A: You guys are waaaaay to smart for me. If these chapters weren't already prewritten I'd change them just so you wouldn't be able to guess what happens. Lol. Though, I don't think you're ready for the surprise I have hidden in this chapter . . . and then again maybe you are.

With that last chapter I hit over 700 hits and 50 reviews. Hehe. That's flippin' sweet. (I'm sorry to all of the napolean dynamite fans but . . . I hate that movie. I swear it dropped my IQ. I don't have enough to waste! I'm dumb enough as it is!)

Disclaimer: Dude, I am so ready to just refer you back to the last chapter. You can't put it anymore simple. I do not own this. I've come to terms with that. But the stuff you don't recognize belongs to me, meaning you cannot steal!

x..:..x

"L-Liam? Highness? Please tell me your all right." Arra pleaded hoping he would listen but he didn't move and his breathing sounded to shallow and forced. From his forehead against her back she could tell he was an unnatural temperature. But she couldn't move. What if it only worsened whatever condition he was presently in?

Fianola walked by carrying a good amount of wood. Arra noticed this. "Fianola! Come here quickly!" She set down her bundle and complied. When she saw her prince she tried to help him first.

"What happened to him?"

"Look, pay attention. You have to do one thing at a time. Finish wrapping this up so we can get it over with then we'll see to Liam. Do one thing at a time and things will go better for it." Arra said as calmly as she could to make the olive-skinned girl understand. She nodded. "Now set him against this tree here. That's it. And quickly finish the wrappings." Fianola wrapped almost too quickly dropping it several times. "Calm down. It's all right. If you do it wrong I'll have if fixed later."

With that all done Arra donned a new shirt and got out her own bedding she used to camp, quickly forgetting the pain in her back with the problem at hand and suddenly more alert than before. She laid it out and when Edmund came back asked him to help her place the unconscious prince on it. After they settled him down she asked him. "Did you find water?"

"Yes, a fairly strong stream. We could even fish from it."

"Good, get some. He's too warm." She checked his temperature and was surprised with another revelation. "No, no. Now he's freezing." They didn't move him again though. Instead they built the fire just so close to him as to not get burned. Arra searched his body and found no wounds. Looking one last time over she found his sleeve torn and bloody. Now how did I skip over that? "Do any of you have a healing Gift?"

They paused the fire-making and looked at each other until Edmund spoke up. "I have a bit of the Sight, miss."

"Forget the miss, just call me Arra. What can you See?" She asked quickly.

"I can see when magic is being worked, though I cannot tell who's, and I can see poison. That is all." Magic or poison. It's worth a try and this doesn't seem a very horrible wound to be causing him a faint.

"Can you use it on Prince Liam? Just to check there's no foul play?" Arra asked almost earnestly. Edmund nodded and got to work. He studied the royalty's arm, his eyes focused.

"It's poison."

Arra cursed. The shallow cut on his arm contained poison that could very well be spreading through his system. Poison. They said they were after me. This isn't the first time I've encountered poison since I entered Tortall. "I've got something in my packs for general poison but if this kind has side effects I won't be able to do anything." She sighed as she pulled it out and showed it to them each. "I guess since your away from the main group you better get some learning in. This is made out of a roots of the Imao plant." Arra worked on rubbing it into the shallow slash on his forearm.

"Does anyone know the properties of the Imao plant?"

Semrak was the first to answer. "It can act like acid in the right form."

"True. That is the leaves. The whole plant has some of that property but the roots ar duller and won't burn through anything. When they are mixed with simple tea leaves they somehow stop becoming so acidic. Instead it scourges the poison in ones system." Arra finished by wrapping his arm. She sighed. "That's all I can do for now. In the morning we'll take him back to the palace. "

"Why not now?" Fianola asked.

"Because we aren't too sure how we'll fare now with the sun setting and how far away are we? A day? To add to that he's unconscious; another burden. If he's awake in the morning, good, and if he's not we've still got no other choice. And . . . he's freezing. The temperature's already dropping. If we ride we can't be sure how warm he'll be able to stay." Arra answered the question swiftly.

Suddenly she smiled. "So who's going to be making dinner for us tonight?"

Fianola ended up having to make it. But the only thing they had supplies to make was jerky and cheese. They boiled the jerky to make it softer and nibbled the cheese. Arra stared into the fire. What if he didn't make it? It's getting colder with the night. Arra looked at the cover that surrounded her shoulders. Leather on the outside to keep the heat from escaping and fleece on the inside. She sighed and put it over the other blanket already on him. His features still held no color. And he's still cold.

She sat by the fire.

"How long have you been doing this Shang business?" Edmund asked.

Arra thought for a second. "I think it's been . . .thirteen years. Since I was four."

Semrak snorted. "Women weren't made for fighting."

Arra raised her brow. "Really. I've been watching the female pages. I'd say they are doing fine. And in case you didn't notice I helped save you." The bazhir shrugged. Arra laughed, her temper was slowly rising. "I could beat you with a broken arm. I've nothing against knights but if I had to go by your training regimin it'd be relaxing. Shang training is rigorous. There are no breaks. For years you train and train and learn about various other things. The training is from dawn till dusk on a certain round of kicks or punches till you can properly execute it, then when you can, you add that to everything else you've learned and go over it all again. And that's not even counting the books they make us study and languages and history!"

She looked at him critisizingly. "I don't think you could have made it as a Shang."

Fianola put a hand on her arm. "He doesn't mean it. He's my friend. He comes from the Bloody Hawk tribe, the one Alanna belongs to. They are the most accepting of women warriors."

Edmund cut in. "And people usually respect Shang. If someone has the nerve to say they are a Shang they better be able to back it up. Though I think we've already seen you are."

Semrak smiled sheepishly at his friends. Then turned to Arra. "I meant no offense. We've already seen you can fight. Which reminds me could you teach me that move?"

"Which one?" Arra grinned when she realized which one he meant. "You mean the one that left that man on the ground unmoveable." He nodded. "Well, no. That seems a little dangerous to me."

"What exactly did you do?" Edmund asked.

"Broke all of his ribs with a hit to the sternum." The young Shang answered nonchalantly, standing. "I'm going to see about that stream you spoke of." Arra took a seat on the dirt and looked out onto the stream's surface barely lit by the crescent moon above. Severely wishing she had her leather-fleece cover to keep her warm, Arra rubbed her eyes.

"Arra?" Fianola took a seat next to the blue-eyed Shang.

"Hm?" When the female page didn't answer Arra inspected her. Fianola stared blankly into nothing with an incomprehensible look on her face. "What's the matter, Fianola?"

"I don't think I'd be able to do it."

"Do what?"

"Kill anyone. How would I know if it was for the good, or would I get lost and kill for the wrong reasons and become evil because I find I like killing? I don't think I'd be able to kill like you did. W-what if I become . . .I don't know, cold?"

"That is a matter of personal moral ethics. With the life you've chosen you will someday kill someone. But it's going to be up to you who." Arra began matter-of-factly. "I'm going to tell you what my teacher told me. Every life you take will weigh on your mind. Any kind of warrior will tell you that. But when you stop caring, and those lives no longer matter and they don't even bother you anymore, that's when you're killing for the wrong. That's when you become a cold killer. That's when you need to worry. Because--" she paused and looked straight into Fianola's dark eyes. "--you are being trained to kill. That won't be the problem. What you need to figure out is why your killing, for what—or who—you're killing, and if you are okay with that."

Fianola soaked it in looking out into the distance. "Thank you. I think I needed someone to tell me that."

Arra stood and held out a hand to Fianola. "I needed someone to tell me, too. Now come on let's check up on our dear prince."

xXx

The youth shook his head. No, this wasn't going accordingly not at all. "So let me get this straight, Feran. You failed."

"All, is not lost. Please--"

"Quiet! I'll tell you when I need your thoughts. At the moment I don't think I will. You are excused this once. " His voice held commanding that could not be ignored. With that the communication spell between them ended.

"Brother, don't be too hard on him."

"You like every male that walks within reach of you." She turned a dark look to him. His lips curled. "You know I only jest."

The youth owned bright green eyes accompanied with dirty blond hair. His sharp features had won him the eyes of many of the court women even in his youth but none of them had his affections. His twin on the other hand fixed her murky green eyes to every young male that would look her way, which was every one. Her hair was even darker blond though more of a light brown.

"But, Zedar, you know that I only want one man." She smiled to herself at the thought.

"Ah, Zefra, I know. You'll have to be patient for him though. You'll have him in due time." At the promise the girl became excited.

"Oh, when? Please tell me!"

Zedar smiled. "Tortall wants alliance with us."

"But what if they have their youngest daughter marry you?" Zefra said showing more intelligence at finding that problem than most thought she owned.

"We'll refuse. Besides, Father wants me to marry a Yamani princess." His answer was emotionless but Zefra noticably lit.

"Why do we need to kill her? She probably doesn't even know."

"And if she does? Father is the one who chooses who rules. If she comes back she might be chosen. You might not get to marry your precious prince. That's why." He paused thoughtfully. "And then all of our plans will have been for nothing."

"Calm down Zedar. It was only a question. I don't want the plan to change I merely wanted to know why." Zefra said putting her had on Zedar's upper arm.

He smiled again, it was a cold smile that could send chills up anyone's spine. "Don't worry, sister dear, you'll have your prince. I'll have the kingdom and everything will work out fine."

xXx

"Is he any better?" Semrak asked.

"No, but he's not worse which isn't a bad thing I suppose. Though he has to make it through the night." Arra said trying to think of another way to make him warmer. Maybe I can find some large rocks and heat them in the fire. But there aren't enough layers to promise the stones won't burn him. Then an idea came to her. Oh, no. I'm not doing that. Let the prince die for all I care because that is not even an option. Inwardly she groaned. The Fates aren't being funny.

"Would any of you like to sleep with the prince?" She asked the pages.

Fianola sputtered and looked at Arra like she was crazy. "W-what!"

She rolled her eyes. "Do you want to take the chance he might not make it through the night?" They shook their heads. "So then we have do decide which one of us will do it. Or which ones."

"You." They all said at once.

"What? Why?" Arra was shocked they would say that.

"Well, we're men." Edmund began and Semrak nodded.

"And it would be odd for me to." Fianola finished.

"And it's any better if I do?" They nodded. She let out a frustrated sound. "But I can't do it! That would be akward! Plus he's not my prince. If he dies, nothing happens to me."

"But your the best candidate. We know you won't do anything to him. You know more about, well basically everything. If it had just been us we would have kept on going on through the night. We might have made it to the palace but at what cost?" Edmund explained.

Arra groaned. "Fine! But if I hear that people know what happened here I will personally chase you all down and beat you mercilessly." The seriousness in her eyes must have been penetrating because they all agreed. Edmund and Semrak found a place to sleep and Fianola curled up a bit away from them with her own blanket. Arra sighed. This was going to be exactly how she had said it would be, akward. Delaying what she had to do Arra got plenty more wood and piled it onto the fire to make sure it would last longer.

The pages asleep Arra thought to herself, I guess I'll have to do it sometime. She admited to herself she was being rather immature about the whole thing and was acting like he was poison but . . . she didn't really care. Arra crawled in next to Liam. She put her head to his chest and found a heartbeat, it was quiet and slow but still there. She wrapped her arms around his lithe body and came as close as possible to share her warmth.

This is going to be odd in the morning. With the last thought she tried to get some sleep secretly hoping the prince would be okay.

x..:..x

A/N: Haha. Zefra is my guild war's name. Except I spell it differently. 'Zephra.' lol. And . . . come on. This isn't a cliffhanger is it? If it is I don't think it's a bad one. Though I suppose in an ongoing story every chapter is a cliffhanger. Well, this one I was a bit nicer.

You guys rock! Lol. Thank you for all of the reviews. I half expected you guys would hate me and not review at all just to protest. (Please don't get any ideas from that.) Wow, when I first wrote this story, I thought maybe a couple people would read it and sure they might like it but not enough to continue reading. You guys make me want to contiue writing, which in retrospect works for your benefit.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Sixth Harry Potter book. 'Nough said. If you read it you understand. I finished it the day it came out. I felt like crying. I won't give anything away no worries.

Sorry guys! I was in such a rush putting this on I din't check to see if my markers were in place. Thanks to Jadepiper's review I found out. So I reposted this chapter in hopes they will be. Hehe. People must have been all like "What in the crap is going on?" haha. Sorry again.