This is a fan made story. I don't own the rights to the Protector of the Small series, any of its characters belong to Tamora Pierce… Much to my disappointment. This goes AU about midway from the book Page. Fair warning. Constructive criticism is welcome but if you don't like it simply because you don't like the line of thinking, please don't attack me for it. This is mostly centered on Joren. This is also a slow build Kel/Joren.
Summer 455
Vinson was gone a week later. Joren figured that his knight-master must have forbidden him from getting the marks on his face healed because he still bore them when they rode off. He was followed by Cleon who left with Sir Inness, Kel's brother. Joren felt a jolt of what he now recognized as jealousy as he watched Cleon and Kel leaving the mess hall together just before Cleon left. A few days after that, Sir Paxton announced to Joren that he didn't feel like staying around the palace after all. The thought of spending even more time around Lord Markith of Nond, who would be arriving the following week for his share in politics, caused Joren to shutter as did the thought of encountering his own father Lord Burchard.
In the end, they left just before when most of the Lords and such were due to begin arriving at the palace. Joren briefly debated saying goodbye to Keladry, as they had been more pleasant towards each other over the past few weeks but eventually decided against it.
He was starting to suspect why he was becoming unsettled by the girl and he wasn't sure he could handle facing the truth of it just yet. A part of him wanted it to be something fleeting but a bigger, more logical, part of him told him that his obsession had always been a manifestation of it. He pushed the thought away as they rode north. There had been unrest on the border of Scanran and Sir Paxton had decided that was where they would go. Sir Paxton had explained that chivalry meant protecting the people at large as well as the individual. Joren didn't mind at first.
The weather wasn't the most pleasant since the snow hadn't really melted towards the north in their travels. Joren's expression made Sir Paxton laugh but Joren knew better than to voice his displeasure. The event a few years prior with Lord Wyldon and the knowledge that Sir Paxton was of a similar perspective taught him that such efforts would only earn a scolding. It was fortunate that the road north was lined with the crown's Inns meant that they could avoid the worst of the weather without much issue.
Sir Paxton told him that few knights were willing to face the bitter cold of the north to simply avoid a crowded Inn. Most would either wait until the weather was more pleasant or they would head south, especially if they had squires. Joren thought briefly that wasn't what Sir Paxton was doing and his expression must have said it all.
"I would have headed south had you not shown the kind of progress I've seen in you. A stubborn squire can get a knight killed. Had you been of a similar disposition as you were when I first took you as a squire, I wouldn't have even considered taking you north. You would have gotten both of us killed. Last year, you thought you knew the answers to everything. That is a bad way of thinking if you want to be a knight of any caliber," Paxton smiled at the boy who looked at him with shock.
"So, the reason we just roamed over the country doing boring little tasks was because I failed to see the importance of those tasks?" Joren asked, completely seriously.
"Yes. That is typically how I start out with all my squires in their first year with me. I like taking the stubborn, conservative ones and knocking them down a few pegs like the Lioness did with me just after I got my knighthood. Granted, I have only had one before you. I earned my knighthood just before the Immortals war broke out in full swing. I ever tell you about what happened?" Sir Paxton chuckled indulgently.
"No, Sir. I don't believe you have," Joren replied as he shifted his seat. He had heard that the Lioness had saved him, just never how.
"Well, I was one of the knights stationed at Port Legann. It was one of the focal points for the war. Anyways, there I was, we were facing one of the nastiest wars in recent history, and I am on sentry duty. It was boring most nights, but occasionally the enemy would make an attempt to attack, so we had to keep vigilant. Well, a couple of spidren come up to my post, no doubt expecting an easy meal. I decided that I could take them on by myself, only my sword in hand. I didn't know who the sentry to my left was, but the one to the right was Lioness herself and I wasn't going to lose face by looking to a woman for help.
"Well, she heard my shout when one of them nicked my leg with a broad sword. It wasn't anything that would have cost me a leg normally, only it hit a tendon, so I was pretty much unable to stand. So, there I was, going to die because of my stupid pride, and I was willing to admit it really was my stupid pride, when out of seemingly nowhere the Lioness shows up, bow strung and drawn with an arrow nocked already. She put two arrows into the spidren about to finish me off before putting three in the other," Sir Paxton looked at Joren with a knowing look and received one of understanding return before continuing.
"Then, as if saving my life wasn't enough, she had to go and rub salt in the wound by telling me that I should have kept a bow on me because when it came to spidren, it is always best to fight them at long range. They simply have too many arms to fight close combat. She then proceeds to heal my leg, good as new, without my permission mind. Then, when we were questioned, she had the gall to claim that I had called for assistance. See, the other sentry had pulled the same dumb move as me and was already dead, so he couldn't counter it," Sir Paxton shook his head. "She saved both my life and my pride and dignity by keeping me from looking like a true fool."
"So, I take it that the moral of the story is, regardless of their gender, if they are good in a fight, you want them at your back?" Joren asked quietly.
"No. The moral of the story is that arrogance will get you killed. I knew that the Lioness was a fierce fighter. She had done far too much and was capable of far too much for me to not know that. It was because of my ego that the thought that I needed help at all was rejected. See, I was a decent fighter. Top of my year-mates, actually. If I had called for assistance immediately, I probably could have avoided the injury, learnt that my comrade was already dead and saved face. I didn't know the person on my left was dead. If I had called, I would have expected help from both sides. Arrogance is an ugly thing. It makes you think that you are better than you are without the actual capability to realize that you can be a good or even great fighter and still have things to learn or need help. Not even the Lioness would take on two spidren on her own," Sir Paxton explained.
Joren was silent. A memory took hold of him over the next few miles. It was of the spidren hunt from his third year, Keladry's first. She had fought off two of the spidren before help could arrive. Up until this point, a part of him had held onto the idea that even though he had seen first-hand her skill he thought she was lesser because she was female. Then, another thought took over the first. She was skilled enough to take on three heavily armed spidren with only a spear and a few other first-year pages with far less skill to aid her. She had called for help. She hadn't let her ego get in the way. The fact that the girl at only 11-years-old could know, probably instinctively, to call for help if it was available when a knight didn't was actually a bit startling to Joren.
Sir Paxton left Joren to his thoughts for most of the rest of the trip. Joren often thought of the last book the Baroness Rispah had given him. This thought was always quickly suppressed. He still wasn't ready to contemplate such a thought and even if he had been willing to do so, he had left the book back in his rooms at the palace.
In the end, once they reached Northwatch, he ended up being completely absorbed in the work that General Vanget haMinch assigned to them. To say that immersing himself in patrols of the border area was all encompassing would be a deception, but he often also found his time absorbed in the everyday life of the north. There were plenty of chores for a squire to do. Keeping Sir Paxton's armor in proper shape was a battle since his knight-master seemed to always be actively involved in patrols and those patrols often resulted in his armor somehow becoming a mess, usually with either mud or blood and often with both.
In addition to that, Joren frequently encountered Cleon of Kennan. After a rather awkward apology, and the assurance that he had apologized to Kel already and the apology had been accepted, Cleon and Joren had started to get to know each other on tentatively better terms. It wasn't until Joren nearly lost it, at the suggestion of one of the soldiers present about Kel being a loose woman, that Cleon really warmed up to Joren though. Cleon had inquired as to the reasoning for the loss of temperament and Joren simply stated that Kel's business was Kel's business and that no one but her had a right to comment on it.
Joren suspected the Cleon had feelings for Kel since he had to be held back a month later for a similar reason, only the rank of the person who had said it was much higher. A knight from a conservative family had been foolish enough to say it in front of not only Cleon and Joren but also Sir Inness and Sir Paxton. While Paxton and Joren held Cleon back from behaving stupidly, Kel's own brother slapped the man.
To say the other knight came out a little worse for the wear from the ensuing challenge would have been an understatement. General Vanget had been livid, but the brunt of the punishment went on the offending knight since he really had gone too far, insulting a young lady in the presence of her elder brother. By this time, the weather had taken a decided turn for the cold. Sir Paxton ordered Joren to pack up because he refused to winter in the north when not even the Scanran would be foolish enough to raid.
Unfortunately for Cleon, part of Sir Inness's punishment for the duel was that they had to stay for the winter to help train the locals in combat. The other knight had gotten far worse with a reprimand from the crown and essentially midden duties. Joren had built up a decent relationship with Cleon by this point and agreed to carry a letter back south for him.