Disclaimer: you can guess by now – don't own Graceling, but own OCs (Kaide and Blaire and anyone else that I make up...). And thanks for the reviews... (especially to HypoVampire and smileysgoboing!)

Chapter 4 – A Royal Feast and Revelations

As the golden sun sank down the horizon, Kaide carefully applied another layer of make-up, this time focusing on her eyelids. When she was satisfied with her job, she turned around to Blaire, who was sitting lazily on the edge of Kaide's bed, all dressed and prepared for the feast that night.

"Do I look persuasive enough?" Kaide asked, arching her eyebrows to test the make-up and whether it could last the night.

"Yes. Enough. Any further and you'll have all the men in the castle begging to sleep with you tonight," Blaire replied, bored.

Kaide frowned at her comment, pulling on a short lion fur jacket over the top of her red silk dress to keep her warm. Kaide's long brown hair was tied up into a long, shiny ponytail that hung straight down to her waist. Her dress was a plain silk dress that had an odd rope-like coil pattern to it, and while the dress wasn't weighed down with the weight of various jewels, it still managed to glitter slightly even with the weak sunlight from the sunset. This effect was finished by the long train that was at least two metres long, and unlike the rest of the dress, actually looked heavy and hard to pull as one with the dress.

"Yes, I'm ready. Send for the servant, and let the feast begin," Kaide sang, making a final adjustment to her ponytail.

"May we welcome the guests of tonight, Ladies Blaire and Kaide of Monsea!" the steward announced to the guests in the dining hall, a heavy round of applause as Kaide and Blaire entered the dining hall, smiles plastered to their faces. The servant Randall stood by their side, ignored by the Sundean nobles and guests that waited at the tables.

Randall led the two assassins to their seats, several seats down from where Murgon was sitting, but right next to Prince Greening of Lienid, just as Kaide had arranged it. Murgon stood up, the attention of all focused on him.

"Servants! Bring out the dishes. May tonight's feast begin!"

Murgon's announcement caused a huge babble of excitement to run through the room, as the nobles excitedly chatted about what would be offered. The servants came rolling in, holding dishes and dishes of Sundean cuisine.

Kaide waited until a servant had given her a dish, a platter of roasted lamb accompanied by mashed potatoes and marinated seared vegetables, before turning her attention to the Lienid prince that sat on her left. On her right, Blaire was picking at the food on her platter, and Kaide knew that she would soon leave the feast, apparently sick, but actually to begin snooping and to find out any information she could about the night Tealiff was rescued out of Murgon's dungeons.

"So...Prince Greening Grandemalion, this would be the first time that we have met. I'm Lady Kaide, and the sullen looking lady next to me is Blaire," Kaide said, making her voice warm and inviting.

"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Kaide. But call me Po. It's a little troublesome to call me Greening Grandemalion, if you know what I mean," Po replied, winking cheekily at Kaide.

This should be easy, Kaide thought ecstatically as she looked into Po's mismatched eyes. He's already winking and I haven't even turned on the flirting yet!

Kaide prepared herself to flirt just before she was distracted by the loud shattering of a plate smashing onto the floor, attracting the attention of those sitting within a two metre radius. Blaire was lying on the floor, face pale, chair overturned, as she tried to stand up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Jus' a little dizzy," Blaire mumbled as Kaide helped her up, as several of the nobles sitting around her asked if she was feeling alright or whether she was injured.

"You sure? I think you better go up to your room, Blaire," Kaide said, lending Blaire her shoulder as she heavily leant on Kaide.

Kaide turned her concerned filled eyes towards Po.

"I'll be back, so don't worry, but I need to take Blaire to her room," Kaide said sweetly, giving Po another flirtatious smile. Now that she was thinking about it, there was something about Po that was extremely handsome, whether it was the mismatched eyes revealing that Po was Graced or whether it was just his good looks, from his tanned skin to his mysteriously dark hair.

The moment that Blaire and Kaide were away from the sight of those eating at the feast, Blaire stopped leaning on Kaide's shoulder and stood up on her own weight, eying the corridor that they stood in, in case there was someone standing there.

"Good job, Blaire," Kaide whispered softly. Blaire nodded and smiled, all traces of dizziness gone.

"Keep going, Kaide. Most of the men in the room were already swooning," Blaire replied. With a wink of her eye Kaide left, leaving Blaire alone in the corridor.

"To Prince Po's room, then," she muttered, disappearing into the shadows.

Po watched, curious as the Lady Kaide helped Lady Blaire out of the dining hall. Ignoring his dinner, Po instead closed his eyes and focused his Grace, not of fighting, as everyone apart from his mother and his missing grandfather thought, but actually the Grace of perception. He felt every minute movement of every guest in the room, and occasionally, the stray thought and emotion as one of the guests thought about him, but what puzzled Po was the fact that he hadn't been able to feel Lady Kaide with his Grace.

When Kaide had been sitting next to him, he had been unable to feel her presence with his Grace, despite the fact that she was sitting next to him. When Kaide had been talking to him, he had no idea what she was thinking. And Po knew that it was almost impossible for someone to be talking to him and not think about him at the same time.

What is she? Po thought. Could she be Graced with the Grace of not being affected by other Graces? But I am sure that her eyes are the same amber colour, Po thought, and the puzzle, combined with the perception of his Grace made him feel dizzy.

There was only one thing that Po was certain of when the Lady Kaide walked back into the dining hall. There was more to her than met the eye. And she wanted something. That, Po was certain of, Grace or no Grace.

"Prince Po," Kaide smiled, sitting back in her seat, and picking up the knife and fork that lay beside her lamb dish. "Blaire was feeling extremely unwell, so I took a while taking her upstairs. Sorry."

"That's fine. Want a drink, Lady Kaide?" Po offered, pulling the beaker filled with a crimson wine towards him.

"Oh, no thanks. So," Kaide began, fluttering her eyelids and angling her body towards Po. "What brings you here to Sunder? Lienid is just so... like...far away," she giggled, creating the image of a shallow, giggling young lady.

"Me? I'm sure you heard, Lady Kaide. My grandfather went missing and I am looking for information that could lead me to him," Po replied, unaffected by Kaide's act. Somehow, he knew she was faking her shallowness – there was an intelligent and devious light in her eyes had ruined her shallow act, making her look more like a calculating Sundean whore. Maybe a lesser man would fall for it, Po thought. But I am more perceptive than most in the seven kingdoms.

"Oh," Kaide said, silent and slightly surprised. She hadn't expected Po to be so...open about his intentions in Sunder. This is going to be harder than I thought, Kaide thought bitterly, annoyed. Suddenly, Kaide gasped as a wave of pain suddenly struck through her skull, startling her and making her grasp her head in response.

"Ow," Kaide muttered, rubbing her temples as the pain faded rapidly. She didn't notice when Po looked at her, curious. Po had just made the attempt to read Kaide's thoughts about him when she had suddenly gasped.

It was me, Po realised. She felt me trying to use my Grace on her and instead...it gave her a headache?

He had never tried to push his Grace before, to hear what people said about him. But with Kaide, he knew that she knew something about his missing grandfather. But what?

Blaire grumbled angrily as she walked out of the soldier's barracks, her dress covered in hay and ale. She had charmed, flirted, and bribed all of the guards that had been on duty the night that Tealiff had been taken from Murgon's dungeons, and every single one of them said the same thing – it was a Graceling boy, Graced with fighting, that broke in and took Tealiff.

"This is pathetic!" she yelled to the empty, dark sky, kicking a rusted metal can that lay in her path. She hoped that Kaide was having better luck getting information out of the Lienid prince. But, for the time being, she had but one option – search Prince Greening's rooms.

Sneaking into the Prince's room was made easy from the fact that basically every person in the castle was either dining at the feast downstairs, or was a servant helping out at the feast. Blaire opened Po's unlocked room without making a sound, and lighting the dry torch that she held in her left hand, Blaire looked around Po's room, looking for anything to provide answers for her questions.

It was a mess. The green curtains were opened and flapping loudly with each blow of the wind that blew through the carelessly open window. The double bed was unmade, clothes were hastily shoved onto the only table and chair in the room, and the bin was overflowing with scraps of scrunched up paper. If this was where Blaire had to search in for information regarding Tealiff, then the mission that Leck had set them was utterly doomed.

"Oh, why, of all the rooms here, do I have to look through the room of a messy prince?" Blaire wailed to herself. Setting her torch down onto the nearest torch stand that she could find, Blaire went to the first place in the room that attracted her eye – the overflowing bin. It was filled entirely with the crumpled paper that Blaire had noted earlier, all written on with the same, neat hand. Every now and then, Blaire saw a large blot of ink on the paper, as the writer obviously threw ink down in frustration.

Shoving her hand into the bin, Blaire grabbed the first piece of paper that she touched on the very bottom of the bin. Just opening it revealed how much her luck had changed in those short seconds. Ten seconds earlier Blaire had thought herself immensely unlucky. Now, Blaire thought that she was the luckiest person in the world.

Kaide had had enough. No matter what she did, or said, she wasn't getting a single piece of useful information out of Prince Po. Either he really had no idea that Tealiff was the 'treasure' taken out of Murgon's dungeons, or he could see directly through her flirting act. And that annoyed Kaide more than anything. If there was one thing that she hated in life more than Leck, it was when she was being outsmarted. Of course, Kaide had other methods of leeching information out of suspects; the only problem was that she couldn't use any of them on the Prince, apart from her failed flirting.

"I'm stuffed full, Prince Po. I think I better go back and check in on Blaire," Kaide said, giving Po her largest smile, despite the emotions of annoyance that radiated within her body.

"Really? You've barely even touched your food," Po said, smirking slightly as he stared at her barely touched platter of lamb and vegetables. Kaide was tempted to slap him. It was she that was meant to be playing with him, not him with her.

"I'm not really hungry. Worried for Blaire, you know?" Kaide said, this time not bothering to hide her annoyance. She stood up without a word, not even bothering to farewell, as she stormed out in anger. In the dining hall, Po smiled.

She did want something. He could see it in her eyes. She looked furious, Po thought in satisfaction. Looking at King Murgon at the head of the table, who looked extremely displeased with the whole feast, Po stood up and walked out of the dining hall, intending to follow Kaide.

"Goodness, Blaire, I hope you have something, because I am in the mood to kill that bloody Lienid Prince," Kaide yelled in anger, violently kicking the door of Po's room. Blaire walked out of the room the moment she heard Kaide's exclamation, slightly shocked to see that Kaide was in a foul temper and was ripping the hem of her dress to shreds.

"Ah...Kaide. From what I can see, things didn't go to well with the Prince," Blaire replied, hiding the vital piece of paper that she had found in Po's bin behind her back.

"Blaire," Kaide hissed angrily, in no mood for jokes. Blaire relented, handing Kaide the piece of paper that she had hidden behind her back. She watched as Kaide's face turned from rage to satisfaction.

The piece of paper read:

Lady Katsa of the Middluns,

I will ask you this blankly – was it my grandfather that you stole out of Murgon's dungeons the night I saw you escaping before knocking me out? If it was, let me see you immediately – Tealiff is my grandfather, and I have no wish of seeing the rest of my family distressed. I trusted you that night, but I have no ideas of your motives. Murgon the next morning was interrogating me, not because I was the victim who got knocked out by this so-called "Graceling fighter boy" but because I was a Lienid. Lady Katsa, please. Where is my grandfather? What have you done with him?

Prince Greening Grandemalion,

The seventh Lienid Prince.

"So...Lady Katsa, eh?" Kaide said, handing the letter back to Blaire as she hid it within one of the pockets in her dress.

"It's unexpected. I never expected the Middluns to get involved. This wasn't the only letter. The Prince's bin is entirely filled with letters that he had written to Lady Katsa, asking her why she saved his grandfather, where he is, etc," Blaire replied.

"But I don't like this. Lady Katsa? Even we in isolated Monsea have heard of her reputation. The Grace of killing. What she does for Randa... if Leck sends us to find her, we may get almost certainly get ourselves killed. Especially if Randa is somehow involved. We all know what happens to those that defy King Randa of the Middluns," Kaide shot back, fearful for once.

"Lady Blaire, I thought you were sick!" exclaimed a voice in shock, carrying a lilt to it that could only belong to a Lienid.

"Shit," Kaide swore. Po was standing in the corridor, shock in this gold and silver eyes as his Grace read everything that Blaire was thinking about him.

"It was you...you...my grandfather...it was Leck!" Po choked out, so angry that he could barely say the words. It was at that moment that Kaide felt a blinding pain in her head, even worse than the one that struck her in the dining hall.

"Your Grace...not fighting...minds...something to do with minds...argh," Kaide panted in agony, clutching her head. It was in that instant that Kaide felt something within her mind snap, pushing back the pain that was running wild within her skull and throwing it back towards Po. Her left eye flickered blue in response as Po's eyes widened in shock, seconds before he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Kaide, are you alright?" Blaire demanded, as Kaide remained kneeling, clutching her head, eyes returning to normal.

"Yes...the pain...it's gone...that Lienid prince...his Grace is not fighting. That I am sure of... he attacked my mind, Blaire!" Kaide gasped, still shocked from her mental battle with Po.

"We need to kill him. But that mind thing explains it...how else did he know that we abducted Tealiff? And why didn't he read that when he was dining with you?" Blaire asked, reeling from the series of events.

"Maybe he can only read certain people. But we don't need to kill him. A mental attack like that... that Prince is lucky if he can even remember what happened in the last few days."

"Are you sure, Kaide? Because of this gets out, if Lienid finds out that it was Leck who ordered Tealiff to be kidnapped, not only are we dead but so is Leck. Do you really want to risk everything just to spare the life of that Prince?"

"Yes... as you know, I'm good with Graces, even if I am not Graced." Kaide winced at that statement. "That attack would've killed all his memories for quite a while. And imagine what it would look like if a royal prince was murdered, Blaire? We can't hide that. Leck really would try and kill us."

"Fine. As you wish. But we are leaving tomorrow. We have all the information that we need," Blaire said, turning back. "But just to be certain..." Blaire knelt down towards Po's unconscious body and roughly slammed his head, once, twice, hard onto the stone floor. "Now he looks like tripped and knocked himself out. Let's go, Kaide," Blaire said, pulling Kaide up from her crouch on the floor, Kaide power walking frantically to her room as Blaire followed.

The moment that Kaide was alone in her room, Blaire walking to her own next door, Kaide grabbed a nearby torch and ran to the mirror, breathing heavily as she completely lost control of herself. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw what she truly looked like for the first time in months. What Blaire had seen the occasions that she had lost her temper and what Po had seen to his utter shock just before he was knocked out. Kaide looked into the mirror, the amber and blue eyes of her reflection boring into her own.

A long chapter done! Please don't forget to review. I've also been aware that my line breaks are simply failing (but are now fixed!), so I'm experimenting a bit in this chapter, but I'll update as soon as possible!