Outside of the dining hall, the stone hallways of the palace were deserted. Kel began to walk towards the wing where the guest chambers were situated - part of her still felt she should be walking towards the page quarters, where she had lived for four years, even though it had been longer than that again since she had left the palace to become Raoul's squire. Still, it wasn't just for that reason that walking towards the guest quarters still felt like the wrong thing to do. The uneasy feeling still sat in her gut, and while Kel knew that she no longer wanted to be in the dining hall, she wasn't sure she could sleep either. For the first time in some time, memories of Haven, sacked and empty, and Rathaussak and the necromancer it held, played in her mind.
This is what happens when I have nothing to do, Kel thought crossly. I end up thinking of silly things that I can't change. Determined to get some sleep, and hopefully avoid dreaming about the past, she headed back to the guest chamber she had been allocated. Tobe was already there, in his usual position on a cot by the fireplace, and fast asleep. Sensible boy, Kel thought, yawning, and quickly readied herself for bed, trying not to wake him. Their long journey had clearly worn him out, and he didn't even stir as her bed creaked. She pulled the covers over herself and, eventually, drifted off.
Sleep came quickly, but dreams also followed. Kel found herself, strangely, in the austere stone chapel that housed the Chamber of Ordeal. The iron door to the Chamber glinted slightly in the hint of moonlight that shone through the chapel's single stained-glass window. Kel stood in front of the door. Images of the day over three years earlier when she had similarly come here to enter the Chamber flitted through her dream. She had asked it then about the mission it had given her - the mission she had seen to its end with such devastating consequences for Haven and its people. If I have to dream of visiting the Chamber again, it would have been nice to have Jump with me, she thought. Her subconscious, however, did not seem to agree - the little white dog did not suddenly appear.
Why am I here? Kel thought, a strange fear rising in her throat. She had passed the Ordeal of Knighthood, she had fulfilled the quest the Chamber had given her… why dream of the Chamber now? But something pulled her inexorably towards the iron door. She wasn't sure if that something was the Chamber's influence, drawing her here, or something much more human: her own fear that, now the Scanran War was over, there was no place for a Lady Knight in Tortall. After all, the Lioness was the King's Champion, and other knights had palace roles to fill their time or lands to protect (or even command) outside of wartime. What did she, younger daughter with no particular patron, have to do, outside of wartime? One night en route from New Hope to Corus, she had dreamed of herself leading the King's Own, inheriting Raoul's role as commander, and awoken with a deep feeling of longing and disappointment. Her successes in command of New Hope notwithstanding, she knew a silly dream when she saw one. There was simply no way that the King, or even Roald, would ever appoint "the Girl" to such a prestigious position.
Lucid dreaming, Kel thought sarcastically. How wonderful to be able to analyze myself while still in the middle of the dream!
She shook her head. Whatever the reason, she didn't seem to be able to stop her dream-self from walking towards the Chamber door - her hand was nearly on the door handle. Steeling herself with a deep breath, she touched the door. Images of Blayce the Gallan, decapitated, and Rathaussak burning, flashed through her mind. I did what you asked, she thought. What do you want now?
Rather than the terrifying stream of violent images she usually experienced when touching the Chamber door, instead the door swung away from her touch, opening in front of her. Surprised, she opened her eyes and stared into the blackness. "All right," she said aloud. "If that's what you want."
Determinedly, she stepped across the threshold. The door swung shut behind her, and once again found herself stood in the bare plain she had seen the last time she came here. "I see your sense of decor hasn't changed," she said wryly. "Don't you get bored?"
The Chamber's whispering voice filled her mind. You completed the task I set you. You did well, it said. But you already knew that I knew that. That is not why you are here.
Kel sighed. "Then why am I here?" she asked, knowing that another question lay beneath it: What use am I now?
The Chamber's face appeared in the dirt before her. You doubt your importance, when I named you Protector? There will always be work for you, I told you - and indeed, work there is.
Kel started as the plain twisted away and she found herself standing in a field of corn. A rustling told her that someone (or something) was coming, through the plants, and she turned as a laughing Princess Shinkokami stepped out from between the rustling leaves.
"Kel!" her friend cried happily, and Kel opened her mouth to respond, before stopping herself. Speaking inside the Chamber was banned during the Ordeal, and while she had spoken to the Chamber itself, she wasn't sure what effect speaking to those she saw inside it would have - particularly since she was fairly certain that Shinko was presently still inside the palace, not in a field somewhere.
"Kel!" another voice cried from behind her, mockingly, and she immediately realized that it was good that she hadn't spoken, as she quickly turned around to see another Shinko. This one, however, did not look like her graceful and dignified friend. This Shinko was pale and ghostlike, dark rings around her eyes and a scowl upon her face. As Kel stared at her, she opened her mouth and bared her teeth in a horrifying grimace, and Kel was aghast to see rows of shark-like teeth in her mouth, instead of Shinko's usual pearly whites.
The terrible Shinko double opened her mouth, wide, teeth glinting in the sunlight, and Kel watched in horror as she – it – tore the "real" Shinko apart, until all that remained was blood dripping from the double's fangs onto the grass. The double threw back her head and laughed, not Shinko's musical laughter but a cackle which echoed around the field in which they stood. Then she looked at Kel, scowled again, and strode away across the field. Kel watched, frozen, as the rows of corn wilted and blackened beneath the double's feet. Mice and small birds scurried out of the way of the double's feet, but they too fell and died, their bodies instantly rotting away to shreds of blackened flesh and bone. A hawk fell from high above the field and landed with a thud in front of Kel, his body already crumbling as it landed.
Outwards from Shinko's double the blackness spread, across Tortall, swallowing plants and animals in its wake. Flashes of visions of crying, starving children, burning homes, and dying commoners of all sorts - farmers, millers, bakers, miners - passed before Kel's eyes. Tears fell down her cheeks and she fell to her knees as the Chamber returned to the bare plain.
The Chamber's voice sounded in her head once more. You are the Protector of the Small, and yet the task I now give you is to protect something far greater than yourself. This will come to Tortall, if you do not stop it.
Kel wiped her eyes, and found her voice. "But what is it? Is this mage-work?" Her mind worked desperately, trying to get past what she had just seen so that she could ask sensible questions. "Last time you showed me something that was already happening. This hasn't happened yet - I can't imagine how what you just showed me could happen like that at all!"
The Chamber's eyes shone yellow as it stared at her passively. I have shown you what you need to know. You will know what you need to do, just like the last time.
"Last time people died," Kel spat out angrily, feeling hot emotion rise in her that she had long pushed down and hidden away. "Last time you couldn't tell me when, or where, and it was only after it was too late for too many that I could do anything at all! Last time I failed to protect them."
The Chamber closed it eyes. Humans, it almost harrumphed. You did what you needed to do, when it needed to be done. The abomination was stopped. That was what was necessary. You succeeded.
Kel opened her mouth to argue with it again, but the Chamber continued. You will see what needs to be done. You will see, and you will succeed again, Protector of the Small.
With that, the Chamber went dark. Kel groped for the iron door, and almost fell through it, nausea rising. She sank to the floor and leaned against the cold stone wall of the Chapel, trying to get her thoughts in order. What she had seen sickened her to her stomach - Shinko, devoured by her own wraith-like double, and Tortallan soil turned to blackened rotting dust - but was that what really would happen? What kind of magic could produce a second person, never mind cause destruction on that scale? Even the killing devices had not been so destructive.
I think I'd like to wake up now, she thought, and opened her eyes.
"What was that about?" she whispered to herself, pushing off the stifling covers and propping herself up on one elbow, trying to push back the sick feeling from the back of her throat. It took a long time for her to fall asleep again that night.