
First she went to her room beside the nursery. That wasn't a good choice. Two of her brothers' young
families lived at Mindelan. With the children and their nursemaids next door, there was enough noise to
drown out trumpets. No one had seen her creep into the room, but her oldest nephew saw her leaving it.
Nothing would do for him but that she give him a piggyback ride around the large room. After that, all of
the older children wanted rides of their own. Once that was done, the nursemaids helped Kel to escape.
She tried to hole up by the fountain in the castle garden, but her sisters-in-law were there, sewing and
gossiping with their maids. The kitchen garden was her next choice, but two servants were there
gathering vegetables. She stared longingly at her favorite childhood spot, the highest tower in the castle,
and felt a surge of anger. Before they had gone to the islands her brother Conal had teasingly held her
over the edge of the tower balcony. Until that time she had visited the top of that tower at least once a
day. Now the thought of it made her shudder.
There were hundreds of places she might use around the castle, but they were all indoors. She needed
to be outside. She was trying to think of a place when she remembered the broad, shallow Domin River,
which ran through the woods. No one would be there. She could sit by the water and think in peace.
"Miss?" called a voice as she strode through the inner gate in the castle wall. "Where might you be
going?"
Kel turned to face the man-at-arms who had called to her. "I don't know."
The man held out a small horn. "If you're not going to the village, you need one of these." He spoke
carefully. The baron and his family had been home only for three months, and the people were still not
sure what to make of these strange, Yamani-like nobles. "They told you the rule, surely. Any time you go
outside the castle or village, you take a horn. You never know when one of them monsters, centaurs or
giants or whatever, will show its face."
Kel frowned. The legendary creatures that had returned to their world five years before had an
unnerving way of showing up when they were least expected. For every one that was harmless or willing
to get on with humans, there were fistfuls that weren't. Bands of men-at-arms now roamed throughout the
fiefdom, searching for hostile visitors and listening for the horn call, which meant someone was in trouble.
I'm not going very far, she wanted to argue, but the Yamanis had taught her to obey a soldier's
commands. She accepted the horn with a quiet thank-you and slung it over one shoulder. Checking that
Lord Wyldon's letter was tucked securely in the front of her shirt, she left the road that led from the castle
gate and headed through their orchards. Once past the cultivated trees she entered the woods, following
a trail down to the water.
By the time she could see a glint of silver through the trees she had worked up a mild sweat. The day
was warm and the walk was longer than she had thought it would be. When a rock worked its way into
her shoe, she sat on a log to get it out.
"It's not right," she muttered to herself, undoing the laces that held the leather around her ankle. "You're
a page for four years. That's how it's been done for centuries. Now they're going to change it?" When
she up-ended the shoe and shook it, nothing fell out. She stuffed a hand inside, feeling around for the
stone. "And just because I'm a girl? They ought to treat me the same. All I want is the same chance as the
boys. No more, no less. That's right, isn't it?" She winced as a sharp edge nipped one of her fingers.
Working more carefully, she wiggled the bit of rock out of a fold in the leather. "Probation is not fair, and
knighthood training has to be fair."
The stone was out; her mind was made up. If they couldn't treat her the same as they would the boys,
then she wasn't going to settle for a half portion. She would have to become a warrior some other way.
Kel sighed and put her shoe back on. The problem was that now she would have to wait. The Queen's
Riders took volunteers when they were fifteen or older. The queen's ladies, those who were expected to
ride, handle a bow, and deal with trouble at Queen Thayet's side, went to her in their fifteenth year as
well. And who was to say Kel wouldn't be living in the Yamani Islands by then?
One thing she knew: convent school, the normal destination for noble girls her age, was not a choice.