A/N: Okay, I will admit that Alden getting married was kind of sudden, but I needed a reason for the summer palace to be in use. So, a betrothal became the reason there was a feast/ball/banquet...and for the king to be there it had to be somebody important. Alden was the only pawn there was. And yes...Min is a noble. She surprised me just as much as she surprised you. Penmage: Min, herself, belongs to nobody...but her heart might belong to Hayden. :D Temptress: You obviously are that unobservant :D And, King Jonathan IV's (Tammy's Jon) grandfather is Jasson (something). So that would make my Jonathan, Jon IV's great-great-great grandfather, AT LEAST (this is assuming that Jon I named his son Jon II, who named his son Jon III (who had Jasson, who had Roald, who had Jon IV). I don't know about you, but that'd make my life a bit confusing. Weirdo Royals. No wonder the thieves don't like them.)

DISCLAIMER: I own the characters but Tortall and it's surrounding areas are owned by Tamora Pierce.

Lady Ribyyn of Hadic

Chapter 13 - Underneath the Surface

Hayden reluctantly walked back to the table where Min and her lady friends sat. As he got closer he could hear their conversation. They were talking about him. He grimaced and walked right up to the table, beginning to serve the ladies that he had so rudely left hungry.

"So Min," said one lady, "Tell us how you happen to know such a darling serving boy."

Another lady laughed. "Oh yes, do tell us, Minnie."

"Perhaps he's done her a few favors, hmm?" suggested a third.

Together the three ladies laughed. Hayden turned red with embarrassment and horror. His shocked face gave away exactly what he was thinking.

"Oh my," said the first lady. "He seems disgusted by the very thought. Not very promising, Mindalyn."

"Mindalyn?" Hayden looked over at Min, his eyes questioning.

"Loralie, hush!" Min snapped at the lady.

"Yes," continued the third lady, speaking to Hayden. "Mindalyn of Conté, the king's niece."

"Tarra," Min moaned. "Please, be quiet."

Hayden chocked on the air he was breathing. "King's niece?" he cried in frustration. "You're the king's niece? First you're a noble, and now you're the king's niece. What's next? You're engaged to the Emperor of Carthak?"

"Not yet," Tarra explained. "But she was once engaged to a farm boy in the mountains."

"He wasn't a farm boy," Min snapped at the lady. "He came from a highly respected noble household."

Hayden turned to Min, his face full of anger and hurt. "The entire time you've known me you've been lying to me," he said softly, his voice low and angry.

"Hayden, please. Let me explain."

"No, I will not let you explain!" he cried out. "I don't care if I assumed things, you didn't bother to correct them. This is absolutely ridiculous." He turned around and marched back to the kitchens, brokenhearted. Well this certainly goes to prove something, he said to himself. Nobles are a bunch of liars.

He marched up to Ribyyn, tapped her on the shoulder, and handed her the tray he had carried back with him. "Take it," he snapped. "You go serve the ladies. I can't stand their idiotic chatter anymore."

Confused, Ribyyn accepted the tray and left the comforting and protective warmth of the kitchens, forgetting Lord Alden's warning about keeping a low profile. She sadly walked up to the table that Hayden had been serving, distributing the food that remained on the tray.

"Tell Hayds I'm sorry, alright?"

Ribyyn looked up at the girl who had spoken and met her bright brown eyes that held a hint of sadness. They looked so familiar; where had she seen them before?

"You'll tell him, won't you?" the lady insisted. Something in her voice must have set off a memory, because she suddenly knew where she had seen this girl before. It was up in Hadic years ago, a few months before the attack had happened.

"ENGAGED!" Kalvin cried in outrage. "Father, I just turned sixteen!" Ribyyn watched her brother turn bright red in anger and covered up a smile with her hand.

"A betrothal does not mean immediate marriage, Kal," their father said. "It simply means that you will-"

"One day be married," the boy said angrily. Ribyyn snickered and Kal glared at her. "I don't see anything funny about this. You're going to be related to the royal family. That means, balls, and gowns, and no more crawling through passageways." Kalvin knew about her hiding spots.

She immediately stopped laughing, a thoughtful look on her face. "It would be nice to have a sister," she noted.

Her brother threw his hands up in the air in an act of frustration. "Have you not heard a word I've said?" Kalvin asked her, forgetting that his father was in the room. "I'm betrothed to the king's bloody niece!"

"Kalvin!" Lord Jamison snapped at his son. "That is no way to speak of the Contés. The girl, Mindalyn, is a very nice girl. She's coming up to visit next week with her uncle. Ribyyn," the man said to his daughter. "You are to behave."

The memory faded. "Excuse me," the lady was shaking her. "Are you alright?"

"Mindalyn," said Tarra, "You seem to be having this effect on all the servants tonight. Perhaps we should send you to your uncle's table." The rest of the ladies laughed at that.

The name sent Ribyyn into a state of greater shock than she was in before. "Mindalyn?" she whispered breathlessly. "You're the king's niece?" She didn't know why she was so surprised. She had though that the lady before her was the girl her brother had been betrothed to. Hearing her name only confirmed that Ribyyn had been correct.

Min grimaced, "What? Hayden didn't tell you yet?" When Ribyyn only blinked, the lady sighed. "Yes, I am the king's niece."

Ribyyn bit her lip and nodded, serving the girl her soup and moving on to the ladies that remained. However, with so many thoughts moving through her head, she had trouble paying attention.

"Unmannered brat!" one of the ladies shrieked at her when Ribyyn spilt the soup she was serving on the table. It flowed over the sides, landing in the lady's lap.

"Loralie," Min began, but was drowned out by the lady's screams.

"I'm sorry," Ribyyn apologized, ducking the spoon that flew at her head. "I'm so sorry!" She looked up to meet another pair of familiar eyes. The lady standing before her was Loralie of Stone Mountain.

The Stone Mountain family had visited Hadic many times. Loralie's father had been friends with Ribyyn's father since childhood, and when the two girls were little they had been great friends as well. However, as they got older Loralie began to gain an unbearable ego. She had developed early, at age ten, and considered herself a wonderful beauty. The last time the two girls had seen each other was right after Ribyyn's twelfth birthday. Loralie had developed a crush on Kalvin the year before, and could often be found with him in the library. Ribyyn had caught the two of them in there one day. They had been talking about her.

"I'm so sorry you have to put up with her," Loralie said.

Kalvin smirked, "Oh she's not that bad. You two used to be such wonderful friends. What happened?"

"Ugh," the twelve year old Loralie moaned. "I don't know how I was ever friends with her. She's unbearable. And so childish. Don't you agree? She's such a little nightmare."

Kalvin raised a brow in confusion. "That is my sister that you're talking about. Besides, she just turned twelve. She still is a child. And by the way, so are you."

Loralie frowned, got up, and left. Ribyyn, hiding behind the bookshelf, smiled to herself.

The commotion in the great hall drew the attention of everyone in the room as well as those in the kitchens. Hayden saw what was happening and rushed to defend his friend.

"You should be sorry!" the lady was screaming. "This dress was two hundred gold crowns!"

Hayden chose that moment to step in. "'Twas only an accident m'lady! "There's no need to be so angry."

Loralie scoffed. "That... That... GIRL just spilt soup all over me, and you insist that I shouldn't be angry?" By now everyone in the room was staring at the three of them. Ribyyn cowered behind Hayden, who stood as straight as he could.

"Lady, 'tis only some soup. She meant no harm. If you would only stop screaming and come to your senses, you'd realize it could be cleaned fairly easily." Hayden snapped at her.

The lady seemed shocked. "How dare you speak so to me!" she yelled at him snobbishly. "I am a lady from a noble household! You are nothing but a simpleminded sewer rat that snuck into the palace to steal some food.

Ribyyn looked up at Hayden's face. The words had hurt him, but he still had some fight left. Quite unexpectedly, Loralie turned to Ribyyn and began to throw insults at her. "And you," she cried. "You're -"

Ribyyn interrupted her. "I, Loralie of Stone Mountain, am more of a lady than you will ever be!" She stopped, realizing what she had said, and knew that it was too late to take her words back.

"I have been called many things in my life," Ribyyn hissed. "A fool, a brat, a tease, a whore." She spit out the words as if they were poison on her tongue. Her voice softened a little as she continued, "A lady, a child, a doll." She gave Hayden a sly look. "But one thing I have not been called is a coward. You insult me, you insult my friends, you insult my family. You have gone to far this time, Loralie."

Loralie had a look of confusion on her face. "Who are you?"

Ribyyn smiled at her maliciously. "I?" she said slowly. "I am Lady Ribyyn of Hadic. I am, 'a little nightmare,' would you not say?"

A/N: Dun dun dunnnn.... AHHHH! Cliffhanger! Don't worry, the next chapter is more than half done...I think. The cliffhanger idea was not my fault - it was all Temptress. Yell at her! :D Silly beta reader. ::laugh:: I know I keep promising you MUSH, but I mean c'mon! This is a climax! You can't have mush at a climax! It'd be so wrong! So yeah...mush later!