Due to popular demand, I have finally gotten a beta for my new chapter. Big thanks to Dragoneyesbarbaroo for taking the time to check it over. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.
And now the bit you're all been waiting for...
-
Kel woke early when she heard Tobe moving about in her living area. She didn't get up until all went quiet, signaling that Tobe had left for the Rider's barracks. If she had put in an appearance Tobe would have felt guilty that he'd woken her so early, particularly after he'd kept her up late talking the night before.
She dressed quickly and made her way to the practice court reserved for the ladies' morning glaive practice. She bowed to the Queen, who was talking to Buri in hushed tones, before making her way to the corner were Yuki, Shinko and Lianne stood chatting.
They greeted her gladly and regaled her with an account of their evening with the Rider's the day before until the Queen signaled for Lianne to join her, and the other women started to pair off. Kel was pleased to find Fianola, as well as two other boys, one in squire's garb and one in loose training gear, stood off to one side looking slightly nervous.
Kel took pity on them and went over to talk to them.
Fianola introduced the boys as William of Marti's Hill, Quinden's younger and much nicer brother; and Alan of Pirate's Swoop, who pinked slightly at the mention of his mother that went with his introduction. Kel would have bet money that Alan had asked Fianola not to tell Kel who his mother was. It wouldn't have mattered though; Kel knew exactly who Alan was, having seen him running around in the years that he'd squired for Raoul.
Kel nodded and shook both of their hands before drilling Fianola on the pattern dance that Kel had shown her the day before. Kel was impressed by the amount that she'd remembered, and Fianola shyly told her that she'd practiced the night before in her free time. That was when William had found her and asked what she was doing, and expressed interest in joining her and the other women for their morning practice.
Fianola quickly begged forgiveness if it wasn't okay for the boys to be there, but Kel waved her off, telling all three of them that the reason it was only women who ever practiced in the mornings was that very few Tortallan men seemed interested in learning the use of the weapon when they already knew how to use a spear. It didn't help that the only people proficient in using the weapon in Tortall were women. Many men thought that this meant that it was a woman's weapon, and therefore beneath them to use.
'Well, that's idiotic,' Alan said, watching the pairs of women who were sparring. 'Just because a weapon is normally used by a woman doesn't mean it can't be used by men, or that it won't kill you if you happen upon a woman using one.'
Kel was shocked by this statement, and then remembered who she was talking to. Of course the son of Alanna the Lioness would believe that women were just as capable as men when it came to fighting, he's witnessed it first hand from the cradle.
In short order, Kel had all three youngsters repeating the pattern dance that she'd taught Fianola the day before, watching them closely for any mistakes. When William sped up and started making errors, Kel slowed him back down and showed him were he was going wrong. 'A word of advice,' she told him. 'Learn it well slowly before you start to speed up, or the mistakes you make when you're slow will come back to haunt you.'
Even though she had not managed any practice of her own, Kel came away from the session feeling good. Fianola had managed the dance at a reasonable speed with no mistakes, and Kel had added a few new moves to the dance for her to practice tonight.
Once the session finished, Kel fell in with Yuki, Shinko and Lianne as they made there way to the women's baths. Kel quickly scrubbed and washed her hair, apologizing for the rush, but she wanted to grab some food before she left to find out where the games were being held that day.
The Yamani women told her not to bother. Once they had bathed they would go to the kitchens and procure enough food for the small group of nobles who would undoubtedly gather again that day to watch the Own and the Riders compete.
Kel thanked them before hurrying out of the baths to find her friends.
-
Kel found everyone on the hill overlooking the cluster of small outhouses that had been used by the pages and squires to practice group combat. The third day, Yuki had informed Kel earlier, involves two war game scenarios; the first, where the Own would be the attacking force while the Riders defended, and the second, where the Riders would be attacking while the Own defended.
The purpose of the exercise was for the attacking force to save a 'prisoner' held by the defending force somewhere in the buildings, while the defending force has to try to 'kill' as many of the attackers as possible. The attacking force wins if the prisoner is safely rescued. The defending force wins if they manage to kill all the attackers and keep the prisoner from being found.
A coin toss the night before had signaled that the Riders would be defending first, while the Own tried to rescue their prisoner.
When Kel arrived, the Riders were in the process of hiding their prisoner in the buildings. As it only took a few people to do this, the rest of the Riders were milling about, stopping any of the Own from looking too closely at the buildings.
Seeing Neal, Merric and Owen chatting casually with a group of the Own, Kel merely waved at them before walking over to where Be and Lauri were stood.
'Good morning,' she greeted them as she approached, then suddenly wished she'd sounded less cheerful when she saw the two women.
Lauri eyes were blood-shot and there were slight bags under her eyes. Kel wouldn't have been surprised if she hadn't slept at all the night before.
Be, while looking more rested than Lauri, was glancing all over the place, eyes never staying in one place for too long. Kel thought it obvious she was looking for someone, and from the scowl painted on Be's face, she already felt sorry for whoever it was.
'Are you both alright?' Kel asked, worried for her two new friends.
Lauri didn't answer. In fact, her gaze remained unfocused, as if she were staring at something that was ten feet in front of her. Be let her eyes rest on Kel for a few seconds before asking, 'Have you seen Lerant this morning?'
'I've only just arrived,' Kel said in an apologetic tone, wondering what the standard bearer had done this time to upset Be. Whatever it was, Kel hoped that he was heavily armed when Be finally caught up with him.
Realizing that she wasn't going to get any friendly conversation out of the two, Kel left them to their musings to go join Neal and Merric, who had been found by Yuki, Shinko and Lianne.
True to their word, the ladies had brought breakfast with them, as well as two big blankets that they spread out on the hill for them to sit on while they watched the 'battle' unfold.
A horn sounded somewhere inside the outbuildings, and the Riders, who had been milling around, waiting for their team mates to hide their prisoner, made their way into their designated positions, each carrying an assortment of practice weapons covered in red chalk. The Own, who were now congregating to finalize strategy, had weapons with blue chalk on them, which made it possible to differentiate who had 'killed' who.
Kel watched the Own as they planned, Dom at the centre of the group who stood around a map drawn in the dirt. Watching him, Kel felt herself smile slightly. If there was one thing that Dom did well, and there were many things, but one in particular was strategy. She knew this from all the evenings she'd spent with Lord Raoul and the Own while she'd been a squire, listening to the men debate tactics on long ago battles.
Shaking herself back to reality, Kel dropped down onto a blanket next to Neal and Yuki and tucked into a pastry from one of the baskets that the women had bought.
-
Once breakfast was finished, the nobles spread themselves out over the blankets and watched as the Own began their attack.
'So, where do the Own need to get their prisoner to for them to be declared 'free'?' Neal asked.
Lianne pointed to a small post at the bottom of the hill. 'It's supposed to represent a hitching post that a horse could be tied to. Both sides agree that once the prisoner is on a horse, it would be near impossible to catch them again,' she explained.
'What if the defenders have horses?' Merric asked. 'Surely they could pursue?'
Lianne smiled and said, 'Lauri told us last night that the first time they used this event, the plan was to get the prisoner back to the team's respective barracks. Unfortunately, that led to a fair amount of chaos when the Riders ambushed the Own in their stable yard.'
'It was the first time Lord Raoul found out about the games,' Lerant said, causing Kel to jump slightly. He had a red chalk smear on his chest from where a pretend arrow had hit him, 'killing' him for this round. 'Anyone mind if I steal a roll?' he asked, taking the one offered by Lianne before dropping down on the grass next to the blankets.
They watched closely as a trickle of men in blue with red chalk marks slowly made their way out of the buildings, all looking unhappy; apparently the Riders had their sharp shooters somewhere high up were they had a good view of the whole compound.
As time went by though, a small number of men and women in brown with blue chalk stains started to appear as well, congregating on the left side of the blankets, while the 'killed' Own occupied the right side. It was one of the Riders that pointed to the top of the hill and said, 'I think we've got ourselves an audience.'
Everyone turned to see what the man was talking about, but it was Kel who sighed and called, 'You might as well come down and watch from here, you'll have a better view.'
Neal looked confused as the small group of people stood and slowly made their way down the hill. 'Is that Alan of Pirates Swoop?' he asked as the group got closer.
Kel nodded. 'And Fianola, and Quinden's younger brother, William.'
'And several other squires by the looks of things,' Merric added as Kel counted heads.
There were four other squires, making the group seven in total. When they were only a few feet away from the blankets, Kel told them, 'You better have permission from your knight master to be here.'
Each of the squires quickly affirmed that they had permission to be there, while Alan simply sat down on the blanket next to Neal and started to recite news from home. Apparently his sister's triplets were doing fine, and she was expecting twins in a few months. Neal replied that if you married a crow, what did you expect, which really confused Kel, but she felt it prudent to ask about that another time.
Fianola moved to sit next to Lianne, back straight and eyes slightly fearful until Lianne managed to strike up a conversation with the young squire. It was only then that Kel realized that their ages were so different.
The rest of the young squires had managed to situate themselves around Merric, who was commentating on the tactics that the Own seemed to be using to get around the Riders to their prisoner. The squires seemed to be in awe of Merric's knowledge on the subject, but after two wars he'd picked up quite a bit in the area of tactics and strategy.
Twenty minutes later, the Own seemed to have retreated to a safe distance again, having lost half their force to the Riders weapons. To their credit, there were a number of Riders sitting by the blankets, but not that many.
The group was so interested in what the Own's next move was going to be, they didn't hear anyone approach from behind until it was too late. 'And what is all this?' a voice asked, loud enough to make the whole group jump, but not loud enough to carry all the way to where Dom and Osbern were rallying the remaining men.
Kel's heart thudded in her chest when she recognized the voice behind her. Apparently the men of the Own recognized it to, as they jumped to their feet from their varied positions to stand at attention. The Riders and the group of squires, knights and ladies all turned to find Lord Raoul looking distinctly unimpressed at the scene before him.
Lerant was the first to recover enough to try to stammer through an explanation, but the look of Raoul's face made him stumble to a stop mid-sentence. 'I told you they were up to something,' Buri said, a slight amused smile on her face. Now that she was no longer in change of the Riders, this wasn't her problem to deal with.
Raoul's face stayed stern for a few more seconds before one corner of his mouth quirked upwards. 'At least tell me we're winning this year,' he said, but before anyone could answer, a scream erupted from the buildings.
-
Yes, it's a cliffhanger!
Nine days till I meet Tammy! Yes, after eight years of worshipping at the alter of Miss Pierce, I'm finally going to get to meet her. I'm not sure if I'm more excited or nervous.
So, anyone else going to DragonCon?