Amory ran down the steps and Ghada cried out in dismay realizing she had almost forgotten to say goodbye to her sister in her haste of excitement. As they hugged one another tightly Amory slipped her a necklace with a blue pendant on it.
"For luck," she muttered not wanting Landis to hear that.
"Thanks Amory, I'll be needing all the luck I can get I believe," said Ghada.
Ghada leapt into the carriage beside Landis who had finished saying goodbye to Hester, and the carriage driver with one impatient flick of his reins drew the carriage away from the household.
On the journey there a concern entered Ghada's mind.
"Landis I have no weapons or armour of my own!" gasped Ghada in dismay realizing her dilemna.
"We;re going to stop into town to fix that problem," answered Landis.
The carriage stopped an hour later and Ghada was glad to stand up, hating the cramped space in the carriage which would most likely be even less roomy when they bought more stuff.
Landis entered a shop and Ghada felt foolish following him into the weapons shop. She felt the eyes of the store keeper on her and tried to seem more masculine than she was feeling. Landis had insisted she wore mens clothing before they left, and to change the style of her hair to make it more male looking. It was still long for a man but Ghada liked the new style of her hair.
" This one seems almost feminine," said the store keeper as he pulled out a sword, which Ghada immediately liked the look of.
Ghada tried to deepen the sound of her voice before speaking, " That sword would suit me fine."
Landis raised an eyebrow at the sound of her voice and the inn keeper let out a hearty laugh.
"Good God even the lad's voice hasn't changed yet, not to mention how small he is. Sure he's eighteen? Looks like he hasn't seen puberty yet."
Ghada blushed crimson and decided to look at other random weapons not really caring what they were just as long as he could get away from the store clerk. After what seemed like hours Landis finished with his bargaining and purchases and signaled Ghada to leave with him.
"That man was barely fooled," said Ghada worried, " How am I supposed to fool hundreds of people if I could barely pull it off in there?"
Landis's expression carried the same thoughts she had expressed.
"Aye seems we do have a problem, and they won't let any knight under eighteen take part so we can't claim yer younger. You'll just have to stick by the story we make up for you at all times, and act less like a girl."
Ghada glared at Landis, "It's hardly my fault I don't know how to act like a boy. You never gave me lessons in that!"
" Well on the way then we have a lot of learnin' to do then eh?" smiled Landis as he loaded up the carriage. Ghada swore it sunk to the ground lower than it had been before.
" Christ, What did you get me Landis?"
" Well you got your basics, the sword and the shield then we got you some armour which shouldn't be too heavy, but will be challenging enough to move around in for one who has never wore it. And I even bought you're favourite. The bow and the arrow, incase there is any archery involved."
As he introduced it to her she looked it over in awe, never holding real weaponry and armour before. Ghada noticed one each piece of armour was a crest which resembled a large roaring cat of some kind with wings.
" Landis what's this crest which is on everything?"
"Ah you've noticed, good. That is your family crest. You'll notice that it's a sphynx. I thought it would be a good choice as sphynx's tell riddles, and you m'dear will be fooling everyone there. I have also decided on a good strong name for you as you can hardly be introduced as 'Ghada' but you will now be Emlyn which means brave and noble warrior, and you will be known as the only son and heir of Wycliff Marley."
Ghada raised an eyebrow at her new name, as she was now named after the Island she lived on.
"What if someone that knows my family is there? They know that there is no such son!"
"We'll just say that you were a bastard son with a maid instead of a noble woman and kept a secret up until this point."
Ghada still looked worried, "I guess that could work, but I still don't know how I am going to pull this off..."
"We'll start with names first, so as you won't go in there clueless giving yourself away. There are some pretty big names coming into this competition, such as Ryker Appleby, who is son to one of the judges, Devlyn Rhoasa who has won many minor tournaments. Ambrose Finnigan, he is known to be the strongest knight, though very little mind power. Cicero Avory is known to be very sly and clever, so mind you he doesn't get you disqualified. Last but not least is Calix Lancaster, he is the one you should be most wary of. He is said to have the best chances at winning this competition, and is strong in all areas."
Ghada bit her lip thoughtfully as the name "Calix" sounded very familiar to her. Landis smiled knowingly.
"You've met him once before you know. He was only a page boy of course, and he seemed innocent enough then but my has that boy changed. It could possibly be because he was page, squire and now knight to Slade but---''
" HE'S THE KNIGHT OF SLADE?" screamed Ghada in shock.
" Yes, so be careful around him and be sure to make no offensive gestures nearby him, or at all come to that. I don't want to see you on the wrong side of that man."
Ghada sighed and reluctantly she'd be on her guard around him.
"Good. Now here we are," said Landis.
Ghada looked out of the window surprised that they were there already with out her noticing. She saw a huge imitation of a coliseum and for the first time began to feel very nervous. She also saw many men headed towards the entrance, which she assumed were going to be her competition.
Landis peered over all the stuff he was carrying to see where she was looking at, and decidedly dumped half of his load on the unsuspecting girl. Ghada let out a grunt as a heavy load was suddenly placed on her. Landis strolled towards the registration booth while Ghada tried to keep up, but fell behind anyway. As she entered the line with Landis she felt herself bump someone.
"Watch it!" said an indignant voice. Ghada peered around her stack of bags and saw a broad chest plate, she looked up and saw a red faced older looking man staring down at her.
" Mind where you're going slave," he said and stomped off towards the entrance of the coliseum.
Ghada dropped her bags and was about to go marching after him, when Landis's arm shot out to stop her.
"Don't bother. He's one of the judges. Injure him in any way and you'll be out of the coliseum in no time."
Ghada nodded reluctantly, and waited in the line up with Landis under the hot sun until they got registered and entered the coliseum. She had never seen such an arena in her life. It was all circular, and stands were all around the audience she supposed for the crowd and there were booths a bit higher up she supposed for the nobility, as they were covered by a stone roof-like structure from the sun.
As they walked across the arena and into the coliseum itself it cooled off instantly and Ghada let out a sigh of relief. Landis and 'Emlyn' were shown to where the sleeping quarters were and to Ghada's dismay, the competitors had to sleep on a different level then family, or who ever they brought with them.
As Ghada sat down on her assigned bad she was glad to see it was near a window, which was what she was used to at home. Over ten minutes time competitors drifted in and out of the rooms while Ghada remained on her bed sizing up her competition. Although not wanting to admit it many of these men intimidated her by the powerful way they walked or the pure size of them. Ghada guessed that the average height was six foot, while she was under that by about seven inches.
She watched warily as both beds beside hers were still empty. Finally A knight who also seemed shorter than the others yet at least five inches taller than Ghada walked in and took the bed on the left to her. He was very pale, she thought, and seemed quite thin compared to other muscular figures she had seen. He had brown mousy hair which was wind blown by the look of it, and green eyes which were now studying Ghada back.
" Hi I'm Cecil, Cecil Van Haven," and he stuck out his hand towards her in a friendly manner.
Ghada smiled instantly liking the boy.
"I'm G-Emyln Marley," she said standing up taking his hand and shaking it firmly, wincing on her almost fatal mistake.
A tall incredibly muscular knight who was passing by heard this and let out a laugh. Ghada looked up at him to see what he found so funny.
"G-Emlyn," he imitated, "That sounds more like Gremlin, and it suits you since you're a midget," he stated and carried on his way.
Ghada glared at his back when he left, and Cecil noticed the motion.
" Ah don't worry about him. He's a big jerk, he called me a sickly grandmother when he first saw me."
Ghada almost laughed at that remark but withheld it, wanting to keep her only friend.
"Who is he?" she asked instead.
" He's Ambrose Finnigan, and he thinks he's so clever making those remarks. I want to seem him fair in the battlefield if he talks to everyone that way."
Ghada secretly seconded that motion.
"Well its nearly time for dinner," said Cecil, " I heard the food here is supposed to be really good, so we should go and eat some before giant buffoons such as Ambrose show up and eat it all."
Ghada chuckled at this and left the room with her new found friend. Maybe things here wouldn't be so bad afterall.