A few weeks later—that summer, in fact,—we went to war against Tuisane at the Drell River Valley for control of the river. King Roald did not allow us to cross the river to the eastern, or right, bank, and ordered us to only defend the western, or left, bank. When the rest of us—who did not sit on King Roald's Council—learned that we would be going to war, we were split into groups and Alan, Gary, Raoul, George, Jon, and I would be stationed at the Drell River Falls.
Right before we left, Duke Gareth was injured and Roger took over as the head commander. I wasn't so sure that Roger wouldn't try to get rid of me, Alan, and Jon during the war—he had the means to, and he could if he wanted to, enough.
I grimaced because I hated water, plus I was allergic to water as well, and most of the fighting would occur in the river itself. I glanced over at Raoul and he pointed, "There it is, Fabiethe, Drell River Falls—home, sweet home, for the next month or so." I sighed and Courage hissed at me that she much preferred Court. "I agree," I whispered back. Raoul looked at me and I said, "I don't like water, plus I'm allergic to it." He stared at me and I sighed and said, "Remember when Courage flipped out when she saw Roger?" Raoul nodded and I said, "When I fell into the puddle of water, I got some light burns from it, which weren't that bad, compared to what could have happened."
Raoul glared at me and said, "I'm telling Duke Gareth when we return to Court." I grabbed his arm and said, "No, Raoul, please, let's just keep this a secret between you and me." He nodded, reluctantly, and asked, "Who else knows?" I gulped and said, "Lord Alan did, Thom, Alanna, Maude, Coram, Father—I mean Frexspar—and my little sister, Nessarose—she's the one who discovered that I was allergic in the first place." We rode into camp and Gary asked, "How?" "Nessa—that's what everyone calls her—decided it would be interesting to see what would happen if she dumped her glass of water on my arm. A giant and extremely severe burn appeared where the water hit my skin and it never completely healed." I pushed my sleeve and pointing to my arm, "That's what's left of Nessa's 'experiment.'" raoul stared at me in horror and asked, "You let her hurt you?" "Raoul, listen, Nessa is the prized child—I'm the mistake, the child that shouldn't be—according to Father—and if I hurt her, I'd get punished—what am I saying, I'd get punished for everything—and she gets everything she wants. She wanted to know what would happen. I had to let her hurt me." Raoul nodded reluctantly.