Edited: March 5, 2008 – thanks to Me(), and Lady Mage for pointing out my errors!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Protector of the Small, which belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Summary: Keladry of Mindelan, he thinks, will be remembered as the highlight of his career.
Lady Knight
Keladry of Mindelan, he thinks, will be remembered as the highlight of his career.
Years after the fickle public will have pushed him aside, have forgotten his prowess as a jouster and his heroics against the hurroks to protect the Prince and Princess, they will remember the Lady Knight.
They will remember the Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan. They will tell tales of her squireship in the King's Own under the Knight Commander, Lord Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak.
They will remember Haven, and they will remember Lady Kel, and that she cared. He has had not use for sentimentality, but now he sees its use. The people trust her. The people believe. The people like her. They remember, and they know that their Lady Kel is one of the few nobles that actually care about them, beyond how much work she can make them do.
They remember the griffin, its beauty and rarity, its fierceness.
They remember the tales they have heard, carried by the palace staff, especially Lalasa, the girl's former maid, and they think of her as a dream. Noblewomen, commoners, foreigners – they see her as a goal, shining bright, and, in some cases, unattainable.
But the public will not remember Kel.
They will not remember the girl who came into the most important meeting of her life bearing bruises because she had to rescue a cat. They will not remember her indomitable will, the way she stubbornly clung to the belief that people were good, and that she had the choice: to do good or evil.
They will not remember Kel, only the Lady Knight.
Carefully, he puts the lance in his hands away.
The time for reminiscing is gone – he has duties to attend to, and she? She is dead.
His time is over.
Hers ended before it began.
