Title: For Love or Country
Author: AlmightyChrissy
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize are the property of Tamora Pierce and are used without permission.
Note: Candice poked me when I was vulnerable so...thanks ;) Title taken from a movie. Set well before SOTL, when (eventual Duke) Gareth and (eventual King) Roald are still squires.
PART ONE- Returned
"Your Highness?"Roald looked up from his slightly splotchy homework. "What is it, Esten?"
The page took a deep breath. "Highness, you...there...." Speechless, he finally pointed to the hallway.
Roald, among his other good qualities, was an eternal optimist, so this exchange didn't much concern him. Esten was prone to over-reaction and really, nothing too awful could be happening. It had been a quiet year, and surely if they were going to war again, he would know. He went to the council meetings. Nothing that bad could happen if it hadn't been debated all about first.
However, Roald was also naïve, and he'd forgotten just how much trouble could be caused by just one person, especially one person with a large mouth, especially especially when that one person was paired with another with a skin slightly thinner than usual.
Cedric stood in the corner of the room, snickering loudly. "I don't believe it. I know I keep saying this, but I really don't believe it."
Roald scanned the room and quickly discovered the cause of the disturbance. "Gareth? To what do we owe the dubious pleasure of your company?"
Gareth scowled black death at his friend and, indeed, at everyone else in the room and a few of the wall hangings. "I don't want to talk about it."
Roald glared back, though less effectively. "I don't think I asked what you wanted."
Cedric could no longer keep his silence. "He got RETURNED, Highness!"
For a moment, the thought was so foreign that Roald couldn't process it. Then, he noticed Gareth's red face. "You...oh but..." He gave thought to the effectiveness of ordering the rest of the squires out of the room, but decided that the pleasure of mockery might overrule their sense of hierarchy. Instead, he grabbed Gareth by his sleeve and pulled him into his room. "You're going to explain this."
Gareth sighed. "What's to explain? Lord Martin decided that he no longer wished me to be his squire and I have been, as Cedric so kindly informed you, brought back here."
Roald sat down heavily. "But why? I thought he was going to teach you fencing!"
The other boy shrugged. "Well, he did, and that went very well for awhile."
Roald waited. "And?"
"And..." Gareth stared at point slightly to the left of Roald's head. "And I think he referred to it as irreconcilable differences."
Sometimes, Roald wondered why it was not one of his rights as prince to kill stubborn friends. "What did you do to him?"
Gareth straightened up, offended. "I resent the implication that it was my fault."
"And I resent you treating me like I can't see right through it. Gareth, what happened?"
Gareth crossed the room to sit down next to Roald. "Well, he taught me, and I was good at it. Very good."
"Of course," Roald sighed. He'd secretly been a little glad that Gareth's knightmaster had taken him away, as it saved him from losing all the time in practice.
Gareth smirked. "Well, I kept learning, and then one day I beat him. And then I beat him the next day. And then the day after that."
Roald looked up. "He got rid of you because you beat him?"
Gareth opened his mouth to reply, but a glare from Roald stopped him. He took a deep breath and answered, "Well, there may have been a little taunting involved."
"A little?"
Gareth fidgeted. "Maybe more than a little."
"More than a little?"
Gareth closed his eyes. "Maybe like as in I told him I didn't see what use he was if I could beat him all the time." He opened one eye just enough to see the disapproval on Roald's face. "Don't look at me like that! It's the truth, right? If I was better than him then there really wasn't anything else he could teach me and....no, seriously Roald, stop it."
Roald leaned back until his head hit the wall. It made a satisfying thunk. "Sometimes, you worry me."