A/N: hmmm....sorry if this is slightly disjointed; I'm writing it in between exams and my brains full of rational equations and Sumerian conquerors. But please read it and review anyway!

Thorn

I woke up with an awful headache and the memory of an odd dream at the back of my mind. I opened one eye, not very enthusiastically.

And he was still there. I groaned and shut my eyes again, trying to reconcile this scene with reality. In the distance, someone cursed. I sat up a little and opened my eyes for the second time.

We were sitting in a tiny rowboat. The front bench was digging into my back. Flauvic—he had to Flauvic. Who else could he be?—was leaning over the side of the boat, trying to reach one of the oars. The other was resting precariously on the side of the boat, dripping riverweed onto my shoes. Flauvic cursed again.

"You're sitting the wrong way around," I said, and he jumped like a startled cat. The boat rocked.

"What?" he asked, blankly. I sighed and squirmed until I was sitting on the bench instead of leaning against it, which was slightly more comfortable.

"You're facing the wrong way. You're supposed to face the back of the boat when you row." He just looked at me. He was soaked. I wondered how long he'd been struggling with the boat. I wondered if he'd even rowed a boat before. He didn't move.

"Who are you?" I asked, and he looked startled.

"I was under the impression that you knew." No tone, no double meaning that I could hear. He was being cautious, not telling me anything if there was a chance that I might not already know it. What was he doing here? He was, very definitely, human.

"I thought you were a tree," I said, and realized that that made no sense. "I mean, I thought you were supposed to be a tree. If you're you, that is." There was a long pause.

"I see," he finally said. His voice was soft, pleasant, trained for singing, and uttering maddening because it told me absolutely nothing about what he was thinking. "And how did you know me?"

I took a deep breath. In a past life, which had ended when I woke up on this moonlit river, I had been rather good at lying, in an Oh-no-Matron-I-wasn't-the-one-who-tied-your-stockings-into-knots kind of way. Now I didn't know if I could even make the truth sound true. My head was pounding and I knew that Flauvic had noticed my hesitation. I put my head in my hands, pushed my hair back from my face. It had gotten horribly tangled somehow. I tried to swallow the knot in my throat.

"I read about you in a book," I said, and my voice seemed lost in the night. I thought that maybe my vocal chords had tied themselves into knots.

"Interesting book, to write a description accurate enough that you would know me on sight. Care to continue?" He may have spoken with a courtier's voice, but I could still recognize the sarcasm. I resented it.

"Why bother, if you're not going to believe me anyway?"

He didn't bother replying, just gave me a small smile.

"It's true, anyway. I did read about you—and then when I fell down the stairs I just—well, I knew who you were because you couldn't be anyone else. I just didn't think it through that way. I knew."

Still no expression on his face. He didn't speak. I bit my lip. He was trying to outwait me, holding his words behind that court mask until I had to speak again.

Well, two can play that. I crossed my arms, clenched my teeth and determined not to say another word.

And he saw me, recognized the thought in my mind somehow. And laughed.

"Well, I doubt that that's all, but I'll assume you're not a Norsundrian spy for the moment. I don't think you mentioned your name?"

I tried to catch up to his change in mood, not knowing whether he really believed me or was just confident enough to wait a while longer for answers. Hadn't he played by his own rules before? How much had he changed from the lord of Meliara's tale?

"I'm called Thorn," I said. "Where are we going?"

He shook his head, golden hair catching the moonlight. "I'd thought of going to Sles Adran, but I haven't really decided yet."

"And why aren't you a tree?"

He smiled pleasantly. "It's my turn for a question now. Who are you?"

I stretched my legs out in the bottom of the boat, beginning to enjoy this game. "That's not fair. You didn't really answer my first one, and you've had more than your fair share of questions anyway." A cloud drifted across the moon. Flauvic was still laughing softly.

"Very well. I hardly know how or why I'm human again, but I suppose it was the Hill Folk's doing. More than that, I can't say. Who are you?"

I sighed.

"I told you my name, and I don't see why I should play fair if you're not going to."

"Humor me. I don't plan on returning to there—" he gestured back upriver, towards the town we'd left "—anytime soon, and I'm afraid you'll have to come with me. I don't want my name lying around, you see." I couldn't see his face, but his voice sounded sorry. "So I want to know where you're from."

"Aren't you nice," I muttered, feeling annoyed. It wasn't as if I really wanted to stay there, and he hadn't exactly held a knife to my throat, but—I sighed. He might have at least given me the semblance of a choice about coming with him.

"Well?" I thought about not answering him, but that was a sulky child's response. I sighed.

"I'm an orphan, never knew my parents. And…I don't know…there's hardly a lot to say." Thirteen years spent in that town, and they boiled down to two-and-a-half sentences. Flauvic nodded, maybe understanding a little. Hadn't he been sent away when he was small, to keep him safe from Galdran? I couldn't remember. I tried to think of another question.

"Where did you learn magic?"

I thought he jumped a little, but maybe it was the boat jarring itself against a rock or half-submerged log. He was silent for a moment.

"In Nente. Sles Adran. I had permission and books from the Council of Mages first…later I studied with a Norsundrian sorcerer. Why do you ask?"

I didn't think, answering his question with another.

"Can you teach me?"

A/N:

ShannonLynn: Thanks; I'm glad you like it. Keep reading!

Felsong: Thanks for reviewing; glad you're enjoying it so far. I guess it is kind of confusing right now anyway, but hopefully it will get better.