Lexie opened the cupboard over her head and reached in for the wooden swords. She was rummaging through a storeroom cupboard on the second last floor, looking for extra practice swords to use in one of her lessons. She grabbed an arm full and lifted them down. But she had taken too many for both her hands to fit around and as she pulled them out, a wooden tip caught the cupboard door and dislodged them from her grip. Lexie swore loudly as she dropped them and they hit the stone floor around her.

"Now that's some mighty foul language, that is." Lexie looked up to see Imara Dalladune leaning against the doorframe, her brilliant red hair flopped over her shoulder in the thick braid, "And I live in a family of rowdy, battle-ready young men."

"I get the feeling none of them would match your filthy tongue," Lexie said, shrugging, "Perhaps I was wrong?"

Imara laughed, "You're a witty one, Lexie Malenco. Tell me, do you always refuse to think about how many swords you can actually carry before you pull them out of a cupboard?"

"And do you always loiter in doorways waiting for people to mess up?" Lexie asked, smirking a little as she bent down and started to pick up the swords.

Imara scoffed, "Well what else am I going to do for entertainment? None of the adults in my family have any sense of humour." And she kicked herself off the wall and bent down to help.

"So are you actually a Dalladune?" Lexie asked, "Or just some distant cousin feeding off others and using the name?"

"Kings, don't hold yourself back, Malenco!" Imara said, laughing, "But no, I'm the real deal. My father is Orville Dalladune, not that he'd like to admit it."

Lexie knew enough about the Dalladunes to know that Orville was the younger brother of Ajax. The Dalladune family was set out predominately in threes, something Lexie had been taught as a child when her parents had told her about who actually ran Delajenca. The first three had come from Amir Dalladune who was the one to build the Dalladune name and was also Elex, Imara and Chasin's grandfather. Amir had had three sons and these sons were to inherit his fortunes and his power. Those sons had been Ajax, Orville and Reggie. Ajax, as the eldest had inherited the most and his children would be the successors. Ajax had had three of them; the second being Elex.

But Imara had been born of Orville. Lexie knew what the Dalladune family favoured. She knew it would have been a difficult family to grow up to. Especially being a girl when the Dalladunes were so well known for producing sons.

"I know what expectations feel like," Lexie said, ducking her head to reach for the last of the swords, "My mother was ready for me to be bearing children by the time I was fourteen."

"That's harsher than most," Imara said with a grim smile on her face, "But not uncommon. 'Jenca is a ruthless country on young girls. It saw my father remarry because he couldn't stand the sight of me."

She admitted this lightly. Lexie liked how she held no reservations on issues that were shunned and discouraged from being talked about. And Imara didn't seem to care that Lexie now had an idea how Orville Dalladune might have treated his daughter.

"Lucky they make us stronger than most, ay?" she said with a smile and straightened up with the swords, moving for the door. Imara followed her, half the swords in her arms.

"See I'd normally agree with you there," She said, flicking her thick red hair over her shoulder, "But after seeing your Hehpe today...Kings, those Quel-yanians fed her something as a babe. I could never do what she's done."

Lexie felt a flush of pride, "She's pretty damn special, that one."

"Special to you?"

Lexie stopped and looked back at Imara and her daring eyes that held no apology, "Pardon?"

Imara didn't waver, "Don't kid yourself, Malenco. I've met you for all of five minutes and I see how you exchange speeches with her through nothing but your eyes. So either it's love or some Kings-blessed bond."

Lexie was utterly taken aback by her outright-ness. It took a moment of hesitation before she decided she liked it and let her face split into a smile.

"With that keen an eye, you'd better be a damn good shot," Lexie said, eyeing the bow slung over Imara's back.

She followed Lexie's gaze on the bow and then turned back and winked, "I'd like to take you on sometime. But you avoided my question, don't think I didn't miss that."

Lexie turned back and continued walking, "Trying to find some weakness of my Hehpe? Because you looking in the wrong place."

"Ha!" Imara scoffed, "If you weren't so thick-headed, you'd have realised I was asking if you were seeing anyone."

Lexie almost tripped over her own feet but Imara just laughed and brushed past her.

"Maybe you can give me an answer tonight? Meet me on the roof when the moon is fully up. And bring your bow."

"And if I have plans tonight?" Lexie asked, a little short on breath with her astonishment.

But Imara just scoffed again and flicked her hair, "Dear Kings Malenco, I have looked in a mirror before. I know you won't be able to resist."

*****

Ella was walking back to Old Montague when she sensed something off. She thought it was the baby at first but she adjusted his position beneath her robes and he seemed just fine. But the feeling lingered and as she walked, her dark eyes flicked about, looking for the source of her unease. Then she saw the figure in a jet black cloak, walking straight towards her. She had a dagger in her hand before she realised it was Micah.

"Kings, I still can't recognise ya in that thing," she said as he got close enough to fall into step with her.

"I was just coming to find you," he said, vaguely. He had been like this the past couple of days and Ella had written it off as being the next stage of him coping with Jules's loss. He had been deathly quiet, barely speaking at all. And when he did, it was short and to the point. Ella almost didn't know how to conduct herself around him when he was like this. She didn't feel comfortable and still hadn't talked to him about her distrust in her sister and what Leyah had actually done with Callie Dias.

"Why?" Ella asked, "Is somethin' wrong?"

"No. But the Hehpe has called in her representatives from each country. She's narrowing down and confirming her assets."

"And ya think I could help?"

"I thought you'd hate being left out."

There it was again. Something that on any other occasion would have been light-hearted and followed by a playful nudge or a knowing glance but Micah kept the scarf in his cloak pulled up over his mouth and nose and didn't sneak glances at her like he used to.

And Ella hated it.

"I've been meanin' ta talk ta you about Callie." Ella said in an attempt to force things back into normality, "She still wants Beau."

"Do you know why?" Micah asked and he actually looked at her this time.

"No, I don't." She watched Micah glance down as the baby squirmed a little under her loose fitting robes. When he looked back up, he wore an expression that was foreign to Ella; one she couldn't place.

"If you think she has an ulterior motive then there is no way I'm letting her take him."

"Ya trust me that much?" Ella asked lightly, smiling.

Micah stopped, catching Ella by surprise. She turned back to him, a question about what was wrong on her lips.

"Yes." Micah said, his face still set in that unreadable expression, "I trust you that much."

Ella looked at him carefully then and when she spoke her voice was quieter and a lot calmer than she ever remembered having spoken to him before, "I know."

Her mind skipped back to the time she had spent locked in one of the warehouse rooms when Micah and Beau had been arrested. She had cried so hard she had though her throat had split and when he had come in, she had had barely enough room in her heart to feel relief. So she had just sat there and he had known exactly how to deal with her. He had somehow known that just sitting with her and having her know, without needing to tell her that everything was okay.

And here he was, hurting more than she had ever seen and she was so incredibly lost.

"Come on," he said finally and walked past her, "Let's go deal with your sister."

Ella trailed behind him as Micah led her back to the warehouse. There was no more discussion between them as they passed Nisaba and her perch and then arrived at the warehouse steps. Ella had now been taught to be more aware of her surroundings so the archers and the scouts on the rooftops overlooking Old Montague didn't go unnoticed. The warehouse door opened for them and for the first time Ella wondered if there was some hidden lock in the door that allowed it to be opened to familiar faces but locked to strangers.

The warehouse seemed to be buzzing with activity. There were people loitering in the hallway but also rebels with jobs to do who were moving in and out of the rooms; appearing and disappearing into the staircase.

"Ay! Watch it!" Ella snapped as she was squished into Micah's side as some rebel shouldered by them with a bundle of bows and quivers of arrows, "I've never seen it like this before."

Micah didn't say anything and instead steered her down the stairs. Twice they had had to press themselves up against the stone wall to let rebels pass with crates of goods and the whole procedure was just making Ella mad.

"Bloody rude, I tell ya!" She hissed as she was pushed aside again, "Next one ta touch me gets thrown down the stairs."

Again, Micah was quiet, as if he had vowed only to talk when it was absolutely necessary. He stopped at the landing of the floor that was just above the training area. Ella recognised it immediately, despite the way it looked like every other floor landing they had passed.

"They're keeping her here?" She asked softly.

"All the rooms on the ground floor are being used. Leyah couldn't give up the space," Micah said and he left it at that.

Ella followed him down the short corridor and then a short flight of harsh stone steps to where the walls widened out into a room with steel barred, floor-to-ceiling cages stood. It was where they had first thrown Micah when Leyah had found out who he was. Callie was in one of the closer cages but Kings, she didn't resemble how Micah had looked in any way. When Ella had been let in to see Micah down here, he had been in the furthermost cage, illuminated by weak candlelight that had given off just enough light so that Ella could see him lying in a pool of his own blood. It was an image of him that was seared into her brain and seeing her own sister, sitting upright amongst blankets and cushions and a couple of trays of food, it felt like a slap in the face.

Ella stopped on the last step to look down at her sister. The chalk that she rubbed into her skin to make it appear lighter had worn off and so she was left with her natural face, one that was almost a mirror of Ella's own features. Her short dark curls looked perfectly placed as always and she looked well-fed and looked after if not for the scowl on her face.

"Uglage es ywnlich, Elleanora," Callie snapped in Old Kannish, telling Ella that she blamed her for the cage.

"Your Kannish is sloppy," Ella said, her brow quivering with disdain, "Ya over pronounce ya G's."

But Callie continued to speak in Old Kannish, as if insisting that Micah didn't understand, "Geyreich smolei mi ut unswy mi."

"Brach." Ella said, "No."

Callie's scowl deepened, "If you resembled anything near a sister, you'd trust me to look after my own child."

"Well I don't, Ekmal." Ella said, giving a light shrug but feeling the heat of anger boiling in her gut. She used the Old Kannish word for sister but let the ending of the word drop off so that what she had said sounded closer to the Kannish word meaning squid; something that was also a very commonly used insult in El Kana.

"I forgave you for your immaturity when we were younger," Callie said, "I was under the impression that you might have grown up."

"Well you made sure of that, didn't you," Ella said. Thoughts of her childhood were flicking through her mind. Specifically, she remembered the day that Callie had brought a "customer" home to the little house in the slums of Malandala. Ella had been so disgusted that she had lived with their father for the following three days. And she despised their father.

"Why do you want Beau?" Micah asked, filling the tense silence Ella had caused.

"Because he's my—,"

"Crglich Callie! I want the real reason!" Ella cried, "'Cause I know there is one and ya not telling me ain't helping ya case!"

Callie could have cut glass with the glare she gave them both but she seemed to finally consider what Ella had said.

"Fine," she admitted, "There's another reason I want him. But Ella, you have to understand...look at things from my perspective once in your life, yes?"

"That'll depend on what it is ya 'bout ta tell us."

Callie took a deep breath and let her eyes float down to her feet, "There's a former customer of mine. He offered me a new deal a little over a month ago. He told me his name was Tomas but I think it is fake. He said that if I could start...borrowing things from any wealthy men that I served and passing them on as payment to him, Tomas would make me one of the most valuable women on the market. I would be doing less and earning so much more and I needed that, Elleanora, I really did."

"So ya steal from the men you please and give it to this Tomas? What does tha' haf ta do with Beau?" Ella asked her, arms folded over her chest, protecting the sleeping baby that was hidden under them.

"Well...one week, not long ago, I was caught trying to steal the watch of one of my customers," Callie said, "I fled before he could yell at me but I couldn't pay Tomas that week and...Tomas became violent. He hit me. I offered him the payment I would give any other man but he refused. He said he wanted something valuable to me."

Ella shook her head, her stomach hollowing out, "No. No, ya didn't."

When Callie looked up again, her dark eyes were filled with tears, "I have nothing, Elleanora! Nothing he would think valuable enough! And I just kept thinking of what you had said to me about babies and how they were the most important thing to most people."

Ella was so overwhelmed with fury that she didn't even realise as she broke out in Old Kannish, "I said that because you said he wasn't important to you! You bargained him away?! And you come here, to find me and take him back so that this man—Tomas—can sell him into the underground slave trade or raise him into the same industry you work? How could you?!"

"He's going to kill me, Ella!" Callie said, tears flowing freely down her cheeks now, "You don't understand, I have no idea how he made me so popular. He's able to do things that he shouldn't. I don't know how far his power stretches!"

The baby started to wail under Ella's robes as she shook with her own anger, "Ywn kin Ekmal mylich, Callista." And then for Micah's benefit, she said it again in Common tongue, "You are no sister to me. Not anymore."

Callie turned to Micah, "Please, you have to understand. He'll kill me if I don't."

"Thank you for your honesty," was all the Heir had to say.

"Ya can stay here," Ella said with the greatest disgust, "Where ya can thank the Kings I won't chuck you out on ya arse for Tomas to find."

"Ella, I have ten days to return with him!" Callie said, gripping the bars of the cage, "He'll find me, I'll be a wanted woman! I won't be able to work or go out by myself! Ella listen!"

But Ella had had enough and she was no longer listening. She turned around and stamped up the stairs, the baby in her robes screaming. And she didn't look back; refused to look back. Callie disgusted her. How could she do that, sell a baby off. It shouldn't surprise her, but Ella had thought that she shared some blood with her and that she wouldn't stoop too low. But she had. And Ella didn't expect to forgive her for it.

She knew Micah was following her and again she was hit by the underlying gratitude for him. He had barely done anything in that confrontation but having him there, for him to suggest it and help her deal with it. Kings, if she hadn't been so angry, she might have hugged him.

She had her hands on the baby and was walking more gently, rocking him a little to try and settle him as she came out onto the landing in the main staircase. And she was so focused on him that she almost ran into one of the rebels carrying a crate.

Except it wasn't one of the rebels at all.

He was built like them, tall, lean and lightly muscled. But as Ella looked up and saw the shaggy blonde hair and the defined cheekbones, her heart skipped with the recognition. The couple of freckles that always seemed more pronounced on his nose and under his right eye than they did anywhere else. The usually wide smiling mouth made a small circle with his surprise and his eyes, dark Kannish like hers but flecked with lighter spots. They were all things that were branded into her memory. They made up just about all she remembered about being twelve.

She threw her head upwards toward the Kings, "Oh you've gotta be shitting me."

A/N

Hey guys, sorry the chapter's a little short this week. In next week's chapter, we find out two secrets; one of the lone Dalladune daughter, and the other of Cataleyah herself. 

As the story starts to build towards the end, Micah can see a battle coming and it will be the actions he has made that will matter the most. But has he put his trust in the right people? Or will the loyalty and secrets he told them be the very thing that brings him down.

Remember to vote and comment!

Much love,

Ruby 

XXX