A/N: I'm putting these all at the bottom now.

Chapter Six

Conspiracies and Mysteries

I stared in shock at the cascade of copper curls spilling around a delicate form on the floor.

"What the-!?" Aeron started to swear, only to stop with a wary glance at the woman lying on the ground.

The girl was deathly still and I reached down to touch her shoulder. As my hand touched her shoulder she whipped around and bit me.

She bit me!!!

This time I was the one to swallow a curse. "Ung!" I shook my hand trying to regain some feeling other than pain. After being shot twice, sliced open in numerous areas and breaking God knows how many bones, you would think a little bite would be relatively painless.

You would be damn wrong.

While I staggered around the room waiving my hand, Aeron knelt down beside the little brat-that is the sweet little girl. Aeron, showing better sense that me, kept his hands to himself and gently asked, "What's your name, child?"

The brat immediately threw up her head, revealing a pixie-like face with large brown eyes that God should only have given to puppies and baby deer.

"I'm not a child!" she stated in a husky, scathing voice.

Aeron opened his mouth, but I went on, "Than what the hel-heck are you?!"

She stared at me arrogantly. "I am one of the princesses."

I grinned. "Yeah, and I'm the Queen of Sheba. C'mon kid, what were you doing?"

She fidgeted, a blush creeping across her face. "I-I happened to be leaning on the door. You know you should be more careful! Opening doors without warning like that, it could be dangerous!"

"Dangerous for who? The person 'leaning' against the door where they could just happen to overhear private conversations? I suppose it is dangerous to eavesdrop on two old soldiers." I responded dryly.

Looking up indignantly, she blurted out, "You're not old!"

I turned to stare at her as she reddened.

"Well, you're not," she muttered rebelliously.

I groaned. "Compared to you, darlin', I am positively ancient."

She drew herself up with an annoyed jerk. "I'll have you know I am only four years younger than you."

I gave her a disbelieving glance and shook my head. "I highly doubt that, but if you say so…"

With a glare, she tossed back the russet hair falling in her eyes.

Damn puppy dog eyes!

Aeron quickly began babbling something about respect and getting along. I ignored him. "If you are one of the princesses, which one are you?" I cut in.

"My name is Natalya and I am the fourth princess, my sisters names are Celeste, Lyrael, Elaine, Yolanda, Alaura, Branwen, Iolanthe, Jaylil, Rochelle, Amorita and Valencia," she finally finished.

I looked at Aeron. His brown eyes met mine and he shrugged. "I don't have them memorized." He complained.

"I can even give you their nicknames if you want…." she said sarcastically, and proceeded to rattle them off. "Cel, Lyr, Lani, Lolo, Laura, Bran, Io, Jay, Elle, Emma and Val."

Growling with frustration, I turned back to Natalya through gritted teeth I managed to get out, "I apologize, your highness. It won't happen again."

Suddenly she let out a giggle. "You should see your face!" Aeron chuckled and reluctantly I grinned. Glancing over I caught her eyes with my own. With a smile spread across her face and her eyes sparkling, she looked like a benevolent fairy queen.

The laughter died in my throat as I continued to gaze at her.

I've really gotta stop staring…

She noticed me, and her own giggle faltered and faded. Aeron, looking at me, then her, smiled and shook his head.

****

Eventually we got down to exactly what Natalya had heard while 'leaning' against the door.

"There's no guarantee that the killer has given up, if you were the one they're trying to kill."

Natalya nodded soberly, "Unless… unless the person killed was the one who they wanted to kill…"

There was contemplative silence.

"What did he look like?" Aeron finally asked.

"Sorta tall, brown hair, I think…black eyes, maybe? I don't know. No, wait, there's something wrong…" I thought for a minute.

The servant let out a piercing scream and whirled about. I cleared my throat. "Uh, didn't mean to frighten you, but I was wondering if you could…" I trailed off as the servant turned snow white.

"I don't think it was a man."

"What?!"

"But tha-!"

They interrupted each other in shock and confusion.

Excitedly I continued. "A regular servant wouldn't have reacted that way, they're used to people tapping them on the shoulder and asking them things. Moreover, they screamed before I turned around, so it couldn't be that they couldn't see me. And that scream…the only person I know who can scream like that was my best friend's little sister."

"Brown hair, black eyes…tallish…" Natalya muttered to herself.

Suddenly she was on her feet and out the door. "Yolanda!" she screamed.

****

A/N: I changed some stuff in the previous chapters, so if you want to re-read them…they're not big, but they are essential for the plot that I hadn't realized I was writing. ^_^

A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait! I've been working on another story on fiction press, and I've had mild writers block with this one so… You didn't even get a very long chapter! 'Course if you did you would have had to wait a while longer. Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers, and I apologize to person for thinking you were someone else! One of my friends reviewed as person to. I took some of your advice by the way, thanks! I'm not going to make any comments on when the next chapter will be done, because it could be anything from a couple days to a couple weeks.

And of course, thanks once again to my AMAZING beta-reader Kassi of Pirate's Swoop!