Chapter 23

He couldn't take his eyes away from the small shuddering frame that lay underneath the blankets Alanna had put on her. Numair had demanded so be present under the further examination Alanna was going to give Daine, the woman who was to become his wife. They had to leave the bedchamber where Daine was laying to keep the argument private and not wake the sleeping frame.

"You can't command to let you to be present during the examination!" Alanna had said very loudly and very angrily, but as soon the words had left her lips, she had slapped her hands over her mouth, only to continued between pressed lips "you are a male!"

"I know very well what I am, thank you very much! But she my wife, or at least, soon-to-be-so and I want to know, its my right to know if everything is fine with her – they tried to convince me that she was to be examinated in Galla, but I argued against the kings decision. He was going to let a male healer -"

"So you knew and what's wrong with a male healer. Duke Baird is a male, he's been the one to examine me when I was pregnant and the queen?" Alanna demanded to know taking her hands down, crossing them in front of her chest.

"If it was indeed Duke Baird who was going to do it while we where in Galla, I would have allowed it, but you should have seen the healer – he was almost licking his lips, as if she was a prize or something. The old King even demanded a token of proof that the betrothal was consummated" he shot back trying in vain to keep his own voice down.

"Consummated?" Alanna breathed in shock. "It's only a betrothal, not a wedding!"

"In Galla it apparently is" Numair told her more calmly then he really was. The happening with the Chamber of Ordeal had disturbed him to his bones and he wasn't sure that he ever would forget the voice of the singing girl.

"So you did it?" She asked him while evaluate his reactions.

"Goddess, no! That poor girl had only two days earlier been told that an arranged marriage had been forced on her shoulders. I'm not that kind of man who goes and takes advantages over a young woman, just because my king orders me to be married".

"Then how did you know that something was off?"

Shaking his head Numair paused in his pacing "I had a feeling" he blushed.

"That's more than a feeling" Alanna was looking closer at Numair's guarded features "You did something – something only a black-robed mage would do" she narrowed her eyes, when the blush on his cheeks became more visible – she gasped "and you did it without her accept! What spell did you force on her?"

"I had to do it" he shot back. "Her magic, if I hadn't been around to set some boundaries it was going out of control – whenever she uses it, it becomes more – I know that you may not see it, but if you was trained as I, you would notice that her gift is just as untamed as a wild bear would be. She can cause a great havoc with her type of magic and furthermore, she hadn't been trained at all! The King just used her gift to get rich, while he underneath had a ticking bomb wandering around his castle".

Leaning forward the Lioness placed her hands at her hips "Does she knows?" she demanded to know.

"No, but I will tell her when she's ready. I probed her while I was laying in her bed" Numair quickly pressed his lips firmly together at his slip of tongue and walked over to the desk where several books was laying. He sighed low when he lifted his gaze and found the over-earthly shocked expression lingering on his old friend. "Absolutely no Alanna! We...I...nothing happened" he exclaimed, sitting down hard into his chair making the wood crack underneath his weight "She was saving me from the cold. I had used up most of my gift and she found me on the ground where I'd dropped of Spot – soon I must have a serious word with that horse about its behavior".

A smiled replaced the angry wrinkle that was beginning to show in the corner of the Lioness mouth "He dropped you of?" she asked trying to conceal the amused note in her voice, but in vain.

"Oh yes, please, laugh at my expanse" Numair's voice was dry, but he nevertheless was a bit amused himself over the memory and was relaxing over the fact that the seriousness of the conversation was over "it's because of Spot that I'm alive today, because the gelding found her – who knows what filthy scum or thieves – no offense" he quickly said while Alanna's eyebrows rose significantly.

"Non taken" she replied and settled down on the couch "What do you want to know?" she asked calmly, not taking her violet eyes away from him.

Numair's posture crumbled as the words escaped his lips "Can she give me a family and have she given birth before?"

Alanna pushed herself up and strode over to the door to his bedchamber. When she found that he hadn't followed her, she turned "Are you coming or not?"

"Coming, but I promise that I will turn away when – if" he altered the word "it is necessary".

"You will, also if I have to force you to do so" came the response as Alanna moved into the dark room, only to illuminate it with her violet gift sending sparks towards the candles.

During the examination he had found that his earlier decision about having her examined when both she and him had been present in Galla had been correct.

Clenching his fits, while his back was towards the bed, he suppressed the urge to hit the wall in front of him. The findings were shocking, almost too much for him to comprehend. Numair had asked Alanna one simple question and while she had whispered her confirmation, he had swallowed hard, trying to hold back sudden anger and the sudden burst of gift that floated from him.

"Ohh quit it Numair" Alanna's voice sounded behind him and as he turned around, she was pulling the blanket up to cover the frame of the woman, He couldn't help to wonder if she had fought back when it had happened. He sincerely hoped so.

"Take those sparks and stove them somewhere else, if not inside yourself then in that opal around your neck" Alanna told him a bit tartly. She was stroking the hair away from Daine's face. "You got what you wanted – the truth and if you can't handle it, then I'm going to take her to the Healers Wing".

"Absolutely not" Numair replied more quickly then he had wanted to"she's stays here, at least until the assassin is caught or else, killed". He moved over to the candlelight standing on the dresser and blew it out. Straightening up Numair turned to look to where Alanna had moved, standing quietly, not saying a word, only her eyes betrayed what she was thinking. "What?" he asked raising his own eyebrows only to mirror the same expression that was on his friends face.

Alanna shook her head, moving into Numair's study, turning her back to him. She didn't say anything as Numair closed the door to his bedchamber yet again.

He, himself, wasn't sure way she had looked at him like that, but he wasn't going to ask her. Over the years he had found that it was better to leave the Lioness to her own thoughts, before wanting an answer from her.

"I never thought that a woman would crawl under your skin and effect you such – are you falling in love?"

There it was, he thought and blinked as the words settled themselves in his brain. Numair stopped abruptly in his tracks "Love?" he asked shocked.

She laughed in a low voice "Yes love Numair, it's when one fells butterflies in ones stomach or begins to care for another person – I could continue if you want to"

He lifted his hands as if to stop her float of words "Thanks for expanding my vocabulary, I know very well what the meaning of that word is and I'm not in love Alanna" he gestured to the chamber they had come from "I'm..." he halted, glancing back to the dark room "I'm...just caring".

"Caring is also very well Numair, you deserve to with all your, let's say, not lasting acquaintances " Alanna told truthfully him, raising from the couch again – looking as if her body was aching "it takes a long time before one knows for sure what the meaning of love are, and you will find it eventually – there was a reason for Jonathan to agree to that agreement, and if I'm not mistaken, and I'm rarely is, there is something laying underneath all this mishap and we will find it out soon enough -" she stretched herself, only making herself or her hands only inches taller than the tanned man who stood beside his desk, looking completely absorbed down into an open book "I'll find a bed or something while hoping with every wish that I'm allowed some rest before King 'iron-head' finds something else for me to do".

"A new name to the collection?" Numair asked while settling himself down in the chair, this time a bit more carefully than before.

"Yes, someone has to keep him on his toes – or else the title he has goes to his head and he'll be intolerable to be around".

"He's not going to forgive you for that" Numair told her knowingly as she reached the door. He knew how little time Jonathan gave his Champion to rest and furthermore how little they, Alanna og Jonathan, could speak to each other without it ending to be a dispute these last years.

"It's his own fault, you know, if he had allowed me to be around the girl, I could have helped, but no – he has to stay on good terms with Lord Wyldon. No one else wants the assignment of training the pages". Alanna smiled to him with her one foot on each side of the threshold "I promise that I won't bite his head of this time" she said in earnest, but her mischievous look in her eyes gave the truth away.

Numair snorted "I'm sure that you will do the very best you can to give him more gray hair on his head then Thayet can give him in one year".

"That is exactly what I'm planning to do, but first I'll be laying in my bed and enjoy some quietness before the storm"

"Storm?" he asked absentminded, not taking his eyes away from the door and Alanna's smile was broadened.

"Yes, we have an assassin coming, the Chamber of Ordeal are interfering in our lives so openly and in front of the King and his Champion, and a girl who comes from another kingdom with a rumor that there is a curse lingering above her head – I'll say that we are looking at war before fall is over and I'll like to prepare for that". It was as if her words didn't sink into him or he was way lost in his own thoughts so Alanna only continued to smile while she left him sitting. Before closing the door she caught the odd frown that had lingered on his face during the journey back – and that particular frown only emerged when her name was brought up.

Closing the door she whispered low under her breath "Just give it time Numair, just give it time". And with that she hurried down the corridor, only to enter her own appointed rooms and ward them with her gift, so she was to be left alone.