*First off let me appoligise for the length of time it's taken me to post this installment. It is a lot longer than the previous ones, but I'm happy with it as I've really had time to do it propperly. I have also rewritten alot of part 4, due to some very helpful comments made by some of the other authors. Thankyou, and please leave me comments. I'm very keen to improve my writing...*
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Aliyah sat with her head in her hands. Reina and Mari had been bickering constantly between themselves for weeks now. She felt as if her entire existence had been compressed into the size of a small pea, and their continual sniping felt like she was being chewed.
"Enough!" I can't take this anymore....
"It's her!"
"Oh that's right, it's my entire fault isn't it Mari?!" Reina growled back between clenched teeth.
"What I don't understand Mari, is why you screamed for your freedom in the first place? It is more than obvious to all three of us now as it was then, that it was not what you truly wanted..." Aliyah tried to sound to soothing but did not manage it.
Mari looked at Aliyah with sad eyes. She truly regretted coming with them. "I was scared. I thought you had left us, and well after what I could hear those whores saying about me. I didn't like it. I wanted it to stop..."
Reina sighed heavily and put her arm around Mari's little shoulders. "He was quite something, your warrior." Reina and Mari finally shared a smile. "I only wanted to protect you, little one. You can be very naive at times. I didn't want you hurt, and as I thought our self appointed commander over there had left the city, I think I may have panicked. A little..."
"A little..." Mari sighed. It was useless continuing their bickering. Both them had had more than ample time to reflect on their behaviour and encounters.
Aliyah felt her heart begin to ache. She knew in her soul her friends would soon leave her. Mari missed her domineering brute, and Reina did not do well out of the company of randy men for extended periods of time. She had told Reina in firm tones, that she did not wish to hear any of her sordid details of "carnal recreation" but she had never the less expressed deep satisfaction in a man's bed, whose name Aliyah herself could not recall.
She kept her distance, whilst they sat close for the first time in weeks, and shared their wistful tales of Xelian revelry with a hushed air. Aliyah had come to loathe Xel, better than the land in which she now found herself, Amenia...
They had arrived in the Kings' own city 12 days before, and sat in a tavern filled with both Amenian and Xelian warriors. The feel of the people was welcoming, especially after one bar maid had effectively and boisterously identified her as Deloran. She had been exalted and bought round and round of ale.
The last months experience of Xel, had taught Aliyah to keep her thoughts, and feelings well to herself. Her eye's glittered as she thought of her home, and of all the people she had known and loved...In the least sense of cheer she sobered to herself, at least in this land Delorans were not viewed with suspicion and distrust. The irony was not lost on her. Aliyah found herself developing a twisted sense of humour.
The mood within the quiet tavern grew rambunctious of a sudden, as a brigade of Xelian warriors swept inside, carrying squealing and giggling girls under arms, and over shoulders. They were a merry crowd to watch...
A haggard old soldier caught Aliyahs' eye as he sneered at the Xelians, and then surprised her further by raising his glass and saluting her. Aliyah stared... He was a soldier through and through, although he did not wear an Amenian coat of arms, or wear a crested sword. He looked as bitter and sullen suddenly, as she had been feeling since she could remember. Then the haggard old man stood, and lifted his tunic to reveal a scarred tattoo on his chest of the Deloran Palace Guard. He had grown up in the same keep as she had!
"None of us would forget the first Commander under our great general. Long may he be at peace with our brothers and sisters...You are Aliyah of the 17th company. Arisen thrice for bravery, and last posted commander of the Deloran Guard. You were better known than you realised my girl, so you can close that chasm of a mouth of yours. It is an honour and a gift from the creator to see you now..."
Aliyah pulled away from him and his unwelcome praise. The Deloran commander he had spoken of had died with her General and mentor.
"I am little more than a Deloran mercenary now..."
The old man suddenly struck her hard across the face and spat at her feet. "You dishonour our Sovereign and our General with your blasphemy. It does not matter that our lands are no longer our home, you are alive!"
Aliyah felt her face flame with humiliation. She ground her teeth and raised her eyes at the old man's fury. She could kill him without a second's hesitation, but after a moment she bowed her head and solemnly said, "Can you forgive me?"
"Indeed I can, my fine, fine girl!" They turned to the bar only to stop abruptly.
The noise in the bar had vanished as all eyes were upon the two. Many of the men's eyes were trained on the old man, as if they wished him harm. A burly Amenian stepped forward and moved to stand before the old guard, until Aliyah suddenly unsheathed her dagger, and held it up and across the man's neck.
"You do not attack one of The Deloran Guard, whilst another stands by their side!"
The burly red head was too shocked to react, and defensively spluttered out, "I had come to defend you!" Aliyah looked back at the old man and the smirk on his face and suddenly burst with peals of laughter.
Aliyah was bent double, and had to stagger to the bar to prop herself up as she laughed. Tears streamed down her face in her mirth. The old guard introduced himself as Imlar Jem and asked her to simply call him Jem. "I do not know your parents name?"
"My mother gave me up to feed my brother. I have only one name, and it was given to me by my first nurse."
There was a pause as the old man chewed over this new information, and then he shrugged and commented..."I'm sure she had her reasons. You should not hold the woman who carried you in her womb, with such contempt." He added the last, when he saw the burning in her eyes.
Aliyah scrunched her brows darkly at the old man after that. The only people who had ever berated her were her nurses and by the age of 9 they had given up -- so only her General had ever dared put her in her place.
"You don't like to be told off..." He snorted good-naturedly. "Was there much work in Xel?" Jem made an attempt at a new line of conversation, but Aliyah was not receptive to him. He appeared frail at first glance, but his glacier azure eyes sparkled as he asked her about where she had been, and how she had coped. Mostly Aliyah replied with nods, or one word answers. Jem was finally pacified enough to chatter away about his life in the present, and how he had found a home and his relationship with the Taverns Lady owner had come about.
"Let me tell you, my old woman. She ain't no lady." Jem guffawed at his own wit, and pointed her attention to the bar when a fat old woman waddled across the bar. She looked too well fed, but a contented type. Aliyah envied the happy smile on the woman's lips when they met Jems'.
He studied the haunted look in the girls' eyes and worried for her. He felt responsible for her now. There were too few of their people left, and they were scattered too far apart.
Mari suddenly squealed, and began shrieking. Instantly Aliyah tossed down her ale, and jumped over the tables amid shouts of anger and randy applause to stumble and lose her balance entirely when she saw who had evoked such a response from her friend.
