Disclaimer: You should know the drill by now – I do not own any of the characters and places, (except for the ones I made up and the plot – all mine) they belong to Tamora Pierce.

A/N – Hey everyone. Ginormous thanx once again to all my wonderful reviewers! Thankyou to Patronus and Lizzie for wishing me a happy birthday – I had a great time! I turned fourteen. I'm really sorry I didn't get anymore chapters up for ages, but I have made this one really long to make up for it. Dad said he is going to get broadband, so with any luck (fingers and toes crossed!) that will happen soon so the net doesn't keep stuffing. I also want to apologize for putting up two of the same chapter the other week; it was a mistake in the uploading bit. But I fixed it now, so you can go back and read the real chapter nine: Aftermath.

I've decided maybe it wasn't such a good idea to start two new stories… but I'll try hard to keep them all up to date. This one will be my first priority unless I get totally stuck, so don't worry! I will try not to disappoint this chapter. My problem is that I have been thinking about this story for a long time – before I started reading fan fic again actually, and then writing – but in all my imaginings I never got past the bit where Ilane enters the Chamber… so I'm kinda out in open waters here, and having to do a lot of thinking (not good for a lazy chickadee like me, but then again, its fun to be able to make up something new).

10. What the Chamber Said

Ilane looked around her, still blinking a bit in disbelief and confusion and a lingering horror. Everything had happened so quickly – if you had told her two days ago where she would be now, Ilane would have said you were crazy. Another factor making her a bit unsteady was that she had expected – feeling slightly relived, she was ashamed to admit – that she would never see this place again. She was also worried at the reception she would get. Most likely, the people here had not expected to see her either, and they might not be very welcoming. She thought back to the day, two years ago, when she had last seen the Shang training compound.

The Shang Unicorn looked her up and down, contempt oozing from every pore in her body. 'So. You are leaving.' Ilane quivered under the intense gaze, muscles unconsciously tensing, wary of an attack. Not that she would stand a chance at defending herself if the Unicorn should charge. She started questioning her decision. Did she really want to leave? She had worked so hard for six years. Did she really just want to give it all up?

It had been hard. By Mithros, she could not imagine anything harder. They slept on the bare ground, even in the heart of winter; they had to find their own food, when they were allowed to eat at all. Sure, they were kept alive – the instructors did not want to kill everyone – but they wanted only the toughest. Only the very best would survive. You had to be able to fight and endure under the harshest of conditions, whether they be mental, physical or both. Any fears you had were routed out and you had to confront them, again and again and again, until you could overcome them. You trained in the cold; with no clothes; in the hottest sun; in the fiercest storms. You trained at night in the dark, on an unsteady boat in the middle of the lake. Anything at all you might encounter during you life, they would train you on. You were taught to fight against multiple attackers, how to best use your surroundings. The combat training was rigorous. The first thing you were taught was defense – how to block a certain sort of punch. Then they drilled you on that one block. Again. And again. For weeks, you did nothing else, until you could block a punch from even one of the Masters. Then they would move onto the next skill, and so on. Weapons were introduced when the instructors deemed you ready, and then you lived with your sword by your side. They built up your knowledge, stressed you to your mental and physical limits, and if you survived all that, made it through the years of hardship – to a certain extent the training got easier, some aspects of it, but it got tougher as well – you could call yourself a Shang Warrior.

One of the most important things you were taught was ethics. All this training was to protect others – it was forbidden to harm an innocent person. They taught you to teach others – to use those around you. You were also told to forget all other ties, whether they were family or friends. There was a higher call in life.

And Ilane was ready to embrace it all. Hard as this life was, it suited her. She didn't have to get to know anyone, or make any commitments except to herself. She just had to work hard. You wouldn't exactly say she enjoyed it, but she had never known anything else.

Nevertheless, she was still going to leave.

'Coward.' Ilane flinched at the harsh word, spat out with more scorn than she would have thought possible. Disappointment and derision shone from the Unicorn's eyes, and she shook her head. 'I honestly thought that you, if anyone, would make it. But you are running away. I shouldn't let you go. There is more yet for you to learn here. But you need to find your own way. Goodbye, Ilane. You cannot return. It is finished.' And then she had turned and walked away. And Ilane had left, to go to Corus and become a knight. Like her mother had been. Even after six years of training, some part in her cold little heart had remembered her mother, and the anguish she had shown as Ilane left for Shang. She wanted her only daughter to become a knight. So Ilane had left, and become a page.

Looking out at the single building and bare dirt, grass and sand training yards, Ilane trembled. So many memories kept flooding back. Why had the Chamber brought her here? What purpose was there in this? The Unicorn had said she could not return. But the Chamber had said it didn't matter. The Chamber had said a lot of things, some she couldn't make herself believe yet. She knew it hadn't lied, though.

The small thicket of trees around her was dense, but she knew someone had seen her. In this place, it would be impossible not to be seen. She stepped out the edge of the trees into the open and waited. Skills she thought she had forgotten came into play, and she smiled sadly and said 'Hello. I would ask you not to hurt me. It would be a bad idea.' Suddenly she gripped what she had said, and realized it was true. It would be a bad idea to try and hurt her. While this place held some of the fiercest fighters in the world, most of them were trainees. It was true that even someone half way through their training could take on a fully fledged knight and beat them (just look at what she had done to Sir Keril) but the person standing behind her most probably didn't realize that Ilane had had a lot of training as well. Shang training. Because the pages had had the Shang Bear as an instructor for the two years Ilane had been at the palace. At first the Bear had ignored her – she had deserted Shang, after all – but then, since she was the only one in the class that could fight properly, he had started giving her extra lessons. So in a way her Shang training had only been partially interrupted and she could fight as well as ever. Giving herself a mental shake, she remembered where she was. Tucking everything behind a solid, impassive mask, she turned slowly, arms stretched out to either side in a sign of peace. Not that that would inhibit her or slow her down if she needed to defend or attack.

The young man stood half behind a tree. Ilane's breath caught in her throat. She felt her face wanting to turn pink, but she gripped desperately at her blank façade, holding it in place. He was looking at her, head tilted slightly to one side, face unreadable, with surprising bright blue eyes gleaming. His face was half in shadow; the dark, wavy hair scraping the top of his shoulders faded into the dusk around him. She could tell he was a trainee here – it was in the way he stood, lightly balanced, ready to move in any direction. His naturally olive skin was darkened further by an even tan. It was summer here, even as it was winter in Corus. He could only have been a year or two older than her, but his shoulders were already muscled and broad. He was also completely naked.

Ilane took better control of herself and relaxed. Slightly. She gave a small smile. Page training had absolutely nothing on the rigours of Shang. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be denied clothes, food and sleep. Obviously this boy was living it. She didn't recognize him, and he didn't speak, just stood there, looking at her with an intense gaze and a slight smile. She thought he must be wondering who she was. After all, it wasn't everyday that strange girls wandered out of the small, isolated forest near the Shang compound. For starters, no one but those who went there to study even knew where it was. For seconds, she should have been seen long before she reached the trees. But when he spoke, it was to say six words that took her completely by surprise. 'What are you doing here, Ilane?'

She was proud of the control she kept, but she felt herself wanting to frown. How did he know…?

'Cory' she breathed, the hushed word sinking into the stillness. She hadn't recognized him. He had change so much in the years since she had last seen him. Changed for the better… she felt like blushing again at the route her thoughts were taking. But she hadn't expected him to recognize her, and said as much. He smiled wider.

'I didn't. At least not at first. The Unicorn told me.' That explained it. Ilane had been wondering if the Unicorn was still around. 'But I would have recognized you anyway. You've changed, but not that much.'

Ilane thought about what she had looked like two years ago, and what she looked like now. She took more after her father and her paternal grandmother than she did her mother, Keladry formerly-of-Mindelan. She had her mother's deep brown eyes and brown hair that could have come from either of her parents, but she was fine boned and slim under her muscle, and only of average height. Her opponents had often thought that because she was small she was weak, and they had been brutally corrected. He was right in that she hadn't changed, though. She grown up some – her breasts were slightly more developed, and her hips had grown wider – but other than that (and it wasn't noticeable in the loose breaches and tunic she was wearing) the only thing really different was her hair and skin. When she left the compound, she had had tanned, somewhat rough skin that had now paled considerably. Her hair had been shorter then – Ilane had not cut it since she had left, and it reached in a thick braid two thirds of the way down her back. She had also discovered a dimple that creased her left cheek on the rare occasions that she smiled. But overall, her appearance had not changed. What had changed was inside. She hadn't really noticed what she was like before entering the Chamber. But the Chamber knew her inside out, knew her deepest fears and wildest dreams… it had taken her on a journey.

You have no desire to be a knight. Why are you training? It is not your place, and I think you know that. You would make it. You could pass the Ordeal, you could have become a Shang Master, but it is not you call. You will succeed at whatever you do because it is who you are, but I cannot let that be wasted. Yes. I will set you a task. You are quite like your mother, did you know? Fiercely stubborn. But you will do well I think. Listen. I will tell you something that happened, many yeas ago. Do you know what an Elemental is? Ilane shook her head. No you wouldn't, would you? It isn't your fault. Children do not get a proper education these days. Elementals are a bit like me. They have a power that is… different. Elemental, actually, tying in with nature and separate from what mages think of as magic. They are not like the gods, though, or the immortals. The particular elemental I am mentioning resides in a cave in the Roof of the World. It was the guardian of the Dominion jewel, and fought the Lioness when she came to find it. She was terrified of the cold. To get to the cave, she had to battle a blinding blizzard, and it nearly killed her. She faced insurmountable odds, but still she kept going. She was terrified all the way through, but it did not stop her. That is the essence of courage. You do not have to have no fear, you just master it and go on in spite of it. That is part of what they teach you at Shang. To overcome fear. But that never worried you. You are not afraid of the cold or spiders, like Alanna, and you do not fear heights, like your mother used to. There is no fear in you that the Shang Warriors can help you overcome. But I know what you fear. At those words Ilane had stiffened, and her heart had clenched. It could not know… sometimes she was not sure she knew herself. But denying it made it all the more obvious. Just remember that I know. I know everything about you. I shall ask you a question, only once, and this answer is the only chance you will ever be given. Do you want to go through the Ordeal of Knighthood? I will tell you first what it entails. What generations of knights have endured. Fear. I know their deepest fears, and make them surrender to it. The Shang Warriors have the right way with fear – if you do not acknowledge it, it consumes you. So answer me now: are you strong enough to let yourself be tested? Ilane was sure her heart had stopped. She had ceased to breathe. Time didn't move and she stood suspended, locked in her own mind. The words echoed through her head – so answer me now: are you strong enough to let yourself be tested? Are you strong enough… are you strong enough… are you strong enough… She did not think she was. But this would be her only chance, even if it killed her. Yes. I will make myself strong enough. I will prove to myself I am not afraid.

Everything went black.

A/N – Long enough for you? I didn't really want to end the chapter here, but I'm a sucker for cliffhangers! Even if you don't have to wait a week for the next chapter. Please remember to review!

Yours evilly, Liss

PS – sorry if anyone doesn't like my description of life at Shang. It's just the way I have thought of it. By the way, not everyone is as cold and closed off as Ilane. She just takes things to the extreme and struggles with her fear. Not all Shang Warriors are like that… just remember Liam… ;)