A/N: Well, my darling readers, a little present for all of you on my birthday. Enjoy!
Thanks: sarafine-ecleips: Maybe it is, but who's gonna call her on it. xshynenstarx; Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it. Babyuknowme13.
Upon their arrival at New Hope, Francesca was both severely scrutinized, and completely ignored. The headwoman was an elder lady with a sharp, no-nonsense air, named Fanche. Her gaze raked Francesca from head to toe, the girl quickly dismounted. She did not hide, per say, but Francesca did use the bulk of Night and Snowstorm to draw less attention to herself. The moment it was announce that the lady knight was in the thriving town, she was bombarded by children.
Carefully moving closer, Francesca took Hoshi's and Peachblossom's reins. The large gelding put his ears back slightly, but did not fight her as Francesca led the four horses to the stables. On her way there, a child caught her eye. A young girl, a bit younger than ten, was watching her, instead of rushing to greet Lady Kel. Looking at the girl, it was her eyes that told Francesca that this was the seer child, Irnai that her knight mistress had mentioned before. The girl's eyes where ancient – eyes that had seen much.
Francesca inclined her head slight to the girl, and continued on the way to care for the mounts. She ignored the teenagers, young men and women, who peered at her, and whispered. Francesca was used to such treatment, so it didn't bother her. Several stared at her in outright shock, as they watched her calmly unsaddle and groom Peachblossom.
With the help of her knight mistress, Stefan – the palace's chief hostler – and Tobe, Peachblossom was convinced to allow Francesca to groom, saddle or unsaddle him, so long as she was respectful towards him. She was just finished seeing to the horses, and was about to start on the tack, when Lady Keladry entered the stables. She seemed mildly amused at seeing Francesca methodically cleaning the tack for all four horses. Lady Keladry took her tack and began to clean it, as Francesca moved on to cleaning her own.
When they finished, Francesca followed her knight mistress to the main building, where rooms had been prepared for both of them. Francesca was glad that – for the most part – people seemed to think that she was unworthy of their attention. The inhabitance of New Hope seemed to have decided to throw a party for Lady Kel's arrival, and so Francesca found herself in the mess hall sitting next to the young seer Irnai. At first they did not speak to each other. The child was the one to break the silence.
"How will you stop it," Francesca stared at her for a moment, and then sighed.
"I have no clue," she didn't bother to ask what the girl spoke of. She knew; this young child knew of the prophecy she'd received.
"Time's running out," Irnai told her solemnly.
"I'm aware," Francesca found herself looking around constantly, making sure that no one would over hear the conversation.
Later, when her knight mistress chose to retire, Francesca was only too happy to follow her out of the mess hall.
"You didn't talk to many people," the lady knight commented.
"No, my lady," Francesca replied, a bit shocked that she'd noticed.
"Did you speak with Irnai," her knight mistress inquired. "I saw the two of you sitting together."
"We spoke briefly," Francesca admitted.
"Most people are unnerved by her," Kel stated.
"Which is why I never wanted anyone to know about…"
Both of them walk in silence for a moment. "That scene with your parent's after the big exam," Kel began. "It was not the first such scene; was it?"
"No," Francesca said quietly. "Not every family is happy, my lady."
"And yours was not a happy one?"
"It had its moments," was Francesca's only reply. She wasn't looking for pity. She'd known for years that she was not a priority in her family. Just a daughter - and not even an obedient one. She was eighteen; she wasn't going to whine about her life, especially not to her knight mistress.
They'd been at New Hope for almost two weeks before Francesca was put in a position that forced her to interact with the headwoman and other high ranking men and women in the town. Upon her arrival, the lady knight had resumed helping with weapons lessons for the children. Usually Francesca help, but on this particular day, her knight mistress had ordered her to report to Fanche until farther notice.
Walking with heavy steps, Francesca sought out the older woman after breakfast. She found her giving orders to a mixed group of men and women. Standing close but out of the way, Francesca waited, Fanche noticed her almost at once.
"What," demanded the woman with a fierce scowl. Francesca moved a bit closer and bowed to the head woman.
"Mistress Fanche, my knight mistress has ordered me to report to you." She saw the shock on the faces of the town's people – a noble bowing to a commoner was unheard of, but in this case, Francesca felt it was right. Until such time that her knight mistress ordered otherwise, she was to repot to this woman, thus Fanche was her superior.
"No," the woman told her shortly, turning back to the others that gathered around her.
"She's just prickly because she doesn't like nobles who don't behave the way she thinks they will," an older man told her with a kind smile. Lady Kel had introduced him as Seafas.
"If that's the case, maybe I should introduce her to my family," Francesca mused aloud.
"Are they as odd as Lady Kel?" he asked, sounding amused.
"Only my oldest brother, but he's in the King's Own, so I don't think that counts."
"Is that why she told you to report to Fanche, to prove that you're one of the good sort?"
Francesca shrugged. "It's not my place to question orders, even it only to understand, Master Seafas." During the entire exchange she kept her gaze fixed across the camp, looking at no one and nothing.
Streams of curses flew from Fanche, drawing everyone's attention. A woman with bulging muscles stood next to Fanche, hands on her hips.
"I certainly can't tell her not to have her babe today! So you might as well stop complaining," she told Fanche, sounding exasperated.
Fanche scowled at the people around her. When her gaze landed on Francesca her scowl deepened. "You, girl," she barked. Francesca walked over and waited.
She was ordered to go with the woman, who was a laundress. Francesca followed the woman without a word and did as ordered for the day. The next day the scene played out again, almost exactly the same way, until Francesca was sent to clean latrines. Each day, Francesca was given a different duty, some days, she was sure that Fanche was trying to make her refuse. The older woman never did seem to warm up to her, but that was fine by Francesca, she didn't mind quietly doing the work as ordered. It gave her time to think.
Fanche scowled as she watched the squire walk towards the latrines without a word of argument. As soon as the crowd dissipated, she went in search of the lady knight. She was with a group of the children; she made a gesture to wait and finished the class before walking over to where Fanche stood in the shade.
"Is something wrong," she asked, taking a drink from her flask.
"Are you punishing the girl," Fanche demanded. "I can only give her latrine duty for so long."
A smile tugged at the knight's mouth. She motioned for Fanche to follow her to the top of the wall. From there they watched Francesca as she worked with the others scheduled for cleaning latrines. "I'm not punishing her. Why, has she been disrespectful to anyone?"
Fanche snorted. "She barely speaks and when she does she's more polite than you are to my lord Wyldon. The girl bowed to me," Fanche said the word like a curse.
"Good," the lady nodded firmly.
"Why," curiosity crept into Fanche's voice as they watched Francesca work with, but slightly apart from the others.
"Her family – her mother especially – is a piece of work," Keladry said dryly. "In my experience, nobles usually take after their families. I'd like to know early on if she takes after her mother in any way."
"Irnai seems to like her." Seafas commented as he walked towards them. At that moment, the young girl, who'd been staying close to Francesca turned and ran flat out toward the wall, she looked panicked.
Racing up the wall, Irnai panted as she reached them. "Bandits…coming…west." Seafas helped the girl drink as the lady knight call the alarm.
Fanche still looking towards the camp noted the way the squire's gaze followed Irnai and how she started moving toward the headquarters before the girl had finished speaking. She pushed the issue to the back of her head and ran to grab her bow. She saw the squire quickly arming up lady Kel, then herself, before rushing to the stables, a short while later she exited leading the knight's horse and her own. When the bandit erupted from the west woods, the defenders at New Hope were ready. The battle was quick and bloody, the bandits were the only casualties, and the worst wound on the town's side was received by the lady knight – a graze from an arrow on the arm.
Looking around, Fanche saw the knight and squire by one of the wells, walking over she heard the girl tell the knight.
"They'll be disappointed to have missed the fight," she looked like she was going to add more, but caught Fanche out of the corner of her eye and fell silent.
Fanche turned over the statement in her head, but otherwise pretended that she'd heard nothing. The squire was sent with a group of others to burn the dead. When they were alone Fanche asked the knight.
"Who was she talking about? Them that missed the fight?"
"The Third Company of the King's Own is headed this way," Kel told her, seeing the scowl on the head woman's face she added. "They'll be camping outside the walls and hunting for their own food." Fanche snorted, but said nothing.
Francesca labored with a hand full of others, not at all happy about the fact that she was hauling dead bodies. Every one stopped when they heard the approach of horses, but started working when the horn call for friend sounded. Francesca watched the approaching group out of the corner of her eyes. It'd been a while since she'd seen Alan, so she was happy for the chance to see her friend.
When the funeral pyre for the dead bandits was finally burned out, Francesca trudged wearily back to New Hope, knowing that she stunk of death, and wanting a bath. Upon entering the town, it was clear that the inhabitance knew at least one of the squads, as the towns people laughed and joked with the men.
Upon entering the headquarters building, Francesca began to silently curse – she'd forgotten to pay attention to all details of a vision. Not only did Lord Raoul, his wife, Sergeant Domatin and her knight mistress sit there, but Sir Nealan, Sir Merric, Lady Alanna and her husband as well. Francesca didn't even get a chance to think about hiding or slipping away, because almost as soon as she entered, Fianola and Alan spotted her. Their greeting naturally drew all attention to her. Francesca felt her face burn, and looked at the floor. Bowing she reported to her knight mistress.
"The funeral pyre is finished, my lady," she told the ground. Rain butted the back of her knee, surprising Francesca a bit. Since they arrived in the north, Rain had all but disappeared, staying mainly in the woods. The moment her knight mistress told her she could go, Francesca fled from the room of important knights. A bath didn't rid the smell of death from her skin, or if it did, then the scent was burned into her nose. Carefully, Francesca applied just enough perfume – a gift from Aisha – to disguise the scent, at least a bit.
Slipping out of the building without being seen was as impossible as it was to enter, but thankfully, she was inform that since the other squires had been released from duty, she was as well. She fled to the top of the wall, to get away from everyone. Her friends found her there. Alan, Fianola and Traver – who was Sir Merric's squire – greeted her with teasing about still being shy. She glared at them, but otherwise said nothing. She was happy to see them.
Finally, when the teasing was over, Fianola asked how she was doing with the famed lady knight as her knight mistress – there was clear envy in her voice.
"It's an education, that's for sure." Francesca told them dryly. More hesitantly, she added. "I told her about…being a seer."
They talked about a lot of things as night fell; as the hour grew later they all began to yawn. Finally by mutual unspoken agreement, the four friends headed to their respective beds. At the bottom of the wall, they were stopped by Irnai. The young girl was standing at the bottom of the steps, clearly waiting for them. She observed them with her too-old eyes for a long moment, before turning to look only at Francesca.
"You should tell them," the girls' voice thrummed with power. Francesca felt the hair on her arms stand on end. This was not the child speaking to her. "They may be the answers to your questions." The girl gave Francesca a small sweet smile, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted. Francesca leapt forward to catch the girl before she fell completely to the ground. She did not catch Irnai in time, instead Lady Keladry caught the girl, Francesca did not even notice her knight mistress's companions, instead she knelt by the young seer. When a glowing purple hand reached to touch the girl forehead, Francesca spoke before she thought.
"She's fine, just exhausted from being a mouth-piece." Francesca glanced up at the people around her and discovered that they were all staring at her. She flushed, realizing that she'd just drawn more attention to herself than she ever meant to.
"How are you so sure, youngling," Baron Cooper asked.
"My grandmother's a seer," Francesca admitted, highly uncomfortable. "I've seen it happen to her before.
Glancing at her knight mistress, Francesca saw that the woman understood that the message had been for her, and would likely question her later. With a few suggestions, Francesca soon found herself back in the room assigned to her – it was truly little more than a closet that adjoined her knight mistress's rooms. Thankfully Francesca tumbled into her bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Dawn the next morning saw Francesca and her knight mistress practicing weapons. As the rest of the town began to wake, Kel stopped and looked at Francesca. She didn't say anything, but her look was enough. She wanted answers, and she may as well as order Francesca to speak.
"A few years back, I had a prophecy," Francesca told her with great reluctance. "Something that I have to stop, but I don't know how. I certainly can't kill – " Francesca bit off the last words. She couldn't finish the sentence. Though she was cautious around him, she'd never seen Master Numair do or say anything that made her hate or even dislike him. It turned her stomach to think that she might have to kill the man to save everyone.
And yet, in the prophecy, it was the black robe mage that slaughtered half the Tortallan court.
"Anyway," Francesca cleared her throat. "I haven't really told anyone." She gave the knight a sheepish look, not quite managing a smile. "It kind of frightened me witless."
For a long time the knight was silent, absorbing what Francesca had told her. "I would have thought," Keladry said slowly. "That you'd be used to it by now; visions, prophecies," she shrugged, indicating that they seemed to be the same.
"They're very different," Francesca told her. "While I may dislike my visions, I can deal with them. Prophecies are much…more." Francesca told her, searching for a way to explain it. "Prophecies are like the gods or an elemental…screaming in your ear. Your entire… self, vibrates with the – the power-or…" the girl shook herself, frustrated that she couldn't explain properly.
Her knight mistress stared at her for a moment, face unreadable. When she nodded and began to walk towards the mess hall, Francesca guess that it meant that she accepted what she'd been told.
Later in the day, since she was now, no longer the only squire in the thriving town, she spared with Alan. Perhaps she imagined it, but Francesca could have sworn that when Sir Merric – whom was given control of all the squires for the day – suggest/order her to spar with Alan, he and her other friends winced a bit. Surly, she told herself, they didn't think about the sparing incident, which resulted in them all learning about her visions.
As they circled each other, Alan muttered to her. "My Da found her," at first Francesca had no clue what he was talking about. "How'd you know where to look?" She realized that he spoke about his sister as she blocked a slice to her middle and swiped at his legs.
She made a face and replied, "I'd rather not say, I broke a promise to myself doing it."
She didn't reply to the confused look he gave her. They traded blow for a while. He was still the superior swordsman, but Francesca had more endurance than he did, and if she could fend off his attacks for long enough, he'd make a mistake that she could use to her advantage.
"My Da thinks that you know something," Alan admitted, panting a bit.
"I know lots of things," Francesca responded flippantly, shooting him a cheeky grin.
"About Aly, and how he got a mysterious note telling him where to start looking," he told her, his tone scolding her slightly.
Francesca stumbled slightly in shock, but recovered quickly. "How," she hissed at him, pressing her attacks to cover the stumble.
"I didn't tell him anything," Alan told her, grimacing. "I'm just trying to warn you."
Her muttered thanks were covered by his cursing as she neatly disarmed him. Both panting, the pair accepted flasks of water and gulped them down. As they traded places with Fianola and Traver, Francesca realized that Sir Merric was not their only audience. Both Buri and Baron Cooper leaned idly against the fence watching the squires.
"Your Ma taught you to watch against that," the baron told his son, as Buri cackled. Francesca silently agreed, the move she'd used to disarm her friend had been so basic that even first year pages could block it most of the time. She'd been shocked that it had actually worked.
Alan flushed slightly but didn't reply. Francesca, who'd been feeling safe from notice up to that point jumped slightly when the woman spoke to her.
"You fight quite well. Do you have some hidden talent in a different weapon, like your knight mistress?" It was Francesca's turn to flush. She bowed and muttered thanks and that she didn't.
Part way through Fianola and Traver's match, Francesca's attention was caught by shouts coming from the part of the town where the chickens were kept. They all looked over to see what caused the noise. Traver and Fianola stopped dead to stare open mouthed. The three adults began to laughed, sounding half shock. Alan took one look at Francesca's face, and doubled over laughing.
Rain ran towards them; with him, he half dragged a flapping chicken that screamed in protest. As the bobcat ran by, townspeople stopped to stare, as though they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. When Rain stopped in front of Francesca, he settled down to eat it. Snatching the bird from his claws, she barely dodged a swipe from him.
"If I didn't know better," she told the bobcat in complete exasperation. "I'd say that you do this so that I will scold you. I told you before; the animals in these walls are not here for snacks or playthings. If you're that hungry, go hunting in the woods; you do know how." He glared at her and leapt at the chicken, which she still held. "This is exactly why people think you're a pet," she grumbled as she moved the chicken away from harm. Stop, Shakith curse you," hearing a smothered laugh, Francesca turned her scowled upwards, and found that the crowd had grown much larger. Clearly everyone found it amusing to see a squire scolding a bobcat. Instead of pretending to be pitiful and helpless, Rain hissed at the watchers, clearly displeased.
Her knight mistress stood next to Fanche, the head woman looked as though Francesca was a puzzle she couldn't quite figure out. In her mind, that was worse, because it often meant that the person would pay more attention to her; something Francesca hated. Knowing her face was beet red; Francesca stared at the ground and traded Rain for the chicken. She gave it a nudge to get it moving and let the weight and warmth of the bobcat sooth her a bit. He twisted in her arms a bit, so that he was staring at the crowd, and began to purr.
Now that the show was over, most of the crowd dispersed. Unfortunately, Francesca's sense of being watched remained. She debated looking around, but decided to instead pretend that she was invisible. It had never worked before, but she lived in hope that it would one day. Traver and Fianola, either by some command that she missed, or because they were wonderful friends, who wanted to help take the attention off of Francesca, resumed sparing; she could have kissed them she was so grateful.
Francesca had finally relaxed when Lord Raoul announced that he'd like to see how well all of the squires jousted. All four of them trotted to the stables to saddle the horses. Francesca saddled Peachblossom before Snowstorm, just as Alan saddled his knight master's horse first as well. The other knights, it seemed, decided against jousting with either the lady knight or her former knight master.
It seemed like hours later, after all of the squires had received a through pounding from both knights that they were freed for the rest of the day. As they trudged away, Francesca overheard them talking.
"While I enjoy watch anyone but myself getting beaten with sticks," Sir Nealan drawled. "Is there a reason why both of you pounded my squire?"
"There's a tournament in a few weeks," Francesca heard her knight mistress reply. "I want to make sure I haven't gotten rusty."
She didn't hear who replied or what was said. Despite how tired she was, Francesca found a large grin spreading across her face. Perhaps she would earn some money in a few week.