A/N: Next Chapter WEEHOO!! OK…enjoy!
Karigan
*****
The Uncontrollable
The End of Summer
*****
"The Cartheki Prime Minister reported 14 separate attacks within the last four months. All in the Southern provinces and all under a Silver flag. They've killed near 200 hundred villagers and have scorched all the land on them. Jon, this is getting out of hand. The prime minister says the country may suffer from a late winter famine if the farms can't produce enough food for the cities. They've taken all measures to fight these rebels…but they never strike the same place twice and they are showing no pattern. They haven't even offered an explanation for their actions. It's as if they like to kill and destroy." Gary leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face. "He has asked for assistance in tracking down the leader of these attacks. The Emperor would ask of you your best information gatherer so that they can't end this."
Jon sighed. Looking around the room, he asked, "Well…?"
"This rebel leader seems to be trying to get some kind of point across. But we are quite certain that this is not just a Cartheki problem. We are sure it is the same man who brought the rebel army into Tortall and attacked us," supplied Alanna. "Aside from the fact that that we are on allied terms with Carthak, it is probably in our best interest to help get rid of him."
"The Emperor has some of the best spies in the world. If they can't figure out who it is…how are we supposed to do any better?" Raoul put in.
"We have George," stated Numair.
"These are Cartheki rebels. They are not going to have any northerners in there. George wouldn't be able to get in there," argued Daine.
George raised an eyebrow at Daine. "Now lass, you don't have to go insultin' me like that. You haven't seen me work my magic."
Daine blushed. "George, I'm not calling into question your abilities. It's just fact, you don't resemble a Carthekian in the slightest. It just won't work."
George thought that over. His eyes landed on Numiar a moment and then twinkled with an idea. No lass, your right. I don't look anything like a Carthekian. But Numair here does."
Numair's head snapped up. "Huh?"
"I can take Master Numair with me to Carthak. I can show him a trick or two about the trade and we can figure out who the mystery man is between the two of us. I'm willing to share the glory." He smiled toothily at Numair.
Jon raised an eyebrow. "Send in my best information gatherer and my best war mage? George, I don't think I can risk sending you both in."
Daine sat in her seat, eyes wide. Her heart pounded within her chest crazily. She didn't want Numair anywhere near the mage that had attacked her so many years ago. Numair considered the possibility with eagerness. If he could find out who that mage was, he could personally inform that rat bastard what he thought of him trying to kill his wife. "Jon…it's really the only option. You don't have anyone else you trust that is Cartheki…George will help me." He glanced over at Daine and winced. Her eyes were full of fear and worry.
Daine's throat refused to work. Was he insane? He was volunteering to go? She tried to control her breathing.
Jon sighed. "Very well." You'll leave in a week for Carthak. You have six months." Jon stood. Enough for today. Let's have lunch in one of the dinning rooms. The room stood and began to walk.
Numair walked over to Daine who had stood reluctantly. "Daine…" She wouldn't look up at him. He glanced around; they had all left the room quickly. He cupped the sides of her face with his hands, tangling his fingers in her hair. "Magelet…," he whispered. "Look at me, please?" When she looked up at him, his heart nearly broke.
Tears were forming in her eyes and her chin trembled. One tear ran down her cheek…and then another. Her voice was soft and strained when she spoke. "I don't want you to go."
He let out a breath roughly and pulled her into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his back and clutched madly. He stroked her head soothingly. "I know. I know you don't want me to go. But this man…he's hurting people. If I have the chance to stop him…I have too."
She nodded into his chest and he made out a muffled "I know". She pulled away and sniffed pitifully. "But six months. Numair, we haven't been separated for that long a time since we met. I don't…I don't know if I can handle not having you near me for six months."
He brushed some tears away with his thumbs. "We can do this. Tonight…and every night until I leave, I'm going to show you how much I love you. Enough to last for six months." Daine let out a small laugh and then nodded. "Come on…lets get something to eat." He pulled her into his side and walked with her out the door. They walked down the hall and into the dinning room where the others had gathered for lunch. Alanna sat next to George a miserable frown across her own face as he held her hand and talked to her soothingly. Jon and Gary sat together, discussing. Raoul and Thayet talked with two of the magistrates.
A guard bust into the room, breathing heavily. Jon stood in curiosity. "Magesty, riot…in the market!" Everyone stood quickly and looked at each other.
Jon looked worried. "Riot? Are you sure?"
"Not quite sure, Majesty. But there's a stampede going on. Lots of people have already been hurt. Some have headed towards the palace for shelter. Reports say the entire market place is in panic."
Jon walked out the room, everyone on his heals. "Call in all the healers of the palace. We are going to need them," he commanded. "Raoul?"
"Yes?"
"Gather all your men out there. Send those with healing magic to assemble a healing tent. Take the rest and see if you can't get this under control."
"Yes, Majesty," answered Raoul.
"Daine, there are going to be a lot of panicked animals out there. See if you can't calm them down. You'll have your own healing to do as well.
"Yes, Majesty."
"Alanna, Numair. You'll come with me."
*****
The two girls pushed through the crowd of people little by little. Amena had originally planned to hide in one of the shops. But it had become evident that the shop-keepers had locked their doors and refused to open them to even two small girls trying to escape the mass panicked crowd. So then, she had dragged them to one of the allies. After discovering that they were even less safe then the main street was due to their compact size, she had decided to try and go against the crowds. When they had run in the same direction of the people, they had been trampled on various times. By going against them, Amena could see where everyone was going. She gripped Jade's hand like a vice. Dragging her against the current of men, woman, children and even animals, Amena was beginning to think they would never find an end to the mass of frantic people. People were unconscious everywhere and anyone who stopped to try to help them was quickly trampled on as well.
She felt her arm jerk as a frantic old woman flung Jade to the ground. Keeping her grip on Jade's hand, Amena bent to help the five year old to her feet. She was promptly knocked over by another person. She tried to stand various times, each of which she was stepped on or tripped over.
Jade had streaks of tears running down her face. She screeched out in pain when someone stepped on her free hand. Suddenly, more dry roots exploded from the pact street dirt. The crowd roared with renewed vigor and became even more frantic.
Finally getting to her feet, Amena hauled Jade up and again started pushing against the people. She was breathing heavily and felt her own tears of fear break over. She tripped over some roots, and fell to her knees. She gritted past the stinging scrapes and rose once again. She was starting to panic herself. Where was the end of the stupid market? She felt her arm tug.
"Amena," Jade said through tears. "Over there." Amena looked towards where Jade was pointing to see the side of an old building.
"Jade, we can't. We'll get trampled over there," She yelled.
"We can climb it," supplied Jade.
"We can what?" Was she serious?
"Climb it. Come on." Jade pulled Amena over to the wall. A group of men shoved them against the side of the building. Amena was about to say it was no good when Jade reached up and grabbed on to the old building. Amena stared in awe as the five year old grabbed on to the worn brick and pulled herself higher and higher. Climbing the ten foot wall using the littlest of hand holds. Jade pulled herself over the edge. She looked back down. "Come on!"
Amena grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself up a few feet but her hands couldn't get a good hold an she slipped. "I can't!" she said frantically.
Jade disappeared from sight. Amena was just about to panic when a rope was thrown over the edge, just low enough for her to reach. "I tied it to the pole up here. But I can't tie very good knots. I'll try and hold it. Climb!"
Amena pulled herself up little by little. Jade pulling the rope has hard as she could so that knot wouldn't undo itself. Finally, Amena gripped the edge of the flat roof. Jade dropped the rope and helped pull her over. They collapsed in heavy breathing fits. Amena was just getting herself under control she heard Jade sob. She sat up quickly and looked at her. "What's wrong?"
Jade shook violently. "That was so scary. All those people running around like that." Jade hiccupped several times as she cried. "Someone stepped on my hand." She held it up to show Amena. Amena hissed at the bloody fingers. She ripped some of her shirt and wrapped it around Jade's hand.
"It's all right. We're all right now. We just have to stay up here until it calms down."
Jade sobbed harder. "I though I was lost. It was so scary. I didn't know where you were."
"I'm right here. Right here, see. I'm not going anywhere. You're not lost anymore."
"I want my Mama," Jade cried.
Amena jumped in surprise as the ceramic from around a potted plant sitting on the roof shattered, the roots growing a good five inches before stopping. She looked from Jade to the plant and back. "Jade," Amena said. "You need to calm down. I think you're doing this."
Jade looked confused. "What?"
I think you made that tree move back there. And I think you made the roots jump out of the ground. And the roots in the pot. I think you did that too."
Jade's face fell. "No! I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to make all those people scared. I didn't Amena. I…" she started to shake again.
"Hey, hey. It's alright. It's not your fault. But you need to calm down Jade. I think it happens when you get scared…or emotional. Just calm down, all right. We're fine now. We are not going to get hurt. So calm down alright?" Amena pulled Jade onto her lap. After ten minutes, Jade stopped shaking. After another ten minutes, both Amena and Jade had fallen asleep on the rooftop, curled up together.
*****
She was about to loose her mind. She couldn't remember ever being this close to absolutely loosing it. They had headed down to the city to find the market and surrounding streets a complete mess of frantic people. Raoul and the King's own had managed to stop the mass hysteria, but the damage had been done. Hundreds of people had been trampled. They had already had close to 20 deaths. Countless more injured. The streets were still a mess. They had near by shops set up for healing and even one for location purposes, for finding lost people (children primarily).
Daine had controlled (barely) the hysterical animals all over the city. It had taken nearly two hours. She had then put herself to work healing the injured animals. She had called for one of the ungifted pages running around helping the healers to go to the palace and bring Jade down. An hour and a half later, he had returned, empty handed, claiming he had searched the entire palace grounds. She was nowhere to be found. Daine had started to worry. Then, the parents of Jade's new friend, Amena, had found her, asking if she had seen Amena. Apparently, she was missing as well. Daine was getting more nervous by the minute.
She had returned to the castle to look for Jade, starting with their rooms. After her own search, Daine had begun to get frightened. Asking all the children, she tried to find out where Jade had last been seen. That was when she had run into a small girl from the stables. She had seen both Amena and Jade running past the stables earlier. They had run to the entrance gates and snuck out past the guards. Daine had nearly panicked. Jade had been in the city during the hysteria. Most likely in the market itself. She ran back to the market and immediately began searching for her daughter. Her first stop had been the location tent. There were dozens of children in there, none Amena or Jade. Amena's father and mother had joined the hunt. All three of them frantically searching the healing tents.
She had located Numair near the center of the market place with Alanna and Jon. They had been trying to figure out what magic had caused the hysteria. Numair had quickly left and joined the hunt. It was dark now, the streets full of torches to light the hundreds of heads still in it. Daine ran back to the meeting point in hopes that one of the other three had found the girls. She saw all three of them waiting impatiently. "Did you find them?" she asked quickly.
"No, Magelet. We haven't found them," Numair said with white rimmed lips. She could tell he was holding on to his calmness by a thread. She felt her heart pound horrible in her throat.
"Numair, what are we going to do? Where are they? Goddess, what if they're hurt? Why were they out here in the market place? We have to keep looking. There must be someplace we haven't looked." Tears clogged her throat and she felt herself sob. She covered her mouth in attempts to hide her panic. Her shoulders shook. Numair grabbed her into a hug.
"We'll find her, both of them. They're fine. I know it. It's just too crazy out here." He rubbed her arms up and down as he looked towards the Cassidy's. Amena's mother was also on the verge of tears her father rubbing his hair in anxiety.
*****
Jade opened her eyes and winced at the throbbing in her hand. She picked her shoulder off Amena's stomach and blinked. Was it dark? "Oh no," she whispered. "Amena…," she shook the girl. "Amena, wake up."
"Hmm?"
"Amena, it's dark. We fell asleep."
Amena opened her eyes and looked around. "Oh no! We are so much trouble." She moved to get up but discovered her knees hurt too much to put pressure on them. When she looked them over, she noticed her breeches were ripped and covered in blood from two gashes on her knees. "Perfect!" she muttered. She pushed herself up and limped to the edge of the room.
"Amena, your knees are bleeding," noted Jade.
Amena looked over at Jade and winced. "You have a big cu on your cheek. There is no way we are going to be able to hide that we were in the market place." Jade groaned. "we should get down from hear. It's late. I bet our parents are looking for us." They climbed down the wall again (with great care to avoid any cuts or bruises) and walked out to the street. They froze.
"Amena…what happened?" Jade looked around at all the people lying in the market. Healers ran around busily. "Did I…" she swallowed. "Did I do that?" she whispered.
"I don't know."
Jade felt tears rise to her eyes. "I hurt people."
Amena turned to her. "No. You didn't. Don't say that."
"I didn't want bad magic." She whimpered. "I wanted magic so much. But I didn't want bad magic. How do I give it back. I don't want magic anymore, Amena. I don't want bad magic." She felt herself cry harder.
Amena didn't know what to say. "I don't…I don't think you can give it back Jade." Jade lowered her head and cried silently. Amena took a deep breath and grabbed her uninjured hand. "Come on…let's go back to the palace."
*****
A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter. I did. Next one probably won't be ready until after my spring break…which is all of next week. So sit tight.
Also, I will say again. If you want to be on the mailing list for updates and news and junk…let me know. SMILE
Karigan