-11Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns it all except for a few unfamiliar characters that I might add later in the story.

Summary: what if Keladry of Mindelan was not founded in the castle after she defeated Blayce? What if others were injured and they couldn't find her? What if they left her alone injured in the dark castle to be discovered by Scaran warriors.

A/n: this is my first story please review and constructive criticism is welcome as well as any suggestion what so ever.

Derek kicked the gelding onwards, towards the sleeping town. He stopped at the first inn that he came across, as he ducked through the doorway, into the poorly lit room, everyone that was still awake turned to look at him and the bloody body that he held in his arms.

"I need a healer" he gasped out "Please he is dying". The five people that were in the room, including the inn owner looked at each other and back at the body before any of them dared to reply. "Please" Derek repeated.

One man slowly got up and walked over to the completely exhausted soldier. In a gruff voice he said "follow me I'll take ya to thee best healer me know" He started walking away. Derek groaned and followed him, some how wishing that there was one in the inn so that he wouldn't have to drag the dying body any further.

They walked several minutes in silence except for Derek's wheezing breath as he tried to keep up with his guide. After walking for about 10 minutes he man stopped and walked quietly on to the porch in front of them.

He knocked softly on the wooden door to try to allow other patients to remain sleeping. After 30 seconds of waiting with no response the man knocked a little harder. This time they could hear some mumbling coming from behind the door and it slowly creaked open to reveal a women in her late 30's with brown hair, which was slowly turning gray and light blue eyes. She was wearing a plain, light blue dress with an apron tied on at the waist.

She looked at the man apparently not seeing him and the thing he was holding. "What do you want now David, my mistress needs her sleep and we have some very sick clients, so what ever it is make it quick" she said this in a very tired voice.

David looked back at Derek and replied "Now my lady I come for help, see this fellow here, came to the bar asking to see your mistress he has a wounded boy. Who needs to be healed as soon as possible. David moved aside to allow the house keeper a look at Derek and the body in his hands.

She squinted for a minute in the dark attempting to see what he was carrying, her eyes widened in recongnition. "I'll be right back, come in, come in, my mistress will see you as soon as she can.

The two men sat down, Derek after putting the Knight in his own chair. After about two minutes in silence David tried to start up a conversation. "Well I am assuming that there is an interesting story, behind all this. Care to tell it" Derek just looked at him. For some reason he felt obligated to trust him for it was his help that got them to the healers in the first place.

"I was sleeping in the barracks at Blayce's castle." "Blayce?" David interrupted. "Yea he's the one that has making all of those giant metal monsters, anyway I was sleeping when I heard people moving around outside. You see Blayce has to have everything a certain way and so he won't allow any soldier who is not on guard duty to be out of the Barracks after 11. It was 12 then. I woke up the rest of the soldiers around me and they said that they heard it to. Soon the entire Barrack was up and dressed with weapons in their hands.

We charged out of every possible opening to find that all but one window had been blocked firmly. The person that crawled out first gave a scream before being cut off and several drops of blood coming in, so that we all knew his fate. We decided to rush the window yet I stayed back and tried to stay out of the fighting, I am not very good at fighting the whole reason I was hired was so that there was enough people to scare anyone else away, Blayce never thought that we would actually have to fight a huge battle at his castle.

I hid in the barrack after everyone else had left and once all of the soldiers fighting noises had died down several hours after the sun had risen. I climbed out of the window and headed for the castle to try to see if there was any supplies that I could gather that might be helpful later on. There I came across the dead bodies of Blayce and Stenmun lying in the dirt. As I headed for the kitchens I came across that tortallian knight and I assume it was he who killed them. He was unconscious and bleeding so we came out of the castle I found a nasty horse that took forever to get on. Then I galloped here as fast as I could hoping that I could save him in order to get a reward from the king. And you know the rest"

They stayed quiet for several minutes as David tried to sort out what Derek had just told him. Such as how there was a dying Tortallian hostage in the room that needs to be saved so that he can be taken to the king in order to be tortured then killed.

Right when David was going to say how he didn't believe him, the mistress of the house (who is a healer) walked in and started to take control of the situation. "You there" she said as she pointed to Derek "pick 'im up and follow me"

She walked down a long hallway before entering a room that said examination room on it. As the three of them walked in the mistress said " put him down on the table, gentle now, you don't want to jostle his wound any more then it needs to be" Derek carefully lowed the still body onto the metal table in to the middle of the room.

"Now get out" she said. "Excuse but I thought I just heard you tell me to leave". "Yes I did young sir I need to examine him, away from your prying eyes, I will diagnose him and then give you the price and see weather or not you want to continue to heal him."

Derek almost groaned, he had totally forgotten how expensive healings could b, especially ones of that size. While the mistress was diagnosing him, Derek thought about how he could afford the healing, He personally had very few belongings and absolutely no money with him. Then he realized the knight was still carrying a sword, 'it must be worth a small fortune' he thought. And resolved that he would try to either exchange the sword for the healings or sell it and use the money to pay for the healings.

With those comforting thoughts in mind he finally allowed his exhausted body a rest that it hadn't received in over a day.

A/N: I am sososososososososososo sorry that I couldn't update earlier I had a major project due and an unlimited supply of homework pouring in daily. I made sure that IT WAS EXTRA LONG, SO PLEASE REVIEW I NEED OPIONS, IDEAS, AND ANY CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM!