Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, places etc. They all belong to Tamora Pierce. I own the plot though! Anything you might find familiar is probably a quote from TP's books. Hang on, I own: Ked, Salin, Jamil and Ked's Warrior Lord, Lord Parrton.
A/N: Right. This is a corrected version of the chapter. I've been going through correcting the chapters, so if you find any mistakes, let me know! I've tried to sort out everything, but I'm no where near perfect so I'm sure you'll be able to find some mistakes. I've completely changed Kel's reactions because everyone was saying that she was completely OCC, and quite frankly, I agreed. On with the story…
Chapter Eleven: Discoveries
Two months after Kel had left for her Tribulation, Dom watched her ride carefully into the palace courtyard. But she wasn't alone, a young man rode with her, and two well-armed guards followed at a respectable distance. Dom had no idea who the young man could possibly be, had she taken a calawabi already?
Kel jumped from the saddle, and Dom saw the young man frown disapprovingly at her, to which Kel just glared at him. As she turned to stable her horse, Dom caught the flash of a black armband, the sign of death.
Dom turned away, suddenly sickened at the thought of Kel making friends with however that stranger was. He thought he was her friend, and now she had a new one.
- - -
Kel walked into the mess hall with Thom. She was nervous, how could she face her friends after she had failed again?
"You'll be fine," Thom said gently.
Kel just raised her eyebrows, and set her face to stone, trying desperately not to let any emotions escape her mask. "Don't you have something better to do?"
"I'm offended Kel! You don't want me!" Thom cried in an exact imitation of a Player.
Kel grinned slightly. "You know I didn't mean it like that! But what happened to that Lady that you were seeing? Lady Aria of…" Kel grimaced as she tried to remember that particular Lady's fief.
"Lady Aria of Queensview," Thom supplied.
"Yes, that's the one, what happened to her? You were obsessed with her only last month," Kel told him.
Thom shrugged. "It appears she doesn't care for hapless mages. She found herself a knight."
"Sorry," Kel said truthfully, but she wasn't surprised. In many ways, Thom reminded her of Neal, always fantasising about some lady or another, but either not telling them, or loosing them to someone else.
Thom shrugged. "Don't worry about it, I don't."
Kel rolled her eyes at him, helped herself to food from the servers and sat down. Thom joined her, causing some stares from people who recognised him as the son of the famed Lioness.
The doors were flung open and Neal walked in, he was in the middle of a passionate debate with his father, something to do with healing. Dom followed talking quietly with Cleon.
"Oh look, it's Sergeant Domitan, the one I've heard ever so much about!" Thom said, deliberately trying to provoke a reaction out of her.
Kel grinned, knowing what he was trying to do. Happily she obliged him with a reaction. "Pirate's Swoop, shut your mouth!" she shouted, maybe a little louder than she had intended and threw bread at him.
Thom responded by magically raising a jug of water above Kel's head.
"Oh no you don't!" Kel shrieked, moving quickly out of her seat. In the two months that she had spent at Pirate's Swoop, she had realised that Thom loved nothing more than to play jokes on unsuspecting people. The water tipped onto her empty seat and Kel grinned at him. "Missed," she said simply.
"Food fights?" a dry voice inquired, "Can I play?"
Kel turned around to see Neal standing behind her, looking oddly at Thom.
"Hi Neal," she said, happy to see him, but hoping he wouldn't ask about her Tribulation.
"How did you manage to get stuck with Thom?" Neal asked suspiciously.
"Long story," Kel said grimly, and started to eat her meal quickly, her previous good mood destroyed by memories of the journey to the Islands.
Neal looked at Kel with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Don't ask," Thom advised.
"You're in on this secret as well?" Neal inquired, not sure whether he liked the idea of Thom knowing something about his best friend that he didn't.
"Maybe," was the reply.
Kel finished her meal and handed her tray back to the servers. As she walked out of the hall, she stopped by Thom. "I'm going to find Oranie and Adalia, they need to know that Numair's found him."
That cryptic comment made Neal sure that there was something wrong with Kel, and he was determined to find out what.
Thom nodded. "Sure, I'll see you around."
- - -
Neal crept quietly around the corner and flattened himself against the rose bush, trying not to yelp as the thorns prickled him. He had followed Kel all around the palace, she had been wandering almost all of the afternoon, trying to find her sisters, and finally someone had told her that they were in the rose garden.
Kel walked into the centre of the rose garden where Oranie and Adalia were sitting with a maid. Both Oranie and Adalia wore the black of mourning, something that immediately made Neal suspicious that something was seriously wrong with Kel and her family.
Kel bowed to her sisters and the maid. "If you will excuse us?" Kel asked the maid politely.
The maid nodded and curtsied, then walked away, thankfully for Neal out of the other exit of the garden, not the one he was hiding in.
There was a long silence; Oranie sat completely still, her body unmoving while Adalia wrung her hands anxiously.
Finally Oranie look up at Kel. "You have some news?"
Slowly Kel nodded her head. "Yes, Numair found him."
Neal expected to here a sigh of relief at that statement, when someone had been found, people were usually happy, but instead, Kel's sisters just nodded gravely.
"He was washed up off the coast of Tyra; Numair is arranging to have him transported to Mindelan for the funeral. I've already told Anders, Inness and Conal, they're expecting the body to arrive sometime next month," Kel explained quietly, all her feelings hid behind her Yamani mask.
"And mother? Any news on her?" Adalia asked anxiously.
In shock, Neal realised that they had been talking about their father, he was dead.
Kel shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. Nobody saw the ship that attacked us dock at port; they must have used one of the Emperor's ports. No news at all."
"Thank-you," Oranie said, and her voice seemed to stumble as she broke down in tears. Kel moved gracefully to sit by her sister and held her as she cried.
Over Oranie's bent head, Adalia asked, "And what of your Warrior Lord? Any news on him?"
Grimly Kel gritted her teeth. "No, but you know the sentence for breaking your oath to the Emperor by aiding and abetting a traitor as well as I do."
"You think they executed him?" Adalia asked in shock.
"I'd like to think that they just imprisoned him, but I highly doubt it," Kel said shortly and tears fell down her face.
Neal saw her tears, and moved out of his hiding place. He placed a gentle arm around Kel, and led her away to her room.
- - -
There was a gentle knock on her door, and Thom walked in. He nodded to Neal, and then came to sit beside Kel.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
She rubbed the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Not at the moment, but I'll get better." She heaved herself out of the chair where she had curled up and into her washroom to try and remove the tear stains from her face.
Thom looked at Neal and saw the troubled look in his eyes. "She told you what happened?" he guessed.
Neal nodded grimly. "Not a nice story," he commented.
Thom shook his head. "No, not nice at all." He looked up as Kel re-entered the room. "Are you up to seeing visitors? You've got quite a collection of people waiting outside to see you, and all of them are fretting."
"Sure, I'll see them," Kel said.
Thom walked to the door, and stuck his head out. "You can come in."
Dom traipsed in, followed by Cleon, then Roald, then Merric, and even Owen, who she'd only met once.
"You didn't all have to come," Kel said dryly. "I'm sure one of you would have been enough."
Dom shrugged. "Roald had thought of that idea, but we all wanted to see how you were doing."
"I'll be fine," Kel lied.
"Who's your friend?" Cleon asked, gesturing at Thom.
Thom stood up and offered Cleon his hand. "Thom of Pirate's Swoop."
"Cleon of Kennan," Cleon replied. Then he pointed at each of Kel's friends in turned and introduced them. "His Highness, Prince Roald of Conté, Sir Merric of Hollyrose, Squire Owen of Jesslaw and Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle."
At the mention of Dom's name, Kel gave Thom a 'don't-even-think-about-it' look, to which Thom grinned and looked very devious.
"So…" Merric said to cover the awkward silence that had settled over the room.
"You're one of the Emperor's Chosen Warriors now then?" Owen asked.
Kel's eyes hardened and then became flat as a Yamani calm filled her face. "Chosen, yes, not for the right reasons."
"Don't be so cryptic Kel," Thom warned her.
"Okay, okay," Kel said starting to sound a little annoyed. She turned to face her friends. "I didn't pass my Tribulation."
A chorus of condolences sounded out from her friends.
"I didn't even get to try it, the Emperor tried to kill me and everyone on the ship I was travelling on as soon as we entered Yamani waters," Kel continued, ignoring her friend's condolences.
Her statement shocked them into silence.
"Ah," Dom said at last.
"Who was on the ship?" Cleon asked quietly.
Kel guessed what he wanted to know. "Inness is fine, he was on border duty at the time so he couldn't come over."
Cleon's face showed his relief, then became guilty as he realised that Kel had a black armband on. "Who died?" he asked quietly.
Kel shrugged. "Who knows? My father washed up in Tyra, and my mother and Jamil were still on the boat when they threw me overboard."
"I'm sorry," Cleon said, smiling grimly at her. His sentiments were echoed by all in the group.
"When's the funeral?" Dom asked suddenly.
"My sisters and I are leaving for Mindelan next week. We'll have the funeral once my father's body arrives." Kel said quietly.
- - -
A week later, Kel set off from the palace, accompanied by her sisters, their maids and Neal, Dom, Cleon and Thom.