Here it is - it took a while, but finally, is done. Thoughts adored.
Ki
Hanging On: Epilogue
"*What* the hell do you think you're doin'?" a voice shouted from across the hallway. "I ain't wearin' that revoltin'-" A stream of words followed which made Andrea's tailor flush and start jabbing pins into her clothes intensely.
Ryan, it seemed, wasn't taking too well to the clothes that they were being fitted with.
And she could share the feeling. They had been rushed into the palace by Numair Salmalin, the big man that Ryan said was one of the most powerful mages this side of anywhere, and dropped with the housemistress who had been told to make them presentable enough for the king and queen.
The *king*. And the *queen*. She was a common girl. She couldn't meet *royalty*.
And the clothes were all too beautiful for anyone like her, and the people were so elegant, and even the maids dressed immaculately. Andrea felt so out of place here. She had lived in a little house all her life, not a palace.
Ryan's curses filled the air rapidly as he argued with the tailor.
Andrea listened, wide-eyed and wondering just what he was *saying*. She stole a glance at the noblewoman with them, a lady by the name of Uline, and saw she was looking slightly shocked.
After a particularly inventive curse, she looked down at the woman who was fiddling with her hem and said, "What did that mean?"
"What?" the woman said indistinctly, taking a pin from her mouth and fixing it.
She repeated the phrase.
"My lady!" the woman gasped, "you must *never* say such things! It's...it's..." Her voice filled with contempt. "Common."
"I *am* common," Andrea pointed out reasonably, grimacing at her reflection. "Lady..." She swallowed, unsure if she should address the Lady Uline, though she did look friendly with her dark eyes and bright smile. And she had been so kind to Andrea, even though she was common.
She supposed the lady might be considering taking her as a servant. After all, she was common-born, and they didn't let commoners in the palace.
"Lady Uline?" she said timidly.
The lady's dancing gaze turned to her. "What is it?" she asked, and smiled. "Don't you like the clothes?"
She had never *seen* such fine cloth, silks and velvets and taffetas, and gauzes... "Oh no! Not at all, lady-"
"It's just Uline," the noblewoman said cheerfully, and Andrea was stunned by the lack of formality. A lady, a *noble* was telling *her* to call her by her name! As if she thought they were *equals*.
"It's just..."
Ryan was still shouting, she could hear strange sounds, what sounded like glass breaking.
"What do those words mean?" she asked cautiously.
Uline's eyes went wide and slightly panicked. "Oh...Andrea...I..."
"I am *not* stayin' here to be made into some charity case for you nobles!" she heard Ryan howl furiously, then the door to her room opened.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Uline suggested, a hint of mischief in her tones. Were all nobles like that here?
Ryan strode in, scowling. His hair was tousled and falling into a pair of smouldering grey eyes, while he was dressed in clothes that were indeed noble to the core. Lace, Andrea saw at once, did not suit him.
"C'mon, Andi," he snarled, "I ain't hangin' round for them to dress us up like dolls. I'm street. We wear *practical* clothes, not this...this..." He plucked at a torn sleeve. "*Frippery*," he said in tones of deep disgust.
"You get back here *now*!" roared a voice from across the corridor. "You may be favoured by Salmalin, thief, but you don't own this castle."
Ryan turned round and told him to do something that caused a reflective silence.
"What does that mean?" Andrea asked, puzzled by the desperate twitching of Uline's mouth, before the lady pulled out a hankerchief and had a coughing fit, and by the way the tailor at her feet had gasped.
Ryan froze. "Uh...don't you know?"
She shook her head, and stepped down from the fitting platform. He was right, the dress felt too grand for someone like her. She was happy in her old clothes. She wasn't noble-born like these folk. "I asked, didn't I?"
Ryan was the one person she felt she didn't have to be shy with. He was a little...rough around the edges, and maybe he had no table manners she had seen, and he wouldn't stop stealing, but he was the only person since her parents who had cared about what happened to her.
"I...er...um..." He squirmed. "Look, Andi, if you don't know, I don't want to tell ye. I ain't goin' to corrupt you."
She stamped her foot. "Explain!"
The others watched in bemusement as the tiny girl, who barely came up to Ryan's shoulder, backed him into a corner.
He was flushing now. "Andi...it ain't proper for a lady's ears."
"Well, we'll go outside and Lady Uline won't have to hear," she said patiently.
"That weren't what I meant," he muttered balefully. "You're a lady too now."
Andrea nearly screamed. "No, I'm *not*. I don't belong in all this...beautiful cloth, and I'm not near fit enough to go before the *king* and the *queen*-"
"You can quit that straight off," Ryan said, glaring at her. "Lose that 'I ain't worthy' attitude, it's been annoyin' me all journey back. You *are* good enough, an' so am I. Just because they were born to the right parents, that don't make them any better than us. But I'm with ye on the clothes," he added ruefully.
"But we aren't worthy!" she almost wailed, panicking at the thought of being brought before the two most important people in the kingdom. "You're a thief, and I'm a commoner, and we haven't even *done* anything!"
"I will slap you in a minute if you don't stop that," he said, and she could tell by the stubborn line of his mouth that Ryan Talver meant every word. He took her hand and dragged her out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them.
"Now you listen to me," he said quietly. "Puttin' a crown on someone's head don't make them any better. In fact, more often than not, it makes 'em worse. All that power just goes straight to their head, an' it don't stop till you cut it off. Maybe you an' me are common as they come, but so was Master Salmalin once, an' that lass they call the Wildmage. We're still *people*. Now you calm down, and let's think how we find us some good clothes."
Calm down. Good advice. She began to feel more than a little silly as she took a few deep breaths, and realised she had been hysterical over what didn't amount to that much after all.
"I feel wrong in these clothes," she ventured. "But...we can't say no to all these gifts."
"Says who?" Ryan inquired with deadly civility. "Look, they ain't got no right to dress us up like we're just...puppets. If they wants to talk to us, they can talk to *us*, not prettied up commoners who feel all out of place."
"But it's so ungrateful..." she protested faintly.
He tugged at a lock of her gilt hair, smiling faintly. "Aye, an' let them call us ungrateful. You can bet they'll call us worse than that. Some of 'em'll say we're fakes, an' criminals, an' that we're getting' an easy life 'cause of our Gifts. But if they're goin' to call me names, I want 'em to at least be insultin' me about the right things."
She giggled, and stood on tiptoe to ruffle his hair.
"Hey!" he said indignantly. "Is that agreement, then?"
"Yes," she said. "But where can we get some normal clothes. We're to be presented at noon, and it's a bare hour away!"
His smile was sly. "Just so happens I know of a Rider's barracks nearby where they keeps some old clothes for the new recruits who ruin theirs."
"You...thief!" she said, shocked. "I thought you were giving all that up."
He tilted his head on one side, looking sweet and appealing. "Aw...well, maybe I need to keep in practice, Andi. C'mon, before they start openin' the doors and lookin' for us."
Andrea kicked off her wonderful new fine shoes, and ran barefoot down the corridor after him.
* * * *
Phillippa ha Minch was enjoying her Shang classes.
"So tell me," Hakuin Seastone said, "where did you learn so much unarmed combat? Some of it's definitely Shang-taught."
She grinned, her sea-green eyes twinkling wickedly. They were her best feature, she knew, on a face that was not as perfect as fashion and husbands dictated. "Well, I was never very obedient-"
"We gathered that when you hijacked that hurrok," the Wildcat said dryly. The three of them were sat cross-legged on the floor of the small room she trained in after a particularly arduous session.
"And Father was determined that Kiery would be not merely a good knight, but the best he could be. So before he went off to be a page, Father let it be known that he'd be most grateful if any Shangs in the area would care to come and teach at Westos-by-the-Sea - that's our family home - for a while."
"I remember hearing about that," the Wildcat said thoughtfully. "It was back at the start of the King's reign, a year or two after Liam died." She sighed and for a moment looked her age. "I'm sure you've heard all the tales of the Shang Dragon, child. It's the price you pay for being the best. You have to prove it over and over and one day, you will lose."
Pip felt a stab of sympathy for this woman, who had obviously felt so much for the Dragon. "Yes," she said, more quietly. "Well, the Shang Falcon stayed for a while. I was five at the time, but I'd learned how to escape my governesses. I went up to him after he'd done pounding Kiery into submission and asked him if he'd teach me too."
The Shangs exchanged looks that Pip couldn't decipher the meaning of.
"He told me to go away, of course," she said with a grin, "but I started following him around and pestering him. He still wouldn't give in. So then..." She smiled at the memory of that wicked child. "Well, the servants at Westos always loved me, so I asked them to do me a few favours. Suddenly, his hot food went cold, and the cold food was warm, and the ale was flat and the salt became sugar....his rooms were never heated, and *still* he wouldn't give in-"
"Sounds like Joesh," the Wildcat murmured. "He never did know when to bend."
Pip laughed. "I don't know about that, but then I began to whisper to all the single ladies in Westos how he was looking for a wife-"
The Horse gave a bellow of laughter, throwing his head back. "Minx!"
"Oh, I was," Pip agreed. "And finally he gave in, and he began to teach me. Not much, you understand, because if my parents had found out, we would both have been for it. But a half hour slipped in every couple of days, and he gave me exercises that I practiced in my rooms every night, and slipped them into my dancing lessons as warm-ups."
"I had no idea you began so young," the Wildcat said in her husky voice. "Same as most commoners."
Pip shrugged. "Oh, it wasn't real training. I enjoyed it too much to be that."
The woman flashed her neat white teeth. "Are you sure? Seems to me you were born to fight, Lady ha Minch."
Pip shook her head. "No. And the Falcon left after a year. Then the Ferret came, and I thought I'd have to start all that persuasion again, but she didn't mind. She said that nobles should know how to fight, and that it didn't matter if I learnt a little because I would never be Shang."
"She always was one of the rebels," Hakuin commented softly. "Did you know she died in the Immortals War?"
Pip nodded, and her eyes darkened. "I adored her. She was so much fun, even if she was tough as overcooked beef."
"And after that," the Wildcat prompted.
"After that, Kiery went to the castle, and the Shang went away. But I carried on doing the exercises, and practicing on the village boys." She smiled faintly. "I used to slip out of the fief and down to Westos village, and pretend I was a commoner. But when I got older, things...changed. Some of them wanted...what I wasn't prepared to give, but after a swift kick in the right place, they soon stopped that."
She grinned at Hakuin's horrified expression, matched by the Wildcat's feral grin and nod of approval.
"And in the meantime, Father had hired a tumbler for evening entertainment. I hunted him down in the day, and made him teach me. And then there were mummers, and a contortionist, and even a circus that stayed for a couple of months. I learnt something from all of them...and when rapes began in the village-" A hard look settled over Pip's face, "-Father decided his darling children had better know how to defend themselves. The village girls be damned of course, he didn't care enough to teach *them*. But...they were my friends, and I tried to teach them."
"Aye, there's too many nobles who don't care for their own people," the Wildcat said grimly. Her grey eyes were splintered by a lightning anger. "Fools. They'd be nothing without their people."
"Things are changing," Hakuin said, and smiled though there was little humour to it. "The Yamani Isles would never have agreed to this alliance otherwise. Savages, your Tortallans used to call us. But *we* do not work those we consider below us to their death, nor do we give our nobles rights they have not earned." He sighed, and waved a hand. "But that doesn't matter."
"What matters," the Wildcat said, "is if you'd like to continue these classes. Informally, of course. After all, we have to teach those delightful young men who come to be knights." Her face was deceptively innocent. "They all think they can wrap an old lady like me around their spoilt little fingers."
"Eda usually wraps them around a tree," Hakuin said dryly.
The Wildcat bared her teeth at him, before she turned those astute eyes to Pip. "We'd like you to take over teaching the noblewomen for us eventually. You're good enough, and you seem to have taught those squires a few things - young Queenscove nearly threw me a few days ago - so you've got the knack of it."
She beamed at them. A chance to stay and study this wonderful, invigorating order of people, a chance to do something that would matter - a chance to be something other than Phillippa ha Minch, the court joke.
"I'll do it," she said.
Little did she know what she would begin.
But that, of course, is another story.
* * * *
"Now this," Ryan declared in the privacy of the Riders' storeroom, "is much better."
I don't know... Andrea thought. She looked down at herself, as she pulled on the clothes behind an elaborate dressing screen. They were so...bold.
"You comin' out, lass?" His voice floated over to her, while she bit a nail and wondered if it was *right* to wear such things.
"Lass?"
"All right," she said hastily, her golden eyes soft and worried.
She stepped out in time to see Ryan emptying a bag of coin into his sleeve. For a moment, it didn't quite register properly, then she froze still and pure anger exploded low in her stomach.
He was *thieving*. Not merely borrowing clothes, but *stealing*. In their new home, from all these people who had been so *good* to him?
"Ryan *Talver*," she howled, furious. "What are you doing?"
His face was unrepentant, and she itched to slap him for a moment. "I'm movin' things," he said mock-earnestly. He tilted his dark head on one side. "They won't miss it, lass."
"That..." she mouthed for a moment, the righteous ire creeping up through her veins like steam. "That's *not the point*! It's *wrong*."
He gave her an endearing grin. "Well, there's wrong an' there's wrong. You'll learn that after a while."
"I will *not*," she snapped, striding forward, all thoughts of how she had to look flown from her head. "Put it back!"
He grinned. He thought it was *funny*. "Don't get yourself all in a pet now. I wouldn't want that little heart of yours to stop beatin'."
Her fingers twitched, but Andrea forced them down by her side. She wasn't sure he'd take well to being hit, and she didn't know him well enough to guess his reaction. "I'll beat *you*." Control, she urged herself. He's a thief. It's what he does. Try to be understanding.
But he must know it's wrong, surely, another voice chanted. Can't he see what an opportunity we're being given?
His face was martyred. "Look, Andi, it ain't no big deal. It's not like it'll bankrupt 'em. This is a *palace*."
"Don't you have any morals?" she demanded.
His mouth tightened, and she saw the first hint of annoyance in the way his eyes narrowed, and misty threads of blue began to drift into the peaceful grey of his irises. "Don't you lecture *me* about morals. You ain't never lived on the streets."
"This isn't the streets!" she shouted, exasperated. "This is a palace. You're not a thief now! We're *mages*. We're supposed to...to save the realm, not rob it blind!"
He shrugged morosely, and for the first time, a sulky look appeared on his face. Then she realised that perhaps Ryan Talver wasn't as simple as he appeared to be. But then...who was?
"It don't matter," he insisted vehemently. "It's just a little-"
She stared at him, astonished at how he could be so stubborn at something so simple. Theft was *wrong*. There was no two ways about it. He didn't need to steal. Not now, not when there was all this for them.
"But can't you see it *does*?" she said, hating the note of pleading in her voice. "It's never right, Ryan, how can it be?"
He looked at her, and sighed. "All right," he muttered. "If you're goin' to go all high an' mighty on me, I'll put it back. But you don't understand, Andi. Thievin' ain't always bad. One day I'll take you down to the streets and show you. You'll see then."
I doubt it, she thought.
He shook his head, then looked at her and blinked. And smiled slowly, a sweetly awed curve of his mouth that spread like a fresh dawn. "Well, so ye do have legs. I was beginnin' to wonder if you had wheels under all them petticoats."
She looked at the trousers. "You don't think they make me...wanton?"
His laughter exploded onto the air. She was a touch offended, at first, as he doubled over howling. Didn't he know that women in trousers weren't any better than they ought to be? They were saying they were equal with *men*. And she knew that wasn't true. Hadn't everyone in her village told her that, over and over?
"You got some funny ideas, lass," he said when he could talk again, gasping for breath. "Wanton? You couldn't be wanton if you tried. It'd be like...like seein' the King in a tutu," and then he was off into fresh paroxysms of laughter.
"All right," she said huffily, not liking how ignorant he had made her feel. "So they don't look wrong?"
"They look normal to me," he said cheerfully. "Smile, lass. I didn't mean to offend ye."
Maybe we're not quite as alike as I thought, Andrea decided, but she couldn't make up her mind if that was good or bad. Their magicks could combine, but their ideas, their lives...a different matter. One that would take a lot of time and effort to resolve.
"When are we supposed to be presented to the royals?" he asked, checking his reflection in a mirror with a little bit of an insecure, uncertain look on his face. For some reason, he didn't seem to like mirrors, or lakes, or any kind of reflective surface. She didn't know why, but determined to find out.
"About...oh, Mithros, now!" she squealed. "What do we do, we'll be late, oh, they'll-ike!"
Her words were cut off as Ryan grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the storeroom towards the court.
* * * *
~ Mage? ~
Numair jumped at the voice, a deep resonant voice that echoed faintly. He turned to see thirty feet of gleaming emerald dragon behind him. He was waiting outside the court for his absent students, at the top of the great stairs.
The dragon was slumped on the ramparts outside, spoiling many a courtesan's stately promenade. Several edged around it, hands spread against the walls, while others looked queasy and turned away. Jademirth had made rather too many jokes about eating humans for anyone's liking.
How Jademirth had managed to sneak up on him, he didn't know.
But still, he bowed, and thought he saw a flicker of amusement in the narrow turquoise eyes. "How may I help?"
The dragon had made itself useful. For starters, it had begun to devour any particularly nasty immortals that terrorised the outer regions. It was a fount of formerly lost knowledge, and knew some spells that Numair had been delighted to learn.
It also had a sense of humour. This, in a gigantic flaming monstrous peril, could only be considered an advantage.
~ It's about your little mortalings, ~ the dragon murmured. It examined its claws in the sunlight, much like a lady might her nails. ~ The ones called Ryan Talver and Andrea Kirisra. ~
That startled Numair. Dragons, as a rule, didn't bother with mortals' names. They weren't significant enough. For Jademirth to address his students by name was rare indeed.
"You know their names?" he asked.
~ Yes. ~ The dragon paused. ~ They are important. Our legends speak often of them. ~
"Your legends?" He knew the dragons were immensely powerful seers of the future, but for two mortals to feature...it was phenomenal.
~ Indeed. I understand they have told you they are touched by the gods? ~ Jademirth snorted. ~ Interfering imbeciles. ~
"I...understand so," Numair said guardedly.
The tail lashed, light rippling along it in green and white bands. ~ Do you know why they are chosen? ~
"Sheer luck, one assumes," he said dryly, wondering just what the dragon was working up to.
~ Wrong. ~ The dragon's head darted forward on the long neck. ~ Do you know, sometimes your gods like to have a little fun. They...what is your mortal word? Oh yes, they manifest themselves. ~
"Manifest?" he repeated dumbly, feeling vaguely baffled. He really couldn't see where this was leading. "You mean they take on mortal form?"
~ Correct. ~ It blinked, and settled itself back like a contented cat. ~ And it so happens that oh, sixteen years ago, the one who is called Mithros chose to take the form of a wandering bard, and the Goddess the form of a beautiful - naturally, those wretched deities are obsessed with perfection - young flower seller. ~
"This is all very interesting," the mage said, frowning, "but I don't see-"
~ Mithros in time came to a village in the North. And he met a woman, charmed her with his amazing singing (it's always struck me as suspicious that a war-god plays the harp so well) promptly deflowered her - men! - ~
"You wouldn't be a female by any chance, would you?" the dark-eyed mage said uneasily.
Teeth gleamed. ~ Well worked out. Anyway, he left this mortal woman pregnant. Happily for her, another man, a mortal, loved her and so he married her and claimed the child was his own. It was a girl, incidentally. A girl with golden hair, hair like the sun- ~
"Oh god," Numair said fervently. "You don't mean-"
~ And of course, let us not forget our lady goddess, who met a mortal man, and left *him* a child before she trotted back up to the Divine Realms - it's fortunate your dear deities are omnipotent, or a lot of prayers would have gone unanswered for nine months - who happened to be a boy. The father, embittered by your goddess's abandonment, hated the boy- ~
"Are you telling me Ryan and Andrea are...demi-gods?" Numair said faintly.
~ Well, where did you think they got all that power from? The faeries? ~
Numair decided not to mention that that idea had crossed his mind.
~ Great things lie in store for them, ~ the dragon finished. ~ I just thought you should know. In case any odd powers start making themselves known. They're a magnet for immortals - we can sense their blood miles away. ~
"*Wonderful*," he said heavily.
~ You might want to start looking at prophecies, ~ Jademirth said. ~ Oh, and maybe you should pray a little too. ~ It paused. ~ Then again, considering that both your mortalings' parents prayed, maybe you shouldn't. ~
He was about to answer, when the herald summoned him into the courtroom.
* * * *
Queen Thayet tapped her fingers on the throne. "Well?" she said a fraction coolly, pursing the mouth that had inspired many a song. Her K'mir blood was strong in her war-like expression. "Where are they?"
"I don't-" he began.
The doors were flung back, lightly stunning the herald at the top, and two blurs flew down to stop at his feet, flushed and mussed.
"I'm so sorry we're late," the first said, and threw back tumbled golden hair to reveal Andrea Kirisra's small, anxious face. "Oh, we forgot the time and-"
"Are those *Riders' clothes* you're wearing?" the Queen, shocked, interrupted. She leant forward on her throne, hazel eyes keen.
"We provide better hospitality than that," the King murmured, his brows drawing together. "Numair, surely you asked for Thayet's girl - Lalasa, is it?"
"He did," Ryan interrupted, looking at the royals with bold and unafraid eyes, unlike Andrea who kept her head down. "But we ain't no nobles. They weren't comfortable."
The King's mouth quirked. "And your lateness?" he said, a shade coldly.
"We had to go an' raid the Riders," Ryan said unabashedly.
The Queen's glare was piercing. "Master Numair led me to believe you had renounced your taking ways."
"Just keepin' my hand in, m'lady," the thief said bouncily. He trod on Andrea's foot until she looked up.
Numair was torn between wanted to sink in to the ground and laughing out loud.
"For what, precisely?" Thayet said sharply. Her eyes flicked to Numair briefly, and he could read what she was thinking. You had better keep them under control.
He shrugged. "Ye never know." He coughed. "Anyway, we got somethin' to show you, highnesses."
Now the girl looked a little less afraid, and a spark of eagerness jumped in her eyes.
Numair could see the amusement writ in the eyes of the Court at this pair of scruffy teenagers. Ryan, dazzlingly good-looking even in the faded trousers and shirt he wore, drew the eyes of the young girls, though they hid their longing quickly. Common, after all. And Andrea, a tiny golden thing, if not pretty, then certainly delicate, looked like nothing but prey to the suaver of the young men there.
The King and Queen exchanged a glance. "Please, do," the King said with a brief flick of his fingers.
His two students looked at one another, and Numair felt the power humming in the air before he saw the fire flare around them both, Gold, soft and rippling like layers of veils about Andrea and a deep clear turquoise spiking about Ryan.
Then their two halos touched, and changed to deep simmering jade.
The Court gasped as in the air appeared a wondrous vision wrought of silver and golden light, sketching itself out as first a cage of bones, pale and glistening, then magical flesh pearling on, glowing and shifting and finally solidifying. Splitting in two, and still growing, sparks of amber and cobalt appearing in the design, until before the court, perfect and amazingly lifelike stood two statues of the King and Queen.
"We're very glad to be here," Andrea said softly, into the reverent hush.
"Thank you," Ryan added.
Children of the gods, Numair thought. The future would be interesting.
He couldn't wait.
~* Fin *~
There. It *is* done now :-) Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time round and sorry it took so long. I've been working a lot lately. I've been floored by you all - you're all so wonderfully patient, thank you! Apologies if I'm about to not make much sense. I've been up for 36 hours now, sleep just isn't heading my way, so I'm a little urgh at the mo.
Thank you to:
Kendra/Chip: Well, I made a start on the sequel :-) Hopefully I'll get Part Three out pretty soon. I'm psyched that you liked!
Naavi: I know how you feel without that sleep! I've been getting up at 5am (I am not a morning person). ::grins:: Thanks! I'm knocked out that you enjoyed it; it was a lot of fun to write. Hopefully, A Lady's Shield'll be a little neater than this one.
Danel: Bruna will get her own story after I've finished A Lady's Shield. I've got a few bits and pieces written for it. Thanks!
Myst: Good god, torture! I can't wait! :-) God, I have got to get some more free time to write. No, I am getting on with A Lady's Shield, I'm just trying to figure out how to get where I want to go.
Quartz: Muchos gracias, leader of the Qs J (Hey, do the rest of the Qs know this?) I hope the characters will develop a little more in the next story, and I'll get more used to writing in a different world. It's bizarre.
Larzdinn: I have actually read Squire now :-) Well, that's my fanfics screwed (but who cares?), but it was such a good book! My exams went well. 5 As - can't complain! Cheers!
:o) Well, not the fastest delivery ever of a part (maybe I should change my author name to Snail.) but better late than never right? Thank you for all your comments!
Sparrow: I didn't know FFN had changed anything. Except for the Big Crash. Man, that was a pain! Hang on, let me try and get my bloated head back from floating up near the ceiling...often I ran out of words J Then I use my words. Which may not mean anything to anyone else, but are dang good superlatives from where I'm sitting (word of the week: indeniagus.)
Atira: Thank you. J I'm afraid you'll have to put up with the author notes. They're just another part of it.
Briar's Rose: Boy, that must have given you PC finger (hey, you can get Nintendo thumb, right?) it took a while, but it is continued!
Camilla: Well, I managed two out of three - Remember and FoF. Not too bad, right? ::grimace:: I have had too many other things on, but school starts again next week - so evenings free to write again. No exams. More free time due to less subjects = only a good thing. Thanks!
Jinx: I hope you liked Scotland :-) I've never been there (alas, I should, it's only a couple of hundred miles away.) Thanks"!
Cass: Thanks :-) I'm finally laying this story to rest. After all, it's only taken me, what 9 months to finish. (Oh god, now I feel guilty.) Thank you muchly, chica!
Kiiriana: Thanks you :-) What a lovely list - I'm knocked out!
Michelle: Yup, This was the first Tp fic. You don't have to believe, but it don't make it any less true!
Tayna: Thank you J I had a lot of fun writing it - it gave me a whole new world to get lost in.
Lady: Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide is one of my fave series. I love the bit in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe when Marvin washes his head down the phone at them. I still have to read Pratchett's new one (I have no money and no library. Hence deprivation.) Considering wirting professionally (or trying at least) far far in the future :-) Thanking thee muchly!
Jenn: Thanks! Why don't you have your comp now?
Team Socket: All things come to an end. Except for school, which seems to never end. Thank you!
Yuna: My imagination does tend to run away with me. :-) It's fun. It makes life more interesting. And scary for other people. :;grins:: Thank you!
Kateydidnt: Didn't what, incidentally? :-) Thank you - I'm thrilled you're enjoying it! It's always amazing to know that the strange little children of that mass I call my brain (that others call 'the empty space') are enjoyed!
The Lady Tiger: My god, it must have taken you yonks to read it! (Probably less time than it took me to write it though :-)) Thank you - I hope you enjoy the others! And my imagination is currently orbiting somewhere round mars J I'm about to go join it.
Thanks to all of you - you've been awesome.
Ki
Hanging On: Epilogue
"*What* the hell do you think you're doin'?" a voice shouted from across the hallway. "I ain't wearin' that revoltin'-" A stream of words followed which made Andrea's tailor flush and start jabbing pins into her clothes intensely.
Ryan, it seemed, wasn't taking too well to the clothes that they were being fitted with.
And she could share the feeling. They had been rushed into the palace by Numair Salmalin, the big man that Ryan said was one of the most powerful mages this side of anywhere, and dropped with the housemistress who had been told to make them presentable enough for the king and queen.
The *king*. And the *queen*. She was a common girl. She couldn't meet *royalty*.
And the clothes were all too beautiful for anyone like her, and the people were so elegant, and even the maids dressed immaculately. Andrea felt so out of place here. She had lived in a little house all her life, not a palace.
Ryan's curses filled the air rapidly as he argued with the tailor.
Andrea listened, wide-eyed and wondering just what he was *saying*. She stole a glance at the noblewoman with them, a lady by the name of Uline, and saw she was looking slightly shocked.
After a particularly inventive curse, she looked down at the woman who was fiddling with her hem and said, "What did that mean?"
"What?" the woman said indistinctly, taking a pin from her mouth and fixing it.
She repeated the phrase.
"My lady!" the woman gasped, "you must *never* say such things! It's...it's..." Her voice filled with contempt. "Common."
"I *am* common," Andrea pointed out reasonably, grimacing at her reflection. "Lady..." She swallowed, unsure if she should address the Lady Uline, though she did look friendly with her dark eyes and bright smile. And she had been so kind to Andrea, even though she was common.
She supposed the lady might be considering taking her as a servant. After all, she was common-born, and they didn't let commoners in the palace.
"Lady Uline?" she said timidly.
The lady's dancing gaze turned to her. "What is it?" she asked, and smiled. "Don't you like the clothes?"
She had never *seen* such fine cloth, silks and velvets and taffetas, and gauzes... "Oh no! Not at all, lady-"
"It's just Uline," the noblewoman said cheerfully, and Andrea was stunned by the lack of formality. A lady, a *noble* was telling *her* to call her by her name! As if she thought they were *equals*.
"It's just..."
Ryan was still shouting, she could hear strange sounds, what sounded like glass breaking.
"What do those words mean?" she asked cautiously.
Uline's eyes went wide and slightly panicked. "Oh...Andrea...I..."
"I am *not* stayin' here to be made into some charity case for you nobles!" she heard Ryan howl furiously, then the door to her room opened.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Uline suggested, a hint of mischief in her tones. Were all nobles like that here?
Ryan strode in, scowling. His hair was tousled and falling into a pair of smouldering grey eyes, while he was dressed in clothes that were indeed noble to the core. Lace, Andrea saw at once, did not suit him.
"C'mon, Andi," he snarled, "I ain't hangin' round for them to dress us up like dolls. I'm street. We wear *practical* clothes, not this...this..." He plucked at a torn sleeve. "*Frippery*," he said in tones of deep disgust.
"You get back here *now*!" roared a voice from across the corridor. "You may be favoured by Salmalin, thief, but you don't own this castle."
Ryan turned round and told him to do something that caused a reflective silence.
"What does that mean?" Andrea asked, puzzled by the desperate twitching of Uline's mouth, before the lady pulled out a hankerchief and had a coughing fit, and by the way the tailor at her feet had gasped.
Ryan froze. "Uh...don't you know?"
She shook her head, and stepped down from the fitting platform. He was right, the dress felt too grand for someone like her. She was happy in her old clothes. She wasn't noble-born like these folk. "I asked, didn't I?"
Ryan was the one person she felt she didn't have to be shy with. He was a little...rough around the edges, and maybe he had no table manners she had seen, and he wouldn't stop stealing, but he was the only person since her parents who had cared about what happened to her.
"I...er...um..." He squirmed. "Look, Andi, if you don't know, I don't want to tell ye. I ain't goin' to corrupt you."
She stamped her foot. "Explain!"
The others watched in bemusement as the tiny girl, who barely came up to Ryan's shoulder, backed him into a corner.
He was flushing now. "Andi...it ain't proper for a lady's ears."
"Well, we'll go outside and Lady Uline won't have to hear," she said patiently.
"That weren't what I meant," he muttered balefully. "You're a lady too now."
Andrea nearly screamed. "No, I'm *not*. I don't belong in all this...beautiful cloth, and I'm not near fit enough to go before the *king* and the *queen*-"
"You can quit that straight off," Ryan said, glaring at her. "Lose that 'I ain't worthy' attitude, it's been annoyin' me all journey back. You *are* good enough, an' so am I. Just because they were born to the right parents, that don't make them any better than us. But I'm with ye on the clothes," he added ruefully.
"But we aren't worthy!" she almost wailed, panicking at the thought of being brought before the two most important people in the kingdom. "You're a thief, and I'm a commoner, and we haven't even *done* anything!"
"I will slap you in a minute if you don't stop that," he said, and she could tell by the stubborn line of his mouth that Ryan Talver meant every word. He took her hand and dragged her out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them.
"Now you listen to me," he said quietly. "Puttin' a crown on someone's head don't make them any better. In fact, more often than not, it makes 'em worse. All that power just goes straight to their head, an' it don't stop till you cut it off. Maybe you an' me are common as they come, but so was Master Salmalin once, an' that lass they call the Wildmage. We're still *people*. Now you calm down, and let's think how we find us some good clothes."
Calm down. Good advice. She began to feel more than a little silly as she took a few deep breaths, and realised she had been hysterical over what didn't amount to that much after all.
"I feel wrong in these clothes," she ventured. "But...we can't say no to all these gifts."
"Says who?" Ryan inquired with deadly civility. "Look, they ain't got no right to dress us up like we're just...puppets. If they wants to talk to us, they can talk to *us*, not prettied up commoners who feel all out of place."
"But it's so ungrateful..." she protested faintly.
He tugged at a lock of her gilt hair, smiling faintly. "Aye, an' let them call us ungrateful. You can bet they'll call us worse than that. Some of 'em'll say we're fakes, an' criminals, an' that we're getting' an easy life 'cause of our Gifts. But if they're goin' to call me names, I want 'em to at least be insultin' me about the right things."
She giggled, and stood on tiptoe to ruffle his hair.
"Hey!" he said indignantly. "Is that agreement, then?"
"Yes," she said. "But where can we get some normal clothes. We're to be presented at noon, and it's a bare hour away!"
His smile was sly. "Just so happens I know of a Rider's barracks nearby where they keeps some old clothes for the new recruits who ruin theirs."
"You...thief!" she said, shocked. "I thought you were giving all that up."
He tilted his head on one side, looking sweet and appealing. "Aw...well, maybe I need to keep in practice, Andi. C'mon, before they start openin' the doors and lookin' for us."
Andrea kicked off her wonderful new fine shoes, and ran barefoot down the corridor after him.
* * * *
Phillippa ha Minch was enjoying her Shang classes.
"So tell me," Hakuin Seastone said, "where did you learn so much unarmed combat? Some of it's definitely Shang-taught."
She grinned, her sea-green eyes twinkling wickedly. They were her best feature, she knew, on a face that was not as perfect as fashion and husbands dictated. "Well, I was never very obedient-"
"We gathered that when you hijacked that hurrok," the Wildcat said dryly. The three of them were sat cross-legged on the floor of the small room she trained in after a particularly arduous session.
"And Father was determined that Kiery would be not merely a good knight, but the best he could be. So before he went off to be a page, Father let it be known that he'd be most grateful if any Shangs in the area would care to come and teach at Westos-by-the-Sea - that's our family home - for a while."
"I remember hearing about that," the Wildcat said thoughtfully. "It was back at the start of the King's reign, a year or two after Liam died." She sighed and for a moment looked her age. "I'm sure you've heard all the tales of the Shang Dragon, child. It's the price you pay for being the best. You have to prove it over and over and one day, you will lose."
Pip felt a stab of sympathy for this woman, who had obviously felt so much for the Dragon. "Yes," she said, more quietly. "Well, the Shang Falcon stayed for a while. I was five at the time, but I'd learned how to escape my governesses. I went up to him after he'd done pounding Kiery into submission and asked him if he'd teach me too."
The Shangs exchanged looks that Pip couldn't decipher the meaning of.
"He told me to go away, of course," she said with a grin, "but I started following him around and pestering him. He still wouldn't give in. So then..." She smiled at the memory of that wicked child. "Well, the servants at Westos always loved me, so I asked them to do me a few favours. Suddenly, his hot food went cold, and the cold food was warm, and the ale was flat and the salt became sugar....his rooms were never heated, and *still* he wouldn't give in-"
"Sounds like Joesh," the Wildcat murmured. "He never did know when to bend."
Pip laughed. "I don't know about that, but then I began to whisper to all the single ladies in Westos how he was looking for a wife-"
The Horse gave a bellow of laughter, throwing his head back. "Minx!"
"Oh, I was," Pip agreed. "And finally he gave in, and he began to teach me. Not much, you understand, because if my parents had found out, we would both have been for it. But a half hour slipped in every couple of days, and he gave me exercises that I practiced in my rooms every night, and slipped them into my dancing lessons as warm-ups."
"I had no idea you began so young," the Wildcat said in her husky voice. "Same as most commoners."
Pip shrugged. "Oh, it wasn't real training. I enjoyed it too much to be that."
The woman flashed her neat white teeth. "Are you sure? Seems to me you were born to fight, Lady ha Minch."
Pip shook her head. "No. And the Falcon left after a year. Then the Ferret came, and I thought I'd have to start all that persuasion again, but she didn't mind. She said that nobles should know how to fight, and that it didn't matter if I learnt a little because I would never be Shang."
"She always was one of the rebels," Hakuin commented softly. "Did you know she died in the Immortals War?"
Pip nodded, and her eyes darkened. "I adored her. She was so much fun, even if she was tough as overcooked beef."
"And after that," the Wildcat prompted.
"After that, Kiery went to the castle, and the Shang went away. But I carried on doing the exercises, and practicing on the village boys." She smiled faintly. "I used to slip out of the fief and down to Westos village, and pretend I was a commoner. But when I got older, things...changed. Some of them wanted...what I wasn't prepared to give, but after a swift kick in the right place, they soon stopped that."
She grinned at Hakuin's horrified expression, matched by the Wildcat's feral grin and nod of approval.
"And in the meantime, Father had hired a tumbler for evening entertainment. I hunted him down in the day, and made him teach me. And then there were mummers, and a contortionist, and even a circus that stayed for a couple of months. I learnt something from all of them...and when rapes began in the village-" A hard look settled over Pip's face, "-Father decided his darling children had better know how to defend themselves. The village girls be damned of course, he didn't care enough to teach *them*. But...they were my friends, and I tried to teach them."
"Aye, there's too many nobles who don't care for their own people," the Wildcat said grimly. Her grey eyes were splintered by a lightning anger. "Fools. They'd be nothing without their people."
"Things are changing," Hakuin said, and smiled though there was little humour to it. "The Yamani Isles would never have agreed to this alliance otherwise. Savages, your Tortallans used to call us. But *we* do not work those we consider below us to their death, nor do we give our nobles rights they have not earned." He sighed, and waved a hand. "But that doesn't matter."
"What matters," the Wildcat said, "is if you'd like to continue these classes. Informally, of course. After all, we have to teach those delightful young men who come to be knights." Her face was deceptively innocent. "They all think they can wrap an old lady like me around their spoilt little fingers."
"Eda usually wraps them around a tree," Hakuin said dryly.
The Wildcat bared her teeth at him, before she turned those astute eyes to Pip. "We'd like you to take over teaching the noblewomen for us eventually. You're good enough, and you seem to have taught those squires a few things - young Queenscove nearly threw me a few days ago - so you've got the knack of it."
She beamed at them. A chance to stay and study this wonderful, invigorating order of people, a chance to do something that would matter - a chance to be something other than Phillippa ha Minch, the court joke.
"I'll do it," she said.
Little did she know what she would begin.
But that, of course, is another story.
* * * *
"Now this," Ryan declared in the privacy of the Riders' storeroom, "is much better."
I don't know... Andrea thought. She looked down at herself, as she pulled on the clothes behind an elaborate dressing screen. They were so...bold.
"You comin' out, lass?" His voice floated over to her, while she bit a nail and wondered if it was *right* to wear such things.
"Lass?"
"All right," she said hastily, her golden eyes soft and worried.
She stepped out in time to see Ryan emptying a bag of coin into his sleeve. For a moment, it didn't quite register properly, then she froze still and pure anger exploded low in her stomach.
He was *thieving*. Not merely borrowing clothes, but *stealing*. In their new home, from all these people who had been so *good* to him?
"Ryan *Talver*," she howled, furious. "What are you doing?"
His face was unrepentant, and she itched to slap him for a moment. "I'm movin' things," he said mock-earnestly. He tilted his dark head on one side. "They won't miss it, lass."
"That..." she mouthed for a moment, the righteous ire creeping up through her veins like steam. "That's *not the point*! It's *wrong*."
He gave her an endearing grin. "Well, there's wrong an' there's wrong. You'll learn that after a while."
"I will *not*," she snapped, striding forward, all thoughts of how she had to look flown from her head. "Put it back!"
He grinned. He thought it was *funny*. "Don't get yourself all in a pet now. I wouldn't want that little heart of yours to stop beatin'."
Her fingers twitched, but Andrea forced them down by her side. She wasn't sure he'd take well to being hit, and she didn't know him well enough to guess his reaction. "I'll beat *you*." Control, she urged herself. He's a thief. It's what he does. Try to be understanding.
But he must know it's wrong, surely, another voice chanted. Can't he see what an opportunity we're being given?
His face was martyred. "Look, Andi, it ain't no big deal. It's not like it'll bankrupt 'em. This is a *palace*."
"Don't you have any morals?" she demanded.
His mouth tightened, and she saw the first hint of annoyance in the way his eyes narrowed, and misty threads of blue began to drift into the peaceful grey of his irises. "Don't you lecture *me* about morals. You ain't never lived on the streets."
"This isn't the streets!" she shouted, exasperated. "This is a palace. You're not a thief now! We're *mages*. We're supposed to...to save the realm, not rob it blind!"
He shrugged morosely, and for the first time, a sulky look appeared on his face. Then she realised that perhaps Ryan Talver wasn't as simple as he appeared to be. But then...who was?
"It don't matter," he insisted vehemently. "It's just a little-"
She stared at him, astonished at how he could be so stubborn at something so simple. Theft was *wrong*. There was no two ways about it. He didn't need to steal. Not now, not when there was all this for them.
"But can't you see it *does*?" she said, hating the note of pleading in her voice. "It's never right, Ryan, how can it be?"
He looked at her, and sighed. "All right," he muttered. "If you're goin' to go all high an' mighty on me, I'll put it back. But you don't understand, Andi. Thievin' ain't always bad. One day I'll take you down to the streets and show you. You'll see then."
I doubt it, she thought.
He shook his head, then looked at her and blinked. And smiled slowly, a sweetly awed curve of his mouth that spread like a fresh dawn. "Well, so ye do have legs. I was beginnin' to wonder if you had wheels under all them petticoats."
She looked at the trousers. "You don't think they make me...wanton?"
His laughter exploded onto the air. She was a touch offended, at first, as he doubled over howling. Didn't he know that women in trousers weren't any better than they ought to be? They were saying they were equal with *men*. And she knew that wasn't true. Hadn't everyone in her village told her that, over and over?
"You got some funny ideas, lass," he said when he could talk again, gasping for breath. "Wanton? You couldn't be wanton if you tried. It'd be like...like seein' the King in a tutu," and then he was off into fresh paroxysms of laughter.
"All right," she said huffily, not liking how ignorant he had made her feel. "So they don't look wrong?"
"They look normal to me," he said cheerfully. "Smile, lass. I didn't mean to offend ye."
Maybe we're not quite as alike as I thought, Andrea decided, but she couldn't make up her mind if that was good or bad. Their magicks could combine, but their ideas, their lives...a different matter. One that would take a lot of time and effort to resolve.
"When are we supposed to be presented to the royals?" he asked, checking his reflection in a mirror with a little bit of an insecure, uncertain look on his face. For some reason, he didn't seem to like mirrors, or lakes, or any kind of reflective surface. She didn't know why, but determined to find out.
"About...oh, Mithros, now!" she squealed. "What do we do, we'll be late, oh, they'll-ike!"
Her words were cut off as Ryan grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the storeroom towards the court.
* * * *
~ Mage? ~
Numair jumped at the voice, a deep resonant voice that echoed faintly. He turned to see thirty feet of gleaming emerald dragon behind him. He was waiting outside the court for his absent students, at the top of the great stairs.
The dragon was slumped on the ramparts outside, spoiling many a courtesan's stately promenade. Several edged around it, hands spread against the walls, while others looked queasy and turned away. Jademirth had made rather too many jokes about eating humans for anyone's liking.
How Jademirth had managed to sneak up on him, he didn't know.
But still, he bowed, and thought he saw a flicker of amusement in the narrow turquoise eyes. "How may I help?"
The dragon had made itself useful. For starters, it had begun to devour any particularly nasty immortals that terrorised the outer regions. It was a fount of formerly lost knowledge, and knew some spells that Numair had been delighted to learn.
It also had a sense of humour. This, in a gigantic flaming monstrous peril, could only be considered an advantage.
~ It's about your little mortalings, ~ the dragon murmured. It examined its claws in the sunlight, much like a lady might her nails. ~ The ones called Ryan Talver and Andrea Kirisra. ~
That startled Numair. Dragons, as a rule, didn't bother with mortals' names. They weren't significant enough. For Jademirth to address his students by name was rare indeed.
"You know their names?" he asked.
~ Yes. ~ The dragon paused. ~ They are important. Our legends speak often of them. ~
"Your legends?" He knew the dragons were immensely powerful seers of the future, but for two mortals to feature...it was phenomenal.
~ Indeed. I understand they have told you they are touched by the gods? ~ Jademirth snorted. ~ Interfering imbeciles. ~
"I...understand so," Numair said guardedly.
The tail lashed, light rippling along it in green and white bands. ~ Do you know why they are chosen? ~
"Sheer luck, one assumes," he said dryly, wondering just what the dragon was working up to.
~ Wrong. ~ The dragon's head darted forward on the long neck. ~ Do you know, sometimes your gods like to have a little fun. They...what is your mortal word? Oh yes, they manifest themselves. ~
"Manifest?" he repeated dumbly, feeling vaguely baffled. He really couldn't see where this was leading. "You mean they take on mortal form?"
~ Correct. ~ It blinked, and settled itself back like a contented cat. ~ And it so happens that oh, sixteen years ago, the one who is called Mithros chose to take the form of a wandering bard, and the Goddess the form of a beautiful - naturally, those wretched deities are obsessed with perfection - young flower seller. ~
"This is all very interesting," the mage said, frowning, "but I don't see-"
~ Mithros in time came to a village in the North. And he met a woman, charmed her with his amazing singing (it's always struck me as suspicious that a war-god plays the harp so well) promptly deflowered her - men! - ~
"You wouldn't be a female by any chance, would you?" the dark-eyed mage said uneasily.
Teeth gleamed. ~ Well worked out. Anyway, he left this mortal woman pregnant. Happily for her, another man, a mortal, loved her and so he married her and claimed the child was his own. It was a girl, incidentally. A girl with golden hair, hair like the sun- ~
"Oh god," Numair said fervently. "You don't mean-"
~ And of course, let us not forget our lady goddess, who met a mortal man, and left *him* a child before she trotted back up to the Divine Realms - it's fortunate your dear deities are omnipotent, or a lot of prayers would have gone unanswered for nine months - who happened to be a boy. The father, embittered by your goddess's abandonment, hated the boy- ~
"Are you telling me Ryan and Andrea are...demi-gods?" Numair said faintly.
~ Well, where did you think they got all that power from? The faeries? ~
Numair decided not to mention that that idea had crossed his mind.
~ Great things lie in store for them, ~ the dragon finished. ~ I just thought you should know. In case any odd powers start making themselves known. They're a magnet for immortals - we can sense their blood miles away. ~
"*Wonderful*," he said heavily.
~ You might want to start looking at prophecies, ~ Jademirth said. ~ Oh, and maybe you should pray a little too. ~ It paused. ~ Then again, considering that both your mortalings' parents prayed, maybe you shouldn't. ~
He was about to answer, when the herald summoned him into the courtroom.
* * * *
Queen Thayet tapped her fingers on the throne. "Well?" she said a fraction coolly, pursing the mouth that had inspired many a song. Her K'mir blood was strong in her war-like expression. "Where are they?"
"I don't-" he began.
The doors were flung back, lightly stunning the herald at the top, and two blurs flew down to stop at his feet, flushed and mussed.
"I'm so sorry we're late," the first said, and threw back tumbled golden hair to reveal Andrea Kirisra's small, anxious face. "Oh, we forgot the time and-"
"Are those *Riders' clothes* you're wearing?" the Queen, shocked, interrupted. She leant forward on her throne, hazel eyes keen.
"We provide better hospitality than that," the King murmured, his brows drawing together. "Numair, surely you asked for Thayet's girl - Lalasa, is it?"
"He did," Ryan interrupted, looking at the royals with bold and unafraid eyes, unlike Andrea who kept her head down. "But we ain't no nobles. They weren't comfortable."
The King's mouth quirked. "And your lateness?" he said, a shade coldly.
"We had to go an' raid the Riders," Ryan said unabashedly.
The Queen's glare was piercing. "Master Numair led me to believe you had renounced your taking ways."
"Just keepin' my hand in, m'lady," the thief said bouncily. He trod on Andrea's foot until she looked up.
Numair was torn between wanted to sink in to the ground and laughing out loud.
"For what, precisely?" Thayet said sharply. Her eyes flicked to Numair briefly, and he could read what she was thinking. You had better keep them under control.
He shrugged. "Ye never know." He coughed. "Anyway, we got somethin' to show you, highnesses."
Now the girl looked a little less afraid, and a spark of eagerness jumped in her eyes.
Numair could see the amusement writ in the eyes of the Court at this pair of scruffy teenagers. Ryan, dazzlingly good-looking even in the faded trousers and shirt he wore, drew the eyes of the young girls, though they hid their longing quickly. Common, after all. And Andrea, a tiny golden thing, if not pretty, then certainly delicate, looked like nothing but prey to the suaver of the young men there.
The King and Queen exchanged a glance. "Please, do," the King said with a brief flick of his fingers.
His two students looked at one another, and Numair felt the power humming in the air before he saw the fire flare around them both, Gold, soft and rippling like layers of veils about Andrea and a deep clear turquoise spiking about Ryan.
Then their two halos touched, and changed to deep simmering jade.
The Court gasped as in the air appeared a wondrous vision wrought of silver and golden light, sketching itself out as first a cage of bones, pale and glistening, then magical flesh pearling on, glowing and shifting and finally solidifying. Splitting in two, and still growing, sparks of amber and cobalt appearing in the design, until before the court, perfect and amazingly lifelike stood two statues of the King and Queen.
"We're very glad to be here," Andrea said softly, into the reverent hush.
"Thank you," Ryan added.
Children of the gods, Numair thought. The future would be interesting.
He couldn't wait.
~* Fin *~
There. It *is* done now :-) Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time round and sorry it took so long. I've been working a lot lately. I've been floored by you all - you're all so wonderfully patient, thank you! Apologies if I'm about to not make much sense. I've been up for 36 hours now, sleep just isn't heading my way, so I'm a little urgh at the mo.
Thank you to:
Kendra/Chip: Well, I made a start on the sequel :-) Hopefully I'll get Part Three out pretty soon. I'm psyched that you liked!
Naavi: I know how you feel without that sleep! I've been getting up at 5am (I am not a morning person). ::grins:: Thanks! I'm knocked out that you enjoyed it; it was a lot of fun to write. Hopefully, A Lady's Shield'll be a little neater than this one.
Danel: Bruna will get her own story after I've finished A Lady's Shield. I've got a few bits and pieces written for it. Thanks!
Myst: Good god, torture! I can't wait! :-) God, I have got to get some more free time to write. No, I am getting on with A Lady's Shield, I'm just trying to figure out how to get where I want to go.
Quartz: Muchos gracias, leader of the Qs J (Hey, do the rest of the Qs know this?) I hope the characters will develop a little more in the next story, and I'll get more used to writing in a different world. It's bizarre.
Larzdinn: I have actually read Squire now :-) Well, that's my fanfics screwed (but who cares?), but it was such a good book! My exams went well. 5 As - can't complain! Cheers!
:o) Well, not the fastest delivery ever of a part (maybe I should change my author name to Snail.) but better late than never right? Thank you for all your comments!
Sparrow: I didn't know FFN had changed anything. Except for the Big Crash. Man, that was a pain! Hang on, let me try and get my bloated head back from floating up near the ceiling...often I ran out of words J Then I use my words. Which may not mean anything to anyone else, but are dang good superlatives from where I'm sitting (word of the week: indeniagus.)
Atira: Thank you. J I'm afraid you'll have to put up with the author notes. They're just another part of it.
Briar's Rose: Boy, that must have given you PC finger (hey, you can get Nintendo thumb, right?) it took a while, but it is continued!
Camilla: Well, I managed two out of three - Remember and FoF. Not too bad, right? ::grimace:: I have had too many other things on, but school starts again next week - so evenings free to write again. No exams. More free time due to less subjects = only a good thing. Thanks!
Jinx: I hope you liked Scotland :-) I've never been there (alas, I should, it's only a couple of hundred miles away.) Thanks"!
Cass: Thanks :-) I'm finally laying this story to rest. After all, it's only taken me, what 9 months to finish. (Oh god, now I feel guilty.) Thank you muchly, chica!
Kiiriana: Thanks you :-) What a lovely list - I'm knocked out!
Michelle: Yup, This was the first Tp fic. You don't have to believe, but it don't make it any less true!
Tayna: Thank you J I had a lot of fun writing it - it gave me a whole new world to get lost in.
Lady: Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide is one of my fave series. I love the bit in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe when Marvin washes his head down the phone at them. I still have to read Pratchett's new one (I have no money and no library. Hence deprivation.) Considering wirting professionally (or trying at least) far far in the future :-) Thanking thee muchly!
Jenn: Thanks! Why don't you have your comp now?
Team Socket: All things come to an end. Except for school, which seems to never end. Thank you!
Yuna: My imagination does tend to run away with me. :-) It's fun. It makes life more interesting. And scary for other people. :;grins:: Thank you!
Kateydidnt: Didn't what, incidentally? :-) Thank you - I'm thrilled you're enjoying it! It's always amazing to know that the strange little children of that mass I call my brain (that others call 'the empty space') are enjoyed!
The Lady Tiger: My god, it must have taken you yonks to read it! (Probably less time than it took me to write it though :-)) Thank you - I hope you enjoy the others! And my imagination is currently orbiting somewhere round mars J I'm about to go join it.
Thanks to all of you - you've been awesome.