For R0KI, who made my day with their review, and all those who added and review the story. I keep it up for you.
In the weeks following the January duel and Eleni's budding crush, it seemed that the palace begant o work itself into a frenzy. Almost without reason, the maids started to whisper among themselves, and for the first time in weeks, it was not about Myles and Alex. Something else had gripped their attention, and it made the pages curious.
When the first day of February dawned, Eleni was awakened by an explosion. The sound was deafening, and Eleni could only hear bells for a moment. Dust settled over still body as shouting reached her from other wings of the palace. Something was most certainly not right.
Jumping out of her bed, she reached for her sword and quickly strode to her door. It was only because of Lokejo that Eleni did not expose her secrets. Dressed only in a night shirt, Eleni was cleatly female, displaying the small curves that had begun to develop.
A firm hand on her shoulder held her back. "Perhaps," he spoke into her ear. "More clothing would be advisable?" It was difficult whenever such moments arose for him to remind her, but it was out of necessity. "Even knights arm themselves before battle." His warnings were not needed.
Eleni, eager to find the cause of the explosion, wasted no time arguing and had already begun to dress. There was no point in being fully dressed, and she quickly wrapped her bindings around her chest. Once she was sufficiently covered, she wordlessly ran out.
This time, Lokejo didn't stop her. He didn't follow her either. Listening to the smack of bare feet on stone, he sighed at the thought of his nestling. Whatever it was that had disturbed the palace so early in the morning had clearly woken the entire populace. Eleni would not be alone in battle, and besides, he could not watch over her forever.
Eleni narrowing missed colliding with Schuylar as she turned a corner, intent on reaching the stairs at the end of the pages' hall. The explosion had come from the floor above, meaning it was nearer to their classrooms. Even without any type of deductive reasoning, they would have easily found the source.
There were already guards amassed at the staircase, blocking passage to the floor.
Screaming could still be heard from above, but it was now from a single source. The faintly feminine voice was familiar, and Eleni strained her ears to identify it: Master Radzimierz. The idiot would have done something like this.
Though they were told to return to their wing, the pages did not leave until odered by Padraig. Standing at the top of the staircase, he barked threats. As tired as he sounded, none of the pages wanted to test him, and Eleni couldn't afford to get into further trouble. They disbanded slowly, still curious about what had happened.
"I always said the man was an idiot," Devin said from Eleni's right. "A right moron, if you ask me. I never did understand why they let him teach us."
"No one ever asked for your opinion on our instructors." Varick was a few feet ahead, leading the way back to their rooms. "Leave it to Padraig and the palace guards, it's not our problem."
Now that they were not running toward possible danger, the pages had realized just how early it was and how tired they were. Their beds were very appealing.
"Not our problem?" Kyle squeaked as he ran to catch up with Schuylar. "We were almost blown up!" Ever since the attack at Legann during the summer trip and the beatings he suffered from Pier, Kyle had been skittish about things. "It sounded like Yamani powder! Do you know what that can do to a person?"
"A castle?" Schuylar added.
"An enti-" Kyle was lightly tapped over the head.
"Hush." Eleni, adrenaline leaving her body, was quickly becoming cranky. "We all know what it can do, we pay attention in out classes just as much as you do."
Her friends let out tired chuckles at her reaction to the easily excited child. Kyle had proven to be just as dramatic and energetic as Schuylar, and at times Myles was known to lose his patience when forced to listen to both. She laughed, too, but not at the same thing as her friends.
Eleni quietly thanked the gods for Lokejo, because he had saved her from ridicule tonight. The last one to leave the foot of the stairs was Pier, who was being followed and lectured by a matronly lady. Though she could not hear what was being said, Eleni knew that Pier was being scolded. The fourth-year page had left her room in nothing but a nightgown, catching the eye of more than one man. The older woman was attempting to cover up Pier with a robe, inciting the young woman even more than the stares.
"Leave me alone or else I will run you through with my blade, you damnable creature!"
Too shocked to move, the lady didn't stop her half-naked charge from running to her room. More than one jaw dropped as the young woman ran by in such a state of undress.
The outburst had caused all movement in the hall to cease. Few could recall a time when the girl had been anything but reserved and calculating. Nowadays, her cold exterior was failing her more often than not, and that was decidedly not normal. Pier had started to slip ever since her duel with Alex, and she showed few signs of regaining control over herself.
Eleni felt someone come up behind her, but she didn't feel threathened, having become used to such noiseless movement. "She's her late husband's sister," Alex whispered in her ear, knowing that she was curious. "There are four sisters in total, and they all felt that Pier should be properly supervised." He chuckled from behind her, and Eleni felt herself heat up. "It would appear that they are most displeased with her displays."
It the weeks that had followed their joint punishment, the two pages had formed an easy friendship. Alex had been slowly integrated into the group, though the older pages kept wary. Varick was the most distrustful of Alex, but it was not without reason. He had spent more than two years watching Alex obey every one of Pier's demands, and he did not believe that the boy had changed so quickly.
Kyle and Schuylar had been more willing to accept Alex, eager to have such capable swordsman to help them with their sword skills. Simon and Warren were mostly indifferent, but watchful. One wrong move and they would eliminate Alex. Together, the two were skilled enough to stop anything that the smaller page might scheme.
"Why are we still standing about?" Kyle, with his innocent nature had missed the magnitude of Pier's exhibition. Blushing from embarrassment, the poor boy had averted his eyes and kept his head down. "Can I go back to bed now?" Eleni laughed at his request for permission, amazed at him once more.
"Yes, Kyle," she said. "I think that it's about time that we all head to bed."
"Myles is right," Alex told him, an arm around the younger boy's shoulders. Having always wanted a younger brother, Alex had risen to the task of entertaining Kyle whenever Eleni grew tired of his boundless energy. "Come on, off to bed, now. I'm sure that we'll all be informed at more decent hours."
Murmuring in agreement, and too tired to do much else, they each heading off to separate rooms. Each was intent on finding a warm bed and sleeping away the few hours until breakfast.
Awakened by an explosion for the second time that day, Eleni didn't bother to bolt from her bed a second time. If Radzimierz had blown up a section of the palace through some show of absurdity, she would not leave her bed until summoned by the war horn. Eleni did not expect them to sound, but they did.
For the second time in the last couple of hours, she was pulled from her bed. This time she rememebered to dress without Lokejo reminding her, and was out of her room before her friends. Half of her want to run Radzimierz through with her blade, even if it meant her own execution.
She had grown tired the fop, regardless of Kyprioth's warnings to let the mage be. To Eleni, he was a fool, and he had outgrown his limited usefulness. As she neared his door, acrid smoke reached her sensitive nose, choking her lungs. Whatever the idiot had destroyed, it had been reduced to nothing more than charcoal. When she reached for the handle of the door, it was thrown open.
In front of Eleni was one of the tallest men she had ever seen, and she had spent her entire life under Lokejo's watchful gaze. At six and a half feet the man towered over the small girl, and would have missed her had he not knocked her down as he tried to escape the smoke.
"What is the world?" he wondered as he looked around. On the stone floor before him was Eleni, completely in awe of the man. "Oh, hello, have we met?"
Eleni didn't get a chance to answer him. Radzimierz ran out the room, lamenting his soot-covered clothes and the stench that clung to them. Sputtering and coughing, he never stopped trying to fix the condition of his ruined clothing.
Serves him right, Eleni thought as she stood. The gods-cursed moron is going to kill us all one day.
Stopping long enough to notice the angery redhead, Radzimierz looked at her quizzically. "Anything that you needed, Pirate's Swoop?" Aloof as ever, Eleni wished that she could impale her sword in his abdomen, but knew that she wouldn't. There was a witness, after all.
"Pirate's Swoop, huh?" A beautiful woman said from the end of the hallway. "Alanna told us that we would find you here, Myles."
"Ah, magelet, did we wake you?"
Eleni watched in amazement as the lanky man made his way to the much shorter woman and gave her a kiss. "Did we disturb your sleep, darling?"
Deafeated by sheer idiocy and obliviousness, Eleni cursed the day she had decided to come to Tortall. Here, she was surrounded by idiots, not one of them aware of anything. They had disturbed her sleep, all right, and the entire castle to boot.
Anyone want to guess what was making Radzimierz so jumpy? The man is too easy to use that it's almost sad.
I planned to get further than this on this chapter, but felt that it was necessary to the plot and my style of writing to include the end. I hope that you guys don't feel like I'm adding filler. I promise that it is all vital to the plot!