The Promise by Kathryn Le Veque

Author:Kathryn Le Veque [Veque, Kathryn Le]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medieval
Published: 2019-02-20T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Blackthorn Forest

“IF YOU HOLD a sword like that, you are going to get your fingers chopped off.”

Cullen was pointing to a young man holding tightly to a wooden sword. He was standing with a group of other young people, all of them holding some kind of wooden sword that they had made or, at the very least, a substantial stick that represented a sword. The sun had just come out from a morning of rain and the occupants of Owen the Black’s village were taking full advantage of the sunshine.

It was time for a lesson from the man they’d come to know as Monty – the mountain.

In the outlaw settlement, everyone had to prove his or her worth. There was no dead weight, so to speak, so everyone had a function. They had smiths, tanners, and wheelwrights. They even had a cooper, who had made the barrels with which to hold their ill-gotten gains, among other things. In the middle of Blackthorn Forest, an entire, productive village existed.

Very early on, Cullen had seen that everyone at the village had a function, and since he was planning on staying, he offered up his skills. Since he was very good at engineering and mathematics, he designed and helped dig a drainage system for waste water and sewage, which kept the village clean of such things. He also offered himself up as a decorated warrior to Owen, who happily accepted. Immediately, he was put in charge of the fighting men of Owen’s group, some fifty of them, as well as young men who wanted to learn to fight.

It hadn’t been particularly easy, however. Big Jerald, Owen’s right-hand man, had been Owen’s captain back at Geddington in the days when Owen had a big army and seasoned men serving him. When Owen had fled King John’s wrath, Jerald had been the only knight to accompany his lord into exile, so the introduction of Cullen had been somewhat difficult for the old man.

Unfortunately, he was old, and he had served under King Henry as well as under Owen’s father during the last crusade. The Latin-quoting knight was still something of a threat to Jerald’s position amongst the outlaws, but he and Cullen were trying to work through things so they could find a happy medium. There was no open hostility between them, but it was clear that Jerald was leery of the younger knight’s presence. Cullen was trying very hard not to show the man up, but given that he was old and rather slow at times, it was difficult.

Still, he was trying.

Like now. They were having a training lesson with some of the younger, eager men – and even women – and as Cullen instructed, Jerald stood on the side and simply watched. He never tried to interject or usurp what Cullen was trying to do, but the expression on his face as he watched was rather dubious. He’d been like that every time Cullen held a lesson like this, at least five

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.