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February 6, 463 H.E. - 23rd year of the reign of King Jonathan IV and Queen Thayet
Jerykun Island, the Copper Isles
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As much as Lianne did appreciate the help, she couldn't help but wonder if Aly had perhaps finally inherited a little of the madness rumored to run in her mother's family. She was certainly acting oddly – or at least more oddly than Lianne remembered her acting. Besides being in a place she shouldn't have known about with no logical explanation offered thus far, and besides having kidnapped Lianne from the hallway without warning, she was also making quite a point to dance around any questions Lianne asked, offering only vague answers which didn't explain anything, if any at all.
"What are you doing here?" Lianne had asked when she had first recovered her voice enough to speak. In reply, Aly shrugged casually, as if her being there was the most natural thing in the world.
"How'd you get here?" She had tried later, after having been led down the stairs and through a series of dark hallways she couldn't keep straight. This was ignored entirely, though Lianne wasn't sure if it was because Aly didn't have an answer, or because she was checking around a corner to make sure no guards were waiting.
"Where are we going?" Was the next attempt, asked in a low whisper as they waited for the tall man who seemed to be doing most of the navigating crept ahead of them to make sure the large, unlit room they had just entered was as empty as it seemed.
"Oh, are we leaving then?" She asked no one in particular once they were outside via the stables and making for the high wall several yards away. Having been more or less ignored previously, she did not expect an answer.
"Lianne," Aly had said, surprising her and turning to face her in the moonlight, a touch of exasperation creeping into her voice, "This will be easier if we're not overheard."
Lianne, seeing the sense in this, and also somewhat abashed by the reprimand, said nothing until they we well away from the building – which, from the outside, she could finally identify as a large stone manor in what appeared to be the absolute middle of nowhere. Besides for a few smaller structures she inferred belonged to the manor, despite not being connected, she could see no other signs of civilization. The jungle surrounding the clearing in which the manor was built had clearly been cut back for the sole purpose of making just enough space – the trees nearly formed a circular wall as they abruptly took control of the land again. Lianne could see a road cut through the growth several meters off, but Aly and her companion stayed well away from it, walking straight into the trees, instead. She followed, though her dress and thin slippers were not at all suited for the thick undergrowth she found herself trudging through.
Truth be told, she was a little overwhelmed by it all. Trailing Aly in the darkness and struggling not to trip over hidden vines and roots, Lianne tried to make some kind of sense out of the last hour or so, and found herself unable to. Aly's appearance had signaled what seemed to have been the end of Lianne's control over the situation – certainly when she had left her room, she hadn't planned to find herself stumbling dazedly through the jungle sometime later with no idea whatsoever where she was going.
No one spoke for quite some time, and Lianne would have found the silence oppressive, if she hadn't been more concerned with not falling and loosing her guides in the darkness. When, several feet ahead of her, Aly spoke, she was startled by the sudden noise.
"Thank you," she said to someone or something Lianne couldn't see. "I'm not sure we would have gotten out without the help."
It took Lianne several minutes to navigate the dense growth separating them, and she nearly tripped several times, but she did manage to close the distance. Aly, when she found her, was standing still, apparently deep in conversation with a crow perched on a low branch nearby. The man, who had yet to utter a single word, stood nearby, watching their surroundings intently. "Aly?" she asked, hesitant, extremely confused, and not least of all exhausted. "Can you please tell me what's happening?"
Aly looked up at Lianne and, as far as she could tell, so did the crow. In the darkness, she couldn't entirely tell how her interruption had been received, but the smile in Aly's voice when she answered set her slightly at ease.
"Right. Did you know you were getting married in three days?"
"I had an idea." Lianne said, sitting uneasily on a nearby rock and removing one slipper for inspection. "I was trying to leave."
"I figured as much. You wouldn't have gotten very far on your own."
For a moment, Lianne felt the rising urge to object. She had, after all, gotten out of her room on her own and to the stairs all right! But, she also knew, that was largely by accident, and Aly had only caught her in the first place because she had waited so long, unsure of where she was going. She decided it was probably better not to argue, and didn't reply.
"You're lucky you got out when you did," Aly went on, leaning up against a tree and looking as if she was doing her very best to not seem tired. "The guard changes at midnight – that's why we had to wait. Normally, there would have been a lot more."
Lianne nodded as if this all made sense to her, though she was still very confused. She couldn't even begin to figure out how Aly had known any of this, or why she was even present. She wasn't sure she'd get an answer if she asked, either. "These are basically useless," she said instead, holding up the tattered slipper in her hand carefully, to prevent it from falling apart all together.
"I have some things stored a little further in," Aly said, nodding vaguely in the direction they had been heading before stopping, "But there's no point in trying to get there tonight. It's too dark."
"Where are we going?"
"Rajmuat." After carefully nudging small stones away, Aly slid down the tree and settled herself on the ground, much easier among the unusual vines and plants than Lianne was. "I live there. I can find you somewhere to hide until we can find a ship to take you home. It might not be easy; ships almost never go home out of the Islands. Kalasin's still in Carthak, isn't she? You might have to go there first."
"I'm not sure where she is, but she's somewhere in Carthak." Lianne hesitated, tucking her bare foot beneath the tattered hem of her skirt. "But – if I go too far, no one will be able to find me when they come to take me home, will they?"
Aly was quiet for several minutes, staring upwards into the vines above with seeming great interest. "I don't know what's happening at home. I got word that Rukhev had left, but he was already back by then, and on his way here. No one mentioned you being missing at all."
"But me even being here is grounds for war."
"I only found out you were here at all because of a – friend." Aly looked down now, meeting Lianne's eyes. "They're not coming. I don't think they know you're gone."
In all her many hours of sitting and thinking about how she would get home again, Lianne had never considered that someone wouldn't be coming for her. Now, even in the presence of a friend, she felt even more alone than before.
"Try not to worry about it," Aly went on, seemingly unconcerned. "I know a lot of people here. You'll be home soon enough. Try and sleep, we're still pretty far inland."
Dazedly Lianne shifted to the ground, resting her back against the stone. She knew instantly she'd never be able to get comfortable, but already felt her body begin to drift away. To much had happened in to short a time; she would at least need several hours sleep before she would be able to process anything. Before shutting her eyes, she glanced left, and saw no one. "What happened to your friend?"
Aly's eyes were already closed; she did not open them to look. "Nawat sleeps when he wants to. He's probably off getting food." She yawned, then added, "Don't worry. I have lookouts all over."
Lianne couldn't keep herself from worrying, but tried to sleep none-the-less.
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January 30, 463 H.E. - 23rd year of the reign of King Jonathan IV and Queen Thayet
Corus, Tortall
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As he had expected, the stable was completely vacant when Liam arrived. It wasn't surprising; very few of the palace's inhabitants made a habit of visiting their horses at daybreak, unless they were on specific business. Typically, those leaving so early were couriers who needed as much daylight as possible. It was almost unheard of for anyone to depart from the Royal Stables, where Liam's horse was kept, before breakfast.
It was perhaps because of this unusual change in tradition that the holster that opened the door for Liam shortly after the five o'clock bell was so cranky. Respect kept him from complaint, but Liam could hear the holster grumbling to himself as he went about preparing his tack.
He had just begun to saddle his horse, Nolan, when Alan arrived, bearing a saddle bag over one shoulder and a heavy looking satchel in the opposite hand. Depositing the bags on the ground, he leaned against a wooden support beam near Nolan's stall and watched Liam tighten a strap silently.
Liam glanced at him over Nolan's back, the lantern hanging nearby shadowing his friend's face sharply. He looked about as terrible as Liam himself felt, which wasn't all that unexpected; as far as he could knew, neither had slept at all since the previous morning. "Finished everything?"
"I wrote a letter explaining everything," Alan said, scratching the side of his nose nonchalantly, "And then accidentally dropped it behind my desk. Couldn't reach it, either. Pity."
"Well, at least we can say we explained ourselves when we get back." Off Alan's look, Liam explained, "We didn't lie, we didn't withhold information. We're fine."
"Oh, is that all it takes for you to get out of trouble, then? I'd be looking forward to a nice, long imprisonment when I go home, but my mother's going to kill me, so that'll be right out, won't it?"
Despite the light tone to his words, Liam looked at Alan over Nolan's back seriously, the idea behind the words striking him more than the statement itself. "You don't have to come. You shouldn't if it's going to –"
"Oh, shut up," Alan cut him off, though a smile ghosted briefly across his face. "You'll brood to death if I let you alone. I'm coming."
"Me too," someone added.
Jasson made a clear effort to look innocent as both sets of eyes turned to him; as it tended to be, the expression was complimented almost instantly by a long-suffering sigh and a roll of the eyes from Liam.
"You are not. What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to remind you that I'm going with you," Jasson said, hands in his pockets. "Seeing as you were about to forget to bring me along."
"No you aren't," Liam snapped, turning away and securing his saddle bag with perhaps more force than was necessary. "Go back to bed."
"If you don't bring me I'll go straight inside and tell everyone where you're going."
Liam turned back around quickly, looking to his brother sharply. "You will not," he said, voice clipped, "Because if you do, we'll be stuck here, and Lianne will be stuck wherever she is, and if something happens to her it will be entirely your fault."
Jasson glowered, and Liam, for a brief moment, couldn't help but wonder if he had spoken too quickly, and that Jasson might just follow through with his threat to spite him. Faced with this somewhat worrying possibility, he hurried to calm the situation before it blossomed into a full blown argument. "Besides," he offered, tone – he hoped – much more sympathetic. "You couldn't come anyway. You're still in service to haMinch until someone takes you as a squire."
"You take me then," Jasson shot back, eyebrows arched skeptically, "If that's what you're so worried about."
Despite better efforts, Liam could not hold back an exasperated sigh. "You know I'm not allowed. Stop being difficult on purpose, we have to go."
"I'm allowed," Alan said, not entirely meeting Liam's eyes. "I'll take you on, Jasson."
Liam looked at Alan in surprise; out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jasson looking at him in much the same way. For a moment, no one spoke, and Alan shifted uncomfortably in the silence.
"Don't just because he's threatening to turn us in. He won't really." Liam, speaking first, reinforced this statement with a glare towards Jasson, who ignored him completely.
Alan shook his head. "No. I was thinking about it before, actually. It's tradition. Backwards."
"One time does not make it a tradition."
"Twice will," Alan insisted, though Liam wasn't sure how truthful he was being. "It'll be a fine tradition between our families for generations to continue." He paused, glancing to Jasson. "Though – I'd rather skip the secret romance, if you don't mind. You're not my type at all."
Though his blanch somewhat ruined the effect, Jasson shot Liam a triumphant, and mildly smug, smile. "If you try and make me stay, I'll just follow you by myself, anyway."
In reply, Liam stared crossly at the wall for a moment, searching his mind for some way around this and finding nothing of the sort. He finally sighed and returned to saddling Nolan, shaking his head slightly. "I want it known that I think this is a terrible idea."
Alan nodded decisively. "It's known. Jasson, go get your things. I have to talk to haMinch."