Chapter 3
Kel heard a short rap on the door. "It's me, Raoul. If you want breakfast, you should come down with me now." She opened the door, coming face-to-face with her own previous knight master. Lord Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak greeted her with a warm grin, and started to lead the way down to the open field where the riders of the King's Own ate their meals on trips like these. Kel knew that as a knight, she wasn't supposed to have signed up to ride with the Own. There were no knights in the group except the commander, Lord Raoul, who was a Tortallan hero and known as "the Giant Killer". But when he had taken her under his wing as a squire years ago, she grew to love the men of the Own like brothers, and found out that she honestly enjoyed the kind of life they led. They grew to respect her, and found out that she could fight just as well as the best of them, if not better. Kel wiped her sweaty palms against her uniform of the Own: loose trousers, chain mail shirt, blue tunic with silver trim, and a white burnoose. She was nervous. Not about eating with the men, which she had done many times, but about seeing Dom again. Domitan of Masbolle, Neal's cousin and a sergeant of the Third Company, made Kel's heart flip over. He had been flirting with her a lot the past few weeks, and she was ashamed to say that she flirted back. With Cleon gone, she thought, I'm more fickle than ever. I miss the feel of his arms around me, and…the pleasure I get from his kisses, and…GODDESS, STOP THIS AT ONCE! She yelled at herself. Stop acting like you're some giggling girl who has nothing better to do than worry about boys. She made her face Yamani-smooth as Raoul looked back with a curious cock of his eyebrow. They were nearing the field, and Kel could hear the racket the men of the Own made during social times. She held her head up high and walked into the clearing, not stopping to look at Dom. Going up to the servants and cooks, she grabbed a tray from the line and sat down with her regular meal of fresh fruit and some bread (a/n ~ is that what they ate? I'm not sure…email or write) across from him, still not looking up. Raoul sat down on one side of her. On her other side, Neal was already seated, carrying on an animated conversation with his cousin. Glancing upward quickly, Kel caught Dom's eye, and involuntarily sighed. Around 26 years old, he was broad-shouldered and very handsome. He wore his dark hair cut just below his ears, and he had a long mouth designed just to smile. He flashed her a grin, and mouthed ' Wait for me after breakfast.' His hazel-green eyes twinkling, he went back to his conversation with Neal. Kel quickly turned to Lord Raoul. He was talking to Flyndan Whiteford, Second-in-Command of the Third Company. Captain Flyn swallowed his bread hungrily as he told Raoul, "There's been more and more complaints of those enormous tin monsters that you two have seen since we got past Mindelan." He referred to Kel and his Knight Commander. "They're showing up in the worst places, and there's so damn MANY of them! There was a report of four or five more at Northwatch…I thought we took care of that town." Kel froze suddenly. Northwatch was where Cleon was on station! She hoped with all her might that he hadn't gotten hurt. Remembering Cleon made her remember Dom and his wish that she trust him enough to love him. " Come on, Kel," he had coaxed her days before, "you know Cleon's going to have to marry that rich lady to hold up the Kennan Fief! Accept it, and move on." She also recalled getting the shattering letter from Cleon's parents, simply stating that he had begged them to reconsider, told them that he would do something heroic enough to deserve money from the king, but they had come to the decision that it was better for everyone if he stuck with the arranged marriage. The next day, she had received a small note from her love at Nightwatch.
Kel - I will always love you, no matter what. You'll find others.
Never forget me ~ Cleon
Her pillow was soaked with tears that night.
Walking around the fields with Dom, Kel felt uncomfortable. There was so much going on with Cleon, and the tin monsters, and their war with Scanra…she just wouldn't have fun with all of it on her mind. She excused herself, and tried to avoid looking at the disappointment in Dom's normally friendly eyes. Strolling back to her room, Kel thought of all that had happened since she got her shield. The metal monsters Flyn was talking about…hearing there were more of them worried her. If she hadn't been forbidden to talk about the Ordeal to anyone, she would've told them all what she'd seen in the Chamber last year. It was said that the Chamber would tell you if you were the Knight that the Realm needed to succeed in wars and battles. While Kel was taking her Ordeal last year, the Chamber had shown her the bruised bodies of dead children in a pile, with a small, mousy man standing over them. Their bones had obviously been cracked, and it was horrifying for Kel to see the poor children helpless. The Chamber had told her nothing about this scene; where it was, what to do about it, who was in charge. It only told her to find this man, and stop him from doing anymore destruction…for the sake of Tortall. And Kel intended to do just that. But over the past year, there hadn't been many sightings of the seven-foot tall monsters, so she got off track. Hearing about them being seen in Northwatch brought back memories of the terrifying metal machines with deep black pits for eyes and metal coated bones outside copper pulleys for arms and legs. Now, entering her room quietly, Kel vowed that if it was the last thing she did, she would make that man pay for those children's lives. Since the first sightings of the monsters, Tortall's relations with Scanra had gotten worse. The Second and Third Companies of the King's Own had been placed near Mindlan on Tortall's Northern border, and the Riders were closer to Galla and the River Drell. Cleon's group was camped at Northwatch, and Kel's blood ran cold thinking of all the gruesome things that were probably happening near him. She pushed that out of her mind, thinking of Neal and Roald's weddings to the two Yamani women that were her very close friends. Bridesmaids? Mithros, I don't even know what they DO! Kel thought, exasperated. It was going to be an enormous wedding, she knew that much. And with the Scanran war and the metal monsters to attend to, she was going to be swamped.