A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update, guys, but I've been busy. Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers, and here's Chapter 2! In this chapter, we see more old faces, as well as some surprising new ones. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: None of this is mine.
A Whole New World: Chapter 2
"No!" Shadow's voice was stern, and his green eyes flashed as he looked down at his daughter.
"Da, please!" Yasmin begged, staring up at him imploringly. "Malik says all we have to do is scout around the palace and see if the Scanran spies are really there. We won't even be in danger."
"You shouldn't be going to court!"
"Why not?" Yasmin shot back, infuriated as well as curious. "Why am I not allowed to go on a mission that takes me inside the palace walls?"
Shadow's eyes became secretive, as if a curtain had fallen over them to keep Yasmin from seeing what he was hiding. "You're not going!" He said shortly, and turned away. Yasmin knew the argument was over, but she couldn't help the tears that welled up. The one chance to live her dream and get away from the Rogue….gone.
"Now Shadow," Malik said from where he stood, "it's Yasmin's decision to make. She's eighteen, I think she knows her own mind by now."
Shadow's jaw tightened, and he looked as if he were about to punch the other man. Slowly, the air rushed out of his lungs, and he sighed. He looked at his daughter. "You can go," he finally told her, and was cut off as she lunged at him, squealing.
"Oh, thank you, Da! I won't mess up this one this time, I promise! Oh, thank you!" Hugging him tightly, Yasmin suddenly released him and stepped back, trying to regain some of her status. "I mean, thank you."
Shadow shook his head, smiling indulgently. "You can go," he repeated, softer this time, "but," his face became stern once again, "you have to have your mother's permission before you go."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Yasmin was out the door, heading for the marketplace stalls, Sera winging behind her. Shadow sighed. "I hope she knows what she's getting into."
Yasmin darted around the familiar stalls of the Corus marketplace, searching for one vendor's stall in particular. Finding the wooden stall in question, she fingered the miniature kudarung statues there lovingly, and looked up at their living counterpart that was resting in a small basket nearby.
Kele, the original miniature kudarung from Kudarung Falls, was sleeping, his black wings rising and falling at his sides. Nara had managed to find a kudarung mare for him, and so, Sera was born. Nara always claimed she had found Kele in the Corus streets, but Yasmin had the feeling her mother was hiding something.
Stroking the stallion cautiously, Yasmin was rewarded when a gray and brown head popped up, glaring at her accusingly with dulled dark eyes. Kele was getting old, and hated being woken from his naps. Now more gray and white than gray and bay, the grizzled old stallion stuck to Nara's side like glue.
"Hey, buddy," Yasmin whispered, "where's Ma?" With an impatient toss of his head, Kele indicated that Nara was behind the stall. Figuring her mother was working on another statue, Yasmin soothed Kele back to sleep and wandered back to where her mother was.
Nara was staring at a block of wood, her brow creased in puzzlement. Seizing her carving knife, she carefully began to whittle away. In no time at all, a life-like, miniature kudarung mare stood in her palm, nuzzling a tiny foal. Setting it aside, Nara looked up as she sensed footsteps.
Tensing, the woman relaxed as she recognized her daughter. "Yasmin!" She cried, always happy to see her daughter. Hugging the girl, Nara released her and looked up. Yasmin was two inches taller than Nara's five foot five, a fact she was constantly reminding her mother of.
"Did your raid go well?" Nara asked, sizing up her daughter. Yasmin was unusually happy about something, and she was literally shaking, her green eyes alight with fire.
"It went fine," Yasmin waved the question away as she fixed her mother with a pleading gaze. "Ma, Malik says that he needs me to go to the palace and be a court lady with Dahy. I want to go but Da said no and then he said that I could go if I asked you first and you said yes." She said in a rush, and then looked at her mother. "Can I go?"
Nara turned away, her mind whirling. She had understood everything her daughter said, however rushed the delivery had been. Her daughter wanted to be a court lady? As part of an assignment? Was Malik crazy? Her blue-black eyes grew hard, and she frowned, still thinking. Her daughter wanted to go back to the place Nara herself had been banished from? Nara started pacing, muttering to herself under her breath. Yasmin was too recognizable, and what fief would she be from? Kudarung Falls was too obvious, and there was no way Nara was going to tell her daughter about that part of her life just yet.
Yasmin watched, wary. Her mother had just started pacing, which was never a good thing. She also looked agitated, which Yasmin had never seen. The girl frowned. All she wanted to do was go to palace. Why was her mother having such a hard time with that?
Finally, Nara turned. She looked defeated and older than Yasmin had ever seen her. She brushed her black hair out her eyes and sighed. "Yes," she said, her voice flat and dull. "You can go. But," she said, holding up a hand as her eyes sparkled again, "you have to be trained in the ways of the court."
Yasmin snorted. "How hard can it be? All you have to is wear a dress, drop a handkerchief, accept flowers, and look pretty."
Nara grimaced, and one hand unconsciously went to the sleeve of her shirt, where, unbeknownst to her daughter, her handkerchief still rested after nineteen years in the thieving world of the Rogue.
Before the conversation could go any farther, pounding footsteps alerted them to another arrival. Both women tensed, then relaxed as a familiar figure turned the corner of the stall.
Nalin Brandon, affectionately known as Sprout, was Yasmin's fifteen year old brother. A tall ball of energy, he bounced from one raid to the next. Fearless, he would take any assignment without hesitation. His father tried to instill a sense of caution and wariness into him, but Sprout as a carefree as any five year old.
"Flower!" He cried, running up. His face, so like his sister's, was tanner than most, showing his Yamani heritage. His messy black hair was everywhere, and his blue-black eyes, so like his mother's, blazed with life.
"Flower," he asked plaintively, "can I go with you? Please?" Yasmin shook her head, hiding a grin. Her brother could be so cute sometimes.
"Sprout," she said gently, "you can't come with me this time. This is for me alone."
Sprout's face fell, and he pouted for a moment before turning to their mother. "Ma," he asked, "can I go with Yasmin?"
Nara grinned at his hopeful face before replying gently, "No, Sprout, this is for your sister." Sprout thought about it for a minute, then shrugged.
"No matter," he said in his offhanded matter, "I'll just go ask Malik for my own assignment." With that, he was gone in the direction of the Dove, and Nara and Yasmin merely traded glancing before bursting into laughter.
As soon as their mirth had died, Nara straightened. "We don't have much time for your training," she muttered. "It took me years to learn the rules, and you only have two days."
"What?" Yasmin couldn't believe her ears. "You?"
Nara jumped and said hurriedly, "Not me, my sister." She laughed hoarsely. "Me? A court lady? Can you imagine?"
Yasmin laughed quietly. "No, I suppose not," she replied, then focused on what her mother had to say.
A day and a half later, Yasmin was nowhere near becoming a court lady, but it was time for her to leave for the palace. She and Amadahy were posing as ladies from Wolf's Peak, a long disused fief that the courtiers had all but forgotten about.
Dressed in an elegant court dress that Malik had acquired, Yasmin hugged her mother one last time. "Thank you for teaching me." She murmured, and her mother smiled at her before looking serious again.
"Yasmin," she said hurriedly in a low voice, "promise me something."
"Anything." Yasmin replied immediately, curious.
"Stay away from the Seaport ladies," Nara whispered. "If they try to talk to you, ignore them." She held her daughter's gaze. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Ma," Yasmin replied, confused but compliant. Waiting for Dahy to finish saying good-bye to Haunt, she hugged her brother. Mounting her gray mare, she booted her horse into a gallop, waving to her family as she raced away, towards this new world.
Shadow stood behind Nara, and squeezed her shoulders comfortingly. Sprout had already run off with some of his friends, but Nara watched her daughter leave, a stray tear trickling down her cheek as she thought of the life that had turned her out.
"She'll be fine." Shadow whispered, trying to believe himself. Watching his daughter leave was hard, but he couldn't imagine what Nara was feeling right now.
Nara's final warning to Yasmin floated to his mind, and he asked suddenly, "Why did you tell Yasmin to stay away from the Seaport ladies?"
Nara turned to face him, her blue-black eyes serious. "Alex had four sisters," she told him in a whisper. Shadow stiffened at the mention of Alex, but he listened as Nara continued.
"They were inseparable, and the most obnoxious women you would ever meet." She said, grinning wryly. "They were like a flock of birds, always jabbering. They managed to marry—all four of them—into the Seaport house. And they always come to court at Midsummer."
Shadow grew pale as he realized what Nara was getting at. "Oh." He hurried to reassure her. "But they don't know about Yasmin. So how could they do anything to her?"
Nara shook her head, her expression shadowed. "They spent plenty of time with me during the wedding preparations, and Yasmin looks just like me."
"How many of them come to court each year?" Shadow asked, afraid to know.
"Four." Was the heavy reply.
"And how many are there now?" Shadow asked, almost cringing.
"Four." Shadow looked at Nara, who turned away to stare at the castle. "I just hope none of them try to take her under their wing."
Yasmin looked around the crowded ballroom from where she stood, marveling at the change in her life. This morning she was a common thief; now she was nobility. She had fallen in love with the palace since they had arrived just that afternoon, and the Midsummer Night's ball was in full swing. The monarchs had accepted their arrival without question, with Yasmin posing as the daughter of the lord of Wolf's Peak, and Dahy as her adopted sister.
Keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, Yasmin watched in wonder as the couples swirled around the room. Her mother had attempted to teach her some steps in the short time they had, but Yasmin had never quite gotten it. She had received many offers to dance, but she reclined each time.Wearing an emerald dress that brought her eyes, she had her black hair done up in an elaborateknot with just a bit of face paint on.
She glanced over to see how her friend was faring. Amadahy was already surrounded by her admirers, who were attracted by her exotic looks. When asked about the blue tips in her hair, Dahy merrily replied, "It's all the rage at the University," which had several of the more intelligent court ladies declaring that they were going to try it too.
Yasmin was so preoccupied with looking for the spies that she failed to notice the man approaching her until he stood in front of her. She took a moment to glance him over, and she liked what she saw.
The man in front of her was clearly a knight, judging by his rich tunic and breeches, in the colors of blue and gold. He was well-built, tall, and had a kind face, framed by chestnut hair and warm blue eyes. The blue and gold in his clothing made his rich blue eyes sparkle, and his chestnut hair seemed to glow. He was clean-shaven and tan, and when he spoke, his warm voice sent shivers down her spine.
"Milady," he said, bowing politely. "I noticed you have not yet had a partner for a dance yet. Your sister has had many dances, and yet you decline each time." His blue eyes sparkled as he continued, and Yasmin stared up at him, too entranced to act the part of a court lady.
"I am Sir Gavin of Falcon's Harbor," he said, bowing once again. "May I have this dance?"
A/N: Cliffy! Anyone recognize the name of that fief? The first person to figure it out and tell me what they think is going to happen gets cookies from me!