Hello! I wanted to start something new. This is the first of probably a many part series(I have no idea about length). Sorry, this one is so boring, but I'm trying to develop my characters so that the by the next part it will be more exciting and more of the plot will be involved. This part has no plot, next one it will hopefully have more to it. I'm hoping you all review this. I'm actually pretty proud of the story. It involves...well I can't really tell you until the next part (don't want to give it away). For all you readers who like to read romance out there, there will be more of it as the story continues. Love triangles, that sort of thing. This paragraph is getting long enough. Anyways, please read and review! I would really appreciate it. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tamora Pierce, except the ones I made up: Lysse, Anji, Sera, and Terrence.
The squire, Keladry of Mindelan, and her friends stood in the courtyard listening to Neal again discuss the new philosophy book he had just read. No one was listening really. Kel was wondering about what she was going to do with her day off, Cleon was thinking about Kel, Faleron, Merric, and Seaver were discussing the new weapons that they had bought, and Owen was being, well...Owen. They and their knight-masters had returned for the ball in honor of the Queen's birthday, so this was their first reunion in awhile.
"Are any of you listening to me?" Everyone was interrupted from his or her thoughts and six pairs of eyes all turned to Neal.
"Truthfully Neal?" Cleon said. "No."
"Well," Neal huffed, "This just goes to show how much more intelligent I am than all of you."
"What was that I heard?" All faces turned to the sound of a Prince Roald's voice behind them. He was answered with hugs and slaps on the back. Kel looked him over.
"You're back! It's about time. We all thought you were going to stay forever."
"My master wanted to stay a little longer in the South than planned. Besides, I wasn't going to miss my mother's birthday." The group stood around for awhile discussing their travels, but were soon interrupted by the thundering sound of horse hooves. All commotion stopped in the courtyard as all waited for the riders to appear. Soon enough, three horses came into view and rode up into the courtyard. Immediately hostlers ran up to the riders and helped them dismount. Meanwhile, a low murmur was beginning to run through the watching crowd as the unidentified riders were helped down. The hostlers left leaving three young women standing alone; strangers to the crowd before them, all except one.
Prince Roald's face went white while staring at one of the ladies. Kel was the only one who noticed. "Prince Roald, who is that? Do you know her?" Kel looked closely at the girl that had caught Roald's attention. She looked to be slightly taller than Kel with light brown, curly hair. The stranger was not as beautiful as her companions were, but she gave off this glow that no beautiful lady of the court could ever compete with. Kel was so lost in her studying of the girl that she didn't notice the girl staring right back. The stranger's face lit up with recognition and she came bounding over, not even bothering to pick up her skirts, causing her to fumble slightly.
"You're Keladry of Mindelan, correct? Oh my Goddess, I was hoping to meet you here!" The girl noticed the shocked look on Kel's face. "Oh, I'm sorry, I am just so absent-minded. My name is Lysse. Lysse of Oakswood." Still no answer. "You are Keladry of Mindelan, right?"
"Y, yes." That was all Kel could say. She still had no idea who this Lysse was. Kel didn't remember ever meeting her before. The stranger looked relieved.
"My, I would have felt so stupid if you weren't her."
"That's not unusual for you anyway." A new, taller girl appeared behind Lysse. This girl had to be the prettiest out of all three of them. She had dark brown, curly hair flowing past her shoulders and the most gorgeous blue eyes Kel had ever seen. The dress she was wearing seemed to flatter all of her.
"Shut up, Anjeanette." Lysse replied playfully. The girl, Anjeanette, glared slightly at Lysse and muttered a curse under her breath the rudest knight would never have said.
"For shame. I should tell Aunt Lorrie on you." The two began to bicker. Roald, gaining his color back, cleared his throat loudly quickly stopping the girls' fight. That's when it was Lysse's turn to turn pale. The attention of everyone was on Lysse and Roald. Silence filled the courtyard as the young noble and the Royal Prince stared recognizably into each other's eyes. If one looked closely enough they would be able to see a sort of longing there where a flame had never been distinguished. The two just looked at each other until Lysse spoke first.
"Your Highness." She said quietly and gave a deep curtsy that was saved for royals only. This action seemed to hurt Prince Roald who just continued to stare. He realized the hurt must have shown on his face, because Lysse looked away, while the others had questionable looks on their faces. Excusing himself quietly with one more glance at Lysse, he walked away into the castle. The formed crowd silently dispersed with blatant stares at these three, new girls; some recognizable, some wondering. The news would be around the castle by the end of the day. With the awkward silence that took hold, Kel took a chance to study the other girl. There were the Lady Lysse and Lady Anjeanette whom she had already gotten a taste of, but there was another whom she didn't even notice until now. This girl was of a medium height with brown hair streaked blonde by the sun. Her clothes were not of nobility, so Kel was able to tell right away that this girl was of a servant stature.
"Oh, again I apologize." Lysse spoke up feeling exasperated; "This is our lady servant, Sera Wagoner." Sera, instead of curtsying like any other servant would have to any noble, humphed and looked away.
"Sera's not that used to meeting people," Anji (by which she preferred to be called) apologized. "She's just moody from traveling so long." All ears at that moment turned to the sound of more hooves coming towards and through the castle walls. Three plump, strict looking women in long robes were followed by a knight into the courtyard. Kel recognized the robes on the women as being from the Convent of the Goddess; these women were obviously nuns. The heaviest of the women noticed her wards before the other three new comers.
"Why, in all of the Godly Heavens, did you three run past us along the road. What if you had been attacked!"
"By what?" Lysse asked. "We would have taken care of it." With that Lysse pulled out a dagger hidden in a pocket in her skirts and started to play with it. The nuns looked as if they were going to have heart attacks right there on their horses; the knight looked happily amused.
"Where did you get that?" The second of the nuns asked.
"I've had it, I've just been hiding it from you, but now that I'm no longer under your care..." Lysse threw the knife into the air and caught it skillfully by the handle. Kel, Neal, Cleon, and the others looked on in astonishment. Quickly, the women looked to the knight who still sat on his horse behind them. "They're in your hands now. We won't put up with them anymore!" With that they rode off leaving the girls laughing behind them. Lysse turned back, her previous reaction to everything forgotten.
"It's so nice to finally meet you! We heard at the convent there was a girl who became a page and I swore to myself that I would meet her. Although, you're probably a squire now, am I correct?"
"Yes. Um, for two years now." Kel's attention had been caught by the knight who was now in the process of dismounting. When both feet touched the ground, that's when the shock set in. This man, who seemed to be at least nineteen or twenty stood at a height of what she averaged to be 6'4 or 6'5, around the same height as Numair, but instead of a long, lanky body, this man had muscles. She heard Neal and Cleon gasp behind her. The only thing that could take her eyes off of him was the movement of Lysse's hand in front of her eyes. Kel jumped with a start and looked at the smiling face of Lysse.
"I see, my knight has caught your attention, let me introduce you to him. Terrence, this is the Lady Squire of Mindelan." Sir Terrence bowed to Kel and her friends behind her, sharing some kind of private joke with himself. What Kel didn't know was that was the way he always looked, so she took a silent offense from him, but didn't let it show on her face. Kel couldn't wait anymore, she had to know exactly who these girls were; she asked and got a smile out of all of them.
"We are so sorry." Sera apologized. "We've been in a convent for years and have just lost all ways of thinking." Anji took over.
"You see, supposedly we got too rowdy...something about us not being lady-like enough, getting into some trouble. So they sent us to a convent to sort us out, but you can see what came out of that." The girls snorted simultaneously.
"That still doesn't explain anything." Neal had spoken up from the back. "Why did you come here? Why didn't you all just go back to your fiefs?"
"Well, while waiting for our parents to arrive, Thayet has taken us in as her wards for the time being." Lysse blushed slightly when she saw the shocked faces on her fellow peers when she called the Queen by her first name. "I'm sorry. I seem to have forgotten protocol while in front of others. You see my mother has known the Queen for years and she was introduced to me as Thayet, so that's what I've always called her. I'll try not to do it while around you. Anyway, the Queen's birthday is coming up you know, all the nobles are attending. Our parents should be arriving sometime this week." At that moment, two women servants came out of the castle doors towards the group of young men and women. When they reached the group they curtsied.
"My ladies, we have been expecting you. If you'll just come this way." Several other servants appeared to carry the bags the new comers had brought with them. Lysse and the others turned around to say goodbye.
"Well, Keladry of Mindelan, we will certainly be seeing you again. You can count on it." With that Lysse turned and followed the servants into the castle leaving Kel and the boys staring silently after them.
"Well...that was...interesting." Neal muttered. The others had nothing to do but agree. Kel, who had still not gotten enough answers from the new ladies of the court went stalking into the castle looking for the one person who would know who they were...Roald. Quickly, the rest of the troop followed suit following Kel down the halls. Kel marched straight to Roald's door and knocked. The door was opened almost immediately.
"I already know what you all are here for, come in." He let them enter the room and waited for them to find seats. When all commotion became still, Prince Roald started the story. "When I was five, a contract was signed to betroth me to a girl named Lysse of Oakswood."
Okay! I hoped you liked it. Anyways, again, please review. I would appreciate it so much! I really need the feedback. Better story line in the future. As you can probably tell I've added some new scenarios that interfere with the past books from Tamora Pierce. Like, Roald's whole marriage contract thing. I'm trying not to interrupt with the original, intended story line and I can't make it an AU fic, it just wouldn't ever work, so I hope you all can bear with me and enjoy what I have to add on and take away. By the way, Kel and everyone else are squires. Cleon and Faleron are knights (anyone else I'm missing)? I did and will not pay attention to their knight-masters. They'll just disappear cause they have nothing to do with the story, but I had to mention them. Kel is 16, you can figure the rest of the ages from there, hopefully. My best friend has my copies of First Test and Page, so I can't look it up. Hopefully you guys can help me with who else would be a knight. Alanna may even make an appearance (haven't decided yet). I may or may not be continuing A Discovered Romance, I don't know. I have the SAT's and midterms coming up while along with that, writing this fic. Please bear with me. It's true what people say, Junior year is the hardest!