Author's Note: I wrote this before reading the last two books of POTS, so events in those books have not taken place. Kel/Joren, rated PG-13 to R for language and sexual content.
Disclaimer: Kel and the POTS series are the creative and legal property of Tamora Pierce. This story is my own.
Chapter 1 – Palace Intrigue
The chirping of the sparrows roused Kelandry of Mindelan from her sleep. Then she felt the warm sunlight on her cheek and heard the footsteps of her maid and the palace's seamstress, Lalasa, through the dressing room door. Kel turned over on her side and let out a sigh. She knew it would be another drowsy summer day in the palace. 'Another boring, drowsy summer day.'
The dressing room door swung open and Lalasa came through bearing a cup of tea. "Will you be getting ready to leave now, milady?" she asked softly.
Kel blinked at her for a moment. "Ready to leave?"
"Yes, Lord Raoul wants to see you in the training yards today, remember? Before breakfast is served."
Kel sat up abruptly and swung out of bed, narrowly avoiding stepping on Jump's already twice-broken tail. "Gods, I completely forgot! No, you can have it yourself," she said, waving away the offered cup of tea. "It's too hot, anyway. Lalasa, where did I put my belt? I could have sworn it was on this chair…"
Lalasa sighed with exasperation as she watched her mistress fumble around the room, searching for the missing belt. "Milady," she said. When she got no reaction, she repeated the word louder. "Milady." Still nothing. "Kel!"
Kel stopped and pivoted on her heel. "What?"
Lalasa pointed towards the floor. The leather belt was held in Jump's teeth. He had obviously been following her around the room for a while now. "Oh," she said bashfully. "I'm sorry."
The older girl smiled forgivingly. "Just hurry up before Lord Raoul becomes mad. You know how loud he can shout."
Kel quickly dressed in her standard outfit of a loose tunic, shirt, and breeches, and then strapped the belt around her waist. It seemed like ever since she had turned fourteen, her waist had been getting smaller. The belt would soon run out of holes and she would have to make her own.
"Have fun today, don't stay out in the heat too long!" she called after her as she raced out her room. "And stay out of trouble!"
Lalasa shut the door behind her then turned to regard Jump. "I wonder, was she talking about me or you?"
Jump just gave her a canine grin.
* * *
Kel raced through the halls until she reached the entrance to the training yards. The day was so humid that she could already feel a bead of sweat trickling down her neck. 'Maybe I'll go for a swim later. Anything to get rid of this stickiness.'
"Well, hello, Sir Kelandry," a clear voice boomed from a little behind her. "I'm glad you managed to fit some time in your hectic schedule to see me today."
She turned around and saw her former knight-master, who had just returned to the palace after a trip to his home in Goldenlake. He was smiling sarcastically at her, but not unkindly. She bowed her head quickly before rushing into an explanation.
"Lord Raoul, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened but I forgot about our meeting. I know this isn't an excuse, but…"
He laughed and brushed away her apology. "Calm down, Kel, you're barely late at all. If you must know, I overslept and just got here a second before you."
"Oh."
"Now, you have a choice. Do you want to practice sparring with me, or do you want to eat breakfast?"
"You know I'd normally choose sparring, but because I care about your needs so much, we can eat first," she replied, her hazel eyes lighting up playfully.
"An old man needs all the care he can get," Raoul answered. "And don't you forget it."
They walked together to the second mess hall of the castle, the one that knights and royalty ate in. It was larger and more lavishly decorated than the simple mess hall the pages and squires frequented. She was grateful that knights could eat any time they chose, considering that she had been late to dine so many times in her training. 'But then again, it was fun to make those bullies wait for their meals.'
"So how does it feel, Kel?" Raoul asked her as they took trays and joined the line.
She peered at him. "That's a vague question."
"How does it feel to be a knight?" he clarified. "After all these years."
"You ask me that every time I see you," she said, laughing. "I feel the same as I did yesterday. And the day before that. As well as the day before that. To be honest, Raoul, I wish there was more to do than just languish about the royal palace." Ever since she had become a knight two months ago, she had been itching to hone her combat skills in a battle.
"You should be glad that Tortall is enjoying a brief peacetime right now. Believe me, after you've been in battles most of your waking moments, this languishing is heaven." Then Raoul grinned. "Of course, when I became a knight, I was a little antsy too."
"A little," Kel repeated, almost snorting. "Try a lot. I've heard stories about you, Lord Raoul, Knight Commander."
They picked up a light breakfast, mostly fruits and cereals, and began walking through the rows of tables to find their customary seats near the far corner.
Kel half-listened to Raoul as he attempted to defend his reputation. Her attention was focused on a niggling feeling in the back of her mind. She felt like she was being examined. That in itself wasn't odd, considering she was the second lady knight in the history of Tortall, but there was something…different…about the gaze she felt on her.
Casually, she turned her head as she passed a couple of filled tables. An icy blue gaze met hers almost immediately. 'Joren.' He was sitting beside Yancen and across from Zahir, but unlike them he had no food in front of him. He wasn't talking either. He was simply sitting there. 'And staring at me.'
Not knowing what else to do, she glared subtly at him before turning her full attention to Raoul's bumbling excuses. She could have sworn that she heard a deep-throated chuckle behind her.
Joren of Stone Mountain smirked to himself as he watched the Lump sit down with her former knight-master. It always amused him to no end whenever he managed to get a reaction out of her.
When they were both pages, she usually responded with her fists. Later, she had learned to school her face into a blank mask, which always infuriated him (though he had never resorted to fistfights again). Since they had both become knights and resided at the royal palace, they were forced to see each other often. And he made it a personal goal of his to provoke her in some way whenever their paths crossed.
Still, it wasn't often that she actually allowed herself to react to his provocations. 'The last time had been' -he counted the days in his head- 'a week and a half ago.' They had been alone in the stables, and she had been unaware that he was a few stalls down from her. She had been singing softly to her roan gelding when Joren had appeared out of the shadows and raised a blond eyebrow at her and her out-of-tune song. He still remembered the way her cheeks had colored brightly before the Yamani mask had fallen into place.
He laughed aloud again, ignoring the glances of Zahir and Yancen. 'Mindelan, the only source of entertainment I have in this Mithros-forsaken place.'
"What's so funny?" Zahir asked, looking around the mess hall curiously.
Joren waved his question away. "Nothing important. Just a fond memory of mine." He stood up and nodded to the two knights. Now that the Lump had appeared, he had no more reason to sit around the mess hall. "I'm off to see an acquaintance."
"In your room, no doubt," Yancen grinned. Joren's reputation with the palace ladies was famous among the knights.
"It's no place of mine to keep a fair lady waiting," Joren answered smoothly, his clear blue eyes glinting.
He left the mess hall without sparing his friends or Mindelan another glance, but he heard the laughter of his friends following him. More intriguing, though, was the unmistakable feeling that someone else was watching him.
* * *
Kel's sword clashed against Raoul's, effectively parrying his attack. His dark eyes continued to stay focused on hers through the sheen of sweat dripping down his face.
"Been practicing," he bit out, his tone making it a statement and not a question.
She allowed herself to give him a tight smile before abruptly going on the offensive. He was too experienced to stumble, but she saw the flash of surprise in his eyes. Ignoring the sweat that made her bangs stick to her forehead and the hot air that stifled her lungs when she breathed in, she relentlessly pushed him farther backwards. A corner of her mind acknowledged the crowd that had formed around them, but she refused to be distracted.
Raoul blocked several of her thrusts before she finally ducked, leaned in, and sprang up, knocking his sword away. She pressed the tip of her own weapon to his tunic collar, in the small indent of the base of his throat, the sound of the cheering (and some jeering) of the crowd filling her ears.
Just as quickly as she had disarmed him, she lowered her sword and bowed.
"Well deserved, Kel," he congratulated, giving her a friendly grin even though he had just been beaten by someone smaller and years younger than him.
"Like you said, I've been practicing," she replied, brushing her wet bangs away from her face and heading indoors to the relative coolness of the armory. Raoul, after retrieving his sword, followed her.
"I'm glad to see that you've finally brought your swordsmanship up to the level of your other skills," he said, laying his practice sword down on the rack next to hers.
"There wasn't much else to do these past months," Kel explained. "I'm glad that you're finally back, so I have someone to challenge me."
"Next time we fight, I'll be a worthier opponent, I promise you that," he said, already looking forward to their next sparring. "But for now, it's too hot to fight twice in a row. I think I'll take a cold bath. I suggest you do the same, before this heat becomes too much, even for you, Sir Keladry."
She nodded, even though she had wanted to take Peachblossom for a quick trot. It was smarter to cool down, not push her body to the limits. "I'll meet you for supper?"
Raoul smiled. "Of course. You have to tell me all that's happened while I've been away."
'Not much,' she said to herself, watching him leave. Still, she would be glad for his company later tonight. Eating alone was incredibly boring. Also, having another person around would hopefully discourage Joren from approaching her again. Two nights ago, the blonde knight had sat down across from her at her empty table and chatted about 'settling down' and 'becoming a proper lady.' She had ignored him, of course, but it had taken all of her willpower to quell her desire to dump her bowl of peas on his too-handsome head.
Then she paused, realizing what she had just thought. 'Too-handsome'? She frowned to herself, knowing that Joren was considered handsome to the general female population. 'That doesn't mean I'll admit it, though. I'm not one of those silly court ladies, always looking for romance and marriage.'
She strode back to the knights' quarters, passing a row a counsel rooms and offices. As she passed one door, she heard it open.
"Sir Keladry, is that you?"
Kel turned around to see Sir Gareth poke his head out of the room. He looked frazzled, to say the least. "Sir Gareth?" she asked, approaching him. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no," he said, staring at her curiously. "I just need you to do an errand for me, if that's all right. I know you're not a page anymore, but there's obviously no one else around and I'm extremely busy at the moment."
She nodded. "What do you need?"
He disappeared into the room and then reemerged with a rolled-up sheet of parchment paper in his hand. "Take this to Sir Joren, please," he said, handing it to her. "Unfortunately, I haven't the least idea of where he could be right now. You could try his rooms."
Sir Gareth smiled faintly at her before closing the door to the room. He didn't see her scowl at the paper lying in her palm.
'Wonderful.' She considered walking to the pages' wing and handing the responsibility to someone else, but then she admonished herself for even thinking of the idea. 'I have to stop acting like I'm scared of him.' It was just a simple errand, even if she had to see Joren again, and as soon as she gave him the paper she could work on avoiding him for the rest of the day.
Following Sir Gareth's suggestion, she went to look for him in his room. It was near the end of the narrow hallway filled with knights' rooms. Carefully composing her features into a calm façade, she knocked on the rough wooden door. There was no answer. After knocking louder, and still hearing no response, she decided to leave the paper in his room. Most knights left their doors unlocked, anyway, due to the code of honor they obeyed.
Kel pushed the door open and stepped inside, searching for a good place to leave the paper. There was a small wooden table next to the bed, but that wasn't what caught her eye. Instead, she found herself frozen in place, staring at the bed- and its two busy occupants.
Joren's naked back gleamed in the morning sunlight shining through the large window next to the bed. Seeing the shifting of his muscles under his skin made Kel feel a sort of warmth inside that had nothing to do with the weather.
"Oh, Sir Joren," a distinctly feminine voice gasped from under his strong body. She heard him answer with a short, harsh laugh. Then he moved, exposing the woman lying on the bed to Kel's astonished gaze.
Suddenly, Kel realized that the woman, a petite Lady she had seen a few times before who had an annoying habit of giggling too loudly, was completely naked from the waist up. And Joren was kissing her naked breasts. The heat flared inside Kel.
She must have unconsciously made a noise because Joren abruptly rolled off the woman and sprang to his feet, ready to encounter the intruder. His guest, meanwhile, had tugged the bedsheet up to cover herself, but not before she let out a loud gasp that wasn't nearly as passion-filled as the last one.
"Mindelan," Joren practically growled, his blue eyes colder than ever. Ignoring the fact that he was still shirtless, he stalked over to where she stood motionless beside the doorway. Her gaze took in his unbound white-blond hair and his threatening posture. Instinctively, she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, ready to defend herself if he tried anything.
He didn't swing at her though, and instead crossed his arms across his broad chest. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. She opened her mouth to level a retort at him, but none came out. She couldn't help but stand there, gaping up at him with her mouth hanging open. Rapidly, his expression changed and a wicked smirk stretched his lips. His eyes now were smoldering instead of icy. "I suggest that you get out. Unless, of course, you'd like to join us."
Her mind reeled at the thought. She felt her cheeks blushing furiously, but even her six years of Yamani warrior training couldn't repress her reaction. With no clever rejoinder, all she could do was throw the rolled-up paper at him and mutter "Shut up, Joren." Then she quickly fled to find the refuge of her own room.
Joren caught the paper deftly, still smirking. He heard Lady Orlia still panting hard, but couldn't tell if it was due to his earlier caresses or the more recent intrusion of that twit Mindelan. She was too foolish for words, really. He couldn't figure out if he was referring to Orlia or Mindelan. 'Both, actually.' Orlia for her empty-headedness, and the Lump for naively thinking he had really offered her to join them in bed. 'As if I'd want to sleep with someone with no curves and less personality.'
His mind remembered how the lady knight's lips had been parted in surprise as she had stared at him with those hazel eyes that were too trusting and too innocent for his tastes. 'That mouth, though…' Her lips were full and looked capable of more carnal things, but she usually kept them pressed together with stubbornness and determination that he both admired and scorned. Just thinking of her lips, relaxed for once, made his blood run faster, much to his chagrin.
"Joren, do you think she'll tell anyone?" Lady Orlia asked from behind the covers of his bed. Her voice was high with nervousness. "If my mother finds out, she'll-"
"Relax," he interrupted, saying it for both of their benefits. "She won't say anything."
"How do you know?" the Lady demanded. "You can't be sure."
"If she tries to tell anyone, I'll stop her," he said simply, in a voice that allowed no further arguments.
He ignored her sulky pout and unrolled the parchment paper.
Your presence is requested in the throne room, immediately after the supper bell tonight.
"What does it say?" Lady Orlia asked, always eager for something to pass along in her daily gossip.
"Nothing that would interest you," he answered, crumbling it up in his fist. He gathered his hair into a horse-tail and approached the bed. Orlia smiled eagerly at him and lowered the bedsheet, exposing her breasts to the warm air and his cool gaze. Joren ignored the action and reached across her to pick up his discarded shirt.
She stared at him in disbelief as he pulled his shirt on, effectively putting an end to their tryst. "What are you doing? Where are you going? I need you right now!" she cried in distress.
He paused in the middle of smoothing his clothes into a more presentable state. "Do you?" he murmured, leaning in to capture her lips in a kiss. He teased her with his tongue, until she was arching into his touch and moaning, and then stopped just as she reached for him.
"Unfortunately, I don't need you right now," he said, softly but brutally, and left his room. The closed door didn't manage to silence the high-pitched shriek coming from behind it.
* * *
Kel burst into her room, startling nothing but a couple of sparrows that were perched on the window ledge. Jump had apparently left to follow someone around for the day, and Lalasa was with her friend, Tian. She was grateful that no one was there to greet her, because she was too flustered to respond coherently. Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like she had just sparred with one of the Shang warriors.
"Damn Joren," she muttered to herself, locking the door behind her and heading to the dressing room to find the bath Lalasa had left for her, like she did every morning.
She would have given anything to never have to see his handsome, almost pretty face sneering at her in disdain again. For a while, she had thought he would be gone from her forever. After he had emerged from the Chamber of the Ordeal unconscious and nearly dead, everyone assumed that he would go back home to Stone Mountain and spend the rest of his life recovering from the experience. He didn't though. After a brief disappearance for half a year, during which nobody could find him, he had come back to Corus and managed to prove everyone wrong by entering the Chamber again. This time, he had walked out, a little paler than usual, but unharmed. According to the books Kel had found in the library documenting the history of the Knights of Tortall, it was the first time anyone had passed through the Chamber successfully on the second try.
That, along with his prowess in combat skills, had made him instantly recognizable among most of the population of Corus. What Kel had never realized until then, though, was that his looks alone had made him famous with women. She blushed again, remembering how she would sometimes hear snippets of conversation in the mess hall about Joren and his latest conquest. The conversations almost always detailed his 'gifted talent.' She almost wished that he had failed the Chamber the first time and never come back.
As Kel lay in the cold water, relieved that she was calming down, she had to admit that she was lying to herself. She wouldn't wish that sort of pain on anyone, not even her infuriating fellow knight. She had even been worried when, as a squire, she had seen Joren emerge from the doors of the Chamber in a stretcher. It had frightened her immensely to see him, usually so arrogant and challenging, almost lifeless.
Still, even if she was a tiny bit grateful that he was alive, that didn't mean she appreciated his lewd comments and smirking glances. She would make it a point to avoid him from now on. Besides, the only reason they seemed to be encountering each other a lot was that most of the other knights were gone this summer. Kel had stayed in Corus because her family was here, due to continued trade agreement talks between Tortall and Yamani. In two weeks, the summer season would be drawing to a close, ushering in the arrival of the knights and her friends.
'All I have to do is avoid Joren for two weeks. That can't be too hard.'
Unfortunately for her, the fates would inevitably intervene to prove her wrong.