"Is any job safe from these females, they are trying to take over all the men's' work." Evan of Honalast sneered to his friend Joule of Swost Mountain.
"Two females as knights is too much." replied Joule of Swost Lake.
"It will be easy for one of them to take away your job, being the stupid idiot you are." said Mikal of Hollyrose. The rest of the squires laughed in agreement.
The laughter was quickly silenced with the look Sir Wyldon gave the squires. "None of you seemed to change have since I taught you as pages. Your knight masters may have been easy on you but as you know I am not." He seemed to be saying, Your respect for me better not have changed. "This is Meliara of Blanth, she will be studying with us for the class of strategies and tactics. I expect you to treat her the same way as any other squire. Though she is blind, odds are she is quicker than any sitting in this class."
Meliara felt herself glow with pride, though she had only know this Sir Wyldon for a few hours, she grew to respect this man and valued his compliments.
Most of the class found the tactics class somewhat boring and felt it pointless, they kept themselves awake by trying to catch a look at that Blanth girl who seemed so engrossed in Wyldon's lecture.
At the end of the class Wyldon assigned them a question that they were to think of an answer for the next day as the students exited the classroom they discussed the problem debating many possible answers.
"Before you all exit the classroom, I require one of you to escort Lady Meliara to her rooms." said Lord Wyldon. The boys' hands shot up each hoping that they could take a walk and get to know the beauty. "Mikal of Hollyrose."
Mikal of Hollyrose and Meliara of Blanth made an odd pair. She, beautiful, with dark eyes and wide blue eyes; he had red hair, a plain face, with green eyes.
Mikal was well-liked by everyone, because of is open and honest way of talking, which he did constantly. "Why are you studying tactics and strategies my lady?"
"I have battle magic, according to um...Numir Saliman, who is supposed to be a very a very important mage."
"Numir talked to you about your magic, you must be very talented then. He never bothers with any of the squires or pages in their magic classes. I suppose he's too busy doing great experiments and such. From what I hear he usually mixes with people who have great and powerful Gifts. Take the Wild mage, he was her teacher, and she's done so many great things; she saved Pirate's Swoop, battled the immortals and such. What did your parents say when they found out you would be in a class full of squires? My cousin's 13 and in the convent, if she ever mentioned being in a class full of squires, I don't even want to think of how my uncle and aunt would react." said Mikal
"My parents are both dead" said Meliara quietly.
"Oh, I am sorry" said Mikal. There was a long pause.
Trying to break the awkward silence, Meliara spoke. "So tell me a bit about yourself. How many years have you been a squire? Who is your knight master?"
"I am a first year squire. Merric of Hollyrose is my knight master."
"Are you related?"
"Cousins. We have a very close family, since my grandfather lost so much of his family on the border, he tries to make all the Hollyroses as close knit as possible, which believe me, can sometimes be a curse."
"How are our borders? Is there much fighting going on?" asked Meliara.
Mikal was somewhat surprised at her interest in the border. When he served the table full of single ladies, who were fresh from the convent, all they did was giggle and talk about, hair, gowns, and almost every single available man. It had given him a terrible head ache.
"The war with Scarna is now over since Sir Kel defeated those killing machines. Now the talk of the palace is the trouble that's brewing in Galla. The whole country is practically screaming in fear of-"
The palace bells chimed loudly.
"Merric will have a fit if I am late again. This is the wing for the single ladies. Which room is yours?"
Mikal quickly dropped her off to her room and ran off to his knight master.
As she sat in her room, Meliara couldn't stop thinking of what Mikal had said about the fighting in Galla. She felt like somehow, she was going to be part of whatever happened in ending the troubles in Galla.
All of a sudden, she remembered something, Mikal hadn't said a word to her about her blindness. For once in a very long time, she had actually felt normal. Maybe palace life wouldn't be so bad after all.
What do you think? I think the "trouble" will be explained by the next one or two chapters. Romance will start coming up next chapter. Please review and tell me what you think or any suggestions you have. No flames please!