The Royal Ladies- chapter 2
Disclaimer- I own nothing. Tamora Pierce owns all the characters and places and deities and stuff I use/ play with/ refer to! I just like to kidnap them and play in their pretty world for a little while. Please don't sue me, I've got a pretty birdie and 24 cents to my name right now! Oh, Tallia and Kami are mine, along with the Art (ok so I got the idea from things like taekwon-do and tai c'hi)
A/n- hello yet again, ladies and gents *stares around* and all you other people too! Don't throw things at me, I'm just a poor girl who likes to write fanfics! This is the long awaited *HA* second installment of The Royal Ladies- oh and I might mix in some romance later, maybe, maybe not. We'll see how things fly, shall we? And, with no more gilding the lily, and with no further ado, on with the fic!
~Windwhisper
One bell before sunrise-
Tallia was up and stretching her small chambers before the first rays of false dawn. She pulled off her nightgown and heard a long ripping sound. She sighed, knowing she'd have to ask Kami, her maid, to fix it. Just then the latter entered the room from her adjoining room, the opposite door of Tallia's dressing room.
"Need a little help, mistress?" Kami now asker her with a grin. She had known Tallia most of her life and was her best friend.
"Good morning" Tallia answered as Kami stoked up the fire and lit a branch of candles. She was used to her mistress' early morning habits, they both were early risers. Tallia had told Kami all about the Queen and her meeting in just an hour, and they were both excited. Tallia stood, her dark body gleaming in the candlelight. She began to pin up her hair, weaving and tucking until it was all safely up. Then she pulled on a white breastband, loincloth, a pair of tan breeches and a white practice shirt. On went well used leather boots, and she looked herself top to toe in the mirror. She might not be a delicate flower of a lady, but she was ready.
The sun was just coming up as she reached the stables. She went to saddle her mare Moonshine.
"So you do know what you're doing in a stable! Wonderful" said a voice behind her. Tallia spun, seeing Thayet appear out of the shadows, dressed like she was.
"Your-" Tallia began, but the queen cut her off.
"No bowing, or calling me all those silly titles" she said sternly. "Just call me Thayet."
"Yes- Thayet." Tallia replied, smiling.
"Now, what do you know of riding? I see you can handle your tack. Just let me saddle Shadowfare (she indicated the mare behind her), and we'll go for a ride.
During the ride, Tallia showed off her walk, trot, canter, and gallop, as well as her K'miri trick riding. Thayet applauded and cheered her on as she came to a finish.
"Very good! You and Buriram Tourakom, my assistant, are the two best K'miri riders that I have ever seen! You seem to have some sense of the training of a warrior. What weapon, in any, are you most familiar with?" Thayet asked as they dismounted and walked along the stream.
"Well- I actually can't use any weapons well, save the dagger," Tallia admitted, blushing. "My strength is actually in the most dishonorable of styles for a noble, let alone a lady- hand to hand combat, both defensive and offensive. Father woulden't let me become a page, he said that that wasen't women's work, but he allowed me to grow up trained in the ways of the Art, the First Daughter took over my training when I left home for the convent. In the past two years, I found someone to teach me the longbow as well." Tallia finished with a happy smile.
Thayet, knowing very well what she meant by the Art, a complex form of hand to hand combat, designed to defeat armed and even horsed opponents with a series of kicks above the head, as well as punches and throws done in a particular kind of rythem that was usually reserved for women taking the vows of the Goddess to defend their temple. She knew that a lady schooled in the Art would come in very handy one day.
"Do you have a bow here?" Thayet asked Tallia now.
"Yes, although handmade by my brother before I left for Court, it's a good shot of 180 yards, I'll get it now." Tallia replied, looking brighter now that she could show off her skill in something 'honorable'.
Presently she was back, a cherry-wood longbow and a quiver of black arrows hanging from the chest strap she was wearing, which was red-dyed leather embroidered with ravens and doves. She also carried something in a rough sack, which she put down over to one side.
"Pick your target," she told Thayet, "not farther than 180 yards, please."
Thayet walked to the other end of the deserted paddock they were using, and tied a piece of cloth to a tree roughly 150 yards away. Tallia strung the longbow and picked three arrows, letting them fly one after the other. They flew straight and true, clustered together at the center of the cloth. Tallia pulled them loose with some effort, and unstrung the bow, replaced the arrows she had used in the quiver, and set them down next to the bag on the side.
"What's in the bag?'" Thayet asked curiously as Tallia straightened.
Tallia smiled. "Some odds and ends that people have given me or I have made over the ten years of my training."
From the bag she pulled out a pair of leather breeches and a shirt, both high quality and bearing an unusual design of spirals, moons, and stars dancing around in a repetitive pattern in metallic, dark red thread. Out came wrist- and arm-guards done in the same style, as well as matching flatboots (a cross between slippers and boots) and a band to keep back her hair, along with narrow pieces matching all the rest to tie the ends of braids securely. Her belt was next, made of unadorned leather with a two pronged spiral buckle worked in solid silver. In the same style came a belt set of daggers, all ten in plain sheaths but bearing high quality, double edged blades. A small box of raven feathers came next, along with flectching glue, arrowheads of flint, and a few rods of precious ebony. There were yards of leather too, as finely worked as the rest of it was, and bobbins of that odd red thread. There was an ordinary belt knife like the one she already wore, and a collection of K'miri throwing stars.
"What is the leather suit for?" Thayet asked, toucking the beautiful workmanship with reverent fingers.
"It's like armor, only for the Art. It's flexible and the most preferable thing to fight in that I have. The color and patterns show my rank and ability to my opponent. Of course, I've been trained to fight in any style of clothing I happen to be wearing when the need to use my skills arises," Tallia told her, seeming to be glad someone diden't think she was dishonoring her family.
"Well, this has been truly amazing. Thank you for letting me see what you can do, I'd ask you for an Art demonstration but the evening bell's about to ring, what do you say to a bath and then supper?" Thayet asked the younger woman who now seemed quite at ease with her queen.
"Sounds good to me!," Tallia told her with a grin, sounding for once like the teenager she really was.
~