Word of War

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: I know it's been a while, my volleyball season just ended, and well, new friends, and "friend".

Alanna awoke early the next morning, feeling every injury she received the night before. Glancing at her right arm she discovered that there was a thick bandage over the wound. She looked around but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Nice to see you're awake," said Faithful. He sounded more smug than normal.

"Oh shut up!" snapped Alanna. She wanted to go back to sleep, and forget the memories of the after of her duel. "How long have I been out?"

"Long enough," replied Raoul from the doorway. A grin started to spread over his face as he continued, "Dain went home earlier than the rest of the knights. He couldn't stand the thought that a squire beat him."

Alanna cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you avoiding the question?"

"Why are you so persistent?" he teased and dodged a punch to his head.

"Because it gets me what I want," she answered stiffly. "Now, seriously, how long?"

"Four days," Goldenlake replied slowly. "You kept waking up, but Duke Baird put you back to sleep."

The red head's jaw dropped. "Why?"

Raoul was trying look innocent. "I told him to."

"Why? Why in the Mother's name did you do that?" she demanded.

"I thought you lost a lot of blood."

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine!" another thought hit Alanna. "Are the diplomats gone?"

"Yes..."

"What's wrong then?" Alanna inquired nervously.

Raoul drew a deep breath. "Their leader, not their king, but um... his brother, Duke Hilam, wants the River Drell."

"WHAT!" shouted Alanna.

The knight was cringing. "Yeah."

Alanna was shaking her head in disbelief. "No. Why?"

He shrugged. "Ask Jon later, he was at the meeting when we were told about it."

The squire bit her lip. "Where is he?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "Up for a search around the palace?"

"Not really, but I guess I have to," Alanna said. She stood up with a groan and almost toppled over when her right knee gave out.

In one swift moment, Raoul held by her elbows. For some reason, he started laughing and dropped her, leaving Alanna to land with a loud thud. "Helpful, really," Alanna drawled.

He held a hand out to her, sending a small spark throughout her entire body. Becoming used to these small inconveniences, Alanna ignored it. His catching her was even worse.

"If I was helpful I wouldn't be me," he explained with a large smile.

In an act of defiance Alanna stuck her tongue out at her giant friend. "Let's forget about this mishap, conveniently "forget" to tell Jon"-

"Why not tell him?" asked Raoul slyly.

A deep blush rose into Alanna's pale cheeks. "I don't want to."

"You want to loooove him," Raoul sang. "You want to"- but his song was cut short by a small fist to the face.

"Maybe I just don't want to tell one of my friends about how I'm too weak to stand on my own two feet!" she said angrily. " and I don't want Jon!"

"Surprised me," grumbled Raoul, holding a hand to cover his bleeding nose and blocked another punch to his face.

"Not the point," she rapped out.

"Well, do you like anyone?" he sat back and crossed his legs, looking like a very, very, muscular lady.

"This isn't a slumber party, and even if I did I wouldn't tell you!" Was her final snapped reply before she stalked out of the room.

Jonathan walked the deserted corridors, thinking once again of the chestnut haired lady who seemed to control his mind. Delia of Eldorne often tried to seduce, and often he went along, but now it was evolving. This was more than simple lust, this was sheer passion!

"Prince!"

He turned to he Alan, not walking fast but fast enough to catch up to the tall Conte. Jon smiled, he hadn't talked to the squire in what felt like ages. "Nice to see you're up and about."

Alan grimaced. "Barely."

Jonathan looked at Alan. "You probably want to know why we're going to war with Tusaine."

"Am I that predicatable?" asked Alan sweetly.

"When it comes to things like this, then yes. Yes you are."

The squire's copper eyebrow was raised. "Thank you for sparing me my dignity. But I really need to know. Why?"

The prince sighed. "I'm not sure."

"How can you now be sure? You went to the meetings and you understand why people go to war!"

"It's not like I don't have other things on my mind," said Jon defensively.

"I wasn't saying that."

The prince looked skeptical. "That's was it sounded like."

Alan flushed. "Maybe so, but that wasn't what I was implying."

Running a hand through his black hair, Jon said, "all right, maybe I took it the wrong way. But why must you know why we're going to war?"

He took a moment before answering. "I want to know what I'm fighting for."

Alanna was more confused than ever. It was bad to go to war at all, even worse when you don't even know what you're fighting for. While she loved Tortall and its occasional secrecy, she needed to know why they were fighting their neighbouring country. And she knew one way that never failed her yet.

Walking to the stables, Alanna called down Stefan, and had him saddle Moonlight as she reviewed all the information she had. Which was little.

"Why you be in such a tearin' hurry, master Alan?" questioned the hostler.

"I need a few questions answered," she said and hopped onto Moonlight.

Within minutes, the rider was in the lower city of Corus, and in the midst of a party at the Dancing Dove.

"Alan, what a pleasant surprise," cried the tall redheaded Rispah.

"Where's George?"

"His rooms, where else would he be?" the older woman joked.

"I don't know, entertaining a certain person?" said Alanna with subtlety.

"Just go see your friend!" commanded Rispah with exasperation.

A quick wave was all Alanna gave her friend and trotted up the stairs to George's room.

She started pounding on the door yelling, "George! I know you're in there! Open up! It's me, Alan."

The sounds of fumbling were heard before George opened the door, his hair mussed and he looked exhausted. Trebond eyed the thief with interest. "You have a friend over?"

The Rogue blushed.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said cooly and walked in. "Morgan? Who else would be here?"

Gary's sister walked out from behind the bed. Now Alanna raised her eyebrows. "I think I'll come back later. When you aren't doing something."

The pair glanced at each other and Morgan replied. "No, it's fine. Just don't tell father about this."

"Hmm," Alanna grinned. "Maybe I won't tell you father about it..."

Morgan's feet were off the ground in a second and Alanna found herself pinned beneath the Naxen Lady. "Not Gary either!" she looked down to see Alanna staring up at her in shock. "Not so powerful now, are you, Lioness?"

The corners of the squire's mouth twitched in a small smile. "Lioness? Where'd that come from?"

"You're like one, and lionesses are usually the ones to fight and hunt," Morgan replied.

"I like it," Alanna said absently, "I like it a lot."

George chose that moment to ask, "what are you doin' here anyways?"

There and then the Lioness's mood turned sour. "You know Tortall's going to war, right?" he nodded. "Well, I don't know why."

"Why must you know why?" George wanted to know. "Can't you just fight for the country without question?"

Alanna pursed her lips. "No, I can't. I will fight, I have no choice, but I want to know why I have to do this."

Crossing his arms across his chest George said, "I'm not gonna be the one to tell you, lass."

She threw her arms into the air and exclaimed, "why not?"

Her raised his eyebrow at her. "Because it's not my place to say."

"You would go all noble on me wouldn't you?" grumbled Alanna as she turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door in her wake.

Alanna was infuriated. Why would no one tell her why they were going to war? Deciding everyone was just as useless as a broken saddle, the squire walked the halls of the palace aimlessly.

"Really?"

Alanna paused. Her senses were picking up, and their words were audible.

"Aye, apparently, Goldenlake's squire has been going around, poking and prodding, just being an annoyance."a second voice explained.

"Whatever for?" cried a third voice.

The squire heard loud thumps and assumed they were servants "hush! Do you want them nobility to catch us! Some are mages and you can say good bye to yer voice!" hissed the first voice.

Alanna smiled grimly. They were so stupid.

"So why was the squire 'poking and prodding'?" asked the second voice.

A new voice, a female cutting voice, said, "trying to find out why Tortall is going to war. Can't be content to serve the realm."

Now, the Lioness was confused. The new voice was too educated to be a servant.

"He doesn't know?" the first person spoke again.

"Would I be poking and prodding otherwise?" Alanna murmured under her breath.

She wasn't quiet enough. Within seconds three men and Delia of Eldorne had her surrounded. Delia walked forward and slapped Alanna across the face, the sound might have been loud enough for Raoul to hear it. "Why were you eavesdropping?"

She could have gone around the bushes to see why, and see if she could trap me, but she had to be up front about it. How dumb can you get?

"It wasn't intentional, my lady," Alanna lied evenly.

"I'm sure," said the other woman sarcastically. She snapped her fingers and the three men grabbed Alanna and started to haul her away.

"What are you doing?" Alanna yelled.

"Sorry Trebond, who knows what else you might overhear," Delia replied, her voice sickly sweet.

"Who cares what else I might over hear! Unless you have something to hide," Alanna said, realization sinking in.

"As far as anyone knows, you were killed while you were in the Lower City," Delia smiled. "Such a pity, too. I'm sure if we took away your disguise, you would make a wonderful wife for Raoul of Goldenlake."

Goddess! "What are you talking about?"

Delia rolled her eyes. "Mithros! I know you're not a boy!"

"How?"

"The looks you gave me when Raoul flirted with me," Delia explained, her sick smile still on her face.

Alanna started to fight. One of her lucky punches caught a man in the nose, and another man got a kick to the stomach.

Delia was still speaking. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know, that's not a good idea. I could very easily expose you to the whole court."

The squire froze. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, but I would. You're an annoyance. You're a liar. You're a whore, you're probably sleeping with Raoul. You deserve to die."

"I haven't been sleeping with Raoul. And why do I deserve to die? I was only trying to make Tortall a better place," Alanna refused to beg, but she would try to make Delia see reason.

"I'm not talking about the disguise!" Delia snapped. "I'm talking about everything you've done, every time you got in the way."

Alanna gasped. It all fit! She had been there to prevent one of her friends, (and Jon's!) from dying.

"Hello?" called out a man in a rather happy, sing-song voice.

Delia sneered, made a quick gesture and the four ran away, leaving Alanna to deal with whoever came around the corner.

"I said 'hello'. Why hasn't anyone answered me?" the man called again, this time Alanna smiled at the sight of him.

"Dean!" she shouted and jumped at him. Unfortunately, Dean moved and Alanna smashed into the stone wall.

"Damn! Sorry about that."

Alanna laughed. "I'm fine." she glanced around, and remembered what got her into the whole mess in the first place. "Dean, do you know why we're going to war with Tusaine?"

"Of course I do," he said happily. "Because they want the Drell river, and now that they know that simple raiding parties won't get them it, Duke Hillam's decided to make war."

"That's it?" Alanna was astonished. That was it? And no one would tell her!

"Oh, and this is my idea of a conspiracy. I think that this is only the beginning. I think that they might want to kill our best warriors and our defenses, then attack with multiple raiding parties to take over all of Tortall," he said.

"Oh Goddess Bless!" whispered Alanna as she bade a quick farewell to Dean and sprinted to find Raoul.

She met Faithful halfway to her room. "Where have you been? He howled. "Raoul's been looking everywhere!"

"I have to talk to him," she said. A grim smiled was on her face.

She got to the rooms, tried to open the door. It was locked. Figures. She put her hands on the lock and blasted it.

"What are you doing?" Raul asked her from behind.

"Umm... I was looking for you actually," she answered uncomfortably. She started to scuff her foot against the flagstones beneath her. "Sorry about the door, but it was in my way."

"At least you'll be useful in the war," he said dryly.

Alanna blushed. He still did mad things to her emotions, and being in this position was not fun. "I guess... but this isn't the reason I was in such a rush to find you."

"What was the reason then?" he was actually amused! She had just blown the door off of his room and he was still smiling.

"Because I was talking to Dean of Fenrigh and"-

"Say no more," interrupted Raoul, grinning maniacally.

"But"-

"No. Dean had very odd things to say and they are never right."

"But this one made sense," insisted Alanna.

"What was it then?" he leaned against the wall and stretched out his incredibly long legs.

When Alanna finished, Raoul was frowning.

"What?" she asked.

"I have to talk to Jon. Do you want to come with me?"

Alanna nodded. "I might as well."

The walk was brisk, Alanna guessed it had to be, it wasn't everyday that your go to war and hear about conspiracies. She glanced around the halls. "Why aren't we going to the mess hall? Wouldn't that be where Jon would be?"

Raoul shook his head. "They're going to be in his chambers discussing the war and who's leading."

"Who's leading?" panted Alanna. Their brisk walk had progressed into a fast walk for Raoul, and a jog for Alanna.

"Duke Gareth, Jon and King Roald."

An inner sigh of relief flooded Alanna's mind. At least now she knew why she didn't trust Duke Roger, or Delia for that matter.

They had arrived and Jon's door. Raoul knocked loudly and shouted," Jon! Get out here! We might have a situation soon!"

The prince's black-haired head popped through the door. "What are you on about?" and let them into the room.

As Raoul explained, Alanna wandered aimlessly, not hearing anything that was being said. A little while later, Alanna heard Jonathan sigh. "If you see him again, tell him not to say that to anyone else. If that got around Tortall might be ruined."

"I know. Alan," called Raoul.

"Hmm?" she was looking at one of Jon's maps.

"Go find Dean of Fenrigh, and ask him if he said that to anyone else," instructed Raoul.

"Yessir," Alanna said and walked towards the door.

Raoul looked at his old friend again. "What's wrong with you lately?"

"It's Delia," he murmured.

"What's going on between you two anyway? You used to be nearly inseparable, now all you do is say hello in the mess hall," Raoul recalled.

"I know. I tink she's seeing someone else as well," Jon confessed.

Raoul knew Delia was seeing someone else, but whom he was not sure. "I'm not sure who else she would be seeing," the knight assured Jonathan.

"You might be right. I hate being lied to, though," Jon was scared. He thought Delia loved him. If she did, why would she act like that?

"Come now," ordered Raoul. "We have bigger problems."

"You're right. Alan had better find the Fenrigh man!"

A/N: So? you like it? I knwo, maybe Delia shouldn't have found out, but i have a way it will help! (I hope) I haven't lost interest on the story, things have gotten busy.

Thanks a million for reading; please take the time to review.