Disclaimer: If you recognize a character, place or magic spell, it was created by Tamora Pierce for the 14 books belonging to her Tortall Universe. Otherwise, you can blame me.

Ethalas Tuath'an: Why didn't they stop the fight? Don't worry, Jon will be asking himself the same thing. As far as Daine now knowing that Numair isn't going after a married woman – she knows no such thing. She only knows that he told Onua that it was no one she knew. That still leaves quite a few married women in the world. But even so, it was obviously a lie. When Onua puts together the sparkling dragon thing, she will know that it was a lie. Will I have Numair sing the song? You'll have to wait and see. It's not that far away now.

Kit49: Yes I have a 2 year old son. I also have a full time job. Luckily for me the job is one where I can do anything I want when my work is done, as long as I'm handy to answer the phone and help employees. I get a lot of time to myself. So I write. On weekends though, I still manage to write. I just juggle things like all mothers do. It helps that my 2-year-old is unusually bright. If I give him a jigsaw puzzle to work on or a stack of books, he will play quietly for an hour or so. I also type 90 wpm and plot the stories in my head. My chapters take about an hour and a half if I type straight through. Usually that isn't the case. Usually I get about a paragraph, then do a chore, then another paragraph and so on. When I reach the chapter end, I read the whole thing over before submitting it. I catch a lot of little stuff that way. But I still miss things from time to time. Then I have to go back and fix later. When I'm ready to do my own I'll let you know. However, I've been getting a lot of negative comments from one regular reviewer lately which makes me think maybe I'm not good enough yet. It might be the pace too. Sadly I disagree with most of them, which probably just means I'm too stubborn to see their point of view. It's starting to depress me though. Just so you know, Onua is convinced now that Daine and Numair belong together. So they have three friends on their side at this point.

X17SkmBdrchiczxx: Yep – it makes sense though that if Ozorne wanted to ruin the Kingdom from the inside out, he'd gather as many as he could.

Twilight Shades: Yes, Chaos is what he would have said.

Lady Ariceli: Yes, Chaos is what he would have said.

Purple Eyed Cat: If you're frustrated, imagine how they feel. But things are about to be revealed. I love how nobody noticed the sparkling dragon. Numair, of course, knows why she was sparkling. That's why he took her with him. Several people have doubts about Cearl. Sadly, no one is talking out of friendship to Onua.

Nativewildmage: I'm glad you still like it. Sadly, Sinthya was finally going to do something good for the kingdom. Now, it's too late. I love redeeming a bad guy.

Chapter 16 – Seeing the Truth

When Numair entered the big tent to find Harailt and Lindhall, he discovered that Harailt had mastered the shield suit spell and was testing it on Lindhall. "I've got it," Harailt said. "This is a brilliant spell. I think I want to spend some time staring at that book of yours."

"Unless you're as quick at translating as he is, it will probably give you the same headaches it gave me," Lindhall said with a grin. He looked at Numair and frowned. "Either my sense of humor is failing or you're somewhere else right now."

"All this time we've been helping Elyra with the projection spell and never even thought to use it ourselves," Numair said abruptly.

Numair saw Lindhall's brow furrow. "What are you talking about?"

"It's like you said when I was your student, Lindhall, 'To cure a disease, you have to have as much information as possible.' That's true of stopping this spell too. We need to see what we're looking past. The answer to how to see it was right in front of my nose all along and it just got through my thick skull." He pulled the memory of the previous day from his own mind and then settled it in the center of the tent in a projection. He dropped to his knees to study it. He could see their riding formation and glances to those he was carrying on a silent conversation with (this spell left out the sound). It was strange watching it all in miniature unfold again. He saw his perspective of falling from Spots and Daine training her bow on him -- birds attacking and being burned to nothing -- freezing Daine and watching the others stop Alanna and Daniel. The others kneeled beside him and studied it too.

Harailt released Lindhall from his protective suit and both of them put their own memories of the fight into a small projection. Each mage took turns watching the other's perspective.

Lindhall stood again. "Maybe we should look from one of their perspectives – Alanna, Daniel, or Daine.

Harailt nodded and added, "..or from Cearl or Onua."

Numair frowned. As much as he wanted to trust Cearl for Onua's sake, he couldn't. But he didn't want to say as much aloud. "Perhaps we should look at the other battle…" He heard Alanna clear her throat from the doorway.

"I need a privy break," she said as she looked around. "Is that…"

"We're trying to see what we missed," Numair explained. "But this one doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. I was just about to try the other battle. We can hold off until you return from the privy if you want?"

Fascinated, Alanna said, "I think I can wait a few minutes. Let's see it."

Numair pulled the memory of the immortal skirmish from his mind and projected it. It started from a point when Spots lurched into a run for no apparent reason. Topping the rise they saw the giant throw a grizzly bear into a tree. The bear smashed hard enough to shake the tree. Then the bear tried to pull free and they could see she was trapped in webbing. The view shifted to look at all the foes left to fight. Alanna took a sharp intake of breath as she watched herself strangling Buri with her magic. Then the black fire erupted, causing immortals to explode and holding Cearl and Alanna paralyzed. Purple and White fire receded back to the sorcerer who wielded it.

"Why did your horse take off like that?" Lindhall asked.

"I assume Spots felt Daine's fear or maybe that of the other horses," Numair answered.

"That would make sense," Alanna added.

"How did you know who the bear was?" Harailt asked.

"Logic – A bear would not be fighting otherwise. Plus…" he restarted the projection and pointed to the split second where Daine's copper fire was visible, "I saw her magic. I usually look for it in animals when I'm expecting Daine around. I don't have to try for that. I usually shut off that magic sight."

As Alanna watched again she began to frown. "Numair," she asked, "What spells did you use here exactly?"

"Mythros! I don't know. It was so automatic. I remember realizing that you were a danger to them. I had known that when we headed for you, so it wasn't exactly shocking." He sat down and pulled at his long nose. "I took a quick stock of the immortals left to fight. You can see that when I'm looking around there." He wondered if anyone else noticed that he kept looking at Daine the bear. "I'm very used to fighting immortals now. Almost three years of these kind of battles has taught me which ones have magic and which don't. But I chose the exploding mage fire as it is good in an all purpose fight. I didn't want to kill you though," he pointed at Alanna. "I used the foe rune to direct the paralyzation." He restarted the projection just before that point and when it came up, he pointed to himself drawing the symbol in the air. "Do you see it?"

"Then why," Alanna asked pointedly, "did it grab Cearl too?"

Numair looked Alanna directly in the eyes and the realization dawned on them both. But before he could stand, Numair heard Daine's voice screaming his name.

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Daine and Onua joined Cearl by the fire when they were done brushing the horses. Kit held out her arms to Onua like a small toddler wanting new attention. Onua giggled and picked her up.

"How goes the reading?" Onua asked Cearl with a smile as she settled Kit into her lap.

He shrugged. "I think I'm getting a kink in my neck from it. It's probably time to take a break." He reached over and patted Kit on the head.

Daine began to boil water for lunch. "Cearl, I was wondering how many similar powers you have to Numair's. You both have the black robe status, right?"

Cearl merely nodded but never pulled his gaze from Onua.

"Onua said you can make eggs appear from nothing, right – like Numair does with flowers and stuff?"

"Yes," the mage answered. He held out his palm and conjured a perfect egg with his white fire. "You could boil that and add it to our lunch if you like." Daine found the fact that the color of his magic was exactly the opposite of Numair's a little unnerving, as if it were a sign that he was the opposite of Numair in other respects. She tried to shake the thought for Onua's sake and put a second pot of water on to boil.

"Does that take a lot of magic?"

"Does it burn up a lot of my gift, you mean? Not really. You have to be very powerful to conjure in the first place, but… it's funny really. I could sit and make a dozen eggs and still have enough gift to use a word of power or two." He held out his hand again, producing five more eggs, one after the other. "Now you have six to add to our lunch," he said grinning.

Daine smiled and took them, thinking maybe he wasn't so bad after all. About then she heard Tahoi say –Don't you start warming up to him too.-

-Don't you trust Onua's judgement?- she asked in mindspeak.

-You know I do, but not with him. That two-legger doesn't smell right.-

Daine tried not to giggle at that. –He smells like a two-legger with strong magic, Tahoi. You see the fire in him don't you?- The big dog twitched and sulked into Onua's tent.

"You haven't won Tahoi's heart yet," she said to Cearl aloud. She noticed a frown cross Onua's face, but the K'mir said nothing.

"It's amazing how you talk to animals. I remember it being drilled into our heads that wild magic was a myth – yet here you sit," Cearl stated.

"It's fair disturbing to humans still though. Many people are afraid of me. They're afraid of Numair too. Do you get much of that?"

"It helps that I learned to keep my magic mostly out of sight of others."

"Yes, Numair told me many times to keep my conversations with animals private when I was first learning. But while it helps, I still travel with a dragon," she patted Kit, "and transform often to defend myself or those I care about."

"But don't let her fool you," Onua interjected, "She's also the best archer I've ever met."

Cearl chuckled. "I saw that huge bow yesterday. It looks like it would be nearly impossible to string. I was wondering, can I make a fool out of myself by trying?"

Onua and Daine laughed simultaneously. Daine picked up her bow and handed it to Cearl. As he reached across the fire, a bracelet of multicolored stones dropped from under his sleeve. Kit trilled with delight, making the different stones light up and giving Daine an instant headache.

"No, no," Cearl scolded at Kit. "That could be dangerous." He tucked the bracelet back and stood to try and string the bow. Onua and Daine both covered their mouths trying not to laugh as he struggled without success.

"There is a trick to it. You have to hold the bow with your instep," Daine said, as normally as possible.

"I think I'll stick to my spells and charms," he returned, eyes dancing. He handed the bow back to her. "Told you I'd make a fool of myself." Onua stopped trying to hide her amusement and giggled outright.

"What were all those stones for anyway," Daine asked, thinking back to the bracelet.

"Well," he said sitting back down and looking thoughtfully, "You know that different stones do different things magically, right?"

"Sure. But I'm not Numair, I won't recite," she answered with a smile, sending Onua into another fit of giggles.

"Let's just say each one represents a different use, shall we?" he answered.

"So, it's an all purpose piece of jewelry, kind of?"

"More or less."

Daine added a ball of noodles and spices to one of the two pots of boiling water and stirred. The other pot had the eggs. About that time she saw Alanna go by, headed for the tent where Numair, Harailt and Lindhall were. They waved at one another.

Kit wiggled on Onua's lap at the smell of the cooking food, whistling to Daine to let her know she was hungry.

"It will be ready soon, Kit," she said. "I meant to ask you, Cearl, if you can shapeshift and if so, what animal? Numair can and I know you have to be very powerful to do it. So I thought you probably can too. I wondered if it always ends up being the same one or not."

"I've never tried," Cearl answered.

Kit's scales began to sparkle like fireworks. "Oh, she's doing it again," Onua said excitedly. "She did that earlier."

Daine stared at the little dragon and back to Cearl. She remembered the letter Numair had sent and his explanation of what resulted from Kit eating eyebright. She reached for her bow. "Onua, a hurrok is coming." Onua stood, dumping Kit from her lap. She and Cearl searched the sky. Daine ignored the renewed sparkles emanating from Kit and hoped the other two wouldn't yet put it together. She expertly strung the bow and picked up an arrow, screaming for Numair as she did it.

When she saw him exit the tent, Daine coldly trained the bow on Cearl. "Kit's sparkling, Onua, because he's telling a lie." Cearl looked at her face, startled. She glared and asked, "Why would you do that? Are you the fox?"

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Okay. You all have to wait for news of Jon, Raoul, Gary, Elyra and George until next chapter. In the meantime, review.