Betray and Betrayed
Chapter Eight-The Duke of Conte
Alanna stared at her foggy surroundings. She had been here before! Then, out of the clearing appeared the Great Mother Goddess.
"Greetings my daughter, how do you fare?" the heavenly being asked.
"Better Great Mother but why am I here again? I don't think I'm dying," said Alanna in confusion. The last time she checked, she didn't appear to be dying.
To her response, the Goddess just burst out laughing at her chosen one's confusion and word choice. Her laughter sounded sweeter than all the other sounds in the world and soothing to Alanna's ears.
"No my daughter, you are not in danger of dying," she said in amusement, "I simply brought you here to give you advice and something to help when the time comes."
"What is it Mother?"
"Something with tremendous power and influence approaches. Though I cannot directly tell you what it is, I can help you indirectly. My advice is this. Listen to your heart and follow whatever your instinct tells you, they are correct. To help you with this, I will impart with you a valuable object."
Holding out her smooth and pale white hand, the Great Mother held a lump of black coal in her hands. Extending it to Alanna, the Mother handed it to her with the instructions, "Always keep that with you. I am sure you shall come to discover what it can do in time. That is all daughter. Remember; follow what your heart tells you…even in matters of love."
With that last reminder, the Great Mother left in a blinding white light from the realm and Alanna drifted back to Tortall.
Slowly, Alanna opened her eyes, only to blink quickly from the brightness of the sunlight.
"Alanna!" cried Char as he wrapped her in a tight hug.
"Char?" she said hesitantly, "Do you think you can let me go for a second?" With her words, Char let her go quickly with a faint blush.
"Oops?" he said in embarrassment. Alanna just shook in head in amusement. Same old Char.
"Hmm…so now that I'm back, what happened and how many days has it been?"
Instantly Char's eyes snapped into attention.
"Do you know how worried everyone was! You were out cold for a good two days! All the healing took a lot of your magical energy and almost drained your reserves! If you spent anymore power, you could have been killed!" he ranted. Part, well most, of it was from his fear of losing Alanna and another part angry for her foolishness.
Alanna rolled her eyes. It was rather old by now. When she had first gone to the Tusainian court, Char was like this as well. Whenever she got hurt in the practice courts, he always gave her an earful. After an accident on a battlefield one time, she had to hide the moment he went out of the healer's wing so he would stop his ranting. Alanna just hoped that it wouldn't be like that this time too.
"Char, can you calm down? You are giving me the biggest headache!" she said heatedly.
Finally Char sat down on the chair and started explaining what had taken place in the two days.
"Their majesties are ecstatic that you've healed their son and treaties have started between Tortall and Tusaine. To help with the negotiations, the King and Queen are sending for someone to help, but we've no idea who it is yet."
Alanna thought inside her head. The peace treaty would probably be a good thing. After all, Tusaine was a war torn country. If it solved its problems with Tortall, there would be more funds to put towards other attacking countries such as Galla or the ever bold Copper Isles.
"That's good I guess," said Alanna, "Tusaine could use the extra funds. The small rebellions aren't exactly helping our country," she said with approval.
"That's what I thought too," agreed Char, "but now you've got to get your rest! The healers said that you are to not leave your bed for at least two days," he said seriously.
Alanna rolled her eyes again. Char knew as well as all the Tusainians that Alanna left the healers tent or wing the moment she was better, and there was no stopping her. To do so would almost be suicidal for she always got payback the moment she is at her best.
Char sighed. At least it was worth a shot. Shaking his head as a small smile quirked at his lips Char leaned forward and captured her in an embrace saying, "It's good to have you back Alanna," before leaving the room to take care to some business.
The morning after, Alanna left the care of the Healer's Wing after sneaking away from a couple healers. She had a difficult time getting out of the line of vision of the Duke Bard but managed after he was stalled by a page falling off of a horse.
As stealthily as possible, Alanna took off towards her chambers. The guest rooms of the palace were quite far from the Hospital Wing and by the time she got there, Alanna was panting slightly from the exhaustion.
Feeling the need to practice the sword, Alanna grabbed her practice sword and went off towards the practice fields. Her large broad sword was similar to the one Coram allowed her to practice with when she trained at the palace. In fact, they were about the same weight with the one in her hand right now slightly heavier to help develop muscles and endurance during a duel or fight.
Going through her paces at an excruciating slow pace to use every muscle possible, Alanna held some poses for a long period of time, causing the muscle sore in her arms right now.
"Alanna!" said a voice.
Quickly, so as to not be caught off guard, Alanna turned around to look at an approaching Jon with Gary and Raoul.
"What are you doing here! Didn't you just get released from the Healers this morning!" he exclaimed in surprise.
Alanna tried her best to not roll her eyes but could feel her anger building. Why does everyone keep insisting that I must rest! Instead she settled for a stiff shrug and sheathed her sword.
"I have to practice since I've been so out of it in ages," she explained, "After all, I can't let others get ahead of me now can I?" she finished cheekily.
The others laughed. Same old Alanna, always practicing just like Alan used to.
"Some things never change," said Gary shaking his head, "As if you need anymore practice," he continued, "I bet we would all be whipped if we dueled you–even right now!"
Raoul laughed along with the others while Alanna just blushed and started to open her mouth to protest.
"Oi, I don't know about you Sir Gareth," Raoul said teasingly, "but I think anyone can take you!"
That started a round of bantering between the two close friends when Jon suddenly remembered something.
"Mithros!" he exclaimed, "I totally forgot but Roger's coming today for the treaty and I think I saw a carriage coming here before I saw Alanna," he finished.
"Well then what are we waiting for! Let's go meet your cousin!" said Raoul.
"Come on Alanna! You should come too, I don't think you've met Roger before," said Jon before the four took off to the guest rooms that the Duke of Conte always occupied.
Jon knocked on the doors loudly, probably to be heard through the thick wooden door. A moment later the handsomely decorated door opened to reveal a man with the Conte raven black hair and vivid blue eyes. Alanna noticed something different with his eyes though. Instead of the warm and humanlike sapphire in Jonathan's eyes, his held an icy chill with no warmth in them.
"Jonathan!" the Duke exclaimed in a cheery voice thought it did not reach his eyes.
"Hello Roger," said Jon with a smile, "we just wanted to welcome you to the palace and greet you before the ball tonight in your honor."
"Ever so courteous right cousin?" he said with amusement, "And who are your lovely friends here?"
"This is Gary as you know and next to him is Raoul and finally, this is Sir Alanna of Fire Mountain from Tusaine," said Jon while pointing the others out.
"A pleasure to meet you all," he said while looking them all in the eyes which Alanna thought lingered on her a bit longer than on the others.
After bidding the Duke of Conte farewell, all went their separate ways to prepare for the ball. Three were excited but Alanna looked ready to strangle someone…or at least knock some sense into them with a sword.
Needless to say, she was in a foul mood when she arrived at Char's chambers.
"WHY did you not tell me we have a ball to go to!"
Char shifted uneasily. He was well aware that there was nothing that he could say that would ease the situation so he gave her a sheepish look while saying, "I forgot?"
Alanna glared at him but left since the dance would begin soon and she had yet to start on the ridiculous, in her opinion, process of dressing herself in the most absurd gowns. Ever since they had arrived in Tortall and the prospect of a treaty, Char had literally dragged Alanna to Corus to get properly attired for the formal balls and such. All in all, Char suffered a brutal defeat that evening and the next morning.
Alanna glared at Char for the hundredth time that evening. The pair was getting ready to be announced to the rest of the guests along with the other Tusainian ambassadors along with the Tortallian representatives.
Char winced as her grip on his hand tightened quite painfully. Finally they heard their names and descended the stairs. Bowing to the King and Queen of Tortall, the pair approached a corner to talk in peace while the rest of the guests were introduced.
"Now that wasn't too bad was it––" asked Char but that was all he got before a glare from the redhead next to him silenced him.
As the music struck up, Alanna prepared to give Char a piece of her mind for forcing her once again to come to the ball in a dress. However, just as she opened her mouth a tap on her shoulder drew her attention.
Turning around, Alanna faced Roger, the Duke of Conte.
"Your Grace, to what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked diplomatically with a graceful sweep of her cream colored dress. She could hear a small stifling of a laugh and knew that Char was doing his best to suppress a laugh but thought wickedly that he'll just pay tomorrow.
"My lady, I was wondering if you may grace me with a dance?" he asked politely.
"Of course Your Grace, but please call me Alanna."
"Please, call me Roger," he said with a charming smile that Alanna once again noticed didn't reach his eyes. He led her to the dance floor to the start of the waltz. Alanna was well aware of the glares sent her way from most of the female occupants for stealing the Duke's attention. She however, was not aware of two pairs of male eyes glaring at Roger.
"So Alanna, how do you like Tortall?"
"It's fine …Roger but I miss the familiarity of Tusaine," she said faintly, uncomfortable with his interrogation.
"I find that odd for were you not a Tortallian?"
"I was, but not anymore," Alanna answered stiffly.
"I see, so what do you think of the relationships between our countries?" he asked curiously. It was an innocent enough question but Alanna was well aware that there was another objective to it.
"I hope for peace just as much as the next person, and will do what I can for it. War is tiring and now if you'll excuse me your Grace," she said and excused herself with a curtsy and left.
For the rest of the evening, Alanna did all in her power to avoid the cunning and mysterious Duke of Conte.
Author's Notes–Hey sorry for the LOOONG update! My excuse? I've been writing Harry Potter so I'll update this once in a while (maybe once a month?) but until then, this is on hold for a bit!
Thanks to–princess of the rogues, NealsChick, who said insanity's a bad t…, Tortall gal, epobbp, megmae, Seeker Carter, Dances With Waves, Pink Squishy Llama, Mercur-Shadowfeather, red rose of love, Shinyobjectslover, and Helen–for reviewing!
Disclaimer–Pierce owns everything! I just wish I did!