A/N~I am so sorry it took so long!  Dad boggorts the computer so I don’t get a chance!  I’ll update asap!

Robyn’s breath rose out in front of her in clouds, the quiet tendrils hovering momentarily before gliding away to dissipate.  The snow had been shoveled and the path they walked on crunched beneath their feet as the sand spread to offer traction was trod on. It was fairly warm out, and people were out and about, doing chores and chatting amiably in their yards. Noise seemed to be everywhere, while a solemn bubble seemed to hover around them. The city was warmer than the palace grounds, all those bodies giving off heat. Snow had melted to slush and mud, and all were glad that there was space to walk that wasn’t in the puddles.  A tour of the city had been a decent idea, though Robyn wasn’t sure Jason was up for it.  The group was silent, each lost in their own hoard of thought.  Jason trudged behind her, his stride long and unhurried.  Aleyn and Rowen remained further behind, and on a quick glance backward, appeared to be holding hands.  Robyn tried to smile at the thought that her brother had found what he had needed but the current problem was all too difficult to maneuver.

Minderc. 

The word made her shudder as it spun in her mind.  Twice it had been brought into play by some outside force, made visible by something other than one of them.  They were supposed to be gone; supposed to be extinct.  But what was supposed to be often had the nagging ability to return and wreak good old-fashioned havoc.  She wondered what was going on.  Mentally, the pieces of this puzzle slipped into place.  Deithryn admitting to his own part in their ranks weeks before.  The attacks three days before that revealing they were at the cause of it.  The destruction of her room and a threatening note left on her wall; Rowen and Aleyn being attacked.  The note given to them by creatures described by the man attacked earlier. 

All seemed to fall in place.

‘That’s all fine and dandy,’ she thought, and hated herself for arguing, ‘but that only finishes about half the puzzle.  What about WHY?’

Can a person hate themselves for being right?

Of course she didn’t know why…if she knew that she would be off fighting whatever was causing this mess.  If they were behind this, why were they know rising?  If that was answered, then where were they massing?  And the most frightening thought of all, what were they going to do?

These thoughts were nagging, but the main problem at hand was how hey were managing to sneak into the city—past the city walls filled with soldiers—and manager to gain access to her room.  That felt selfish; to worry about the well-being of her personal safety, but so far that was the only easily accessible problem.   Another was the matter of the message delivered to Aleyn.  In it was a threat to the one who had killed one of their own.  That was obviously Rowen, though she hated to admit it, and they appeared to e after him.  But why plaster her walls with ominous writings, when it had not been her, but her brother to do the killing.  She ran over conversations in her mind, trying to remember anything odd. 

An insider.  It had to be someone who was living within these walls. 

Subtly, Robyn cast glances sideways to try and see if anyone was following them.  She was startled to see that they were indeed being watched.  Though it was obvious that the faces turned slightly toward them were trying to be subtle in their observation, it was quite clear they were being examined.  Amused, she came to a full and abrupt halt.

She caught Jason by the arm as he passed by.  He looked at her in question before bending his head close when she whispered in his ear.

“We’re being watched.”

He drew his head back and scanned the crowds that were lining the streets.  With amazing skill, more than half the town’s folk managed to look like they were doing anything but staring at them.  The moment he turned back to Robyn, every eye was on them again.

“I think they’re curious.”  Jason tried to catch an old man off guard by turning his head fast, but the man was faster still. He went back to cranking water from a well so slowly that had the people behind him call out angrily.  They too were watching them, and not everyone was there because they needed water.

“About what?” Bristling, Robyn paid them no heed, stomping forward angrily.  Jason had to catch her by the arm before she could confront some poor unsuspecting villager.

He hauled her against him, “well…when’s the last time you saw a human in Reryn…I mean before Aleyn?”

Not pleased in the least in her proximity to Jason, she struggled.  This plan backfired, since it made him hold her closer.  “I don’t know…I—“suddenly enlightened, she froze.  “Oh…” She turned to look back at her friend.  An indignant cry escaped when she saw Aleyn and Rowen being circled by a curious crowd. Several had decided that the woman was more interesting then whatever they were doing, so they had circled her to get a better look.  It was, by now, several people thick.  Most were women, glancing over Aleyn’s clothes and shouting questions in a harsh dialect of Solique. The few men who were scattered amongst the crowd were giving Aleyn the once over; more of that gender soon gathered. Since neither Rowen nor Aleyn could speak Solique, and most of the villagers didn’t know English…it had turned into a bit of a commotion and a loud one as well.  Aleyn was huddled close to Rowen, looking around at all the people trying to press closer.  They were trapped in a small bubble of safety, though even that was slowly shrinking around them.  Rowen was trying in vain to communicate with what Solique he still knew to a new hoard of onlookers who had come to see the human.  Furious, Robyn rushed forward toward them, the throng barely parting as she went.  Jason came up behind her, speaking rapidly Northern tongue.

Aleyn was frantic, “Robyn! Help!  They just surrounded us!”  She reached over the heads of two men who had begun a frantic fight over something she didn’t know.  She had just managed to grasp Robyn’s fingers when someone’s voice boomed out over the crowd.

“What in the name of Halicara is going on?”

All noise fell away and it was just possible to hear the faint slosh of liquid as snowflakes landed in puddles.

A man waded his way through the riot, and the villagers dispersed as he neared them.  His stride was confident and sure-footed, as if he knew—he knew—that the earth would hold him as he stepped.  He was stout and dark, with a clean shaven face marked with years of age and battle.  There was a scar, faded slightly with age now but no less visible, that began at his temple to end a breath away from his lips.  His hair was trimmed so close to his head that one would wonder why they left so little without trimming it all off; the crown of his skull was bare. Only his eyebrows, thick, dark, and expressive against his face, gave a hint to the color of his hair. The nose that was wrenched in a snarl at the moment was straight and thin.

As he reached them, Aleyn knew that face would be in her mind forever.

His gaze swept over them in an indifferent glance.  He turned to salute Jason, “Sir, I saw the trouble and came to help.  Is everything well?”

Jason turned to watch the last of the villagers scurry off inside before the worst of the snowfall could freeze them.  Scowling, he turned back, “yes, Captain.  I realize now that the idea to take a walk outside when the people aren’t used to—“ he glanced at Aleyn, “foreigners…at least as much as I had hoped…”

The Captain’s gaze moved to survey Aleyn and Rowen before turning back to Jason, “might I ask the names of your acquaintances sir?” 

Jason frowned for a minute, before stating, “I present his royal highness, Lord Rowen Exnard Tarkis.”

The captain bowed curtly.  When he stood straight, he was scowling.

Abruptly, his gaze moved to Aleyn.

Jason hesitated a second before he spoke, but the words came out all on their own.  “May I present, her grace, The Duchess Allens of Derikant.”

The captain’s eyes slid to hers and she felt her heart freeze in her chest.  They were pools of darkest jet, unmoving and solid.  They bore into hers, reading her like a book.  She was lost within them, caught and spun mercilessly.  Dimly, something was familiar, and she fought to clear her mind.

There was no need since they were gone, away from her. She blinked like an owl in sunlight, stared down at the top of the captain’s head in surprise.

The man had knelt, his armor-plated knees squelching in the mud.  Her hand was caught in his and she felt his cold lips press against the fevered skin of her knuckles.

“My Lady.”

Surprised at her own brashness, she caught her hand beneath his chin to bring him to face her.  He was surprised, obviously so, but didn’t say anything.

“Who are you?”

Rowen stepped forward, put a hand on her shoulder.  “He is Lord Teriyth. The younger son of His grace, The Duke Teriyth of Derikant.”

As he spoke, the man on the ground got to his feet, staring at Aleyn’s face blankly.

Aleyn looked at him, before looking at Jason.  She refused to meet those eyes again, eyes that hurt.

Jason stepped up beside the Captain. “He is no longer addressed that way.  The sons of his grace have been—“he glanced at the back of the Captain’s head, “disavowed.”

There was a change, ever so slightly, in the stature of the captain.  His shoulders went back, and his neck rigid.  Though in the subtle way he let out a breath, it was obvious that this had caused him some hurt.

Jason continued, “After Lady Amaranth’s disappearance, His grace became enraged.  His disowned his children, on the charge of being disloyal. All but one.”

“You’re mother.” The Captain spoke. The tone was steady, as was his voice, but subtly, just barely, pain could be determined, just below the surface.  “My sister.”

Aleyn sucked in a breath, “you’re her—her brother?”  The face, though so thoroughly male in context, now held features that were so like her mother’s it hurt to see them. But it was the eyes.  They drew her to them.  They were her mother’s and not at the same time.  She met them in defiance, trying to understand the hostility that resided within.  They were cold and unreadable.

“I was.”

There was an awkward pause, a lull in conversation—if that is what it could be called in this situation—and Robyn, who had been silent up until then decided that…

“Captain Teriyth, if you haven’t noticed, it’s frightfully cold out,” the weak bubble of laughter that she tried to fill the void with died almost instantly.  She cleared her throat, “we must get back, we have things to discuss…if—“

“I will not keep you.” The captain bow courteously, barely glancing over the entire group.  His gaze lingered on Aleyn’s momentarily before he spun on his heel.  His cape tangled in the breeze behind him, billowing in the swirling snow.

Aleyn watched him go, until he was no longer visible.  When she turned to Rowen, tears sparkled in her eyes, “my uncle?”