Summary/Recap THIS IS IMPORTANT: back in some other chapter, it was mentioned (yeah, I'm too lazy to get an exact quote) that Mindelan had had landslides, killing lots of people, including Kel's parents, and harming the harvest. In chapter nine, Kai and Faleron accidentally overheard Kel arguing with her brother when she found out that he had been forced to betroth her because of the damage from the landslides. END IMPORTANT PART. Like anyone's going to read past that. Well, for anyone who's wondering what happened last chapter, Kel and Ver were in the middle of a shouting match, and then they had a meeting in George's rooms, and Kai and Danai found out that Hedi was killed in a fire probably set by Joren…blah, blah, blah…Kai thought the whole thing was her fault…oh, and she and Faleron had a really long conversation…
CHAPTER TWENTY! (too bad it's just a stupid filler chapter)
Faleron's POV
Faleron leaned against the wall of George's room, frowning. He had explained that Kai was sleeping but here, in the palace, and that he didn't think that she would leave, but had locked her door just in case. There had been much protest at the precaution, but he knew that it was necessary.
Something was bugging him, though, and that was that Kel and Neal had been sent to get a simple messenger bird, and still hadn't come back. He wondered what was happening between those two, especially their new lack of communication. Maybe they had had a fight and were now in the middle of a duel in the practice courts over something like which bird to take, Faleron thought with a small smile.
"Lalasa, can you go see if the birds attacked Kel and Neal?" George asked with an almost identical smirk.
Lalasa nodded and left.
Owen tossed a small juggler's ball up. "I found it on the street," he said defensively to Esmond and Faleron's grins. George continued to write messages as the page tried to juggle and the squires laughed at his miserable failures.
When Lalasa came back a few minutes later, thoroughly paler than when she had been a few minutes before. "Kel and Neal are a little busy right now, so I just went and got it myself," she said quietly.
"Busy doing what?" Owen inquired.
"Shouting at each other," Lalasa answered quietly.
"Figures," Esmond said, chuckling. "Should we send someone in to rescue them?" He glanced at Faleron.
"Don't look at me," Faleron said hurriedly. "I'm not getting in the middle of this."
"Let 'em work it out on their own," Owen suggested.
The door opened, and they all turned, expecting to find Kel, Neal, and a bird, but instead Danai and Ver walked in.
"Where's Kai?" Danai demanded, stomping up to Faleron.
"She's asleep in her room," he answered, somewhat surprised at her uncharacteristically abrupt behavior.
"No she isn't," Danai argued. "I saw her running through the courtyard half an hour ago."
"Well," Faleron said carefully, "I don't know how she got into the courtyard, but I left her in her room ten minutes ago."
"You left her in her room?" Ver repeated suspiciously. "How'd you get in her room?"
Faleron was about to say that there was a door leading from his room into hers, but he somehow thought that that wasn't going to make the situation better. "Look, she was falling asleep when she was in my room so I sent her into hers."
"Why would she be in your room if she was running away?" Danai asked.
"Do you want a truthseer?" Faleron demanded, exasperated. "Either you take my word that she's sleeping in her room or you go check for yourselves!"
"Fine," Ver responded, turning to the door. Danai, appearing to not know what else to do, followed him. Right before Ver could turn the doorknob, however, the door opened of its own accord. Or, rather, Neal's.
Kel's POV
Kel pointed out a bird in the cage. "How about that one?" she asked, carefully keeping her eyes on the bird.
"Why not?" Neal replied in an unconcerned voice.
Kel glanced at him sharply. "What's wrong?" she inquired politely, mask falling into place after she realized that she had accidentally looked directly at him.
Neal sighed. "Did you hear from your family lately?"
"Anders is in the city for a couple of weeks," Kel answered, looking at the pigeon as she spoke.
"Did he tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Their tones were still civil almost to the point of distant.
"Gods Kel, you have to know what I'm talking about!" Neal suddenly burst out. "Otherwise you'd actually look at me instead of the bird!"
"Maybe the bird's more interesting," Kel suggested, not raising her voice in the least.
"Maybe you're scared," Neal countered.
Kel grinned despite herself. "Neal, I know you're ugly, but I'm brave enough to look at you anyway. One of the major accomplishments of my pagedom, remember?"
"No changing the subject," he ordered, tone unusually serious even for Neal. "I know that you know about Mindelan's financial problems this year."
Kel glared at him. "Are you trying to tell me I'm too poor for you?"
"No, but I want you to understand why Anders did it. He wouldn't accept my father's donation, and we heard about all the landslides, so we had to help, but I didn't know about what they did until afterward."
"You want me to understand?" Kel repeated. "He sold me away for a few pieces of gold!"
"He didn't 'sell you away'," Neal argued. "And it was a lot more than a few pieces of gold. Anders knew that we were friends. Besides, most noble girls end up engaged much before their fourteenth year, and to old, stuffy men who've probably outlived six other wives."
"I guess marrying you will be a little better than Duke Vartin," Kel said distastefully. Duke Vartin was well into his sixth decade.
"Honestly, Kel, you flatter me," Neal said sarcastically. "What's really wrong?"
"Nothing," Kel denied quickly, face and voice devoid of emotion.
"Kel, how are we supposed to build a successful marriage if our friendship…"
"That's the problem!" Kel interrupted. "Don't you think that it'll be just a little bit uncomfortable being married to each other?"
"Oh course I do!" Neal answered loudly. "And you not talking to me is not helping this."
"I'm sorry; I thought that this conversation would be awkward," Kel shot back. "This is so much better than I expected though, though."
"Why do I bother?" Neal muttered, turning toward the door. "Just get the stupid bird and we'll leave."
"No," Kel said boldly. "You started this conversation; let's finish it like adults." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I avoided you."
Neal turned back to her and flapped a hand, uncharacteristically quiet. " 'S all right."
"So," Kel paused, "I'll try to do this if you will too."
"You know," Neal remarked, familiar grin in place, "Some court women would jump at this chance."
Kel grimaced. "Court women also wear those ridiculous dresses and giggle all the time."
"Kel," Neal said straight faced, "If you ever giggled then I would personally see you to the best Healers in Tortall."
"Thanks, Neal," Kel said sarcastically as she opened the birdcage. "Nice to know you're taking your new job seriously." She carefully took one of the pigeons out and smiled. "We should get back before they start thinking that we got lost on our way here or something."
"They know I wouldn't get lost," Neal joked, holding the door open. "I'm too brilliant for something like that."
Faleron's POV
"Do you want a truthseer?" Faleron demanded, exasperated. "Either you take my word that she's sleeping in her room or you go check for yourselves!"
"Fine," Ver responded, turning to the door. Danai, appearing to not know what else to do, followed him. Right before Ver could turn the doorknob, however, the door opened of its own accord. Or, rather, Neal's.
"Sorry," Neal said quickly. "We got lost on the way back." He grinned at Kel, who couldn't wholly contain her own smile as she followed him into George's office. Owen was smirking and the baron of Pirates' Swoop was also watching the exchange closely. It did not elude Faleron that Kel and Neal, who had left without speaking to one another, were now joking like nothing had happened. Faleron glanced at Lalasa, wondering how much she had overheard.
Ver and Danai slid past the two newcomers, heading for Kai's room. It was only then that Faleron remembered that he had locked Kai's door, just in case. Mentally hitting himself on the head, he ran after them.
"Wait!" he yelled after their retreating backs.
Danai turned with a surprised expression. "Yes?"
"You need the key," he explained, holding out the aforementioned object.
"It's locked?" she asked in disbelief as she grabbed it. "You locked her in? Why?"
"I was worried that she'd do something stupid," he said simply.
"So you locked her in her room?" she asked again.
"Look, did you want her to sneak out by herself to go kill Joren?" Faleron asked, annoyed.
Danai snorted. "Kai's not that stupid, Faleron. She'd wait for some of us to go, at least."
"You didn't see her twenty minutes ago, all right? I think she's sleeping now, anyway, so she wouldn't have ever known."
"Yeah, what else do you not tell her?" Ver challenged, suddenly entering the conversation.
Faleron was starting to get a headache. "Don't accuse me of keeping secrets."
Ver gaped for a minute; then promptly began cursing. "How in Mithros do you know that?" Even Danai was looking suspicious.
"I don't know anything about what you told her-them," Faleron corrected quickly at Danai's glare, "but it wasn't hard to see that someone was keeping a secret. Remember the long dagger conversation in the middle of the city three days ago? It was kind of obvious that Ver was keeping something from you two."
"'Was keeping'?" Ver repeated. "What do you mean by that?"
Faleron definitely felt a headache coming on. "I was there when Danai and Kai both left for the stables," he reminded Ver. "Why else would they have gone?"
"Never mind," Ver said sullenly, still looking suspicious, but Danai seemed to accept his answers at least. "Let's go, Danai."
Kai's POV
Someone was knocking on her door, Kai realized gradually. She had been staring up at the ceiling for what felt like an hour but probably was nowhere near as long. Kai dragged herself up off her bed and opened the door.
"Kai," Danai seemed unsure of what to say. She became aware that her hair probably looked like it had survived a desert sandstorm and the rest of her was probably the same. "Were you sleeping?" Danai asked in a somewhat guilty voice.
"Not really," Kai mumbled. How late was it? she wondered. "What's wrong?" she asked, waking up a little as she noticed Ver, who was scowling.
"I don't trust that noble you work for," he said distastefully. "Did you know that he locked the door?"
"No," Kai answered slowly. "Why would he do that?"
"He's a noble, Kai; he doesn't need a reason."
"No," Danai interrupted, glaring at Ver. "He said he didn't want you to get killed." The singer turned her unusually sharp gaze onto Kai. "Would you really have left without us?"
"Maybe," Kai said, guilty in her turn thinking about before, when she really was going to go after Joren.
"Well, we're here now," Ver said unexpectedly. "Why don't we leave?"
Kai stared at him for a moment. Why didn't they go? Faleron had stopped her because she was going alone, hadn't he?
She looked down at herself. "Let me get changed first," she heard herself say, shutting the door. She heard Danai and Ver talking out in the hall, but didn't really pay attention to it. Kai felt dazed, like she wasn't wholly connected to her body. She realized that she had gone to bed with all her daggers still on, so after changing her clothes and braiding her hair quickly, she was ready. "Let's go," she announced, opening the door.
Ok, that's all for now. Stupid keyboard stilldoesn't work. Will do replies next chapter.