Chapter 9: Meet the Pages
A/N: I was going to say something, but I forgot now because I'm typing this at school during lunch. So R&R I hope you like this latest installment.
Browneyed beauty21092: I'm not sure what i'm going to do about the boys yet, but I'll think of something when I write the next chapter. I know it's confusing since I didn't mention anything about magic until now, but Amy is alive b'c of a spell that she had been practicing. I took the part out whereChristina said something to herself about it, but she did know. I promise it woun't be that confusing from now on.
AnotherChance: Thanks again for reviewing, I'm really glad you liked it.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Tortall or any of Tamora Pierce's creations.
Except for the initial greetings, Amy and Christina kept silent the whole ride to the palace. Once they actually arrived Raoul introduced them to various personnel and nobles at the palace, among which were Stefan, Lord Wyldon, and Sir Myles.
About an hour later when they were finally on their way to the King's Study, they turned one of the many corners and Raoul plowed straight into George. And Because of Raoul's size (compared to George's), George fell backwards onto the stone floor.
As soon as he got up, he said. "Jon's very busy at the moment, he said that he'd be able to talk to Remara and Rin tomorrow. For now he said they are to eat with the pages and sleep in rooms on the guest wing. I almost forgot, Jon also said that if these two needed anything to ask you or Myles. Sorry I can't stay and chat, but I've got to be at Pirate's Swoop by the end of the week." With that, George swept past them and descended the stairs on Rin's right.
"Well, I guess there's no chance of changing Jon's mind." Raoul stated with a defeated look on his face. He spotted a servant walking down the corridor and pulled him aside. "Show these girls to the pages' mess, and after dinner get someone to show them to a room in the guest wing." Raoul then turned back towards Remara and Rin. "Follow Eric here to the mess, and try not to tell any of the pages what's happened to either of you. Not that I know, but the pages don't need to know either. I'll see you tomorrow."
About 20 minutes and three flights of steps later, Remara and Rin were finally at the dining hall.
Eric quickly glanced in the mess. "Lord Wyldon's not here yet, I'm not sure if he's even coming to dinner tonight. I can't stay, so you'll have to ask one of the other pages what to do." He all but ran down the hallway and out of sight.
"Well that was pleasant." Remara remarked nonchalantly.
"I know, but I wonder what or who in there scared him. Eric was rushing down the hallway like there was no tomorrow." Commented Rin as she gestured towards the mess.
"I don't really care to know," Remara responded while walking into the hall. "All I am is hungry."
A tall girl of about five feet walked over to and sat down beside an older boy with dark brown hair and green eyes. "What's wrong Neal? You've hardly said a word today. Besides, you're actually eating your vegetables, you never do! Something's wrong, I know it is."
"Don't worry Kel, it's nothing." Neal told her, obviously not in a good mood by his tone.
"I'm not an idiot Neal, something's up. Never have I seen you this down." Kel said with a caring tone in her voice.
"It's just….." Neal started. "It's just that I've been having these horrible headaches on and off for a few days now and they're starting to affect my magic. My dad's been having them too, but they're not as bad for him. He said I shouldn't worry about it, but I can't concentrate on anything else!" Neal suddenly stopped talking as he stared when Remara and Rin came in the doors.
Owen, being his eternally "jolly" self, 'bounced' over to Kel and Neal's table. "Well that's just jolly Kel, it looks as if you're not the only girl page anymore."
'They're staring at us, all of them.' Rin announced to Remara telepathically (one of the many things they found they could do in their "free time" in Scanra).
'Just keep looking for Daniel, Andrew, or Norman. Don't worry about how anyone's looking at you. And while you're at it, look for an empty table we can sit at too.' Remara replied as she walked up to the cook to get some food for the both of them.
As they sat down and started to eat, everyone in the mess got back to their food and conversations, except for three fourth-year (I think…) pages near the door. About halfway through the meal, the same three pages made their way to Remara and Rin's table.
The blond-haired boy at the front of the group spoke first. " We don't need anymore girls pretending to be knights in here, so you might as well leave. The Lump is too much as it is."
Rin and Remara just sat there and ignored them and kept on eating their meals.
Joren, as they had heard the other two say, reached out his hand and made Rin turn around. "Did you hear what I said bi….." He was, out of nowhere it seemed, suddenly (sucker ) punched in his face extremely hard. "What the hell?"
Remara had shot up so quick from her seat to punch him that the bench her and Rin were sitting on was turned over on the floor. "Don't ever so much as put your hand on me or her again unless you are willing to pay the consequences." Her voice was shaking and her hands were clenched. "If you do happen to, you'd better hope I don't accidentally kill you."
"Watch how you talk to your superiors wench, it might get you into trouble one day." One of Joren's friends supplied for him.
Kel and Neal were watching the whole scene unfold (as were the other pages) with amusement. Never had they seen someone stand up to Joren, Garvey and Vincent in such a fashion. Everyone was, to put it simply, amazed.
Remara tried (she really did) to not bash their faces in, but it just didn't happen. She was all over the three in a heartbeat. 'They'll learn to be wary of what they say, and I even tried to warn them…'
"Good thing the Stump isn't here." Neal said almost bursting with glee. "I haven't been this happy in awhile. Someone's finally, publicly, giving Joren and his cronies their just deserves." He paused for a moment. "Holy Mithros, that girl's making them look so stupid, they're never going to live this down."
"Neal!" Kel said in exasperation (I can't believe she's actually showing emotion, so un-yamani-ish). "Are you blind or are you just being especially stupid today? Just because she's winning doesn't mean she's any less hurt than they are, just look at her."
It was very true that Remara was hurt badly, but it was also just as true that she wasn't going to stop fighting until she showed these fools some manners. Rin had sat down to finish eating a few tables down so as not to be included in the fighting.
Finally Joren, Garvey, and Vincent had Remara cornered and there was no way to get out. All three of them lunged at her at once. Remara dodged Vincent, managed to land a hit in Garvey's stomach, but not without receiving a blow from Joren.
"I can handle this bitch." Joren told his friends after the assault. "She's just about done in anyways."
Remara had to pinch herself to keep from dying of laughter. 'If I'm still standing after all three of them attacked me, how in the world does he think he even stands a chance against me alone?'
Before Joren even had a chance to turn back around, Remara ran up to him and tackled him so hard that everyone in the hall swore they heard the crack of at least one of his ribs breaking. By this time, Remara was so furious and full of rage that no matter how many times Amy asked her to stop, she didn't.
Joren was a bloody mess and had only gotten in a scant few hits since he'd been tackled, Vincent and Garvey were being held back by a few of the other pages.
The brawl would've continued until one of them was unconscious, but luckily Numair came racing in the hall with Raoul and Duke Baird in his wake.
Numair went over to Garvey and Vincent to try to calm them down while Raoul went immediately and put his arms around Remara and dragged her off of Joren.
With the little strength Joren had left, he pulled a dagger from his belt and slashed (not very hard being that he's weak) Remara diagonally across her face. Instead of putting her hands to her face to try to stop the flow of blood, she fought Raoul's hold on her even more. "Bastard!" She screamed at Joren.
Without any warning whatsoever, a red colored light exploded from Remara's palm and blasted Joren down the isle between the tables all the way to the other side of the room. Remara looked as amazed as everyone else in the hall, but not nearly so much as Numair or Duke Baird.
Raoul was still struggling to keep his grip on Remara when Lord Wyldon burst through the doors to the mess followed by a very confused looking Sir Myles.
"What …in…the…hell…happened in here?" Wyldon asked himself, because the shocked faces and the blood on four of the occupants of the room could tell the general story.
Once Wyldon no longer looked like he was going to have an apoplexy, he said in a commanding (and slightly irritated) voice. "Duke Baird, could you please take Joren out of here and to the infirmary. Garvey, Vincent, Remara, and Rin come with me NOW! The rest of you pages finish eating then go about your business as usual." As soon as he finished, he stomped out of the doors with the four in tow.
After both 'sides' of the story were heard, Wyldon started on Garvey and Vincent. "What in Mithros' holy name were you two thinking? I don't give a damn how tough you think you are or if it's a major dent in your pride, you're never EVER supposed to fight a lady let alone touch them without their consent. You pages shouldn't even be fighting. Your punishment will be that you have to muck out the stables for two bells each Sunday for the rest of this year. Dismissed."
Wyldon waited until he was sure that Garvey and Vincent were well gone before he turned his chair to face Remara and Rin. "Never in all my years have I ever seen a lady act in such a manner as you did tonight. If my daughters had acted that way, you can be sure there would be severe punishments for them."
"What makes you think we were those kind of ladies in Scanra?" Remara pronounced slowly, due to her painful injuries (not all injuries have to hurt ya know…).
"What makes you think you can fight anyone that you please? Just because you're guests in this castle, it doesn't mean that you get any special treatment." Wyldon snapped. He turned to Rin. "I know you didn't have a part in this fight, but maybe you can teach your friend some manners."
"She does have reasons for acting like this." Rin replied solemnly. "It wasn't exactly a walk in the park for us up in Scanra, we had to look behind us every step of the way."
"I understand," Wyldon stated. "But Remara still needs to try to act a little better than was displayed at dinner."
Remara's wounds were starting to hurt so much that it was making her vision was getting blurry. "I'm…..still here…you know." She finally just blacked out. (took awhile didn't it?)
When she woke up, Remara was lying in a bed and had some bandages on her face. She tried to get out of the bed, but she had no strength left to speak of. She felt exactly as she had when Maggur had stabbed her.
Remara looked around as best she could from her immobile position and saw that she was in a huge room full of beds. There were a scant few others in the room also. 'I guess this must be the dreaded infirmary.'
It was dark outside, but since she had just woken up, Remara was nowhere near tired. About a half an hour later she tried to get up again, but all she managed to do was sit up against the metal headboard (-ish thing) of the bed. 'Damn, they got me better than I thought.' Remara leaned her head back against the sparsely decorated wall behind her bed. 'I must've been out for days; at least Joren learned his lesson. I never even remember learning a spell to do something like that, I wonder how much of my power it took.'
She muttered the incantation to light a fire so she could light the candle on her nightstand, but it didn't work. What it did do was burn Remara's arm in the place where a bracelet was, one that she'd never seen before. 'This definitely isn't mine.'
Remara examined the bracelet further; it looked far too expensive for anyone she knew to own it. It was gold or something similar to it and had five extremely small black opals inlaid in a very delicate looking pattern. The bracelet itself was far too small to simply slip off of her hand, but if she touched it without anything over her palm then it would shock her. After about her twentieth failure at getting the annoying piece of metal off of her, Remara just went to sleep.
A/N: Thanks for reading; I hope you liked it. I was going to continue, but even though this isn't a cliffhanger, I just felt like stopping it here. Page training is next…..mwahhahahahahahahahaha! Depending on what people think of this chapter, I might add a bit more that I've been thinking about. She was supposed to meet Neal and Kel in this chapter, but obviously she didn't. Once I get someone's feedback, I'll either add somemore or start writing the next chapter.