Knight's Dawn by Kim Hunter

Author:Kim Hunter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Epic, General
ISBN: 9781841490908
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2002-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Layana insisted, despite Soldiers protests, that they sleep in separate rooms. Its deep in the night that my madness comes upon me, she told him, weeping, and I dont wish to harm you. I think we love each other too much for that, he argued. But the whipping he had received from Kaff was beginning to tell on his strength. So far the heady excitement of the day had helped to bolster him, but now the violence visited on his body was overcoming that exhilaration. He needed rest, especially if he was to arise before dawn and be outside the city walls to meet Kaff in single combat. Even if Kaff did not turn up, Soldier wanted to be there, just in case. The worst thing in the world would be to be called a coward by Kaff. So he agreed to separate rooms. Ofao came and ministered to him, with more ointments and balms, and also gave Soldier a potion which he said would help him sleep. Soldier thanked the body-servant and fell instantly asleep on the soft bed. Ofao went out of the room, locked the door from the outside, and pushed the key under the space below the door. Both he and Drissila were of the same mind: Soldier had to be protected from his mad wife. The knight, Valechor, was in a misty woodland below an oak tree. He was in full body armour, a sword in one hand, a mace in the other. Around him were the shapes of lesser knights in dark armour. No faces were visible and the insignias on their shields and helmets were vague as shadows. They clustered round Valechor, their armour clanking, the leather straps creaking. There was the smell of urine and faeces in the air. He decided they had been in this woodland for some hours. Men had relieved themselves in their armour, it not being deemed safe to relax alertness. Only he alone had been permitted to rest. In fact he had not been asleep, but deep in the vigil that knighthood demanded before a battle. He had called upon the angels to cluster by his side in the coming fight. He had consigned his soul to his Lord. Sire, said a knight close by him, the Drummond clan are gathered in the glen beyond the brook. Its close to dawn. If were to be successful in our attack, we must gather on the kneb before the day breaks. You are right, Valechor said. Let us move to the kneb. He stood up and strode out onto the spongy meadow, stepping over a beck which trickled down to a rockhang on the moor below, making deep dents in the mossy ground in his heavy armour. There the chargers were corralled with their handlers, protecting the horses against the chill winds which swept across the peat hags. The Drummonds had suffered a great beating the day before and now they were trapped against a steep escarpment which rose straight out of the peat and formed a barrier behind them.

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