Chapter11

AN. I like 2 put thnkus 2 peple who've reved but I've gut nothing 2 put here 2day. Depressing.

Aphei gulped. She would do anything for her king, not that the rumours about her being his mistress were true they were just a good cover that she almost encouraged to hide what she really was, but she was frightened of what she would probably end up having to do. The king was good to her but in her position she had to put herself out on a limb for him, not one of her network or her team this time. It would have to be her. Maybe she could find another way. She hoped. Oh, but what if she had to do it? What if it went too far? Oh Gods and Goddesses she was scared.

Amonsovn was in the practise courts, the muscles in her body remembering the familiar moves and patterns in the exercises, some with her blade, some without, some with a knife and some with a staff. She had come along way in the single week. The Brute was kept at the stables and she still looked after him as no one else could or would, although it was hard to find time to ride if she found it, he was doing ok but horses were not used very much in training. She still had to find a proper name for him.

They had given her the black tunic of a blade dancer and the brown novice belt and she had been given a separate room, a bit of a luxury for a novice, but since she was a girl they thought it best. The first few days she had got into a few scraps with some of them who thought she did not belong here but now all the novices respected her skills and strength.

She was going to become a green belt soon. She had worked extra hard and most of the novices who started hardly knew one end of a blade from the next. She was doing fine in the theory studies and had night time sessions to help her reading and writing. She was a special situation alright.

Most novices, brown belt, took a year to move up to a working soldier, green belt, and most stayed there though a few moved up to unit leader, blue belt, and then there were two second commands, silver belt, and then there was one overall commander of what ever colour they were which was a gold belt.

The only one who wore the red tunic and gold belt was Brousk as he was the top man. Some novices chose to become tactic and theory studiers who never saw any real action unless absolutely necessary and gave some lessons to the students or went off researching things which was a brown tunic. Some novices chose to simply become fighting soldiers which was a green tunic. A small few were trained in stealth and such like which was a blue tunic although the army did not need that many.

Last of all there was the elite force which was a black tunic, at least one hand picked unit was the kings personal body guard and was with him at all waking hours and at least one other stood guard at night. They were the best of the best. And Amonsovn in a week was ready to take the green belt exam for the black elites. There would be a short theory paper but that was not terribly important as they would probably never have to make any major tactical decisions themselves. Then there would be a series of tests from obstacles courses to duels. Then they had to survive three days in a great forest with no map or anything except their chosen weapon and a small knife, one blanket and a change of cloths. She had done that before and it had been a bit longer than three days.

She would just have to keep working all daylight hours and several of the night ones too and she would be alright, there was no time for friends, she was going to survive this. Many novices dropped out and very few made it to green belt and there were only about five units of blade dancers and those units tended to be very small, between five and ten green belts and a blue belt for each one with the gold and silvers going with which ever was doing the most dangerous or difficult job. She was determined to make it as high as she could.

Jason was doing alright, he had caught up with all the other brown belts no problem and had been selected for the blue stealths, beginning his noviceship again. He was quite pleased with himself. He saw Ara around the grounds sometime and he had heard plenty about her, she was simply amazing he though; the first black elite novice to go for green belt after a single week. He hoped she make it, the black elite tests were supposed to be the hardest to pass, some never came back from the forest. There were whispers that the black elite gold belt Pirrishane sent allsorts of hazards at them on purpose. And Aphei had sent him a message saying she was coming on a brief family visit when he had finished his day. He was happy.

When he returned to his space in the barracks he found Aphei waiting outside the door. Gods she was white as a sheet, what had come over her? He wondered. It was probably a new assignment, but she had done really difficult ones before, what could be worse than that thing she did last year? But then again, he had never seen her looking so scared.

"Jason." She said. "I need to talk to you." She briefly explained to him her new assignment. "…and there's only two ways I can do it!" She said on the verge of tears. "I'll just have to try both, oh Gods, Goddesses and all things holy!" Jason put his arm around her.

"Tell you what," He said thinking hard, "Ara is going to try for her black elite green belt soon. Why don't you start building up to it and then get Ara to come with you, hidden obviously, and if it goes too far she can stop it for you."

"Ara's going to take her black elite green belt soon?" Aphei asked, Jason nodded. "Well I guess that would help, if she passes, for the first part. But what about the next bit? What am I going to do?"

"We'll think of something." Jason assured her. "We will."

The theory test went alright, Amonsovn thought she had done well enough and the trial in the grounds had gone well as well. There was one novice who had failed that part had and had given up, there was only five of them now. The forest part of the test was next, the hardest part apparently.

Aphei knew what she had to do. She was going to accept the kings invitation to attend the court banquet tonight. She picked out a black sleeveless chest band and very short skirt and put them on. She then found a light gauzy dress that was virtually see through and put it over the top. It worked well. In the right lighting in might as well not be there and she was left wearing what would seem skimpy black underwear, but when she wanted it would be completely opaque and she would be wearing a pale blue dress. Good. No one would realise it was see through unless she wanted them to or was careless and she was not going to let that happen. Aphei then swept her hair up in her favourite bronze clasp.

Arriving ever so slightly late so everyone would see her entrance Aphei swept in apologising profusely to the king that she was late the first time she attended court. Aphei then slipped into the space beside a tall man with short black hair and a deep tan to match her own. She knew who he was, Ageus had told her so.

She smiled briefly and rather coolly at him and then turned to the man on her right side and began to talk with him completely ignoring the man she knew, but catching the light for a moment exposing a bare side and the curve of her chest band. The man's eye drank it in.

She gave the stranger on her right a dazzling smile still ignoring the other man who was starting to look annoyed. The other she was talking to was a court noble and she discovered quite easily, not married. You wish she thought. For the entire meal she hardly said any thing to the man Ageus had told her about. King Ageus was giving her slightly worried looks but she knew what she was doing, she hoped.

Then the dancing started. Aphei watched at first then when it looked like the man was going to ask her to dance King Ageus himself asked her and she danced once with him telling him what was happening. The other man was looking put out. Aphei then danced another with the supposedly unmarried courtier who was getting a bit drunk. Then she let the man approach.

"Would you allow me this dance pretty one?" He asked with a smile. Aphei sighed looking a bit bored deliberately.

"What's you name?" She asked although she already knew what it was.

"Fiscaan Bandrrok my lovely, what is yours?" He asked trying to flatter her.

"Aphei Gistagan." She answered as if it was unimportant with another little sigh. Gistagan was Mirrendi's maiden name.

"What a beautiful name," Fiscann flashed her a smile, "Although it does not do the bearer justice, you are far more beautiful than any name that could be found." Aphei gave him a slightly more interested smile. Encouraged, he asked again.

"Do let me have this dance with you, for I wish to dance with no other." Aphei noticed there did seem to be sincerity in his compliments, her little display at the start of dinner was probably the reason.

"Oh alright." She acquiesced and gave him her hand. He was quite a good dancer she thought as he whirled her through the paces.

"You dance wonderfully." He said with a strange smile pulling her in against his chest. She smiled and twirled out again trying not to show how nervous she was.

"You're quite good too." She said. Then she shifted and for a moment he caught another glimpse of her curvaceous chest band. Then the dance finished.

They danced quite a few of them and when she complained of tiered feet he suggested they went for a walk in the rose garden. She complied, surprised in spite of herself. There was a large moon hanging over the walls and there was nobody else there except them, they were all dancing in the king's hall. He sat her down on a stone bench in a little alcove. Lulled by the sweet scents she relaxed. Fiscaan then gently took her shoes off and began to massage her feet, they were quite tiered.

She leaned back shutting her eyes and the moon light filtering into the alcove caught her face and her dress seemed to disappear. Fiscaan put his arm around her shoulders Aphei felt so tiered, it had been a long day. Then Fiscaan pulled her into his arms against his chest, she could feel his breath over her and he kissed her. For a moment Aphei went into shock then she leapt back out of his arms away from the passionate kiss, frightened.

"Oh Gods!" She said. This was going too far.

"I'm sorry I…" Fiscaan began but she was gone. He picked up the delicate shoes on the path in front of him. He cursed himself, she was so lovely and he had scared her away the first time he met her he had never had trouble with women before.

Amonsovn sat in her little clearing beside a tiny fire which she had banked down for the night. They had been blindfolded and completely disorientated. None of them had any idea where they were or where each other were and they were completely alone, she could not even take the Brute with her.

Amonsovn had followed the signs she had taught herself as a very young girl and the things she had learned from the blue stealth's to find a small fresh water stream and had caught a rabbit with a hand made snare which had made a very nice meal. They would send some sort of challenge at her she was sure, it could not be as easy as this for three days. She just wished she knew what it was going to be and when, then she could be better prepared. Amonsovn sighed and dozed off, she needed to conserve her strength for when the time came.

A little while later she awoke to strange noises. A horrible snuffling noise was coming from behind her. They had decided to test her first then. Slowly she began to open her eyes. A large black thing was coming around her. There was a sudden excruciating pain in her leg. It had latched on with cruel ravaging teeth and claws to her right leg.

She snatched Sagiaturiaris, her chosen weapon, soundlessly from over her shoulder and swung it down to the creature. It bounced off harmlessly jarring her arm badly. It bit in deeper. Desperate she tried to prize it off her. She could not get a grip on the hard smooth black armour it seemed to have and there more she tried the deeper the thing dug, gouging at her flesh.

She tried to stand, stumbled and fell. She was loosing too much blood. There was only one thing she could do. She gritted her teeth against the terrible pain; she could feel its fangs and claws digging deep into her leg guzzling away with horrible slurping and gnashing noises and at each the pain increased. She lifted Sagiaturiaris and swung down at her leg just above the knee where the creature was attached to her. She was going to cut her own leg off to be rid of it.

AN. Right I know the colrs thing nere the begning is confusing bt I dn't wnt 2 bore u so here's a quick sumry. Ther r 4 colr units whch is the same as the colr tunic thy wear, brwn, gren, blue and black. Brwns study boring stuff, gren r jst regular soldiers, blue do stealth stuff and black is the elite prt that is srt of the best. The belts they wear show their rank, brown is a novice, green is standrd, blue is a unit commndr, silver is second in commnd and gold is the boss. Brousk is the boss of all the units as his tunic is red. Hpe u undrstnd nw if u ddn't be4. oh and 2 keep u on ur toes Aphei is nt jst the Kgs 1st adviser and Fiscaan is not who he sems evn if the fct tht he liks Aphei is genuine.