For the five awesome people who reviewed chapter eleven — this chapter is for you.

Proof read by Danaye

Chapter 12

Alanna lifted her head just in time to see that her companion had heard the warning cry.

Shielding his back, Numair was occupied with the spell that was trying to burn its way towards him, but he extinguished it with a boost of his own gift.

The warriors that had charged in to aid their comrades stopped dead in their tracks as a big wolf landed on a man standing near the clearing, tearing his clothes and biting into his throat. The man was dead within a moment.

The Lioness stared along with everyone else. It was a good thing that Numair had been in contact with her on his way to the clearing, wanting to prepare her for the possibility that his wife had more than simple wild magic running through her blood. Now, she saw with her own eyes that it was indeed the truth. She felt a little guilty over having previously rejected the possibility.

As if on command, the warriors shook themselves out of their shocked stupor and picked up the attack once more. Alanna smiled as her opponent drew two small knives — this was what she was trained to do. She launched herself into the air with something akin to a happy scream and pulled two of her own knives out of her sleeves. Turning in the air, her feet landed in the middle of the man's chest and she pushed him to the ground.

Alanna barely had time to check up on the two people that meant so much to her, her friend and his newly wedded wife. Alanna fought the men that launched themselves at her one after another. At one moment, when she was focused on the attacker in front of her, the wolf took care of a man that had been ready to attack Alanna from behind. She was relieved, finally realizing that Numair's wife was on their side.

As Alanna pulled her knives out from the stomach of one of the warriors, she realized with horror that everything around her was deathly silent. She carefully wiped the blades clean on her tunic, scanning the scene in front of her. Since they had been vastly out numbered, the fight had been rough, and it had taken a lot out of her. Sweat was running down over her forehead and she wiped it with her sleeve.

Her heart pounding away in her chest, Alanna looked herself over and found that she had only received a few shallow wounds. She healed them with a touch of her magic. Distracted from her examination, she turned suddenly as Numair's voice split the air — his voice holding a clear command.

"Alanna!" Numair stood perfectly still as violet eyes settled on him, locking his gaze with hers, "Do not move."

She frowned in confusion, looking at the bodies lying scattered around the clearing. There were no other warriors left. "Why?" she asked with hesitation, a bit unsure. Then she heard it, a low panting that couldn't have come from a human. 'It sounds more like an — an animal,'Alanna thought, freezing.

"She's got your scent," Numair said as calmly he could. "Whatever you do, do not move."

"That's easy for you to say, Numair. You're not the one with a growling animal lingering only inches away from your neck," Alanna hissed, standing as still she could.

"She won't attack you," Numair responded and Alanna lifted her eyebrows.

"And how can you be so sure?"

Numair smiled, "Because I planted something inside her and I can activate it..."

"Then what are you waiting for?" she snapped as a small branch cracked underneath a paw.

"It's not that easy," Numair replied, following the wolf with his dark eyes as she walked back and forth behind Alanna. The wolf seemed to be waiting for a sign of weakness so it could strike at her prey. "I need to touch her to do it."

Alanna rolled her eyes, "Well, that's reassuring." She paused before continuing with a hard note in her voice, "Why didn't you think of a way to activate it without having to touch her?"

"Because I didn't think that she would break through the shield that I placed inside her!"

"You did what?!" Alanna gasped.

"Oh, do not look so horrified, Alanna. You know very well that I will do anything to protect my family."

She snorted, "That's what I worry about." The sound of paws moved to Alanna's side and past her. She looked up, startled, as the wolf completely ignored Numair's presence and ended up between them.

Alanna gasped as the wolf turned and she saw a long knife wound running all the way down the side, ending not far from the wolf's tail. "She's hurt," Alanna said slowly, noticing how the wolf's ears twisted and turned at the sound of her voice. An idea struck her and she lifted her eyes from the animal to look at Numair, "Try to speak to her, Numair. Tell her something that will bring some sort of humanity back into her..."

"You must be joking," Numair retorted.

Alanna shrugged, "Well, it's worth a try, isn't it?"

"Fine, I'll give it a try, but only because I need her to refrain from killing you —" he stopped when Alanna cut of his words, a frown spreading over her face.

"Why do you need me more than her?" Alanna asked, a serious tone in her voice.

"It's not for the reasons you're thinking of," Numair said, looking down at where his hand was pressed to his side, keeping pressure on a deep wound. He pulled his palm away and found it red with blood.

Alanna gasped, "You're injured, Numair!"

Numair gave her a rough smile, "Tell me something I don't know." He staggered slightly, making the wolf's ears twist back towards him. He took a step forth, aware of the noise his feet were making as they crunched the grass underneath his boots. "Daine," he called low, waiting a few moments before he tried again. "Daine – sweetheart, please," Numair pleaded as pain shot through the side of his stomach.

He continued to take steps forward, erring on the side of caution as intelligent, cold eyes looked at him sharply. The blue-grey stare held no humanity in it.

With the wolf's attention elsewhere, Alanna found herself gesturing eagerly at Numair to continue what he was doing.

Numair took another step. He wasn't far away now, and he could almost touch her. "Daine," he called again and leaned forth. He sighed with relief as his fingers came only one inch from her fur.

Daine's ears suddenly twisted as another wolf howled in the distance. In one jump, she was moving away in a rapid run. Numair threw himself forward, ignoring the wound in his side as it opened more, the skin tearing with the movement.

"No! Daine!" he screamed and she came to a halt at the edge of the clearing, hesitating at the sound of his voice. "Sweetheart," he said again, a pleading note in his voice. The wolf turned her eyes towards him. Numair had never used such a word with a woman before, but he found it strangely easy when it came to her.

Another howl tore through the air. At the sound of more wolves, Daine turned her head back towards the forest. She kept still, twisting her ears as if considering her options.

Numair walked forth, trying to retain his balance and called her name yet again. "Daine," he said, and the wolf twisted her body around.

Alanna relaxed and came to stand beside Numair. She was reaching for him, her hand gleaming with violet, when she was suddenly pushed to the ground. Looking up, she found a set of teeth flashing a clear warning. Alanna lifted up her hands in defense, allowing her gift to disappear. She didn't know what else to do.

"Daine!" Numair said sharply, "Stop it. I know that you're in there somewhere. You just have too let the ward take over again in order to turn back to yourself." His breathing became strained, grasping for air. It was hard to ignore the pain as the wound ached more and more.

Alanna lifted her face in alarm from where she had been keeping an eye on the wolf. Now, as she looked at her friend, she turned pale. Numair's clothes were soaked through. His white shirt had turned a deep red from the blood that slowly drained from his body. The valuable fluid was flowing down only to drip from the bottom of his cloak.

"Numair!" Alanna croaked as she saw all the blood drain from her friend's face. "Don't look down," she tried to warn him, but her voice was drowned out by a fierce growl.

The wolf twisted her ears yet again as Numair began to sway. Suddenly, in a moment, a young woman about twenty years old sat on the ground instead of the fearsome animal.

Alanna hadn't seen the woman before, but she was struck by the natural beauty that shone from her. Numair's wife was stunning. It took only seconds for Alanna to also notice that the woman was completely naked.

"No!" Alanna screamed, seeing Numair start to fall to the ground in her peripheral vision. Alanna held her breath as the woman quickly moved to her friend and caught him before he hit the ground. The woman was also bleeding heavily, but that didn't seem to matter as she carefully and tenderly brushed black hair away from Numair's face.

Stormy blue-grey eyes met Alanna's violet ones. "Save him," the woman pleaded in a low voice, continuing to stroke Numair's hair back from his forehead. "Please," the woman added as she looked down at where she held her husband's head. "He's the only thing I —" the woman didn't get to finish the sentence as unconsciousness suddenly overtook her.

Alanna rushed forth. "Great," she said with gritted teeth. She had never healed two people at once, but there was a first time for everything.

Alanna sat with a full mug of ale in her hands. She had yet to even taste the liquid, although the old crone in the inn had insisted that it was what she needed. She continued to mull over everything she knew in her head, but the thoughts twisted and turned themselves as if they were snakes. She just couldn't make sense of everything that she had learned these past four days.

She had managed to stop her companions' bleeding, but that was all she had been able to do in the middle of a clearing littered with dead bodies.

How she had managed, in the middle of the night, to transport them both to the cave was another riddle she didn't know how to solve — yet.

Alanna had a sneaking suspicion that someone had lent her a hand. She had first moved Numair to the cave after hiding the young woman under a spell. She had arrived along with her horse, with Numair hanging over its back like a sack of potatoes. Once inside the cave, she had jumped in fright as the light of her magic had revealed another body already lying on the floor beside a fiercely roaring fire. Beside the fire, two horses had eyed her suspiciously.

Kneeling down, she had been shocked to find Numair's wife lying sound asleep and apparently healed.

Alanna had examined the woman after attending to Numair, and upon turning the young woman's body around to see if there was need for more healing, she had sat herself down hard on the floor of the cave in complete surprise.

Not only was Numair's wife beautiful, but worse, her beauty had been corrupted by copper-colored lines that twisted themselves into the lines of scars on her back. The scars, Alanna couldn't do anything about, but she tried to examine the copper lines. Every time she had pricked at the skin the lines had formed themselves into a rune of some kind — a rune with an unknown meaning.

Now, sitting below the two rooms where they slept soundly guarded by wards, Alanna mentally listed the things she knew.

One, Numair was married to a very unique creature that could transform herself. In addition to that, the girl's back bore an odd rune of some sort.

Two, both Numair and his wife were being hunted down by an assassin. This was the same assassin they had been trying to capture since they had heard of King Jaime's murder five months ago.

Three, the arrival of the letter to King Jonathan, offering a hand in marriage in exchange for the protection of King Angus's two year old son, had caused some disturbances at court.

Of course, everyone had known by that night that Jonathan had agreed to the marriage and hysteria had broken out. Alanna shook her head. The women had gone from being as calm as small lambs to as vicious as hyenas hunting down their prey — their prey meaning Numair. It was mere luck that he had been able to leave Corus as quickly as possible. His decision had spared him the gossip and other frantic decelerations of love.

Four, Alanna had checked the woman's back several times in the cave, convinced that she had imagined the copper lines on her back. However, by the time she had decided that she was going to draw the sign down on a piece of parchment, it had disappeared and never returned.

Alanna lifted her violet eyes to the ceiling, hoping that they wouldn't wake anytime soon. She had called for backup since she was unable to transport them all the way back to the palace in Corus all by herself.

She had told Hakim to find the child, King Angus's heir, after the bad news had reached her. She, herself, had hurried to aid Numair in the fight he had been convinced was to going to take place. She hadn't doubted his words. She knew him well enough to know that when he called for help, it was clearly needed.

Now, Alanna was waiting for news from Hakim and waiting wasn't something that she had ever been particularly good at. The Lioness was widely acknowledged as a restless soul. She didn't wait for trouble to seek her, she was the one who found it. It had been that way ever since she had entered her training to become a knight many years ago.

For four days she waited. Four long days, where she had constantly checked and re-checked if Numair and Daine were still breathing. Alanna was about to stand when something sparkled in the corner of her eye.

She caught the small ball of light in her calloused hand and added more of her gift into the spell. "Yes?" Alanna questioned and lifted the ball up to her eyes.

"We got him," the voice of Hakim sounded.

Alanna smiled with relief. This was the part of her job that she liked the best — when everything went right. "Good. Hakim, you know what to do," she said, squeezing her hand tight until the ball disappeared.

Glancing up, Alanna found a small, nervous girl lingering at the side of her table. Shifting from foot to foot, the girl was tugging at the shawl placed around her thin shoulders. Alanna guessed the girl to be about seven years old, with long blonde hair that danced slightly with each movement. 'She'll be beautiful when she grows up,' Alanna thought and smiled at the youth, reminded of her own daughter.

The girl muttered something and Alanna lifted her hand stopping the girl, "Please, speak clearly, lass. I'm not in the mood to guess every word, unless you're telling me that they're here?"

The girl's blue eyes widened as she nodded her head. "They are my Lady," she said, curtsying deeply. Alanna nodded and stood. She noticed that behind the girl stood her mother, proud over the fact that the girl had the attention of the Lady-Knight and even more proud to be the mother of that child. Alanna couldn't help but smile at the woman, knowing what it was like to be proud of your child.

Alanna moved from the chair only to stop and pat the girl on the head. "Good," she said, smiling, "if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd clean up the table. Goddess bless you both."

She walked away. As she passed by the mother, she gave her a slight nod and halted by the door to wait for the exclamation. Only when she heard the voice of the child, exclaiming in happiness over a single gold coin left underneath the goblet, did she walk out into the rain.