A/N: LALALA!  FREE TIME IS BLISS!  Yum, yum, Frapples.  Lovely, lovely, Frapples.  THE MASTER HATH REVEALED HIMSELF TO ME!  I'm so happy, I could dance.  I think I will.  *dances*  Sorry 'bout that April Fools joke folks.  I was desperate for an update but the chapter wasn't done yet.

DISCLAIMER: Characters belong to me. Places however are borrowed from the Almighty T.P. :D

Lady Ribyyn of Hadic II: Shadows

Chapter 7 – Breaking the Rules

Ribyyn lay on her back on the floor, staring at the whorls and swirling patterns in the tiled ceiling above her.  Being stuck at the palace was no fun at all.  She'd thought, originally, that she'd be able to get through this punishment, but it was becoming harder by the day.

It wasn't the fact that she wasn't allowed outside the palace walls, though that was a major contributor to her misery, that had her lying, unmoving, on the stone floor.  It also wasn't the fact that she was allowed no contact whatsoever with two of the people who knew her best.  She'd actually found a way around that; she'd sent letters to Hayden through his mother.  She suspected that Lord Alden knew about this, but he hadn't done anything to stop her.

No, what had Ribyyn lying listlessly on the cold stone was the other part of her punishment; the extra lessons.

She'd thought at first that when Alden had said she'd have extra lessons, such lessons would last for only a week, at most a week and a half.  After all, he knew her well enough to know that if she was confined to a room for more than an hour and forced to do a boring task she went temporarily mad.  He must have known that if she had etiquette and sewing and poetry lessons for over two weeks she'd go berserk.

Apparently this was not the case, as she was already a month into this gods forsaken punishment and there was no end in sight.  She'd gotten so fed up with Lady Dorothe's monotonous voice droning on about the proper way to curtsey, that she'd done the unspeakable (Lady Dorothe's words, of course.) and earned herself some time in her room to, "think about the difference between acting like a commoner and acting like a well bred noble lady."  Ribyyn thought that this punishment was a bit much, especially since she had learned the word from her step-mother and not from any of the "hellions" (again, Lady Dorothe's word) that she had lived with for the past four years.

She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes as she heard the door creak open.

"Ribyyn," said the deep voice of Lord Alden.  He didn't sound angry, but one never really knew with him.  If there was one thing she had learned in the three months that she'd been staying with the Goldenlake family it was that Lord Alden was very good at hiding his emotions.  Jessa said that he'd visited the Yamani Islands when he was younger and had picked up the habit.  "We need to talk."

"If this is about what I said to Lady Dorothe," she told him, "I have no intention of apologizing.  She insulted my friends."

"I know what she said, Ribyyn.  She told me."  Lord Alden sighed and looked down at the young noble, shaking his head sadly.  "What am I going to do with you?"

Ribyyn sat up, drew her knees to her chest and looked at the man who had been kind enough to take her into his home.  She shrugged helplessly.  "I'm a burden aren't I?"

Lord Alden didn't answer, only raised a brow in a questioning look.

"Lady Sienna, my step-mother, called me that once.  I was supposed to be having lessons and she found me in the barn playing with the cats in the loft.  She threatened to send me to the convent.  She said she was going to talk to Papa about it."  She paused, as if thinking of what to say next.

Alden waited for a good amount of time before asking the question that she seemed to be waiting for.  "Did she ever talk to him?"  His voice was soft, with no hint of anger and when Ribyyn met his eyes they were full of an emotion that she had never seen before from him.

"Yes," she answered quietly.  "At supper that evening she told Papa she thought it would be in my best interest if I was sent away to learn how to be a proper lady.  She said there were too many distractions at home.  Papa agreed with her; he always did."

The questioning look in Lord Alden's eyes grew deeper.  "But you told me you never went to the convent."

"I didn't," she told him, her voice softer than ever.  "My entire family died the next week."

Lord Alden knelt in front of the girl, examining her face.  "Ribyyn, you are not a burden.  Do you understand me?  You never have been."  He paused and smirked, "Even when you're breaking into my house illegally."

Ribyyn chuckled and a small smile formed on her face.  "Do you mean it, or are you just saying that?"

"Would I lie to you?"

Ribyyn's smile grew.  "No, I suppose not."

"However," Lord Alden said, standing up quickly, "Because of the rude way you treated Lady Dorothe, you do need to be punished."  Ribyyn groaned as her foster father smiled.  "You're to watch Karo in the afternoons for the next two weeks."

Ribyyn groaned again.  "Even though Lady Dorothe deserved what I said to her?"

Lord Alden's smile spread from ear to ear.  "Yes, even so."  And with that he winked at her, turned on his heel, and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

~*~

"Karo!" Ribyyn called out, "Are you coming or not?  Hurry up!"

"I am hurrying!" the little girl screamed from her bedroom.  There was a thump and a few yelps and finally a curse from the room before Karo came out, her hair a mess and her boots in one hand.  She wiped her eyes with her free hand; they were red from crying.

"What's wrong?" Ribyyn asked kindly, taking the boots from the girl.

"My hair's all in knots and it hurts to brush it," Karo sobbed.  "And I can't tie the boots properly."

"Well, that's nothing to cry over, silly.  Sit down; I'll help you with the boots."  The child obeyed happily.

As Ribyyn laced the boots up and knotted them Karo asked what they were going to do with her hair.  Ribyyn studied the girl a moment.  Her hair looked like a bird's nest, if the bird was a very messy one.  If Ribyyn were to be blunt, it was an absolute disaster.  "I'm not sure there's much we can do with your hair, darling," Ribyyn said kindly, pulling the ribbon out of her own hair and gathering up Karo's knotted curls.  "We'll just have to tie it up and hope for the best."

A quarter of an hour later the Ribyyn could be found lying on her back near the skating pond.  The temperature was finally rising and everything around them smelt of spring.  The trees were surrounded by the glowing green aura of buds, birds flew north overhead, and flowers bloomed.  The air was clean and crisp and fresh smelling.  Ribyyn loved spring more than any other season.

Karo stood a few feet away, spinning in circles and watching her new skirts swirl around her.  "Ribyyn?" she asked softly, her voice heavy and tired.

"Hm?"

"When's your birthday?"

Ribyyn sat up and looked over at the young girl.  "What?"

"You're birthday," Karo repeated.  "When is it?  Mine's next week.  Gramma sent me my present early."  She motioned to her skirt.  "Do you like them?  Aren't they pretty?  I love the color purple."

Ribyyn blinked in thought, wondering if she had rambled on about nothing when she was Karo's age.

The little girl swirled around continuing her chat about absolutely nothing.  "I just want to know.  I'm curious."

Ribyyn bit her lip and played with a blade of grass.

"Ribyyn!" Kalvin cried as he banged on her door.  "Ribyyn, wake up!"

Ribyyn pulled the door open quickly to reveal her older brother standing at the doorway, his hand raised to knock again.  His dark brown hair fell across his bright green eyes.  He smiled at her.  Behind him stood her younger half-brother, Griffen, his blond curls in disarray, brown eyes wide with excitement.

"What do you want?" she sighed, leaning her head against the open door.

"Come with us," Kalvin answered, grabbing hold of her wrist and pulling her down the hallway.  He dragged her outside towards the stables.

"Ow, Kalvin, loosen your grip!  It hurts!"  She struggled with him, but his grip remained the same.  "Did you have to drag me out of my room in my nightdress?  Couldn't you have let me get dressed first?  What's going on?!?"

Kalvin ignored her questions and dragged her right up to the stable doors.  "Alright, close your eyes."

"Wh-"

"Just do it!" Griffen cried.  He was very forceful for a ten year old and Ribyyn decided it was in her best interest to listen to him.

Kalvin took her hand and led his sister slowly into the stable.  "Can I open my eyes now?" she asked.

"Not yet."

"Now?"

"Didn't I just say-"

"NOW?"

Kalvin stopped and dropped her hand.  "Fine.  Now," he said.  He sounded fed up and angry with her and Ribyyn opened her eyes to meet his.  But instead of seeing the anger she expected she saw them alight with joy and shining with laughter.

"What's so funny?" she asked, frowning at him.

"Hey!" she heard Nolan, her youngest brother, cry from behind her.  "Aren't you going to say thank you?"

Ribyyn turned around slowly.  "Thank you for wh-"  She stopped and stared.  There in the stall was the most beautiful horse she had ever laid eyes on.  The mare was a deep ebony from nose to tail but there were gray speckles all around her ankles.  Her eyes were a beautiful golden-honey color.

"Is she…"  Her voice trailed off, unsure of how to finish her sentence.

"Yes," Kalvin sighed with great exaggeration, "she's yours."  He looked down at his speechless younger sister.  "You know," he said jokingly, "a thank you would be appreciated.  After all we have been saving for her all year."

"We?" she asked, her eyes not moving from the mare's golden ones.

"Yes. Nolan, Jakov, Griffen, and I."  He leaned forward and whispered in her ear.  "This is what I spent most of my birthday money on."

Ribyyn tore her eyes away from her horses and looked at each of her brothers.  "But why?"

"Cause it's you're thirteenth birthday, dummy!" Jakov yelled at her from atop the horse. "Kalvin says that when girls turn thirteen they're considered adults."

"Considered for marriage is more like it," Kalvin muttered from behind her, and Ribyyn suddenly realized that this gift was as much a going away present as it was a birthday one.  In a few months she'd be carried off in a carriage to the convent in the south.  At least, that's what would happen if Lady Sienna could convince her father of it later that evening when he returned from Corus.

"And besides," Jakov continued, unaware that his older brother had said anything, "we like you, even if you scream like a girl when we put spiders in your bed."  He dismounted from the horses back. "Now come on, you need to try her out!"

"Ribyyn?" Karo asked, her face very close to the older girl's.

"What?"

"Haven't you been listening to me?"  The child's eyes were bright with withheld laughter.  What could possibly be so funny? thought Ribyyn.

"Sorry," Ribyyn said with a small smile.  "My birthday's right around Beltane."

"Is it really?" asked a masculine voice from behind.  "I had always thought it was Mid-Summer's Eve."

Ribyyn whirled around to face Darin.  "What are you doing here?"

"Oh no, wait," Darin said, ignoring her question.  "That was Lady Sienna's and your father's anniversary.  Now I remember."

Ribyyn ignored him.  "Darin," she said forcefully.  "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing here?  I'm visiting."

"You shouldn't be here," she said softly, glancing around for anybody who might be in earshot.  The only other person that she could see was Karo.  Standing up, Ribyyn dusted herself off.  "Karo, would you excuse us for a moment?  Stay right here, I'll be back as quickly as I can."

Karo nodded but didn't seem too happy about the situation.  Ribyyn's mood had changed so drastically in a matter of moments.  Smiling at the little girl, Ribyyn reached down and grabbed Darin's upper arm, hauling him up to his feet with a strength he hadn't known she had and dragging him off so that they could speak in private.

"Yikes, Rib," he protested, calmly prying her fingers off of his arm.  "Calm down."

"Darin!" she cried, "You can't be here!"

The thief king looked down at her suspiciously.  "Why not?  Is there something you aren't telling me?"

"Darin," she glanced around quickly, her voice dropping to a whisper.  "Darin, they think you're the one who's been killing all those people in the city.  They think you're the one behind it all."

"But I'm not," he said softly, reaching up to cup her chin in his hands.  "You know that, right?  I'm not."

Ribynn nodded sadly as she met his eyes.  "I know, but they won't believe me."

Darin sighed and sat down.  "Slyde and Roanke are in town," he told her, changing the subject.  "I thought you'd like to know."

"They can't come visit me either," she said softly, joining him on the ground.  "Darin, you have to leave."

"There's nobody here," he whispered, taking hold of her wrist and leaning towards her.  "Hush and enjoy my company."

"Darin-"

"Ribyyn," he murmured, his face inches away from hers.  "Don't you know when to shut up?"

"Well, well, well.  What have we here?"

Ribyyn leapt up, ripping her wrist out of Darin's hand, and spun around.  Sir Mathias of Fawks Ridge stood there, a feral grin spread across his beautiful face.

A/N: Wow.  Would you believe that it took me three weeks to write those last two lines?  I'm serious it did.  I went to bed one night with Darin about to kiss Ribyyn, and the next day I just couldn't write it.  In any case, I'll probably be murdered, not only for the cliffhanger but because it took me like a month to get this up.  But you should be happy with the cliffhanger.  If it wasn't a cliffhanger I'd have no place to go with the next chapter.  So... enjoy that. :D

Oh, again.  Terribly sorry about that April Fools Joke thing.  I honestly did not expect to get anyone.  Really, I didn't.  I thought it had been done before.

So let's see, how many pages is this chapter... 4 pages with 2,316 words.  2,532 words if we're including A/N.  Wow.