Chapter 2: New Ideas

Kel was up before dawn the next morning. Classes started at the ninth bell, Harailt had told them yesterday, and breakfast at the eighth. If she wanted to spend time with Peachblossom, as she'd promised him she would, she couldn't sleep in. She dressed and made her way to the stables.

Luzari ran up to her the second she stepped through the door. "Mithros, I'm glad you're here. Peachblossom woke up an hour ago and he's been demanding when you'll be back every two minutes since." She beckoned Kel to a stall, where Peachblossom was flapping his growing wings and stomping his hooves.

When Luzari opened the stall, Peachblossom bolted out and pushed his nose into Kel's chest. She ran her fingers under his mane. "It's alright. I'm here. Don't worry." She looked at Luzari. "Was he upset last night?"

"No; he thought it was an adventure, sleeping in this new place. It was just this morning that he started worrying he was losing another mother." Luzari furrowed her brow. "I know how busy you'll be…I'm just…"

"Peachblossom is my responsibility," Kel said. "I'll do whatever I have to do, to take care of him."

"You have more responsibilities than just Peachblossom," Luzari pointed out. "What about Tortall? Tortall needs your help; that's why you're here at the university at all. You can't just ignore that."

Kel bit her lip as she stroked Peachblossom some more. Luzari was right. "Do you really think you and Daine can take care of him? Please tell me the truth."

Luzari sighed, pushing some black curls out of her face. "The truth? I'm not sure. There's a chance, yes. But it will be a better chance the more he gets to see of you. If you came in the morning, and then again at lunch or supper—that would help a lot. I just know you have other things you probably want to do…"

"I'll do it," Kel said firmly. "Now, let's take him outside and give him some exercise."

The sun was still not fully up when they got into the corral. Since Peachblossom could not yet fly, Kel let him wander at will. Though he sometimes trotted about like an ordinary horse let loose, his immortal status often showed—he would stop and examine passing hostlers or the gate to the corral in a way that reminded Kel more of a curious eight-year-old human than a colt.

"Is he talking to you?" Kel asked Luzari, watching Peachblossom eye a knight in Tasride colors who was passing warily by.

"Sometimes," Luzari replied absently, frowning at the dirt. "He's mostly wondering how they would jump if he bit them, but I don't think he's planning to try it. Daine gave him a proper scolding when he bit me. Kel, don't scream if you look down."

Kel at once looked down, bracing herself, and saw four rats sitting in the dust at Luzari's feet. "Are they part of your wild magic? You can talk to them too?"

Luzari looked relieved that Kel had not let out the aforementioned scream. "Yes. They like me." Her mouth twisted a bit. "And my aunt didn't, mostly because of them. She said it was improper for a knight's daughter to run around with rats and dogs, even if I was his bastard."

"It doesn't sound like she was thinking about what was best for Tortall," Kel said. "Tortall could use another Wildmage, and it doesn't much matter if she's a bastard or not."

"Don't expect me to be Daine," Luzari said, still staring at the rats. "Daine can pretend she was born here, for all she's Gallan. Most people think I don't belong in Tortall because I look—" She stopped. "Sorry. I don't usually talk about this."

"You don't have to be sorry," Kel said, pushing away her curiosity about Luzari's mother. From the look on Luzari's face, she very much did not want to talk about that, so Kel waved at the fence, upon which perched house sparrows, drab in their russet brown and tan feathers, the males with stern black collars. "Have you seen them here before? Are they here for food?"

"No, I haven't seen them," Luzari said, expression lightening as she looked up at the sparrows. "But yes, they're here for food."

Kel dug in her pocket for the remnants of cranberry-orange bread the cook at Mindelan had given her for her travels, and crossed the corral to where the sparrows and Peachblossom seemed to be having some kind of standoff. "Don't worry, you," Kel told Peachblossom, ruffling his mane again. "Luzari and I will have food for you later."

She scattered the breadcrumbs on the ground and the sparrows promptly flew down to peck at them. Hearing a skitter behind her, Kel turned to see two rats advancing. She glared at them. They gave her unimpressed looks, but then turned to look at Luzari. After a few moments, they reluctantly abandoned their quest and rejoined their fellows.

"I fed them earlier, and I'll feed them again later," Luzari explained. "I told them they didn't want to get so fat they couldn't fit in their ratholes. Just pretend it was their idea, though. It's easier."

"By all means," Kel said with her best Yamani face, scattering more crumbs for the birds.

She alternated chatting with Luzari and exercising Peachblossom until the sun was mostly up and the eighth bell rang. "I have to go to breakfast," Kel said reluctantly. "I'll be back at dinner." Luzari saluted her and Kel hurried off.

Would Peachblossom be alright? He was still so young…was Kel wrong to leave him with Luzari and Daine, no matter how responsible they seemed, no matter though they could talk to him? She was so preoccupied with these thoughts that she very nearly knocked into somebody coming the other way down the hall from the mess.

"I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" Kel drew back and saw that it was Tress of Sinthya, his spectacles askew.

"Fine," Tress muttered, giving a jerky sort of wave as if to dismiss the whole thing.

Now that she was paying attention, Kel saw that Tress was holding a plate of food—and had been walking away from the mess. "Where are you going?"

"Library." Tress looked away. "I like to eat in there."

Kel's instincts were whispering that there was more to this. "Would you like company?" she offered instead. "Some of the rest of us are eating outside the—"

"No," Tress said very firmly, and walked away.

Perhaps he simply preferred being alone, but Kel couldn't help but wonder if he was being bothered, as Zuliza was, or was afraid of that. Why, though? The Sinthya family wasn't in the Book of Gold, but they were in the Book of Silver, which still made them old nobility. Something was niggling at Kel's mind, as if some fact had escaped her, but though she knew a great deal about Yamani nobility, she was still reacquainting herself with Tortallan nobility. Maybe she could ask Neal.

In the mess, she got her food and looked around for either of the fellow mages she'd been talking with last evening. Zuliza was nowhere to be seen, but Neal was sitting bleary-eyed at a nearby table with Amira of King's Reach, who was talking earnestly to him. Kel joined them. "Good morning."

Amira gave a regal nod and said nothing. Neal rubbed his eyes. "There's nothing good about it," he mumbled.

"Have you seen Zuliza this morning, either of you?" Kel asked. "I don't want her eating alone too much."

Neal looked more awake. "No, I haven't. We'll have to keep an eye out."

"An eye out for what?" Amira inquired.

"People are bothering Zuliza," Neal said, picking up his spoon and scowling at his porridge. Kel wasn't sure if it was the early morning hour or people bothering Zuliza that was inspiring that look. "For being from the Copper Isles."

"Oh." Amira spooned sugar onto her porridge. "I hadn't heard. I only arrived yesterday." She paused. "Why do you think the king is allowing it? Allowing Copper Isles nobility into this program, when we won't even get the benefit of her using her magic for Tortall?"

"How do you know she won't use her magic for Tortall?" Kel asked, scattering dried fruit on her own porridge.

Amira looked surprised. "She's from the Copper Isles."

"And the Wildmage is from Galla, and Master Numair is from Carthak, and the Queen's Riders have K'mir refugees from Saraine," Kel said. Her brother Anders, until recently an active knight, had told her that about the Riders. "None of them are from Tortall, but they still help Tortall. Maybe Zuliza will do the same."

"The Copper Isles are different," Amira snapped. "We just had a war with them."

"All the more reason to build ties," Kel said, thinking of her father's diplomacy work. "We don't want it to happen again."

Amira abruptly got up, grabbed her plate so the cutlery clattered, and walked off. Kel looked at Neal, alarmed. "I said something. What was it?"

"Her brother was killed in a battle with a ship from the Copper Isles," Neal said. "She was talking to me because she thought I might—" He stopped. "Never mind."

Although curious, Kel decided not to inquire, and instead ask about Tress. "I ran into Tress of Sinthya leaving. He said he was going to eat in the library. Do you know why? Do you think he feels unwelcome?"

Neal sighed. "Probably. The Sinthya treason and all."

"I've lived in the Yamani Islands for nine years," Kel reminded him. "If this is recent, I don't know about it."

"Right; sorry. The old lord of Sinthya conspired with Carthak, when Ozorne was emperor. He fled there, but part of the new treaty is that Emperor Kaddar send traitorous Tortallan nobles back to be tried in Tortall. Sinthya was executed for his treason, only about a month ago."

"So Tress lost his father a month ago?" Kel said, trying to wrap her head around this.

"Grandfather. His father died, oh, seven years ago." Neal ate more porridge. "There will definitely be people here who call Tress as much a traitor as his grandfather; I bet he doesn't want to deal with them."

Kel frowned. "It won't do him much good to hide away alone. The inside of your head can be as bad as the outside." She remembered well the weeks after Conal had hung her off the tower, when the terrifying view below had appeared before her eyes seemingly every other minute. "If Tortall is anything like the Yamani Islands, the family had to watch the lord be executed. Did they?"

Neal nodded, finishing up his porridge. "I'd have nightmares. Mithros, I have them anyway, and I didn't even see—" He stopped again, with a look on his face that clearly said, I didn't mean to mention that; please ignore it.

With her Yamani sense holding strong, Kel decided to change the subject again. "If you haven't seen Zuliza, maybe we should make sure she's gotten breakfast. It wouldn't do to faint on the first day." Magic might appear to outsiders to take no effort, but any mage knew that not eating before a day of spell-work was foolish in the extreme.

"Good idea," Neal said. "Though I'm sure she'll be suspicious of us trying to look after her, if yesterday is any indication." Kel finished her porridge, and the two of them collected food from the mess table before making their way to Zuliza's room and knocking.

It took two knocks before Zuliza opened the door, scowling. "I was working—oh, hello. Why are you up so early?"

"It's not early anymore," Kel said, hiding laughter behind her calm face. "We have to be at our first class in about twenty minutes."

Zuliza muttered something in Kyprish that Kel suspected was profane. "I was trying to replicate these wards Master Numair put on my window! I didn't count on them being so complex."

"So you're trying to replicate the wards of your most powerful teacher before you even start the program?" Neal said. "I think I like you."

Kel held out the bowl of porridge and dried fruit they'd brought with them. "Here, eat. You should have time to finish this if you hurry."

"You two…" Zuliza looked from the bowl of porridge to Kel to Neal. "You are confusing."

"You can study us while you eat," Neal said cheerfully. "We ought to be less complex than Master Numair's wards."

"Maybe," Zuliza said dryly, then took the bowl and began to wolf the porridge down.

"Where are we going first?" Neal asked. "I promised myself I wouldn't lose that schedule Master Harailt gave us, and indeed I know exactly where it is. On my bedside table, where it will do me much good."

Kel knew her eyes were crinkling with the laughter she mostly hid. "Don't worry; I memorized it. On Mondays we have healing first, with Master Mero of Jesslaw."

"You memorized it?" Neal said. "You're an overachiever. Please tell me you are. I like overachievers; they remind me of me."

Zuliza swallowed. "I've known Kel a day, and I already know she's too modest to ever remind you of you."

"I'm wounded," Neal declared.

Kel doubted that. "What healing have you studied?" she asked Zuliza, wondering what magical education was like in the Copper Isles. All countries had their own systems, and she knew that both Zuliza and Neal would have had rather different experiences than she.

Zuliza scraped the porridge bowl. "My favorite was always infectious disease. Cholera, typhoid, leprosy. I'm decent with basic wound healing, but really too slow to stop a deadly wound. I'm hoping to learn better here. What about you?"

"I'm not a very good healer," Kel admitted. "My magic always starts feeling—sluggish, when I try to heal. My teachers said, don't fight the way your power wants to manifest, so I don't think I'll become a specialty healer. I'd like to learn more so I can help in emergencies, though."

"The way your power wants to manifest?" Neal said, clearly intrigued. "Your teachers thought the Gift has consciousness?"

Kel shook her head. "Not consciousness. But life, and nature, just like all living things. You wouldn't make a Stormwing herd your sheep, or a sheepdog design a ship, or a shipwright fight a duel. The Gift of every person has a nature, and you can't force your Gift to do a job it's not meant to do."

"My teachers said, don't try to put in nails with a hot coal, and don't start a fire with a hammer." Zuliza set the now-empty bowl on her table. "What about you, Neal? Does your Gift like healing?"

"I think it must be a little obsessed," Neal said ruefully. "I'm strictly average on everything except healing."

"No one who gets into this program is strictly average," Zuliza said, clearly exasperated. "But we're going to be strictly late if we don't start walking to Master Mero's room now."

Despite this worry, the three made it to Master Mero's room with five minutes to spare. The master himself was not present yet, but Tress of Sinthya was, in the back row with a book. Amira of King's Reach was there too, talking in a hushed voice to the golden-haired Rakida of Genlith, who looked awed at whatever she was saying. The room was hung with diagrams, many of which Kel recognized immediately as drawings of various organs, but some were charts of which she could not immediately see the purpose.

Zuliza marched straight to the front row and sat down with another of her defiant looks. Kel sat down on one side of her, Neal on the other. Immediately after, another door opened and in came a grey-bearded man easily balancing a quite enormous stack of leatherbound books. He set them down with a thump upon the table at the front of the room and examined his classroom with a piercing look. "Fine young folks," he remarked. "Perfect to frighten with leprosy sores and burst appendixes."

Neal gave a quiet snort. Zuliza sat up straight. "It will take more than that to frighten us, Master Mero."

"Oh, good," Master Mero said happily. "We can skip straight to the intestines." He began sorting his pile of books.

A few minutes later, the door opened just as the bell rang, and in hurried Bekat of Nond and Jehu of Fenrigh. Kel felt a touch of amused exasperation—if a Yamani master had caught students entering so close to late, they'd have had to endure a strict lecture on punctuality.

Master Mero waved the two to their seats. "A word of warning," he said. "In healers' wards that assign duties based on who arrives first, you two would have found yourselves cleaning bedpans. Don't get into the habit of being late." He turned to the class at large. "I am Master Mero of Jesslaw. Introduce yourselves, please."

After all the introductions had been made, Master Mero stood silent, clearly thinking, for several moments. Then he said brightly, "Pardon me. I was simply pondering with great regret all the many times I will have to hammer the first rule of healing into your heads, again. Can any of you tell me what the first rule of healing is?" Several hands went into the air, Kel's among them. Master Mero pointed at Rakida of Genlith. "Rakida?"

"Never pour all your healing power into your patients," Rakida said, her voice high and clear. "It could kill you."

"Precisely," Master Mero said. "And can anyone tell me why it's more important to keep yourself alive than save the life of a patient? Zuliza?"

"Because you might be needed to heal others in the future," Zuliza said. "Possibly the very immediate future."

"Yes," Master Mero said. "Obviously you all know this; obviously your previous teachers taught you. And yet, every year, I have students who should know better try to save the lives of patients who are beyond being saved, by pouring a dangerous amount of power into them. Some of you will listen to me now; some of you will have to learn the hard way. I just hope none of you are going to die through your own stupid compassion."

Kel didn't shift uncomfortably—that wouldn't do—but she felt the urge to. Her healing teachers had reprimanded her several times for using more power than she could really spare, since every patient she saw always felt like the most important one. She would just have to learn better, she told herself.

Master Mero held up one of the leatherbound books he'd brought with him. "These are your advanced anatomy textbooks, written especially for magical healers. If you lose them, or ruin them, I'm sending your families the bill to get another shipped from the university in Carthak. Some of it won't be new to you, but we're reviewing it all anyway, because I'm not taking the risk of you not knowing a red blood cell from a white one and ruining some poor patient's immune system." He set the book down.

"Why do you have to get them shipped from Carthak?" Tress asked, plainly curious. "I thought the royal university had its own press now."

"It does," Master Mero said. "His Grace of Queenscove and his fellows are planning to start work on an advanced anatomy textbook for our press, but it will be a complex project, as you'll see when you read these. And until this year, all their research time was taken up designing a new course of study, for which you can't get materials from Carthak, because it doesn't exist in Carthak."

"Isn't this program modeled on the Carthaki one?" Amira said.

"About half of it is, yes," Master Mero said. "Anything that involves technical healing skills in an interaction with an individual patient is based on what you'd learn in Carthak. But there's far more to be learned than that."

The students exchanged confused looks. "But we can't heal more than one patient at the same time," Zuliza said. "Can we?"

"Ah!" Master Mero sounded pleased. "You are quite right, you can't. So, what might a healing class be about, besides healing? No, Neal, not you. You already know this because your father's been working on it; let's give these other fine young folks a chance to answer."

Kel wondered if this was some kind of word game or paradox. The room was silent; everybody else seemed as befuddled as she. "I'll give you a hint," Master Mero said. "What if you didn't call it a healing class? What if you called it a class on the good of Tortall?"

Healing was good for Tortall…but there were plenty of people in Tortall who weren't sick or injured. What good would this class do them? Unless—just because the other people weren't sick or injured now, didn't mean they never would be. Kel tentatively raised her hand and Master Mero nodded at her. "Keladry?"

"Is this class about preparing for when people need healing?" Kel asked. "So we're ready? Maybe building hospitals? Or teaching people what to look for, so they can get somebody to a healer before they get really sick?"

"We already have a hospital," Bekat of Nond said. "Duke Baird oversees it. Why would we need another one?"

"We have one hospital," Neal said, seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut. "One hospital, in Corus. What about the rest of Tortall?"

Master Mero took back over. "Keladry, you are on the right track. But think a little further than that. What's even better than preparing for when people get sick? Who is your ideal patient?"

"Ideal patient?" Kel thought. "I guess it would be somebody who's healthy except for what's wrong with them…" Then a thought occurred to her. "Is this about keeping people from getting sick or injured in the first place?"

"You can't keep people from getting sick or injured in the first place," Amira said. "That's part of life. That's why we learn how to heal them."

"Some people will always be injured or sick, that is true," Master Mero said. "But Keladry, you are quite correct. Much of our curriculum is about preventing injury and sickness in the population at large. It's a rather new way of looking at a healer's job, and we in Tortall are some of the first to experiment with it. We call it public health."

"But how do you actually do that?" Tress said, his brow furrowed. "I mean, it seems useful. But how?"

"Well, you tell me," Master Mero said. "How do people get sick? Yes, I know there are a thousand ways; pick one for an example."

"You get cholera by drinking filthy water," Tress said. "If we didn't have cholera, we'd save a lot of lives."

"Yes, we would," Master Mero said. "And given that you get cholera by drinking filthy water, how would you stop the cholera?"

"By telling people to stop drinking filthy water?" Tress said dubiously. "Sometimes that's all they have to drink."

"An important point!" Master Mero said, sounding pleased again. "So what must we do?"

"Get them…clean water?" Tress sounded more skeptical yet. "Where would it come from? How would we get it to them without it getting filthy too?"

"What if we just cleaned the filthy water?" Zuliza said. "Then we wouldn't have to get new clean water."

"But water can look clean and still have problems," Kel said. "Cholera or something else. So we'd also need a way to tell early on if the water was getting bad again."

"Isn't this a little silly?" Bekat said.

Master Mero raised his eyebrows. "Why silly? These are excellent questions."

"But none of us are getting cholera," Bekat said. "We should be focusing on other things. What if Tortall goes to war again? We need to learn to heal injuries."

"What do you mean, none of us are getting cholera?" Zuliza demanded. "Cholera kills hundreds of people every few years. More than died in the Immortals War."

"Maybe in the Copper Isles it does, but not here," Amira snapped. "What do you know about what happens in Tortall?"

"Diseases don't have borders," Neal said. "She's right. Cholera might be in the Copper Isles, but it's also here."

Kel was pretty sure she knew why Bekat and Amira thought there was no cholera here, and she carefully kept the anger from her voice. "We don't always see the cholera because our families and friends don't have it. But that doesn't mean nobody has it. Commoners get it all the time; we just don't see it."

"So…we worry about cholera because when the commoners get sick, they'll stop doing their work?" Rakida proposed.

"I guess that's right," Bekat said. "If there aren't enough commoners to—"

"Actually, no," Kel said, ordering herself to keep her voice calm. "We worry about cholera because common people are people too. They don't exist just to serve us."

Rakida looked abashed at this idea; Bekat angry at being interrupted. Neal jumped in. "I'm with Kel. If anything, we depend on common people. We should be grateful to them."

Bekat opened his mouth; Master Mero cut in. "Take this debate to Sir Myles over in the pages' wing. He'll be delighted to prod you on. I'm here to teach you about healing. But I'll remind you before we go on that you'll get in trouble if you treat nobility as superior. I may be a noble, but not all your teachers are, and they'll take issue if you act as if you're better than them."

"But that's different," Amira protested. "They've been educated. They're exceptional. Not like your workaday tailor or stonecutter."

"Let's get back to cholera," Master Mero said, perhaps seeing, as Kel did, that Neal was about to cut in again. She found herself entirely in sympathy with Neal; the common folk didn't have to be exceptional to have value, and she wished that Master Mero had been a bit more willing to challenge Bekat and Amira directly.

Jehu of Fenrigh spoke up for the first time. "Is there a way to clean filthy water of cholera? Or of other illnesses?"

"Not without a great deal of magic invested, more than a healer can really afford to spare," Master Mero said. "At least, as far as we know now. However, Duke Baird theorizes that there are other magical methods of cleaning water, ones we have not yet discovered. And I'm glad, Tress, that you brought up the cholera, because preventing it and other waterborne illnesses will be one of your first projects as students of healing, along with, of course, learning anatomy so you can heal directly."

"So—you want us to learn how to clean water with magic?" Rakida said cautiously.

"You will be inventing a more efficient way to clean water with magic," Master Mero clarified. "You will also be designing, with my help, a way to track infectious disease in water. After all, why waste your magic cleaning water that is not dangerous?"

"But that's just not doable," Tress protested. "I mean, it would be a great help if we could, but we can't. Look at how much water is used every day in just the palace. We can't test it all. And if that's the case, how could we possibly test even a fraction of the water in Corus? It can't be done!"

"You'll never get anywhere if you start by saying something can't be done," Zuliza pointed out. "People said your Champion couldn't get the Dominion Jewel, didn't they? But she came back with it anyway."

"That's different," Amira said.

"How?" Zuliza demanded. "Lady Alanna is one person, and there are nine of us with Master Mero. Why shouldn't we be able to figure out this cholera water puzzle?"

"You think you could do anything like our Champion?" Amira said hotly. "You're just—"

Neal interrupted. "It might not take much power. We're not trying to cure the waterborne illnesses, just figure out whether they exist."

"Even if we put the whole university to work, we just wouldn't have time," Tress said. "It can't be done."

Kel shut out the arguing for a few moments, thinking hard. Tress was right—there weren't enough university mages to test all the water for cholera. But if Neal was right, and there was a spell that didn't require much power, then maybe…

She spoke up. "We wouldn't have to use university mages."

Looking around, all she saw were blank or puzzled looks, except for Master Mero, who looked surprised and intrigued. "Go on, Keladry," he said.

Kel felt awkward, but went on. "There are thousands of people with the Gift in Corus. Hedgewitches, minor healers, people who can light a fire but not do much else. They don't go to the university because they're not powerful enough, or don't have the money for it, but they still have the Gift. What if we designed a water-testing spell that they could use? It could be something they did as a side job, or the university could hire them to do it all the time. And they know more about where people get their water than we ever could, and the other common folk would trust them in ways they would never trust us."

There were a few seconds of silence. Then Jehu said, "We could do that for the palace, maybe. But for a whole city?"

"It would take a lot of organizing," Tress said, and Kel noted with surprise that he now sounded excited, not pessimistic. "You'd need to hire scribes to notate the data, and make maps so you could tell if the illnesses were spreading to particular places, or occurred in certain places over and over so you could fix the source of the problem, and of course somebody would have to get funding so you could pay the mages—"

"Wouldn't they just be glad to have the illnesses gone?" Bekat asked. "Why do you need to pay them?"

"Isn't your brother happy to serve the Crown because of the Code of Chivalry?" Neal said. "Why did he need the two purses Their Majesties gave him during the Immortals War?"

Bekat turned to Amira and Rakida, sitting nearest to him. "What do you think? We'd be investing money in the commoners anyway, just to get rid of the illnesses when we find them. And if they're doing it on the side, they already have jobs."

"I agree," Amira said. "It will be hard enough to get money for this anyway." She looked at Rakida. "What do you think? Aren't we right?"

Rakida looked down. "You all know more about this than I do," she said in a small voice. "I never thought about it."

Amira looked displeased, clearly having hoped for a full agreement. Kel felt sorry for Rakida. "Why don't you take some time to think about it?" she suggested. "It will be a lot of work to make the spell. While we're doing it, you could even talk to a hedgewitch or a minor healer yourself. You could see what they would prefer."

"And you could research how university projects get funding," Tress added, to Kel's surprise. "Then you can decide for yourself."

Rakida looked relieved at not being forced to take a side. "I'll do that."

"It would actually be an excellent idea for all of you to do those things," Master Mero said. "Knowing the people you work with, common or not, is always advisable. And your other masters will be suggesting other projects for you to work on, and funding always has to come from somewhere. As a hint, tracking the interests of the Crown, of noble houses, of prominent merchants, and of any branch of the military is a good idea for a mage. And don't make a face at the merchants, fine folks—some of them are wealthier than you."

"And might be more flexible than the nobles," Jehu said suddenly. "Nobles are stubborn. Merchants are more willing to experiment."

"Well, you'd know all about—" Bekat began.

Master Mero gave a loud sigh. "Alright, alright. We'll pick this up at our next class. For now, it's time to dive into anatomy. Zuliza, kindly tell me about the purpose of white blood cells."

They spent the remainder of the class discussing blood and its circulatory systems in great detail, Master Mero quelling the quarrels whenever they threatened to arise. When the class drew near its close, he assigned them a substantial amount of reading and several diagrams to memorize in preparation for the next class, handed out the leatherbound books, and sent them on their way.

Tress bolted the moment they were dismissed, Jehu not far behind. Amira and Bekat left together, whispering, with Rakida trailing behind, her forehead knitted in thought. Master Mero headed out, whistling. Zuliza put her book in her bag, which was already stuffed with them. "Good for you, Kel."

"What do you mean?" Kel led the way to the door, Zuliza and Neal behind.

"Not pushing Rakida to be on your side," Zuliza said. "Telling her to think for herself."

"She might not have had a lot of people encourage that," Neal said. He'd given up on fitting his book into his own bag, which was simply too full of other books to allow it. "From what I know about Genlith, they're the sort to tell women to keep their mouths shut, mages or no."

Zuliza scowled. "Idiots."

"Idiots," Neal agreed. "I think you surprised Master Mero too, Kel. Coming up with that idea about employing minor mages."

Kel shrugged. "It makes sense." She thought for a moment. "It's wards next, with Master Numair. Let's hurry, or we'll be late."

Rounding a corner, they found Tress kneeling on the floor and gathering up his spilled books, carefully smoothing their pages before putting them back in his bag. His face was mostly blank, but Kel found Tortallans absurdly easy to read after nine years getting only hints from Yamanis, and she could tell that Tress was probably fighting the urge to either cry or scream. "Can we help you?" she asked quietly.

"I'm alright," Tress muttered. "They just tripped me and spilled my books. Nothing awful."

"Who tripped you?" Neal demanded.

"It doesn't matter." Tress grabbed the second-to-last of his books.

In knight training, Kel knew from her brothers, telling on a fellow page meant shame and ostracism. Pages were expected to handle their problems themselves. This was not knight training, but she abruptly remembered that Zuliza had said she'd told on her tormentors, and that her tormentors had not faced substantial consequences. It was possible that mage students, in practice if not theory, would have to take care of each other. "It does matter. You shouldn't have to deal with that kind of thing alone."

"I can take care of myself," Tress snapped, grabbing the last book and standing. "Don't pity me."

"It's not about pity," Kel said. "It's about what's right."

"Leave me alone." Tress whipped around and headed down the hall.

Zuliza snorted. "If that's how he's going to act, I'll do what he wants and leave him be."

Kel didn't say anything to contradict her, but she nevertheless resolved that if Tress—or any of the other mage students—decided they did want her help, she would be ready to give it.

Commentary on Chapter 2

This is not necessary to follow the story, but will offer further insight if you want it.

Mage training begins!

From what I know, a physical skill like sword-work or jousting is developed through muscle memory, and through parts of the brain that are mainly not conscious. There's no real time to think in combat, and even if there was, you can't think your way into an effective duel. You have to rely on what you've trained your body to do.

In my version, the Gift has certain similarities, and also certain differences. Gifted mages must also practice their spells until they can do them automatically, and muscle memory plays a part in writing runes and certain gestures. But it's a craft much more reliant on the conscious brain, and it's also much more dangerous if something goes wrong during your training. If you don't practice your jousting enough, you could get knocked from your saddle and maybe break some bones, but at least it would only harm you. If you don't practice with your Gift, and your Gift is as powerful as it is for these students, you could set a building on fire, do irreparable harm to a patient you're trying to heal, or (as Numair does in Tempests and Slaughter) start a flood in your classroom.

Why do I bring this up? Because the brain needs sleep. We see in First Test and Page that knights-to-be are exhausted a lot of the time, from early rises, physical training, late nights spent on classwork, or punishment work from failing at those things. This isn't feasible when you're trying to learn a craft that takes a rested brain, where doing something wrong could put others in peril. And that is why classes start at the ninth bell, not the eighth or seventh. I think Kel probably knows this, and went to bed early so she could spend time with Peachblossom. That is also why there will not be punishments that cause these mages to lose sleep, and there will certainly not be any bread-and-water meals, because a hungry brain is as bad as a tired one.

(This is Elijah, babbling on for three paragraphs about his justification for a throwaway line. I think too much.)

I must acknowledge that I know very little about horses. Peachblossom, being a hurrok, has a mind more like a human kid, so I'm leaning on what I know about human kids.

Any immigrant will have struggles and bigotry to overcome. However, there is definitely a difference between the experience of an immigrant who looks and sounds as if they were born in their adopted country, and an immigrant who does not. Realistically, Daine would probably have a Gallan accent when she speaks Common—regional differences just arise naturally. But Tortall has at least a decent relationship with Galla, so people wouldn't scowl when she opens her mouth. And she fits in, appearance-wise, with the dominant race in Tortall.

The original Protector of the Small focuses much more on class than race, possibly because there aren't a lot of people of color in the series. (Qasim and Yuki and Shinko and Buri are the exceptions, not the rule, and they aren't what you'd call main characters.) But Tortall has a history of conquering and colonialism—it's only two generations ago that Barzun and the Bazhir "joined" Tortall—and powerful political conservatives in any country tend to be xenophobic. I think we can infer, in a country where the dominant race is white, that they would also be racist.

(And you were probably hoping to not talk about race. Oh, well. I fervently believe Kel would not ignore the wrong of racism any more than she ignores other wrongs, so since she has at least two friends of color already and will have more, I have to talk about it.)

There's no use comparing sexism and racism; they're apples and oranges—and besides, they often overlap. But what I will say is this: just from what I know of human nature, I think the conservatives don't just hate Thayet and Buri because they're liberal women who can fight, but because they have K'miri ancestry and can still tell white subjects what to do. They don't just hate Raoul because he changed the King's Own around and takes a female squire, but because he brought in Bazhir warriors and promoted them to positions of authority over white warriors. They probably object to the Yamani alliance not only because Shinko is foreign, but because she's not white and will be queen anyway. This isn't openly stated in the original books, but a lot of racism isn't openly stated in my country either, and it's definitely there.

So Luzari, who probably speaks with Carthaki-accented Common, and looks like a Carthaki to a Tortallan, is not going to enjoy the same level of acceptance that Daine does, even when she becomes a powerful mage. She and others like her will always be in danger of exclusion and violence simply because of what they look like. And Kel, as the Protector of the Small, is naturally going to learn about this, and naturally going to try to stop it. The result? You'll see.

On a less somber note—YES THE SPARROWS. You didn't think I was going to leave them out, did you?

Yes, Amira is approaching Neal because he lost two brothers in the war, and she wants somebody to talk to about losing hers. We'll see if she can get over her Copper Isles prejudice long enough to make that happen.

Wild Magic claims that the old lord of Sinthya ran off (presumably to Carthak) when his treason was discovered; Squire claims he was executed for treason. The history in this story attempts to reconcile the two claims. It's never mentioned in the original books whether families had to watch their treasonous relatives be executed, but it seems likely, as a deterrent. In fact, given Tortall is based on medieval Western Europe in many respects, I think they were pretty lucky to get out of being executed themselves.

Kel would be a natural choice for a healer, but I wanted Neal to remain the main healer of the cohort, as he was in canon. In a way, I also felt making Kel a healer was too obvious of a choice. Thus, in this universe, the Gift is not purely a tool, but a force with its own nature, different for every Gifted person. I've found a couple of other possible specialties for Kel, which will fit both her personality and the plot.

Mero of Jesslaw is Owen's uncle. I have plans for us to meet Owen eventually!

As you will see, the cohort's teachers all have different ways of dealing with prejudice among the students—whether those ways are to deflect it (as Master Mero does), or shut it down, or to agree with it. As nobility, Master Mero, who has to live with the cohort's parents, is not interested in starting a fight among them. Mages who are not nobility, or who are already outcasts among their fellow nobility, will be much less interested in tolerating such prejudice.

Kel and Neal's willingness to confront their fellows is a symptom of both their inexperience in politics (they will learn) and their unusual perspective, gained from being the kids of a diplomat and a healer, respectively. But don't worry—even as they learn mage politics, they will remain willing to fight for what's right.

As you saw from the discussion of Alanna and the Dominion Jewel, nobody here seriously thinks women can't be warriors—and certainly doesn't think they can't be mages. I really wanted to differentiate this story from canon and see what Kel is like in a world where she's not the one being constantly harassed.

However.

There are certain question marks that pop up when you take Kel out of page training and make her a mage student. These being: does Wyldon stay the training master, and if not, why not? Does Joren live through his Ordeal? Do the pages get slaughtered when they run into the bandits, and if not, why not? Who is the commander of Haven? Who is the first female page?

I have answers for all these questions, but I won't spoil most of them for you. But I will say this: the first female pages—yes, in my story there are two of them—have just started their training, and Kel will eventually meet them. They both have very different backgrounds and very different motivations and very different personalities than Kel—but they will fulfill (in their own individual ways) some of the same functions that Kel fulfilled in canon, such as making Wyldon confront his prejudice against female warriors.

Given how Vinson of Genlith acts towards women in canon, I think we can assume that his family does not teach respect for women. We'll see to what extent Rakida adapts to her new environment.

The deliberate organization of this kind of public health system did not, as far as I know, exist in the medieval Western Europe upon which Tortall is based. And certainly the idea of public health as a field is extremely new, historically speaking. But the idea of having these mage students help construct a public health system felt much more apt to canon than having them simply learn to repair wounds and heal sickness. Why? Because canon is about, among other things, inequity as a system, and what individuals like Kel can do to change it. Therefore, these mage students will have the opportunities to revolutionize Tortall through creating and reforming systems of magic. Let's see if they do it.

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