Wait! Just a note before I start...I got a villain! Woohoo! Go me, and the people who helped! Yey! No, I'm not going to tell you what it is yet! *Cackles insanely and mutters to herself* Kill them with the suspense...Heh, heh...Kill 'em off. Anyway, enjoy! I'm going to do the order the thingies according to when they wake up...of course you understand what I'm talking about.



~*~In The Stables~*~

"What's that racket?" Yelled Liney. "Stupid birds! Shut up! Oops...I mean...Please be quite you lovely little birds."

Kaytee yawned and stretched. "Happy morning guys."

Maria gave a big snore. Liney stumbled over and shook her to wake her up. "Wake up." Said Liney.

Maria gave a huge yawn and opened her eyes. "Where Daine?" She asked.

"I'm right here!" Said Daine in a happy sing song voice.

"You're way too perky in the morning." Mumbled Kaytee. "We're lucky you don't sleep here often."

"Are you kidding, it's practically the afternoon!" Said/sang Daine.

"What time?" Asked Liney.

"Why according to the sun, it's about 6 hours past midnight."

"Fuck." Said Liney. "Um I mean, 'oh darn!'"

"No. You were right the first time." Muttered Maria. "I'm gonna die. "It's way to early. I'm just gonna be randomly walking along when I fall down dead asleep because I woke up way too early."

Daine smiled. "Come on, we get to start learning how to talk to animals better." She said. "We'll have a blast!"

Liney growled. Kaytee hopped up and started to leave. "I'll be going now, some more pages came today and I have to make all of the horses beautiful." She waved and left.

"It's going to be a long day." Said Maria. Liney nodded in agreement.

~*~Alanna's Room~*~

"Up!" Yelled Alanna. "I said, UP! Come on shake yourselves! Get up!"

"Someone is going to die." Mumbled Kate. "If that's Maddy, banging a pot, like she did last week...so help me I'll..."

"No." Said George, bleary-eyed. "Apparently it's time for all of you to get up." He tried, and failed, to stifle a yawn.

"Then it wasn't all just a dream!" Said Caprice hopping out of the blankets and hugging Alanna and George around the middles. "I'm really here."

Diana mumbled something that sounded something like 'shut your pie hole you loser, we're trying to sleep.'

"Of course you're here." Said George. "Where else would you be?"

"Ug." Muttered Diana. "Mrifflefrazle."

"Sorry," said Alanna, "didn't catch that."

"Neffa mind." Mumbled Diana.

Kate gave a snore, and Caprice hopped over to wake her up. "Wake up sleepy head! We get to train today!" Caprice almost yelled. "Come on! I wanna learn stuff." She aimed a kick at Reganas.

"Kick me and I'll break your leg." Said Kate.

"All of you had better get up before Alanna lights a fire on your blanket." Said George, sounding serious.

Kate's eyes got wider. "She can do that?" Kate asked. "Truly?"

George raised his hand as if he were about to pledge or make a swear. "Would I lie to you?"

"Probably." Said Diana.

"OK, that's enough of that." Said Alanna, butting in. "I want all of you, no not you George, to concentrate on your palms, try to make a flame appear."

All of the girls stared at their palms for a second and then began to concentrate. After a few seconds a red-orange flame appeared in Caprice's palm. Caprice stared at if for a second wondering what to do because her hand was apparently on fire.

"Good job!" Said Alanna. "Diana and Kate concentrate!"

Suddenly a teal blue flame erupted from Kate's hand and in a few more seconds a mushroom green flame appeared in Daina's.

"Oooh! Look!" Said Caprice. "We all have flames! Mine's the brightest!"

She was right. Caprice's flame was a vibrant, steady orange flame. Diana's was slightly weaker, flickering often but never going out. Kate's was the weakest, an almost dreary blue tinted flame.

"Mine is lame!" Said Kate. "Why is mine so weak?"

"You're magic is specially for healing." Said George. "You won't be able to do much else. That's why we-"

At that second Neal knocked on the door once and poked his head in the door. "I'm here!" He said, triumphantly. Kate ran over to hug him.

After Neal had received his hug he walked over to Alanna and George. "I'm here to help you guys. Which one of you has the healing magic? It's you, isn't it?" He said, pointing to Kate. Kate nodded. "Let's get cracking then. What you have to do is-" Suddenly there was a huge noise like the air being let out of a balloon, only magnified a hundred times.

"What the hell was that?" Asked Caprice.

"I don't think it was good." Said Alanna. "Come on guys, we have to see the king."

~*~Pages Hallway~*~

An extremely loud horn blast made Olivia fall face first out of her bed. "Oh, shoot! I was supposed to be up and dressed by now!" She dressed hurriedly, muttering curses to herself.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. "Just a second!" Said Olivia, trying to get her other foot into her sock, while buttoning up her shirt at the same time. "Coming!" She yelled and she walked over to open the door.

It was sir Padrig. "Just making sure that you're up." He said. "You must report to the mess hall in 10 minutes.

"Don't I have to choose a sponsor?" Asked Olivia.

"That was only a rule when Lord Wyldon was in command." Said Sir Padrig. "I have abolished it because I found it irksome."

"Oh." Said Olivia, slightly disappointed.

Suddenly Kathryn came running up. "Olivia! You'll never guess how many hot guys there are here!" She yelled. Then she noticed Sir Padrig. "Um, hello sir."

"I'll leave you two to you're talk." Said Sir Padrig, walking away.

"Thank you sir." Said Kathryn, blushing furiously.

As soon as he was out of earshot Kathryn started up again, this time in fragments. "Lotsa...hot...guys."

"Wooohoo!" Cheered Olivia.

"Well we really should go down to breakfast." Said Kathryn.

"Yeah, we have to scope out the possibilities." Said Olivia.

So Kathryn and Olivia slowly walked down the stairs in the direction they thought was the way to the mess hall.

~*~Numair's Room~*~

Reganas was jostled awake by a loud knock on the door. She opened it. Numair stood there, but it was not the same Numair who had been there last night. This Numair was pale, sweating and looked extremely sick.

"Oh my gods, are you OK?" Asked Reganas, who also felt slightly sick.

"All the magic has been drained from Corus, perhaps all of Tortall, and I have no idea where it has all been absorbed too." Said Numair, weakly.

"Oh no! That's horrid!" Gasped Reganas. "Who's behind it?"

"Well," said Numair, "If I knew, I would be on top of him beating the life out of him. But sadly, I haven't a clue."

Reganas nodded. "We have to do something! And soon!"

"We are going to go and see the king." Agreed Numair.

"Off we go then!" Said Reganas, grimly.

~*~Riders' Barracks~*~

"EVERYBODY UP!" Yelled a masculine voice from right outside the door. "NOW! Come on trainees we don't have all day!"

Maddy muttered something and fell out of bed. "Hrmf!" She sputtered as she hit the ground.

"Wassat?" Mumbled Anne Marie. "Whazzagoinon?"

"Finally!" Said Kaitlin, fully awake and fully dressed. "I thought they were going to let us sleep all day!"

"Oomph." Garbled Maddy.

"Whozzat?" Asked Anne Marie, trying to pull her had onto her foot.

"That was Sarge." Said Kaitlin. "And that's a hat."

"UP!" Bellowed Sarge.

"We're coming!" Shouted Kaitlin.

Maddy thrashed around trying to get out of her covers. When she finally managed it Anne Marie was dressed, with all of the articles of clothing on the right parts of her body. Maddy grumbled to herself, as she got dressed.

"Come on Maddy, I want to meet everyone!" Said Anne Marie, now almost as awake as Kaitlin.

"Yeah, hurry up." Said Kaitlin

"OK! I'm done." Maddy said.

Kaitlin ran over to open the door. There was a large black man roughly the size of a bear standing there. "Hello trainees." He said. "I'm Sarge."

There were muttered hellos from the three girls.

"You three will go down to breakfast and eat with the other Riders and trainees." Said Sarge. "Breakfast is straight down those stair and right down the hallway. It'll be the double doors to your left."

"Thanks, Sarge." Said Anne Marie.

When they got to the mess hall there were about a hundred men, women, girls and boys eating food.

"Oooh!" Cooed Maddy. "Look at all of the hot guys!"

"Right." Said Kaitlin.

"PANCAKES!" Yelled Anne Marie, causing most of the heads at their end of the room to turn and look at her. She laughed nervously. "Sorry." She muttered.

A boy who looked to be about 15 walked over to them. "Hi!" He said. The girls noticed he had gray eyes, reddish-brown hair and freckles dotting his nose. "I'm Meron. You guys must be new. What are your names?"

"I'm Maddy, this is Anne Marie, and this is Kaitlin." Said Maddy, just barely stopping herself from drooling over Meron. Kaitlin and Anne Marie could tell that Maddy had fallen for him and did the noble thing.

"Well, we're just going to get some of those pancakes now." Said Anne Marie, grabbing Kaitlin's arm and dragging Kaitlin after her.

"So," said Maddy, trying to make conversation, "where are you from, Meron?"

"Kennan." Said Meron. "I'm noble, but Mother and Father didn't have enough money for me to train as a page, so I took the next best thing, and here I am!"

Maddy almost died. "Kennan? You're Cleon's son?"

"Yes. How do you know my dad?"

"Never mind." Said Maddy, quickly.

"Did you want to sit over here with me and my friends?" Said Meron, beckoning Maddy over to a table with two other boys sitting at it.

"Sure, can my friends sit with us?" Asked Maddy.

"I don't see why not!" Said Meron, happily.

Maddy beckoned for Anne Marie and Kaitlin to come over. Suddenly Kaitlin began talking. "Did you hear about the magic shortage?"

~*~Queen's Hallway~*~

A bird chirped on the window and Thayet knocked on the door. Amy, Uline, Krizsta and Lady Light were already awake and pulling on clothes. Rosefyre was just getting out of her covers.

"I was just about to wake you up." Krizsta said to Rosefyre.

Rosefyre yawned in reply.

"Breakfast is in a few minutes!" Thayet yelled through the closed door.

"I feel funny." Said Lady Light.

"Come to think of it I feel a little sick too." Said Rosefyre.

"It's probably just nerves." Said Amy.

"I feel great!" Said Krizsta, happily. "I'm ready to start riding, and learning combat, and dancing, and-"

"Well I'm hungry!" Interrupted Amy.

"That's probably it." Said Lady Light. "We're probably just hungry."

So Uline, Amy, Rosefyre, Lady Light, and Krizsta walked down to the mess hall together. When they got there they chose a table and dug into their food.

"This is really good!" Said Lady Light. "What is it?"

"Got me!" Said Amy.

After they had all stuffed their faces full of this mysterious but delicious substance another girl came over to their table. "Do any of you have any kind of magic?" She asked.

"Rosefyre and I have the Sight." Said Lady Light. "Why do you ask?"

"Because all of the magic is disappeared!" The girl said, waving her hands around wildly. "Poof! Gone!"

"Oh no!" Said Krizsta. "We have to tell the king!"

~*~

In the next chapter everyone...goes to see the king! *Does a happy dance* the king! Yeeeeeey! Oh, to anyone who cares, do not drink cocoa then have a coke right afterwards. I feel sick. GOOD FOR ME!! Yeeeeeey! Review please.