Kel was just buttoning up her jerkin again when the flap of the tent twitched. "I'm fine, Neal," she called, exasperatedly, but any further convincing of Neal she might have tried to do was broken off when, instead of Neal's angular form, Shinko slipped inside the tent instead.
"Kel," she said softly. "I think I need your help."
Kel gestured to her to sit down at the small table where she had been using the bruise balm. Shinko took the seat without any of her usual grace. Although Shinko had the usual emotionless expression that all Yamani nobility mastered from birth, Kel could see dark circles around her friend's eyes, and small lines of tension around her mouth.
"You've noticed, haven't you?" Shinko asked, abruptly. "There is something wrong with me."
I am a lake, Kel thought, carefully trying to school her thought and emotions into calm. She still wasn't sure if it was wise to tell Shinko what the Chamber had shown her - not just because she didn't yet really know anything, but also because she really didn't want to scare her friend before she also had some kind of solution. And yet here Shinko was.
"I know you've noticed," Shinko went on. "Once, sometimes twice a day for the past week, I have suddenly found myself not quite knowing where I am, or what somebody is saying to me."
Kel stopped herself from biting her lip. "Perhaps you're unwell?" she suggested, hating the Chamber and whoever was causing this for putting them both in this situation.
Shinko let out a small, humourless laugh. "That is what Roald thinks," she said. "Actually, I think he thinks I am pregnant." She looked Kel in the eyes. "But I don't feel unwell otherwise… I feel totally normal, until it happens, and then it's as if I were asleep, or in a faint. I don't remember what people have said to me. And when it happened the last time, and the time before, I felt almost as if something were pulling at me - at my mind, just as I came back to myself."
Kel took a deep breath. "I noticed," she admitted. "I thought I was imagining things, since nobody else seemed to."
Shinko gave a small but genuine smile. "That is because you are a true friend," she said, and Kel could tell from the seriousness of her tone that she meant it.
"I don't know much about magic," Kel said, carefully picking her words while her mind churned. If Shinko thought something was wrong too, then maybe the dream was a real warning. And the implications of that made cold fear well up in the pit of her stomach. "But I did notice something. When you blanked out the last couple of times, there was something off about your shadow. It looked like it was moving away from you… but you weren't moving at all. The only explanation I can think of for that is mage-work." She could tell Shinko what she suspected without scaring her with tales of nightmares and visions from the Chamber, Kel decided.
Shinko stared at her, shocked. "My shadow? What could that possibly mean?" She looked down at the fan in her lap, a troubled expression on her face. Her eyes held none of their usual spark.
"I don't know," Kel said, equally troubled. "I've been trying to see if I could spot anyone doing anything suspicious around you, but so far, I haven't had much luck."
Shinko sighed. "I wish you'd told me earlier," she said, but without malice.
Kel looked at her friend, some of her guilt showing in her face, despite her best efforts to keep up her Yamani mask. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't want to say anything, in case it really was nothing, just my suspicions and guesswork. I thought I was jumping at shadows, to be honest."
Shinko reached out and took her hand. "I understand, Kel," she said. "I don't blame you. I will also start watching for anything suspicious. And even if we don't know anything, I think we should tell Roald, and the King. The Palace has resources that could…."
Her voice trailed off as her face paled, and Kel felt the curling fear in her stomach as Shinko's face went blank in that now all-too-familiar manner. "Shinko!" Kel called quietly, and shook her friend gently by the shoulders. Shock made her let go, though, and stare at the wall, as Shinko's shadow rippled. As Kel watched, horrified, the shadow strained, then ripped slowly away from its connection to Shinko's feet, and drifted towards the wall. "Shinko!" she called again, urgently. "You have to wake up!"
Shinko coughed, and the blood began to return to her cheeks. Suddenly, her shadow was where it had been before, as if nothing had happened. She started as she found herself eye to eye with Kel, whose hands were still on her shoulders. "It happened again, didn't it?" she said, her voice quivering a little and her fear showing on her face in the trembling of her lip. That, more than anything, told Kel just how afraid her friend really was, and she pulled her into a hug.
"We'll work out what's doing this," she promised. And while this is scary enough, if the dream was real - if the Vision was real - then the threat to Tortall is even more terrifying, she thought, trying to quell the fear she felt herself.
Before either of them could say anything more, a battered looking Owen pulled open the tent flap and grinned cheerfully at them. "Well, I haven't flown like that in a good while," he said, and chuckled. "It was pretty jolly to joust against Sir Raoul, though! Remind me never to challenge him."
Kel gave Shinko what she hoped was a reassuring look, that they could continue their conversation later, and tried to grin at Owen. "I suppose it's my turn to fly, then?" she said, trying to sound light-hearted.
Owen nodded. "They were just tidying the lanes as I left. You should probably go and get ready. Enjoy the view!" he said jokingly, then groaned as he lowered himself into the chair that Shinko had just vacated.
"I should return to the stands, then," Shinko said quietly, and slipped back out of the tent quickly.
Kel pushed her bruise balm towards Owen. "This stuff's good," she said, grabbing her helm before following Shinko out of the tent.
Outside, she glanced left, to where Shinko was headed, and almost jumped as she realized that Sato, the Yamani mage, walked with her. She had to have joined her almost outside the tent! Kel's eyes narrowed as she watched them walk away, until her focus was broken by someone calling her name.
"Lady Knight Keladry! Are you ready for the final joust?"
As Kel mounted Peachblossom and tried to focus her attention on Raoul, images from the vision the Chamber had showed her danced around her head. She took a breath and tried to clear her mind. Embarrassing yourself in front of Raoul, and everyone else, won't help matters in the slightest, she tried to tell herself. Especially since Raoul will know instantly that something is up if I make a silly mistake! She rested a hand on Peachblossom's neck, feeling his pulse against her fingers, and tried again to clear her thoughts.
After a minute, she felt a little less distracted, and more determined not to embarrass herself or her former knight master with her showing on the field. She nudged Peachblossom to a walk, took up her position at the opposite end of the tilting lane to Raoul, and readied the lance handed to her by the field monitor. At her signal, Peachblossom took off along the field, and Kel let her troubled thoughts momentarily fly away as she focused only on Raoul's shield.
Both lances hit their mark, but neither found the sweet spot to lift the other out of their saddle. At the other end of the lane, Peachblossom wheeled around, ready for another charge. Kel patted his neck and, despite herself, glanced over at the stands. Shinko was now sat next to Sato, still in conversation, and all the worries Kel had left behind with the first charge came flooding back. Before she could get a handle on them again, the field monitor gave the signal. "Charge," she murmured to Peachblossom tensely.
She knew her focus was off even as Peachblossom started to gallop. As her lance bounced harmlessly off the left side of Raoul's shield, she felt herself slammed out of her saddle and bounce into the grass. For the second time that day, she tried to catch her breath, although this time she was only winded from the impact of her behind on the grass. After a moment, Raoul appeared, and offered her a hand up.
"I thought for sure you'd best me," he said jovially. "Good thing Neal wouldn't let me bet against myself, eh?"
Kel mock-glared at him, unsure if he was joking or not - she'd have to ask Neal later - and let him pull her to her feet.
After ensuring their horses were rewarded for their hard work with a rub-down and a brush, Kel and Raoul were, as the winner and runner-up, required to return to the field to be presented with their prizes. As they left the stables, they shared a resigned glance, both knowing the other would rather not be involved in anything ceremonial.
Kel, in particular, wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible, so that she could talk to Shinko again. As Raoul was awarded his prize by King Jonathan, she watched her friend, who was now stood next to Roald. Sato was seated directly behind them, and Kel couldn't stop herself from repeatedly glancing at her, trying to work out if she possibly could be working some kind of magic on the princess, or not.
"And the runner-up prize goes to Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan!"
At the announcement of her name, Kel was ushered forward to stand before Roald and Shinko, so that the prince could give her her prize: fifty gold nobles in a red velvet bag. She bowed, Yamani-style, to the royal heirs, before accepting it. "Well done, Kel," Roald said, but before he could continue, Shinko's face again went pale, mouth drooping and eyes rolling back. Kel's horror must have shown on her face, for Roald stopped speaking, his face losing colour as well as he saw Shinko's state. As he began calling Shinko's name, trying to awaken her from her trance-like state, Kel looked down at Shinko's shadow, and was aghast to see that, where it should have been, the grass was turning black and crumbling away around Shinko's feet.
Quickly, she looked up, and, over Shinko's shoulder, her eyes met those of the Yamani mage.
"You!" she began, all her suspicions confirmed. Almost every time she had seen Shinko in this state, Sato had been close by - and while the mage had been putting on a good act of having learned Tortallan manners and seeming interested in getting to know the people of its court, Kel couldn't believe that someone who had been so renowned for shunning everything but Yamani traditions could so completely change their mind, even after a decade.
Before she could voice her thoughts any further, however, the mage's eyes flashed a warning and she began to chant loudly in Yamani. The concerned whispers of the crowd, the panicked look on Roald's face, and the confused questions from the King and Queen intensified into a panic, as all began to assume the same thing Kel had: whatever was happening to Princess Shinkokami, the mysterious mage from the Yamani Islands was responsible. Now she was incanting a spell over her, in plain sight of everyone!
Only Kel and, a few seats away, Yuki, realized what was truly happening. The mage's words were not a curse or an offensive spell. In fact, as Kel heard the chant, she immediately knew she had to have been wrong. "It's a spell of protection," she cried to Roald, as his hand reached for his sword, his other hand still gripping Shinko's wrist. "A powerful one! Whatever is happening to Shinko, it's not her doing it!"
She could hear Yuki shouting similar things to the crowd around them, as the shouts and confusion grew louder and more panicked. From behind her, Kel heard another familiar voice.
"The mage is attacking the princess! We must stop her!" Quinden pushed through the growing crowd towards the royals, sword drawn.
Before Kel could think about what she was doing, she had drawn her own sword and stepped in front of Shinko, Roald, and the mage, facing down Quinden.
"Mindelan!" he roared. "You would protect this sorceress, when she attacks Tortall?"
Kel blocked his sword strike easily. "You don't speak Yamani - I do! She's protecting her, Quinden! Stand down!" Her last words held the echo of her three years of command, and Quinden hesitated, a part of him automatically responding to the authority in her voice, despite his dislike of her.
From beside her, she heard Raoul's deeper voice, backing her up. "If Kel says that the mage is not the threat, then she is not the threat. Stand down, Marti's Hill, before you do something you'll regret." There was an implied again in Raoul's words, obvious to Kel - and seemingly also to Quinden, who lowered his sword, but glared at Raoul with extreme dislike on his face. Alanna appeared behind him, one hand on her sword, ready to step in if necessary. Unlike everyone else, her eyes were fixed on Kel.
Behind her, she heard Shinko - finally - cough. "What's happening?" she said, faintly.
"That's what we would all like to know," said King Jonathan, grimly, and Kel knew that she could put off explanations no longer.