Disclaimer: Oh yes, I own everything that you'll be reading about in the
next chapter. I made up all of these brilliant characters and wrote three
series of books and am currently a millionaire. Not. I wish I owned all of
these, but let's face it, it's nearly impossible to bribe the copyrights
person any more.
Author's Notes: Does anyone actually read this? I've decided to severely cut down on my author's notes due to the fact I noticed that everyone I know doesn't read them, and even I don't read them, so chances are almost no one else does either. From now on, this will be mostly for answers to any questions you might have and thank-yous for any reviewers. (Thank you to Meichanniko for beta reading a part of my fic and suggesting the comment about Roger and the boar.)
~ ~ ~ ~
"I never knew you gave advice on lady like subjects." Jered sat on Audrie's bed, grinning from ear to ear.
"What are you doing here?!" She snapped the door shut behind her, "You shouldn't be here! What if someone sees you?!"
"Now, now, who's going to just waltz into your room without knocking? I thought these people had manners."
"That's not the point!" Audrie began massaging her temples, amazed at Jered's haphazard outlook. "Just how did you get in here?"
"The door behind the painting. I thought you knew about it." Jered steered Audrie to sit down in front of the mirror and began helping her with her hair. Defensively she stuck her hands on her head and made a face at him.
"Of course I know about the hidden door. Not that you could even call it a door." Audrie stuck her tongue out at Jered. "And besides, you're avoiding my other questions. What are you doing here?"
"Helping you with your hair." Jered replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Now take you hands off your hair, otherwise I'll get nothing done."
"You're not answering." Audrie growled. "And I won't move my hands. What if someone knocks on my door? I'd open it and not only would you be here but my hair would be different as well. I can't take chances like that!"
"Much too uptight," Jered tsked, "You need to loosen up a bit."
"You would be uptight too. People expect me to be some perfectly helpless lady. One who can't carry her own bags and doesn't know a thing about dueling. I'm expected to listen to some of the most boring conversations on the face of the earth, and then when I try to bring up something interesting, they claim I'm unladylike! I don't even want to be ladylike!"
"Poor soul. You know we all feel for you." Jered pulled a flask out, handing it to Audrie. "Perhaps you'll do better with a little something decent in you."
Audrie snorted, but accepted the flask none the less. After taking a long drink she handed it back to Jered. "If you're only here to bother me," She glared at him, "You may as well go. I've had a bad enough day as it is."
"I'm hurt really." He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, only receiving a scowl in reply. "Actually, George sent me here. Mostly to go over your basic plan, but also since you could use some companions that aren't tightwads for friends over the next three weeks. After all, they could be a bad influence on you. Who knows, you could go respectable,"
"Me? Never!" Audrie feigned distress, placing a slender hand to her forehead. "Oh, woe is me, that I must be in company of such knaves!" At this comment both broke into peals of laughter, until it occurred to Audrie that they might attract attention, and shut Jered up. Now they looked at each other in silence, with grave looks on their faces.
"Down to business."Audrie gave a small smile and pulled a piece of paper approximately two feet by four feet from the drawers in the desk. She nodded to Jered as she began to sketch the outlines of the castle, pointing to the ways in, specific rooms of important people, and other particulars.
It was two in the morning by the time Jered left, and Audrie felt drained as she lay down on the altogether too soft bed to fall into a deep sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~
Waking up to birds chirping outside her window, Audrie wished that the birds would shut up rather than sing. She truly had not gotten enough sleep last night, and considering her plans, she wouldn't get much more tonight. Dragging herself out of bed, Audrie saw that a warm bath had been prepared for her, and had only sunk into the comforting water for a moment when Sarri rushed in to help her.
"I'm not helpless you know. I can bathe myself, in the very least." Audrie glared as the young maid proceeded to wash Audrie's hair. "I don't need you."
"Of course not," Sarri smiled sweetly, obviously not believing her, "But I'm here either way, and may as well make myself of use. There's a dear,"
Sarri proceeded to pamper Audrie, much to her protest, by helping with makeup, hair, and dressing Audrie. By the time Audrie was done with everything, she wore a silver-blue floor length dress with an extremely low neckline, and a large scowl on her face. Audrie hated being treated as though she couldn't do anything on her own, and knew she would be getting this treatment from now until the end of the three weeks. At this rate, she would be driven insane before that time was up.
~ ~ ~ ~
Breakfast went nearly the same as dinner, with Audrie this time placed next to a group of snotty court ladies and a few knights. She felt sick to her stomach each time one of the ladies flirted with one of the knights, and nearly smacked one knight who had tried to flirt with her. Audrie said next to nothing throughout the entire meal beyond 'please pass the butter,' and was more than grateful when the end of breakfast was announced.
Unfortunately, after breakfast there was next to nothing to do. A court lady could visit the practice rings to watch the knights fight on friendly terms, but Audrie knew this to be where all of the other ladies would be visiting, ensuring the same sickening flirting between two genders, something Audrie would give anything to avoid.
There was the garden, but Audrie knew that this too was a place for flirting. She remembered how she intended to water that weed, but swore she would do it later when she would run into some knight that would think her a chance to bed a pretty lady.
That left two places: her room, for the rest of the day, a prospect Audrie knew Sarri would dislike and Audrie herself would not enjoy spending the entire day in, or there was watching the pages train. Audrie grimaced at this concept. It pained her to think of watching young boys clumsily handle weapons they shouldn't be allowed to touch and then think themselves good at it. Then again, she knew there wouldn't be any other court ladies there, and there wasn't really any choice.
~ ~ ~ ~
She entered the field in which the pages were training to see the second year pages pathetically attempting to handle swords. They had been drilling for the past hour, and the majority felt as though their arms had turned to jelly. Audrie quietly went to sit on a bench, hoping to attract as little attention as possible. She failed; the pages all turned towards her silent gaze, several gawking at her nerve to come and watch them. Most turned bright red as the training master barked at them to go back to work, and instantly turned their backs to Audrie to face the training master.
She watched them for an hour or so before the training master yelled at the pages to stop. He announced that they would be learning knife fighting now: the knight's world was dangerous enough fighting against other trained knights that followed rules, but knaves and rogues followed no law, and would sink to anything to win a fight. To make sure that the knight could protect himself from a low blowing theif, they would be learning to fight with knives. Audrie snorted at this comment; as if knights followed rules? Unlikely. Knights cared nothing for rules when it came to dealing with commoners; they had less honor than a rat, in Audrie's opinion.
She watched as the training master passed out short knives, not longer than four inches, to each boy. He then proceeded to show them how to 'properly' hold the knives and spent the rest of the time correcting them. Audrie laughed at the grip the training master had shown the pages- it would be so loose and uncomfortable any decent thief could defeat those pages in the blink of an eye. Because of how the training master himself wasn't properly taught in how to handle knives, he was teaching the pages incorrectly as well. Amongst all of the boys sadly handling the weapons incorrectly, a young boy was easily whipping the knife around, looking almost as though he had been born with it in his hand. Or at least, he was, until the training master came around and fixed his hold from what was, in truth, correct to the way they had been taught earlier. The boy began arguing with the training master, yet Audrie was too far away to actually hear what was being said. The training master promptly pointed to the stables and said something, leaving soon after with the boy looking somewhat dejected.
After the training was done, Audrie wandered up to the young boy, hoping to find out both what the argument had been and how he had learned to handle a knife. She walked over to find him chattering eagerly with others, but the instant she walked over the others turned slightly red and told him they'd see him later (and winked at him, but Audrie chose to ignore that).
"So." She stared at him expectantly, rasing a pencil thin eyebrow. "I see you don't know your place."
"Well," The boy blushed slightly at her accusation; he knew he wasn't supposed to argue with the training master, but had forgotten when the old man had corrected his position. "It's not my fault."
"Oh, really? It's not? And how's that?"
"I was only properly holding it, the way I learned when I was younger, and then he goes and tells me I'm wrong! I don't deserve to be forced to help clean out the stables for the next week just because of that!"
"Perhaps you had learned incorrectly. He was only helping you improve." Silently, Audrie knew she was lying through her teeth. He had been holding the knife correctly all right, but only if she accused him of being in the wrong would she manage to find out where he had learned it all.
"But I was holding it correctly, I know I was!"
"You sound like a spoiled child to me," Audrie suddenly realized that she had lost her polite facade long ago. But the boy hadn't seemed to notice, and she couldn't suddenly switch back now. She cursed herself for her inability to act like the proper noble.
"But we're supposed to be learning to fight against thieves, and it was a thief who taught me! How could I be incorrect?" The boy defended himself in such a way that threw Audrie off. What sort of thief would lower himself to teaching a noble?! The thought made her sick.
"So you learned from a thief? Perhaps the thief was inexperienced. But let me ask this: why did this thief teach you? I suppose you blackmailed him in some way?" Audrie felt as though she would grind her teeth to powder by the time this conversation was over. "No!" The boy looked almost as angered as Audrie felt, which surprised her. "I would never do that! The thief was one of the best thieves in Naren, I would never have been able to catch her and blackmail her! Besides, she was a friend!"
This declaration nearly made Audrie fall to her knees; the young boy said he was from Naren, a fief she had stayed in for a year or so only two years ago or so. She would have known if one of her fellow thieves had been teaching the son of the lord.
"You say 'she'. So the thief was a female?" Audrie hadn't known that many other women thieves there, how could she have not known if one of them had sunk that low.
"Yes," The boy nodded to Audrie's question, "Her name was the Ace of Spades. She taught me for nearly half a year."
"What?!"
She had never- she wouldn't have- Suddenly it hit her. When she was in Naren she had indeed taken on a young boy to teach. But the boy had been a commoner! He had claimed he wanted to learn the ways of the rogue, and to travel to Corus with her, her next destination. He had learned well, but stopped visiting her after one day. She had left without him. It hit her that the young boy had lied. He had been no commoner, he was a noble.
"How dare you." She felt sick that she had helped a young noble. "How could you have lied to her? Used her to learn to show off to your friends?"
"I didn't! She was a friend of mine! I never meant to- " He never finished; Audrie had left before he had even finished his sentence.
~ ~ ~ ~
'How could I have been so stupid?' Audrie felt like slamming her head against a solid wall. 'Why would he have always gone home each day before dark otherwise? He had had an usual accent, but I had chosen to ignore it! Why?'
Audrie didn't even bother to do anything else for the day. She went into her room and brooded until Sarri came in to help her prepare for dinner. Her unusually cold silence was disconcerting for Sarri, but the young maid chose to ignore it. Only after Audrie had left the room in an elegant green dress, did Sarri pause to wonder why Audrie had been in such a cross mood.
~ ~ ~ ~
At dinner Audrie's already bad mood worsened. She had been placed between to chatty ladies that loved to converse with each other but utterly ignored her. By the end of the meal she felt that death would be too swift for the two women, not to mention the other knights that sat around her. Her only comfort was that tonight was going to be very, very fun. As she finished up her meal she memorized faces to choose vict- er, 'subjects' for tonight. Stomping out of the dining hall, Audrie headed directly out to the garden. Partly for want of fresh air and a break from nobles, but also to visit the horseweed from the day before. Pooling water from a fountain in her hands, Audrie watered the small weed silently. Sitting cross-legged beside the thorny shoot, she began to silently whisper to the small thing, confiding her troubles in the plant. She had been quietly complaining for nearly twenty minutes when she noticed someone nearing her.
"Who's there?" She stood suddenly and found herself face to face with a particularly annoying duke. "Ah, my lord. What a pleasure to see you." 'Pleasure, as in, the same kind of pleasure I would have in helping a wild boar pick its nose. Not that there's much of a difference between you and the boar.' While she thought this, she certainly didn't voice it, and merely swept a curtsey.
"The pleasure is all mine." Roger smiled and bowed in reply.
'I don't doubt that,' Audrie thought wryly, all the while wondering what exactly he was doing here. "I assume you're having an enjoyable stroll in the gardens?"
"Would you care to join me?"
'How to avoid such an offer?' Audrie cursed the nobles who had written the rulebook for manners. "I wouldn't want to impose. Surely I would only be a hindrance. It's always far more tranquil to walk alone."
"Of course, of course. Perhaps another time." Roger smiled broadly. From this Audrie knew that he would be bothering her again, more likely in a spot where she could not avoid it.
She curtsied as he left her to be once again alone. Muttering about trouble-making dukes and their pestering ways, and quickly made her way back to her room. ~ ~ ~ ~
Once back in her room, Audrie immediately took down her hair, changing it back to both original length and color. At the same time she ordered Sarri not to open the door for anyone, with the excuse that she would be bathing. She sighed with relief as she took off her dress and corset, changing into the much more comfortable black breeches and shirt she normally almost lived in. Tying her black scarf around her hips, Audrie retrieved her deck of cards and the lovely wad of cloth she had brilliant plans for that she couldn't wait to deal out. With those in hand, she sat waiting for enough time to pass that she could leave.
~ ~ ~ ~
Nearly six hours had passed with Audrie still waiting. No one had come to bother her yet, and Sarri had long gone to sleep, considering it was nearly two in the morning. Audrie was confident to say that everyone else in the castle was asleep, with exception of the sentry outside. Everyone, that was, but her.
Sneaking silently out of her room, Audrie was in her element. She stole silently into first the rooms next to her, taking care to move without sound on her barefoot feet. From those first rooms she took a single earing, pens, books, anything small that would not be missed or would be assumed to have just been lost. She left only her calling card, the Ace of Spades, within the ladies' rooms, in a jewelry box or on the bookshelves.
Audrie's next instinct was to head to the royalty's rooms. Within there she found, yet again, proof that those who were high up were spoiled far beyond what she believed proper. She felt sick to her stomach as she saw the chandelier, mahogany desks, antiques, things that she would have had to kill for, decorating the room as though they were small trifles. Of course, to a king, they were. Silently she stole the smallest of things, in particular from the queen's jewelry box, the king's fine clothing, and even dared to take a small painting that had been in the bathroom. Somehow she doubted they would miss it.
Wandering into the prince's room, Audrie found that it was in fact much less decorous than the king's. Not that you couldn't have fed half the country by selling most of the things in his room. She noticed, with a grim smile, that beside the prince lay her least favorite court lady, Delia. It made sense that they were sleeping together; Audrie could have guessed it from the way Delia had acted around the prince the other day. She was now far more confident in her stealing, taking several coins from his purse, along with a few things off his person as well, partly because he was wearing a good many things of worth, but also in part to make him suspicious of Delia. Before she left, she flicked a small ace of spades card into his shirt pocket.
The rest of the night was spent with Audrie stealing from the rest of the castle, occasionally returning to her room to stash things of particular worth in her closet. By three in the morning she had stolen enough to pay George back double for the dresses he had bought her. She smiled as she realized she had just a few more rooms before she could fulfill her plans with the wad of cloth she had stolen from Roger. (AN: you may have guessed what the wad of cloth is, but I bet you don't know her plans for it!)
Her final rooms were in the knight's rooms. She had just stolen from Gary, smiling wickedly at several bad poems he had attempted to write to Delia, among other ladies, and added in a few vulgar lines here and there.
She next went into Raoul's room, where she found him asleep at his desk, which was covered in papers scribbled with calculations. She realized that he had fallen asleep while working on calculating costs for supplies. She nearly laughed outright at some of the letters he had written to ladies, before catching herself; it wouldn't do at all to wake him up while she was in his room. Instead, she took a small rose pin that had been laying on his bookshelves. Beside him she left her calling card, the ace of spades, and wrote with one of his quills, 'sleep well, sincerly, the Ace of Spades'.
Even though she was done stealing for the night, Audrie still had plans to complete. She went to the large door that led into the dining room, grinning as she held out a small hammer she had stolen from a toolshed, a nail, and the wad of cloth she had stolen from Roger. She had warned him to leave her alone, yet she had found his gaze falling on her consistently each meal. Now she would get revenge. Audrie placed the cloth to the large door and began lightly tapping the nail into the door on top of the cloth along with one of her ace of spades. It was a slow process, considering how she had to be as quiet as possible yet still manage to nail the cloth to the door, and took nearly twenty minutes. But once she was done she was more than pleased with her work. She left knowing that the reaction to Roger's loincloths nailed to the door would be quite entertaining when she awoke tomorrow.
Author's Notes: Does anyone actually read this? I've decided to severely cut down on my author's notes due to the fact I noticed that everyone I know doesn't read them, and even I don't read them, so chances are almost no one else does either. From now on, this will be mostly for answers to any questions you might have and thank-yous for any reviewers. (Thank you to Meichanniko for beta reading a part of my fic and suggesting the comment about Roger and the boar.)
~ ~ ~ ~
"I never knew you gave advice on lady like subjects." Jered sat on Audrie's bed, grinning from ear to ear.
"What are you doing here?!" She snapped the door shut behind her, "You shouldn't be here! What if someone sees you?!"
"Now, now, who's going to just waltz into your room without knocking? I thought these people had manners."
"That's not the point!" Audrie began massaging her temples, amazed at Jered's haphazard outlook. "Just how did you get in here?"
"The door behind the painting. I thought you knew about it." Jered steered Audrie to sit down in front of the mirror and began helping her with her hair. Defensively she stuck her hands on her head and made a face at him.
"Of course I know about the hidden door. Not that you could even call it a door." Audrie stuck her tongue out at Jered. "And besides, you're avoiding my other questions. What are you doing here?"
"Helping you with your hair." Jered replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Now take you hands off your hair, otherwise I'll get nothing done."
"You're not answering." Audrie growled. "And I won't move my hands. What if someone knocks on my door? I'd open it and not only would you be here but my hair would be different as well. I can't take chances like that!"
"Much too uptight," Jered tsked, "You need to loosen up a bit."
"You would be uptight too. People expect me to be some perfectly helpless lady. One who can't carry her own bags and doesn't know a thing about dueling. I'm expected to listen to some of the most boring conversations on the face of the earth, and then when I try to bring up something interesting, they claim I'm unladylike! I don't even want to be ladylike!"
"Poor soul. You know we all feel for you." Jered pulled a flask out, handing it to Audrie. "Perhaps you'll do better with a little something decent in you."
Audrie snorted, but accepted the flask none the less. After taking a long drink she handed it back to Jered. "If you're only here to bother me," She glared at him, "You may as well go. I've had a bad enough day as it is."
"I'm hurt really." He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, only receiving a scowl in reply. "Actually, George sent me here. Mostly to go over your basic plan, but also since you could use some companions that aren't tightwads for friends over the next three weeks. After all, they could be a bad influence on you. Who knows, you could go respectable,"
"Me? Never!" Audrie feigned distress, placing a slender hand to her forehead. "Oh, woe is me, that I must be in company of such knaves!" At this comment both broke into peals of laughter, until it occurred to Audrie that they might attract attention, and shut Jered up. Now they looked at each other in silence, with grave looks on their faces.
"Down to business."Audrie gave a small smile and pulled a piece of paper approximately two feet by four feet from the drawers in the desk. She nodded to Jered as she began to sketch the outlines of the castle, pointing to the ways in, specific rooms of important people, and other particulars.
It was two in the morning by the time Jered left, and Audrie felt drained as she lay down on the altogether too soft bed to fall into a deep sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~
Waking up to birds chirping outside her window, Audrie wished that the birds would shut up rather than sing. She truly had not gotten enough sleep last night, and considering her plans, she wouldn't get much more tonight. Dragging herself out of bed, Audrie saw that a warm bath had been prepared for her, and had only sunk into the comforting water for a moment when Sarri rushed in to help her.
"I'm not helpless you know. I can bathe myself, in the very least." Audrie glared as the young maid proceeded to wash Audrie's hair. "I don't need you."
"Of course not," Sarri smiled sweetly, obviously not believing her, "But I'm here either way, and may as well make myself of use. There's a dear,"
Sarri proceeded to pamper Audrie, much to her protest, by helping with makeup, hair, and dressing Audrie. By the time Audrie was done with everything, she wore a silver-blue floor length dress with an extremely low neckline, and a large scowl on her face. Audrie hated being treated as though she couldn't do anything on her own, and knew she would be getting this treatment from now until the end of the three weeks. At this rate, she would be driven insane before that time was up.
~ ~ ~ ~
Breakfast went nearly the same as dinner, with Audrie this time placed next to a group of snotty court ladies and a few knights. She felt sick to her stomach each time one of the ladies flirted with one of the knights, and nearly smacked one knight who had tried to flirt with her. Audrie said next to nothing throughout the entire meal beyond 'please pass the butter,' and was more than grateful when the end of breakfast was announced.
Unfortunately, after breakfast there was next to nothing to do. A court lady could visit the practice rings to watch the knights fight on friendly terms, but Audrie knew this to be where all of the other ladies would be visiting, ensuring the same sickening flirting between two genders, something Audrie would give anything to avoid.
There was the garden, but Audrie knew that this too was a place for flirting. She remembered how she intended to water that weed, but swore she would do it later when she would run into some knight that would think her a chance to bed a pretty lady.
That left two places: her room, for the rest of the day, a prospect Audrie knew Sarri would dislike and Audrie herself would not enjoy spending the entire day in, or there was watching the pages train. Audrie grimaced at this concept. It pained her to think of watching young boys clumsily handle weapons they shouldn't be allowed to touch and then think themselves good at it. Then again, she knew there wouldn't be any other court ladies there, and there wasn't really any choice.
~ ~ ~ ~
She entered the field in which the pages were training to see the second year pages pathetically attempting to handle swords. They had been drilling for the past hour, and the majority felt as though their arms had turned to jelly. Audrie quietly went to sit on a bench, hoping to attract as little attention as possible. She failed; the pages all turned towards her silent gaze, several gawking at her nerve to come and watch them. Most turned bright red as the training master barked at them to go back to work, and instantly turned their backs to Audrie to face the training master.
She watched them for an hour or so before the training master yelled at the pages to stop. He announced that they would be learning knife fighting now: the knight's world was dangerous enough fighting against other trained knights that followed rules, but knaves and rogues followed no law, and would sink to anything to win a fight. To make sure that the knight could protect himself from a low blowing theif, they would be learning to fight with knives. Audrie snorted at this comment; as if knights followed rules? Unlikely. Knights cared nothing for rules when it came to dealing with commoners; they had less honor than a rat, in Audrie's opinion.
She watched as the training master passed out short knives, not longer than four inches, to each boy. He then proceeded to show them how to 'properly' hold the knives and spent the rest of the time correcting them. Audrie laughed at the grip the training master had shown the pages- it would be so loose and uncomfortable any decent thief could defeat those pages in the blink of an eye. Because of how the training master himself wasn't properly taught in how to handle knives, he was teaching the pages incorrectly as well. Amongst all of the boys sadly handling the weapons incorrectly, a young boy was easily whipping the knife around, looking almost as though he had been born with it in his hand. Or at least, he was, until the training master came around and fixed his hold from what was, in truth, correct to the way they had been taught earlier. The boy began arguing with the training master, yet Audrie was too far away to actually hear what was being said. The training master promptly pointed to the stables and said something, leaving soon after with the boy looking somewhat dejected.
After the training was done, Audrie wandered up to the young boy, hoping to find out both what the argument had been and how he had learned to handle a knife. She walked over to find him chattering eagerly with others, but the instant she walked over the others turned slightly red and told him they'd see him later (and winked at him, but Audrie chose to ignore that).
"So." She stared at him expectantly, rasing a pencil thin eyebrow. "I see you don't know your place."
"Well," The boy blushed slightly at her accusation; he knew he wasn't supposed to argue with the training master, but had forgotten when the old man had corrected his position. "It's not my fault."
"Oh, really? It's not? And how's that?"
"I was only properly holding it, the way I learned when I was younger, and then he goes and tells me I'm wrong! I don't deserve to be forced to help clean out the stables for the next week just because of that!"
"Perhaps you had learned incorrectly. He was only helping you improve." Silently, Audrie knew she was lying through her teeth. He had been holding the knife correctly all right, but only if she accused him of being in the wrong would she manage to find out where he had learned it all.
"But I was holding it correctly, I know I was!"
"You sound like a spoiled child to me," Audrie suddenly realized that she had lost her polite facade long ago. But the boy hadn't seemed to notice, and she couldn't suddenly switch back now. She cursed herself for her inability to act like the proper noble.
"But we're supposed to be learning to fight against thieves, and it was a thief who taught me! How could I be incorrect?" The boy defended himself in such a way that threw Audrie off. What sort of thief would lower himself to teaching a noble?! The thought made her sick.
"So you learned from a thief? Perhaps the thief was inexperienced. But let me ask this: why did this thief teach you? I suppose you blackmailed him in some way?" Audrie felt as though she would grind her teeth to powder by the time this conversation was over. "No!" The boy looked almost as angered as Audrie felt, which surprised her. "I would never do that! The thief was one of the best thieves in Naren, I would never have been able to catch her and blackmail her! Besides, she was a friend!"
This declaration nearly made Audrie fall to her knees; the young boy said he was from Naren, a fief she had stayed in for a year or so only two years ago or so. She would have known if one of her fellow thieves had been teaching the son of the lord.
"You say 'she'. So the thief was a female?" Audrie hadn't known that many other women thieves there, how could she have not known if one of them had sunk that low.
"Yes," The boy nodded to Audrie's question, "Her name was the Ace of Spades. She taught me for nearly half a year."
"What?!"
She had never- she wouldn't have- Suddenly it hit her. When she was in Naren she had indeed taken on a young boy to teach. But the boy had been a commoner! He had claimed he wanted to learn the ways of the rogue, and to travel to Corus with her, her next destination. He had learned well, but stopped visiting her after one day. She had left without him. It hit her that the young boy had lied. He had been no commoner, he was a noble.
"How dare you." She felt sick that she had helped a young noble. "How could you have lied to her? Used her to learn to show off to your friends?"
"I didn't! She was a friend of mine! I never meant to- " He never finished; Audrie had left before he had even finished his sentence.
~ ~ ~ ~
'How could I have been so stupid?' Audrie felt like slamming her head against a solid wall. 'Why would he have always gone home each day before dark otherwise? He had had an usual accent, but I had chosen to ignore it! Why?'
Audrie didn't even bother to do anything else for the day. She went into her room and brooded until Sarri came in to help her prepare for dinner. Her unusually cold silence was disconcerting for Sarri, but the young maid chose to ignore it. Only after Audrie had left the room in an elegant green dress, did Sarri pause to wonder why Audrie had been in such a cross mood.
~ ~ ~ ~
At dinner Audrie's already bad mood worsened. She had been placed between to chatty ladies that loved to converse with each other but utterly ignored her. By the end of the meal she felt that death would be too swift for the two women, not to mention the other knights that sat around her. Her only comfort was that tonight was going to be very, very fun. As she finished up her meal she memorized faces to choose vict- er, 'subjects' for tonight. Stomping out of the dining hall, Audrie headed directly out to the garden. Partly for want of fresh air and a break from nobles, but also to visit the horseweed from the day before. Pooling water from a fountain in her hands, Audrie watered the small weed silently. Sitting cross-legged beside the thorny shoot, she began to silently whisper to the small thing, confiding her troubles in the plant. She had been quietly complaining for nearly twenty minutes when she noticed someone nearing her.
"Who's there?" She stood suddenly and found herself face to face with a particularly annoying duke. "Ah, my lord. What a pleasure to see you." 'Pleasure, as in, the same kind of pleasure I would have in helping a wild boar pick its nose. Not that there's much of a difference between you and the boar.' While she thought this, she certainly didn't voice it, and merely swept a curtsey.
"The pleasure is all mine." Roger smiled and bowed in reply.
'I don't doubt that,' Audrie thought wryly, all the while wondering what exactly he was doing here. "I assume you're having an enjoyable stroll in the gardens?"
"Would you care to join me?"
'How to avoid such an offer?' Audrie cursed the nobles who had written the rulebook for manners. "I wouldn't want to impose. Surely I would only be a hindrance. It's always far more tranquil to walk alone."
"Of course, of course. Perhaps another time." Roger smiled broadly. From this Audrie knew that he would be bothering her again, more likely in a spot where she could not avoid it.
She curtsied as he left her to be once again alone. Muttering about trouble-making dukes and their pestering ways, and quickly made her way back to her room. ~ ~ ~ ~
Once back in her room, Audrie immediately took down her hair, changing it back to both original length and color. At the same time she ordered Sarri not to open the door for anyone, with the excuse that she would be bathing. She sighed with relief as she took off her dress and corset, changing into the much more comfortable black breeches and shirt she normally almost lived in. Tying her black scarf around her hips, Audrie retrieved her deck of cards and the lovely wad of cloth she had brilliant plans for that she couldn't wait to deal out. With those in hand, she sat waiting for enough time to pass that she could leave.
~ ~ ~ ~
Nearly six hours had passed with Audrie still waiting. No one had come to bother her yet, and Sarri had long gone to sleep, considering it was nearly two in the morning. Audrie was confident to say that everyone else in the castle was asleep, with exception of the sentry outside. Everyone, that was, but her.
Sneaking silently out of her room, Audrie was in her element. She stole silently into first the rooms next to her, taking care to move without sound on her barefoot feet. From those first rooms she took a single earing, pens, books, anything small that would not be missed or would be assumed to have just been lost. She left only her calling card, the Ace of Spades, within the ladies' rooms, in a jewelry box or on the bookshelves.
Audrie's next instinct was to head to the royalty's rooms. Within there she found, yet again, proof that those who were high up were spoiled far beyond what she believed proper. She felt sick to her stomach as she saw the chandelier, mahogany desks, antiques, things that she would have had to kill for, decorating the room as though they were small trifles. Of course, to a king, they were. Silently she stole the smallest of things, in particular from the queen's jewelry box, the king's fine clothing, and even dared to take a small painting that had been in the bathroom. Somehow she doubted they would miss it.
Wandering into the prince's room, Audrie found that it was in fact much less decorous than the king's. Not that you couldn't have fed half the country by selling most of the things in his room. She noticed, with a grim smile, that beside the prince lay her least favorite court lady, Delia. It made sense that they were sleeping together; Audrie could have guessed it from the way Delia had acted around the prince the other day. She was now far more confident in her stealing, taking several coins from his purse, along with a few things off his person as well, partly because he was wearing a good many things of worth, but also in part to make him suspicious of Delia. Before she left, she flicked a small ace of spades card into his shirt pocket.
The rest of the night was spent with Audrie stealing from the rest of the castle, occasionally returning to her room to stash things of particular worth in her closet. By three in the morning she had stolen enough to pay George back double for the dresses he had bought her. She smiled as she realized she had just a few more rooms before she could fulfill her plans with the wad of cloth she had stolen from Roger. (AN: you may have guessed what the wad of cloth is, but I bet you don't know her plans for it!)
Her final rooms were in the knight's rooms. She had just stolen from Gary, smiling wickedly at several bad poems he had attempted to write to Delia, among other ladies, and added in a few vulgar lines here and there.
She next went into Raoul's room, where she found him asleep at his desk, which was covered in papers scribbled with calculations. She realized that he had fallen asleep while working on calculating costs for supplies. She nearly laughed outright at some of the letters he had written to ladies, before catching herself; it wouldn't do at all to wake him up while she was in his room. Instead, she took a small rose pin that had been laying on his bookshelves. Beside him she left her calling card, the ace of spades, and wrote with one of his quills, 'sleep well, sincerly, the Ace of Spades'.
Even though she was done stealing for the night, Audrie still had plans to complete. She went to the large door that led into the dining room, grinning as she held out a small hammer she had stolen from a toolshed, a nail, and the wad of cloth she had stolen from Roger. She had warned him to leave her alone, yet she had found his gaze falling on her consistently each meal. Now she would get revenge. Audrie placed the cloth to the large door and began lightly tapping the nail into the door on top of the cloth along with one of her ace of spades. It was a slow process, considering how she had to be as quiet as possible yet still manage to nail the cloth to the door, and took nearly twenty minutes. But once she was done she was more than pleased with her work. She left knowing that the reaction to Roger's loincloths nailed to the door would be quite entertaining when she awoke tomorrow.