Chapter 15. The Memory.
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Don't worry Guys, I know It's a bit out of character for Alanna but you
know she is quite proud and also she has a reason she isn't telling Jon.
You'll find out in this chapter! I'm changing Kel's Yamani name to Lea,
pronounced Lay-a! and also, completely forget that about Neal being the
king's nephew, I've taken that out of it.
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Alanna put her sword back into its sheath and flopped down onto the sofa breathlessly. She had been practicing pattern dances for over two hours with just a small ten minute break in between. She took a long drink of her big glass of water and gave a sigh. She was thinking of her conversation with Kel and a memory slipped into her head, uncalled for and unwelcome.
*Memory* Alanna was walking through the doors into the throne room. King Jonathan and Queen Thayet were the only two people in the room and they were talking softly together on their thrones. Neither of them noticed Alanna until she walked right up to them and cleared her throat loudly. Thayet looked up and smiled warmly, Jon looked up and said in a startled voice "A...al.Alanna, what are you doing here?" "I have news for you my king and my queen." She said in a tone as frosty as the look she now gave Jon. "Your Majesty, I believe you know who my husband really is?" Jonathan gave her a look of scorn "of course I know who George really is", he said.
"Then you know he has some people working for him, spies and people looking for anything unusual or interesting?" "Yes I've met most of them! Alanna, is there a point to this?" "I'm coming to that highness" Alanna said coldly. "The people I am talking about have found information that there is going to be a war, when it is to take place and who will be in it I am not certain. I just know that the Copper Isles and Scanra are trying to start a war with either neighbouring countries or us." "When did you find this out?" Jon demanded. "About two weeks ago" Alanna replied. "And Why did you not tell me before this?" Jon's voice was like a whip, cracking with each word. "I did not know if the information was correct and decided that you shouldn't have to worry your pretty little head with it!" Alanna said in a mocking sort of a voice. Jon's eyes flashed, "and what proof do we have of this information?" he said. "None, only the word of George's 'helpers' and my word." Alanna said. "Well I'd probably trust the word of George's 'helpers' as you call them, but I don't know about yours." Alanna's eyes flashed and thundered but Jon went on. "For all I know you could still be punishing me for putting that Keladry girl on probation, you have barely spoken to me since I did that."
"How could I be punishing you by warning you to prepare for something that will come sometime or other?" Alanna's voice would have made the bravest person ever flinch but the king went on regardless. "You might be trying to get me to rush and protect a neighbouring country when there is no war and make a fool of myself. Or worse, rage war on Scanra and the Copper Isles when they weren't going to attack us and start a war with them."
"You are such a stupid idiot Jonathan! I would NEVER do anything like that to you or to Tortall! No matter how much I hate you for putting Kel on probation I wouldn't do something like that to you, and you know it! Remember when we fought the Ysandir together in the Black city? You went out there to look around to prove to Duke Roger (Jon flinched at the sound of Roger's name) and to yourself that you weren't a stupid little spoilt brat who was cowardly and proud, well you know what? You've just proved to yourself and to me that you ARE all of those things. You're just too proud to say that for once I'm right and you're not." With that Alanna spun on her heel and marched out the door.
*Memory Ends*
Alanna sighed deeply. That had been nearly two months ago and probably the worst fight she and Jon had ever had, including the fight about Kel's probation year. I mean, she had been Jon's squire and might've been his wife! They were best friends and she knew they always would be because they understood each other better than anyone else (except George!) She hadn't spoken to Jon since the fight. Thayet had told Wyldon about the rumours and Alanna knew that he had told Kel not to act like the Yamanis friends because he thought they might be working with Scanra and would be trying to get secret information from Kel! But when he hears unexpected things he jumps into a frenzy for the first day and starts suspecting everyone!
She had been astonished and a bit suspicious when she had received an invitation from Jon to the midwinter feast and ball but then she remembered that all of the high ranking people in Tortall would be there and as she was the king's champion she was expected to be there. 'Maybe this feast will be a good opportunity to talk to Thayet, persuade her that the rumours are true' Alanna thought. 'And I have to buy a present for Kel for midwinter. She still doesn't know who is sending her all these anonymous presents!'
************
Kel woke up feeling refreshed and excited. It was the first day of midwinter! She got out of bed, shivering slightly in the cold. Lal came into her room so she could get a big tub ready for her bath. Looking out the window Kel gasped. It looked like a faerie land! Everything was covered with a blanket of white. It had snowed during the night and it was about two inches thick! There were icicles on the bare trees making them twinkle and sparkle in the faint sunlight.
Everything was sparkling and glittering reflecting the sun. But Kel knew that after all the pages and squires had been outside and had been snowball fighting all the perfect white would be dirty and messed up unfortunately. The sparrows were sitting by the already lit fire, warming themselves up whilst eating bread and birdseed Lal had put out for them. After taking a hot bath she got dressed in her loose clothes, she was going to have a tough day. For the week of midwinter they didn't have as much pressure put on them for classes and today was a free day so Kel planned to work hard by herself in the training courts all day long, but first she was going to have a glaive practice with the Yamani ladies.
Once in the practice courts she started to do some glaive exercises on her own because she was early and the others hadn't arrived yet. She had just finished a fourth pattern dance when a familiar, dry voice called out from behind her "Impressive, I see you haven't forgotten everything you learnt in the islands!" she turned around to see Nariko, Hakuin and Eda Bell walking towards her. Eda was smiling and so was Hakuin but when he looked at Kel he changed his smile into a joke grimace, indicating Nariko, who had a very quick temper. Kel smiled knowingly at him. "No, Nariko, I haven't forgotten everything, thanks to your fantastic teaching!" Kel joked. Nariko smiled wryly. "I see that my old student, Hakuin, has been upgraded to a Shang, but he still has a few more things to learn!" "Nariko has been training me some more in one of the practice courts!" Hakuin told Kel. Kel smiled, but just then someone called her from behind. She turned.
Chis, Ilane, Queen Thayet and Wai Linn were standing behind her, each holding their own glaive and smiling. Then the newcomers said hello to Nariko and the two Shangs, and soon after, they all got down to glaive practice, while the Eda, Hakuin and Nariko went off to, as Nariko said 'school Hakuin some more!'
Kel paired up with her mother to fight, Thayet and Wai Linn paired up, while Chis did some pattern dances on her own. In a while they would stop and change partners. Kel started off by an impressive feint. Unfortunately Ilane was wiser than that, she didn't try and block or hit back, she just smiled and waited for Kel to make the first move. Kel lunged, for real this time Ilane blocked it easily and thrust back at Kel. This went on for quite some time when suddenly Ilane hooked her glaives blade round the handle of Kel's glaive and gave a quick, clever twist and Kel's glaive went flying! Kel gave a grab for it but Ilane had already caught it in her free hand. "So," Kel said wryly, "do you think I'll ever be as good at the glaive as you are?" "I'd say most definitely, you're nearly as good as me already!" Ilane said with a smile. Kel grinned at her. Suddenly she saw a movement in the shadows. She turned quickly. Was that Neal in the shadows or just any old person? She couldn't tell, but suddenly they slipped out of the door, staying inside the shadows the whole time.
After glaive practice she said goodbye to the others, except Chis who had agreed to come with her and practice, even though Kel warned her that it would be tiring. They were heading for the stables first though, to make sure that their horses were comfortable. The short walk from the side door of the palace to the stable made the girls numb with cold. Inside the stable, they greeted Stefan and went into Amethyst, Peachblossom and Hoshi's stalls. (I haven't mentioned Hoshi before because she wasn't with the king's own at any part.) Hoshi had been moved into the palace stables for the winter, when she wasn't doing anything so that Kel could come and see her whenever she wanted. All of the horses were happy and contented, munching on hot mash and oats as a treat. Lots of extra straw had been put down to make the stalls comfortable. When Kel entered Peachblossom's stall the horse looked up sharply. When he saw who it was he went on eating unconcernedly unlike Hoshi who gave Kel a kind of a hug in welcome.
After that the girls went to the practice courts and did some warm up exercises before doing Shang fighting. When they had finished warm ups they stood up, bowed to each other as tradition ordered, and then before you could say katuka there were flurries of kicks, punches, rolls and sliding out of the others grip. They were gone, lost in the art of Shang fighting, unaware that all the other people around them had stopped what they were doing to turn and gape at these two young girls rolling around and fighting as they themselves would never be able to do! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* that's all for now guys but I'll write in again really soon (hopefully! ( ( ( REVIEWS PLEASE!!!!!!!!! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alanna put her sword back into its sheath and flopped down onto the sofa breathlessly. She had been practicing pattern dances for over two hours with just a small ten minute break in between. She took a long drink of her big glass of water and gave a sigh. She was thinking of her conversation with Kel and a memory slipped into her head, uncalled for and unwelcome.
*Memory* Alanna was walking through the doors into the throne room. King Jonathan and Queen Thayet were the only two people in the room and they were talking softly together on their thrones. Neither of them noticed Alanna until she walked right up to them and cleared her throat loudly. Thayet looked up and smiled warmly, Jon looked up and said in a startled voice "A...al.Alanna, what are you doing here?" "I have news for you my king and my queen." She said in a tone as frosty as the look she now gave Jon. "Your Majesty, I believe you know who my husband really is?" Jonathan gave her a look of scorn "of course I know who George really is", he said.
"Then you know he has some people working for him, spies and people looking for anything unusual or interesting?" "Yes I've met most of them! Alanna, is there a point to this?" "I'm coming to that highness" Alanna said coldly. "The people I am talking about have found information that there is going to be a war, when it is to take place and who will be in it I am not certain. I just know that the Copper Isles and Scanra are trying to start a war with either neighbouring countries or us." "When did you find this out?" Jon demanded. "About two weeks ago" Alanna replied. "And Why did you not tell me before this?" Jon's voice was like a whip, cracking with each word. "I did not know if the information was correct and decided that you shouldn't have to worry your pretty little head with it!" Alanna said in a mocking sort of a voice. Jon's eyes flashed, "and what proof do we have of this information?" he said. "None, only the word of George's 'helpers' and my word." Alanna said. "Well I'd probably trust the word of George's 'helpers' as you call them, but I don't know about yours." Alanna's eyes flashed and thundered but Jon went on. "For all I know you could still be punishing me for putting that Keladry girl on probation, you have barely spoken to me since I did that."
"How could I be punishing you by warning you to prepare for something that will come sometime or other?" Alanna's voice would have made the bravest person ever flinch but the king went on regardless. "You might be trying to get me to rush and protect a neighbouring country when there is no war and make a fool of myself. Or worse, rage war on Scanra and the Copper Isles when they weren't going to attack us and start a war with them."
"You are such a stupid idiot Jonathan! I would NEVER do anything like that to you or to Tortall! No matter how much I hate you for putting Kel on probation I wouldn't do something like that to you, and you know it! Remember when we fought the Ysandir together in the Black city? You went out there to look around to prove to Duke Roger (Jon flinched at the sound of Roger's name) and to yourself that you weren't a stupid little spoilt brat who was cowardly and proud, well you know what? You've just proved to yourself and to me that you ARE all of those things. You're just too proud to say that for once I'm right and you're not." With that Alanna spun on her heel and marched out the door.
*Memory Ends*
Alanna sighed deeply. That had been nearly two months ago and probably the worst fight she and Jon had ever had, including the fight about Kel's probation year. I mean, she had been Jon's squire and might've been his wife! They were best friends and she knew they always would be because they understood each other better than anyone else (except George!) She hadn't spoken to Jon since the fight. Thayet had told Wyldon about the rumours and Alanna knew that he had told Kel not to act like the Yamanis friends because he thought they might be working with Scanra and would be trying to get secret information from Kel! But when he hears unexpected things he jumps into a frenzy for the first day and starts suspecting everyone!
She had been astonished and a bit suspicious when she had received an invitation from Jon to the midwinter feast and ball but then she remembered that all of the high ranking people in Tortall would be there and as she was the king's champion she was expected to be there. 'Maybe this feast will be a good opportunity to talk to Thayet, persuade her that the rumours are true' Alanna thought. 'And I have to buy a present for Kel for midwinter. She still doesn't know who is sending her all these anonymous presents!'
************
Kel woke up feeling refreshed and excited. It was the first day of midwinter! She got out of bed, shivering slightly in the cold. Lal came into her room so she could get a big tub ready for her bath. Looking out the window Kel gasped. It looked like a faerie land! Everything was covered with a blanket of white. It had snowed during the night and it was about two inches thick! There were icicles on the bare trees making them twinkle and sparkle in the faint sunlight.
Everything was sparkling and glittering reflecting the sun. But Kel knew that after all the pages and squires had been outside and had been snowball fighting all the perfect white would be dirty and messed up unfortunately. The sparrows were sitting by the already lit fire, warming themselves up whilst eating bread and birdseed Lal had put out for them. After taking a hot bath she got dressed in her loose clothes, she was going to have a tough day. For the week of midwinter they didn't have as much pressure put on them for classes and today was a free day so Kel planned to work hard by herself in the training courts all day long, but first she was going to have a glaive practice with the Yamani ladies.
Once in the practice courts she started to do some glaive exercises on her own because she was early and the others hadn't arrived yet. She had just finished a fourth pattern dance when a familiar, dry voice called out from behind her "Impressive, I see you haven't forgotten everything you learnt in the islands!" she turned around to see Nariko, Hakuin and Eda Bell walking towards her. Eda was smiling and so was Hakuin but when he looked at Kel he changed his smile into a joke grimace, indicating Nariko, who had a very quick temper. Kel smiled knowingly at him. "No, Nariko, I haven't forgotten everything, thanks to your fantastic teaching!" Kel joked. Nariko smiled wryly. "I see that my old student, Hakuin, has been upgraded to a Shang, but he still has a few more things to learn!" "Nariko has been training me some more in one of the practice courts!" Hakuin told Kel. Kel smiled, but just then someone called her from behind. She turned.
Chis, Ilane, Queen Thayet and Wai Linn were standing behind her, each holding their own glaive and smiling. Then the newcomers said hello to Nariko and the two Shangs, and soon after, they all got down to glaive practice, while the Eda, Hakuin and Nariko went off to, as Nariko said 'school Hakuin some more!'
Kel paired up with her mother to fight, Thayet and Wai Linn paired up, while Chis did some pattern dances on her own. In a while they would stop and change partners. Kel started off by an impressive feint. Unfortunately Ilane was wiser than that, she didn't try and block or hit back, she just smiled and waited for Kel to make the first move. Kel lunged, for real this time Ilane blocked it easily and thrust back at Kel. This went on for quite some time when suddenly Ilane hooked her glaives blade round the handle of Kel's glaive and gave a quick, clever twist and Kel's glaive went flying! Kel gave a grab for it but Ilane had already caught it in her free hand. "So," Kel said wryly, "do you think I'll ever be as good at the glaive as you are?" "I'd say most definitely, you're nearly as good as me already!" Ilane said with a smile. Kel grinned at her. Suddenly she saw a movement in the shadows. She turned quickly. Was that Neal in the shadows or just any old person? She couldn't tell, but suddenly they slipped out of the door, staying inside the shadows the whole time.
After glaive practice she said goodbye to the others, except Chis who had agreed to come with her and practice, even though Kel warned her that it would be tiring. They were heading for the stables first though, to make sure that their horses were comfortable. The short walk from the side door of the palace to the stable made the girls numb with cold. Inside the stable, they greeted Stefan and went into Amethyst, Peachblossom and Hoshi's stalls. (I haven't mentioned Hoshi before because she wasn't with the king's own at any part.) Hoshi had been moved into the palace stables for the winter, when she wasn't doing anything so that Kel could come and see her whenever she wanted. All of the horses were happy and contented, munching on hot mash and oats as a treat. Lots of extra straw had been put down to make the stalls comfortable. When Kel entered Peachblossom's stall the horse looked up sharply. When he saw who it was he went on eating unconcernedly unlike Hoshi who gave Kel a kind of a hug in welcome.
After that the girls went to the practice courts and did some warm up exercises before doing Shang fighting. When they had finished warm ups they stood up, bowed to each other as tradition ordered, and then before you could say katuka there were flurries of kicks, punches, rolls and sliding out of the others grip. They were gone, lost in the art of Shang fighting, unaware that all the other people around them had stopped what they were doing to turn and gape at these two young girls rolling around and fighting as they themselves would never be able to do! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* that's all for now guys but I'll write in again really soon (hopefully! ( ( ( REVIEWS PLEASE!!!!!!!!! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*