Chapter twenty-three. I updated! I know, it's a miracle! I wrote you guys an extra long chapter to make up for the long wait. My longest chapter yet. (Pats self on back before remembering how long it took to update and slapping self on hand.) I'm starting to point things in the right direction of an ending. I'm thinking maybe five more chapters, but I think I told myself that a couple of chapters ago... Oh well, enough blabbing; you've had to wait long enough for this chapter already. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: All the characters and places in this story belong to Tamora Pierce.
"This is becoming ridiculous," Liam of Conté ranted for the hundredth time. "We've been down here for hours!"
As much as his twin sister would have loved to agree with him, Lianne's complaints would do nothing to better the situation. If her tasteless princess lessons taught her anything, it was patience.
"Liam," she began, "You heard what Mama said this afternoon when she came to check on us, you've got a job to do."
"Oh yes, 'We're to protect Shinko and Roald'. If anyone manages to sneak into the palace, find their way through the maze of these never ending catacombs, and defeat however many guards mama and papa have stationed, we'll be ready!" Liam cried.
"Liam," Roald said, red with anger, "I've had just about enough of your complaining. We're all stuck here. Deal with it!"
Lianne winced at her brother's loud voice. Her normally well-tempered older brother was just as upset, if not more upset, than Liam. He was after all, a fully trained knight.
"Roald, honey," Shinko said, Yamani calm, "Please,"
Lianne rubbed her sister-in-law's shoulder. Shinko, two months pregnant, had terrible morning sickness.
"I'm sorry," Roald said quietly, smiling apologetically at his ill wife.
"Ha! That's three in a row Alan. Hand over that polishing cloth!" Jasson cried from the far corner of the room where he and Alan had been playing cards, trying to make the best of the situation.
That was Jasson for you, Lianne thought, hiding a grin.
"No, no, my dear lad." Alan said quickly, "That's only two, you, you must have counted wrong!"
"Alan hand it over, or," Jasson said, a grin creeping onto his face, "maybe I'll tell father and his champion about you and Lianne!"
"Black Mail!" Alan cried accusingly. Jasson only shrugged and grinned wider. Finally Alan handed over the Raven Armory polishing rag, much to Lianne's relief. Their parents were definitely not ready to learn about their relationship.
Underneath Jasson's cheers of victory, Lianne heard a small scraping noise. No, that isn't right, she thought to herself, she didn't hear it; she felt it.
Closing her eyes, she listened for the scrapping again, this time using a small amount of her gift. Now she knew what the scraping was. Someone was using magic.
"Everyone, quiet for a moment!" she called over the noise as she stood up. Silence immediately followed and she had everyone's attention.
"Do you all feel that?" she asked them.
"Feel what?" Liam asked her.
Lianne closed her eyes again. "Some one's using a fair amount of the gift."
"Yes," Roald replied, "I feel it now too. It's probably just Uncle Numair."
"No, I would recognize his gift. This is different, and I think it's coming from, well, beneath us." Slowly, her eyes still closed, she walked to the corner of the large room.
"It's coming from here," She began to tell them, but before she could finish, the earth in front of her exploded. Lianne was thrown back a few feet and crashed into Alan.
"Guards!" Roald yelled as he drew his sword. The explosion had left a large hole in the ground, from which heavily armed Copper Isles soldiers were now appearing.
"Get behind me!" Alan said pushing her behind him as he drew his own sword.
Lianne made her way next to Shinko as her brothers, Alan, and the four guards formed a circle around them.
Lianne watched as a total of ten Copper Islanders appeared from the tunnel and launched an attack.
One made his way for Jasson, who bravely stood his ground, sword drawn. But Jasson was much smaller than his attacker and had much less training. Within moments, he had sliced the boy along his left leg and had sent his sword flying through the air. Lianne bit back a scream as the man kicked her little brother to the ground and raised his sword for the kill.
Without thinking, Lianne sent a burst of her sapphire blue gift at the man. He flew backwards a few feet, thudding against the wall. He didn't get up.
Lianne grabbed a hold of her brother's collar with a spell she had learned at the university and dragged him into the safety of the circle. Jasson was breathing heavily, his forehead creased with pain.
"Jasson," she whispered, stroking his head softly.
"I'll be fine, the cut's shallow," he gasped, "Help the others like you helped me!"
Lianne nodded and turned her attention back to the battle in front of her. Three of the guards were dead, but most of the bodies that filled the chamber were wearing the red and black uniform of the Copper Isles. Only three of their attackers remained. The remaining guard dealt with one, Liam and Alan fought the second, while Roald faced the third.
There was a clatter of metal as Roald's sword shattered with the impact of his opponent's strike. Quickly, her eldest brother dropped the useless hilt of his sword and drew his long belt knife. He successfully blocked several attacks, but one slipped through his guard and cut deeply into his right side. Roald slumped to the floor.
Lianne struggled to think of a spell, but she had been trained as a healer, not a war mage.
The man advanced on her fallen brother, but stopped dead in his tracks a step or two away from him. A pool of blood was spreading from the delicate looking fan that was now lodged in his chest.
Princess Shinko watched with cold eyes as the man fell dead to the floor.
Now only one attacker remained, but he was trapped by Alan and Liam against a wall.
"Surrender!" Alan demanded, breathing heavily.
The man dropped his sword and raised his hands in surrender.
"Please, don't kill me!" the man begged in rough common. It was obvious to Lianne that the language was new to him.
"That is not up to us, but the King," Liam told him coldly.
"Mercy," he begged, "I will do any..." he began, but instead of surrendering he kicked Alan in the groin while he had his attention and dashed past the fallen squire, not to the door, but over to where Roald was lying.
He snatched the crown prince's belt purse and threw himself into the tunnel.
"Jolly fight, except for you and Prince Jasson getting injured and all. I can't believe they were only after money though," the young knight said to Roald as he wiped the blood off his sword.
"Not money," Roald croaked as he struggled to sit up.
Lianne rushed to his side and began to slow the bleeding with her gift.
"He's got the jewel, he's got the Dominion Jewel!" he told them frantically.
"I'll get it back!" Liam promised him as jumped into the tunnel in pursuit of the escaped man.
"Liam," Roald called weakly, but his brother didn't stop.
"I'll go after him your highness," Alan said, hurrying to follow his friend, "Don't worry, we'll be back soon," he promised them, but he was looking at Lianne.
Without another word he entered the tunnel.
Lianne had managed to stop the blood that was pouring from her brother's side and now she worked to reattached the muscles and flesh that had been severed. This is going to take a while, she thought to herself as she reached deeper into her gift.
"Owen," Roald whispered as he began to fall into the sleep Lianne had created.
"I'll keep an eye on them, Roald," Owen, the remaining guard, promised, making his way after the two squires.
"How is he?" Shinko asked worriedly as she held her husband's hand.
"He'll be fine. Lucky for him, we just finished up blade wounds at the university before the summer brake. But we need to tell father what happened and get Jasson to a healer. My gift's pretty much drained." Lianne said, trying to reassure her.
Shinko nodded, "I'll go get help."
As her sister-in-law ran out of the room, Lianne leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy. Before she passed out, she sent a silent prayer to the goddess for the safety of Liam, Alan, and the knight.
"Left leg!" The Tiger called, "Fifty roundhouse kicks, Go!"
Aly, who was watching the progress of the raka fighters from the edge of the clearing, couldn't help but smirk. Normally shy and quiet, the Shang became loud and outgoing when teaching or training with the raka fighters. She was in her element. She was a good teacher too. In the two weeks that she had been training the fighters, Aly had watched them steadily improve their skill.
"Come on Junai, don't give the bag a massage with your foot, Kick it!" Lani told Aly's guard.
"I am kicking it." Junai growled as she continued to kick the bag. Aly knew full well how much the woman hated to be the student. She, her father Ulasim, and Fesago had been in charge of training the Raka fighters before Lani came. However, she respected Lani's rank and dealt with her lessons as best she could.
"Stop, stop." Lani told her, her voice just audible above the sound of feet slamming into the sand filled bags and the occasional swearing when someone missed the bag and hit their partner, who holding it. "Sure, you're kicking the bag, but your not kicking the bag. Not like you mean it. I've watched you practicing on your own before. You're hardly giving everything you've got into those kicks. There's not enough snap! I want to see kicks like this."
Lani showed her what she meant, slamming her leg into the bag with such force that Junai's partner was knocked onto the ground and seams on the bag popped, spilling sand onto the dirt of the clearing where they were training.
Aly could only imagine what a kick like that would do to an enemy. It would pop their ribs like dry twigs.
Lani turned back to Junai. "I don't care if you're older than me, if you're used to being the teacher. Forget that. This, all of this, isn't about you and me. It's about everyone in these islands. Train like you mean it!"
The Tiger moved on to correct the next person in the line and Junai continued to kick the bag, this time with visibly more force.
"I knew she would be useful." A voice commented from beside her. Aly almost jumped and turned to face Kyprioth. It was not everyday that someone managed to sneak up on her and it was a bit unnerving.
"What brings you to the mortal realms, trickster?" Aly asked dryly, trying not to let her voice betray that fact that the god had startled her.
Kyprioth fiddled with the many rings on his fingers. "Change of plans." He said, avoiding her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Aly asked, this time with interest.
"The attack on Rajamaut has to happen in the next four days, or else it won't be able to happen at all." The god told her.
"Tell me this is one of your tricks," Aly asked seriously.
"No trick. If Sarai is not on the throne by sunset four days from now, Rubinyan and Imajane will be in control of the Dominion Jewel and there will be no possibility of our efforts succeeding."
"Then let the games begin," Aly whispered.
"There's nothing really to say Salmalin," Hadensra said from behind Numair. When Numair turned to face him, he found that his rival was smirking. "I assume you got my message from the choking spell?"
"Interesting spell. I've never seen it done on such a large scale. I imagine it would have taken a rather large amount of power." Numair replied steadily. His voice was calm, but the sweat dripping down the back of his neck betrayed his fear.
"Not to worry blackrobe, I'm at full strength. I borrowed the power from weaker mages." Inar said, his one eye twinkling maliciously.
"You know, I liked you better as a tree." Numair said stiffly. He managed to raise a magical shield just in time to block the red bolt of magic that Hadensra sent as him. His black shield swallowed the red gift, but Numair could tell that his opponent was much more powerful than when they had last meet.
Then again, he thought coolly, so am I.
Below them, a large stone thudded into the western servant's wing of the palace. Numair hesitated for a moment before launching his own attack.
"Criptonum Thatus!" he yelled in old Thak. Black vines grew out of the stone beneath Inar's feet and wrapped themselves around his arms and legs. Quickly, while his opponent was distracted, Numair sent a black bolt of fire at him.
To Numair's disbelief, Hadensra caught the fire in his palm. He slowly closed his hand. When it opened again, Numair's spell was gone. Inar then shouted a word in Scanran and the vines around him fell to ashes.
Behind Inar, the sun was just beginning to set. It was going to be a long night.
"This better be important Aly," Chenaol said, "I'm missing supper. And I cooked it!"
"It is," Aly assured the cook. She had assembled all the leaders of the raka revolt and some of the key leaders of the raka fighters. These were some of the few people who knew details of the uprising. Each knew key pieces, but no one except Aly knew everything. Gathered in the small storage room off the kitchen were Chenaol, Ochuba, Ulasim, Fesago, Daine, Lani, Junai, Nawat, and the six captains of the small army that had gathered outside of Tanair. Each captain was in charge of a group of fifteen and had been hand chosen by Aly, Fesago, and Lani just a week before for their leadership skills when they had organized their fighters into groups.
"Plans have changed," she told them steadily as she played with the knife in her hand.
"How so?" Ulasim asked her.
"The attack on Rajamaut, well, we have less time then we thought. Four days actually, but that's the absolute latest. The way I see it, we have to put things into motion starting tomorrow morning."
Her remark was met with silence, except for the swearing that came from a few of the captains.
Nawat was the first to speak. "So we will mob the King and Queen soon?"
Aly nodded, choosing to ignore the humor in the way he had described the attack.
"Now, I ask you, are we ready?" This too was met with silence.
"We have about 1700 fighters in all," Ulasim revealed to the group.
"Sixty or so mages, scattered through the isles. There aren't many, but all of them are powerful." Ochuba said.
"Our fighters all have knives and bows. Some have swords, but I could only get my hands on a couple of those through Fesago." Chenaol told them.
"The fighters here are well trained. I think they can match any of the King's soldiers." Fesago said, his voice hinting that he had doubt.
This roused a laugh from a member of the council. Everyone turned their gaze on Lani.
"The King's soldiers are the most rag-tag bunch of warriors I've ever set eyes on. I've been round the world with my Shang master, the Eagle, and we've seen plenty of armies. Don't worry, our people can easily match their skill, but it's not skill we should be worried about. It's numbers that'll make things difficult." she explained.
"What we aren't taking into account are the city folk who haven't chosen a side. If things start to happen, shouldn't we assume that some of them will join our forces?" Chenaol wondered aloud.
The older woman had a good point. If Aly's father had taught her anything, it was to think out the roles of every possible player in a situation. She tried to put herself into the position of a commoner in Rajamaut. For the people of Rajamaut, things had never been very good under the rule of the Rittevon line. They might join the cause knowing that it would be worthwhile to get Imajane and Rubinyan off the throne.
"They may, or they may not," Aly finally decided, "But we shouldn't consider them to be an asset."
"Well what assets do we have?" one of the captains wondered. As soon as the words left his mouth, he seemed to regret having said them aloud.
"The People, animals," Daine told him steadily, looking to Nawat, who nodded.
"Animals? What are they going to do?" the captain retorted, this time more confident.
"If they are willing to fight, I can help organize them. The small blows that they can inflict really add up." Daine, or Mirri as all but Aly and Lani knew her, explained.
"You're going to organize the animals?" he asked her sarcastically. He looked to the rest of the council for support. "She must be crazy!"
Aly studied the reactions of the people in the room. None looked very convinced that Daine wasn't crazy. It looked like it was time to reveal Daine's true identity.
"Not crazy, not in the least bit. She's a wild mage. She can communicate with animals, heal them too." Aly explained to the group. Daine sent her a questioning glance, but Aly continued on. They were bound to find out anyway and it was no good to have them believing that Kyprioth sent them a crazy woman. "This woman's name isn't Mirri Draper, it's Daine Sarrasri."
"You're the famed Wild Mage?" Ulasim asked in disbelief before braking out into a wide grin.
Daine nodded, returning the smile.
"Well, why did you lie to us about who you are?" Chenaol asked suspiciously.
"I told her to lie about her identity. At the moment, she's wanted by the King for the murder of Dunevon. She's innocent, but I didn't think it would be good to let the Duchess know that she was housing a runaway. I didn't tell you guys until now because it wasn't important for you to know."
"I knew there was something odd about you!" Ochuba cried, "That explains why you said you could take care of the cobras in the palace."
"Well, one thing's for sure, we'll find plenty of work for you." Fesago told her with a chuckle.
"If I may," another of the captains interrupted, "So we have a sizable force, but how are we going to get all of our people to Rajamuat, along with all the other forces from around the islands, without drawing attention. A sudden migration of almost two thousand raka to the capital is going to look more than a bit suspicious."
Aly nodded, "That's mostly taken care of, Ulasim?" she asked turning to the official leader of the uprising. This was something he had organized.
"We'll all travel on fishing boats, deep in the holds. This is the time of year when fishermen bring their catches into the city to sell. There'll be plenty of ships in the harbor, nothing out of the ordinary. Once a boat enters the city, we'll send our fighters, small groups at a time, out into the jungle just outside the city. You could hide an army in that jungle and no one would ever find it. That's how dense it is."
"And that's exactly what we're going to do," Fesago added with a sly grin. Once the army was assembled, he would be at its head.
"I hate to spoil all the fun," Chenaol cut in, "But dinner will almost be finished and we have to sneak our wonderful captains out before anybody sets sight on them."
There was a flutter of activity until only the members of Kyprioth's dream meeting remained.
Aly grabbed Ulasim's arm before he could leave and motioned for the others to stay.
'Ulasim, once we get things going, we should have a central location for our leaders to meet. It should be a safe place with plenty of ways in and out, maybe an inn. The owner would have to be trustworthy, of course. Any ideas?" she asked him.
Before he could give an answer, Daine supplied her own.
"What about the Parrot's Beak Inn?" she asked, turning to Lani. "Would Ms. Sadinga be willing to help?"
Lani nodded slowly, "I think the Parrot's Beak would be perfect. Aunt Sadinga hates the Rittevon. And of course," she added, "The tunnels will be useful."
"I know the Parrot's Beak and Sadinga," Ulasim said, "It would be the perfect place, and it's not far from the palace. What were you saying about tunnels?"
Lani grinned slyly; "Aunt Sadinga uses them to transport..." she searched for the right word, "Goods, to the docks. Only a few people know about them.
"Goods?" Fesago asked with a knowing smile.
"Yes, goods. Lively goods, mind you. She ships 'em to places of... free trade. Tortall and Tyra, for example."
"Then the Parrot's Beak would be a perfect headquarters." Aly said approvingly. Tunnels would be useful for getting in and out of the city with out attracting notice and there would be nothing out of the ordinary for a group of friends to meet at an inn.
"We'd best disperse then," she said, turning to leave. This time it was Ulasim's turn to grab her arm.
"Just a moment, Aly, there's just one more detail we must discuss. We," he gestured to Fesago, Ochuba, and Chenaol, "have been talking,"
"That's never a good thing," Aly replied in good humor, but she was acutely aware that she must have been left out of this particular discussion for a reason.
"There are certain traditions that our people have in battle." Chenaol tried to explain, "Back when our Queens ruled the isles, they were also the head of the army."
"We know that Sarai is certainly not ready to be a general, that'll be Fesago's job," Ochuba said, "but Raka queens traditionally ride at the head of our armies."
There it was. They wanted to have Sarai lead the army.
"That's a wonderful idea if you want to kill the trickster's queen before she even gets her crown!" she told them angrily. Why were they willing to throw everything away for tradition?
"She won't be killed." Fesago told her sternly, "We will be her guards. The Tiger and Junai have also agreed that this is a good idea and have offered to serve as guards as well. Nawat too. Nothing could get through a force like that."
"Maybe, maybe not," Aly exclaimed. She knew they were surprised to hear such an outburst from her, but they needed to understand that this was crazy. "Things happen in battle!" she told them.
"And exactly how many battles have you been in, O daughter of merchants from Tortall?" Ulasim asked her.
Aly bit her lip. Her frustration was making her careless. "None," she told them, "but think about it!"
"We have thought about it. Carefully. It's for the best. Besides, it wouldn't just be for tradition. When people, half raka, quarter raka, see Sarai ridding at the head of our army, they will know that this is the queen that Kyprioth promised us. They will know that this isn't just some raka uprising. This is the uprising. They will not oppose us."
The man has a point my dear, Kyprioth's all too familiar voice rang in her mind, Sarai will ride at the head of your forces. She will be fine.
Aly opened her mouth to argue further with the god and people around her, but she found she couldn't speak.
I'll have none of that. Now be a good girl and agree with them. The god scolded.
After silently instructing Kyprioth on the basics of etiquette and how it was not proper to stop someone from speaking her mind, aloud she managed to mumble out, "Fine."
"This will be good Aly," Ulasim promised, surprised at her sudden surrender.
Aly nodded unenthusiastically. "Now all we have to do is convince Sarai and Dove that they should be the leaders of a rebellion. Not to mention the fact that we have to tell the Duchess what has been going on."
That will be a very interesting conversation. I'll leave you to it. Kyprioth told her before finally falling silent.
Gods, Aly thought, shaking her head as she left the storage room, No wonder all his brothers and sisters hate him.
I heard that! Kyprioth called indignantly.
Please leave me a review, they are greatly appreciated! ;)