I don't own any of the Tamora Pierce characters


Ivy came to with hard rock under her head and a stiffness in her whole body. She went to sit up, then felt the weight on her arm. Looking down she saw Matthew, unconscious but breathing, cheek pressed into her arm. She sat up slowly and groaned as her back crackled at the movement. Gently she took her Knight-masters head in her hands, then dropped it onto her knee in horror. He was boiling hot. He looked normal, except for the thin layer of sweat that covered his face, but he was truly burning up. She lowered his head to the ground, then jumped up, ignoring the protesting of her legs. She ran down to their horses and undid both of the ropes. Ivy lead them up to the cave, unhooking a flask and uncorking the lid. When she reached Matthew she splashed the contents on his face. Steam rose from his skin, his eyes flew open and his hand went to his belt. Ivy grabbed it and forced him to drink the last of the water in the bottle. Matthew gasped his thanks, then closed his eyes. Magic walked over from the corner of the cave and butted his master in the face. Ivy saw a small smile on Matthews face, and took the blanket that lay draped over the horses back, folding it into a pillow and laying it under his head. She fed the horses before going out to find food. When she returned to the cave, she had two dead rabbits ready to be gutted and skinned. Matthew was sleeping, and Ivy began to wonder what had made him pass out, and what had made him sweat and heat up so badly. While preparing the rabbits, Ivy kept one eye on him, making sure he was comfortable. After making a small fire and cooking their meal, she placed them on two plates, wafting one under Matthews nose. His nostrils crinkled slightly, then his eyes fluttered open. He smiled slightly at her, then sat up slowly, taking the plate and picking at the meat. Ivy ate her own, then gave the few remains to the horses. She was surprised to see when she turned around that all of the meat on Matthews plate had gone and he was sleeping once again. She shook her head, then lay in the opposite corner of the cave, covering herself in a blanket and going to sleep.
Ivy woke up to find Matthew and Magic gone. Thunder stood in the corner, pawing slightly at a small patch of grass. Ivy got up and went down to the cave mouth. Matthew was just visible in the river just below the hill. Magic was next to him, Ivy guessed, for support if he weakened again. She waited for several minutes until Matthew began to walk out of the river, then she walked down to meet him. She reached him just as he rested an arm over the horses back.

"You should have woken me." she stated, walking over and slinging one of his arms around her shoulders.

"I'm fine." Matthew argued, moving his arm away from her. He stumbled almostinstantly.

"I can see that." Ivy drawled. She took his arm again and helped him up to the cave.

"I could have crawled you know?" Matthew said, as she helped lower him to the ground.

"Yeah, and I could have run up and down the hill a million times as you did it." Ivy said cheekily, stepping out of his reach. Matthew sighed.

"If I wasn't this weak, you'd be in a headlock by now."

Ivy grinned. "Better make the most of it then hadn't I?"

There was a moments silence before Ivy said. "What happened after I passed out?"

Matthew looked down. "Nothing . . . I just, got in a bit of a . . . stress." he muttered.

Ivy frowned. "Go on, this sounds interesting."

Matthew shot her a glare then went on. "Alright, I got annoyed with the bastard of a spidren and went a bit psycho! Satisfied?"

Ivy shook her head. "What did you do?"

"Blew him up." Matthew murmured.

"How much gift did you use? Everyone can do one explosion!" Ivy gasped.

Matthew grinned. "I think I might have tapped into my Gift a little too far." Ivy waved a hand telling him to go on. He sighed. "You know my Gifts normally pale blue?" Ivy nodded. "Well, I went fiery red. Thats why I was so hot yesterday." he grinned at his own phrasing. "Did you like it?"

"Like what?" Ivy asked.

"Me being all hot on you." He winked.

Ivy threw a screwed up blanket at him. "Glad to see you didn't burn your sense of humour up in that blaze. Make sure you don't go Pyrotic again alright?"

Matthew frowned. "What'd you mean?"

"Don't use so much Gift alright?" Ivy said calmly.

"Why not? It was fun. Seriously, I was on fire." He smiled.

"I know you were. Listen, when we get home I'll get Uncle Numair to explain it to you. He'll love the idea of a Pyro in Tortall." she sighed and went over to Thunder. "I'm going to bathe."

"You know, I've got nothing against you getting Numair to explain to me, but I'll be the one whos organising meetings for us alright." he closed his eyes. "Watch out for the rocks. They hurt your feet."

Ivy rolled her eyes. "I'll bare that in mind." she said.


It was several days before Matthew was able to walk around again, and he was unable to use any ounce of Magical Gift. Ivy killed several spidrens who wandered into the cave, burning them on a fire at night, disgusted that she had to touch their disgustingly hairy legs to move them out of the cave. Matthew found this highly amusing, and would often catch her eye and chuckle at random.

A week after their arrival, Matthew was preparing the best way to kill the remaining spidrens. Ivy watched as he scratched a map of the area into the mud at the rear of the cave, trying to make out what he said. She caught brief phrases such as 'burn the bastards . . .' and 'cut the twats to pieces.' Ivy tried not to laugh, and often had to shove her hand in her mouth, she knew she was being immature but he was acting like a teenager who wanted to hit someone who was annoying them. At about midnight he roused her from a dream about flying trees, telling her to get ready to go. She said nothing, only nodded and stifled several large yawns. After she had pulled on several layers, he handed her a burning torch and grinned mischeviously at her.

"They don't like fire." he said. Ivy nodded and yawned once more. "Come on." He said, waving her on out of the cave. Ivy followed him down the hill and round the side of the hill. Another cave was hidden by several bushes. Ivy tried to ignore the smile on Matthews face as they set the bushes on fire with their torches. There were several high pitched shrieks from the inside of the cave, and Ivy saw a look of satisfaction on Matthews face.

"Won't be seeing them again." he said. Ivy raised an eyebrow. He began to explain, "they'll try and run from the cave, thats the only way out, they'll get burnt to death." Ivy gulped and shuddered, then nodded. "What now?" she asked.

"Well, there'll be other ones coming soon, now that they've heard the ones in there, so our best bet is to hide and wait till their backs are turned." he took her torch from her hand and threw it onto the blaze. "We don't need them now. Come on." he lead her behind a large rock and pushed her down to the floor. He dug both hands into the bag he had taken with him, and drew out several balls of web and insects. Ivy grimaced, then shot a quizzical look at him. He mouthed the word 'poison' several times before she understood what he had meant.

"Found them in the cave, thought I'd add a little extra to them." he threw them in the direction of the fire. They stopped rolling about ten metres away. "Any luck some will eat them and either die or get too ill to do anything." he whispered. He threw several more in another direction.

"Won't they think its a bit wierd that a load of balls of their favourite meals just happen to be lying outside a cave where other spidrens have just been burnt to death?" Ivy asked.

Matthew smiled. "Its not their favourite meal." he said shortly.

"Its not?" Ivy said.

"No." he grinned. "We are."

Ivys gulped, she had an idea where this was going and if it was right, she didn't like it.

"You won't get hurt." Matthew said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "We just need to draw their attention away."

Ivy stared at him.

"I promise." He said warmly. "I won't let them hurt you."

Ivy hesitated, then nodded. Matthew squeezed her shoulder, then nodded towards the oncoming spidrens. "When they've had dinner, just go and shout insults, then I'll do the rest ok?" Ivy nodded again. They watched as thirty or so spidrens headed towards the blaze.

"The fools got killed by fire. And they left their food outside for us." One said, picking one of the web balls up on the end of a pincer. Ivy shook her head at the immortal stupidity. The spidrens all began to look for the web balls, then ate them. Several minutes later, they were collapsing on the floor, either dead or weak. (A.N./ I don't know how believable that is, but I always thought spidrens were idiots. Sorry lol.) Matthew gave her the nod and Ivy stood up, unsure what to say. She walked round the rock and edged nearer to the fire, while the spidrens tried to understand how the others had suddenly got ill. One looked up and began to hiss.

"Human!" he said. "A human is here. I thought I smelt something."

Ivy gulped then said. "Are you sure it wasn't yourself? Your butt-crack maybe?" She thought she hearda stifled laugh, but the spidrens hadn't so she ignored it.

"Stupid mortal! All of you arethe same.You think you're so clever, but thefifty or so othersweren't were they? No, they just ran intoour caves and tried to poke us with pigstickers andbranches. They made a lovely meal."

Ivy smiled. "All of us are the same? How manyof them were women?" sheenquired. Thespidren opened his mouth, but said nothing.

"Womenhave no brains mortal girl." another spidren said. "If they do they'reonly inthe region of reproduction.They don't think."

"Really? Well I'll tell you whatI'm thinking now shall I? I'm thinking you're the most ugly thing I ever have or ever will see, and I'm thinking that if I wanted to I could just chuck this littledagger through yourchest." She drew her small knife and began twisting itthrough her fingers. It caught the light of the fire, which caught the spidrens eyes. Slowly, enough to be unnoticeable, shewrapped her handround a nearby branch, and held it back into theflames. Then shebrought it to her front, holding it in front of herlike a longsword. Thespidrens hurriedly backed away, right into Matthew, who held his sword in front of him.

"Evening all." he murmured. "Lovely night isn't it. Nice bright moon, big fire . . . makes you want to dance like an indian doesn't it?" The spidrens hissed at both of them, huddling together, their furry bodies rubbing. "I feel like having spidren for tea tonight. Don't you Squire?" Ivy resisted the urge to say no.

"Oh yes," she said, "I do like a nice meaty body, and the legs are so delicious and crunchy. And the fur, its so warm, don't you remember that lovely pair of spidren-fur boots I showed you?" She saw Matthew grin at her.

"I think we could get you a wardrobe of spidren-clothing with this lot. What do you think?"

"Oh, I agree, but we'd have to save some for you, just to show other spidrens not to invade innocent cities when they see you wearing a spidren cloak." Ivy replied, nodding her head slowly. Matthew moved closer to the huddle of furry bodies, just as Ivy did. The fire reflected in the spidrens eyes, and she saw their fear. She didn't know how she felt about it, but she walked closer. When a flash of silver signalled that Matthew had attacked, Ivy swung the branch, causing the spidrens to back ever-closer to where Matthew stood. The spidrens finally began to fight back, shooting webs at them, but Matthew sliced the ones aimed at him, and Ivy burned the ones aimed at her. When there were only two left Matthew stopped. Ivy stared at him in confusion.

"I want you to leave Meron and tell any Spidrens you know that if they invade any city or town in Tortall, the Hunter and his Squire will be after them. You understand?" he brandished his sword at them again. After several hisses of no, and several threats of burning alive, the two agreed, though Ivy didn't trust them. She watched as they scurried away, muttering curses at them.

"They won't you know." Ivy stated.

Matthew nodded. "Its a very good possibility. But they've been warned, and if they don't tell them, they'll be meeting us again."

"Couldn't you have come up with a better name than 'his Squire' for me? Its hardly scary is it?" Ivy complained. Matthew smiled.

"I'll think about it, but it was just a spur of the moment thing." He looked at the thirty or so dead bodies of the spidrens. "Time to burn these things." Ivy shuddered. Matthew looked at her then said, "Unless you were being serious and you want to eat them and make some spidren fur boots?" Ivy shook her head. "Good." Matthew said. "Lets get to work, then we can leave tomorrow." he grabbed two of the nearest spidren-bodies and slung them on his shoulders, walking over to the burning bushes and putting them on the top. Ivy shuddered, then dragged two of them over to the fire.


Well, again, if you don't like I'll scrap. I'm kind of not feeling great about my writing recently. Is it just me or has the standard slipped:S Well, please review and tell me if you think I'm absolutely bull/ ok/ good at writing.

Mage of the Heart

P.s. the pyrotic thingy up there somewhere, will be explained in either chapter seven/eight, not sure which yet, but hopefully soon, and I think this version is getting to be VERY different from the old one. Is that good?