The Knight Behind the Pillar (8 page)

             
“Are you hurt?” I asked, wishing at once I had thought of something else more engaging and tried to force myself to stop from smiling all the time and look more sincere than stupid.  

             
She paused before answering, purposefully making me wait.  Trying to work out what kind of fool she was dealing with I guessed. 

             
“Err no.  And you have still not explained yourself.” She spoke at last and I found that all the fury of her voice had gone and I felt I was a little less in danger.  

             
Her face was expectant as she lifted her head to look my way, her hand quickly bushed strands of her dark hair across from her face.  Clear bright eyes fixed on me and all confidence I had I lost in an instance as something changed, something clicked between us.  Then I stopped smiling when I at once I realised this delay was costing me time to find and catch up with Arthur. 

             
“No,” I said, breaking the spell and pulling myself out of her captivating blue sea coloured eyes, “No I mean, err, but I will, I promise, just, well just not yet.  Which means you can’t call the guards as you said you wanted my explanation first!” I declared in a blundering way trying my luck.

             
I risked another swim and we continued to out stare each other for a moment more, her slender lips lifted for a moment, her defences weakening before she regained her stern composure. 

             
“You obviously think highly of yourself and perhaps clever sir.” She said, perhaps almost playfully if I could dare think that.  Her eyes narrowed again and eye brows slowly lifted as if contemplating me for the first time as a human being.

             
“Yes my lady, I guess I do,” I answered lightly, softly, realising I would soon be guilty of courting if I did not have to go, “But I must go.  A friend is in trouble and I must find and help him.”

             
I edged a little from her, but another pause.  I needed to run, but still stayed as instinct forced me to need permission from her to take my leave.  I was unsure if she would be believe me about Arthur needed help and yet for some reason it mattered. 

             
“Very well, you had better go.” She said evenly and I knew I had gained a trust. 

             
I flashed another smile as she had released me and I set off. 

             
Before I got far I abruptly stopped in my tracks and looked back towards her.  “Your name, my lady, err I mean I need your name so as to find you if I am to explain myself later that is.” I requested.  It was in no way a demand, more a hopeful appeal.  Truthfully it may have been begging as I realised I still had no idea who she was and desperately needed to know.  She looked thoughtful and unsure, but then I became conscious I had withheld my name and added, “I’m Tor by the way.”

             
I thought later I did not resist or think about that fact I had just given my name away for the third time that day.  Any thought of my own name somehow being private was quickly becoming nonsense, but then for her it did not seem to matter.      

             
“If your quest to find me is successful then I will reward you with my name.  Let’s see how clever you actually are.” She said shrewdly and I was positive she was teasing.

             
Finishing folding pulling in tight the clothes in her arm, I defiantly saw a smile as she turned and walked away.  I was confident of it.  Holding her head high she disappeared around the corner. 

             
I looked at the remaining empty hall for a second more, feeling intensively please with myself for a reason I did not understand, before I too turned and ran.

             
The stables were as busy as the main courtyards despite Lord Aries apparently telling people to return tomorrow.  They formed an enclosure that consisted of a collection of single storey timber frame and even substantial two storey light red narrow brick buildings.  At first floor most were haylofts and were of better quality than some of the hovels available within the town.  A few had in part been taken over as accommodation for this very reason.  In the fort’s former glory days when the roman army was stationed here, before deserting the country, I could imagine the number of horses and people gathered now was just a typical day back then.  Caerleon was once known as the city of legions, part of the golden age for the Roman Empire and it even had a large amphitheatre and bath room now abandoned and ruined just beyond the walls of the fort.  Today its legacy was being slowly eroded, or in some cases borrowed as the old Roman flat bricks and stone disappeared on regular occasion to form new walls for other buildings. 

             
I found the sunlight refreshing after being shut away inside the walls of the fort for only a little while.  The fort’s purpose when first constructed was purely defence and so there was little need for comfort and light inside.  My appreciation of the outside was only short and I set about rushing pass carts and stacks of hay and with an effort dodged the arriving and departing horses.  I couldn’t see him at first; there was just too much going on.  Dust and people everywhere, but a moment of stillness in the haze of movement caught my eye. 

             
Arthur was just finishing fixing the reins to a black courser not far away across the yard, but it was enough distance to groan at.  Between us was everyone and everything in the world it seemed.  I quickly worked out given the quality of horse he was preparing it could not be his, but then if truly he was some king he might now own the whole stable.  The horse would be quick and I saw I was running out of time to catch him.  As I hurried across the yard, he mounted the horse.  Time was seeping through my fingers.  Had I had just had a second more, just one second and I would have been in time!  But that second passed and he was away leaving me cursing my encounter with the lady in the halls for my delay.  I stood there annoyed that I had taken so long in trying to impress a strange woman because she was, well, she was very attractive.  Yet something deeper inside still felt it was worth it and fought the regret.

             
Not the best time to catch myself asking why I was chasing Arthur, but I did.  Why was I worried about his future?  Why in the moment I saw him pull on the reins of his horse and gallop away did I care?  I did not know for certain.  As I saw him expertly lead the horse through the gates beyond fulfilling his escape, I had decided that what I did know was I had to help him.  I needed to be there for him and that my help was needed and important.  Perhaps I was a bit hazy on the why, but I decided that for me to be this far from home and happen to come across the future leader of the country was fate.  Not that I believed in that sort of thing either.  Of course he did not know that he needed my help and I doubted he would trust anyone right now.  Clearly if it were me I knew I would be running now as well.  This was my reasoning, as good as it was.  And my good intent was not beaten back by Arthur when he looked towards me for a fraction of that earlier second and still choose to ignore me as he rode off. 

             
A lot can happen in a second, but I was hesitantly still for a few more as I stood outside the deserted stable Arthur had left behind.  Cursing again the lost time, I pushed aside the newly arrived feeling of helplessness and spun around looking for way to follow Arthur.  

             
I needed a horse!

             
While I would never admit it openly I knew I was not the best horseman.  Truth was that even a poor palfrey would be a bit on the fast side for me.  Swordsmanship was another matter.  I had always been given high regard for my skills in training, if only it were the same for dealing with horses.  Sadly Arthur was on a fast horse and I needed one of similar ability if I had a chance to catch up and I needed one ready to go right now.  The longer I took to find one, the further he would be and the more likely I would lose him.  I found after disregarding a few my glaze settled on one black horse a few stable doors down.  Rolling my eyes with a sigh I realised what I needed to do. 

             
Giant was the best word my mind could find as I guessed the horse to be almost fourteen hands!  He was majestic with great strength and I knew the type had a reputation to match.  While I was a not the best at riding I knew enough to recognise different sorts of horse and ones I should avoid.  This was one that many would avoid, despite most would never have the chance to ride one.  This was a Destrier and a rare breed and the cost of one was the same as many Palfreys or even a hundred squires. 

             
I closed in on this one.  I didn’t have time to argue and seek permission.  The page had just finished tying the saddle in place before he returned to within the stable for something else.  I was free to approach and helpfully the page had even left a wooden step behind.  I took a moment to consider the deeply depressed voice in my head screaming no before I jumped quickly onto the step and in one smooth movement on to mount the horse.  The voice in my head gave up, collapsed and died as I pulled reins.  There was a fleeting pause of nothing, no movement or anything else happening before the animal suddenly surged forward and I realised something very important.  In an instant I knew I was unquestionably not the one in control, the horse was!  All I was going to do, all I could do, was hang on tight.

             
Wind sailing pass my ears disguised the actual words, but I left a trial of shouting voices some of which was bound to had been my own as I charged through those gathered and left a confused page who had returned and stood at the stable door in time to see his horse disappear.  I left my life as a squire behind and had just formed a new one as a horse thief.

             
With luck the horse had decided to go the way I wanted.  I could not believe my tugging on the reins and copious amount of hope was having any real effect.  We travelled through the gates and over the front bridge before I knew it.  My main preoccupation was just managing to stay on the horse.  The stirrups had not been adjusted for me, and so despite my reasonable height I found I could not reach them to put my feet through.  As a result I gripped the sides of the horse with the underside of my legs as best I could with the unadjusted stirrups loose to bash either the horse or my legs at regular intervals.  This also meant I was not gracefully riding this pedigree, this creature of legend, as I should have been.  Instead of appearing as a rider should, I was bouncing up and down like some wooden puppet on string with little grace or rhythm.  On some of the rougher ground I had to work hard to avoid being thrown off or otherwise I found myself hitting hard the back of the horse’s neck.  I was already aching and gathering a collection of bruising as we passed through the town. 

             
At this point to gain a foothold I had managed to twist one of the flailing stirrups around my right leg, but I couldn’t do the same for my left.  With little other choice I gripped the reins tightly, even with knowing that my futile efforts were only likely to be panicking the horse to go faster and yet I had no alternative!  I was finding it difficult to see beyond the horse’s tough black coat before me and my own hair was also getting in the way whipping my face.  As for the surrounding world it was a burr and we thundered onwards. 

             
Caerleon itself was a good size town located within lowlands of the valley with the river Usk to the south and east along with its treacherous wetlands.  To the south was another significant investment for the town in the form of a timber bridge across the river to the old road which among other places went on to lead to Gloucester and then Londonium.  The north and west were dominated by hills and mountains that served as an impressive backdrop to an otherwise unimpressive place as far as I was concerned.  Hidden by trees, I knew the hills also conceded an old hill fort built before even the Romans came and unused since they came and went.  It was westward we travelled, I concluded eventually between flashes of views mostly dominated by the back of the horse’s head and attempts to dodge it.  Ahead, pass the remaining houses, were the open meadows before the start of the woods and the hills beyond.  The world was full of trees, only if the ground flooded, as was the case for the meadows we charged towards, or if contained rocks or men had struggled to clear for a while was there any space to move.

             
The pace of everything was hard to comprehend, everything was moving if it was not speeding past it was slamming against me.  The saddle for a while was doing just that, moving along with the horse or I was hitting against it.  Except, without warning, the saddle shifted position that was not expected.  Perhaps because I had one leg wrapped around one stirrup and couldn’t find the other it resulted in more of my weight bearing down on one side.  This was an obvious reason to cause the saddle to move slightly across the back of the horse with me on it, but I knew it in my gut it was not going to be so simple.  My insight hit me the same time I managed to see a glimpse of the new bridge some distance to my left and we had escaped the boundary of the town.  The real reason I knew was the saddle was on the move was because the page had not in fact finished preparing the horse!  He must not have tightened the straps enough, if at all!

             
In a fraction of a second I concluded a few imperative facts.  This was not going to end well!  Admittedly it was one fact, but an important one.  I was going to fall or be thrown off and it was just a matter of when and how hard I hit the ground!  Except I still had one leg entangled in a stirrup.  While a moment ago I was happy my leg was part of the ridding gear allowing me some grip, I now started to try and shake it free realising that if I was to fall I wanted to take my leg with me and not leave it behind.