Betrayed and Betray
Chapter One-Battle and Capture
"Damn!" cried Alanna as she slammed her fist at the table. It was around midnight and almost everyone at the Tusainian camp had gone to sleep. I can't believe that those blasted Tortallians recaptured Drell Valley! We held that land for three weeks and after a battle defending it we just lost it!
Her thoughts were cut short as Alanna heard a rustling outside her tent. Quietly and quickly Alanna grabbed her sword and placing her right hand on the handle, prepared to draw it if the person was an intruder. Since Alanna was the Second-in-Command Tortall would want her out of the way, and not many were up at around midnight, especially in a war.
The flap of her tent opened quickly and in strode a handsome man with pale blond hair and startling gorgeous emerald eyes that had wisdom in them.
"Alanna!" he said happily, for someone who wasn't abashed at walking in at midnight and seemed to not care about the unsheathed sword pointed at his broad chest.
"You know, Char, most people do tend to…oh I don't know, knock when they want to enter?" Alanna said testily.
"Don't Commander-in-Chiefs tend to get special rights?" he asked grinning.
"They do if the other person is not the Second-in-Command!" Alanna retorted, "And what do you want at this late hour? I was just about to go to bed."
"Well at your curse earlier, I was just thinking that whatever person who was asleep, won't be any longer. If you had said that any louder, I think even the Tortallians might hear you," He teased.
"Thank you very much for pointing that out," she said rolling her eyes, "and when's the retaliation attack?"
"Probably in two days, we need a good strategy and seeing as how you're the master strategist who has thought of all the other plans that actually worked I thought maybe I should consort you before deciding any decisions."
"I believe that we should try to get back the Drell Valley; then we would be able to control a major waterway, and therefore a big advantage."
"Hmm… I see your point…all right. That seems like a reasonable and smart thing to do, and your other plans have not failed us before, we shall do this at dawn in two days."
"Just like that?" she asked in surprise, "How do you know that it will even work?"
"Because my dear, you thought it up," he teased with a wicked glint in his eyes.
Alanna just shook her head. He's always been friendly and helpful when she first came to Tusaine to become a knight, but about a year ago he's been getting more…playful.
Alanna could still remember those first ten weeks here. Everybody was hostile and nasty to her, for they believed that women had no right on the battle field, all except Char of course; he believed in her. She soon proved that she was just as good at the others, if not better than they were at multiple things. Time after time she would dump the men who challenged her on the dirt after their swordfights, but hand-on-hand combat was harder.
Even though unarmed fighting was her weak point, she soon left any who doubted her in shame, for her skills at the sword weren't getting rusty from being one of the best fencers at the Tortallian palace. The only ones that didn't doubt her skills from the beginning were Char and his group of companions that fateful night when she joined them to become a knight of the realm of Tusaine.
Alanna sighed and came back to the present, she missed those days when she just had to train and not lead anything.
"Who's leading the attack then?" she asked seriously.
Char sighed, "Not too sure myself. All those that led previous successful attacks are currently in the healers' tent, unconscious," he said with disgust.
"I suppose I could lead it," Alanna said innocently. She, being the Second-in-Command rarely if ever got to lead attacks because of the value her life held.
Char snapped his attention back into focus and with his eyes looking sharp said simply yet firmly, "No."
Alanna rolled her eyes, knowing he would see through her little trick.
"Come on Char! I haven't led an attack in ages! I'm getting rusty and all this commanding crap is driving me insane! Besides, I'm only the Second-in-Command! If I got captured I would just get ransomed back!" she complained.
"But what will we do if you die," he ignored her rolling her eyes, "then what?"
"Simple, I just won't die! Sheesh!" she cried exasperated. Her eyes were starting to get the famous glint before she would explode in anger. Char didn't miss that glint for that spark in her eyes made all those around her wary of being challenged to the practice fields.
Alanna's temper was infamous among the men and they prayed to those that crossed the Lioness, their term for her partly for her skills at fighting and the greater part for her terrible temper, and many were afraid of her. In fact, most pages and squires actually trembled in her presence.
"Fine!" he said finally, "I see that I'm not going to win this fight but if you die or get captured I shall never speak to you ever again," he said teasingly.
Alanna gave him a grateful smile before he left her tent, shaking his head. Only when Char was outside of the tent did she let a, "Yes!" escape her lips.
Alanna of Fire Mountain stood in the front of the charging line excitedly. After she became a knight, the King of Tusaine gave her the fief Fire Mountain because she was one of the best knights of the land and this was one way that he would make sure that she would stay in Tusaine and not go anyplace else.
Also it was a political advantage for her to marry a Tusainian noble, when she chose, for he couldn't have one of the most influential knights be his enemy.
Alanna was clad in a suit of armor specially magicked to never rust and it twisted easily when she fought. This suit of armor costed her a small fortune but she deemed it worthy, for it saved her life many times over.
Her sword was at her waist and hidden on her person were two daggers. Her sword was a great gift from Char when she gained her knighthood and it was made form Raven Armory, the best and most expensive weapon makers ever. Her daggers were of good quality also, strong yet bendable steel.
Dawn was approaching and she was just itching to ride into battle. Alanna knew from her spies that the Tortallians were prepared to fight then even though it was sunrise.
The battle horn blew in the distance and Alanna drew her sword and after a battle cry to excite her troops, she rode off into battle with her men right behind, since it was she that led the charge.
Alanna's steel sword hit another steel sword as she parried and quickly ran the man through, with grim satisfaction that her skills weren't rusty at all. Men after women she knocked down and hours flew by. Soon Alanna's muscles became tired and she looked around to see that the Tusainian army was holding their own but on the distance she could see that reinforcements were coming to help the Tortallians.
"Fall Back!" Alanna cried to her army and they quickly withdrew. Alanna stayed back for a bit to help a man who was fending off three fighters at once and quickly wounded two of the men and he dealt with the other.
"Go," she said to him, noticing the look of gratefulness in his eyes, and he turned and ran. Alanna was about to turn to see the remaining of her men in the charge when a sudden pain jolted through her head and she fainted, knowing no more.
The other men of the Tusainian army paid no attention, for they were busy fending off their attackers and retreating. A couple of hours later the battle ended and the Tortallians surveyed the battle scene and collected those who were still alive. Some were allies and others would be prisoners of war
Alanna woke up in a dark and cell. It was gloomy and damp from the rain the day before. Her memory was still hazy and she tried to remember what had happened.
It was then that she realized that she had led the battle and after helping someone a person attacked her from behind, causing her to loose consciousness.
She sat there thinking, What's going to happen to me? Char is going to kill me, she winced. I'll probably going to be ransomed as a prisoner a war. All my weapons are gone, she saw after examining herself.
She sat up carefully and propped herself against the wall, slightly wincing in pain as her head spun and she sat there until her head calmed down and returned back to normal. Surprisingly, that happened very soon, which she suspected was from her helm, made to protect against hard blows. How her head feels is just like waking up and having a hangover.
Remembering about her captors, Alanna wondered what they thought when they found out that she was a girl. Since the whole Tusainian army knew that she was a Lady Knight, there was no point in disguising her gender, but now she had no idea what to expect.
Just then Alanna heard a click at the door, and she turned her head slowly but steadily to the door, Might as well get this over with. The door swung open and a figure stood at the door, his frame build was medium. That was all that Alanna could see since the hallway was not lit and there was only a faint moonlight in the background, but it was enough to see his eyes.
Alanna stared back into deep blue eyes, kind and shocked.
Author's Notes- Ok! I'm done with this chapter! Sorry that I couldn't update sooner, my computer's been acting like an idiot recently and wouldn't let me update…so what do you think so far! Good? Review and I know I stopped at a cliffy but who do you think it is? Heeheee!
Disclaimer-Tamora Pierce owns everything! All that I own is the plot and any characters that aren't in the book! So far the only main characters that I won are Charles of Finwood.
Read and Review!