Sir Kelton smiles and shrugs. "Suit yourself…literally, I suppose."
Soon everything is ready, and Kelton and Fizza are loaded into the cart. You finish fixing Kelton's flag to the cart—a falcon soaring over the symbols of the five counties of Jubai (a tree, a mountain, a crown, a sprig of wheat, and a wolf)—and jump up to join them. Kelton snaps the reigns, and Roja starts pulling the cart down the road toward Jubai City.
"Be on your best behavior today," Sir Kelton says. "The Queen and the whole royal family will be watching."
"Will Contessa di Rossi be there?" Fizza asks.
"Of course. She's fast friends with the Queen."
"Then she probably warned Queen Wu all about you, Kirk," Fizza says.
"What's this?" Sir Kelton asks.
"Nothing," you say. "I met her briefly, when we went to town last week. We just talked about the mobs hunting witches."
"Hmm. Anyway, the first event is combat. I'll use my sword, of course. Make sure it's in working order and that my armor is properly fitted. Then, archery. After that, the two of you will compete in an event of your choice. If you want to do the joust, you need twenty points to qualify. Those points will come from either landing blows in the combat event or hitting the target in archery. If you can't get twenty in one event, you have another chance, but it will be during my final joust. I prefer you not skip it, but I won't stop you from competing in a second event. At the end is the squires' joust. You would do well to make it to that event. It's after the knights' joust is decided, and everyone will be watching and relaxing after a fierce day's competition. It's a good opportunity to get noticed. Is that all clear?"
"Yes, sir," you and Fizza say.
"One more thing. Any points you get today will be recorded for the season. That means your points across all tournaments go toward qualifying for the final tournament. Not only that, but the winners of the Jubai Tournament are decided by your totals for the season. So no pressure—you'll have chances to make up lost ground, and there have even been cases of knights ranking without even competing in the final. But that also means you should make every point count. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," you both say again. It's all a bit confusing, but it's good to hear Sir Kelton talk in terms of you having a chance of winning.
"Then let's make our Queen proud today."