chapter twenty

Enge jogged over to his captain, "How much does she know?"
"Not much, she wasn't really interested in where we come from; more what we can do for her."
"Selfish twit."
"Now now Enge, no need to get self-righteous."
"We're fighting for the heir to a throne; not a noble with power and riches, just some girl who will eventually have power and riches. Forgive me for saying so captain, but risking our lives for some total stranger you find attractive is insane."
"Not quite a stranger. The guild has a file on her, apparently someone has an intrest in the Anatolian palace. I know her favorite type of flowers, where she shops, and what she does in her spare time; among many other things."
"Reading someone's file isn't the same as knowing them."
Daniel walked silently for a while, Enge jogging beside him to keep up.
"We have seen her before."
"Really? I'd think I'd notice someone like her; there'd be an announcement and bodyguard and all that high-to-do crap."
"Unless she didn't want to be noticed. And there was a bodyguard, imperial guard actually."
Enge stared at him blankly; It always bothered him when his captain beat around the bush like this.
"I'm not following you, have we kidnapped her in the past?"
"Instead of undressing her mentally like you usually do; picture her in a yellow dress with a shopping basket."
"That was uncalled for."
"Yes, but it didn't hurt."
Enge tried to picture Kiera in yellow. It was awful, a woman of her complextion and demenor in yellow; clearly yellow just wasn't her...
"The girl from the market?"
"Exactly. Now what are the odds that we have a discussion about how attractive a paticular woman is the day of an invasion, and then because of the invasion she becomes our employer? If you ask me, this is kora."
"You can be a real romantic sometimes. Fine, if you have your heart set on this girl I'll play along."
"Glad to hear you'll be cooperating. This would have been a lot harder without you."

Enge laughed, and the two continued walking with the convoy.
"There's one other thing."
"Yes Enge?"
"The girl, Tressa."
"I wouldn't worry. Witches like her love a good fairy tale romance."
"Wasn't worried about that."
"What were you worried about?"
"She's got your father's hair."
"It's not an unpopular hair color, probably make a dye for it."
"And his ears."
"I think you may be reading into this a bit much."
"And his hands."
"Good, then she'll be useful in a fight. Good to know your compatriots have a reasonable amount of manual dexterity."
"And I haven't seen it closely enough, but that necklace of her's looks awfully familiar."
"Describe it."
"Silver chain, wolf's head design with two saphires for eyes, gold inlay for details."
Daniel stopped suddenly; Enge had to turn around to face him.
"He said he'd lost that one."
"Would it surprise you that he had secrets, even from you?"
"No, it would surprise me that he got over Mom so quickly."
"Right, that was about eleven years ago now wasn't it?"
"Nearly twelve. They haven't spoken since. He never explained why. If that little devil is what drove my parents apart..."
"I always thought it was his getting her transfered that was the issue."

Daniel started walking again, slower now.
"If it helps, Your father probably didn't do anything. Sure he's a rogueish and exciting man, but he loved your mother. He wouldn't do anything of the sort without a good reason."
"I wish he were here."
"So do I, he'd have this whole Ga-Vok situation sorted out before you could say 'Drinkin and wenchin'."
"Not helping."
"Sorry sir, 'drinkin and entreating the ladies' then."
"Well, if the poor lass is my father's...child; then we should probably become aquainted."
"That's the spirit captain."