Lela-of-Bast: I felt sorry for Daine, but she'll soon cheer up!
Snowtigress:Please let me know if there are any more typos. I've been typing this up (It's already handwritten) quite late on into the night and my proof reading is none too grand because I know what's coming next.
Twilightshades: There's very little drinking in the actual series as everyone probably knows, but hey, it's Numair's 30th and it was a bit of fun. I enjoyed writing that chapter.
Nativewildmage: I don't think my George is very accurate, but I just went of the voices in my head! I don't usually write accents so that was a new one for me.
Sonnet Lacewing: I agree with your points about George and the drinking, I must've been feeling a bit adventurous at that point! It was fun to write though!
Thank you for reviewing!
A/N This is a fairly shortish chapter compare to the last one. The chapters I've handwritten are huge, so I'm trying to chop them up a bit. Next one will be up as soon as I've typed it.
Chapter 10 – Thawing.
Daine hadn't forgotten what Numair had said, though the wine she had consumed the night before had left her with a raging headache. She put Numair's words and lingering kiss down to his intake of alcohol and decided not to think about what might have happened if he had taken her back to her room. She agreed with George; it would have caused more heartache than it would have solved. She felt like curling up and dying quietly in a corner when she saw George and Alanna the next day; although Alanna clearly had known nothing of it, and George had kept tales of Daine's drunken tears to himself.
Numair, after analysing each syllable of their conversation, finally decided to cease going insane and to attempt to put the whole thing to one side to be discussed at a later date. He had gone to find Daine the day after the ball for no particular reason other than to see if she was about to ignore him for the rest of their lives. He tried to think of a reasonable excuse to see her as he walked to the stables but was unable to come up with anything that wasn't ridiculous. His heart sank when she wasn't there. He found Onua talking with Sarge in the field where they trained the horses; he rushed to her rather too quickly.
"Where's Daine?" he asked, anxiously.
"Possibly in her room. She found a kestrel with a broken wing and she wanted some peace to heal it. She's been gone a while actually, I was going to go and check on her," Onua replied, slightly puzzled at Numair's tone. "Is everything alright?"
Numair nodded, feeling like a very large fool. "I just wanted a chat… bit bored, you know."
"You can say you just wanted to see her. We're not about to go telling her 'Numair's got a huge crush on you' or anything like that. If she wasn't so blinkered she'd have noticed by now herself!" Onua said, in a slightly tormenting manner.
"I'll just go and check on her there then…" Numair now felt traumatised with embarrassment.
He walked to Daine's room, knocking softly on the outside door. She opened it after a few seconds, looking drained and tired.
"What's the matter, Magelet?" he asked, concern covering his face.
She let him in silently. All memories of the other night had fallen away now; he felt their relationshipreturn to safe, familiar ground.
"I'm trying to heal a bird, but he's bad, Numair. I've spent most of the morning healing, just small things,and I know I'm tired and not concentrating properly, I just can't see where all the injuries and infections are… I really don't want to lose him," she looked up at him, sorrow in her eyes.
"I'll guide you around. Sit down." He sat behind her on her bed, his hands resting softly on her head as he used his gift to help her locate the sources of the bird's pain. She was reminded of the first time she had healed, and how he had helped her then, shortly after she had confided in him about her past and he had used his gift to contain her wild magic and stop it from taking over her. Any worries from last night were drowned as his magic sent coolness into her head and the closeness that they shared resumed unawkwardly.
The kestrel was saved, but still rather limp and tired. Daine settled him down to rest on a bar she had in her room for the birds that visited her.
"Thank you," she told Numair quietly, smiling at him.
"What for? I only shone a light, in theory. It was you who did the hard work."
"Without you I wouldn't have saved him," she sat down next to him on her bed.
He ruffled her hair without thinking about it, looking into her eyes. He felt as if someone had poured hot lava through his veins, he felt so on fire.
"How's your head?" If I don't say something, he thought, I'm going to kiss her!
"I saw Harailt in the breakfast hall this morning. He shared a drop of his headache cure with me," she said, a note of laughter in her voice.
"He told me he wasn't using that anymore. He was going to condition himself to not drink with the pain the next day," Numair grinned.
"I think it had something to do with Lady Jayette wanting him to occupy her for the rest of the day," Daine said, smiling a little too sweetly. "I think you've lost a fan there, Numair!"
Numair laughed. "Thankfully. She's an enchantingwoman, but I didn't see her in quitethat light."
"Harailt seems to though, very interested, in fact!" Daine smiled, feeling rejuvenated after her success with the kestrel. "I wonder what they're doing now…"
"And wouldn't Harailt be pleased if we paid him a visit?" Numair finished her sentence.
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The thaws began; and the melting of the snow unsurprisingly coincided with sightings of the immortals. Daine and Numair made the most of their time before they were called away to help defend the realm. They spent their days trying to improve Numair's equestrian skills or doing rather more simple tasks like mucking out the stables – or rather Daine did the work while Numair attempted to create a spell that would do it better.
Their friends at the palace began to leave as they were called away on a daily basis to fight in battle. Daine waited each hour to hear of a message from the king, to send her and Numair to do their job.
That day came when snow still lay on the ground in heavy patches, the new spring sun not yet strong enough to dispel it completely. The messenger found them tucked into Numair's rooms, Daine sprawled on the floor, playing with a lively Kitten while Numair added to a spell he was trying to recreate from an ancient text.
The messenger coughed as Numair let him into the room.
"The king would like to see you immediately in his meeting room," he announced, before dashing off like a scared rabbit.
Numair caught Daine's eye and raised his eyebrows. "It looks as if it's started, Magelet," he sighed as they left the room.
Jonathan was sat behind a table, reams of maps in front of him, and a frown upon his face. He looked up as Daine and Numair entered, attempting a smile and failing miserably.
"It seems that the immortals are reaching us. There have been reports of spidrens, just north of Tyra. The Fifth Rider group down there has attempted to destroy them but they lost their mage in the process."
Numair watched the king with a knowing look in his eye.
"I need you both down there with Skysong. You know I intend to use you both only when there is no one else who can be of assistance. I feel that may be often," Jonathan ended.
"We'll leave immediately," Daine said solemnly.
Numair nodded his agreement. "It should take us no more than three days to get there if we set off now."
"Thank you," the king said simply. "Keep me informed."
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