A/N: hey! Well, this fic is almost finished, only about 4 more chapters I think. Thank you soooo much for all the amazing reviews. You have no idea how much your opinions mean to me. Keep those reviews coming! Well, this chapter will be very short, but to make up for that, the next one will be very long and will be posted on the same night. There will be more action in the next two chapters. Also, things will be a little different than in the books. I know fights may not really be like this in the books, but as you can see, I do change details a lot to make things easier for me to write. Well, please enjoy. And don't forget to review! My goal is 50 by the time I finish.

Emily

Disclaimer: anything you recognize is not mine. Please don't sue. Lol.

"Sir, we are camped right outside of Tortall, awaiting orders."

"Very good. We will take them by surprise. We are to attack tomorrow, at dawn."

"Very good your highness." The short man turned from King Cassenberg and walked off, to get the message to the Harop army.

"Hey! Kala, I have some cool news!" Annie yelled joyfully to the other girl, who was still watching the pages train. When Kala didn't turn around, Annie yelled "hey! Did you hear me?" raising her voice louder.

"Yes, I heard you. They heard you!" Kala said, gesturing to several pages that had turned and were now giving Annie dirty looks.

"You trying to make everyone in Tortall hear you?" shouted one page angrily.

"I love you to!" retorted the girl with a smile. She turned back to Kala. "Anyways, I talked to someone, and you could sign up to become a rider! It's kinda like a knight I guess, I mean, you learn to like, ride and stuff."

"That would be cool. I can look into it."

"Awesome. O, I need to get ready for classes."

"Classes?"

"Yah! I um, 'sweet talked' my way into taking classes with the pages. I was to bored doing nothing."

"No, it's more like you screamed and cursed your self into taking classes." Annie didn't realize Kel and Neal had pulled their horses up to the teens.

"It started out as sweet talking." Annie replied with an innocent smile.

Kala laughed. "Well, have fun."

"Why don't you come? I think I scared the dude in charge to much to argue if I brought you."

"No thanks. I can't really read or do math."

"You cant? Wow!" Kala laughed at her astonished face.

"You really aren't from around here."

"Hrm, what was your first clue?" The blond said sarcastically. "Why shouldn't I be surprised you can't read, when you're older than me, I think."

"This isn't wherever you're from. Commoners often can't read."

"What's with these stupid things? Woman don't become knights, people think just because I show some skin I'm a freaking prostitute, people are divided into 'commoner' and 'noble', and 'commoners don't often know how to read and crap!" she shook here head and walked back to her room. She really wanted to take a nice bath.

Annie scowled as she cautiously stepped into the warm bath. She hated this whole bathe with other woman thing in only a loincloth and breast band thing. She sighed; at least she wore those, which she figured was kind of like a bathing suit in Tortall. She turned around so she wouldn't be facing the group of giggling woman. As she washed her back, she heard a voice behind her.

"Dear, just because he's a man doesn't mean he can hurt you." Annie turned around to face the ladies. "You can report him." Continued the woman. Annie let out a small laugh. She had been telling that to Kala, trying to get her to report her rapist.

"I know." Annie's voice was soft. "Its, its not what you think." The woman shrugged and waded away. Annie returned to her bath, but still, she couldn't help but think about her short conversation with the woman. She gazed down at her arms. The bruises were fading, like they always did after a few days.

All her life, she had been taught about child abuse and how it was wrong and could be stopped. She had seen the announcements on TV and in magazines, she had seen many episodes of Law and Order: SVU and learned about it from there. Hell, once a sheriff came to her class to talk about it when she was in seventh grade. Her mind wondered back to that day.

She was in class when a lady came in, dressed in a police uniform. The teacher explained to the class that the officer was going to inform the class about child abuse. They officer had started talking. She explained what child abuse was, and how it could be stopped. She showed a video and posters. Annie's blood ran cold as the lady talked. She started to feel nauseous. What did this lady know? Annie thought she certainly couldn't be like these poor children the police officer was talking about. Could she? But this woman's words still hit her hard. She raised her hand and escaped to the bathroom, where she stayed the rest of the lecture.

Annie's tears moistened as she thought of that day. She was always telling people they should say something if they were being hurt. She thought woman whose boyfriends hit them should dump them. So why was her abuse different? She wiped her eyes and quickly got out of the bath. She knew she couldn't just bury her thoughts, but she could push them back. And that's just what she was going to do.

"Sir, there are reports of Harop troops camped right outside of Tortall." Daine reported. Jonathan sighed heavily and Alanna let out a stream of curses.

"Get prepared for them, and lets all hope they don't attack anytime soon." They group all left the chambers to get things ready, just in case. They didn't know that things would happen sooner then they though.

A/N: I know, not very long. I know I also said I would have action in this chapter, but things just didn't turn out that way. But I do promise that the next chapter will be the big fight. I'm sorry the transition into it sucks and might suck some more it the next chapter, but I just don't know how to get into it. Once we get into the fight, I think things should be better. So, remember to review!

Emily