Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me I wish.
Chapter 1- Left Out
Kel stormed around her new knights quarters impatiently.
How is it possible that she hadn't been sent out on a duty for the king yet? Why is it that even after the war there was nothing the Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan was seen fit as a knight of the realm to do?
It was nearly time for the next squires to take the ordeal to become a knight of the realm of Tortall, under the reign of King Jonathon of Conté and Kel had yet to get one mission.
The Ordeal had been hard on her but she had not been given a quest as she had known some others had.
Kel had watched her friends go out on missions- to fight on the front, to clear up the mess- and to come back again. Some like Faleron of King's Reach a knight in the year of Cleon of Kennan had been sent out three times. Keladry waited patiently, doing nothing but testing her fear of heights, riding Peach Blossom her defiant strawberry roan and playing games of chess with the realms spymaster and the only other Lady Knight Alanna's adoptive father and Kel's old mentor Miles of Olau. She was now getting frustrated. There had to be some reason why a country that had turmoil in the north from Scanra, that needed all the knights it could get, didn't need her.
It's not fair, they all get to go out and have adventures, even Neal who hates any type of battering has been travelling around with Lady Alanna.' Kel muttered to herself.
Raving angrily like this was out of character for Kel, she had never been one to show her emotions; her childhood spent at the Yamani Islands had sealed that fate, so now when she did express emotion it was for a valid and frustrating reason.
Usually her frustration would have been eased by talking to her old knight master Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake but even he, being the leader of the King's Own, had been sent out and she had not seen him for the past 9 months.
Kel was brought to her senses when she heard angry chittering from her pet sparrows that were sitting on her bed watching Keladry's process from going to mildly frustrated to infuriated.
Well what do you expect me to do?' she yelled at them lie around like the Yamani Lump I was dubbed?'
The sparrows suddenly rose in a group and flittered around Kel until she got the message that she was supposed to follow them.
They led out of the building and the next place Kel found herself was at the bottom of all her nightmares. The needle loomed above her ominously.
If you expect me to go up there again I'm not.' Kel called to her birds
They didn't seem to hear or listen because they went through the open door to stand at the foot of the stairs.
The lights were on which meant somebody occupied the needle at the moment.
I shouldn't go up there, there might be an important meeting going on.' Kel replied to her birds.
Still they didn't listen and flittered around Kel's head annoyingly.
Why am I letting birds lead me?' Kel asked herself though inside she did know that she valued the opinions of her birds knowing they had saved her on many occasions.
Resigned to the fact that they would not let up until she climbed the needle.
Slowly, trying not to give into her rising fear, she climbed the needle and without realising it had got to the top before the bottom had even really sunk in on the fear scale.
She heard voices outside and as she went through the door she stepped onto the balcony, terrifying memories of her maid's kidnap flying back at her. She pushed them back and viewed who was on the platform.
Her friends, Numair the Mage and Daine the Wildmage were there. Onua the horse mistress of the Queen's Rider's, someone Kel had only met once on a previous occasion was present and joined in deep conversation was her close friend's mother Queen Thayet along with someone she couldn't identify because his back was turned.
Kel turned to go back without interrupting the meeting when her sparrow's twittered drawing attention to her.
All eyes turned in her direction and Daine's eye lit up with delight at the sight of her.
Keladry! Just the Lady Knight we were discussing. You're brother does not give you a good reputation.'
Kel stared at her confused for a second then scanned the crowd once more.
The unidentifiable man was now revealed to be someone she knew quite well.
A/N: Please please please read and review, but be gentle cuz it's my first fanfic.