Dear Leo-
I'm engaged.
-Eliena
Leo stared at the note in awe. Eliena, engaged? How could she be engaged? Hadn't he heard something about her breaking the engagement with Prince Kaddar? What had happened to that? Someone knocked on his door.
"Come in!"
Neal burst in. "Did you get one of these?" he demanded, waving the note in Leo's face. Leo grabbed it.
Dear Neal-
I'm engaged.
-Eliena
"Yes," Leo replied, showing Neal his note.
"The queen is not going to be happy," Neal remarked.
"Wonderful," Leo grumbled. As Jonathan's squire, he often had to deal with Alanna. And he knew from years of acquaintance with the knight-queen that when Alanna was mad, you were best off staying far away.
"What can we do?" Neal asked. "We can't let her marry some dolled-up prince! Especially not a Carthaki." Neal knew Leo's crush on Eli, just as Leo knew Neal's crush on her.
"Maybe she likes him," Leo suggested. "Maybe he's not all that bad."
"Leo," Neal said, "if Eliena liked him, she would talk about him endlessly. Obviously, there's something going on that she's not saying."
"Obviously," Leo replied sarcastically.
"You listen here, Leo. I'm going to Carthak to rescue Eli, and you're coming along, got it?" Neal bullied.
"No need to ask me twice," Leo told him. "I'm all for playing 'knight in shining armor', especially when Eli and Daine are involved."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVV
"Your Majesty?" Leo asked, knocking on Jonathan's study door.
"Come in." Leo and Neal walked into the study, and saw Alanna seated beside Jonathan, steam practically coming from her ears.
"I assume you heard," Leo remarked.
"Of course we did," Alanna snapped.
"Alanna." Jonathan gave his wife a stern look. "Yes, Leo, we did hear."
"Neal came up with a plan I think is very good," Leo said.
"What does this 'plan' entail?" Alanna asked curiously, eying the crafty Neal. "If Neal came up with it, I can almost say for certain that it's… interesting."
"If Eliena liked this prince, she'd be rambling on and about. But, she didn't. There is obviously something wrong. So, Leo and I are going to Carthak to save her," Neal explained.
"Brilliant!" Alanna cried. "Jonathan, if this is what that no-good conservative Wyldon is teaching them these days, he deserves some credit! This is brilliant!"
"Alanna," Jonathan said with a sigh. "It is not brilliant. In fact, it is quite dangerous. If either of you were to be hurt, it would be on me."
"So send someone… or someones with us," Leo suggested. "Alanna could come, father, mother, there are many people…"
"No," Jon said definitively. "Absolutely not. I forbid it."
"Oh, Jonathan. You're getting so tough," Alanna told him. "Let the boys go after Eli. They're right you know. You know how Eli gets when she likes someone." Alanna let that sink in before continuing, "I think that they should go, and if they get hurt its their faults. Myles and George would be thrilled to help out somehow…"
"Alanna, really," Jon said. "You're not being practical."
"Since when have I ever been practical?"
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Eliena and Daine sat on Eliena's bed, not speaking, hands clasped together and knuckles turning white.
"Do you think its over?" Daine whispered.
"I hope so." Tears came into the girls' eyes.
Eliena hadn't been able to save Numair. And it killed her. They had decided not to watch him die, opting instead to stay in Eliena's room. Daine wished she'd had a chance to say a last goodbye before…
"I can't believe he's gone!" Daine cried. The girls turned to each other and sobbed.
"He can't be," Eliena whispered. "He can't be. Oh, Goddess, please, don't let it be true."
"Girls?" Thayet asked softly, poking her head in. "Oh, girls." She came over and sat by them, engulfing the crying friends in a hug. "Shh, its all right, shh."
"Is he…" Daine swallowed. "Dead?"
"Yes," Thayet replied. "He is." Tears filled her in hazel eyes and the three women cried together.
"I wish he were still here," Eliena whispered. "I wish that stupid Ozorne hadn't killed him."
"Don't call him stupid, he's going to be your uncle," Thayet said.
"I don't care. I may as well break the stupid engagement again and just go home! Daine's back and Numair's dead. There's nothing else I can do!" Eliena exclaimed, falling face first into her pillow. Daine suddenly became mad.
"Why do you have to make this all about you, Eliena?" she asked. Eliena sat up and looked at her friend with wide violet eyes.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean it! Everything always ends up revolving around you. Well guess what, El, not everything in this world is about Eliena! If Numair were still here, he'd want you to marry Kaddar and go through with it and you know it. Just because you could save him doesn't mean there isn't other good deeds you can do. Why are we even talking about you? This is about Numair. In case you didn't remember, Eliena, he was just killed."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Eliena snapped. "Not everything is about me, Daine, and I don't pretend it is. I hate that it's that way in Tortall, so why would I act that way here? I may be a princess, Veralidaine Sarrasri, but I sure don't act like one!" She paused momentarily. "And, besides, what would you know about it anyway? You think you're so special, with your wild magic? News flash, Daine: you may seem important, but at the end of the day, you're just a bastard from a nowhere mountain village in Galla who got lucky."
"Eliena!" Thayet exclaimed. "That was rude."
"I don't care anymore," Eliena said. "I don't care about what's 'right' and 'wrong.' My mother never did, and its time I didn't either. Screw all of it, I just want to be a normal person." She looked at Daine. "You hate being a commoner, but you have everything I want, Daine."
"You just said that I'm a bastard, Eliena, and now you're saying I have everything you want? You confuse me." Daine shook her head, anger subsiding.
"I would rather be a bastard than a princess."
"Trust me, Eliena, you don't."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Thanks to Thom, Neal and Leo were able to take a fast ship to Carthak and get into the capital undetected. It was a small miracle that none of the mages had caught them, but it was a miracle they were willing to accept.
Leo followed his Sight to Eliena, and knocked on the door. "Come in!" she called. The boys smiled at each other. They had missed that voice!
"Hello, Eliena," Neal greeted. Eliena whipped around, eyes wide.
"Neal? Leo?" she asked, getting to her feet and walking to them. "Is it really you?"
"No, Eli," Leo replied sarcastically. "We're those simula-things that Numair makes." Eliena stuck out her tongue and threw her arms around her friends.
"Simulacrum. I missed you! Wait." She looked at them skeptically. "What are you doing here?"
"We've come to rescue you from marriage," Neal replied, puffing out his chest. "Because it is obviously the last thing you want."
"Have you been crying?" Leo asked, noticing the red rims around her pretty violet eyes.
"Yes," Eliena replied. "But it's no big deal." She put her hand to her heart and pretended to swoon. "You've come to save little old me? Oh, you're so brave!" She collapsed into Neal's chest and Leo felt a touch of jealousy. She suddenly straightened and her eyes filled. "Numair's gone."
"What?" Neal asked. "What do you mean 'gone'?"
"They've killed him," Eliena replied. "For crimes again Carthak. Now that Daine's safe-I'll explain later- all I want to do is go home. I couldn't save Numair, and now the marriage is pointless." She looked at them hopefully. "Please tell me you'll take me home."
"Of course," Leo said, hugging her and kissing the top of her head. "Of course we'll take you home, El."
She looked up at him, eyes dancing. "Since when were you taller than me?"
Author's Note- hm. Is anyone suspicious of what could be coming? REVIEW.