Alanna awoke with a start and looked around in the gloom. She was lying in her bed roll, in the tent she had called home for the past year. She tried to relax back into sleep, but the images from her dreams kept coming back to her. She walked outside as it all came back.

A man wearing strange clothes stood on the hill ahead, seeming comfortable amidst the chaos around him. He was looking at Numair, and laughing. Numair stared back, struggling with him, sweat soaking through his black mage's robes. Alanna saw his lips moving, but couldn't hear what he was saying.

All around her, she saw her friends struggling against the attacking enemy. Alanna saw a Tortallan soldier struggling with an enemy soldier. Where they had come form no one knew, but with the help of this mage, they were attacking Tortall with great force, and until now, they had been winning.

But this time it was different. This time, Numair was winning.

The enemy soldiers were more desperate this time, as if the wounds didn't count because the blood didn't show on their red clothing. The enemy mage seemed as confident as ever, but he was straining more than usual. Numair was smiling.

A red soldier ran at Numair, a last charge before his wounds would overcome him. Alanna ran at him and touched his shoulder with her sword. She couldn't attack him from behind in. He jerked back and turned to face Alanna. When she saw his face she gasped.

His eyes were blank. There was nothing moving behind them, no emotion, no desperation that was plain in his movements, nothing.

Alanna was so shocked, she couldn't move. She couldn't even move her arms to attack him, the movements that had become almost second nature to her. Luckily, a tall man with bright blue eyes and coal black hair came to her rescue and put the soldier out of his misery.

Alanna shivered in the cool night air as she remembered the blank eyes. She felt a blanket being wrapped and looked up into blazing blue eyes.

"Jon," she said, as he sat down beside her, "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Jonathan told her, his faced illuminated in the moonlight.

Alanna relaxed against him and sighed. "I was dreaming about that soldier again, Jon. I just can't forget looking into his eyes and seeing nothing. There was nothing there Jon. No emotion, nothing."

"I know Alanna, I saw him too," Jon told her soothingly, "but it's ok. We need to forget about yesterday, and concentrate on what's ahead. We need to figure out where that mage went when he disappeared."

"Numair doesn't know?" Alanna asked. She was shocked that the powerful mage had not yet discovered how the evil mage had been able to disappear as the Tortallans lunged for him at the end of the battle.

"Don't worry, he'll figure it out, he's a smart man. The best there is. You know that. Relax. We've got a couple nights in the fief a couple miles away from here, while Numair tries to figure out how we can catch him. I would tell you to get some rest while we're there, but I don't think you would listen to me.

"No. I wouldn't" Alanna told him stubbornly.

"Not even for me?" He asked her.

Alanna muttered something as Jon kissed her. "Fine," he said turning away form her, "I guess I'm wasting my time hanging around here…"

"Wait" Alanna called. "Look at the stars," she leaned back against him. "It would be a pity for that beautiful sky to be wasted on just me watching them."

A/N: Hey out there! This first one was short, but I have longer ones waiting to be posted if I get a nibble on this one. I think it's going to be good, so R R please!