Have you ever read the book "Jackaroo"?
I haven't fully read it, but my sister has it borrowed from the library, and I was able to skim through most of it. And I could see how my fic reminded you of it. Perhaps I will have time for a more thorough reading of it later.
If emotions can be felt through those communication things that NB wears, did Danel and Axe sense Vistra getting hurt? What was their reaction to that?
Emotions can be felt, but Vistra is very good at shielding herself off from the others. Imagine how she would react if Danel and Axe came running every time she got a skinned knee. Not to mention that she would lose her temper, but she'd also smack Danel silly. No, over time, she was able to train herself into putting up a wall that kept her emotions to herself. But although she usually tries to keep her emotions to herself, she keeps the tunnel for the others' emotions to reach her open. Is that clear? It's like a one way tunnel. Their emotions can get to her, unless they block themselves off, but her emotions don't get through. So if Danel wanted to know what Vistra was doing, he could send her an inquiring poke, but she could ignore it and send him no response in return.
Will Kenric and Vistra fall in love?
Uh oh. A plot related question. *smile* But don't worry. Kenric will be appearing this chapter (I'm telling you this because there will be some chapters where Kenric will be lacking). And for Danel-fans. He's here too. So's Nathan for that matter. Hm…
Author's Note: Yay! I've finally been able to put a website up. It only has information about the characters from NB, but hopefully I'll be able to put more stuff up soon. Since ff.net won't let my html document to contain any links, you'll have to go to my bio page and click on the homepage I've listed there.
13. The Free Day
Nobles' Bane: Chapter 11
Knock, knock!
"I'll be right out, Delice. Hold on."
Vistra tied her black hair into a tight bun before finally opening the door.
But Delice wasn't the one who stood there.
It was Lord Tonerian.
"Hello, Alisse."
He stood there in the warm morning sun with a thin cloak shrouding his body.
She dipped into a curtsy. "Lord Tonerian, was there something you wanted from me this day?"
He shook his head. "Lousan told me that today was your free day."
"Yes. It is." She had been planning to meet Danel and Axe for lunch.
"Would you mind if I came along as company?"
Yes, I would.
She smiled at the lord. "Of course not," she said.
They walked together, a respectable distance kept between their bodies. Slaves who saw them gave them curious looks, but Vistra knew that they would not say anything. The slaves and servants stuck together. After all, they had only each other. And besides, they liked Lord Tonerian, something that Vistra had grudgingly come to acknowledge.
"Will you be going to the stables to fetch your horse?" she asked politely.
He glanced at her. "Perhaps. But only if you'll ride out to the city on a horse too."
She shook her head. "I'm afraid not, my lord. As a commoner and servant, I have never learned how to ride one." The lie slid smoothly off her tongue.
He sighed and shook his head. "Of course. Excuse my foolishness; I meant no offense."
She felt herself warming to his humility. She gave him a small, but genuine smile. "It's all right."
They continued to walk in a companionable silence Once they reached the capital's busy streets, the lord paused. He pulled off his cloak and carefully folded it, putting it into a knapsack. He then turned and flashed her a shy, boyish smile.
"Clothes look familiar?" he teased.
She studied him. "They fit better than I thought."
"Yes, well, they were perfectly chosen," he said, running a hand over the plain white shirt and straightening a wrinkle in his tan-colored pants.
With the sun glinting in his curly black hair and his eyes crinkling with smiles, the young lord was somehow transformed. He no longer looked like the sad, resigned, and bitter noble's son. Instead, he looked younger, more innocent. More carefree. As if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Any passing stranger would have thought him to be a farmer's boy. If they didn't notice the scars on his hands, or the too carefully pronounced words.
And that arrogant warrior's walk, she added ruefully.
He turned to her and gave her a brilliant smile. "Shall we?" he asked, offering her his arm.
She blinked. "I highly doubt that taking the arm of a servant in public is a good idea--"
He didn't lower his arm. "I'm not a noble, and you're not a servant. We're merely two young people out to enjoy a day in Corus."
Merely two young people out to enjoy a day in Corus indeed.
After a moment of hesitation, she took his arm.
~*~*~
Vistra broke out into helpless laughter.
The vendor quickly turned, narrowing suspicious eyes at Kenric who did his best to look innocent. Seeing nothing, the vendor turned his back again.
And Kenric once again made that comical cross eyed face at the man's back.
Shaking her head, Vistra pulled Kenric away. "You are such a child," she told him once the vendor was out of earshot.
Kenric smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling in a way that was endearing. "And did you know, Alisse, that you have a wonderful laugh?"
She snorted. "Don't tell me you were making those childish faces at that man just to hear me laugh."
He just smiled.
It was almost sunset. She and Kenric had spent much of the day just wandering quite pointlessly, enjoying one another's company.
And to her surprise, she found that she did like Kenric's company.
"There, there he is again. That strange young man. I would almost swear that he's been following us for the last hour."
She looked over Kenric's shoulder and saw Danel a few feet away from them. Danel was pretending interest in a vendor's cart.
She sighed inwardly. Did Danel need to make himself so obvious? She knew that he could follow them without letting himself get detected. He was doing this to annoy her.
Vistra shrugged. "It's probably nothing to worry about."
Kenric nodded.
Vistra turned her head and gave Danel one last glance. He gazed up at her at the same moment. She made a face at him and mouthed the word 'later'. He stared at her, his disapproval obvious. But then he gave a curt shake of his head and walked away.
"Kenric?"
"Nathan."
Vistra turned back in time to see Kenric and Nathan exchange greetings. Then Nathan saw her, and the friendly look he had for Kenric disappeared.
"What's this?"
Kenric turned and pulled her to his side. "This is Alisse."
"Alisse," Nathan repeated slowly, his blue eyes inscrutable.
Vistra smiled and offered Nathan a hand. "Yes, I'm Alisse. It's a pleasure to meet you…" she paused, waiting.
"Nathan," he said, still staring at her. "My name is Nathan."
She kept her smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Nathan."
Nathan's blue eyes slid to Kenric's face. She knew that he was studying the lord, gauging how much he knew.
When he knew nothing.
When he saw that Kenric was ignorant to who she really was, Nathan raised a hand to his temple as if to rub a headache away.
Kenric frowned. "Is something wrong, Nathan?"
Vistra stared at Nathan, daring him to speak. Daring him to reveal her.
He chose not to. He merely shook his head.
"Perhaps you should go home and get some rest, Nathan," Vistra said with false concern. "You look tired."
Nathan nodded. "Yes, it's been a long day. I should get going. I'll talk to you later, Kenric. Nice to meet you…Alisse."
"An interesting fellow," Vistra said once Nathan was out of sight. "How did you come to meet him, Kenric?"
"He was the first to befriend me on my first trip out to Corus by myself." He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry if you thought he was rude. He's usually much better company than he just was."
"He was probably feeling a bit ill. He looked it."
Kenric nodded.
Then they both turned, silently heading back home. Back to the palace.
"Today has been fun, Kenric," she said quietly.
Kenric blinked distractedly; his mind had been on other things. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Alisse," he said dutifully.
It was over then. He had fallen back into the role of a noble's son. Leaving her to her servant one. She opened her mouth as if to speak.
But changed her mind and closed it. They walked back in silence.
~*~*~
After Kenric had left her alone in the servant's quarters, she quietly turned around and snuck out of the palace gates again. She still needed to see Danel and Axe. On her way to the inn, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into an alleyway.
She didn't jump in surprise; she had been expecting it to happen.
Nathan angrily pushed her into the wall. "What game are you playing now, Vistra?" he demanded tersely.
She laughed bitterly. "My whole life is a game, Nathan. Don't you already know that?"
He glared at her. "What were you doing with Kenric, Vistra?"
"I am a servant in his household. He asked to accompany me on my free day to Corus." She looked at him curiously. "Do you even know who Kenric is, Nathan? You seem to be good friends; has he told you about his real identity?"
Nathan looked at her suspiciously. And then she understood the answer to her question.
"You know who General Aleyn is, right?" she said casually. She waited until he nodded. "And you are aware that he has one son? One heir?" He nodded again. "Do you know what this heir's name is, Nathan?"
His eyes widened. He shook his head. "Stop, Vistra--"
"His name is Lord Kenrictonerian of Ra'kaul. Lord Kenrictonerian. Ring a bell?"
Nathan's arms fell away from her shoulders; she was able to step away from the wall. She gave him a cool glance as she walked away. "See you later, Nathan."
~*~*~
"Sleep, my child
Sleep, my babe
I will protect you
And keep the nightmares away…"
Danel finished singing and rested his head on her shoulder. "You don't need to go back. We have plenty of information already. General Aleyn holds the balls of King Duane in his fist." Vistra smiled at Danel's crude expression. "All we need to do is take him out."
"Hush, Danel." She placed a hand over his lips. "I don't want us to do anything yet." Vistra was finally able to speak with Danel --Axe had left just moments earlier after hearing her report.
"Why not?"
"We need to wait some more. Just be patient. The time for us to attack will come eventually."
"It'll come too late," he grumbled. "I don't like having you in the palace. It's dangerous."
"It's not like I haven't been in dangerous situations before," she pointed out. They had been arguing about this for awhile. About this and Lord Kenric, whom Danel was angrily suspicious of. The moment she had first appeared, he had set into her quite strongly about what he thought of her walking about Corus with General Aleyn's only son. She had been able to mollify his suspicious, but knew that he still didn't approve.
"I still don't like it. Something is going to happen while you're there. You know something is going to blow up eventually."
"Hush, Danel," she said again.
But he was right. For just two days later, she came across one of General Aleyn's soldiers, no, knights (he was too well dressed to be soldier) beating one of the slaves into a pulp.
And she had had enough.
Slaves would acquire mysterious bruises that they refused to talk to her or the others about. But of course she knew it was because they were being abused. But this time, she had come across the act. She had the power to stop it.
Holding her broom so that the scratchy end was in her hands, she launched herself across the room. Before the knight was able to blink, she lifted her broom and hit him solidly in the back of the head. He groaned and crashed to the ground, unconscious.
She turned to the slave who was struggling to stand to his feet and gave him a hand.
"Miss'm Alisse." The slave's words were muffled by the hand that tried to staunch his bloody nose.
"Hush, Creano, don't talk. Do you think you can walk unaided?"
He was hardly able to stand upright by himself. She quickly wrapped an arm around his waist and lead him away, shushing him whenever he tried to speak.
She took him to the kitchen, where Morna took one horrified look at the man and cleared a spot for him to sit. The slaves who worked in the kitchen jumped to help.
"What happened, Alisse?" Morna quickly grabbed a rag and started wiping gently at the slave's face.
"I found one of the knights stepping all over Creano as if he were part of the floor," Alisse said angrily. Creano was one of the slaves that helped Alisse keep the castle clean. He was one of hers. Her responsibility.
Morna glanced up at her. "Nose may be broken. Bruises, but no other bad injuries."
Vistra's jaw clenched.
"What of the soldier?"
Vistra glanced down at her hands and realized that she no longer had her broom. She must have dropped it while helping Creano. "I knocked him out with the wooden end of a broom."
Morna's eyes widened. "Do you think that was a good idea--"
"What else was I supposed to do?" Vistra threw back. "Let him kill Creano?" She realized how angry she sounded and took a deep breath. She had to stay calm. She had to remember that she was supposed to play the part of a shy servant here.
And a shy servant would never have touched a soldier.
A bloody hand suddenly lifted and touched her wrist. "Miss'm Morna is right, Miss'm Alisse. General Aleyn will not be happy to hear that one of his men was knocked about by a servant."
"No worries then. The knight did not see my face," Vistra said lightly.
Creano and Morna exchanged concerned glances.
Vistra did her best to ignore it.