Hello lovely readers. Sorry for the delay in uploading chapters, but it's been a manic few weeks! Here's a short one to tide you over for a while... Hope you enjoy! Thanks once more for your reviews.

10

Summer

The air was balmy and warm on the day the pages left for their summer camp. Ella felt it sink into her very bones as she relaxed fully for the first time in months.

The little examinations had been less of a trial then she feared. Ro had tried to reassure her on the run up to them, but still Ella had fretted herself into distraction – what if she had a mind blank and forgot the answers to the judges' questions? What if she couldn't perform the physical tasks?

As it turned out, Ella breezed through them, as did the other first, second and third year pages. She, Ro and Gerry had turned out at the big exams in support of Cole and Merienna.

Ella would miss the two of them. Merienna had become a good friend since the day on the ice, often joining in their boisterous conversations with her own quiet views. She proved to have a sharp wit and a very dry sense of humour. Cole, as her sponsor, had been a source of laughs and advice since her very first day. Ella may not technically need a sponsor anymore, but it would seem strange to not have the big-redhead constantly cracking jokes on her most down days.

However, Ella did not think she would miss Cole as much as Gerry would. Since the incident on the pond, he had been guilt-ridden to an extreme. He hadn't said much on the subject to Ella past apologising profusely, but Ro had told her in confidence that he had come close to quitting page training and only a long talk with the Training Mistress had changed his mind. His entire attitude had become one of hard work and fierce concentration in lessons – gone were the days of him acting the class clown. It was only when Cole could goad him into practical jokes did he seem like the same old Gerry.

And now Cole was going. Ella and Ro were both worried on the effect it would have on Gerry in his final year as a page and vowed that, between them, they would return him to his normal jovial self.

As the line of riders snaked through the track into the Royal Forest, Ella settled herself more comfortably on Spook's back and craned her neck to see what was going on up ahead.

She caught the eye of Trianne of Vikison Lake, who gave her a small smile, before turning back to her conversation. Since Hannett's departure from the pages' wing, Trianne had become much kinder in her attitude towards Ella.

Ella remembered that departure with a twinge of sadness. She had been given a message, three weeks after midwinter, to visit the infirmary. Slightly confused, she had complied, to find Hannett of King's Reach standing outside the door, surrounded by luggage.

"Hello, Ella," the older girl had said, smiling uncomfortably. Her pretty face still looked gaunt and her normally lustrous hair was pulled back untidily.

"Hello," Ella replied.

There was a moment of silence, in which Hannett seemed to be working up the courage to say something.

"I'm leaving," she blurted out finally, gesturing at the bags around her. "As you can see."

"Oh…" Ella shifted her weight from foot to foot, not sure where this was going. "I'm sorry. Can I ask…why?"

Hannett shrugged. "Lots of reasons. It's not for me, this knighthood business. I was just doing it because I could, if that makes sense."

It didn't, not really. Ella could think of lots of things that she could be doing. It didn't mean she was about to rush off and do them.

"Anyway…" Hannett started to twist a strand of hair around her finger in a curiously nervous gesture. She was a completely different girl to the one who had stood over Ella those few months before, threatening. "I wanted to say thank you. I haven't really had a chance to say it but…thank you."

Starting to feel very uncomfortable, Ella shrugged. "You don't need to thank me…"

"I do!" the girl's voice became insistent. "You could have died trying to save me, but you still did it anyway! That's why," and here Hannett had smiled crookedly, cocking her head as she regarded the much smaller page in front of her, "that's why you're going to make a much better knight then I ever would have been."

Ella looked down at her feet, feeling her cheeks starting to warm. Suddenly, something was thrust into her line of sight. "Here, I want you to have this."

Reaching out with hesitant fingers, Ella touched the hilt of the dagger. It looked extremely expensive; even the plain black sheath screamed top workmanship – Raven Armoury if she ever saw it.

"Hannett, I can't. This is too…"

"You can. It used to be my grandfather's, then my father's. He passed it to me when I started my knight training. Since I'm not…not continuing, then it should stay with someone who is."

Ella shook her head vehemently. "You can't give this to me, not if it's a family heirloom."

"I can and I will!" Hannett was equally adamant. "I spoke to father about it. He thought it was a good idea to show…show my appreciation and as a way to…as a way to say sorry."

Before Ella could protest anymore, Hannett had taken her by the hand and thrust the intricate wire hilt of the dagger into her palm, wrapping her small fingers around it.

"If it wasn't for you, I might be dead. I was wrong. All the things I said about you…I was so wrong Ella. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do this," Hannett's large, dark eyes held Ella's blue ones for a long time, before the younger girl nodded.

"What will you do now?" Ella had whispered, feeling a lump in her throat.

Hannet had smiled at her properly, for the first time. "Not sure. Take a while to get my head sorted. I might try for the Queen's Ladies in a couple of years' time. Who knows? I'm done with rushing into things."

"Well," Ella held out her hand for Hannett to shake. "Good luck."

The change in attitude of all the other pages towards Ella had warmed considerably since that event. Riding with them all now, on her first summer camp, fingering the hilt of the lovely dagger that hung from her belt, Ella felt truly content for the first time in her life. Not even the thought of the summer holidays with her mother could dampen her spirits.

"What are you grinning about?" asked Ro, riding up on her left hand side.

Ella looked up at her best friend, her smile widening. "Oh, you know…life in general."