Chapter 5: Discovery

The next morning when Adalia was woken up by Kula's practise, she only allowed herself one groan before she went to learn the glaive.

The two girls practised until the bell for breakfast rang, at which time they walked with the boys, who were in varying degrees of wakefulness.

At breakfast Lord Padraig informed them that yesterday they hadn't attended all of their classes, as some of the teachers were absent. Today they were to do reading and writing and maths, but for a shorter period, so they could go to a magic class, and then the battle history class.

The morning passed quickly, and Adalia soon found herself going to a magic class for the 'un-Gifted' while some of the pages – including Dameon and Kula - went to learn their Gift.

She was seated next to Charlie when Numair – only one of the most powerful mages of the day – walked in. It seemed he would be taking the class, but all he did was look at them all.

When he spotted Adalia, he stopped in shock, mouth wide open. Somehow Adalia did not like that look. As the old man who was to teach this class walked in the door, forced to squeeze past the tall mage, Numair seemed to come back to reality.

Numair addressed the teacher, "Vern, would you mind if I borrowed Adalia for this lesson?"

The teacher looked up at him suspiciously and said hesitantly, "ok."

Numair gestured to Adalia from the door, telling her to follow him. She got up and waved to the pages that were staring after me.

Adalia tried to keep her face straight as she followed the mage through the palace. He led her to his rooms and shooed her in before him.

While Adalia took a seat, she saw him throw magic at the door and cracks, something that would stop eavesdroppers.

Numair, satisfied that no one could overhear their conversation, turned to her. "Just what are you? I have never seen your kind of magic before – it's not really even magic. Your human essence has an animal's essence running through it! But it doesn't look like it is poisoning the essence, it looks like it is strengthening it!" He stopped and forced himself to sit down across from her. "So? Can you shed light on this situation?"

Adalia, annoyed that all this man did to find her out was look at her, crossed her arms and decided to go with the blunt option. Voice tinged with anger, she said "My Da was a crow, so you could say I am half a crow."

Numair just stared at her. It seemed her explanation had been one of the last he had been expecting. He was reduced to repeating the basics of her sentence… "Your Da…was a crow?"

"Yes."

"Your Da was a crow."

"You already said that." Adalia pointed out, and then decided to get comfortable in her chair – it would seem as if Numair wanted a larger explanation.

"How?"

She rolled her eyes and explained that in the Copper Isles the crows and raka are cousins, and that they could switch into one or the other, although the raka have largely forgotten how to do it, unless in a life threatening situation – then they may change to a crow to live. Then she said that her Da had been a crow and changed into a man to be with her mother.

After Numair calmed down, he said "Why don't crows change into people all of the time?"

"They don't like it, unless out of curiosity. They changed to help Ma with the rebellion and became soldiers though."

"Fine. So what can you do?"

Adalia looked at him appraisingly. She was not sure exactly what to say. Numair, noticing her hesitation said, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I just want to know."

Adalia could see no obvious lie on his face, so she put her hands behind her head and listed: "I am extremely strong and fast. I can run for ages without getting tired; that was how I found it so easy to sprint the whole of the wall – (she then added thoughtfully-) although he was really slow, I could have finished it much faster – I can change into a crow, and talk to animals in the way one talks to another, and I can jump really high."

Numair just stared at her, flabbergasted that this little girl with purple eyes was matter-of-factly listing incredible abilities that were common to her. Finally he managed to splutter, "Exactly how fast?"

She considered him, and then said in a low voice, "I can catch arrows."

He raised his eyebrows "that is something I would love to see. But how do I know that you are telling the truth bout being half crow?"

Adalia just rolled her eyes at him, "you, a mage, can't think of a way to tell if someone is telling the truth?"

He took this as permission to cast a truth spell on her. The only problem was that it did not settle. It streamed off the girl like she was not there.

Adalia, who was watching Numair as he threw the spell, waited for him to discover to spell wouldn't stick. She sighed as he looked at her questioningly, and answered the question on his face, "I am half crow, remember? You can't cast a truth spell on an animal."

He hit his head, clearly thinking himself an idiot. But he also realised that this answered his question faster than any words; she had an animal's immunity to human spells.

He talked to her for the rest of that class, and by the end they had struck up a friendship. He let her out of the rooms as the bell went that signalled it was lunch time, and she ran at lightning speed in order to get to the meal on time – Numair's rooms were almost on the opposite side of the castle.

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After lunch the pages went straight into staff training, and then into hand-to-hand combat. After this Lord Padraig told them to go to the stables and retrieve their mounts.

They all jogged down to the stables, and the first years (more had joined them this morning) that did not have a mount struggled to pick the best of those available.

The older boys watched Adalia from the corner of their eyes, but apparently determined that she already had a mount, and left her as she approached the beautiful chestnut.

The mare neighed to her in greeting, and she had a quick conversation with it. She wanted Adalia to name her, and she was so persistent that Adalia wracked her brains to come up with a name befitting such a graceful mare.

Just as she finished putting on the bridle, Adalia's face lit up in delight, and she informed the mare that her name was to be Anika, which meant quite literally beautiful and graceful in Yamani.

She slung herself into the saddle and trotted out, following Charlie to the place where they would have mounted lessons. Throughout the lesson she talked silently to Anika, and by the end, they were great friends and companions.

At the start of the lesson, Lord Padraig had been hopeful that maybe this would be the one, the lesson that he could revel in the failings of Adalia.

This hope had been banished as soon as he saw her on the beautiful chestnut. She seemed to be an extension of her horse. He silently cursed the girl for being a natural at most things, able to remember drills with her body and mind, and talented at book learning. He would just have to wait to punish her when the boys fought her.

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It would seem that he did not have to wait long, as after dinner Adalia was making her way to her room alone to retrieve her books when five boys rounded the corner. She only recognised three of them – Dale, Seamus and Taj.

They looked furious as she greeted them cheerfully. She almost laughed as they started cursing her and calling her 'unpleasant' names; to put it mildly. They started forward at once.

I can teach them once and for all not to mess with me. I am not going to be polite and let them injure me. Grinning wickedly, she grabbed Taj and lobbed him into one of the boys she did not recognise. They hit the floor with a loud smack that must have been audible a fair way away. She quickly knocked the other boys out, punching them in the nose. She was careful not to break their noses; she couldn't have them going to a healer now, could she?

Hearing people running, she used her speed to grab her books and quickly slip away. She arrived shortly at Daniel's room. The others were already seated around the table, door open due to Kula's presence. She slowly walked in and yawned, then asked Daniel if he would help her with maths. He chuckled and said only if she would help him with a poem he was doing for the priest in charge of that subject.

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In the morning, Adalia woke to the darking Shard nuzzling her face. Cracking one eyelid, she snapped "what Shard?"

"Aly want talk to Ady" the darking squeaked.

Waking up fully, she sat up and let the darking pool in her lap. She could see her mother's face, and realised at that moment how much she had missed her.

Mother and daughter talked for an hour, and by the time that Adalia stumbled out of bed and washed the sleep out of her eyes she was content and ready to face the trials of being a female page.

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Lazily wandering into the hall for breakfast, she had to employ all of her control not to burst into laughter at the coloured appearance of the five boys that had set on her last night.

"Do you know what happened to those five?" Kaden asked her as she sat down next to her friends, who were already eating sleepily.

"Why should I know? I should be the one asking you." Adalia couldn't resist needling him.

"They were caught last night, after having 'fallen.' The strange thing is they are all 'friends' and would not be fighting each other. They have to clean all of the armour in the armoury every night for two bells until they finish."

Adalia looked impressed "wow that is a big punishment."

"Yes." Charlie agreed as he joined them, disgustingly happy to be up that early in the morning.

The boys looked at Kula and Adalia, guessing that one of them would be the likely target for such boys.

"Hey, don't look at me. I didn't know about this until I saw their appearance." She put her hand on her chin and frowned conspiratorially, "I wish I knew who did it."

Having ditched the idea of Kula fighting them, they all looked at Adalia. She gave them look-for-look.

"Do I look like I have been fighting?" She demanded. "Surely if I was able to fight off that many experienced pages, I would at least have just as colourful an appearance."

Reluctantly they agreed, and they all spent the rest of breakfast discussing who might have fought the boys.

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Next chapter: Goddess.

Disclaimer: I am not Tamora Pierce – Need I keep reminding you?

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