A/N

Hi there everyone! (smiles and waves like an idiot) So this is a bit long, but I hope you enjoy it. With enough reviews I'll keep going! I really just need practice writing, so PLEASE REVIEW. (oh, and I apologize in advance for spelling or typing mistakes.)

Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Tortall and many of these characters. The plot and original characters are mine.

Keladry of Mindelan jerked awake, her heart hammering inside her chest like some caged beast. The stone walls of her room in Fort Steadfast glared at her, and for a split second she was convinced she was still dreaming, still trapped in the Chamber of Ordeal. Irnai, the child seer, had foreseen more work ahead for the Protector of the Small, but Kel certainly had not thought it would come this soon. She had been away from New Hope for only two days. The Lady Knight mopped some sweat from her brow and groaned.

"I don't need this right now." She snapped at no one, forgetting about Tobe. He startled awake, blinking sleepy eyes at her. It was still dark outside, but she knew she had to get up. The Chamber had been very insistent. "Go back to sleep Tobe, its not dawn yet. I've got to go out for a while." Tobe eyed her suspiciously, but obediently flopped back down on his sleeping pallet and closed his eyes. Kel got up, dressed quickly, and strapped her sword to her belt. Kel had enough on her plate with New Hope to do the bidding of the Chamber whenever it called on her, still, now that she had seen what the Chamber had wanted to show her, she could not refuse to help.

The dream the Chamber had sent her had been horrible. A child, Tobe's age perhaps, lie curled in the corner of a dim room, covered in blood. She will die, if you do not hurry, Protector of the Small. No one else will find her, though they search. She is in Bearsford, at the Inn of the Hungry Man. She hurried down the stairs and out into the stable. She saddled Peachblossom, swung herself up, and rode hard to the East. As Peachblossom galloped Kel wondered why the Chamber had taken such an interest in this one child. Surely it did not mean to alert her every time someone near her was in danger? Perhaps the girl would go on to great things, Kel did not know.

The sun had risen and was shining strongly by the time she reached the town of Bearsford. The glint in her eyes the entire ride had not been pleasant. At least it isn't raining, Kel thought, depressed. It only took her a few minutes more to find the Inn. Kel handed her horse off to a boy at the door and stepped inside. The room was not crowded; a few early risers sat having breakfast at a table to her left, but beside them the room was deserted. A woman came to her as soon as she entered, offering a table, breakfast and drinks. Kel shook her head.

"I'm looking for a child, a girl, maybe twelve years old. Did anyone stay here last night with a girl like that?" The innkeeper raised an eyebrow at the question but seemed to be thinking. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

"Oh, yes, I remember. A man came in with a servant girl, about twelve, pretty little thing. But they took off in the middle of the night, left the door locked too and made off with the key! I've haven't got around to looking for the spare yet." Kel let her gaze go cold and stare intently at the woman.

"I want to see that room, now." The woman looked quiet startled.

"Well you see, I don't have the key, I'd have to look-"

"Now." Kel interrupted. Her tone held no room for questions. Kel gestured for the innkeeper to lead the way. The room was on the second floor, tucked back in a far corner. The woman tried the handle.

"I told you, locked-" Her words were interrupted when Kel leaned back and rammed her shoulder into the door. A huge crash followed as the door fell from its weak hinges into the room. Kel coughed as dust and the stench of dried blood assaulted her. The woman was screaming behind her.

"Shut up!" Kel ordered and marched into the room. The girl lay in the corner, just as the Chamber had shown her. Terrified green eyes met her own. Kel rushed in and carefully took the girl in her arms. "Where is the nearest healer?" She snapped at the innkeeper.

"Master Herric died in a raid a few months backs, we've got no healer as could handle all that mess anywhere near here." She replied, face completely white. Kel grunted her frustration and took off down the steps again. She managed, with the stable boy's help, to get herself and the child up onto Peachblossom.

"Alright Peachblossom, gallop." The horse took off like, and it was all Kel could do to hold on to the reins and the child at once. "I hope you're satisfied." She muttered at the Chamber. "Satisfied enough not to send me on little quests like this for a while." Kel thought angry thoughts as the girl's blood ran down onto her hands and soaked into Peachblossom's saddle and mane.

I will be very pleased once she is better, Keladry of Mindelan. The voice was bland, almost mocking.

"Don't you tease me you pile of rocks, I'm not in the mood." Kel steered Peachblossom slightly to the right and urged him onward.

You are not angry with me, Keladry. You are angry at whoever did this; do not take your aggression out on me. Kel sighed heavily, the Chamber was right.

"Sorry." She said simply, and got no reply. Kel tried to release her anger, but could not seem to get rid the rage. She thought about being a stone or a lake, she even tried counting in her head, but eventually gave up. How could that woman not have noticed a nearly dead child locked in a room, she fumed silently. The injuries were fresh; surely the woman had heard something! The rest of the ride Kel tried to focus on keeping the child awake. She talked to her, asking her to keep her eyes open, and what her name was. The child did not speak, but she looked at Kel when ordered to and responded with nods to some questions. She was clearly in shock. It seemed an eternity before Kel finally made it back to the Fort. Many more people were up and about now, but she did not notice them. She urged Peachblossom to his stall.

She turned to Tobe, who was seeing to Hoshi. "Try to get the blood of Peachblossom before it dries too badly." Then she was off, down the hall, to the healers' wing. She stopped a guard on the way. "Get Nealan of Queenscove to the Healer's room, now." The guard took one look at Kel's burden, nodded, and took off.

When she entered the ward Duke Baird rose to his feet in surprise. "Kel, what on earth-" He stopped talking as she laid the girl down on one of the medical beds. The Duke laid his hands on the child's temples, whispering something as Neal, clad only in trousers with his hair sticking out at odd angles skidded into the room.

"Kel, you need me?"

"Get over here Neal." Duke Baird ordered, and Kel stepped back to give the healers room to work. An apprentice healer wiped away blood and healed little injuries like scrapes and bruises while Neal and the Duke tackled what Kel was certain were several broken bones and internal damage.

Half and hour later Neal pulled back, looking dizzy. Kel handed him her water flask and he drank the whole thing down. "Girl, food." Neal ordered the apprentice, who took off running. "Where did you find her Kel? She was a right mess." He handed back her flask.

"Bearsford."

"Bearsford? What on earth were you doing there before dawn?" Kel told him about her dream and the Chamber as he scrubbed his hands clean.

"Why did the Chamber care about her? She's a servant girl, and it's sad, but the truth is they get abused like this a lot; look at Tobe." Neal replied. He dunked his soapy hands into clean water.

"I don't know why the Chamber cared." Kel stared down at the girl. "She doesn't even look Tortallan." She commented absently. Neal nodded his agreement, wiping his washed hands clean on a rag. Then his face went a little bit pale. "What is it?" Neal didn't answer. "Neal!" He could not have looked more shocked if Wyldon had burst in wearing a dress. Slowly, his face split into a huge grin.

"I can't believe you found her Kel! They've been looking for almost a week now." Kel crossed her arms over her chest.

Duke Baird was suddenly on his feet. He peered down at the girl thoughtfully. "Well Nealan, I hate to say it, but you're right." And with that he fled the room. Neal slapped her on the back in congratulations.

"If at anytime today you want to make sense, feel free." She glared at him, but the smile on his face was infectious, and soon she was smiling too. She punched him in the arm. "Well?"

"A noble girl from Maren was on her way to Tortall about two weeks ago, she was coming to Corus, to start training to be a page-" Kel cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"What's this, a foreigner being a page? And a girl too? How would the conservatives ever allow that?" Neal gave her a lofty glance, smiling as he explained.

"Well, dear girl. Maren, as you know, is a huge, powerful country. And they grow lots and lots of food." He paused, to check if she was following him.

"So she's a page because Maren produces a lot of food?" Kel raised an eyebrow at Neal.

"Come now Kel! Think!" Kel hit him again. "Okay!" He moved as if to straighten his collar, only to realize he was not wearing a shirt. He huffed and neatened his hair instead. "Even the conservatives can't argue that we don't need more food, with the war raging and refugees pouring in, everyone's supplies are low. Last month one of Maren's wealthiest nobles, who owns nearly a fifth of the farmland there, offered to sell excess food to Tortall and a very, very reasonable price, but only if we let his daughter into page training." Kel gaped at him.

"Anyway, as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, she was on her way to Corus to a summer home here. Her group was attacked on the road. Some of the guards made it to Corus and said she'd be taken, by riders that looked foreign. Her father and most of Tortall have been looking for her ever since." Neal sat down on a stool by the girl's bed just as the apprentice scurried into the room with a tray of food. "Without her there was no deal. Father was sure Scanra was behind the kidnapping." He bit into an apple and offered Kel a slice of bread. She had not eaten breakfast, and her stomach rumbled at the offer.

"Thanks." Kel scrutinized the child. She was very pretty, obviously a rich noble's daughter, with a petite build and curly brown hair She did not look up to doing hard work. But then again, Kel thought, if I'd taken the beating she did, I wouldn't look so strong either.

A few seconds later Lord Wyldon burst into the room, followed closely by Lord Raoul. "Bless Mithros, it is her." Wyldon muttered. "Someone send a runner to Corus."

Okay that's that end of chapter one. I think I'll probably continue, but I can't say how fast the updates will be. I'm going back to college in four days and last term I wrote thirteen papers so….we'll see. The next part will probably shift viewpoints to the girl from Maren, and will become a page-in-training story. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

I need constructive criticism!!

Reposted, with corrections on 1/02/2007