Chapter Three

Fianola left her room for breakfast and slipped and fell on a puddle of dirty water outside her door. She would have changed, but that would have made her late for breakfast, so she decided to go down in her wet dirty breeches and hose. Lord HaMinch gave her a shocked look when she entered the mess hall. "Veldaine! What happened to your clothes?"

"I slipped on a puddle on my way down, my lord," responded Fianola calmly. Yvenne gave her a startled look and turned to whisper to Jasson, who frowned.

Lord HaMinch frowned. "Why did you not change then, Page Fianola?"

"Because I would have been late for breakfast and angered the other pages by making them wait." She did not bother to add that she would have also been given punishment work.

Lord HaMinch sighed. "Well, go and change now, Veldaine. You won't be in trouble for being late since you did show up on time first."

"Yes, my lord." Fianola bowed and left the mess hall to change, almost running into Elspeth and Alan, who had just arrived.

After breakfast, the pages went out to the stable, where the new pages picked out their mounts. Yvenne picked out a glossy golden-brown gelding that was slightly tempermental named Sapphire. Fianola decided on a silvery-white mare that was extremely sweet-tempered named Moonlight. Several of the pages managed to block Elspeth's way so that she ended up with a rather ugly-looking grayish gelding named Ashes. Fortunately, he made up for his looks with intelligence (though it could have been due to Wildmage at the palace), endurance, and speed, as she found out when all the pages had to practice their riding. The other pages had apparently focused on his looks and didn't want him for that reason.

Next came archery and Elspeth and Fianola did fairly well. They had practiced frequently at home, especially during the past year. Eric of Falcon's Reach, who wasn't as skilled, glared at the two sisters and Yvenne. A minute later, Fianola heard him whisper angrily to his sponsor Markus, "I wouldn't mind the girls being here if they weren't such show-offs."

Markus shrugged, glanced at the three girls, and said loudly, "Actually, I don't think they're show-offs. They're just showing Lord HaMinch their level of skill in archery like he asked. You are likely just jealous that you aren't so skilled in archery like they are. I can give you some pointers and lessons if you like."

Eric, face red, glared angrily at Markus and aimed for the target. In his anger, he did worse and completely missed the target, when before he had at least hit the target. Lord HaMinch tsked and walked over to him. "You aren't doing very well." He proceeded to correct Eric's grip and aim.

When archery was over, Eric confronted the three girls. "You three are show-offs! I at first didn't have any problems with girls becoming pages and all that, but now your showing off has chanegd my mind. Why don't you just leave and show-off elsewhere? Like at the convent. But then again, you probably don't have any lady-skills to show off."

Yvenne looked angry and was about to snap back when Markus grabbed Eric's arm and dragged him away. Elspeth sighed and said, "Just ignore him, Yvenne. Eric is probably jealous that we did better than him in archery, especially since we are girls. So he decided to vent his feelings by calling us show-offs and insulting us."

Following archery, the pages were taken to the practice yard where they were introduced to the Shang Horse and the Shang Wildcat. Elspeth was partnered Stephan, Fianola with Eric, and Yvenne with James of Nond. Eric did not look at all happy to be partnered with a girl and took out his anger by using his staff harder on Fianola. Fianola ignored his anger and blocked his staff.

During lunch, Markus, with Eric in tow, sat down at the same table as the two sisters and their sponsors. Eric, looking uncomfortable, muttered, "Sorry for yelling at you two."

"Apology accepted," answered Elspeth, smiling brightly.

Eric nodded and turned to Markus. "I've apologized now. Can we please sit elsewhere? I don't want to share the same table with the two girls and a traitor-sp-"

"Enough," snapped Markus. "I have no intention of sitting elsewhere, Eric. If you would like to break tradition and not sit with your sponsor during the first week, you may. I have no problems with female pages. Or with people who unfortunately have relatives that were traitors." He turned to Stephan. "I'm sorry for ignoring you in the past. I didn't really want to be ostracized by my friends for spending time with you. But since it's my last year as page, I decided to get to know you before I become a squire and not be around as much."

"But you apparently have no problem with being ostracized by your friends now," said Fianola skeptically, not completely trusting Markus.

He nodded. "I am going to be a knight and knights can't decide to do things just based on what others will think of them. I can't decide to not help commoners just because other nobles may scoff at such an idea and think I'm being too soft with them, for example. Oh, my friends don't have anything against lady knights, Fianola and Elspeth, but I don't think they'll be spending much time with you because of Stephan. If somebody else had sponsored you, Elspeth, then it would have been a different matter."

The conversation ended, due to the fact that Lord HaMinch was about to say grace. After lunch, classes began. The reading class was boring, mostly due to the teacher, a Mithran priest. Math was better, especially as Elspeth and Fianola were fairly good at math and found it mildly interesting. History was taught by Sir Myles, Alan's grandfather (and the Lioness' adopted father), and he made the subject interesting. After was science taught by Master Lindhall Reed, a mage. He was an interesting teacher and the sisters learned much about animals and plants from him.

Fianola, who had the Gift, went to a class to train those with the Gift, even though hers wasn't very strong and limited to lighting fire and very weak protection circles. Elspeth and Yvenne didn't have the Gift, so they took the class on Immortals, taught by Tkaa, a bailisk.

When classes were over, the pages had supper, and then went to work on their homework. Fianola, Elspeth, Yvenne, Jasson, Alan, Stephan, Markus, and a very unwilling Eric met in the library to do their work together. Eric seemed to have gotten over his jealously over the afternoon and dinner, but he still wasn't accepting of Stephan and that was the reason for his reluctance. They were soon joined by Nicolas of Legann, Markus' best friend, and his charge, James. Nick had a whispered discussion with Markus, then turned to Stephan and apoligized for ignoring him in the past. James did not look very comfortable at the idea of studying with Stephan, but after Alan and Jasson pointed out that just because Alex of Tirragen was a traitor didn't make his relatives traitors, James gave in. They all worked together until the bell rang for the pages to go to bed.