Chapter twenty-one: Progress
Dagger nosed at Novellee's cheek purring like mad and forcing Novellee turn her face away or be licked by his scratchy tongue. She lay sprawled on her stomach, sinking into the pillows and trying to fade back into unconsciousness. But a hand settled on her shoulder. Shaking her.
"Lee," she heard a voice and she swatted at it trying to flick it away and continue her sleep. Last night she hadn't gone immediately back to the inn like she had implied at the castle. Instead, she had gone to her fountain to think. There was no explaining her feelings of this matter. Hearing her brother's name spoken for the first time in over ten years had been shocking.
But to think that they thought him to be a god. Not that they had said that, exactly. They had simply said that there was a gad of destiny named Misiki. Did they know that her brother had spent everyday studying on destiny? Many of their discussions at the fountain had been on destiny.
"Lee, get up. There's some nobles waiting for you," the voice said again. She opened one blurry eye and looked up into Bennie's fresh face.
"Who," she grumbled, turning over and scooping up Dagger and scratching at his neck. He crawled up to nose at the underside of her jaw, licking it with his scratchy tongue.
"Well, the five from the estate and four others that I don't know. A woman and three men. They're asking to see you about something. But they insist that you come to the palace."
Novellee groaned loudly before sighing heavily. "Alright, tell them I'll be down in a few minutes. I have to dress, and do a few other things before we can go."
She stood, leaving Dagger on the bed. Bennie turned to leave but a thought occurred to her. "Did the horses arrive?"
A week ago Novellee had sent her runner to Dream Country estate to send for the new horses. "This morning, bright and early. I'll fill you in after."
Novellee nodded and Bennie left, leaving her to change. She did, slowly, dragging out the time before she had to face the unknown knights that she had to face. She dragged a brush through her hair and tied it back to keep it from her face. She decided on the spot that she would spend the day in the barn with Ginger and Mishka. The two colts were weaned and would spend the next year at the estate at least.
Dagger mewed and she scooped him up and into her arms before gliding down the back stairs and into the kitchen. She smiled at her guests before dropping Dagger on the counter and heading out to the stables.
Sky greeted her and she smiled. "Hey Sky!" she crooned, grabbing a brush and running it over him a few times. He nipped her in the shoulder as was customary before she left to check on Ginger.
Her guests had gathered in the stable and were watching her as she moved past them. Alanna grabbed her arm and Novellee hissed as her fiery gray eyes blazed into Alanna's amethyst ones.
"We need to speak with you," Alanna said in a clear voice for everyone to hear. Novellee hissed again as panic welled inside her. She was lost not knowing what to do next, what move to make.
"Well, I currently do not have an assignment, so you have no hold over me. Now, my horses just arrived and I would like to see them settled before I head out on my errands," she jerked out of Alanna's hold and retreated to Ginger's stall. She brushed her out, then checked her form, making sure she had been treated properly.
She repeated the process with Mishka, but as she was running her hands down the back left leg, she found it was swollen. She swore heavily, getting to her feet and slamming out of the stable. She threw down her brush and barged through the nobles, pushing them aside so she could get to the door.
They followed her silently as she stalked into the inn. She slammed the door, but they opened it and followed in her wake like wraiths.
"Bennie!" she hollered as she slammed up the stairs. She found him in his apartment on the same floor as hers, the top and fourth floor. He was eating breakfast with Ellie, but he stopped, setting down his fork and looking at her inquiringly.
"Are the runner's still here?" she demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes menacingly.
"Yes, Jolene gave them some rooms on the first floor in the servant quarters. Why?" he asked, but all he got for answer was a growl. Daine, in the group of silent, watching nobles, knew why. She knew what had happened to Mishka, but she was waiting for Novellee's permission to act.
Novellee barged back through the nobles and slammed back down the stairs to the first floor. She entered the runners' rooms. There were two, one for each horse. She grabbed their stuff from the closet where they had stashed it and threw it on the floor. Then she shook them awake.
"Out," she said calmly when she had their attention. "Collect your pay from Stacy and get out. If I find you near my horses again, I'll gut you. Do you under stand?" they nodded and she continued. "Then why are you still here?"
They grabbed their stuff and dashed away and she knew tat she wouldn't see their faces again. She stood still for a few seconds, calming her racing heart. Turning she once again pushed through the trailing nobles and went back out to the stables. She applied the medication to heal Mishka's leg.
She really did have some errands to run, even though she was trying to put them off until next week. But now she was glad for the excuse to be able to leave. Now all she had to do was get rid of the trailers.
"Well, you followed me around, but I really must go. Sop if you'd kindly leave, I'll be on my way too."
"Novellee," Alanna tried again, but a look from George cut her off. George himself stepped forward, thinking that if it came from a person that knew what she was about having lived a life like hers would be able to help.
"Novellee, we need some information," Novellee turned her head away not wanting him to know the expression in her eyes was confusion and mixed emotions. She really didn't know what to think anymore and so she shoved all thoughts aside and just listened.
"We've been hearing about a man named Morrison—" he stopped as Novellee gasped and looked at him, her eyes huge in her face. She stepped to him and gripped his arms
"You mean you know about him? For how long?" she demanded. George was to stunned to respond fast enough for her liking so she shook him and yelled in his face. "How long?"
"For a while now. We didn't really know anything about him. But we got some information from Roark—" again Novellee cut him off.
"Roark gave you information on him?" she yelled again, turning away and cursing heavily in Serindain. She grumbled about idiots as she rubbed at her chin and Burdock distinctly heard her curse Ciem, her brother.
"I wouldn't trust Roark on information on Morrison. I can tell you about him. In fact, I have some papers about him upstairs. I'll go get them," she said, still a little absent-mindedly.
Kel who was the least trusting in the group, volunteered to go along and make sure that Novellee didn't tamper with anything. It wasn't anything personal against Novellee, but each time Kel had seen her, she had been ruled by her emotions and Kel didn't like it. An assassin, in her mind, should be cool and controlled.
Novellee pierced Kel with her gray eyes, but Kel's were cool and without emotion, so she shrugged.
They walked in silence back to Novellee's room. She opened the door and Dagger bounded out from under the bed. She wasn't surprised to see him back in the room, even though she had left him outside. He had many ways of getting into and out of her rooms.
She picked him up and draped him around her shoulders. He purred, kneading her claws into her shoulder and budding his nose into her ear. She stroked him absently as she stood in the middle of the room, thinking.
"What are you doing?" Kel demanded from behind her. She wasn't being impatient, simply curious about her. Novellee turned to look at her and smiled, the first real smile Kel had seen and she realized she could like Novellee as a friend.
"I'm trying to remember what I did with the papers. After Ciem told me not to tell until the first move was made, I hid them. But I can't remember where." She turned back to the room, once again silent. "Ah!"
Kel watched as Novellee walked over to the windowsill. She set causally on the bed, then raised her fist and slammed it down on the edge of the sill. Kel heard a chink and a piece of the room's wall fell away, leaving a hole. Novellee slid her hand in and pulled out a roll of paper, tied and sealed with a curious mark.
Novellee tossed the roll to Kel as she replaced the panel in the wall, smoothing it in, before adjusting the curtain so it fell over it. The slit was hardly noticeable and no one would really think anything of it. No one would know that there was anything hidden there. In fact, Kel had never seen anything like it before.
Kel looked down at the seal. It was a halo wrapped around a key with wings. She made a noise, but Novellee took it from her. She beckoned to Kel as she left the room. Dagger mewed and Novellee looked back at him.
He mewed again, jumping to the floor and running over to entwine himself around her legs. Novellee once again placed him around her neck, and then headed down the stairs.
Kel reflected on the seal. It was unique, unlike any seal she had ever seen before. But she supposed that it would have to be different for Novellee to be recognized. It was probably her signature mark, and people would recognize it as hers when they saw it.
"Here it is," Novellee said as they entered the stables. She handed it to George, stroking Dagger's silky head. He rubbed up against her neck, but she had had enough of him. She grabbed him, cuddling him for a moment before dumping him into Sky's stall.
Horse and cat bad greeting noises as George read over the papers. Novellee smiled as Dagger jumped up on Sky's back and settled into the dip in his back. George made a shocked sound in his throat and she turned back to see his face drain of color.
"Who long have you had these?" he demanded, advancing on her. His face was dark with anger and she realized that he had probably been a very effective king of thieves. Holding her ground, she answered.
"Since before I began working for you," she lifted her chin as he made another shocked sound. Anger getting the better of him, he grabbed her arms in a crushing hold and shook her forcefully.
"And you didn't tell us! Didn't show us the papers or even give as a hint to what was going on?" he slammed her against the post separating the stalls, her head cracking against the wood. Wordlessly Alanna picked up the papers and began to read herself.
"I wasn't inclined to share with you and even if I wanted to I couldn't," she hissed her chin, still lifted defiantly, rose up another notch. Her eyes were narrow and the gray darkened to almost black with her anger and her effort to keep it leashed. "It wasn't up to me to decide when you could see them. I had to wait for you to ask for them, so this is your fault. Not mine!"
She struggled out of his hold and dropped to her feet. Alanna made a strangled sound in her throat. "Where did you get these?" she demanded, her voice soft, eyes wide and dark. With out a word, the rest of the nobles congregated around the papers to read silently.
"Some guy was hiring me to kill Jaymie, so we made an agreement that I'd kill the hirer instead. When I did, I found these. I didn't show them to anyone and a few days later I went in the chamber and forgot all about them," she gave a shrug.
"But it doesn't make sense. None of this matches with what Roark told us. Are you sure these are right?" Alanna asked, as she ran her fingers through her hair. Novellee snorted.
"Of course I'm sure. You can't trust Roark," her lips turned up in a sneer that belied the look of panic in her eyes. What had Roark told them? What was in his mind that he pretended to know what Morrison was about?
"Why can't we trust him?" one of the newcomers asked. She looked at him, seeing his green eyes and brown hair; seeing that he was taller and older then the girl with brown hair and dream filled brown eyes, but younger then Alanna and shorter then Numair. She growled.
"You can't trust him because he is—" she tried to say Morrison, but she choked on the word, coughing and sputtering like a goof. She grabbed at her throat as she felt pressure closing around it, her air cutting off and fell to her knees, gagging as her brother's voice filled her head.
"I'm sorry Novellee, but you aren't permitted to tell and this spell will insure that you don't. It'll get worse every time you try and when people look at you, they will see the spell if they know how to see it."
Numair watched as she gasped and he checked her quickly looking for a spell. He didn't see anything at first, but then it flared out, blinding him. He cried out and shielded his eyes, as did Novellee and everyone else in the room, for they could see the spell sliding over her skin bright as the sun.
Burdock blinked his eyes clear, before rushing over to her and helping her to her feet by grabbing her elbow and yanking her up. "What the hell was that?"
"Ciem..." she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. "Spell...can't tell you... anything," she paused to cough before continuing with a full voice. "In the chamber I was given an assignment. It has to do with Morrison, but I can't tell you any straight information that you don't already know from now on. So I can't tell you why you can't trust Roark. All I can tell you is you can't."
Burdock looked into her eyes, searching for a long time. When he had first seen this girl he had been disgusted that she was an assassin. But since he had seen what she did with her money, the good that she brought into the world, he couldn't hep but give her a chance. And during the months that he had worked around her, going on jobs and getting information, he had come to respect her and like her, and now he loved her.
He didn't know if it was seeing the spell be cast on her or simply knowing her, but he trusted her and he wanted the rest to trust her too.
Novellee also looked in his eyes. She wanted to believe that he would trust her, wanted to believe that he would believe her, would see the truth in her eyes and would help her with this. But she knew that he wouldn't.
"Okay. I believe you."
He saw the surprise in her eyes as he had seen the disbelief and the wanting to believe in him. By doing this, he bought trust for both of them. And he was overcome with joy. She believed him as much as he believed her, trusted him as much as he trusted her. They had come to their first hurdle in their relationship and they had passed it with flying colors.
"You do?" hope was in her voice like a plea and his heart broke for her. Looking in her eyes he knew that this was the most important part.
"Of course I do."
She smiled and turned away from him, breaking away from the hands that had crept up to caress her arms. "Then what are we waiting for. Let's make some plans to take him down!"
"Wait!" another man said. He was the other younger newcomer. She could see definite relation between him and the man that had spoken before. "You know who he is?"
"Of course I know who he is. I just don't know where to find him. If I pick off his lackey's one at a time and search their stuff, I'm pretty sure I can gather were to find him."
Novellee knew that by now, Roark would have left the castle on some urgent business. But he would be back, and when he was, she would get him.
A/N. Hope you liked it. Tell me about it in a review.
