The usual disclaimer, blah, blah

Chapter 7 – Grace versus Grace

All Kaide could think was the fact that she utterly screwed up. She ran recklessly through the dark corridors of Randa's castle, barely keeping ahead of Katsa, who was the first person that Kaide had ever met that had actually managed to keep up with her as she ran. Kaide heard a soft slither from behind her, and dodged, just as a dagger whipped passed her with a speed that no ungraced person could ever manage.

"Shit," Kaide hissed. That dagger had barely missed her by centimetres. The next dagger Kaide couldn't dodge. Instead, she used the reflexes born with her Grace and training with Blaire to catch it. Her catch was slightly off, as she could feel the sharp dagger cut into the warm flesh of her sweaty hand, but it was better than being hit in the chest.

"You have one more chance before I kill you. Surrender," Katsa said, as Kaide heard her draw out two daggers.

Kaide turned around the moment she reached a corner and faced Katsa, both coming to a stop. She more than knew that her hidden blue eye was glinting faintly in the torchlight. Kaide dropped the dagger she held in her hand, blood dripping to the ground.

"I have no wish to tell you or that prince any of my secrets," Kaide said, bracing herself in anticipation of an attack.

Katsa let out a look that was reluctant. It was as if she didn't want to kill Kaide, but would instead do anything to take her alive.

"What? You have the Grace of killing, and yet you don't want to kill?" Kaide sneered, waiting for the inevitable moment when Katsa would throw the daggers at her. It was why she chose this location to stop and face her.

Shock spread over Katsa's face, and Kaide knew she hit Katsa's insecurities on the head. However, it was as if another thought crossed her mind as her face was suddenly filled with anger.

"You hurt Po," was all Katsa said. Kaide was frozen as Katsa suddenly threw the daggers from her hands, aiming to kill.

One dagger hit the stone floor with a dull clatter as Kaide dove for the corner. However, it was clear that Kaide's Grace was not to the physical extent that Katsa's was, as one of the daggers imbedded itself in her upper shoulder. Kaide gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to scream. While Kaide's Grace improved her skills to far more than any normal person, it also made her a lot more sensitive to pain. So while a wound like this would cause pain to Blaire, it wouldn't make her scream in agony. To Kaide, a wound like that felt as if it were on fire.

Adrenalin coursed through Kaide's body as she continued fleeing, looking to any person nothing more than a blurred figure. But to Katsa, Kaide looked just like another injured person running from her. But this one had hurt Po.

Kaide began tugging at her belt with her injured left arm, seeking to get her escape rope ready when she saw an open window. This plan, however, took a turn for the worst when shadows from a torch, and Kaide's Grace, revealed that there was a small bunch of knights heading her way. And the only way to go was straight on.

"Oh, damn," Kaide hissed, as she came to a stop. Katsa stopped with her, but didn't release the daggers that she held ready in her hand. A gut instinct told Kaide to once again hide the colours of her eyes to make it seem as if she weren't Graced.

"So, you decided that you are going to surrender, then?" Katsa asked coldly.

As the knights rounded the corner to be met with the sight of a bleeding Monsea lady and their Lady Katsa armed with daggers, they froze. The lead knight looked at Katsa.

"Lady Katsa, what is going on?" he asked, looking at Kaide nervously as she tried to look innocent. Considering the amount of fear that was on the knight's face, Kaide thought that it could be possible to make it seem as it Katsa attacked her by accident. All that really happened was that Kaide was standing outside of Katsa's room and fled when Katsa came. This lack of reason could be something to be used.

"Arrest the Lady Kaide," Katsa said.

Kaide fell to her knees, using every bit of her acting skills.

"She attacked me! I got lost in the castle and then she came and asked me what I was doing and I was scared so I ran!" Kaide sobbed, clutching her shoulder. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the pain began rearing up in her shoulder again.

"Is that true, Lady?" the knight asked. Katsa hesitated. The heat of the moment had left her, and now that she had time to think, Katsa realised that everything that she had just done, from chasing after Kaide, could've been done in the exact manner that Kaide had said it in. She had just chased after Kaide because she had fled, and because her instinct told her that there was more to Kaide than there was to the eye. She couldn't tell the knights that she had tried to kill Kaide because she realised that it had been Kaide that caused Po to lose his memory in Sunder. Katsa knew Kaide had attacked Po in some way, but couldn't prove it.

"So you...?" the knight continued as Katsa didn't reply. Katsa knew that the knight was thinking that she was out of control, someone who had used her Graceling powers on a guest who had gotten lost.

Kaide hid a smile in her sobs. So, Katsa couldn't admit that the reason why she attacked her was because she suspected her of spying and hurting Po.

"Men, the reason why I was trying to capture the Lady Kaide was because I suspected her on spying on me," Katsa hissed, knowing that she was facing a lost cause. That Lady Kaide was a master manipulator of men! Maybe except Po, Katsa thought, resisting the urge to grin.

"What?"

"Why would a guest be awake at this time of the night, armed with not just a sword but daggers hidden all over her body? She's more than a lady who got lost," Katsa said, now feeling that the men were more on her side.

"Well..." the guard continued to hesitate. It was easier to believe that Kaide was the victim, as she was sobbing on the castle floor and clutching a wound on her shoulder. It was harder to believe that this sobbing and injured lady was spying on Katsa and capable of even using the weapons that she was armed with.

"She's Graced," Katsa whispered softly. "Look at her eyes. One amber, one blue."

"What Grace?" Kaide sobbed defiantly, looking up. All the guards saw were a pair of matching amber eyes, definitely not Graceling eyes.

"Katsa, if this is a joke-"

"Katsa, what's going on?" Po asked as he walked to her, confused. But as he saw Kaide, his manner changed into one of anger.

"Her!" he hissed. "Don't believe a word she says. Honeyed lies. She's a master of manipulation."

Kaide turned around and stood up tall, her expression changing from one of a distressed damsel to a calculating killer.

"Then, you, Prince Po, can be responsible for the-" Kaide counted the amount of knights that stood confused in the corridor "- ten deaths that are about to happen."

Kaide drew out her sword with a smooth, calculated manner, and before anyone could react, two guards toppled to the floor, throats slit. The next three she dispatched by using her strength to pierce through the armour like it was cheese (the key was a weak point in the armour which Kaide spotted immediately), immediately stopping their hearts. All ten knights were dead within a space of five seconds, either with their throats slit, a stab through the heart, or decapitation.

"This is your entire fault," Kaide sneered, as she turned around and sped away.

"She..." Po gasped shocked. He had never seen such ruthlessness and lack of mercy. Katsa may have tortured and killed people on behalf of Randa, but Po never found her a cold-blooded murderer. Kaide was.

"Po-" Katsa turned and looked Po in the eye, before drawing her sword and going after Kaide, leaving Po alone in the dimly lit corridor surrounded by the body of ten murdered knights.

Kaide felt her urgency abate as Katsa fell behind. She finally managed to loosen the rope hidden underneath her clothing, and found an open window. As Kaide stood on the window ledge, she heard Katsa coming in pursuit. She swung the rope like a lasso and aimed it at the wooden pole that so happened to be sticking out on the top of the castle.

"If you jump out of that window, you're dead. Just as you will be when I am done with you," Katsa said. She really felt hate for this person, this Monsean lady who killed without thought, who had also hurt Po.

"As you say, Lady Katsa. Farewell," Kaide sang, as she jumped out of the window. Katsa could only stand dumbly outside the window, as the realisation that Kaide had taken her own life shocked her. But Katsa never heard the tell-tale thud of a body hitting the ground.

Kaide grimaced as she felt her muscles on her upper shoulder tear. That made two injured shoulders, one stabbed and still dripping blood, and another with torn muscles and possibly tendons.

Kaide was hanging precariously off the side of the castle, gripping the rope that was her lifeline with both her hands. She looked down, searching for a window sill to land on, glad that years in trees had given her a good head with heights. Kaide spotted a window ledge with an open window five metres down. Knowing that Katsa would realise that she was alive when she didn't see her dead body on the ground, Kaide released more of the rope hidden under her clothing until she reached the safety of the window sill. Kaide quickly slid inside the castle, and gripping the rope hard in her hands, she pulled on it, smiling as she heard the crack of wood signalling that the sharpened metal end of her rope had broken the wooden pole that had once supported her and the rope.

The rope tumbled towards her and toward the ground, before it reached the point where it ran out. Kaide pulled the rope up and quickly wound it back under her outfit. Now, to find Blaire and get the hell out of here.

"What was that?" a voice whispered, not far from the window.

"Blaire," Kaide said relieved, feelings the first pangs of dizziness as the blood loss began to take a toll on her.

"Kaide, I couldn't find anything, I'm sorry," Blaire gushed out, not noticing Kaide's weary state.

"We need to leave. Now. Or we are dead," Kaide said simply, leaning on the wall.

"Kaide, what? " Blaire looked startled at the sight of an exhausted Kaide, who left shoulder was punctured by a dagger, and whose right shoulder Kaide was wincing at. "What happened?"

"Katsa did. We need to go. Any second, she'll realise that I didn't kill myself by jumping out a window," Kaide replied, searching for the nearest route to the stables.

"Damn. You jumped out of a window? Stables, right?" Blaire asked.

"Guess you didn't get far, right?" Katsa asked, as she stared at Blaire and Kaide.

"How did she-" Kaide hissed.

Blaire looked at Kaide and nodded.

"GO!" Blaire yelled, drawing out her daggers.

"No, you can't keep up with her. I couldn't," Kaide whispered, wincing.

"I'll distract her. Go, dammit!" Blaire yelled. Kaide drew out several daggers from various locations, before handing them to Blaire and turning back.

"She throws daggers like the devil, Blaire," Kaide said one last time before disappearing.

"I'll ask for clemency if you surrender," Katsa said. Blaire smirked.

"You think I will actually betray Kaide? You must be good to injure her like that," Blaire replied, throwing her daggers.

Blaire ran the moment she threw her daggers, the startled gasp she heard telling her that while Katsa dodged the daggers, she certainly hadn't seen them coming. Katsa was shocked at the accuracy and speed at which Blaire threw the daggers – she had never seen an ungraced person throw daggers like that, but then, Blaire could be Graced too.

Blaire dodged and even caught one of the daggers that were thrown at her, before throwing it back without even looking behind her with a precision that was instinctive. The race to the stables became a race of throwing, catching and dodging daggers, and neither lady could inflict damage on the other.

"Oh my-" Katsa froze. The stables that housed the horses were on fire, the horses released earlier and running in a mad panic around the stable. For a second, all Katsa could think about was her horse, and Po's.

Blaire hadn't hesitated at the sight of the blaze, and ran to the frantically waving figure of Kaide, who was holding Blaire's straining horse.

"Hurry!" Kaide yelled over the roar of the fire. Katsa followed madly after Blaire, but it was too late the moment Blaire reached her horse, and they both rode away into the darkness.

"How am I going to explain this to Randa?" Katsa hissed, as she felt Po's hand on her shoulder.

Kaide and Blaire were riding on a heavy gallop barely missing trees as they rode without light. After about ten minutes, Blaire realised that it was impossible for them to gallop any further. Kaide was swaying on her horse, and barely conscious.

"Kaide?" Blaire whispered anxiously.

"I'm soooo dizzy," Kaide giggled, before slipping off her horse and into the arms of Blaire. Her entire outfit was soaked with blood, and Kaide was losing consciousness due to heavy blood loss. If this kept going on, Kaide would die.

Blaire had no other choice. She had to risk treating Kaide's wound here in the darkness of Randa City, or end up going home without her only friend.

Katsa may seem cold and murderous, but I wanted to portray her in a way others who feared her saw her. I wonder if any of you could guess Kaide's Grace... I'll update when I can, but assignments are still getting higher (grrrr...) Reviews are my candy. Please?