-

February 16, 463 H.E. - 23rd year of the reign of King Jonathan IV and Queen Thayet

Rajmuat, Kypriang Island, the Copper Isles

-

The next morning dawned terribly. Fog had rolled in from over the ocean during the night and left the city in a dismal state; drizzle fell steadily from the sky, occasionally punctuated by periods of real rain, and the air took on a chill which persisted even as the day drew on. Those slaves and servants required to venture in the city had done so early in the day, and by late morning, the entire household - it seemed to Lianne - had holed itself up behind the shuttered windows with the sole intention of discussing the proclamation of the previous day.

The conversations had begun in whispers the night before as small groups of friends formed around fires and bowls of supper. Lianne, still in a slight daze, had avoided hearing many of the whispered rumors circulating by skipping the meal and going straight to bed with the distant hope that the news would have settled by morning. At breakfast the whispers had evolved into murmurs, and the woman standing behind Lianne in the line informed her companion that she had heard that some sort of underground movement had been discovered smuggling priests of forbidden temples out of the city. At work in the stables, Lianne had hummed tunelessly to herself in a feeble attempt to drown out the voice of the man repairing a neighboring stall. Evidently unconcerned who may have been listening, he loudly complained to his friend in the hay loft and announced several times that the new inspections would put his father - a fisherman - in the poor house.

By mid-day Lianne was certain that if she heard another word on the matter, she would be physically ill. Not only was the edict still the most prominent topic of conversation, but after so many hours, the members of the Balitang household had stopped bothering to keep their voices down all together. Alone at the long table, Lianne found herself actually longing for Aly's unerring lack of information.

"...be something important," a voice remarked quite clearly. Lianne turned slightly in her seat and glanced over her shoulder; a woman who looked to be about in her 40s sat at the next table over, flanked on either side by two servants and addressing two more, who sat with their backs turned. She went on, "Those Carthaki merchants won't have any patience for inspections."

One of the fellows facing away from Lianne said something around what was presumably a mouthful a food, and received an elbow in the ribs from the man next to him in reply.

"Don't be ridiculous," admonished the woman, sounding superior. "They'll close the district gates soon - just watch."

A headache approaching, Lianne returned her bowl, despite it still being mostly full, pocketed the orange she had been given with the stew, and hurried from the dining hall before she could hear any more.

The stables were all but empty when she arrived; the few hostlers who remained through the meal sat in a corner playing cards, and did not look up. Worn and desperately longing for the quiet of her own bedroom, Lianne sought out one of the unused stalls, shut herself inside, and sat down heavily on the straw matting. She pulled her legs to her chest and dropped her forehead to her knees, taking a slow breath. She was fine; she was certainly not panicking. She was - no, that was a lie. She was frightened without entirely knowing why, when she came around to admitting it, and privately thought she deserved a good panic anyway.

Several minutes later, just as her mind was working on its third horrible scenario involving the Prince swooping in upon the stables and carting her off to a secluded island for the rest of her life, Lianne was interrupted by a voice from her left. "Are you all right?"

"I'm wonderful," Lianne muttered darkly into her legs. Glancing up a moment later, she flushed and clambered quickly from the floor, stumbling over her words in an effort to correct herself. "Uh – I'm sorry, m'lady, I – I'm fine, thank you – I ...meant to say."

"Oh," Dove said, looking vaguely unconvinced. "Maera, isn't it?"

"Mm," Lianne confirmed uneasily, climbing to her feet with remarkably little grace. "Yes. Can – um – would you like me to do something? For you?" She had to fight the wince, and swallowed the uneasy certainty that she sounded horribly out of part and incompetent.

She stepped away from the stall door she had been peering over, giving a slight shake of the head as she moved down the aisle. "No. I just noticed you when I was passing by. You looked upset."

Lianne inhaled and set herself for the lie, even got as far as opening her mouth to say that she was perfectly all right, thank you – and then found herself stilled by the shrewd glance aimed her way. "Homesick," she allowed in a hesitant murmur, looking towards her feet and uneasily brushing imaginary straw from her breeches.

"You haven't lived here very long, have you?" Dove glanced over her shoulder, and nodded slightly when Lianne, after a pause, shook her head mutely. "I didn't think so. It's your accent. Tyran?"

"Tortallan," Lianne corrected, without thinking.

Dove looked at her – really look at her, as if searching for something behind the word – and Lianne realized, from her slightly raised eyebrows, that it may have been better to have not said that. "Like Aly."

"Ah, well, yes, I suppose. I don't know what, um, area she was –" Even as she mumbled the words, Lianne knew she sounded ridiculous.

"It must be nice," Dove said, cutting off her stammering. She retrieved an apple from her pocket as she turned to face the blue roan occupying the stall she had stopped in front of. "Tortall, I mean. Everyone goes to school there, don't there? Even commoners? That's why your grammar is so good?"

"That's the Queen's doing," Lianne said, unable to think of any other sort of reply.

Dove twisted the stem from the apple with a quick jerk, nonplussed. "Yes," she said, nodding and looking mildly unconvinced. "That's what Aly said. We've heard stories of her here before, but never about the schools. She's supposed to be the most beautiful in the world, isn't she?"

"She is," Lianne said wistfully, her mother's face a clear image in her head. "The Peerless. Stories don't do her justice."

Dove looked at her in a way that brought Lianne sharply back to reality. "You've seen her? Up close?"

"On Progress," she half-mumbled, almost surprised that she was able to put her foot back in her mouth that quickly.

Long after Dove had left the stables and Lianne had thoroughly berated herself for not thinking before speaking, she couldn't help but wonder why both times she had had a conversation with the young noblewoman, it always felt as if she had been thoroughly examined in between the casual questions.

-

It had been sheer luck that Aly, upon returning from the stables from wherever it was she had been all day, had left her riding cloak draped over a stall door in her haste to get inside. It was extremely near the time the hostlers would be sent off to dinner when Lianne found and recognized it, so no one had minded when she volunteered to go return it. More luck – or so she had decided to view it.

Actually finding her had been slightly more difficult. Her room was located on the complete opposite side of the estate, just off the rooms of the two ladies of the house (for reasons Lianne couldn't quite figure out). By the time she got there her hands and breeches were damp and cold from the dripping material, and the door was locked. Lianne debated folding it up and leaving it outside the door – but couldn't imagine leaving a puddle in the middle of the finely decorated hall would be appreciated.

Most of the servants whom Lianne asked had no idea where she was; some either couldn't be bothered to reply, or couldn't understand her at all. The third stroke of luck hit when a farrier Lianne knew by face from the stables (and who had his own reasons for being uncommonly pleasant to her, despite the difficulty they had speaking through the accents, she suspected) overheard her asking someone else, and directed her towards the kitchen. She wasn't there – but she had been, and one of the girls there absent-mindedly pointed Lianne out the back door and into the herb garden at the rear of the house.

Empty. Lianne took a breath and closed her eyes against the rain and shook her head slightly, wondering if Aly was perhaps just walking about. She would check the small shed against the wall, she decided – and if Aly wasn't there, either, then she'd just return the cloak the next time they met up. The voices from beyond the wall grew loud enough to be heard before Lianne was even halfway to the shed. She stopped and tried to place the sound, which was distorted slightly by the falling rain. There – she realized after a moment that the high gate set in the rear wall had been propped open by a rock. Aly had pointed the gate out to her as leading to an alley, then to the street, on her first day - Lianne knew it'd only be unlocked if someone were on the other side, and headed towards it.

"...don't know where to go. I don't know anyone outside the city," someone said – Aly? It sounded like her, at least.

"They're already searching the outer districts. She can't stay here." Another voice replied, and Lianne, with her hand outstretched to push open the gate, froze.

"Wait," Aly said, and there was a pause in which Lianne drew her hand slowly back and glanced at the gate. She was almost positive that from her position to the side, someone would not only need to open fully open the door, but actually look behind it to see her. And if they were talking about her... "All right. Find someone looking for a girl, somewhere a new face won't be noticed, in one of the districts they'll search first. It has to be soon. She's dangerous here."

"You don't think it's dangerous for her to be on her own?" the second voice asked. Nawat? Lianne wondered, but wasn't sure.

Aly didn't speak for a moment, and when she did, she sounded upset. "We don't have a choice. I should never have brought her here to begin with. If she's found here..." Another pause, then, "I've known her since I was two years old. She's smart, she can manage herself."

"All right." He said, and then, "What if she won't go?"

"She'll go," Aly replied, sounding sure. "I'll think of something to say that'll convince her."

There was doubt in Nawat's voice, Lianne was sure of it – but all he said was, "I'll come back when I've found something."

She stepped away from the door, slowly while near enough to be heard, and then at a run once she could no longer hear them. The damp earth muffled her footsteps, and then she was inside again, dripping and numb inside and out. Her mind was racing, replaying the overheard conversation over in her head at rapid speeds until it stopped making sense, but she felt somehow distant from the confusion and not quite properly inside herself. Rain dripped from her clothes and fingers and hair, tracing paths along her nose and cheeks, but she couldn't be bothered to shake the drops away.

With a breath, Lianne turned, opened the door again, despite the strange looks a few members of the kitchen staff gave her. When she stepped outside and looked into the garden again, Aly was plainly visible through the rain; facing away, she closed and locked the gate.

"Aly!" Lianne called with a voice shakier than she thought it would be and clutching the cloak in her hands so tightly her fingers ached.

Aly turned at the sound, focused in on Lianne, and after a moment, smile at her. In that second, the confusion and numbness vanished, and her mind was made up.

-

Lianne could only be thankful that the hallway was empty, as she wasn't sure how she'd explain standing outside of Aly's closed door silently for upwards of five minutes. Already she had gone to knock and then pulled her hand back as if burned several times.

Maybe if I waited, she thought, biting her lip. That way I could plan what I was doing to say and – no. She shook her head and took a breath. Perhaps listening to dreams and apparitions was a sign of madness, but what was it that little girl had told her? Stop hiding.

Without allowing time to talk herself out of it again, Lianne reached out and rapped sharply on the wooden door once, nearly pulled back, and then, realizing what was done was done, knocked again. She could hear some shuffling inside, and then the door swung open and Aly stood, looking at her with first surprise, and then neutrality.

"Is everything all right?" she asked, glancing up and down the hallway briefly.

Lianne nodded slightly, but asked, "May, um...may I have a word? Please?"

Aly's eyebrows drew together questioningly but, stepping aside so Lianne could come, she said nothing. Feeling incredibly awkward, Lianne moved as far as the center of the room, then hovered there uncertainly.

"Lianne?" Aly questioned.

She turned to look at her friend, twisting the hem of her tunic around her finger. "Right. I was just wondering what...um, happens now?"

Aly blinked at her uncertainly. "What happens now?"

"Now that the harbor's closed," Lianne said, "And, I've heard they might lock the gates and...now what do we do?"

"Now we keep working on finding a ship," Aly said, and seemed to relax slightly. "Smugglers run no matter what, it's finding trustworthy ones that's difficult."

"Trustworthy smugglers?"

Aly shrugged and sat down casually on the edge of the bed. "Well, ones who take their money and leave it at that."

"Oh..." Lianne said, nodding slightly. "That's all I wanted to know."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

She turned to leave, biting hard on the inside of her lip, and made it to the door before stopping abruptly and turning around. "Actually, that's not all. I – I wanted to know...I wanted to know if I'm staying here." Aly's masked slipped for a moment, and she blinked, startled. "I know it'd be bad if I were found here," Lianne pressed on in a rush, "But I don't have anywhere else – I just wanted to know what's going to...to happen. To me."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," Aly assured after a beat.

Lianne, heart sinking in her chest, looked at her feet. "But, see," she said. "That's not what I asked you."

"I know how you're feeling, but –" Aly began.

Lianne did not look up from her toes, feeling cold despite the room's temperature. "You don't," she said, shaking her head. "You don't know how I feel at all, and you aren't making it any easier, either."

"I can't drop everything and stay with your every second; I'm getting you a ship home."

"That's not what I mean," Lianne said, frowning at her, "I mean stringing me around by the nose and never answering anything I ask you and always being so obtuse."

Aly mask slipped again and she scowled, irritated. "I tell you everything you need to know."

"No you don't!" Lianne said, gaping. "You don't tell me anything! You won't tell me how you found me, or why this friend of yours is interested, or when I'm seeing my brothers, or why I can't, for that matter –"

"Keep your voice down," she cut in, glancing towards the door set into the left wall. "You're being ridiculous."

Lianne stared at her. "Ridiculous? I'm being ridiculous? I've been kidnapped, dragged off to another country," she held up her hands and began to tick the list off on her fingers, voice rising as she went, "Replaced at home by some simu-thing, brought here when I have no idea why, and I'm ridiculous when I want to know how I'm supposed to be getting away from the royal and, lest we forget, half-insane man trying to drag me off and marry me?"

"Keep your voice down," Aly snapped, standing swiftly. "It's not even about being married, you're putting everything completely –"

"Really? It's not?" Lianne demanded, speaking right over Aly and placing her hands on her hips. "And I expect you've been writing letters back and forth, and he's told you that himself, has he?"

Aly opened her mouth to say something back, looking livid, and then stopped and took a breath. "I'm going to sort it out," she said,

"You'll sort it out," Lianne repeated, staring at her. She said it again, voice taking on a slight note of hysteria. "You'll sort it out."

Aly gave her a look of reproach. "Lianne..." she began.

"You'll sort me out, don't you mean?" she demanded, quite beside herself. "You'll just find something clever to say and I'll follow blindly, is that it? Like I've been doing for weeks?"

"I'm not –"

"No," Lianne retorted. "I'm not. I'm not doing this anymore. I've had enough."

"I can't tell you everything you want to know," Aly said, looking as if her temper were about to take the better of her.

Lianne folded her arms, half-blind with anger and not, at that moment, particularly caring, either. "Well you'd better find some way that you can, then," she said, raising her eyebrows. "Or I'm leaving. I'll go find Liam again and you won't have to worry about how dangerous I am anymore."

"There are more important happening right now than you and you couldn't ever understand them." Aly hissed, leaning in to be heard. "You are being a spoilt brat. I thought you were better than that."

"And I thought you were better than keeping information from your friends just so you can always have the upper hand," Lianne shot back. She turned and stomped out the door; it was only through a great showing of willpower that she did not slam it behind her. Paying little mind the force of her footsteps or the other doors in the hallway, she went angrily to the servants' quarters, muttering darkly to herself all the way.

She'd wait a day, Lianne decided, as she stared at the darkened ceiling above her bed. One day for answers, and then she'd go out and find them herself.

-

Author's Note: Yeah, so, delay, not so good, and for those of you who've stuck around despite it and are still reading – thank you. I am doing my best to get these updates up ASAP, but the chapters are getting a bit more complicated, and I still do have those pesky real life obligations. I am trying though, promise!

Thank you to all the reviewers (200! glee) and...well, I'll let you all decide who's what in this chapter.