This should have been posted yesterday but I was having technical difficulties (in other words my computer was being a lard)

Ch.17 Of Cheekiness and a Giddy Kel

Nealan Queenscove was completely and utterly confused. Who was this Guarire? Was it really supposed to be him, or was he just being dragged along for fun? And why pray tell did that…Vidi girl look exactly like the girl whose missing? He shook his head. He was crazy that was all. It was just a dream. After all, in these living conditions who wouldn't concoct various and unlikely illusions in their mind? It was much better than thinking of how cold the wall was, or how lost Owen looked. It was better than listening to the growls of his and his cell partner's stomach aches. For the meals were meager and atrocious.

He began to beat the rhythm to an old song with his head against the wall. Thump. Thump. Thump. THUMP. Thump. Thumpity. THUMP. Owen moaned. Thump. Thump. Thump. THUMP. Thump. Thumpity. THUMP. Neal let out a shaky breath as a bruise began to form on his crown.

Stomp.

He looked up.

Stomp.

What was that noise? Was it real or was he just imagining it as well?

Stomp.

He groaned and shifted his weight. He was still uncomfortable. He heard a rattling but he didn't dare move his eyes from his nose. They'd know he was awake. It'd be best to just pretend you didn't exist as he'd learned from this hell.

Two loud thuds met his ears as well as groans that followed. Did he dare look? Might as well, he thought, what could be worse? He cursed himself, that's just asking for something else to happen.

His eyes defied his will, which was growing weaker each minute spent chained to an icy wall. His eyes widened painfully. It was the girl, the missing girl. Now all he had to do was get out of here with Owen and they could run like madmen for the border. His conscience, the voice that oddly enough sounded like Kel laughed at him. There was no way it would end like that, or get anywhere close to that. But it was at least a new story he could continue with in his mind out of boredom.

He felt eyes on him, and looked up self consciously. There was something strange about this girl. Her eyes, they were brown, but the look they gave him. She looked at him as if she knew him, and for some reason her eyes looked excited as they bore onto him and Owen. But her face was smooth, showing no emotion, only her eyes. Neal rattled his brain, why did this seem familiar?

Who did that? he asked himself over and over again. Who always hid behind their emotions? KEL! His chains rattled from his excitement.

The man who had followed the thuds into the cell turned his attention to him for a brief second before gazing at the girl with intense hatred and mockery. "How nice of you to drop by," he said to the girl.

And then the emotionless face left, and instead he saw someone who looked more lost than Owen did at the moment. Her eyes flickered over the cell and rested on him for the briefest of moments, in which he realized he'd been wrong. It wasn't a dream, not at all. Everything that had happened from when he entered the strange room of darkness had been true, it had happened. He grabbed the thought eagerly, for he'd been hopeless for days.

The missing woman, whose name he knew to be Elizabeth Peterson, rolled off the other lump of person on the floor. He recognized her as well, what had her name been? Chi? Obi? Occi? He shook his head, did names really matter, he at least recognized her.

The other woman rested on the floor out cold, the man nudged her with her foot, but she didn't move. The missing girl, as Neal called her in his mind, pressed herself against the wall to keep herself upright. She raised a hand, attentively to the back of her head and swallowed hard as blood came to her fingertips. The man, whom Neal had finally identified as President Maggur, gave a cold smile before he spoke.

"Miss Peterson," he said kneeling before the missing girl. "You will tell me what purpose these two men," he gestured to Neal and Owen, "have here in Scanra snooping around."

The girl tilted her head back, for she now had a nose bleed and she spoke thickly through blood. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" she whispered weakly, and Neal now noticed bags under her amber eyes. For all that she whispered he could faintly pick up her words.

"Now, now," Maggot shook his index finger at her, "none of that. Didn't your siblings ever teach you not to curse, especially around those with more authority than you?"

Neal's ears picked up each word hesitantly. He was unsure if he was hearing right. Did the man say siblings? Shouldn't he have said parents, or foster parents, or grandparents, or something of the like? Surely the poor girl wasn't raised by her siblings? Neal frowned, he found he did not like where this was going. If this was in fact real, Neal stopped himself. First he had to believe it was real, and then he could devise an ingenious plan with the help of the other two, maybe even Owen.

"Didn't your parents ever buy a baby name book? I'm sure they could have come up with something better than Maggot, but it does suit you well. Yes, maybe they had no choice. Bobby just wouldn't do would it, or"

Maggot slapped her, jostling her head against the stone wall and causing her nose bleed to pour down her face. Neal winced as the sound echoed throughout the cell. He wasn't sure who had more cheek, him or her? At the moment he was thinking her, for she was obviously in pain but still taunting the man who held her prisoner.

She wiped her face with her sleeve, and Neal noticed for some reason the two girls had not been forced into the uniform of the others. He shook the thought away as he watched her. Her nose wrinkled as she looked at the sweatshirt and her mouth thinned to nearly invisible as she glanced back up at Maggot. "Pity," she spoke thickly, and continued to wipe her face with the now dirtied sleeve, "I really did like this sweatshirt." She looked up and gave a ridiculous smile. "Don't you think it suits me well Mister? Mother always said I looked good in bl"

She couldn't finish the word as Maggot slapped her again. Neal was beginning to think she was insane. Why wouldn't she stop playing with him? Why wouldn't she just lie and get on with it till she was forced to come back in the cell and be questioned. Neal frowned, why were they being questioned here anyway, wouldn't it make more sense for them to go in a room with interrogators?

Neal noticed a slight tremor in her hand as she wiped the blood away again. She ducked her head, and her mane of hair hid her face.

Maggot grabbed a handful of hair, causing her to yelp. He spoke through clenched teeth. "You will answer me bitch. I know you have the power to hear what they're thinking, to know if they lie. I know that if you put one finger on one of them you'll hear their thoughts. Now either do it yourself or I'll force you, wench." He forced her to her feet.

Neal's body shook with suppressed laughter. The girl was at least a head taller than him. Maggot would have done better to have her remained seated. "NOW!" roared Maggot. The girl hesitated and Maggot shoved her forcefully causing her to fall before gripping the wall to support herself. She tilted her head back as she walked towards him.

Neal glanced at her unsurely. She brought a hand to him arm and whirled her head around to face Maggot, causing Neal to get a mouthful of auburn tresses. She spoke suspiciously. "What are you talking about? Nothing, I can't hear any thoughts or anything?"

"Liar! Do as I say!" Maggot took a stomping step towards her.

She flinched and put her hand back down on Neal's arm. He felt nothing as well. He didn't feel a strange presence in his head or hear her saying each and every thought of his aloud. He frowned. The girl had her back turned to Maggot and smiled slyly. Neal wondered now more than the entire episode that had ensued what she was thinking. She winked at him and Neal cocked a brow. Was he missing something? Had he become so idiotic during his time here that he couldn't sense another presence in his own mind?

She spoke with passion in her voice and her head tilted back to stop the blood. She squeezed his shoulder lightly as she turned around partially to face both Maggot and himself. A dazed look crossed her face and she hid her eyes behind her hair. "He…" she paused as if she were taking a brief moment to confer with someone else. "He was sent on a mission."

"Yes?" prompted Maggot.

"To leave Tortall," another pause.

"That's obvious," he said mockingly.

And then she fainted. Neal blanched. What was she doing? He knew she was acting, for she had winked at him alone and hid her face. Maggot couldn't be so dim as to not realizing she was acting, Neal thought.

Neal wondered if steam would come out of Maggot's ears for his face was pure red and his eyes looked crazed. He kicked the girl where she lay on the ground. "UP!"

She did nothing. Maggot turned to him. "You!" he pointed at Neal.

Neal stared at him, "I do have a name," he drawled tiredly. He was exhausted at repetitively being called you by the man before him.

Maggot clenched his fists. "If she won't talk, than this one will." He prodded the other woman with his foot. She didn't stir awake only moved at his touch. Maggot whirled around and punched the stone wall in his anger. Neal cocked a brow as the Scanran president called for the guards to return. Two of the men came in swiftly and threw the girls over their shoulders as Maggot stormed out.

Neal frowned as the echoing of their steps faded into the complete silence that was irritating. Once he was sure they were gone, he turned to Owen. "What do you make of that?"

Owen removed the dazed and lost look from his face and grinned foolishly at Neal. "I think you've finally met your match Neal. How jolly would it be to see the two of you in a fight!" Owen's chains rattled from his bubbling excitement. Then he stopped for the briefest of moments. "Of course if we do get out of here."

Neal smiled slowly, "We will my jolly friend."

Owen nodded and then frowned sadly. "Do you think the other girl is…dead?"

Neal shook his head, "I think Miss Peterson would have been more harsh to our dear friend Maggot had the girl been dead."

Owen smiled, "Any ideas?"

Neal leaned his head back against the wall. "I think I'm on to something."

Keladry Mindelan woke slowly and grumbled as she dragged herself to the bathroom. She locked the door after herself and begin the usual morning routine before she turned on the shower. As she scrubbed her scalp she tried to remember what had happened last night. And then she remembered. The boys. How had they gotten in here anyways? She couldn't remember seeing a fire escape ladder near the window or anything for safety in the crappy room now that she thought about it. She shuddered. She remembered that there wasn't even a fire alarm or sprinkler in the room. When this is over, she thought, I will speak to someone about that.

She racked her brain. She knew she was forgetting something and she hated herself for it. It was something important. Terribly important, but what? As the shampoo bottle dropped to the ground, she went on hands and knees to catch it. When she was in the middle of straightening out, she remembered the vision she'd had the night before. She shot up quickly, causing to drop the shampoo bottle again and smack her head against the shelf in the shower.

She jumped for joy in the shower as she rubbed her head. She knew where to go! She knew where all of them were! All they had to do was retrieve them and then she could finish off the three men and then this mission was over. And, she smiled, Vidi would leave her alone. Her shoulders slumped as she remembered the last visit; there was a chance Liz would die.

She shook her head; it wouldn't do to think about that now. And there was a chance Liz, Neal, and Owen would die from the harshness of their imprisonment.

She quickly finished her shower and clumsily pulled on layers of clothes before bursting into the other room. She nearly tripped over Lerant's sleeping body on the floor in her excitement. She didn't care if she woke up the entire hall, she knew where they were!

"I know where they are!" she shouted and was answered by four grumbling men to go back to sleep. She laughed giddily and shook all of them. She was rewarded with a punch by Joren, which she quickly ducked, and an oddly giggling Wolset who was still dreaming. She pulled at her hair in frustration. She shrugged as she slapped Lerant, they had to get up!

Sorry that it wasn't that long, but all of that had to be in one chapter. If I'd put more, it would have been a different chapter. I don't know why but the thought of Wolset giggling amuses me, oh well. I'll put up chapter eighteen as soon as I write it. Thanks for reading and review!

Before I go I would like to thank the following:

walkin-on-cloud-9: thank you for reviewing and reading, I appreciate it

Ti-Ti: you probably won't ever read this anyway, but I can't reply to your review. I'm sorry you don't know what the hell is going on. I am confused at times myself, which is bad because I am the writer, but I am confused a lot of the time as my friends say. Thanks for reading anyway, sorry you are…lost? I don't know, I'm going to stop now.

LandUnderWave: thank you for reviewing on basically every chapter, it means a lot to me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

klutzyspaz: did something drastic happen? JK, sorry it took awhile to update, I've been reading REALLY good books. That's not a great excuse is it? I've been reading so I can't update on fanfic, that sounds so lame. Forget I said anything. Please don't use this against me nervous laughter.

nicolerenea: thank you for reviewing! I like it when Wolset gets drunk as well, especially when he's giggling. It amuses me greatly, I have plans for more drunken episodes with this fellow, MUAHAHAHAHA, sorry.

Thank you to every one else who's reviewed at all or to anyone who's reading and NOT reviewing. Don't be shy, I won't bite your head off. I think. JK, but if you are reading and not reviewing that's ok, because I'm bad about reviewing as well which basically make me a hypocrite when it comes to tell you readers to review. I should be shunned. Anyways PLEASE review, it makes me happy, and it helps to write better if you know your audience, in other words, I can write stuff that you guys like more if I know my audience. Ugh, I bet no one's even reading this part, I'm going to stop now, sorry everybody.

Much love,

redpheonix

P.S. don't laugh, what else am I supposed to put? sorry about all of my ranting above, it wasted space where there could have been more story. tear I'll work on the next chapter as soon as I can! I promise! saluting to you even if it is a computer screen before me remember read and review! I am such a hypocrite, sorry again.