Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Chapter Four – A Sleeping Beauty
The horses' hooves clattered against the cobblestones on the dreary morning. Alanna's violet eyes were closed in pretend slumber and Faithful was curled up in her lap. She was bone-weary, but she couldn't let herself sleep, or she would sink into the nightmares again. The night before, she had dreamed again and instead of sleeping, she had gotten up and sat on the couch and stared into the distance until dawn, ignoring the chill.
Ani began to tap her shoulder, but Alanna ignored her because she knew that it signified that they were close to Corus and soon, she would have to face the world once more. She didn't want to get married and in the end, she knew she would end up running away soon before the wedding. Thom could never convince Father to change his mind. All of the Trebonds were as stubborn as pigs - insanity ran in the family.
There was another girl from the Convent in the carriage, named Juliana of Gorwar. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes, but the corners of her lips had already begun to turn down from disenchantment and the eyes had tiny wrinkles at their sides although she was only sixteen, barely six months older than Alanna herself. Always the perfect lady, she sat primly, delicate hands folded in her lap.
Juliana had a grating voice, which screeched away at your ears, and she chose this time to complain about the bumpiness of the carriage ride. Her maid had gone to sit in front, next to the driver, but Alanna was forced next to her. When Alanna heard her begin to speak, she gave up her attempts to pretend she didn't notice Ani shaking her and sat up, eyes opened.
"We're almost here." Said Ani, quietly. She had said little this ride when Juliana had put her down at the beginning.
"Your hair looks as if birds nested in it." Said Juliana pompously.
"And yours as if they had taken a dump in it." she retorted, and Juliana made a sound somewhere between a cough and a disapproving "humph!"
'Try to be mature, will you?' said Faithful.
Alanna ignored him and stared moodily ahead. The rest of the journey continued in silence and Alanna ceased paying attention to what was around her and attempted sleep once more. So, when the carriage jolted to a stop, she opened her eyes once more, questioning.
"We're here." Ani whispered, to clarify things.
The sunlight was nearly blinding, as accustomed was Alanna to the insides of her eyelids. When the spots cleared from her eyes, Ani was nervously playing with the edges of her handkerchief, pulling at the threads and making them fray. Lady Juliana was gone, to where Alanna didn't know. She looked around, expecting to see her twin, but he wasn't waiting for her as she had expected.
'What do you expect? You didn't tell him when you were coming. Don't tear up now'
She almost kicked the cat for implying she was a crybaby, but curbed the urge when she remembered that she was at the Palace, and she would have to act ladylike, at least for now. Besides, Faithful was right.
However, neither the cat nor the girl noticed the small green-eyed girl who was watching them from a window inside the palace. Her eyes seemed glazed over, and if someone could see magic, they would notice that she glowed with entwined green and yellow.
Alanna heard her stomach growl, realizing that the sun was quite low in the sky and she was hungry. She had had naught to eat but some bread and cheese at an inn along the way, but that had been hours ago. But she ignored the pleas of her stomach, because she had to find Thom. She could certainly wait a few hours to put food in her belly since she hadn't seen her twin for nearly six years.
She strode purposefully away, and after a moment's hesitation Ani followed. She said in hushed tones that she would go to Alanna's rooms and unpack her trunk and such. Alanna shrugged, not really caring if her trunks were unpacked or not, but she didn't really wish for Ani's company at that time, so she let her go. Alanna told Faithful to go with Ani and he agreed to do so.
'Don't do anything stupid while I'm not around.' he instructed her.
An infuriatingly formal servant whom Alanna asked directed her to Lord Thom of Trebond's chambers. Alanna paused, wanting Thom to be proud of her at least for being a lady and straightened her skirt and wished that she had had time to change. But then she rejected the foolish impulse and knocked confidently on the door. She could hear voices inside…perhaps Thom had important company and he didn't want to be disturbed? She bit her lip, unsure, but quickly straightened, her own pride making her want to look confident.
A voice called out to wait just a minute, and for a panicked moment Alanna did not recognize it. Then, she calmed down, realizing that this was indeed the right room, but that Thom's voice had obviously changed and cracked and deepened in the six years that they had been apart. The door opened and a man opened it. He had tousled red hair and violet eyes and fell down with a large thump as the breath was knocked out of him and his twin sister engulfed him in a hug.
"Thom!! Thom!!" she yelled, not caring if her behavior was ladylike.
She drew back for a moment. "You've grown taller than me." Alanna said, smiling, then let Thom up before hugging him again. She did not notice the shaggy knight until he coughed and spoke to the air about how perhaps some people needed air to breathe. Surprised, she drew back and let go of her brother. The voices she had heard had no doubt come from the conversation that this man and Thom had been having. She looked past the man, to see if anyone else was in the room, but it was empty save a chessboard with a game in progress. The man was obviously not a squire, and he didn't look like she though a knight should look, so what was he?
"Sir Myles of Olau." He said.
"You're a knight?" she asked surprised.
Thom choked back a laugh and Alanna turned to glare at him.
"It's okay. There's a dancing bear in the city that's almost as shaggy as I am" said Sir Myles, with a twinkle in his eye. At this, Alanna decided that she liked Sir Myles. She liked him even more when he bid his leave of Thom, saying they could continue their game later, seeing as the twins most probably needed time to talk.
The door closed behind him and Alanna stared at it, even though the knight was long gone.
"Do you like him?"
"Yes...but what does he actually do…I mean how did you meet him...why are you friends with him?" asked Alanna. "He's the oddest knight I've ever seen. Are you his squire?"
"Yes. He's a desk knight. So much easier than going out and doing who knows what like other squires are supposed to. He teaches the pages and squires history. He's always saying that the Code of Chivalry is too tough on knights, and I for one agree. He's great company- he's quite well read, really. He knows so much about past wars and battles and even has a little bit of magic in those scrolls of his."
The mention of magic caused Alanna to remember that she would be taking classes with Thom. She mentioned it to him, but to her surprise, he was scornful.
"Oh you won't learn much in the classes for the Gifted here. Duke Roger teaches them." He said, as if it explained it all.
"Oh?"
"Duke Roger is afraid people will become more powerful than him. But I will one day. I've been sneaking into the library during my free time and reading up on magic from the restricted section. I'm quite good, actually. But enough boasting. What about you, sister dear? You look quite...how shall I put this so I don't get pinned against a wall...bad?"
"Oh, thanks." Said Alanna sarcastically.
"What's the matter, Alanna?" he asked, violet eyes serious.
"I've been having these dreams, or visions. I can't sleep at night and I'm scared, Thom." She went on to describe the visions, and how they had started when she had used her Gift.
"What does this man look like?" asked Thom, focusing more on her vision than her experience with magic.
"He has blue eyes and black hair and is tall." Said Alanna, vaguely.
"If you saw him again, will you remember him?"
"Yes, I suppose. Why-?"
"It doesn't matter right now. We'll have time to talk another time. Right now, you need sleep. You're nearly dead on your feet."
"Didn't you listen to anything I said? I can't sleep. And since when have you been taking care of me?"
"I'll ignore that because you're cranky when you're tired. But I have a little spell that should
work. Here, sit down." Said Thom,
gesturing to the sofa.
He put his hands on her eyes, closing her eyelids while muttering some kind of incantation. Quickly he drew a few violet runes, which flashed in the air before disappearing, and Alanna felt cold quiet oblivion as a dreamless sleep descended upon her. She welcomed it; she needed it, for she hadn't slept in days.
Thom looked fondly at his sister, who lay sleeping and quiet. She was so fragile-looking, but only when she was sleeping and no anger was flashing in those violet eyes. Now was the problem of trying to carry her back to her room. Thom cursed himself for not walking back to her chambers with her, then doing the spell, instead of doing it here like a numskull. He sighed - he wasn't one for physical labor.
A knock at his door brought him out of his thoughts and he yelled for them to go away. Amused voices chorused for him to make them to. Sighing, Thom gestured at the door and it swung open, revealing a group of knights. At the head of the group was a tall, sapphire-eyed man, whom Alanna would recognize from her visions. Following the man into the room, were another four people: three men and one child whom people's eyes slid right off when they looked at.
"Jon." Thom said, greeting the Crown Prince of Tortall, and then each of the people he could see in turn with a nod of his head. "Gary, Raoul, Alex."
"Did we disturb you?" asked the large knight whom Thom had called Raoul jokingly.
"Yes." Grumbled Thom.
"Good." Said Jonathan "It's time you looked at something other than your scrolls again. Much more of that you'll become all squinty-eyed like Gary."
"Me? Squinty-eyed? How could you say such a thing?" said Gary, pretending to be very offended.
Alex didn't join in the playful banter, but looked past Thom to see a slender figure lying on a sofa behind him. He cleared his throat and everyone looked at him. Gesturing to Alanna, he asked wryly if they had interrupted something.
As the others looked at his twin, Thom smiled. "May I introduce my sister, Lady Alanna of Trebond?"
"Pleased to meet you." All the knights chorused, before noticing that she was fast asleep, her long red hair flying all over.
"Why is she asleep in your chambers, instead of in hers?" Gary asked.
Thom glanced at them, wondering if he should tell them about the vision. Something inside him warned him that it would not be a good idea.
Glancing at Alex, who had walked past him to the chessboard, which still had pieces laid out on it, Thom said, "She was really tired, but she couldn't fall asleep. So I cast a sleeping spell on her."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to let her sleep in her own chambers?" Raoul asked teasingly.
When the small Thom of Trebond had come to the Palace, Raoul had been his sponsor. Thom was full of pride, yes, but he really was a decent sort once you got to know him. They wouldn't have him any other way, despite his short, violent temper and intense dislike for the physical labor involved in being a knight. At first, Thom had locked himself up in his room and not befriended any of his year-mates, but slowly he had begun to trust Raoul. And then, when Ralon of Malven had begun to pick on him, Raoul and his friends had beat him up, despite Thom's protests that he had wanted to do the deed himself. Thom was taller now, and he had humiliated Ralon one day and caused him to leave Court, by soundly thrashing him in a fight, then hanging him upside-down in the air. Thom had a large Gift- everyone had known it, but had mocked him anyways until the day Prince Jonathan had fallen ill of the Sweating Sickness. Thom had healed him somehow, with the help of Sir Myles, who had most probably found some old spell in an old scroll or something. Since then, he had earned the grudging respect of the others and become far friendlier. He had rarely mentioned his sister, though, except to Raoul. All even Raoul knew about her was that when they were little she had been deathly afraid of her magic, and that she was the one who actually liked fighting.
"Yes, but I cast the spell here." Thom retorted, sharply bringing Raoul back to the present.
"Why don't you just move her there?" asked Alex, from the chessboard, where he was finishing the game that Thom and Sir Myles had been playing.
"I don't want to." Thom said stubbornly.
Jonathan, who had been quiet all this time, finally spoke up. "It would be quite simple."
"Yeah, we'll help you." Raoul added helpfully.
"As if I want your hands all over my sister." He scowled again.
"We'll control ourselves." Alex smirked.
"No, I meant, just do a levitation spell. I don't know how, but I'm sure you've read it somewhere or another." Jonathan said quietly, glancing up and meeting Thom's violet eyes with his own level sapphire gaze.
Thom's eyebrows drew together, somewhat annoyed that he didn't think of it himself. Then, he abruptly spoke a spell and sprinkled some sort of dust from a pouch on Alanna and muttered a few more words.
"Okay. Now where are her chambers?" asked Raoul.
"I don't know." Shrugged Thom.
The knights stared at him. Finally, Gary spoke.
"So we're just going to have a floating lady with us when we search for it?"
Just then a scratching at the door interrupted their conversation. Jon opened the door and saw a silky black cat. He let it in. "Looks like we've got company." He said with a grin.
To the girl in the corner who was listening to all of this, Faithful mewed 'Go to your chambers now and sleep.' She nodded and left the room by way of the door that Jonathan had left open. No one else had understood this exchange, not even Thom who had finesse for detecting foreign sorceries matched not even by Duke Roger, who was one of the most powerful wizards in the world. However, he kept quiet about it, and played stupid so as to not disappear like all of the duke's other foes.
"Mithros" Gary whispered as he looked at Faithful. "That cat's eyes are as purple as yours, Thom."
The others crowded around Faithful to see, and he preened under the attention.
'Follow me.' The cat mewed and Thom jumped, surprised. The cat could talk.
"You're the tool of an immortal." He accused the cat.
It did not reply and all the others looked to Thom, surprised as the cat trotted away. "He said to follow him."
The four knights looked disbelieving, but followed Thom and the cat anyway. Faithful trotted down a few hallways and up a flight of stairs before reaching the wing of the castle that belonged to ladies from the convent.
When they knocked on the door that the cat had led them to, a tanned girl with brown hair and eyes opened it.
"Faithful?" she asked surprised, then looked up, confused, at the knights and one squire. She didn't even notice Alanna floating in the air.
"It's okay. I'm Alanna's brother, Thom."
The girl curtseyed clumsily and said that she was Alanna's maid Ani, and had Thom seen Alanna because she had been gone since they had arrived at the palace. She then looked behind the five men and saw the red-haired girl floating behind them and gasped. And sunk into a dead faint.
The knights looked at Thom, unsure of what to do. Then Raoul shrugged and picked up the maid with his big hands and carried her inside the room, laying her on the sofa. Thom gently lowered Alanna onto her bed with his magic, and pulled the covers over her, smoothing her hair. He kissed her gently on the forehead, before realizing he had an audience.
"I think that's the nicest I've ever seen you been to anything that's alive." Said Gary, ducking when a pillow flew across the room to hit him.
'Leave.' Mewed Faithful. 'I'll take care of them.'
This time all of them understood the cat, and with an odd glance at it, they left the room with the copper-haired girl lying inside and closed the door with a firm thump. Thom secured it with a quick spell.
"Goddess bless, Alanna."