A/N I warn you now, this one will be shorter then my previous chapters. But the next one will be longer, I promise. So, yeah. Thanks to...
...: You're more right then you think. lol. Thanks for reading.
cherryfearie: Nope, it's not Harlow. And yeah, it was kinda creepy how she had the bag. Thanks for reading.
Sammey: Yes, I am. lol. No, it's not Derek.
Mage Light: That's what they tell me :)
Demeanted-dreamer: I can see how you can link it to Alanna's story. But actually, it wasn't the cold that did it. It was something else. And it will be explained later.
Warrior of Tortall: I'm so very glad you like it so much.
Nubia: Kinda weird that you have my same name, but thanks for the compliment.
Wingrider: Hee... yeah... cliffie's don't seem to be a public favorite.
Cylobaby: Hey, glad you like it. And thanks for your kind words.
cloverluck11: Don't feel that you have to read it. I was just suggesting. lol. Thanks for reading.
Chapter Nine:
Derek's mind wandered from the battle tactics discussion before him and back to the pale face of Torick. The boy had been out cold for nearly two full days and it wasn't a normal sleep. It was one that he couldn't seem to wake up from. No matter what any of them tried, the boy remained deaf and dumb to everything except his dreams.
Neal had suspicions that it was a magic induced trance because of the way it had taken so suddenly and had hung on so stubbornly. He had finally sent a runner for Numair to see if he could pull the boy out of it.
He frowned as he thought back two days before. He had nearly swallowed his own tongue when he had followed the boy outside and he had collapsed in his arms. He had been moaning and groaning and thrashing his head from side to side. But that had barely lasted. Then he had gone completely still, his only movement flinches of his eyes.
Derek remembered the clamoring worry that he had felt as he had rushed the boy to infirmary and he had remained so still, so quiet accept for the little face twitches. He had only been this scared once before. It had been a foolish mistake to be scared then. He should have known Torick would never have done what he had feared.
Several years ago, he had had a squad member similar to Torick. Very similar. He had been so very innocent and unfit for fighting, just like Torick. And when he had been forced to kill someone, it had broken him, heart and soul. The same day that he had killed the man, he hung himself in his room.
When Derek had seen the look on Torick's face after he had killed those bandits, he had relived that moment where he had walked into the young man's room and saw him dangling from the rafters by a rope. But before he could get to talk to Torick and see if he would be all right, he had slipped away and into his room.
Derek had, quite simply, panicked. He had hurried to the boy's room as fast as possible, but the silence in the room beyond had made his hands tremble. He hadn't thought he would be able to face another dead body, another lost soul because of what he had done. That was the part that had hurt the most the first time. The fact was that if he hadn't ordered the young man to kill, he wouldn't have killed himself.
What bothered him most about the whole ordeal was the fact that his fear of losing the boy had been ten times as worse then anything he had ever felt for the young man he had lost. His feelings towards Torick were rapidly growing. He was beginning to view him as a brother, as a friend. And that was the number one rule that he had never broken. He had never been friend to his soldiers.
Yet, even as he began to view him as a brother, he also knew that the boy was keeping something from him. Something vitally important. The boy had a troubled past, he knew it, could see it in his eyes. Sometimes Torick's eyes would take on this look that was heartbreaking. When he saw that look, he felt his chest ache with the need to protect the boy from the pain.
Already in his mind and heart, he was on the same level as his sister. The boy was part of his family, more so then others because Derek felt so close to him. He could relate to him so well, even though they barely spoke. But Derek often times found himself observing Torick.
The only thing that kept him from expressing his brotherly affections towards the boy was that fact that Torick was hiding something from him. He had seen the lock of hair hanging out from beneath Torick's wig, now that he knew that it was a wig. The fact that he had to hide his true appearance made it all the worse. What had the boy done to have to hide so far from his true self? What had happened to him?
And that was one of the problems. He knew so little about the boy, barely anything at all. He had shown up out of the blue and had dragged with him shadows and lies. But he couldn't fault Torick for it because who was to say that he wouldn't do the same thing in Torick's situation, whatever that was?
His confusing and all to emotional thoughts were cut off when Jon burst into the room breathing heavily, sucking in air, as would a fish on dry land. "He's awake!" he shouted before collapsing into a chair. Derek wasn't the only one that had worried over Torick.
Derek bowed to his mother and Jon's father, Mark, and left the room, heading for the infirmary. He had a few questions to ask the boy. He knew now, that this wasn't the first time this had happened to him. Derek remembered now that time at the fire where he had fallen to the ground. That had been another trance, but that one had been shorter and much easier to wake him from.
Derek pushed that aside also, and hurried on. Numair would find out what was wrong with the boy when he arrived in a few days.
"You're finally awake, little Tori."
Tori stared up at him with wide, emerald eyes and squeaked in fright. All she saw was his brown hair and green eyes and knew fear. Hadn't the person that attacked her before, in the barracks back at the capital, looked like him? Hadn't he known her also?
She forced herself backwards, scrambling away from him as her hand dug into the bag, searching with nimble fingers for something. She found it, seized it in her hand seeking comfort from the knowledge that if she wanted to she could use it.
"Don't be frightened. I mean you no harm. I'm Neal, you're healer. Do you know where you are?" he asked, lifting a sharp eyebrow in inquiry. Tori's mind was settling slightly, but she couldn't make herself relax, couldn't help feeling that something was going to happen to her.
"New… New Hope?" her hand seized on another rock, and she gripped it hard, her nails eventually digging into her skin. The fog was lifting and she was beginning to understand what was happening. But that still didn't explain who he was or what he was doing in the room with her.
He leaned forward suddenly and she panicked, scrambling to her feet and shouting, hoping hearing her hysterics, he would frighten and run. "What do you want from me?"
"I just want to help, little Tori, that's all. I'm a healer. Now, sit back down," he motioned gently to the bed but she wasn't having any of it.
"Like you wanted to help Robert? He's dead, you bastard! I'll believe you when I see his face alive once more! Get out, before I call for help!" she backed up more until she bumped into something. She startled forward slightly, spun around and nearly melted with relief. It was Derek. "Help me. That man's evil!"
"Boy, that man is the healer," Derek barked, his voice gruff, but she could see his eyes sparkling with laughter. Even though she had heard the man say that he was the healer, she didn't believe it until Derek said it.
"Oh…" she let out a little puff of breath with that admonition. She slowly turned back to the man who was standing there, also laughing, but more forth right then Derek, and felt her cheeks blush with heat.
"Duke Nealan of Queensgrove, knight and healer. And you would be?" he held out his hand to her as he laughed out loud and she gripped it lightly before answering.
"Embarrassed?"
Soon after waking, it became obvious that something had occurred while she had been asleep. Something drastic that had made the other's worry. She could see it in the way Neal frowned at her and the way Derek watched her.
She cleared her throat after she had gotten over her embarrassment and managed to ask without blushing, "How long was I asleep?"
"Two days," Derek answered. She paled fractionally. She hadn't known a cold could take her out so far. She had thought it was just a simple cold, but it must have been something more then that. But now that she thought about it, something else had happened…
She gasped as it came flooding back to her. The ring! She had to check herself before she went digging through her tunic to grasp at it. It had pulled her into another vision! Her eyes shadowed as she thought of what had happened.
She had felt the pull of the ring before it had happened and had tried to stop it, but never the less it had gotten to her. And it had sucked her under… for two days. But she hadn't come back empty-handed. She had awoken with the bag.
Where had the bag gone?
"Little Tori, what is this?" she startled at the name, still unused to the sound of it. No one here called her by that, but she supposed that Neal had a right to after he had taken care of her for two days. She turned to see him holding the bag in his hand.
With amazingly fast speed for someone who had been out cold for two days, she scrambled to her feet and snatched the bag from his hand. "Nothing!" she hissed before hiding it behind her back.
"Funny though, I don't remember you having that when you were brought into the infirmary," he frowned at her again, but she had turned away from him, lost in thought.
She had seen that bag, in the dream. It was filled with rocks, she remembered touching them, knowing that they would work. But now she doubted if they would. And she didn't want to try.
If they were real… then that meant what she saw in her visions were real. That she was really connected to the person in her dreams. And it scared her to think about it. It wasn't natural, what she was able to see in her dreams. It wasn't right that she was able to bring something back with her through the dreams. And it certainly wasn't right if the objects worked.
"Care to explain how you came by those?" Neal asked quietly, hoping to startle her into answering. It failed.
"I had them with me the whole time, you must have just missed them," she gave a shrug and started for the door. She wanted to get to her room where she would be able to think this through by herself.
"Boy," Derek's command had her stopping just before the door. She turned back to frown at him, and saw that he was frowning also. "I have questions for you, and they will be answered."
She gave him one last good frown before turning and walking away. She heard Derek's laughter and nearly smiled herself.
The Prophet watched the words as another false branch faded and died. She was on the right path still… but the true way was growing narrower and would soon become harder to pass.
He read the words farther on and knew soon it would be time to interfere again. It wouldn't be the first time that he had been given need to interfere. He only mourned that again it wouldn't be him that went to her aid.
There was just so much here that he had to see to, so many paths that he had to monitor to make sure everything was going well. There were so many false branches, so many places where she could go wrong and falter that he wasn't sure even if he interfered if she would make it. But he had to try for the sake of the country he had to try.
He watched as another branch was lost and he knew joy. She had managed to escape through that gnarly pass without a fault. He smiled proud of her, but then the smile vanished.
Across the page, where her true path lay, the words were changing. A person, someone he hadn't seen before, was making a place for himself within the prophecy, a place that he hadn't known was open. The path was changing now, and it was becoming more dangerous. It was time for him to interfere.
"Where is she!" The master screamed as he hurled his wine glass at the wall. His eyes were blood shot and his face was pale. Zahib watched him with distant eyes, bored by what he saw.
For the past two days he had watched with amusement as the girl had been connected to the ancient power and used it quite forcefully. It had rubbed against the master's skin, making him itch and gripe. But what Zahib found funniest about it, was that though the girl had used the powers, the master hadn't been able to locate her. He himself had a very good idea where the girl was.
But if the master knew how much power Zahib had gathered to himself, the master would have his bowers kill him. But soon, soon he would have more power then the master and he would be in charge.
Soon, he would be the master and he would get the girl. And the ring. And then his people would return to where they belonged. With him on the throne and them as his subjects.
A/N Well, there it was. Hope you enjoyed. Review me!
Nubia