Chapter Thirteen

"This is from Stephen the hostler," Sholla murmured, discreetly handing George a piece of paper. "It's important."

Sholla obviously didn't know what it was, Kai decided.

George scanned the paper while Kai waited impatiently; she wished that she could just read it herself. After a minute, he frowned, crumpled the note into a ball, and stuffed it into his belt bag.

"Tell Stephen to send this to Orem," George ordered as he hastily scribbled a reply on another paper. Kai remembered hearing somewhere that the head hostler had carrier birds who could mail messages between the palace and the city secretly.

"Sir, is this about the bandits?" Sholla asked, tucking the paper away.

One of the former king's eyebrows rose. "How would you know about that?" he inquired.

Kai saw Sholla's mouth twitch. "Not exactly confidential information, sir. I'd say that almost a quarter of the city has heard some vague rumor about it, and perhaps four score people actually saw what was there."

George swore. "I want you all to start a rumor that the body was a hunting accident, nothing more. Mix up who it was and what class. You know the drill."

Sholla nodded and walked away with an empty tray balanced on her shoulder.

"What body?" Kai asked innocently enough after a moment.

"Nothing you should worry about," George said lightly. He doesn't want the truth to spread past the gossip, Kai thought.

"I'll be worried if we can't send messages out of the city," Sholla commented, returning with a full tray from the nearby kitchen. "Drinks?" she offered with a smile.

"Are there bandits stopping the messengers?" Kai asked incredulously.

"You talk too much for a spy," George informed Sholla.

"She should know," Sholla replied. "'A good spy gets information to those who need it most,'" she quoted quickly.

George grabbed a drink and downed it at once, probably wishing that it was something stronger, Kai thought wryly. "You should also listen to your superiors," he said after a moment of deep consideration.

"Not when they're wrong," Sholla replied cheekily.

"You're going to drive me to an early grave," he told the spy in disguise, then sighed. "Yes, we have bandits," he told Kai. "More than before, actually. If it were the same ones that we had a truce with, then we wouldn't be having these problems."

"What problems?" Kai wanted to know.

"Returned messengers who still have the letters and are unconscious, or dead. Movement around the city walls. We think there's more than were before, probably twice as many, but maybe more."

"Where'd they come from?" Kai wondered aloud as Sholla wandered off to fulfill her duty as 'waitress'. "No, it's not him doing all this, is it?" She was referring to Joren/Fang, but she knew that George was aware of who she meant.

George shrugged. "Might be. Not personally, of course, but he may have supplied the men and weapons, and he's probably controlling them."

"Why? Why would he station troops outside the city walls? Wouldn't he want to sneak them all in so we don't notice?" Kai asked, earning her a strange look from George.

"Mayb'," he agreed slowly, then shook his head. "We still don't know that it's him, though, so don't jump to conclusions. And don't tell anyone. Not Danai, Hedi, Kel, no one."

"They'll find out eventually when more bodies end up outside the gates," Sholla remarked on her way by again. Kai grinned, then realized the seriousness of what had been said. George shook his head and muttered something about discretion in spies.

"Why don't you tell someone?" Kai demanded. "Don't just keep sending out people to be killed."

"The king knows," George assured her, "And keeping everyone in here would be admitting defeat to the bandits. There still is traffic coming in and out: farmers, travelers, and pheasants. Don't worry about it."

Despite his confidence, Kai did worry often in the next two weeks, but she never told anyone what she had been told.

At Kel's and Faleron's insistence, Kai tried to learn to fight with her daggers from Faleron. They practiced; or, in Kai's case, were routinely hit with blunt practice weapons whenever she didn't understand, which was often; every morning. Even though Faleron went over and over the stances and ideas behind fighting, Kai still devoutly failed when putting the theory to work.

"It's like a dance," Faleron attempted to explain, covering his frustration at another failed effort with sparring. "See, if I do this," he exaggerated the movements for a simple upper strike, "then you do this," he said slowly, bringing her free arm up to the correct defense. She was currently balanced precariously on one crutch with the dagger in her other hand.

"I know that," she snapped. "But it's not the same. When you dance, your partner very rarely tricks you, or bruises you, and you're not out for the other person's blood or anything, and I keep thinking, what if I hurt someone? What if the blade slips? What if your hit is too hard and you accidentally stab me or something?"

"I think," he cut into her babbling, "That you think way too much and that you don't need to worry about the blades when we're using wooden daggers." He grinned down at her. "You're not mad enough." He slowly did a lower strike, which she blocked easily.

"I'm not mad enough," she repeated stupidly. "You're right. Obviously you have to be insane to take up fighting." She tried an offensive swing at his head, which he parried.

"You're not angry enough, and you know that that was what I meant. Or are you just as slow? I thought that street people were like that; apparently I'm right," he said nonchalantly as he struck again.

She started. "Well I thought that all nobles were bigheaded and overbearing; apparently I'm right," she snapped back with another block and another strike. Then she saw it. There was a rhythm to it: block, hit, block, hit, block. She didn't even realize that they had stopped talking, or that she was whispering that to herself as they exchanged blows until he stopped, grinning.

"Finally," he said. "If I had know that all I had to do was insult you, then you could've been a master swordsman by now."

"Swordswoman," she corrected loftily. The bell tolled the hour. "Don't you have to meet your knight master?"

Faleron hit his forehead. "Darn it! Can you put these back in the storage shed for me?" Not waiting for an answer, he thrust his wooden weapon at her and dashed out of the practice courts.

"Great," Kai said sarcastically as she glanced around at the almost empty room. The sheds were nearby, but she didn't know how long she'd be able to balance with only one crutch. Knowing her, it wouldn't last long.

She awkwardly hopped across the room, thanking the gods that no one was there to witness it.

"Do you want some help?" asked a tentative voice from the direction of the door.

Kai yelped, turned, tripped, and fell on the floor. "Umm…good morning, Lalasa," Kai greeted as she rubbed her bruised knee. "How long have you been there?"

"Not too long," Lalasa replied quietly. "Sorry?" she offered, her hand coming up to hide a grin.

"Here," Kai said as she tossed her the two wooden sticks. "Can you put those in there, please?"

"Need time to recover?" Lalasa took them and set off across the floor at a speed that Kai could envy.

Kai, meanwhile, forced herself up. "Well, that went better than expected," she murmured to herself, having dreaded the next time that she met up with Kel's maid after being upbraided for leaving. That was two weeks ago, Kai realized. Which meant that her foot should be fine. She hesitantly put her weight on it, and, feeling no pain, happily spun a pirouette, and ended up on the floor again. "Darn it!"

Lalasa walked back. "You're still not up?" she asked. "Maybe you should go to the healers'."

"Never mind," Kai said, getting up once more. She held the now-useless crutches in one hand. "What are you doing down here?"

Lalasa shrugged. "I thought I'd see if you were doing anything today."

"Not really," Kai answered. "Faleron never tells me to do anything, so mostly I just clean." She laughed. "Two weeks, and I've finally finished cleaning his room."

Lalasa smiled shyly in response.

Silence.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you before," Lalasa blurted out quickly. "I might have done the same thing in you place."

Kai shook her head. "You were right. I shouldn't have left." She stuck out her hand. "Friends?"

"Of course," Lalasa said, but despite her confident sounding answer, she seemed surprised and…pleased, by the offer.

Kai shrugged. "Well, I have very little else to do for the rest of the day. Do you want some help?"

Lalasa bit her lip. "Only if you're sure that you don't have anything else to do."

Kai laughed again. "Faleron takes his clothes to the palace tailor. There's some type of code of honor that says he has to clean his own weapons. His room is spotless. I'd be bored."

Before Kai knew it, Lalasa was teaching her to sew like a maid in her room, which, unfortunately, Kai grasped almost as much as fighting yesterday. It was only because she had had some type of a positive breakthrough that she kept sticking the needle through in random places with the hope that she wouldn't stab herself with it. She was used to more practical sewing: tears in her clothes and taking in skirts that were too big for her.

"The stitches have to be tiny, like this." Lalasa demonstrated an elaborate pattern that was half embroidery.

Kai let out a frustrated sigh. "Why can't I get anything around here right?" She scowled.

"It's alright," Lalasa soothed, her voice sounding distracted. The needle paused, and she drew her other hand out from behind the dress she was making to reveal her bloody thumb.

"Am I bugging you?" Kai asked as she wrapped the injury in some of the plentiful fabric nearby. "You seem…worried."

"No, of course not!" was the instant reply. There was a pause in which Kai scrutinized her work. "I'm just…concerned about something," Lalasa admitted.

"Kel?"

Lalasa looked up, surprised. "No," she said after a slight hesitation. "It's just that…"

"The betrothal?" Kai understood suddenly. She had assumed that the gown the Lalasa was sewing would be for some court lady, but now she saw that it was fitted for a very tall, modest person. And it made sense that Kel would tell her maid; they were like best friends. Lalasa must have just found out recently, Kai thought.

"How do you know about that?" Lalasa demanded, and edge of-was it jealousy? –tinting her voice.

Kai quickly explained how she and Faleron had overheard some of what Kel told her brother when she found out about the agreement. "Who is it?" she asked tentatively, curiosity getting the better of her.

Lalasa shook her head. "I shouldn't tell," she murmured.

"You know that the entire court will know soon," Kai pointed out.

"Ask Kel yourself," Lalasa said, pulling her stitches just a little too tight.

"Fine," Kai agreed. She didn't want to push Lalasa too much as they had just become friends again.

There was a knock on the door, and in walked-to Kai's great surprise-Danai. She closed the door quickly, and then slowly turned. "Hello, Kai."

Ok, I'll admit that that was a cliffhanger, but if I put the rest in then this would be longer than it already is, but I think it's my longest chapter so far. I'm kinda in a hurry right now or else I'd put up everyone who reviewed. I wanted to get a chapter out since the last update was so long ago.

Now, I must ask, how many people reading this like Danai as a character? Have I turned her into arch nemesis number one? Have you all forgotten her? Please tell me in a review what you think.