One month later, Kel was ready to leave Chatra. She took all of her things with her, as she would be in Tortall for a few years, but she promised that she would come back.
Peachblossom and Hoshi came with her, but they too needed to be concealed.
Kel was given a small charm by the head mage of Chatra. She was to wear it at all times, as it would conceal her. It made her look like a native of Chatra. She was given more tanned skin and dark hair. Her eyes were made more almond shaped, the shape of her face was changed, with a wider mouth and delicate nose.
There was nothing they could do to make her look shorter. She was taller than every sailor aboard her ship.
Peachblossom and Hoshi were given charms as well. They wore them around their necks as well, but the charms could not be seen as they were hidden by their collars. Peachblossom was made brown, Hoshi was made into a stallion, no longer with white socks, but still with a white star on her forehead. Kel renamed them Tiergan and Vega. With that, she left Chatra.
A ship was sent with twenty sailors, five hands for Kel and the captain, and a personal attendant for Kel to bring with her into Tortall.
The king had insisted on the personal attendant. In fact, he had insisted on an entire troupe for Kel, but she had flat out refused. She did not want to be a burden on King Jonathan. She agreed with the king that she needed at least a personal attendant. She still had to look important, and she still needed someone to ride with through Tortall.
Kel was glad, on that note, that the journey to Tortall was so long. She had spent a long time before she left, almost the entire time after she had been assigned the trip, searching for the perfect attendant. She needed someone who could fight, who could learn the common tongue, if not speak it already, though that was impossible, and someone she could trust.
The trust was the most important part. She planned on, over the course of the journey, to tell her attendant everything.
She interviewed many women and girls, but one stood out to her.
"What is your name?" Kel asked in Chatran to the dark young girl sitting in front of her.
"Zonta, my lady," she said, holding her head high.
Kel smiled. "Hello, Zonta. What makes you want to come with me? And why should I choose you?"
Zonta looked scared for a moment. "My lady, you must promise to tell no one of this." Kel nodded, and Zonta spoke warily. "I visited a healer last year, and she told me that I was barren. I know that when I am seventeen next year and am to be married off, no one will marry me if they know. I know the healer would tell them, that is the way she is. If I stayed here, I would bring shame on my family forever." She looked down. "I wish to get away for a long time."
Kel smiled. This girl was perfect. She understood running away, she understood keeping secrets. "Can you fight?" She asked.
Zonta shrugged. "I learned swords when I was young, but I am not very good. I can hold my own most of the time, though, and I am an almost perfect shot in archery."
Kel nodded, thinking. "Can you speak the common tongue?"
Zonta shook her head, looking sad. "I am sorry to say no, my lady. But I do wish to learn. I know a few words from listening to you speak before. I am a noble, as well, and speak to the younger prince sometimes. He has taught me a few words."
Kel sighed. This could not be better. A noble who knew her place, a young girl who understood secrets and knew how to fight.
Kel put her hand out. "Welcome to Tortall, Zonta." She said.
Zonta's face brightened. "My lady! Thank you!" She said, taking Kel's hand in hers.
Kel grinned. "We leave in three days, Zonta. Pack your things, say goodbye to your loved ones." Just as Zonta was leaving the room, Kel called her back. "And remember, this is a wonderful opportunity. You will bring pride to your family, with all the stories you will have to tell when you get back."
Zonta smiled. "Thank you, my lady."
Kel and Zonta spent much of the trip to Tortall working together on Zonta's common tongue. She learned quickly. By the end of the first year, she was fluent. After Kel explained the situation, the real situation, to her, they worked together on giving Kel an accent when she spoke common tongue, so that she still sounded like she was actually from Chatra.
Zonta wanted to know everything about Kel, and for once, Kel was happy to reveal all to this girl. The first detail she wanted to know about was difficult.
"You said you were married," Zonta said. "what was his name? What was he like?"
Kel smiled weakly. "His name was sergeant Domitan of Masbolle. And I loved him."
Zonta rolled her eyes. "Describe him, Lady Ahndraya." Kel had insisted that she be referred to as Ahndraya at all times, so that no one slipped when they got to Tortall.
Kel closed her eyes and tried to remember Dom. She tried to force memories to the front of her brain, but it was difficult. She had been around nothing familiar for such a long time that nothing sparked her memory any more.
"Tell me something, anything!" Zonta said, truly interested.
Kel opened her eyes. "He was beautiful." She said finally. "He had curly black hair that shone in the sun. He was tall and strong, built like a fighter, with out being to brutish. He had bright blue eyes that never seemed to worry about anything. His smile was intoxicating. It was so big and innocent, and it took over his whole face. You could never help but to smile when he smiled at you."
Zonta sighed. "Can you still picture him?"
Kel closed her eyes and searched. She came up with nothing. "No. I can just name his features."
Zonta looked sad for a moment. "Oh." She said. "That is sad. But you will see him again soon!" She said cheerily, and Kel smiled. It was true. Less than a year, and she would lay eyes on him again. But it cut deep into her that she could not touch him. She could not kiss him, she could not speak to him about old times, she could not wake up beside him. She could only look at him from afar.
"What about your friends? Will you see them?"
Kel sighed. "My best friend, another knight, two years older than me, had a young child with my best friend from childhood. Her name was Andrea. She must be at least eight years old now."
Zonta sighed. Talk of children always upset her. She had confided in Kel that she wanted a daughter more than anything, but she could never have one of her own. Kel assured her that she could always adopt a child, but Zonta had said with some disdain that she did not know what it was. When Kel had explained it, Zonta had decided that they did not have it in Chatra.
Kel went into great detail about her home life. She tried to shy away from speaking of her immediate family, as she would not see them in Corus, but Zonta knew better. Speaking of her parents hurt Kel at first, but thinking of them helped her. She had been forgetting them.
By the end of the trip, Kel had a perfect Chatran accent, Zonta was fluent in the common tongue and knew everything that there was about Kel.
When the ship pulled into the harbour in Tortall, Kel was comfortably dressed in the proper Chatran clothing. She wore a long sleeved dress that flowed around her, with a light cloak that covered her entire dress and had a piece that covered her face. She was comfortable with the dress now, but she did not approve of it. The classic women's dress called for the face and hair to be covered, but only in the presence of other men. Kel knew it was degrading, and chose to wear her Tortallan dresses and tunics when in Chatra as a protest against it. No one seemed to really mind, as she was a foreigner. It was like she was not human. But now, she and Zonta both wore light cloaks over their dresses and coverings over their faces.
Kel waited at the edge of the ship until the men had lowered the plank. Zonta stood just behind her. Kel walked down the plank briskly, head held high, back straight, just like the ambassador she was playing would.
They arrived early in the morning, so Kel and Zonta could leave without spending the night in town.
Kel rode Vega, also known as Hoshi, while Zonta rode the horse that the king had provided Kel with as part of her payment. As there were no suitable pack horses in Chatra, as they had no where to pack to, Kel used Tiergan, also known as Peachblossom, as her packhorse.
They kept a slow pace to Corus. As much as Kel wanted to go home, she was scared. She was terrified that she would not be able to hold herself back, terrified that she would let something slip and lose her cover. She would not be able to slip away again. Could she be considered to be committing treason by leaving and working for the government of another country? Probably. Zonta tried to help her keep it off of her mind.
"Think of the good things, Lady Ahndraya." She said one night as she braided Kel's long hair into a plait. The length of ones hair was something that the magic could not conceal. Luckily, Kel's hair had grown very long in the past few years.
Kel sighed. "Like what?" She said in her accent, practicing it.
Zonta shrugged. "You know in your heart what the good things are, not me." She said. "Close your eyes, and think of what makes you happy. Then concentrate on it."
Kel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. What made her happy? Being with her friends did.
"What did you think of?" Zonta asked quietly.
Kel frowned. "My friends. But that can never happen."
Zonta shrugged again in that incredibly un-noble-like way that she so often did. "Obviously, there was something they liked about you. However much you conceal it, you will still be you. You will have the same emotions, the same personality, the same thought process. Just because you look and sound different does not mean that you are a totally different person. You have just changed enough so that they will know recognize you."
Kel turned around. "How can you be sure?" She asked.
Zonta sat down, done with Kel's hair. "I can't. No one can ever be sure of anything, can they? There can be theory, there can be fact. But even fact can be disproved. There can be judges and juries, kings and priests, theorists and philosophers. But not one of them knows more about what will happen than the other. Only you and the gods can control what happens to you. They will only recognize you if you let them recognize you.
"Just stay mysterious. Don't give too much away. Try to shy away from telling your history, and if you do tell it, make sure you know your story beforehand, and make sure it is memorized. Mixing up your stories is the last thing you want to do."
Kel smiled. "Zonta, did you go to school?"
Zonta shrugged. "Only until I was about ten."
Kel shook her head, bewildered. "You must finish that schooling. You could be smarter than anyone else in the Chatran courts."
Zonta beamed with Kel's compliment.
The next morning, they set off on what would be their last day of traveling. By late morning they could see the city, and by mid afternoon, they were at the gates of the city.
Kel was ready to collapse with worry. Zonta looked over at her. "Be yourself, Lady Ahndraya." She said. "Be yourself and be someone else."
With that, Kel nudged Hoshi forward and through the gates into Corus.