~~:Review Thank you's:~~
Shayley Rain: ::bows to cunning:: Good thinking about tha flame thing. Very intresting thought....
AB-scribere: I may have changed it for that reason yes, and i know that it was accepted and all but ppl just don't understand that...
ravenmist: yes she was just supposed to do a sword dance. I don't see why you think she should have done it with one. If ya remember when she first started her training she had used two swords and the training master had know what she was doing and told her it was a talent few possessed. He wanted the judges and the court to know what she could do.
FantasyIsMyLife: I know you think that I'm rushing, and maybe in places I am. But thats the point, it's supposed to be confusing! Mwhahahaa, for reasons I will not explain...
JadeGreenGoddess: As I am unable to reply to your review-Never get in a pissing contest with a skunk.
Xirleb70: Poor you, my brother took me chocolate, and I think you should sit on him...
Ack, not many reviews, ack. That is so sad, I feel unloved, maybe it's because ot the 'other' ch 19. Anyway, this is chapter 20.
Ack, my brother is on a diet, along with the rest of my family so I'm eating soggy grape nuts for breakfast AND I have to ride my bike to work this morning! Ahhhhh!
~~:Chapter 20: The Chamber :~~
Chapter 20
The mental exams were painful. After they finished lunch, they were taken and seated in a glass room. This had gone into affect years and years ago when the Lioness had disguised herself as a boy. Point being the conservatives purposed that precautions be taken. The glass room was a new edition to that edict. Other people could watch the pages without bothering them.
Sitting inside this literal glass bubble was a nerve-wracking experience for Lia. Eyes riveted on her to see if she would fail, see if she would cheat, see if she would fail. In her head, Lia was repeating over and over, I will not fail, I will survive, I will become a knight, and I will fulfill my destiny. That said, as the exam was set in front, if her she gave her watchers one more scalding glare and began.
The questions on the exam were very broad. Write the code of Chivalry--something Lia could recite verbatim--What country is to Tortall's south? Who rules it? When was that country's last rebellion? List Carthak's eighth rank dignitary. On and on the list went, ranging from politics to geography, which way to tilt your soup bowl or how to put on your knight masters gauntlets.
Turning the thick piece of parchment paper over yet again Lia began the mathematics part of the test. She was relieved to see something she could finally do. She flashed a smile at her watchers who were still standing there watching her like a hawk. She could feel their eyes on her as she turned the pages on the test. She felt their eyes trying to read the questions on the page, or check her arms for written answers. A tad unnerving, especially when you knew the kid next to you was cheating.
An hour and a half later she was done. A few pages had already finished and had gone to dinner. Many hours had elapsed between the time they had begun and when she had finally finished. Standing up her body snapped and popped and stretched back into place. Lia grimaced as she left.
Upon entering the mess hall, her three favorite squires came and congratulated her on surviving. Lia smiled at them as she was ushered to a table and had food placed in front of her.
"Who's the eighth dignitary of Carthak?" Lia asked after she had eaten something.
"I don't know." Alex said dumbfounded. "Was it on there?'' He asked sarcastically, not believing her hints.
"Yup." She said tiredly.
"Wow." John said. And the new squire nodded and yawned.
With time the leaves on the trees darkened and shriveled, and then finally fell to the ground. Just like the small blossom of hope that had bloomed deep within her chest. At first, it looked healthy, like it was going to make it, but now, months later that hope had shriveled and died. Leaving her with nothing but a small once-was dream, only a small reminder of what she had wanted to be. Three months had passed and no one had asked for her services. Sure her scores hadn't been perfect, but not many others had either, and at the moment she was the only squire left in the palace.
Lia sighed and moved away from her window. She ran a brush through her hair and picked up Chemise before walking out of the door. She had a meeting with ha Minchi about where she was going to spend her squire hood until a knight asked for her services. She traveled down the hallways quickly, and she arrived at ha Minchi's study where a servant showed her in and said the master would be in, in a moment. Lia nodded and set her cat down. His office was bare of any personal affects, a desk, a bookshelf, a filing drawer. No paintings of his family, no dog, nothing.
Ha Minchi entered a few minuets later and sat behind a large desk. Lia waited for him to speak. She could see the words forming behind his eyes; she now needed only to survive to squire someone would pick her.
"Squire Yazlia, you have yet to be picked for a squire. That said it is my duty to assign you to a division of the palace until someone asks for your services. You services have been requested by the research department." Lia hid a smile research eh? "If you choose to accept this assignment the need for secrecy is great, you will have to keep certain information to yourself and not tell your friends or family what goes on in there. If you have no qualms about this, then you will start tomorrow." He said.
"That's fine sir." Lia said politely. He nodded and waved his hand in dismissal. Lia picked up the red ball of fuzz and left.
~~:~~
Lia was late, it was eight thirty and she was supposed to be there at eight. She had woken up late and had forgotten what she was supposed to be doing. This was highly out of the range of usual character for Lia and she was surprised with herself. She ran down the halls, bumping into people and muttering a quick 'excuse me' before continuing her reckless pace across the castle. Why does the research department have to be at the other end of the castle? She moaned in her head. She skidded to a stop.
Opening the big oak door labeled Research Lia walked into a mad house. People were yelling and running around like proverbial chickens. Scrolls were being thrown through the air only to be caught by a ready hand. Lia stood there in stunned silence before a man walked over to her. He looked to be about in his late forties to early fifties.
"Ye can't be in here lass." He said quietly. Lia quickly shook her head.
"I'm the Squire Sir ha Minchi assigned here. Unless he didn't notify you. I can go get a note." Lia said backing back into the doorway.
"Nay lass that won't be necessary. I'm just a wee bit wound up. We got sumthin' goin' down we do." He said with a broad smile.
"Find the book of the dead did you?" Lia said sarcastically.
"What?" He asked confused.
"That's what you do here right, researcch. Or was I misinformed?" Lia asked sweetly. The man let out a long belly laugh.
"That's right darlin', we're researchers. A very defined breed we are." He said still laughing. He stuck out a hand for her to shake. "I'm George; I'm in charge of this little department."
"Lia, or Yazlia of Queenscove if you're going to be picky." She said smiling.
"Ah, yes. My wife had the unfortunate privilege of being your fathers Knight Master, very interesting time that was." He said with a smile. "Well, today you get to organize the storage closet." He said pulling her to a rather large door. Opening it revealed a very long room. The domed ceiling was twice, maybe three times as tall as Lia was.
"Closet eh?" She said looking at George.
"Yes, closet." He said with a wicked grin.
"Uh hu." She said before going to work.
~~:~~
It took Lia a week to clean the closet out. She first moved all of the books to one side of the room, and scrubbed the other side and then moved the books to the clean side and scrubbed the other side. Then she got to go through and collect of the books and scrolls. Some of which were so old Lia took them to the scribes to be rewritten. Then because she did such a good job George was going to let her do another, larger, taller, dustier closet. Lia had just looked at him and gone to work.
Now, two months later she was working in the very back of the research department. Everything back here was coated in an inch of dust and grime. She had a wastebasket that she was filing up with the thick layer of pasty dust that lay on the top of the books. Lia heard the large oak door bang open and people beginning to yell.
It wasn't the happy controlled yelling that happened when some one burst in with a lead, it was terrified 'what's going on yelling'. Peering around the many bookcases that surrounded her Lia gasped. She counted fifteen men dressed in black attacking the scholars. Pulling out her boot knives, she began systematically throwing them at people. Yamani throwing stars hit people in the eyes and imbedded themselves in brains.
A man figured out where she was and attacked her, his leg hitting her bottom rib. Strong arms wrapped around her neck and cut off her air. Lia stepped backwards, into the man. Very carefully placing her leg in between his, she kicked it up behind her back, into his lower abdomen and threw him over her shoulders and into a bookcase. Lia leaned against a wall and massaged her throat. Gasping for breath Lia picked up a large book and grinned evilly, walking up behind a man, she hit him with it as hard as she could. He immediately fell unconscious. Lia smiled at the large book and continued hitting people with it.
Before long blue fire washed over the room, everyone froze the magic was holding them in place. A few were struggling against it. Lia recognized the king as the one with the one with the blue fire. He was looking at people and pulling back his fire. Lia waited for him to relinquish his hold on her. It came and Lia relished in the ability to move again.
She leaned against the wall and waited for an explanation figuring she deserved one. Lia watched as the king and George had a very quiet, yet heated discussion. It was very late at night when George realized she was still there. He sighed and walked towards her.
"I suppose' ye want an explanation." He said. Lia nodded and drew shaped in the dust with her toe. He sighed again. "Ye were pretty vicious with that book of yer's." He said, trying to change the subject. Uh hu, if I wanted flattery I'd put on a pretty dress and sit in the palace gardens, don't change the subject." Lia said.
"Alright lass, they didn't want us to have a piece of intelligence. We already had it, and so they were trying to take it back." He said simply.
"You're trying to tell me that they tried to kill us, over a piece of information!" Lia yelled furiously.
"Yes." He said slowly.
"That is a load of bull and you know it! I want to know why the bastards tried to kill me!" She yelled. George winced, she wasn't taking this well.
"Alright, alright. Listen to me, and listen closely. I'm only going to say this once. We have a piece of information telling us how to find the central lair of a threat prevalent to the welfare of the country. It was in the form of a riddle we have yet to solve. This threat sent the men to retrieve that information. Okay?" He asked, looking directly into her eyes.
"You keep referring to it as 'the threat'. It's immortal isn't it?" Lia asked.
"Yes." He said seriously.
"Then why not just call it a he?"
"Because it may very well be a she," He said. A voice whispered Melodious in her head. She smiled.
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Lia said sarcastically. He moaned.
"Lass, yer horrible." He said. Lia grinned.
"Yup." She said walking away. George grimaced in all the years he'd lived he'd never seen such a fast mod swing. Going from screaming to being smirky and evil, and he lived with Alanna.
~~:~~
The next month of Lia's life was given to cleaning the research department: all the books were removed and magically cleansed. All surfaces had to be scrubbed and then magically purified. She didn't understand why and said as much to George.
"The cleaner it is, the less likely it is that there is a spell or poison on it." He said simply. Lia shook her head. She would never understand the precautions men took.
~~:~~
Midwinter was coming up fast and Lia was beginning to worry about her friends. Alex and John were back she had caught them staring off into space. She knew both of them had gone and mediated in the entrance room to the chamber. At the moment Lia was pacing her room. Two days until midwinter and Erikk still wasn't at the palace. Maybe he had decided to wait another year, she thought. Then another part of her said, No, he was too exited to wait. Lia sighed and fell backwards onto her bed. Muttering about 'Stupid inconsiderate brains that don't know when to stop working and let a girl be.' Pulling two swords off her weapons rack Lia began a sword dance. Suddenly her door opened and Lia lost control of her swords and sent them flying into opposite walls. Spinning around she began to yell at whoever dare enter her room.
"What do you think your doing? Entering a girl's room at two in the morning? Didn't your mother teach you to knock? It's terribly rude not to. Ugh!" Lia said finally fixing her eyes upon the intruder. Realizing who it was, she smiled.
"Why hello to you Lia, darlin'. It's nice to see you too." Erikk said in a high pitched drawl. Lia smiled and ran up to give him a hug.
"You made it." She said grinning. He smiled down at her.
"Yes, well, I figured it'd be a good thing to show up at my own ordeal." He said grinning. It feels so nice to hold her. He thought, before mentally screaming at himself to shut up. Then he realized Lia was talking.
"-so what are you doing here?"
"Talking to you." He said sweetly.
"You're horrible ya know."
"I know." He said leaning his head on her shoulder. She smiled sadly and rubbed his back.
"You scared?" She asked softly.
"Dead scared." He said pulling back to look at her. "How are John and Alex?"
"Won't talk about it. I know they've both been in there to 'meditate', I think their brooding." Lia said quietly, not wanting to upset him. He nodded.
"I'll yell at them in the morning. You better go to bed." He said, looking at her sternly. She nodded.
"Alright, 'night " She said, watching him as she left. Smiling she blew out her candles and crawled into her bed.
The next morning she woke up and groaned there was sunlight in her face and every muscle in her body ached. Moaning she rolled over and looked at her night table. A white piece of paper was sitting there. She glared at it and picked it up.
Lia, I left at 3 this morning, won't be back till after midwinter.
-George
Lia continued to glare at the piece of paper. Then she glared at the open window. Why was her window open? Lia's door opened. Erikk walked in.
"Good, you're up, get dressed. We have work to do." Lia glared at him. "What?" He asked.
"It's morning time, I am awake, and you are happy that it's morning time." She said glaring at her. "You have angered me; I am trying to light you on fire with our minds." She said glaring. He laughed, and pulled her out of bed. "Hey!"
"Get up, we have work to do." He said pushing her into her dressing room.
"Fine!" She yelled. "What are we doing?" She asked.
"We drew times for our ordeals, I'm last. John's first, Alex's second." He said. "We'll have to distract them." He said.
"Okay," Lia said walking out of her dressing room in grey breeches and a loose red shirt. "Where to?" She asked.
Alright, that's it, I'm off to work now! Review! More will be updated in two-three days depending on life.
~~Ana~~
