The rest of the boys ignored Kimi, and it annoyed her a little. She had a friendly personality, and that so many despised her hurt her some. But that she had people were willing to involve her in their groups and get to know her pleased her more than she could express in words. After lunch, the boys and Kimi changed to go into the training yard. Riding was first, and Kimi ran with the other first year boys to pick a horse. Kimi found a nice responsive brown mare that was a good size for her: light and bony but tall.
The directions to the first year pages were to pick the mount they liked, then run out and tell Lord HaMinch. By this time the rest of the pages showed up and started saddling their own horses. Kimi petted her horse Sanda one last time to reassure herself that this was the horse she wanted, and dashed for the stable door. A hand grabbed her arm and shoved her down into an empty stall. Kimi was taken by complete surprise and she fell. A shock coursed through her body when an angry boy of about thirteen kicked her. She had never been man-handled before in her entire life. She was taught by her mother the fighting arts of the Yamani, but never had she been grabbed and thrown somewhere when she wasn't expecting it. She tried to climb to her feet but the boy kicked her down again.
Angry and hurt, Kimi snapped. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, but cut it out!" Any peaceful ending to this was shattered when Kimi swung her legs out and tossed the boy on his back. She was glad his stance had been so unbalanced. She was up on her feet and looking down on the sandy-haired boy before her. He was short but well muscled and his brown eyes gleamed hate at her. He sprang to his feet and took a swing at her head. Kimi ducked and stumbled farther into the stall, but by this time the boy was restrained by a few of the pages.
"You filthy half-breed slut have no right to be here," he spat.
"More right than you! I, at least, have the decency not to go around kicking girls and calling them offensive names!" Her eyes blazed with more anger.
"You're not a girl. You're a half-Yamani savage that deserves no respect." He opened his mouth to continue, but Jonathan had come forward to stand between the two. He held out his hand to stop Kimi from retorting and stared icily at the boy. Kimi was surprised that all the other pages had given way to him to deal with the matter. Jon was clearly the youngest.
"What is your name?" Jonathan asked coldly.
"Frantisek of Rezek, Your Highness," he tried to pull himself out of Furtan and Patrik's hold, but they gripped him even tighter.
"Fighting is against the rules, as you know, Page Frantisek. You will not lay another hand on Page Kimiko or any other page unless in combat on the training courts. Do you understand me?" Kimi had never heard Jonathan use that authoritative voice before and it gave her chills.
"Yes, Your Highness," he said. He appeared and sounded embarrassed, and refused to meet Jonathan's eyes.
"Fine, now let's hurry so we are not late." Furtan and Patrik released Frantisek and he stumbled away toward his horse.
"Jon, I –" Kimi started, but Jonathan cut her off.
"No need to thank me, Kimi."
"Thank you? Jon, you can't fight my battles for me!" She was close to tears and some of the pages were watching them, but she didn't care. "How will I ever get any respect around here if you always step up and protect me when bad things happen?"
"Kimi," he switched to Yamani and put real pleading in his voice. "Can we discuss this later, please? I don't want to draw attention."
"But what if I want to draw attention to us?" She shouted back in Common, undeterred.
"Kimiko of Queenscove," he continued in Yamani, but this time with an edge of steel in his voice. "I don't want to cause us to be late, so we will talk later. Don't make me use a royal order."
"As if a royal order from you would work on me," she muttered, finally submitting to his will to talk in Yamani. She shoved past him, not caring that she was acting childish, and went to inform the training master of her horse selection.
They saddled their horses and rode around to prove their skills. Jon ignored Kimi's glares, as Kimi ignored Frantisek's glares. After riding was over, it was time for hand-to-hand combat, taught by a Shang warrior.
It was Hatsumomo, the Shang Falcon from the Yamani Islands, who was both beautiful and deadly. She taught the younger ones some basics and then set them to practice while working with the older pages on proper kicks. Chiyo, who lived at the palace as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Shinkokami, assisted Hatsumomo with the pages. The royal family had returned to the palace a week earlier, and so Chiyo was able to watch over and correct the younger ones in technique.
"Your punch is too high, Page Kimiko," Chiyo commented to her in Yamani.
"Please speak to me in Common," Kimi said. The words 'half-breed slut' still stung on the edges of her mind.
"Certainly," Chiyo switched. She looked puzzled, and repeated her correction in Common. Jonathan glanced at her, but Kimi ignored it and punched harder and lower.
Next was archery, and for an hour the pages practiced their shots. When they finished, it was around six o'clock and they were told to go to the baths. Kimi waved good bye as she trotted up the hill to her room to bathe. After a nice soak, Kimi got dressed and sat down on the bed. She hurt all over with bruises and stiffness, but she didn't have the will power to use her new talisman just yet. Glancing at the clock, she saw that she had enough time to do some school work before dinner. She managed to finish two math problems before a quiet knock was issued on the door. She opened it to Jon, who came in and said in Yamani, "We need to talk."
"Don't speak to me in that language," she said and threw herself on the bed. She tried her best to look insolent.
"Huh?" Jon was started enough to reply in Common. "But Kimi, it's our…" but he seemed unable to describe it.
"We are going to be Tortallan knights, so we should speak Common as they do," she explained. "Besides, I don't want to give them more reason to call me a half-breed savage."
"You shouldn't let that get to you. Yamani is what you are." He sat down in the chair and tried to look calm.
"Point taken," she said. She wasn't even listening. "And you came here for?"
Jonathan started to grow angry at her tone. "Stop that! If you're going to act like a spoiled brat then I'm leaving."
"Good."
"Kimi, please! Can we please talk?"
"Then talk! As your subject I will listen, Your Highness."
He leaned closer to the bed, trying to keep a rein on his temper. "Stop it. Kimi, I will always be your friend before your prince. You know that. I also think you know why I am here a year early, though it isn't of great importance. The training master thought you wouldn't have any friends like Ana. I'm also here because I told your father I'd protect you because he asked me."
"My Da did what?" She could feel her heart breaking.
Jon realized he spoke too rashly and told her too much. "I didn't think I had to really do anything, that is, until Frantisek pushed you down."
Kimi wasn't even listening; she was trying to hold back tears. She knew beforehand about why Jonathan may have started a year early, but it didn't hurt her. In truth, she had been a little grateful and even touched because the training master wanted her to succeed, and Jonathan had been willing to do so much to help her. But now she understood that her emotions and reactions had been misplaced. No one had faith she could do it alone. She had to have protectors and friends set up for her because she was a weak female who needed guiding through the process to be a knight. She was hurt and weeping, and Jonathan was standing next to the bed looking uncomfortable and uncertain.
"Kimi?" he started after a few minutes of her tears." "It's – uh – time to go to dinner."
"Go without me, I'm not hungry."
"I'll bring you back something," he offered.
"No, thank you. I don't want company and I have a lot of lines for Etiquette to do."
"Oh, right," he said. Weeping females confused and scared Jon. Kimi suddenly felt sorry for the princess who had to marry him.
"I'll be fine. I need to be alone to think. I'll see you tomorrow." She couldn't believe she was reassuring the boy who caused her to cry. Jon left with one more worried glance at her, and then she was alone.
"What do you think?" she asked one of her lucky Yamani waving cats. It waved merrily at her, and suddenly she hated it. She searched around for a box and pulled one out from beneath the bed. The next ten minutes was spent removing anything Yamani and shoving it into the box. When she was done, the room looked bland and empty, but Kimi was feeling a sense of accomplishment.
There was a knock on the door and Kimi shoved the box under the bed and answered it. Patrik rushed past her with a tray of steaming food and placed it on a side table. He beckoned for Kimi to sit on the bed, and then moved the table so she could eat off of it easily. He sat back in the chair and waited for her to start eating.
"I get scared when girls stop eating," he said as a way of explaining his intrusion.
"Because of Ana?" Kimi probed gently. She picked up a fork and scooped up some vegetables but didn't eat it.
"Partly," he said. His hazel eyes widened with shock. "You haven't been crying, have you?"
"And so what if I have? Girls are supposed to be more emotional." She could not stop the bitterness in her voice as she continued. "More fragile, too."
"Nonsense," he said. He eyed her with some concern. "You're not going to change your mind and quit, are you?" When she said nothing he shook his head. "I don't know what Prince Jonathan said to you, but it's not true. I saw you against Frantisek, and I think you could have handled it fine if Prince Jonathan had not stepped in. I saw you toss Frantisek on his back too, which was pretty impressive for a first year. You are at the same level or higher than the other first year pages right now in riding, archery, and combat, and we've just started. You're smart too. I know you'll have to work much harder than everyone else to keep up with the physical training, but you can do it. What I am trying to say is that you have more of a right to be here than anybody, and you'll do it better too."
"Do you really think so?" She really needed to know that she was doing the right thing. It was hard to tell if she was being unreasonable, and it was the first time she was having serious doubts.
"Yes, I do. Eat the meat thing. I don't know what it is, but it is really good."
"Thanks, Patrik," she said quietly, and obediently took a bite of the meat. "You're right, it is good." He grinned at her, and they talked about the Shang Falcon. Kimi found out it was her second year, and that last year Hatsumomo couldn't even speak Common at all.
"I thought her accent was kind of strong," Kimi commented thoughtfully.
"You should have heard her last year," Patrik grinned at her. "On the other hand, you could have translated for us. The first two months most of us pages got bruises on our hands because we misunderstood her. She has a nasty temper and would smack us on the back of the hand for not paying attention. She's beautiful though," he added with a fazed smile.
"Oh, please don't," she protested. "I really do not want to hear about your crushes on our teachers. It would be like me having a crush on our Etiquette teacher and telling you all about it."
"Good point," he grimaced. "But Hatsumomo is much prettier."
She smiled. "Want my pie?"
"Sure, if you don't want it. It's good pie."
"That is, if you'll help me with my math work," she said, and enticingly held up the slice of pie.
He groaned. "All right, you have yourself a deal."