Chapter One
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with The Protector of the Small. Tamora Pierce, the best author in the world, owns it all.
Her insides squeezed themselves into a tight knot of sadness and pain. She had missed the major exams due to her having to rescue her maid Lalasa from the top of Balor's Needle- much to the discomfort of her fear of heights.
Upon reaching the safety of the ground, Kel was violently sick till the point where she couldn't stand, requiring the help of palace staff to help her to a nearby bench, so to ease her shaking legs.
Lalasa was just as worse for wear. Her legs still had the stiffness of the long night of being tied up and restricted movement till only a few hours before when Kel freed her. But she was not as badly affected to the dizzying effects of what the fear of heights could do to a person.
The usual uproar followed, random people coming forth asking questions, her mother comforting her with an embrace, Lord Wyldon asking his own brand of straight-forward questions after the first lot of people left with their wanted answers, and finally, her friends coming over and wanting- in Neal's case, demanding- their own account of the rescue. By the end of it, Kel was not interested in talking to anyone and just wanted to find the soft warmth of a bed and sleep, the effort of conquering her fear of heights and being sick afterwards, finally coming to effect.
She was brought to her room and tucked in by her mother, who whispered assurances and promises of a satisfying ending to all of the chaos. But Keladry knew different, for all that was on her mind as she lay there between the worlds of awake and slumber was the fact that she had missed the major exams. She had risked her future Squirehood for a maid, and she knew she would do it again. But there was to be no silver lining for this cloud…
And this was where she found herself, walking down the stone halls of the palace towards the office of her Lord Wyldon, Yamani face permanently in place to hide her emotions, one in particular wanting to scratch itself into existence: fear.
Just as she rounded a corner, she almost crashed headlong into the one person she was not in the mood to see or talk to: Joren.
"So," he drawled. "You believe you'll get the slip and re-do the exam?"
Kel just stared at him, not even a twitch of annoyance broke the mask.
Joren sneered at her lack of answer. "You are going to be kicked out of this place. Girls were never meant to be Knights- and what you displayed yesterday, proves my point. Here's to hoping you can find a husband who'll want a Lump for a spouse." And with that, he walked off, laughing merrily at his attempt of adding to the female Page's crushed spirit.
Kel continued her trudge along the halls till she found herself at the closed doorway of the Lord's office. She held up a trembling hand, closing it to a firm fist and knocked politely.
"Come in." A voice inside ordered. Kel followed its instructions by opening the door and walking inside, seeing her Lord sitting at his desk, reading over various documents, which Kel realised were the story accounts of herself, Lalasa and various other individuals.
Lord Wyldon glanced up at her and waved for her to take a seat on the chair opposite to him, in front of the desk, all the while still reading the reports in front of him and being unusually quiet.
Kel sat nervously in the chair in front of the man's desk, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. The training master looked at her finally, a stern expression on his face. "As you know, you have missed the major exams, and in doing so, risked your chances of ever coming back to train as a Squire." He stood up, piling the documents and placing them into a filing folder. "I'm terribly sorry Page Keladry, but I have no choice but to make you repeat your Page years so in order for you to learn that lateness is tardy for Knights. This is a decision that has been made between myself and the examination board, so it is in no way biased against you. If you wish not to repeat, you may leave and not come back for next year." He showed her to the door. Just as Kel was about to walk through the door, she almost thought that she had heard Wyldon say quietly "I'm sorry."
Breaking the news to her friends was the next worst thing to happen to her that day. Many were outraged, including her best friend Neal, vowing to complain in person about her not being able to follow on and become a Squire like them.
Sighing, Kel shook her head. "It was a decision made by people with a higher power than Lord Wyldon, which is why I'm not willing to take action against this decision." She looked at Neal, who was shaking in both anger and sheer disbelief. "Please don't make this harder than it already is." Already the strain of holding back her emotions was making the effort of keeping on her mask strenuous. Tears did build up in her eyes, much to her dismay of the possibility of crying in front of her friends.
Seeing this, the boys all took their leave, making excuses as they disappeared into their rooms or outside, leaving Neal and Kel alone in the deserted hall.
Hastily rubbing a hand across her eyes, Kel took out her key and let herself into her room, noticing that Lalasa had stepped out, leaving Kel to talk to her friend in relative privacy, save for her dog Jump sleeping at the end of her bed. She closed the door behind Neal, much to his protests of getting caught. "Get over it," she mumbled as she grabbed a nearby weapon, her glaive, and gave it a few practice swings, noticing that her mood improved slightly with each practiced dance step.
Neal stepped back and sat on the bed, away from the possibility of getting gutted by a disgruntled female holding a deadly weapon, and absent-mindedly scratched Jump's ears. "Do you remember what you said to me before the exams? Before you went off on the rescue mission?"
Kel paused mid-swing, remembering. "I wanted you to be my Knight Master if I didn't make it in time for the exams," she recalled, slowly lowering her weapon till the iron-shod butt touched the ground. Kel leant on it like a staff, thinking. "It was a spur of the moment thing, something between friends." She looked at Neal, who looked back with a thoughtful expression. "What?" His silence was unnerving her, and she was not in the mood to play games.
Neal shifted in his seat. "Well, if you want, I could take you up on that request now that all this has happened."
Kel's eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't be right," she countered. "You'll be fresh out of the Chamber of Ordeals when you ask for me to be your Squire. Why burden yourself so early?"
Neal sighed, then stood. He made his way over to her, and, avoiding the curved blade of the glaive at Kel's side, embraced her. "Because you're one of my most trusted friends and I want what's best for you."
Kel couldn't help herself. She smiled. "You want what's best for me? Then why take me up as your Squire if you want that?"
Neal grunted in a concealed laugh, letting Kel go and stepping back. "It would also be an honour to have the first known female Squire by my side- it could also be a ladies magnet by showing my compassionate side also."
Kel rolled her eyes and she lifted her weapon a few inches off the ground in warning. Neal got the hint quickly. "You do realise that you'll have to stop trying to control me like that when I become your Master? It would not be seen proper for a Knight under the mercy of his Squire."
Kel smirked and put the weapon away on the bracket by the wall. Just as she was about to retaliate with a comment of her own, there was a knock on her door. "Keladry? It's your mother. Can you please let me in?"
Kel looked at Neal in slight panic and hoped her mother wouldn't ask questions or tell anyone. Opening her door, she pushed Neal out and left it open for her mother to enter after.
Her mother gave Kel a wondering smile, which Kel shrugged off. "He needed to tell me his good-byes in private," she lied. "He likes to cry."
Ilane saw through the lie but didn't question it. She trusted her youngest daughter to not throw away her virtue's reputation at a drop of a hat. "I'm so sorry." The words just seemed insignificant in comparison to how upset she was to the news of her daughter having to repeat her Page years.
Kel broke down, knowing that she could in front of her mother. Falling into her embrace, Kel wept, knowing that it wouldn't alter her changed fate.
"Don't worry," Ilane comforted Kel, brushing away the short strands of brown hair away from her daughter's damp cheeks. "It's just a set-back. You'll be back on your feet and on your way to becoming a Knight in the New Year."
Kel sniffed and grimaced. She hated to cry and it was only on the rare occasion that she allowed herself to lose control of her strong mask and let her emotions take over. "All that hard work, and for what? For seeing my friends become Knights while I wallow amongst youngsters repeating exercises I had mastered long ago?"
Ilane sighed. "It is just a bump on a long road ahead of you," she assured Kel. "You're still going to become a Knight in the end, aren't you?"
Kel nodded, not wanting to make a situation bigger than it really was. She was still allowed to come back and repeat her Page years, which in its small way, a relief. The silver lining to the cloud, the Yamani's called it. She gave her mother a determined look. "A Knight in the end is better than nothing after all this," she said. "Might as well get these Page years over and done with."
TBC
(A.N. Thank you all so much for your patience! I mean it! Cookies for all! I hope you like the revised version, with the extra content and character development. Just remember to wait till I update each new chapter before continuing on to the next one- don't want to go from 'revised version' to 'original version' now do we? LOL. Each new chapter will have 'Revised version' typed at the top of the page, so no need to keep guessing which chapter is what.)