A/N: Thank you every one else who has reviewed since I posted the last
chapter! I appreciate it very much, and since I do have an audience, I WILL
continue to write. Sorry to scare you all like that, but sometimes drastic
measures are needed to ensure results!
Tom slowly opened his eyes and stood up, ready to pick up his book again and keep reading. But he wasn't awake, he was still dreaming. He looked around. He was in an open room filled with three comfortable looking chairs, but no one else was around. He stood up and walked shakily to a door on the far end of the room. Slowly, he reached out for the handle but as his fingers touched the doorknob a piercing scream shot through the air.
Tom sat bolt upright, covered in cold sweat. Alex was sitting next to him, looking very concerned, "Hey, are you alright Tom?" As he made a move to get out of bed, Alex pushed him firmly back down, "No way buddy, before you go anywhere, I'm gonna have to ask you to calm down first..."
The door to their room burst open and Phi came rushing inside looking very disheveled, "What the? What happened?" She rushed over to her brother and sat down on the side of his bed, "What happened to him Alex?"
"I dunno...I was asleep and the next thing I knew, Tom screamed."
Phi turned to Tom who looked as if he was completely zoned out, still gasping for breath from his dream, "What's the matter?"
"I...I had a...a vision...again...I think..." Tom rolled over and hurled over the edge of his bed. Alex sprang up with a slightly disgusted look on his face and moved to the side that Phi was on, the clean side, "I suppose...I should have expected this now that we're back...my gift was probably just kicking back in..."
Phi grinned weakly, "So this is what happens when you have your little vision thingys...I don't think I have ever seen you have one before..."
Alex looked back at Tom and muttered, "Ya, me neither...I'm going to go get someone Tom, you don't look good." And he was telling the truth. Tom's face was taunt and pale and his skin looked clammy.
Tom raised his hand, motioning for Alex to stop, "No. I'll be fine in a few minutes..." Alex cast Phi an unbelieving glance, but stepped away from the door and walked slowly back to sit down on his own bed. Tom smiled at Phi, "Sorry that I woke you up. You can go back to your room now, I promise I'll be fine..."
"No way!" She shook her head violently, "I'm not leaving this room until you stop looking like a zombie." To prove her point, she grabbed a chair that was sitting by a writing desk and pulled it over next to Tom's bed.
"Fine. But I can assure you nothing else will happen tonight..."
"Ya well, I'll take my chances..." She settled into the chair and rested her elbows on his bed.
Alex yawned and kept himself from falling back to bed by propping himself up with his elbows and Phi's eyelids began to droop. Tom fell back asleep first, followed closely by Phi, and Alex was overcome finally by exhaustion just as the sky began to lighten.
***
Phi sat up and rubbed her eyes. Tom and Alex had disappeared and she was currently sitting with one arm draping over the middle of the bed, the other dangling off the edge and her head on a small pillow. She grinned and tossed it aside. She didn't need a pillow, but it was nice of someone to think of her. She yawned and stalked into her own room to get dressed, blinking nonstop the entire way, trying to take the edge of the mid morning sunny glare that was coming from the window.
She shoved on some clothes, then headed downstairs and found her brother and Alex sitting in two overstuffed chairs in the main library. She smiled a little as they waved her over and sat down on a table that was covered mainly in a stack of heavy books that all had something or another to do with immortals. Phi turned to Tom, "So, have you figured out which immortal is ours?"
"I think I have. It's called a hurrock (A/N: Please, don't mind the spelling...I'm half asleep right now so go easy on the grammar criticism...). "
"Which would be...?"
Alex flipped open the first book on top of the stack and began to read, "A hurrock is, and I quote, 'a winged horse, usually black, with bat-like wings and very sharp and dangerous teeth and talons' god this print is hard to read..."
"That's because you're brain isn't used to reading Tortallian yet Alex..." Tom took the book and finished reading, "'These beasts usually prefer a steady course of raw meat in their diet; preferably man flesh, and have been known to carry certain riders on their backs if bribed beforehand...' Did the hurrock we saw have a rider?"
Phi shrugged, "I dunno, but that whole thing about it eating human flesh is a little disturbing..."
Alex turned to Tom, "Now that you mention it, there might have possibly been someone on it's back...maybe."
Phi sighed in exasperation, "No one noticed if the horse from hell had a rider?!"
"I don't hear you saying that you looked..."
"I was driving!! You were the one who was supposed to be watching the horse!"
"Well I was a little preoccupied with its teeth and talons to worry about some freak on its back!"
Tom whacked Phi and Alex on the head, "Shhhhh! We're in a library!!" They glared at him, then at each other, then at the ground, "I think some of us have been hanging out together for a little too much time for one week..."
Alex rolled his eyes and stood up. Phi glared at him, "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go...take a walk..." He left the room grumbling the entire way out.
Phi turned to Tom and put her head in her hands, "...Men..." Tom gave her a funny look and she quickly blushed, "Sorry...forgot who I was talking to for a minute..."
"No problem..."
Phi took a book from the middle of the stack and began to flip through it aimlessly. Tom read more about hurrocks, but then his eyes drifted away from the page and onto some girls sitting in the corner. He blushed when he found Phi's gaze on him and quickly returned to his book. She grinned and put down her book, "When's the last time you went out on a date Tom?"
"I don't really want to talk about it..."
"Why?" She had switched to English and was speaking in a lowered voice, "Because I'm a girl?"
"No! Because you're my little sister!" He returned to his book but after a minute of having her staring at him grinning, he threw it down onto the table, "If you must know, I went out on many dates in the past year at college..."
"And you never told me about them in your e-mails?"
"None of them lasted long enough for me to have anything to tell..."
"Why not?"
"Because..."
Phi shrugged, stood up and stretched, "Okay, okay, I'll leave you alone...I'm going to go down to the stables..."
Tom nodded and picked up his book again, ignoring the strange glances he was getting from other people in the room because they had spoken English so loudly.
Phi jogged down the stairs and out to the empty, snow covered field that was in front of the stables and the armory. She paused for a moment, something on the edge of the grounds catching her eye. She shook it off, gathered her overcoat tighter around her neck and headed for the main stables. When she made it inside, she stomped the excess snow off her shoes and turned to see Devic shoveling muck from an empty horse stall. He glanced up when she came in, but then went back to his work after waving, "What brings you down here?"
"Boredom..."
He grinned and wiped sweat off of his brow, "I would love to be able to say the same. Oh, in an hour or so, some Scanran diplomats are supposed to be coming to the Palace to discuss peace terms with the king and his advisors. That will be something interesting..."
"You mean you guys are still at war?"
"Yes...I also heard that Esmond is escorting them here along with Owen and Lord Wyldon, his old training master, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind seeing you again..."
Phi leaned against a post and watched him a little while before saying, "Do you need any help?"
"What? Oh, no, um...I'm fine. This is hardly a job for someone like yourself to be doing anyway..."
"Oh, and what does that mean?"
He winced at her tone of voice and knew that he had said something wrong, "Well, what I mean is, you shouldn't be doing this because of your status..."
She grinned at his nervous answer, "It's fine..."
Devic smiled a little, glad that she had not gotten upset about who knows what and began to work again, "Besides, this is a punishment for me, remember? If anyone caught you helping me, I would get a week more of stable mucking..."
Phi sighed and walked outside again, "I suppose I'll see you tonight then..."
He nodded and she walked back towards the front of the palace. Phi wished she knew an easier way around to the library, and there had to be one besides going all the way to the front of the Palace every time she wanted to go somewhere. Oh well. It had begun to snow again, but she could still make out several large figures moving down the cobblestone path to the front courtyard. Phi stopped walking, curious to see who was coming and as they drew nearer she was able to see that Esmond was in the lead followed by two other people heavily cloaked and then by Owen and some old dude who looked like he would love nothing more than to be anywhere else at the moment.
She ran into the entrance hall and waited behind the corner for the party to enter after they handed off their horses to some pages, and watched unnoticed as they climbed up the huge flight of stairs and made their way to the big set of double doors, the one that Numair had stuck his head into when the Phi, Tom, and Alex arrived. She watched them enter the room and after they firmly shut the door, she ran upstairs, her curiosity growing by the second. Those must be the diplomats that Devic had told her about...but they were early.
She couldn't hear much, only a very muffled voices. She scowled. Stupid thick wooden doors. The doors flew open again without warning and she scrambled backwards just in time to avoid being knocked in the head. She hurried to her feet and pressed against the wall, trying to keep from being seen. To her relief, only Esmond and Owen walked out and she stepped into the hallway as they past her, both completely absorbed in their conversation.
Phi grinned and called out, "Hello!"
Esmond froze and Owen jumped. Phi's smile widened as they turned around and stared dumbly at her for a moment. Esmond was the first one to recover, "Phiona? What in Mithros's name are YOU doing here? When did you get here?"
Owen kept staring and said, "How did you get here?"
Phi took a deep breath, "Well...we are here because there was an immortal in our dimension, a hurrock to be exact, so we came here to get rid of it but to get the immortal to come through the portal we had to come through it to, we got here yesterday morning and I suppose I already answered the how part, but Numair opened the portal again after Tom sent him a message using the necklaces that he gave us the last time we were here."
"Oh...um, how long are you planning on staying?"
"Until this whole thing is cleared up..."
"That could take a while..." Owen had finally spoken again, "Wyldon told me that these negotiations will take up most of the court's time for the next week or so and not much else is going to be done in the meantime..."
Esmond nodded, "Oh, I suppose you would be interested too. We ran into Kel on our trip back the capitol and she will be back home in a few days. We already told Dom."
Phi said good-bye to the two knights and walked slowly back to the main library. How long were they willing to stay here? School would be back in in about a week and a half, not to mention that their parents would probably be home in about five days. And what about Alex's parents? Darn. Phi closed her eyes and walked blindly down the next hall.
She had forgotten about Alex until her mind brought it up again. She had been a little hard on him...but he started the argument...or did she? She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn't see Tom, who was busy reading, until she ran into him and they both fell to the ground. Tom looked up embarrassed, then looked relieved as he realized it was only his sister, and helped her to her feet, "When you went outside, did you happen to see Alex?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking...No, I didn't. Why?"
"It's just that..." Tom paused and thought carefully about what he was about to say, knowing that he was on thin ice, "Well, he has been gone for a while now, and he is not exactly the type that likes to take long walks through the garden..."
"I couldn't care less where he is right now..."
Tom grinned, "You don't really mean that, do you?"
"Of course I do..." Damn. A year ago, she would have believed herself, but now...
"Oh come on, I know you like him...I may zone out sometimes, but I'm not stupid..."
She glared at him and stalked off towards her room. Tom shook his head and continued back towards the entrance hall to keep looking for Alex, but this time, he didn't start reading his book again.
When he reached the top of the main entrance hall, he stopped dead in his tracks. There were raised voices coming from the other side of the double doors. What was going on in there? The noise continued to rise, but as suddenly as it begun, it stopped. He shrugged and headed back down the staircase.
A/N: All right! Another chapter done! That was kinda a bad place to finish the chapter, but I needed to stop somewhere...
Tom slowly opened his eyes and stood up, ready to pick up his book again and keep reading. But he wasn't awake, he was still dreaming. He looked around. He was in an open room filled with three comfortable looking chairs, but no one else was around. He stood up and walked shakily to a door on the far end of the room. Slowly, he reached out for the handle but as his fingers touched the doorknob a piercing scream shot through the air.
Tom sat bolt upright, covered in cold sweat. Alex was sitting next to him, looking very concerned, "Hey, are you alright Tom?" As he made a move to get out of bed, Alex pushed him firmly back down, "No way buddy, before you go anywhere, I'm gonna have to ask you to calm down first..."
The door to their room burst open and Phi came rushing inside looking very disheveled, "What the? What happened?" She rushed over to her brother and sat down on the side of his bed, "What happened to him Alex?"
"I dunno...I was asleep and the next thing I knew, Tom screamed."
Phi turned to Tom who looked as if he was completely zoned out, still gasping for breath from his dream, "What's the matter?"
"I...I had a...a vision...again...I think..." Tom rolled over and hurled over the edge of his bed. Alex sprang up with a slightly disgusted look on his face and moved to the side that Phi was on, the clean side, "I suppose...I should have expected this now that we're back...my gift was probably just kicking back in..."
Phi grinned weakly, "So this is what happens when you have your little vision thingys...I don't think I have ever seen you have one before..."
Alex looked back at Tom and muttered, "Ya, me neither...I'm going to go get someone Tom, you don't look good." And he was telling the truth. Tom's face was taunt and pale and his skin looked clammy.
Tom raised his hand, motioning for Alex to stop, "No. I'll be fine in a few minutes..." Alex cast Phi an unbelieving glance, but stepped away from the door and walked slowly back to sit down on his own bed. Tom smiled at Phi, "Sorry that I woke you up. You can go back to your room now, I promise I'll be fine..."
"No way!" She shook her head violently, "I'm not leaving this room until you stop looking like a zombie." To prove her point, she grabbed a chair that was sitting by a writing desk and pulled it over next to Tom's bed.
"Fine. But I can assure you nothing else will happen tonight..."
"Ya well, I'll take my chances..." She settled into the chair and rested her elbows on his bed.
Alex yawned and kept himself from falling back to bed by propping himself up with his elbows and Phi's eyelids began to droop. Tom fell back asleep first, followed closely by Phi, and Alex was overcome finally by exhaustion just as the sky began to lighten.
***
Phi sat up and rubbed her eyes. Tom and Alex had disappeared and she was currently sitting with one arm draping over the middle of the bed, the other dangling off the edge and her head on a small pillow. She grinned and tossed it aside. She didn't need a pillow, but it was nice of someone to think of her. She yawned and stalked into her own room to get dressed, blinking nonstop the entire way, trying to take the edge of the mid morning sunny glare that was coming from the window.
She shoved on some clothes, then headed downstairs and found her brother and Alex sitting in two overstuffed chairs in the main library. She smiled a little as they waved her over and sat down on a table that was covered mainly in a stack of heavy books that all had something or another to do with immortals. Phi turned to Tom, "So, have you figured out which immortal is ours?"
"I think I have. It's called a hurrock (A/N: Please, don't mind the spelling...I'm half asleep right now so go easy on the grammar criticism...). "
"Which would be...?"
Alex flipped open the first book on top of the stack and began to read, "A hurrock is, and I quote, 'a winged horse, usually black, with bat-like wings and very sharp and dangerous teeth and talons' god this print is hard to read..."
"That's because you're brain isn't used to reading Tortallian yet Alex..." Tom took the book and finished reading, "'These beasts usually prefer a steady course of raw meat in their diet; preferably man flesh, and have been known to carry certain riders on their backs if bribed beforehand...' Did the hurrock we saw have a rider?"
Phi shrugged, "I dunno, but that whole thing about it eating human flesh is a little disturbing..."
Alex turned to Tom, "Now that you mention it, there might have possibly been someone on it's back...maybe."
Phi sighed in exasperation, "No one noticed if the horse from hell had a rider?!"
"I don't hear you saying that you looked..."
"I was driving!! You were the one who was supposed to be watching the horse!"
"Well I was a little preoccupied with its teeth and talons to worry about some freak on its back!"
Tom whacked Phi and Alex on the head, "Shhhhh! We're in a library!!" They glared at him, then at each other, then at the ground, "I think some of us have been hanging out together for a little too much time for one week..."
Alex rolled his eyes and stood up. Phi glared at him, "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go...take a walk..." He left the room grumbling the entire way out.
Phi turned to Tom and put her head in her hands, "...Men..." Tom gave her a funny look and she quickly blushed, "Sorry...forgot who I was talking to for a minute..."
"No problem..."
Phi took a book from the middle of the stack and began to flip through it aimlessly. Tom read more about hurrocks, but then his eyes drifted away from the page and onto some girls sitting in the corner. He blushed when he found Phi's gaze on him and quickly returned to his book. She grinned and put down her book, "When's the last time you went out on a date Tom?"
"I don't really want to talk about it..."
"Why?" She had switched to English and was speaking in a lowered voice, "Because I'm a girl?"
"No! Because you're my little sister!" He returned to his book but after a minute of having her staring at him grinning, he threw it down onto the table, "If you must know, I went out on many dates in the past year at college..."
"And you never told me about them in your e-mails?"
"None of them lasted long enough for me to have anything to tell..."
"Why not?"
"Because..."
Phi shrugged, stood up and stretched, "Okay, okay, I'll leave you alone...I'm going to go down to the stables..."
Tom nodded and picked up his book again, ignoring the strange glances he was getting from other people in the room because they had spoken English so loudly.
Phi jogged down the stairs and out to the empty, snow covered field that was in front of the stables and the armory. She paused for a moment, something on the edge of the grounds catching her eye. She shook it off, gathered her overcoat tighter around her neck and headed for the main stables. When she made it inside, she stomped the excess snow off her shoes and turned to see Devic shoveling muck from an empty horse stall. He glanced up when she came in, but then went back to his work after waving, "What brings you down here?"
"Boredom..."
He grinned and wiped sweat off of his brow, "I would love to be able to say the same. Oh, in an hour or so, some Scanran diplomats are supposed to be coming to the Palace to discuss peace terms with the king and his advisors. That will be something interesting..."
"You mean you guys are still at war?"
"Yes...I also heard that Esmond is escorting them here along with Owen and Lord Wyldon, his old training master, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind seeing you again..."
Phi leaned against a post and watched him a little while before saying, "Do you need any help?"
"What? Oh, no, um...I'm fine. This is hardly a job for someone like yourself to be doing anyway..."
"Oh, and what does that mean?"
He winced at her tone of voice and knew that he had said something wrong, "Well, what I mean is, you shouldn't be doing this because of your status..."
She grinned at his nervous answer, "It's fine..."
Devic smiled a little, glad that she had not gotten upset about who knows what and began to work again, "Besides, this is a punishment for me, remember? If anyone caught you helping me, I would get a week more of stable mucking..."
Phi sighed and walked outside again, "I suppose I'll see you tonight then..."
He nodded and she walked back towards the front of the palace. Phi wished she knew an easier way around to the library, and there had to be one besides going all the way to the front of the Palace every time she wanted to go somewhere. Oh well. It had begun to snow again, but she could still make out several large figures moving down the cobblestone path to the front courtyard. Phi stopped walking, curious to see who was coming and as they drew nearer she was able to see that Esmond was in the lead followed by two other people heavily cloaked and then by Owen and some old dude who looked like he would love nothing more than to be anywhere else at the moment.
She ran into the entrance hall and waited behind the corner for the party to enter after they handed off their horses to some pages, and watched unnoticed as they climbed up the huge flight of stairs and made their way to the big set of double doors, the one that Numair had stuck his head into when the Phi, Tom, and Alex arrived. She watched them enter the room and after they firmly shut the door, she ran upstairs, her curiosity growing by the second. Those must be the diplomats that Devic had told her about...but they were early.
She couldn't hear much, only a very muffled voices. She scowled. Stupid thick wooden doors. The doors flew open again without warning and she scrambled backwards just in time to avoid being knocked in the head. She hurried to her feet and pressed against the wall, trying to keep from being seen. To her relief, only Esmond and Owen walked out and she stepped into the hallway as they past her, both completely absorbed in their conversation.
Phi grinned and called out, "Hello!"
Esmond froze and Owen jumped. Phi's smile widened as they turned around and stared dumbly at her for a moment. Esmond was the first one to recover, "Phiona? What in Mithros's name are YOU doing here? When did you get here?"
Owen kept staring and said, "How did you get here?"
Phi took a deep breath, "Well...we are here because there was an immortal in our dimension, a hurrock to be exact, so we came here to get rid of it but to get the immortal to come through the portal we had to come through it to, we got here yesterday morning and I suppose I already answered the how part, but Numair opened the portal again after Tom sent him a message using the necklaces that he gave us the last time we were here."
"Oh...um, how long are you planning on staying?"
"Until this whole thing is cleared up..."
"That could take a while..." Owen had finally spoken again, "Wyldon told me that these negotiations will take up most of the court's time for the next week or so and not much else is going to be done in the meantime..."
Esmond nodded, "Oh, I suppose you would be interested too. We ran into Kel on our trip back the capitol and she will be back home in a few days. We already told Dom."
Phi said good-bye to the two knights and walked slowly back to the main library. How long were they willing to stay here? School would be back in in about a week and a half, not to mention that their parents would probably be home in about five days. And what about Alex's parents? Darn. Phi closed her eyes and walked blindly down the next hall.
She had forgotten about Alex until her mind brought it up again. She had been a little hard on him...but he started the argument...or did she? She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn't see Tom, who was busy reading, until she ran into him and they both fell to the ground. Tom looked up embarrassed, then looked relieved as he realized it was only his sister, and helped her to her feet, "When you went outside, did you happen to see Alex?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking...No, I didn't. Why?"
"It's just that..." Tom paused and thought carefully about what he was about to say, knowing that he was on thin ice, "Well, he has been gone for a while now, and he is not exactly the type that likes to take long walks through the garden..."
"I couldn't care less where he is right now..."
Tom grinned, "You don't really mean that, do you?"
"Of course I do..." Damn. A year ago, she would have believed herself, but now...
"Oh come on, I know you like him...I may zone out sometimes, but I'm not stupid..."
She glared at him and stalked off towards her room. Tom shook his head and continued back towards the entrance hall to keep looking for Alex, but this time, he didn't start reading his book again.
When he reached the top of the main entrance hall, he stopped dead in his tracks. There were raised voices coming from the other side of the double doors. What was going on in there? The noise continued to rise, but as suddenly as it begun, it stopped. He shrugged and headed back down the staircase.
A/N: All right! Another chapter done! That was kinda a bad place to finish the chapter, but I needed to stop somewhere...
