A/N: Hey you guys! Hope you're doing well.My evil GRANDMA is coming today, so after this I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post over the next week, but oh well, I guess I won't die.Ha! That's not true! Well, at least she likes giving people presents a bit too much.Yes, I am greedy, and I'm only eleven years old... Anyway, I think I'm obsessed. I got the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack yesterday and I keep on listening to the part that plays when Will and Elizabeth kiss.darn, I'm going crazy. SHUT UP, LEAH, enough rambling! Here's chappie seven, hope you enjoy it, blah blah blah, READ AND REVIEW! Yup.insane.

~*The War Begins*~

Alanna stared at the prone form of Josh and decided that she didn't really care that he was dead. She watched two older girls cover him with a sheet and carry him outside, but she felt no pang of remorse for the boy she hardly knew.She blinked, and nearly spilled the bowl of soup she was carrying on the patient in the next bed over. The girl set the dish carefully down on a man's lap, and handed him a spoon. She yawned. Whoa, she thought, can't go all sl-sleepy, y-yet. She yawned again, and rubbed her tired eyes. Outside the tent the midges droned, and droned, and droned.
An alarm going was struck somewhere in the camp, again and again, and Alanna was knocked abruptly from her reverie. The infirmary tents were in turmoil, with woman dashing pell-mell between the three shelters and trying to figure out what was happening. Alanna found herself caught up in a flood of trainees being herded outside, and found to her dismay that the camp was in fact being attacked. She grabbed the wrist of a young girl called Elanor and nearly yanked her down behind a large boulder standing by the edge of the treeline. There was smoke everywhere, and although they could not see much from around the giant rock Alanna knew that the Scanrans would be torching the camp. She was quite curious, however. "Just stay here, I'll be right back," she whispered to Elanor, and the poor girl was either so frightened or didn't really have a problem with Alanna getting herself killed that she nodded. The girl crept slowly around the rock and into the encampment. It wasn't really a very pleasant sight, although she hadn't been expecting one. But it was not the damage but the warriors that bothered Alanna. There were a couple Scanrans here and there, but the vast majority of the enemy was animals-but no animals that she had ever seen in her life. They vaguely resembled bears and falcons, raccoons and wolves, but they were enormous, fanged, and foaming like a stream at the mouth. She gasped in horror as a deer caught and gutted a pikeman on its antlers, then trampled his body beneath its flying hooves. But she had no time for wondering at the sight. As she crawled further towards the fray a burly, barrel-chested man came up behind her, and whacked her head with a heavy stone. He seized her by the shoulderblades, slung her over his back, and carried her north, into the forest. Alanna of Trebond was captured. (A/N: Sorry if it brings you too mind of in ItHotG, when she gets captured.)
*** When she came to she was lying in the back of a cart with a young boy about three years younger than she was. Their wrists bound both to a metal post in the center of the cart, and the boy was still out cold. She pulled at the manacles half-heartedly, and sat back against the low walls. A canvas cover concealed the two from view, and a small jar of water was wedged firmly in place in a corner. Alanna uncorked it and sipped; it was quite warm and tepid, but better than nothing, she supposed.
As if on cue the tiny boy groaned and rolled over, obviously awake. He saw her watching him, and asked in a small voice, "May I please have some water, miss?"
She grinned cheerfully at him. "As long as you promise to call me Alanna, not miss." She held the bottle out to him.
He nodded fervently and took the water. "My name's Sam. I'm the son of General Rygol." Sam took a great big gulp and then stoppered it back up. "Do you know where they're taking us?"
Alanna shrugged. "Somewhere in Scanra, I suppose." She saw his frightened face, and smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, Sam, I'll get us out of here somehow."
He nodded weakly, settled his head on his forearm, and went promptly to sleep.
Even though she had spoken with almost arrogant assuredness Alanna frankly had no idea how to get out of the whole mess. If she used magic to cut their bonds, they could hardly jump out of the wagon and run to safety. Once they were in Scanra they had even worse a chance of escaping. She shook her head wearily, and went back to sleep.

When they woke the two captives were in a small dungeon with an iron grate, but at least they weren't shackled. A tall, pale, shaggy-haired Scanran guard was dozing in a chair just outside the grate. Alanna rolled her eyes; guard duty was obviously just as dreaded in Scanra as in Tortall. She stood on tiptoe to look out the narrow, slatted window, but saw only a short stretch of brown ground and a strip of gray sky. Sighing, the girl glanced at Sam, who was squatting by the lattice and seeming very interested in something. She cocked a brow quizzically, and hunkered down beside the boy. "What are you doing?"
He grinned happily at her. "See this section of iron, around a half- foot long? It's rusted rather a bit, and it's quite worn in some places." Sam gestured to another segment of metal about a foot away from the first. "This one's the same. If we could somehow break through, we could force this middle area and crawl out. It'd be a sort of tight fit, but I think we'd manage."
Alanna nodded slowly, and scratched her ear pensively. "I have a relatively strong healing Gift, but I can do a bit of fire, too. I might be able to melt these bars through, and then weaken the central ones."
Sam was about to agree with her when an armored Scanran with a bright scarlet cloak strode pompously into the cell. He slapped the ward several times to wake him, and ordered the vault unlocked. "Lord Ushak wishes for the prisoners to be brought to his council chamber, you lazy lay-about, so get moving so that I don't have to hang about all day!" The guard leapt up and unbolted the jail door. Alanna clasped Sam's arm protectively, and the two were ushered up a stair and down several corridors by the mail-clad man. Two men in maroon livery threw a pair of grand walnut doors open, and the trio entered.
Alanna's first impression of Lord Ushak was of a large, overgrown ferret. He had bushy white eyebrows, a matted mane of dark gray hair, and tiny, beetle-black eyes that were constantly twitching. He wore a dark purple doublet edged with silver brocade and a black velvet cape that, for some odd reason, smelled distinctly like mushrooms. Ushak gave the children a falsely warm smile, and rose from his smooth, elaborately carved chair. "Welcome, my young ones! I trust you have been treated well, yes?"
Alanna snorted. "Well, if you call being captured, locked up, and dragged into Scanra being treated well, then yes, we have been treated superfluously well."
Lord Ushak smirked nastily. "I'm not sure that I quite know what that means, little missy, but don't let it go to your head." He swept magnificently towards a window. "My dear Veralidaine Sarrasri should be arriving shortly, so I believe that I should clear a few things up with you." His leer twisted slightly. "After all, we don't want to get two children like yourselves confused, do we. Now, Miss Sarrasri is not one of our time." Ushak chose a pomegranate from the bowl on the table, inspected it, and flicked a speck of dust off it before continuing. "She comes from eighteen years in the twenty-six years in the future. Rather interesting, don't you find?"
Alanna's eyes narrowed. "You really expect us to believe you, Ushak?"
He shrugged. "You don't really have much of a choice, do you my dear." He bit into the fruit, and smiled appreciatively.
The girl glowered. "There is always a choice," she gritted from between clenched teeth.
Suddenly a door creaked open, and a spotted cheetah strolled nonchalantly into the hall. It rubbed fondly against the old man's legs and then slowly, almost casually morphed into a petite young woman with twisted masses of smoky brown hair.
Alanna was not as surprised as Sam, as she had already seen this woman before, but it was still somewhat of a shock to see a sleek feline mutate into a lovely young maiden. Sam was gaping slack-jawed at the woman, who grinned impishly at him. Ushak cleared his throat majestically. "Ahem, may I present Daine. Daine, these are.two young ones from Tortall." Daine nodded graciously, and Alanna smiled in return, although Sam did nothing as he was still gawking unabashedly. Alanna nudged him, and he jumped, then jerked his head politely.
Ushak smirked again. "I'm sure that you're wondering how Daine got here, but let's just say that it was a matter of-instrumental music, okay?" It wasn't a question, but the two companions nodded. "The main issue we would wished to discuss with you is this. We need information pertaining to positions of Tortallan troops, and are ready to torture for it. You were the only people stupid enough to get yourselves captured. Do you have information?" He spoke quietly and firmly, but there was a nasty edge to his voice that said he had power over them and could wield it at any moment. Alanna shook her head. "Nope, nothing that you haven't figured out already by attacking us." But Sam was twisting uneasily in place, and Alanna realized that as the son of a general he would have only slightly limited access to military intelligence. She glared at him, but not before Ushak noticed his unease.
"You there, boy, what's your name?"
"Sam, sir."
The man whirled about dramatically. "You have knowledge that we might be able to use?"
Sam nodded miserably, despite Alanna's pleading looks.
Lord Ushak laughed, triumphant and slightly maniacal. "Excellent! Guards!" A pair of men wearing leather tunics and rather nasty expressions seized the small boy's arms and lugged him off, ignoring his frantic struggles.
The girl glared angrily at Ushak, who merely laughed again. He nodded to Daine, who swiftly morphed into wildcat form and slunk out the door.
Alanna bit her lip, fuming. How could she possibly save herself and Sam, without burying the entire country in a heap of trouble?

A/N: Sorry if it seems kind of random that I killed Joshua off but he was bugging me so I just had to make him bite the big one.I do not own any Tamora Pierce characters, if you think I do you must be either terminally ill or even more senile than I am. That's saying quite a bit, actually.Please press the little 'Go' button, it won't hurt you and it really makes a difference to me *author gets all teary* so please review.I said please.Oh, and by the way, I revised chapter three because it was just creeping me out, so please read it and tell me what you think of it. I want five more reviews before I post the next chapter. Have an inordinately nice day and wish me luck with my grandma.*author grimaces and bares her teeth*