Excerpt: Finding Kaedin

He did not see Tokori smile again. The knock on her door had been the Marquis of Landy, come to visit her again. It made his blood boil, seeing her face when the page asked for her to come away from the princess. She left her painting, the one of the icicles, and followed without another word. Aliyah let him leave, she always would, but the Marquis had placed a guard outside the door - learning from his past mistakes.

Even as the princess's valet he was no match for the guard, and so he sat, just out of sight so not to provoke the guard, and waited for her to come out. Many plans crossed his thoughts while he waited. If he went back and got Aliyah she might come to call Tokori out, but then he would need to explain why she needed rescuing. How could he do that when he didn't even know the reason? It set his veins on fire to see that scared expression on her face but what real reason was there?

The Marquis ripped up her letters, but she insisted that the princess didn't need to know that. He had come close to saying so to Aliyah many times, but since Tokori made him promise he couldn't. He had never broken a promise. Also, he had never hated someone so very much. It hurt when he thought of it, like an iron ball rolling around his guts and breaking his bones.

When the door opened he was on his feet, seconds from running out to recieve her, except when he turned the corner she was the one running. Dashing for the stairs in the main hall, her skirts lifted in both hands, she disappeared in an instant. "Tokori!"

The Marquis of Landy came to the door as he ran, calling out though he had deliberately ignored him. "Leave her, boy, she's just had some upsetting news."

He felt the muscles in his neck and jaw tighten, squaring his shoulders, he turned. "What?" They glared at each other a moment. Kaedin should have been surprised that this noble remembered him, but then who could forget a foreign servent who had spent an entire day lying to him? No, he had not forgotten that and gazed at the boy with cold eyes. "The princess will have some surprising guests in a fortnight."

Turning on his toes, he ran after her again, the Marquis's words resounding through his thoughts. Upsetting news, visitors? She couldn't run far, burdened by her dress, and he caught her at the top of the stairs. "Tokori!" Her hand was cupped over her mouth, hand pressed against her stomach as if she would be sick, but she didn't stop. "Tell me what happened." A gentlemen was coming up the stairs behind them and he pulled away, bowing and trying his best to look as any other servent. The girl from Gheed made enough rumours for herself and he had already convicted himself not to start any more.

She hated rumours more than anything, or so he thought. When they came to her room he gripped the latch and opened it with a showy bow, fooling the court ladies who passed and turning in that same instant to follow her inside. Previously, when Landy had upset her, she sat on her bed and hugged her pillow tightly, fuming in a high, angry voice. Seeing her pacing the floor instead, hair falling out of its clips as she threw herself back and forth, he bit his tongue and made a fist.

Why did her distress make him need to hit something? He was becoming a terrible person because of her. Forgetting that, he rushed to her side when she suddenly dropped to her knees. "What did he do? Tokori, what did he do? Did he hurt you? Did he touch you? What did he say? Tokori?" He reached to hold her but she was faster, slamming both her hand over his mouth. "Be quiet!"

"No!" He pulled her hands away, holding her wrists out as a conflaguration of a strangling emotion shot up through his throat. "What did he do?"

"Just stop talking." She begged, turning her hands in his and sagging against him. "Please. Stop."

He bit the inside of his cheek very hard. It was a sort of helplessness, the way she could swing his heart with just a whisper. "They're coming."

"Who?" He whispered, as if that would not be counted as talking.

"Krimeon." Her shoulders we shaking and he thought she would start crying. "Anane... and they're coming here. The delegates... and the treaty... and Anane."

He was dumb, frozen even, and only held her wrists as she trembled with a silent sort of rage. The kind that came from being helpless. Krimeon killed her brother, and now they were sending delegates to the castle. He could feel that it shook something in her very foundations and realized that there was something in this world Tokori hated more than gossip. "Anane." She ground out, finally collapsing against him. "Anane, Anane, Anane."

"I'm sorry."

She made a noise almost like spitting. "Why should you be sorry?"

"I can't do anything, and you're hurting this much..." She pushed away from him suddenly, brows furrowed, and struggled with her anger another moment before speaking. "You'll stay with the princess, won't you?"

Giving up the idea of holding her close, he sat back as well. "Um. Of course."

"When they come, you mustn't leave her side. Promise me!" Her brown eyes hooked into his heart and he found himself nodding breathlessly. "Say it!"

"I promise!" He almost shouted. Did she think the delegates for peace would try to kill the princess? He wasn't sure what he would do if that happened but... if it put her mind at ease he might say anything.