Chapter five
After the week of punishment work, all the pages who weren't confined to the palace were allowed a trip to the city. Rose and Gwenny were among the pages who were confined to the palace. They had run into Derran and a friend of his, Leran, and had gotten into a fight. Actually, Leran had made some comments, which provoked Rose. She not being the most even-tempered person around, had angrily returned the comments, which had eventually escalated into a fight. Derran joined in to help his friend, and as two against one wasn't really fair, Gwenny had gotten involved as well.
Several servants had ended up breaking up the fight and took them to Sir Robert. He was not pleased to see Derran and Rose brought to him for fighting again. Derran was confined to the palace for another three weeks, and Rose was confined for four. Leran and Gwenny were each confined to the palace for two weeks, and all four of them had been given a week of punishment work.
Maddie had tried to teach Rose about the "Yamani face" without much success. "This is Tortall, not the Yamani Islands, Maddie. I can't get my face to be calm and try to be like stone. When I get mad, I show it. I don't go around hiding my feelings. And the best way to get me to do something is to try to get me to do the opposite. I wasn't that serious about training for my shield until Father said he didn't want me to. Then I got serious and spent a week talking him around."
On the free day, Maddie and her friends went to Corus and explored. Maddie, Sabine, and Lianne weren't very familar with the city and had to depend on Corrie to show them around. They looked through the items for sale in several shops and Maddie bought adagger that Rosehad asked her to buy for her. After, everyonehad somelunch at an inn called the Dancing Dove and then returned to the palace. Maddie gave the dagger and change to Rose, then went to visit her grandfather, Duke Baird and chief of the palace healers.
Jasson was also visiting and was having an animated discussion on the best uses for the Healing Gift. the conversation stopped when Maddie entered and Duke Baird hugged his granddaughter. "And how are you today, Maddie?"
"I'm fine, Grandpa," replied Maddie. "I love being a page. I could describe it as being 'jolly', like my friend Lianne does sometimes."
"Well, your father wouldn't," said Duke Baird. "He complained frequently. But I suppose he thought it was worth it in the end. Though I believe he only became a knight because there has ben a Queenscove knight for generations."
"Aunt Kel told me," answered Maddie. "She said Papa brought that up repeatedly. Jasson, you never did explain to me fully why you decided to try for your shield. You could have gone to the royal university and become a mage or a healer like Grandpa."
"Come one, Maddie," responded Jasson. "You know I hate studying. The only academic stuff I'm halfway interested in is reading, and that's only if what I'm reading is interesting. I'm more interested in learning how to fight. And you know Papa's both a knight and healer. So I'm going to be the same. You can't, because your Gift isn't a healing one."
"Fine, I get your point," said Maddie. She stayed a few minutes longer to talk with her grandfather, then left.
A few days later, Maddie and her friends were doing their morning glaive practices when they heard a familar and nasty voice. "What are yougirlsdoing, jabbing around with pigstickers?" The six girls whirled around to see Derran, Leran, and three other boys.
"And what are you boys doing up so early?" retorted Corrie. "I thought you five didn't like to get up any earlier than you had to."
One of the boys, who had dark hair and cold, glittering, dark green eyes, smirked. "We felt really awake this morning, and decided to see what you six were up to. Derran, where's Nick? This is something he should be-"
"He's not interested, Jarlen," interrupted Derran. "He got cold feet or something and said I should leave the girls alone and refused to have anything to do with driving them away. He wasn't that interested last year, for that matter. But he did hang around when we were trying to get rid of them." He jerked his head in the direction of Corrie and Gwenny.
Another boy, with dark red hair and blue eyes, suddenly looked uncertain. "Just why are we doing this? Our efforts to drive Corrinna and Gwendline away last year didn't do any good. They're still here, and it just annoyed half the pages, who don't mind having lady knights.'
"Don't tell us you have cold feet, too," said Leran in disgust. "Pachel, whos's side are you on?"
"Your's, of course," responded Pachel. "I don't like lady knights and girl pages. But our efforts are sort of futile."
Just then, the bell rang and Jarlen said, "Never mind. Let's go get ready for breakfast." The boys quickly disappeared.
Maddie was extremely annoyed. "I hate having my glaive practice interrupted. And now we can't finish, because we'll be late if we do."
Sabine spat on the ground, earning a shocked look from the others. She glared at them. "So I'm unladylike. What does it matter? You're all training to be knights, and that's not very ladylike. Look, I need some way to express my feelings, and as I don't swear..."
"Point taken," said Lianne. "We'd better got inside and get ready." The girls gathered their weapons and headed inside.