Disclaimer: Everything you don't recognize belongs to me, plot, etc. The setting and things you recognize belongs to the great Tamora Pierce.

A.N. Review! Hi. Chapter 5 is up! This is my birthday present to you. (It's my birthday!) And School's out now so I'll be able to update faster. Just so you know, I actually do have ideas for what's going on, and I beg you, if you read this, and even if you don't, to review. I'm dying here!

Late July,

Storm Head's Peak,

Northwestern Tortall;

in the 22nd year of the reign of

King Jonathan the IV and Thayet, his Queen

461 H.E. (Human Era)

Chapter 5, Accepted

THACK! 'Not bad,' Linya thought as she drew another arrow. Without aiming, she set the arrow on the string, raised the bow, and shot the second arrow. Before another thought could come to mind, she repeated the action in quick secession. THACK! THACK! THACK! She was drawing a circle exactly 3 inches around the first arrow, which had hit the target dead center.

After shooting 10 arrows in 2 minutes time, Linya's blue-clad shoulders ached, but not a lot. 'That's going to come back to haunt me later," she thought as she yanked the arrows out. She rubbed her shoulder and stretched before she set a new arrow on the string. Her blue-green eyes glanced at the target and her brown beeches and blue shirt were beginning to show signs of her exertion.

Then all of a sudden an unexpected voice called, "Linya!"

Linnorria's head jerked around just as she released the string. THACK! She turned and glared at the quivering arrow; it had barley landed on the target. Then Linya spun and glared at the girl that was running toward her.

A black-haired, gray-eyed figure was quickly approaching, waving a letter back and forth all the way. When she was several yards distant she slowed, then stopped right beside her friend, not even breathing hard. "I'm in!" she cried. "It took pleading and behaving myself, but they let me. A month's confinement, but I'm here, and I'm in!"

"Calm down, Miasma!" Linnorria yelled over her friend's chatter. Miasma took a deep breath and stopped talking a mile a minute. "When'd you arrive? And what are you talking about?" Linya asked her eager friend.

"I just arrived a couple minutes ago," Miasma answered with a large grin on her face. "I'm so excited because I finally convinced my parents to let me be a page this year! I get to travel south to Corus with you later this week!"

Linya's face grew bright with a grin of her own, her eyes flashed brightly once, and her hair started to glitter. "Yes!" she yelled. "Yay for you Miasma!" They gave each other high fives, stinging their hands with the impact.

Then Linya started carefully putting her long yew bow and buckskin quiver away while listening to Miasma's story. "You see, when we got home to Gray Marshes on the 24th, my parents had a celebration feast in honor of my brother's betrothal." Miasma stopped and grinned at Linya, now that their sibling's had been betrothed; they were all but sisters.

"I tried to talk to my parents then, but I didn't get a chance to tell them about our plans until the 28th. You know how busy they are with the war. Well, they were horrified, just as we expected." Linnorria smiled at that, Miasma's mother was much to protective of her only daughter. Miasma wrinkled her nose in disgust, but then continued her narrative.

"I spent all of May getting them used to the idea, asking, pleading, and giving reasons. By June, they were used to it, and said I could go, but I had to prove that I was ready, and could keep up with the boys. So I practiced archery, staff-work, and my intellectual work until I satisfied their expectations." Miasma grimaced as she said that.

"But that's not the worst of it. My parents made me promise to behave the entire summer!! And I promise you; it was the hardest thing I ever did! I mean, 2 ½ months, for Mithros sake!" Miasma practically yelled it, then stopped, panting for breath.

"Yikes!" Linya remarked, sounding impressed. "I wish I could have seen that! You had a ton of trouble behaving while you were here, and you were a guest!"

Miasma laughed at her friend's words. "True," she admitted, "But then, I wasn't really trying. It wasn't any big deal when I did my tricks here, but it's worth it to behave when it means the chance of fulfilling your dream." Miasma had stopped speaking, but when she saw Linya's expectant glare, she added in a rush, "And being with your best friend, of course."

Linnorria chuckled, "Come on in, it sounds like you've had a tough summer. I think we have just enough time to get in trouble before dinner starts." She stopped walking when she didn't hear her friend beside her. She looked back and saw Miasma looking extremely guilty, an odd expression on her friend's face, since she was an expert at looking innocent and avoiding punishment.

"Well, um, Linya," Miasma started. "I, uh, I already took the, um…opportunity to…" she trailed off, avoiding her friend's sharp gaze.

"To what?" Linnorria demanded.

"To put a pinch of sneezing powder in the vegetable stew that Rose always has the cooks make for her." Miasma said in a rush as she smiled weakly.

"And you didn't come and see me first?!" Linya demanded, her voice outraged, but her friend missed her smiling eyes.

"Well," Miasma said, "I needed to do a trick, being good kills me. The only way I managed to survive this summer was by planning and mixing stuff to use. Plus, I thought you would appreciate it. I'm…" Miasma finally looked up, and saw her friend shaking with silent laughter.

"I'm just disappointed that I didn't get to help you," Linya laughed, her eyes twinkling. "This is wonderful. You're back, we're going to be pages, and Rose is going to sneeze her nose off," Linya said as they started walking again. "Come on in, I need to put my arm guard's away, and you need to get into something cleaner."

"What's with you and being clean?" Miasma complained, but she was walking right beside Linya. The other girl rolled her eyes.

"Well, what's with you and doing tricks?" she retorted. "That's just the way I am. When it's travel-stained, and dirty it's time to change into something new."

Miasma put on an exaggerated humble expression and made her gray eyes go wide. Linya couldn't help giggling, and together they walked into the castle talking jovially.

"So Miasma," Baron Ishraa said at dinner that evening, "you'll be going south to the capital with Linnorria."

It wasn't really a question, but things like that had never stopped Miasma. "Yes, I was able to convince my parents that being a page was the right thing for me to do right now," Miasma's tone was perfectly serious as she answered, but her eyes kept flickering to Rosemary, waiting for her to stop talking and take a bite.

Ishraa's face was slightly troubled, and Linya, sitting on his right, was worried at his hesitation. He was usually a very decisive and abrupt man. But bouts of slowness had come on more and more frequently these last few weeks. And the look in his eye seemed odd to Linnorria.

She stopped glancing at Rosemary and turned her gaze fully on Haddin, forgetting the good humor that she had had since Miasma had arrived that afternoon. Remembering every secret worry and suspicion she had harbored that summer.

He appeared to be concentrating a little too fiercely for Linya to feel comfortable. Linya glanced from him to her father, her eyes glowing a bit more than usual in her worry.

Miasma, sitting across from Linya, was finally rewarded with a fit of sneezing from Rosemary. She turned with a smug stance, and laughter in her eyes, to share her amusement with Linya, but when she saw her friend's set jaw, she worried. Not much got Linnorria in a bad mood when tricks were afoot. Her silent laughter died immediately, and her eyes darted around, searching for the source of irritation.

When she saw nothing, she finally looked back at Linya and made eye contact. Linnorria lifted he eyebrows, glaring first at Haddin, then with less accusation at her father.

Miasma spent a confused moment wondering what in the realms was going on. Sure they didn't trust Haddin, but what did the Baron have to do with that?

Linya saw her confused face and surpressed a sigh of exasperation. She put her fingers to her eyes than glanced at her father, mouthing silently, "Use the Sight!"

'Oh,' Miasma thought, finally understanding what her friend wished of her. She nodded to Linya and closed her eyes. She did that flick in her mind that activated her weak Sight, then opened them again slowly. She turned her head until she was looking straight at Haddin. He was glowing a bright orange now as he took another bite and chewed slowly, apparently listening to the woodsman on his left as he told a tale. Miasma's eyes narrowed in Linya's suspicions, 'Why was he using so much magic at dinner?'

Her head spun as she caught another flicker in the corner of her eye. It was an orange strand leading off of Haddin's aura. It went straight to the Baron, connecting him to the mage.

Miasma stifled an outraged protest, and for once her usual laughing eyes were dead serious. She blinked, losing the Sight, and her wide, gray eyes locked with Linnorria's blue-green ones across the table and she gave a small, curt nod.

Then she sat forward, and started talking to the Duchess, trying to appear normal while waiting to see what her friend would do. "So, Lady Melaine, I hear that the plans are that Linya and I shall be leaving for Corus on Friday, do you have any more details than that?"

Linya barely heard Miasma, as she contemplated what she should do. 'So, Haddin has been trying to bewitch my father is he?' she thought. 'This is too far, even for him. Especially for him. He's done too much to me, and I won't have him hurting my family. But what can I do?' Linnorria almost laughs at that thought. 'Okay, so I can do rather a lot. But what will work? And what about when I leave?' Her head is filled with worried arguments, all saying that something should be done. Linya looks up at her father's tired face, and loses all the worthless arguments.

She sits up decisively and places a gentle hand on his arm. "Are you alright, Father?" she asks, as she reaches out with her mind, Linya feels dumb that she didn't do that in the first place. She finds the strand of orange, carefully keeping her mind from touching it, wondering how she can separate it from her father without letting Haddin know she is doing it.

Baron Ishraa starts at her touch, totally unlike him, then mutters confusedly, "Yes, I'm…fine. I'm fine, Linya."

Linnorria bites her lip at how pitiful her strong father sounds, and loses all caution. She withdraws her mind, then concentrating on the string of orange being broken, leans forward slightly. It takes less than a second for her power to fulfill the thing she has requested of it.

Haddin lets out a sudden cry, jumping to his feet, and all conversation stops as everyone spins to stare at him. "What is wrong, mage?" Ishraa asks, and Linya quickly redraws her mind completely back into her body, snapping out of the power she had immersed herself in, knowing now that she has been successful.

Haddin glances wildly around as if just realizing how many people were there. "I…" he pauses, gathering himself.

"Well? Speak up man," the Baron says impatiently. "Our food is getting cold." Linya can't help smiling as her father speaks. He sounds completely normal and triumph grows on her face. Miasma is smiling again as she realizes her friend has come out conqueror once more.

Haddin looks at Baron Ishraa as he answers, "I'm sorry my lord. It was nothing important. A dog just tried to jump up on me, that's all."

The Baron is startled at his response, for the mage is usually much to dignified to start that easily, but he remembers a certain April feast. But still he laughingly says, "Probably thought you were a bit of pork, my friend." He seats himself as the 'well-built' mage's face twists. Chuckles come from the corners of the room, as the tensions ease, but a few people near the mage mutter softly, "Didn' see no dog," "nor I."

Linya and Miasma sit with faces carefully clear of triumph, showing only small traces of amusement. When all of the sudden Rosemary bursts into a spasm of sneezing.

Miasma chuckles, and Linya gives a small smile to her friend, but her heart isn't in it. For she can almost feel the mage's glare of pure hatred on her back. She might have been the victor this day, but was she any match for a full-grown and powerful scheming mage? And just what was he trying to do to her father?

"I think we should plan on leaving at dawn," her father was saying. "Then we can get as much travel-time as possible. Can you be ready by then?" Linnorria pastes a smile to her face as she turns to answer him, wishing that her thoughts could focus on the more joyful subject of her travels, instead of worrying about plotting mages, but she cannot help herself.

Miasma looked around carefully as she crept along the hallway. Linnorria had given her the signal to her at the end of dinner, scratching her nose, then winking, telling Miasma that they needed to talk, and at the secret grove. She wrinkled her nose, it was fun to creep out through the halls and past the horse pastures when you knew you were going to have fun planning a trick, but when it was serious, like this was sure to be, it wasn't so fun, instead it was rather terrifying.

Her eyes scanned the hall in front of her as she reached the kitchen. Then, silently she bent down, and withdrew several long, thin, pieces of metal from the hem of her black breeches. Miasma inserted first one pick, than another, as she unlocked the door.

Quietly she opened it. Miasma stopped and glanced around for signs of life, seeing no one; she crept forward toward the door. Suddenly she jumped, stifling a cry. She had just felt something brush past her leg!

Meow," came a quite cry from the floor by her feet. Miasma looked down at the cat and almost cursed. "Linya," she quietly addressed the golden cat as it looked up at her with glowing blue-green eyes, "if you would just stop startling me like that, we could get somewhere."

The cat, now identified as Linya, wound around her feet just as she took a step, rubbing against her legs, extracting a real curse from the black-haired girl. The cat meowed again, then bounded toward the far door. Miasma watched silently, as it stopped and glared up at the doorknob. Then she shook her head as the door opened for Linya. "Thank the Goddess that regular cats don't have that power," she muttered as Linya bounded out the door, then sat down to wait for her.

Miasma stumbled out of the kitchen, and shut the door behind her. Linya started walking forward on four feet, towards the pasture. Miasma ran to catch up, cursing her friend for first keeping her up, then not waiting.

Miasma finally drew even with the cat just as they reached the pasture fence. "Linnorria, will you please change back now!" she hissed at the cat.

Linya ignored her as she studied the fence, then timidly put one paw out. It connected with nothing and gave off a small spark. Her friend's eyes grew big as she watched Linya rear up on her hind legs and put both of her front paws against the shied by the fence, causing sparks to fly in several directions. She turned her eyes away from the painful light. Then she heard an angry yowl, and it grew dark once more.

When she glanced back, her Linya was once again in human form, leaning against a rail. "Sorry about that," she said to Miasma. "I sensed the shied from the kitchen, and couldn't let you touch it. It had the feel of Haddin to me, but it's gone now."

Miasma let out a small "oh." Suddenly feeling very glad that Linya had ignored her.

"We still need to go somewhere a bit more private," Linnorria whispered as she glanced around. "He shouldn't notice the ward is gone for a while yet, but I don't know how long my fake shield will distract him." Then not waiting for an answer she swung herself up and over the wooden pole.

Miasma shook herself, then followed.

"…so Haddin is definitely up to something. I just don't know what to do about it," Linya concluded. She had just finished telling her friend the details of the events at dinner, and was pacing restlessly around the grove.

Miasma bit her lip, thinking about it as she sat cross-legged on the ground. After a minute she spoke, "Can't you somehow shield your family from magical influence?" she asked. "Then you could just check up on them a couple of times a year, and they'd be safe from Haddin."

But Linya was already shaking her head. "I thought of doing something similar to that," she admitted, "but what if they need a healer? Or what if they're attacked and they need magical help? Then Haddin wouldn't help them when they need a mage."

Miasma shifted her weight as she thought aloud, "Well…couldn't you do something to reduce his powers to just healing?"

Linnorria stood still for a moment as she took a second and considered the suggestion. "I don't know but I'll try."

"I don't know enough about magic for this, really," Miasma muttered, then louder she said, "Well, if that doesn't work, just make sure you check up on your family often. I can't think of anything else."

"That's alright," Linnorria told her friend. "Any ideas help. I'll make sure to keep you posted. But we should really get to be now before he notices the wards are down."

"Okay Linya, goodnight then," Miasma said as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her pants.

Then Linnorria grinned. "If you want I'll do the unlocking in the future, goodnight," she said as once, more her form slid down into cat shape.

A.N.

Okay, thanks for reviewing people.

Kogen- yes I know who you are. I gave you that name, you crazygirl. How could I not know?

Lord Dragonblade- may I refrain from ever calling you "lord" again. And of course it's great. I wrote it after all. And thanks for that bit about me in your bio, demonic squirrels rule!!

alli of trebond-- I know it's great. Besides you know as much about the story as I do. When are you going to start writing yours?

Rubber Duck- Thanks!! I came up with the names a while ago. I just wanted to use them here. And I wrote the first 4 chapters a while ago too; I just took a while to post them. (I'm very lazy) If you ever read this, sorry for the delay.

BlueAppleFilly-- Thanks for reviewing!