A Meeting of Houses
Act VI - Twisted Love
Jaelawyn Noble [ Jaelawyn@attbi.com ]
Disclaimer: Love 'em, dun own 'em.
Warnings:
Rating: R
Pairing: Lerant/Keladry, Roald/Shinkokami, Buri/Raoul
Summary: Kel is in an arranged marriage. Only, it's at the brink of the
war with Scanra. Kel is a Knight - and has to follow the king's orders. Will she
learn to love her future husband, as they fight together? Or is everything just
doomed to forever be something you cannot fight?
Archive:
Feedback: 'm a whore for it.
Notation: Forgive me if I rush the next two chapters. I REALLY want to get to
part 8. Also - just a note, I am totally anti-Kel-Neal. Sorry people, but...
c'mon!
~
Alanna looked at the prices that the merchants were charging. This was ridiculous! "Jon, we have to do something about this."
Jon sighed. "I know. What can we do? The middle classes refuse to do a thing. We are the ones they rule; we do not rule them. I am just the figurehead of the ship that is Tortall. I cannot control the way people act. It would be impossible to do so."
Alanna was very tempted to slam her head on the table and end it all right there. "We really don't need this. We have so much going on."
"Like...?" Jon asked, elbows on the table and his head resting in his hands.
"Roald's wedding to Shinkokami," she said, beginning to tick things off on her fingers. "The coming war with Scanra. Arranging a marriage for Kalasin. Trying to pass new laws to try and quell the middle class. And at the moment, it looks like we're going to have to deal with a revolution thanks to the merchants and the lesser nobles, oh - and we cannot forget the Commoners." She closed her eyes and put a hand to her left temple. She had a growing headache spreading behind her eyes.
Jon sighed. "We don't have time to deal with Kalasin and her marriage."
"You could have let her train to be a warrior," Alanna said tiredly.
"Couldn't. Who would want a knight for a Queen?"
Alanna looked at him out of the side of her eyes. "I could name someone."
"Old history," he snapped. She sighed and shrugged; he sighed as well. "All right. Now... The marriage date for Roald... Do we have any time?"
Alanna flipped through some pages. Gary came in and sat down, Raoul with him. "What's up?" Gary asked, trying to take the papers from Alanna. She slapped his hand away and continued flipping through them, head supported by her left hand and arm.
"August? October, even," Alanna said, looking up at Jon.
He sighed. The others looked at Alanna. "Marriage?" Raoul asked in a whisper. She nodded and he drew in deep breath.
"October. It'll be late enough and the fighting will have quelled down for Midwinter." Alanna nodded and scratched it onto a page in a slim book. Jon sighed, muttering darkly.
"Okay. Now... Erhm... What's the situation with Scanra? How serious is it? Can we even hope to win?"
Jon looked out the window. "Can we, Alanna? Raoul?"
Alanna looked away, silent. Raoul scrubbed his face with his hands and looked at Jon helplessly.
Gary was silent. "What about Keladry?" They all looked at him. "She knew exactly how to fight that metal creature. And you yourself, Raoul, said she would be invaluable to us. And she has proved it. Even Wyldon has said she is good."
"And she knows tactics and strategies," Jonathan murmured, stroking his chin.
"No!" Alanna said, standing up. "I know what you both are saying. Wyldon is a good teacher and he taught them well, but not well enough to go into a full-fledged war within being newly knighted! You're talking about sending them to the absolute front! Jonathan, these are not faceless armies! These are nobles, knights! We have almost none! The immortals war struck us down more than half! If you're going to send what we have left, you might as well just have them killed now!"
"Alanna, calm down," Jonathan said tiredly. He sank into his chair. Gary shook his head, and Raoul was silent. "If you're going to get all emotional on us, maybe you should stay home."
Alanna stalked over to him, about five seconds from smacking him. "I agree with Alanna," Raoul said softly. "They're newly knighted. All of them have little experience. The only ones with any are ones stationed with field knights."
Alanna knew she had to do whatever she could to keep Keladry away from the front lines. Anything. She couldn't let Keladry go out fighting with a heart that was so vulnerable at this time. "Jonathan, you cannot send these boys out to war!"
"We did in the Immortals incident," Gary said softly.
"And how many did we lose!" Alanna yelled. Her head was pounding in pain.
"I agree. We cannot let them out!" Raoul told Jon and Gary.
"How much of this is because you want to protect Keladry?" Jon asked softly.
Alanna looked at Jon. "You want her to go and fight after she's had the biggest shock of her life?"
"Does this explain why she was in your room a few weeks ago?" Jon asked softly, blue eyes meeting violet.
Alanna sighed, looking away. "Jon... She's had her best friends turned on her, found out she's betrothed, and had her love turn on her. She's in over her head. And to top it all off, there's this blasted war!"
~
Alanna, Alanna, Alanna... Do you have any idea what you still do to me?
Jonathan looked at his short friend. Not too long ago, he had been willing to die for her. Yet, he also knew she was right. He couldn't send a woman out when she couldn't concentrate on the task at hand. Alanna had proved that once. She had been so worried she nearly got herself and a squad killed.
Of course, the problems had been on someone else. She had been worried about him and Thayet. An obvious choice of fear, if you asked him.
He sighed and looked away. Her violet eyes were looking at him, pleading. "All right. She'll go at Midsummer with a supply and reinforcement train. All right?" Alanna nodded, thought the look of death still haunted her. Jon sighed. She'd seen so much hardship, hatred, and death that nothing could cure. By the time she was fourteen, her entire family had died. Thom... He was cold and hard - even then. The day when she came to the palace was also the day she lost her life to Tortall.
She was only around forty-one, though she looked at least sixty today. Life had taken a huge toll on her, and it seemed not to want to give it back. Usually she looked as young as twenty-three - but times like these made her look much, much older.
If only I could save you from all this. You still hold my heart, dearest. I only wish I still held yours...
~
Delia pulled the hood of her cloak back. Shea was riding next to her. They had just crossed the Scanran boarder. Once again she was in Scanra - the place she had hid for over fifteen years. It was hell here. She hated it. It reminded her constantly that this was not the life she was suppose to lead. It reminded her that she had been cheated out of her crown. Her slim white hands tightened on her mare's reigns.
"Aunt Delia?" Shea asked softly. She looked over at him to see him watching her with obvious worry in his beautiful green eyes. Eyes that took after her own.
She smiled at him. "Do not worry, Shea. I am fine. My dear friend Maggar Rathhausak should welcome us soon. His escort will pick us up the moment we clear the Tortallan boarder and cannot be seen by Northwatch."
"The newest Scanran threat? You've made treat with that trash?"
"That trash," said a man with dark black hair, fair skin, and blue eyes, "is her lover."
Delia smiled and dismounted. "Hello Maggar."
"Delia," he said with a nod, also dismounting. "This must be your nephew."
"I am terribly sorry for his manners. He didn't know."
"Tis alright, Delia." He looked at Shea. "We could use you, Tortallan."
"How so?" Shea asked, dismounting and joining the two lovers. Maggar looked at him with a smile - one Shea didn't like at all. It was leering, almost. It seemed that this warlord trash would help his aunt get her Crown - even if he would double cross her in the end.
"Your brother, Lerant... He is betrothed to a Keladry of Mindelan, is he not?"
"Yes, and I have already attempted to rid Tortall of her... Lerant saw through it - somehow."
"Hm..." Maggar smirked. "He shall not see through anything else." He turned to a short, dark man who stood beside him. "Isn't that right, Mahon?"
Mahon Danasura bowed to them all. He was a very short little man. His oily and dirty hair was blond, his beady little eyes were black as soil. And his hands looked like they were permanently stained with the blood of those he killed for power. The blood of millions of innocent children.
Shea smiled though. He smiled as the little man smirked.
Tortall would be stopped. And so would Lerant.
~
Again! Sorry if I rushed this!
