---------------PLAGUE---------------
TWO: Déjà Vu

"You already met Lerant. He's the standardbearer." Faleron nodded to Lerant, who stared back coldly. Kel ploughed on. "This is Wolset. He's a corporal in Dom's squad. So is Fulcher, here." Kel pointed at the two men, eating their porridge on the other side of the table.

Faleron looked at her blankly. "Who's Dom?"

A dark-haired man who had just arrived put down his breakfast beside Kel and struck a pose, catching almost the entire room's attention. "Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle, famed commander of the second squad from Third Company of the King's Own! Dashing, strong, skilled - also rather unfortunately related to Sir Nealan of Queenscove, although I am in no way as empty-headed or evil as he is." He flashed a dazzling smile across the room.

"You forgot to mention how incredibly modest you are," Kel put in, which brought a laugh from the other men. Dom scowled at her and sat down. Kel continued on to Faleron, ignoring Dom completely. "Nothing I can say about him that hasn't already been said, although dashing, strong and skilled weren't words I was going to use." She grinned to herself - privately that had always been her own opinion of him, not that she'd ever tell anyone that - and tried to recall the name of the next man to be introduced to Faleron.

Before she could, Dom turned to her with a wicked expression. Kel found herself looking at the face she'd admired ever since she'd met the man who owned it, and wondered fleetingly how long it had been since she had last seen him. Months? At least half a year. Kel knew she had missed him. "Yes, Domitan?" she asked sweetly, crushing her attraction to him as best as she could.

"Oh, nothing, Keladry dearest - I was just pondering how very good it is to see you after so long!" he replied, equally as cordial.

Kel rolled her eyes, aware half the table was watching. She changed her tone from sweet to bitter. "If only I could say the same to you, Domitan."

Dom grinned and said, "Actually, I only said it to be polite. Best way to make a maiden swoon, I've found."

Kel was struggling for an answer when Lerant interrupted coldly. "She isn't a maiden, Masbolle, she's a Lady Knight. Get some new tactics."

Their entire table turned to stare at the standardbearer. Dom was his closest friend in the company - they always worked well and joked together. But this wasn't a joke; it wasn't even a scrap of sarcasm. Lerant was staring at Dom icily. The other tables continued to chatter, oblivious, but Kel's table was deathly silent.

"Can someone pass me the honey?" Faleron asked eventually, breaking the uneasy silence. With audible sighs of relief, the small pot was passed up to Faleron and the men began to return to their conversations. Swamped with chatter, Kel didn't see Lerant leave until he was walking out the door. Any tension that had kept a grip on the table dissipated as soon as he was gone.

"Well," began Dom slowly, "that was..." He trailed off, unsure what to say.

"You'll be late," Fulcher reminded him. Dom nodded, throwing his spoon into his half-full bowl of porridge. He began to get up.

"Coming, Kel?"

She looked up at him, confused. "Me? Where?"

"Sorry, didn't I tell you?" he said, picking up his bowl. "I put your name up with mine for scout duty now. I didn't think you'd mind."

"No, of course not," she said automatically, lifting a leg out from beneath the table. Scout duty with Dom - just the thought of it made her giddy. Almost like old times. This is stupid! she thought as she walked with him to hand in their bowls and spoons. I'm supposed to be an adult now, mature, and I'm still mooning over him like I did when I was young! But... in a funny way, I don't want it to stop…

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"Lerant has been... well, different. I think your friendship did him good, and when you went away, he went cold again."

Kel scanned the trees in front of her with her spyglass. "We never had a friendship, Dom. It was a rivalry."

"A friendly rivalry," he corrected. "At least, it was at the end. He was plain mean at first."

Kel sighed and put down the spyglass, looking at Dom directly. "Well, you know Lerant better than I do, but I don't think he was ever different when I was there. I don't think he would've changed when I left, either. Maybe I'm wrong, but..." Kel stopped. She couldn't say these things - she barely knew him. "Well, maybe I am wrong. You tell me."

Dom shook his head. "He did go cold. I think being stuck here with all the same people bothers him. We don't work or travel with others often, and when we do, Lerant is too withdrawn for any friendship to form before they go away. You stayed for years. That's how long it takes him to make a friend, Kel, sometimes even longer."

Kel shrugged and rubbed her hands together. The air had a chill to it that suggested winter was approaching. She hadn't thought to bring her gloves.

"Outsider influence did him good. I think he was convinced that everyone outside Third Company think bad of him because of his aunt's treason. But you don't. You showed him wrong, made him think properly. All the men saw that he was warmer while you were Raoul's squire. He was happier. I think he missed you and your reminder that not everyone outside is so judging. Maybe that's why he had that 'outburst' - he's protective of you, 'cause you're kinder than most."

Kel laughed out loud at that, almost nervously. What Dom was saying, it did make sense, in some strange way. And that was almost scary. "Dom, you're reading into this far too deeply. Lerant isn't protective of me - he doesn't even like me. And I don't really care. In the mess, that was just him being bitter, trying to spoil things. That's all."

Dom recognised that Kel was ending the subject, so he moved on. "Well, even if he didn't miss you, I did."

Kel melted.

After their shift ended, they parted to other duties. Kel was almost glad she wasn't on latrine duty with Dom, but she missed his company and the way he could turn the grimmest moments into lighter ones. Even shovelling soggy excrement out of huge, stinking holes could be fun if he was there cracking jokes (and they had pegs to hold their nostrils shut from the smell). Instead Kel was chopping wood with Lofren, a member of Dom's squad. He was also a magistrate's son, and talked of law for the entire hour. Kel thought she would have gone insane if the shifts were any longer.

She then had an hour of free time, which she spent practising archery with her bow. There were too many airborne immortals for Kel to neglect her bow skills, which hadn't been properly tested in years.It showed, too; the first ten minutes were a terror, only four arrows embedding themselves in the target - the rest went stray. The griffin-feather arrows were probably the only thing that kept my aim true, Kel thought, more than regretful at the deterioration of her accuracy. Over time, her old skill returned, though she knew she required further practice. Kel made a promise to spend as much spare time at the make-shift archery range as she could.

Lunch came next. Sitting down with Faleron, they talked of the day so far while eating. Her knight-friend had been hunting and seeing to a small vegetable patch. He said it hadn't been what he'd expected. There wasn't as much battling as he'd thought there would be, although four squads were sent out to a village that reported attacks from winged monkeys and blood-thirsty centaurs. Faleron listened to her account of the morning and offered to practise the bow with her the next day.

After lunch, Kel went out hunting with Aiden's squad. They brought back two deer, several hares and a boar. Then she pulled up potatoes from the vegetable patch and helped prepare the dinner. While this was left to cook over a fire, she went to another shift of scout duty. Dom was also on this shift, and they climbed a small hill to sit at its peak, where they had a decent view of the camp and nearby forest. With the warm sun on her back and Dom's amusing stories, jokes and flirting, the time passed quickly.

"I helped cook tonight's dinner, so I hope you like it," she said, as they walked together to the mess.

Dom looked at her, amused. Kel's heart sped up. "If your cooking is anything like it was when you were a squire, I'm sure I won't like it."

Kel glared at him and retorted, "Well, I dread the day you get put on kitchen duty. Tell me in advance so I can get a charm against food poisoning."

"Fine, I will!" Dom said, mock-hurt. He strode ahead of her, not replying when she ordered him to slow down.

After eating, Dom offered to walk her to her room. Most of the men, including Dom and the other sergeants, slept in barracks, but those who were important such as visiting knights or leaders of Third Company had their own rooms.

"Why doesn't Lerant sleep in the barracks?" she asked Dom as they stepped into the building.

"He helps Lord Raoul with paperwork and all sorts," he explained. "Standardbearer isn't much of a job off the battlefield - that's why he looks after Raoul's horse and armour. He's like a permanent squire. If you were still here, you'd have your own room too."

Kel stopped walking and looked to the door on her right. It looked familiar. "This one's mine," she announced.

"Is it? How can you tell?"

Kel pulled a face and told him, "I can't tell, I'll just have to try my key in the door..." She jammed in her key and twisted it. "Yes, it's mine."

Dom gave her one of those smiles that made her insides turn over. "See you at breakfast, then."

Kel watched him go, content. The tingly feeling she always got when he was near was beginning to fade away. Then, just as she was about to turn and enter her room, Lerant emerged from his, papers stacked high in his arms.

He nodded towards Dom's retreating figure. "Don't waste your feelings on him," the standardbearer advised, face blank. "He kissed two rider ladies just last week."

Kel scowled at him, thinking. Were Dom's startling thoughts really plausible? No man would warn their enemy if their emotions were being trifled with - maybe Lerant really was protective of her. But it was more likely that he was lying to place doubts in her mind about her friends. "Thank you for your concern," she said sarcastically, smiling broadly at him.

He shrugged, the papers in his arms wobbling. "Don't believe me, then. I'm just trying to look out for you."

Kel snorted. "Why would you look out for me? We're practically enemies."

Lerant looked at her with cold, hard eyes and then walked away.

Shaking her head, Kel fumbled in her pockets to find her key and entered her room. Lerant was lying, she thought. He doesn't like me and he wants to make me miserable. But he was friends with Dom, wasn't he? Why would he make up things about his friend? Dom's thoughts earlier that day had turned everything she'd ever thought about Lerant on their head. And, if she was truly honest with herself, it was slightly scary.

Kel didn't bother changing clothes - if there was an attack in the night, it would take precious time to change into fighting garb - before she clambered into her bed. The straw-stuffed mattress below her was lumpy but good after days on end sleeping on the hard ground on the ride east. Then she stared up at the ceiling, still trying to convince herself that Lerant was lying.

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Hello again! Hope this chapter is satisfactory. And thanks for the reviews! Wasn't expecting very many due to the pairing and typical post-LK storyline, so I wasn't too disappointed about a lack of them. So, I'm sorry if you were expecting an update sooner. Things are getting busy again. School started again on Thursday, relatives from America have been staying round for a week (leaving tomorrow) etc. Also I don't want to update too fast or there will be an update drought (like on all my other stories...) Thanks for reading, anyway! Feedback appreciated whether it is critique or praise :)