Title: Free Falling
Chapter: Two--Chasing Shadows
Author: Arsahi
Rated: T
Disclaimer: Don't own anything in this fic except the plot. I'm not selling it for profit nor am I selling it at all. All belongs to Tamora Pierce...even Neal. Actually, I think I may have rights to Cane the Sparrow (though the concept is TP's) and the inn-keeper from the previous chapter...
Dedication: To every Kealer out there!
Chasing Shadows
Neal woke the next morning with a start, mumbling "Kel!" sleepily. He had had a rather disheartening dream that Kel's body had fallen off a cliff and into the Emerald Ocean, never to be found again, and Neal spent years and years looking for her when he finally found the cliff she had fallen from. Her sword, shield, badge with coat of arms, and the limp body of Jump laid at the edge of the cliff, as if she had purposely chosen to do so. Tobe sat at the base of the cliff, on the beach, and had affixed a crude headstone to a patch of beached kelp. He sobbed, claiming the kelp was Kel simply because it was her name with a 'p' as a suffix. Neal had looked out into the ocean and Kel's ghost rose from the mists, like in one of the legends he had heard from Dom.
"I am not in Tortall," Kel had told him. "I am not in Tortall and have not been for two months."
He had frowned. "But you're right here, on Tortall territory..."
She had screamed then and an anguished cry escaped Neal's own mouth. He yelled her name. He yelled it loud and heard it ring across the ocean. Her ghost twisted and disappeared, and he yelled her name once more. Tobe had just risen to say something to Neal, but Cane hopped over and pecked him awake.
"Cane," Neal mumbled and slapped at his cheeks. His eyelids drooped groggily and his voice sounded like sandpaper. Cane hopped along his wrinkled pants until she reached the bed post. Neal gingerly touched his cheek and upon inspecting his fingers he determined they came away bloody. "Get me my handkerchief, please."
Cane chirped and retrieved the handkerchief he had used as her temporary nest. He raised an eyebrow at the thing's cleanliness and folded it over twice before dabbing at the blood on his cheek. Someone knocked at Neal's door, calling, "Sir?"
Neal raised an eyebrow. "Mithros," he muttered under his breath. He had hardly gotten his comprehension skills back when his visitor decided now would be a pleasant time to knock on his door. "Who calls?"
"Sir, royal couriers are standin' outside the door with an urgent message for ye," the innkeeper answered.
Royal couriers? This piqued Neal's curiosity. "Tell them I'd like to make myself decent before accepting their message."
"Yessir, as ye lordship wishes," the innkeeper hurried off. Neal had a room facing the back of the inn, overlooking the forest.
"Actually, it's dukeship or knightship, but if you don't want to get picky about it," Neal murmured. He realized then he should probably send his own courier out to investigate. "Cane." She flew over and perched on his outstretched finger. "See if there are Tortallan couriers out there. If they're Tortallan, they're friends. Do you know Prince Roald's couriers colors?" Cane meeped, tilting her head to the side. "They're fringed in royal purple. If they're Tortallan couriers fringed in royal purple, those are friends. Otherwise, they aren't."
Cane chirped and flew out of the window. By the time Neal had splashed his face with cold water from the basin by his window and pulled on a clean pair of breeches, Cane had returned. She flew in the tight circle, the signal for 'friend'.
Neal sighed. "Roald's couriers, eh? Wonder why he would send his own couriers after me."
Just as the knight changed his shirt the innkeeper came back to his door. "S-sir Neal," the innkeeper stammered, "they request your immediate presence."
Neal opened the door and said, "Impeccable timing, dear fellow. I didn't catch your name last night as I was falling asleep on my feet?"
"L-Ladour, if it pleases my lord," the innkeeper said as he fiddled with his apron.
"Well, Ladour, I would like a tub of hot water drawn by the time I return to my room," Neal requested as they descended the staircase.
"Certainly." Ladour nodded. "Breakfast too, my lord?"
"Yes," Neal said jovially as he breezed through the front door, Cane on his shoulder. "Hello, lads. What brings you way out here?"
"We have direct orders to deliver this message into your hands by His Highness, Prince Roald," the male courier out of the two standing in front of him said.
The female courier handed him the message. "Having done our duty, we shall wait for your response to Prince Roald's urgent message."
Neal opened the letter and said absently to Cane, "Can you fetch me my pen, sweetheart?"
The female courier stiffened. Cane cheeped, rubbed her head against Neal's ear and took off to Neal's room.
Neal:
We received an anonymous tip today that Kel has been captured by a band of Bazhir rebels heading towards Galla. You may want to chase this lead, you may not. Your decision. I recommend you follow every lead you come across, but this is your search. One of the leads you find is bound to lead you to Kel and the rest of your life.
--Roald
Cane returned with the pen. Quickly, Neal wrote a reply:
R;
Am heading on G.R.N. to G.R.E. to G. asap. Thanks for the tip.
--Neal
Neal folded the message and slid it back into the original envelope. He crossed out the addressee as himself to Prince Roald of Corus and handed it to the female courier. "Thank you. Tell His Highness that I tell him, sarcastically, that I think of him every moment of every minute of every hour I'm away."
The couriers nodded, saluted, and remounted their horses, heading back to Corus. It occurred to him that maybe Roald wouldn't be able to decipher Neal's code of 'G.R.N.' for Great Road North or 'G.R.E.' for Great Road East or 'G.' for Galla, then chuckled at himself and muttered, "They don't call me 'Sir Meathead' for nothing, right, Cane?"
Cane chirped.
"You weren't supposed to agree, you silly girl," he told her dryly.
Cane just looked up at him with that eerie human-like intelligence as they climbed the stairs.
Neal rolled his eyes, shed his clothes, and sank into the steaming tub of water by the fireplace. The only part Neal hated about the open road was the lack of clean water to bathe in and the rapid rate at which one became dirty again. He glanced at the sparrow perched on the tray that held his breakfast and sighed uneasily. He reached for the soap and cloth sitting beside the tub and said to Cane, "Once we get into Corus, I promise you I'll feed you dried cherries."
Cane shrilled happily.
"Until then, help yourself to the fruit there," he told her. He had glimpsed a strawberry or two sitting on the tray and knew she would like them. While he washed, Cane picked at one of the three ripe berries happily. As he dried himself off and clothed himself, she flittered around the room anxiously. "Contain yourself, Cane," he told her as he pulled his riding boots on. "I want to get done too, especially since she may have been captured by Bazhir..."
He rose, ran his fingers through his hair, grabbed his bag, and thundered down the stairs with Cane behind him. He paused at the lobby counter in front of Laroud. "How much do you need for one night?"
Laroud took a moment not to register that Neal was trying to pay for his night spent in the room, not trying to make Laroud out to be something disrespectful. He wordlessly pointed to the sign, took the money, placed it in a locking box, marked off in his book that Neal had paid and nodded to him. "Pleasant trip, Sir Neal."
"Thank you, Laroud," Neal left the inn itself and walked out to the stables, where he prepared his horse for the day's ride. Neal kept dropping the brush as he tried to hurry. "Dammit all!" he cursed, sputtering in his rush. He took a deep breath, picked the brush up from the hay, and let it out slowly. "All right. Calm down, Queenscove. She's all right. Kel's not stupid."
Neal had to tell himself every time he dropped something that Kel was intelligent enough to go along with whatever the Bazhir asked of her, short of giving herself to them. He would charge in, just as Raoul had warned him not to, and rescue Kel. He would heal whatever scrapes and cuts she had and gallop back to Corus. Everyone would thank him, including Kel, and the wedding would proceed.
Neal nodded and finally saddled his mare, a horse he had only gotten from his father's brother three weeks ago. They had named her Seiryn, and she was a fine riding horse, part Clydesdale, built for a knight.
"Good girl, Seiryn." Neal stroked the horse's nose. He bridled her and lead her out of the stable, Cane gliding on the air behind him. Starting at a brisk trot, he knew Seiryn would be able to handle the pace for a mile or so before she had to walk without his weight on her back.
"Kel, Kel, Kel," he murmured. He daydreamed while Seiryn walked the road of her own accord, and before he knew it they were right outside of the capital of Tortall.
"Good job, Seiryn," Neal told her softly as he rode her through the market, stopping at a dried fruit stand to buy Cane the dried cherries he promised her. It took him almost thirty minutes to reach the center of town, a big Clydesdale mare not exactly fitting through narrow back alleyways, and having to stop for children incessantly hindered his travel.
"Neal!"
Neal glanced over his shoulders and around as far as he could. He could have sworn he heard someone call his name, but maybe he just had an auditory hallucination. Second day on the road and already he had started hallucinating. "Bloody wonderful," Neal murmured to himself.
"Neal!"
Neal whirled in his saddle this time, flinching slightly. "Who calls for me?"
"Neal! Over here!" A hand waved wildly from below heads.
Then Neal recognized the voice. "Owen!" he said incredulously. He jumped from his saddle, grabbed Seiryn's reins and pressed his way through the crowd to his young friend. "What are you doing here?"
Owen sighed. "I was going to surprise you by showing up for your wedding. Surprise you and Merric and Roald and Kel because I figured you would have a jolly good time and I wanted to be there with you. When I got here Roald told me that you had left...but you're back!"
Neal grimaced inwardly. "Not exactly. I have...some business to take care of in Galla...I just thought I would use Corus as a shortcut from the Great Road North to the Great Road East."
Owen stared at him like he had gone mad. Quite frankly Neal had grown tired of that expression and sighed, waiting for Owen to tell him what undoubtedly foolish move he had made. "How far north were you?"
"Three or four miles," Neal answered.
"Oh. I was thinking you had gone farther. The way Roald described it you were having yourself a good run from a pack of spidrens," Owen laughed. "You know that if you travel the Great Road East you have to go into Tusaine and up into Galla?"
"Yes," Neal nodded. "Listen, Owen...I really must be own my way now."
"Shall I send Lady Yukimi your love?" Owen asked.
"Er...yes," Neal said uncomfortably, mounting Seiryn. Cane chirped at Owen, who waved, and Neal turned to start leaving.
"Say, Neal," Owen pressed, "what business do you have in Galla? I never heard of you having anything to do with Galla. The only reason I've ever seen you even go north was for the war..."
"Just business Owen, all right?" Neal replied without turning to look at his friend.
Owen gasped. "You...you don't have a secret lover in Galla, do you!"
Neal almost fell off of Seiryn in his shock that Owen would even suggest such a notion. "No!" he cried, turning back around. "Kel's gone missing and I'm off to find her. I heard she was in Galla. Now go back to the palace before you get yourself in even more trouble than you were when you took off out of the Stump's squiredom last summer."
"Neal, you can't go frollicking off and have yourself a jolly rumble with Kel's kidnappers without me," Owen protested.
"Kidnappers? Owen...do you know something about what happened to Kel?" Neal demanded, frowning. Then he remembered that he was supposed to ride the Great Road East to Galla, not have idle chit-chat with one of his friends.
"No. Neal, you wait here and I'll go get Happy!" Owen told him. "Just wait here--"
"Right. Wait here," Neal agreed. He had every intention of pushing Seiryn down the street in the market to the Great Road East as soon as Owen was out of sight. Owen would just get himself into trouble for leaving Corus without permission if he went with Neal. Neal would not have minded having Owen along on the trip if, and only if, the boy had permission. Permission for something like this would be undeniably refused, and since Owen knew that, he would just take Happy and go running with Neal.
Owen disappeared into a back alleyway and Neal took off. Children scrambled away from Seiryn and the big scary healer knight as they pressed onward and finally left Corus. Neal kicked Seiryn into a heavy canter, trying to put as much space between himself and Owen as he could. He really didn't want to get the young boy in trouble, not when he had so much ahead. In fact, Neal hadn't even intended to tell Owen of Kel's disappearance, knowing that he would try to accompany Neal in finding their friend and be accused of abandonment or some such legal thing.
Not something Neal wanted on his conscience.
Neal had Seiryn canter until he could just barely see the peaks of the palace any longer and allowed her a slower, meandering walk. Only if Owen forced Happy to gallop would he catch up with Neal then, and if he stopped and took to the woods Owen would have a hard time picking up his trail again. Neal felt bad tricking Owen but he had no other choice. He wasn't about to get Owen's privileges taken from him and get his knight master taken away.
Suddenly, the great thundering hooves of a heavyset riding horse much like Seiryn came from behind Neal. He whirled around to see a cloud of dirt and a chestnut steed coming straight towards him. Seiryn pawed the ground nervously, Neal pulling her closer to the trees lining the Great Road East only to have the oncoming horse and rider halt in front of him.
"Merric!" Neal exclaimed, relieved to see a friend and that said friend wasn't the very one he had left behind. Then Neal raised his eyebrows. "...What brings you this far out on the Great Road East?"
"I'm looking for Kel, that's what," Merric said airily. Cane came flittering back to Neal after realizing he didn't follow her anymore and chirped at Merric. "Hello, Cane. Still following," Merric's lips twitched into a half-smirk, "still following Meathead?"
Cane perched on Neal's shoulder as he rolled his eyes at Merric. "Decided you finally cared enough about Kel to come with me?"
Merric scowled at Neal. "I didn't 'decide I cared enough.' I always cared enough. You must have realized that most of Kel's friends are the people in high-ranking places that can't just drop everything and go off on a directionless rescue mission?"
Neal paused and let that thought sink in. "...Oh. Right."
"Spontaneity is your virtue and your curse, Queenscove," Merric chuckled. "Owen came to tell me he had seen you in the market and he had gotten his horse and went back to where he left you only to find you had left him. He told me you had taken off after Kel. Imagine my surprise when I find out from someone else that your 'ride to calm down' turned into a 'rescue mission to calm down.' So, here I am. Raoul wanted me to tell you that he wishes he could have sent a squad with you but my lord King Jonathan told him not to spare one unit."
Neal lost some of his righteous anger after hearing Merric's story. "I see. Well then. I suppose you're going to ride with me?" he asked as Merric nodded. "Then our destiny lies in Galla, or so Roald told me."
Merric nodded again. "Then off to Galla we go."
Two nights later, Neal and Merric sat kitty cornered to each other around a fire. They had just finished eating the night's meal and now just took the time to relax. Neither of them had stayed at an inn the night before and felt dirty, but coped. Neal tried to think of something to say to Merric, but couldn't think of anything that didn't revolve around Kel.
"How much money do we have left?" Merric asked. "We should have quite a bit since we've neglected to stay at an inn."
Neal passed his coin purse to Merric and set to work cleaning the dishes with a soapy rag.
Merric accepted the bag and counted the coins, then counted his own and added the total in his head. "We have plenty of money." He wrote the total down on a piece of paper and folded it, shoving it into one of his saddle bags. "We can afford to stay at inns from here to eternity if we wanted."
"Eternity?" Neal laughed. "I don't think so." He rose, carrying the soapy dishes, "I'll be back in a couple minutes. I just want to rinse these off."
Merric nodded and watched Neal leave. He set up his sleeping space and had almost settled down for the night when couriers in Roald's colors came galloping up to Neal and Merric's temporary camp. He sighed and climbed to his feet.
"Sir Merric?" asked the male courier that had come to Neal three days prior.
Merric nodded. He did a lot nodding nowadays. "Yes."
"I have a message to you from His Highness Prince Roald," he dismounted and bowed to Merric, handed him the message. "Where has Sir Neal gone?"
"To fetch some water and clean our dishes," Merric answered. "I'll accept his message for him and give it to him myself if you don't mind."
The female courier dismounted and bowed to Merric. "I have specific orders from my lord Prince Roald to deliver this message to Sir Neal."
Merric shrugged. "Neal!" he called. "Neal, you have a message!"
Neal came running back, clean, wet dishes in hand. He quickly packed them away and ran over to the female courier. "...Hello again."
"Sir Neal," the courier said, bowing.
"Do you have a name I can call you? I feel rather silly seeing you so often and not calling you by your name," Neal asked, accepting the message from her.
"Harrel," she answered. "They call me Harrel."
Neal nodded. "Thanks. And what's yours?" he looked to the male courier.
"Jak," he supplied.
"Right. Harrel and Jak," Neal agreed. "Thank you both for riding out to find me."
The couriers mounted and rode off, not bothering to wait for a reply back. Neal only guessed that they expected the two knights to find a courier on their own to take their message back to Corus. Neal didn't particularly care either way, he didn't find himself offended easily. He was a generally easygoing man, as far as nobility went. Neal opened his letter:
Neal:
I know you aren't in Galla by now, and I found that Kel hasn't been captured by Bazhir rebels and taken there. You're welcome to go to Galla and see for yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it. I have just heard from a very reliable source that Kel has been taken to Carthak. If you head south to Pirate's Swoop, Barron George has promised you a ship to Carthak whenever you arrive.
--Roald
"Thanks a lot, Roald," Neal muttered darkly, thoroughly tired. Merric looked at his companion with raised eyebrows, an unasked question. "He just wrote to tell me that Kel is supposedly in Carthak now, not Galla."
"Hm," Merric commented as he reread his letter. "Roald ordered me to buy something called the 'Abscador Scroll' if we travel through Scanra."
Neal thought the title of the scroll was a bit obscure, and not to mention that the contents of the scroll were written in an ancient language long dead and still undeciphered, but shrugged and found it none of his business. "Well. Which of us is on sentry du--" even before Neal had finished the question Merric had shimmied into his blankets and snored lightly. "--ty first...all right then."
Five days later, Merric and Neal crossed the River Olorun, listening to a story from the boatman about the river. Supposedly back when one of the kings was a boy a battle took place along the river between feuding fiefs and for a day the river ran red.
"Dat's where dees lady got 'er name," the boatman told them. He rowwed the knight across the river. "'Olo' means blood in de Ancient, and 'run' means run. Olorun: blood run."
Neal nodded. "Right." He waited for Merric to climb off of the boat and turned to the boatman. "How much do I owe you?" he asked, and the boatman told him. Neal paid him and paused before climbing off of the boat. "Say, have you seen a tall woman with short, light brown hair and gorgeous eyes? She's the other lady knight of the realm..."
"Hmm," the boatman sat and thought. "Yep, yep I seen her. I seen her wit' a couple a big brutes, big brutes wit' Scanran blood in 'em and some Carthaki."
Neal raised his eyebrows. He had never heard of a anyone who had Carthaki and Scanran blood in them. Unless the boatman had gone nearly blind in his old age, this seemed a rather large clue. "Did they say where they were going?"
"Dey was goin' south. Takin' dees great big road way t' Maren, dey was," the boatman said adamantly. "Said somethin' 'bout meetin' a counsel on a rendezvous in de Great Inlan' Sea."
Neal and Merric exchanged glances. Merric looked to the boatman and asked, "How long ago did you see them?"
"Hmmm." The boatman sat back on his heels and twisted his gray beard. His hands shook with old age and his eyes squinted from most of his life transporting people back and forth across the Olorun. "'Bout...t'ree or four days, at de most. Not enuff time t' get t' de Inlan', but dey is pro'ly in Maren now."
Neal and Merric nodded at the same time. "Thanks," Neal told him and climbed off of the boat with Merric's help. The boat transporting the duo's horses came to dock shortly after they had arrived. Once they paid for the services, they mounted and started off at a fast trot. "This is getting strange. What happened to Kel?"
Cane shrilled and perched on Seiryn's mane.
"Roald heard she had been kidnapped by Bazhir rebels and taken to Galla, right?" Merric asked. Neal nodded. "Then she's been taken to Carthak. Or, she's been taken to Maren and on a boat into the Great Inland Sea."
Neal growled under his breath. "Where's the connection? We only have three leads. There's a connection...there's a connection somewhere."
"Well, most likely they stayed at an inn, afraid Kel would attack them if there were just two of them, like the boatman told us," Merric asserted. "I think our best bet would be to each stay at an inn and ask around."
"Mithros," Neal murmured.
"Neal?" Merric asked.
"Tobe. He didn't say anything about a young boy being with them. Tobe, Hoshi, Peachblossom...none of them," Neal explained. "So there's another question: what happened to them? If something happened to Tobe...Kel would be crushed."
"I know," Merric agreed. "I was at Haven too, remember?"
Neal rolled his eyes. They pressed onward.
That night at the inn they had chosen to stay at, Neal and Merric enjoyed a well-rounded meal, other than the stew they had been making for the past week or so. They leaned back in their chairs with full bellies, Neal enjoying a nice cup of warm cider and Merric sipping at a cup of brandy.
"So, Sirs," one of the ladies sitting at the table began. "What're your names again?"
"I'm Neal and he's Merric," Neal answered. "And you're Lady Galderra, if memory serves."
Flattered, Lady Galderra blushed and smiled. "Yes I am. How kind of you to remember, Sir Neal."
He winked at her, having fun with some of his old flirtatious habits.
Merric just rolled his eyes and turned to the lady next to him.
Lady Galderra moved up to the seat on the side of Neal that Merric didn't sit on. "Where are you from, Sir Neal? Meaning, what's your full name, of course."
"Nealan of Queenscove, m'lady," he said as he kissed the top of Lady Galderra's hand.
Merric muttered to Neal, "Don't forget about Yuki."
Neal muttered back, "Don't spoil my fun."
Lady Galderra batted her eyelashes at Neal. "Sir Nealan of Queenscove, hm? Why, you must be Duke Baird's son!"
Neal nodded and smiled. "Yes I am. And you must be the daughter of the Goddess, because your beauty is divine."
Lady Galderra blushed again and giggled flirtatiously. "Oh, Sir Neal, you are quite the flatterer."
He winked at her again. "I live to serve a lovely lady like you."
She giggled again.
Merric groaned. "Listen, Lady: Neal is betrothed to a Yamani lady. He's just flirting with you for sport."
"Oh Merric, spoil all my fun!" Neal jabbed his friend with his elbow. "Lady Galderra, I mean no disrespect by--"
"Sir Neal," Lady Galderra interrupted. "No disrespect is taken. 'Tis all in good fun."
Neal nodded. "By the way, have any of you beautiful ladies seen a tall woman with short light brown hair wearing the badge of the female knight of Tortall?"
The ladies discussed amongst themselves as the lords grunted in contempt.
"What Neal meant to say was have any of you seen her," Merric corrected.
The lords discussed amongst themselves.
"I have," Lady Sativec answered. "About six days ago my husband and I were traveling and saw her with three men. One wore the mark of a university mage and the other two looked rather...muscled. The mage looked Gallan, one of the muscled men looked Bazhir, and the other looked Scanran."
"Where did you see them?" Neal asked.
"Fief Madiver," Lady Sativec said definitely.
"Did you happen to speak with them at all?" Neal hoped.
Lady Sativec shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry, no. Is this the Yamani lady you are betrothed too? I must say, you love her very much."
Neal's eyes went wide and he shook his head. "No, that's not my Yamani lady. She's my best friend."
The ladies murmured amongst themselves. Neal shot Merric a death glare for interrupting his flirting with Lady Galderra and starting the whole conversation. Merric kicked him under the table and laughed as Neal scowled at him.
"Well," Merric said, rising to his feet. "I think Neal and I will be going to bed now. Perhaps we'll see some of you in the morning?"
"Goodbye, Sir Merric," waved the lady he had sat with.
Merric nodded. "I'll see you in the morning, Lady Ferrin."
Neal elbowed him suggestively as they climbed the stairs to their room. "Sweet on her, eh?"
"Like you're sweet on Kel."
"Oh ha ha."
