Since I had already started with the idea, I was so glad someone mentioned it in a review. "George took care of it on the sly." As someone else thought the plot point plausible, I'm rolling with it!
Baron Myles of Olau sank farther into his armchair as he looked across at his son-in-law and his second-in-command as the Realm's spymaster. George's network in the southern part of Tortall had brought news of emigrating Carthakis and unrest as Emperor Kaddar solidified his power base. Now that business was out of the way, however, Myles poured a glass of wine for himself and his companion and asked the question that had been on his mind since last month.
"How's Alanna doing, George?"
Baron Cooper merely lifted his mouth in a half smile and took a sip. Myles sighed, shifted his bulk further into the chair, and replied.
"Yes, well, I supposed that's not the correct question, is it?"
"She'll recover, Myles."
At those words, Myles saw George's twinkle, and he remembered not for the first time that what made this man so effective as his colleague was his common (or rather uncommon) life before the barony. While he enjoyed playing chess with Alanna, his games with George were matches that lasted for a week if not longer because of their work.
Every year, he bemoaned to young pages the pitfalls of the code of chivalry, and more often than not he saw confusion staring back at him before it was swept away in a blaze of fealty and honor. Knights like Alanna - like Wyldon of Cavall for that matter - saw the Code of Chivalry as a straightforward direction on life. Myles might be considered jaded by his cohort, but he saw as George did that the code only accounted for a small portion of the Realm's - the world's - populace. Not everyone lives their lives by the rules and their lack of obeisance makes ripples in the pond for those who do. He wasn't trying to tell these would-be knights that the code was wrong or that they were wrong to attempt a life of chivalry. He wanted them to see that not everyone was honorable and not everyone was straightforward. Those differences showed in chess.
Myles thought about the new crop of pages arriving and the ones who were now second, third, and fourth years. Some of them could bend. He could see their confused but contemplative faces during his lectures. Others were perfunctorily interested in the history of the Realm. Still others sat rigidly with small frowns tugging at their foreheads. More often than not, these were the ones whose families he was already acquainted with through his position as Spy Master - those that didn't cotton to the monarchs' progressive politics. He supposed it wasn't a crop any different than that of the past ten years, but that there were certainly troublemakers that would cause problems for Keladry of Mindelan, and Myles said as much to George.
"Aye."
After George agreed, Myles took another sip before venturing, "Alanna will cool down, and when she does…"
"She'll want to find some way to help." George finished for him. Myles nodded. Both he and George knew Alanna, sometimes better than she knew herself. It was the result of a fiery temper and actions spurred by emotions in the heat of the moment. It was what made Alanna so passionate, so driven, so uniquely her-and an open book to those closest to her heart.
"I've purchased a dagger on my lass's behalf."
"Raven Armory then?" Myles queried in return. He knew it was the finest in Corus, and Alanna and George's favorite stop in town.
George inclined his head in response. "I'll see that she receives it when she begins. Quietly of course." His mouth tipped at the corners ironically as Myles chuckled.
They sat in silence a while longer.
"Alanna will find her way." Myles smiled to himself.
"Of course." George grinned in response. "My lass always does."