A/n: I don't know if I've mentioned this, but on Sunday morning I'm heading out to compete in a National competition, and I'll be gone for eight days. So I won't be updating until I come back because I won't have a computer at my disposal, but I promise to update almost first thing when I get home, that way I won't leave you hanging or something. The next chapter should :crosses fingers: be the last, though there might be one more. Anyway, it's nearing the end, so that's the update. Thanks to all of you who keep reviewing, those emails/reviews really make my day! . And I really hope this chapter is what you all have been waiting for...
Chapter Fifteen
Fighting Back Fire
"Yvenne?" strong arms circled her, but she had to pull away.
"Aiden!" his mother gasped. "What are you…?" then she got a good look at the pretty young noble in front of her and stopped, "You-you're the…"
"The girl squire," Yvenne's eyes shot up to challenge Aiden's mother. She heard her father groan, but no longer cared.
"I don't understand," Aiden's pained brown eyes tore through her heart. "You're not – they said you were studying in the Temple - your titles…"
"I am from Coltsbrook; we gained Amherst when I was young. After the raid, I'm the last surviving of the fiefs; I suppose they lied to you, assuming I'd give up my shield."
"That means…"
"I was promised to you," tears glistened in her eyes, and he shook his head in disbelief.
"You said she was dead."
"She is, this," she pointed to the dress, "this isn't who I am anymore; you know it. This is," she reached for his sword and easily unsheathed it. The blade was a bit heavy for her, but she held it steadily.
He grabbed her hands around his hilt and pulled the sword away, "I would love you either way."
"I'm assuming by your reactions that you know one another," Yvenne's father mumbled gruffly.
"Yes, Aiden begged us to release him from this engagement to be with her, Nicolas," Cedmon explained just as roughly.
"Before I knew it was her," Aiden added, unable to take his eyes off her. That dress... he mused to himself silently, thinking about how nice it would look on the floor.
"This works out splendidly then, doesn't it?" Yvenne's mother giggled excitedly.
"It does," Aiden's mother nodded her agreement. "We hated to hurt you Aiden, but it seems the gods were on our side. When shall we set the wedding for?"
"Woah," Yvenne whispered and shook her head. "Hold it."
Everyone looked at her curiously; everyone except Aiden.
"I'm not ready to get married; Aiden knows it, and it's about time you knew it too. First of all, I have a mission to finish with Lady Keladry. Second, I haven't got my shield yet. I still have things to do; I don't have time to put it on hold for a wedding."
"You agreed to abandon this foolishness!" her father roared, but Yvenne shook her head.
"I agreed to meet with him; I never agreed to give up my shield. I won't either; Aiden believes in my, why can't you?"
"Fighting is not a lady's work," her mother answered patiently.
"Tell that to the Queen or the King's Champion. I warm up with half a dozen noble ladies every morning! Princess Shinkokami, Princess Kalasin, Queen Thayet, Captain Buri, Lady Keladry and the Princess' lady Yukimi. I train with the Lioness and Lady Keladry, shoot archery with the Lady Daine and Captain Buri! Captain Domitan of the King's Own puts me in charge of squads, and Sir Nealan of Queenscove says my magical ability is one of the most remarkable he's seen. And what's more, Master Numair has taught me how to Read people, so I can help the injured. Tell any one of them fighting is not for women, and they'll look you in the face and laugh," Yvenne argued.
"No daughter of mine is going to dress like a boy and wield a sword like a man," Nicolas scowled. "This is why your titles were stripped to begin with."
"Afraid she'll beat you?" Aiden jested viciously, and Nicolas moved his scowl to Aiden.
"If you love my daughter, as you say you do, why do you let her walk about here like a tramp?"
In a flash of silver, Aiden's blade was out and at her father's throat, "It is because of my love of your daughter that I rejoice in her happiness. She's happy struggling for her shield, and I will not have that threatened."
Nicolas stepped back from Aiden's bare sword, his glare still tightly fastened on his face, "You're foolish; you're both foolish. Yvenne, consider what you're giving up here."
"You need me, remember?" she whispered heatedly, staring her father down.
"Yvenne," her mother was sobbing. "You have to take back your inheritance. It will go to Stone Mountain if you don't!"
Yvenne's eyes grew hollow as the images of the bodies filled her mind, the blood and destruction, the smell of burned and decomposing flesh. My shield is all that I care about, but part of my oaths are for my people. Not the nobles, the common folk. I don't want to see my own fief end up like this when I could prevent that.
"And you won't allow me my titles and my shield?" she whispered, staring blankly across the room.
"No," her father answered her. "What kind of wife is never home for her husband?"
"I just want her to be happy! I swear to the gods if you steal her happiness I will steal your life," Aiden warned, but Yvenne put a soft hand on his arm to calm him.
"Bray cannot have my fief," Yvenne mumbled.
"So you'll give him your shield instead?" Aiden demanded, helpless to his lover's struggle.
"If that's what it takes, shield or no, I swore to protect Tortall. Plenty of women defend without a title."
"You've worked so hard though, to give it all up now," there was a time he'd have willingly allowed Yvenne to quit, so they could be together but not now, not when he knew how much it meant to her.
"I still have you, right?" she smiled weakly. "I'll go to Lady Keladry, and tell her."
"You shall do no such thing," Yvenne turned to find the scolding voice was Nealan of Queenscove, followed closely by her knight master and Dom.
"Thank the Goddess, Kel, will you make her think?" Aiden sighed as the three entered the parlor.
"How did you…" Cedmon started, but green sparks from Neal's hand gave them their answer and silenced them all in one.
"This is not how I expected to do this," Kel muttered and sighed, looking at Aiden's family curiously. "So…this is the mystery man; I'd guessed something like that."
"My Lady," Yvenne dropped a curtsey which stung Kel's heart.
"You were both pages once," Kel addressed the two men in the room who nodded.
"Nicolas was my sponsor," Cedmon added tersely.
"So you remember the hours?" Kel received a nod from both, "The chores? The friends? The work? The practicing?" When she'd received nods from all those she nodded, "Let me tell you a little about Yvenne's page years."
Aiden brought chairs when no one else would, and they settled.
"First of all, Yvenne came to us four years late, a girl and a member of the Rogue," Kel began, refusing Cedmon's questions. "Against all odds, she landed in the palace. I woke her up every morning an hour before dawn."
"And I kept her up with Master Numair an hour past curfew," Neal added. "You do the math."
They did. For four whole years Yvenne had worked from five until eleven, eighteen hours a day.
"We trained hard, but she had some of the highest grades in her classes. The conservatives piled her with extra work, but she didn't once complain. Aiden left her alone with no one. She was stabbed repeatedly by Bray of Stone Mountain, spent five days in a hospital but never ratted him out. Aiden did it for her, and Bray was still allowed to stay. She passed her Big Examinations with flying colors. Do you know what she wrote?" Kel demanded ruthlessly.
Their silence told her they didn't.
"She wrote, 'To prove to myself, to women, and to Tortall, that we can do anything a man can. To show them all and finally pass their test of acceptance'," Dom smiled warmly at their astounded faces.
"Then Kel took her as squire. She fights harder than any man on my squad, and she's fearless to boot. She's got a good head when she can overcome her stubbornness and temper. With three more years of training, I'll be proud to call her my commander. Look, just because she's a woman doesn't mean she has to stay at home and spit out kids. She's the equal to any man I know," Dom continued, and Yvenne blushed under their compliments, thanking the gods for such good friends.
"And you believe Yvenne should continue at the palace, continue as Lady Keladry's squire?" Nicolas' voice screamed danger, and Yvenne wanted to warn them, but they'd already nodded before she could form the words. "Then your reputations are not as renowned as I'd heard."
Neal's magic bubbled to the surface, so he had to hold it down, and Dom's hand went straight to his hilt. Only Kel remained calm, as usual.
"Yvenne has a family in me and Dom and Neal. She is loved by the Rogue and Greenshire will welcome her with at least one set of open arms. Strip her titles, and I will give her mine. Your daughter will become a knight, with or without your consent," Kel met his eyes and held them. She never raised her voice, and her body stayed loose, yet her whole presence told them she meant business.
"Don't be foolish girl," Nicolas spat. "I know my land would be handed to Stone Mountain, and I know what that would mean for King Jonathan. She has no choice but to accept her titles."
Kel smiled menacingly, a smile that sent shivers up and down Yvenne's spine. She'd never seen her knight master angry, but she guessed this was it. Neal smiled the same smile, and Dom's face turned to stone, "Oh," Kel laughed softly, "but I know something you do not Sir." If he won't use my title I'll use his with disdain, she thought contentedly, "There is a trial being held in secret this very moment in which the heir of Stone Mountain is being stripped of his titles. This is a battle of the generations, and Stone Mountain ends in this one. All the uncles are banished, the eldest son dead, the youngest son stripped of his inheritance, and the father hidden in his estate. So, Stone Mountain falls either to you or…" she smiled. "Pirate's Swoop."
Nicolas' jaw dropped, but Kel wasn't finished.
"And if it falls to you and you have no heir then it will all be turned over to the kind people of Greenshire. All of it – Coltsbrook, Amherst, and Stone Mountain."
Nicolas closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "You put forth a hard bargain, Lady Knight. Yvenne, I will go to the King and have your titles restored, I will not let my fief fall to…" he stopped when Aiden's sword was halfway out. "You may resume your studies with Lady Keladry, but I do expect a unity."
Yvenne's heart was fluttering, "Y-yes father," she curtseyed and stayed down until Nicolas had stormed out, followed closely by his wife.
"Aiden, you are happy, and I'm happy to see Yvenne of Coltsbrook and Amherst is nothing like her parents," his mother smiled warmly.
"And we used to train together," Cedmon was shaking his head as he clapped his son's shoulder and headed out with his wife consoling him.
"Seems our work here is done," Dom grinned.
"Glad to have you back," Neal sent her a bright smile.
"We still have work to do," Kel told her, and she nodded. "Don't look too surprised; you know I wouldn't let you go that easily."
"My Lady, Sir Nealan, Captain Domitan – thank you," she could think of no words that were better suited, no words could describe her gratitude, but she knew she had to say something.
"It's our duty to protect Tortall, and we'd be in enough danger with you as a thief, let alone a noble," Dom jested, and Neal nodded his agreement.
"We're simply doing ourselves a favor putting you on the right side," Neal finished.
"Aiden, I'll expect her returned to me by morning," Kel informed him, and he grinned and nodded.
A few formalities and more gratitude later, Yvenne was left alone to confront Aiden.
Almost as soon as the door shut, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Wow."
"I-I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I thought maybe if you thought I was dead you could get out of it – get me out of it."
"You know," he turned and looked to the couches and chairs set for tea, "I should be angry, but, honestly, I'm just so glad that you're the one that I don't even care."
When he turned back around she could only smile at him, "So, does that make us engaged?"
He put a hand behind his neck and blushed, "Yeah, I s'pose it does."
She giggled and curtseyed, "Well then, Sir Aiden, I gladly accept."
He reached her in a single stride and before she could gasp, he was unfastening her buttons.
"You're experienced?" she frowned softly when he easily slipped her out of her dress. He stayed silent, but when his hands found her corset, she realized she no longer cared. He was hers now, now and forever. She smiled and kissed him, "We're in a parlor," she whispered.
Effortlessly, he wove a ward and guarded and locked the door, "Better?"
She nodded and kissed him to the ground.
"I think I like you better in boy's clothes," he teased while untying her corset. "It's easier to get off."
She laughed delightedly and lost herself in the arms of the man she loved.
Kel walked to Dom's room like she had so many times before, yet tonight her mind was haunted. Yvenne was safely back in her custody, Bray was safely in the Lord Provost's custody, and all of Stone Mountain was in ruins.
A boy cried on the porch of his doorless, roofless house, completely naked but for a rag serving as a diaper. Four women nearby let him cry, too weary to try to help.
A stray cat perched on the top of a broken wall, claws outstretched, ready to spring. Dogs roamed through piles of trash or bodies, looking for a meal and vultures circled overhead, vultures to attract the Stormwings.
Horses grazed charred pastures, and a man pulled a skinny old woman out of a pile of debris.
Her Yamani mask washed off with the waves of memory. She had been too late. She couldn't face Dom; she couldn't make attack plans. She couldn't discuss supplies and reinforcements because she'd been too late. She slumped against the wall to her right and buried her head in her hands. At first, she tried to control her crying, to prevent it, but not even her Yamani training could stifle the sobs that began to escape. When she realized she could no longer contain them, she gave up. Just like you did at Stone Mountain? Her mind nagged her. If it hadn't been for Yvenne and the Rogue you'd be dead, just like that little girl.
"Kel, is that you? I thought I heard someone cry…" Dom's eyes moved left and fell upon Kel's sobbing form huddled against the wall. He immediately settled beside her, trying to hush her, but she barely even noticed his presence until his hands slid up her arms. She looked up into his blue eyes, and a fresh tear fell down her face. Two gentle fingers swiped it away, and he smiled as he pulled back and looked at her.
"I couldn't…" Kel started, but new tears choked her attempt.
He pulled a strand of amber hair from her eyes and shook his head.
She put her head back in her hands and started sobbing once more, "I couldn't Dom, for all my strength they almost died, so many did die – so many innocent."
He looked at her, distressed. How many times had she seen innocent die and held it in? Was this different, or was this simply the breaking point? He couldn't think of anything to say, so he seized her in his arms and covered her in light, fiery kisses.
She gasped and couldn't breathe to cry or speak. She was left to kiss his neck, running her hands across his handsome face. He slowed, letting gentle touches show what he couldn't say. She pulled his head up to her eyes, and he reached in and kissed her hungrily, taking what little breath she had. She wanted to kiss him blind; she wanted to take all her sadness and turn it to passion, the passion she'd built for him, more than she'd ever had for any man.
He gathered her in his arms and opened his door. She smiled softly and kissed his neck, wrapping her arms around him as he shut the door. Grinning, he laid her on his bed.
She felt her body tremble with his touch and longed for more.
He kissed her neck, and she laughed softly at his tickling skin.
"Dom?" she whispered softly, suddenly hesitant, and he looked down at her with those wide blue eyes that held everything she'd been needing for years.
"Don't make me stop," he begged gently, and she shook her head and put a finger to his lips. Her hands then fell to his shirt and slowly began to undo the buttons. He kissed her quickly, and the night fell silent.
"There is something in your eyes
Flowing them over
Stealing all the harmony which
Lives in me
Your hands are covering my tears
Oh why?
There's a sort of inner dance
Try to seduce me
Feeling this anomaly
Which takes me
Your touch
You're here
Your heart..."
Lacuna Coil, Aeon