Work Text:
At the tap on her door, Kel said, "Busy."
"Even for me?" Sir Raul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, Commander of the King's Own, leaned casually on the frame, his own frame filling the doorway.
"Especially for you, my lord," Kel said, continuing to read reports, write notes, do figures and sums, and otherwise engage with the decisions necessary to keep her command, New Hope, alive and with enough pointy bits to discourage anyone else from trying to change that status. It was a difficult dance, rivaling some of the more intense pattern-dances Kel had been taught by her naginata instructors on the Yamani Islands. "You, like my lord Wyldon, have a bad habit of dropping problems on my lap when you visit."
From behind Lord Raoul, a girl's voice asked in Yamani if that meant she had somehow shamed either Lord Raoul or Lady Keladry. That made Kel put her work down. "My lord?" she asked.
"Surprise, Kel," Lord Raoul said, a hint of apology in his voice. "Their Majesties, Jonathan and Thayet, send their regards to you, and a scolding that you haven't taken up a squire yet."
"Their Majesties know that I have my hands full running New Hope, as all of my letters of apology to them clearly state." There was another reason that Kel preferred not to spend time in Corus or participate in the crowd that waited to see the new knights stagger their way out of the Chamber of the Ordeal. The Chamber had given Kel a great quest to defeat a Gallan named Blayce who committed necromancy on the souls of children to power monstrous killing machines in the current war against King Maggur. It had also gifted her with a seer named Imai who had a tendency to warn her of incoming problems only a little while before they arrived, and that the Chamber (and other gods) could use at any time if they wanted to make sure that Kel got a message. Kel had committed treason and gotten away with it on that quest, and had sensibly reasoned that if all such quests were to come with those kinds of risks, the best way to avoid receiving another such quest would be to avoid being in situations where one might be given.
Veralidaine Sarrasri, the Wildmage, her husband, Numair Salmalín, and Alanna the Lioness, King's Champion, had each applauded her logic and told her the plan wouldn't work, because the gods have their own ways of making sure that quests get to those who are supposed to complete them. Since each of them spoke from experience, Kel believed them, but she still did her best not to look like an appealing target.
"They do," Lord Raoul continued, "and so they've decided that they're going to make it easier on you by sending you a squire to train, rather than waiting for you to stay at Midwinter Court any longer than strictly necessary."
Lord Raoul stepped aside to reveal a girl of squire's age, adorned in the customary armor of a Yamani warrior, katana sheathed at her side, naginata in hand, albeit with a cover on the blade for travel. The girl bowed to Kel, an apology and a sign of respect wrapped into one gesture. Kel returned her bow, exactly as she would have done on the Islands, because politeness warranted a polite reply.
"I have the honor of introducing Ame noh Ajikuro, who has recently passed her page examinations, and is assigned to you as your squire by Their Majesties."
Kel could see the logic in the assignment. There was precisely one Lady Knight in the company who had experience living on the Yamani Islands, was fluent enough in the language to explain if Common failed to convey the meaning, and had sufficient experience with the weapons of Yaman to teach another in their practical use in warfare. Princess Shinkokami had probably also steered this assignment, because the Ajikuro family was still sufficiently powerful on the Islands that a well-regarded family would be needed to avoid insulting them by assigning one of their daughters to a lesser household.
"I assume Their Majesties made it clear that I was not to refuse them," Kel said dryly.
"Yes," Raoul said bluntly.
"Tell Their Majesties whatever it is you tell them when they order you in the same way, my lord, and also, please convey to Their Highnesses that I don't appreciate their interference either."
Raoul smiled. "Gladly. I'll let them know when I'm collecting on the bet."
Kel returned his smile. "You, my lord, are a bad man."
"No god has yet prohibited taking money from fools, and until they do, I'm not going to stop." Raoul returned to a more serious expression. "Please make Squire Ame comfortable, and teach her well."
"I will, my lord. Now go away before I recruit you to help me with these figures."
Lord Raoul chuckled and departed, leaving Squire Ame outside her door. Like any lady of Yaman, she had taken in this exchange and was now waiting for her orders, ready but not relaxed, without any trace of the emotions surely churning within her on her face.
"Come in, Squire," Kel said to her. "Tobe!" she shouted shortly afterward.
"Here, Lady Knight." Tobeis Boon was Keladry's page and body servant, although he had no interest at all in trying for his own shield, nor in letting go of many of the ways and methods he had picked up by being silent and observant. Every time he talked with Baron Cooper of Pirate's Swoop, he came back with new tricks that he put to immediate use, which would normally worry Kel about Tobe being persuaded to a life of thievery and crime against the Crown, except she knew that when he was of sufficient age, Lord Myles of Olau would recruit him into the King's intelligence services, and then he would have all the thievery and crime he wanted at the request of the Crown, instead.
"Tobe, this is Ame noh Ajikuro, and as of today, she has been assigned to be my squire. Would you find her quarters that are close to mine, please, and get her settled in?"
"Sure, Lady Knight." He bowed to Ame, and requested the noble lady to follow him in passable Yamani, albeit with an accent that made him sound like he was from a region very far away from the Imperial Capital. Ame was clearly startled at being addressed in her first language, a flicker of surprise coming across her face for an instant, but she followed Tobe out of Kel's office.
Kel rubbed her temples to try and stave off the incoming headache, then picked her work back up, because it still needed to be done before she could learn anything about her new squire.
She caught up with Ame in the infirmary. Sir Nealan of Queenscove was the chief healer of New Hope, and due to New Hope's status as a place where refugees from war were taken in and helped until they either chose to stay or could return to their own homes, he had a very strict policy that new residents had to be examined for maladies, injuries, and other conditions that might be important to know about in case of battle. Kel's previous command, Haven, had routinely been a site of fighting, thanks to Blayce's taste for children, and while New Hope was less likely to be a battleground, because of Kel's reputation as both fierce commander and because she had trained the entire populace of New Hope on self-defense, the possibility was still present during any time of war.
"She won't let me examine her," Neal said to Kel as she entered. "I keep trying to explain to her that there's nothing improper about it, but she doesn't want to believe me. Yuki is in there now, trying the same thing."
Neal's wife, Yukimi, had arrived as part of Princess Shinkokami's retinue during the time she was to go on progression with Prince Roald and have the people see who would be their next rulers when King Jonathan and Queen Thayet no longer could. While most of the retinue had returned to Yaman after the progression finished, as one of the Princess's ladies-in-waiting, Yuki stayed on, and had developed a relationship with Neal. Kel still didn't fully understand how it worked, but it clearly did, and therefore she only cared when the two of them were having a fight that wasn't related to their tendency to needle each other about philosophy or other subjects with the intention of sparking the verbal equivalent of tavern brawls between them.
"It's not your fault, Neal," Kel reassured him. "Even with four years of page training and having to see so much mixed company, there are still some things that a Yamani lady would consider unacceptably intimate. You should be able to do it if I'm in the room with you."
"Why you, and not Yuki?" Neal asked. "I thought it was just something about not being properly chaperoned, but she still refused."
"She's my squire, freshly delivered from Their Majesties," Kel said. Neal's eyebrows rose. "Because of that, I'm responsible for her in ways nobody else is."
Kel entered the examination room to a rapid-fire exchange of Yamani, with Yuki explaining that the customs of Tortall were strange compared to those on the Islands, and that strangeness would have to be embraced to succeed. Ame said she was supposed to learn how to fight like Tortallans, not to live like one. When she saw Kel, she jumped up from the examination table and bowed.
Yuki bowed to Kel as well, a bow of familiarity and friendship, rather than one of formal service.
"Squire Ajikuro," Kel said, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance for emphasis, "surely you were trained better than to refuse a healer."
"I am not injured or sick," Ame said, "so there is no need for an examination."
"This is primarily a place for war refugees," Kel said. "My chief healer has set a rule that all new people to New Hope must be examined, so that we do not introduce plague or pronounce someone fit for work they cannot do. There are no exceptions to this rule."
"You are the commander here, yet his rule is stronger than yours?" Ame asked. Kel remembered from her time on the Islands that hierarchies there tended to be less flexible than they could be in Tortall, and searched for a good explanation.
"Good knights and commanders recognize when someone else has greater knowledge and expertise than they do," Kel said. "In those situations, it is wise to support their decisions with your authority."
"Generous of you, Kel," Neal murmured from the door to the room.
Yuki, who was closest to him, pulled a closed fan from its sheath on her belt and rapped him on the forehead with it. "Hush," she said.
To someone who did not understand the subtleties of Yamani emotional expression, Ame appeared to have taken this act in stride, but to Kel and Yuki, Ame was staring in shock and utter disbelief that a Yamani lady would so casually treat her husband as if he were a buffoon.
"It will not be intrusive, Squire," Neal said, his Yamani understandable, if still using more Tortallan pronunciation of words than Yamani ones. "I believe you are not injured or sick, but I must confirm this, or some of our residents will be quick to blame you if there is sickness."
Ame's eyes flicked over to Kel, who set her own expression to indicate that she was about to ask Yuki for her fan to use.
"Very well. I would like Lady Daimoru to stay as well," Ame said, and Kel relaxed. Her first crisis as a knight-master, handled to satisfaction. Neal had one of the lightest touches of any healer she had met when using his Gift, if he was in a pleasant mood when doing so, and faster when cheerful.
True to her faith in him, Neal only glowed green for a short whole before pronouncing Ame fit for duty. Tobe and Mistress Fanche greeted them when they left.
"This is Mistress Fanche, my headwoman," Kel said. "She is stubborn, contrary, and an expert in understanding how my pronouncements and orders will be taken among the people of New Hope. I value her counsel greatly, and you should, too. Mistress Fanche, this is my squire, Ame noh Ajikuro."
Ame gave Fanche a polite bow.
"Not much for talking, is she?" Mistress Fanche said into the silence that followed.
"The culture of Yaman looks poorly on those who speak without purpose," Kel said. "It's a hard habit to relax." Her own experiences with Tortallan pages, squires, and lords convinced that girls didn't belong as knights had tested her Yamani discipline about everything for years. As Lord Raoul's squire, and then after she had dispatched Blayce and earned the respect of Lord Wyldon, most of the commentary about her sex's suitability for knighthood had retreated behind closed doors. Since she didn't have to hear it, Kel was content not to dwell on it and to let Lady Alanna do most of the speaking on that matter.
Fanche only nodded. "I have work to do," she said as her farewell.
They stopped at the quartermaster's next, ensuring that Ame would have clothes to wear on work duty and a basic field kit of supplies on the likelihood that she and Kel would spend time in the field away from New Hope with regularity. After that, they toured the rest of New Hope, introducing Ame to all the people she would need to know and their various responsibilities and functions. Ame treated all of them with appropriate politeness and an economy of words that reminded Kel of her earliest days on the Islands.
Tour complete, Kel helped Ame unload all of her new items into her quarters. They were supposed to be guest quarters if there were visitors, but New Hope was not the kind of place anyone other than military commanders, and perhaps the monarchs or the Crown Prince and Princess, were likely to visit, and they often preferred to stick with their men in case of surprises.
"How do you like New Hope?" Kel asked her, when they had finished putting away Ame's supplies.
"It seems…sound." Ame said.
"Did my lord haMinch tell you anything about what being my squire would entail?"
"He…assumed we would all be assigned to men," Ame said. "I was not expecting this. It is a great honor to be assigned to you."
"I was not expecting to have a squire, so Sakuyo laughs at both of us. Why did a daughter of Ajikuro decide on this path?"
Ame looked down at the floor. "I…bring shame upon my family."
"Was he a terrible old man?" One of the most common ways that daughters were said to shame their families was by not being a dutiful wife, or publicly disagreeing with the choice that had been made for their husband.
"I intended to do my duty to my betrothed," Ame said quietly. "Before I could, however, someone spoke poisonous truths in his ear about my…suitability, and I was sent away, and then sent here, to restore my honor."
"Serious, indeed," murmured Kel. "Do you intend to return once honor is satisfied?"
"I…cannot," Ame said. "I may bring shame upon your house as well, through our association."
"My mother will have something to say to any tongues that wag on the Islands, and I will have something to say to those who speak carelessly here," Kel said. "Assuming that there is anything left for me after the others have had their turn."
Ame made no reply other than a lift of her eyebrows.
"You've got enough time to change for dinner," Kel continued. "No need for kimono, we're not formal here. Or anywhere, honestly. Work clothes are usually best, because so many either come from work to food or go from food to work."
Ame nodded.
"Welcome to New Hope, Squire. Let's work well together," Kel said, giving the formal blessing and bow.
"Let's work well together," Ame replied, matching Kel's bow.
Tobe was waiting for her outside, sufficiently far away that he could not be directly accused of eavesdropping, but close enough that he absolutely had been.
"You'll have all your clerks at dinner, Lady," he said. "Lots of business needing doing."
"I'm prepared for it," Kel replied.
"Your squire's made an impression, too. From what I heard, a Yamani lady in armor made more than a few hearts flutter."
"They'll get over it after a couple weeks of work shifts with her, I think."
"I don't know about that, Lady. Some people have been working with you for years and still hope you'll notice them one day."
Kel didn't have to think of a reply, as the first and most eager of her clerks, Elise, was waiting outside her office.
"Another crisis?" Kel asked mildly.
"No," Elise.said. "Not yet, anyway. If you could convince Lord Wyldon to spare us more land to farm, more soldiers to protect us, and more resources so we can buy what we can't grow, then we wouldn't have a crisis for a while."
Kel laughed. "My lord Wyldon sends what he can, but this is why I have you, Elise, and all the other clerks: to find ways of making sure what largesse comes our way is used to its best effect. Where are the rest?"
"They sent me with their reports."
"Then we'll start with your reports, and they can stay up later tonight for it. Also, Elise, this is my squire, Ame noh Ajikuro. She'll be staying with me for the next few years."
Elise smiled. "Well met, Squire. Our Commander has managed to wrangle this camp into something resembling order, so you'll have an easy time learning from her."
Ame said nothing as Kel and Elise pored over those parts of running the camp that Elise kept track of, and dictated those letters that Kel would need to sign to make those changes permanent. As they finished, Tobe poked his head in the door.
"The cooks say to come eat something, Lady Kel, or they're dragging you out of your office to the mess so everyone else can eat."
"Can't keep everyone waiting," Kel said, smiling. "Oh, Ame. You'll be introduced formally to the camp tonight. If you would like, you can say a few words to everyone."
Ame gave a small nod.
When the meal had finished, Kel got up on the box she used to address the camp. Used to the ritual, the mess quieted for long enough to hear her.
"New Hope received a present today from Their Majesties. Despite the best efforts of King Maggur and his army to keep us too busy to think about the future, Their Majesties have gifted us with one of our knights-in-training."
"They sent us another girl!" someone from the back of the room shouted.
"Well, after how the first one turned out, why not?" someone else replied from the other side. Laughter erupted from several of the tables.
"Squire Ame noh Ajikuro will accompany me for the next several years, learning how New Hope works, helps each other, and beats Scanrans back every time they appear. She'll work my work schedule and rotations alongside me. Treat her well."
Kel stepped down from the box, and Ame stepped up.
"Let's work well together," she said, bowing to the camp, and then stepped off.
The next morning, as Kel rose for her weapons practice, Ame joined her on the way to the courtyard, then stepped away from her. To Kel's surprise, instead of the swords she had arrived with, Ame unfolded a pair of shukusen, the sharp and sturdy fans that were favored by the nobility for defending themselves against attackers in situations where other weapons would be forbidden, like the presence of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Yaman.
Ame started slowly, the same way that Kel did when practicing with her weapons, matching Kel's pace as they both went through their exercises. Their pattern dances were different, but Kel could see echoes of the lessons she had gone through, and the patterns she had repeated under the watchful eye of the Empress's armsmaster. Their motions and strikes were synchronized, side-by-side as they progressed through their dance to the end.
"You're a fan-dancer?" Kel asked when they had finished.
"And she taught you naginata?" Ame replied, having also noticed the similarities between their dances.
"I was…ungraceful." That was the polite form of some of the things she had heard from the other girls in her training cohort.
"And I was impulsive," Ame said, her tone indicating how much she thought of both of their supposed shortcomings.
"Did my lord haMinch let you continue practicing?" Kel said, knowing what the answer already would be.
"No," Ame said. "We are both up before the sun, however, so we found the same solution."
Kel nodded, remembering her own years of practice and training before the rest of the pages were awake.
"Would you indulge me?" Ame said. "I should like to spar with someone who knows the weapons of Yaman and is not a Shang warrior."
"I will, although if you want someone truly well-trained, you might ask Yuki to spar with you."
"Thank you for the advice," Ame said. She bowed to Kel, the acknowledgement of a worthy opponent. Kel returned her bow, and both of them assumed their ready stances.
Ame did not immediately attack. Perhaps because she wanted to prove to Kel, and to their shared training master, that she was not impulsive. Kel was content to wait her out, with the advantage of reach and experience. They circled each other, assessing, feinting, testing each other's reactions and seeing if the other would follow too far or leave themselves vulnerable.
When Ame moved, Kel cut her blade across Ame's intended path. Ame beat the glaive down with one of her fans, hooking the weapon under her arm to immobilize it, and drove for Kel with the other fan. Kel had fought too many opponents who believed once they could get inside the reach of her blade, she would be easy to defeat for such a tactic to work. Ame cut through the place where Kel was. Kel hooked Ame's back foot with her own and yanked. Ame stumbled forward, but in the process of keeping her balance, she dropped Kel's weapon. Thinking Kel would immediately go for the glaive, she swung her fans through that space, leaving her open to another leg sweep that sent Ame onto the ground, tucking into a roll away from Kel. Ame returned to standing as Kel retrieved her glaive and pressed her advantage. The pattern-dances they had both learned by heart flowed between them, Ame's fans keeping Kel's blade away from her and intercepting the steel-clad butt end, often catching it just before it would have struck her.
One of those catches was finally too late, and the blow threw the shukusen from Ame's hand. Shortly after, Ame was fully disarmed and on the ground, with Kel's glaive in the "victory" position.
"Well done, Squire," Kel said. "Your training masters should be proud of you."
A cheer erupted from around them. The morning training crew had arrived, and had caught at least the last part of their spar. Kel helped Ame to her feet, and they both set to the task of tending to their weapons.
"This is what trained warriors can do to defend themselves," one of the sergeants was telling his practice group of sword-wielders as they worked. "To protect yourself and New Hope, you must be able to fight long enough at their level to win."
"If the enemy can get close enough to showcase superior training such as that, then you will lose," one of the archery sergeants was telling his group. "All the skill in the world at the sword, however, cannot protect them from a well-placed arrow."
"Is anyone injured?" Neal asked as he approached.
"I'm not hurt. Ame?" Kel said.
Ame hesitated, then said, "I am not injured."
Neal nodded, satisfied. "Good work, Squire," he said. "I don't think Kel's had that much of a workout in a long time. Keep it up." He continued on his morning rounds.
"It appears you have made an impression," Kel said.
Ame continued to clean and check her shukusen before finally folding them up and putting them back in their wrappings.
"Thank you for the practice," she said, bowing to Kel.
"Put your shukusen away, grab your practice sword and your Tortallan bow, and meet me where the archers are practicing, please," Kel said. Ame bowed again in acknowledgement.
Tobe appeared to take Kel's weapon back to her quarters, and handed over a practice sword and the bow favored by most of the Tortallan infantry, hunters, and peasants alike.
Kel and the training sergeant helped adjust form and give feedback to the shooters, praising them when their shots hit the mark. With most of the residents of New Hope, the standard was that if they were menaced by an invader, they could hurt them long enough to get away, or stay alive long enough for others to arrive. That many of them had already proven themselves to this standard repeatedly and were working on more than merely surviving and instead being sufficiently deadly in their own right said much about what they intended to do, if the war ended and they were able to retake their homes.
Ame joined Kel shortly after the first group finished their shooting.
"Ame, would you join the second group, please?" Kel asked her. If she had been anywhere near Corus in the last few years, she would already know what the squires were capable of, by observing them as pages, but since Kel had not had that benefit, she had to see all of it for the first time along with everyone else.
Ame's form was good, as best as Kel could tell, but some of her arrows wobbled in flight and made a looser grouping than Kel would have liked in a battlefield situation. After she had retrieved her arrows, Kel waved her over. The problem was apparent as soon as Kel looked at the contents of the quiver.
"Whose arrows are these?" Kel asked.
"Mine," Ame said, a little defensiveness in her voice.
"You made them?" Kel said.
"The other pages broke the ones I was issued, every time," Ame said. Much like Kel would have said it to anyone who asked, without betraying how much it hurt to have that happen, or how furious she was that it was allowed to continue.
"How many fights did you get in as a page?" Kel asked.
"None," Ame said, a reflex answer, nowhere near the truth. Kel, of course, had also never gotten into any fights as a page, at least, not officially, because pages fighting with each other was grounds for immediate expulsion. There were a stock of excuses used, paper-thin, but still holding because everyone chose to accept them rather than turn their attention to the greater problem.
"Neither did I," Kel said mildly, "but I certainly learned a lot about how to fight by all the times I fell down or clumsily crashed into things. I am not my lord haMinch, nor do I have a large tolerance for those who make trouble for others. You may retire these arrows with honor. Go to the quartermaster and get a brace of arrows from the supplies, then return. I want to see you shoot with the arrows we will use when Scanrans menace this camp."
Ame bowed her acknowledgement and jogged off. When she returned and took her place in the next group, Ame's second set of arrows were close enough that the fletching on any one arrow could touch the fletching on another. The training sergeant whistled his appreciation.
"She'll be a great help on the walls, Lady Kel," he said. "Maybe outshoot Gron, one of these days."
Kel nodded, and took her squire on to the next training station. Her sword work was excellent with a Tortallan blade, although Kel could see the habits she had developed learning with the Yamani katana in her grip and where on the blade she tried to strike. Her sparring partner was not used to that kind of strength, shaking out her hands after one of Ame's blows sent the sword from her hand.
"You grip your weapon too tightly," Ame said. "You cannot be afraid of it, or of me, or you have already lost."
"I'm not afraid," the woman said. "I've survived Scanrans torching my village." She took up her stance again, waiting for Ame to strike.
Ame cut through her defense with one blow near the tip of her practice blade. Kel had been on the receiving end of many of those kinds of blows while learning swordcraft herself. Trying to fight the motion of the sword was tiring, but trying to fight a sword with only your hands was ineffective.
"No," Ame said, shaking her head. "You are standing still. I can move you that way. Move me."
The next time Ame swung, her partner stepped into her block and took the hit near the guard of the blade, stopping Ame's momentum. Ame reversed her strike, and her partner followed her through the training sequence of blocks they had been learning.
"Good," Ame said at the end. "You can feel the difference, can't you?" Her sparring partner nodded, a fierce look of determination on her face. Ame bowed, and went back to Kel.
"Maybe you should teach them, instead of me," Kel said. "A fan-dancer would understand the push and pull much better than an ungraceful naginata-sweeper."
"Did I dishonor you?" Ame said.
"Far from it, Squire. I'm learning what you do well and what you need further instruction on. Being able to teach is indicative of how well you understand."
As they made the rounds of the various weapons being trained at New Hope, it became immediately apparent to Kel that Ame had both the eye to see what was wrong and a good way of explaining it to the person so they could fix it. What Ame needed most was practice, and those elements of becoming a knight of Tortall that she wouldn't have already acquired from all her time spent on the Islands.
Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, Greetings from Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, Commander of New Hope.
I am writing you today to
"No," Kel said. "The greeting is fine, but if Lord Raoul doesn't feel like something very dear to him will catch fire by the time he's done reading, then we've wasted ink."
"Do you wish to write it yourself, Lady Kel?" Elaine, her scribe with the best calligraphy, asked tartly.
"No," Kel said. "If he sees it in my hand, he'll know what's coming."
Elaine set her quill to make notes on the draft she had composed.
My Lord, the squire you have dropped off with Their Majesties' compliments is competent in all the necessary aspects of being a squire of Tortall, and, as I have learned, took up the craft of making and fletching her own arrows during her page years. Such additional effort would be commendable from a page who chose to undertake this of her own free will, but in my squire's case, it appears to have been a necessity rather than an extracurricular interest.
"Not 'appears'," Kel said. "I don't want anything in there that suggests the problem is anything other than those page boys who bullied her and the page master who let them."
"Is that a good idea, Lady Kel?" Elaine asked.
"Lord Raoul needs to know this isn't a matter of belief or uncertainty. He already knows what my experience was like, so he'll trust me if I say that Ame's was similar to mine in the bad ways."
My squire has also demonstrated an aptitude for teaching others how to defend themselves with and without weaponry, an experience that is informed by the amount of practice she had being on the receiving end of lessons intended to teach her that girls should not try to be knights.
It was my hope—
"No," Kel said. "I'm not hoping that page boys will decide not to bully girls out of the goodness of their heart. I expect them not to do it, and if they ignore that expectation, I expect their page master to curb the behavior for them. I doubt that Lord haMinch is so far away from his own page days not to know what happens, and to make a better effort to stop it."
Lady Alanna, myself, and now Ame noh Ajikuro have all gone through a page training process that acts and functions as a place where girls are discouraged from participating. You saw for yourself the consequences of this problem when Lord Burchard of Stone Mountain interrupted our sleep in his rage and escaped with his life. How many more girls are broken by this system, and how many more turn aside from this path because they know what it entails, in addition to the physical training expected of every page?
Surely someone as experienced as Lord haMinch has not allowed his head to travel so far up his—
"Lady Kel," Elaine said, "what you have accused Lord haMinch of is entirely too vulgar to send in writing to anyone, much less Lord Raoul."
"Strike 'Lord' when referring to Burchard," Kel said, ignoring Elaine's comment. "Yes, it is a slight to him," she said, anticipating Elaine's objection, "but he dishonored himself when he attempted to murder me in revenge for his son's death in the Chamber of the Ordeal. The omission will be noticed and interpreted correctly."
"And the other thing?" Elaine prompted.
"Leave it in. Lord Raoul is commander of the King's Own. He has always asked for accurate information from his soldiers. He can handle a little coarse language."
Elaine shook her head in disapproval, her quill continuing to make notes.
"If that bothers you, I should have Neal tell you stories of his squiring to Lady Alanna. The King's Champion is known for her temper across Tortall, but only a select few have had the honor of hearing her when she is sufficiently incensed that she loses decorum and indulges in the deep knowledge she has of the language of soldiers, sailors, and thieves," Kel said.
"Ah," Elaine said, nodding. "So that's what the sentence 'If this injustice continues, I will seek Lady Alanna's involvement in the affair,' means?"
"Yes," Kel said. "Lord Raoul should recognize that for the threat it is."
With utmost sincerity,
Lady Keladry of Mindelan
Commander of New Hope
"Any other changes, Lady Kel?"
"That should be all. Once you have it drafted, I will sign it, seal it, and send someone to deliver it to Lord Raoul on their next visit."
As Kel left her office, Ame shadowed her, always a step behind, looking out protectively for her knight-mistress. She tread softly, a skill learned and refined on the mats of Yamani houses, where being too loud often got you pulled into chores you didn't want to do, or worse, made it clear to the house's guests that there was effort happening in the house, instead of the quiet standard of excellence every house expected of those who served it in any capacity.
"How do you feel about shooting tonight, Ame? I think Sergeant Gron has held his title for too long."
"Do you have any wagers placed, Lady Keladry?" Ame asked, which indicated she was settling in well at New Hope. The Ame that first greeted Keladry would never have made a remark suggesting her knight-mistress indulged in any kind of vice.
"No, I don't," Kel said, which was part of the truth. The rest of the truth was that Tobe was the one who had the knack for knowing the outcomes of matches. Tobe so clearly enjoyed it, and saw it as a test of his skills, that Kel often set him challenges and target amounts, which she then turned into charitable purses for those who were struggling in New Hope or improvements to the camp and its spaces. While other lords might demand tithes or taxes to support their own household, Kel could confiscate enough of Tobe's winnings to fund her projects, which often conveniently put the coin back into the hands of the people Tobe had convinced to bet against him, so that they could lose to Tobe again at the next opportunity.
Ame accepted the partial truth without further question, and went to collect her bow. As Kel expected, she worked her way through the preliminary rounds without much worry, firing tight groupings that won loud cheers and louder wagers toward whether she could topple Gron from his perch as best archer in the camp.
It had been a while since New Hope had something to cheer for that wasn't watching the tails of Scanrans running away from another bruising. As Gron and Ame dispatched their opponents, Kel noted a general improvement in the accuracy of the shooters overall. Regular target practice against raiders had made everyone in camp better shots, it seemed.
When the time came for the final, Gron returned Ame's bow.
"Make your knight-mistress proud," he said.
"Make yourself indispensable to your Commander," she replied.
Gron put his first arrow in the exact center of his target. Ame matched him on hers.
Gron drew two lines with his shots, making a neat X of arrows in the bulls-eye. Ame drew the Yamani character for strength in the bulls-eye with her arrows.
The raucous energy of the camp became a hushed silence, everyone waiting for what the next trick would be.
Gron drew half a circle around the inner edge of the bulls-eye. Ame completed the circle on his target without changing places with him.
Ame shot the first two strokes of the character for the sky, as well as a guide to where the next two strokes should go. Gron obliged her, completing the character from his own position.
"Are all the ladies from Yaman prodigies in the martial arts?" Gron asked Kel when he was finished.
"No," Kel told him. "Some of them devote themselves to more appropriate maidenly pursuits, like politics."
The crowd roared with laughter.
To decide the winner in the dwindling light, they both shot one arrow down the length of New Hope's longest boulevard. Gron planted his just outside the center of the bulls-eye. Kel watched Ame sight, draw her bow, and then, for an instant, drop her aim right before loosing. Her arrow flew true to where she had aimed it, landing just outside the bulls-eye ring, perfectly in line with the center of the target.
Gron shook his head. "Better shot than mine, Squire," he said. "Congratulations." Raising his voice, he addressed the crowd. "She got me. Give her the arrow."
The crowd cheered and applauded for both of them.
"They'll be talking about this one for a while," Gron said. "Maybe if we're both in Corus for a summer, we can entertain the court with some fancy shooting. Good night, Lady Kel, Squire Ame."
It was several more minutes of congratulations and encouragement before Kel and Ame could disentangle themselves from the crowd and send everyone toward sleep or their night guard duty. Neal and Yuki joined them for the walk back to their quarters.
"Keladry-sensei," Ame said, slipping into Yamani on the way back to their rooms. "Why is everyone congratulating me? I lost."
Before Kel could say anything, Yuki, who had seen the entire competition, pulled her fan out with intent to do to Ame what she had done to Neal in the examination room.
"Yuki," Kel said, "treat my squire with more respect than your husband, please."
In response, Yuki offered Kel the fan. Kel took it and motioned Ame over, gently tapping Ame on the forehead with it, before returning it to Yuki.
"I saw you move your aim," Kel said. "Sergeant Gron might not have, but he knew you hit what you were aiming for. Why did you change your target?"
Ame was silent for a few steps, and then she started to talk. First in Common, then as her thoughts started tripping over each other in their haste to get out, to Yamani. About her family's honor, about the honor of the pages she had spent four years with, about Kel's honor as her sponsor, and about her honor. How she had been betrayed, how she had dealt with that betrayal, and the great shame it had brought upon people currently in favor with the emperor when she had exposed them. About the harmony she could never preserve, because her presence in their space was dishonorable, was disruptive to the harmony, and what she was subjected to anywhere she went that did not accept her. Neal's face became progressively more horrified as Ame continued her recitation, while Kel's expressiveness retreated into the look trained into everyone raised in the court of Yaman, a look that could witness all things without betraying the raging dragon in her heart, looking for a target.
When Ame finished delivering her report, Kel nodded. "I understand," she said. "Tomorrow, when it is presented, accept the prize and care for it."
Ame bowed and entered her quarters, closing the door behind her.
"Kel," Neal said, a protest ready to escape his lips.
"Neal," Yuki said, cutting across his pathway, "Keladry is well aware of whatever you are about to say, and by the morning, she will have a plan ready to implement. After you have heard her plan, feel free to point out where it has weaknesses."
Neal seemed ready to continue anyway, but he nodded. "You're right," he said. "We've both known Kel long enough that she won't look the other way on this."
"See, Keladry? Men are trainable, so long as you maintain firm discipline with them," Yuki said, a twinkling in her eye as she steered Neal away toward their own chambers.
Kel dismissed Ame to bed immediately upon entering her chambers and sat at her writing desk. Neal was right, even if it meant it would be a long night for her.
"I see the Protector of the Small is getting ready to ride again," Imai said as Kel was practicing her pattern dance in the morning. The seer-child that had come back with them on the rescue mission from Scanra often delighted in showing up unexpectedly with a pronouncement or prophecy for Kel to have to account for in her plans.
"Stop calling me that," Kel said, swinging through the pattern sometimes referred to as "stripping meat from bone" with her glaive. "And if you hadn't noticed, I have responsibilities here. It keeps me from being tasked with whatever errands the gods need running in the world."
Imai laughed, but it was not a child's laugh, but instead the laugh of an entity older than human comprehension. "The name is appropriate," a mature woman's voice said in court Yamani through Imani's mouth, "so I think we will continue to use it. And I assure you, trivial things like logistics are not an impediment when there is work to be done, Keladry, daughter of Ilane, Protector of the Small."
The way that the goddess said her name and titles made every hair that Kel had available stand on end. "What does the Great Goddess of Yaman want with an unworthy foreigner?" she replied in her own court Yamani.
"I have need of someone to turn a raincloud into a mighty thunderstorm, so that her lightning will set ablaze the rot that threatens my house, with a lioness's roar to fan the flames higher still." The goddess smiled with Imai's face, satisfaction at the course of events she had orchestrated so far leading to their desired outcome. "I will talk with you again shortly."
Kel finished her pattern dance with a pointed thrust and sighed. Next to her, Ame finished her own pattern dance, fans flashing in the morning sun.
"Be ready to return to Yaman," Kel told her. "The Great Goddess has chosen us to preserve the honor of the Empire. While somehow preventing Lady Alanna from burning it all down before the appointed time."
"Lady…Alanna," Ame said flatly.
"Yes," Kel said. "It will be a great challenge, Squire Ame noh Ajikuro. Do you want to undertake it?"
"What the Great Goddess decrees will be done, regardless of our wants, Lady. That is the way of gods."
Imai laughed in her own voice. "Say that in the hearing of the Wildmage the next time you are together, and listen to what stories she tells you in return." Her role as a mouthpiece of gods finished for this moment, Imai departed to go be a child once more.
"What happens now?" Ame asked.
"We prepare," Kel told her. "With the understanding that our preparations will be entirely useless when they are called upon."
"What happens if we…succeed?" Ame said.
"Then Sakuyo laughs," Kel said. After a moment, she added, "At both of us."