Lela-of-Bast: I need a computer that understands me! And fixes my typos as I write. Now there's an idea of how to make some money... If only I had the brains for it...

Narm's Britton 44: Glad you liked it. It won't be too dissimilar to Sonnet's story as we're both sticking cannon and have some similar (and very different) ideas on somethings.

Kawaiigemini: Thank you. My job makes me feel like that too! In my next stort, A Stepping State, Daine's character does start to expand a little, for the reason that she had been through so much, is in love and is loved back, and she is getting older, but I hope these progressive changes seem believeable.

Sonnet Lacewing: I didn't think too much about the foreshadowing, in fact I can't remember writing that chapter at all - probably why there were so many typos! Thank you for your compliments!

Disclaimer: Its not mine. If it was, I wouldn't be going to work tomorrow.

A/N: This is it, the last chapter! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and please read A Stepping State, which will be up today!

Epilogue

Dawn was almost on its way as Daine Sarrasri and Numair Salmalin approached the outskirts of Port Legann. They had ridden through the night after facing a band of flying monkeys, heeding a call from the king that their assistance was needed in Legann. Daine could see the weariness on Numair's face. He had refused on many occasions to sleep and let her keep a watch over them at night and the almost constant use of his gift had drained him. Daine longed for a chance for them to both recuperate, even for just a day of two. Just one evening when they could gaze up at the stars without watching for hurroks or stormwings. She longed for Numair's lengthy explanations about things that weren't particularly crucial and she wished dearly for a little time when they were free to sit and relax.

Gradually dawn began to break, its light shadowing the destruction done by the fighting over the past few weeks. Numair cloaked himself and Daine with his magic, hiding them from any foes that might be lurking as they rode through the city. He was concerned for Daine; they had continually fought in one area or another of Tortall since the thaws and they badly needed rest. He slipped a glance at the woman riding next to him and felt a reoccurrence of the emotions that he had named at Midwinter.

"Nearly there," he said, reassuringly. She nodded in response, her eyes focused on the ground in front of her.

"Daine?" he called. She turned to him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Numair, really. I'm just looking forward to be able to sit down and sleep in a real bed for once." He smiled at her, recognising the feeling.

Jonathan was there to meet them as they arrived at the fief. He greeted Numair with a firm handshake, illustrating that their friendship and standing was as it should be after a tense few days previously when the king had been furious with Numair for needlessly using his magic. "Numair, Daine, Tkaa and Kitten – welcome!" He called out to them. "Can you help us with these wyverns?"

Numair seemed to go slightly pale when Jon mentioned the wyverns with the remembrance of his last dealing with them. Daine caught his expression and smiled, Numair had started to think a lot more since then about how he was going to act in battle. It hadn't been Jon's thundering telling off that had worried him, but the fact that Jon had barely spoken to him, and he had thought that their friendship might be in jeopardy.

"Have the archers not had any effect?" Numair asked tentatively.

The king shook his head. "They've managed to injure them, and force them to move away, but we need something to keep them away for longer," Jonathan sighed, the effect of the war had taken its toll on him probably more than the rest of them. He was their king and ultimately carried all the responsibility.

Tkaa spoke up in his whispery voice. "Skysong maybe the best form of defence against the wyverns. They have to obey their dragon cousins if she gives them an order. It will be as well to take her the next time they attack."

Daine looked at him, slightly aghast. "But she's only a baby! She only three! Why will they do as she tells them? She's so young."

"Tkaa's right, Daine. If she hadn't been in the palace at the time of the last wyvern attack, there may have been less people made ill with the cough the wyverns cause with the fog they produce. They will have to obey Kitten," he looked at Daine, tenderness in his eyes as he saw her concern for her young charge. "You know I would never do anything to place her in any harm."

Daine smiled back at him, Jonathan watching the exchange with amusement. "I know, Numair," she sighed, looking at the dragonet who was only too pleased to help. "When the wyverns next arrive, Kitten and I will go," she conceded, picking Kitten up in her arms.

Jonathan led them into the fief, escorting them to their rooms that were adjacent to each other. Daine's room was smaller than Numair's, although it still contained a large bed, drawers and facilities so that she could have a bath. Numair's room had a larger bed, one that would almost fit him in without him having to crunch up his long frame. For a second Daine wondered what it would be like to share the bed with him, then quickly tried to change her thoughts as she felt a hot redness take over her cheeks. He had a bath chamber as well as another smaller room that Daine imagined would sometimes be used as a place to sleep a baby in its crib. He sat down on the bed, a deep sigh of comfort omitted from his lips. Jonathan had left them to organise food for them, as it would be some time before dinner was served.

"Make the most of tonight," Numair smiled at her as she sat down next to him. "I very much imagine that we will be sent elsewhere once Kitten's scared off these wyverns." He tousled some of her curls absent-mindedly. Daine felt herself quiver at his touch. Fighting the urge not to curls up in his arms, she turned to face him.

"What do you think we will do once this is all over?" she asked him.

"I have no doubt in saying that once this is over we will have a lot more things to do than we have now. There will be prisoner of war to deal with and intelligence work, which is where George and Myles will come into their own. After that, I will return to my books and you to what you do best. Don't be surprised, Daine, if you are asked to teach at the university at some point. Your knowledge is very powerful and I imagine Jon will want the trainees and pages to learn from it," Numair smiled, moving his long legs onto the bed and stretching out like a large cat.

"I'm not sure I would be able to do that," Daine said, rather worriedly.

"Why not?" Numair asked.

"Because I'm probably not clever enough, and I'm not sure that I could stand in front of all those people," she looked at Numair with big eyes.

He felt as if he was drowning in them, and wished he could. "You are certainly clever enough, Magelet. You do know that. And I think you would be brilliant at teaching others about animals and the immortals. You've taught archery, it wouldn't be much different than that."

Daine smiled, "We'll see, we'll have to wait and find out what else the gods have in store for us first. But what will happen to us, will we still work together, will you still teach me?"

Numair felt his heart suddenly start to beat much harder in his chest. He fought the words he wished to say, knowing that now wasn't the right time.

"Jon will want to keep us working together, Magelet. And I don't want us to just become people who only pass each other in the halls," I want you as a much bigger part of my life than that, he thought to himself.

"Good, because I don't like the thought of not being with you," she smiled, her hand reaching out to touch his sending a spark of electricity through his body.

A sharp knock rapped at the door, and a maid appeared, armed with bowls of thick soup and crusty bread. She left the food on trays on the desk in Numair's room with instruction to leave the empty bowls outside their rooms when they had finished.

Once she had left, Daine gave an exasperated sigh. "The whole of Legann will have us canoodling now after she's seen us in your room together."

Numair laughed as he often did when any reference to him and Daine being more than teacher and student was made. The only time he had responded any differently was when Ozorne had made a rather unfortunate suggestion.

"They probably were before we got here, Daine. We shouldn't worry too much about what other people say, as long as we and our friends no the truth," he smiled as he said the words, although inside he was thinking that most of his friends knew a very different truth.

They ate their meals while recounting what they knew about wyverns and dragons, passing comments about all the things that Kitten had learnt. The late afternoon passed into evening and then the Legann evening slowly turned into night. Daine and Numair retired early, knowing that they would face more problems tomorrow and they had had a significant lack of sleep.

Curled up in her bed, comforted in the knowledge that Numair was just next-door, Daine's thoughts turned away from wyverns and into Numair. Maybe, she thought sleepily, just maybe there will be a chance.

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And so it ends. Please review and tell me how it went, it was difficult to end as we all know how it continues. Give me any hints, please they all help!

A STEPPING STATE, which immediately follows on from RotG and looks at the beginnings of Daine and Numair's relationship and charts the aftermath of the war will be up today. PLEASE REVIEW!

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED! YOU MADE MY DAY!