Disclaimer: I guess it's this time again. I don't own any of Tammy's creations, however I do own: Ked, Jhedy, Tait, Salin, Jamil, Lord Parrton, Feran, the little girl with the gift at Mindelan, Judge Tremont (who gets no more than a brief mention), the black haired man that is a friend of Piers and Ilane, Farant, Saul, Ana, Naomi, Lora, Jacey, Essa, Jak, Ortun (a place, not a person), the street urchin, the merchant and the captain (Mysh).
Chapter Nineteen: And so it begins…"Hey, are you okay?" Dom asked as he walked up behind Kel and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Kel had been leaning against the barrier watching as the buoys that marked international waters got smaller and smaller. "Why couldn't you have just let me escape?"
Dom titled his head to one side as he stopped to consider the question that he hadn't considered once during the chase. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I just didn't want you to leave. I love you too much, so do all of your friends. Meathead probably wouldn't ever talk to me again if I'd let you die. You know what he's like."
Kel sighed. "I guess. I…" she trailed off as the man Dom had pointed out as Farant walked up. "Yes?" she asked calmly.
"Why?" Farant ran a hand through his curly hair as Kel shrugged.
"Why not?" she asked. "Are you telling me if you could save the lives of hundreds of men and women, you wouldn't?"
Farant sighed. "Of course not, but I'm only a Rider Commander, not a Lady Knight!"
Kel looked at him with surprise. "And? Why should that make any difference?"
"They could easily train another commander, but it takes eight years to make a knight!"
"In Yaman they have a saying," Kel said slowly. "Translated it runs something like this: Never doubt your worth, for each man is a piece of puzzle and without all of the pieces, it is incomplete."
"Very nice, I'm sure. But in real life it isn't really practical."
"It is. I mean, think about it. If you died, the whole group ordering would have to be shifted. Your second-in-command would have to get used to commanding and would need to choose themselves a second-in-command. That's only within this group. What about your family and friends? The people who know and respect you? Those who trained you? You aren't worthless to them. It's the same with me. I'm not worthless to some people, but I mean more to less people than you do. Besides, I had the opportunity to save lives, of course I was going to take it. I don't want any more people I know to die, enough have died already." Kel sighed as she thought of Ked.
"Kel!" Conal yelled. "I want a word!"
Kel grinned as she slipped out of Dom's grip. "Wait for the yells."
- - -
The docks were burning. Great plumes of smoke billowed up into the clear sky and screams cut through the air, making Kel shiver with horror. They were so raw and scared. Some of the voices belonged only to little children; girls and boys that should have their whole ahead of them.
"It's started," Jacey whispered. His normally cheeky eyes were serious and he looked almost world-weary, an expression that did not suit someone of his age.
Kel nodded. "Yes, it has."
They stood in silence, studying the devastation ahead of them.
"What is going on there?" Farant asked as his quick eyes took in the chaos they were quickly approaching.
Kel turned to face him. "Yamani raiders." Her voice was quiet and Dom thought he detected a hint of shame in it.
"How could they do this?" Farant exclaimed, his eyes telling Kel exactly what he thought of the horror happening around him.
"How could they do what? How could they attack you? How could they burn things?" Kel ran a hand through her hair and wished more than ever that she had escaped.
"Burn things! It's callous! Being burnt has to be the worst way to die and they are burning children there!" Farant sounded angry.
Kel laughed bitterly. "It's a technique we got from you."
Dom noted her slip and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She still referred to herself as a Yamani sometimes, despite the things that they had done to her.
"When I first arrived in the Isles as a young child, I couldn't go out. I had to hide for fear that the Yamanis would rip me to pieces. Only months before my parents were assigned to work out a peace treaty, Tortallan raiders had done the unimaginable. They had tied up thirty-four children and burnt them to death. Then they proceeded to ransack the nearby houses, killing all that moved." Kel regarded Farant with an almost cold look.
"We didn't!" Farant argued. "No raiders have ever been sent across to the Isles!"
Kel shrugged. "That's what the Emperor will say about these raiders. We're not at war, so we can't say that they are Yamani raiders, just as I can't say they were Tortallan raiders that attacked the Isles. But we both know the truth." She turned away. "If you'll excuse me, I've got a battle to be preparing for."
"You can't fight them! You'll just get yourself killed!" Farant protested as Kel went in search of her glaive.
Kel turned to look at him and the look in her eyes was one of pity. "Don't you understand? I'm the only one that would stand any chance against them. I wield this thing," she hefted her glaive. "Like one of them and I've been told I rank among the top ten young warriors."
"And we're equally as well trained with swords!"
Kel shrugged. "You're sword won't get any where near one of those warriors. They have glaives and other pole arms that are equally as dangerous. You can't beat a pole arm with a sword. It's just not possible. The pole arms have a longer reach."
"Well in that case, you aren't fighting them," Farant said slowly as if he was thinking and making his plan up as he went along. "We'll try and sneak out and only fight is we have to. We can ride to the palace and inform the King, he can send out a company of the King's Own or a group of knights."
"I'm fighting them," Kel said stubbornly.
"Oh no you're not!" a voice from behind her said firmly. "As a knight that is your senior, I am ordering you to obey Farant."
"Conal!" Kel complained.
Her brother shrugged. "I'm not having you risk your life. You know better than anyone does how well these men fight. We sneak out, only fighting if we have to. Essa's still in a bad state and she can't fight. You'll do as Farant says."
Kel scowled at her brother, but she knew that his plan was better than hers was. Still, she would have relished the fact to fight someone again and to somehow put right some of the wrongs in life. "Yes, I'll do what he says."
Conal nodded to her and Kel could see something that looked like sympathy in his eyes. She worked hard to keep her anger out of her face. She didn't need his sympathy! She was a warrior and if they were facing a battle situation she had the self-discipline to obey her commander and not to run off and follow her own agenda. Well, most of the time, she mentally corrected herself.
"Good." Farant nodded to Kel and then turned to Conal. "Will you help Jak and I tie Essa to her horse? She's adamant that she's riding, but we all know there's now way she'll be able to do that. We're going to have to resort to brute force to get tied to her horse and we could do with another hand."
As Conal nodded, Kel recognised Essa's spirit as one similar to her own. And if this was her, she'd just be humiliated to be tied to her horse. "Let her ride."
"What?" Farant asked in amazement.
"I said, let her ride. You can tie her horse to mine and I'll protect her. Do you really want to humiliate her that badly?"
"Humiliate?" Farant echoed.
"Do you have to repeat everything that she says?" Dom snapped. "Of course you'll humiliate her! Have you ever been tied to your horse?"
Farant shook his head silently.
"Well let me tell you, it's very humiliating! Of course she isn't going to settle for being tied on. If she's up to protesting about being tied on, she's up to riding." Dom reached for the halberd that he took with him as his secondary weapon. "Only, I'll protect her, that'll leave Kel free to give the rest of you assistance if you need it."
Farant shrugged. "If you're sure." As Kel studied him, she became convinced that he was actually scared of Dom.
"I am." Dom swung his halberd. "Kel, care to give me a practise?"
Kel grinned and nodded.
- - -
Kel sat tall on Hoshi's back as they slowly made their way through the deserted streets. The raiders had already been this way, she could tell by the smell of burnt skin and the dead bodies scattered through the street. She balanced her glaive across Hoshi's back and turned to reach into her saddlebags. She pulled out a handkerchief and tied it over her face so it covered her nose and mouth. She didn't want to breathe in the foul air that the Yamani raiders had made worse.
She heard a clatter and a coarse voice cursed. Kel froze and then spun around, bringing her glaive up instinctively. Many years of training had enhanced her training to a level where it was almost spooky, but today that saved her life. Her glaive smashed against a heavier version of the naginata.
"Mindelan!" he yelled as he tried to yank her glaive from his grip.
Kel ignored his shouts. She wasn't surprised he recognised her; no doubt the Emperor had wanted posters bearing her picture up all over the Isles.
"Only a coward runs away!" he hissed in his native language, but Kel said nothing, unnerving him further.
As they fought, Kel could tell he had obviously hadn't been trained at the Emperor's courts. His fighting was pitiful and lacked the smoothness and grace that a trained warrior had. It was all too easy for Kel to slip past his guard and run the blade of her glaive through his neck.
She turned to see where the others were and found them busy fighting themselves. Other raiders had been alerted by her opponent's cries and had come to his rescue. A little late but nonetheless, they would still cause a delay.
With a Yamani war cry, Kel launched herself off of her horse and at Farant's opponent. There are definitely advantages from jumping off of horses, Kel thought wryly as she brought her glaive down on the raider's unprotected head and cracked it open. Swiftly Farant slit the man's throat and together they turned to help Naomi.
"Where are Essa and Dom?" Farant panted as he ran his sword through an unsuspecting back.
Kel stabbed a man in the stomach and used the other end of her glaive to rap another man soundly on the head. "No idea. I think they got separated from us as soon as the first attack came." She sensed the commander's worry for Essa and said, "Don't worry, she's in capable hands."
"She better be! She has a lot of potential!"
Kel didn't reply as she placed a well-aimed kick onto the pole of one of the raider's glaives and snapped in cleanly in half. These men are clearly badly equipped, Kel thought as she pivoted on her right foot. As she glanced up the alley she met a sight that made her blood run cold. The Emperor's Chosen Warriors. Of course, they weren't wearing their usual uniforms, parts had been ripped off to prevent identification, but that didn't matter to Kel. She could tell that they were Chosen Warriors from the way they ran and were focused on one thing and one thing only, the battle at hand. That was the sort of focus taught to those that trained at the Emperor's Courts, one that Kel had never liked. She hated it when her body took over, she felt like at any minute she might fly out of control and kill anyone and everyone.
"Farant," she hissed. "Do you see those men running down the street?"
Farant glanced up and then turned back to his opponent. "Yes," he replied through gritted teeth.
"They're the Emperor's Chosen Warriors, the best of the best. If they get near us, we're as good as dead. We need to pull back!"
Farant shook his head. "We see it out here."
"Now who's being stupid?" Kel yelled. "We. Will. Die!" She stabbed his opponent, slapped Farant and turned to where the rest of the Riders and Conal were fighting. "Mount up now!" she yelled. "We're moving out."
Farant shook his head. "We stay!" he yelled and Kel swore. His orders would override hers because the Riders were his group, under his command. She knocked him firmly on the head and caught his unconscious body in her arms. She could worry about how unethical knocking out your own commander was later.
Conal looked up the alley and visibly paled. He knew as well as Kel did how ruthless the Chosen Warriors were, after all, his only sister had nearly become one and they had killed his father. He turned around and saw the Riders still fighting. "Move!" he roared and ran for his mount.
Kel was doing the same. She vaulted onto Hoshi and in keeping with his Yamani training he didn't even flinch. Kel unceremoniously dumped the unconscious Farant in front of her and whistled to his horse. Then she kicked Hoshi into a gallop, nearly shouted for joy as she saw that Farant's horse, Shade, was following them, and behind him was her brother with six of the Riders.
"We ride as far as we can. We need to put as much distance between us and the Warriors as possible!" Kel yelled to them and lent as close to her horse's mane as Farant's unconscious body would let her.
"We don't answer to you!" Jak yelled back. "Farant is our commander."
Conal turned to him. "You obey Kel for the moment. We ride!"
Jak scowled at Conal but still kicked his horse to go faster.
As they thundered out of the dock area and up onto the hills, Kel nearly cried with happiness as she saw a hundred men on horseback with their white cloaks streaming out behind them as they raced towards the fiery docks.
"The Third Company!" Jak yelled with relief. "Saved!"
Kel shook her head. "Not yet. We've still got in excess of sixty warriors in the docks. They're not leaving alive." She sounded so cold that Jak shivered despite the suffocating heat of the nearby fires and the sun. She brought Hoshi to stop and let the now recovering Farant climb onto his own horse. "My Lord Raoul!" Kel yelled as the Own approached.
Raoul slowed his horse and came to meet her.
"Lady Knight Keladry."
"Sir, Dom and one of the Riders of in there. The Rider can't ride at the moment. He's meant to be protecting her."
"How many raiders are there?" Raoul asked quickly.
"When we docked I sighted three small ships. The ships carry about twenty men each. At least one of the ships carried some of the Emperor's Chosen Warriors, and they're the best of the best."
Raoul nodded and signalled to his men. They started to slow slightly. The Knight Commander turned back to Kel. "Are you coming back in? You don't have to, I'm sure we can handle them on our own."
"I'm coming." She turned to Conal. "I'm going back in, keep Farant out and if Essa and Dom appear, let us know." She joined Raoul at the head of the columns of men and kicked Hoshi into a trot.
"Why are you keeping a Commander out of battle?" Raoul asked as they headed towards the city.
Kel readjusted her grip on her glaive and murmured soothingly to Hoshi. "He wasn't thinking straight, sir. I don't want him to loose his life unnecessarily, so it seemed the best thing to do."
"Not thinking straight?" Raoul questioned.
Kel shook her head. "We were in an alley way and there was nine of us. I spotted at least fifteen of the Emperor's Warriors coming towards us and I told him of their fighting ability and suggested we retreated. He refused and I told him we'd be killed. So I shouted to the Riders and my brother to retreat, but he yelled for them to stay. I had to knock him out to get him out of there."
Raoul grinned at her. "Maybe once we're finished here, we'll have a little talk about something called diplomacy."
Kel shrugged. "If you want, but I don't think there's much you can tell me about diplomacy. My parents were diplomats, remember?"
Raoul sighed. He had forgotten. He glanced sideways at the woman who now rode next to him. She was as much of a legend as Alanna was and was famous for her features that were often calm and serene. She was displaying that calm now. Her face was firmly set to show no emotions and her eyes were level and fixed on the burning docks. "I'm sorry," he said gently. "I hadn't meant to bring up memories."
Kel turned to him with a smile and if Raoul hadn't heard so much about this woman from his sergeant, he would have thought her cold and callous. "It's okay sir."
Raoul nodded and turned to his men. "We still have two fighters in there," he yelled, his voice pitched to carry over screams of those still trapped in the buildings. "One you know, Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle and one you may not know, a rider by the name of…"
"Essa Ibn Cazzir, a Bazhir recruit," Kel filled in.
Raoul nodded his thanks to her. "We want those two out alive! Search for them. If you happen to stumble across the raiders, feel free to take their heads off. No one searches by himself. Everyone pair up and then get searching." He turned to face Kel. "I'll search with you. Come on, lead me to the last place you saw Dom and Essa."
Kel nodded and readjusted the handkerchief over her face.
"It smells that bad?" Raoul asked.
Kel nodded and kicked Hoshi into a gallop. She needed to find Dom.
- - -
"Do you hear that sir?" Kel asked as she brought Hoshi to a sudden halt.
Raoul followed suit and listened hard. Eventually he shook his head.
Kel shrugged and urged Hoshi into a walk. The cry came again. "Sir, there is definitely someone calling." She listened again. "I think they've found Dom!"
Raoul watched in amusement as a light lit in Kel's eyes and made a mental note to remind his sergeant not to hurt this woman. Having seen her fight close up, he was certain that as good as Dom was he wouldn't be able to beat the Yamani training she had. If Dom annoyed her he could find himself answering to her blade.
Kel kicked Hoshi into a canter and then a gallop. Using tracking skills she had picked up during her time in Tortall and her hearing that had been honed during her time in the Isles she wove through the maze-like alleys like a madwoman. Raoul followed at a speed that equalled hers, guiding his horse with his knees whilst he reached deep into his saddlebag to find the medical kit.
Kel turned a sharp corner and Hoshi skidded, sending both rider and horse smashing into a wooden house. It hadn't burned and was one of the only ones not to.
"Wardings against fire," Raoul commented as he gave Kel a hand up. "We have ourselves a mage home. I wouldn't go too near it, some of them are warded against intruders."
Kel nodded at the tall man but Raoul could see that her thoughts were else where.
"What's the matter?" he asked suspiciously.
She didn't answer but her expression showed Raoul all he needed to know. He followed her gaze to where Flyndan and Quasim were bent over two limp bodies.
- - -
She kicked the body of the dead man in frustration. Having recovered from her shock of thinking that it was Dom, she now had to work really hard not to scream.
She heard Jamil's calm and soothing voice echo deep in her memories. Calm, serene as a lake, go on, look into that lake, allow yourself to fall deep into, go down and down, you are the lake, smooth, calm…She breathed deeply and tried to think calmly. What needed to be done? Well, what needed to be done other than finding Dom?
"Jak," she muttered. "I need to find Jak and tell him."
"Did you say something?" Raoul asked from her side.
Kel shook her head. "Just thinking aloud. Have you seen any of the Riders? I need to let Jak know about…" she trailed off as she looked at the body again.
"Why Jak?" Raoul asked suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be telling the commander?" The look that Kel gave him explained everything. "Ah."
Kel nodded. "Yes, 'ah' is right. So, have you seen any of the Riders?"
Raoul shook his head. "I don't think any of them came in with us."
Kel swallowed. "Right. Can I borrow one of your men and his horse?" she asked as she started to fashion a stretcher from blood stained Yamani clothes and wooden planks from the houses.
Raoul nodded. "Um…Lerant!" he finally called. "I need you and your horse over here now!"
Kel watched as a young man, not much older than she was, set a standard down and turned his horse. The horse picked its way over deliberately, avoiding body parts and discarded weapons.
"Yes, my Lord?" he asked as he appraised Kel with interest. He was finally meeting the woman who had Dom in such a state and had finally made him abandon all the short relationships with court ladies that he had been infamous for among the Third Company.
"I need you to go with Kel to bear the body back to where the Riders have set up camp," Raoul explained as he helped Kel to tie the stretcher to Hoshi and Lerant's horse.
Lerant nodded and with a small nod to Kel he urged his black mount into a slow walk and Kel matched his speed.
"He talks about you all the time, you know," Lerant commented as they picked their way uphill through the streets.
Kel nodded almost sadly. "So I've been told by many people."
Lerant watched the woman who rode with him. She walked her horse without thinking and her eyes were fixed on the road ahead of her but he had the feeling she wasn't seeing anything. It was just as well that her horse was well trained and avoided all the obstacles without panicking, even when a dying Yamani raider tried to spear him. Hoshi stepped firmly on him in the true style of a battle-trained warrior's mount. Lerant leant over and placed a firm hand on Kel's shoulder. That shocked her out of her reverie. "He might be very annoying and I know there are times when most of us jokingly wish him dead, but we'll find him. Believe me, no one will rest until they've found him. He's a great guy."
Kel smiled warmly at Lerant. "Thanks. I just hope we find him alive."
Lerant laughed hollowly. "Oh, I'd imagine we would. He's very stubborn. Most of us agree that he is the Meathead, not his cousin."
Kel grinned slightly. "You're right, he can be stubborn sometimes." Her grin faded as the Rider camp came into view and she saw Jak stumble slightly at the arrow-riddled burden that they carried between them. She saw Lora rush forwards and start talking to Jak as she held him tight. She saw Saul inch towards his brother and Naomi turn towards Ana with tears in her eyes. Farant stood steadily in the middle, the picture of a perfect commander, always there to keep the group together. Suddenly she felt like throwing herself off of her horse and having one of the temper tantrums she used to have as a child when nothing went her way. This shouldn't have happened! Essa didn't need to die, she had friends and they were standing in front of her reeling from what she had told – or rather, shown – them.
She and Lerant dismounted and lowered the stretcher to the ground. As Farant walked forwards and placed two gold nobles on her Essa's eyes, Kel felt more alone than ever. Dom had been there for the last year or so to comfort and cheer her up when she needed it. She wanted to be able to turn away and to have his strong arms wrap themselves around her and hold her tight. But he wasn't there. He'd gone missing. For all she knew he could be lying dead or dying somewhere in the burning mess that had been the docks and she didn't have the power to do anything about it.
- - -
That night she didn't sleep. She lay with her head poking out of her tent watching the glowing campfire embers. She remembered the story that Thom had told her about his mother, the Great Mother Goddess and the stone that Alanna now wore around her neck. It had been picked out of a campfire that Alanna had made when she was a squire, it had been a miracle. The stone should have been hot, but it wasn't. That was what Kel needed now, a miracle.
- - -
A/N: Hm…not sure of that chapter. But having re-written it a few times, I thought this was the best of the three attempts I had, so here you are. At least it was longer than the last chapter!
Hannah