Chapter 11: Rescue Mission
The forest was whisper silent. Only the birds chirped at the small groups of men and pages that were threading their way through the trees silently in the early morning grey light.
Alanna was crouched behind a rocky outcrop that shielded her from the sight of the twenty or so men camped outside a small cave. Rye and Sarra had managed to fly in as bats and confirm that the big bulky man that was the scum-of-the-earth, otherwise named Marcus Wood was inside with an unconscious Adalia.
Alanna felt better already, knowing that there was no way that he could escape.
The pages had been placed up high trees, so that they would have good shots at any of the enemy men who tried to run. She did not expect them to be able to escape, but she was not going to put the other pages in any danger, and they had vehemently argued against being left at camp. Lord Padraig was also in the trees, so he could signal them if need be.
Alanna signalled the group of men over to her left, and she saw them pass the message on to the others. Once they all had time to get the message, she nodded to Rikash, who was gliding overhead as an eagle, and he let out a great cry which was the signal to attack.
The Own archers in the trees took down the sentries, allowing the men waiting to ambush to sneak right up.
The men outside the cave, seeing the sheer numbers of men in the livery of the Own advancing on them, didn't even attempt to fight back.
They lay down their arms, and put their hands in the air. Now was the dangerous part of the plan. There was no telling what Marcus would do; he effectively had nothing to lose, and the mad man was in the cave, holding Adalia hostage.
The men of the Own quickly went and tied the surrendering men up.
Having done this, they turned to the cave. The big gamble was to try to sneak in there and safely pull out Adalia.
Alanna swore explosively when she saw the bulky fugitive in the entrance of the cave, holding a dagger to Adalia's throat. Worse thing was that it seemed she was semi-unconscious, meaning that she couldn't save herself if the man decided to kill her.
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Adalia had managed to force her eyes open. I feel horrible. She groaned as she noticed a sharp pain in her back
She could hear something outside the cave that she realised she must be in. She identified it as men laying down their arms. This must be my rescue… I HATE being some stupid maiden in distress!
The only problem was that the drug still held onto her strength, so she couldn't do anything.
She suddenly saw a large bulky man, who looked pissed off. He grabbed her, hauling her up. She felt a dagger at her throat, making a small cut. Fear swamped her; she was helpless. Her fear grew as he dragged her out in front of him, until she could see men of the Own arrayed in front of the cave, and her grandmother, the Lioness at the forefront of them.
"Let me out, or the girl is dead." Marcus bellowed at the men.
She understood that he was using her to escape. The cur was using her to get out with his neck in tact!
She felt a rush of pure hatred rise inside her, and surprisingly, it won against the drug. She took control of her body.
She discovered that her hands were tied up in a rope, and she remorselessly yanked her hands apart, and the binding snapped. She then grabbed the dagger at her throat, and threw it into a nearby tree, where the man couldn't get it. Then she punched the man with all the strength she could muster in her partially-drugged state.
She had barely registered that he flew across the clearing and smashed into a tree, when the drug took control again. She just stared blankly at the men and pages that had an awestruck look on their faces, and then sank to the ground, fully losing the battle against the drug.
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Alanna rushed forward as soon as the girl fell to the ground. She used her magic to check her health, and upon finding out that it was only the drug, hugged her close, tears in her eyes. She had been extremely frightened.
The men and boys, however, took longer to approach. They had never seen anything like it – the eleven year-old had broken out of the ropes and then disabled a full-grown man, sending him flying across a clearing.
Numair and Rye broke them out of the awe as they, newly clothed after transforming back, ran up to Alanna and Adalia. Numair picked up the girl tenderly, and carried her back to camp.
After those three had left and the pages were climbing out of the trees carefully, some brave men approached Marcus, who was unconscious on the ground. His nose looked to be broken. Spotting the tree, a man said, "l-look at the tree!"
They all then turned to pay attention to the tree, and their mouths dropped in awe.
There was a dent in the tree.
Some men who had not bothered to look at Marcus had gone over to retrieve the dagger. They too were rendered speechless.
"The dagger is in up to the hilt…" One man whispered.
His companions just nodded.
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Four days later, Adalia woke up from her drug-induced sleep.
The fist thing she saw was Rye sitting next to her, holding her hand. He noticed her open eyes, and he smiled in plain relief. He then said, "Hey everyone! She's awake!"
For a moment, Adalia was at a loss to think who 'everyone' was – until she was met with about six people jumping at her.
She used the back of her hand to rub her eyes, as Rye told everyone to calm down.
She stiffly sat up, and the world started spinning. It was Daniel's hands that forced her back into a lying position.
"How long?" Adalia managed to croak. She dimly realised that she was in clean clothes, but she stopped herself from guessing who had changed her – some things you just never want to know.
"Let's see… it has been four days since we 'rescued' you, and you were held hostage two days before that… so that's six days." Kula said thoughtfully.
Adalia swore in Kyprish.
"Hmm, I am guessing that none of that was exclamations of joy…" Charlie said.
"You could say that." Adalia agreed, first in Kyprish, and then she realised her mistake and reiterated in Common.
"I think she lost a few brain cells." Kaden said sorrowfully.
Adalia replied with more Kyprish swear words, and the others laughed.
After they had talked for a while, Daniel brought up the subject that Adalia had been expecting.
"Um…Adalia. Do you remember what happened while we were saving you?"
Adalia tried to avoid this, and instead said, "I hate being saved."
"I don't think anyone will believe you will ever need saving after that… Do you realise that you left a dent in the tree you threw that guy into? No one could get the dagger out of the tree; but the men wanted it, so they pulled out an axe and cut out that part of the tree. At the moment it is displayed in front of the Own, and the men are running bets on who will manage to pull it out. So far, no one has been able to."
Adalia sighed, "I guess you know why I can do this?"
"Yes, Alanna thought it was stupid not to tell us, what with the Own bringing home the dagger as proof."
Adalia looked around at her friends. "And what do you think of this…?" She asked quietly.
"What is there to think? We think it's brilliant! I mean, what you can do… it will be soo much of a help to Tortall when you are a knight – and our friend, of course! It also doesn't hurt to know that you will be at our backs in any fight." Kula responded.
Adalia just stared at Kula, and then inspected the others, who were nodding enthusiastically.
Adalia broke into tears of appreciation. She was soo happy that they saw it this way. They all crowded around and either hugged her or patted her back.
Adalia felt something heavy lifted off her chest that she hadn't even realised she had been carrying. It was such a relief to know that she hadn't lost her friends.
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The next day, Adalia sneaked out of bed after being awoken by Kula, but instead of joining in the practise, she went into her washroom and took a long bath.
Finally feeling clean, she braided her hair and joined Kula on her way downstairs. Her friends didn't want her going down so early after she had just woken up but she told them she would scream if she had to spend one more day lying down.
As she walked into the pages mess hall, the only thing that seemed to have changed was that there were no dirty glances thrown her way. Her friends had told her that the others couldn't have cared less that she was a girl when she was kidnapped, that she was now one of them. It seemed that this good nature had transferred to Kula as well, and Adalia suspected that it would also apply to all of the girls to attend as pages in the future.
'Goddess, I hope you appreciate that. You could have told me it would have been as easy as being kidnapped; I'd have done it sooner!' Adalia thought silently to the Mother; but she got no reply, not that she expected one.
That day as she went about her classes, she noticed that she got curious glances from the nobles. Luckily they didn't seem inclined to be frightened of her, or even to hate her.
After lunch, she went to the physical classes. In hand-to hand combat, she moved through the drills alongside the others, but pretty soon, Eda approached her, "Now, youngling. There is no point to holding back; we all have an idea of what you are capable of, so speed it up!"
Adalia just shrugged and started doing the drills at a more normal pace for her. She did not notice that she had an audience until she had finished the drill. She didn't pretend to pant, but just stood up from the crouching position that signalled the end. Lifting her eyes, she noticed that all the boys were watching her with shock, and Lord Padraig, Hakim Seastone and Eda Bell were watching her, bemused.
"Was it too slow still? I can do it faster, but I wanted to make sure I did it right…" Her voice lost volume and then died out, leaving the sentence in the air.
Eda said dryly, "No, if anything that was damn fast. And you did everything perfectly. What the hell have you been doing for the last year? Snoozing while pretending to be worn out?"
"Well…"
"No, wait. Don't answer that. You come with me lass." Eda, head shaking, lead her over to a corner. While Adalia followed her, Eda glanced over her shoulder, "You lads better get back to your work, or I'll set Adalia on you."
Adalia let out a snort of laughter when she saw them all quickly face Hakim again.
"Okay, lass. You are going to do some more advanced stuff. I will be your personal teacher, since you seem to have advanced when we weren't looking… or more specifically while we were oblivious to your abilities." She added thoughtfully.
Eda showed her drills, and then had Adalia repeat them over and over, until she could repeat them perfectly, at her fastest speed. It was the first time that Adalia had actually broken into a real sweat. She was out of breath at the end of the lesson, for the first time suffering the same exhaustion that the other's had been experiencing for the past year.
"Gods! How the heck did you guys live through last year?" Adalia asked the others when she joined them at the end of the lesson, she was clutching a stitch.
They just broke out laughing, shaking their heads at their friend.
They then moved on to sword practise, and a similar problem arose. Alanna just showed her more advanced drills, which she would complete while her grandmother continued to correct her stance, as well as that of the other's.
They moved on to riding, and for the first time Adalia was able to follow the older pages into the jousting field. It was traditional that the first years not be introduced to jousting, ever since Lord Padraig had become the page's instructor, because he felt that they should prove to be acceptable riders before being allowed to run at a target with a lance.
He sent the newly third and fourth year pages to get started at two of the targets, with another teacher to watch over them. When they had got started, he turned to the new second years. Kaden was next to her on his black gelding named Zephyr.
"Today we are starting jousting. All of you carefully listen to what I will tell you next…" Lord Padraig went on to demonstrate how they should hold the lance. He then went on to turn his horse to face a small circle that was softly twirling in the breeze. To all of their astonishment, he kicked the horse into a gallop and perfectly speared the loop through his lance. They clapped.
"Okay. Now I will pass out the lances. Only you are to touch your lance. You must keep it clean and look after it yourself."
He then proceeded to give all of the boys lances out of a barrel. Once he had finished, Adalia was thoroughly confused, because he had not given her a lance. She glanced at him questioningly, and he went back to her, "Ah, Adalia. We are just waiting for your lance to finish being weighted."
"Weighted?"
"Yes. We couldn't make this too easy on you. Ah. Here it comes now."
All of the first years saw two men approaching, carrying a lance between them. As the large men struggled across the yard, they also drew the glances of the older pages. Adalia thought that they were probably out of reactions to the strange things she could do, and she was proved right when they went back to their runs at the dummy. She did notice that those not taking the run were watching, interested.
Lord Padraig greeted the men by nodding, "Give it to her." At this he pointed at Adalia.
The men stared at Lord Padraig, gazes flitting to the slender girl with purple eyes. She looked like a strong breeze could knock her over, and yet this man was telling them to give her the lance that they could barely lift between them.
Noticing the men's hesitation, the training master raised an eyebrow, daring them to refuse.
He he. I think I am rubbing off on him. Adalia mused.
Everyone watched as the two tried to lift it up to her hand; she ended up having to lean down to accept it.
The men's eyes widened when she took the lance and the weight was, apparently easily, lifted from them. By this lean eleven-year-old girl. If anything, she looked like a regular court lady, totally helpless.
The girl held onto it with one hand and lifted it as smoothly as if it was a regular lance.
"How is it?" Lord Padraig inquired weakly. Alanna had indicated how much weight should be added to it, but he hadn't quite believed her when she assured him Adalia could lift it. He was having serious doubts - until the girl lifted it up.
She smiled delightedly, "It's perfect. Just heavy enough that it will be a workout."
He shook his head, and went on to say, "We had Numair spell your saddle blanket so that Anika wouldn't feel the extra weight. Just make sure that whenever you are jousting, you put that on her."
Adalia grinned appreciatively, "Thanks, from both of us." Adalia had been aware that there was some kind of spell, because Anika had been constantly checking that she was on her back, due to her apparent weightlessness.
Lord Padraig was a little unsettled at this, but then remembered that Adalia was almost as much as an animal as her horse, so he let it go.
"Okay. I guess you can be the first to go."
Adalia drew Anika around, asking her to back up a bit to get a good run at the target. It was specially made, so that if it was hit anywhere but in the middle, it would swing and a bag would hit her as it spun around.
She asked Anika to canter, but smoothly, and she narrowed her sights on the target, bringing her lance down into the position that Lord Padraig had shown them earlier. She quickly aimed the lance so that it pierced the centre.
There was a loud bang that could be heard throughout the tilting yards as Adalia's lance hit the target dead centre. The problem was that they had not anticipated what a lance of that weight would do to the target.
Adalia cursed in Kyprish even as the target split into hundreds of pieces. She dodged the large chucks flying at her, and managed to catch all the pieces that would have hit Anika. She quickly told her horse to stand exactly still as the last chunks stopped flying.
When the dust cleared, her and Anika were standing in the centre of a huge circle of wood chips that had flown from the dummy.
"Ah, Lord Padraig? I think we need a new dummy." Adalia called to the man. She stood up on the saddle and threw her lance over near the gate, so that it sank into the ground tip down.
She heard explosive laughter and carefully pivoted, still standing on her saddle. She realised that all the pages were in tears of laughter, as was (extremely surprisingly) Lord Padraig. She also saw that her other training masters were in the stands; including Alanna and the Shangs.
She jumped down, and cursed explosively, muttering every single despicable sentiment that she knew in the Kyprish language while carefully leading Anika out of the mess. She gave Lord Padraig a scalding look – at that very moment he didn't look so scary, "How they hell do you manage to forget that the bloody practise dummy probably hasn't been hit by anything that heavy before?"
He just looked at her, she could tell that somewhere deep inside his mind was telling him, 'Give her a months worth of latrine duty!' but instead he seemed unable to put the words together.
This made her even more irritated, and she yelled, "Some training master you are!"
Suddenly she noticed that Alanna was striding towards her. She yelled to Adalia, "Stop with that language, young miss. You know I can understand some Kyprish!"
The pages broke into further hysterics while they watched Adalia whiten, face contorted in a shock and then changed into a sheepish smile. This made them wonder exactly what she had said; obviously it was extremely rude.
"I am never picking up that thing AGAIN!" Adalia yelled, spitting out the word thing while pointing to her lance.
"Oh, don't do that; that's gotta be the best display of practise jousting that I have ever seen!"
Adalia spun around to see a very tall man, one she recognised as Lord Raoul, Commander of the Own, lounging against the gate leading to the tilting fields.
He took the few steps necessary to be within reaching distance of Adalia's lance, which was perfectly straight, sticking out of the hard ground of the practise court. Adalia didn't give a damn when he put both hands on the lance and yanked, but it seemed Lord Padraig had other ideas. "Um, Raoul, you might not want to do that…"
Adalia swung up on to Anika and ignored the straining Raoul. Now that Lord Padraig had calmed down, he said sternly, "Young lady. You are a page. And as a page, you must tilt. Go and retrieve your lance. We won't make you run at the targets, we can skip straight to the ring in your case, I think. We don't want to need to replace any more dummies."
Lord Padraig's voice cut into her like ice. The pages and spectators stopped laughing immediately. Now that he was acting like his old imposing self, Adalia realised that she wouldn't dare disobey him.
Again muttering Kyprish curses, she asked Anika to trot to the fence, where Raoul was still trying to pull the lance out of the ground. She flung herself out of the saddle and then grabbed the lance with both hands, then heaved. For a second, the ground resisted, and then everyone heard a crack while the lance smoothly lifted out of the ground. Raoul was staring at Adalia.
She absentmindedly handed it to him while she jumped back on Anika. That was a mistake. In the few seconds that it took her to mount, the man was struggling to keep it up high enough for her to grab. She quickly plucked it from his hands and turned back to the pages.
Raoul joined the spectators; he was impressed at discovering how strong Adalia really was. The pages got back to practising on the two dummies that were still intact, and Adalia joined a small group consisting of three fourth years, which included Daniel and Nathan. She found this much more challenging; as often as not she would miss it. Her reflexes seemed to have slowed down to almost normal with the weight of the lance. She was just happy that nothing else managed to explode that session.
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Next Chapter: Midwinter
Disclaimer: I am not Tamora Pierce.
I hoped you liked this chapter.