Plotting Death

Disclaimer: refer back to my other disclaimers for the rest of this.

A/N: thanks to all who reviewed, i will have another chapter soon!

Roger swooped into his workroom, startling Delia. The green eyed women glared at him, "I hope you found something useful. That wasn't funny by any means!"

The man chuckled as he regained his human form. "I can assure you, everything is going to work. The boy, Alan of Trebond, won't be here after his daring incident with the commander of the King's Own."

"How so?" asked Delia, "the man is rigid with honour; you couldn't pay him enough to switch sides. And what incident?"

"Alan used his magic to hit Jordan. You know that man, Dean of Fenrigh, he's going to be in the way, and in a leading squad."

"Meaning, he could be killed and no one think anything of it?"

"Exactly," Roger's gaze swept around the room. "Were you able to seduce my dear Jonathan?"

"Yes," her head proudly raised.

"Good, still wrapped around your little finger?"

"I am unsure. Give me a week and I will tell you." she said, though Roger didn't know it, she was scared. Alan actually was good at most things, and if the prince had regained his friendship with the midget there would be problems.

Nothing I can't deal with, she thought deviously.

"Actually, Delia, I want to shake them up. Get rid of a few pawns; however you want to say it. Who is close to them, but won't require a great deal of time to mourn?" he said curiously.

"One of the ladies," Delia replied promptly.

"Alright, that helps, which one?" his voice was mild, but his brow was furrowed.

The two continued to talk long into the night. Discussing and flirting, the two mingled until there was no difference. The candle burned low and they finally stopped to finally sleep.

"Delia, Jon will never know of this," he told her.

"Of course, my love, of course," Delia murmured sleepily, the euphoria around her head was thick.

"Good. I would be upset if something were to go wrong."

Alanna woke up the next, throat on fire, stomach about to release everything she ever ate. Her muscles ached from having to assist in lifting and pulling were not helping her any. I least I look better than the last I felt like this. "Faithful?" her voice soft and muffled by early morning fog.

"Why are you doing this? I want to sleep!" the cat said, his words slurring.

"I don't care. I need to wash up, so guard me."

He sighed angrily. "Fine. But remember how mad this made me."

The girl's light chuckle seemed to sound like a shout. "Well, no time like the present." and ambled out the door.

The water was cold, refreshing and numbing; she sighed in complete bliss. Though she was freezing, she loved the feeling: she was wide awake now, and ready to take on the world!

"'lanna! We have company!" Faithful cried from the shore.

Alanna looked around, hearing hoof beats already. Oh goddess! "Do I know them?"

"No!"

They were getting closer. She could hear the sounds of men talking, joking about the women they might find at the next village. She knew there would be no way for her to run now.

"I will never run away" her words echoed in her mind. Now the only thing she could find was her tunic and underwear. Good enough, she thought shaking her head.

She threw on her clothes and hid by a large clump of trees. When she peeked around the side, she saw the men split up. Bad move, she told herself, finding holes in their 'brilliant' ideas.

When they were gone, she searched for her sword. It seemed like hours before she found it, the men might have already started-

"Alan!"

She whirled to see Dean and Raoul, both looking anxious. "What's wrong?"

"Men snuck on the camp, almost all of them are dead."

"Jordan?" she asked. This was harsh, not even he deserved to die like this.

They shook their heads. "We need you to heal people."

"Gladly," at least when healing she could sit down, give her weak knees a rest after hearing the bleak news. "How many other healers are there?"

"Only you," replied Dean. His voice was cracking, eyes were over bright. "Didn't think we would need them. Stupid!"

"You lost friends?" her voice was gentle, it had to be to handle someone who might explode at any second.

"Yes. Johann, Brandon, Gregory, Jesse... the only one who made it out unharmed was Greg, he's the same size as this guy here," pointing at Raoul.

"Are the others wounded or dead?"

"Brandon's gone. I can't find Johann, and Jesse's out cold."

"I'll do my best," she said and looked at Raoul. "Could you try to find Johann while I heal Jesse?

Raoul nodded. "Dean, if my squire is returned to me beyond repair I will send you to Brandon."

Dean smiled weakly, "I'll make sure nothing happens to him."

As they took different roads, Alanna bombarded Dean with questions. As it turns out, he could do general first aid. "Alright, you going help bandage survivors."

"You say that like it's a privilege," he muttered.

"It is, you're probably not going to get into my way, so long it stays that way, it is a privilege," she said with grim good humour.

"I just thought of something... how come you weren't up yet?" she asked. "How come I didn't hear noise?"

"They had mages." Dean's voice was cold. "We didn't, you're the only living healer left."

"Who else was?"

"Brandon, a couple of men in other squads. Jordan thought we wouldn't need the rest. He thought they would break and run when they saw our shining armour," he spat.

They reached camp and Alanna almost let tears fall down her face. Men of the Own were strewn across the ground, bodies covered in blood, theirs or someone else's, occasionally she would find a man with a limb missing. The enemy were there, but only ten of their bodies lay rotting. When she cast a look at Dean he said, monotonously, "they escaped."

She looked around, trying to get rid the lump in her throat. "Build a pyre, say prayers for our people. Burn the others, but let them get lost on their way to the Black God. We'll have a proper funeral at Corus for the men." she turned for the wounded men.

"Thank you," whispered Dean, knowing the young squire was too far away to hear him. He looked at his friends, and wiped his eyes.

Alanna looked inside the tent to see four men, there was a tall thin man with dark hair, a short man with blonde hair, a tall one with light brown highlights, and a very short man with dark and skin, like a Bazhir. She looked the first man, at the foot of his bed read "Jesse of Port Legan."

" J.P," Dean told her from the doorway. The pointed to the second man, "that's Jake of Upsala, and Joshua of Falcon Bay. And Schuyler of the Bazhir tribe, Sandrunners."

She nodded and said, "I want you to go over each man, find out where he is injured, and write it down. It saves time."

"Okay," he said, for second he opened his mouth again, but shut it when a loud cry tore through the air.

"It came from outside," Dean was saying as he dashed outside.

Praying the man would live to see her, she went to the one who looked worst: Schuyler. "Hey," she called softly, reaching out with her magic. He opened his eyes and the two dropped into a swirling well, a black hole on the other side. "Schuyler, come here, I'm going to help you." knowing there was a good chance he would never come back from the well.

"I'm sorry, but I am too far now, good bye, hero." and fell at an incredible speed downwards.

Pulling herself away from him she turned to Joshua. After examining him, she decided he would live, just a broken arm and a shoulder wound. Jake had died while she examined Joshua. "Jesse please still be alive."

"I am," he groaned. "Too much pain to be dead."

She smiled, he seemed to share Dean's humour. "Do you know if anyone escaped?"

"Greg. And Johann."he slowly opened his eyes. "Aren't you a little be small to be with us?"

"Yes, but I don't care."

He nodded, then winced. "Headache."

"Do you know where the others are?"

"Greg should be with Johann," he answered. "Johann was cut and Greg grabbed him, trying to get him away from the fight. He was going to do this for everyone, but when he got back, almost everyone was dead."

"Who's still alive?"

Alanna turned to the bed that held Joshua. He looked at her confused, why was this child with them again?

"You, Jesse, Dean possibly Johann," Alanna quickly replied.

"Who's looking for Johann?" Joshua asked.

"Me," Raoul interjected from the mouth of the tent. A large man with brown hair, blue eyes and blood smeared across his face and clothes.

"Is he alive?" Alanna asked, beating everyone to the question.

"Yes, still able to walk," Raoul said, pleased. "Are these the only two who made it?"

They all nodded.

"We're not going to attempt to catch the people who did this. Alan, I want you to heal each of them enough that he can ride," Raoul ordered.

"Yessir."

An hour later, they were mounted, riding at a slow, silent pace to the palace. The only ones who weren't able to ride by themselves were Josh, as he preferred to be called, and Jesse, who rode beside Greg and Johann. Alanna took care of Josh, he was the worst off, Raoul at the front, and Dean bringing up the rear.

"I can't believe almost everyone is gone," Josh told her.

"I know, I'm sorry about it all." Alanna felt so bad for him, all his close friends were dead.

"You couldn't stop it. If you could, you would be sung about in legends." he joked, but anyone could tell it was forced.

They talked the entire way back, Alanna was sure if they didn't Josh didn't stay awake, he wouldn't wake up. Thankfully, he wasn't self absorbed, and asked her opinion on a lot of things, even things she never heard about.

The ride ended. When they entered the stables Raoul barked orders to hostlers and calling for pages who happened to be in there at the time. Within minutes they were brought to Duke Baird, who was accompanied by Jessica. Seeing the men, she covered her mouth and took Josh's hand, dragging him to a curtained area; another healer did the same thing with Jesse.

As the healers worked on them, Alanna talked to the Duke. "I don't know why, but there must have been silencing spells all around the area, because I couldn't hear a thing."

"Possible."

Jessica walked around the corner, pale, with beads of sweat covering her face. "It was worse than I thought," she said, "he has a head wound, a bad one. I can't get him to wake."

Alanna started to fall apart. This couldn't happen! At least five men of the Own would live, no matter what. "Jessica, come with me, you're about to learn something new." Alanna commanded.

Jessica nodded and followed the red-head. "What are you going to do?"

"Practical cures." she replied shortly. "I need a bucket of water, any temperature I don't care which. And you might want to get him a fresh bed pan as well."

"She nodded and called out names, within minutes a healer had everything Alanna had asked for. "If this doesn't wake him, I'll let you try some magic," she instructed.

Swiftly, she pushed his hand into the water, and waited. Suddenly he awoke, angry. He glared the squire and gasped, "What was that for?"

"Had to wake you up," Alanna replied cheerfully.

Still glowering, he asked Jessica, "if J.P. alright?"

"Sleeping, in a safe way, unlike yourself."

"Thanks." then fell into his pillow with a snore.

Alanna sighed with relief, and touched the ember stone at her throat. Traces of orange magic were vanishing from Josh's body at an alarming rate. What was going on! She thought frantically. He still slept peacefully, unaware of the fact that he just lost the essence of a certain mage. Deciding to talk to Faithful tonight, she left the healer's office.

She spotted Raoul along the way. "Raoul!"

He frowned when he turned, but it was quickly changed to a look of confusion, "what's wrong?"

"I just saw something strange," she said, breathless. Since when do I get this? She hadn't even run, and this wasn't the sort of anticipation

"Like what?"

"Like orange magic 'fleeing' Josh's body."

"Drop it," he said.

"Drop what?" she was shocked and infuriated that he would just dismiss her like this.

"I know you don't like Roger, but now your accusing him attempting kill people. Don't do this, even if he did he has more connections. You wouldn't stand a chance against him, even with a sword in one hand, and a ball of magic in the other."

She glared at him. Then without a word, stomped off to her room and shut the door with a loud slam.

She sat on her bed, stroking her cat, telling him of her suspicions.

"Give it time, he will show what he's like."

"I know, it's just that there is no way for me to stop him. He put spells on the men to prevent them from fighting or even screaming!"

"Not being able to fight people is bad, not being able to fight your own mind is worse," he said wisely.

She looked at him. "What are you implying by that?""

"Nothing that you don't already know of."

"Faithful, this isn't funny. I don't know what you're talking about, and even if I did know, you're probably wrong." she said, unwilling to admit that he was right.

"Listen, you can accept this and be happy, or you can deny it, and have troubled sleeps." he said this like she had a choice.

"No, I don't care. Nothing is going on in my mind, or whatever is behind this," Alanna said, trying to get herself to believe it.

Faithful rolled his eyes. He knew she would be this obstinate, but soon enough she'll realise just what's going on.

Alanna fell asleep slowly, still thinking of the men who had died because she wasn't careful enough. Deep in her mind lay the threat of Roger; the sooner she figured him out, the sooner she could rest.

A/N: thank you for reading another chapter,please continue to review. i would really like to thank epoppb, you've reviewed all the time, and i want to give you as real a thanks as you can get on the internet.