6) An invitation.
Alanna guided Chubby through the masses of bustling crowd while trying to not lose sight of Saethea and her elegant mare.
Saethea and her mount seemed very used to the disarray. "Keep an eye to your purse,"she called back to her rather overwhelmed friend. "There are some here that would steal their own mother's teeth!" She seemed to be directing this comment at a tall young man standing near Alanna.
The lean young man grinned, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. "Who, me?" he asked innocently.
Saethea let out a sound of exasperation and urged her mare onward.
The man winked one bright hazel eye at Alanna and vanished into the crowd. She watched him until someone shouted at her to watch herself. She wondered if he really was a thief. He seemed very nice.
She followed Saethea until they reached the main stalls, where they stopped and dismounted.
Saethea had to laugh at Alanna's wide eyes as they walked past a couple of stalls. "Close your mouth country girl, having your jaw hanging down past your knees is not a fitting expression for a lady," she teased. "Besides, most of this is overpriced. I'll get to show you how to have some fun, haggling."
They first stopped to look at the wares of a jeweller. Alanna was not all that interested but was happy to accompany Saethea and offer her opinions to her when needed. What she really wanted to find was a weapons stall – all that she had been allowed to bring with her was her lightest staff and a small dagger – not nearly enough to be able to practice thoroughly with. She needed to get a couple more daggers and a heavier staff before she got rusty.
While Saethea turned to rifle through a bookstall, Alanna sidled innocently past the next stall, which looked perfect for gardeners and those who were green fingered, to a far more interesting weapons stand.
"Per'aps ye're lost lady? I'm sure ye'd be more comfortable over at the haberdashery stall 'cross the square." The burly stall owner pointed out.
"I'm not lost and I'm quite comfortable where I am, thank you." Alanna snapped. She hated being mistaken for a delicate lady.
The man looked rather taken aback by the lady's curt words but immediately recovered when he noticed that she was weighing his weapons in her hand with what looked like practiced expertise. She seemed quite taken with a set of knives from the Raven armoury. They were beautiful but deadly weapons with razor sharp engraved blades and amethysts set into the hilts.
"How much are you asking for these?"
"Ye 'ave good taste my lady. I'd normally want five gold nobles fer those but how 'bout ye accept my apology fer before and I offer ye them fer one noble less?"
"Three nobles," Saethea offered. Alanna jumped, she hadn't heard her walk up behind her.
"Three?" the man sounded outraged. "That's barely what I paid fer them! Three gold, eight silver and it's a sale."
"Three gold, four silver. That's out last offer – take it or leave it."
"Ye ladies drive a hard bargain." He grimaced. "Oh go then. Mind, ye won't get it this easy the next time I see ye!" he warned as Alanna handed over the coins and he wrapped the knives for her.
"So are you going to tell me what you were doing at a wapons stall buying knives? I'm sure I'm correct in saying that weapons training is not required of us at the convent," Saethea teased as they walked to the next, more lady-like stall.
"You found me out." Alanna grinned guiltily. "To tell you the truth, I'd always dreamed of being a knight and a month ago, me and Thom were going to switch places; he'd come here to be a sorcerer and I'd go to be a knight at the palace. But Muade stopped us – she said she saw in the fire that it wasn't "on my path" or something just as daft."
"But they don't accept girls at the palace."
Alanna looked even guiltier as she smirked "Well, I was going to masquerade as a boy."
"For eight years!" Saethea appeared astounded.
"Yeah. Anyway – I could've hidden all the tell-tale signs with a bit of bandage or a corset of some type and by being careful."
"You? In a corset! Why do I not believe that? – So that's why you hate it here so much… So why is Thom not training to be a knight at the palace?"
Alanna explained, "Well, Maude didn't say anything about Thom not supposed to be a sorcerer so we persuaded Coram to take him here instead."
"How on earth did you manage that?" Saethea didn't know Coram that well, but she knew of him quite a lot.
"We threatened him with visions – he deathly afraid of magic so that worked wonders."
Saethea laughed at the though of Coram running about the place seeing six foot pink rabbits.
They continued shopping for rather more "innocent" things when a hand tapped Alanna's shoulder. Startled, she looked up into the hazel eyes of the man Saethea had called a thief.
"So, it's the young lass with the purple eyes," the man said pleasantly. "I was wonderin' if you've finished shoppin' yet." His voice was rough and uneducated but he spoke carefully. To Alanna, it seemed that he though about every word before saying it.
She grinned up at him "I'm a girl – what do you expect?"
"Do you know this man, Alanna?" Seathea asked suspiciously.
"Allow me to introduce myself, young ladies." He bowed. "I'm George Cooper, of the lower city. Will you take a cool drink with me? As my guest of course."
"Thank you," Alanna said quickly, ignoring Saethea glares. "We accept."
A/N: Hehheh. Finally someone interesting I can write about. You didn't think that Alanna would'nt ever meet the infamousRogue did you? Review please!
p.s. A/J or A/G? Personally, I prefer it the way it turns out in the books but I'm open to suggestions.