That last chapter was a little weird, I know… oh well. I love interior dialogue. It is hella good.
Dom didn't come back to her room that night. She had hoped he would. She had assumed he would. But she found herself alone. She ventured outside later to watch the night's competitions. Archery. She watched the shots. She could beat any of them, but she didn't want to. She would let them have their fun.
She saw Dom across the square, watching from the other side. He didn't see her.
She went back to her room and slept until daybreak.
The next day moved slowly. Perrin was good. She practiced with the children in the morning, learning how to wield a staff properly. Kel saw her smile with the other children.
Kel and Eurgain worked quietly all afternoon. Eurgain made no mention of their conversation the day before, choosing to keep their conversation to business. After Eurgain had left, Kel sat in her study, thinking. She barely heard the knock on her door.
"Come in." She said, rubbing her temples.
"I am here for my daily pestering," Dom announced. "And while I will not stay long, I would just like to assert my presence. I am here. Now you are going to think about me. I will plague your thoughts. You won't get any work done. I love you. Have fun." He turned to leave again.
"Dom, wait." Kel said, barely above a whisper. Dom still stopped. "Do I have to say anything?" She asked. "Do I have to apologize? Do I have to beg for you back, seeing as you have done the same?"
Dom stared at her, shocked. "You know, I really hadn't expected that to work." He said, a grin creeping up on his lips.
Kel smiled. "It's amazing what can happen if you just keep trying." She stood up. Dom stepped closer to her, and she to him. Suddenly, he hugged her tightly. She could do nothing but let the tears fall from her eyes.
"Kel…" Dom whispered into her hair.
"Thank you, Dom." Kel said, wiping her tears with her sleeve, something she never did, "I would never have figured it out without you."
Dom pulled away and looked at her. "I've never seen you stand down before." He said.
Kel smiled. "People change." She said.
Dom kissed her fiercely. He held her so tightly that she thought she would burst.
"Come sit with me, Dom." She said quietly, taking his hand. They went through the door to Kel's room and lay down on her bed. "We moved so fast." She said with a smile. "In about three days, we went from hating each other, to courting, to hating each other, to being madly in love."
Dom shook his head. "We never hated each other." He said. "We just didn't really get each other."
Kel kissed him once more. He still felt new, unknown to her. She wanted to hold him until he became familiar again. She rested her head on his chest, holding him close to her.
"It's only been two days," Dom said finally, "but I feel like it's been forever since we were civil with each other."
Kel smiled. "Other than that one day, we hadn't spoken in a long time. I missed you."
Dom kissed her again. "I love you." Kel felt the warmth from his skin, his electric touch – she shuddered as he held her close again.
They had been silent barely a moment when they heard a horn call. Kel sat up quickly. "Attackers." She said, leaping off of the bed and grabbing her sword. Dom kissed her quickly goodbye and ran to put on his own armour, leaving Kel to feverishly tie her own on. Gydo and Loesia arrived a moment later, knowing their commander needed to be out on the walls as quickly as possible. They tied on her breastplates and her armlets, until finally all she needed to put on was her helm. She tucked it under her arm, took hold of her glaive, and ran out to the stairs by the wall.
As she reached the top of the wall, Kel could see Merric and his squad riding swiftly towards the gate – there were too many men for them and the farmers to deal with. She unfolded her spyglass and looked out. She couldn't see anything.
"How many are there?" She asked.
The guard shook his head. "We don't quite know. Two of Sir Merric's men came back at break neck speed, told us to prepare for attack. They said that Sir Merric and the other men went to retrieve the farmers – it was a scout that saw these attackers, I believe, so we had a few moments."
Kel nodded, collapsing her spyglass again.
She ran back down the stairs and was waiting when Merric slipped off his horse.
"At least six hundred men, Kel. I don't think they realize New Hope was built here, they seem to be headed for Steadfast. If they come across our little camp, they won't just pass us by."
Kel grimaced. "Dom!" She cried. "Get your men on their horses and ready to move." She called out the same thing to the other three sergeants, and the sergeant of the convict squad.
She ran back up the stairs to where her archers were waiting. Refugees were assembling with long bows and spears. "Don't waste any shots," Kel said clearly in the voice she had learned from Raoul, though she didn't need to use it. The refugees were silent. "and duck. I don't want them to be able to see that we are prepared."
The refugees obeyed. Those few with crossbows prepared their bows, and those with longbows held their arrows in the ready position.
Kel pressed her spyglass through a crack in the wall, so she could see the now advancing troops. Merric was right. There were about six hundred. Where had they come from? She quickly created a map of the roads in her mind. As far as she could tell, they were headed towards Steadfast. They were obviously not working from the capital, otherwise they would have known about New Hope – there was no way that there had never been a single man to escape from all of their attacks. Where were these men from?
Kel quickly realized she didn't actually have time to contemplate this when the she could tell that the army had seen New Hope. They paused, the whole lot of them. They then began to walk again, this time more quietly. Kel knew they were preparing an attack, trying to be stealthy.
They were coming towards the wall at a fast pace, still too far for Kel's archers to shoot. "Prepare to fire," she said, signalling for the message to be passed along the wall. She watched for the final man on the wall to signal that he had heard her message, then she rose slightly. They were almost in range, only a few metres away. "Aim!" She said, loudly enough for her people to hear. The men and women rose with their bows and took aim. The men were in range. "Fire!" Kel cried at the top of her lungs.
Before the men could shield themselves completely, a rain of arrows fell upon them. About twenty five men went down. "Pick your shots and fire at will!" Kel cried. She knew they were not going to continue the attack. They weren't prepared, they fell back.
Kel called off the archers. "Don't waste any more arrows." She said. She reached where Fanche was putting another to arrow on her bow. Kel put her hand on the old woman's shoulder. "You can't reach them, Fanche. You know better than that." Reluctantly, the old woman put down her bow.
"No injured, no dead. As far as we can count from the bodies out there, the death count for the Scanrans is about twenty five. That means they still have 575 men."
Kel sat back in her chair. This meeting was going to be too long. She needed to send men out for the bodies, the salvageable arrows, and to attack.
"They could be planning on trying to outlast us." Merric said. "I don't have enough men to meet them in battle, so there is nothing we can do about that."
"What about the refugees? If they try to outlast us, we won't have enough food. No wheat, no cows."
Eurgain shook her head. "We have the cows. Daine spoke to them, remember. They knew to make their way back to the fort."
"But there are still more men than us, and they have our resources, plus their own. They could outlast us."
Kel sighed. "They aren't going to wait it out. They have a destination. We were simply a diversion. We don't need to worry about them blocking us in. What we do need to worry about is them sneaking past us and attacking Steadfast. Eurgain, I want two riders sent to Steadfast immediately. Merric, gather up the riders with the fastest and strongest horses. I want to attack tonight. You will need to be fast enough to get back in before the enemy reaches the river, if they try."
Merric nodded.
"Dom, I want your squad with him. I want you in and out, no more than an hour. I'm not going to say that I will close the doors after one hour, but there will certainly be consequences for putting our people in more danger than necessary. Do you understand?" He nodded as well. Kel rose. "They have somewhere to be. Gentlemen, why don't we help them out a bit?"
Fifteen minutes later, the two riders to Steadfast had been dispatched, the cows had been returned, and the dead had been burned, under a strict watch, of course. Planning had begun for that night's attack.
Kel stood on the top of the wall during her watch. She felt Dom behind her, but she did not turn. "One hour until sunset." She said quietly. "Three hours until we attack."
You like? I think there was a sufficient amount of fluff there, and there will certainly be plenty at the beginning of the next chapter – do not worry!
Atlanta Enchanted: yay! Everything is back in order…
Wake-Robin: again, I say: yay!
Caremel: Yay! I am big on the yays today, but I would like you to note the capitalization of this yay.
NarwhalGirl: thank you, that has indeed been pointed out to me – I am just too goddamned lazy to do anything about it.
Kim: the person who went by the name of Kelly Masbolle: wow… thanks.
Lady of Masbolle: uh oh.
FanFictionFantom: haha… too normal, you say? I banish ye from the Dom talk. Dom talk if for Dom lovers. No more Dom talk. Or you die. (though I cannot enforce it, I WILL… GRRR.) JOKES! Glad you like it.
PureEsparenza: mmm.. rocky socks… eww.
Naruke: haha, I want to name my kid Pippin too!
Alenor: thanks!
Mage Light: dude, you have come to the right place for KD…
Lady-kitty: yay for patience!
PsychoLioness: that's what I was hoping for. Everyone seems to find that one hilarious, but I never thought that was one of his best.
"When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmm, boy."
Now in this one, just the mention of pie makes me laugh.
unolimbo