A/N: Well it has been an awfully long time since I last wrote this fic hasn't it?  And yet you are so kind and review!  I feel really bad… my only excuse is that I've been extremely busy with schoolwork.  Trust me but don't ask otherwise I'll just cry!  That's how stressful uni is.  I haven't just been at a halt however – I've been working (slowly) on my novel but also have a lot of poems up.  Will any of you be so kind and go have a look (and review)?  It's with at www.fictionpress.net and I'm under the names of 'black flutterby' and 'silver linx'.  I'll get to work now… sorry!!

Disclaimer: never owned a thing save the plot.  All else belongs to Tamora Pierce.

*              *                *

Chapter 15 – Revelations

Varice's blood red pendant began pulsating as though there were some internal light within.  Her head snapped around to Daine.  But this time the spell did not work – Daine's eyes were not focused on the blonde and thus the power of the pendant could not ensnare her.  The pendant Varice's mistress had bestowed upon her had worked well, though.  None of the uncouth Tortallans had ever suspected.  And even if they had connected two and two they never got to the come to the five it came to.  The pendant's powers were to control the mind – in their case to avert them from discovering the truth.  It had worked well even in Carthak on the boy Emperor.  Arram being oblivious to her appearance being a decade older had been the work of the pendant.  She would have liked to flatter herself with the notion that she had hardly aged in the decade that had passed but in truth it was the work of the mind-controlling pendant.

"I guess there's no point in denying you the truth anymore," Varice sighed, lifting the heavy necklace from her neck.  "Ah, that's a relief.  Even if none of you could see it, it really was a nuisance to find clothes to match with this."  She allowed the pendant to slip from her delicate porcelain fingers to fall to the ground.

                It was as though the crystalline sound of the shattering pendant penetrated and cleared Daine's mind.  As though all the time since Numair had left her mind had been foggy. She had put her forgetfulness to be connected to her strange behaviour – she had believed that it was all due to her rampant emotions that raged within because of the hurt that came when Numair had left. The wisp of thought that had floated to her conscious mind yet each time her mind tried to catch it, it would slip away back into the fog.  Now that the fog evaporated that realisation, that thought struck her like a sharp slap.  She felt so lightheaded at the realisation that it was lucky she sat upon the ground otherwise she would have fallen.

Slowly, as though afraid, she pulled herself from the ground and turned to the young man near her.  Her breath caught as she took in his height – six foot at this age – with broad shoulders but he was lean and probably had muscles though were not detectable now.  No doubt as he grew and worked they would develop.  Her blue-grey eyes glittered with tears as she remembered the numerous times she would snuggle up to Numair and revel in the warmth of his body.  A dark face – as though it had been tanned – younger yes but she could see that as he grew older that it would be the familiar face of her love. And thick black hair that was cropped short.  Those black eyes… the tears spilled over like the water flowing from the falls.  How could she not have recognised them?  Those eyes she knew so well… those eyes that looked at her filled with desire, longing, love.  These eyes were the same.

"Numair?" the voice that emerged from her lips was strained.

 "Daine? What is it?"  Those beloved dark eyes showed concern that she had seen so often before.

"You are Numair. Gods!  How could I have not known?"  She threw herself into his arms, clung to him and cried with love, relief against his chest.  She breathed in that scent – it was the same – of spices and soap.  No one else in the world would have his scent.  She pulled back and cupped his dark, sensitive face within her hands.  She stroked his cheek and whispered, "I see it now.  How could I not have before?"

He gripped her forearms gazing into her blue-grey eyes.  His dark eyes were filled with confusion now.  "What do you mean, Daine?"

"You're Arram Draper, the once Emperor Ozorne of Carthak's best friend…"

"Not best friend… he is a selfish bastard consumed with the lust for power…" he stopped his tirade of angry, hurt words as he realised what she had said.  "But how do you know…?"

The blonde witch cackled in laughter.  "Don't even bother trying, little girl.  He doesn't remember you – and that's exactly what I had wanted.  Ah the old days…"  Her face shone in joy as she was caught up in her memories.  Then her face darkened as she turned her blue eyes back to them.  "But then he had to get away.  Oh no he couldn't believe me when I told him that everything was fine.  That Ozorne wouldn't do anything – that he couldn't do anything.  He ran away just as he did all those years ago.  Right into your arms in his stupid search for the King and Queen of Tortall.  Of course I had to come after him just in case you got your claws into him.  And I had just persuaded him to come back with me… but no you just had to interfere."

"How did you do, Varice?  How did you manage to do all of this?" Daine demanded.

Varice smiled as though she was very proud of herself.  "That's my little secret."  She pursed her ruby lips as though to keep any words from sprouting.

"I don't understand any of this.  I'm not Numair," Arram cut in.

"Of course you do not, beloved.  Once I am through with that evil temptress, my Queen will aid me to bring your memory back to before you met any of these people, including her," she pointed at Daine.  "I knew that I would enviably have to get her out of the way but I hadn't wanted it to come to blood."  She sighed dramatically, rising.  "Unfortunately for as long as she lives your heart – Numair's heart – will never allow for you to be free to love the one you should love.  She is what is between us and from this day forth nothing will come between us ever again."

Arram still had no inkling as to what Varice spoke of but he would die before allowing any harm come to Daine.  Although he knew her only for a rare time it was as though something within him pushed him to Daine.  Drew him to her, gave him the desire to protect her from any harm.  He loved her.  How that was possible in such a short time he did not question.  Matters of the heart were not easily known.  He only knew what he felt for her and the voice within his head told him it was right.  He drew Daine behind him acting as a barrier to anything that Varice tried to throw at Daine.

"You would never get away even if you did succeed, Varice," Daine said.  "Alanna, George, Onua, Thayet and Jon will never allow you leave with Num- Arram."  She was not afraid.  Numair was back, by her side – younger but he was still Numair.  Even though he appeared different there was a resemblance of the man she loved, and it didn't matter that he appeared different because this was about their hearts.  She hoped fervently that they would make it through this.

She cringed as Varice broke into high-pitched laughter that echoed in the dark room.  "Oh, but you are wrong, little girl. I have one of the gods behind me and even your favoured Lioness of the Mother will not be able to escape and find where we are."

*              *                *

I know this is incredibly short but the sooner you review the sooner I can write up and upload the next bit.  Happy Easter!!! ~Jossie~