Disclaimer: I don't own the Tortall books – Tamora Pierce does. I did not write the Tortall books – Tamora Pierce did. I cannot publish a Tortall book – Tamora Pierce can. 'Nough said?
A/N: I figure after this chapter you will all really hate me or love the story. I don't think there will be any more lukewarm reactions. I have been wrong before though.
1reallyblue1: So you think Tahoi is tipping you off, huh? Maybe.
Narms Briton 44: I was just teasing, sheesh. Oh and if you recall, the fact that he was crying over his horse is what got her. She's a sucker for a horse lover. But you'll be shocked by the end – Onua said she wanted someone horse hearted, but she was never interested in Stephen (who is about as horse hearted as you get), so obviously it isn't her only criteria.
Twilight Shades: Yes, it is scary having her bound, especially since the readers all know that Ozorne is sending something after them in a couple of hours. Don't worry. I won't let Alanna die.
Kit49: The last part was Elyra trying to keep the treaty. If you read PotS, you know that Princess Chisakami has to become part of the deal. She was making a movie of sorts to remind them about what the Mindelans did for them. You get the heads up because you're such a loyal reader.
Confused Knight: I'm so glad you decided to read and reply. I'm going to make Numair a flute player too, but as a hobby. By description he has the mouth for it.
Purple Eyed Cat: Don't worry. Numair is in this chapter. I'm glad you're addicted again.
Nativewildmage: I'm so glad someone grasped how horrible it would be to know you killed your friends under someone else's control. Though Alanna and Raoul will be freed, healing will take longer.
And now…..
Chapter 9 – Whose Side Are You On?
The former Lord Sinthya had made good progress. He thought he might actually reach Corus without incident until he came across Duke Gareth of Naxen. The elderly gentleman and his wife were bound for Corus to spend the Mid-Winter Festival with their friends after a southern visit to some old friends. Sinthya had hoped he would not be recognized. It had been a couple of years. Those hopes were crushed when he heard the Duke say, "Peter of Sinthya, you are wanted by King Jonathan the Fourth for acts of treason to the crown. I arrest you in the name of the king."
Anyone who thought the elderly gentleman had lost his touch with a sword in the time that had passed would have been astounded that morning. The former Lord drew his blade with the intention of defending himself, but barely had opportunity to posture before he found his blade flying across the road. He was bound and placed in the back of the Duke and Duchess' wagon.
------
George had been summoned to the small village of Buzzard Rock on an urgent call. It seemed the treaty with the griffins had disintegrated. Without Daine, he was not sure how he would sort it out. He sent for Tkaa, but the Basilisk was still a few days out. The people of Buzzard Rock had evacuated to Pirates Cove and with some trepidation, George had accompanied a few of his men to try to reason with the Griffins.
Upon their arrival, the village looked like a ghost town. It was much as Alanna had described it two and a half years ago when they had first encountered the griffins. No sooner had George and his men reached the edge of the village, then four Griffins came swooping down screaming their anger.
George never got used to seeing these magnificent creatures. Their feline bodies were feathered in gold blended seamlessly with the wings, heads and beaks of an eagle. He could remember everything Daine had told him. Griffins could somewhat understand the Tortallan language but only big ideas. They defended their little ones like any parents defended a child.
George ordered his men to keep their weapons down. He could see they were nervous but he had only taken the best trained from his fief. As the largest Griffin approached, George stepped forward, head bowed, wondering if this would cost him his neck. The Griffin dropped to the ground in front of him and roared. The other three moved in like sentries behind him. George lifted a sword still in the scabbard from his belt and laid it at the feet of the Griffin.
"You know I can't lie in front of ye'. I don't know how much you'll understand. We don't want to have ta' kill ye'. We will if it is necessary, but we don't want ta'."
The Griffin seemed to calm a little. It roared something. The sound was so loud it made George's ears ache.
"What has caused this? Why did ye' break your treaty? Is there some way ye' can show us?"
George lifted his face to look at the Griffin and searched for some understanding. He saw tears drip from the Griffin's eyes.
"Somethin' bad has happened, somethin' you are grievin', yes?"
The Griffin appeared to nod its head. George was amazed. "When last a mortal spoke to ye', we understood that you could only grasp a little. Do ye' understand more now?"
The Griffin nodded. George smiled with relief. "So if ye' understand me, I jest need to work to understand ye'."
The Griffin nodded again. More to himself than to the griffin, George said, "Why would I grieve? If something happened to Alanna or one of the children..." He felt a paw push him and saw a nod. The men behind him leveled their weapons. "No!" he yelled. "He's trying to tell me." Turning back to the Griffin he said, "Did ye' lose someone ye' love?"
The Griffin nodded and more tears streamed from his eyes.
"I'm sorry for your loss." He meant it sincerely and more importantly, the griffin realized he couldn't lie.
"Was it a mate?" The Griffin shook his head. "Was it a lil' one?" George wondered for a moment if their young were called cubs or fledglings. But he saw the griffin had nodded, so it didn't matter.
"Did ye' think one of us did it?" The Griffin nodded and roared angrily again.
"I have no knowledge or such an act." The Griffin looked startled. "If it was one of my people, they will be punished. Our treaty makes ye' an ally which means it's treason to hurt ye'."
The Griffin took off and flew toward the edge of town. It looked back at George and he got the idea that he was meant to follow. So he ordered his men forward. When they arrived at the cliff, they could see a small Griffin lay dead on a large boulder. It had been gutted and not enough blood covered the stone. George looked from the small, dead body to the large griffin and became enraged. He had heard there were spells that used Griffin blood. Clearly someone had used this baby to get it, leaving it's body disrespectfully to the vultures. This had to be the work of a human and probably of a mage.
Barely containing his anger he turned to the Griffin and said, "This is the work of a beastie of my kind. We will find who done it, on my honor." He bowed to the Griffin and then turned to his men. "Keep the villagers in Pirates Swoop until each is cleared from this beastly act. We're huntin' a mage, sure as the Crooked God cheats. I gotta' notify the King and my Lioness. When we find the killer, he will be brought to the Griffins for their justice."
The men's eyes widened, but they bowed acknowledgement. The Griffins seemed to accept this. The large one bowed his head to George. That was all George needed to see. He and his men headed back to Pirates Swoop.
------
Things had gone smoothly that morning for Daine, Onua, Alanna, Buri and Cearl. They had chatted about unimportant things in a friendly manner for the two hour ride. Only Alanna remained silent. Daine hated seeing Alanna bound and hated even more that Alanna was aching from the newfound knowledge that she had killed those men while Daine could do nothing to help.
They were expecting to meet up with Numair in the evening and the riders somewhere around the same time. Daine was not looking forward to seeing Numair again. She was still very hurt that he had asked Alanna to enter her mind without her knowledge. The ruby was a small thing that just added to the sting of being treated like a child.
As they came up over a rise covered in snow, Daine felt the wrongness of a stormwing. She warned the others and waited, bow at the ready, to see if it was friend or foe. The approaching stormwing was one she had never seen before. He dropped to a level where he could look them in the faces and smiled, his dirty teeth flashing. "You're the wildmage. I am Lokesh Bonewalker. He made a weird floating bow. Queen Barzha Razorwing asked me to bring you. She and Rikash need your help."
"How far?" Daine asked.
"Just over the next hill." The stormwing hovered in the air, wings flapping, waiting for them to follow. Daine turned to the others and, as one, they nodded agreement.
The riders picked up the pace dropping through a snowy valley and coming to the next hill. Daine felt a new wrongness, like she had never really encountered before. She stopped Cloud and turned to the others. "What are we facing?" she snapped at Lokesh. The stormwing merely laughed and raced into the air and out of sight. The wrongness swarmed around Daine like a wave of nausea.
"What is it, Daine?" Onua asked warily.
"I'm not sure," She answered nervously. "I feel the wrongness of immortals but maybe – maybe there's a bunch of different ones. The kind of mixture I would never have imagined and at least…"
The enemy suddenly appeared from all sides. They had run right into a trap of the most unusual mixture of immortals. Two were flesh-eating unicorns, blocking escape on the right and stamping angrily. To the left, four spidrens dropped from the trees, webbing through to trap anything that tried to run that way. In front of them, three ogres were standing with axes, looking menacing. She felt hurroks above them. Lokesh reappeared at the rear and seemed to be coordinating the whole attack. And behind him, was this a giant? He was roughly like a really large human but slightly out of proportion and color. He looked to be about twenty feet tall. Lokesh taunted, "I've caught myself a pretty bunch of mortals. My emperor will be pleased."
"Cearl, let Alanna loose!" Onua urged.
Cearl nodded and did it. But he looked very, very afraid.
Alanna took immediate charge. Purple fire attacked the stormwing. Startled, Lokesh fell immediately. Now that the attackers were missing their leader, Alanna readied her force, "Onua, keep those unicorns back with your bow. Buri, spidrens. Cearl, hurroks. Use mage fire, it works best. Daine, can you shift to something large and armored and keep that giant busy for a few minutes. I'll start with the ogres and do what I can to shield us all. Keep the horses to the center until we can get them free. Then Daine, I'm trusting you to keep them safe."
Daine dropped from Cloud's back and shifted to the shape of a large rhinoceros. The giant roared angrily, but seemed shocked by the tiny girl becoming a large mammal before his eyes. He stood gaping.
Daine tried to keep track of the battle behind her but it was just too much. Between easing the horses, chasing the Giant, and dealing with the poor eye sight that was inherent to rhinos, there was little else she could think about. She did turn at one point to see Cearl trying to blow up a hurrok. She was shocked at how slow he was. She knew that Numair would have been helping one of the others by now. But then Numair had told her that most of his practical magic had been taught him by Jon.
The giant carried a piece of a tree stump. It was so large that when it hammered the ground, the whole area shook. Daine the rhino, stayed out of his way long enough to realize that, while he was large, he wasn't particularly agile. His swings were lumbering and slow. She charged just after he swung the stump and hit him just above the knee. He dropped, almost in slow motion. Still Daine barely made it out of the way. Switching to a grizzly bear, Daine swatted at the giant's head as he lay dazed. Her huge, razor sharp claws cut him deeply. He cried in pain and the sound made her ears ache.
She dived out of the way of a large fist and saw that Buri was struggling with the two remaining spidrens. Her attention drawn for a moment too long, the giant reached her and connected with his stump. The pain was excruciating. She cried out and animals from everywhere swarmed the monster. It was then that she realized she was caught in the spidren web.
She cried her frustration and tried to decide what course of action to take. Then she realized that Alanna was not fighting on their side anymore. Alanna's purple magic held Buri trapped and was strangling her. Daine put out a cry to the animals to help Buri if they could. And then she heard Spots.
It was over in a heartbeat. When Numair topped the rise and saw the battle, rage rolled over his face. Black fire shot out from every direction, incinerating immortals and trapping Alanna and Cearl.
Just behind him, Harailt and Lindhall topped the rise, too late to do anything. Numair dropped from Spots and raced to where Daine had been trapped in the webbing. But the web evaporated with the death of the spidrens.
"Daine! Are you hurt?" He pulled his cloak free and dropped it on her so she could change back. "What's happened here?"
Daine shifted back to herself and said, "Why have you trapped Cearl? He was helping us."
"Oh," Numair answered, confused. He let the other mage go and reached to help Daine up.
"I don't need help. Check on Buri," Daine snapped.
Numair looked hurt and confused, but did as he was told. Buri stood, coughing. Onua ran to Cearl and hugged him tightly. Kit jumped down from her special saddle bag on Spots and rushed to Daine, trilling and squeaking her worry and fright. Alanna remained where she was like an absurd statue. There was a strange emptiness in her eyes.
"What has happened here?" Lindhall asked.
Daine walked behind the trees to get dressed, leaving Onua and Buri to explain as best they could. Daine was very grateful for the rescue and at the same time was angry at the situation. Numair showed up like a knight in shining armor to rescue her – the damsel in distress. And yet again, the situation made it impossible for her to show him she could take care of herself.
Cloud's mindspeak interrupted her musings. –You weren't fair, you know. He was just watching out for you.-
-Don't you start defending Storkman!- Daine retorted silently.
-Don't tell me who I can and can't defend- the mare shot back. –We're all lucky he showed up when he did. And like it or not, you did need help.-
-I can't talk to you when you're like this- Daine fired back. She could not believe that Cloud would take his side.
-When you aren't so angry at him, you will realize you're being a foolish two legger.- It was already true. But Daine wasn't ready to let go of her anger yet and she resented Cloud for being right.
In the clearing, Lindhall and Numair were examining Alanna, who was still frozen.
"Why hasn't she broken free?" Lindhall asked.
"My best guess would be that she doesn't want to," Numair answered, looking contemplative. "This could mean that she's back to herself again. Do you think we should test that theory?"
Lindhall nodded. "But I think we should get everyone back out of the way.
Without any discussion, Onua, Cearl and Buri moved back to where Harailt was standing. Daine moved in behind them to watch.
The spell was lifted and Alanna stared at Numair with the most pitiable expression on her face. He pulled her into a tight hug and there she stayed for the longest time. He embraced her while she sobbed unrestrained into his chest.
-
-
-
There you go. Please respond.