What made the General change his mind about the date of the execution?

Who knows? Maybe he's got good instincts. Maybe he's suddenly suspicious of what the last member of Nobles' Bane will do. Maybe he's already tired of his two prisoners and decided to cut their remaining time short. I wouldn't put it above him.

I can't believe you killed Clarine! But you wouldn't have killed her without reason. So what is this mysterious reason?

*nods* You're on the dot. There is a reason that Clarine had to die. If she was still alive, my ending wouldn't make sense. You'll see. *nods again*

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who visited the guest book to write a note for Min! I was greatly surprised that so many of you guys were willing to write notes for a nearly-stranger. Thanks a lot, you guys.

25. While They Sleep

Nobles' Bane: Chapter 23

She found her brother in the stables the next morning.

"Have you seen Nathan?" she inquired as she approached Bile. Bile, apparently, was in a foul mood and tried to take a bite out of her hand.

"He's probably still asleep," Kenric said as he entered the stables. "He stayed up late burying Clarine." He wisely stayed out of Bile's reach while she tried to appease the horse.

"By himself?" she frowned.

"He wanted it that way, Lauryn," Kenric said softly in reply.

"Mamma sent me to tell you that breakfast is ready."

Lauryn glanced up to see Caleb smiling at the three of them a bit uncertainly. The look on his face made him look young, and reminded her of something.

Ah, yes. Acole. Caleb and Acole were both quiet, unintruding young men; it was easy to mistaken them as timid, but underneath the shy eyes, there was a steel that could be called to the surface. Acole's steel had been called out when he had faced the General's fist during that time he was mistakened for the one who had beaten one of the soldiers at the castle…

There was something here, something that she was supposed to remember. Should have remembered…

"Lauryn?" Travis put a hand on her shoulder and tried to lead her out of the stables.

She shook him off and closed her eyes, thinking.

What was it…

Memories dashed across the inside of her eyelids: Acole getting hit… nearly getting beaten herself… Queen Janah's sudden cry… the lords who suggested that she and Acole be put into Travis' jail…

The lords who suggested that…

The lords.

She opened her eyes and glanced up at Travis, a smile edging itself over her face.

He raised a brow. "What?"

"I've got a plan."

~*~*~

Approximately four days later; at the Fief of Lord Kismet

The irritated man finally approached and barked, "Who are you damned people and what business couldn't wait until after dinner was prepared and served?"

Cecil, whose eyes had been mysteriously attached to Caleb all afternoon, jumped and let out a cry in surprise.

Lauryn once again wondered why she had agreed to allow Cecil to participate in their mission, much less be in her group. A mistake, that. She should have tied Cecil to her bed in her village and refused her. It wasn't that she had anything particularly against the girl.

All right, she did. The girl was a love-sick fool with a puddle for a brain. And she had been a pain every step of the journey here to Kismet. Perhaps she could still find a tree to tie the girl to…

"You!" The man advanced on Jessup, Cecil's brother. "You the one in charge?"

Lauryn sighed as she stepped forward. Already, this wasn't going well. "No. I am."

"You?" He stared down his hawkish nose at her. "Well, what do you want? What business is so urgent?" he demanded sourly.

It was hard to believe that a man with such a disposition could survive as the head cook in any noble household. But Lauryn shrugged and handed him the parchment without a word.

He took it, pausing a moment to stare at the seal. A shield with a great X drawn over it. He glanced up at her suspiciously, and then proceeded to break the seal and read the words written within.

She saw his eyes follow the line of words to the bottom of the paper, then return back to the top to reread the letter. Then finally, he looked at her.

"You want me to poison the lord and his men?" he said, incredulous.

"Poison? No. Merely drop some sleeping draught into their food. We aren't trying to kill anybody."

The head cook raised a brow.

She shrugged. "Not yet, at least."

"And this is a formal request made by …Nobles' Bane?"

"Yes."

The man still looked suspicious. "How do I know that you speak the truth?"

"There is no way to be certain. I could swear by Mithros' name, and there would still be some doubt. I could explain that this plan will, in no way, worsen your situation: if I fail in what I have come to do," Caleb bumped her in the shoulder, "what we have come to do," she corrected, "then the lord and his men will awaken in the morning, ignorant about what you've put into their food. But you still might not believe me. I could come to you, dressed in my black clothes and my green sash, and you still might--"

"Lady Jade," the cook whispered with realization.

"--still not believe me," she finished.

The man raised a hand to his face and shook his head. "I had… heard rumors, but I had never thought…

"Yes," he finally said. "I will do as the letter requests… Lady."

Caleb laughed when he saw her grimace at the cook's bow.

~*~*~

"No."

"Please, please. I want to help!" Cecil cried out for the tenth time.

Lauryn let out a cry of frustration. She grabbed the young girl by the wrist and dragged her a few feet away from Caleb, her brother, and the other three men who were part of Lauryn's group.

"I don't think that the gravity of this situation has hit you yet, Cecil," Lauryn said.

Cecil lifted a stubborn chin. "I want to help. I can--"

"This isn't a game!" Lauryn took a breath and tried to control herself. "Have you ever been in a real fight? Have you even seen one? One with swords and blood? Have you?"

The girl cringed and shook her head.

"This isn't a game, Cecil. People will die; I guarantee it. Have you ever seen a man die? Seen the blood pour from a wound, seen a man's head become--" She stopped, realizing, after a moment, that she was make even herself sick thinking about it.

What is my problem? It's not like I haven't killed men before. Gods, what's wrong with me?

Lauryn blinked, realizing that her grip on the girl's wrist was actually hurting her. She took a step back. "Think twice before you ask again," she finally said, her voice soft. "There are things in life that one really doesn't need to see, to learn. This is one of them. People don't just walk away from these sorts of events unscathed, you know. Do you really want to open yourself up to that?"

And Lauryn realized, suddenly, what she wanted the girl to say.

No.

For, even though the girl was annoying as she was, she still held the air of innocence that came with youth, something that Lauryn herself had lost a long time ago. Something that she would prefer the girl to retain, although she knew the desire was foolish.

Innocence is ignorance; innocence is weakness…

She repeated the phrases over and over in her mind, but still wasn't satisfied. To her chagrin, she wanted that innocence. That ignorance…

Stop it, Lauryn. It's too late to think of that now.

"Yes," Cecil finally said.

"Yes?" Lauryn echoed hollowly.

"I am willing to open myself up to the risk."

Lauryn's gaze dropped; she turned away.

"Suit yourself."

~*~*~

She led Jessup, Caleb, and --to her chagrin-- Cecil across the lawn towards the kitchen door under the cover of the night's dark.

All right, if the cook did as he was requested, all you need to do is sneak in and sneak out with Lord Kismet still snoring like a baby. Easy.

She snorted. Easy, my foot. Who knows what could go wrong with a few unblooded villagers as your only backup.

Oh, just stop being a fussy idiot. The others are under the same conditions, Travis, Nathan, and Kenric, each with five villagers as their only backup. And they've got the same job as you: Kidnap the nobles who make up General Aleyn's backbone.

All right. Not backbone. But they are the ones who provide the General with his soldiers, his treasury. Take them away and General Aleyn will have no funds and a bunch of soldiers who are more worried about the missing lords of their own individual fiefdoms than of serving the General.

"Jade?" Caleb whispered to her, interrupting her internal conversation. "Should I knock?"

She shook herself as if to clear away all thoughts that didn't have to do with the very moment, and then nodded her consent.

The door was opened by a young slave. She smiled shyly at the four of them, and dropped into an awkward curtsy for Lauryn. "Colran sent me." Colran, the head cook to whom Lauryn had been speaking earlier that afternoon. "I'm to lead you to his lordship's rooms." She sounded proud of being given the job.

Lauryn nodded and let the girl take the lead. The kitchen was dark, except for the single candle the slave held, and empty. The hall was likewise.

See? This isn't as hard as you were worried it would be.

They encountered their first problem in the hallway just outside of Lord Kismet's rooms.

Jessup chuckled quietly from beside her. "And here I was," he drawled with amusement, "worried that the cook's sleeping draught wouldn't work well enough."

'Well enough', wasn't the problem. Their problem was that the draught had worked too well.

A guard sat on the floor across from the door, back leaning against the wall, head lolled a bit to the side as he slept. He could easily be maneuvered around.

But the other guard was not going to be as easy to handle. The second guard had chosen to fall asleep while standing upright, with his head wedged into the corner where the door met with the wall. And he was snoring.

"Great," she muttered. "Just great. The stupid oaf is leaning against the door we need to get into."

"So," Caleb glanced at her, "what should we do?"

Lauryn turned to the young woman who had led them through the castle. "Are there any other doors that lead into his rooms?" she asked the slave.

The slave shook her head, biting her lip in an obvious sign of nervousness.

"Well, then." Lauryn sighed. She wished that windows were a possibility, but they weren't: you couldn't climb out of a two story window with a man hung over your shoulder. "I guess we'll have to move him."

"Move him?" Cecil squeaked.

Lauryn didn't deign giving Cecil a response; she stepped forward and approached the sleeping man's back. Hesitated.

If the cook's sleeping draught is powerful enough to cause a man to fall asleep while still standing, then surely he would be oblivious to a little movement. …Right?

Carefully, she lifted her arms, slipping her hands slowly underneath the guard's armpits. She caught her breath when she thought she saw his eyelids flutter.

No. Just her imagination.

Stepping back, she tried to move the man an inch away from the door.

Damn it. Not only is he a stupid oaf, he's a heavy stupid oaf.

A hand touched her shoulder, and she jumped, almost causing the man she held to totter. Jessup quickly moved his hand from her shoulder to the sleeping man's, holding him steady.

"Here," he said to her quietly. "Let me try."

Nodding, she eased her hands out of position, allowing Jessup's bigger hands to replace her. Gradually, slowly, Jessup started moving himself and his burden back, away from the door.

The guard's head lolled to the side, a shift of weight that almost caused him to slip out of Jessup's grip; Caleb jumped forward and braced the man's head into stillness.

Lauryn quickly motioned for them to lay the man onto the floor. She grabbed the sleeping man's arms and kept them from getting pinned underneath his body as he was gently laid out.

Everybody there in the hallway let out a breath of relief once the guard was finally put down.

Lauryn quickly moved to the door, pulling out her set of lock picks. She worked on it for a few minutes, considering whether or not to just ask the slave if she had a copy. They weren't supposed to, no slaves or servants were, but they were canny in their way and usually had a set of keys that opened every door of their castles. But after a few more moments, she decided against it. If there was an investigation done on the lord's disappearance, the lock had to be discovered as picked and not merely unlocked. No loose ends pointing to the slaves and servants of this household as culpable that way.

A few more moments later, she stopped, staring hard at the lock she was struggling with. And then she cursed. And cursed. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cecil flush and duck her head, trying to get away from Lauryn's inappropriate words.

"Is there something wrong?" Caleb asked her hesitantly between a breath of curses.

"Wrong?" Lauryn's lips set into a toothy grin. "I'm an idiot, that's all." She muttered one more curse.

"What--" Caleb started to say.

"I was using the wrong one."

Caleb still looked nonplussed.

"I was using the wrong lock pick," she said through gritted teeth.

Gods, what an idiot she was. Why, if Danel had been here, he would have laughed himself silly before swatting her over the head for being so dumb…

Her jaw clenched. She pulled out the correct lock pick, and with a few sharp movements, pulled the door open.

The others followed her into the dark room; Cecil brought in the rear, holding the candle she had taken from the slave girl.

Lauryn pulled out a piece of cloth from her pocket as she bent over the sleeping noble. She grabbed his jaw, opening his mouth, and then shoved the cloth inside. "Let's push the lord onto his stomach and then start tying him." she told the others.

They made quick work of her request, being less cautious with the lord than they had been with his man outside the door. Things were simple now. If the lord awoke, she would simply knock him out. It didn't matter if he picked up a couple bruises here and there. For the soldier, it would have mattered: an injured guard would have led to an easy conjecture: forced entry. The slower the men were able to figure out what happened to their lord, the better.

She saw Lord Kismet's eyes start fluttering when they slung him over Jessup's back. But once he was settled, he merely sighed and slept again.

Damn. I need to get me some of this sleeping draught. Works real well.

Lauryn nodded to Cecil, Cecil led the way out. She grabbed the door knob and pushed open the door.

But pushed it open a bit too far and with a bit too much enthusiasm.

There was a solid thump, as the door hit what could only be the sleeping guard's head, considering how they had laid him out.

They all froze, eyes wide.

There were slight sounds of movement, followed by the sleepy words, "No, no. I told you, Mum, I want to use the pink blanket…"

Silence.

Lauryn shook her head, and took the head, motioning for the others to follow her. "Come on. I'm sure the others are wondering why we're taking so long," she whispered.

Dealing with a man who had been standing upright while asleep, attempting to pick a lock with the wrong tool, kidnapping a lord while the whole of his castle --and himself-- still slept, and now this sleep talk of pink blankets.

What a night.

She was glad it was over.