Alanna The First Adventure - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,49
was his business, after all. She herself never bothered to tell anyone where she disappeared to when she went to work with Coram’s sword in secret.
One free morning, safe in George’s rooms, Alanna caught herself trying the spell for the shielding Wall of Power that was in one of George’s books. The moment she saw a wall of glittering purple fire go up around her, she shouted “So mote it be!” and broke the spell. “What am I doing?” she asked George in disgust.
George took her hands in his big ones. “You’re doing the smart thing. Oh, you’ll be a great knight and rescue ladies and slay dragons and the like, but not all the monsters you meet are dragon shaped. Remember what your brother said about Jon’s smilin’ cousin.”
Alanna gave him look for look “Do you think there’s danger from Duke Roger?”
George shrugged and released her hands. “I’m but a poor, uneducated city lad,” he replied, his hazel eyes twinkling. “I only know if someone hands me a weapon—any weapon—and I can use it, use it I will. And think on it, Alanna. What’s the line to the throne, with no children after Jonathan?”
She counted on her fingers. “The King. The Queen. Jonathan. And—and Duke Roger.” She snapped her fingers in exasperation. “You and Thom are silly. If Duke Roger wants to be king so bad, and he’s so all-fired powerful, why doesn’t he take the throne now?”
“Because some powerful people surround it, lass,” George replied. “I’d not want to have Duke Gareth for my enemy, no, nor my Lord Provost either. That quiet Sir Myles of yours bears some hard watchin’. And look at Jonathan’s own friends: Gary, who’s sharper than his father even; Alex, who’s a rare hand with a sword; you, with your Gift; and your brother in the City. He’s going to wait, our smilin’ friend.” George tossed an apple into the air and speared it with his dagger. He picked it up and tugged it off the blade, biting into it thoughtfully. “He’ll find out who stopped Jonathan from dyin’ durin’ the Sweatin’ Sickness. He’ll make friends and sow favors. He’ll take King’s people and make them his people. He’ll get rid of some who would never come to him. Then he’ll strike.” He pointed the dagger at her. “So learn your spells, youngling. You’ll need them before your life’s out. Unless I’m mistaken, the Duke of Conté doesn’t like you any more than you like him.”
While Alanna mixed swordplay with spells—both where no one could watch her—Jonathan met the people of his city. That winter he and Alanna went down to the Dancing Dove whenever they could. Here Jon was “Johnny,” the rich merchant’s son George had taken a liking to. At the Dancing Dove men didn’t fall respectfully silent when Jonathan spoke. They were more likely to tell him “Ye’re but a lad. Wha’ d’ye know? Hush and listen t’ yer elders!”
Jonathan hushed and listened. He made friends with the most dangerous thieves and murderers in the Eastern Lands. He learned to pick pockets and throw dice with ease. He flirted with flower girls and watched as thieves divided their night’s haul. He was seeing life very differently from the way it was seen from the palace, and he was eager to learn all he could. No one ever guessed that the heir to the throne was sitting there, sipping a tankard of ale and occasionally tossing a set of dice.
Gary often went along, and Raoul was eventually introduced to George and his circle. Jonathan suggested Alex also be brought along, but that was the winter Duke Roger asked that Alex be his squire, until Alex’s Ordeal of Knighthood. Alanna didn’t even have to say that she wanted no one so close to Roger to meet George—Alex was simply too busy to spare much time for his old friends.
Winter melted into spring, and combat training among the squires reached a high level of activity. Since custom dictated that the Heir take the Ordeal if Midwinter came between his seventeenth and eighteenth birthdays, it seemed likely that Jonathan would be needing a squire that year. And since they had reached their eighteenth birthdays, Gary, Raoul and Alex would also be taking the Ordeal of Knighthood. All three were watching the squires and the oldest pages, trying to make a choice.
Competition to be one of the favored four squires was fierce. Jonathan, of course, was the Heir, and the other three came from the