Thanks to: Keita, Lady Sandrilene, Kate, Xelena, Stacey, Lady Wild Rose, StarFire
IHL/CF, lovaofmusicandwriting, The Inkblot Faery

Thank you for all those wonderful comments, all of you! ^_^

*sighs and checks the Tortallan calendar*

Well, Joren said he wanted the sword by the first of February, did he not? It
looks like February is fast approaching in the Tortallan universe. It's the very
last week of December back in Corus, but look where our friends are--marooned
at Emerald Edge in the Copper Isles.

Let's try for 200 reviews, okay?

Oh, and for those of you who got an email from me: Most of you apparently didn't
read the author notes at the beginning of the last chapter or forgot to leave your
email address, so instead of simply taking those who told me they wanted on the
list and emailing them, I took the liberty and time out of finishing this chapter to
write down every single person that left their email address and had reviewed.

**Chapter 21: One Step Closer**

Frustrated, Neal ran his hands alongside the walls of the cliffs towering over
them, shielding the town of Emerald Edge from his view. He did, however, sense
the Sword of Abscador just as Joren had told him he would. That made him edgy,
feeling the Sword beckon his Gift to come find it and not being able to locate it.

Finally, Kel tugged on Neal's sleeve questioningly. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," he muttered. The buzzing noise in his head from the Sword was starting
to give him a headache--one he couldn't cure because the source was the humming
of his Gift.

"Aha!" Merric cried triumphantly, his voice echoing off of the walls of a small opening
he had found, wide enough for two men abreast and tall enough for a man about two
heads shorter than Kel. He stuck his arm out of the opening and yelled, "Come here,
you two! I think I found a way up!"

Quickly, Kel and Neal ran over to Merric, finding the space cramped until Kel and
Merric moved up to a staircase looming ahead. Torches flickered into the dark abyss,
casting shadows helter-skelter along the passageway. "I'm pretty sure this leads up
to Emerald Edge," Merric explained. "I could hear voices up there."

"Which means the voices up there can hear the voices down here," Kel whispered.

"Well," Neal sighed. He took out a white handkerchief he had gotten for Midwinter
one year from Yuki and found a stick. Impaling the white cloth on the stick, he
offered it to Merric, who had been unwittingly elected the leader of the group.
"Let's show them we mean no harm, then. It's the only thing we can do until I get
what I need to get and we swim back to Fane and Mikhail and the pirates."

"We're stranded." Consolingly, Kel patted him on the shoulder.

Merric held the white kerchief on the stick out in front of him, hoping that when
they reached the top no one would be there to append them despite their good
intentions. Well, his and Kel's intentions were good, but he didn't know about Neal's
because the knight had refused to share the true ambition of this expedition.

When Merric reached the top of the stairs, the stairwell opened up onto a wide field
of greenery...and several swords pointing at him. He promptly dropped the stick he
had been holding and moved to the side, allowing Kel and finally Neal up onto the
property.

"...Why am I not surprised this happened?" Neal whispered to Merric. He had been
squished between Kel and the other knight.

Merric just rolled his eyes.

***

Rather than raise a fuss, the three knights allowed themselves to be apprehended
and taken to a holding building. It was a squat, box-shaped structure with white-
washed walls and a dirt floor. It was divided in half, with the right side divided into
three, fair-sized blocks. Facing the cells was a desk with a man sitting behind it,
armed with a sword. On the left side of the desk was a small cabinet mounted on
the wall with a swinging door and a padlock. On the other side of the desk was a
floor-to-ceiling bookcase filled to the brim with books of all sorts.

The structure itself had two windows on the side with the desk. On the side with
the cells, it had three tiny, rectangular windows barred with iron rods. Apparently,
Neal, Kel, and Merric had been arrested.

"Uh, Master Scary-Looking Guard Man?" Neal called carefully.

Kel hit him. "Don't call him 'scary-looking.'"

He shot her a Look and turned his gaze back to Master Scary-Looking Guard Man.
"Why have we been held here?"

Master Scary-Looking Guard Man just sat behind his desk, reading. Occasionally
he would run a hand through his thining salt-and-pepper hair or stroke his matching
beard thoughtfully. Once he even stood up and smoothed out his dark blue tunic,
black slacks, and white shirt.

"Sir?" Kel asked. It had been about three hours since they were taken in from the
hidden stairwell.

The guard actually looked up at her.

"Sir, if I may ask, why are we being held here?" Kel continued innocently.

The guard set down his book and walked over to the cell, where he stood with
his arms crossed over his chest. He chewed his lip thoughtfully and finally answered
with, "You were trespassing."

"Oh," Kel sighed. "We didn't know the beach was private property. You see, we're
not from the Copper Isles."

Narrowing his eyes, the guard nodded. "We know."

"We're from Galla, sir," Kel continued.

The guard looked surprised for a moment, then shook his head and narrowed his
eyes again. "You're not. You're from Tortall."

"Sir!" gasped Kel. "I beg your pardon, but we are not!"

"You wear Tortallan colors," the guard told them.

"We lived directly on the border of Galla and Tortall," she replied. "My family traded
a lot with Tortallan merchants. We were tailors."

"Why do you wear men's clothing?" the guard asked suddenly. "Why do you wear
your hair short?"

"Sir, no offense, but have you ever tried to wear a dress in the dead of winter in
Galla?" Kel told him.

A strange look crossed the guard's face and he shook his head.

Kel smiled. "That's what I thought. Sir, we apologize for trespassing, but we had no
ill intent. You see, on our way here, we were kidnapped by pirates and then robbed
and dropped off at the beach. We have nothing in the way of clothes or supplies,"
she told him. Tears began to fill her eyes. "We had no idea we were trespassing on
private property. Sir, we were only trying to get here to some family members that
live on the Islands! My husband and I," she motioned to Neal, "and my cousin," she
pointed to Merric, "just wanted to visit some family members."

Neal walked up behind Kel and wrapped an arm around her waist, using the other
hand to stroke her hair. "There, there, love," he murmured. "Everything will turn
out all right." He shot a dirty look at the guard for making his "wife" cry.

Kel turned and buried her face in Neal's shoulder, wailing and sobbing like only a
woman who had seen court ladies do that too often could.

Merric stepped up to the bars holding them inside the cell. "Sir, I think you should
apologize to my cousin." He lowered his voice then. "She's very sensitive, and I
really wouldn't want to make her mage husband angry."

The color drained from the guard's face. "M-mage?" he whispered.

Merric nodded gravely. "He served at the court in Cria for a while before he married
my cousin. In fact, they were going to move back to the court to be the king's
personal mage in Cria after our trip here."

The guard backed away, then ran over to the cabinet on the wall, unlocked it, and
pulled out a key. He hurried back to the cell, jammed the ket he grabbed into the
lock, and pulled open the door. "So sorry, so sorry," he apologized. "We saw the
pirates and thought you were with them, not having gotten attacked by them."

Neal snorted. "Right. I'll make sure His Majesty hears about this!"

The guard trembled.

"Come along, dearest. Merric," Neal nodded.

The guard watched them leave and shakily sat down behind the desk again.

***

"That was brilliant, my dear," Neal murmured in Kel's ear as they walked about
Emerald Edge. They needed to find a place to sleep...

Kel nodded. "Thanks. You learn a few things here and there when you've been as
many places as I have."

Neal chuckled.

"I hate to interrupt," Merric broke in, "but we need to find some place to sleep
tonight. Never mind the fact that we have no Copper Isle currency."

They found a small inn and approached it cautiously. Tired of being pushed around
by Neal, Merric elected him as their envoy. Grumbilng, Neal entered the inn and
came out a few moments later, carrying keys. "Apparently word of my being this
royal mage has gotten out," he said. "A room for my 'wife' and I, and a room for
you." Neal tossed Merric his key. "Let's go."

They entered the inn and found their rooms. Instead of being next to each other
like normally, they were staying on either side of the hallway. Merric had a big
room all to himself, with a large bed and a wide window. Neal and Kel had an
equally as large room, with a slightly bigger bed. Two wardrobes stood against
the wall with a desk across the room, and the bed was pushed up against the
wall. Heavy curtains hung in front of the window in an attempt to keep out the
chilly winter wind.

"Tired," Neal muttered. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"Don't be stupid," Kel snapped. "You can sleep on the bed. It's not like we
haven't done that before without touching each other."

"All right..." Neal agreed uncertainly. It was torture the last time they were in
the same bed together and he couldn't touch her. Shaking his head clear of those
thoughts, he shed his tunic, shirt, socks, and boots and flopped onto the bed,
snuggling under the covers. "G'night, Kel."

"G'night Neal," she murmured, but he was already asleep. She too shed her tunic,
boots, and socks, but she kept on her shirt and pants. It wouldn't be very
comfortable, but it was better than freezing to death. She eased into the bed,
careful not to wake him up, and soon fell asleep herself.

Once Neal heard the gentle and even flow of Kel's breath indicating her surrender
to slumber, he softly tiptoed out of bed. Quickly, he gathered his clothes and strapped
his sword to his waist--sleeping with his sword on was something he had never grown
accustomed to and probably never would--and trod softly out of the room. Once
safely in the hallway, Neal pulled on his shrit and his tunic, re-strapping his sword over
the tunic, pulled on his socks, and finally laced his boots. He could feel the Sword of
Abscador nearby. The buzzing in his head had grown louder when they reached the
inn.

He raced down the stairs as quietly as he could and ran out of the door, looking around.
*Okay, Queenscove,* he said to himself. *Calm down. Concentrate on it. Where is it
coming from?*

He closed his eyes and stood out in front of the inn looking like an idiot, but at least he
could sense which direction the Sword was.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and rotated towards the direction he felt the pull. Down in a
little cove of trees was a temple. That was Neal's destination.

***

Uncertainly, Neal stood in front of the temple, the buzzing noise now a strong humming.
It was definitely in this temple. Carefully, he walked up the temple steps and pushed open
the door, the humming now a pounding. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the
brightly-lit interior but when he got his bearings back, he found the temple to be a flat,
wide open structure with an altar at the rear of it. A statue stood on each side of the
altar, holding candles.

Where was the sword?

A dedicate in temple colors approached Neal. "May I help you?"

*Think fast,* he told himself. "I heard on the mainland that this temple here had a holy
sword or something like that? I wanted to see it. I have a penchant for weaponry."

The dedicate looked confused. "No...we don't have anything like that."

"Oh," Neal frowned. "Thank you anyway."

He left the temple, utterly perplexed. Maybe it was in the rear of the temple and they
didn't know it? Curiously, he crept around to the back of the building, noticing that this
cliff-side town had a lot of squat buildings. He realized that since they were right on the
ocean and a beach town nonetheless, they would need squat buildings that natural
disasters wouldn't collapse.

The buzz in his head became a thorough pounding until he couldn't take and dropped to
his knees.

"Ow!" he yelped. He looked down. His knee had dropped on the pommel of a sword,
not his own. "Could this...?" he muttered and cautiously grabbed it. The buzzing
vanished as he raised the sword closer to his face. It was made out of a lustrous
silver steel so clean it shone nearly white, and the pommel was decorated with tiny
emeralds. "It's it."

He grabbed the sheath from the ground, sheathed the sword and strapped it to his
waist opposite his usual weapon. Briefly, he looked up to the sky and nodded,
whispering, "Thanks."

He took off back to the inn.

***

Neal was relieved to find that Kel hadn't missed him while he was absent. Carefully,
he set the Sword of Abscador inside the standing wardrobe, stripped down to his
pants, and slipped back into bed.

When morning finally came, Kel woke at dawn and found that she had snuggled up
to Neal and he had his arm around her waist. *Dammit,* she cursed, turning her
gaze on him. *How does this always happen? I think I have some security issues
or something.*

Against her better judgment, she closed her eyes and savored the feeling of being
in Neal's arms.

"I know you're awake," he whispered.

Kel sighed and began to move, but Neal clamped his arm tighter around her waist.
"We can pretend that I don't know though," he added.

Slowly, she turned over so she faced Neal instead of having her back to him. His
green eyes pleaded with her. *Gods, Neal,* she thought. *Why do I have to love
you so much?* And in a very uncharacteristic moment, she moved her head on
the pillow the scant distance between them and claimed his lips with her own.
He returned the kiss gently, savoring the moment. He wasn't quite sure, but he
thought he whimpered when she pulled away. However, she did rest her forehead
against his. "Goddess, Neal..." she whispered.

"Shhh," he whispered back, holding a finger to her lips. "Don't. Don't talk."

She closed her eyes and swatted away his hand. "I love you," she told him, her
voice barely a whisper. "Goddess, Neal, I love you so much..."

*Everything's happening all at once,* Neal thought. He pressed his lips to Kel's
again. "I love you too."

"I never stopped," she confessed. "I don't mean any of the things I said to you.
Gods, I didn't know it would be so hard to pretend I don't love you. I thought it
would be easy to pretend I hate you. I thought I could protect you but..."

At that point, she had burst into tears and buried her face in Neal's shoulder.

"Shhh, baby," he said soothingly. "Shhh...I'm here." Gently, he helped her sit
up and wrapped his arms around her waist, his heart bursting. "It's okay." He
smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead, wiping away her tears. "I
love you."

"Look at me," she said, hiccoughing. She leaned back and dragged her sleeve
across her eyes and offered a sad smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm
sobbing like some court lady." Gingerly, she stepped out of the bed and smoothed
out her clothes. Neal watched her as she wandered over to a basin of water sitting
on the desk and splashed some on her face. "Sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
Quickly, she dried her face off and found her tunic. "I didn't want to break down
like that."

"I don't care," shrugged Neal. He too went over to the basin and washed off his
face. When he turned back around to get his clothes, Kel had already dressed
herself. "You go ahead and wake Merric up. I got what we came here for last
night."

Kel nodded and left the room as Neal got dressed. A few moments later, Kel
came back with a refreshed-looking Merric.

"Sleep well?" Merric asked, his eyebrows raised as Neal's rumpled appearance.

"As well as I have since the Master recruited me." He quickly finger-combed his
hair and armed himself. Kel and Merric watched curiously as Neal opened the
standing wardrobe and pulled out the Sword of Abscador.

"What's that?" Kel frowned.

"What I came here for," he shrugged. "Let's go see if we can find Fane and the
others."

"I thought we decided we were stranded?" Merric asked.

"We'll never know unless we go look for them," Neal explained as he strapped the
Sword of Abscador opposite of his everyday sword. "Let's go eat and then go see
if we can find them."

They followed Neal's suggestion and trooped downstairs, finding that they served
meals differently in the Copper Isles than in Tortall. The table had been set out with
a myriad of different things to eat, mostly things native to the Copper Isles. They
hadn't really expect to see any Tortallan food, but after days of eating food stolen by
pirates, they would have appreciated some of their own native land's food. Regardless,
all three of them sat down and ate breakfast, careful not to speak to each other. None
of them knew much Gallan, definitely not enough to converse in it, and everyone
recognized Tortallan. They pretended they were tired and grumpy and didn't want to
be bothered.

As soon as they finished, they escaped the inn and walked along the edge of the cliff
marking the end of Emerald Edge. Down below they saw nothing but the blue waves
laping either the walls of the cliff or the sands of the tiny beach, but no sign of the ship
that had dropped them off.

"Didn't they say something about going into a cove?" Kel said finally. "A cove
somewhere down that way or that way?" she pointed in the directions she mentioned.

"You know, I do believe you're right," Neal agreed. "One of us should go down to the
beach and see if we can see the cove from there, one of us should go that way," he
pointed, "and one of us should go the other way."

"I'll go down to the beach," Kel volunteered.

"I'll take this way." Merric headed off in the opposite direction of Neal.

"I'll take this way, then," Neal muttered and started off.

***

Udaan had slept lightly against the door to the chambers he sought entrance to. He
had awakened when they opened but he was merely stepped over rather than
acknowledged. It would have been so much easier if everyone would have just
*listened* to him.

So now he paced in front of the door, waiting for it to open again. When it did open
again, he jam his remaining arm between the frame and the door itself and squeeze
inside, regardless of guards waiting inside the facility. He needed to speak with the
man inside, but nobody seemed to want to acknowledge him at all.

Grumbling, Udaan wished he had never come there at all. However, it was dire that
he spoke to the man inside. It was of utter importance about Kel. He would have
thought that Kel's name would have at least caught the attention of the man he
wanted to speak to, but it didn't so much as elicit a grunt, or so Udaan imagined. It
was silly to have thought his words would have any impact on the man. About to go
back home, Udaan turned, only to hear the door open.

"Udaan?" asked a gruff voice.

"'S me," Udaan confirmed.

"He will see you now." The door swung open wider, granting Udaan admittance.

Udaan simply nodded rather than verbally thank whoever had opened the door for
him. He usually didn't go this far within the compound, but it was necessary now.

The door had granted him access to a long, rectangular hallway, lit dimly by torches
dancing in shadows on either side of the hall. A long, floor-width rug ran from a few
feet away from the door to, presumably, the man at the end of the hall, unless there
was another door and a separate chamber for him. Udaan didn't notice much else of
the hallway, as there was little light to see by and his mind was on other things.

When he reached the end of the hallway, Udaan disarmed himself and kneeled. With
his only hand, he clasped his opposite shoulder and dropped his head, as was proper
protocol for the man in front of him.

"I understand you wish to speak with me. I told you not to come back here unless
you had the Sword in your possession," the man intoned.

"My 'pologies, sire," Udaan said gravely. "However, I've news of Kel."

"Oh? It better be good," the man growled.

"Kel lef' early in the morning a few weeks ago wit' Neal," Udaan confessed.

"And you didn't alert me of this immediately?" the man's voice sent chills up and down
Udaan's spine.

"S-sire, back then I wasn' cert'in she was gonna stay wit' 'im," he explained quickly.
"Plus, this trip takes a pure week to make on its own an' ain't nobody who listened t'
me."

The man refrained from rolling his eyes. "What do you mean by nobody listened to
you?"

"I mean I hadda argue wit' the guards t' get them t' lemme in," Udaan told him.
"Ain't nobody who likes t' do that."

The man nodded, a faint shadow moving in the darkness to Udaan. "I see. What
other news do you bring me?"

"Yer servant, Garvey, has died. He attempted t' tell someone, presum'bly Kel,
'bout our mission," Udaan reported. "Tis assumed that Merric is now wit' Kel and
Neal."

"Excellent," the man nodded. "Perfectly done, if I do say so myself. Garvey was
getting to know too much anyway." He sighed. "What else do you have to say
about Kel?"

Udaan bit his lip, then said, "She's still in love wit' Neal."

He wasn't quite sure, but he could have sworn that the man in front of him
flinched.

"Very well." The voice sounded deadly. "Very well. Bring me Bardev."

***

Fane stood at the edge of the ship, smiling wryly as Neal, Merric, and Kel boarded
the ship. "Did you three honestly think we would abandon you here?" she asked.
"I told you we would be right up in the cove over there because we shouldn't be
seen here. Those up in Emerald Edge don't quite fancy us." She followed them to
their quarters which, miraculously, had been left untouched...for the most part.
"Didja find what you need?"

"Yes," Neal replied. He surveyed his room and flinched. The pouch he kept his
money in was missing from his bags. "Where did my money go?"

Kel poked her head out of her room. "Where did my money go, Fane?"

Next came Merric. "And mine?"

"Wait here for a minute," she instructed and hurried off. She came back a few
moments later carrying three pouches. "Merric's," she tossed him his, "Kel's,"
she handed hers over, "and Neal's." She dropped his pouch in his hand. "I
made sure that they wouldn't be tempted to take your goods."

"Well...thank you," Kel told her.

"It doesn't go unappreciated," Merric added.

"It was very thoughtful of you," Neal added as well.

Fane gave them a big smile. "It's my pleasure to help you three out. You're sweet
kids, and I don't know how you lot got caught up in the Master's scheme of things."

The three sighed simultaneously.

"I just want to get back to the mainland and get this stupid Sword off my hands,"
Neal mumbled as he shut his door and flopped on the bed.