Chapter 16
"Alright," Dal said when they stopped at the street corner of the side alley and the main street in front of a low-roofed store, "Where are we going?"
"I thought you knew that," moaned Kai.
"Why don't we just go back to the Dove?" Ver suggested.
"That's the first place they'll look for us," protested Danai. "What about Hedi's place?"
"That's across the city," Sherra replied. "Too far. What about yours?"
"They know where I live," Danai answered.
"Thanks to you," Ver snapped at Sherra.
"Not now," Dal interrupted.
"He's right," Kai agreed when both Sherra and Ver opened their mouths to argue.
"What about the palace?" Lalasa asked quietly.
Silence.
Kai considered it. She supposed that the Dancing Dove was the best place for Ver and Sherra, since Ver hated nobles and Sherra could continue her work as a barmaid, but Danai was right that that was the first place that they'd look for them, and Kai didn't want to start any huge fights over this, especially when this was all her fault. Where else could they go? As a group, it seemed that the only solution was the palace, which was fine for Kai and Danai as that was where they'd be right now if not for being kidnapped, but Ver would hate it. Sherra would probably not mind, though, and Dal would go with whatever the group chose.
Kai took a deep breath. "I think Lalasa's right. That's the only other place."
"And it took you this long to realize?" remarked a new voice. They turned.
"Lady Kel!" Lalasa cried. Kel, Faleron, and Neal looked fairly relieved to see them. The last remark had been, of course, Neal's.
"How'd you find us?" Kai asked what she was wondering.
"The house was watched," Faleron answered, shrugging. "Were you really considering not going back to the palace?" he asked her, dark eyes serious.
She bit her lip. "If there was somewhere that everyone," she indicated the group loosely circled around, "Would like better, then we would have gone there," she said honestly. "But you would have been told. I would have sent a messenger bird or something."
"Thanks, after all this all I get a bird," Faleron joked lightly. Kai noticed that Ver was watching the exchange closely.
"Where're your crutches?" Neal demanded suddenly, changing the topic. "You're not supposed to be off them for another two weeks."
"My foot's fine," she protested, shaking out the limb in question.
"We don't have time for this," Kel said before Neal could open his mouth. Kai suddenly noticed that the two were standing farther apart than usual and that Kel never made eye contact with her friend. Had they had a fight? Kai wondered.
Suddenly, the people passing them on the main street stopped, and one face in particular stood out from the crowd like a toad in a sea of kittens. Joren smiled maliciously. "I see my plan worked and you are all here at last," he said, stepping forward, with, of course, ten or so cloaked cronies like the ones Dal had brought to Kai's room that morning.
"This," Kel announced, "Is hardly a plan. Why do you think we don't have our own people watching us just in case?"
"Because my people have taken good care of all of your people," Fang answered. "Don't worry, they'll all wake up at the edge of the city in a couple of hours. More than enough time for me."
Without warning, someone else jumped down from the roof behind them.
"Good to see you all," Treble greeted as he walked forward. "Lovely day for a fight, yes?" He looked at Fang. "You may want to tell your men to bring more than three blades with them. I'm sure those two cheap brawlers you sent will be found in a day or two, though, so don't worry." The next thing he directed at Kel. "George says that he's sending reinforcements. They'll be here in twenty minutes. He also said that however you got caught, Kai, you'll be getting a lecture when you get back. You too, Danai."
For a moment, everyone was silent while the oddity of Treble, being, of course, completely unaffected by the fact that they were about to be in an outnumbered fight, chatted on about random topics.
Then, suddenly, Joren unsheathed his sword. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked the people standing beside him.
With that, the fighting started and Kai felt herself be shoved to the middle of the circle next to Lalasa and Danai. "No fair!" she hollered at Faleron. "Gimme a dagger, someone!"
"Not a chance!" he shouted back.
"Well, this is nice," she muttered to Danai. "They teach me to fight, then they take away my dagger at the first sight of danger."
"Nobles," Danai said in response.
Kai glanced at her in surprise. She had actually been thinking something about how Faleron was too protective, nothing about how he was a noble. Of course, Kai thought, Dal and Ver also made no attempt to give either of them a weapon. She wondered where Ver had gotten the knife he was using, and then realized that it was probably Dal's. At least he wouldn't be calling him a traitor anymore, Kai thought.
Not surprisingly, Kel and Joren had become engaged in a battle on their own, while Neal and Faleron each had two people they were fighting. Treble was going through opponents like there was no tomorrow, taking his time before pointing out everything that the other was doing wrong and disarming him. Where had he learned to fight like that? Kai questioned.
Then, a scream rang out. Kai frowned, looking around, before she saw that Lalasa had somehow become stuck between Kel and Joren.
"Careful, Mindelan," he taunted. "Don't want to accidentally hurt the maid, do we?"
"Can't you fight for yourself, Joren?" Kel asked, this apparently being the last straw. "Are you scared?"
"Say that again and I'll cut her throat," Joren threatened, laying his blade much too close to Lalasa's throat for Kai's comfort. The others had stopped fighting, and everyone stood watching. Neal started forward. "Stay back, Queenscove," Joren said quickly. Sherra was frowning as she carefully hefted a knife. Kai remembered that she always won the throwing contests at the Dove and relaxed. "Put it down, girl," Joren said without looking at her.
"Gimme your dagger," Kai hissed at Faleron, who was standing helplessly next to her.
"Joren, let her go," Kel demanded in an impatient voice.
"What are you going to do?" Faleron asked Kai quietly.
"Are you scared, Mindelan?" Joren countered Kel mockingly.
"Why don't you just trust me for a minute?" Kai shot back at a whisper.
Faleron slid her the weapon just as Neal jumped forward, green glowing hand outstretched.
"Don't," Joren warned, spinning around to face Neal with Lalasa held in front of him. His back was to Kai; this was her chance. She leapt up onto Fang's back, dagger in hand. The shock caused him to let go of Lalasa and stagger back. Some distant part of her watched Ver and Treble disarm the last few of Fang's cronies before she felt her dagger being wretched from her grasp and a hand grip her arm. Fang pulled on her arm, trying to force her off.
"Let go!" someone shouted. Kai assumed that it was Joren, after all, wasn't he the one trying to get her off him?
"Kai, get off!" someone else ordered, but this one she recognized as Faleron. Her back hit something extremely solid, probably a wall, and her grasp loosened. She looked up, and realized that everyone else was afraid to interfere because of where she was. Fang tried to tug her over his shoulder again, and he was much stronger than she was. Kai felt herself suddenly fly upwards; but then hit the ground hard and blackness overtook her.
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Kel's POV
Kel could only stare for a minute at Kai, who didn't get up. Joren looked around at his disarmed and generally unconscious crew of fighters with only Kai's dagger held in front of him.
"Joren, it's over," Kel said slowly, trying to predict what he would do when the realization hit him.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Lump?" he sneered. He was staring at something over her shoulder and smirked.
Kel took a chance and glanced backward. Another troop of black cloaks stood in a half circle around them.
"Oh joy," Neal muttered beside her. "There's more!"
"Attack!" someone yelled. Kel thought that it was Joren, but she wasn't quite certain. She made sure that Kai was all right; she was still unconscious and Joren had forgotten about her when his friends showed up. Kel was immediately preoccupied with a particularly large man bearing a sword. After the fighting started, Joren somehow made it past their lines to join his own side, and then, just when Kel's group began winning again, Joren shouted, "This isn't over!" And with that, all of their opponents melted into the crowd.
"Don't go after him," Kel advised Treble and Ver, who both glared at the order. "It's probably a trap. Or they'll go somewhere that they have more fighters waiting."
"Anyone hurt?" Neal asked.
"My arm's cut," Sherra said offhandedly.
"Lemme see it," he ordered. The 'cut' turned out to be a huge gash and Kel turned her face away from the sight of it. It was then that she saw Kai was awake.
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"Have a good sleep?" Faleron asked with a grin as he a bandaged her head.
"No," Kai answered honestly. "I can do that, you know," she pointed out.
"Right now, I doubt that you can stand up."
"Thanks for the moral support," she said dryly.
"It's true."
"That doesn't mean that either of us has to actually say that."
"You're impossible, Kai," Ver informed her as he sat next to them. Faleron stood and walked over to Neal.
"Why thank you. I'm just getting compliments all around today." Ver moved to stand up too, but she shoved herself up. "That doesn't mean you get off that easily! I want to know exactly what you and Dal were talking about!" Sadly, true to Faleron's prediction, Kai couldn't stand up and had to sit back.
"I'll tell you," Ver said, walking away with a smirk, "When you can get up."
"Where are the stupid crutches when you need them?" Kai muttered to herself.
It was then that the reinforcements chose to show up in the form of some noble that bore an unusual resemblance to Neal leading a squad of the Own. "Err…where'd everybody go?" he asked from atop his horse as he scratched his head.
"They went that way," said almost Neal, pointing in the direction that Joren had taken off on. "Just a little late, Dom."
"Well, I see you handled it all very well, Meathead. No post-traumatic problems or anything?" Dom grinned. "I guess we should go see if we can find them."
"Why?" Sherra asked.
"Because if we don't then Lord Raoul will give me mucking duties for the next year or so."
Sherra turned away, muttering something along the lines of "Crazy nobles," under her breath as the soldiers galloped off.
"That was Neal's cousin. They have a very…unique relationship," Kel said carefully as she sat on her heels next to Kai.
"I'm glad I don't have relatives," Kai almost said, before catching herself. Need to get that story out of Ver, she reminded herself. She settled for asking, "Can you help me up?"
"Oh, sorry. Do you want a horse or something to get back?" Kel offered; then saw the look on Kai's face. "Never mind. Where're your crutches?"
Kai grimaced. "My room."
Kel nodded. "I see. Why are they in your room?"
"Because I could walk before this!" Kai burst out. "I don't think the gods like me anymore."
"Don't say that where they might hear," Neal warned. "And you should have been using your crutches anyway."
"It's kind of hard to negotiate things like that with your kidnappers. I don't have my daggers anymore," Kai admitted.
"Which daggers?" Ver demanded, suddenly entering the conversation.
Kai thought for a minute. "The ones Lora and Hedi gave to me for Midwinter two years ago. You remember them?"
"Err…no," Ver mumbled. "Never mind."
Kai drew in breath sharply. "You know about the old ones with the picture on them, don't you? Is that what you and Fang were talking about before?"
"The ones with the noble crest?" Faleron asked, coming over.
"Did you take the hilt apart or something?" Dal demanded, looking from Kai to Faleron.
"Do you know?" Danai asked him. The conversation was quickly attracting the attention of the entire group, Kai realized belatedly.
"What daggers?" Sherra inquired.
"Do you not know?" Kai asked her. Sherra shook her head.
"Thank the gods!" Danai and Kai said at the same time, and then grinned at each other. Sherra frowned and glanced from one of them to the other.
"We just had to make sure that we weren't the only ones," Danai assured her.
"We should really leave," Ver said nervously. They were the only group standing in the alleyway, though, so it didn't matter much that they were blocking the entire passageway.
"I'll find out eventually, you know," Kai said.
"I'll tell you later when we're not in front of a crowd," Ver said, shooting the three nobles in attendance a glare.
"We should wait until Dom gets back to leave," Neal announced. Ver and Treble shifted unconsciously.
"How do you plan on getting to the palace?" Kel asked Kai, who shrugged.
"Improvise." Kai smiled. "No, I'll walk."
"Who said we were all going to the palace?" Ver inquired.
"Where would you like to go?" Kai asked in a determinedly light voice.
"Back to the Dove, and you should, too," he said.
"I do," Kai said before she thought. She saw Kel, Faleron, and Neal glance twice in her direction.
"But you won't, right?" Kel asked carefully.
"No," Kai answered, earning her a glare from Ver and Treble. "I mean I want to, but I can't," she told them.
"Why not?" Ver demanded. "Because they won't let you?"
"She could've left if she wanted," Faleron shot back.
"And she did!" Danai argued. "But you came and took her again."
"Everyone, just stop!" Kai shouted. She had known it was coming; the group of people prejudiced against each other made it inevitable. Kai wished she could just run away from all this, but she was stuck sitting in the middle of the circle. "Ver, Danai was right that the Dove is the first place they'll look for us, and you know better than I do that if we go there and Fang shows up then there'll be a fight. A big one. Do you want to cause all that? I don't care where you want to go, but this is the best place right now."
"Says who?" Ver challenged.
"Says me," she replied. "And Danai. And everyone. You don't have to live there forever, just get through the summer and then move back to the city." Ver still looked unconvinced, so she added, "And just think of all the nobles that you'll be able to pick the pockets of."
He grinned. "Fine, but I'm not running around pretending to work for one of them."
"Fine." She shrugged. "Work in the stables. Or the kitchens. I don't know." Kai shoved her hair back from her face. "Anyone else have a problem here?"
"What about us?" Sherra asked. "Me and Treble. I got a job working at the Dove, and he already lives there. No one will care if we're there, and I'm not going up there." She shuddered as she indicated the general direction of the palace. "Haven't you heard the stories?"
"Most of them aren't true," Lalasa volunteered. "They make up a lot so that the local girls won't try to get better jobs that pay more in the palace."
"All's the same, I like my job," Sherra said.
Kai thought for a minute. Joren knew her face, name, and something about her past that he used to blackmail her into working for him. But it couldn't matter too much if it was just two people who were normally at the Dancing Dove anyway; no one would notice. At least not as much as if all six of them had gone and taken up all the empty rooms. "I think," Kai said carefully, "That you and Treble could go back and you'll be fine."
"What about me?" Dal asked.
That was what Kai had been wondering. He knew about this big secret, and that could be important. But it still couldn't hurt, right? When had she been put in charge of figuring out where everyone went? "I don't know. Where do you want to go?"
Dal shrugged. He was torn between Ver, his best friend, and Sherra. "I'll go back to the Dove," he said finally. "Good luck, Ver." He grinned.
Kai had closed her eyes while the final arrangements were being made, but someone's voice snapped her out of it.
"Kai?"
"What!" she demanded.
"We're leaving," Faleron answered with a grin.
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As you can see, I've been a little bored dividers.
Please excuse the fact that I am horrible at fight scenes and usually skip over them when I am reading. Yes, I know that was awful. And I'm sorry if it bore any resemblance to the end of TC, which was completely unintentional. Oh, if anyone noticed that Ver and Dal no longer have accents: that was because I also recently realized (was told by my little sister) that my own accents were horrible, and then I read this over and realized that they all sounded like they were Scottish or something. I'm going to go back and try to fix all that in the previous chapters.
darkjdeg: That's all coming up next chapter (I think).
BigBigStarr: Thanks for the review! Yeah, I like them on the good side, too.
Syl Rose: Um...not all the people who kidnapped them are good. Dal and Sherra are, but Sherra had nothing to do with it and Dal was kind of forced to. I want to explain that a little more next chapter, but I hope this gives you a better idea of what's happening.
Tessadragon: Thanks. I'm over the writer's block (I hope) though, so this should be faster in updating. You actually didn't sound like Yoda to me until you pointed it out. Can you do the weird squeaky voice too? Just a joke.
GreatMotherG: Thank you. And I hope that this is fast enough so that you're still alive. In answer to your question, Kai is fourteen, and Kel is in her first year as a squire.
Please review!