Disclaimer: Two to the power of zero is about how much I own. That's right,
one thing: Audrie. Other than that, zip, zero, nada . Oh, and my little
sister, she's mine too, but she's up for sale if you want her.
Author's notes: Thirteen reviews! I feel so loved! I'm glad that so many of you like my fic so far, and that several of you actually bothered to read my author's notes ('cause I know no one else does) and vote on who Audrie should be paired with. My only comment is to Assthorn, who said that Audrie came off as slightly out-of-character when she told Alan/na about herself. I partly agree, that wasn't my best writing and I suppose she did seem that way, but also, Audrie gave that letter to Alan/na from George, and guessed that George had already told Alan/na about her. Also, how else would Audrie explain that she grew short black hair overnight? I'm sorry you didn't like this chapter as much, but I hope you'll like this one more.
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'At that instant, Jered pulled her onto his lap, laughing. Audrie couldn't help but laugh as well, despite her annoyance at the gesture. Unfortunately, it was also at that instant that Gary and Raoul walked into the room.'
Audrie jumped up upon seeing the two noblemen enter the room, shooting a quick glare at Alan, who seemed as surprised as Audrie was.
While Alan was surprised at seeing Audrie there, Raoul didn't recognize her whatsoever, and the only bewilderment he felt was why the girl had glared at Alan. But instead of dwelling on why a serving girl was in George's rooms, sitting on another thief's lap and glaring at Alan for no reason at all, Raoul turned to George. "We need your help."
"Oh?" George had a slight twinkle in his eye. "And why is that?"
"We," Alan began, but paused for a second before continuing. "We were visiting the City for the day with a young noblewoman, but she walked off without us and I think she's lost." Alan's eyes flickered to Audrie. "We need you to help us find her."
"A young noblewoman?" George's eyes too drifted over to Audrie. "Walked off without telling you? That's not good. She could be anywhere in the city. I'll send some men out to look for her, but I can't guarantee anything."
"That's all we can ask for, isn't it?" Raoul nodded and sighed. "I suppose this is why Jon insisted I come along."
Audrie began sneaking out the door, hoping to avoid any confrontation with Alan or George, both of whom seemed extremely annoyed that she had snuck away from being in Alan's company without permission. Unfortunately, Raoul noticed her attempts to escape.
"Who are you?" Raoul caught her by the hand, which Audrie promptly snatched away. "Sara. I'm a waitress here. I was just having my break, so I'll be going now." Audrie nodded to George, locking her now golden-brown eyes with his.
"I'll go send some men out to look for this noblewoman of yours. She should stick out in the streets. In the meanwhile, why don't you two have a drink to calm your nerves?" George smiled slightly at the annoyed look on Audrie's face.
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate this." Raoul smiled weakly. "Jon would have my head if Lady Audrelinia was injured in any way while in Corus.
The George, Raoul and Alan went to the part of the inn most visited: the tavern. Trailing behind them were Audrie and Jered.
"Remind me to slip a poison in George's drink when I get the chance." Audrie hissed to Jered, "A very nasty poison that makes you turn purple with polka dots or something of the like." Jered simply smiled and shook his head.
Upon the group entering the main room, the were many winks to Audrie, since many of the thieves knew her from both her waitress job and from her work as a thief. Several shot her questioning looks as to why she was back so soon, but Audrie explained to them with a shrug of her shoulders and a mouthing of 'later.'
But Audrie didn't have much time to explain. While the bartender was glad she was back, Audrie was still sent to work first thing. She went around passing out drinks, taking orders from everyone, and having small clips of conversations with other thieves about what had happened while she was gone.
Audrie leaned across the table to hand George his drink, being to lazy to simply walk around. Ale for Raoul, wine for George, simple water for Alan. She grinned and winked at George, who pretended not to notice.
"You seem to be well-known here." Raoul noticed the warm welcome Audrie had received, and questioned it. "Everyone here seems to act as though you've been away for a long time, rather than just a lunch break."
"I have been." Audrie thought up a lie on the spot. "I'm something of an apprentice-slash-assistant to the Ace of Spades," Audrie cringed. Couldn't she have thought of some other thief to name, other than herself? "And recently returned from Galla, where she sent me to dig up some information on a thief there."
"You're the apprentice to the Ace of Spades?" Raoul raised an eyebrow. "I assume you've met her then? What does she look like?"
"The Ace of Spades?" Audrie smiled weakly. "Never actually met her. She sends me notes to tell me what to do. Mostly she's on the road, but I think her solid home is somewhere down south near the Bazhir. She's somewhere in Serain right now, I'm pretty sure."
"You've never met the person you're apprentice to?" Surprise registered on Raoul's face.
"No, she keeps to herself most of the time." Audrie wished there was some way to move off of this subject. "I have to serve other people now." Audrie slipped off before Raoul could ask her anything more.
Audrie grinned as she walked off away from the group, eyes sparkling with mischief. In her hand she held Raoul's loincloths, and she wanted to get revenge for his accusations. Not that he would know it was revenge.
Audrie began to dance a jig from the Copper Isles, blatantly swinging Raoul's loincloths above her head for all to see. Several joined in with loud, rhythmic clapping until soon George was staring at Audrie with such round eyes that Raoul and Alan turned around to see what was going on.
It took Raoul a moment to register what was going on, then he looked to George. "What's going on."
"Umm..." George hesitated to explain. "Check your pants, Raoul."
Raoul shot a look to George that clearly stated: "Are you insane?" But didn't get the opportunity to ask nor check before Audrie walked over to him, sweeping a deep bow with many flourishes of her hands, since she was still holding his loincloths.
"I believe these are yours?" Audrie smiled and batted her eyes twice, mocking the court ladies, and daintily dropped the loincloths in front of Raoul. Then she went off to dance with the others, whirling around and laughing.
Raoul turned red in the face upon seeing his loincloths tossed in front of him, and the realization that they had been publicly displayed didn't exactly please him. He turned to George. "Did you see what she just did?!"
"She's done it before. Not quite to that extent, but..." George shook his head, but couldn't help grinning. "She's stolen from me before you know. She doesn't really care whether you're embarrassed by it all or not."
"Could you show me a place where I could...Change?" Raoul turned slightly redder.
"Head to my room. No one should be in there."
By the time Raoul returned from putting his loincloths back on, the dancing and noise had quieted down to the point where everyone was sitting and laughing with 'Sara' and chatting away blithely.
"She certainly wouldn't be able to dance at a ball," Lightfingers was grinning, "But the Ace of Spades is our own Mistress of Dance." Everyone quieted down when they spotted Raoul reentering the room, with the exception of 'Sara,' who was slumped in a chair laughing away with Jered. But she too stopped when she saw Raoul's grim expression.
"Dare I ask why you did that?" Raoul towered over 'Sara,' imposing his full height.
"I was bored. You were a source of great entertainment." She threw back her head over the back of the chair and laughed.
"I was a source of entertainment? That's why you publicly disgraced me?"
"You nobles worry too much about grace and disgraces, I should know."
Audrie took a gulp of a tankard of ale on the table beside her and rose to stand in front of Raoul. He was still over a foot taller than her, and while she often exuded an air of confidence, it's hard to impress someone so much taller than she.
"You don't know what's good for you, do you?" Audrie glared up at him. "Go bother your mother to give you some common sense. Isn't that how you nobles manage to get everything you own, go bawling to your parents?"
Audrie turned haughtily around, ignoring all the others, and stalked out of the inn. The thieves left behind either stared at Raoul in surprise or glared at him with malice.
"It's not wise to be on her bad side, you know." Jered stood beside Raoul and put a hand on the taller man's shoulder. "She has the worst tendency to show up when you least want her too and destroy what you're working on. Don't go starting any large projects this next year, okay? And be careful for wires meant for tripping if you joust."
"She does that?" Alan tried to hide a grin.
"With a vengeance." Jered sighed. "She doesn't appreciate pranks on her though. Put anything in her food and you risk being tortured for the next year."
Suddenly a young boy ran in. Alan vaguely recognized that he was a page at the palace and wondered why he was here. The boy seemed slightly winded but looked up with hopeful eyes as he scanned the room.
"Is-is the Ace of Spades here?" The young boy huffed, "I wanted to talk to her."
"She just-" George cut himself off. "She's off in Serain. She won't be back for some time."
"But that's not possible, I saw her just a moment ago, on the-" The boy stopped and stared at the ceiling. "What are you doing on the rafters?"
Out of seemingly nowhere Audrie swung down of a supporting beam and landed on her feet directly in front of the young boy.
"What are you doing here?" Audrie grabbed the young boy and hauled him out into the hallway. "Pray tell, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to apologize. I figured out that you were at the-"
Audrie clapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't even finish that sentence. Nosey people have a slight tendency to listen in!" She glared at the boy before letting her hand off his mouth.
"Okay, okay!" The boy gave a stubborn sigh. "You always were paranoid that way. Always afraid someone was listening in or following you to your latest stash of money for the day. Who would bother?"
"More people than you really care to know. I've had enough people try to take my share of loot to last a lifetime. People sink low, get used to it." Audrie sighed at the young boy's lack of worldly knowledge. "Torran, what are you doing here? I've asked you more than enough times now."
"I was telling you. I wanted to apologize."
"For what? You haven't done anything recently."
"Recently, yeah, but you're still angry at me for lying about being a noble."
"So? Why would that matter to you? You're a noble. That states everything."
"What do you mean? It's not like all nobles are bad."
"Uh huh. Are you going to apologize and explain anytime this generation or do you have to wait until you're fifty first?" Audrie couldn't help it, she smiled. After all, he had been learning the Rogue from her back in Naren, she supposed she couldn't be entirely indifferent to him.
"Fine. I'm sorry for lying. I wanted to learn the rogue and escape my parents and having to be a noble, but then my parents found out and kept me from going to the city. These days I don't mind being a noble quite so much. The people are nicer than you always made them out to be."
"Nobles and honesty don't mix."
"That's what I hear about thieves in the palace."
"Which proves my point; they lie." Audrie thought back to Alan and the kinder nobles she knew. "I suppose some of them are tolerable though. Not the most interesting bunch though."
"I won't deny that." Torran laughed. "You should hear the ladies- oh wait, you already do." "Be quiet!" Audrie hissed once more, "Don't forget that Raoul and Alan are out there. Either one of them could listen in and take that information to Provost. That means death for me. Death and I don't mesh well."
"Alright, alright. Sorry."
The two headed back into the main room, with Audrie in a slightly better mood than before. Then she remembered why she had left the inn in the first place. She only snuck back in in order to hear what they were saying about her, and had no intention of actually reappearing. Now she collected the attention of most who were in the room, with the exception of the few who were already drunk so early in the afternoon.
"Did I suddenly go bald, or is there some other reason as to why everyone's staring at me?" Audrie snapped.
Only a few knew what entrance Audrie used to reenter the inn, and the others were still somewhat bewildered on how she had suddenly popped up sitting on the rafters. Whether they knew or didn't, all looked on with interest on how Raoul would react to her this time.
Suddenly Raoul drew his sword, pointing the tip in Audrie's direction. The meaning was as blatant as purple polka dots on pink: Raoul was challenging Audrie to a duel.
"Fine," Audrie grasped the tip of the sword between her index and thumb, bending it down slightly and letting it twang quietly as she let go. "But not with swords. Can't fight with something I don't have."
"What do you propose?" Raoul's calm, now slightly cold eyes locked onto Audrie's firey ones.
"Hand to hand, what else?" Audrie met his gaze calmly. "Unless, of course, it's not within your ability to street brawl?" She challenged his ability to wrestle, and considering his impressive size, it would be strange if he couldn't.
"Name the place. I don't care what type of fight it is."
"In a street brawl, where is there to fight but the street?" Audrie smiled with superiority as Raoul registered some surprise on his face. "Would you rather do something else? Poor child, but isn't it the challenged who's supposed to choose what sort of battle it is? I insist, hand to hand is the best way to fight."
"I don't care," Raoul nearly growled, "Just tell me where it'll be already."
"Where it will be?" Audrie sniffed with the air of any court lady. "You're too used to being able to prepare in advance, aren't you? No, the fight can be right now, right outside. That's simple enough for you to understand, isn't it?"
Suddenly Alan pulled Audrie off to the side. "What is with you? When did you become so cruel and rude?"
"I always have been. I didn't change Alan, I've just been forced to hide it. I can be nasty when I want to be, so you should get used to it. I don't change for others either." Audrie smiled grimly. "Don't like this other side of me?"
"But why be so mean to Raoul? What did he do to you?"
"He's the one who overreacted in the first place. I simply think up retorts to everything he says."
"Do you have to be so mean about it? I doubt you would have been so rude to him if he overreacted earlier this week."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?" Snapped Alan, "You act as though you're doing only the normal thing, but most people aren't nearly as insulting as you are."
Audrie sighed. "I don't want to fight with him you know. Personally, I'd just like to enjoy my time here at the Dancing Dove, but if he's going act so insulted and indignant like some little child, then I'm going to treat him like one."
"If you could just let me talk to him."
"No," Audrie shook her head. "He's the one who chose to do this. Besides, I've fanned the flames enough that he would never give up now. I tend to have that effect on people."
Alan looked across the room to George to ask for some sort of support, but while the thief knew what conversation the two were having, he just shook his head and smiled. Alan sighed and looked to Audrie, who nodded grimly and turned back to Raoul.
"I've changed my mind. There's a field not too far away. We can head there for the fight. That way you won't be quite so shamed when you lose." Audrie smirked.
Indeed, Audrie led the way to a small yard covered in snow where young boys were playing. Trailing behind her not only was Raoul, but also a small mass of people. The young boys hooted as they saw Audrie walk into the area, and soon added themselves to the throng so that they could witness the fight the knew was about to occur.
"This place will do." Audrie turned to the others and tried to shoo the younger boys off. "Go on, there's not going to be anything interesting here, you know that."
"But there's always something interesting happening when you show up!" One boy protested. Others rallied behind him, and soon Audrie gave up on trying to make them leave.
Suddenly Audrie swiftly side-kicked Raoul, knocking him to the ground. She stood beside him warily, as though waiting for him to jump instantly back up and punch her.
"What was that for?!" Raoul glared at her.
"What I came here for, fool. Street brawls don't have a 'ready, set, go' you know."
Instead of replying, Raoul did jump up and tried to punch Audrie, but found himself punching air instead. Audrie had ducked below his punch and at the same time thrust herself forward to elbow Raoul beneath the ribs. He doubled backwards and Audrie lunged forward once more. This time he was far more prepared for the blow, and slammed into her with his shoulder before she could injure him.
He used his weight to knock her onto the ground, and soon the two had gone from a standing fight to wrestling. Unfortunately for Audrie, when Raoul had been a page and squire, wrestling had been one of the things he was best at.
Raoul had his arm around Audrie's neck when she kneed him in the groin. She quickly rose to the standing position and, with a small grin, flicked a knife from her boot. The fight quickly went from Raoul's advantage to Audrie's, since Raoul was a noble and naturally carried no knives with him on a regular basis.
Raoul only stared in disbelief at Audrie's complete disregard for any concept of rules as she plunged forward again. Raoul's first reaction was to slip aside and grab Audrie's wrist, quickly prying the knife from her hand.
Audrie growled and, to Raoul and everyone else's utter shock, bit into his hand. In total surprise Raoul let go of Audrie's wrist, and at that exact moment her foot swung out from under her with graceful momentum, aimed to strike Raoul square in the jaw.
Raoul barely managed to grab her boot before she managed to hit him, and with a move he learned from a Shang Master that visited the palace once, twisted her foot swiftly, causing her to have her other foot swept from beneath her. But as she fell to the ground, Audrie pushed onto the ground and flipped into the air.
Raoul peered into the sun, attempting to see even a glimpse of Audrie's silhouette against the sun, yet the sun left blind spots in his eyes, preventing him from seeing anything, let alone Audrie. He never saw her, but instead he felt as her boot smashed into her shoulder, jarring his very bones.
The sound of a crash and rustling bushes forced him to sit up from his prostrated position the instant he had fallen down, and he rose to see Audrie attempting to quickly crawl out of the bushes five feet away. Apparently when she struck him in the shoulder she used extra force to rebound off but ended up falling into the bushes instead. He noticed that the bushes had done their damage: Audrie was covered in scratches from head to toe, and several parts of her dress had been ripped. Raoul stood up in a defending position, but his shoulder hurt enough that he would have preferred to just keel over at that instant. He would have loved to, but he saw that Audrie was still willing to fight, despite her fall into the bushes, which meant that he couldn't give up until she had.
Audrie ran forward and slammed her elbow into him once more, but this time when Raoul fell over he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down with him. This would have been perfect fine if it had been Raoul and another knight or squire fighting, but Audrie found herself on top of Raoul, in a position she did not find pleasing at all.
Turning cherry red, Audrie smashed her elbow into Raoul's nose, bloodying it. She rose instantly, and, in a fit of rage and embarrassment, began to stomp on Raoul repeatedly (AN: As though he was a soda can for smashing and recycling!). By the time she left the small field, Raoul had the same consistency as the "Lots of Pulp" Orange Juice.
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Audrie stalked off in utter embarrassment, leaving the small crowd to tend to Raoul's wounds. It turned out that Audrie had broken Raoul's collarbone, never mind the fact he had been beaten into a bloody mess. The healer's at the city had enough gift to heal his small cuts and bruises, but Alan thought it would be better to take Raoul to the palace healers for his collarbone.
It was just as the group was heading back to the Dancing Dove with Raoul and Alan to retrieve the horses when Raoul remembered the entire reason why he had visited the inn in the first place: "Lady Audrelinia" was still "missing." At least, that's what he thought. When Raoul brought this up to George, the thief's face darkened.
"I'm sure she'll turn up eventually." George tried to encourage Raoul without giving away what he knew.
"Eventually?!" Raoul put his hand to his temples. "That's not soon enough! Jon will kill me before 'eventually' ever even occurs!"
"Don't worry," Alan grinned falsely, since he too already knew about Audrie, 'Sara,' and Lady Audrelinia. "George will find her before dark, since at that point she'll be the only wellborn lady on the streets. After that, she can spend the night at the Dancing Dove."
"Jon will have my hide for letting her stay there." Raoul protested.
"You shouldn't worry about that." Jered inserted himself into the conversation. "Tell your Jon that she loved Corus so much she insisted upon staying the night, even though you were injured by a spooked horse. She was so insistent that you eventually relented but insisted she always stay within George's sight so that she would be kept safe. A perfect lie, if I do say so myself."
Raoul looked hesitant, but finally nodded after several moments of contemplation. At that decision they went to retrieve Alan, Torran and Raoul's horses since Alan deemed Raoul too injured to journey back to the palace alone and Torran too young to stay the night at the inn with no one else around.
At the inn they spotted a severely disgruntled 'Sara,' apparently in a new serving dress, ranting to the bartender as she drank from a flask of some sort of liquor. She was already slightly red in the face from the experience at the field and the liquor did little to lessen it. Not that she was entirely drunk- yet.
The healers who had joined the group instantly tsked and rushed over to Audrie, complaining to her about her lack of natural grace and why couldn't she just stop trying to flourish everything she did so that she could stay out of trouble for merely one day and let them have a rest?
By the time Audrie had stopped trying to shoo the healers away and they had mostly healed all of her scratches, everyone else had settled down to their usual activities, though Raoul and Alan had yet to leave. Jered suggested to Alan that the two stay for just a short while longer to wait for Lady Audrelinia, who supposedly still wandered the streets.
"Do you think we should just head out now?" Raoul sighed somewhat nervously.
"I guess it'll be a while longer before any of George's men find her. After all, the sun's still setting, so there are still people out on the streets." Alan nodded hesitantly, shifting a glance over to Audrie, who had just started dancing, encouraging others to dance with her. "We might as well leave. Hopefully, Jon won't be too angry."
Alan noticed that something of a celebration had been struck up, and now there were plenty of people dancing, laughing, and more than enough drinking. Audrie sauntered over leisurely, stopping briefly to chat with other people before finally reaching Alan, Raoul, Jered and George.
"This is what midwinter festivals are like here. Much better than anything at the palace, I would think." Audrie smiled brilliantly to Alan. Apparently in all of the celebration she forget the earlier occurrences of the day.
"Oh, I don't know," Alan shrugged. "Midwinter festivals at the palace are... fun, I suppose." Raoul stifled a laugh at Alan's idea of midwinter festivals. "They're certainly not as lively as this though. Half the people at the dances appear to be half-asleep."
"I suppose," Audrie turned to Raoul with a slightly cold look. "I should forgive you for being such a pervert."
"What?!" Raoul turned slightly red. "When did I?!"
"If you don't know, I won't tell. Oh, and a small warning, the Ace of Spades is better than even I am." Audrie lied through her teeth in hoped of scaring Raoul off from his inconvenient interest in her thief identity.
Audrie laughed slightly before giving Raoul the tiniest of smiles, implying that she had forgiven him not only for the day's events but also for his accusations of earlier that week. Then she trotted off to rejoin the other festivities in the inn, laughing with the others as a particularly drunk Ercole attempted to kiss another serving girl, who promptly smacked him.
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Raoul glanced back at the brightly lit inn from atop his bay horse. Beside him stood squire Alan and Torran, growing impatient with Raoul's reluctance to leave. But just as Raoul turned to head down the road to the palace, he could have sworn he head someone shout, "A toast to the brief return of the Ace of Spades!" and loud cheering following it.
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AN: Was this as long and tedious as the previous chapter? I hope not...
Author's notes: Thirteen reviews! I feel so loved! I'm glad that so many of you like my fic so far, and that several of you actually bothered to read my author's notes ('cause I know no one else does) and vote on who Audrie should be paired with. My only comment is to Assthorn, who said that Audrie came off as slightly out-of-character when she told Alan/na about herself. I partly agree, that wasn't my best writing and I suppose she did seem that way, but also, Audrie gave that letter to Alan/na from George, and guessed that George had already told Alan/na about her. Also, how else would Audrie explain that she grew short black hair overnight? I'm sorry you didn't like this chapter as much, but I hope you'll like this one more.
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'At that instant, Jered pulled her onto his lap, laughing. Audrie couldn't help but laugh as well, despite her annoyance at the gesture. Unfortunately, it was also at that instant that Gary and Raoul walked into the room.'
Audrie jumped up upon seeing the two noblemen enter the room, shooting a quick glare at Alan, who seemed as surprised as Audrie was.
While Alan was surprised at seeing Audrie there, Raoul didn't recognize her whatsoever, and the only bewilderment he felt was why the girl had glared at Alan. But instead of dwelling on why a serving girl was in George's rooms, sitting on another thief's lap and glaring at Alan for no reason at all, Raoul turned to George. "We need your help."
"Oh?" George had a slight twinkle in his eye. "And why is that?"
"We," Alan began, but paused for a second before continuing. "We were visiting the City for the day with a young noblewoman, but she walked off without us and I think she's lost." Alan's eyes flickered to Audrie. "We need you to help us find her."
"A young noblewoman?" George's eyes too drifted over to Audrie. "Walked off without telling you? That's not good. She could be anywhere in the city. I'll send some men out to look for her, but I can't guarantee anything."
"That's all we can ask for, isn't it?" Raoul nodded and sighed. "I suppose this is why Jon insisted I come along."
Audrie began sneaking out the door, hoping to avoid any confrontation with Alan or George, both of whom seemed extremely annoyed that she had snuck away from being in Alan's company without permission. Unfortunately, Raoul noticed her attempts to escape.
"Who are you?" Raoul caught her by the hand, which Audrie promptly snatched away. "Sara. I'm a waitress here. I was just having my break, so I'll be going now." Audrie nodded to George, locking her now golden-brown eyes with his.
"I'll go send some men out to look for this noblewoman of yours. She should stick out in the streets. In the meanwhile, why don't you two have a drink to calm your nerves?" George smiled slightly at the annoyed look on Audrie's face.
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate this." Raoul smiled weakly. "Jon would have my head if Lady Audrelinia was injured in any way while in Corus.
The George, Raoul and Alan went to the part of the inn most visited: the tavern. Trailing behind them were Audrie and Jered.
"Remind me to slip a poison in George's drink when I get the chance." Audrie hissed to Jered, "A very nasty poison that makes you turn purple with polka dots or something of the like." Jered simply smiled and shook his head.
Upon the group entering the main room, the were many winks to Audrie, since many of the thieves knew her from both her waitress job and from her work as a thief. Several shot her questioning looks as to why she was back so soon, but Audrie explained to them with a shrug of her shoulders and a mouthing of 'later.'
But Audrie didn't have much time to explain. While the bartender was glad she was back, Audrie was still sent to work first thing. She went around passing out drinks, taking orders from everyone, and having small clips of conversations with other thieves about what had happened while she was gone.
Audrie leaned across the table to hand George his drink, being to lazy to simply walk around. Ale for Raoul, wine for George, simple water for Alan. She grinned and winked at George, who pretended not to notice.
"You seem to be well-known here." Raoul noticed the warm welcome Audrie had received, and questioned it. "Everyone here seems to act as though you've been away for a long time, rather than just a lunch break."
"I have been." Audrie thought up a lie on the spot. "I'm something of an apprentice-slash-assistant to the Ace of Spades," Audrie cringed. Couldn't she have thought of some other thief to name, other than herself? "And recently returned from Galla, where she sent me to dig up some information on a thief there."
"You're the apprentice to the Ace of Spades?" Raoul raised an eyebrow. "I assume you've met her then? What does she look like?"
"The Ace of Spades?" Audrie smiled weakly. "Never actually met her. She sends me notes to tell me what to do. Mostly she's on the road, but I think her solid home is somewhere down south near the Bazhir. She's somewhere in Serain right now, I'm pretty sure."
"You've never met the person you're apprentice to?" Surprise registered on Raoul's face.
"No, she keeps to herself most of the time." Audrie wished there was some way to move off of this subject. "I have to serve other people now." Audrie slipped off before Raoul could ask her anything more.
Audrie grinned as she walked off away from the group, eyes sparkling with mischief. In her hand she held Raoul's loincloths, and she wanted to get revenge for his accusations. Not that he would know it was revenge.
Audrie began to dance a jig from the Copper Isles, blatantly swinging Raoul's loincloths above her head for all to see. Several joined in with loud, rhythmic clapping until soon George was staring at Audrie with such round eyes that Raoul and Alan turned around to see what was going on.
It took Raoul a moment to register what was going on, then he looked to George. "What's going on."
"Umm..." George hesitated to explain. "Check your pants, Raoul."
Raoul shot a look to George that clearly stated: "Are you insane?" But didn't get the opportunity to ask nor check before Audrie walked over to him, sweeping a deep bow with many flourishes of her hands, since she was still holding his loincloths.
"I believe these are yours?" Audrie smiled and batted her eyes twice, mocking the court ladies, and daintily dropped the loincloths in front of Raoul. Then she went off to dance with the others, whirling around and laughing.
Raoul turned red in the face upon seeing his loincloths tossed in front of him, and the realization that they had been publicly displayed didn't exactly please him. He turned to George. "Did you see what she just did?!"
"She's done it before. Not quite to that extent, but..." George shook his head, but couldn't help grinning. "She's stolen from me before you know. She doesn't really care whether you're embarrassed by it all or not."
"Could you show me a place where I could...Change?" Raoul turned slightly redder.
"Head to my room. No one should be in there."
By the time Raoul returned from putting his loincloths back on, the dancing and noise had quieted down to the point where everyone was sitting and laughing with 'Sara' and chatting away blithely.
"She certainly wouldn't be able to dance at a ball," Lightfingers was grinning, "But the Ace of Spades is our own Mistress of Dance." Everyone quieted down when they spotted Raoul reentering the room, with the exception of 'Sara,' who was slumped in a chair laughing away with Jered. But she too stopped when she saw Raoul's grim expression.
"Dare I ask why you did that?" Raoul towered over 'Sara,' imposing his full height.
"I was bored. You were a source of great entertainment." She threw back her head over the back of the chair and laughed.
"I was a source of entertainment? That's why you publicly disgraced me?"
"You nobles worry too much about grace and disgraces, I should know."
Audrie took a gulp of a tankard of ale on the table beside her and rose to stand in front of Raoul. He was still over a foot taller than her, and while she often exuded an air of confidence, it's hard to impress someone so much taller than she.
"You don't know what's good for you, do you?" Audrie glared up at him. "Go bother your mother to give you some common sense. Isn't that how you nobles manage to get everything you own, go bawling to your parents?"
Audrie turned haughtily around, ignoring all the others, and stalked out of the inn. The thieves left behind either stared at Raoul in surprise or glared at him with malice.
"It's not wise to be on her bad side, you know." Jered stood beside Raoul and put a hand on the taller man's shoulder. "She has the worst tendency to show up when you least want her too and destroy what you're working on. Don't go starting any large projects this next year, okay? And be careful for wires meant for tripping if you joust."
"She does that?" Alan tried to hide a grin.
"With a vengeance." Jered sighed. "She doesn't appreciate pranks on her though. Put anything in her food and you risk being tortured for the next year."
Suddenly a young boy ran in. Alan vaguely recognized that he was a page at the palace and wondered why he was here. The boy seemed slightly winded but looked up with hopeful eyes as he scanned the room.
"Is-is the Ace of Spades here?" The young boy huffed, "I wanted to talk to her."
"She just-" George cut himself off. "She's off in Serain. She won't be back for some time."
"But that's not possible, I saw her just a moment ago, on the-" The boy stopped and stared at the ceiling. "What are you doing on the rafters?"
Out of seemingly nowhere Audrie swung down of a supporting beam and landed on her feet directly in front of the young boy.
"What are you doing here?" Audrie grabbed the young boy and hauled him out into the hallway. "Pray tell, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to apologize. I figured out that you were at the-"
Audrie clapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't even finish that sentence. Nosey people have a slight tendency to listen in!" She glared at the boy before letting her hand off his mouth.
"Okay, okay!" The boy gave a stubborn sigh. "You always were paranoid that way. Always afraid someone was listening in or following you to your latest stash of money for the day. Who would bother?"
"More people than you really care to know. I've had enough people try to take my share of loot to last a lifetime. People sink low, get used to it." Audrie sighed at the young boy's lack of worldly knowledge. "Torran, what are you doing here? I've asked you more than enough times now."
"I was telling you. I wanted to apologize."
"For what? You haven't done anything recently."
"Recently, yeah, but you're still angry at me for lying about being a noble."
"So? Why would that matter to you? You're a noble. That states everything."
"What do you mean? It's not like all nobles are bad."
"Uh huh. Are you going to apologize and explain anytime this generation or do you have to wait until you're fifty first?" Audrie couldn't help it, she smiled. After all, he had been learning the Rogue from her back in Naren, she supposed she couldn't be entirely indifferent to him.
"Fine. I'm sorry for lying. I wanted to learn the rogue and escape my parents and having to be a noble, but then my parents found out and kept me from going to the city. These days I don't mind being a noble quite so much. The people are nicer than you always made them out to be."
"Nobles and honesty don't mix."
"That's what I hear about thieves in the palace."
"Which proves my point; they lie." Audrie thought back to Alan and the kinder nobles she knew. "I suppose some of them are tolerable though. Not the most interesting bunch though."
"I won't deny that." Torran laughed. "You should hear the ladies- oh wait, you already do." "Be quiet!" Audrie hissed once more, "Don't forget that Raoul and Alan are out there. Either one of them could listen in and take that information to Provost. That means death for me. Death and I don't mesh well."
"Alright, alright. Sorry."
The two headed back into the main room, with Audrie in a slightly better mood than before. Then she remembered why she had left the inn in the first place. She only snuck back in in order to hear what they were saying about her, and had no intention of actually reappearing. Now she collected the attention of most who were in the room, with the exception of the few who were already drunk so early in the afternoon.
"Did I suddenly go bald, or is there some other reason as to why everyone's staring at me?" Audrie snapped.
Only a few knew what entrance Audrie used to reenter the inn, and the others were still somewhat bewildered on how she had suddenly popped up sitting on the rafters. Whether they knew or didn't, all looked on with interest on how Raoul would react to her this time.
Suddenly Raoul drew his sword, pointing the tip in Audrie's direction. The meaning was as blatant as purple polka dots on pink: Raoul was challenging Audrie to a duel.
"Fine," Audrie grasped the tip of the sword between her index and thumb, bending it down slightly and letting it twang quietly as she let go. "But not with swords. Can't fight with something I don't have."
"What do you propose?" Raoul's calm, now slightly cold eyes locked onto Audrie's firey ones.
"Hand to hand, what else?" Audrie met his gaze calmly. "Unless, of course, it's not within your ability to street brawl?" She challenged his ability to wrestle, and considering his impressive size, it would be strange if he couldn't.
"Name the place. I don't care what type of fight it is."
"In a street brawl, where is there to fight but the street?" Audrie smiled with superiority as Raoul registered some surprise on his face. "Would you rather do something else? Poor child, but isn't it the challenged who's supposed to choose what sort of battle it is? I insist, hand to hand is the best way to fight."
"I don't care," Raoul nearly growled, "Just tell me where it'll be already."
"Where it will be?" Audrie sniffed with the air of any court lady. "You're too used to being able to prepare in advance, aren't you? No, the fight can be right now, right outside. That's simple enough for you to understand, isn't it?"
Suddenly Alan pulled Audrie off to the side. "What is with you? When did you become so cruel and rude?"
"I always have been. I didn't change Alan, I've just been forced to hide it. I can be nasty when I want to be, so you should get used to it. I don't change for others either." Audrie smiled grimly. "Don't like this other side of me?"
"But why be so mean to Raoul? What did he do to you?"
"He's the one who overreacted in the first place. I simply think up retorts to everything he says."
"Do you have to be so mean about it? I doubt you would have been so rude to him if he overreacted earlier this week."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?" Snapped Alan, "You act as though you're doing only the normal thing, but most people aren't nearly as insulting as you are."
Audrie sighed. "I don't want to fight with him you know. Personally, I'd just like to enjoy my time here at the Dancing Dove, but if he's going act so insulted and indignant like some little child, then I'm going to treat him like one."
"If you could just let me talk to him."
"No," Audrie shook her head. "He's the one who chose to do this. Besides, I've fanned the flames enough that he would never give up now. I tend to have that effect on people."
Alan looked across the room to George to ask for some sort of support, but while the thief knew what conversation the two were having, he just shook his head and smiled. Alan sighed and looked to Audrie, who nodded grimly and turned back to Raoul.
"I've changed my mind. There's a field not too far away. We can head there for the fight. That way you won't be quite so shamed when you lose." Audrie smirked.
Indeed, Audrie led the way to a small yard covered in snow where young boys were playing. Trailing behind her not only was Raoul, but also a small mass of people. The young boys hooted as they saw Audrie walk into the area, and soon added themselves to the throng so that they could witness the fight the knew was about to occur.
"This place will do." Audrie turned to the others and tried to shoo the younger boys off. "Go on, there's not going to be anything interesting here, you know that."
"But there's always something interesting happening when you show up!" One boy protested. Others rallied behind him, and soon Audrie gave up on trying to make them leave.
Suddenly Audrie swiftly side-kicked Raoul, knocking him to the ground. She stood beside him warily, as though waiting for him to jump instantly back up and punch her.
"What was that for?!" Raoul glared at her.
"What I came here for, fool. Street brawls don't have a 'ready, set, go' you know."
Instead of replying, Raoul did jump up and tried to punch Audrie, but found himself punching air instead. Audrie had ducked below his punch and at the same time thrust herself forward to elbow Raoul beneath the ribs. He doubled backwards and Audrie lunged forward once more. This time he was far more prepared for the blow, and slammed into her with his shoulder before she could injure him.
He used his weight to knock her onto the ground, and soon the two had gone from a standing fight to wrestling. Unfortunately for Audrie, when Raoul had been a page and squire, wrestling had been one of the things he was best at.
Raoul had his arm around Audrie's neck when she kneed him in the groin. She quickly rose to the standing position and, with a small grin, flicked a knife from her boot. The fight quickly went from Raoul's advantage to Audrie's, since Raoul was a noble and naturally carried no knives with him on a regular basis.
Raoul only stared in disbelief at Audrie's complete disregard for any concept of rules as she plunged forward again. Raoul's first reaction was to slip aside and grab Audrie's wrist, quickly prying the knife from her hand.
Audrie growled and, to Raoul and everyone else's utter shock, bit into his hand. In total surprise Raoul let go of Audrie's wrist, and at that exact moment her foot swung out from under her with graceful momentum, aimed to strike Raoul square in the jaw.
Raoul barely managed to grab her boot before she managed to hit him, and with a move he learned from a Shang Master that visited the palace once, twisted her foot swiftly, causing her to have her other foot swept from beneath her. But as she fell to the ground, Audrie pushed onto the ground and flipped into the air.
Raoul peered into the sun, attempting to see even a glimpse of Audrie's silhouette against the sun, yet the sun left blind spots in his eyes, preventing him from seeing anything, let alone Audrie. He never saw her, but instead he felt as her boot smashed into her shoulder, jarring his very bones.
The sound of a crash and rustling bushes forced him to sit up from his prostrated position the instant he had fallen down, and he rose to see Audrie attempting to quickly crawl out of the bushes five feet away. Apparently when she struck him in the shoulder she used extra force to rebound off but ended up falling into the bushes instead. He noticed that the bushes had done their damage: Audrie was covered in scratches from head to toe, and several parts of her dress had been ripped. Raoul stood up in a defending position, but his shoulder hurt enough that he would have preferred to just keel over at that instant. He would have loved to, but he saw that Audrie was still willing to fight, despite her fall into the bushes, which meant that he couldn't give up until she had.
Audrie ran forward and slammed her elbow into him once more, but this time when Raoul fell over he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down with him. This would have been perfect fine if it had been Raoul and another knight or squire fighting, but Audrie found herself on top of Raoul, in a position she did not find pleasing at all.
Turning cherry red, Audrie smashed her elbow into Raoul's nose, bloodying it. She rose instantly, and, in a fit of rage and embarrassment, began to stomp on Raoul repeatedly (AN: As though he was a soda can for smashing and recycling!). By the time she left the small field, Raoul had the same consistency as the "Lots of Pulp" Orange Juice.
~ ~ ~ ~
Audrie stalked off in utter embarrassment, leaving the small crowd to tend to Raoul's wounds. It turned out that Audrie had broken Raoul's collarbone, never mind the fact he had been beaten into a bloody mess. The healer's at the city had enough gift to heal his small cuts and bruises, but Alan thought it would be better to take Raoul to the palace healers for his collarbone.
It was just as the group was heading back to the Dancing Dove with Raoul and Alan to retrieve the horses when Raoul remembered the entire reason why he had visited the inn in the first place: "Lady Audrelinia" was still "missing." At least, that's what he thought. When Raoul brought this up to George, the thief's face darkened.
"I'm sure she'll turn up eventually." George tried to encourage Raoul without giving away what he knew.
"Eventually?!" Raoul put his hand to his temples. "That's not soon enough! Jon will kill me before 'eventually' ever even occurs!"
"Don't worry," Alan grinned falsely, since he too already knew about Audrie, 'Sara,' and Lady Audrelinia. "George will find her before dark, since at that point she'll be the only wellborn lady on the streets. After that, she can spend the night at the Dancing Dove."
"Jon will have my hide for letting her stay there." Raoul protested.
"You shouldn't worry about that." Jered inserted himself into the conversation. "Tell your Jon that she loved Corus so much she insisted upon staying the night, even though you were injured by a spooked horse. She was so insistent that you eventually relented but insisted she always stay within George's sight so that she would be kept safe. A perfect lie, if I do say so myself."
Raoul looked hesitant, but finally nodded after several moments of contemplation. At that decision they went to retrieve Alan, Torran and Raoul's horses since Alan deemed Raoul too injured to journey back to the palace alone and Torran too young to stay the night at the inn with no one else around.
At the inn they spotted a severely disgruntled 'Sara,' apparently in a new serving dress, ranting to the bartender as she drank from a flask of some sort of liquor. She was already slightly red in the face from the experience at the field and the liquor did little to lessen it. Not that she was entirely drunk- yet.
The healers who had joined the group instantly tsked and rushed over to Audrie, complaining to her about her lack of natural grace and why couldn't she just stop trying to flourish everything she did so that she could stay out of trouble for merely one day and let them have a rest?
By the time Audrie had stopped trying to shoo the healers away and they had mostly healed all of her scratches, everyone else had settled down to their usual activities, though Raoul and Alan had yet to leave. Jered suggested to Alan that the two stay for just a short while longer to wait for Lady Audrelinia, who supposedly still wandered the streets.
"Do you think we should just head out now?" Raoul sighed somewhat nervously.
"I guess it'll be a while longer before any of George's men find her. After all, the sun's still setting, so there are still people out on the streets." Alan nodded hesitantly, shifting a glance over to Audrie, who had just started dancing, encouraging others to dance with her. "We might as well leave. Hopefully, Jon won't be too angry."
Alan noticed that something of a celebration had been struck up, and now there were plenty of people dancing, laughing, and more than enough drinking. Audrie sauntered over leisurely, stopping briefly to chat with other people before finally reaching Alan, Raoul, Jered and George.
"This is what midwinter festivals are like here. Much better than anything at the palace, I would think." Audrie smiled brilliantly to Alan. Apparently in all of the celebration she forget the earlier occurrences of the day.
"Oh, I don't know," Alan shrugged. "Midwinter festivals at the palace are... fun, I suppose." Raoul stifled a laugh at Alan's idea of midwinter festivals. "They're certainly not as lively as this though. Half the people at the dances appear to be half-asleep."
"I suppose," Audrie turned to Raoul with a slightly cold look. "I should forgive you for being such a pervert."
"What?!" Raoul turned slightly red. "When did I?!"
"If you don't know, I won't tell. Oh, and a small warning, the Ace of Spades is better than even I am." Audrie lied through her teeth in hoped of scaring Raoul off from his inconvenient interest in her thief identity.
Audrie laughed slightly before giving Raoul the tiniest of smiles, implying that she had forgiven him not only for the day's events but also for his accusations of earlier that week. Then she trotted off to rejoin the other festivities in the inn, laughing with the others as a particularly drunk Ercole attempted to kiss another serving girl, who promptly smacked him.
~ ~ ~ ~
Raoul glanced back at the brightly lit inn from atop his bay horse. Beside him stood squire Alan and Torran, growing impatient with Raoul's reluctance to leave. But just as Raoul turned to head down the road to the palace, he could have sworn he head someone shout, "A toast to the brief return of the Ace of Spades!" and loud cheering following it.
~ ~ ~ ~
AN: Was this as long and tedious as the previous chapter? I hope not...