Chapter Eight
They stood in front of the palace gates, the sky having already turned a dark blue in color; it was almost black, except for the tiny stars imbedded deeply into the shadows high above. Kai nervously fingered her shirt, wondering how the others that she vaguely recalled from three days ago would react to her return. It's not like I'm here voluntarily, she thought, I'm lucky that I really don't mind this place all that much.
As soon as the words remained exposed in her mind, she stopped that thought immediately. Why wasn't she angrier? This wasn't her home; her home was out on the streets where she belonged, among her own kind, as an equal; where she had grown up. The place where she knew, was familiar with. Not here, among these strange nobles, as a maid, where she never knew if the person in the hallway would attack her or not. On the streets, she had always been able to tell a thief by their clothes: either overly shabby and ragged, or too elaborately fancy for a person who clearly was not a noble.
But for some reason, she had tried to escape, even when given the chance; and she was certain that, if she had run, Faleron would not have come after her. Why was she still her? she demanded of herself. Why hadn't she left when she had the chance? Whoever was after her would still find her, and there way no way that Faleron or Lalasa or anyone else would always be there to help her. She gazed uncertainly up at the spiral towers of the palace in front of her, wondering what had gotten her here, and when she would finally be able to leave.
"Kai, come on," Faleron said, having finished an argument with the guard, who reluctantly opened the gate. The expression in his dark eyes was teasing, as he had caught her staring off into space. She shook her head and followed him through, very suddenly certain of why she was here, and not liking it one bit.
"Finally!" the girl who Kai recognized as Kel exclaimed once they were through the entrance. "Was there traffic or something?"
"'Or something'," Faleron answered. "Did you eat?" he asked, turning to Kai. She nodded. "Fine, I have to go catch the cooks before they leave the kitchen."
"Didn't you leave after dinner?" Kel asked, voice slightly tinged with curiosity.
"No," Faleron said. "Remember? Neal saw Zhahir leaving early after his knightmaster gave him the night off, so Neal told me that I had to 'miss a meal for the good of the lady', or something like that."
"And you believed him?" Kel snorted. Faleron stared at her for a second before stalking away, muttering something about very sharp knives and stupid friends who couldn't keep their mouths shut. "Well, we'll just have to keep him away from anything with a blade, won't we?" It took Kai a minute to realize that this was a joke, so she only smiled.
"Good luck with that, lady," she said, staring around her and wondering if she would have to ask Kel how to get to her room again. The other was looking at the wall behind her for so long that Kai was worried that it had burst into flames and had to turn to assure herself, that, yes, the wall appeared completely normal. She was about to ask if something was wrong, when the door crashed open and someone else came in at a run, waving a piece of paper in the air.
"Kel! Did Faleron get back yet? He was supposed to figure out my history paper!" He quickly scanned the room as he spoke. "Where is he?" he asked, finally stopping in front of them.
"He went to the kitchens, I think," Kel answered, sounding distracted. "Oh, Owen, could you take Kai to her rooms first? I have to go find somebody." With that, she strode off, her usually emotionless face creased into worry.
"Oh, yes, you're the new maid or something that they keep talking about, right?" Owen asked.
She guessed that maybe he was always as overexcited as he had seemed a moment ago. She could vaguely remember that he had been fairly energetic when she had met him for all of two minutes, but she had assumed then that it was just Midsummer. Then Kai realized that she was supposed to answer him, so she nodded, not quite sure how to reply to that. Luckily, her companion was already walking toward one of the doors inside, while at the same time managing to find enough for them to talk about, which was quite fortunate, as Kai had trouble enough simply keeping up with him on crutches.
"Would you happen to know anything about the First Scanran War?" he asked hopefully. She shook her head, and he started talking again. "Well, I do, but Professor Puffy-cheeks doesn't believe that, so he's making me write a big long essay on that! Can you believe that! Of course, his real name isn't Puffy-cheeks, we just call him that-not to his face, of course-because when he gets mad his face gets all red and his cheeks puff out. But the math professor…"
And so it went on, with Kai reluctantly learning all the little bits of information that she never wanted to know about the various teachers, mages, nobles, servants, craftsmen, ambassadors, visitors, or anyone else who happened to be living in the palace. But she didn't complain, for the conversation never lapsed into silence with Owen talking. He seemed to be able to find something to say about everyone, even random people walking in the halls late at night.
"And there's the nobles' wings, and next to them are the pages' quarters, and finally, to your left, you will see a door. This is the area specifically set aside for squires and the knights unfortunately stuck with them. I believe yours is the thirtieth door down on the right." She stared at him a moment, wondering how he had memorized the entire wing, until he grinned. "I live in the pages' quarters now, but I'm down here enough to know where everything is." She was still unsatisfied with that answer, and opened her mouth to ask something else, then decided that if he went into another answer he might not be so simple about it and then she'd be here for hours.
So instead she nodded, hobbling off as she peered into the darkness between the torches on the walls to see the numbers on the doors. Number ten, eleven, twelve… fifteen… seventeen… She hurried a little, seeing how far the hallway in front of her stretched, until she finally came to number thirty and went inside, recognizing the room she had stayed in that one night. Now, however, it was empty, dark, and made her need to stifle the feeling of homesickness rising from her stomach.
Kai sat on the bed, fingering the worn blankets, thinking. Here she was again, in this same room, but this time there would be no leaving. She wondered what her friends were doing right now; Danai would probably be with Lora or Hedi, in one of their rooms, or in some inn. She should be there with them, but instead, here she sat, unsure of what to do, or where to go. It was late anyway, she decided, and lay down, wondering how Danai would react to the news that she was gone again. If whoever told her said it tactfully enough, she supposed that Danai might not be too upset, but knowing the George that everyone on the street saw everyday, she doubted that Danai would ever forgive her.
A knock on the door shocked her out of her thoughts, and she stilled for a second, wondering whom it was. Then, very slowly, she rose and answered it. Lalasa stood out in the hall, simply staring at her for a second, and then stated simply, "You're back."
Kai tried a small smile, failing miserably, and replied, "Yes." Unable to find more to say, there was an awkward silence while they both avoided the others' glance. "Want to come in?" Kai asked eventually.
Lalasa nodded noncommittally, stepping inside. The silence lengthened, tension filling the air as Kai desperately racked her brains for something, anything to say. "Why'd you leave?" Lalasa blurted out finally, but met her eyes, demanding an answer.
"Well," Kai said uncertainly, sitting on her bed before reluctantly launching into her version of the tale yet another time. Lalasa listened to the entire thing without a comment, never nodding or showing any sort of reaction. When Kai was finished, she said, "That's why I had to leave, and I know that it was probably awful to you when I wasn't here, since I know what everyone probably thought first, and I know you probably can't forgive me, but could you accept my apology?" She finally stopped babbling, and waited for some kind of reaction, even getting up and storming out of the room would be better than the blank look the other girl was giving her now.
"Do you know that we all thought you were dead?" she asked after a long silence, obviously fighting to control her voice. "Or kidnapped! Kel was blaming herself if you were in trouble! Faleron looked like he wanted to kill Zhahir when he found out! I thought you had just been…taken, and then they told me, no, you had just run away…like some little child who hadn't gotten her way!" he voice rose dangerously. "They offered to protect you! It wasn't their fault that someone was after you! Then you just up and left, without a word to anyone, because some of your friends turned up on your doorstep? Why didn't you wait…or just tell me? We wouldn't have been angry that you wanted to leave! Or go find your friend…Gods, she could have just come here!" Lalasa stood, eyes sparkling suspiciously.
"And then, when Kel discovered you were going to be killed tonight, she went through all the trouble to convince Faleron to go in you in the middle of the city, and you didn't believe Faleron when he told you?" she continued at a shout. "Why couldn't you at least trust him after everything? He went back for you and you couldn't believe what he said! Open your eyes, Kai! You can trust these people! Haven't they proved that?"
She stopped finally, breathing slightly harder after her loud outburst. Kai guessed that she wasn't the type of person who normally upbraided others for their behavior, which only made her feel worse as everything Lalasa had said sunk in. Kai looked at her fellow maid, wondering what to say. "I'm sorry Lalasa."
"Don't tell just me," she said quietly, but expressing her anger in those four words. "Tell the others who actually cared that you left." She stood at the door. "I think Faleron will be back before the eighth bell rings. You won't see Kel for a while though." and with those parting words, she left.
Kel sat back onto her bed heavily, wondering what to do now. As if on cue, outside, the eighth bell tolled the hour. Kai got up slowly, and walked into the room attached to hers to wait.
It wasn't long, actually. Kai wondered how Lalasa had known when Faleron would get back, but it was slightly unnerving that two minutes later, he unlocked the door, not bothering to hide the surprise on his face when he saw her waiting by the window.
"Planning on leaving again?" he asked, his tone light, as if he were joking, and it was only because she listened hard that she noticed the slight edge to his voice.
"No," she replied carefully, involuntarily moving away from the window. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what?" he asked absently, searching through a drawer for something.
She stifled her annoyance that he wasn't even paying attention as she apologized, and replied, "Everything. Running away, then not believing you, and not trusting you…"
He winced. "Lalasa was here, wasn't she?"
"Yes, and it's not her fault. She was right about all this. I did act like a spoilt little child."
"Funny," he commented, "She never used the word 'spoilt' when I was listening."
"Are you even taking this seriously?" she demanded as he turned to rummage through another drawer.
"Yes, I am, But Lalasa may take some things a little too seriously sometimes, and you shouldn't feel that bad. I might have done the same thing if one of my friends showed up suddenly."
She smiled, for some reason, feeling much better that he had said that. "What are you looking for?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Have plans for tomorrow?" he asked instead of an answer.
"Not unless you give me something to do," she replied, slightly confused. She was kind of obligated as his maid to clean his things, wasn't she?
He turned. "Didn't you say something about daggers before?"
"Why?" She still had no idea where he was going with this.
"May I see them?" he asked slowly, like he was talking to a child.
"I'm not going to kill you in your sleep or anything," she said quickly.
"I know," he replied, exasperated. "May I please see you daggers." It wasn't a question. She reached into her boot, pulling out the first of hers and handing it to him. "Is this all?" he asked critically, examining the worn handle and blunt edge.
"No," she said slowly, carefully undoing her other three that she happened to be wearing that day.
"These aren't in the best of condition," he commented eventually, implying that this was a big understatement. He indicated a pair of them, obviously very old and used. "These ones were alright, once. The others look too cheap to be of any use."
"They weren't like this when I got them," she explained patiently. "Those were a gift…from my mother. The others were bought on the street."
"Where did she get these?" he demanded suddenly.
"I don't know," she said absently, thinking. "I was really little when she died. I was only four."
"And they let a four-year old run around with a blade?" he asked, suspicion filling his voice.
She looked up. "No, Mistress Beecher took them away 'til I was twelve. I really don't know where my mother got them, but Mistress Beecher would not lie about something like that. What's wrong?" she demanded.
"What's wrong is that your mother was thief!"
"No she wasn't!" Kai refuted, voice raised slightly.
"Kai," Faleron said, trying to keep his voice low. "Look, here, the canvas over the handle hid the crest. Kai, there is a family crest on here! From a noble family! She could have only gotten this is she stole it from a noble!"
"How do you know?" Kai demanded, trying to defend her mothers' ghost. "Maybe she found them somewhere! Maybe someone gave them to her!" Her protests sounded weak in her own ears, and she stared at the floor, wondering why no one had ever told her what her mother had done. Mistress Beecher, who had practically raised her, had always claimed that her mother had been the most talented singer in the city at one time, which, as she looked back now, had probably been only fairy tales, night-time stories to tell her to make her go to sleep. She had most likely made it all up, everything that Kai had believed for so long about her past, to cover up the dark truths.
But why hadn't someone told her? her inner voice wailed. If her mother had really been a thief, then George would have certainly have heard of her, and, knowing him, he probably knew that Kai was her daughter. Why hadn't he told her? Was this, somehow, why he had wanted her to come here, to find out the truth? No, he couldn't have known, it must be a simple coincidence, she insisted.
"Kai?" Faleron was saying. "Kai? Are you alright?"
"Yes," she said slowly, shaking her head, "I'm fine. What were you saying?"
"I was saying, that I have tomorrow morning off, since my knightmaster, Lord Geard, is going to a meeting, and you," he said, handing her a much newer-looking pair of daggers, "Are going to learn how to use these."
Ok, so that was long to make up for the last really sort chapter. Sorry for the delay and congrats to Scottish Wish, who noticed the mistake in previous chapters (gotta fix that), yes, Kel and her friends were in a class together as squires with Owen, who should have been a page. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and now that there's another chapter, you can tell me exactly what you think: Lalasa's a little ooc, but is anyone else? Have you seen the telltale signs of flying monkeys raining down from the sky? Will complete chaos ensue? What do you think? (End creepy rant here)