For R0KI, who almost made me crash a car by making me laugh. Please, enjoy. Yay for reaching 7,000 hits!
"I still say it's odd that you got a knight master so quickly."
"Quiet, Schuylar! Herne might just find time for a little wrestling match, if you don't stop talking."
As Eleni and Schuylar bickered, the young man in question continued to pack his belongings. The same argument had gone on for the last two days, and he had heard it enough times. It was hard to believe that they were Tortall's future knights. Gods, preserve them all.
"But it's strange," Schuylar insisted. "It's almost as if Lord Imrah had planned to make Herne his squire all along!"
Decidedly fed up with the spindly page, Herne smartly rapped him on the head. Schuylar's angry pout only earned him a second blow. For laughing, Eleni secured a hit of her own. It really didn't help her building headache.
"Why don't you two go see Perci. I'm sure he needs help getting packed." When they didn't leave his room, Herne physically removed them. "I'll be right along, don't worry. Tell Perci that I'm sending you two as a parting gift." A sadistic chuckle was heard from behind the closed door.
The dispute didn't end by the time they reached Perci's soon to be empty room. The room already looked very plain and lacked the comforts of a lived-in room. Then again, Perci hadn't wasted half of his morning trying to evict two bickering pages.
Sir Merric of Hollyrose had offered to take on Perci as his squire, but he was only one knight among many. However, Perci had chosen the cheerful and dramatic Sir Nealan, greatly surprising his friends. It wasn't a secret that Sir Nealan spent over half of the year on the Scanran border or that he would be heading back to the border that very summer.
Perci would be trapped up north for months, far from Corus. They would be heading up to the township of New Hope, a former refugee camp, and would stay there for at least two years before returning.
"Why did your father take on Herne?" Schuylar had yet to drop the subject. He didn't take the agitated sighs for the warnings that they were. "Myles refuses to discuss it with me, but I think something's going on. How about it, Perci, do you want to tell us why Herne was picked out so quickly?"
When he received silence as a response, he just continued on. Eleni, having suffered his conspiracy theories more than anyone else in the palace, plopped down on Perci's bed. Her head hurt too much to deal with Schuylar. Perci mocked Schuylar behind his back, making Eleni chuckle. Schuylar never noticed, lost as he was.
"No other knights even approached him! Something was definitely arranged," he concluded.
"If I tell you," Perci began. Schuylar opened his mouth to speak. "Speak, and I will never tell you anything at all." His mouth snapped shut. "If I tell you, Schuylar, you have to stay quiet. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" Eleni winced at his loud exclamation. Her head just kept aching.
"Herne was chosen to be Father's squire a very long time ago. Probably around the same time he and Rhonwen were betrothed. He has his squire years to prove himself competent in front of my father." Perci had a funny smile on his face. "I really do hope he doesn't make a fool of himself. Father tends to be very strict." His smile only grew.
"Oh," breathed out Schuylar. He contemplated the new information quietly. Unfortunately, the peace lasted all of five seconds. "Who's Rhonwen?"
"Like he said, my betrothed." The room's occupants hadn't noticed Herne leaning against the door frame. "Was it necessary to tell them?" he asked Perci.
"You sent them to me," he replied. "And that one was about to find himself tied up and on a pony meant for Scanra."
Schuylar audibly gulped and blanched. Something told him that Perci was capable of carrying out the threat. Fear still wasn't able to keep him from pestering the new squires. "You still haven't told me who Rhonwen is," he whined.
"My sister," Perci's voice was muffled. He was currently under his bed, trying to reach a piece of parchment that had fallen under it. When he finally emerged, he was covered in a thin coat of dust.
"Sister? I thought your sister's name was Claire!"
Eleni, finally annoyed of Schuylar's complaints threw her boot at him. Never having been the sharpest sword in the armory, Schuylar's reflexes were too slow to dodge it. Herne and Perci only laughed at his expense.
"Ever think that he might have more than one sister?" Eleni, despite the intense throbbing in her head, managed a smile. Schuylar was impossible. "And stop yelling already."
She flipped over on the bed and buried her face in the coverlet, groaning. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Eleni noticed that the blanket smelled like sandalwood. It made her feel a little better. At least until Schuylar threw himself on the bed beside her.
"What's wrong?" He was concerned, but going about it the wrong way. "Hey, come on." Poking her repeatedly, Schuylar didn't know that he was goaded an agitated lioness. "Hey, My-" There was a solid knock on the opened door.
Grateful to see what had finally gotten Schuylar to stop, Eleni cracked an eye open. What she saw made her sit up straighter than a rod. Why did she of all people have to see her in that position?
Clad in dark brown breeches, a blue tunic, and a white shirt, the tall woman was a pretty impressive sight. Standing tall at just shy of six feet, her hazel-green eyes observed the four shocked pages. None of them had expected the Protector of the Small to show up. Even less expected was that she would be holding Myles' boot in her hand.
"Sir Merric asked me to get Percival." Holding up the boot, she asked, "This belong to anyone here?"
Eleni shyly got off the bed. "That would be mine, Lady Knight Keladry." Her face was as red as her hair, and she wished that the ground would open and swallow her whole. Kel's eyes crinkled at Eleni's expression.
"Here you go, lad." Kel watched as Eleni walked back to the bed and put her boot back on. "You're the Lioness' grandson aren't you? Myles, was it?" Eleni gave a feeble nod. "Mind if we have a word after I finish up with Percival?" Eleni gave a little shake of her head this time. "Excellent. Ready, Percival?"
Perci had kept on packing his saddlebags while Kel had spoken to Eleni. The last thing he put away was the piece of parchment he had retrieved from under his bed. He and Herne each slung a bag under their arms, all that Perci would take with him when he went north. The remainder of his belongings would be sent to his new room adjoined to Sir Nealan's suite.
"I'm ready to go, Lady Knight. Schuylar, you're coming with us." When Schuylar let out a whine, Perci repeated the order. "There's no telling what you'll do to my room if we leave you here alone. Come on."
The boys followed Kel out of the room, but Perci held back to wait for Eleni. She still hadn't gotten off of his bed. Without looking at him, she answered his unspoken question.
"I made an idiot out of myself," she said dejectedly. "It's almost as bad as if Grandmother had caught me."
Perci dropped his bags by the door and sat on his bed. He'd miss the feel of the mattress. While the town of New Hope had developed into a cozy frontier town, it was going to be a far cry from the comfort of the palace. "It's not that bad." Eleni groaned. "Really. I happen to know that Lady Knight Keladry has an exceptional sense of humor. She probably thought it was funny." He knew for a fact that she thought it was funny, that she probably understood why a boot had been thrown across the room. "Now get up, they'll be wondering where we are."
The stables were buzzing with activity. Apart from Herne, Schuylar, and Kel, there were two knights and a lady in a Yamani robe. For some reason, there was a gaggle of children flitting around one of the knights, a tall, dark-haired man. Eleni knew those children and the lady. They were the ones who had kept her in a cage overnight.
As she and Perci drew closer, Eleni saw that one of the children was actually Devin. That only made things stranger.
Devin broke away from the children when he saw Perci enter the stables. "Thought I'd missed you, but then I saw everyone was still reading the horses. What took you so long?"
"Myles was having a moment," he said, enjoying how red Eleni turned. Trying hard not to bump into the children running underfoot, Perci walked over to where a dark-headed man stood by a stall. "Sir Nealan," Perci inclined his head in respect.
Neal chortled and patted Perci on the back. "Just Neal, Perci. We went over this. Just how many times will I have to say this to my errant squire? Formalities won't be necessary."
"Sorry, Sir Nealan." Perci laughed, already heading for his mare, Seafoam. "You'll have to remind me a few more times."
"Insolence from my own squire," Nealan said to the red-haired man next to him. "Merric, what did I do to deserve this?"
Merric finally looked over at the new arrivals. "You chose him, Neal. It's your job to keep an eye on him, but if he's capable of making things interesting, I like him." He held out his hand to Perci, "Merric of Hollyrose, Percival. A pleasure to meet you." He gave a player's bow, eliciting giggles from the smallest child.
Eleni flinched at the sound. Yasumaru. Well, she thought irritably. Now I know who he belongs to the next time he tries to cage me."Devin how do you know Sir Nealan?" She didn't notice the little boy walking over to her.
"Huh?" He had noticed the toddler. "Come here, Yasu." Lifting the little boy, he spun him around. More giggles came from the little boy, forcing Eleni to calm her nerves. "Uncle Neal is my mother's brother," he answered casually, bouncing Yasu in his arms. "This little one is Yasumaru. Yasu, say hello to Myles."
"Ohayo gozaimasu," he chirped happily. Eleni was more than a little perplexed at what Yasumaru had said.
"What did he say?" she asked Devin. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't Common."
"I apologize for my son, young page," Lady Yuki was someone that Eleni would never be able to forget, she was too beautiful. "He has not been mindful of his manners of late."
"But Auntie Yuki," Devin swung his baby cousin once more. "He did say 'hello'. I never said it had to be in Common."
The lady withdrew a fan from her sash and tapped her nephew on the head. "Well, then," she said. "I apologize for my nephew, who also lacks proper manners." Bowing from the waist, she introduced herself, "I am Lady Yuki of Queenscove. Who might you be?"
Eleni didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or hide, but she knew that she had to say something. "Myles of Pirate's Swoop, milady."
"Pirate's Swoop, eh?" Neal had joined their little group. "Beautiful place," he commented lightly. "Tell me, how is the old Lioness these days? Still terrorizing poor squires?" He smiled when he saw how wide Eleni's eyes had become. "I'm joking, of course. Your grandmother was a saint, the kindest woman I have ever had the honor to meet. She reminded me of my own sweet mothe-"
His monologue was interrupted by a slap to the head from Kel. Eleni vaguely wondered how many members of his family had sustained permanent damage from being hit like that.
"Leave the boy alone," she warned. "Or I'll tell the Lioness every word that you just said." Neal stuck his tongue out at Kel, reminding Eleni of someone just like him. "Go back to your children, Neal. Myles, do you think we can have that talk now?"
Without waiting for Neal to reply, Kel had herded Eleni to a stall near the back of the building. In the stall was a brown mare with feathery white socks and a white star on her forehead. Kel set to checking her mount's tack, almost as if she was trying to avoid looking at Eleni. It went without saying that Eleni felt uncomfortable.
"Um, is there something you needed, ma'am?" Eleni saw Kel's shoulder twitch slightly at the word 'ma'am'.
"Can I ask you something?" Kel still didn't look back at Eleni.
"Anything, lady knight." No twitching this time.
"How were you initially received? When you arrived for page training I mean?"
Eleni opened her mouth, but closed it. How had she been received? She had been annoyed to no end by questions about her grandmother, threatened by bullies, made friends, lost friends, changed sponsors; the list went on. In truth, she had been received in a myriad of ways, but she had a feeling that Kel didn't want to hear the gritty details.
"At first, it was awkward," she confessed. Seeing Kel stiffen, she quickly continued, "But I made friends. There were others who were willing to be my friend." There was a pregnant pause in the stall. "If I may ask, lady knight, why-"
"Did I ask?" Kel finished for her. Finally turning, Kel wrapped a hand around the horse's reins and led Eleni back to the front of the stables. Two newcomers had arrived, a man and a boy. The boy had big, hazel-green eyes. "Because I worry about leaving my Kyle here, when his mother is a female knight. I worry about the consequences. But you said that it was all right?"
"Yes, lady knight." Eleni was almost afraid to answer, she had an idea of where the conversation was going.
"Could you look after him for me?" The request was simple, but that the Protector of the Small had asked a favor of a page was astounding. "Please?"
Ooooh. I have to apologize to everyone, I made a boo boo. In the last chapter, I said that Kel belonged to Mindelan. My bad. She and Dom married a while back, so technically, she should be called Lady Knight Keladry of Masbolle. Oops. Anyway, now we know why Kel was in town. And we got a tiny glimpse at what Herne and Perci's relationship is based on, a future marriage!
What did we think? Dying to hear from my loving readers.