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January 29, 463 H.E. - 23rd year of the reign of King Jonathan IV and Queen Thayet
Corus, Tortall
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It was common knowledge that Jasson and Kitten were generally a volatile combination. Their private war, ten years long and with no sign of a truce in the near future, was well known among their family and friends. It had begun as a series of isolated incidents that eventually grew into regular attacks. The first seemed innocent enough; Kitten, aged four, had 'accidentally' locked Jasson, also aged four, in a closet for three hours before he was discovered and let out. A few months later, Jasson began to 'accidentally' step on Kitten's tail whenever he passed her. It was at approximately that time that lines were drawn and war was silently declared.
The battles since had been many; attacks were generally unexpected, and almost always merciless. At age 6, Kitten woke Jasson every morning for a week by creeping into his room at a ridiculous hour and shrieking into his ear. At age 9, Jasson tripped and dumped a bucket of week old milk he coincidentally happened to be carrying over Kitten's head. When they were 12, Jasson was forced to bring a sealable water skin with him to every meal for several weeks, as Kitten had taken to saturating his drinks with foul tasting powders every time she got the chance. Bystanders knew that it was best to vacate any room both parties were in at the same time, as twenty minutes of peace between the two was virtually unheard of.
It was because of this long history that Liam was rather uncomfortable seeing the two of them walk down the hall in his direction side by side, rather than running at a breakneck speed with one chasing the other. It wasn't, in his opinion, natural.
"What?" Jasson asked when he was near enough to be heard without raising his voice above a whisper.
Liam glanced from one to the other in the dim light, taking in Jasson's genuinely innocent expression and the curious way Kitten was regarding him with a healthy degree of skepticism. "You two are getting along now?"
Kitten snorted with what Liam interpreted as disgust, and Jasson shook his head rapidly, making face at the idea of it.
"No." Jasson said firmly, glancing at the dragonette out of corner of his eye. "Consider this a temporary peace for the greater good, and never expect us to do it again."
Kitten nodded, crossing the few feet between her and the door Liam had been waiting in front of and peering through the keyhole. Liam set a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him, head tipped to one side.
"Wait," he whispered.
They waited. The hall around them was silent for several minutes, before a loud bell broke the quiet, signaling the midnight hour. Liam removed his hand and nodded to the dragonet.
Rising on her haunches slightly, Kitten leveled her eye with the door's lock and gave a soft trill that was almost entirely drowned out by the noise of the bell. She reached up and gave the handle a turn; the door opened easily.
The room inside, and those connecting, were dark and quiet. Liam internally debated summoning light, but decided against it, and instead motioned for Jasson to shut the door, then led the three through the small sitting room very slowly, taking care not to bump into anything. Behind him, Jasson was evidently not being as careful, and smacked into a table, the wooden legs scraping across the floor. All three boys froze.
No noise came from the bedroom, and after a breathless moment, they relaxed, exchanging glares and apologetic looks as necessary. Kitten, clucking her tongue in what Liam could only assume was annoyance, slipped past his side silently, and padded to the open bedroom door, disappearing from sight just beyond it. When Liam reached the door, he was just able to make her out standing across the room, paws on the bed as she leaned forward and examined Lianne's sleeping form critically.
She was deep asleep, as far as Liam could tell, once he was close enough to see her clearly in the dark. She was curled into her customary ball, the blankets pulled up and hiding all but her neck and shoulders; her breathing was shallow, and the only motion Liam could see was the occasional quick movement behind her eyelids. It didn't seem likely she was going to wake up soon. Still…
"What do we do if she wakes up?" he asked Jasson, who stood at the foot of the bed, quietly.
Jasson shrugged, seemingly not worried about the idea. "She won't if we're quick."
At Liam's nod, Kitten took a step back, eyes still on Lianne's face. After a moment, she let out a soft, high pitched whistle. Almost instantly, the little of Lianne exposed began to glow a faint green, the color growing more pronounced the longer Kitten maintained the sound.
After a few moments of this, she changed the pitch of her whistle without warning, and even in the dim lightly, Liam could see that Lianne – still bathed in a green glow – had begun to fade, the pillow clearly visible beyond her head. Liam could hear Jasson inhale sharply at the sight – he sympathized; forced to watch Lianne grow increasingly transparent, Liam clenched his jaw tightly to keep from cursing and potentially waking her up. It was extremely unsettling. Before Lianne disappeared entirely, he pulled Kitten away from the bed by the elbow.
Kitten turned to him, chattering, and though Liam often did not understand her, it was not hard to tell she was angry. She pointed to the bed, where Lianne, no longer subject to the dragonet's magic, had ceased to glow, and had returned to her normal, opaque state. Though she showed no signs of waking at the sudden noise, Liam hurried to quiet Kitten none the less.
"It'd be better if she stayed the way she is, for now, actually." He moved to the door, closely followed by Jasson, who did no stop in the sitting room, but instead proceeded out into the hallway beyond. Kitten, apparently insulted at having been interrupted, followed sulkily.
All three were silent until safely in the hallway, with the door to Lianne's suite firmly shut. Hands in his pocket, Jasson eyed Kitten, who was still apparently aggravated, warily. "So…what'd you do?"
She bristled, scales taking on a faint red hue near the edges as she stood straighter on her hind legs. Again Liam could not understand the words of her vocal exclamation, but knew, by tone alone, that he was being scolded nonetheless.
"Look," he said, spreading his hands before him apologetically. "It really wouldn't go over well if she vanished in the middle of the night. People would notice."
Kitten snorted, still looking petulant.
"I'm still confused," Jasson reminded them, impatience visibly growing.
"I am too, a little bit," Liam admitted, resting his weight on the wall behind him. Even when Kitten had been doing – whatever it was she had been doing, Lianne had looked enough like herself. If she hadn't been acting so strangely, he never would have thought otherwise. Still, his mind knew that the reaction Kitten's whistle had caused had meant something – something important. "She's not real, is she?" He finally asked, eyes turning downward to the young dragon again.
Kitten shook her head, muttering something beneath her breath that Liam presumed he was probably better off not understanding.
"So that's not her, then?"
Again Kitten shook her head, and at this Jasson frowned severely, casting a sharp glance towards Lianne's door, several feet away. "If that's not her, where is she? She wouldn't have just left."
Liam pushed his hair back with one hand, frowning as well, to only marginally less a degree. "No," he said. "She wouldn't." For a moment, he was quiet, running through a quick list of the obvious implications in his head, rather than voicing them aloud. Though the revelation had muddled a good deal of his thoughts, a few things were very clear to him, the most important being the very disturbing absence of his actual sister; this was closely followed in importance by the growing suspicion that whoever was responsible for the doppelganger had clearly put a great deal of time and effort into making a nearly indiscernible copy of Lianne, but did not know her well enough to be aware of her Sight. Considering the reasons someone would go to all the trouble furthered his unease. Liam swallowed, quickly deciding to keep these thoughts to himself, and looked from Jasson to Kitten solemnly. "Don't talk about this with anyone. Don't act differently around her either. I – need time to think about what we should do."
Jasson and Kitten both nodded, though Jasson hesitated and looked about to protest before doing so. As far as Liam could tell, only the resolve he knew must have shone through his face kept his brother from arguing. He was glad for it; it saved time.
The three walked to the end of the hall together. Liam bade them goodnight and watched as they went on their way, body language already beginning to indicate that the temporary truce was rapidly drawing to an end. When both were well out of sight, he turned and began not in the direction of his quarters, but towards another section of the palace entirely, mind rapidly weighing his options.
Light shone under Alan's door when Liam reached it, and so he did not hesitate to knock. He was answered quickly; Alan, fully dressed, almost looked as if he had been expecting the company as he held the door open so Liam could pass, then shut and locked it behind him.
"Well," Liam said after a moment, hands buried in his pocket and eyes turned to the window. "Lianne's not here. I don't think she's been here for a while, actually."
Behind him, Alan was very still, and did not reply for a moment or two. "That's bad." He finally said.
"I think so." He turned from the window, looking at Alan carefully before speaking again. "I'd better go find her. Want to come?"
Alan gave it about a half-second's thought. "When do we leave?"
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A/N: I know the wait between this and the last chapter was really long – I'm sorry! School has, unfortunately, started up again, which is going to slow updates down a bit, and on top of that, I was really sick for a good deal of last week, and couldn't update. But! I have already sent chapter 15 off to be betaed, so while I can't say when the next update will be, I don't expect it will take quite as long.
I'd never imagined I'd have so many reviewers that I'd never be able to thank everyone personally. Wow! I am so, so grateful to you all, hugs all around, and some extra special Chocolate Covered Cute-Boy-Character-Of-Choice to all the girls over at the Dove, who are so awesome. Anyone reading this who doesn't already post should go and sign up right away! (pub162.ezboard.com/bthedancingdove)
Also, you probably all noticed that certain people *cough* did not make an appearance in this chapter, and I kind of sort of left you hanging. I'm sorry! I promise some (not all) will be explained first thing chapter 15. Originally everything was together to be posted in this update – and it was about 13 pages long! I promise we'll meet up with the real Lianne really, really soon.