Chapter V: Getting Settled
The pages and their sponsors dispersed, talking amicably among themselves, but Tobit and Zira remained in the rotunda staring at each other. Finally Tobit smirked meanly.
"Shall I show you around Princess," he said sarcastically with a mock bow. Zira looked at him, sizing him up, then smiled all too sweetly.
"Be careful what you tell me. I have the palace map memorized, and if you make a deliberate attempt to get me lost…"
"What would you do?" he said, not leaving her time to finish her sentence. "Send in the troops of Antitheos and have them kill many more good Tortallians, to teach me a lesson?" He looked at her bitterly, and Zira looked right back at him.
"You don't know what you are talking about," she said in a dangerously quiet voice.
"I don't know what I'm talking about," he said resentfully. "Gods! And what do you know? You're a baby, how old were you when the wars started? You have lived the sheltered life of a princess, who thinks her kingdom can do no wrong." Zira met his eyes with such fire that he almost retreated a step, but he held firm, his icy blue eyes meeting her fierce amber ones. She turned away from him. She was a princess, but not the kind he had described.
"I will find my way through the palace by myself," she said. He stared at her and then laughed.
"Well then goodbye, Princess, because you'll never be seen again," with that he strode off down the hall leaving Zira by herself. She sank down onto the floor, feeling the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, but then she reconsidered.
"I have cried far too much in the last few days," she said resolutely to one of the statues in the rotunda. "I decree there shall be no more crying."
Her mind wandered back to the map she had studied. She had exaggerated to Tobit when she said she knew the entire palace by heart, but she did know a good portion of it.
"This must be the Rotunda of the Kings," she said looking at the surrounding statues with interest, trying to ascertain which was the earliest. She pointed at one, then at the door to the next of it.
"North," she said under her breath. The page's quarters were west; turning ninety degrees to the left she made for what she hoped were her rooms.
It took retracing her steps several times, and a few wrong turns, but when she finally made her way back to her room she found Shae standing outside of the door. Her hair was up in battle style, and in her hand was her own slender knife. She smiled as she saw Zira approach.
"These," with a sneer, "gentlemen, were trying to get into your rooms." Zira looked at the boys in the hall. One, a redhead with brown eyes had a cut across his cheek. Zira smiled. Shae had always been rather good with a knife.
"You have to teach you maid some respect," the redhead said with a cruel smile. "I will have to report her for her behavior."
"You shall do no such thing," Zira replied, voice level. "Not unless you want me to report you for trying to break into my chambers. Shae is not my maid, she is an Antithian noble who agreed to come with me, and I look on her like my own sister. She may lower herself to the level of a servant in what she does, but that does not make her common." Zira looked at each of the boys. "And you better remember that. She will be treated with the respect she deserves."
The boys looked at her belligerently, but she did not back down, so they all turned around and walked quietly back to their rooms.
That night the boys congregated in the common room.
"What is this world coming to?" Falkin, William of Ikor's sponsor said. "How many of us lost a brother or an uncle or a father in the Antithian wars and now we must smile and kiss up to their Princess."
"Her maid is awful." The redhead, whose name was Reese, fingered the red line on his face thoughtfully. "Were you there, Falkin, when she cut me with her knife? No respect for anyone."
Tobit who was leaning against the mantel smiled.
"I told you, you shouldn't get in her way. Those two are as strange a pair of birds as I have ever seen." He reached down and absently ran his fingers through the thick coat of a jellicle cat.
"How did that get into here?" Clive, a first year page, said in disgust pointing to the cat.
"Don't be such a baby," Tobit said. "It isn't hurting anyone." He turned to Reese. "If you are such a great fighter how did you get cut by someone three years younger than you are and a girl no less?"
"From a barbarian land too." William of Ikor glanced in the direction of the hall, as if she would appear, like the Dark God, at the mere mention of her name. "Why is she here?"
"All Antitheans are troublemakers," Reese stated bitterly.
"My brother never came back from the Antithean wars," William said quietly, and Falkin patted him sympathetically on the shoulder.
"Everyone in this room lost a relative in that war. Just seeing the Antithean Princess makes me sick. Who does she think she is coming here? I could just…" Falkin's voice trailed off, but the threat was clear in his eyes. Tobit also glanced to the door, but a trace of introspection tempered his vehemence.
"She is definitely the proudest little girl I have ever seen. What is she doing here? She won't survive training. Lady Keladry is solid, so is the Lioness. But this Zira is so delicate." He shook his head, his fingers buried into the cat's deep fur.
"Delicate and powerful, it's bad combination," Falkin sighed. "I bet she was tucked comfortably away in one of the Antithean palaces, shielded from any aspect of the war. I doubt she even knew what this war did to us."
"What did they try to steal from us?" William asked quietly.
"No one knows exactly, some say they were trying to kidnap the Prince for this Zira to marry. Others say that they were trying to drain all of Tortall of its magic so that they could attack." Falkin's voice was hushed, and William and Clive's eyes widened.
"Could they do that?" Clive asked.
"No, of course not," Tobit said in an arch tone.
"What's going on?" a voice drawled from the door. Every mouth in the room closed, and every eye turned towards the door.
"Liam! You're back!" Tobit shouted excitedly.