Honour Thy Lady

“Oh my lad, she really is too kind.” I said with a smile. “We must remember our own cloaks next time to get you in the habit. I mean it when I say she is one of a kind. Even her own children will never be like her.”

“Permission to speak freely Sir?”

“Yes boy, say what you will.”

“Well Sir, you speak so fondly of the Lady, and she seems to be fond of you as well…” he pauses, an uneasy thought seeming to swim in his eyes.

“Out with it boy! And I’ll not have you slandering the Lady, lest you never wish to speak again.” The anger at the possibility of slander against my Lady was hard to cover. I have no right to slander her, much less does he! I wiped at the rain that had been blown into my face.

“Of course not Sir, one cannot slander a Lady so nice. I was merely questioning how you feel of her is all.” He shivered from the cold drops, or from my reaction I was unsure of which.

“First, this isn’t about feelings. This is about doing what we are told to do. Her father purchased me from my family as he did with you, to train in the art of the sword, and to protect the Lady. We do what we are assigned, feelings or no. Protecting this family isn’t just our jobs my boy, its our life. Second, our feelings are not important remember? Should you feel cold in this rain, you shall endure so you can continue to protect the Lady.”

The boy’s eyes had more to say, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. For a knight, feelings were leverage an enemy could use against you. The less attached to the people, the more attached you could be to your job. Had I feelings for my Lady, I would not be escorting her to the estate of Duke Frederick to be inspected for marriage. Had I feelings for her, I would keep her locked away in her room, allowing none to enter. I would keep her to myself. But such feelings could impair a knight, so we learn to have no feelings. I shall have to stress this more with the boy. But today is his first day out of the castle grounds since his purchase, so I will not spoil it with lessons.

He seems to have already forgotten the conversation as he stares out into the forest, catching glimpses of the wildlife there. Like a child trying to see the bolts of lightning, every movement causes a twitch reaction in him, trying to find the source. The wilds are filled with many a creature, some friendly, some deadly, and some in between. His lessons will eventually take him out there, to fight the beasts that roam the land so he may better understand how they fight. For with that understanding, he can better defend the family from the wilds. Fortunately, most animals will not leave the forested areas in the rain, so our trip should be relatively quiet.

The whistle of an arrow flying through the wet air snaps my senses to full alert. Aimed at us, not the carriage, but at the boy! I fling my shield out in front of him to block the blow, and duck behind it to prevent my head from catching any other arrows. However, none are fired, and the carriage keeps rolling. I lower my shield and point out into the woods. “See them there Javis? The elven folk. Just making sure we’re still awake I believe. Most of the elven are on good terms with human kind. See here, where the arrow hit?” I ask as I show him the small scrape on the shield. “If I put this back where I had it” as I reach it back around my apprentice, “the scrape is down here. It would have hit either next to or on your leg. Not attempting to kill you, just having some fun.” In my head I add in, “I hope.”

Another sound, on the other side of the carriage, something flying… not an arrow, but wings. “Javis, get ready!” With practiced precision we equip our weaponry, me choosing my preferred dual blades. “Do you hear them?” With a gulp he nods his response, just as the pixies start to stand out against the greenery with their purple bodies. I jump on top of the carriage, pulling my apprentice along with me. “No matter what happens to me, stay on here, and keep them away from the door! They tend to be nothing more than pranksters, so try to not kill any of them. Broadside of the sword only!” With that, he spins the blade slightly in his hand, and crouches behind his shield. There are several dozen of them, some flying higher than we stand, some near the ground.

One pixie descends from above, followed by a dozen more. With the flat of my swords I start beating them away. This might annoy them, but if they get angry, they may try to kill us. The boy keeps an eye over the door, and I keep an eye over him as he bats the pixies to the ground. From above they realize how easily I keep them at bay, so they start attacking more furiously. Twenty or so of them dive at me, so I drop a sword and grab my shield and thrust it straight up at them. They are going too fast to stop, most of them thunking against my shield, the rest pulling up and regrouping above the carriage.

Picking my sword back up, I hold the blades up across each other, flat ends pointing out. Then I rotate the blades, showing that I wasn’t afraid to spill blood. A bluff for now, for they do not know who is in the carriage. “Do you want to meet the rest of my brothers? Leave at once or we will show no mercy!” They took a pause to consider, then they started disappearing back into the trees. I sheathed my swords and helped my apprentice off the roof. “Soon we shall start training with these beasts, so you can learn how they fight. For now though, good job.” With that we sat and pulled our cloaks, so nicely gifted to us by my Lady, around our bodies and continued on our way.