Now Aly and Nawat are visiting Araluen.
Araluen was welcoming diplomats from the Kyprish Isles at the royal castle. Nawat Crow and Alianne Cooper were apparently the leaders of the group. Will Treaty got to take them into the castle. Needless to say, they were not what he was expecting.
They came in with a merchant caravan. To his surprise, Nawat Crow was a 'raka' man and Alianne Cooper was a 'luarin' woman. From what he'd heard, the country was divided along deep race lines.
The other surprise was that Alianne Cooper was apparently several months pregnant. She waved away his questions. "Don't worry about it, I'm earlier than I look. Twins run in the family." That was not really reassuring.
Then he saw the knives. He noticed marks her sleeves and pockets, and quickly pulled out no less than four knives. She grinned unabashedly. "What? A girl needs protection in a foreign country. There could be bandits, or kidnappers!" She fanned her face dramatically. Nawat nodded honestly. He had a very open, trustworthy face, but Will wasn't feeling too trusting after finding four knives on Aly, as she demanded to be called.
On the way to the castle, he noticed more peculiarities to the visitors. For one thing, Nawat would pick bugs off of walls and eat them. His companion seemed to find this endearing. He also realised that Aly spoke flawless Araluen, as did her companion. Most diplomats at least had an accent. Aly also had the same observant, constantly roving eye of a Ranger, and Nawat appeared to be listening carefully to something.
When they arrived, they were greeted by Halt. He immediately walked over to Aly and grabbed the rope around her neck, revealing that it had a knife on it. "Hey!" she protested. Halt looked suspicious. "Do you think you missed anything, Will?"
Will blushed bright red. "I already found four on her."
Halt smirked. "Look for what's hiding in plain sight." He then proceeded to pull out her hairpin, which was sharper and longer than it looked, then take a knife out of each boot. The belt buckle also turned out to be detachable, and unfolded into knife number nine. Halt glared at her. "Anything else?"
She smirked. "You're good, but not that good." She then took off her shoes, removed the soles, and took two thin, flat blades out. "Had 'em specially made." She lifted her skirt and pulled off two knives strapped to her upper thighs. She pulled four more from her corset, and another two she appeared to conjure out of thin air. That brought the total up to 19 in all.
Halt looked at Nawat. "How about him?"
Aly laughed. "Nawat doesn't need any. He can just peck you."
Halt glared. "How do I know you don't have more on you?"
Aly frowned looking offended. "You don't. But tell me, Halt, I am the most trusted advisor of Queen Dovasary. What would be the use of murdering the king of a possible ally? His daughter would become queen, and she would probably start a war with us. Unless she hired us, but I will leave that for you to judge." She walked (surprisingly quickly for a pregnant woman) through the courtyard, Nawat following close behind. Will looked at Halt. "Did you know she had all those knives?"
"Yes," growled Halt.
Then a thought struck Will. "I don't remember telling her your name."
1. Nawat was listening to animals.
2. Of course Aly speaks Araluen.
3. Aly definitely has more knives.