A/N: Second part to the chapter, be sure you read the first part as well as the authors note before reading this one please and thank you!!

Recap:   
   The second I turned the corner, I had my arrow sighted and took down another guard running but though two were still running up, I'd misjudged the number and three were running down, keeping close to the shadows until they were nearly on me. Greg shot one while I dodged a blade coming at my head. Ritch raised his axe to take that one down.
   And froze.

   The guard, unstopped by Ritch's ax a he should have been, whipped around after the miss and I leaped back as he slashed forward with his sword. I dodged, but not completely and felt a burning sensation across my collarbone and shoulder. I tried to raise my bow but there was no time before he swung again and I dropped, rolling to the side, very nearly rolling off the edge.
   There was an ugh sound and I looked up to see Angus pulling his sword out of the guards back. He wiped off his blade, sheathed it, then reached down and hauled me to my feet. "You alright, girl?"
   "I'm... fine. I think." I looked at Ritch. "What happened? You had the shot!" I felt myself starting to shake. In anger or in shock, I wasn't sure. "I saw you, you had the axe---"
   "I killed my aunt!"
   "I... you... what?"
   "She was already dying you see? And she was in so much pain and suffering so much so bad and she asked me to kill her and so I did and I stabbed her over and over even though I didn't want to and buried her the night before I had the vision and I didn't think nothing was wrong with me 'cept some bad dreams but when I raised the axe I couldn't kill him! I couldn't kill anyone else! Oh Father, I'm so sorry, Alie. I'm so sor---"
   Angus grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the cliff wall. "You fool of a boy!" He hissed. "Are ye a fekin' daft? Ye thinks ye couldna mentioned this a'fore ye had peoples lives relyin' on ye?"
   "I didn't know!" Ritch cried. "I'm sorry!"
   The size of Ritch as well as his intelligence made him seem so much older than his years, I often forgot that he was only just turned thirteen, the youngest of us all. I felt anger at his aunt who was so cowardly as to ask such a thing of a boy and then realized that I had asked him the very same by having him watch my back tonight.
   Angus had no such thoughts though, and he slammed the crying Ritch against the wall again. "What were ye thinkin' you fool? Ye want her death on y'r hands, b'cause ye just about---"
   "Stop that!" I snapped and pushed Angus hard. He was twice my size but the surprise worked in my favour and he stumbled back.
   "What in the gods woman---"
   I punched him. Hard enough to hurt my knuckles. "Don't you talk to my friend like that!"
   "What's going on here?" I heard Uncle Jack but I was too into it now. All I knew was it was either go into shock again or lash out, so I chose the latter and went to hit Angus again.
   "Alie!" I was grabbed from behind by familiar arms and I struggled.
   "Let me go!"
   "Alie, stop! Angus didn't do anything to---"
   "What the bloody gods is going on here?"
   "Let me go!"
   "Alie, you're bleeding bad." Geac finally set me on my feet and it would have been a perfect opportunity to break free except that his words stilled me.
   "I... what?" Then I remembered the burning sensation.
   He turned me around and cursed. "Your arm." He said. "And your chest, too. What in the name of all the gods happened?"
   "Ye can blame the boy here f'r that." Angus said.
   "Ritch did this?" His disbelief was obvious in his voice.
   "Ritch didn't do anything!"
   "That be the point, ye fekin' deathcat." Angus snapped at me now, spitting blood from his split lip. I had a brief moment of feeling mildly impressed with myself at actually causing that before he continued. "The bastard juss stood there while she near got her throat slit."
   "Don't call him---"
   "Shut up!" Uncle Jack snapped. "All of you." He turned me roughly and looked at my wound. "Geac, get this cleaned up and calm her the bloody fek down. Garg, keep an eye out up top. And what the fig are you doing here, Loryn? Never mind, just calm the boy down would you? Angus, start explaining before I start beating on you next."
   Geacob took me down to the torch and used that to see by, calling Darci over to keep me hidden by the men with her cloak while he pulled the wool and undershirt down over my shoulders, very nearly baring my breast.
   "I'm fine." I said, looking at it. "It's only in need of a few stitches."
   "Give me your bag."
   I did and he pulled out the needle and some thread. As he heated the needle over the fire to burn off anything that might give me an infection, I drowned a cloth in whisky, then slapped it to my wound, hissing in pain. Wow that hurt.
   Ready. Geacob pulled the cloth away and warned me to stay still, then asked what happened. I told him of the events and finished just as he pulled the last stitch through. He started wrapping my arm and chest in clean linen. "So why did you hit Angus?"
   That caught Darci's attention and she turned her head. "You hit Angus?"
   I held up my stinging, bloody knuckled for proof. "He was insulting my friend."
   "Sounded to me like he deserved the insult."
   Geac gave her a look. "Do you want Alie to hit you too?"
   "He's gonna be a handsome one. Big too." Darci said with female appreciation, then frowned. "His aunt made him kill her?"
   "Guilt'ed him into it, it sounds like."
   She sighed quietly. "The poor boy." She said and must have noticed my face because she turned defensive. "I'm not a monster all the time."
   Geac snorted but had finished wrapping and pulled my wool up. "It'll be a nasty scar, but you'll be alright."
   "I know." I moved my arm around experimentally, felling the stitches pull only slightly. "I can still handle a bow." I assured them. "But I'll need a new guard."
   "I'll get Rummy to cover you." Said Darci while Geac asked if I was sure.
   "Thank you, and yes, I'm sure. But I need to talk to Ritch."
   "Looks like he's coming to you." Geac nodded upwards where Ritch was coming down, clutching Loryn's hand.
   "Alie, I'm so---"
   "Shh." I said and hugged him. "You couldn't have known. If you had, you wouldn't have agreed to stand at my back. It's not your fault and I'm fine, so don't eat yourself up over it or it will make me feel guilty. Terribly so. And apparently I become violent when I have high emotions so let us try to avoid that, yes?"
   He let out something between a sob and a laugh but nodded.
   "Let's go!" Uncle Jack called. "We don't have time for this."
   I kissed Ritch's cheek. "Stay safe." I told him and when I let go, took a deep breath and reloaded my crossbow. Time to get back to work.

LORYN
   My hand slipped and I nearly fell. The shock of fear sped my already racing heart and widened my already wide eyes for trying to see the minute shadows in the shadows of the shadowed wall that indicated cracks large enough to slip my fingers in.
   "You alright?" Venny gasped.
   "Yes, yes. Go." I urged and wiped what I was sure was blood from my hand then forced myself to keep moving upward.
   I had never felt such self inflicted pain before. My hands were so cut and blistered from gripping sharp edges that I knew they'd never be the same again, my legs and arms (especially my arms) absolutely burned from pulling myself up and down the cliffs. My neck twinged every time I moved my head from looking up so often, and my eyes even felt sore from straining to see in the dark. My lungs felt like they were bruising my chest on each gasping breath and even my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth. The icy wind stung my skin beneath the wool as it froze sweat on it in a thin salting layer, cracking after each pause.
   By rights, I should have stopped by now. The old me would have.
   But I had finally found something that I was better at than Alie. Better even than the Rangers. Better than all but Venny who climbed unnaturally fast upon the wall as if rungs were set into the stone, lit in an illumination only he could see.
   As the daughter of a High Lord and later as an apparent queen, I hadn't felt important. I felt useless and unwelcome and unwanted. Ritch's approving looks had helped, but I now realized it wasn't him that I needed approval from but myself.
   Don't be foolish, Loryn. My mothers voice sounded in my head. How is it that after all I had gone through with Archrit, and Fat-Biddy, that it was my mother who haunted me above all else? Why would you even have a right to make such decisions? You'll be married off in a few years and have to wear what he wishes you to wear, not yourself.
   "But, Mother, I do love the yellow dress. Can't I just---"
   Your skin is too dark for the yellow. She'd replied sharply. It's no wonder you've become such an ugly girl after spending so much time in the sun. Look at you! She pinched my skin hard, making tears come into my eyes. No. You'll wear the deep red.
   I had lowered my head. "Yes, Mother."
   Once, I would have felt shame at the memory. Now, I felt a surge of hate. It was her fault I couldn't even tie my own laces or dress my own wounds or even build a fire in the cold. She'd made me useless and heavy and ugly.
   But not here on the mountains.
   Climbing had come to me so naturally, I wondered if I wasn't of Dargolyn blood after all. I'd been terrified to start and only Ritch's large form behind me made me that that first step.
   But I quickly learned how to move my way up like a spider in a cracked wall. Venny leaped form ledge to ledge, claiming to have practice from climbing ropes and masts on the ship he'd worked on, but I found the smallest of cracks and skittered up the side of the wall, never leaving less than three feet at all times pressed into the stone.
   I felt light and pretty and useful now, and though I was exhausted, I was also determined I wasn't going to fail the others. I would keep going until I literally dropped if that's what it took, not because I wanted to be looked at in approval, but becasue I wannted to think of myself a little better.
   And, perhaps, just a little, I was hoping it would drown out my mothers' disgusted voice once and for all.
   I reached the top, right next to Venny, and we both gasped quietly, the wind taking away whatever other noises we made.
   "This is it." Venny whispered but I had already noticed the curve in the trail that led between the cliffs and onto the mountain, like a cave with an open sky.
   "I'll tell Uncle Jack." I whispered. "You wait for Alie and the others to climb up first."
   "You sure? You look like you could use a rest."
   "I'm sure." I said, not mentioning that if I stopped for long, I'd be falling asleep right here hanging off the side.
   Climbing down was a lot harder than climbing up for some off reason I had yet to understand, but I made it down to the trail without dying so that was something. I went past the Rangers and ran up on wobbly legs until I reached Darci, Geac, and his uncle who waited, still wiping sweat and blood from their last battle here.
   "We've reached the circle." I said.
   Jack nodded as if this thoughts had been confirmed. "How many?"
   "Four on the trail but at least two dozen in the circle. Many are sleeping still but there are a few up and about, tending to fires and whatnot."
   He glanced up at the sky and I realized with surprised that it was brightening. "We might have enough time." He looked behind me at the approaching Venny who had apparently chosen to come down after all. "Tell the archers to take out the four on the trail silently." He looked at me once Venny ran off. "You still want to take Ritch's place to reach the bridge?"
   I nodded. "I do."
   Geac handed me his bladder. "Drink up first then, you're about to collapse."
   I nodded and drank, not arguing in the slightest. I tasted blood on the cap that must have run off the cut on Geac's forehead last he drank. I was thirsty enough that I didn't care.
   "Get going." Jack ordered and I shot him a glare but obeyed, running back to Ritch at the back of the Ranger group who seemed charged at the coming of a battle, no matter how small.
   "I need your axe." I said. "We're at the circle."
   Ritch took it from his belt but grimaced as he handed it to me. "I feel bloody useless." He said. "No offence, but you of all people shouldn't be looked on as braver than I."
   His face was nothing like my own, yet the expression there reminded me of what I saw in the mirror for years. I knew how that felt, and I knew what I'd always wanted to hear so I said it, not knowing if it was true or not, but knowing it didn't matter so long as it was said.
   "You are handsome and you are brave and you are not worthless." I told him firmly. How many times in my life had I wished to be called even one of those words? Just a single one. If I had ever received all three, perhaps I would not have my mothers voice hanging around in my head right now. Perhaps it would not have been her voice that had kept me company in Archrit's home.
   Ritch looked at me in surprise and then he smiled. "Thanks, Loryn." He said with sincerity, then seemed to grow a little taller. "Good luck up there."
   I climbed again, this time joining Alie, Fork and Garg over by the side of the sort of gateway leading into the circle. Alie raised her eyebrows when she saw me holding the axe but said nothing.
   The guards had already been taken care of and were in the process of being stepped over by two dozen Rangers working their way up the path.
   As they neared, Alie surprised me by hooking her bow across her back and picking up a shield. She must have taken it off one of the guards. I thought of getting one, but no, it looked far too heavy for me.
   Geac and his uncle had reached us by then and a silent conversation went on between Geac and Alie. Alie nodded and looked at Jack who nodded as well and made a quiet movement with his hand.
   Alie gripped my hand and ran inside, pulling me with her.
   Screaming.
   "Help! Rangers on the path!" She screamed.
   Another thing I was better at than Alie --- accents. I took over, even as guards surged to their feet.
   "Help us! Please! They're coming!"
   Meanwhile, we were running along the edge of the circle toward the bridge. Most of the men only went for their weapons, waking quickly, but a couple saw us as suspicious and one called out to us.
   "Yay! Stop them girls!"
   But then the Rangers let out a shout as they stormed in. Spreading out and lunging forward to meet blade against blade in a fearsome show of deadly bravery, distracting any who would have followed or stopped us.
   "Focus." Alie said, somehow gently even as she yanked at my arm.
   The bridge was made of rope and wood, but the rope was much thicker than I would have imagined --- the thickness of my wrist at least, perhaps closer than my ankle. There were four of them, set into iron loops that were in turn, set into the stone of the mountain itself.
   "Loryn!"
   Right. Stop staring and start working. I raised the ax and brought it down, but only hit the edge of the rope, sending some coiling. I did it again and again until finally, it snapped. Sudden enough to make me jump.
   Alie let out a squeak and I looked in time to see her throw up the shield against a sword. She suddenly had a knife in her hand --- where she'd had it hidden, I couldn't imagine --- and she punched the guard in the stomach with it. He bowled over her arm in pain and surprise, dropping his sword.
   She yanked her arm away, knife and all, and kicked him over the side of the cliff. That was twice I've seen her stab someone and both times she had no expression on her face. I reminded myself to start being nicer to the terrifying Northener girl.
   "Loryn!" She shouted and pointed behind me.
   "Got it!" I shouted back, my hands trembling as I saw a good dozen running toward me on the long bridge. I quickly started hitting the lower rope with the axe, over and over, not even knowing if I was hitting the rope with the right edge of the axe until there was a spring noise and shouts as the rope twisted and dropped under their feet. Some kept ahold of the ropes on the right though and kept coming. Slower now, but they were coming and more than halfway across the bridge.
   My hands were killing me and the axe was slippery with blood. I wanted to shout at Alie for not helping me --- she had a knife! --- but with a glance I saw she was engaged in her own battle of trying to keep me from being stabbed in the back, so I raised the axe again and slammed it down.
   Where were the men? I thought as I hacked desperately away at the impossibly strong rope. They were supposed to be helping us by now. Where were they?
   The guards were scrambling closer across the rope and I was only half way through.
   I let out a scream and threw the axe down as hard as I could at the rope.
   It snapped, leaving only a single rope. Several dangled from it while others fell right away, but some still held on good, coming closer hand over hand.
   "Watch out, girly!" One shouted as he swung towards me.
   I screamed as I raised the axe and brought it down onto his head without thinking, just as his feet landed on the stone. He crumbled at me feet.
   I yanked the axe out. Struggling with it for a moment before it gave with a sickly sound but felt nothing except the pain in my hands and arms. The axe had felt heavy before but was now almost unbearably so.
   And men were still coming.
   "I can do this!" I shouted, defiant. I raised the axe again, hoping it didn't drop on my own head.
   "We know you can." Came Ritch's voice and I was pulled out of the way. He took the axe from my weak fingers and raised it above his head. In one single swing, he chopped the remaining rope.
   The guards screamed as they fell to their deaths.
   I looked around in the sudden silence that surrounded us.
   Geacob had the shield now and his sword hung from a bleeding arm but he was smiling at Alie who looked proud of herself, her tiny blade still in hand. Beyond that was a circle of Rangers and dead men, plus Venny who was holding a sword near taller than he was --- or used to be rather --- had he really grown so much in just a few short months?
   An arrow skittered by my feet and I yipped, spinning around even as Ritch yanked me behind him like an overprotective brother.
   There were several guards on the other side, shouting out and yelling words we were too far away to properly understand.
   "Can they get to us?" I asked no one in particular.
   "Eventually." Jack said. "But don't worry, we'll fight them off easily until your return."
   "When are we leaving?" Alie asked.
   "Now. You can eat and rest when you're in the passage way, but I want you kids out of sight while the sun is in their eyes and the shadows are still thick along the trail." He looked Alie over as if just remembering that she was injured. "You alright to climb a bit more with that shoulder of yours?"
   "I'm fine." She said firmly.
   He nodded. "Let's go then."
   Alie looked around. "But... the injured..."
   "We know how to stitch ourselves up, Alie."
   "Oh, right. Of course." She blushed and Geacob chuckled, taking her under his arm as they followed Uncle Jack. I saw Venny and Hark heading toward us too, even as Ritch took my hand and led me along.
   It was odd. Ritch cared for me and I for him. I loved him even, but I did not see him the way Alie and Geacob saw each other. To me, at least, Ritch felt like the big brother I should have had --- ironic since he was two years younger then I was. But I often forgot he was so young because he was so tall and smart and there was a pain in his eyes that aged him. I hadn't known until last night when I learned what he'd had to do to his aunt, where that pain came from.
   I wanted to tell him about my mother, but even thinking about her made me so angry that I was afraid of what I would say.
   We went to a crack in the wall we could barely squeeze through, then down a long shaft that was sharp enough to hurt my hands and tug annoyingly at my wool. It took us out onto a ledge that moved around in a wide circle.
   We came across a body, splattered on the ledge with the legs hanging over, his face to the sky and eyes wide and looking up in a permanent expression of fear.
   Looking up, I saw the broken bridge handing and realized we were directly below where I had cut it, but much below. There was a scatter of rocks and broken bodies about fifty feet down in the joining of two mountains.
   Uncle Jack led us into another crack and down another shaft that slowly turned until we were walking though a deep tunnel. The only light, coming from tiny cracks in the ceiling of it. I paused below one and saw the two mountains above--- we were walking below the bodies now.
   Finally to a small ladder of stone which we climbed and onto another ledge, this time opposite of the one we'd been to and by now, the sun was high above us.
   The exhaustion seemed to be doubled, but when we reached the end of the ledge and Uncle Jack told us to climb, I did so without argument, bringing the rope with me which I tied on about twenty feet up so that Hank could be helped up. Honestly, I was surprised he was still with us--- he looked more dead than the body we had come across.
   When all were at the top, Uncle Jack motioned us around the ledge again and inside a narrow crevasse which smoothed out into a tunnel but we did not go that far.
   He stopped and used the hilt of his sword to crumble dirt away from a spot in the wall. He dug his arm inside and pulled out all the makings of torches, from cloth to fat to stickins. He also pulled out a small sac of coal, only eight or nine pieces. He dropped it all on the ground at our feet.
   "This is where I leave you." He said. "Stay here and rest for the night. There's a little spring that flows about fifty feet in," he motioned to the tunnel, "it's clean water from the top of the mountains so fill your bladders and ration it. You'll need it at the first chamber and every moment after."
   "It's safe to light a fire here?" I asked, looking at the coal.
   "It is. It can't be seen from anywhere." He looked around the cave as if it held many memories he thought he'd forgotten. "Wait to light the torches right before you leave. That jar of fat is a bit old. And keep in mind that dragons are attracted to fire." He looked hard at his nephew. "Are you sure about this, Geac? You've always asked my opinion before and listened to it when I gave it."
   "And your opinion is that I shouldn't go."
   It wasn't a question, but Jack nodded.
   Geac shook his head. "I'm going, Uncle. We have a better chance when we're together."
   His uncle gave him a sad look, glanced around. "I need to talk to you a minute alone."
   "Anything you have to say can be said---"
   "Not this."
   Geac frowned but nodded slowly and they headed back out onto the ledge.
   "I wonder what that's all about." Venny said, staring after them.
   "Nothing good, I'm sure." Said Alie in a grumble and put down her pack with a sigh. "Loryn, let me see your hands. I'll clean them up before we rest."

GEACOB
   "Well?" I asked when he didn't say anything. "What is it?"
   "I have something to tell you." My uncle licked his lips nervously --- a gesture I rarely saw. "I think you should know before you..." he scratched the back of his neck; yet another nervous gesture. "I didn't say it before, because I didn't want you to look at me differently."
   I let out a groan. "Not you too!"
   He blinked. "Too?"
   "You and Alie, both." I told him on a sigh. "She has something to say as well but tells me she is afraid I'd look at her different." I snorted. "As if anything she has done in the past would change how I feel for her."
   He winced. "Err... than may have been my fault."
   I blinked, then took a page from Hark and Venny's book. "What's it?"
   "I know the secret she keeps from you, son." He told me. "I told her to tell you, otherwise, the way that you looked at her was a lie."
   "To all the gods that listen..." I cursed quietly. "Be damned, Uncle! Why?"
   "I don't trust a girl who lies to you so easily."
  "Says the man who just admitted to me that you have kept something from me for the very reason she has?" I raised an eyebrow, not sure if it was in skepticism or amusement. "It isn't like you to be hypocritical, Uncle."
   "That was before I knew her. She's... not what I expected her to be."
   I sighed again. I could have told him that. "Look, whatever it is, you can tell me when I get back."
   "Back?"
   "From speaking to the dragon, Roiloighon"
   He grimaced. "Best you not say his name, he'll kill you where you stand." He said, but then seemed to consider my words. "After?"
   "Yes." I put my hand on his shoulder, surprised to find that we were the same height now. I had grown a few inches in just a couple moons and my arms were nearly as thick as his. This man had always looked so large to me, and still was, but I was more than a boy now. I wondered when I had grown up.
   I was no longer Geacob, Jack's Nephew, I was simply Geacob, my own person, and now that I had been without him, I wondered if I would ever be able to follow him again.
   "I trust you, Uncle. Anything you have to say to me will not change that. You'll always be my uncle." But then I frowned. "Unless.. you are my uncle, yes?"
   He let out a chuckle. "Yes, boy, by flesh and bone I swear it, you bloody snot." He cuffed me, too lightly for it to have been serious, then his eyes turned thoughtful. "After, you say."
   I nodded. I could tell that he wasn't ready to tell me now, whatever it was, and I had meant when I said; no matter what this secret was, I would forgive him for keeping it from me.
   He nodded, very slowly. "I'll tell you after, then. Yes. That'd be better."
   I frowned at his tone but he grinned as if a weight had left him and clapped me on the back. "Go and get some rest, Geac. You did well today, your first battle with even odds." He clapped me on the back once again, then pushed me toward the crevasse. "Your father would be so very proud of you, boy."
   I blinked several times at that; it was so rare that he spoke of my parents. He would never even speak there names. He told me once that he had watched them die and now that was all he saw when he thought of them. All I knew was that my mother loved listening to old stories and had a tongue not fit for a sailors ears, and that my father was brave and strong and loyal and that he had cried when the news of my safe birth reached his ears. Apparently, he had been on the road and I had come much earlier than I should have come.
   I knew nothing else of them, but of course that they had died brutally in the war.
   Yet, to hear that my father would have been proud of me nearly brought tears to my own eyes. I did not miss my parents as I had never known them. To me, my uncle was my parents as well as my mentor and friend. However, I loved them just the same.
   "Thank you for that." I told him.
   He nodded, then added, "If things go bad up there, you show the dragon your necklace. You make sure he sees it."
   I touched the talon. "Why?"
   "Because no man can receive a dragons talon unless the dragon is killed to have it taken."
   "But dragons cannot be killed."
   "They can if they kill themselves."
   "Dragonfire." I understood and he nodded. "But... but my father wore this necklace. How did he---"
   "I'll tell you all about it after." He said with a nod then he turned, hesitated as if he were about to say something else, but kept going without another word.

***

A/N: Alright, so.... help? Help me cut it into two chapters or help me cut parts out. I don't care what, just help me please lol.