A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, I had to travel for Thanksgiving this weekend and was on the road for about half the time. Anyway, I think that this chapter is pretty good. Please R&R and let me know.

My deepest thanks goes out to my beta-readers- Cyostine, Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, Keita, Violynbelle, and mnitr. You are so wonderful!

Disclaimer: Not mine *sigh*. It belongs to the wonderfully talented author Tamora Pierce. But she is married, and since Joren is dead, she probably won't have any use for him...

I was still feeling slightly out of it as we fled from our jail cell. My head was spinning from the day's events, confusion and even worry plaguing me for perhaps the first time in my life. Each of the dark corridors we fled down blurred into each other, the shadowed stone walls impossible to tell apart. It was at this time that my unfocused mind began to relive the events that occurred after spying on the King...

I slipped into my room silently, my mind on the news. Though I didn't act like it, I was really concerned with the news of a war. Death made me worry. Not about anyone back at home, but what would happen to me? No one cared about me, so I didn't bother with them. I didn't care if anyone else was alive- I just wanted to save my own ass. Selfish- well, maybe it was- but I really didn't care. At least I was smarter then all those idealists. All I wanted was to get out of here, preferably without Mindelan. The self-righteous, moral fool wanted to return home and warn all of her little friends about the war. I had other ideas.

I live in a world of idiots. Most of the time I get proclaimed a hero, I only save the day accidentally when trying to get out of where the major carnage will be taking place. Torturing people, seeing them squirm and knowing you've got the upper hand- yeah, that's fun. But putting myself in danger was not what I wanted to do. Not that I would admit any of this to anyone, of course.

I still loved fighting, though. Unless I had a chance of losing. I did things to win, and if I wouldn't win, I wouldn't do it. Why would I waste my time on a losing battle? That simple.

I already had plans to run away to some far off land with a stash of my money, somehow conquer it and make myself king. Then I'd have legions of servants rushing to do my every command, and I'd live my life in contentment, knowing I would never have to lift a finger again. Perhaps it was a bit unrealistic, but it certainly seemed more likely then Mindelan's idea. Not to mention it's numerous bonuses. Even if it were impossible, I would be content to just stay alive.

Anyway, I was imagining a life filled with chilled champagne and without tedious balls (where the hell did people get the idea I like those things? Give me a beautiful noble to flirt with any day!) when I entered. I smiled in satisfaction at the darkness that greeted me when I shut the door. Long, black velvet curtains hung on the window, blocking out the sunlight (not that I knew there was any left, we had been in that damn library for so long that I had no clue of the time) and leaving my room dark and decidedly black. Falling on my back into the bed I had used for the past three weeks, I gazed into the deep darkness that swirled around me. My mind wandered away from the thoughts of my future country and settled on a familiar figure. Kel.

I sat abruptly up in my bed. "What the hell am I THINKING!" I exclaimed to my empty room. Not that I had really been thinking of anything. She was just standing there, looking exactly like she always does. More then the image itself were the thoughts that scared me. There had been hatred there, but it was hatred for her beliefs, not for her as a person. Instead of wanting to kill her, I wanted to get a reaction out of her, provoke her temper and emotions. There was something about Kel that intrigued me... Why was I saying that?! Kel. I had never thought of her by her first name before. It had always been Mindelan or the Lump. Simple names used just for annoying her, showing her exactly how much I thought of her. But now I wasn't even sure of my emotions.

Something caught my attention. A sound that could only be the shifting of impatient feet on a cobblestone floor. I jumped off by bed and landed softly on the floor. There was someone in my room. And I wanted them OUT. I heard more footsteps, ones that were obviously trying to be disguised but failing miserably in the process. I smirked to myself. They must be sending all their good soldiers away- and they had to be soldiers, for why else would there be so many people hiding in my room?

However, my smirk faded quickly. No matter how bad these soldiers were, they outnumbered me greatly and had the advantage of knowing where I was. I, on the other hand, had to try to locate all of the soldiers in the dark, then fight them and defeat them all. Fuck! I absently wondered how Kel was doing. Scowling inwardly, I brushed away the strange thought. Pure insanity courtesy of the part of me that cared way too much about others.

I heard a final round of footsteps, then silence. My room was devoid of movement, everything standing still like time had stopped. But I had had enough of waiting today. I drew my sword out of its hidden scabbard in my cape. It made a satisfying ring. "What are you doing here?" I called out. No noise emerged from the sea of darkness around me. Now my patience was wearing thin.

"I said," in a more menacing tone then before, "What are you fuckin' doing in here?!" My patience wore down to the bone as I was once more answered by silence. I was done being nice.

My sword swung through the air, hoping to catch one of those worthless morons. I grinned when I felt my blade cutting through soft flesh and heard the surprised scream that pierced the silence of the room. Now movement was everywhere. I swung my blade again, catching another idiotic soldier in the chest. Warm blood spurted out and covered my cape. Frowning, I pulled my sword out of the man. This was my favorite cape (black, of course) and blood was very hard to get out of clothing. They were beginning to swarm around me now, and I realized that there were even more of the soldiers then I had anticipated. Fuck! This wasn't good! It would take a miracle to save me now- or maybe just a lot of luck. But of course, nothing good could ever happen to Joren. My world went black as some big oaf tripped over one of his fellow soldiers and knocked me out.

That's how it was. I know I don't have any feelings for Kel- I mean Mindelan- besides hatred. I could reassure myself of that after we fought. I hated her and her perfection, her moral obligation to do everything right, that fact that she was always so good. I loathed perfection and acting moral and, above all, people who were so virtuous. Like they knew everything! Ha! She knew nothing about anything. She was the type who would throw up after they killed somebody, even though it was their job. The type who had a perfectly loving family and eternally loyal friends who would never abandon her or get angry with her. The type who, in actuality, was a complete innocent. Though so many, including me, called her a slut and asked her which commander she would be sleeping with that night, it was quite obvious from her flirting abilities alone that she was a virgin. Not to mention the fact that her only boyfriend had been Cleon the Clown, who would have never have had sex with little miss perfect without asking his mommy first.

Yet there was something about Kel that drew me to her. She was so different then me, with all of her values that I didn't give a second thought. I couldn't understand her or why she cared about such things, and I knew that she had equally as much trouble understanding my behavior. She was friendly, caring, courageous, and had a huge unbiased heart.

Despite all of our differences, I recognized the odd fact that we had much in common. We both had calm, level heads, except for when dealing with each other. We were both fiercely independent and stubborn. I doubted either of us would ask for help even if it killed us. The strongest similarity was our disregard for rules. The reasons for breaking the rules were different, of course- my reasons were usually boredom, wanting to stir things up, while hers were because of some high moral standard she set for her self- but the fact was, we both didn't care much about disobeying those with more power and stepping out of bounds.

Why was I thinking so much about her again? I caught her looking at me, confusion and surprise obvious in her expression. Of course, she covered it up when she noticed I saw her staring. I shook my head. This day had just been too long. I couldn't wait until I returned to Tortall and could get my hands on that King.

(Kel's POV)

I knew that Joren was a bit out of it when he only picked a fight with me ONCE in the prison and spent the rest of the time talking like a normal, nice person. When he was off in his own little world, he didn't annoy me at all. At the same time, he offered no help when he was like this. But he was my one ally, and we were going to have to work together to get out of this mess, especially now that we were lost.

Yeah, that's right, LOST. Never having been in a prison before, I had no idea that they were so large and confusing. I had just been trying to watch out for traps, because I was still pretty suspicious of the fact that Evan had left the prison door open. He had been pretty nice to me, but Lillian had been the very essence of kindness too. You never would have guessed that she was so evil!

Joren's weird behavior wasn't helping us get out of this mess at all. He always has perfect concentration and is always focused. Yet he was not acting like that at all. Plus, he wasn't being mean to me, which was practically being nice! And it was way too quiet down here. I realized that I preferred the quarreling Joren by far. Besides, it was never quiet when he fought with me.

So I only had one choice. "Why do you keep staring into space, Joren? Too busy trying to fix your hair to pay attention? Don't worry about it- Garvey will just love your hair when we get back to Tortall!" I inwardly smirked. That was sure to provoke Joren.

And it did. "I am not gay, Mindelan! Just leave me alone and mind your own business, okay!" I glared at him. His comment didn't really leave much room for a comeback. He obviously wasn't gay- I had seen him with enough girls to banish that idea forever.

"What an idiot. Too busy thinking about himself to even look where he's going!" I muttered to myself.

Next thing I knew, the breath was knocked out of my chest and I was pinned against the wall. "What the hell is your problem? I'm not even doing anything to annoy you! Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

I knew it wasn't a good idea to try and provoke Joren when he was so annoyed already. But having him act like his normal, rude self seemed much better then having him continue in his current state. "Well, I'm not the one who got us into this mess! The least you could do is watch where we're going. Now, thanks to you, we're also lost!" I retorted angrily.

He narrowed his eyes. "Don't even try to blame everything on me! If you weren't here, my mission would be infinitely easier. You are only another inconvenience to me." he hissed.

I glared at him. Joren was the most infuriating person I had ever met! No one else could spark a reaction from me like he could. He had always gone out of his way to make my life miserable, to torment me every way possible. When we were pages, the things had been amazingly childish. But right before his Ordeal, Joren's insults became much more bruising and hurtful then the immature pranks he played when he was younger.

But it didn't matter if he had not gotten more mature over the years. He was still a jerk, and the only dignified thing I could do was ignore him. I purposely left out the fact that I was the one who began the entire argument.

I held my head up high and went down the dark highway. "Get over yourself, Joren." I replied, leaving an aggravated companion standing there.

After hours of searching, we had gotten out. I could hardly move, let alone think. All I wanted was to rest and put all of the strange events of today behind me. Forever. I looked toward Joren. He looked, well- pissed. Perhaps it was because we had had to dig ourselves out at a dead end and I accidentally knocked a few rocks down on him. I grimaced, remembering that.

"Look Joren, I'm really sorry... if there's anything I can do..." His bruises glinted sharply in the moonlight, bringing out my pity.

He smirked. "Anything?" he said suggestively. "I'll keep that in mind." My pity vanished. I glared at him.

"Don't even think about it." I warned him, and spun around. Well, at least he was acting normally again.

A/N: That was a pretty long chapter, wasn't it? Hope you enjoyed it! Please R&R! This also includes my beta-readers.

Please excuse the lack of italics through most of the chapter. I left them out the first time around and was going to put them in at the end of typing the whole thing up but the chapter was too long and I was too lazy to go back and insert them. Sorry!

Thanks for reading and *hint hint* reviewing! Until chapter 8,

~ The Dark Goddess ~