"You feather brained idiot. What were you thinking? Were you thinking at all?" Neal asked, already set on healing the wound on her right arm where she had been nicked by a spidren's ax, thinking that Kel was lucky that she had moved out of the way in time to avoid losing the appendage.
He wanted to ensure that none of the unpleasant Immortal's had found its way into the laceration. Spidren's blood, probably to make up for the fact that they had human heads and thus no venom sacks connected to chelicerae, was particularly corrosive. The burning feeling that resulted from contact should be an obvious give away, but Neal knew his friend. Kel wasn't the type to complain when she was in pain, often ignoring her injuries in favor of inquiring after others and seeing that they were tended to first. She endured it silently, and none of her friends knew she was injured until several days after the fact, and she always played it down as less serious than it was.
As such, the healer did not blindly trust Kel when she claimed she was fine and that it was just a scratch and that he shouldn't bother to use his still recovering Gift on a wound that would heal by itself.
Kel was careful not to disturb his concentration as she answered. On principle, Neal generally opposed her explanations for reasons she could not understand. "I couldn't let you fight off a dozen spidren alone." That was tantamount to a miniature colony and the man wouldn't have stood a chance on his own.
It wasn't quite the same situation as her first run in with the half-human, half-arachnid Immortal, then a young, untrained girl up against a single spidren. Still, Neal was similarly out matched, and she felt it wouldn't hurt to share that fact with him. "Spidren are difficult to defend against in groups and properly outfitted. As least this time I was armed with more than rocks."
Neal tossed her a look of exaggerated disbelief. "Rocks?" he echoed. He knew it had to be true coming from Kel, who abhorred lying, and knew it sounded exactly like something the female knight would do when protecting someone who couldn't do it for themselves. "Why would you try to fight a spidren with rocks? That's as foolish as me calling Wyldon 'the Stump' to his face. This must have happened before you came to the palace, because our only run in with the nasty bugs was at the end of your probationary year. You should have run."
The two friends shared a look at the memory of the spidren hunt led by Lord Wyldon and Kel's former Knight Master Raoul. It had been a terrifying experience for the pages, when the group of spidrens had come out of the trees (Kel distinctly remembered wishing that Wyldon had not been so set against her glaive as she had six years of training with it), but also one of pride, because they had held it together and dispatched them on their own. It was unpleasant, remembering how they burned the carcasses afterwards, and how the ones that weren't dead yet shrieked.
"My brother Anders said the same," she informed him.
"You should listen to him. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were missing a brain up here." Neal teasingly rapped his knuckles atop her head. "Did you forget you have someone depending on you now? You can't go gallivanting into battle anymore."
The Lady Knight tensed at the gentle rebuke. She knew, even without the accompanying nudge to her midsection, that Neal was referring to the babe growing within her, but it also reminded her that Roald and Shinko were trusting her with the life of their child. With the future of the kingdom.
For the first time since she had agreed to this plan, Kel felt a crushing wave of bitterness and resentment. Was a child of Yamani and Tortall necessary? Could Roald have not named one of his siblings his heir? Or done what any other noble would have and chosen a servant girl to bed? No one questioned when they fell with child.
Kel immediately felt horrible for thinking that. Roald was an honorable man, always choosing his duty ahead of himself. With herculean effort she ignored how much that reminded her of his decision to marry Shinko and take up the crown, subsequently tossing her to the side and saying she wasn't worth fighting for, and the heartache that came with it. Roald would never use a woman like Vinson had.
She was the best option. Open to the idea due to her close relationship with both their Majesties and agreeable because her strong sense of justice. There would be no alliance with the Yamani Island's emperor if Shinko's marriage failed to produce a son to inherit the throne, and a war was the last thing the King and Queen wanted.
She could not afford to be careless.
"You're right. I shall try to restrain myself next time," she said at length.
Neal scowled, much like his former Knight Master. "There's not going to be a next time. I'll induce paralysis to keep you on that flea-ridden mongrel you call a horse," he threatened.
In response, Peachblossom's neck extended, teeth clamping down around the healer's elbow. Neal howled, letting loose a stream of curses and threats aimed for the aging warhorse that had nimbly danced away after getting his revenge.
"How can he still do that? That's injustice, that is!" he cried. "The beast should be getting slower with age, not faster."
Kel cocked her head, eyeing him speculatively. "Maybe it is you that has gotten slower," she suggested impishly.
She laughed heartily, spurring Peachblossom ahead while Neal sputtered denials. Had Kel looked back, she would have seen the knight watching her with a soft smile, for Neal couldn't recall the last time he had seen his friend enjoy herself. Kel had become a shadow of herself since the King and Queen's marriage.
He would hang up his shield and return to Queenscove, never once complaining having to heal another child's sniffles, if that was what it took to make her happy. Anything to see her eyes sparkle with an inner light again.
But Kel was a simple woman. She would never ask anything of him that he wasn't willing to do. She was content to have friends standing by her side that believed in her and supported her.
Seeing her happy and not hiding behind her emotionless mask was like seeing the sun after several days of heavy rain. Any of his friends that overheard that thought would call it cliché and remind him that his poems were atrocious.
Neal made a commitment then and there to never leave or abandon her. And maybe, since it would be just the two of them in Blue Harbor, outside of Roald's reach, he could convince Kel of his feelings.
Kel hadn't been with the Great Progress when it stopped in Blue Harbor. The Third Company had been rallied to help replant several farms whose crops had been burned by bandits before it was too late in the growing season.
Blue Harbor was a peaceful and prosperous city, full of bustling people who were colorfully dressed. They moved about quickly; ships, both commercial fishing and transport, were docking and departing. It was Tortall's largest port city, and also the one furthest northward of the four port cities.
The brunette loved it. The city was alive and moving. She felt much more at ease here than she had in Corus.
Next to her, Neal gave a knowing grin. "This is your pace. Always something to do. Never a dull moment."
Kel gave him an indulging smile in return. "You know me well." She ignored the fluttering in her chest when he turned green eyes, more vibrant than the Emerald Ocean she had been observing, on her, passing the sensation off as nerves.
The two knights were posing as a couple. Neal had insisted, wanting to protect her reputation. Kel was well known and respected throughout the kingdom for her deeds in the war against Scanra. She only lied to Lord Wyldon about her min war against Joren's bullying, so no one in the palace thought twice when Kel claimed the child's father had moved on to the Black God's realm.
That was not the case in Blue Harbor, where the inhabitants had only heard stories of the Protector of the Small, stories that were more often than not embellished and told out of proportion and twisted by those that still believed women had no place being knights. Even though Kel wouldn't care and was more than capable of handling herself against rumors, Neal didn't want for her to deal with it, knowing that it would, without a doubt, cause her stress as the pregnancy progressed.
"Well?" Kel asked her companion. "What are we waiting for?" The scent of the sea, salt and fish predominantly, was overwhelming. Her nausea was returning with a vengeance and she wanted nothing more than to rest.
Blue Harbor was halfway between Corus and her home of Mindelan, and by nature should have only taken three days to reach, but with the unexpected spidren attack and Neal's mother hen-ing, a surprising turnabout in roles, it had taken twice that long to arrive at their destination.
The King clearly had not been thinking, or had no idea how severe her pregnancy sickness was, when he chose Blue Harbor as the place for her to give birth in secrecy. But Kel was grateful for the choice nonetheless, for if he had picked a more stagnant and staid city she would have driven herself made from restlessness.
Neal, likely seeing her aborted arm motion coming up to cover her mouth or the green tinge to her face, dismounted and began leading his horse down the main road to an inn. Kel, still green around the gills, followed subdued. They could room there for a few nights before finding a house to rent.
Roald had provided a generous budget to see Kel established and settled in, with the promise of steady payments delivered biweekly. Neal had been skeptical about the arrangement. It wouldn't be long before someone noticed the King was sending money to Blue Harbor continuously, but Roald had also sent the errand runner with orders to pick up a local food item, stating that Shinko's nonexistent cravings would serve as an air-tight cover story. No one would notice what happened to the money if his messenger returned with a crate of fish.
Kel would pick the most logical house on the market; one that was just large enough for the two of them, most likely not quite in the center of the city to avoid higher prices but close enough that she could walk to the food markets herself, and it would definitely be near an area where the two friends could continue to train, because Kel would not give up her daily exercises until forced otherwise by Neal.
But since Roald was funding this little operation, as he should, Neal thought darkly, he would take advantage of that. Kel deserved to get something out of this arrangement. Comfortable living was the least of it, but it was a start.
The female knight may have fallen in love with the port city, if her head twisting on her neck was any indication, and couldn't get enough of it, but Neal hated it and everything it stood for. That Kel had to lie and tuck herself in an out of the way corner and hide from rumors because she was a good person with a strong heart.
More than their deception being uncovered, Neal feared the end of this pregnancy, because she would set her baby in Shinko's arms and return to the King's Own, bury herself in work, and pretend it never happened. It would break her.
It was a long eight months ahead of them.