(-a/n- Hello notre amies! We are back again :D Sorry for the lack of quick updates but it takes us a long time to write a chapter…for one thing we have to be round one of our houses and although that is quite often, we then have to focus our little brains on the task and try to prevent distractions… so as you can see it takes quite a while…Anyway thanks for the encouraging reviews :D )
NubiaThanks!
Phoenix Fanatic: Thanks! Not really AU, it will fit in with Tamora Pierce's amazing stories, but focusing on own character…
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Confusedknight & Queenoftheostlers'Its getting to be a real problem, the King's spy network is too good, ever since the whisper man started to work for the King. We can't even get a good spy in the palace, the whisper man knows all in our network and even old Stephan, who would send us word, works more for Cooper and the crown. We need someone in there who can be in the midst of things, even if we can just gain news from the nobles, the nobles aren't all as stupid as they look, they know when troubles brewing in their neighbouring lands, someone in the Palace who could report back to us. Someone whom Cooper doesn't know, someone who can sit under their noses and not attract unwanted attention.'
'That's all very well, but, actually finding someone and finding them a position in which they could do all that would be nigh on impossible.'
Voices drifted up to me, as I lay in a warm blanket of sleep. It was still early in the morning, about an hour before sunrise. The room below mine in the tavern was often used for important meetings, and it being quite an old building the voices often drifted up through the draughty floorboards, allowing me an insight into everything that was going on with the Rogue.
Deciding that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep no matter how hard I tried, I got up, dressed in a shirt and short breeches, and walked sleepily down the stairs. As I was walking along the corridor below, heading for the stairs and the kitchens. The door to my left opened and out came the two men who I had overheard talking earlier. They were still in the midst of a heated discussion and didn't notice me, until they knocked into me and sent me sprawling to the floor.
'Sorry lad, didn't see you there,' said a man with a beard.
The other man, who was tall and dark-skinned, however was staring at me.
'That's it,' he said.
'What's it?' said the other man irritably.
'You didn't notice the lad just then did you?'
'No,' said the man slowly.
'And you said you needed a spy in the Palace who wouldn't be noticed…'
'Yeah…'
'So why don't we put a lad into the palace, he can train with the pages.'
'He would be in the middle of all banquets, serving and such like.'
'His friends would know what was happening in their own fiefs.'
'He would have access to most areas.'
'He would be trusted among the nobles, pretending to be one himself and all.'
By now both men, their faces alight, were hurriedly turning the idea over in their minds. I sat on the floor watching them.
The dark skinned man, suddenly seemed to remember where he was, seeing me still on the floor, he offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet.
'Lad, I think you've just helped solve our problems,' he beamed.
The other man was also staring at me, 'What's your name lad, I've seen you hanging round the kitchens of the Dove before?'
'Dan, Dan Hayes.'
'You got family Dan? Friends in the city?'
'No,' I replied, 'my family live in the country.'
'How would you like to become a page in the Royal Palace?'
My mind reeling with shock, I stared at the two men, it had to be fate, only hours after I had vowed to make the Princess notice me, I was being offered that very chance. I didn't care for knighthood and glory, that all seemed beyond me, a simple merchant's son, but the title 'Page' would make it acceptable for me to commune with Lianne, I mean some of her brothers were training to be knights, and to live at the Palace all year.
'A Page? Really?'
'Yes, bet you never thought you would end up in the Palace did you?'
'But I'm no noble, they only let the sons of wealthy fiefs, who own land and titles and everything…' I trailed away.
'We can sort that out, but this will be our secret, right? You'll tell no one where you're going, and you're to stay away from the Dove for a year or so, so no one will recognise you. Basically you'll train as a page and if you hear any information you think would interest us, you'll pass it on. We might ask you to do a bit of digging while you're there but nothing more than that.'
'By Mithros, I'll laugh when the realise one of their 'pure-blooded knights' glory of the realm, was brought up among thieves and peasants.'
'It'll be hard lad, but it'll pave a way for a certain future, you think you can do it? There'll be no going back once you're in there?'
And so it was, the pivot, the turning moment in my life, when I decided to renounce the future laid before me and to take a different path, a path of knighthood and freedom from growing up a servant, struggling to support my mother and sister.
'I'll do it.'
And so two weeks later I found myself standing in front of a large mirror in the privy of my new room in the palace. I was scrubbed from head to foot, given a new identity and dressed in the smart red and gold uniform of a Page.
I stared at myself, as though seeing myself for the first time. The crisp new uniform looked over large on my skinny frame and in my opinion was far too grand. But I chided myself, I was Daniel of Riversend now and there was no going back. My blonde hair flopped over my tanned face and my green eyes stared back at me with a level gaze. Having been cleaned up and fed well for the last two weeks had dramatically changed my appearance, I was still skinny for my average height, but I could just about pass as a younger son from a small fief and for now that would do.
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Confusedknight & Queenoftheostlers xxx