The Court - Finished!

Maria

I watched him hurry off. I examined my hand. When he had touched my hand, I had felt something. Something that I hadn't felt in years. Maybe it had been my imagination. I climbed to my feet. Grayson's dagger was still embedded in the tree he had thrown it at. I pulled it out with little difficulty and stuck it next to mine. He would want it back.

I went back to the little house to find it empty. I picked up a note on the bench. I read through it quickly, and a small smile spread across my face.

I started a fire and waited for them to return.

Daniel
Her song reminded him of the those days when they sat together and sang that happy tune that they had composed. It was childish, it might have even been too romantic, but it was something they both remembered with joy.
His guitar was tuned and singing, for he always believed that his guitar had that power. It was singing with Krissy,competing for the prize of wining his heart, even though there was a voice that already had his heart. Krissy, her voice had always being beautiful, so feathery and light but still strong and emotional. BUt today was that fun velvet voice that invited everyone around to join the small street concert.
They irradiated life, love and joy. Their song was dragging people from everywehere near. And it came the moment when he joined her.

***Game of Love by Michelle Branch and Carlos Santana comes to my head.lol.***

** Love it. Works great Pudin. Daniel just isn't that ugly lol.**
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yoGTVzgow8 (The link to the song for those who are curious)**

Krissy:

I sung my song happily, dancing through the audience that had been forming around the fountain. They clapped and sung along the second time in. I sat down beside Daniel by the third verse and kiss him tenderly and the crowd cheered. Finished with the song, I bowed to the crowd. Taking Daniel by the hand we left the city gate laughing happily.

"You were brilliant Krissy! I can't believe you remembered that song." shouted Daniel, a goofy grin spreading across his face.

"How could I forget? We sung it all the time together as children in the street. Remember all the coopers we would get." I said laughing.

"Yes, I do remember." Daniel smiled

When we arrived at the cottage, the stars were shining brightly above and my cheeks were flushed from laughter. Maria was sitting by a strong fire smiling to herself. When she had seen we finally home, she beckoned us with her hand to come over. We sat by the fire all together singing another song. Our harmony rang out in the little clearing. We slowly died down until the crickets were the only source of noise. I laughed to myself before we fell asleep together in front of the fire.

Maria

Daniel and Krissy had obviously had a good time. I smiled as I drifted off to sleep. "You'll have to take me with you next time Krissy." I murmered. "It's been such a long time since I've told a good folktale. People would come running from every direction to hear my stories. Tales of adventure, romance, fear..."

I fell asleep.

GRAYSON

"Forget about us?" Jas asked, annoyied.

GRayson blushed a little. "I didn't forget about you Jas...I just...got a little caught up."

"Doing what?" She asked, hands on her hips. Kayla snickered at me behind Jas's back. Grayson ground her teeth together, fighting the part that wanted to flick Kayla off.

"I was tracing our steps yesterday to make sre we had them covered and I found this clearing and feel asleep. Sorry. I haven't been sleeping very well lately," he admitted. "Now can you catch me up on what's happened or not?"

Jas

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Okay, so Kayla kicked down the door and we burst into the room and..."

(Dramatic flashback!)


"Damn," I swore, looking around the deserted back room. It was empty except for a pile of wooden crates stacked in the corner. Another door swung open in the wind at the back of the room, a busy road visible just beyond it. "He must have run out into the street."

"Or did he?" Lorraine asked. She began to pace around the room, running her fingers around the grimy walls and putting her ear against it. Kayla and I exchanged exasperated looks.

"Lorraine," Kayla snapped, "this is not the time to hug the walls! This man is getting away right now!"

"Quiet!" Lorraine said. "I'm checking for hiding places, like secret rooms."

"In a tavern?" I muttered. She shot me an angry glare and continued her investigation. I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet, looking longingly at the open door. Every second we stood here was another second for Hodge to get even farther away. What if we lost him after all of this? What if -

"Yes!" Lorraine said, dragging the pile of crates away from the corner. A trapdoor was set into the floor, barely visible beneath the carpet of dust. "Look at this!"

Kayla and I hurried over. I toed the door. "Who's going to open it?"

"Not me," Kayla said. "The only reason people have trapdoors is to hide bodies, and I'm not in the mood to see any decapitated people today."

I stared at her. "Bodies? Where do you come up with -"

"Oh, get out of the way," Lorraine said, pushing me aside. "I'll open it."

She carefully knelt down. Kayla sidled closer, pointing her knife down at the trapdoor. We all held our breath as Lorraine pried up the door.

Jas

"And then what happened?" Grayson asked.

I glared at him. "I'm getting to that part! So anyways, Lorraine opened the trapdoor and..."


(Flashback! Again!)

A pit had been dug into the ground underneath the trapdoor, about four feet down, and huddled in a corner was Hodge, the bartender, frantically trying to cram a wad of paper into his pocket.

"Hello, Hodge," I said cheerfully. "It's time we had a little chat, don't you think?"

Kayla hopped down into the pit - after putting away her knife, of course - and hauled the bartender out. He cowered on the floor at our feet, looking pathetic and disheveled. He definitely wasn't the man who had attacked me.

"I paid my dues to the Rogue this month already, I swear!" Hodge whimpered.

I kicked him in the ribs. "That's not why we're here, you fool. Rumor has it that you bought Thylonian Fire Powder this month. What did you do with it?"

"I - I used it to - I - " Hodge stammered. He looked like he was going to have a nervous breakdown at any minute.

"Don't lie to us," Kayla said. She had her knife out again, and it was dangerously close to Hodge's face.

"All right, all right!" he said. "I bought it for my master!"

"And your master is...?" Lorraine asked.

"I don't know his name, he just hired me for this one job!" Hodge said, his eyes darting from the open back door to Kayla's knife and back again. "He said he was going to use it to get revenge on the Rogue for interfering with his gold mining - "

"This is about gold mining?" Kayla said, disbelief plain in her voice. "Your master wanted to kill Jas because of some stupid gold?"

"He's making a fortune at it!" Hodge said. A bead of sweat rolled down his face. "He found a new mine, and he's illegally turning the gold into coins and - "

"You know a lot about this for someone who only got hired for one job," I said. I snatched the wad of papers he was holding. "What's this?"

Hodge sprang to his feet and bolted for the door. Lorraine was on him in an instant, her dagger flashing. I didn't even see her slash his throat, but the next thing I knew the bartender had fallen to the floor. Blood mixed with the dust on the floor and splattered on the trapdoor.

"Lorraine!" Kayla exclaimed. "We weren't done questioning him! Who knows what else he knew?"

"It's all right," I said, scanning the paers in my hand. "We got all the information we needed out of him."


(End of flashback)

"So... that's it?" Grayson said.

"No." I held out some of the papers I had taken from Hodge. "Look at this. He had an assassination plan. And guess who the target is."

Grayson took the papers and started reading. About halfway down the first page he looked up, eyes widening. "The Rogue? These are plans to kill the Rogue?"

Lorraine
My first kill after a while and I had really enjoyed it. The man was arat, I did him a favor killing him. But there were still some things that were yet to be discover and understood.

"What did the Rogue have to do with all this ?" I asked Jas, as I was cleaning my hands with a wet towel. The blood was still staining my hands. "I mean, afterall, this was or is a plan to kill the Rogue."

"That's what I ask myself" Jas said, taking the paper away from Grayson and reading it all over again. Kayla was quiet sitting in a corned, she must have been worried for the Rogue, but she had to know that she wasn't the only one. If the Roggue got killed, we were the instant next ones to go to hell too.

"And that about the gold...?" I said, with an interrogative expression on my face.

Daniel
It had been magical, amoment to remember. Although it was true, the next time Maira was definitely coming for she was an amazing storyteller. She was the one who kept them imaginning their ideal world when younger. And between story and story they began to fall asleep, Maria, Krissy and Daniel.

KAYLA

Her only love. Wanted for dead.

"We have to tell him," Kayla said, feeling like crying. "I'll tell him."

"Not yet Kayla," JAs said, putting a hand on her arm to stop her. Kayla shoved her away.

"I'll go do what I want Jas. Don't you dare try and stop me because I will hurt you," Kayla growled, walking out and towards the place she knew the Rogue would be.

---

"Kayla," the Rogue smiled. "What a nice surprise. Any information for me?"

Normally Kayla would flush brightly and bat her long eyelashes, but today she remained standing tall and serious. She was concerned for his life. She truly loved the Rogue. Unlike the others who were only with him for fright or whatever else.

"You're in danger," she blurted out, tears forming in her eyes. "Lorraine just killed someone who was planning with someone to kill you."

Rogue:

The information Kayla had brought had amused him. A cold chuckle had spread over his lips, echoing in the empty.

"Kayla, my Kayla, who isn't out to kill me." he laughed, standing up out of his throne.

Shock surfaced momentarily on Kayla's face.

"Aren't you concerned my lord? At all? It was an organized assassination we are speaking of, you must be concerned on some level." Kayla said, uncertain.

She was recalling the blade in the Rogue's shoulder left there by a child. But the Rogue whipped around, dagger's flashing and he was half way before Kayla realized he had sliced her purse off.

"Are you still concerned Kayla?" said the Rogue, tossing the purse back.

Kayla's wide eyed expression gave him all the answer he needed, so he dismissed the girl before heading back to his throne.

Jas

I paced up and down in front of the door of the Rogue's room, wondering what Kayla was telling our master. Grayson and Lorraine watched me, both looking deep in thought.

"So let me get this straight," Grayson said. "Someone is illegally mining gold and using it to make fake money. The Rogue is interfering somehow - which none of us knew about - and now the same people want to kill them."

"Right," Lorraine said, nodding. "And I really doubt that Hodge was the leader."

I shook my head. "No. There's no way he was in charge. There's someone else out there still, and they're going to want to kill the Rogue even more now that we killed his right hand man."

Lorraine sighed. "We'll have to go do some more investigating and see if we can find the leader."

Grayson looked excited. "Yes! We can start - "

I stopped and put my hands on my hips. "We? There's no we. You ditched us, remember?"

"Don't be stupid," Grayson said. "Of course I'm coming." He looked from me to Lorraine, who folded her arms and glared at him.

"I don't think so," I said scathingly. "Don't you have something to do? Like skip around in the woods?"

He paled. "You - how did you know - I wasn't in the woods!"

I blinked, surprised at his reaction. So he had been in the woods? That would explain the leaves stuck in his hair and the mud on his boots. But why? Then I saw how pale he looked, almost as though he was afraid I would question him further, and decided to drop it. We all had our secrets.

"Well, you're not helping us!" I continued. "We found Hodge, we uncovered the plot, and we're going to be ones to bring this man down. You can go pick flowers or whatever it is you do. We don't need you!"

"Don't order me around, you - " Grayson began angrily, but just then the door to the Rogue's room flew open, nearly hitting me. I jumped out of the way as Kayla stormed out, looking pale and close to tears.

"He laughed!" she said. "I told him about the murder plot, and he laughed and told me to get out!"

Lorraine
There was something wrong in this whole murder plotting against the Rogue issue. As far as I knew the rogue, when he felt there was something endagering his wicked little underground Court, he would send any of us to the kill.
"I still don't get it." I said with a confused expression. " He didn't even care about it, which leads me to think that he knows"

"Well, it seems like it" Grayson said. "That's why I should go with you"

Here we go again, he wanted to go but Jas was sure about her decion on not letting him go with us. I didn't quite understand what the point was in not letting him go, but if she said it, then I must have obeyed.

"How can he be so careless?" KKayla said, fighting her tears.

"We'll go out again, we'll investigate and see if we can get more information. OK" Jas said. "NOt with you Grayson. Jas interrupted him before he could speak.

Jas

"You can stay and babysit the Rogue," I continued. He looked indignant, so I added, "Well, someone has to do it! He obviously won't take precautions himself, so you can guard him while we look for answers."

"You're going to leave me behind to babysit just because you're mad at me? Don't be so immature," Grayson said. "I'm sorry I didn't come with you this morning, okay?"

"Good. You should be," I said. I turned away from him. "Kayla, Lorraine, where do you want to start looking tomorrow?"

"I think we should start by trying to find out about this new mine," Lorraine said, looking thoughtful. "If we can find it, we can find who's running this whole scheme."

"And then we can kill them," Kayla said, determined. We looked at each other, Kayla, Lorraine and I, and I knew then that we wouldn't stop at anything to defend the Rogue. We would find these gold miners, and we would make them pay.

"Let's meet at the market tomorrow," I said. They nodded and headed down the hallway, talking in low voices. I turned to Grayson. "Please," I said, my voice softer. "Promise you'll watch the Rogue for me. We can handle the search, but we need someone to stay behind."

He nodded slowly. "Fine. And I really am sorry, you know. It's just... something came up, and it's complicated, and I had to choose, and - "

"And finding the man who sprayed powder in my face wasn't important enough?" I said, furious again. "Great. Glad to know I mean so much to you."

"That's not - " Grayson began, but I was already walking away.

Maria

Nightmares had plagued my sleep the entire night, and I had woken up several times. This time when I woke up I saw that it was getting light out. I sat up and stretched, yawning. I had gotten little sleep. Krissy and Daniel were still sleeping. I got up and walked outside, sitting down on an old tree stump. I shivered in the cool morning air. The grass and stump was damp from dew. There was a perfect view of the sunrise through a gap in the trees. I watched as the sky became splashed with purple and orange, along with hints of gold.

GRAYSON

He had been watching the Rogue all this mmorning. Just as Jas asked. He thought again of what she had said to him. Grayson almost laughed.

The girl was foolish. So, so foolish. It angered him to see her tromp away. How could she think he didn't care? Of course he cared! He couldn't be so cruel...so heartless. She was his friend.

"Girls," Grayson grumbled slumping against the wall. This was why he never courted anyone. All women were the same.

He remembered his best friend, Miguel. He had often tried to persuade him to get out more. Though Miguel was quite the ladies man and he was...well, he had been known to be charming but he never let anything get serious. Ever.

Grayson closed his eyes tightly. He missed Miguel more than anything. And more than anything he wanted him alive again.

Grayson sighed. The Rogue could watch himself. He was going to the clearing again. Who knows maybe Maria would go as well.

He peered around the corner to see the Rgue pacing. Grayson would have once given anything to see what was going on in that man's mind. Now...well, now he realized how stupid he had been. No one in their right mind would EVER want to see what was going on in that man's mind. Ever.

Grayson looked around again and tok off towards the forest. The clearing, whether Maria was there or not, would be peaceful and a spt where he could just relax.