{"id":830,"date":"2010-07-19T22:40:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T04:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=830"},"modified":"2010-07-19T22:40:14","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T04:40:14","slug":"celebratory-snippet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=830","title":{"rendered":"Celebratory Snippet"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of Amazon having it listed for pre-order, here’s another Kings of the North <\/em> snippet.\u00a0 This one introduces some new characters, all young.\u00a0\u00a0 Location:\u00a0 Verrakai House in V\u00e9rella.\u00a0 Dorrin has\u00a0 squires, who have just arrived to begin their service with her.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They are leaving for the country the next day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The squires are Beclan Mahieran (the king’s cousin and younger brother of Rothlin), Gwennothlin Marrakai ( younger sister of Juris Marrakai), and Daryan Serrostin (younger brother of Rolyan Serrostin)…all dukes’ offspring, in other words.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“My father’s sending along two pack mules,” Beclan said.\u00a0 “With the rest of my clothes, weapons, and so on.”<\/p>\n

“And mine,” Gwennothlin said.\u00a0 “But only one mule.”\u00a0 She shot a quick glance at Dorrin, as if for approval.<\/p>\n

“I thought girls had more baggage,” Beclan said.<\/p>\n

“I thought boys had less,” Gwennothlin said.<\/p>\n

“Are your fathers sending someone to tend the mules, or will you be doing that?” Dorrin asked, interrupting what promised to become a quarrel.<\/p>\n

“I’ll ask,” Beclan said.\u00a0 He took a step toward the door, then paused.\u00a0 “That is, my lord, if I have your permission.”<\/p>\n

“How many mules altogether?” Dorrin asked, looking at Daryan this time.\u00a0 “And how many spare horses?”<\/p>\n

“My father’s sending a lot of clothes because he thinks I’ll be growing a lot this year,” Daryan said.\u00a0 “He said it wasn’t fair to make you supply so many sizes.”\u00a0 His pale skin flushed an unbecoming red.<\/p>\n

“My mother wanted to send two mules,” Gwennothlin said.\u00a0 “But I said I didn’t need all that.”<\/p>\n

“Two mules each, then,” Dorrin said.\u00a0 “There’s no rank among squires of the same year.\u00a0 And two horses each, I’m presuming?”<\/p>\n

They nodded.<\/p>\n

“So one of your families needs to provide a muleteer.\u00a0 I will send one of you to all three families to make clear that I expect two mules, packed and ready, to be here for each of you tomorrow morning one-half glass past dawn.\u00a0 They can argue about who provides the muleteer.”\u00a0 They all looked eager for this errand, but Dorrin had a plan.\u00a0 “Daryan, you know where everyone lives, right?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, my lord.”<\/p>\n

“Then you go.\u00a0 You may ride, since we have a busy day ahead of us, and I want you back quickly.”<\/p>\n

“Yes, my lord.”<\/p>\n

“Now, Beclan, let’s see how you do organizing provisions for our journey.\u00a0 Take inventory of the available supplies; in a glass I want a list of what you think we need to purchase today.\u00a0 Gwenno, with this many animals in the train, we will need supplies for them as well.\u00a0 See to it that all the horses are in good shape–get them shod if necessary–and check all the tack in the stable.\u00a0 I expect a report within a glass.”\u00a0 That should keep them both busy while she herself dealt with the new house staff.<\/p>\n

…….<\/p>\n

Dorrin has dealt with squires, including squires of noble blood, in the Duke’s Company; Kieri sometimes assigned his squires to one of his captains.\u00a0\u00a0 So she is familiar with youngsters (mostly younger than recruits to the Company, who must be 18) and with the Attitudes.\u00a0 But they’ve never been her sole responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0 And Kieri never had a female squire–very few Tsaian girls of rank have the chance to be squires, as very few of the nobles want the responsibility of someone else’s teenage girl.<\/p>\n

Because noble families tend to have several children of both sexes,\u00a0 there are always more candidates for squire than places for them.\u00a0 It’s particularly difficult for the dukes, as counts and barons will often say that no, they don’t think they can do justice to a duke’s son and anyway, they’re full up with the sons of other counts and barons.\u00a0\u00a0 Naturally, the other dukes didn’t want\u00a0 their kids in the custody of the former Verrakaien, but Dorrin’s different.\u00a0 They hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of Amazon having it listed for pre-order, here’s another Kings of the North snippet.\u00a0 This one introduces some new characters, all young.\u00a0\u00a0 Location:\u00a0 Verrakai House in V\u00e9rella.\u00a0 Dorrin has\u00a0 squires, who have just arrived to begin their service with her.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They are leaving for the country the next day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The squires are Beclan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,115],"tags":[108,22,28],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kings-of-the-north","category-snippet","tag-background","tag-characters","tag-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}