A/N: Hey everybody! I didn't get five reviews; I only got three, but oh
well. I still decided to post because I got all sentimental when thinking
about you guys sitting there waiting for me to update, which you were
doing, of course (weren't you?). My grandma left yesterday, all's well and
I'm not completely insane, which is good, I suppose. I don't own any Tamora
Pierce characters, for the simple reason that I am not Tamora Pierce.
Please read and review!
~*The Loftiest Spire*~ (Crappy title, haha, live with it!)
Alanna toyed impatiently with her fork and waited for Lord Ushak to stop hogging the venison cutlet. He's a complete pig, she thought, doesn't he know that he's already served himself half the platter?! She wasn't hungry anyway, but Ushak couldn't talk when he was eating, and Alanna wished to interrogate him about what his guards were doing to Sam. Finally the lord finished loading his dish, and was about to dive in when the girl distinctly cleared her throat. "Ahem. Excuse me, sir, but I was speculating that you might clarify a few queries that I have?" She smiled inwardly, watching the man sitting across the table from her process what she had just said. Evidently, not all Scanrans had their complete wits about them. "Oh, of course, my dear girl, what sort of inquiries do you have to make?" Alanna set her fork down on her unscathed salad, and leaned closer to Ushak's face. "What is this Daine person doing with the animals?"
He smiled reminiscently. "Ah, yes, my beautiful Daine. She invades the creatures' minds and convinces them to join my growing horde of man, bird, and beast. Then we collaborate to train them in the arts of war." Ushak stuffed a farl of sourdough wheat bread into his mouth, and spoke around it thickly. "Pretty simple, actually. Any more of your queries, my girl?"
She curled her lip at the phrase, but smiled sweetly. "Where is Sam being retained?" He chuckled and popped a wrinkled almond into his mouth. "Not likely to tell you, am I, poppit." He snickered again, then leered wickedly. "And we may not even have him anymore." Alanna cocked a brow, and forked a clump of radishes. "Well, by logical deduction, I assume that you still are in control of the child, as we have been her a scant three hours or so. And, also by inference, it is most probable that you have not received any intelligence from him." She examined the radishes and chewed them thoughtfully, savoring the puzzled and slightly flustered look on Ushak's pudgy face. "But, my good lord, tell me. Is Sam in your custody somewhere in this lovely edifice of yours?" He sighed, and threw up his hands in mock despair. "I have no choice but to comply. Yes, the whelp is still here." She leaned even closer, and murmured softly, "My, but you are such an inordinately handsome fellow-I do believe that your hair is the finest I've ever seen." Idiotic scoundrel, she thought, as Ushak slowly fell for the bait.
"Yes, I quite agree, although I am on in my years I don't have to be as repulsive as the next man." "Really? I thought that you were as young as that guard who took my small companion away, but obviously thrice as admirable."
Ushak was visibly preening himself. "That barmy old ward? He could hardly climb all the way up the steps of the tower, let alone beat me in a conflict of image!"
Alanna gazed eagerly into the lord's eyes. "Yes, I-wait, what tower do you speak of?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, just the southern tower, it's the highest one in the citadel. We're stowing that bratty little boy in there, until-." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that, was I?"
She shook her head, grinning like a slightly demented frog. "No, Lord Ushak, you were definitely not required to inform me of that fact. But that shouldn't be allowed to put a damper on this discussion." Her violet eyes sparkled mischievously, and she lifted the flagon of mead that stood nearby. "Would you like some more ale, sir?"
Alanna padded softly along the darkened hallway. It had taken rather longer than she liked for Ushak to fall into a drunken stupor, but at last she was free to seek out Sam's holding cell. "He said it was the southern tower," she mused to herself, "so I believe it should be.this way." As she turned a corner a towering young soldier in the livery of Ushak's home guard suddenly stalked by. Alanna shrank up close to the wall, her heart pounding out a harsh tattoo against her ribs, until the man had disappeared and the hall deserted. That was too close a call for my liking, she thought, and resumed her pace. The night wore steadily on, the light grew steadily dimmer, and Alanna steadily became more and more tired.
Suddenly bleary-eyed, she stumbled into the stone-flagged wall-except that it wasn't a wall, it was an empty space in the wall. The girl poked her head in the gap, and found to her somewhat insignificant delight that it was a staircase. And looking up the winding path, she found that it certainly was tall. "Great Mother Goddess-" she whispered, "-that is one hell of a climb!" The spiraling steps seemed to twist upwards in perpetual motion. Alanna blew out a sigh, and started climbing. Might as well get there by the end of the night, she thought irritably, and conjured a ball of incandescent, violet flame. As she walked the light illuminated the flight, and she saw that it wasn't really as long as she had originally believed. "Mithros be praised," she muttered, and stumped heavily higher.
The first rays of morning sunlight crept across the horizon as Alanna approached the top of the steeple. She tottered groggily as she clambered onto the last landing, but righted herself as she heard a faint wisp of a voice from behind the small door that stood to one side. She groaned, and silently skulked up next to the solid, oaken structure to eavesdrop. It sounded like there was one guard in the chamber, and it also seemed like he was asleep. Every now and then came a coarse grunt, and the man was breathing heavily. Alanna gently tested the doorknob: it clicked, and swung open with the smallest of creaks. She stole softly in, warily glancing at the snoring guard, and knelt by the tiny boy lying in the corner. "Sam," she hissed, "Sam, wake up!" Alanna patted his cheeks, maybe a little too hard, and the child's eyes flew open.
"Alanna! Where-where did you come from? I swear, I haven't told them anything, they didn't-."
She covered his mouth with a palm, raised her brows warningly, and beckoned him out onto the landing. "Sam, these stairs are much too long for us to descend before that pig yonder wakes and realizes that you're gone. We'll have to.I dunno.it's a bit, well, reckless." The boy shrugged. "I'm up for anything at the moment," he said wryly, and she grinned. "I was thinking that we could climb out that window, scale the wall, and then go from there. It sounds rather foolish, and it is foolish, but it's our best bet." Alanna examined the window; it was quite large, a double- paned contraption. Luckily for them it opened at the middle, so you could prop it open with a stick. She pushed the bottom half up, and saw, with considerable relief, that there were small ledges every few feet along the turret's wall. With a prayer to Mithros, and an encouraging smile to Sam, the girl hoisted her body out of the window and began to climb.
Once she got going it was substantially more effortless than the task had first appeared. The small projections were frequent and evenly spaced, the mortar was old and easy to find a good drip in, and Sam was capable enough to climb without her constant surveillance. Light was gradually seeping into the sky, but it was early enough that no one in their right mind would be awake yet. All in all, their luck was turning out for the better.
After a while, however, the two comrades became tired-especially Alanna, who hadn't had a good night's sleep in at least twenty-four hours. Sam suddenly miscalculated a footing, and slipped several inches before regaining his balance. So Alanna finally stopped on the next ledge to relax a bit, and Sam stopped to rest also.
She smiled wearily at the boy. "Had enough yet?" she asked playfully, and rumpled his hair with a sweaty hand. "It would appear," she went on, chancing a glance down, "that we are fewer than fifty feet from the ground!"
Sam laughed dryly. "How wonderful. What do we do after we drop right in the middle of a city of angry Scanrans?"
She patted his arm. "Duck and weave m'lad, then dodge the arrows and make a dead run for the gates. We'll be fine, don't worry." Alanna resumed climbing then paused to look back up at her young charge. "I'm sure they won't even be awake yet, the lazy scamps." As they slowly edged down the stone bulwark, the early morning sun shone gently on their backs.
By the time Alanna dropped to the ground it was almost mid-morning, and a few men and women were outside, going about their jobs. The two companions silently darted across the field, and approached the colossal lumber gateway. There wasn't any gatekeeper in sight, so they counted their blessings and dashed headlong through the open doors.
Outside of the fortress the terrain was much the same as that of Tortall and it looked like a lovely, late-autumn day was in store. Alanna towed Sam along by the wrist until he protested vehemently, and together they plunged through the wilderness. By the time the sun sank like a candied apricot into a molten bed of redcurrant jelly (A/N: Yummy!), they were already approaching the Northern Border, and their bellies were beginning to feel distinctly empty. Sam grimaced. "Alanna, you don't happen to be hiding any turnovers in that tunic of yours, are you?" She shook her head, and slung a comforting arm around his shoulders. "Just you wait, Sam. When we get home I'll buy you anything and everything that you would like to eat. Fresh meat pies with flaking, buttery crusts, plump pear and almond tarts piled with clotted cream, tankards of icy lemonade garnished with slices of lime, vegetable soup, piping hot, with chunks of potatoes, and beef, and onions, and scads of salt and pepper--."
Sam cut her off by whacking her, not unkindly, square in the head. "Gaw! Cut it out, you twit, all that lovely food's set my mouth to watering like a flamin' river!" Alanna went into gales of nearly hysteric laughter, and the two friends flung themselves down amidst a small juniper copse, and fell immediately into a much-deserved sleep.
***
They rose at dawn, to Sam's disgust, and managed to find a small brook nearby. After splashing around in the water for a period they set off again, this time following the stream, in hopes of finding a village or fief. By noon they were so hungry that Alanna resolved to catch a fish. She found a stick, about a yard long, and began stripping it of its bark while Sam looked for a rock to sharpen the branch with. Finally they had turned out a decently proportioned javelin, so Alanna kilted up her skirts and waded into the water. About ten minutes passed before any fish chanced to swim by. A few tiny salmon swam by, but then a good-sized bass passed through, skulking in the shadows of the sloping bank.
Alanna stabbed viciously with the lance, missed completely, and tried again. This time she was lucky, however, and got the fish full in the belly. With a yell of triumph, she tossed the bass into Sam's waiting arms and gathered wood for a fire.
***
"Several years ago my father took my brother and I on a trip to Goldenlake; we're in basically that same area. So we should hit the fief sometime tonight." Alanna turned the fish over on the fire, and tried to forget her endlessly watering mouth.
Sam nodded happily. "And then we can eat as much as we want!"
Alanna laughed. "You seem to be obsessing about food lately!" She gingerly picked up the fish, and dropped it on the dry grass. "I'm afraid we'll have to pick at it with our fingers, but it's loads better than nothing." They dug into the crisped fish, talking and laughing, but, most importantly, eating.
A/N: Can you tell I was hungry when I wrote this? Heeheehee. Oh, and just so you know, Lord Ushak's castle is very close to the border, so that's why Alanna and Sam were able to get to Tortall so quickly. Please review! I'm leaving for overnight camp on Monday (CHEWONKI!), so I'm not positive that I will be posting until about a week from tomorrow. But hopefully I will post on either Friday or Saturday of next week, so KEEP READING! PLEASE! Thank you. And I posted the first chapter of "Surrender," which is Ann Rinaldi, and the first chapter of "Odyssey of the Mind," which is Harry Potter. Please read them, also. Don't forget to press the little "Go" button! It's really easy! Bye.
Alanna toyed impatiently with her fork and waited for Lord Ushak to stop hogging the venison cutlet. He's a complete pig, she thought, doesn't he know that he's already served himself half the platter?! She wasn't hungry anyway, but Ushak couldn't talk when he was eating, and Alanna wished to interrogate him about what his guards were doing to Sam. Finally the lord finished loading his dish, and was about to dive in when the girl distinctly cleared her throat. "Ahem. Excuse me, sir, but I was speculating that you might clarify a few queries that I have?" She smiled inwardly, watching the man sitting across the table from her process what she had just said. Evidently, not all Scanrans had their complete wits about them. "Oh, of course, my dear girl, what sort of inquiries do you have to make?" Alanna set her fork down on her unscathed salad, and leaned closer to Ushak's face. "What is this Daine person doing with the animals?"
He smiled reminiscently. "Ah, yes, my beautiful Daine. She invades the creatures' minds and convinces them to join my growing horde of man, bird, and beast. Then we collaborate to train them in the arts of war." Ushak stuffed a farl of sourdough wheat bread into his mouth, and spoke around it thickly. "Pretty simple, actually. Any more of your queries, my girl?"
She curled her lip at the phrase, but smiled sweetly. "Where is Sam being retained?" He chuckled and popped a wrinkled almond into his mouth. "Not likely to tell you, am I, poppit." He snickered again, then leered wickedly. "And we may not even have him anymore." Alanna cocked a brow, and forked a clump of radishes. "Well, by logical deduction, I assume that you still are in control of the child, as we have been her a scant three hours or so. And, also by inference, it is most probable that you have not received any intelligence from him." She examined the radishes and chewed them thoughtfully, savoring the puzzled and slightly flustered look on Ushak's pudgy face. "But, my good lord, tell me. Is Sam in your custody somewhere in this lovely edifice of yours?" He sighed, and threw up his hands in mock despair. "I have no choice but to comply. Yes, the whelp is still here." She leaned even closer, and murmured softly, "My, but you are such an inordinately handsome fellow-I do believe that your hair is the finest I've ever seen." Idiotic scoundrel, she thought, as Ushak slowly fell for the bait.
"Yes, I quite agree, although I am on in my years I don't have to be as repulsive as the next man." "Really? I thought that you were as young as that guard who took my small companion away, but obviously thrice as admirable."
Ushak was visibly preening himself. "That barmy old ward? He could hardly climb all the way up the steps of the tower, let alone beat me in a conflict of image!"
Alanna gazed eagerly into the lord's eyes. "Yes, I-wait, what tower do you speak of?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, just the southern tower, it's the highest one in the citadel. We're stowing that bratty little boy in there, until-." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that, was I?"
She shook her head, grinning like a slightly demented frog. "No, Lord Ushak, you were definitely not required to inform me of that fact. But that shouldn't be allowed to put a damper on this discussion." Her violet eyes sparkled mischievously, and she lifted the flagon of mead that stood nearby. "Would you like some more ale, sir?"
Alanna padded softly along the darkened hallway. It had taken rather longer than she liked for Ushak to fall into a drunken stupor, but at last she was free to seek out Sam's holding cell. "He said it was the southern tower," she mused to herself, "so I believe it should be.this way." As she turned a corner a towering young soldier in the livery of Ushak's home guard suddenly stalked by. Alanna shrank up close to the wall, her heart pounding out a harsh tattoo against her ribs, until the man had disappeared and the hall deserted. That was too close a call for my liking, she thought, and resumed her pace. The night wore steadily on, the light grew steadily dimmer, and Alanna steadily became more and more tired.
Suddenly bleary-eyed, she stumbled into the stone-flagged wall-except that it wasn't a wall, it was an empty space in the wall. The girl poked her head in the gap, and found to her somewhat insignificant delight that it was a staircase. And looking up the winding path, she found that it certainly was tall. "Great Mother Goddess-" she whispered, "-that is one hell of a climb!" The spiraling steps seemed to twist upwards in perpetual motion. Alanna blew out a sigh, and started climbing. Might as well get there by the end of the night, she thought irritably, and conjured a ball of incandescent, violet flame. As she walked the light illuminated the flight, and she saw that it wasn't really as long as she had originally believed. "Mithros be praised," she muttered, and stumped heavily higher.
The first rays of morning sunlight crept across the horizon as Alanna approached the top of the steeple. She tottered groggily as she clambered onto the last landing, but righted herself as she heard a faint wisp of a voice from behind the small door that stood to one side. She groaned, and silently skulked up next to the solid, oaken structure to eavesdrop. It sounded like there was one guard in the chamber, and it also seemed like he was asleep. Every now and then came a coarse grunt, and the man was breathing heavily. Alanna gently tested the doorknob: it clicked, and swung open with the smallest of creaks. She stole softly in, warily glancing at the snoring guard, and knelt by the tiny boy lying in the corner. "Sam," she hissed, "Sam, wake up!" Alanna patted his cheeks, maybe a little too hard, and the child's eyes flew open.
"Alanna! Where-where did you come from? I swear, I haven't told them anything, they didn't-."
She covered his mouth with a palm, raised her brows warningly, and beckoned him out onto the landing. "Sam, these stairs are much too long for us to descend before that pig yonder wakes and realizes that you're gone. We'll have to.I dunno.it's a bit, well, reckless." The boy shrugged. "I'm up for anything at the moment," he said wryly, and she grinned. "I was thinking that we could climb out that window, scale the wall, and then go from there. It sounds rather foolish, and it is foolish, but it's our best bet." Alanna examined the window; it was quite large, a double- paned contraption. Luckily for them it opened at the middle, so you could prop it open with a stick. She pushed the bottom half up, and saw, with considerable relief, that there were small ledges every few feet along the turret's wall. With a prayer to Mithros, and an encouraging smile to Sam, the girl hoisted her body out of the window and began to climb.
Once she got going it was substantially more effortless than the task had first appeared. The small projections were frequent and evenly spaced, the mortar was old and easy to find a good drip in, and Sam was capable enough to climb without her constant surveillance. Light was gradually seeping into the sky, but it was early enough that no one in their right mind would be awake yet. All in all, their luck was turning out for the better.
After a while, however, the two comrades became tired-especially Alanna, who hadn't had a good night's sleep in at least twenty-four hours. Sam suddenly miscalculated a footing, and slipped several inches before regaining his balance. So Alanna finally stopped on the next ledge to relax a bit, and Sam stopped to rest also.
She smiled wearily at the boy. "Had enough yet?" she asked playfully, and rumpled his hair with a sweaty hand. "It would appear," she went on, chancing a glance down, "that we are fewer than fifty feet from the ground!"
Sam laughed dryly. "How wonderful. What do we do after we drop right in the middle of a city of angry Scanrans?"
She patted his arm. "Duck and weave m'lad, then dodge the arrows and make a dead run for the gates. We'll be fine, don't worry." Alanna resumed climbing then paused to look back up at her young charge. "I'm sure they won't even be awake yet, the lazy scamps." As they slowly edged down the stone bulwark, the early morning sun shone gently on their backs.
By the time Alanna dropped to the ground it was almost mid-morning, and a few men and women were outside, going about their jobs. The two companions silently darted across the field, and approached the colossal lumber gateway. There wasn't any gatekeeper in sight, so they counted their blessings and dashed headlong through the open doors.
Outside of the fortress the terrain was much the same as that of Tortall and it looked like a lovely, late-autumn day was in store. Alanna towed Sam along by the wrist until he protested vehemently, and together they plunged through the wilderness. By the time the sun sank like a candied apricot into a molten bed of redcurrant jelly (A/N: Yummy!), they were already approaching the Northern Border, and their bellies were beginning to feel distinctly empty. Sam grimaced. "Alanna, you don't happen to be hiding any turnovers in that tunic of yours, are you?" She shook her head, and slung a comforting arm around his shoulders. "Just you wait, Sam. When we get home I'll buy you anything and everything that you would like to eat. Fresh meat pies with flaking, buttery crusts, plump pear and almond tarts piled with clotted cream, tankards of icy lemonade garnished with slices of lime, vegetable soup, piping hot, with chunks of potatoes, and beef, and onions, and scads of salt and pepper--."
Sam cut her off by whacking her, not unkindly, square in the head. "Gaw! Cut it out, you twit, all that lovely food's set my mouth to watering like a flamin' river!" Alanna went into gales of nearly hysteric laughter, and the two friends flung themselves down amidst a small juniper copse, and fell immediately into a much-deserved sleep.
***
They rose at dawn, to Sam's disgust, and managed to find a small brook nearby. After splashing around in the water for a period they set off again, this time following the stream, in hopes of finding a village or fief. By noon they were so hungry that Alanna resolved to catch a fish. She found a stick, about a yard long, and began stripping it of its bark while Sam looked for a rock to sharpen the branch with. Finally they had turned out a decently proportioned javelin, so Alanna kilted up her skirts and waded into the water. About ten minutes passed before any fish chanced to swim by. A few tiny salmon swam by, but then a good-sized bass passed through, skulking in the shadows of the sloping bank.
Alanna stabbed viciously with the lance, missed completely, and tried again. This time she was lucky, however, and got the fish full in the belly. With a yell of triumph, she tossed the bass into Sam's waiting arms and gathered wood for a fire.
***
"Several years ago my father took my brother and I on a trip to Goldenlake; we're in basically that same area. So we should hit the fief sometime tonight." Alanna turned the fish over on the fire, and tried to forget her endlessly watering mouth.
Sam nodded happily. "And then we can eat as much as we want!"
Alanna laughed. "You seem to be obsessing about food lately!" She gingerly picked up the fish, and dropped it on the dry grass. "I'm afraid we'll have to pick at it with our fingers, but it's loads better than nothing." They dug into the crisped fish, talking and laughing, but, most importantly, eating.
A/N: Can you tell I was hungry when I wrote this? Heeheehee. Oh, and just so you know, Lord Ushak's castle is very close to the border, so that's why Alanna and Sam were able to get to Tortall so quickly. Please review! I'm leaving for overnight camp on Monday (CHEWONKI!), so I'm not positive that I will be posting until about a week from tomorrow. But hopefully I will post on either Friday or Saturday of next week, so KEEP READING! PLEASE! Thank you. And I posted the first chapter of "Surrender," which is Ann Rinaldi, and the first chapter of "Odyssey of the Mind," which is Harry Potter. Please read them, also. Don't forget to press the little "Go" button! It's really easy! Bye.
