CHAPTER ONE

Dreams

"Come along Kel! The army marches out in five minutes!" The voice of Zahir ibn Alhaz cut through the door like a knife. Kel walked up to the door very sedately and opened it letting the very handsome bazhir enter.

Shutting the heavy oak door behind him the dark man moved forwards towards the girl.

"Zahir, what are you—" She was suddenly cut off as the man sealed her lips with his own. His hands ran up and down her sides making her lungs scream for air every time his hands ran over her ribcage. Tentatively she reached her hands up and caressed his hair, long fingers knotting themselves in the dark curly masses. One of Zahir's hands moved suddenly up to—

A sudden pounding at the door woke the Lady Knight from her not so peaceful slumber. Kel rolled over and groaned. She had no business thinking such thoughts about Zahir, asleep or awake. Trying to block her nocturnal thoughts from her head she stood up and settled a loose kimono over her nightclothes trying very hard to ignore the voices in her brain, "this is how your dream started!!" Shaking her head to clear it she walked over to the door and opened it admitting a very frenzied looking Neal.

"Kel! What are you doing still here! It's almost ten in the morning! Aren't you supposed to meet Lord Raoul for something or another?" Neal was looking very harassed.

"What're you doing here Neal?" She said her voice slightly slurred with sleep.

"What'm I doing here?" Neal almost screamed. "I am making sure my best friend gets her sorry butt out of bed in time for a meeting!!"

"Alright Neal. Calm down." Kel's voice was compelling and her hazel eyes were like dark pools just telling him to go back to bed. He had been up almost all night trying to convince his dope of a cousin to make a move on the very girl he was talking to right now.

Kel dragged Neal over to the chaise-lounge chair in the corner of her room and sat him there. "What's the matter Neal? I'm pretty sure that even if I were going to miss a meeting, which I wont because there is none, you would still be in bed right now. I'm very sure that Lady Yukimi didn't kick you out or else you would have been complaining over something completely different. I'm guessing Dom?"

"How did you…?" he started then he quickly corrected himself, "No! I'm just here to tell you about the meeting!"

Kel cut him off firmly. "Neal, I don't care. I know you were talking to Dom about me and that's fine if he wants to pine over me. I got over my crush on him years ago." She blushed slightly thinking about her dream. No… I don't want to think about him!

Neal noticed the blush, however faint and grinned. There was obviously someone else and Kel was not going to tell him which was fine. All the more fun to try and make her tell! "So… I can tell Dom that you're not going to meet him for lunch today in the mess?"

Kel grinned wolfishly and Neal gulped. "No I'll meet him, don't you worry Sir Nealan." Neal started to get up but Kel stopped him. "You wait here. I don't want you collapsing and ruining my plan for the snobbish sergeant in the Own that needs his ego popped."

"But Kel!" he whined. Obviously he wanted to be a part of the action too.

"Don't worry." She held up a little ball that fastened to her hair-tie. Neal recognised it as a magical recording device. "You wont miss a thing."

Zahir pulled his boots on prepared for another boring day at the royal palace. He had very little to do, and seeing as the King, who was his knight master prior to his Ordeal and current taskmaster, had nothing for him to do, he grabbed his practice weapons from their racks and walked down to the courts. Deciding firmly that he needed to keep in shape.

He walked down the hall slowly not taking care of where he walked. Once or twice he thought he had heard a young lady's giggle although it was only early in the morning. He sighed and prepared himself for their approach. Though he was not a stunner, like Joren he still had trails of women after him. Most of the court ladies bored him although he kept up a good appearance for his friends. The kind of girl he fancied had to be different. She had to be strong of will and not giggle. Never giggle. That had to be the worst trait of every well-bred woman at court.

Stopping to talk to the ladies he was suddenly knocked into by Kel. It's not Kel! He thought furiously to himself. It's Mindelan! He refused to believe that she was the girl that he was looking for. Stone Mountain would forbid it.

Meeting her eyes quickly he saw much more there than he hoped. Part of it was hurt, gods he didn't want to know why. He had enough problems of his own. But the other part that he was able to decipher was revenge. Why would someone like Kel be plotting revenge? Sometimes he cursed his ability to read people, even some as closed as Kel. He knew it was part of being a bazhir. They were too close to the Yaman for his liking. Both were known for always hiding emotions and being hard fighters. He turned his thoughts away from those telltale hazel eyes and turned his attention back to the ladies, hoping, that they would let him go soon. He desperately needed to hit something. Hopefully Sir Raoul was there to help him with his jousting. He definitely needed the practice.

Kel ran down the hall after bumping into Zahir. Why did it have to be him? It was just her luck. Somehow she knew that her mask did nothing to shield her from the bazhir boy's penetrating gaze. Whenever she was near him she felt naked. She had nothing to protect her, nothing to shield her innermost thoughts that were never apparent to the outside world.

She shook her head. She was on a mission and she would complete it before going into daydreams about him, especially while Neal was watching. Nothing would happen between them and she was foolish to even think…

Suddenly a familiar voice caught her attention. "Yeah, that bet you made with Dom was priceless!" The voice said.

"I know, do you think he'll do it?" Another voice said. This voice was less familiar but she knew it all the same.

"Probably not," the first voice said. "The Lady Knight wont stand for things like that. But it will be funny to see him try." Kel could almost see the grin on the man's face as he said that.

Kel walked over to the two King's Own members. Grabbing Flyn by the collar she slammed him into a wall. "What was the bet?" She asked her voice dangerously low.

Flyn shook his head, speechless, while the other member scampered away from the usually emotionless lady knight.

"What was the bet?" she repeated, this time bringing Flyn's face closer to hers.

The commander gulped. "The… bet… was…" he trailed off. Kel shook him until he continued. "tosleepwithyou," he said in a rush.

Kel, overcome by shock, loosened her grip on him, making him able to break free and run away. She stood there, lost in her own thoughts, until one thought formed in her mind: Dom had to pay and pay he will.

Suddenly she was at the mess door. This is it! She thought to herself. I can put the no good player back in his place. No one messes with Keladry of Mindelan and lives to tell the tale. Well they do, Kel though wryly. They just get completely embarrassed before hand! Kel pushed the door open and stepped inside. Grabbing a tray she filled it up with vegetables and some meat. She had gotten there just in time for the servers to get the noon meal.

Kel turned sharply as a male voice called her name. Locating the speaker she sighed, Dom, just the person she would love to avoid. She walked over to his table holding her tray with white knuckled hands. She did not sit down. Instead she stood in front of Dom and stared into his eyes as to force him to speak. This tactic apparently had no effect. Dom continued eating although he had been the one to call her over not vice versa.

Finally after several minutes of waiting for him to notice her she just gave up on that tactic and strode over to his side of the bench. Dom, thinking like a perverted male stood thinking she wanted a snog. Stepping closer Kel started to finger his belt. Dom leaned closer to her as she undid his belt completely and suddenly certain parts of his male anatomy were on fire, literally. Kel had apparently poured her stew into his pants.

"And that," she spat at him. "Was for trying to get into my pants." With that she took her cup of orange juice and splashed it into Dom's wide-open eyes. Turning on her heel she left the mess letting the doors slam behind her.

A/N: This took me FOREVER to write. glares at oceanspike coughs I would like to dedicate this ficlet to Kit ((some of you know her as oceanspike)) for her helpfulness ((when not chasing me around with clippy or meapapy)) I also want to thank her for a large chunk of this chapter. And is in response to a private challenge to write K/Z fanfics!! I'm telling ya people!! Write them!! We have to start a new fad!! If you like K/Z's then read oceanpike's 'Bazhir Bride' or Lady Angelique of Mistiqu's soon to be coming ((we hope)) K/Z fanfic.

As for my fanfic there are a couple of subjects I would like to address. Joren of Stone Mountain? Not dead. Not even remotely close. He is actually very much alive, much more so than I want Dom to be at the moment. Mostly the reason I am saying this is because I don't want a million reviews saying, "Joren is dead you idiot!!" So better just avoid the whole issue at the start.

Gwennie