Disclaimer… No money and no copyrights… although I did get free gas today so that was pleasant…
A/N hope that bake sale goes well for ya Celestial Secrets here's some more cookies for your inventory. As always thanks for the review.
"Get your head out of the clouds Gill…" Cook rebuked her.
"Wha-?" Gill glanced over at Cook.
"You've been standing there staring at the woodpile for ten minutes, at least put down the logs you are holding."
Gill glanced down at the armload of wood and gingerly added it to the stack beside the stove, "Sorry," she said and moved to duck out of the kitchen for more wood. Cook stopped her short.
"What's all this? What happened Gill?"
"Huh?"
"You were fine before your fighting lesson, what happened?"
Gill stared blankly, not sure what to say. She was overwhelmed by the concern in Cook's voice. Finally she found her voice and said, "Lady Alanna arrived."
"And?"
"She wanted information about … things…"
"Magic?" Gill's fear of magic and the reasons for it were well-known around the keep although they were generally ignored.
"uh huh," Gill took a deep breath then blurted out, "I think he's my brother…"
"Who?"
"The boy they caught going after the king just before they brought me out here. I thought he was dead. They told me everyone was dead, I guess I shouldn't have believed them but I had no reason not to about that … and now they'll probably kill Kale for real…"
"Kale?"
"My brother…" Gill bit back tears at the thought of her brother alive after all these years. She just hoped Alanna would bring him to the swoop. She didn't entertain any silly notions that he would be absolved of his crimes but at least she could maybe see him one last time before they executed him.
Gill realized that she had failed in holding back her tears when she felt Cook pulling her into a comforting embrace. At first she wanted to pull away, but soon she relaxed and let herself cry. It felt good to let out all the pent up emotion.
Long moments passed before Cook handed Gill a handkerchief to wipe her eyes and nose with. Gill used the cloth and broke into a grin.
"Thanks."
Cook smiled and nodded acceptance of the thanks and then put on a stern face, "Now, I believe you have chores to finish up?"
Gill giggled at that and rushed out to get more wood feeling as though she had been relieved of a burden much heavier than the wood she was toting. After talking to Cook she felt better about Kale and everything. Not because it changed anything, just because now it wasn't all roiling around inside of her.
A few days later a party arrived at the gates to Pirate's Swoop. At their head was a dark haired knight. With him was a small contingent of the king's own. At their center was a prisoner. An angry little prisoner who looked as though he was trying to glare his escort to death.
They went directly to the stable yard where they were greeted by a cavalcade of grooms. The escort surrendered their mounts and Raoul, the knight at their head, handed the prisoner over to George.
"Thanks for getting him here so quickly Raoul," George thanked the knight, "Will you and your men be partaking of our hospitality this night?"
"As tempting an offer as that is we really ought to be getting back to court as soon as possible."
"I understand, I would offer you fresh mounts but we haven't the quantity of quality animals that would be required as of yet…"
"No matter, my men and I will stay until our mounts are rested."
"So you will stay to an early dinner?"
"Most likely."
"Very good," George glanced at the child prisoner and then called to one of the attendant servants, "Take Sir Raoul a guest suite so he can freshen up and then tell Cook to expect our visitors for dinner."
The servant bowed and led Raoul away. George took charge of the prisoner and led him off to the tower where he and Alanna had spoken to Gill earlier. Once there he wasn't quite sure what to do. For lack of a better option he sat and matched the boy stare for stare. He actually had to fight against laughter at the sheer anger he felt himself trying to facially emulate.
As he was in the midst of contorting his face to match the boy's Alanna joined them, "one of the stable-boys told me you were up here with him," she explained, "What were you planning on doing?"
"I didn't really have a plan."
"Do you trust him?"
"I don't know. If what Gill was right about the magic that was used on him…" George stopped when he noticed that the boy's eyes lit up at the name, "Can you see the trace magic she mentioned?"
Alanna looked at the boy for a minute, "He's exactly the sort of magical enigma my brother would have loved."
"Can you do anything with him?"
"I don't know. It depends on what is decided by the powers that be, there's no point in putting forth the effort if he is to be executed."
"Well, Gill was quite sure that…"
"Gill? Is she here?" the boy said. His voice was full of melancholy hope and worry. For the first time since George had seen him the anger went out of him.
Alanna blinked and then she glowed a brilliant purple, "What?" she exclaimed.
"Where am I?" the boy asked urgently.
"All those traces and scraps and tangles of junk that they've been picking at for weeks are gone… just disappeared."
"What am I doing here?" the boy asked plaintively. For the first time he truly sounded like the child he was.
"You honestly don't know?" Alanna drawled. George quickly engaged his magic sight.
"Uh uh," the boy shook his head no vigorously, "th' las' thing I remember is the ship. My master said he knew where Gill was and that the Tortallians had her. He said that we were going to help here and that he needed my help for a spell that would help her. I agreed to it."
"That so?" Alanna asked archly. George caught her eye and nodded that the boy wasn't lying.
"uh huh," the boy responded pitifully, "What happened? Why am I here and where is my master?"
"We would love to know where he is… you don't know?"
"No."
"And you remember nothing after the spell he put on you?"
"No, where am I?"
"You are at Pirate's Swoop and I believe you have just been absolved of treason," George supplied.
"Treason?"
"You were caught trying to assassinate the king."
"I was?"
"Yes you were. We have reason to believe that these actions were indeed perpetrated by your master through you. I believe that we can explain this to those who need to know and those that don't will think what they please," Alanna added.
"Then he was lying about finding Gill," Kale looked woefully up at the two adults. His chains made him look pitiful and George found he wanted nothing more than to free the child. A fear that this might be part of the magic crossed his mind, but he scanned the impulse for the taint of magic and found that it originated more from the part of him that simply didn't wish to see a child suffer needlessly.
"Let me help you Kale," George undid the chains that held the boy in bondage. He looked up with a beaming grin and touched his chafed wrists.
He was speechless, "You act as though you've always worn those," George said lightly setting the metal aside.
"I don't remember the last time I walked free," Kale said solemnly.
"What am I thinking, you must be starving! We will take you right to the kitchen and see if we can't scrounge up something for you to eat."
Kale beamed at him and followed him down the tower stairs. Alanna followed them off of the tower top and went to report their findings to Raoul. She wondered how the king and queen would take the news and then cringed with pity for poor Raoul when he had to tell the queen.
That was his problem though. None of her business really. What was her business was making sure their two wards were well provided for. She wasn't really sure how to treat Gill or Kale. Were they servants, truly wards, cling-ons, riffraff that hung around and couldn't be gotten rid of? She really couldn't reconcile them in her mind. Yet there it was. She and George now had two unattached younglings to tend for. Life was getting interesting, that it was.
A/N there chapper seven is done aren't ya's happy? And now to bed I will post this tomorrow sometime I am sure…