Chapter 14

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It was nearing sundown when the Trebond twins met up once more. Alanna was busy scrubbing one of the pots that had been used to cook the evening meal. Thom had just finished running errands for the night and had gone to see what his sister was doing. As he saw her busy doing work he quickly went to the library to grab some paper and something to write with. He sloppily penned a message to his sister, and then walked back into the kitchens to deliver it to her. As he slipped the message into her hand he hurriedly whispered, "How long do you think that you are going to be?"

Her answer was to point at the mountain of pots, pans, plates, and silverware that had to be washed before Alanna could retire for the night. This gesture was accompanied by Alanna gritting out, "Estimate," before dropping another pan into the soapy water.

"Ok then, I guess I will see you later," Thom said running out of the washroom before his sister could decide that she needed his help to finish if she was going to go with him to the mysterious barn.

Thom set off at a brisk walk down the hall to the library again. His thought was he might as well get some research done if he was going to have to wait a few hours for Alanna. He opened the door and set off to the back of the library to the section on the sorcery. He was determined to get out of being a slave at the University one way or another. He would have to admit that he was going to miss having access to all of the great tomes that the University libraries held.

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Alanna was so bored she could almost scream. She had finally put the last of the pans she was to wash into the water when one of the laundry maids came in. Now usually Alanna had no business with these older women and they left her alone. Well today was a different story. As soon as the maid saw that Alanna was the only person in the kitchens that was still on duty she came over to her.

"After you're done with that I need a little help hanging up some linen bed sheets to air over night. They need to be hung up immediately if they are to dry by tomorrow morning. Come along," she didn't even stop to think that Alanna might not be done in the kitchen. She just grabbed her arm and practically drug her all of the way out of the building designated to cooking and eating.

Now she was standing on a ladder pinning white linen sheets onto the clothes lines. She had been at this job for near an hour before it was finally pronounced that she had done a good enough job and she was free for the night.

Alanna, not wanting to be caught and coerced into doing further chores, fled the scene as soon as the announcement was made. After she deemed that she had gotten far enough away from the laundry maids she dug the note Thom had left her out of her apron pocket.

She quickly read the letter:

Dear Alanna,

I have finished my duties for the night now. I was planning on running to the barn-like building that we scouted earlier today. If you have no objections to this then we will have to arrange a time to meet, and a place to meet at. Anywhere in the servant quarters is out of the question. If we meet there we are sure to get caught. There is almost always someone up and roaming the halls.

I was thinking that we should meet sometime around the first bell of the night. The guard shifts change at the twelfth bell of the evening, please don't ask me how exactly that I know this. That means that all of the guards should all be at their positions by the time that we want to get out. Don't want some soldier to catch us running around.

I think that we should meet at the regular place in the barn loft. Well on second thought I don't want to climb the rope again today, so meet me by the front of said barn a little after the first bell.

If you have any objections to my plan, even though I myself think it is genius and spent my evening planning it out, I will be somewhere between my rooms, the library, or even at Prince Gregory's rooms if he calls.

Your Loving Brother,

Thom

Reading the letter Alanna saw that it would be only a little while until she had to meet Thom. She only had time to run into the servant quarters and find the black clothes that she stored between her mattress and the floor in the room that she shared with a few other female servants and slaves that she had never taken the time to get to know. She had been moved out of her old rooms recently and taken to the new ones once it became obvious that Gregory had no need for her near him.

Alanna started to her rooms setting a nice paced jog the rest of the way to the servants' quarters. At the front she took the left turn to get into the women's side of the building. It took her a while to climb the three flights of stairs up to the room that had been assigned as her own. As soon as she got there she noticed that there were already three of the four girls that shared her room asleep on the mats that they were given. She crept silently over to the mat that she claimed as her own, lifted it up and snatched the only pair of clothes that she kept hidden under it. All of the things that she kept hidden under the mat were things that Leland had given her to practice with.

Making sure that none of the girls had woken up she quickly and quietly slipped out of her frock and into the pair of breeches and the peasant shirt. Then, as a second thought, she lifted the thin mattress back up and took out one of the small knives that she kept hidden under there. She then slipped the knife into the belt of the breeches she was wearing, just in case, and declared herself ready to go.

She knew that it wasn't quite time for her to meet her brother yet. She also knew that Thom was notorious for being late to almost every meeting time that she had set with him. After deciding that it wasn't yet time to meet her brother she sat down and wait for the bells to chime before she started out to meet him. Anyway, she didn't know if she was exactly looking forward to going into the place where she had seen the creature that scared her so much last time.

Settling herself more comfortably into the bed she decided to rest until the bells chimed. I seemed that only seconds later that she was jerked from her dozing by the bell ringing. It was time for her to start the hike to the small stable that the visiting nobles and students would let their horses rest. This place was then perfect for her and Thom's secret meeting place because usually the only people that would be in there wouldn't know that the two redheaded twins were not supposed to be in there.

It took her only a few minutes to get to the meeting place. To her almost eternal surprise she could see Thom's red hair peeking over the side of a hay bale that he was waiting on. He was not late for once in his life. As she walked around the hay bale and saw what really happened she was not as surprised. Thom was sitting slouched over asleep over a book that looked to be almost one thousand pages long.

The only way that Alanna could have even thought of waking her dear brother up was picking up the large book gently out of his hands and slamming it shut right next to his head. This brought Thom out of his slumber and off of the hay bale faster than Alanna had ever seen her brother move in his life. This sent Alanna into a fit of giggles, but since she couldn't be loud she was trying her hardest to keep the laughing under her breath.

Thom scowled at her from his spot on the barn floor, and then got up out of his sprawl glaring at the still giggling Alanna. "You didn't have to do that you know," Thom shot at Alanna after he had brushed the hay that was sticking to him off. "There are nicer ways to wake a person up."

"I know. But this way was much more fun that any of the other," Alanna retorted in a whisper. "We better get going. We don't know how long this life affirming adventure of yours is going to take. I have to get up early tomorrow to help make breakfast. It seems that no one can do a better job milking the god forsaken cow in the morning."

"You are just acting like you are doing this all for me. I know you Alanna. You want to go see what is happening in that building just as much as I do," Thom said to his sister. "Now come on." He shot this last part over his shoulder because he was already halfway down the central isle of the stable.

The two walked silently across the University's large campus to the mysterious buildings that they had visited earlier in the day. They crept along the wall of the first two buildings and then ran across the gap to the third to try to look into one of the high, small windows that the building sported.

"Thom, hoist me up there to see if anyone is in there," Alanna demanded, grabbing onto Thom's shoulder.

"Fine, hold on a second," he told the girl. He cupped his hands and let Alanna place one foot in them and push herself up on his back until she could see in. "What do you see?"

"Nothing, it is completely dark in this room. That most likely means that the building is deserted right now. Let's go in and investigate." Alanna demanded, starting towards the front door.

The two sneaked into the front room once they saw that there was no one in that part of the building. They took their time looking around the entrance area. It was obvious that the area housed some kind of animals. The twins thoroughly searched every part of the small entrance area. They found what must have been some jackets that must have belonged to some of the students that used to work in this lab. All but two of the jackets had collected dust and looked as if they had been hanging there for quite a while. After further investigation they found a box of heavy leather gloves of all sizes. And the last noteworthy thing they came across was several different sizes of heavy chain collars and leashes.

Thom pointed out a door to the right. He tried to figure out what this room was used for. He then tried the handle but it was locked. Thom took some time to look at the area surrounding the door. There was a floor mat outside of the door so he concluded that the room had to be well used. He was just about to ask Alanna for help figuring out what must be inside the room when she came up next to him from the other side of the entrance room and pointed to a wooden sign on the door that said in big, bold letters: OFFICE.

"Well anyone could have done that the easy way," Thom said.

"It doesn't matter anyway Thom. The door is locked. There is no way we can get in without using a key. Which, need I remind you, we don't have," Alanna told Thom. To prove this fact she stepped up to the door, grabbed onto the handle and shook the door with all of her strength. "See, I told you."

"Sister dear, do you think that I am going to let a little door get in the way of my finding out what top secret experiment that they are hiding in this building. If you do you obviously don't know me as well as I thought you did," Thom nudged Alanna out of the way of the door. "While you were learning how to kill and maim things out in the lower city I used my spare time for useful things. I think I read somewhere how to unlock a door." Thom paced in front of the door for a second before he put his hands on the door handle and the purple fire of his gift engulfed the lock. Then the door knob turned and the door swung open with a loud squeak. "There," Thom threw the word in his sister's face smugly before walking into the office.

The two had been searching the office for quite a while now with no more clues as to what was going on in the barn.

"Thom, all that is in here are some boring old documents that I have to say I couldn't understand less if I was completely illiterate," Alanna complained. "We are wasting our time by even being in here. Why don't I just show you what I saw last time I was in here?"

"We need to be thorough in our search of this place. If we look through things as we come across them we should understand everything else. Everything in searching has an order Alanna," Thom explained to his hardheaded sister. "This could be a clue, I'm not sure. I keep finding all of these diagrams of different animals. They have all of the parts of the body labeled very thoroughly. I guess that this being a barn could be why they are here, but I have never seen something so detailed before."

"That could be something, but let's go look somewhere else. All that is in here is a bunch of file cabinets," Alanna instructed walking out of the room.

She and Thom started to walk quickly up to the other side of the barn through the connecting hallway. They kept a close watch on what was happening around them looking for any signs of life. That is why when they heard a loud scream come from somewhere up ahead of them it frightened them both. They glanced at each other before taking off at a run through the next set of doors where the scream had originated.

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A/N: That has to have been the longest chapter I have ever written. I think that I at least deserve a review for my vast effort.

Chapter 15 is already written. All I need to do is proof read. I may write Chapter16 before that one gets up. If you review you will get the chapers faster.

If anyone is looking to when I will be updating my stories you can look at my profile. I will try to have my progress with the story up on that.

Again, if anyone has any questions as to what is happening in my story just drop me a review. I appreciate any review. I especially like it if you leave me constructive criticism. I am not threatening to stop posting if you don't review, I am just telling you that it is proven that I can type faster if I get more reviews.

I hope to update at least once a week during the summer. Of course sometimes, if I have nothing to do (hah!) I will try to get another chapter out. And then there will be times when there is no update due to my busy life.