Must……hurry……up……and……finish……fic……I'm going to look experiment and see if I can find another divider, something more…attractive. Any suggestions?
- - - - -

Joren leaned over the side of the ship, open-mouthed in horror. A piece of debris floated by. It was very large, and it was carved with the words Sorcerer's Mistress. He watched with a sinking heart and growing despair as other chunks of wood drifted around.

"Oh my gods," he whispered. A man wafted by, his face blackened from fire and his sightless eyes wide and empty.

"Joren…"

He turned slowly at the sound of Morgan's voice. His dark eyes were stunned and scared.

"Joren, I'm…I'm so sorry. There's no way she could have survived this."

"No," the blond whispered. "No, she, she had to."

"Joren—"

"Leave me alone."

"Joren, listen to me—"

"I don't want to. I don't want to listen to anybody anymore!"

It was the fact that Joren killed an innocent soul that got him. The Mindelan slut was a girl, a bitch, and a stiff…but she was still an innocent.

She was just an innocent child.

If he had not assigned the man—was his name Frenn? Fran?—to kill her none of this would have happened. She would have gone on to be a knight, alive and free. But he had stuck his nose in her business, taken away any chance she had of having a good life.

Or any life at all.

Mindelan could have had a husband. Goldenlake, maybe, or Kennan. She and Queenscove could have still been friends.

What would her family be like?

By destroying her, he had destroyed everybody.

"Kel!" he screamed in anguish, dropping to his knees. "What have I done?"

Morgan put a tentative hand on his friend's shoulder.

"There's nothing you can do now, Joren," he said gently. "We'll turn around and go back. If you're charged with murder by the Tortallan Court we'll come get you."

"No," Joren whispered. "No. I need to face my punishment. I'd deserve it. I'd deserve whatever given to me."

- - - - -

"Rosie, come here!"

A little blond girl called to her friend. Rosie tucked a tendril of red hair behind her ear and looked at Molly. "Why?"

"There's a girl here."

"What?"

Rosie dropped the bouquet of daisies and hurried to her friend's side. A much older girl lay at the water's edge, tangled in seaweed, eyes closed. She had a delicate and freckled nose and lashes that fanned across her cheek like spiders. The girl's short hair was hard to determine, but it appeared to be some kind of brown or dark blond. She did not like she was breathing.

"Who is it?" Rosie whispered in awe.

"I don't know," Molly murmured in a hushed voice. "She's not from around here at any rate."

"Her name is Keladry of Mindelan."

The two girls gasped and turned around. About ten to fifteen men stood behind them, smirking smugly and glowering at them with deadly eyes while they fingered daggers or swords.

"Who are you?" Molly asked fearfully, clutching Rosie's hand anxiously.

The man smiled menacingly. "You worst nightmare."

- - - - -

An hour later a village woman came trotting through the sand. She found two bloody children laying on the sand, naked, despoiled, beaten, and utterly dead. There was no sign of another girl.

- - - - -

"Get outta ma way, men, I'm gonna ride this bitch."

"No way, Orgden! You're always the first one!"

Orgden glanced over at his fellow assassin snidely. "Because you're too chicken to do it first."

Jesse clenched his fists. "That's not true!"

"Sure, Jesse," the man smirked. "You wouldn't have the guts to touch a woman, much less ride one!"

"Shut up!" Jesse screamed, shaking with fury.

"Fine, if you're gonna chicken out then get me a whip. I'll whip her. And after she's whupped, you can ride her, okay?"

- - - - -

The moon cast shimmering silver on the water. Nothing was heard except the gentle lapping of the waves, and the occasional thump of broken ship against the Mageskull.

And the creak of wood as a lifeboat was lowered from its ropes into the sea.

"Joren, are you sure this is a good idea?" Morgan asked nervously, peering around in the gloom. "I don't like this."

"Kel's alive," Joren said stubbornly. "I can feel it."

He did not question how he knew, anymore than he wondered why he no longer called her Mindelan, even in his thoughts.

"I'm going to save her, Morgan," he whispered. "I'm going to rescue her."

Morgan stared at his fair friend worriedly, thoughtfully, noting the change in him.

"Come on, Morgan," Joren said, beginning to climb down the rope ladder. "Let's go save her."

- - - - -

ARE YOU HAPPY? I CHANGED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OKAY????????????????????????????? OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!