Chapter Six: Corus
(Disclaimer: Most of the characters belong to Tamora Pierce as well as the settings.)
It was early morning when my brother finally woke. I had been up before the sun rose because of some local crows knocking at my window telling me that the sun was to rise soon. It was obvious that they lied to me, but I didn't mind. It gave me time to load my things into a sack. All I needed were a few dresses and a couple pairs of breeches.
"Are you ready?" I asked Alan during breakfast. Everyone was too tired to care about our conversation.
"No! I just woke up, Aly," he told me. I rolled my eyes at him. "We aren't leaving until midday anyway. It seems that our other escort hasn't showed."
"Noon!" I exclaimed making the people around me wince it was far too early for them and me loud exclamation wasn't helping. "You told me this morning!"
"I know, I'm sorry, but you have to wait. We can't leave without our other escort," Alan tried to tell me. I rolled my eyes at him and stood. "Where are you going?"
"If we are going to wait around until midday then I am going for a walk." I spun around and excused myself to my parents before I barged out of the room. No one tried to stop me, partially because they were far too tired to care. The moment I set foot in the market I heard my name being called.
"Aly!" Peter called me from the doors of a pub. "Aly, I thought you were leaving."
"I thought I was too but apparently, my brother decided to change his plans," I snarled. The thought alone pissed me off. "What are you doing in a pub so early?" I asked. Secretly I sniffed the air around him but only smelled the saltiness of the sea.
"I was getting some breakfast," he said jabbing his finger over his shoulder. A scar on his wrist caught my attention. I hadn't seen that before. I grabbed his wrist and inspected it carefully. "Oh, that," he said allowing me to look at it. "When I was ten, I was being idiotic while fishing and cut myself on the spear."
"A spear?" I asked. That was something I never heard before. I knew that fishers kept knives or swords on their ship just in case they caught something large and destructive.
"Yeah, just in case we had to kill something to make sure we were safe." I nodded. So it was what I thought it was. A spear was a very old-fashion weapon to be using, but I assumed that it was all they had. "I was running to get something for my father when I sliced myself on the spear."
"That sounds painful," I said, not able to find something to respond with. "Well, I hoped you learned your lesson." I placed my hands on my hips as though I were scolding him.
"You sound like my ma," he told me with a laugh. I raised my eyebrows that the accusation. "Oh," he said, realizing my expression. "You are a mother?"
Darn, I thought. There were sometimes when I couldn't help myself. "Yes," I said. "I have three children back at home." I sighed. It was hard not to think of them then. I missed them dearly.
"Why are you here?" he questioned.
"I'm visiting family," I told him. "My father sent me a letter of urgency, I my husband is at home taking care of the children." I was impressed with myself. For once, I was telling the truth to a bystander. It was interesting. "If I don't fix my families problems soon, then I don't know when I can return."
"Do you need help?" Peter asked. "I'll be more than happy to help you."
My heart lightened. I could use someone like Peter but I would have to make up a lie in order to protect myself, and him from the King's men. I was after all, a spy. "I'll inform you if you can," I told him modestly. "But I think this is something beyond my control."
"Well," Peter said, patting my shoulder, "I'll be around if you want me to do something."
"Right now," I told him. "All I want you to do is be careful at the docks. There is something strange going on down there. I can feel it," I told him with a worried look. I touched his arm and smiled, tilting my head to the side, looking innocent. "Watch yourself out there."
"I'll try," he said with a nod. "So, I'm curious, how old is your oldest?"
"Old enough," I replied, not trying to give away too much detail about my life.
"That's all you're going to give me?" I nodded and looked up at him with an innocent smile. There was no point in flirting with him now. He knew I was married and that I had priorities. "You are a mysterious gal," Peter said with a laugh. "You're poor husband must find you to be a handful if you act like this to him."
"I think he rather enjoys it," I told him. There was something in his eye that made me smile. He reminded me of an excited little boy…like my sons. Damn! I thought looking away from him. He was too old to be my son. If anything, he would be my little brother. I took a step back. The thought of my family still swirling in my head. "I need to go write my husband," I told him. "You just reminded me."
I spun on my heel and ran to my dwelling. In my room, I told Trick to deliver a few messages to Nawat. They were personal and soft-hearted messages that I wouldn't dare say in front of others. They would think of me a soft…though that could have been a good thing.
Trick nuzzled against my cheek once I flopped down on my bed. He tried to relax me but it wasn't working. Instead he said, "Nawat said to be good and that he will see you soon."
"He won't see me soon if I don't hurry with this mission," I told Trick as I stroked him slightly. I sighed. Everything about this mission was off. It was sloppy and unorganized. I felt that I needed to start over again. I lay on my bed, organizing my thoughts until they were correctly placed. Suddenly, I was inspired again. New schemes sprouted in my head. I began to make assumptions but never fully believing them.
I knew that the only way to finish this spying was if I snooped around in Corus. Patiently, I waited for midday to come around. There was a knock on my door, by the heaviness of the hand, I could tell that it was Alan. I opened the door to find not only my brother but his companion Kristopher.
"Are you ready?" Alan asked me.
"My bags are already waiting," I told him stepping out of my room and into the hall. "Who was this man that kept us waiting, may I ask?"
"Tavi," Kristopher said. I raised two curious eyebrows at him. "Tavi is –well, you'll see." I was lead outside to where our horses were saddled and ready for the trip to Corus. There was a rather lean man stroking his palomino steed, talking to him as though he were conversing. "Aly, this is Tavi," Kristopher introduced.
Tavi, after hearing his name, looked up at me. He had a slender face, just as slender as his body. He wore light colored breeches with a long tunic to match. The innocence on his face a beyond genuine, it was almost uncanny. Tavi smiled at me with his slightly thin lips and flicked his grey eyes over me. He inspected me as much as I inspected him. "Good day," he told me in an airy voice.
"And you," I said curtsying slightly.
"I've heard a lot about you," Tavi said. He seemed distracted by something in the wind. "You are very liked here." I opened mouth to say something but I failed to produce words. This man was starting to frighten me. His detachment from reality was beginning to give me shivers. There was something strange about this man and I was going to find it out. I glanced at Alan…just not in front of him.
"You are coming to Corus with us, yes?" Tavi asked, looking at me through his long eyelashes. Whenever he blinked, I thought I felt wind. I nodded. "Oh good," he said with a grin, making his eyes sparkle under the midday sun. "It gets rather tiring with these knights."
"I know what you mean," I managed to say, throwing a look at my brother. "So Tavi, not to be rude or anything, is that your real name?"
Tavi's eyes exploded with light. I backed away from him as I felt his happiness come at me in a suffocating way. "No, it's not," he said. "It's my replacement name. I don't know what my real name is anymore. They made me forget." I blinked at him. "I will tell you as we ride." I nodded.
In the end, Tavi didn't get to tell me about himself. Alan and Kristopher kept distracting him from speaking a word to me. I knew it was because Alan didn't want to hear Tavi speak too much. There was something about his airy voice that made him shiver. Whenever Tavi would say something, my brother would wince and shiver slightly. Tavi never noticed.
We made it to Corus before night fell. The streets of Tortall's capital were still as busy as they were in the day. I could see the shifty looks of the swindlers as we passed. They looked at the pouches with hunger. Strangely, a majority of them were looking at us with hunger. Men looked at me with interest. The streets fell silent as we sauntered by on our horses.
Something in the alleyway caught my attention. A little girl looked up at me. Her eyes looked red under the setting sun. My heart sped as I turned away. I told myself that it was just the sun but it was obvious that it wasn't. That's for another time, I told myself, it's not the same case.
We made it in the safety of the palace walls. I was finally able to relax. The tension in my shoulders eased though it ached terribly. I looked around at the palace yards, noticing that everything was different.
An invisible black cloud hovered above the palace, sending waves of warning at me. There was definitely something going on, and I didn't think that it was a conspiracy against my queen. It was something much worse.
A/N: I'll update soon.