Chapter One

Disclaimer: You recognize it, it isn’t mine, it belong to Tamora Pierce. I don't own it or the rights, I swear. The plot, however, does sort of belong to me.

Thayet jian Wilima, formerly of Sarain, sat in the king's private study, planning her upcoming wedding to the Tortallan king, Jonathan IV of Conté.

"White would look so lovely," she sighed, admiring a sketch of a white wedding dress.

"Whatever you want," Jonathan responded, not even glancing up from the papers before him. Someone knocked on the door. "Come in!" Thayet sighed inwardly. Being betrothed to the king had its drawbacks—he was always being called away for something.

"Sorry to bother you," the person apologized, stepping in. Thayet brightened.

Sir Alanna the Lioness of Trebond and Olau was Jonathan's King's Champion. She was the first lady knight in several centuries, and had earned the title through eight years of masquerading as a boy. Alanna had also brought Thayet; Thayet's guard Buriram Tourakom; the late Shang Dragon, Liam Ironarm; and the famed Dominion Jewel home to Tortall a year previously. Recently back from time in the Great Southern Desert with her Bazhir tribe, the Bloody Hawk, twenty-year-old Alanna was betrothed to her long-time friend, and Jonathan's assistant spymaster, Baron George Cooper of Pirate's Swoop, Tortall's former King of Thieves.

"No trouble, Alanna," Jonathan replied. "What is it?"

"I need to borrow you for a moment," Alanna explained. She looked at Thayet. The knight's normally expressive violet eyes revealed nothing. "May I, Thayet?"

"Of course!" Thayet couldn't say no. What if it was important? Jonathan followed Alanna out while Thayet fell back against her chair. It seemed as if Alanna was always calling Jon away. Even though the Lioness had assured Thayet several times that there was no romance between the King and his Champion, Thayet still wondered.

Jonathan had been one of the first to know Alanna's secret—he had been seventeen to Alanna's fourteen at the time. He had still chosen the small, temperamental redhead (then known as Alan) as his squire. Three years later, on Alanna's seventeenth birthday, the two had begun a passionate love affair that ground to a screeching halt when Jonathan proposed to a newly knighted Alanna. Thayet didn't know all the details, but she knew that both Jonathan and Alanna still bore scars from the words exchanged in their argument.

Jon and Alanna had been gone nearly ten minutes. Thayet rose and walked into the hall. She looked around and was drawn to a room where the door was ajar. She peered in to see Jonathan and Alanna locked in a deep kiss. Thayet fell against the wall. She knew they had a past, but she didn't know they had a present! Alanna had promised they didn't have a present!

Thayet wondered if George knew. She assumed not. George was madly in love with his Lioness—he would be crushed to know she still had strong feelings for Jonathan. Thayet walked down the hall and down a flight of stairs. She headed to the rooms George and Alanna shared. George was bound to be there. The plaque outside read:

Sir Alanna of Trebond and Olau, King's Champion

Baron George Cooper of Pirate's Swoop

Thayet knocked. George's commoner voice called, "Come in!" She walked in and shut the door. "Thayet! Wha' brins ye 'ere?" He embraced his new friend. She sat on the windowsill across from where he sat on the bed.

"Do you know where Alanna is?" she asked, totally casually. George looked at her strangely.

"Of course. She lef' jus' a minute ago. She said she needed t' talk t' Jon," George replied. "Why?" Thayet held his eyes. He seemed to pick up on what was going on. "No. Ye don'…they aren'…"

Thayet nodded grimly. "I saw." George's shoulders slumped and shook as he put his head in his hands. Thayet moved to sit beside him, placing a comforting hand on his back. "Oh, George, I'm sorry…perhaps it would've been better if we didn't know." George looked at her, hazel eyes swollen and rimmed with red.

"No. I knew it afore. I've suspect'd m' lass still loved 'im," George replied. "I fel' bad 'bout it. She tol' me she didn', so I believed 'er. Th' lass was ne'er a good liar. Th' only good lie she e'er told was 'bout her bein' a girl."

"So did I," Thayet admitted. "I believed her when she swore up and down they weren't together." Thayet, normally strong, crumpled into tears. "I asked her! I made sure before I accepted his proposal!" She slammed her hand on the bed. "She lied to me. I asked…" George held Thayet in his arms as they both cried for the loss of what they'd thought was love.

"She meant th' worl' t' me," George said. "An' she's hurt me again."

"I lost all my sense. I knew their past." Thayet sobbed, "How could I be so dumb?"

She looked up, and he down, so their swollen hazel eyes met.

"We were both fools," George whispered. Brushing hair from Thayet's face. "But there's time to make it right." Thayet nodded.

"We know. There's no more lying. No more deceit." She looked at the ground. "I don't know how I'm going to move on, though." She shook her head. "I've never been this far gone in my life."

"It'll be 'ard, Thayet, no mistakin' tha'," George told her. "Yer friends betrayin' ye hurts, but yer love betrayin' ye hurts more'n tha'. We c'n 'elp each other." Thayet smiled at him.

"You make so much sense," she told him.

"Well, lass, its not th' firs' time m' Lioness's hurt me."

Author's Note- I make no promises with this story.