DISCLAIMER - Mostly everything belongs to Tamora Pierce, whatever.
CHAPTER 7
Kodi had to stay in the infirmary for another week until her ribs healed. Because she was so bored, she tried escaping numerous times, but Neal always caught her or brought her back. Mostly, she lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about how she was going to rule.
After her ribs were back to normal, Kodi spent time relaxing in New Hope. For the past eight months, she had traveled twenty miles a day and worked for her food. Although she still working hard, it wasn't nearly as strenuous as what she had been doing. Kodi had plenty of time to lounge with Captus, whom she soon forgave for 'betraying' her, although she was glad that he did.
Because Kel was eight months along in her pregnancy, the Crown extended a rest leave to her and Dom. Tobe was going with them to Corus, as was Daine. Numair had to stay in New Hope but Daine wanted to visit her children, which was a surprise to Kodi.
"Daine has children?" asked the surprised Kodi.
"Of course. Where have you been?" Neal replied and Kodi stuck out her tongue at him.
Kodi wasn't sure whether to go or not. Daine had offered to let her stay with her, and Kel had offered the same, but Kodi was worried about something else. She was a Scanren princess. What is she went into the heart of Tortall and needed to get back quickly to help her country?
Kodi really wanted to go though, and justified her decision but telling herself that she would work while she was there. She would work by learning how King Jonathon ruled his country. She knew that she wasn't prepared to be a leader yet, and this would help.
Two weeks after Kodi had returned to New Hope, the small group left on horseback for Corus. Neal, Daine, Kel, Dom, Tobe, Kodi, and two squads of the King's Own made up the group. Captus kept up easily besides the trotting horses. Kodi was in line next to Tobe, which was awkward because they hadn't talked once since the kissing incident. Kodi was too embarrassed even to look at him and spent most of the ride staring down at the saddle.
Once they got to Corus, Kodi forgot all about the miserable ride. She was no stranger to large cities, but Corus seemed different somehow. The city was inside a valley, with a river running through the middle of it. Inside the city was the castle with high walls and towers. Once inside the castle, Kodi knew the difference. There weren't any tapestries of bloody wars. There weren't soldiers everywhere, dragging prisoners to interrogation rooms or something.
Kel and Dom, and Daine all had rooms in the palace. Tobe slept in the stables near the horses he loved so much. Daine offered to let Kodi stay in her rooms, and Kodi was glad to accept. If Numair had been there, she would have declined because she was just a little bit scared of him. When Daine went to pick up her two children, Kodi left to explore the palace. It was in the evening and she would have taken Captus, but she couldn't find him anywhere.
Within half an hour, Kodi was completely lost. Wandering aimlessly, Kodi started to get very frustrated. The corridors were empty and Kodi suspected that she was in the underground lower levels. Kel had described them to her as a "rat's warren" and Kodi suspected that she might be here for a very long time. Hearing noises in the next hallway, Kodi's mood brightened as she turned a corner. Seeing where the noises were coming from, she stopped cold.
Two older, uniformed boys were punching and kicking a much smaller boy, who was resisting. Memories of her father bullying others made Kodi so furious that she saw red. Striding over to the boys, they didn't see her until too late. Like her friend had once taught her, Kodi fought unarmed. She doled out kicks and punches and took what she got without faltering. Finally, the older boys left the fight, mumbling something about finding better stuff to do. Cursing their backs loudly, Kodi forgot the smaller boy.
"Thanks." he said. "They must really be bored. Squires don't usually bother pages." Kodi looked at him in surprise.
"You're a page?" In Scanra, pages started training at age fifteen. Although Kodi had known that the system was different in Tortall, she hadn't thought that this small boy was a page.
"It's my first year." The boy explained. "First year pages always get pushed around by some of the older pages. It's called hazing. My name is Hartok."
"I'm Kodi." The two shared a handshake that was made slippery by their blood.
"Come on," Kodi said. "We need to get you to a healer."
"No." Hartok insisted. "Pages don't rat out anyone who they get into a fight with. It's an honor code."
"You're hurt bad though."
"It doesn't matter. Some of my friends have been hurt worse."
"Aren't you supposed to say that you fell down or something?" Kodi remembered Neal saying something about Kel saying that a lot.
"Yes, but that's only if you get caught. Beron and his crowd are good at not getting caught." Hartok spoke matter-of-factly. "It's better that way."
"Hazing is one thing, but they hate you." Kodi said. "Why?"
"It's because of Fianola and Johanna." Kodi liked his frank way of speaking.
"They're killing you over girls?"
"No, well, yes. It's complicated. Fianola and Hanna are both fourth-year pages, but Fianola's older by two years." Hartok misinterpreted Kodi's raised eyebrows. "Yes, they're pages and they're the best. Don't say anything bad about them in front of me." he said defensively.
"No," Kodi said bursting into laughter and Hartok flushed angrily, "That's not what I meant. Lady Keladry is one of my friends. If I said anything bad about lady knights I'd find myself speared in my bed." Hartok's anger disappeared.
"You know the Protector of the Small?" said Hartok eagerly and Kodi sniggered.
"Yes, but don't let her hear you call her that. She hates that name, although it suits her."
"You have to come with me." Hartok was pulling her through the halls by her hand.
"Um, where are we going?" Kodi said. "I don't really care, because I had happened to be lost anyway but…"
"Fianola and Hanna will want to talk to you about the Protector. They have so many questions about her."
Kodi let herself be dragged through the corridors until they got to a staircase. Hearing a lot of people upstairs, she stopped Hartok.
"I'm sorry but we look awful. We can't go up there."
They did look awful. Hartok's face was bruised and his broken nose had bled all over his page's uniform. Both his eyes were swollen and blackened. Kodi's nose had also bled on her clothes and she had most likely sprained her wrist. The fight had bruised her stiff and oversensitive ribs again. She only had one black eye, but one squire's nail had scratched her cheek and it stung.
Hartok stared at her with dismay. "They'll kill me if I don't bring you to them." Tapping his chin thoughtfully, Kodi waited patiently for his solution. "I got it! I can get to the page's wing without being seen and we can clean up a bit there."
Instead of walking up the staircase, they walked down another hall and up a different staircase. Following Hartok, Kodi tried not to get hopelessly confused and didn't pay attention to where they were going. Hartok turned into a corridor that had rows of doors on each side. He stopped before one door with his name on a slate on it. He touched his thumb to the doorknob and whispered his name.
"Beron kept breaking into our rooms so Ryne made a spell for us." Hartok said as way of explanation. Hartok showed her to the washroom, and Kodi hurriedly washed the blood off her face and tried to get it off her shirt. Hartok brought her a tunic that was too big for his and she pulled it over her own shirt. Hartok had changed also and Kodi helped him wash the blood off his face.
Trotting quickly through the halls without talking much, Hartok led her to one of the small page libraries. Opening the door, he barged in wildly. Two girls and four boys looked up when he did.
"Hartok, you startled us!" accused a tall lad with green eyes and brown hair.
"It doesn't matter!" Hartok started to tell the pages about Kodi, but was interrupted.
"Have Beron and his dogs been bothering you again?" asked the older of two olive skinned girls with brown hair and eyes.
"No, but…" he was interrupted again.
"Hartok, you can tell us." A black haired boy insisted.
"Well I have been fighting," Hartok admitted with a grin, "But it didn't bother me!"
"It bothers us!" snapped a red headed boy.
"Shut up!" shouted Hartok. When the resulting quiet came, Hartok continued. "This is Kodi. She knows the Protector."
"We didn't even see you there," said the black haired boy. "I'm Jasson." Kodi knew him as the prince, but he didn't seem the type to want extra attention. Kodi just shook the hand he offered and his look of gratitude confirmed her guess.
"He's a second year." Hartok said. Pointing to the tall boy, he kept going. "That's Jerom. He's a third year." Jerom took her hand and kissed it, making Kodi flush. "And a hopeless romantic." Jerom let go of her hand to tussle with Hartok.
"I'm Fianola." said the older of the two girls. "That's Johanna. We're both fourth years, but I started two years late." Kodi shook their hands. Jerom had Hartok in a head lock.
"I'm Ryne. I'm a first year." The red head had blue eyes and had the air of a mage about him.
"Stop it," Hanna said, pulling the two boys apart. "She's going to think we didn't bring you up right." Her comment made everyone in the room laugh.
"Old Paddy's tough on manners." Hartok explained to Kodi.
"Old who?"
"Padraig haMinch, our training master, wants us to be well behaved." Ryne explained.
"You know the Protector?" Fianola asked eagerly.
"I lived in New Hope with her and traveled down to Corus with her." Kodi said, trying not to brag.
"What's she like?" Hanna was wriggling with excitement.
"She's quiet, but strong." Kodi wondered if they had heard about Kel's expectance. "She got married to a squad leader in the King's Own and she's expecting."
"Really?" Fianola said. Kodi nodded.
"She's our hero." Hartok said. "When we get in fights, we choose them like we think the Protector would. It's palace legend that she wouldn't stand for bullying."
"We try to fight it, like she did." Jerom said.
"We patrol the halls like she did." Jasson added eagerly.
"Only, I think it's harder for us. There are fewer pages this year and most of them are on Beron's side." added Ryne.
A boy who had sat in the corner, unnoticed and hidden, walked forward. "It is harder for us. We also have to fight the criticism of the conservatives who are mad about the Protector being one of the best knights in Tortall, and who don't want any more Lady Knights to prove them wrong." He shook his blond hair out of his blue eyes. Holding his hand out to Kodi, he introduced himself. "My name's Burch. It's a pleasure to meet you." After shaking her hand, he limped out of the library, closing the door behind him.
"Burch of Stone Mountain." Fianola said almost sadly. "His brother was killed in the Chamber before the Protector was knighted."
"He was born with a bad leg, but he didn't let that stop him." Jasson said with awe and respect in his voice. "Burch is a third year and he fights like a machine. He's one of the best, but he only fights when he has to. He also supports female knights and all the changes which the monarchs have made."
"I don't know," Kodi said, "But at least he's got manners.
A sudden scratching on the door made all of them jump. Holding a finger to her lips, Fianola padded silently to it and jerked it open. Kodi laughed as Captus bounded in and sprang at her.
"It's just my dog." Kodi said, trying to brush dog hair off her tunic, which was actually Hartok's tunic.
A bell tolling above them made Kodi jump. The pages laughed at her.
"We used to do the same thing." Jasson assured her.
"We should get back up to our rooms." Hanna told the rest of them. "Lights are out in half an hour." Sighing, the pages gathered up their books and papers. Kodi helped Hartok, who had twice as many papers as the rest of them.
"Punishment work," Hartok said sadly, gesturing and scattering papers. Captus pushed one paper across the floor with his nose, away from Hartok. Watching him chase the dog, the pages and Kodi laughed until their sides ached. Captus finally abandoned the paper and they got on their way.
Trotting quietly through the halls towards the pages' wing, the pages seemed wary of something. Their suspicions seemed to be correct because turning a corner, a row of pages and squires stood in their path.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?" sneered a tall youth with dark hair.
"That's Beron." whispered Hartok to Kodi.
"Is this the one who stopped you from beating up the little snipe?" asked Beron. He took a step towards Kodi, but Captus started to growl, and Beron took a quick step back.
"So now you're getting little puppies to fight for you?" a Bazhir squire spoke from the back of the crowd.
"Nothing different from what Beron's been doing since he picked all of you up." Fianola snapped, rolling her sleeves up in a deliberate motion. Her friends, including Kodi, copied the motion.
"We're not fighting you when you have that dog on your side!" said Beron boldly, although Kodi guessed that he was nervous.
"He won't be fighting with us. Captus, don't join in. Leave us alone for this." Kodi directed the last two comments at her companion who stood loyally at her feet. He nodded in a movement that only she caught.
"You trust them?" asked a page of Beron's.
"More than some dogs I know." Jasson was as calm as he had been in the library. A page started forward, but Beron grabbed his collar to hold him back.
"If you weren't the prince, I'd kill you for that." Beron said sharply. Jasson flushed angrily and he clenched and unclenched his fists.
"Try and thrash me." Jasson dared. Beron threw back his head and laughed.
"Not when you'd go running back to your daddy." A squire spoke through Beron's laughter. This time it was Hanna's turn to grab Jasson's collar to keep him from running at the group. Beron picked up where his friend left off.
"That's just what royalty does, isn't it? Picking fights and running back for royal protection when they're done?" This time Ryne also had to grab Jasson's arm to keep him back. Kodi's face flamed and she tensed up, but no one really noticed until she spoke.
"King Jonathon's sons have honor. They are the Crown's protectors." Kodi said furiously. "You are picking the fights. Most of you are puppets of your fathers' and you think you act on your nonexistent minds." Kodi's friends looked at her in surprise and Beron's in anger.
"We act on our own!" A broad shouldered squire said as he cracked his knuckles.
"Then how come Beron is your leader?" Jerom asked. "If you acted on your own, a bunch of squires wouldn't be threatening pages. How much did Beron pay you to fight tonight?" Beron made a rude gesture towards Fianola and Hanna and that triggered the rousing fight.
Fianola went straight towards Beron, fists at the ready. "Beron's dogs" mixed in with the pages in a brawl. Kodi gave Captus another 'stay out' look and threw herself in. She punched the Bazhir squire in the face when he was beating Hartok. She shot out her leg and kicked him hard in the chest. Looking around quickly, Kodi could tell that while they were fighting hard, Fianola and her pages were losing. They were holding their own for now, but the stronger squires would beat them in the end. Cold fury rose in her. Squires shouldn't pick on younger pages.
Kodi got hit hard in the face and fell back, but she didn't feel it. Springing up again, she head butted the page who had punched her. Ryne was fighting another page and didn't need help but two squires had teamed up against Hanna. Kodi flew in, knocking one down, and wrestling with him on the ground. Pulling him up, she slammed him against the wall. He fell to the ground and she left him there. Fianola had held Beron back for a while, but now his age and size were the advantage. Knowing that her friend wouldn't like her to step in, Kodi looked elsewhere for a place where she could help.
Jerom was lying slumped on the floor while two squires and one page kicked him. Kodi jumped on a squire from behind and wrapped her hands around his neck. Rage pumped through her veins and red flashed before her eyes. The other squire and page started to beat on her and Kodi felt it, but it didn't hurt her. She squeezed the squire's neck tighter and he started to run out of air. The other two tried to pull her off, but she didn't release her hold. Finally, Jasson shouted at her to stop and Kodi shoved the choking squire away from her. The other two grabbed him and ran down the hall.
"Servants." choked out Fianola, who definitely looked the worse for wear. "Let's go now. Hurry." Kodi eased out of Hartok's now bloody tunic and gave it back to him with an apology for dirtying it up. He just laughed.
Fianola, Hanna, Jerom, Jasson, Ryne, Hartok, Captus, and Kodi ran as silently as possible through the halls. They managed to avoid all the servants, who would bring them to the training master. Dropping the boys off at their rooms first, Hanna and Fianola were last to be dropped off. Outside their rooms, the three girls stood around looking at the ground for a minute.
"I like what you're doing." Kodi said awkwardly. "Becoming a knight and all."
"Thanks for helping us out tonight." Fianola said. "We all would have been worse off if you hadn't come. Hartok wouldn't have even made it to our library."
"Nothing to thank me for." Kodi fumbled with Captus' chain around his neck that served as a collar. "I can't stand bullies. I've had some trouble with them."
"You can hold your own now." Hanna sounded awed. Kodi didn't like people sounding like that about her. She wasn't anything special. "You almost killed one of them."
"Guess I must have lost my temper a little." Kodi mumbled, making the two girls laugh.
"You can sure fight though." Hanna said. "We have an hour after dinner free. Usually we go to the practice courts. You could come practice with us if you want." she said hopefully.
"I'd love that." Although both eyes were blackened and swollen, what you could see of the eyes sparkled.
"Till then. Will you be able to find your way back to your rooms alright?" Fianola asked.
"No, but Captus will." Kodi bid them goodnight and followed Captus through the hallways.
Walking through the halls, Kodi was startled when she turned a corner and saw someone walking towards her. Kodi didn't even wait to see who it was before shifting into a fighting stance and stepping back into the shadows. Captus walked forward though.
"Goddess, Kodi. What happened to you?" It turned out to be Daine and Kodi winced. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell her friends about her involvement with a subtle war going on with the pages and squires.
"I fell down." Kodi silently thanked Hartok for giving her an excuse.
"You did not!" Daine pulled Kodi into the light and gasped. "Kodi!"
"It was a very long flight of stairs and I kind of rolled as I went down. It hurt a bit." Kodi said cheerfully.
"I'm sure. I'll talk to you about this later. Right now, King Jonathon wants to talk to you."
"What? Me?" Kodi squeaked. What if he knew about her being the princess and all? Adding to her fear, her wounds from both fights were finally beginning to hurt. Her shirt and breeches were bloody, mixing with the old blood from the first fight that day. Her left wrist was even more sprained now, because of the second fight. Her ribs hurt more and Kodi suspected that it was cracked. Both eyes were black now, and her jaw was also bruised. The scratch on her cheek was raised and swollen.
"It's probably because of you being a prisoner, but it might be because of your magic. He talked to me when I was new to Tortall." Daine said reassuringly, leading Kodi and Captus through the halls.
"You gonna be there?" Kodi was ashamed of being nervous, but she had bad memories of her father interrogating people. They weren't pretty.
"Of course." Daine hugged Kodi's shoulders as they walked. Both were silent until they entered a small room in a tower.
"Hello, Jon." Daine said to a black haired man with blue eyes who was definitely Jasson's father. "This is Kodi."
"Good evening Kodi. It's nice to meet you." The king's voice was smooth and cultured. Kodi almost curtsied, but bowed deeply instead. Oddly, Captus also dipped his head.
"So, Numair tells me that you lived in Hamrkeng before you were brought to New Hope. Is that true?"
"I was born there, sire. I haven't actually lived there for a couple of years, your Majesty." Kodi answered truthfully, knowing that they probably had a truth spell on her.
"Why did you leave?" he questioned. Kodi wasn't going to answer that.
"City was going too cramped for my tastes." She spoke with a straight face.
"Numair says that you are an example of the Magical Healing Deflective Theory. Do you know what that is?"
"Yes, your Majesty. I don't know what he means by it, though. I haven't been hurt enough for it to be effective on me, sire." Kodi smiled sweetly.
"You're lying." said King Jonathon wearily, yet amused. "Numair also says that you show the signs of beatings." Kodi looked sharply at Daine, but Daine looked surprised. The wise king had picked up Kodi's small motion.
"You look like you've been beaten right now." he remarked.
"I fell down, you Majesty." Kodi said innocently. "I'm very clumsy that way, sire."
"All that for one fall?" the King asked, eyes sparkling.
"Well, I fell twice actually. I wasn't paying proper attention to where I was walking. The second time, I was roughhousing with Captus."
"Who is Captus?" the King asked.
"He is my dog, sire." Kodi gestured to the dog, who walked towards the king and raised his paw. Kodi's respect of the king grew when King Jonathon solemnly shook the dog's paw.
"You know that he's special, don't you?" The king asked thoughtfully.
"Well-trained, yes. I don't know about special. He is smart, but maybe he spent time around a wildmage before he came to me."
"You're lying again."
"Maybe just a little bit." Kodi said straight-faced.
"Numair says that you're a wildmage, but you won't use your magic. Lady Keladry says that you changed your eye color once. That isn't wild magic." Kodi clamped her mouth shut. The king leaned forward, reaching into his pocket and bringing forth a small bottle. "Do you know what these are?"
"No, your Majesty." lied Kodi and the king sighed.
"As you know, these are truthdrops. If you don't tell the truth, I will make you drink some. I could also search your mind."
"Fine. Captus is special, but I don't know how." Kodi spit the words out.
"What about the beatings?" The king gestured to her bloody clothes and mangled appearance.
"I wasn't beaten. I got into a fight. Two, actually." Kodi said. Daine raised her eyes to the heavens as if asking for help from the gods.
"With whom?" King Jonathon raised one eyebrow.
"I won't tell you, sire." The king nodded with something like approval.
"Did you hold your own?"
"They'll show it tomorrow, if that's what you're asking." Kodi tried to hide a huge yawn. The day had taken its toll on her.
"I can see that you're tired, but there's one last thing. I want you to swear fealty to the Crown and Tortall." As soon as King Jonathon said that, Kodi froze.
Who had ever heard of a monarch who had sworn fealty to another country? If she swore her fealty to Tortall, she couldn't become Scanra's queen and end the bloody throne.
"Your Majesty, I can't do that, sire." Kodi was nervous, sure that the torture chambers would come next.
"The truth spell tells me that you aren't lying, but then why can't you swear?" The king sounded confused.
"I can't tell you that either. I can tell you that I would never intentionally do anything to hurt Tortall." Kodi said firmly.
"You speak the truth." sighed King Jonathon. "You may go."
Kodi bowed again before she left, Captus and Daine following her.
Please Update Soon - I literally live for updates.