The Jouster's Lance

by A. J. Marcus

  “Wow, it’s been quite a day,” Dale said, a sleepy edge floating in his voice.

  “That’s an understatement,” Austin replied, letting his right foot slip across the bottom of the hot tub to rub against Dale’s. “I didn’t realize hauling hay was such a workout. I mean, they’re just sixty-pound bales, right?”

  Dale laughed. He’d done that a lot lately, and Austin liked the sound of it. “When you stop and do the math, it gets really heavy, really fast. Even my big old truck didn’t like pulling that heavy load through the mountains.”

  “So why did we have to do this today?”

  “Max’s truck broke down, and it was going to be another week before they could get a semi out there and back. To keep the horses, camels, llamas, and elephants fed, we needed to go. We could’ve had a couple of the other guys along, but I figured, as little as we’re getting, we could handle one end of it, and it would give me time alone with you.” Dale’s perfect white smile flashed in the moist darkness of his beard. Austin still marveled that Dale had perfect teeth even with being in the rough sport/occupation of jousting.

  “I’m glad my week got cut short at the printshop.”

  “I am too. Does that happen very often? I mean you getting shorted on hours like that?”

  Austin shrugged. He didn’t really want to explain how his job had been getting less and less busy over the past few years. He loved the work, but it was harder for the small printer to compete with both the larger printers and folks doing more of their small jobs like business cards and flyers at home.

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s why you’ll be searching for another job after the fair’s over? What are you thinking about looking for?”

  “Don’t know. Jasmine says I should try to get a job at the coffee shop. They’re always short-staffed since the owner’s really good about hiring flakes, but I’m not sure about doing that.”

  Dale stretched his massive arms to the side of the tub. Austin appreciated the view. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get tired of looking at him. “So what would you like to do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you need a squire or something. I could just follow you around, polishing your lance.”

  Dale rubbed his foot up Austin’s leg as laughed. “Which lance would you be wanting to polish, my sexy pirate?” The look in the hazel eyes was playful.

  Austin paused. It was the first time Dale had used any kind of possessive wording with him. His heart beat almost as fast as it had when Dale’s cock had been buried in him. What did it mean? Was it a slip of the tongue, or was the man beginning to think of them as seriously dating? He knew he wanted them to be a couple. The more time they spent together, either alone or with friends, the more he knew he wanted to be with Dale, in every sense.

  “Whichever needed it at the time,” he replied with a wide grin splitting his face.

  “We might just have to see what we could do about that,” Dale said.

  “There you guys are,” Jasmine said, jogging across the apartment courtyard toward them.

  “Here we are,” Austin sighed, silently cursing his friend for her bad timing.

  “So, how was hay?” she asked as she pulled up a pool chair next to the hot tub.

  “Exhausting,” they replied in unison.

  Jasmine laughed. “That’s too cute. Do it again.”

  “What?” they asked together after flashing each other knowing looks across the bubbling water.

  “You guys know you’re good together. I like that.”

  “So how was work?” Austin asked, resigning himself to the fact that she was going to be out there with them.

  “Good. The horse ladies came in again today. They’re always good tippers. I told them you guys found the trail they mentioned and had fun.” Austin raised an eyebrow at her.

  “I didn’t tell them what kind of fun, silly.” Dale laughed.

  “Well, they were all stressed out. Seems that one of the other trails they love to go on got burned out by that wildfire last week that went just north of Evergreen. Sounded bad on the news but worse hearing it from them. A couple of them went up and looked at the area yesterday, said it was just terrible.”

  “It’s been a bad year for it,” Austin replied as Dale moved his foot away.

  “That’s why Max said we couldn’t do the fire whip trick,” Dale said. “The fire whip trick?” Jasmine asked. “What’s that?”

  “One of the guys I regularly work with and I have a thing where he sets a special whip on fire while my squire sprays me with a flammable mixture that lights me on fire when the whip catches my arm. We only do it on days he’s going to win. It’s really flashy.”

  “Wow, but don’t you get hurt?” Jasmine asked, wide-eyed.

  “Not really. But I’m clean-shaven when we do the trick, otherwise my beard catches fire, and that’s not good.”

  Austin studied the dark beard. “I’m not sure how you’d look without the beard.”

  Dale laughed. “I’m still ruggedly handsome, just not as bearishly handsome.”

  “Well, at least most of the wildfires tend to stay up in the forest,” Jasmine said. “Here in town, we don’t have to worry about them.”

  “That’s good,” Dale said. “So did you get any directions for more trails? Maybe next week, Austin and I can go riding again.”

  “Riding with you is a lot of fun,” Austin said with a wink. “It’s something I want to do a lot more of.”

  “I’m really not sure I want to know the real meaning of riding here,” Jasmine said with a grimace. “But at least you two are having fun.”

  Dale nodded. “Yeah, we’re having a lot of fun.”

  Chapter 25

  Thoughts of the past few days with Austin still dancing in his head, Dale tried to focus on getting Champion’s saddle adjusted. After bringing down the hay from the mountain, he and Austin had spent the next two days spending time together, when Dale wasn’t practicing with John and the other jousters. He wished Austin could’ve come to watch, but it was obvious John would fly into a homophobic fit if he showed his face near the jousting field. Dale had heard John asking Max to talk to the site owners about all the fags running around. Max had dismissed him curtly, but Dale didn’t want any of John’s irrational fears coming home to roost. They still had several more weeks of fair, and he had to be able to trust John not to slip up during their performances. It was bad enough he’d had become colder toward him since they stacked hay. They’d been so busy, and Austin was in his cap with his hair pulled back; Dale had hoped John hadn’t recognized him, but maybe he had.

  “Do you need a hand?” asked Jeremy, his squire. The man was likable enough but not overly good, even at getting the few things done he was required to do. That, and since Champion and Pyre were his horses, Dale preferred to do everything himself, as opposed to letting Jeremy help, unless he really needed a hand.

  “Nah, I think I got it,” Dale replied, giving the girth one last tug to make sure it was tight enough.

  The trumpets sounded in front of the wall, signaling noon and the arrival of the king and queen to the first joust. People cheered.

  “Clouds are rolling in,” John Bishop said as he rode up from the corral. He looked blankly at Dale as he reached down for the banner his squire, a girl named Melissa, handed him.

  “Max never said if we joust in the rain,” Dale said as he swung up into his saddle.

  “Rain or shine,” said William, the Earl of Canterbury, who had ridden in after John. “If the arena gets so muddy the horses lose footing, then we’ll stop and just do a fight on foot, but that hasn’t happened in five or six years.”

  “Makes no difference. Champion does well in mud.” Dale reached down to take his black-and-red banner from Jeremy.

  “We may get to see,” John grumbled as the trumpets blared again, signaling the jousters to ride out.

  Even in the rain that fell over the final joust, the crowd cheered as the horses thundered down the field toward each
other. Diederik focused his attention on the small spot on John’s shield, right in the center of the gold cross. It was one of his days to win; he needed to strike the shield just right so John would roll off his horse.

  The thunder cracked as his lance caught John’s shield. He shifted the shield, causing the blow to go wide. Diederik had his shoulder set tight enough that the unexpected move shot waves of pain through him. He barely brought his shield up in time to avoid getting John’s lance in his face. What the hell? I’m supposed to win this round. The oncoming lance bounced off the edge of his shield. John’s ice-blue eyes glared at him through the slit in his gold helm.

  As the crowd cheered and they wheeled their horses, Diederik accepted another lance from Jeremy, who looked up with questions in his eyes. Diederik shrugged and poised Champion to make another run. It was possible John had forgotten the script for this joust. Hopefully, with what should’ve been the last run not going as it should, he’d remember this pass. Diederik held his lance out, even as his shoulder objected. He cradled the lance flare against the sore spot. If John didn’t roll off the way he was supposed to, this might hurt even more.

  Lightning struck a tree at the edge of the joust field just as Diederik’s lance caught John’s shield again. For several seconds he was blinded by the light. He felt the lance connect with the shield, and waves of pain washed through his shoulder. Then John’s lance connected with his chest, and he went over Champion’s rump unprepared. His ankle wrenched as it caught in the stirrup. Champion stopped before he got dragged in the mud.

  Pain shooting through his shoulder and ankle, Diederik tried to free himself of the stirrup. “Champion, stand!” he shouted, hoping the horse would remember his training.

  The heavy wet mud squished and splashed over him as someone ran up to help him out.

  “You okay?” Jeremy asked as he reached to work Diederik’s foot free.

  “Mostly,” Diederik replied.

  A heavy hand smacked Champion’s flank just as Diederik’s foot came free. John the Bold stood over Diederik, helmet still on and his mace in hand. “Don’t you know the pious always win?” he hissed and swung the mace down.

  Diederik rolled out of the way. Jeremy tried to step between the two men, but John just pushed him away. The arena mud clung to Diederik as he scrambled to get clear. This wasn’t part of the choreographed final act.

  The crowd cheered and chanted as John advanced on the Dark Duke of Denmark. Diederik found a fallen shield, and he brought it up just in time to block a blow that would’ve hit him hard. The blow reverberated through the shield, sending fresh waves of pain through his injured shoulder. He kicked at John, but he stepped aside, already swinging again.

  In a blur of yellow and green, the Earl of Canterbury tackled John. The two men went down in a splash of mud next to Diederik. Then Jeremy was back at his side. Jeremy offered him a clean gloved hand up from the mud. With his left arm, Diederik accepted and regained his feet.

  A quick look around showed the crowd on their feet; they had no idea something was wrong and cheered as the two jousters brawled. The king and queen in their box looked distressed, and Diederik couldn’t see Sir Marcus, his second, anywhere on the field.

  John struck William in the face, and the Earl of Canterbury went down hard. Then John advanced on Diederik. At some point during the brawl with William, he’d lost his helm. His face was set in rage and his ice-blue eyes were steely with hate.

  “How dare you try and pollute our fair with your vile ways,” the Knight of the Cross growled as he prowled toward Diederik.

  The crowd cheered again.

  “John, back down!” Diederik shouted, pulling the shield up to protect himself. He wished he had a sword or some other weapon, but he’d lost his when he’d been unhorsed.

  “Why, so you can continue to work you wicked ways here in our fair land? I don’t think so. It is time for you and all your kind to be swept from this Christian country. My God says I’m right. I am the Right Hand of God!” The mace came crashing down against the shield. The force of the blow knocked Diederik to his knees as his injured ankle gave way.

  “John, the Right Hand of God is a character!” Dale screamed. “You are not a real knight! This is all an act, you fool!” He dropped out of character, something he’d never done, but he’d never had a cast mate go ballistic on him with a mace before.

  “I am the Hand of God!” John roared and swung again. The mace hit hard enough that it knocked the shield out of Dale’s grasp. Around them, fair folk were running onto the field.

  “This is the twenty-first century, not the fifteenth!” Dale shouted as he launched himself at John. “Get that through your thick head.”

  “You and your pirate friend are abominations in the eyes of God. You must be destroyed. The Dark Duke must die!” As Dale leapt at him, John brought the mace around again. It caught Dale in the shoulder. Pain wracked him when bones in his shoulder shattered. Dale connected with John and knocked him into the mud.

  “You homophobic bastard!” he screamed, trying to ignore the pain until folks could get across the field to them. Knowing his weight alone wouldn’t be enough to hold John down, Dale hit John in the face as hard as he could, several times.

  Hands shoved him off the other man and mud splashed around them. He groaned as his injured shoulder hit the ground. People moved between the two men, forming a line. Some of the legs were in leather, some in gauze pants, and some in jeans. Dale couldn’t see much past the legs as his head swam.

  On the other side of the line, John continued to shout and scream at him while Dale settled back into the mud. As the darkness engulfed him, he realized none of the crowd was cheering.

  Chapter 26

  “Thanks for stopping in,” Austin said to the customer who had just bought a large plastic cutlass for his young son. “Enjoy the fair.”

  “Austin, come quick!” Chipmunk ran into the pirate shop. He looked frantic.

  “What’s wrong, Chip?” Austin glanced around the shop; it was empty, other than him, Phillip, and Chip.

  “Dale’s been hurt!”

  Austin’s heart stopped. “What?”

  “During the final joust. John went nuts and attacked Dale.”

  “Go on, Austin, I’ll handle it,” Phillip said, coming over to see what was wrong.

  “Where is he?” Austin asked as he and Chipmunk left the shop and plunged into the rain.

  “They’ve called for an ambulance, so I don’t know for sure. It was down at the jousting field,” Chipmunk replied as they dodged patrons while rushing down the slick hill toward the arena.

  The area around the list was empty of everyone but a couple of patrons who were wandering away. In the distance, the final cannon sounded. The fair was over for the day. Austin’s mind raced. Had they already gotten an ambulance to the site and whisked Dale off to the hospital? How badly had he been hurt that they needed to call an ambulance? The ground was torn up, and he thought he could see blood coating the wet mud.

  In the distance, sirens wailed.

  “This way!” Chipmunk said, running toward the main office.

  They slipped through the gate leading behind the buildings. A small stream of people, including several members of court, walked toward them. They all looked more tired than normal, heads bowed against more than just the rain. Several of the women had tear-run mascara.

  “Where’d they go?” Austin asked as he skidded to a stop in front of a couple of Catherine’s friends.

  “Who?” one replied, her eyes red from crying.

  “Dale… Diederik.”

  “Oh God, there was so much blood from his shoulder. The mud, the blood.”

  Austin’s head spun and he felt faint. How hurt was Dale? “Where did they take him?”

  “I don’t know. The ambulance just left. Catherine went with him.”

  “Did you happen to see which town the ambulance was with?” Knowing Cat was with Dale made him feel just a little better, but not a
lot. He couldn’t stand it if something happened to him.

  She shook her head.

  “I think they were headed to Castle Rock,” one matronly duchess said from under her parasol. “They might know something in the office. Otherwise check at the first aid station or find one of the firemen that are always around. They should know something.”

  “Thanks,” Austin said. He charged into the office. There was no one there.

  “Come on, let’s get to the first aid station,” Chipmunk said, appearing at his shoulder.

  “Don’t know what it looks like from behind.” Austin didn’t want to waste time running around the front of the buildings.

  “I do. Come on!” Chip turned and raced down the office steps and headed up the hill. Austin followed, easily keeping up, thankful the back way wasn’t as busy as it was going to be shortly, once all the shops closed up and people headed for the parking lot.

  Up near the front gate, a big red fire truck sat. Chipmunk turned and dashed down the closest alley. A couple of paramedics were walking from the back of a booth toward the fire truck.

  “Hey, do you know where they took Diederik?” Chip asked before Austin had a chance to.

  “Castle Rock Memorial,” the taller of the two replied. “He’s in pretty bad shape. I never knew the damage one of those maces could do. I

  thought the joust weapons were supposed to be fake.”

  “Nope, but the jousters are good actors,” said Chipmunk. “Thanks for the info.” He grabbed Austin’s hand and pulled him away.

  “You know where the hospital is?”

  Austin shook his head, and water sprayed from his pirate hat. “Maybe Jas knows.” His heart sank even more. If the paramedics thought the damage was bad, did Dale have a chance of surviving?

  “I can get you there if she doesn’t,” Chipmunk said as they headed toward the bar.