DISCLAIMER: Don't own it. Don't like it? Don't read it. Steal the plot and die.
Hey everyone, my exams are starting this week, so I'm really sorry if the updates are fewer and further between. I'll try my hardest to keep it going, but I may have bigger gaps between updates.
I really didn't get a lot of questions or anything, so I have nothing really to write here.
Quick Question: I'm still looking for good stories to read. I've been trying to read all of my reviewers' stories, so wait for it, and you'll get a review from me.
Song of the Chapter: American Pie by Don McLean (NOT Madonna, the original version. I love this song. It's all allusions, and references. I mean everyone knows that it's basically about the change of rock and roll after the death of Buddy Holly in '59, but it makes so many more references to the Beattles, the Stones, and Bob Dylan, it's an amazing song. Anyways... enough of my rambling)
luv ya!
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A fifteen year old Keladry of Mindelan walked quietly along the back corridor of the Convent. She walked slowly, and carefully, taking care not to damage the hem of her uniform.
The morning uniform for all of the ladies in training consisted of a tight light blue dress, floor length for girls over fourteen, and a brown sleeveless surcoat, laced tightly up the back. A wide brown belt adorned the girl's hips, but other than that, she wore no accessories.
Her long brown hair had grown past her shoulder blades, and was more often than not plaited behind her in a long braid. She had grown to be a tall slender girl, her womanly figure showing clearly, accentuated by the tight waist and round neck of the dress.
Inside though, Kel had changed dramatically. Gone was the eager page of eleven, or the convent rebel from the years before. She was calmer now, and had however reluctantly, accepted her fate to become a lady, and marry an old noble man.
Five months before, Kel had attempted her last escape from her stone prison. She had travelled south for the better part of a month, and had earned herself the title of 'Protector of the Small'. On her return to the Convent, escorted by men of the King's Own, she had been severely punished by the Daughters. She had fasted many days, took extra lessons to make up for her missed ones, and, worst of all, had been strapped to the straight backed posture chair from morning till night for two whole weeks.
After the beating on her spirit, she had finally broken, much in the same way that a wild horse is trained. Now she was meek and submissive, doing anything and everything the Daughters told her to do. She never ran, or practiced with her weapons.
She never spoke to anyone either. At that time, she hadn't uttered a sound in over two weeks. The longest time she spent without talking was three months on end, so this wasn't unnatural. No one spoke to her, and she had given up any form of friendship with the convent girls. They all though her lower than them, because of her attempt at knighthood. Even the Daughters had refrained from speaking to her, even to criticize. Only the Third Daughter, who had taken a particular dislike to Kel, reprimanded her. The others simply ignored her.
Even with this outward change, Kel had excelled at her classes, finding solace in books and embroidery. She never thought that she would be like Neal, and find interest and comfort in reading, but then again, she had never thought that Lord Wyldon wouldn't allow her to continue training.
Her letters to her friends had become a journal of sorts, where she revealed her feelings, and tears. The letters had never been sent, but were locked in her trunk at the foot of her bed. With it was a book from her family about the strategies of great Tortallan battles. Every night, she studied the plans and outcomes, until she could predict the outcome of a battle before even reading the end, and could think of her own tactics.
At that time, Kel broke into a run, pulling her long skirt up to refrain from tripping. The rest of the ladies, and the Daughters were all locking themselves in their rooms, after having heard an alert of Scanran raiders. Being so near to the border, these were frequent, but were never heavy attacks.
Kel, coming back from her punishment work in the kitchens, had overheard the chief of the city guards telling the First Daughter that the raiding party was many times bigger than any others, and to lock the ladies away for safety. Naturally, no one had noticed when Kel left along a dark back corridor.
She reached a steep flight of stairs. Abandoning her overdress at the foot of the staircase, Kel ran up the steps in her plain shift. By now, she knew every passage and stair of the entire convent, having frequently wandered at night after the Daughters went to sleep.
She emerged in the guard armory. No one was there, every useful guard having been sent to the wall. She searched with her eyes and took a small longbow, and quiver of arrows. She wanted to watch the fight, but wouldn't be caught defenseless. She could hardly draw the bow anymore, but at lest the arrows were sharp bolts, and could hold off anyone attacking her for long enough.
A small dagger adorned her waist, a gift from her mysterious benefactor as a page. The ladies were allowed to keep a small knife, in the event that a commoner man from the city tried to attack her.
Kel ran up a second, longer flight of stairs, until she came to an unused window. It faced the gates of the Convent, and from there, she could see the line of guards, all at the front, and the Scanrans approaching. The guard had been right. There were more raiders there than had ever come before. Movement caught the corner of Kel's eye, and she half turned to see a small handful of blonde men creeping along the side wall.
They were attempting to get in by the unguarded back, and would attack from behind, while their companions distracted the guards, all at the front.
Kel took off at a dead run to the top of the wall. She didn't even notice when a torch bracket tore off the bottom half of her skirt. Her hair unbraided itself and streamed out behind her as the girl sprinted up the stairs and across the wall.
It took all of her self control, not to look down at the sheer drop to the ground, but ahead of her at the maroon clad guard in front of her. Her looked at her questioningly, surprised and amused at seeing a disheveled, half undressed lady.
Kel gasped for breath, "Around the side, there are Scanrans coming around the side of the convent. I saw them." She struggled with the words, being unused to speaking. Her voice sounded strange to her ears, a sound that had gone unheard for such a long time.
The guard gave her a condescending smile, "My lady, I assure you that there are no raiders around the side, and that all of them are right in front of us. You will be perfectly safe, and are best to go back to your rooms now. Go on, you shouldn't be up here unescorted."
Kel grew angry at how this man was treating her as a child. She knew that women were considered inferior by men, but surely the Lioness was listened to when she saw something. Why would Kel lie about something like this. She said as much to the guard, who to her amusement was shorter than her.
"Saw them, did you? Well, you know, I'm sure that even if there were raiders back there, they wouldn't get in. I assure you, girl, that we have everything under control. Now you can go put back that bow and dagger before you hurt yourself." his words were cut off as an arrow passed in front of his face, nearly hitting him square between the eyes.
Kel took advantage of his momentary preoccupation, and bolted back along the wall, and down the stairs. She ran along a corridor, only vaguely taking note of the pain in her abdomen from the exercise she wasn't used to.
Another hidden passage and a long flight of stairs led her to the deserted back wall. No one had come, assuming that it was sturdy enough to hold off any attackers.
All she saw near the guard platform was an old war horn, and a handful of spears. She slung the horn over her shoulder, anticipating to call it if she saw the raiders.
They came slowly and silently, carrying a small ladder and ropes to pull it up the high wall. There were only maybe ten of them, and they only carried small knives and the scaling ladders. Kel, hidden by the stone ledge, calmed herself. She remembered a passage from her strategy book, concerning the siege of Pirate's Swoop, eight years before. It wrote that an enemy, without immortals, is only men, and men scare easily, and are easily defeated.
All she had to do was give them reason to be nervous. Sounding the horn was her last option, as it would inform the enemy that she was unable to take them herself. Quickly, she made a plan.
She nocked an arrow, and drew it back with difficulty, aiming at the leader carefully. She pitched her voice a note lower than usual, and shouted as loud and clearly as possible.
"Who dares attack the City of the Gods?" Her voice rang out, and the shock of the raiders was enough to ensure that they heard her.
"Who's there?" one called out, "Show yourself, if you be a man." he looked nervous at hearing voices from a seemingly deserted wall. They had counted the guards out front. The numbers exactly matched the number given to him by the scanran spy in the city. So who was here. defying him?
Kel laughed inwardly, "But you must understand, I am not a man. I am greater than a man." She was satisfied to see a look of pure terror come across the man's face. Ruling out the possibility of a woman, he assumed that it was a god talking to him.
His voice trembled with fear, "If you are not a man, than you can do no harm to us. Show us that you are in fact there, and not helpless."
Kel started, she was now stuck between a rock and a wall, figuratively speaking. All she had in her hands was a bow that she could barely draw, let alone aim properly. If she shot and missed, her plan would have been useless. The raiders would see through, and attack. By the time the guards answered her call, they would hav crossed the wall. The only thing for her was to shoot and hit.
She sent a prayer to Yama, Mithros, the Goddess, Kyprioth, anyone who might possibly answer her, and she took aim. Her eyes focused, and she put all of her energy and concentration into that one shot.
As she released the string, she felt as though a pair of cool and caring hands covered her own, shifting the bow ever so slightly. Her prayers were answered, and the arrow flew straight and true, buying itself deeply into the leader's chest.
He dropped to the ground with a shout, and the other two backed away in fear, staring at their dead friend. Kel dropped the bow, knowing that she didn't have the strength to shoot another arrow straight. She took one of the spears in one hand, and the horn in the other. Straightening up, she showed her face to the startled Scanrans.
To them, she looked imposing, like a warrior goddess. Her blue dress had been reduced to a knee length tunic, and her brown hair blew in the wind behind her. She was tall and graceful, fairer than most. A long spear was clutched in her hand, giving her the appearance of a guard of the gods. Her bare feet and pale skin, kept that way by the Daughters of the Convent gave her even more of a greater-than-human look.
The raiders backed away, thinking that they had come to face with Tyne, warrior guard of the golden Mithros, with her silver spear and golden arrows. The horn raised to her lips and called out a brilliant note, which hovered in the air before being replaced by another call.
The horn call echoed through the valley between the mountains, and around the city. Shouts approached, and a handful of maroon clad guard ran towards the noise.
When they reached the back wall, the Scanrans were fixed in a spot, staring at an empty wall. Kel had seemingly disappeared.
The guards took the terrified raiders prisoner, to find out who had sent them, and if it had been King Maggur of Scanra. One of the prisoners knelt in front of the guards.
"Your city is touched by the gods it is." The chief guard shot the man a questioning look. "I saw one, I did. Twas the fair Tyne, guard of Golden Mithros. She was here and killed our leader."
The guard rolled his eyes, and motioned for the men to be taken away.
Kel ran along the corridor, amazed by her own success. She, Keladry of Mindelan, had taken down ten Scanran raiders, simply through fear.
The sounds of battle had ceased, which meant that the Daughters would be returning the girls to class at any time now. She flew down the stairs from the armory, snatching her brown surcoat and belt as she ran past.
She was almost at her room now, only another few steps.
"Keladry of Mindelan." a voice shrieked. "Where have you been?" The Third Daughter came up behind her and struck her face. The girls had begun to file out of the rooms, in time to see Kel get hit. "You ungrateful brat! Here, we offer you safety and what do you do? You sneak out during one of the biggest raids of the year. And then you come back with a torn dress and no shoes. Where have you been?"
"I fell asleep, and I slept right through the raid, Third Daughter," Kel lied, feeling properly ashamed of herself. She was also starting to grow angry. She had most likely just saved the Convent from a far worse outcome for injuries and deaths, and this was the thanks that she got?
She felt a hard slap fall across her face one more time. The Daughter's cold, now calm and deadly voice reached her ears. "Go and put on proper clothes, and then you will have extra calligraphy lessons for the next two weeks, punishment in the kitchens for a bell after evening meal, and a bell of work in the laundry for two bells after that every night for two months. Do you understand?"
Kel nodded and strode into her room, tears pouring helplessly down her face. She was torn between shame at being reprimanded in front of everyone, anger at having been shouted at for saving the Convent, and shame at herself for having shown weakness to the Third Daughter.
ooooooooooo
Kel woke up in the Rider's barracks with a start. The dream had seemed so real, she could remember everything that happened that day. Her punishment had torn skin off of her hands, washing dishes, and had burned them with lye from the clothes washing. By the time she had reached her calligraphy extra classes, her hands were swollen and bandaged. In the end, the latter punishment had to be pushed to after her work, as she was unable to hold a quill in her bandaged hand, let alone write with it.
Kel was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Colleen and Brekke, on beds either side of her sit up with a start.
"What was that dream?" they hissed at her, at the same time that Kel felt Quinn say the same thing in her mind.
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TO ALL MY REVIEWERS:
Hey everyone. I hadn't done a flashback sequence in a while, so I wanted a new one. The whole idea of the plot line is that she is still troubled by memories of the convent, but that doesn't work if I write no memories. Granted, I'm writing less in the past, and more present time chapters. Progressively, there will be fewer and fewer flashbacks, until they disappearing, symbolizing Kel's pull back into life and out of the past. Get it?
About the image of the goddess Tyne. She is completely made up. I wanted an image of a goddess similar to Athena, goddess of war mainly, or even Artemis of the Hunt. Tamora Pierce didn't give me any such gods, so I had to make one up. Tyne is an actual used name, however rarely. I think it means 'winding stream' or something. I liked it and wanted to place it somewhere. It seemed to fit my description.
I find that I know names that 'sound' like they would fit a goddess, or a lady, or a warrior, or a tomboy, or any other type of girl. For example, in 'A lady From Kel' I used the name Tanwyn. To me, that screams out 'lady, prissy, girly girl', however the name Brekke, screams to me 'tomboy, fighter, won't give up' which is a representation of my character Brekke. Colleen seems to say 'sweet, helpful, but a fighter nonetheless'. In the same way, Tyne called out to me as 'proud, fighter, god-like, greater than human, a not human name' Do you understand?
As you may have noticed, I like to take certain 'tableaus' and describe them in a lot of details. When I'm writing in my mind, I'll freeze the scene, and take out little details. See Kel on the Palace walls in 'A Lady from Kel' and you'll see what I mean.
By the way, to Kin of Idda, I don't think that you're a jerk or anything, it's just that I had a kinda stressful week, and I snapped.
The ORIGINAL Meathead. I've used up all of my review opportunities on your story, but I know that you read this one, so PLEASE WRITE MORE.
luv ya!
Your friendly neighborhood Lioness
Alanna
