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 456

As summer started, Joren was surprised that it was his Uncle, Sir Lionel of Stone Mountain, who had arrived for congress rather than his father. His uncle merely explained that the healers recommended against his father traveling at this time. Joren blanched at the thought of his father's health failing so rapidly.

"I still don't understand it fully. Before you became a squire, it was like he had the health of a man ten years his junior. It started off that winter after you became a squire. He was a little erratic, a little distracted but otherwise fine. Then he started getting sick. I suspect it was a mistress he took having some sickness or another. He has never made the wisest of decisions on who shares his bed," Sir Lionel looked knowingly at Joren.

Joren nodded his head slowly. His father had always had a penchant for bedding any pretty little thing in a skirt. His youngest sibling, Oliver, wasn't even his mother's son, not that he or any member of the family would admit it. As the mother of Oliver was one of the nurses for his sisters, his mother had decided that it would be kept quiet until the gender was known. Lady Verene of Stone Mountain had sworn the servants, who were all loyal to her, to secrecy on the matter.

When the healer declared that the nursemaid would have a boy, Joren's mother had informed the close family members she would claim the child for her own. She had even gone to the extent of informing her friends and family of her good fortune to have a child so late in her life via letter, as she was in her late thirties at the time. The nursemaid gave birth to a very healthy Oliver who bore a keen resemblance to the Lord of Stone Mountain and was allowed to be the wet nurse and nurse maid for the babe. That Lady Verene had claimed the child seemed to little matter to the nursemaid in question. Her child would have a life better than she could ever hope to provide him with.

Lord Burchard had long drifted to another mistress by then and Lady Verene did make one point of interference on the matter. Lord Burchard was ordered to provide any future flings with proper anti-pregnancy charms. It was hard enough to sell her having given birth to Oliver. There would be no others.

Joren's uncle wasn't wrong in his assumption that his father could have gotten some unknown sickness that depleted his strength. Joren sighed, "So, you will be representing us in congress?"

"In a way. At this point, your father's say isn't what matters. You need to attend the sessions as well, it is necessary that you learn the responsibilities of a Lord," Sir Lionel was serious as he looked at Joren with a frown.

Joren sighed, "Have you spoken to Sir Paxton?"

"He will also be attending the congress in place of Lord Markith, so it won't be a problem," Joren's uncle responded logically. "Apparently, Lord Markith is of a similar opinion. Sir Paxton's father is rather aged now."

Joren accepted this and thus spent a good portion of the next few weeks under the strict tutelage of his Uncle and knight-master. In his free time, he found himself being drawn into Kel's group of friends with increasing regularity. Apparently, his efforts to aid Kel in her search for her maid had been the needed catalyst for earning their trust fully. Joren found himself invited to study with the entire group or to spar with the other squires on a regular basis.

He also found himself privy to one of the oddest secrets held by the group. Kel had a mysterious benefactor. Said benefactor's most recent gift was to buy Peachblossom for the girl and pay for the horse's care throughout her tenure as a squire.

One summer day Joren found himself blessedly released from a congress meeting early. He was quickly coming to hate the process of politics. He also wasn't sure what angered him more. The fact that there was a total of three females even permitted to participate in the process despite the overwhelming number of noble women who were probably more fit to run their fiefs, and often did, than their idiotic husbands, or the fact that those women were completely ignored. His own mother was one such lady, but it fell to him and his Uncle only because they were men.

The three women were the Lady of Kennan, who was Cleon's mother since Cleon wasn't of age and had no near male relatives, the Lioness who was of course the heir of Baron Olau and the king's champion, and Lady Maura of Dunlath who, was the sole heir after her sister's death to the fief Dunlath and a distant cousin to King Jonathan. The fact was that there was a consistent disregard from conservatives for anything those women said made Joren want to rage. Only Lady Alanna had any real respect from some of the men and that was mostly from fear and the knowledge that she was simply too powerful to disrespect.

Joren found it a bit odd that Lady Maura had a knight-guardian named Sir Douglass of Veldine as a guardian, but he let her make the decisions, despite her clear and apparent youth. As he walked through the halls, he wanted to scream. Lady Maura shouldn't even be just a Lady. She was the only surviving child of a Duke. By all rights, she should be a Duchess. She was intelligent too, but because she was young and female it didn't matter to most of the men present. Joren found that in his wandering rage he had arrived at Kel's door.

He was about to knock on her door when it opened. Kel was dressed in breeches and a light shirt, much like his own. He froze in confusion, uncertain what to do.

"Oh, perfect. If Neal doesn't want to spar, do you? If you're free that is? I know that you are busy with the whole congress thing," Kel looked at him with hope.

Joren immediately broke into a smile and dropped his arm back to his side, "I was just going to ask you that. Let's see if we can get Queenscove to unbury himself from the books." Joren and she quickly moved over to Neal's room.

Kel knocked and opened the door when there was a call to enter, "Neal, Joren and I are off to the practice courts. Do you want to come?"

Neal lowered his book, and raised an eyebrow, "I'm about to commence four years of obeying the call of a bruiser on a horse. I refuse to put down what might be the last book I see for months." His voice made it quite clear his opinion on the idea of leaving his reading.

Kel eyed Neal with a look that made Joren feel a spark of jealousy. He spoke to distract from the issue, "I thought you wanted to be a squire, Queenscove."

Neal sighed, "I want to fulfill Queenscove's duty to the crown. A knight from our house…" Neal didn't get to finish his sentence.

"…Has served the Crown for ages, is a pillar of the kingdom, I know. I know," Kel finished for him causing another flare of jealousy in Joren.

"Well, that's about being a knight. Squire is an intermediate step. It's a pain in the rump, but it's a passing pain. I don't have to like it," Neal groused. "I'd as soon read. Besides, father said to wait. Another knight is supposed to show up today. I hate it when father gets mysterious."

"Well, we're going to hit something," Kel responded. "I can't sit around."

Neal sat up, "Still no one?" He asked, his kindness in voice and eyes. For all that he was much older, he was still a good friend to Kel. Not even Joren would deny that.

Kel shook her head, "I thought if I survived the big examinations, I'd be fine. I thought somebody would take me, even if I am the girl." She didn't mention what both boys knew she really wanted. That at the heart of it, she wanted the Lioness to be her knight-mistress.

"There are still knights in the field. You may get a knight-master later this summer or in the fall. Not everyone gets one immediately. Those who do are usually cases of relatives or close family connections. Or, in my case, a knight wanting to save me from my own destructive path," Joren pointed out, making a joke of his less-than-scrupulous past.

Kel smiled a little at that before turning to Neal, "I know. Until then, I mean to practice. Last chance to collect bruises from me."

Neal shuddered, much to Joren's amusement, "Thanks, but I've gotten all the bruises off you this year that I want. Be careful, Stone Mountain, she will batter you."

"Coward," Kel responded before whistling for Jump. The dog leapt off the bed to join Joren and Kel as they made their way to the practice courts.

They were deserted. Wyldon had taken the pages to their summer camp earlier that week. This was to beat the traffic as congress broke up. Only servants were near the fenced yards. There should be other squires keeping up practice, Joren thought but didn't vocalize.

The two spent a half hour sparing lightly with practice swords before saddling their horses. Peachblossom still eyes Joren with contempt but accepted the necessary evil of him and his horse's presence. They took their practice lances to the tilting yard. Joren positioned himself in front of the quintain dummy with a black dot on its shield's center. Kel opted to set up a ring target which Joren wasn't willing to use due to the level of difficulty and the wind. He was content slamming into a solid, stationary object.

After a few passes, he noticed a rather large man leaning against a fence. It took Joren a second to recognize Lord Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak. The man in question was paying no mind to Joren, instead watching Kel intently. As Kel speared her lance through the ring, Joren shook his head. She was skilled to a degree that made him think she lived for weapons practice, which was probably true. She further showed off by making a controlled flick of her lance and sent the ring flying, for Jump to chase after and retrieve. Lord Raoul started clapping, this signaled to Joren that his method of venting his frustration was going to be cut short.

He turned his mount to follow Kel who had turned Peachblossom and led the horse to the Knight Commander of the King's Own. Lord Raoul nodded to Joren before looking to Kel, "I had heard how well you two work together. I'm not sure I could have nailed that target."

Kel blushed lightly at the comment as Jump brought the ring to the knight to throw. Raoul looked surprised at the weight of it and whistled, "Willow? I don't think I could nail it, the ring I use is oak."

Kel's modesty took hold, "We practice a great deal, that's all, my lord. Jump wants you to throw it for him."

With a flick of the wrist, the knight sent the ring sailing down the road. Jump chasing after it until he could jump and catch it, bringing it back.

"Practice is the difference between winning and being worm food," Raoul told Kel but glanced at Joren briefly as well. "Do you have a moment? I need to discuss something with you."

Kel briefly looked at Joren who waved her off and led his horse back towards the stables to give them some privacy. He could easily venture a guess as to the reason the that a knight like Lord Raoul would want to talk to a newly-made squire of Kel's caliber. He smiled for his friend even though he knew that her being that particular knight's squire would mean she would seldom be at the palace, but then neither would he. Congress ended in another week and then he and Sir Paxton were headed for the hill country for the rest of the summer and fall.

Both of them were looking forward to the idea of hunting bandits to make the roads safer after listening for long hours to the bickering of conservatives trying to tell them how they should think based on how old their families were or how their fathers thought. Joren could almost laugh at the irony. He was accorded a lot more respect as an underage heir than the distant cousin of the King, who was in truth older than him and almost of age, simply because of his gender. It also angered him, so he let his mind drift to more pleasant topics.

He had long known the Cleon had feelings for Kel, it was written all over the other squire's behavior towards her. However, he had gleaned an interesting bit of information from the mother of the young Baron, and Baron he was, even if he hadn't achieved his knighthood yet. The dowager Baroness of Kennan had accidently let slip that Cleon was betrothed to Lady Ermelian of Aminar, the daughter of a friend of hers. He knew that theoretically, Cleon could possibly get out of the engagement but not without making a mess of it and certainly not with any level of ease.

He knew he shouldn't feel a level of glee over the matter, Cleon was his friend after all, but the other squire really had no business falling in love with Kel when he couldn't pursue an honorable outcome without bringing a level of discomfort to all involved. The betrothal had been arranged when Cleon became a page after all, and it wasn't like such a long-standing thing could be tossed aside. Joren could happily declare that he had no such obligations to any lady. His father had long considered such matters 'the realm of women' and his mother wouldn't hear of even the thought of a betrothal for him before he obtained his knighthood.

He left the door to his room open, hoping the Kel would seek him out after she had tended to Peachblossom when she finished with her conversation with Lord Raoul. Joren started to work off some of his excess energy by doing push-ups, something he learnt from the Shang Wildcat. He was surprised that he hit fifty just before Kel came rushing in.

"Lord-Raoul-asked-me-to-be-his-squire!" Kel spoke so quickly that only the expectation that it was going to occur after the knight had asked to speak with her made what she said understandable to Joren.

"Congratulations. I told you that you would have knight-master soon. I am assuming that you accepted. You would have to be absolutely insane to reject such an offer," Joren smiled as he pushed himself up off the floor and sat on his bed. Kel was beaming in a way that nearly made Joren do something stupid. His heart nearly burst through his chest at her happiness and he wanted to blurt out his own feelings or possibly just kiss her. He barely managed to restrain himself from such actions.

Kel didn't seem to notice his struggle though. She was practically bouncing and Jump, whom Joren hadn't noticed until just then, was running laps around the room. She started speaking again but a little slower now, "I have to pack all my stuff back up, I will be staying in rooms connected to Lord Raoul's. Apparently, we will be coming and going so much it would be impractical for me to stay in the squire's wing."

She rushed out of his room just as quickly as she appeared, and Jump disappeared with her. Joren was glad, since it meant she completely missed the fall of his smile as his heart plummeted to his stomach. He was happy for her, no one would be able to deny her earning her shield if she was Lord Raoul's squire. The man held the respect of conservatives and progressives alike. However, her bouncing about on the heels of the Own meant that it would be a rare sight to see her. Worst, she would be constantly surrounded by attractive sons of nobles. He immediately scolded himself for the thought.

Her happiness and shield came first. He had already promised himself he wouldn't even attempt to act on his feelings until she had become a Lady Knight. That was an event four years into the future. The bell sounding that it was almost lunch let him know he had been dwelling on his thoughts much longer than he realized.

He joined Kel and Neal as they left Kel's room, having been banished by Lalasa so that the maid could pack Kel's things properly. Neal revealed that Sir Alanna was to be his knight-mistress. Joren couldn't stop laughing at the thought. The heir to Queenscove had the inability to speak without doing so with sarcasm. The Lioness was famed for being hot-tempered. He had no doubt that the combination would lead to many an amusing moment in the future. That was something Joren anticipated with glee.

Joren stopped laughing by the time they reached the mess hall, but his wide smirk hadn't faded, resulting in the confusion of the other squires in the group he now called friends. Neal explained that he was to be the Lioness's squire. Joren found that he wasn't the only person to see the potential for amusement. Neal's frown finally ended the laughter but more than a few of them couldn't hold in the occasional chuckle.

The group's conversation devolved into other topics like where their knight-masters, or mistress in Neal's case, would be taking them. When they broke away, sometime in the afternoon, Joren went back to his rooms and went back to studying some legal point for the next day's congress session. He knew he would need to know the finer points of the topic. They were discussing the legality of withholding the full inheritance of females in the cases where there were no sons to inherit. This was a topic close to the hearts of many a noble.

Plenty of families only had one son or no son at all. Lord Wyldon was the patriarch of one such family. Joren's own mother was willing to lie to both king and country about Oliver's linage because of the fear of such things. He briefly broke his study for supper but after that went back to the legislature without pause until he fell asleep at his desk.