Miss Moony would like to say that she doesn't own The Song of the Lioness, and that she had no help with this story from Miss Wormtail, Miss Padfoot or Miss Prongs.

Warning for rampant AU-ness. Thom and Alanna were seperated when their father died when they were four, and the prologue is their parting, and the story goes on from there. It will be a little fast moving until the main part of the story when Alanna's sixteen.

------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------

Prologue

The rain hammered heavily on the stone walls of Feif Trebond, and the thunder boomed in between bright flashes of lightning. One carriage was parked inside the Feif walls, and a second, bearing the crest of the ducal House of Queenscove, clattered through the gates.

A groomsman hopped down from his seat next to the driver, and opened the carriage door, letting first a man, and then a woman, out into the courtyard.

Duke Baird of Queenscove thought that the dismal weather was only fitting for the occasion – Lord Alan of Trebond's funeral. The Lord and he had been good friends when they were Pages at the Palace, and they had been the bane of their instructors, preferring more academic pursuits to the traditional warrior arts taught to the Pages. Only one of their friends, Arthur of Tirragen, had been more enthusiastic about becoming a Knight.

Arthur had eventually become one of the top fencers at Court, and Baird himself had become Chief Healer, while Alan buried himself in his books, and when Alan's wife had birthed twins, the widowed Lord Arthur had become godsfather to Alanna of Trebond, and Baird had been asked to receive the same honour for her brother, Thom.

The other carriage, bearing the crest of Tirragen, could only be Arthur's, and Baird and his wife, Peony, entered through the open doors of Feif Trebond, and found Arthur standing in the hallway, with a red-haired, violet-eyed toddler on each side of him.

'Where Papa?' the twin with short hair – Thom – demanded as Baird and Peony entered the Feif.

Almost simultaneously, a guardsman bowed by the door, and said, 'Yer Graces, welcome to Trebond. I'm Coram Smythesson, Master Thom's regent.'

'It's a pleasure to meet you, Guardsman Smythesson,' Baird said pleasantly, and Peony curtsied. 'I only wish it could have been under less unpleasant circumstances.'

Coram nodded, and bowed to the Duke and Duchess, and to Lord Arthur, before leaving them alone in the hall with the twins.

'Where Papa?' Thom asked again, and Baird crouched down so he was on eye level with the boy and his sister.

'Father's had to go away for a long time, Master Thom, Lady Alanna,' he said, smiling sadly, and then he gestured to a large window that looked out over the half-flooded courtyard. 'The skies cry for your loss, as will I, given time to let it sink in.'

Thom fell silent, and Baird straightened up to speak to Arthur.

Seeing the unspoken question in the Duke's eyes, Arthur said, 'I leave tonight. Will you be staying for a while?'

Baird nodded, and looked down at his new charge. 'I will ride for Corus in a week, and I will be taking the young Master with me.'

Thom wasn't listening any more, and was instead sitting on the floor with Alanna, whispering quietly together. He was loathe to separate them, seeing how close they were, but he knew that both he and Arthur had to fulfil their promises to their old friend.

'I will see you there in due time, then,' Arthur said, and picked Alanna up, despite her mild protests. 'Goodbye, Baird, Peony.'

Baird nodded to the last of his close friends, and watched until he was out of sight. 'Where is Alanna going?' Thom asked.

'Away,' Baird replied, 'to Feif Tirragen.'

The boy's eyes widened, and he darted for the doors, Baird and Peony hot on his heels.

'Alanna!'

The carriage bearing the Tirragen crest was already pulling out of the gates, with Alanna's trunk secured on the back, and the girl's face peering resignedly out of the rear window, her face distorted by rain-tracks on the glass.

'Alanna!'

Thom ran after the carriage, his tears mingling with the skies', but the gates of Trebond closed as he reached them, and he was left banging on them.

His cries of anger and despair echoed through the Feif like the thunder screaming above.