Disclaimer: Once again I pause to remind you that this work of fantasy fiction is based off of the work of another – Tamora Pierce. The characters are the sole property of that highly talented individual except for the new ones and they don't count.

A/N: Okay, so I've confused some, bored others and worried still more. If you're still hanging in there, I thank you.

1reallyblue1: Thanks for the compliments on the songs. Don't worry. People in love often fight. But they come through it if they really care about each other. It serves a wonderful purpose in this story. You'll just have to trust me.

Nativewildmage: I love how many of us fanfiction fanatics are also musicians.

Blackandwhiteroses: It's so funny that you think this is more action packed. Some readers are a little bored. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you're hanging in there.

Narm's Briton 44: You're an interesting and twisted individual. You love Numair, but keep him chained in your closet and you regularly kill him in your fics. You might want to wear a warning sign when you go on dates "Fun but could be hazardous".

Purple Eyed Cat: Darkmoon returns below!

Twilight Shades: You're a little psychic, twice!

Ethalas Tuath'an: I'm trying to figure out a way to send you the songs. I don't currently have them recorded electronically. If I figure it out, I'll send them. Give me time.

Kit49: You are also a little psychic. You knew about Alanna in the chapter 5. Did you catch the little tiny detail that gives a clue to how? Also, it is so cool that there are so many musicians among us. I've been amazed at the response from the songs. And yes, size makes a difference to voice. For years scientists thought that Giraffes made no sound. They do, but it is so low it is hard for the human ear to hear. Long necks make for deep voices.

And now

Chapter 7 - Revelations

Alanna was clearly shaken. Buri and Onua went with her to wash up and discuss what she had seen. Cearl stayed politely out of the way, offering to clean up from dinner. Daine, in the meantime had been asked to see if she could find Darkmoon. She asked the owls around her for help but only the males could respond. It was incubation time for the females and they wouldn't leave their nests. Daine decided they were still the best animal for the job and chose to use the form of an eagle owl for her own search.

Once in the air, Daine was uncertain why she didn't use this shape more often. Capable of hearing a vole or mouse making the tiniest of noises from thirty feet above, owls had amazing hearing. Her eyesight was sharp as well. She saw in the dark better than most animals. And then there was the stealth factor. Owls are designed for silent flight. This made her current form perfect for spying or hunting where enemies were. She promised herself to remember all of this the next time she needed a form to spy in after dark.

She felt the chill night air rush through her feathers and she searched in grids to try and find Darkmoon, all the while calling to find him with her mind. After what felt like hours, she finally located the stallion in the trees. All his tack was still in place, but he seemed to have been splashed by blood, a fact that Daine couldn't quite reconcile. She landed lightly above him and called to him with her magic. –Darkmoon! It's Daine. Alanna is worried about you. Why did you leave?-

-Alanna is not herself,- the horse answered. –I don't like the fake one-

-I don't understand.- Daine answered. –Are there two?-

-I don't understand either- Darkmoon retorted. –I just don't like the fake one. She is cruel.-

-Come back to camp. You can move quietly. Tell me which one is there. I will hide you if it is the fake.- Daine didn't know what else to do. Horse sense would say that this was reasonable and she knew the stallion would agree.

They moved back through the night as silently as Darkmoon could travel. When they reached the edge of camp, Daine asked Darkmoon to hide in the trees and try to sense Alanna while she spoke to Cloud. Hopefully between the two horses they could come to a consensus over which Alanna was in camp. Then Daine flew into her tent and dressed. When she came out she nodded to Buri who had been on standing guard while they waited for Daine's return. "You can get some sleep, Buri, I'm going to talk to Alanna, even if I have to wake her.

Buri said, "I need to know what's going on anyway. I'll join you." They walked together to Alanna's tent, but she was not sleeping.

"Alanna," Daine began "I found Darkmoon."

"Oh, thank the Goddess! Where is he?"

"He ummm – doesn't want to come back unless he can be sure it is you. He said there was a fake you and he didn't like her."

Buri looked astonished and color drained from Alanna's face. She asked, "A fake me? There were two of us?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I think so. Come talk to Cloud. He agrees that Cloud will know if it is you. And then, he will come back."

Alanna stood immediately to follow. "Oh, one more thing," Daine said, "Darkmoon has seen the fight close up. He has blood on him but it isn't his own. I checked him for wounds."

Buri, Alanna and Daine approached Cloud. It took only a moment for Cloud to look Alanna over before she agreed that Alanna was not an imposter. Darkmoon trotted out of the tree-line to Alanna and pushed his nose against her ear.

"He's glad that the real you is all right," Daine translated with a grin.

"Ask him what happened after I passed out."

Daine did so, but the horse nickered. –It was terrible. I believed the fake was her. But she started killing. I don't want to think about it.- Daine translated it. "I think he's a little traumatized."

"I might be too. Someone who looked exactly like me killed those men?"

"Looked and smelled exactly like you. Remember, that would be important to a horse."

"Goddess! I think I need to talk to Jon again. Wake Onua, would you? While we wait I want all of you in your own protective circle. If there's something wrong with me, I don't want you in danger."

"Onua is good, but not better than you, Alanna. If you wanted to undo her protective spell, you could easily do it," Buri pointed out.

"Should we ask Cearl for help?" Alanna suggested.

-Either way you'll wake both- Cloud said sarcastically. Daine looked at her confused. "I don't understand." She was obviously tired. She had said it aloud.

"Don't understand what? Alanna is a lot more powerful than Onua," Buri said.

"Sorry, not that. Cloud said 'either way we'll wake both'."

-Two leggers! You're a little slow, aren't you.- Cloud said acerbically.

Though only Daine heard Cloud's remarks, it seemed to hit them all at once. "Oh!" was the unanimous exclamation followed by equally unanimous blushes.

-----

The dungeon was dark and smelled of mildew. Jon ached when he realized that his friend was left to this environment every day. It was late, but there could be no help for the hour. "Raoul! Are you awake, my friend?"

He heard the large man sit up on the pallet in his cell. "I'm awake."

Jon lit a candle with his gift and the guard let him into the cell. The guard, Marek, then took stood outside the door with a sword as if to protect the king. "You may go," Jon told him.

"Sire?" Marek said nervously.

"Marek, I am a knight and a sorcerer. I was trained in hand to hand by a shang warrior and a rogue in addition to my knight training. This man is unarmed and has spent two days in a cell he can barely stand up in. I think I can defend myself."

Marek knew better than to argue. He removed himself from the cell block.

Jon sat down on the pallet next to Raoul. "How are you?" he asked sincerely.

Raoul ran a large hand through his filthy hair. "Sire, I don't know how to answer that."

"Sire? Suddenly you're being formal with me?"

There was a long pause and when Raoul spoke, his voice was soft and slow, as if he was trying to put Jon at ease. "This is a difficult situation, Jon. You are both my friend and my king. There is a small part of me angry at you for locking me away. I want to fight. I want to escape. The need for that has been so ingrained in me that I – when I first wake, my thoughts are to get out at any cost. And then I remember who put me in here and why. Those men – those boys – they were friends, Jon. They looked up to me and trusted me. I gave them advice, Jon – advice on women and diplomacy and horses. There is overwhelming evidence and yet I cannot imagine doing the things I am accused of doing. How do I reconcile this with my conscience?" He sighed heavily. "How am I? Not good."

Jon patted his hand. "I hate the need to follow the law by placing you here. You are one of my closest friends. I trust you with my life. I trust you with my children's lives. But I cannot argue with so many witnesses. Still, Thayet said something – that if we don't believe you would do anything like this of your own free will, then somehow it isn't your own free will. It's what I believe too. I know Duke Baird looked you over, but he is not the strongest mage I know. The strongest mage I know will return in a few days. Numair thinks, and I agree, that you may have been controlled by means of some spell or potion. And you may not be the only one. Alanna found an entire squad dead today. We don't know what killed them. But whoever it was can both wield a sword and use magic. Some were run through and others were burned with mage fire. Who does that sound like to you?"

"Any knight with magic from our year of training forward," Raoul answered. "But also, you all taught Numair sword fighting, as well as most of the other mages in the castle."

"Still, if you saw all eight members of the Own and their mounts dead on a hill side, and more than half of the men were cut down with swords and all of the horses, what would you think?"

"I would either think an army got to them or – among our own people -- Alanna," Raoul said, horror in his voice.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. If the numbers were the other way, more battle fire than sword, I might look to a mage. They would use their power primarily. Only Alanna would prefer the sword to the fire."

"But she's the one who reported to you?"

"She says she was knocked out. When she came to, Darkmoon was gone, so she walked to the top of the rise to try to see where Darkmoon might have run off to and found the bodies."

"Why didn't she follow the horse's tracks?"

"Well now, that's one of the weird things here. She says Darkmoon's tracks were all over the place. She said it was as if he had run in and out of the battle zone several times. Add that to the melt off and heavy stone content of that ridge and she can't find him. But what she also can't find is the missing hours. So I want to know, are there unaccounted hours in the days leading up to your capture?"

There was no hesitation. "Yes. A lot. I've been over it and over it and I can't account for more than half of the last week."

"And can you think of anything or anyone strange that you encountered just before that time?"

There was a long silence. "I saw a fox that was behaving unusually. Come to think of it, it was colored a bit unusually too, more brown than red. But as far as it's behavior, I thought it might be a friend of Daine's. Animals tend to act differently after becoming acquainted with her."

"What made its behavior so unusual?"

"Well, foxes don't usually like people. This one seemed to be following us. When we got into that battle with the stormwings by Queenscove, I could swear it was watching the action. Every other animal in the vicinity scattered and hid. But when we killed the last stormwing, I turned around and there he sat, just as proud as you please. He looked me right in the eye and then he disappeared."

"That is unusual." Jon stroked his beard. "It may help. And is the fox the only strange thing?"

"It's the only strange thing I can think of, but you know with magic it could be anything. If there is one thing I have learned by being around great mages, you just never can tell what will be important. With Duke Roger, our lack of interest was important. None of us saw that."

"You are right, of course." Jon stared at his hands. "Raoul, I wish I didn't have to leave you in here. It's a horrible place. Please know that I am working on this problem and I will find a way to justify and expedite your release. In the meantime, I will keep you in the loop. I will visit you nightly and tell you what progress we've made." He pulled two apples from his pocket and handed them to Raoul. "Apples usually aren't in the prisoner fare."

"Thank you," Raoul said bowing his head. "And thank you for believing in me. It means more to me than you could know.

As Jon stood to leave, he could see his large friend's eyes glisten and he thought maybe he did know.

------

Numair sat in his tent with a light stone trying to decipher more the Power Codex. He decided that he was going to translate every spell title and write the translation above so that he could find what he needed quickly. He was tired and should be sleeping, but a sinking feeling told him he was going to need some new tricks up his sleeve and soon.

He kept thinking back to his last conversation with Jon and Alanna and wondering if he had missed some little something. Alanna did not know how she had been knocked out. That was worrisome. She should have had a lump on her head if someone did it in the regular way. And if so, why did that someone leave her alive? They wouldn't. That didn't make sense. She could have been knocked out in a magical way, but she didn't mention her nose itching. Alanna had once told him that her nose always itched when magic was being used. And even so, the same problem would apply. If someone knocked her out, why leave her alive?

If someone had nothing to do with that, why did Alanna lose consciousness? In the same respect, that didn't make any sense either. He wished he ask someone.

Then there were Jon's concerns. What if the killer was Alanna? If someone had found a way to control Alanna, could Numair do what was necessary to stop her? She was like a fighting machine, amazing with weapons and strongly magical. She had the king's trust completely and she was like a sister to Numair. If he had to destroy her, could he? The answer was no -- he could not destroy her and ever be all right again. So he would have to find another way. He would have to be prepared to take her down magically. And that was no short order.

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