A/N So here's the first chapter of the new sequel. I hope you like it.
Chapter One:
The bustle and noise of the bar washed over Torianna as she and Robert sauntered into the building as if they owned that place. In truth she had never entered the capital, let alone the bar before, but she was feeling a sense of pride in Robert.
Today, he had been admitted into the Own. He smiled at her as they chose a seat at the back of the room, the only table left open. She looked briefly to his hand where she ring rested. She had given it to him for good luck on the entrance exams.
The ring itself she didn't believe was lucky. The only reason she kept it was because it was the only possession she had left of her parents. The only thing she had that could one day lead her back to them. It wasn't special in any other way. She had had it appraised to assure herself of that fact many times. It was made out of regular old gold found in any country with a regular old emerald found in any country as a centerpiece to the ring. The fact the green in the emerald matched her eyes held no significant information. It was, quite simply, an ordinary ring.
But if Robert wanted to wear the ring it was fine by her. She had no real use for it. It wasn't like her family would come looking for her. They hadn't so far and she was seventeen already. She sniffed, pushing back the sad thoughts. She was here to celebrate her friend's accomplishment.
Not that his accomplishment was supposed to make her happy. She had been raised with this man, as his constant companion. They were like blood, they were so close. With him entering the Own, not only would they be separated, but also she would be out of a job. Most likely, Robert's father would hire her to take care of Robert's younger siblings, but it simply wouldn't be the same.
"Smile Tori!" Robert laughed, grabbing her hand and squeezing it in his excitement. Tonight was the night, he thought as he stared at his lovely companion. The night that he told the woman of his dreams how he really felt. It wasn't just her luscious golden brown locks or enchanting green eyes that had stolen his heart so many years ago, but her sparkling personality and charming wit. Tonight, he would ask her to marry him.
"Tori, I want to ask you—"
"Robert!" someone called as he stepped to the table and smacked Robert on the shoulder, causing him to jostle the cup of mead in his hand. He turned to look up at the man that had newly been made a friend. Tori looked also and was immediately captured. His dusty-blond hair fell across his face and into his cool greenish-brown eyes. His mouth, generous in shape was open in a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He looked to her and her breath caught before she smiled back at him.
"Who's this?" the man asked, never taking his eyes off of Tori. She challenged his stare, unflinching.
"This is Tori. Tori, this is my commanding officer, Derek," he gestured with his hand and Tori nodded once. Derek stared for a second longer, as if imprinting her face in his mind, then turned to Robert and didn't take notice of her again.
"Here to celebrate are you?" Derek asked inquiringly, one eyebrow rising fractionally.
"Yes. You?" Robert's arm slunk around Tori's shoulders as he spoke. She didn't notice for a table had caught her attention across the room where a husband and wife sat with their two small children.
"The same. My sister was just chosen to be Sir Raoul's squire. Following in my mother's footsteps, much as I followed in my fathers, you could say," he laughed and Robert laughed along with him. Tori laughed to, but it was because the younger of the two children at the table had fallen asleep and had plopped his head on his food plate for a pillow.
"Speaking of which, I should get back to them before they become to amorous in their drinking," he grinned sharply then turned to Tori once more. "It was a pleasure meeting you."
She nodded not really taking into account the fact that he had spoken to her, for the second child had begun poking his brother, trying to wake him. Her heart fluttered and she sighed. It had always been one of her dreams to have kids of her own.
Robert heard the sigh and his anger was sparked, thinking she was sighing after Derek.
"Now, Tori," Robert asked, tugging on her shoulder, willing to ignore the fact that she had showed interest in another man, getting her to look at him once more. "Won't you miss me while I'm gone?" he asked, hoping to ease into the question that he had been fretting over all day.
"Of course I'm going to miss you Robert. We've never been separated for so long before. And you know that I think of you as my brother of the heart," she smiled and patted his cheek in affection. She turned to grab her drink and missed the sharp disappointment in his face.
"I don't think of you as a sister," he said, trying to ease towards the subject once more. He saw that it hadn't worked when a hurt look entered her eyes.
"Oh, well then," she said quietly. She had always thought they had been so close, but she supposed the feelings could have been one sided. But it still hurt. "Why not?"
"Because," he began, sure that they were on the right track now, leaning closer to her. "I could never kiss my sister."
She was silent for a moment, staring at him closely. He was disappointed again when she laughed her delicious, tinkling laugh. "Oh, Robert. It's so like you to play these jokes on me. Of course you wouldn't kiss your sister. Why would you want to?"
She turned away again and grabbed for her drink. But Robert wasn't to give up. Who would he be if he didn't fight to the last for the woman he loved? But before he had a chance to begin again, a man strode to the table and bowed, grabbing Tori's hand, kissing it. "Milady, would you care to dance?"
Red filled Robert's eyes as Tori's delighted laughter filled his ears; he had never been one to control his temper. But this was the last straw. She ignored him, shut him down at every turn, and then flaunted other men in his face? He wouldn't stand for that.
Tori was on the verge of politely refusing when Robert cut in making the decision for her. "She's taken. Get out of my sight before I have to hurt you." The man obviously decided that he'd rather not pick a fight and retreated into the crowd.
"That was awfully rude of you Robert," she said, turning to face him. She saw the rage in his eyes and sighed. He had always been quick to take to temper and never easy at controlling it. They were in for a fight, she knew, and prayed that she could keep the upper hand and her feelings unhurt.
"You'd rather dance with him then spend our last night together with me?" he demanded in a loud voice, drawing the attentions of the people closer to them. She sighed, and fought against the flush in her cheeks.
"Of course not. I was simply saying that it could have been said in a nicer way," she tried for a calm, easy voice, but Robert was having none of it.
"Don't use that voice with me Torianna. I don't need to be placated. What I need is to be reassured that you're faithful to me. And only me!" he seethed at her. She could have rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Robert. Of course, Robert. You know I'm faithful to only you," she said in a mundane, singsong voice. His tantrums, she mused, seemed to be all alike. So alike, in fact, that with the slightest modifications due to circumstances she could use the same lines over and over and he would always end up soothed. Cheered slightly, she grinned. A mistake on her part.
"You liar," he hissed, seeing her amused grin and mistaking it for a deceiving one. She cringed at the tone. This was about to get ugly.
"Come, Robert, lets discuss this outside, away from the horde of staring people," and indeed they were staring. His voice had drawn a crowd by now, a large one, including the man that she had been recently introduced to and his family.
"Are you sleeping with him?" he demanded. She looked back at him bewildered by the statement. Where the heck had that come from?
"Who?" she asked in an innocent tone that only set him on edge.
"Don't play games with me Torianna. Here I am, trying to purpose to you and you're flaunting your men in my face like a common harlot!" her face flushed darkly, but she tried to stop the words from getting to her any way. Some one had to keep the upper hand here. And it looked like she was that someone. But the most she could hope for was disaster and not utter chaos.
"I don't know what you are talking about. Lets just go back to the inn and discuss this like two rational thinking people," her voice was calm, the eye of the storm. But it was too late.
"That man that asked you to dance, did he get you with child yet? I bet you think you're so clever, that I'm so stupid that I wouldn't notice? Well, guess what Tori, I noticed! You harlot!"
"Noticed what?" she yelled back, fighting the losing battle. Her temper was a mild thing until provoked. She stood with the force of the anger coming to life. "That some stranger asked me to dance and I was going to say no? Or the fact that you're being a total pompous ass?"
Robert stood also, but it was so he would have leverage when he struck her across the face. The blow snapped her head back, a hollow thunk sounding through the watching tavern. The blow seemed to bring Robert out of his rage, for the color left his cheeks as she slowly brought her head around to face him. All noise had fled and it was silent as a tomb in the tavern. The ring, her ring that he still wore on his finger, had left a gash in her cheek.
In a still, utterly emotionless voice she said into the sudden silence, "I'm returning to the inn, Robert. When you regain control on your temper, we'll talk this out. Until then, goodnight."
She turned, heading for the door and the crowd parted for her. Her back was ramrod straight as she walked, ignoring the stinging in her cheek and the tears in her eyes. When Robert called her name, she didn't turn back.
The fresh air of the night was sucked hurriedly into her lungs as she stepped into the refreshing darkness of the night. Robert soon followed her.
"Tori!" he called, running after her as she took the nearest turn. She had never been good with directions, and this seemed to prove it. She had walked into an alley. "Tori. I'm…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things."
"No," she said back, in a voice thick with tears and hurt. "You shouldn't have. You shouldn't have hit me either, Robert."
"I know, and I'm sorry. It was just… I had something special planned for tonight, and everyone seemed to be getting in the way. I'm sorry for what I did," he said in a lame voice, his head bowed in shame.
"So you take it out on me? That hardly seems fair, Robert," she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. She was willing to forgive some things. But no one had ever struck her before. And she wasn't certain how to react to this outburst. It was almost as if he had been… jealous.
"It wasn't fair. And I should never have lost my temper. It wasn't your fault. And I should never have hit you. Can you forgive me?" he looked at her and knew the way to get to her would be to appeal to her humor. "I'll let you beat me up."
She laughed at that. They both knew she was terrible at hand fighting. Robert had spent hours trying to teach her how to, but she had never picked it up. She had never really picked up any of the skills that he had taught her. She could memorize the patterns and the moves and put them to use fine. But when it came to hurting someone or dueling someone, she just couldn't do it. She didn't have the drive to want to win. Quite frankly, she didn't care.
"I guess I could beat you up," she offered him a smile, and he knew that he was back in her good graces. Tori had never been one to hold a grudge for long. "We should get you to a healer and have that bruise removed. I truly am sorry, Tori."
"I know. And I forgive you. But if you ever hit me again, Robert, I won't stick around long enough for you to say you're sorry. Is that clear?" she bunched her fists and stepped into a fighting stance, and he held up his hands in mock surrender. Torchlight made her ring on his finger glitter in the light. Something else glittered too.
Out of the dark from the street slashed a knife. It sank, like it moved through butter, into Robert's chest, striking the heart and killing him. The scream that she wanted to let free died in her throat as he fell to the ground, reaching for her.
"…T…Tori…" her name whispered from his lips. His dieing breath he had used to say the name of the woman he loved. She fell to her knees beside him, her hands fluttering around his body, wanting to sooth, to fix him, to make him come back to life.
Like seeing them through a mist, two men kneeled on the other side of Robert's body. She stared at them, her emerald eyes unnaturally bright in the sudden paleness of her cheeks. The men didn't seem to realize she was there for they began a conversation. She heard it s if from far away, the sound struggling through the shock that had captured Tori's mind.
"Is it him?" asked one. The white one, for she couldn't seem to make out any features accept that one's skin was white as snow, the other's dark as sin.
"Yep. I wasn't sure at first, in the bar, but when the light hit the ring, I knew. See?" he held up the hand that held the ring once used for luck, as if the sight of it held some significant meaning. And it must have for the other nodded.
A sudden noise pierced the deathly quiet of the alley and the two men leapt to there feet and continued down the alley and out of her sight. The sob escaped, the first of a long line of them. And with the sobs came the tears of utter despair.
The ring, she thought, as she reached for Robert's hand to pull it off. They had found him by the ring. Her ring. She looked at it, hatred in her eyes. For years it had done nothing, been recognized by no one. And now it had taken a life. She curled her hand into a fist around the ring, pressing its shape into her hand. If he hadn't been wearing it, he wouldn't be dead.
She would.
A shudder wracked down her spin as more noises came from the street. The people who had killed her brother of the heart had been looking for her. Had wanted to kill her. Which meant, when they found out they had killed someone other then her, they would come looking.
And she would have to deal with them somehow. She would have to find them first, figure out what they wanted from her, figure out why they wanted to kill her. And then kill them first.
Her hand reached out for the knife, the only thing they had left behind, besides the haunting memories of Robert's death. She knew nothing about them. But maybe the knife would tell her something. The knife was in her hand when someone entered the alleyway and saw her.
"You're the girl, from the tavern. The one that got hit. What are you doing on the ground?" her eyes got round, as she looked at her and saw the blood. The woman's scream paralyzed her, made it all real. She wasn't the only one who saw the death, the blood, and that made it real. Her last unconscious hope that it was all a nightmare flickered and died.
She looked down once more at the man that had been her closet friend, her beloved brother, his face still, his eyes lifeless. A single tear, the last one, leaked from her eye, rolled down her cheek, and dripped onto Robert's face.
Slowly, keeping ring and knife in firm grasps, she rose and headed into the night, her back stiff, her face still. She would find them, and she would kill them. For when she found them, she would have the skills that the Own would teach her.
She was to become the first woman to enter the Own under the guise of a man.
Derek and his father, Dom, clattered into the alley and nearly tripped over the body. He looked up in search of the assailant and saw a shadow of a woman disappearing in the night.
He looked down at the body and saw whom it was. The man who had been recently accepted into the Own. "How?"
Dom knelt down beside the body and studied for a few seconds before looking up at his son. "Knife, straight into the heart."
"She must have had good aim," he said dismissively as he looked back into the alley where the girl had been. It had to have been her. She was the only one that had been with him. And they had had an open dispute.
"She who?" Dom asked as he rose to his feet. "We'll have to find his parents and arrange for a burial."
"The girl he was with, Torianna," Derek looked back at Robert. He was fairly certain he would never see the girl again. She would high tail it out of there after committing a murder. A girl who let herself be pushed around in public didn't admit to murder.
"Think so?" Dom asked, turning his full attention on his son.
"Doesn't matter now. She's gone."
If only he knew the truth.
A/N Review me!
Nubia