Momentum

Two days passed, and on the evening of the twentieth of October, Dom finally couldn't stand keeping Yuki in the dark about Neal and Kel. She deserved to know, and keeping it bottled up had started to take its toll on him. So that evening, he took Yuki aside and took out the letter from Neal to her, and handed it to her.

Yuki let the parchment flutter to the floor after she read the sentence about his love for Kel. "I knew it."

Dom scooped down and picked it up, slipping it back into his pocket. "I watched the two of them kiss for awhile for the past two days."

Yuki shut her eyes tightly, trying to block the impending flow of tears. It didn't work. As soon as they began to trail down her cheeks, she curled herself against Dom's chest. "I can't believe this," she said softly, sniffling furiously. He felt his tunic dampen. "I can't believe it..."

Dom hesitantly embraced her, stroking her silky black hair. "Sorry, Yuki," he whispered. "I didn't want to tell you..."

"Then why didn't you lie to me?" she cried, looking up at him with a face so distraught that Dom's heart immediately sank to his feet. When he looked away, she buried her head in his tunic again. "I hate this...I hate this!"

In response, Dom just tightened his arms around her slim body. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I really didn't. I couldn't let it go on anymore...with you not knowing. He didn't look like he would tell you any time soon..."

Yuki bunched the sleeves of his tunic almost at the shoulder and looked up at him. They hadn't shared a kiss yet, and Dom was suddenly very aware of this. He knew, logically, that he shouldn't have thoughts of her porcelain white skin underneath her kimono parading through his head, or the way she moistened her soft bright red lips with the barest tip of her tongue...

His heart thumped in his chest, demanding he do something to stop the thoughts in his head. He had had, in steadily increasing amounts, thoughts he shouldn't have about Yuki. He guessed that somewhere in the past few weeks he had kindled something, and when he suggested that they act like they had started courting, he really had started courting her.

"Dom?" Yuki asked, her voice soft but hoarse.

This startled him from his thoughts. "Yes?" he replied, finding that, much to his horror, his voice had grown hoarse as well.

Her almond-shaped eyes searched his. And, barely loud enough for him to hear: "Take the pain away."

Dom knew what she meant. He nodded and his lips found home with hers for a long moment before he led her out to his dormitory room.


In the morning of the following day, the twenty-first of October, Neal arrived first in the dining hall for breakfast. Usually, he sat down first, followed closely by Kel, then Neal's mother who almost stepped on Kel's heels in her entrance to the dining hall. He smiled as Kel came in, glanced around, gave her a quick peck on the lips and sat down. However, his mother failed to enter the dining hall then. The rest of the guests proceeded inside in order of their usual arrival, but Neal's mother never came. Worried, Neal excused himself and dashed up the stairs to his mother's room.

He didn't bother to knock and simply let himself in. "Mother?"

She looked up at Neal from her place in the bed. "Neal."

"Do you feel well?" Neal frowned, pulling up a chair and sitting next to the bed.

She studied him for a moment, face hard. Sighing, her unreadable face fell into something more open. "I fear my death draws near, my son."

Neal took his mother's hand and found the cloud he had worked so hard at pushing back had grown even faster. Pushing up his sleeves, he drew a slender tendril of his Gift and picked up his mother's hand, leading it to the black cloud.

However, his mother protested and drew her hand back. "Nealan," she said sharply. "You know better than to tamper with the gods' work."

Neal hung his head. "Mother...I don't want you to die. I lost Father already..."

She raised her hand to cup his chin and gave him a sympathetic smile. "I've already retired. You've inherited the fief, my boy. You may as well address yourself as Sir Duke Nealan of Queenscove now. The steward answers to you, I know already."

"Very well then," Neal said as he took his mother's hand in both of his. "If you won't allow me to care for you, I'll get the finest healer in Tortall now to tend to anything unnatural. You want to see your first grandchild, don't you?"

His mother's face lit up. "Yuki is pregnant?"

"Well, er, no," Neal told her. "Yuki and I have...parted ways. I plan to...well...marry Kel if she'll have me."

His mother's face lost none of the glow it had gained. "She's a good girl, that Kel. A bit mad, but a good girl. You take care of her and she'll take care of you."

"Always," Neal promised. He kissed his mother's hand and tucked her in. "Get some rest, Mother. I'll come check on you in an hour or two, all right?"

"Neal, I don't need watched like an infant," his mother huffed.

Neal rolled his eyes. "I'll see you in a little bit, Mother."

After he returned the dining hall, he quickly ate his breakfast and resolved to take care of some of the things gone neglected since his return.


Alanna sat by the hearth in the parlor, staring into the fire with glazed eyes. Jonathan nearly scared her half to death when he placed a hand on her shoulder and asked if she felt all right.

"I think I'm...with child," she confided quietly. "I can't figure out how, though. I haven't seen George since Duke Baird died, and it's been even longer since we..." she trailed off. She looked at Jonathan, seeing his concern. "I haven't been with anyone else."

Jonathan sat on the arm of the chair and thought. "Are you sure you didn't make love with George before Duke Baird passed away?"

"Absolutely," Alanna sighed. "And I wear my pregnancy charm when we do."

"Quite a mystery," Jonathan murmured. He held a hand to Alanna's stomach lightly, finding that Alanna was, indeed, pregnant. He couldn't, however, tell who the father was or how much it had grown. "I'd say that you conceived this child within the past two or three weeks. It isn't very big, not large enough to be a month old."

Alanna nodded. "I know that the only viable father of this baby is George. I haven't slept with anyone else recently."

However, they both felt that she had lied. They couldn't figure out why, but they had the vaguest intuition that she hadn't simply slept with George these past few weeks.

"In a few more weeks, we can tell how old the fetus is and who fathered it," Jonathan murmured. He couldn't shake the disturbing feeling that he had something to do with this conception. He found the thought quite ludicrous, seeing as how he hadn't made love with Alanna for...a long time.

Alanna nodded again, growing quiet.

"Good morning, your Majesty, Lioness," Neal said cheerily.

"What the hell happened to you to make you so...chipper?" Alanna asked suspiciously.

Neal shrugged. "Nothing," he said innocently. "You both look sort of stressed. Do you want me to have Cook make some tea?"

"Sure," Jon answered.

"No," Alanna said at the same moment.

Neal regarded them apprehensively. "I'll have Cook put a kettle to boil and bring some in for you."

Jonathan agreed, "That sounds great, Neal."

"Anything for my liege. Oh, before I go--have either of you seen Dom or Yuki? I can't find them anywhere," Neal explained.

"I saw them go out to the dorms," Alanna offered.

"Lovely," Neal murmured. "Thank you, Alanna," he said as he bowed out. After asking Cook to prepare a kettle and tea for the Lioness and the King, Neal set out to find Kel. He didn't have to look long, however. He found her in the stables, up in the hayloft, speaking with one of the hostlers and playing with some puppies. "Hullo there, lady knight."

"Hullo yourself, ducal knight," Kel answered, peering over the edge of the hayloft. She offered him a smile he had seen her give no one else.

"Toss me down the ladder, will you?" Neal asked. The hostler dropped the ladder down from the edge of the hayloft and Neal joined them. "So. Whose puppies do we have here?"

A small brown puppy splotched with lighter and dark brown, black, and white patches ran up to Neal, wagging its tail. It soon took monopoly on Neal's finger and began to chew. "'Tis me own Esmeralda," the hostler told Neal proudly. "Esmeralda!" he called, whistling. A larger brown dog, a little smaller than Jump, trotted over to the hostler. She had white legs with a dark brown body. Her tail had black and lighter brown splotches, with a face that matched its body with one spot of black around one eye. "Tis me own Esmeralda," the hostler repeated. "Esmeralda, say hello to these nice folks."

Esmeralda barked happily and wagged her tail.

"Good lass," the hostler scratched Esmeralda's head.

Neal smiled and stole a glance at Kel. She had taken an affinity to one of the puppies, a sheer black one with a solitary white ear and light brown paws. He looked to the hostler and said softly, "Do you plan to keep all of these pups?"

The hostler looked at Kel for a moment and gave Neal a knowing look. "All 'em that don't get attached to others."

"It's settled then. Kel, you can keep that puppy," Neal told her. The hostler grinned toothily at his overlord and rounded up the rest of the puppies.

"Oh...Alixander...you don't..." Kel tried to refuse.

"No buts 'bout it," Alixander waved it off. "Ye may keep the pup, Lady Knight. T'ain't got room enough for all 'em anyway."

Kel smiled gratefully at Alixander and Neal and hugged the puppy. "Well. From now on, you'll come traveling with me."

Neal nodded to Alixander, who just winked. "Now, Lady Kel, I've got some work that needs tendin' to, and I ain't got more time to dally with the pups."

"Right. We'll get out of your way. Come on, Neal," Kel tucked the puppy in the front of her tunic and climbed down the ladder. Neal followed her closely and found himself pulled aside into the shadows. "Thank you," she whispered and kissed him fiercely. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he murmured. "What will you name it?"

"Well," Kel said, leading him out of the shadows. "Since she's female, I thought maybe I would name her after my grandmother."

"She looks like 'Muddy' to me," Neal replied.

"You named a horse 'Skunk,'" Kel told him scathingly. "I won't take any naming advice from you."

"But Skunk really does look like a skunk. And your pup looks like she rolled in the mud 'cause of the one white ear," Neal defended his naming choices. "And you named your dog 'Jump.'"

Kel glared at him. She took a look at the puppy and held her out in front of her. "Do you like the name 'Muddy'?"

The puppy whimpered.

"See?" Kel stuck her tongue out at Neal.

"Don't do that or I'll just have to kiss you in public," Neal warned.

Kel rolled her eyes. "Anyway." She traced the brown ring around the puppy's eye that Neal hadn't noticed before. "How about...Justice?"

The puppy wagged her tail at that.

"Or how about Sunday?" Neal added.

The puppy gave Neal a look that obviously said he was crazy.

"Justice it is," Kel decided.


Lunchtime seemed abnormally quiet. Neal kept glancing shadily in Dom and Yuki's direction and tossing small smiles at Kel and the puppy sitting between them. Alanna kept quietly grumbling to herself, and Jonathan and the rest of the Royal Family kept pretty much silent because of the lack of noise from the rest of the table.

"I think we should all go back to Corus tomorrow," Jonathan said suddenly.

"I second the motion," Alanna agreed.

Neal cocked his head to the side. "I suppose we have stayed here for a week...a week for a kingdom to last without its Royal Family in the capital could prove disastrous."

"Just slightly," Jonathan answered wryly. He tossed a glance in his wife's direction and winked. "Besides, I miss everyone there. I trust those I put in charge to do right by the citizens and handle anything that comes their way--"

A royal courier ran breathlessly into the dining hall. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

Jonathan stood, knocking his chair backwards. "Necess?"

Necess the Royal Courier bowed to the King of Tortall. "Your Majesty, here." Necess handed an envelope to Jonathan.

"Sit," Jonathan ordered absently, holding his chair up for Necess.

Necess obliged as Jon read through the parchment inside. He paled and whispered, "Gods."

Alanna rose and approached him. "Jon?"

He wordlessly handed her the paper and sat in the chair Necess now offered him.

"Great Gods!" Alanna cried, loosing a string of swears she must have learned from her husband shortly after. "How in the hell could this happen?"

Justice barked at them but quieted at the scathing look Alanna gave her. She ducked behind Kel's leg as her new master rose. "Your Majesty?"

"Jon, should she read it?" Alanna asked.

Jonathan nodded. "Yes, let her read it. She'll have to find out sooner or later."

Feeling her stomach drop to her feet, Kel took the letter from her once-idol and read it. "No," she whispered. She looked helplessly at Alanna. "No...how...?"

Garvey nudged Merric nearby. "Go see what happened!"

"Me?! Why me?!" Merric demanded.

"Because!" Garvey insisted.

Grumbling, Merric trudged over to Kel and read the letter over her shoulder. He came back to Garvey, sullen-faced. "Mindelan was attacked. The only ones that survived were in the very heart of the castle there--Kel's parents, some relatives, and a few servants. The rest either got hacked to pieces or burned to death. After the attackers left, Kel's father found a message burned into the shutters on Kel's window. It said, 'To my sweet: The time for our joining draws near. Meet with our link in our place for further conversation. Love: the master of your heart.' They think it's a message for Kel...it's from the Master, isn't it?"

"Of course it is, you fool. 'Master of your heart'? Please, it's worthy of Kennan," Garvey scoffed. "It probably wouldn't surprise me, really, if the Master used a few of Kennan's lines for the message."

"He'll try to frame Cleon, then," Merric decided.

"Most likely," Garvey agreed.

"Lovely. Just lovely," Merric commented. "Which of us will he target next? And anyway, I thought you said the Master would try to hurt Kel as little as possible."

"I see what he wants now," Garvey observed. "He wants to show Kel that he is the only option for her. He tried to kill her parents...perhaps he left them alive for a reason? Or perhaps the raiders he sent didn't finish the job...regardless, the raiders will really hear it from the Master when he gets his hands on them."

"Why do the raiders get to see the Master and we don't?" Merric asked suddenly.

"Seeing the Master in person means death, unless you've done something great for him. Then he'll want to congratulate you in person," Garvey explained. "I don't even think Kel saw him. Kel...I don't think she knows what he has planned for her either. Heh, surprise, Kel dearest."


The group set out for Corus the next morning, not wanting to get stranded somewhere in the middle of the night. Alanna rode in front, Dom on one side, Roald on the other, with Kel, Justice, and Neal bringing up the rear. Merric and Garvey rode just behind Dom.

"Great Merciful Mother, Neal," Kel said quietly. "Why Mindelan?"

"Someone you know must have done it. I certainly didn't do it, Dom didn't do it, and I don't think Cleon would have done it, no matter how much 'master of your heart' sounds like his work," Neal guessed. "So who else does that leave? Merric, who mysteriously disappeared? Or someone else?"

"Someone else," Kel said forcefully. "Merric would never betray us like that."

"True," Neal agreed. "But who else do we know? Prosper, Owen? Gods, Owen! For the love of...who did this?"

The master of your heart, Kel repeated in her mind. The...master...of your heart. The Master. Great Merciful Mother...

She glanced around, glaring at her surroundings. Justice barked on her lap, shaking her tail and trying to nip on Kel's fingers. Absently, she fished a piece of sturdy leather that Alixander had given her before they left and let Justice teethe on it. "Neal," she sighed, looking up at him.

Worried, Neal held a hand out to her. "What?"

Looking at his hand and then at his worried face, she suddenly realized she couldn't tell him anything without bringing him under the Master's terrible scrutiny. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Nothing."

Frowning, Neal watched her for a moment before looking forward. "If you say so."

They didn't bother stopping at a wayhouse or an inn and set up camp in between the fiefs of Justicecreek and High Rise, despite the fact that they had Shinko and Yuki with them. They set up sentry shifts two at a time, one placed on the opposite side of the camp from the other. They didn't expect anyone to try and attack them, but with Mindelan having been burned to the ground and Kel with them, they didn't want to take too little precaution. Yuki, Shinko, and Kalasin were the only three not assigned for sentry duty. Shinko and Yuki both argued that they could fully well use a glaive, but Roald had gently pointed out that neither of them were knights and neither of them rode with the Queen's Riders. Kalasin had decided to make things easier on her parents, the knights, and the sergeant from the King's Own that they rode with. She bade them good night and settled into her bedroll as soon as the sentries took up their posts.

Jonathan had drawn up the sentry schedule: first, he and Alanna; second, Thayet and Roald; third, Kel and Neal; fourth, Dom and himself. Each sentry team would serve for two hours and rest. The sentries on duty--Jonathan and either Dom or Alanna--would wake the others at dawn. They would eat, pack up, and go on the road again.

During Neal's shift, he kept glancing at the eerily silhouetted Kel. He had never quite seen her in the moonlight like this, so beautiful yet unattainable. All he had to do was call her name and she would come to him, but she looked so much like a goddess he half expected her to snub him. He didn't want to bring her down from the pedestal she stood on, silhouetted in the moonlight as she was.

She came over to him. She surprised him by wrapping her arms around his waist from behind and resting her cheek against his shoulder.

"Hi," he said, his voice raspy from his lack of use thus far.

"Hi," she answered. Justice danced around their feet, then curled up on Kel's bedroll and fell asleep.

"Do you need something?" he whispered.

"I have a question," she whispered back.

"Oh?" he wanted to know.

"Are you going to marry Yuki when we get back?" she asked.

Neal felt the bottom of his stomach drop to his feet. "I...I don't think so. But I haven't told her about...us...yet."

Kel pulled away from him and stepped in front of him, scanning his eyes for something. "You said you loved me."

"And I do!" he assured her. "But...I don't know how to break it to her."

Kel looked to the ground. "Yeah...I do feel horrible about this..."

"I'll tell her in the morning."

Kel opened her mouth to say something but stopped, frowning. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" he asked.

"Shhh," she advised. "Just listen."

They stood there in complete silence for a few moments; Kel loosening her sword as Neal did. It sounded like someone was...pounding on the ground, or running at them, but the sound never got closer or farther. Exchanging looks, Kel motioned to one side of the camp with her sword and nodded for him to go that way. She tiptoed in the opposite direction, listening for an increase in the pounding noise. However, the further she walked, the fainter the sound got, which meant that she had pointed Neal in the right direction.

Just as she had gotten halfway across the camp again, she heard a feminine yell followed closely by a strangled male outcry.

Neal came storming in Kel's direction.

Yuki followed him, holding a blanket closely around her naked body. Dom followed her, shamefaced, pulling a shirt on. "Neal! Neal, wait!"

Neal turned to Yuki, livid. "You...how...why...you...and him!" he pointed an accusing finger at Dom as Kel ran up to them. "I can't believe you! And her!"

Yuki stiffened, tears welling up and threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. "You are one to talk! You have been with Kel all this time!"

"Yeah but I never slept with her!" he yelled. He seemed to have forgotten that people slept around him. "I've kissed her! I never slept with her because I was engaged to you!"

Yuki looked stricken. "You liar..."

Dom stepped in front of Yuki protectively. "You don't have to yell at her, Meathead."

Neal punched him.

"Neal!" Kel cried. Dom raised his arm to retaliate but Kel placed herself between them. He lowered his arm.

"Move, Kel."

"No."

Neal turned and stalked to the other side of the camp only to get stopped by Thayet. She placed a hand on his arm and looked at him beseechingly. "What happened?"

"Kel and I heard...a noise," he started, his voice strained. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. "So we split up and started to investigate. I...I heard the noise get louder, so I...I pulled out my sword..." his hands had stopped clenching by then and hung uselessly beside him. "And...I should have known...it came from Yuki's tent...so I...I threw open the tent flap...and...I saw them...Dom and Yuki...right there...all...naked...and...doing things I've never done with Kel..."

Neal pulled a dagger from its sheath and stabbed it into the tree beside him.

"That...whore."

Thayet sighed. "Neal, I'm sorry. But...the way you and Kel have been acting lately...I would assume the same thing with Jon if we weren't married."

"You...you're taking her side?" Neal asked the queen incredulously.

Sighing, Thayet shook her head. "I won't take anyone's side in this. I just wanted to offer a woman's perspective on this, Neal. She trusted you, and she came back to find that the man she loved was practically all over her best friend."

"It doesn't excuse her sleeping with my cousin, dammit!" he cried, not caring that he spoke with the queen like they were equals. "And I wasn't 'practically all over Kel'!"

Kel came up next to the queen. "My lady, maybe I should talk to him."

Thayet nodded. "Maybe he'll listen to you."

Watching the queen leave, Kel sighed. "Neal."

He threw his arms around her, hugging her. "I don't know why I feel so betrayed."

"Because you're still engaged to her," Kel told him, hugging him back. "You feel betrayed because you still care about her and you expected her to stay faithful."

"Why don't you feel like this about Dom?" Neal asked her softly.

"I never cared at Dom the same way you cared about Yuki," she explained. "I think of Dom more as a brother and less of a lover. You loved Yuki for a long time, and she was certainly your first true love. And it also doesn't help that Dom is your cousin, too."

Somehow, Neal felt calmer knowing the reason of his feelings of betrayal. "You're right...as always."

"I'm not always right," Kel protested.

Neal chuckled quietly. "Right. Again."

"Shush, you."

Neal kissed her soundly. "I knew I love you for a reason."

Kel blushed and squeezed him one last time before letting go. "Since Dom wants to stay in the tent you were sharing with Yuki, do you want to stay in mine with me?"

"Definitely."



Dom and Jonathan relieved Kel and Neal of sentry duty shortly thereafter, with Neal making a point of walking by Dom with his hand in Kel's as they entered her tent. Rather than taking Kel then, he just curled up in her bedroll next to her, sleeping as much as he could. He valued his sleep hours like any sane person and immediately woke up when Kel slipped out of his grasp to practice with her glaive as the sun rose.

He watched her practice for a few moments, marveling at the way she moved so fluidly with her glaive.

"Can I learn how to do that?" he asked.

Surprised, Kel stopped. "Uh...sure. I don't want you to practice with a glaive first because you might hurt yourself with the blade...so we need to find something top-heavy, like a broom."

"How about a spear?" he wanted to know. "I have one of those in my bags."

"A spear works," Kel agreed.

He got the spear and Kel showed him a beginner's pattern, working through it with him the first two times and correcting arm movements and leg positioning the next two times. Shinko joined them in a few moments to go through her own patterns, and in a half-hour breakfast had been prepared.

They each stowed away their weapons and grabbed a bowl of stew from pot hanging over the fire. As soon as everyone had finished eating, they packed up, and Neal rode over to Yuki. Yuki looked at him, her eyes hard. "Yes?" she asked stiffly.

"I...I just want to apologize for last night," he said. "I know we won't get married now, but I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for yelling at you like that, like you were the only one that did anything wrong. I hope that you and Dom are happy together."

Taken aback, Yuki blinked at Neal as if he had three heads. "I...I'm sorry you had to see us like that."

Neal nodded, her simple apology was enough for him. "Bye."

"...Goodbye," she answered, watching him ride over to Kel and her new puppy.