenly Darin found it hard to keep a straight face. Ribyyn was quite good at imitating her stepmother.
Sienna rounded on Kalvin. "And you! You should be inside catching up on your school work! The tutor tells me you are falling behind!" The two siblings slowly got up and began to walk towards the castle. Ribyyn gave him a small wave.
"Boy!" the lady cried at him, and Darin jumped. This was unexpected. "Shouldn't you be filling your lungs with sulfur?" And with that she turned and followed the two children into the castle.
Darin shook his head when he realized the girl had spoken. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"
"I said, my mum is dead."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Tha's alright," she said with a smile. "My da's long gone too. Left 'afore I was born."
Darin looked at her, confused. "So how do you live?"
"Ah, ye'd like t' see that, would ya?" She grinned and turned around. "Follow me, I'll show ya!"
***
The girl, she'd said her name was Copper, led him to a tavern. "Follow me," she said. She entered and immediately went to the back of the room, where a man was sitting at a round table. The girl sat down in front of him and began talking so fast that Darin's head spun.
While waiting there, Darin looked at his surroundings. The room smelled of beer and smoke, and the mixture was slightly dizzying. Most of the tables were empty but at one there were four men playing a game of dice. Darin had always wondered how that game was played, perhaps somebody could teach him. Glancing away from the game he saw two men and a woman at another table. They seemed to be counting coins.
"So, lad," the man at the table where Copper was sitting said. "Ye wanna be a thief do ya?"
"Thief? What?"
"Ah, ye didn'a tell 'im Copper?"
"Tell me what?"
"Well, he said he wanted t' know how I lived," the girl tried in vain to explain it to Darin.
"You could have just told me."
"Yeah, an' watched ye call the royal guard out on me too?"
"Copper, I'm tellin' ye," the man she'd been speaking to began. "Ye gotta stop makin' friends in high places. Sounds t' me that you got a right noble pal here."
"I ain't a noble," Darin said, offended that they thought he would betray them. "And even if I was I wouldn't go calling any guard on anybody. The nobles I know wouldn't do it either."
"Ye a servant boy?" the man asked him. He had dark green eyes and Darin couldn't look into them for long. They were unsettling. His face said that he was only nineteen, twenty at most, but there were gray streaks in his dark, curly hair.
"No. Used to be."
"Ye run away?"
"In a way, yes. Place was raided." Darin sat down heavily in a chair by the man.
"Yer from Hadic?" the man's eyes widened.
"You've heard of it?" Perhaps there was hope. Maybe Ribyyn had come to Corus and-
"Sure have. Most folk have. News came months ago." He studied the boy and then changed the subject. "Lookin' fer a new life?"
Darin sighed. "I guess so."
"I welcome ye in t' our ranks then. 'M name's James."
"He's the king of the thieves," Copper whispered in his ear. Darin's eyes widened. The most wanted man in Tortall was sitting right in front of him.
"I beg your pardon, sir, but what am I going to do as a thief?"
"What all th' other thieves do. I'll show ye the ropes. In fact, ye'll be my heir. Not that I plan on dyein' any time soon." James grinned, his eyes full of humor.
A thought suddenly struck Darin. "Would I be able to do a bit of traveling?"
"Sure. If it pleases ye."
"Then it's a deal." He offered his hand to James, who took it. "My name's Darin."
***
Present Day:
After that, Darin was caught up in a whirlwind. By the half year mark he was picking pockets and robbing houses by himself. James was pleased that he was a fast learner.
James. Darin thought to himself. He'd met an unfortunate end. He'd gotten caught by the royal guard and they'd killed him the next day. So Darin became the replacement after he'd only been with the thieves for a year. James's second, Ferris, became his, and the man helped him through the tough spots. It was now Darin's third year as king and it was his first time out of Corus since.
Copper was also still around. She'd developed something of a crush on Darin and tried to pursue him romantically. She was quite determined and Darin laughed about it when he was alone. She'd never been able to corner him long enough for anything to really develop, though Darin was sure that if they were ever alone in his room together something was bound to happen. That was why he always had Ferris with him when Copper was near.
October gave a horse-type snort and Darin was shaken out of his daydreams. "Alright, alright," he told the horse. He picked up the remainder of the food and put it back in the sack. Un-tethering the stallion, he mounted up. Together, the two companions made their way to Port Caynn.
A/N: I sincerely hoped you like this chapter. It wasn't that much fun to write really. It only got fun when Copper was about. I like Copper. She's a pain in the rump just like me. Much thanks to Temptress...there were more errors in this chapter than usual. It might be a bit before I get the next chapter up. There's nothing planned out really, and I have to finish all my summer homework. Plus my brother is back, and my friend visits me next week and then I'm away, so I'll have less time on the computer than I've had in the past 2 weeks. Oh well. If you love me you'll wait. Maybe by the time I next post I'll have 50 reviews. A girl can dream can't she?