Disclaimer: All I own is the plot and the cooking staff. And a pig.

Favours

Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan sat on her curtained bed in the palace, going over the day's work in her mind. From dawn till dusk, she'd been making calculations and payments for goods and livestock, supplies for the King's Own, as a favour for Lord Raoul. Though she had been exhausted after the trip home from the refugee camp, Kel couldn't have said no. It was the first day Raoul had been able to see his wife, Buri, in over a month, and the pleading look in his eyes melted her insides.

Kel closed her dreamy hazel eyes and blew away a lock of mouse brown hair that had fallen into her face. Ever since she had let it grow out it had been bothering her. She fiddled with the hem of her nightshirt, relieved again that this one would not have to be let out. Most of her life, Kel had grown about an inch a day, it seemed. Her clothes always had to be altered and lengthened. But once she had hit 17, it suddenly stopped, leaving her stunned that all her clothes still fit. However, sometimes she felt a tightness across her chest that implied she was still growing in some parts of her body. Kel scowled at this prospect. 18 and still going. Oh well, she thought, looking down at her small breasts. It's not as if there's no room for improvement there. As an afterthought, she added, they better not get in the way of work.

Kel reached over to take a sealed letter from her nightstand. Opening it, she read in silence, then groaned. Her best friend, Sir Nealan of Queenscove, was working out in a border town as a healer. Neal, as he preferred to be called, had "in a brief moment of insanity", forgotten his "beloved Yamani flower's" (or Lady Yukimi, as she was known to the general public) silk fan, which he liked to carry with him everywhere when Yuki wasn't with him. Another favour for a friend.

Of course she would do it. Kel knew very well how worked about these thins Neal could get, and if she didn't send the fan to him he would pine and be a pain to whoever was working with him. The only problem was, she didn't have a key to his rooms.

So who did? Kel mulled over it briefly, then smiled. Neal's cousin, Domitan of Masbolle, would surely have a spare key to his rooms. Plus, she hadn't seen Dom since her rescue mission to Scanra, and she'd always had a bit of a crush on the handsome Sergeant. Ever since the friendship they had formed in the Own, she'd felt a certain exhilaration at being near him. So that settled it. She would drop by the Own barracks the next day.

Kel slowly pulled back the covers and slid under them, delighting in the feel of all that room to herself. Not much chance of that on her single cot at New Hope. Pulling the covers up around her chin, she allowed some room for the sparrows, who were still pecking at the bowl of seed that she had put out for them. They'd had a hard day scouting with some commoners in the forest just outside of Corus, looking for a lost band of children.

She groaned as she maneuvered her legs into a position that relieved their tension and nuzzled her cheek against the pillow. Lifting her head slightly, she blew out the candle.