---------------PLAGUE---------------
SEVEN: Lies

Okay, Kel. Just act normal. You don't know about any of this stupid matchmaking rubbish. You don't even have suspicions about why they were acting weird earlier when you handed in your report. Everything's just like normal. Absolutely normal

Kel approached Dom from behind and put her hand on his shoulder. He began to turn, laughing, "Hey! Is that you, Qasim? I need to tell you—" then he froze as he saw who was behind him. His face slowly drained of all colour. "Oh, hi Kel," he choked out. After glancing away and then back at her, his expression had been replaced with a surprisingly cheerful one.

She smiled. "Did you forget? We've got scout duty together now."

He grinned at her blankly for a moment. "Oh- oh yeah! Wow, I completely forgot. Sorry." He stood up and swept his eyes over the other members of his squad clustered around his table. "Well, I suppose we'll talk again… at dinner, then." Most of them stared openly at Kel as she bade them a similar goodbye, noting Wolset's absence from the group, and led the way out the mess, Dom following.

It had only been about an hour since she and Lerant had stumbled upon Neal and Dom persuading Lord Raoul to join them in their attempts to match make for Kel, and she had eavesdropped on the entire thing. Already, Dom seemed to be telling the others of the plans (minus Wolset, the one they were trying to set her up with), presumably so that the rest of Third Company could help him out when he couldn't execute all his plans with only Neal, Raoul and himself. They would probably meet up late at night in the barracks for a drink and to laugh about the whole thing, thinking Kel was oblivious, and making bets as to whether she'd find out or not, or maybe whether she'd end up getting together with Wolset. They'd probably find it hilarious either way.

Kel, however, had no intentions of giving them anything to laugh about.Although,she thought suddenly, it would be a lot more satisfying if I went along with it for a bit andthenruined all their plans. They'd be devastated. I'll just add a little fuel to their fire, and then… put it out completely.

Kel paused. She knew she couldn't do it alone, so it was just as well that Lerant had also overheard and offered to help, albeit begrudgingly. Hopefully I won't have to rely on Lerant's help too much. I can't imagine he'll be very pleased if I'm always knocking on his door asking for favours and forcing him to go along with being used as a distraction by Dom and the others…

Kel shook off her thoughts and grinned at Dom brightly. "You seem tense," she said innocently.

He chuckled nervously. "Well, I think I pulled a muscle," he managed, then coughed loudly and looked away. Evidently he was far worse at lying than Kel had realised. "Anyway," he said, very deliberately, "are you still at odds with Lerant?"

Kel chose her words carefully. If she answered in the right way, Dom and Neal would continue to use Lerant to keep Kel busy when they didn't want her around to accidentally stumble upon their secret meetings. This would work greatly to her advantage. Lerant hated being a tool for others, which had probably led to his offer of allegiance with Kel; to receive his own, personal revenge when Kel, with his aid, completely upturned their plot. Supposedly, willingly being used by Kel was better that unwillingly being used by Dom. "Oh, kind of. I'm not really interested in arguing with him, but he can really test my patience sometimes. His constant challenges wear me down. Occasionally I find myself answering back, but… well, you know, it's not like me, but my patience can wear thin when he's testing me."

"Heis asking for it, sometimes," Dom said, a hint of approval in his voice. He began to drift a little ahead. Kel followed obediently, even though they were taking a slightly longer route. It seemed Dom wanted her to continue dishing out information on how useful Lerant might prove to be in their plans. "Do you think you'll be making up anytime soon?" he asked.

"Not if he carries on like this," Kel lied. They had practically made up already if Lerant's offer to help was anything to go by, even if he still retained much of his old attitude to her. "Even if I don't like the way things are now, I'm not a miracle worker. He needs to make an effort to change things too." Dom grinned, clearly overjoyed at this nugget of information. Then he hastily wiped his face blank, as if he thought Kel hadn't already noticed. She pretended she hadn't. I'm sure Lerant won't mind pretending I'm still his enemy, Kel thought. He'll probably enjoy it. He has a penchant for trying to insult me.

"Why all the questions?"

Dom grinned. "You're my friends, aren't you? I have to keep informed."

Kel couldn't help breaking into a smile. "Oh, I see. You're not going to take sides?"

"I'd take yours any day, I just don't fancy being on the receiving end of Lerant's snide remarks." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then broke into a sly grin and continued, "Let us say, rather, that I am assisting you from the shadows."

And if that wasn't the most blatant reference to his matchmaking plans, then Kel didn't know what was.

The day continued fairly ordinarily; it seemed Dom and Neal were still putting together their plans and were not planning to initiate them until later. However, whenever Kel crossed paths with a member of Third Company, the corners of their mouth would turn up and they would struggle to smother laughter if she talked to them. And when Wolset was nearby, his comrades would gather into small groups like gossiping court ladies and shoot devious glances in his direction, and then in Kel's.

It wasn't long before Wolset noticed, but whenever he tried to approach his friends, someone else would dart in and request a favour of him to keep him distracted. He was swept off his feet with various errands and extra shifts of patrol duty because his friends insisted they were injured. Kel knew that once Wolset was gone, they would creep out the infirmary to meet up with Dom and Neal, only to sneak back into a sickbed when the current shift of patrollers was about to return. With Neal in on the plan, verifying their apparent injuries, Wolset didn't suspect a thing.

In order to keep up her charade of not realising what was going on whatsoever, Kel knew she couldn't intervene, but she thought it would be even more suspicious if she pretended not to notice that Wolset was doing twice the amount of work he was meant to, while Dom's name had been completely cleared off the rota of duties, and then there was the matter of the number of people being admitted into the infirmary, who didn't actually seem to be hurt or ill in any way. Dom and Neal would at least expect her to notice some of the effects of their plans, if not what was at the core of it. They knew well enough that she wasn't an imbecile.

Lerant stopped her on the way to the barracks, where she planned to confront Dom about some of the minor things he was doing that were affecting the camp's productivity. "What are you doing?" he demanded, blocking her path.

"I'm going to mention a few things to Dom," she informed him coolly. "It would be suspicious if I didn't notice Wolset is worn to the bone and half the men are playing hooky in the infirmary, with Neal's approval."

Lerant frowned at her. "You aren't going to tell him you know about his plans?"

Kel just grinned. "I'd rather toy with them first," she said. "Get my revenge while they think that I'm blissfully ignorant of their plans. Could you continue to pretend you're also oblivious, but help me in secret?"

Lerant scowled.

"Thanks," Kel said. She knew by now that a scowl meant he didn't really want to, but was going to anyway. "Oh, and, could you possibly do me a favour? They'll probably be on guard after I've gone in, and have me watched to ensure I don't hear anything accidentally, but I'd like to know what they say. If you could just eavesdrop on their reaction shortly after I leave, then I'd be really grateful."

Lerant glared at her, but did not in any way imply he was refusing.

"Thanks again," Kel said meaningfully, brushing past him. "I'll be in my room afterward if you could just slip in and tell me what you heard. Then we can make some plans of our own." Lerant turned away without a word and quickly strode off.

As she approached the barracks someone who had been slumped outside suddenly jolted up and rushed inside. Clattering and an eerie silence followed. When Kel walked in, the men were perched unnaturally on their beds, pretending to be extremely focused on smoothing out the wrinkles in their bed sheets. Dom was leant back on his bunk, twiddling his thumbs. It took several moments for him to take notice of her.

"Ah, Kel!" he said cheerfully, "what brings you to my humble abode?"

Kel kept her face blank, her voice light but also stern. "Well, I noticed your name has mysteriously disappeared from the duties rota for most of today. Has Raoul given you some sort of leave that I'm not aware of?"

"Oh, sort of," he replied nonchalantly. There were a few murmurs around the room. "I'm just taking a quick break so I can be in excellent fighting condition when the next batch of immortals wanders in."

"Then you'll be back onto your full duties tomorrow, I assume," Kel said curtly, more of a statement than a question. "And with improved efficiency."

"Of course," he nodded. "I didn't think I was having a very large effect on the camp as a whole."

"Well, perhaps not overall, but I'm a bit worried about Wolset. He's currently out cold in the infirmary because he was filling in for all the duties you didn't bother to do today. Everyone must pull their own weight, Dom."

"I apologise sincerely," he replied blandly.

"Apology accepted," Kel said with satisfaction, looking around the room. Half the men rushed to escape her gaze. "I'll be going then." She waved to a few of Dom's squad as she left, all who replied with feeble nods of their heads. Muffled snickers and laughter bloomed as soon as she was out the door. As she headed outside, she paused, pretending to shiver. Although it was cold, the reason she'd stopped was to sneak a quick look around. Something had moved in the gloom to her left – as she'd thought, someone was waiting outside to make sure she didn't try to go back in. Even if it was slightly annoying, Kel had to credit Dom for taking rather a lot of care that he was not discovered, although evidently not quite enough, since she'd found out about it before it had really started.

She was trailed until she entered the building that housed the individual rooms, for those who required space to work. Once she had entered, she left the door unlocked so Lerant could enter quickly without being seen by anyone loitering in the hall. Then she mulled over how best to continue her act towards Third Company and Neal. She would have to find a balance between noticing things that the normal Kel, with her attention to detail, would find out, but always managing to swerve away from the conclusion that something was going on, by reasoning aloud that the things she noticed had other causes. It might be a good idea to occasionally mention things to Dom or Neal, but allow them to persuade her that they were a coincidence, so that they thought she was under their control. Unfortunately for them, it would be the complete opposite. After deciding this, Kel performed a quick pattern dance to pass the time until Lerant returned to report his findings. He looked a bit ruffled when he slipped in a few minutes later.

"How was it?" she asked, propping her glaive up against the wall. She dropped down onto her bed, gesturing for Lerant to take the stool.

He shrugged. "I had to go round to one of the open windows so I wasn't found out, which involved crawling through a bush."

"Oh," Kel said apologetically. He glowered at her as she looked him over, noting the twigs and leaves clinging onto his hair and clothes. "All for a good cause, though; what did you hear?"

"Nothing revelatory. Once you left, everyone moved around Dom's bed. He said he was pleased because you'd expressed concern about Wolset being exhausted, but then tried to cover it up by reasoning that you just didn't want Dom slacking off. He thinks you probably already like Wolset, but you don't want anyone to find out."

Kel couldn't help it; she burst out laughing. Even Lerant had to hide a smile. Dom was jumping to some absurd conclusions. This would be of advantage to Kel, who wanted to make him think his plans were going well, and then suddenly upturn them to his absolute devastation.

"Was there anything else?" Kel asked, wiping away the smile on her lips. "About his plans, maybe?"

"He didn't say anything specific. He doesn't think that you noticing anything suspicious will be a problem. As long as he has people watching you, he thinks you won't find anything out that they don't want you to. And he said it doesn't matter you realised he wasn't doing many duties today, because you didn't realise why. Most of the planning is done, apparently. He wasn't lying when he said he'd be back to usual duties tomorrow."

She nodded, eyes distant. "I guess he'll be putting it into action soon, then. Tomorrow, I suspect." Her gaze sharpened again, and she looked at Lerant. "Sorry to burden you with this. I owe you one."

Lerant shrugged, looking at the floor. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Well, I don't know about that," Kel said. "You're still doing all those things for Lord Raoul, aren't you?"

"When this assignment is over, we're probably going back to Corus. Then I expect my Lord Raoul will take on a squire. The Lioness's son, maybe."

"Oh," Kel said, surprised. "You finally got rid of me, had a bit of time to settle back into old habits, and soon they'll be uprooted all over again."

He was about to reply when someone knocked on the door. Kel blinked. The only people she knew who would visit her at her rooms would most likely barge in without even considering her privacy. For all they knew, she could be half-naked. Luckily, though, such an incident had yet to occur. "Come in," she called, curious. The door opened gently, and in slipped a slim but sturdy woman with chin-length chestnut hair and a round, pretty face. The smell of the stables wafted in around her.

"Keladry of Mindelan," she said stiffly. She looked slightly distressed. "I am Tanaia, from Rider Group Seventeen." Her eyes turned to Lerant, who was scowling at her.

"Lerant, could you leave for a moment?" Kel asked, almost pleadingly. He obeyed, but not without another sideways glance at Tanaia, who glared back. Clearly Lerant had remembered Tanaia as one of the girls Dom had kissed a while back. Once Lerant was gone, Tanaia turned her attention back to Kel. Her expression was grim.

"Can I help you?" Kel enquired politely. At times like this, her Yamani mask came in very useful.

She hesitated, then burst out, "I want you to stay away from Dom!"

Kel stared at her. "Um…"

"Whenever I go to see him recently, he tells me he's busy. But I always see him spending time with you." The emphasis on 'you' was venomous.

"I'm sorry," Kel said weakly, "are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

Tanaia was trembling ever so slightly, her eyes wide and glistening. "I'msuggestingyou're the reason why he keeps telling me to go away. You've said something. Or done something."

Kel was tempted to roll her eyes, but knew Tanaia would probably go berserk if she did. "I think there's been a misunderstanding," she said gently. "I'm not interested in Dom that way at all. Nor him in me."

"Oh,really," Tanaia said ridiculously. She took a threatening step forward. "I don't know a single woman who doesn't want Dom in their bed!"

"We may be a minority, Tanaia, but women who do not love Domitan of Masbolle do exist."

Tanaia was becoming increasingly flustered, nudged along by Kel's somewhat sarcastic reply. "Even if you have no interest, I find it hard to believe he hasn't got any interest in you! He has a new girl in his arms every week, at least. And I imagine there's a rather short supply of girls around here, making it even more likely that you're one of the ones he's had!"

"If you're offended so much by Dom's attitude to relationships, I'm not sure why you're making such a fuss over him," Kel said, her patience beginning to wear. Her guess was that Dom was so busy with his matchmaking plans for her that he had no time for Tanaia. If only Kel could tell Tanaia that, but she might let slip to Dom that Kel knew, and that would ruin herplans. "Of course Dom is handsome and dashing and all that, but he's never expressed any interest in me other than friendship, and though I'll admit I did once like him, I don't any longer."

"Ah," Tanaia said sarcastically, still not fully convinced. "And why is that? That you no longer like him?"

Kel hesitated.

Triumph was just creeping over Tanaia's face when the door burst open. Lerant stood there, looking sincerely as if he wasn't quite sure what he was about to do was a good idea.

"Because Kel has someone else," he said awkwardly. There was a short pause. "Me."

Tanaia stared. Kel stared. Lerant looked absolutely appalled at himself.

As soon as Tanaia turned back to Kel, the shock on Lerant's face gave way to resignation. He hid his face behind one of his large, callused hands, muttering something to himself.

Tanaia, however, appeared a little more positive. After Kel confirmed Lerant's declaration, Tanaia apologised, looking embarrassed. It was no wonder she had been so paranoid; Dom was famous for the speed at which he took new lovers. Kel found that even she had a little sympathy for the Rider once the accusations stopped flying round the room. After all, that was one of the things that had led to Kel no longer loving Dom. Lerant remained slumped against the wall adjacent to the door, still mumbling dark things into his hands. He didn't even look up when Tanaia walked past, on her way out.

"One thing, Tanaia?" Kel asked hurriedly. "If you could… keep it a secret, about me and Lerant..."

Tanaia's perfect chestnut eyebrows raised an inch. "Keladry of Mindelan, harbouring a secret lover and caring about whether everyone knows! Who would have thought it?" She grinned, but her eyes were still a bit red. "You know, if you were public about it, I wouldn't have had any reason to come here. Everybody knows you're not so dishonourable as to have two men at once. You should just tell everyone, and then you won't get harassed by people like me."

Kel smothered her alarm with a polite smile. "Though the prospect excites me, I can't imagine I'd get much work done if Third Company were teasing me about it every few moments. You know them, they'd make an awful ruckus."

Tanaia bobbed her head. "You're right, I suppose. I've heard more than a few jokes about myself from their lips."

"I don't imagine you're the first," Kel said, smiling briefly. Her gaze continued to fall back to Lerant, who was becoming paler by the minute. Now her priority was to get rid of Tanaia. "Well, I've work to do," she said blithely. "If you don't mind?"

Tanaia lingered at the door. "Of course. I'm so sorry again for bursting in like this."

"Don't worry about it," Kel assured her quickly.

Tanaia finally left. Lerant, however, remained slumped in the corner, looking like the world was about to end.

"Lerant," Kel said.

He looked up, grimacing. "Please tell me I imagined the last five minutes."

Kel smiled slightly. "I'm afraid not. But I'm sure we've nothing to worry about. She promised not to tell - and I doubt she'd go against her word… right?"

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Ahhh, it's been so long! I'm so soooorry :'( I've been ultra-busy with school, I swear my teachers are trying to work me to death, so this one went half-finished for a loooong time. Anyway this chapter was madness. I hope the end was sufficiently ominous... Anyhoo merci beaucoup for all the reviews and for sticking with me despite my horrific update habits, I'll try and churn out the next chapter as quickly as possible. (For anyone wondering about my other stories, I'm in the process of planning the next chapter of Alter Ego, the others don't have updates in sight as of yet... and I've pretty much decided to discontinue Ashes, I have too many stories on my hands here :( Sorry...)