I know that this chapter is a little longer in coming, but you should expect my chapters to come at this speed.

Now without further delay here is the next chapter.

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"Gods Thom," Alanna said exasperatedly as she flopped down into a pile of hay. "There is no way we are ever going to find this Tortallian professor you heard about. How do you know that you didn't just hear wrong? What if there is no Tortallian at the university? Hmm?"

"Think positively, I am sure we'll find someone here that is from Tortall. It is just a matter of time," he chorused cheerfully. At Alanna's annoyed glare he decided to add, "I don't see you coming up with any brilliant ideas."

"I hope you know that I have been thinking of a way to escape from this place ages before you even started to concoct this self-proclaimed brilliant idea of yours," Alanna squawked indignantly.

"Well then maybe you should go with some of your other plans. Go find your own way out of this mess. See if I care," Thom taunted.

"Maybe I will. And my ideas will work much better than any of you stupid idea anyway," Alanna said as she started down out of the barn door.

"Fine!" Thom shouted at her retreating back.

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Alanna quickly found a room where she could sit down and cool her fiery temper off. It was quite small with a large window off to the side. In front of the window were a couple of large rocking chairs. The room was mainly used for servants that liked to sew and mend.

As she sat there she tried to think of her escape plan. She must have been sitting there for a few hours because when she looked out the window again the sky had become a pinkish orange color.

Having not thought up a plan other than run away and hope for a miracle when the air collar started to choke off their air supply, she gave up finding a plan and started to just drift off into her own little word. She thought about everything that had happened to her for the past month or so.

Quickly deciding that she should think more about the plan later, she left the room in pursuit of her evening meal.

As she walked down the all lost in her thoughts, she was startled when a voice yelled, "Hey you, kid...uh...Alanna!"

When the voice yelled Alanna whirled around and saw Arram running down the hallway towards her.

"What do you need?" she asked him.

"Would you please quickly run a message down to the city for me? I promise it won't take too long. I would do it myself but I am restricted to the university for the next two weeks," Arram pleaded.

"I can't-"

"Please will you do this for me? I would owe you a humongous favor. This package is very important. It has to get down to the city," Arram interrupted.

"I mean that my slave collar will not let me go any farther than the gates of the university," Alanna said turning around to continue on her way down to the kitchens for supper.

"That isn't a problem. My family has slaves at home. I know how to lengthen the radius on slave collars. I can do that for you so you can deliver the package for me. It will only take me a second," he said moving closer to Alanna and stretching out his hand.

"You can? Fine, I will do it," Alanna conceded.

"Thank you," Arram replied, "Now, deliver this package to Canyon Street. To get there go past the marketplace two streets. Then turn right. Follow the street you are on until you see the sign for Canyon Street. Take the package to the inn called the Great Dragon, just ask for Leland. Then you can come right back.

"OK, if anyone asks tell them where I went," Alanna said.

"I will, just make sure the package gets to Leland. I can't stress how important it is to me that this package gets to him. And if anything looks a bit strange at the Great Dragon, um, just ignore it. While you're their watch out for you belongings," Arram warned her.

"What is the place where I am taking this package to used for?" Alanna suspiciously asked Arram.

"Well the people there aren't exactly one hundred percent right with the law. But if you just tell them that you are there to deliver a package to Leland they will leave you alone," Arram said as he grabbed hold of her slave collar and chanted some strange string of words Alanna had never heard before. "There you are free to go. The collar won't start choking you unless you try to leave the city."

"Whatever you say. I better get going," Alanna started to backtrack her steps

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Thom stomped down the hallway enraged at Alanna. He could not believe that she thought his plan was stupid. He would show her. He would find the Tortallian professor and then the professor would help both of them to get back home.

He came to one of the hallways of offices that he and Alanna hadn't looked through yet. He would never have guessed that there could be so many professors at the university. There were hundreds of offices that were in the university hallways.

Quickly picking another one of the many doors that littered the hallway, he found it unlocked and then entered.

Unlike he first believed he found that it was not an office like he first thought, he found that it was a rather large library. Deciding that he would look around at the books that were in the library instead of looking for the professor for the moment.

Going to the first shelf he started perusing the first shelf and quickly found a book called Battle Magic for Beginners.

'This will fit nicely into my plan,' he thought.

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I would like to thank my reviewers. Even though there are only two of you SpectralLady and On top of cloud 9. I would like to ask more of you to review my next chapter. It would inspire me to update faster. Please tell me what I m doing wrong, or what I am doing right. Or even something that you would like to see happen in the story. I am open to suggestion.

Again if anyone would know where I can find the story with thee timeline of the Tortall stories it would be very helpful. Or if you could answer some of my questions in a review.

-At what age did the group travel into the desert to see the bazhir (sp), then when did they defeat the yandzir (sp)

-How old was Alanna when she healed Jon from the sweating sickness

I know that I could find these answers myself, but I am too lazy to go to the library to check out the books.

Please Review

ColossalSky