A/N: Just thought I'd add a note to ask you to tell me what you think of Tarreiz so far, and if your initial opinion of her has changed at all (especially after this chapter). She isn't meant to be hated, although I know that Sage of Darkness for one doesn't like her very much, and it would be interesting to see if anyone likes her. (I myself haven't decided yet, and she's my own character!) And, of course, any reviews with any comments at all are definitely welcome!
Chapter Eleven
Two days later, Crono and his friends were walking into Synalair.
The village was not the type that Lucca would have expected to be known for having a slave market. It was clean and white and busy and looked quite friendly.
"It changes as night falls," Tarreiz remarked casually. "You would not want to be wandering alone through the darkness of Synalair. You will find the streets surprisingly empty in the evening. Come, Marle is this way. She is quite safe, Crono."
"How do you know?" Crono muttered darkly, shifting the bow yet again on his back.
The village was also bigger than they would have expected. Everyone except for Magus and Schala, both of whom were used to fancy pomp that had no purpose other than to impress, was overawed by the prettiness and cleanliness of the buildings and stuck close to Tarreiz as she led them through the city. Lucca wondered if she was the only one who noticed how the crowd parted to let them through - or rather, to allow Tarreiz to pass unchallenged.
Tarreiz stopped and Crono's breath caught in his throat. "I see her," he whispered and pushed past the magician. Marle was standing in the square with an unfamiliar man. His hair was a kind of dark, dirty blonde and his eyes, had Crono taken the time to notice them, were an unusually brilliant green.
"Is he the one who kidnapped her?" Crono demanded. "He is, isn't he? I'll kill him!"
"No!" The cry came from Tarreiz, and Crono found himself frozen in his tracks. "No harm comes to Tarkyn," hissed the magician in a tone bordering on fury. "I would strike you down where you stand before I allowed you to raise your hand against him!"
Crono held up his hands. "Okay, I won't even try to harm him! Let me go... please?" She didn't answer but he found that he could move his feet again, so he presumed that she had decided he could be trusted.
Marle had sighted Crono's wild red hair and, catching Tarkyn's hand, dragged him over. "You have to meet my friends! I'm sure they'll like you," she said confidently, for she herself had come to be quite fond of Tarkyn during the days she had spent in his company at Synalair. "Well, Crono might be a little bit upset with you, and Lucca may or may not approve, and if Ayla tries to eat you, don't take any offence. Oh, and Frog's a frog, but we don't talk about it much any more. And Robo rarely joins in anything. Schala may act a little aloof sometimes, and Magus usually comes across as a little bit evil. But Alfador's nice enough - he's the cat. Hey Crono!" she said brightly as they reached the group and, abandoning Tarkyn, hugged Crono.
He hugged her back and then, taken by impulse and his utter happiness to have her back safely and mainly by a desire to do exactly that almost the first time he'd seen her, he kissed her. She responded almost without thinking about it and when they came up for air, she stared at him, eyes wide. "Wow," she breathed softly and kissed him again.
The others gave a mutual roll of their eyes and turned to Tarkyn, ignoring the two. For his part, Tarkyn was ignoring all of them. "Tarreiz," he said almost nervously. "You're not meant to be here. Why... what are you doing in Synalair?"
"I got sick of Jeraska," Tarreiz responded coldly. "Magus and the others employed my aid in leading them to Synalair to recover their lost comrade."
"Yes, I knew they would follow, that's why I took her. You know they had to come here. Why did you bring them?"
"I was not certain if they could be trusted in the hands of a common guide. Your task here is done, Tarkyn. You should return to Altrisiac now."
Lucca wondered if anyone else had noticed how carefully Tarreiz had avoided mentioning the fact that she was also leading them to Kelke. Magus had told them what the magician had said when he first spoke to her - something about the invasion of privacy. She wondered if Tarreiz meant to complete this second task.
"Tarreiz..." Tarkyn began awkwardly. He started to say something, changed his mind. "You don't want company?"
"I was alone in Jeraska for years, if you recall. Why should I need you now? You or your company?"
It was that statement that concreted Lucca's suspicions. Tarkyn's initial reaction to the clearly unexpected sight of Tarreiz, and the magician's first cold response, had made the young inventor wonder if it might be this (quite cute) green-eyed man whom Tarreiz had 'lost'. Now she was sure of it.
"Well... okay," said Tarkyn, clearly relieved to be getting away so easily. "I guess I'll see you around Altrisiac, then. Take care of Marle - she is Mage-touched."
"Yes, I know that," Tarreiz snapped. "It would do you good to remember to whom you speak."
"Oh. Yes. Sorry. I'll... see you around, then," said Tarkyn uncomfortably and, glancing quickly around at the group, smiled briefly and walked away.
"I am sure that you will," remarked Tarreiz softly to herself. Drawing back into her always polite and sometimes cold shell, she turned to study her charges.
"We will rest here in this village tonight," she declared. "There is a reputable hostel on the outskirts of the city." Her dark eyes flickered over Crono and Marle. "Someone unglue those two."
"That's disgusting, it really is," Magus declared. "Get a room! Right, that's it." He walked to the side of the street to where the snow was piled up. Because he had his back to them, none of them could see what he was doing, but when he turned it was with a ball of snow in his hands. "Hey! Break it up!" he shouted at Crono and Marle, and threw the snowball at them.
"Hey!" Marle exclaimed indignantly, breaking away from Crono. For his part, Crono didn't waste his breath with any outburst but stooped to gather some snow, which he packed into a ball and threw back at Magus. The warlock retaliated with another snowball of his own, and before anyone knew it they were waging a full-scale snow-war on the streets of Synalair.
Magus, Lucca and Schala fought bravely against Crono, Marle, Frog and Ayla but found themselves losing to the superior tactics of the others. Alfador and Robo chose to sit this one out, as did Tarreiz at the start, but the magician's neutrality ended when Schala, Lucca and Crono turned on her. After that it was an absolute free-for-all which ended up with all eight of the fighters rolling around on the street and the entire group, including Robo, in hysterics.
"Getting back to business," Tarreiz managed to say, "we ought to retire to the inn. We will all need our rest - "
"Especially after that," Schala commented, pulling Magus to his feet. She fell over backwards in the process. He set her back on her feet and helped Lucca up.
"Indeed," commented the magician as she rose to her feet and tried to get her hair back in some kind of order. (They would never be able to buy the coldly polite and distant act again.) "Come, we must regain our strength, for we have some distance yet to travel."
