Disclaimer: I don't own it. I wish I did. Don't sue. Don't get offended.
Thanks: MOM, I love you. Tony-o: I know you hate me calling you that, but what the heck and Miss Sharp: for putting up with me. God Bless.
JannaThe urban legend of Hoshi and the assassination attempt had grown. Herald Janna was in charge of training the Heralds to ride their Companions- in any circumstance and under complete control. She had her first evaluation of Hoshi and her friend, Suki, the morning after their first weapons lesson. Mattie, one of Janna's prized students, was going to bring them from the salle. She was looking foreword to this; both had grown on the instructor since they'd come aboard. Hoshi was quiet, soft-spoken, and generally good-humored about life. Suki, on the other hand, was a total riot. She wasn't to terribly bright but made up for the lack of ability with an abundance of enthusiasm.
What distressed Janna slightly was the very formal relationship that both women maintained towards each other. It was always bowing, commands, and titles. Not that either seemed to take the master-servant thing too far; Hoshi never asked for anything, if she could help it, and whatever she had was split unhesitatingly. Suki seemed more than happy to serve Hoshi unconditionally and obey anything she might even think about asking. When Hoshi had insisted that Suki attend as many classes as she did, it kind of blew the Heraldic community away because they had dismissed it as an arrogant aristocrat, not a thoughtful friend.
The ladies came across the hilltop to the Companions stables and the corral filled with soft, slightly damp dirt that served as a breakfall for the unfortunate soul that lost his balance.
"Heyla, how are things going?"
"Fine Herald, I've got two new trainee's for you, fresh from the ale."
"You don't look too worse for wear, I hope Master Liam wasn't too hard on you."
"Frankly ma'am I think you need to worry less about them and more about Liam"
Janna was surprised, but the barely concealed grin on Mattie's face spoke volumes about how the weapons training went. So, the newest recruits had proved a handful for him. Janna wasn't stupid; she was from Evendim and had heard the tales of ninja and samurai. She hadn't thought that they were too terribly true, but apparently they were. Interesting.
"Well then, this should be a breeze if you've managed to exhaust Liam."
Donni trotted out of the stable, saddled, pivoted and cheerfully called.
: Let's get this show on the road:
"Ok, looks like our horse is ready, which one of you wants to go first?"
They looked at Donni, looked at Janna, and pointed at each other simultaneously.
She laughed, "Alright, I guess I'll pick. Hoshi, she's your Companion-saddle up"
Hoshi walked over, and Janna almost cracked a gut laughing. Companions were, first and foremost, battle steeds. They were some of the largest 'horses' in the kingdom standing nearly 18 hands high. Hoshi was not a tall individual; she stood barely 15 hands high. The expression on her face was absolutely priceless as she came eye to girth with the monstrosity that was her ride.
She carefully removed her glasses, wrapped them in silk, and tucked them in the padded steel case. She took a deep breath and climbed aboard.
Cedric
Cedric was in the solarium, mixing together a potion for a burn victim that had been brought in a few days ago. Suddenly the door burst open. Suki ran in the door almost incoherent and grabbed his sleeve.
"Hoshi is hurt!! Needs you to come! Hurry!"
"Hoshi! Where? Hold on, let me put this down."
" Fields, in the dirt. She fell. Hurry!"
Cedric put down his mixture and hitched up his greens. He grabbed an emergency kit from the doorway and followed Suki. She was surprisingly fast. He even had to stretch his legs to keep up, although he was taller and had a longer stride.
He made it to the clearing and saw Hoshi laid out flat on the corral dirt with Herald Instructor Janna leaning over her.
"Cedric! Good! Get over here."
"Gods, what happened?"
"She fell off Donni. I guess she hit the ground wrong. It knocked her cold, I haven't been able to get her back up."
"What was she doing?"
"Nothing special, we were just trying to get her seated right and she slipped off the saddle. She's so short that the fall was pretty bad."
"I'll say. She's got a pretty severe concussion. That's going to be a nasty headache when she wakes up."
"You'd think she could ride a horse with all the training she's received in balance and coordination."
"Where are her glasses?"
"In the case, I think she didn't want them to break."
"Gods."
Cedric poured the healing energy into her head; he Felt the bruised tissue knit slowly back together. He also set up a small painblock to counter some of the inevitable headache when she came back to consciousness.
Hoshi moaned, then opened her eyes and tried to sit up.
"Easy there, you took a nasty fall. Just lay back."
"What happened?"
"You fell off Donni."
She swore profusely in her own language.
"Yes I would agree. Well, it seems as though however good you are with those funny looking knives you've still got a lot to learn about riding"
"Suki?"
"Hai?"
"Help"
Suki helped her friend to stand up. She slowly let go and Cedric had to catch Hoshi before she tipped back over onto the dirt.
"Let's just concentrate on staying awake, OK? C'mon we can go sit over there and watch."
She said something he recognized, though it wasn't too terribly complimentary.
"That's it. Keep it up and you'll be good as gravy in no time."
Sophia
Sophi just got out of a meeting of the Heraldic circle. They were debating the merits of the newest member of the Heraldic community. The general consensus was that Hoshi was a very different kind of Herald.
The general education of a Herald was based on a broad understanding of Valdemaran history, politics, law and administration. The military aspect of the Heraldic education was not neglected, but neither was it unduly emphasized. Hoshi was another matter entirely. She had a comprehensive understanding of all kinds of military tactics, personal combat, and the varied use of different kinds of weapons and soldiers. She had no knowledge of history, as it related to anything but tactics, no knowledge of law, administration, or politics. She could, however, kill anything on two feet, climb any building, shoot, fight, survive and plan a military campaign.
The circle was in a bit of a quandary.
It was universally decided that she should take over the post of Lord Marshal's Herald. Murdock, the current Lord Marshal's Herald, was more than willing to step down and take the generous retirement that few Heralds lived to receive. The sticking point was her relative inexperience in Valedmaran military and court politics. It was more than simply unfortunate. With the situation on the Karsite border always sticky and Rethwellen, not quite an ally but not quite an enemy, things really required more political maneuverings than troops.
Or at least that's what they hoped. Karse had been acting very strange these past few months, moving troops and supplies all about the place, as if preparing for a campaign, but starting halfway into the summer, too late into the fighting season to do much good. The snow would block up the Karsite hill roads west of Sweetsprings, and make any kind of mass travel very difficult if not impossible. It seemed that the new Lord Captain Commander of the army of the Son of the Sun was preparing for a massive assault in the beginning of the summer next year. That wasn't much time to get the mostly volunteer regular army prepared and to the Karsite border.
Sophia sighed, life was not going to give them respite from the Karsites and they still had to figure out who was torching border cities on the Evendim coast. The situation needed attention. Maybe that was why Hoshi got Chosen. She understood the tactics of water pirates better than anyone they had and she could direct ground troops against Karse. She was so young though, or at least she looked it, and that was now Sophia's mission: to find out as much about her new colleague-in-arms as possible. She was an Empath it shouldn't be too difficult. Right?
Somehow she didn't think it would be that easy. Hoshi hadn't been anything but completely helpful, but Sophia got the impression that she wasn't going to be forthcoming about her personal information. She was here, but she wasn't too trusting. It was a shame really, Heralds should trust each other - they had to.
She stopped in front of the room that had been assigned to Hoshi and Suki. They had insisted on that and the Seneschal was perfectly willing to comply. She pulled on the white tunic, smoothed her hair, and knocked.
"Hello!"
"Hi. Can I come in?"
"Sure, come in come in."
Sophi walked in and stopped short. She wasn't the only visitor. Cedric, the Healer that she'd assigned to care for Suki out of sheer desperation for the first Healer she could reach, he was there also. So was Hoshi. She had a towel wrapped around a pack of ice and had it applied to her head.
"Ouch! That looks painful. What happened?"
"I fell off Donni."