Squire Hayseed by S E Zbasnik

Author:S E Zbasnik [Zbasnik, S E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sword and shield, young adult, knights, fantasy
Published: 2019-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Metal dragged down her shoulders and flattened what little bit of breasts she had. Hayley kept picking at the sheet of mail, wishing to toss it free as the rising southern sun heated her body, but her knight was insistent she keep it on. Even as they stood around with thumbs up their bums, she had to be prepared.

Three days the Council of Knights debated, three days they all stared up at the rotting corpses with no decision made, three days Larissa had to serve Hayley. Not directly, but she was often put in charge of cooking or washing — and it seemed as if poor Ser Gavin’s socks could never get quite clean enough. Perhaps if Larissa weren’t so poor at it, Hayley wouldn’t have to come back — sometimes twice in one day. Tsk tsk.

More of the other knights arrived in due time, along with their squires. Abed was often head bent down near Marco, the two whispering boy things at each other. Funny enough, when Alice’s knight wandered in, Hayley figured the girl would dash to Larissa’s side. Surprise surprise, Alice gave that knight-less squire a wide berth. Not that they weren’t kept busy, running back and forth to the messaging stations to collect whatever they could. But Alice seemed to treat Larissa as if the girl had plagued lice or something.

“Squire,” Gavin’s voice warned, his eyes darting down to her fingers picking at the mail. She winced, glaring to find her pinkie had tried to wedge open a hole in the chains. It was becoming a nervous habit.

“This waiting’ll be the death of… boring bored people,” Hayley sputtered out, her face pickling at the thought of death’s claws looming near. When the sky was cloudless, the birds chirping, and fresh grass seedlings wafting under their feet this was a beautiful lakeside camp. Then she’d spy the huddled masses, eyes burrowed under hoods to hide away thoughts, and the knights always praying. They even brought in a monk from some monastery up the mountains who was leading them through their prayers.

“We wait for word from the commander,” Gavin repeated the same refrain of a very dull song.

“A commander who’s not even here,” Hayley whistled in her teeth. She wasn’t supposed to know what the council was debating, but even someone as on the outs as her got to overhear shit. “How can he know what’s going on when he’s way off in…” She waved her hand through the air because Hayley had no idea where he was. Some other castle? Some other country? Somewhere in the clouds? The way people spoke of him it seemed possible.

Gavin, stripped clean of nearly all his knight-wear save the knee-high leather boots, sighed. He stared over the rocky cliffs that circled up to the castle path. The entire place looked like a giant took a club to the landscape, shattering it to the lake, and just missed the castle.

“I forgot that you are new to all of this,” her knight whispered to himself.

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