Chapter 16

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That night Thom and Alanna were given guest rooms at the University after being allowed to go to their rooms and fetch their meager possessions. They were told by Ozorne to be ready to go to the palace the next morning. It seemed that the Prince couldn't wait to introduce his rescuers to his father, the King. Ozorne sent a letter off to the palace to explain the situation to his father. He wanted the king to be ready to greet the twins with the proper reception for helpers to the Crown.

As soon as Alanna crashed into bed that night she knew that this was her big break to get out of servitude in Carthak.

Thom was having mostly the same thought crossing his mind. This thought was accompanied by a reminder for Alanna that going to explore that building was his idea, so he actually was the one that helped the two to freedom.

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The twins were both woken up early the next morning. They were told to get ready to go to the castle. For the first time the two thought about what going to the castle to meet the king would entail. Thinking of this they found that they had no clothes that would suffice for being in the presence of the King of one of the riches countries in the world. Making a quick decision Thom put on the only pair of breeches that he had that were both clean and without holes. He topped this off with a starched white shirt. After he deemed himself as presentable as he was going to look he went off to the adjoining room that his sister was staying in.

When he got there he was in for a surprise. Alanna, his sister that had never cared what someone thought about her appearance in her life, had three different frocks sitting out on the bed and was taking her time deciding on what one to wear.

"Alanna what in the world are you doing?" Thom questioned his sister. "Do you know that we will have to leave in bare minutes and you are not even close to being ready to go?"

Alanna turned around with her hands on her hips. "What do you think I am doing? We have to look somewhat presentable. I just need to find the dress with the least dirt and holes in it and then that is the one that I am going to wear. I think the blue one is the final pick."

"Ok then, hurry up," Thom said pushing his sister behind the dressing screen to get into her outfit. "This is the perfect time for you to realize your feminine side."

"Stepping out from behind the screen, Alanna gave her brother a glare. "Make yourself useful and button this part for me."

Not seconds after Alanna deemed herself ready someone was knocking on the door impatiently. Thom went up to the door and opened it to reveal a footman that wore a rather haughty look on his face. He looked down at the two and announced to them that the carriage that was to take them to the palace had arrived.

The Trebond twins looked at one another and set off out the door and into their next big adventure.

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When the small group finally made it to the large palace no one was more grateful than Alanna. It seems that Ozorne thought taking a carriage all the way through the city would take far too long. No, he decided to only take the ride to the docks. And then they took the waterways all the way to the royal palace. Alanna, trying to be polite, decided to say nothing about her extreme affinity for seasickness. You can guess what happened as soon as the boat started on its way.

The whole time that the boat was moving Thom was doing his best to explore every part of the boat on deck. He was simply fascinated because the barge was run totally off of stored magic. It was a technology still not known to the rest of the world and Thom was determined to figure out exactly how it worked.

Almost immediately the trio was swept up the stairs to the palace entrance, into the entry way, and then down the all towards the large set of double doors into the throne room. Ozorne walked in first to greet his father, and then Alanna and Thom followed him in. Ozorne walked right up to the king, gave a small bow, and then moved up to talk to his father next to him on his throne. The pair had a fast, whispered conversation. When this brief conversation between father and son was over, the King turned to face the two children that had saved the heir to his throne.

Thom and Alanna both stepped slightly forward from their stations at the back of the room near the door, and gave the best bow or curtsy that they knew how.

The King ran his eyes over the two somewhat scrawny twins that stood in front of him, and then said, "I am in severe debt to you both for saving Ozorne. I feel obligated to help you through your hard times." This comment was founded in the raggedy way the twins were forced to dress to meet the King. "It would be my great pleasure to grant you both a deed of nobility in Carthak. I will trust that my council will get on the task of finding you a suitable fief in reward for your heroic actions."

At these words the King gestured to a messenger to leave the room with that note to his Royal Council.

The twins looked at each other in astonishment. Maybe they would not have to go back to Tortall and to, in their opinion, the doomed fate of becoming what their father picked for them. Thom the one that came to his senses first said, "That would be wonderful, Majesty. We are humbled by your generosity."

"Nonsence," the King responded, "it is the least that I can do for you. As I said before, I am deeply indebted to you."

In this brief amount of time the messenger returned breathing deeply. "Your Majesty, the council has come up with this conclusion," the messenger said this and then handed a scroll of neatly rolled parchment to the king.

"Just what I thought." The King replied to the message. "You will be granted the lands, holdings, and all that resides on the lands of Walrus Cove. You can choose to move down there now, but remember that there will always be room for you at the palace. We would be happy to see you here."

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A/N: Well, there is the next installment. I hope that all of you liked it so far.Now will begin a different phase of theirlives. Please review to tell me how you like it so far. As always I am open for questions.

PLEASE READ: I have recently decided that I will be going over and fixing the first few chapters. I have found so many contradictions and typos. I will try to keep the updates coming for now. I haven't been getting many reviews, so I decided if my grammar was better I would generate more interest in the story.

ColossalSky