Disclaimer: I am the mad, mad writer borrowing characters and fictitious places from Tamora Pierce. Please prepare my rubber room.

Chapter 15 – Sea Tales

Master Tyrus laughed obscenely when Elyra handed him the lock of hair.

"Was he sleeping when you took it?" he asked. Elyra didn't think he really wanted an answer.

"What do you think?" she retorted. She had waited until first light to hand it over. She knew that Numair could not be affected but somehow it felt safer to her if he was gone.

Tyrus and Lord Myren were scheming now. She hated to interrupt, but she wanted to play the part well. She walked over to them and asked, "Are we to go ahead to the negotiations today?"

Tyrus looked thoughtful. "Why yes, I think that would be most entertaining. We can privately test our puppet. Any special requests?"

She thought for a moment and decided that if they were to believe she was really on their side, she ought to be a little malevolent. "Why don't you have him kiss his king – a nice goodbye kiss on the mouth, before he blows him up."

"You are deliciously nasty," Tyrus said winking. The whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth. She wondered if Tyrus actually thought he was sexy.

"Once you have control of him and we take the jewel, will be heading to sea?"

"Why do you want to know?" Lord Myren demanded.

"So that I can pack. I have no knowledge of your plan beyond my part in it. So I do not know if we are hanging around or leaving. If we are leaving, will we be in a hurry or quietly escaping? I want my son back. It does not make sense for me to hinder you in any way, so I want to be prepared."

"Pack now, just in case," Tyrus answered.

She walked back into her room. She carefully packed some of her things and some of Meesha's. But she put their essentials in Shay's case and stashed it under the head of the bed. If the others ran, she would come back. She would not have everything, but she would make due.

She took a few moments to pray to the Great Mother Goddess to protect Michael, to Mithros to give Numair extra mage power, and to Kyprioth to give Numair favorable travel. When her prayers were said, she told Zek what the plan was and asked if he wanted to hide under her hair. She was sure that Meesha would love Zek and would want to keep him. It was going to be hard to make her understand that he was Daine's friend. Elyra had to admit that Zek had grown on her in a very short time. It was strange to think that Daine could communicate with this creature like one could talk to another person, but she had seen proof. Daine had come to kill her the prior night based on intelligence obtained from a mouse. That in itself was astounding. Zek, in the meantime, had done everything Daine had asked of him. Elyra never had to worry that he would get into something or be found by the scoundrels she shared a common room with.

She thought again about the wonderful people she had met here in Tortall. She wondered if they would accept her if she revealed her secret. They almost seemed like they would. Even her own father had not been able to cope with her reality. He had sent her away. While she didn't think he would like what had happened to her, she had never believed she would be welcomed back. She wanted to stay in Corus. She wanted the chance to be part of something this wonderfully progressive. But she would need to do her part as Alanna had told her. She had very little to offer. She was not a warrior and she had been raised a princess without learning the basic skills one would expect a woman to know. However, she had connections and it was time to use them. Before the day was out she vowed to contact her father. It would be tricky, but she would find a way. She could give Tortall an alliance, it just wouldn't be with the Copper Isles.

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Daine sat with her legs crossed in the clearing just beyond the stables. She could feel the wind ruffling her hair and hear the sounds of nature moving through its typical autumn dance. It was chilly, but she wanted to be cold. She wanted her message to go as far as her magic could take it. She delved deep into the copper pool inside her and sent it out toward the seashore.

--Hello?-- She called to the eagles that nested on the ocean cliffs and to the ibis, cranes, and gulls. Her mind created an image of Numair and his magical appearance. She showed them kindnesses he paid her and the bond of friendship they shared. She told them he sought a fledgling who had been stolen. –Watch over him, please—she begged them.

Further to sea and into the rolling surf she sent her magic to the far edges of her ability. –Hello?—She called to the dolphins, sea lions, sea turtles and porpoises. Again, she showed that picture of Numair and his inner light. She begged them to guide his ship safely and to bring him and the pup back to her swiftly.

When she was finished she nearly collapsed with exhaustion. She knew she was supposed to be joining the negotiating team in a very short time. She didn't know how she would get back. But when she looked up, Cloud was standing on the edge of the clearing. –What would you do if I didn't look after you? – Cloud asked her in mind speak.

"Please don't ever make me find out," Daine said weakly. It took most of her strength to climb onto Cloud's back.

--I probably won't—Cloud soothed.

"Good. And Cloud, I love you." Daine clung to her friend through the clearing, to the edge of the corral and into the stable. She dropped into a straw pile.

Onua came running over. "Daine, what have you been doing?"

It suddenly dawned on Daine that Onua was not in on this secret and she dare not answer honestly. "I made a mistake s'all. Don't tell Numair, okay? I'm just tired."

When she woke again Alanna was standing over her talking to Onua. She realized the stable had been warded. Alanna whispered, "What did you do, Daine?"

Daine's eyes shifted to Onua and then back to Alanna, trying to tell her that she couldn't answer.

"Thanks to you I had to tell her. Now, I believe I asked you a question."

"But Numair didn't consider this safe enough to talk the other day."

"If anyone tries to enter through my warding they will know something is up, so talk fast and I can take it down," Alanna growled sternly. Daine heard her cussing under her breath.

"I asked some friends to look after him. But I had to send my mind to sea. My range is usually twenty miles. I went out about 200."

Alanna's expression softened, "Who did you talk to?"

"Gulls, eagles, sea turtles, sea lions, porpoises, dolphins… They all promised to pass it on too."

Onua and Alanna were smiling broadly at each other. "You just couldn't bear him to be alone could you," Alanna replied, "You had to send him an army."

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Numair stood on the deck of the ship Emerald Bian. He felt it a favorable sign that the ship was named after the K'miri Goddess of trade. He might very well need the assistance from the Gods before this excursion was over. Numair looked very unlike himself. As an extra precaution he had used an appearance spell. This was a spell he had not employed since the days he was hiding from Ozorne. His shoulder length black hair now looked short and brown. His swarthy complexion had been lightened and he now sported a short beard . Even his height looked different to others; they would see a man of 5'10". His intention was to be wholly unremarkable.

The magic he had used to secure his passage was not unremarkable. It was a very unique. The spell came from a book called The Power Codex which Lindhall Reed had given him in Carthak. Lindhall had meant to have time to translate it and practice spells though most required more magic than the average mage could wield. Numair had learned two spells by heart in the short time he owned the book. He was using one of them to control the wind in the sail. The magic would cut the travel time to one-quarter of what was normally required. Magic like this was eagerly welcomed by traders and they would keep it secret from competitors because it allowed them to grab more of the market.

The ship was moving at an alarming rate of speed, powered by his Gift, so the last thing anyone would have expected was to see the three dolphins that seemed to be escorting it on its way. Numair was worried that they might be friends of Daine, but she was definitely not among them. He looked for her magical countenance and never saw it. He knew that he did not appear like himself to other humans. But he was not sure if the masking spell worked against animals.

Ultimately, he leaned over the side and said, "Tell her I'm fine and I will be home soon." They didn't disperse. Maybe he was imagining things.

It felt strange to leave her behind. For two and a half years they had gone nearly everywhere together. At some point she had become an almost necessary part of his life and he didn't know how it had happened. He supposed that he had been much lonelier than he realized when Daine wandered into his life. His family had not pushed him away exactly, but they made it clear that they did not want him to bring the shame of being charged with treason home to them. His father died and his mother never invited him back. She accepted money from him and readily acknowledged his change of name too as if it made her life easier. So he made a life for himself in Tortall. But some part of him never tried for a family because of that shame that he carried. And now he was approaching 30 years of age and still had no one. A year ago Daine had introduced him as part of her pack and it was a description that he had clung to all of this time. Until the letter he spent half of the night writing, he had never told her how much that meant to him. Perhaps he didn't know himself.

Soon enough they would arrive at the Rajmuat harbor. He slowed the winds powering the masts. They clung and dispersed from large hands made smaller by the masking spell. He would try to find a safe place to rest before searching for Michael. He suspected that finding him might be easier than escaping with him. If it came down to it, he would find a way to smuggle the boy out and lead the Islanders in another direction. He could only hope that the Gods were with him.