A/N: Thanks for all the reviews y'all! BraveSirRobin ran away: J.K. Rowling syndrome...good lord! And to think it almost came to that! :D To TBA (Min), Temptress, Larzdinn (YOU CAME BACK!), Krizsta, cytosine (everyone else wanted fluff, so I gave them fluff.) and everyone else...THANKS MUCHLY!

Now, for the epilogue... Very short. So sorry.

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

Lady Ribyyn of Hadic

Epilogue

The sky was covered with dark foreboding clouds that threatened to open up to a great snowstorm at any moment. Ribyyn huddled under her cloak, attempting to warm up her cold face, ears, and neck. She was not entirely successful. She sighed, rubbed her arms, and stamped her feet, trying to get herself warm again.

"Cold darlin'?" asked Slyde who stood next to her. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him in an effort to warm her. The gesture was sweet, but didn't do much good.

"Would the two o' ye hurry up?" Slyde called out. "We're freezing our arses off out here for ye!"

Darin and Hayden walked out of the barn, trailing their horses behind them. "If ye're so bloody cold ye should put on something warmer," Hayden snapped back.

"Well I didn't expect t' be standin' out here fer this long."

"How long?" Ribyyn asked cheerfully, looking up at Slyde's head, or rather his chin. "Fifteen minutes?"

Slyde glanced down at her. "Shush, yer supposed t' be on my side." He raised a hand and tweaked her nose. "'Sides, we've been out here fer at least sixteen."

Hayden rolled his eyes at his older brother's antics. Slyde & Ribyyn certainly stole the show. There was quite a gathering of people standing outside to say goodbye to Hayden and the Thief King, yet the two of them were the center of attention. Hayden could tell because even Min was having trouble containing her laughter.

Min, Hayden thought to himself. If it weren't for Min he wouldn't be leaving, though he refused to admit that to anybody but Ribyyn. And Ribyyn only knew because she'd badgered him about it for hours after he'd declared early that week that he was going to go to Corus with Darin.

"Why are you going?" she asked, her face full of curiosity.

"Because I feel like it," he told her, his voice annoyed. Why wouldn't she stop prying?

"I don't believe you. There has to be more to it than that." She paused to think, "You're coming to spy on me aren't you? Slyde doesn't think that the Goldenlake's can take care of me like they should, doesn't he?"

"Yep," Hayden answered quickly, hoping to draw her away from the subject.

Ribyyn raised her brow. "You agreed to that too quickly. There's something else." She sat down in Slyde's favorite chair. "I'm going to figure it out if it takes me all day," she told him.

And it had taken her all day. In the middle of the night she had come crashing into his room crying out, "I've got it!"

"You're going because that's where Lady Mindalyn is going to be!"

Hayden sighed with defeat. "Wonderful, you've figured it out. Now let me go to sleep." He rolled over and pulled the quilt over his head.

Ribyyn wouldn't let him give up that easily. She grabbed the quilt off his head and said, "Now you have to tell me why."

He sighed again and, for some odd reason, found himself telling her everything. And strangely enough, Ribyyn was silent the entire time. "There," he said when he finished, "Now you know. Can I go to sleep?"

Ribyyn slipped off his bed and Hayden slid back under the quilt. She reached the door and turned to him. "Hayden?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"Do you think you love her? Lady Mindalyn?"

"Love? Gods, I don't know. I'm only eighteen, Rib. I don't know a thing about love."

"But just 'cause you don't know anything doesn't mean you can't be in it, right?"

"I don't know," he told her truthfully. Ribyyn took this to be the end of the conversation and left.

So here he was, leaving his home and his family and just about everything he'd ever known because he was enamored with the future Queen of Tortall. Though, he never thought for a moment that he was doing something wrong by acting so rashly, which was odd. He almost always had second thoughts about things.

Min was not the only noble there. Ribyyn's friend Jessa was there to say goodbye to Darin, who she'd come to like over the past few months. According to Ribyyn, the girl had developed a small crush on the Thief King for a short period of time. Hayden found this rather humorous.

Slyde's friend Roank was there. And last but not least, Hayden's mother, Glynice, was there as well.

Hayden realized he must have been involved in his thoughts for quite some time. Slyde had abandoned his position next to Ribyyn and had given it over to Darin, who had her wrapped in his arms in a tight hug.

Jessa pulled a face. "You two are disgusting!" she cried out. "Please stop! Before I lose my lunch!"

Darin seemed to think about stopping for a moment and then his face glowed as a sly grin spread across it. He dropped his hands to Ribyyn's waist, dipping her and placing his lips on hers in a façade of an overly passionate kiss.

Jessa rolled her eyes and made gagging noises.

"Alright!" Roank cried out, finally losing patience. "If th' two o' ye are leavin', get on with it! It's bloody cold out here, it's about t' storm, an' he's standin' here puttin' his tongue in th' mouth of a girl I've practically raised."

Ribyyn broke away from Darin and looked over at Roank. "But there isn't any tongue," she insisted.

"Sure there ain't." He turned to Hayden. "Are ye leavin' or what?"

'I'm going, I'm going," he said. He walked over to Min, gave her a tight hug and kiss on the cheek.

"I'll see you when you get back," he whispered in her ear. She nodded and smiled at him.

As he made his way over to his mother, he passed Jessa. Much to her disappointment, he ruffled her hair. She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm not going to miss you at all!" she said, grinning.

"Hayden, get over here and give your mother a hug!" Glynice demanded. Hayden had no choice but to obey. He'd been doing it for years.

"I'm going to miss you, Ma," he told her.

"Of course you will," she said matter-of-factly. "And you're going to write every week or I'll know why."

Hayden sighed. "Yes, mother."

"Now," she said, "be a good boy and leave before I make you."

Her son grinned and mounted up onto his horse. Darin quickly did the same, and after a few more cries of, "Goodbye," and, "See you soon," the two young men were headed towards the city gates.

"I can't believe I'm actually leaving Port Caynn," Hayden commented. "I'm not sure who I should blame it on, Min, you, or Ribyyn."

"Ribyyn. It's always Ribyyn," Darin told him.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it's in her name."

"What do you mean by that?"

Darin glanced over at Hayden. "She never told you?"

"Told me what?" asked the younger man.

"Her name?"

"There's more to it than just Ribyyn?"

Darin nodded. "Her full name is Ribyynthera. A nasty mouth full and nobody ever called her that."

"Ribyynthera?"

Darin grinned. "Thera means, 'unfettered, wild one.'"

"Well," Hayden chuckled, "that certainly explains a lot."

"It does, doesn't it? Ribyyn's an adventure all by herself, I'll tell you that."

Hayden smiled. "Is that a good thing?"

"You know," Darin said with a shake of his head as they rode out the gates of Port Caynn, "I've known Rib for most of her life, and I still haven't figured that out."

"Well, there's always the future."

"There certainly is," Darin said with a smile. "There certainly is."

A/N: THERE IT IS! Finally! All done. And now I can plot out my sequel. :D A bit of fluff here, a bit of cheese there, and all in all a nice epilogue. Sorry about grammar and spelling mistakes... Didn't feel like waiting to post, and therefore I did not send this to my beta-er. (Sorry Bryt!) Hope you liked it! R/R!