Standard disclaimers apply!

Weeee! As promised, a long chapter. BE HAPPY! Hehehe.

She was right- The next day the Duke of Conté arrived.

"Hi Rodger!" Jon said happily. "What are you doing here at the palace?"

"I'll be teaching those with the Gift how to use their magic."

"You're teaching magic?" The princess had just walked up.

"Is that Theresa?" Rodger asked. "I never would have guessed."

Theresa grinned. "Stop all the flattery Rodger. It's great to see you."

The prince and princess seemed happy to see their cousin, but there was something about him Alana didn't like.

"Rodger, are you testing for the Gift?" Theresa asked.

"I will be."

"I have the Gift!" She said excitedly.

"Oh really? Show me."

Theresa closed her eyes. Blue mist appeared around her. When she opened her eyes it disappeared.

"Impressive. Well, I have to go settle into my quarters. I'll see you later."

That night their was a ball to honor the Duke's coming. All the pages and squires were required to attend.

Theresa was in the mood to stir up trouble, and she knew exactly how to do it.

"Hey Jon, c'mere a second."

Her brother came over. "What is it?"

"Will you do me a big favor and dance with a friend of mine?"

"Fine. If you want me to."

"Oh yay. I'll be right back."

Pushing through the crowd, she found Raoul. "Hey Raoul, how'd you like to dance with a member of the royal family?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Of course I'd be delighted."

She smiled. "Good." Standing on her tiptoes she whispered in Raoul's ear, "I'll pay you twenty gold nobles if you dance with my brother."

Raoul was never one to back down from a challenge, especially with the princess giving it-plus, the money was a nice addition too. "Fine, I'll do it."

Theresa grabbed his hand. "Oh Raoul, you're so much fun!"

She led him to her brother. "Jon, this is my friend, Raoul. He's so happy you're willing to dance with him."

Raoul curtsied. Trying very hard not to laugh, he said, "I'm honored, your highness."

Jon looked back and forth between the two of them. Catching on, he held out his hand. "Come, m'lady."

Jon led Raoul to the dance floor, and every else froze. By now the two of them couldn't contain their laughter. Gary, Alex, and Alana rushed to the edge of the dance floor for a better view. Seeing Theresa sitting victoriously in a chair watching the two of them, Gary knew what was going on.

"Oh Theresa, you're my hero." Gary said, shaking his head. "I could never get them to do that."

The two of them finished the dance and came back over to their friends. Theresa was giggling hysterically. "That was brilliant you two. Brilliant!"

Alana shook her head. "That looked so wrong." She paused dramatically. "Raoul should have led, he's bigger."

Everyone exploded in laughter again.

"We should all applaud Raoul for being such a lovely lady." Alex said.

"And so graceful." Gary added.

The rest of the night flew by, but Raoul couldn't help but notice Theresa dancing with quite a few of the pages and squires. When she did it was like having a bad taste in his mouth-he couldn't ignore it.

Alana couldn't ignore it either, but for a different reason. Every time Theresa danced with someone, she made sure she was directly in Alana's eye line. It was rather irritating, but there was nothing she could do.

Two days later Duke Rodger began lessons for those with the Gift. Jon and Alana were the only two amongst their group of friends who had the Gift. When they entered the room they were in for a shock. At the front of the room sat Theresa.

"Theresa, what are you doing here!" Jon cried.

"Cousin Rodger is going to teach me how to use my Gift." She said calmly.

"But this is a class for boys!" Jon looked at her unhappily.

"Rodger said he'd be delighted to teach me," She said defiantly. "Alan, what do you say?"

Alana shifted her weight uncomfortably. "Umm…."

"Alan, you can't seriously agree with this!"

"Ah…"

Luckily, at that moment Rodger decided that would be the ideal moment to start class, so the argument was put on hold.

The class was actually quite interesting, but Alana still disliked the Duke for reasons she could not fathom.

The same day Theresa asked Alana to meet her by the fountain. Alana was still cautious of being alone with Theresa, but she went anyway. When she arrived she saw Theresa kissing one of the squires passionately. There were many more run-ins like this over the next few weeks, but Alana chose to ignore them.

There was one thing about them that upset her. When she turned to the others for advice, Raoul became tense and irritable, which was totally unlike him. She was worried about her big friend. He was obviously jealous and hurt.

It was also obvious Theresa was trying to make Alana jealous, but Alana didn't think she would do anything but swap spit. She was wrong.

One day the two of them went into the city. Alana turned her back for just a minute and when she turned back, the princess was gone. She wasn't too worried at first. She checked the princess' regular hang-outs. When she wasn't at any of them Alana stared to worry. She check the Dancing Dove next.

Theresa wasn't there, but George was. He recruited a few thieves and everyone started searching. It was getting dark and they still hadn't found her. Alana was starting to panic when George got a message form Stefan.

The princess returned to the palace a few hours ago and I juss

remembered Alan left wit her. Juss thought I'd make sure ya don't

go lookin for her.

Alana was boiling. "I'm going to kill her!" She thanked George and headed back to the palace. Theresa was sitting on the edge of the fountain.

"What was that?" Alana asked angrily.

"If you were more sensitive to a woman's feelings you would know I was bored." Theresa replied haughtily.

"Not sensitive to a woman's feelings!" Alana burst out. "I'm the last page you can say that too!" She stormed off.

There were no more incidents like that thankfully, probably because Alana had intimidated Theresa a bit. Alana refused to spend much time alone with Theresa. By this time she had gone to Gary for advice-she had learned to avoid Raoul and Jon when it came to the princess. Gary told her this;

"Theresa is used to getting what she wants, when she wants it. Eventually she'll lose interest. So wait for that to happen."

She trusted Gary, but she wasn't sure that was the best way to go about it. At this point Theresa was trying something new-flirting with Raoul. For some reason that annoyed Alana far more than anything else. She wasn't jealous, exactly. She didn't want Raoul to get hurt. Finally she found the guts to talk to him.

"Raoul, I have to talk to you." She said.

"Oh yeah? What is it Alan?"

"It's about the princess. She's been flirting with you, but I think she has hidden intentions."

Right there anyone else would have accused her of jealousy, but not Raoul. Alana pressed on. "You see, she's been trying to make me jealous ever since, you know…I think she wants revenge, and she's using you for it." She stopped and waited for a response.

After what seemed like an eternity, Raoul said, "It did seem odd, thanks Alan." He sounded so sad, Alana felt like horse crap.

After that Raoul paid much less attention to Theresa. Alana didn't realize, but that pissed Theresa off.

Alana had a Theresa free week with Sir Myles. They traveled to his estates. There she found here beautiful sword, Lightning. It was also magic, and many questions about it were raised when she returned.

Theresa seemed as curious as everyone else. The two of them were walking together in the palace, and Theresa popped one of her questions.

"How heavy is your sword, Alan?"

"Hmm? Oh it's very light," she said, not really thinking. "Want to hold it?"

Alana didn't notice the greedy look in Theresa's eyes. "Can I?"

She held out the sword. Theresa took it, then, glaring at Alana, she muttered something under her breath. The sword started to glow blue.

"What are you doing?" Alana snatched the sword back.

"This is my revenge." She said simply. "Someone help!" She yelled.

Servants came running. Now the sword was glowing so faintly it was impossible to tell if it was blue or violet.

"He's doing dangerous magic. If something goes wrong we could all be killed!"

One of the servants took Lightning. "But I didn't do anything!" She protested.

"Of course you didn't." Another servant said gruffly. "Take him to the Duke.

"But-"

"Yes, take him to Uncle." Theresa said.

(A/N:I was going to stop here, but you guys deserve some more.)

Theresa hadn't realized there'd been a witness. One of George's spies had seen everything and hurried to tell the King of Thieves.

George was astonished. "I never thought the lass'd do something like that." He shook his head. "I'd better go up to the palace."

"But the Lord Provost…"

"George smiled. "No worries. I'm King of Thieves for a reason."

He went up to the palace dressed in a black cloak. He had no trouble getting inside, but finding the princess was a hassle.

She was in a courtyard, all alone. He sat beside her.

"Why hello lovely." He said. "I heard some news and I'm praying it ain't true."

"George? How did you get here so fast?"

"It is true then?" He sighed. "Aye, lass, why did you do that to Alan?"

"Because…"

"Because he was the boy who didn't want you?"

"Theresa, did you ever suspect there is a reason Alan shows little interest in you?"

"To spite me."

"No…" He sighed again. "What I'm about to tell you cannot be told to anyone. Do you understand? Not your brother, not Gary, no one."

"Okay…?"

"Alan is not Alan. He's Alana. She's a girl disguised as a boy because she wants to be a knight."

Theresa stared at him blankly. "Oh George, you're so funny."

"I'm not joking lass."

"…you're not?"

"No. Alan of Trebond is a girl."

To my wonderful reviewers:

Mist's Child: Yes, she is. Hehehe.

x17SkmBdrchiczxx: It's priceless? Yay! Yes, we have a few little crushes going on in this story, don't we?

HyperKathryne: Not love, just a little crush under false pretenses. It goes byebye now. Don't worry, as I said before, I don't like girl on girl action.

Nativewildmage: Indeed she does. Silly princess…

Elmthesmartypants: Thankies!

TPfreak: I have updated, with a long chapter as promised. It was 6 pages in Microsoft Word without the review of reviewers…HA!