AN: Hi again! I've decided to do an author's note for every chapter, no matter how incredibly random it may be. (You may have noticed that I'm random when you read my disclaimer last chapter.) Cherry pie!

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. Sob.

Chapter Two
Stairs

Later that night, Taize and Rhet met again.

"How could you hate your job?" Rhet asked Taize.

"How can you like my job?" she asked back.

They gave each other skeptical glances, but once each realized that the other wasn't kidding, they agreed to continue the arrangement.

It worked quite well for a few weeks, until Kin'naid realized what they were doing, and began giving both Taize and Rhet kitchen duty. Of course Rhet didn't mind; he loved it, but for Taize it was torture.

She was on the point of taking a day off, but she could only afford to take one about every two months, and her birthday was fast approaching. She would be sixteen in three weeks, and she had been anticipating it for months.

Why should I care, though? she wondered. It's not as though I have anything to look forward to. She did have a point. It wasn't like Galbatorix himself was going to come wish her a happy birthday. In fact, birthdays were the worst time of the year for her already rather fragile mental health. They only served as a reminder that she would be spending the rest of her life as a slave.

Birthdays made her hope that she would not have many more of them.

On the day before her birthday, as she toiled in the stiflingly hot kitchens, she began to think that it would be impossible for her life to get any worse. The only thing sustaining her was the fact that she was going to take a day off tomorrow.

Then Rhet approached her. "It's your birthday tomorrow," he said.

"Well, thanks for pointing out the obvious," responded Taize sarcastically. "Wait. How did you know that my birthday is tomorrow?"

But he refused to divulge his source, only murmuring, "I have my ways." Then he changed the subject somewhat by saying shyly, "I, uh, got you a present."

"Really? Rhet, you—" Taize stammered.

"—shouldn't have," he finished the sentence for her. "Well, too bad, I did it anyway."

She heaved a sigh in mock anger, but then curiosity overcame her. "Well, what is it?" she queried impatiently.

"I don't know…If you don't want it…"

"Of course I want it, you blubberheaded idiot!" she shouted, exasperated.

"Temper, temper," Rhet admonished her.

"Don't make me tackle you."

At this, he merely looked amused. "You? Tackle me? But you're just a gir—"

Taize didn't give him the opportunity to finish his word. She jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground, heedless of the people around them.

"Who's 'just a girl' now?" she hissed.

Rhet's face went pale, and he stood up quickly and ran away, leaving Taize standing there, utterly puzzled.

Then she felt herself being lifted from behind by her collar, or what was left of it.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" Kin'naid's voice asked.

Taize made her way back to the slave quarters slowly, nursing the numerous cuts and bruises Kin'naid had given her. Next time she saw him, she resolved, he was going to suffer a great deal of pain.

She came to the top of the stairway leading to the room where she had slept for the past eleven years. The stairs were steep and narrow, and there was no banister to hold on to. Taize had to focus all of her attention on getting down safely.

So it was no wonder that she didn't hear Kin'naid approaching behind her until he cleared his throat. She jumped and turned around, then demanded angrily, "Why are you here?"

He smiled smugly at her, and she glared back. She hadn't expected to be able to fulfill the promise she had made to herself so soon, but she wasn't about to pass up such a golden opportunity. She kicked him between the legs, and he doubled over in pain.

Taize grinned evilly, knowing that the next day she was going to be in very deep trouble.

Suddenly, Kin'naid's hand shot out and she was being pinned to the wall by her neck, gasping for air.

"That was a very foolish thing to do." His voice had a quality like icy steel.

"Let me go," she whispered with her last breath.

Amazingly, he did as she'd asked, and she sucked in air greedily, massaging her windpipe. She turned to continue heading down the stairs.

And then Kin'naid pushed her.

She had a vague sensation of tumbling, over and over and over again. Later, she would remember thinking, Maybe on the stairs wasn't the best place to confront him. Suddenly, she stopped. She was lying on the cold floor, and slaves were crowding around her, looking down. The last thing she heard before she passed out was someone saying, "Move! Get out of the way! Taize! Taize…"