Diclaimer: sigh I really wish I owned it, but unfortunately I'm not Tamora Pierce

Someone was thumping on the door. And they weren't going away.

Kel cracked one eye open and squinted it shut again as rays of sunlight fell onto unused retinas. It must be past dawn, she thought as she slowly sat up and threw the covers off her bed. But I rarely sleep through dawn, why didn't I wake up this morning?

Oh yes, she remembered, Third Company decided she'd been spending too much time with her year mates and had decided to kidnap her for a night of fun. Well, their idea of fun, Kel thought as she winced at the memory of last night.

She had finally managed to sneak away when Dom had finally passed out from too much ale, after confessing his love for Kel, Lerant, Wolset and Peachblossom. Kel had decided to stay off the ale, deciding it was better not to loosen her wits around the men of third company, but it seemed that someone or some people had managed to spike her drinks, and now she had slept late and had a minor headache.

Well, minor compared to the one she'd had after Neal's bachelor party a few years earlier. That night was still one big blur to Kel, and no one would tell her what she did, if she had done anything except curl up in a chair and go to sleep.

Hmm, sleep, that seemed like a good idea. Why had she gotten up again?

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

Oh yeah, the door, the though as she gabbed a robe and pulled it over her nightgown. Looking at the sky, Kel decided it must be between ten and eleven o'clock, very late for her. Wondering who it could be bashing on her door at this time, Kel rushed through her new quarters to get to the door.

She opened it to find a woman wearing the light cotton shirt and worn breeches that were part of the Queen's Riders uniform. The woman had the look of a K'mir, late thirties, in pretty good shape for her age.

"Um, hello," Kel said uncertainly, "Can I help you?"

"Lady Knight, I'm so sorry to disturb you. Buri said you'd probably be up by now. If it's not convenient I can come back later…"

Kel opened the door wider to let the woman in. "Not a problem, mistress…"

"Chamtong. Onua Chamtong," the woman replied.

"Well, Mistress Chamtong, this is a good a time as any. If you don't mind waiting a few minutes for me to get dressed, I'm afraid I had a late night last night."

The K'miri grinned. "You friends in the Own keep you busy?" Kel sent the woman a quizzical look. "I heard the racket that rabble were making when I was on my way to see one of their mounts yesterday evening. Their ostlers a lovely man, but sometimes I don't think he had a clue how to look after horses."

"I hadn't realised we made that much noise," Kel confessed as she disappeared into her bed room to put on some clothes.

"Oh, you probably didn't really. I just think that the Own make a rabble wherever they go. Probably because I work for the Riders, their prejudice seems to have rubbed off on me."

Kel smiled as she pulled on a pair of breeches and a shirt. The rivalry between the Own and the Riders was infamous. Leave a group of them alone in a room, something or someone was bound to get broken, no matter what was in the room to start with.

Kel emerged a few minutes later to find the woman sat in one of her comfortable chairs that adorned to main room. Kel flopped into a chair opposite and then straightened to sit properly. "Now what can I do for you, Mistress Chamtong?"

"Please, call me Onua. Everybody else does." Kel nodded her agreement. "It's about your boy, Tobe. Buri was telling me about him a few weeks back, and the truth is I'm looking for an assistant to help me with the Rider's horses. I'm the horse-mistress for them, see, and I was wondering when if he might be free to help me. My last lad had to leave, he wasn't so welcome after…well we don't need to go into that. I need an assistant, and I fully understand if you want to keep him with you, I mean, he's only young, but both Buri and Raoul say wonderful things about him."

Kel opened her mouth and then closed it again, thinking hard about this. "Would he be stationed at the palace?" she eventually asked.

"I normally take my assistant with me when I go to fetch the new ponies, but that won't be until next spring now. Also we take the trainee's out for a summer camp, but we've already been this year. Apart from that, he should be here all the time, yes."

"What would he be doing, exactly?"

"Helping me, working with the horses, helping the new trainee's look after them until they're competent on their own, looking after spare mounts we keep here in case a Riders mount in injured, making sure all the ponies are healthy. It's basically an ostler's job, but he'll also help train the Rider's how to care for their mounts as well."

Kel nodded, still deep in thought. "Will he get paid?"

"Yes, I make sure the people who work with me get paid to do their jobs."

Kel went quiet again, thinking over what Onua had told her. It was an opportunity of a lifetime for Tobe. He'd get to look after horses, like he always said he wanted to, and if he stayed at the palace he could still see her for training and such.

At last, Kel looked up at Onua. "Let's go and find him. See what he wants to do, and if he's happy to work for you then I'll release him from the service contract he's in."

Onua smiled and waited as Kel lifted herself out of her chair and went to tidy herself up.

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A/N: I started writing this too long ago to remember, and every so often I come back to it and write a few more pages. I thought that posting it here might inspire me to actually finish it.