"We don't normally get too many visitors in this here town." An elderly Scanran man, still tall and strong, but wrinkled and with pale grey hair, was speaking to them in heavily accented Scanran.
Dom struggled to understand what he was saying, but quickly adjusted to the accent. "We are looking for land." He said forcefully. "We are just passing though, is there somewhere we may rest for the night?"
The old Scanran smiled; he had no teeth. The Scanrans did not keep well over time. "There ain't no inn big enough for yeh all in this here town. We don't get many visitors, like I said already." He looked at them seriously as he spoke, as if his words could rat out a non Scanran. "But we could easily give yeh a nice dry barn to sleep your men in. Yeh gotta promise yeh won't burn it down, though." He cackled. "I'm just fooling witcha." He said, waving his hand dismissively. "Welcome to Kimtir. If yeh need food, just knock on any doors. They'll be happy to share – for a price." He grinned at them again. "Course, there ain't much yeh can get that don't have a price on it's head," he said. "Cept maybe disease!" He laughed again until he started choking, and the group quickly pushed their horses on, leaving the old man behind to call more welcomes to their backs.
They did indeed get a warm barn to sleep in – a very fancy one, at that. "It's abandoned." The farmer told them. "We built a new one, but we ain't got the resources to but this one down yet. We're waiting a bit."
Esmond let out a low whistle. "They treat their cattle better than we treat out peasants!" He groaned.
Neal shook his head. "It gets bloody cold up here, Esmond. And we're nearing the coast. They can only leave their cattle out a few months a year, this is more of a home to these cows than the fields are."
Alanna frowned. "And if we don't stop discussing this so loudly, we will end up worse than the cattle!" She said. "Now shut up and go collect firewood. Esmond, Seaver, you two are on dinner duty tonight. Enjoy!"
The two knights grimaced and set to work starting the fire while the others collected firewood from the forest surrounding the fields.
Dom set up his tent in the barn for extra insulation and privacy, taking a secluded spot that was still very close to the entrance, just in case.
As he lay, thoughts that had not plagued him for days came rushing back.
Why was he here?
Because you were assigned to be here, he told himself. But he told himself another reason as well. "Because you love her." He whispered.
He would not let that love die until he had Kel back in his arms, and he could tell her he was sorry.
They discreetly began their search in the morning. They said that they were stopped for gathering food, but also to give their horses a break – they had been traveling a long while. Those reasons seemed good enough for the villagers of Kimtir, who were more than happy to oblige with the search for 'food.' After two days in Kimtir, they learned from a villager who also happened to despise being Scanran: there was no where to keep someone in Kimtir, nor in any of the west. That was solely left to the east, where the roads and rivers meet, and the sun rises early in the morning.
So, three days after arriving in Kimtir, they journeyed back from whence they came, moving steadily eastward, towards the Smiskir Road.
Winter fell as they traveled east, and they found it necessary to move into the deep woods where they could not be followed. The trek was long and dangerous, but they all knew it had to be done.
They were much quieter after winter fell. They tried to laugh and be merry, but their hearts grew heavy with cold and longing.
They did not stop, even though they all wanted to see their own beds again.
"If we turn around now," Alanna had said to them, loudly, "Kel will never see her bed again, and she will die, locked up in some dungeon somewhere."
No one dared leave after that; no one wanted to. They trudged along through the snow and ice, searching for where Kel could be. When they came to the Smiskir Road, they continued eastwards toward the border towns.
They did not find anything there. They spent a month touring from town to town, asking confidantes if they knew of anything, but they all came up with naught. They only had one place left to check, the place that they had all prayed they would not have to go to find Kel.
They were going to Castle Rathhausak.
-----
They did not get there until winters end. They could not risk being seen in the towns around the Castle, and thus they travelled the entire way through the woods.
The snow was melting. They would be able to move quickly and easily soon, able to walk along the rocky roads instead of through the deep woods. They had been searching for months now, since long before the first frost. Even after all of the towns they searched and villagers they spoke to, there was still nothing.
They were running out of time. All of them were needed at home, many of them with loved ones to support, duties to uphold. It would take them years to search all of Scanra, and they only had food to last them through the summer.
They knew that if Kel was not at Rathhausak, there was nothing left for them. But would Kel be there? If she was, could they even get to her? they didn't know how difficult it would be until they arrived at the castle.
"Mithros," Dom muttered, looking over the ledge they were perched on. "there must be 50,000 men down there. How are we supposed to find one woman?"
Neal grimaced. He did not want to die on frozen Scanran ground, but he would never leave Kel to her fate. "Do we know a way in?"
Alanna shook her head. "We have the basic blueprints of the castle from Myles, but we don't have any secret routes past 50 thousand men."
They looked down at the men on the ground, at the town and to the left of the castle, and at the castle itself.
After a long silence, a thought came to Dom. "She's in there." He said.
Neal looked at him, puzzled. "How do you know?"
Dom pointed at the castle. "What do you notice about that tower?"
Neal squinted up at the castle and shook his head. "No clue. It's the tallest?"
"Look closer." Dom said. Everyone looked up.
"Bars!" Seaver cried out. "There are bars on the windows!"
Dom nodded his head, and Neal just looked confused. "I don't get it."
Faleron rolled his eyes. "The windows are barred, Neal. Why do you put bars on a window?"
"To keep people from getting out. But I don't see how – ohhh." He said, with a look of astonishment on his face. "But dungeons are not on the top floor."
Everyone stopped smiling. He was right. Why would Rhian keep Kel above ground? Alanna checked the plans, there were indeed dungeons underground, and it said nothing of the tower at all. It was probably just some nobles room, a man with young children who could fall out of such high windows.
-----
Kel sat in the sunlight by the window, wrapped in the thin blanket that scratched at her skin. It was still freezing cold, but curled up in her blanket with the sun on her face, Kel almost felt at home.
Almost.
She stood up, still wrapped in the blanket, stretching her stiff muscles. Standing up was getting harder. She was malnourished, dehydrated, and probably hypothermic. She rose in the day time only to retrieve her food from the trapdoor, and to stretch her legs and check at how large the army below her was growing.
It had not changed since yesterday. Squads of men were coming almost every day now, but none had come yesterday. Sighing, Kel sat back down on the bench and began to methodically comb her fingers through her hair.
-----
But a squad had come since she had last looked. They were standing on a ledge overlooking the ravine that held the town and the barracks, directly across from the castle, and slightly higher.
"Goddess bless." Alanna said weakly. "She must have already, there is no other way this could have happened."
Dom smiled weakly as everyone looked to Alanna, confused. He had seen it too. "Kel's in the tower." He said.
Everyone turned and looked up, but no one was there, just an empty window. "Are you sure?" Neal asked sceptically.
Alanna shook her head. "No, I'm not." She said, her brow furrowed.
Dom shrugged it off. "It was her."
Faleron frowned. "How can you know? We can't just go running in there to find out that it is some Scanran girl."
Dom looked at the wary faces. "I'd know Kel if I saw her." He said.
"How are we going to get in?" Neal asked with a sigh.
Alanna grinned, a steely glint in her bright eyes. "That's where my plans come in," she said. "we need to know this castle off by heart."
They spent three days studying the castle, both the plans and what they could see of it, until every soul in their party could draw it perfectly from memory.
Then, their horses fed and watered, their bellies full and their ears and eyes open, they prepared to get into the castle.
-----
Though they did not know, things had gotten worse for Kel in those three days, if that was possible. She was beaten within an inch of her life by the guards, and fierce red welts were raised all along her back. She could barely move. She drifted in and out of consciousness for three days, not rising for anything, only sitting up enough to drink her water, which she was also given less of. Rhian was growing more and more impatient.
"Is this what you want, Keladry?" She shouted the guard kicked Kel in the stomach. "I am offering you everything!"
The guard kicked Kel in the stomach again, and she doubled over on the ground, biting her tongue to stop herself from crying.
The guard standing over Kel kept kicking her until Rhian held up a hand. "Enough." She said. She stepped closer to Kel's bruised, bleeding body and leaned down so that her face was very close to Kel's. "Was that enough?" She whispered. "Are you ready to accept my proposition, Keladry? I can make it so that it never hurts again."
Kel slowly opened her swollen eyes and looked at Rhian, who smiled at her. Gathering up all the strength, she spit.
Rhian stood up in disgust, wiping a gob of blood and spit off of her white face. It left a pale pink spot on her cheek. "Fine." She said, turning around with a puff of a cloak, and disappearing. The guard disappeared with her, and Kel was left, bleeding and crying, curled in a ball in the middle of the cold room.
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ooh, chapter 21... and according to the computer, chapter 20 isn't even up! Oh well... I seem to have reviews from it already... my computer is messed!
Smiles28: ooh... this chapter, and the next one, make me really happy!
Alannalovingwriter: it's true, she's a wee bit of a dunce. It's one of those 'power is not brains' things. She has power, she just doesn't know how to use it. Of course, if she were smarter, she probably would be unstoppable... creepy!
Wake-Robin: yay for wisdom! But it doesn't seem to happen very often...
PsychoLioness13: I'm glad you thought so; I was afraid that it wasn't right. I just really liked it, so I left it in!
Well, tis all for now, please enjoy!
"I think someone should have had the decency to tell me the luncheon was free. To make someone run out with potato salad in his hand, pretending he's throwing up, is not what I call hospitality."
-unolimbo