"We will now be picking sponsors for the new pages," Lord HaMinch began without preamble. "State your name and fief." He pointed at Jonathan.
"Jonathan of Conté," Jonathan said clearly. Although he was the youngest, he had a confidence only a born royal could wield. He was much like his grandfather, King Jonathan IV, in personality, and took his royalty and natural born leadership in stride. He was nothing like his father, Prince Roald in both looks and personality, and in truth did not look like he was of the Conté line. He looked entirely like a Yamani prince. Kimi supposed that wasn't a fair judgment, for he did have the build and height of his father and grandfather, and he certainly was an attractive little boy; and his skin was lighter than a Yamani's and his eyes slightly more round. But these were features often overlooked by the common man. Kimi had overheard her mother and Princess Shinkokami gossiping a while ago, and learned that King Jonathan was not going to die for a good long while, and that when he did and if his grandson was old enough, he'd give the crow to Jonathan. Kimi knew that was reasonable because both the Jonathans had a sense of ruling that Roald lacked. But as Kimi studied him, she wondered if the Tortallan people would really accept a king who looked so foreign.
"I – I'm sorry?" she stuttered, and heard some of the boys giggle. She was so intent on Jonathan that the training master's sudden attention took her by surprise.
Lord HaMinch just looked sad. "I said, what is your name and fief?"
"Kimiko of Queenscove," she said clearly. She held her head up high with a confidence she didn't know she had, and smiled at them.
"And who will sponsor Page Kimiko?" Lord HaMinch asked the senior pages. And to everyone's surprise, including Lord HaMinch, a boy raised his hand.
"Furtan of Crewe?" The boy nodded, and Lord HaMinch nodded slowly in return. Kimi went and stood next to her sponsor.
The other pages were dealt out: a scared redheaded boy named Mortimer of Kennan to a large Bazhir noble named Addam Slama; a small blonde boy named Ulric of Licten to Theobald of Vitry; and a short and wide boy called Jiri of Ostry was taken up by Frantisek of Rezek.
All the first years were terrified, but Furtan gave Kimi an encouraging smile. Now that that was done, the pages followed Lord HaMinch to the Mess Hall. Furtan was patiently describing the palace to Kimi, but Kimi was only half listening since she had spent a great deal of her childhood there because of her parents' relationship with the royals and head healers.
"I'm sorry," she interrupted finally, "but I know the palace well. Thank you for trying to help me, though."
Instead of being annoyed that she wasn't listening, he gave her a grin and patiently asked a question. "Do you visit here often because of your mother?"
Kimi was a little surprised that he knew of the friendship between Princess Shinkokami and her mother, but she nodded. "The castle is like my second home, except for Masbolle. My Aunt Kel and Uncle Dom live there now and we visit there often. I assume you've heard of the Lady Knight Sir Keladry of Masbolle, formerly of Mindelan?"
"Who hasn't? My best friend talks constantly of her. She's her hero." Furtan said with a patient air of someone whose head of Sir Keladry's good deeds a dozen times. "I do have some advice for you. You might want to pay more attention when people, especially teachers and the training master, are talking to you. I've noticed you tend to drift off into your own thoughts and your face changes…"
"My Yamani mask," Kimi filled in with a smile. She liked his patience.
"Yes, so I'd watch yourself."
"Thank you, I will keep that in mind."
They arrived at the Mess Hall and Kimi and her sponsor sat at a table with several other pages. Jonathan and his sponsor also sat with them, to Kimi's delight. She realized with some chagrin that she didn't know Jon's sponsor.
"Excuse me," she said with her most charming smile, "I am a creature with a poor memory and I am deeply upset that I cannot recall your name. If you would enlighten me, I would be so please."
Most boys would gape at her in confusion then quickly give their name and turn away, but not this boy. He seemed thrilled to have a show of flowery words and rose up to it. "My dear girl," he said as dramatically as a Player, "you grieve me with your lack of memory. I am called Patrik of Anjou, a name, as you have realized, of great importance." His dramatic face dropped off and he looked at her with curiosity. "How did I do?"
"You are amazing, exquisite, and so forth, we know," a boy with dark curly hair teased Patrik. "And here we thought the Player battles would diminish after Wallace left." His bright dark eyes turned to Kimi. "I will introduce myself with less flair: I am Gary, or my full name Gareth of Naxen. And you must be Kimiko?"
"Kimi, please," she requested. Her expressive eyes filled with laughter. "I guess word of my coming has been spread around." Mischief began to gleam in her eyes as she added," It's puzzling, for it's not as if I am doing anything unusual."
Patrik, Gary, and Jonathan snorted while Furtan, slow to see she was joking, said thoughtfully," well, in truth, you are. Although there have been five others before you, the idea of a lady knight is still rather new to this generation."
The boys rolled their eyes and ignored his confused stare. Kimi politely explained with a gentle smile that she wasn't being serious.
It was at this moment the squires at the palace started trickling in. Patrik stood with a shout to "Regi Red" when she came through the door. Ana waved to the boys and got her tray of food and came over. Ana put her tray down next to Patrik just in time when Patrik jumped forward to hug her fiercely. Kimi recognized his yell from earlier when Ana was visiting and realized the two must be good friends who hugged often. The rest of the older boys gave out their own gleeful calls of "Regi Red" and made more room for her to sit down.
"Regi Red?" a young Ulric asked his sponsor Theobald.
"Yes," Theo said, "her real name is Regiana, and she insists we call her Ana, but everyone just calls her Regi Red."
Poor Ana, Kimi thought. She will probably be known for the rest of her life as Regi Red. But Ana didn't seem to mind as Furtan and Gary both bombarded her with questions about her summer. Ana laughed at their attention and began to tell them of her time with Sir Merric while being gently prodded to eat by Patrik.
Kimi suddenly noticed how strange it was for a squire to be sitting with all the pages instead of with the other squires. Slowly it dawned on Kimi that all the squires were giving Ana dirty looks and that all of Ana's friends were at least one year younger than her.
And then abruptly, everything made sense. Ana had had no friends her first year as a page. She had been completely alone and all the older pages and pages her year had hated her for being a girl. Kimi studied the two fourth-year pages, Furtan and Patrik and realized they must have been her first friends here. Passionate, caring Patrik and patient Furtan had given her a chance and decided to be outcasts with her. Kimi searched her brain about the other female knights. Alanna had pretended to be a boy, so she had had no trouble, and Kel had had a very old page (Kimi'sfather) to be there for her. The sisters had depended on each other to make it through their first year, and Ana had had no one. Kimi was filled with pity, admiration and gratitude for the older girl. Without Ana paving the way for her through her friends, Kimi would have been abandoned by her sponsor the first day and left alone. But at that thought another piece fell into place.
She looked at Jonathan, then up at the high table at Lord HaMinch. Jonathan had been accepted a little earlier to be a friend to her because the training master believed the same thing would happen to Kimi as what happened to Ana. His behavior, and her father's words all made more sense than they did in Lord HaMinch's office. Kimi was overcome with an emotion she couldn't identify, but she shoved it behind her Yamani mask for later. Then she dropped the mask entirely and smiled warmly at Jonathan. She could tell he knew that she figured it out, and he looked slightly uncomfortable. So Kimi joined into the conversation with her new friends until it was time to retire.
As she got ready for bed she wished she could talk to either her father or the training master and ask who was the driving force behind having Jonathan come a little earlier than was first planned. But then, she thought as she blew out her light and snuggled under the covers of her bed, she should be grateful that she was loved and cared for, and that she had her best friend Jonathan with her.