Dear all my amazing readers,

I'm soooo sorry that this has taken so obscenely long. I have exams coming up and my teachers have decided that giving us twice the amount of work is the best way to give us time to study! As a result, I have had very little time to write.

I hope you all enjoy the new chapter, and I would like to point out that, while I do not own Kel or any or the other Tamora Pierce characters, the new ones are all mine.

lots of love,

Izzy

Chapter 13

A new charge (or three)

For the next few weeks or so, Kel found her self in and out of banquets and parties in honor of the new prince and princess. However, Kel found that she was not the only one who hate these festivities: she discovered that Roald and his wife were equally frustrated. This was due to how Shinko was still very much exhausted from the birth of her children and looking after them as well as how she had barely recovered from her mysterious illness. Roald was concerned for both his wife and their children, who, although the parties were to honor them, were not allowed to actually attend. Therefore despite her dislike of frivolous festivities, Kel tried to remain happy for her friends (since she was a godparent, Kel was seated with Shinko).

Although Kel typically hated banquets and balls, she had to admit that on this occasion, she at least didn't mind the company: Roald and Shinko had arranged for their friends to sit on their table instead of stuffy dukes and barons who were more trouble than they were worth. Thus, their table included friends like Merric, Owen, Neal, Faleron of King's Reach and Seaver of Tasride and their wives/fiancées. It had been a few months since Kel had seen either Seaver or Faleron, both of whom had opted to spend some time in their own fiefs after the war. Kel enjoyed talking to them and their betrothed, Leila of Naxen (Faleron's fiancee) and Ita of River's Wood (Seaver's fiancée). Both of them were unfairly beautiful: Leila was thin and delicate big blue eyes and long silvery blond hair which was braided in intricate patterns and held with jeweled pins. She was very ethereal, almost wraith-like. Ita, on the other hand, was slightly darker but almost equally pretty: her hair was almost black and her eyes were medium brown with green flecks.

Many topics of conversation bounced around the table: Kel could hear Neal debating magic with Prosper of Tamarind, who was a couple seat down and across from Neal, and Esmond of Nicoline interrogating Cleon of Kennan about the affairs back home. Kel was deep in conversation with Faleron about her experience working with and training the Own. When the first course of the meal was served, Kel turned to see Cassandria of King's Reach placing the soup bowls on the table and smiled at the girl, who smiled back. Kel nudged Faleron who was now talking to his year-mate Balduin of Disart.

'Cassie,' he said quietly to his sister, 'how are you doing with pages?'

'Let's just say that they know if anyone even thinks that Karean and I can't handle ourselves, their thrown on their back with a staff to their stomach before they know what hit them.' Some of the men around raised eyebrows but Kel smiled, she'd seen the two girls training and could easily tell that they were some of the best.

Faleron chuckled, 'honestly, Cassie, with your temper that doesn't surprise me.'

Kel shook her head as Cassie turned to her, saying, 'Lady knight, thank you for your advice.' The girl then went back to serving the soup.

Faleron raised his brow, 'what advice did you give them?'

'The same advice that I've given everyone I've ever helped teach: to practice whenever there's a free moment.' Kel responded.

The prince leaned past his wife and asked, 'who else have you taught?'

Kel began to list some names, 'Lalasa, Warric, Iden,' Kel looked slightly towards Owen at the mention of his cousins, 'most of the refugees at New Hope, and most men in the Third company, at some point or another.'

The evening continued to be filled with debates and discussions that were largely instigated by Neal and stories of time away from the palace. The first people to leave were Neal and Yuki, who looked like she was about to pop. They had been leaving earlier and earlier each night. When the banquet was over, Kel left with some of her friends. While Faleron and Merric were discussing their family with Seaver, Kel found herself talking to their fiancées, who had asked if they might learn to use a glaive with the ladies in the mornings, to which Kel replied that she would be delighted to teach them herself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning Kel met with the glaive group, whose original numbers were depleted given that three women were handling their infants (or soon to be infants). Kel was glad to see that their ranks were joined by Leila, Ita and Arina, who were all greeted excitedly by Margarry, who had recently become a regular. Kel helped them find glaives and adjust them to their height. She was shocked to find out how small Ita was because she had such a commanding presence, while the graceful Leila stood just shy of Kel's height.

Kel began by showing them how to hold the weapon and how to stand. Many of the ladies paused their own sparring practice to watch her teach the three new ladies the most simple pattern dance before making them repeat faster. Much like what she told the men last night, her training methods just included constant repetition and practice. Initially, all three women struggled, spending the second half of the pattern dance gracefully tripping over their own feet. However they soon got into the right rhythm and the tripping almost vanished. After about an hour, the group began to disperse and Kel told her pupils to be prepared for the next pattern dance tomorrow, in response to which the three ladies paled.

Kel was about to head to the Own barracks for training when the queen stopped her, saying that she'd noticed how Kel was always teaching someone to do something, which made the younger blush and insist that she actually did very little because many of the people she taught had already had some training. The queen chuckled and insisted that Kel had no need to be modest with her, though the lady knight did not change her tone.

When Kel arrived for training with the Own, Dom nudged her and enquired whether the rumor that Kel had taken on three new trainees was true.

'Of course it's true, we began training this morning,' she replied, shaking her head at the captain.

'Have you spoken to Neal much,' Dom asked, 'I think he's getting a bit freaked out.'

Kel thought for a minute, then said 'Yuki's told me the same but Neal hasn't mentioned anything to me. But then, the only time he doesn't outwardly show his panic is when it's at its strongest.'

Dom nodded, 'I know what you mean, it's just that I can't tell how well he's coping especially given that Yuki is due any day now.'

Their conversation was cut short by the group of men who crowded around the captain and the lady knight, awaiting instructions.

Dom stood up on the pedestal and said, 'today, everyone will work through the same set of exercises as usual. However, a group of ten new recruits every hour will join the lady knight in stables where she will prepare you to practice jousting. Any man who is able to knock her from the saddle will get the next three days free. This regime will continue every morning for the next week with a different group every hour.' Dom then began to list the first group of ten who were to join her.

Once her ten young men had saddled their horses and led them to the training yard and Kel had done the same with Peachblossom. Each man was instructed to introduce himself; she recognized some names as siblings of her friends or younger children of important lords, including Clayton of Hollyrose (Merric's 15 year old brother) and Rowan of Naxen (the youngest son of Gareth the Younger).

The first boy who charged her was the eldest of the group at 19, a big Bazhir boy with the name Qalisto. He barely even grazed her shield. The next boy was Wilhem of some small fief whose name she didn't recognize. He missed her shield completely. Most of the other boys struggled to hit her shield accept Rowan, whose grandfather had trained him as a boy.

The morning training continued with mostly the same pattern, with most boys struggling to hit her shield, though there was the occasional boy whose older brother or father had given him some basic training and actually hit her shield. It was at lunch, which today she was taking with the Own after the long morning, that Kel got a letter that caused her to choke on her chicken stew:
Yuki had given birth. The baby was a girl and Neal and Yuki had named her Esmera.

i hope you enjoyed this chapter!

PS, I don't know how long it will be till I post a new chapter, my exams start in a couple of weeks so I may not post anything until after those.